RSA Animate: Changing Education Paradigms

This is a sweet video a friend sent me. Not only is the information cool, but there are some cool illustrations throughout. Check it out. You might have to click on it to the youtube page to see the whole thing.

NA: 3 TO SPARE

3 To Spare from Lance Flores on Vimeo.

So, I'm a little dissapointed that Vimeo took my video a little quick...the transitions are faster on the Vimeo than I intended. Quicktime renders them fine. Anyway, this is my show opener for "3 To Spare"

NA: STATEMENT FOR SHOW OPENER

Explain hierarchy of and relationships between the communication channels. what takes priority, if anything, and when does it do so?

My three communication channels are image, music, and text. I designed the show opener to where the viewer is on an adventure through the bowling alley viewing areas such as the outside sign, a close up of the lanes and pins, the computer mechanism that keeps score, and finally ending on a series of three different bowling balls on a rack. Throughout the show opener, the music has a secondary presence and the type is presented only at certain moments displaying the bulk of the show, starring, and the title.

Why you used the media/production techniques you utilized. what did that rendering style or formal approach adds to your story?

I have to say I was a little lucky when I went to shoot my footage, that I got a semi empty bowling alley. I knew I didn't really want many people in it, where that might get distracting for the viewer. My previous knowledge of this specific bowling alley is that there is a lot of elderly throughout the day that bowl, and since my show opener is about younger kids, I don't think that would have worked out well. So I like that it's pretty empty and basic. The bare necessities. Giving the still images movement through stop motion was the route I chose for rendering. For one, I have yet to build a stop motion piece before this project, and they always draw my attention. I like the look of stop motion pieces and have a great deal of respect for those who pull it off smoothly. I think it added a sense of playfulness to my piece and adventure. The idea of 3 kids who are amazing bowlers, growing up in a small town, and their stories on how they became so good.

What, if any, new things did you learn through this process? was it more difficult to orchestrate things with all your options open?

Well as I explained earlier, I have a great deal of respect for those who pull of stop motion well. I like the chaotic stop motion movies, but also the smooth stop motion pieces that seem like regular video. It's an amazing approach, and I definitely want to work more with it. I learned that it's a very tough process to cut some of your movie to fit the 30 sec. time frame and still somehow get a message across. I would have to say within this project, it was difficult to orchestrate everything in a shorter time frame than the other projects. I think it made me realize what was possible, and what approaches should be used for another time where I have more time to spare. Throughout researching I found a couple show openers that were not even long at all. For example, "Glee" is a 1 second frame with white type on a black background and a group of people shouting "Glee!". After the title sequence was played, the titles were spread throughout the first few minutes of the show. Quite a bit of shows these days have the same approach. I believe "Heroes" has an expressive title and the extra titles are spread throughout the first few minutes also. I would have liked to try an approach like that.

Some Ideas

Below are some ideas about my opening title sequence. The first one would be displaying a lot of different things in a bowling alley in series of 3's through a narrative. An example that I am thinking is the AT&T commercials. The one's that subtly hide/show the "raise the bar" slogan.
This one is using the lane and the progression as the additive movement in the video. It will go from beginning of the movie to the end passing all of these symbols..which would be stylized.

This approach is a stop motion movement piece. It will consist of objects that are involved with bowling and the successful side of bowling (trophies, money aka check)

NA: OPENER!

The openers purpose it to present and introduce the show in a visually pleasing way that describes what kind of show it is, and also communicate to the viewer who is in it or hosting the event or show. In a visually linear form it will take and describe to the viewer the people involved. I think this graphic design piece exists because it helps tell and inform the viewer of what's happening.

Context for the work:
Surrounding this would be a commercial before hand which would most likely consist of an advertisement for a company to persuade the users to buy their products. (Brunswick, Storm, etc) Behind this opening will consist of the actual show the opening is for.

This will appear on a sport channel (since that's kind of the only place I have seen bowling televised, and it will be right before the event (possibly the last commercial before the viewer is returned to it's regular showing.

I am thinking this will most likely be a stand-alone that does not require a presenter physically, but voice over will most likely be present. Some other things on this channel would be other sport related commercials (again commercials persuading users about other products such as bowling ball or new innovative bowling bag or something along those lines. Also, since this is a sports channel, there maybe interruptions from other sport coverage that may not necessarily be bowling related.

