Comic Picture Book Assignment 1 & Blog Expectations

Image from Woman Wonder by Will Elder, Mad #5, 1952

Hey, here's your first project! You've got two weekends and all next week to cause some mayhem.

1. Create an 8 page comic!
2. Print, staple, and fold 5 copies!
3. Bring 'em to class on Monday, April 12!

Make sure to do yer visual research and post yer progress on yer blog!
I will be checking blogs every Friday morning, starting April 9.
Here's what I expect as a minimum. 

1. A Visual Research post. This is a post that contains at least one image and some written analysis of some visual material relevant to your work.

2. A Work post. This post should contain at least one image and some writing about your own work. If you're working with analogue materials plan on at least one scanning session per week!

Click here for examples of visual research and work posts from my own site.

Hey It's My Self-Portrait

Here's a self-portrait of my day. Mornin' til night.

Art 450 & 496 Special Projects & Capstone

We'll meet next on Thursday, April 8th at 4:30. I've already talked to you about your projects, so I'll expect you to have the details firmed up as follows:

0. A working title for your project.
1. A one sentence description of your project.
2. A one paragraph description of your project.
3. A one page description of your project.
4. A description of what you're going to actually produce during the course of your project. Make sure you include any preparatory/exploratory sketches, photos, collages, animatics, rough cuts, and interpretive dance you'll be doing.
5. Visual and/or written research for your project. Stuff done by other people.
6. Treatment visuals for your project. Stuff done by you.
7. A written description of specific technical and research issues you will need to address during the course of your project.
8. A timeline of your project. When you will be doing all of this good stuff. You must include specific deadlines (for example: "April 27th", not "some time in April."
9. A blog containing all of the above. You will also keep track of your activity here. If you do something for your project, blog it. I check these things oft, so I expect to see constant brain activity here. POST YOUR NAME & BLOG URL as comment to this post.
10. Your magic sunshine. See you then.

Critique schedule is as follows:
Thursday, April 8, 4:30
Thursday, April 22, 4:30
Thursday, May 6, 4:30
Thursday, May 20, 4:30
Final Critique Thursday, June 3, 5:30 p.m.

Capstone Paper Guidelines

Everyone in Art 496 has the honor of writing The Glorious and Most Noble Capstone Paper. "What are the expectations of such a paper, and how can I write one?" I hear you ask. Well, I'll tell you.

1. Think of the paper as a presentation of your project to an audience of complete strangers. Use your project proposal to help you articulate your project and your process to this audience.

2. What were you trying to achieve with the project? Did you have a clear goal or purpose in mind? Were some aspects of the project more experimental? Discuss influences on the project, and include images and a bibliography.

4. Reflect on your process and give a post-mortem of the project. What went right? What went wrong? Did the project change as you went along? Did obstacles arise? Were they expected or unexpected? How did you overcome these obstacles? What advise would you give others undertaking similar projects?

5. Include images of your project and process. These may be attached as an appendix or integrated into the body of the paper.

6. Print this out, bind it, and bring it to our final critique.

Blogeth Me, Spring 2010 Comix People! Assignment 1

Hey, leave your blogs urls with your full name as a comment to this post!

Idiotic Guessing Game in ActionScript 3.0

I've spent time I should have spent contemplating the beauty of the human form or drawing trees creating a computer guessing game. It's sure to thrill. Here's a link to the full code in a .txt file. If you really like to rock to funky beats, you can download the .fla file and the .as file right here. Anyhow, let me know if you manage to break it.

Here's the main code for getting the guessing down. Initially, I came up with many hare-brained formulas that didn't work. Finally I resorted to digging around on the