The audience consists of all age groups and types of people. Mainly, of course, they would consist of people who have some knowledge or interest in the sport of bowling. They would be family members, other professional bowlers, and prospective bowlers. Also, a small portion would be bowling companies (ones that have either sponsored, want to sponser, scouts, etc).

PROCESS
The project I have chosen to go with is the show opener. I am deciding to go with this one because for one I find it more of an interesting idea to work with, but also because I think my subject matter (bowling) does not have a broad of a range of audience such as football. This will intern leave an opening for grasping other audiences and retrieving more viewers because of my visually pleasing opener. ha.
Well based on the Trollback & Company lecture event I went to, I would say that many professional places are currently working on openings for shows/movies/events. For example, Trollback showed a couple of openings for TED, Nickelodeon, and more TED-like event openings. Also, MK-12 has done openings for movies like "Stranger than Fiction" and "Casino Royale". From these examples, I think they will play well as far as recognition and thinking along the lines of current works. I think it will even play well that I took our simple first project of making books, and integrated the subject/style into something more broad and advertising related.

RESEARCH EXAMPLES
With this example, I like the approach with stop motion. It uses image, sound effects, and voice to show depict the event of bowling.



In this video I like the way they go through the titles (as the camera is traveling down the lane), but also the idea of personifying the pins. Kind of like the way I did, but visually depicted them.




In this video they are using the action of bowling to as a way of depicting their insurance company. Gotta love the cavemen.







This is kind of the route I would like to do. Promote a bowling event/competition.



Also an example of what I am thinking of doing with my movie.



An 80's version of the video above. ha. A series.

Statement for Nonlinear Project

What do music, voice, and sound effects bring to a narrative that is different from visual communication channels?
The elements of music, voice, and sound effects bring a complete realm of interactivity and experience to the viewer. In my interactive media player I chose sounds that are relatable which allows the viewer to understand what's going on. I chose music to add feeling to my videos. One is a very dramatic, building up to the moment emphasis one.

The different communicative qualities of music, voice, and sound effects (compare and contrast)
Well to start off, each of these give the viewer a different feel, a different experience. Depending on the musics' overall tone, it can be a positive or negative , happy or sad feeling. Voice overs usually tend to give a sense of personal one on one speaking (conversational). Some would be factual information and narrative speaking. In my nonlinear interface my voice over is a comedic experience from the pins point of view. I wanted to set a humorous tone that would personify and explain what the pins might be thinking...if they could think.

The differences between simultaneous and sequential communication
The main idea behind simultaneous communication is you can do a lot of things at once. For example, with our nonlinear interfaces, the user is able to press as many of the sound effects and music tracks as they want all at one time. This gives the user the ability to create their own sense of chaos or humorous video. Sequential communication differs from simultaneous communication because this is where the user is only using one at a time (or going in order). In my interface, the user is only allowed to play the videos sequentially, but is allotted the option of playing the sounds simultaneously or sequentially.


User vs designer control of your project
Well, the control I (the designer) had over the user I think is in the movie clips. I allow them to see the two different point of views and the kinetic type piece. I wanted the viewer to have long videos to play the multiple sounds a couple times or at least have the sounds play all the way through. I did also (unfortunately) cut off the end of some of the music. I based my cropping of the song around the kinetic type movie. I also hindered the viewer from seeing all three movies at once. I wanted them to view one at a time.

When the user is in control, the user is able to view the one movie with multiple sounds (music and sound effects). They can choose a clip from the top bar and layering sounds from the bottom bar. The user has the option of playing the movie correctly with each corresponding sound effects and music, or create their own narrative and hysterical movie.

Participants’ ability to discover relationships through interactive play
I think the participants will discover relationships in anything interactive. The user goes through a small learning experience that's an adventure at the same time. They press buttons, not knowing what's going to happen (although they may have some sense) and from revealing all of the buttons, they of course must combine and mix them. For example, in my interface, the user I think willl find something that is a remembrance of their own bowling experience.

I actually really enjoyed this project. Yes it was a bear, but I really felt accomplished when it was done. I caught on pretty quickly when I started to get the hang of setting up my interface. I was able to import all my sounds and music in like 30 mins. From there I think worked on making it visually pleasing. I did run into some small setbacks from my thumbnails. After working in flash and seeing exactly how the action script works, I realized what you were saying all along with the simplicity of our designs and how much code our ideas would actually take...with the time frame we had. I'm ready to start making other interfaces and doing more with action script. Doing the code by hand also brought me back to thinking about websites. YIKES!
I thought it was interesting to see the relationship of anticipation between the movie aspect and our interface aspect. Both have that sense of anticipation, but in different ways. In our movies, we sort of set up the scene. (maybe put a little foreshadowing or hold on a scene a little longer than the rest to give it emphasis. In the interfaces, there's anticipation behind the buttons...well the movies too I guess also. There's a sense of "what does this button do?" and "I wonder what would happen if I combine these together?")

NA: ONE DIRECTION...MULTIPLE WAYS

The last time we looked at my sketches, I got some feedback on the different structures, and was luckily pushed in one of my favorite directions...the use of the bowling lane and it's panel feature.

The first exploration deals with keeping the plane the same throughout the whole interaction, and when selections are made...board pieces will remove themselves (which takes out other options). From there, the viewer can then view their choices in a nice, open, almost full-screen area.

This concept is a little different as far as perspective. The one is from the perception of right before the pins hit...so basically a close up of where the pins are housed. (you can kind of see the gutters on the sides, but then there's the lane number and the circles/dots that signify which "ball roll" you are on) Selections will be made on the bottom bar and displayed in the empty area "stage"

With this piece I wanted to work with the angles a bit, and explore the aesthetics and composition. This has a little bit or Ricks suggestion on using a small corner, that way the viewer is able to see the movie a little more clear.

This concept explores the idea of dividing the panels up into two different sides. Each side would contain either music/sound or movie clips. The method of attacking this would be either making half of the side a different color, colored and non-colored, or color (sepia) and black & white.

This concept is a little similar to the above one; however, instead of color differentiating the sides of movie/sound, I would like to just display them using some sort of icon...for now, numbers are place holders.

INTERACTIVE INTERFACE

For my ideas on the interactive interface I wanted to use the easily recognizable objects from bowling. The first idea is using the pin location graph, and the icons will become useful as far as what is selected and not selected. (with ways such as color/movement for the treatment). Some of the other ideas consist of using the shape of the pin to frame the "viewing area", using the floor boards and use of color to highlight selections and decisions made by the user. Also, using the bowling pin "stripe" and bowling scorecard. All of these factors are "visuals", and there is not so much differentiation with structure yet.

Sounds like...

TRY1.REAL by lflores

So this first sound, I did some field studies at a bowling alley and captured some raw bowling sounds and put them together in this nice compelation. I still need to replace some of the filler with different cuts, but I think you might get the gist of it. I also thought the food ordering call out was a nice "bowling alley" touch.

TRY2.BREAKIN' by lflores

This clip is a cut from The All-American Rejects song titled "Breakin' ". I really like the way it built up some exciting moment with the music getting louder/closer.

TRY3.ENDOFBEGIN by lflores

This is a clip from David Phelps "End of the Beginning", and once again, I liked the built up anticipation of instrumental work it had. This has a more subtle approach to the smashing of the pins. If you pay attention to the "shimmery" kind of attribute in the background, that is what I had used. It's kind of like "i have finally climbed this mountain" kind of feel to it. I also picked it because I think after the pins smash, the song highlights the pauses of the pins flying through the air.

TRY5VOICEOVER by lflores

My idea behind this one is to narrate some of the pins talking to each other in a comedic way.

TRY5&6.ROLLING&SHAKE by lflores

I only had one upload left, so I compiled these two into one. The first is me running a cocktail shaker against the kitchen counter to get the "ball rolling" sound effect. The second part is a box of candy emulating the shaking pins.

HOW THE DAY WENT.

NA: SOUND
I have to say, I really enjoyed how we began class today. Nothing better than starting the day with something to make you laugh. For me, seeing all those examples of how sound can alter how a video is perceived really got my brain moving. Below are some approaches I am thinking of pursuing for sound:
-I would like to create a voice over from the pins perspective. I will probably voice the whole thing and play around with the tone and the speed of the recordings.

"oh, that was fun"
"look at this guy"
"he thinks he can knock us down"
"ppppppsssssshhhhhh"
"he's got no chance"
"never doubt"
"here we go"
"Oh Geeze"
"getting closer"
"almost here"
"i hate you"
"YIKES!"
"aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh (distorted & drawn out)"

-create my own bowling sounds....kind of like a kid i guess...or just for humor
-rollercoaster sounds (tick tick tick tick tick...trickle down...then easing in screams)
-some music clips
-19sec-29sec of David Phelps "End of the beginning"
-1sec of Janet Jackson-pins flying
-0-17sec of The Cinematics - the whole movie - has anticipation
-a history of bowling - a series of saying - poem version - fragments
-recited voice over - deep voice
-NeYo - "closer"


VISLANG
The small group crit went well. It was nice to know that I at least have all the parts needed to create a successful piece.
-large life size title
-green computer angle or white computer angle
-copy - "Digitizing how we do things"
-browser illustration

I do still have to shoot some images one last time, and once I get that perfect image...it's off to type iterations. I also have to do some research on the actual price of a life magazine.

FINAL KINETIC TYPE ANIMATION

Below is my final kinetic type animation.
I would have to say that I am fairly pleased with the final product. There are attributes I like about it, and of course things I wish I would have done or explored more of. After reviewing my video, some actions I feel are successful are the following:
-with the first action of falling (lowering), it gives the viewer a slight view of what's coming, but the word is not completely visible; therefore, the word stays ambiguous...and then after that, it finally reveals the whole word.
-the two different forms of shake (wiggle & vibrate?). One gets scared, then they all get a little jumpy, and then as the ball gets closer, they get really fidgety until BAM!

Some things I'm not so pleased with:
-the style of crash I did. I think they more so "fly" rather than crash. My original idea was to have them skew into space both towards the camera and away from the camera; however, as shown below...the skewed view wasn't as successful in execution like in illustrator/indesign. To me it really just looked like a bad slanted letterform.

-(This somewhat deals with my thumbnailing, but also my subject matter of bowling) But I wish I could have come across a non computer approach that worked well. I have also just barely gotten my feet wet with Flash, so working with it and trying to understand the different effects, levels, and layers of the "stage" was a great thing to bring back from memory.

Final Kinetic Type Animation from Lance Flores on Vimeo.

Progress

Progress so far with my falling action in Flash. I have come to a conclusion that even though my movie has the actual storyboard behind it...no matter what, the viewer will most likely pay attention to the type the first time. If anything, the second time around, the viewer will pay attention to what's happening in the background. At least that's how I viewed it. Not sure if that's a good thing, or a bad thing.

Look over there

Look Over There from Lance Flores on Vimeo.

Something I dug up

KINETIC TYPE

FINAL KINETIC TYPE STORYBOARD

Incorporated are my 3 verbs fall, shake, and crash.

NA: SHAKE, FALL, & CRASH

NA: THE COMBO

NA: BOOK

Here are the 10 scene books for the event of bowling.

NA: SEQUENCE 1 & IS ALIVE!

Slow Bowl 1 from Lance Flores on Vimeo.

SLOW BOWL 2 from Lance Flores on Vimeo.

NA: 40 FRAMES!

Pictured here are the two sequences for my activity of bowling. They are inked in pen with a coffee wash over the top of each frame, and a nice deep red watercolor which was also mixed with the coffee.

SEQUENCE 1

SEQUENCE 2In sequence 2 I wanted to help guide the eye through the action of bowling so I haloed the bowling ball and left the flying pins white. If the pins had already landed or dead, I applied the coffee wash to them. (Just highlighting the actions)

NA: STORYBOARD

Sequence #1 shows the event of bowling from the balls perspective. It starts of high, then lowering to the release of the ball, rolling slowing (or quickly) down the lane. I tried to perceive and show angles in relation to the balls rotation, and then also showing views of such like the wooden panels beneath it.

Squence #2 shows the act of bowling from the pins perspective (or behind the pins I should say). Slowly the ball is released and it approaches closer each frame until shattering the pins into the air. The pins should all be laying down, providing the thought of a strike.

Pen

Colored Pencil

Layout Marker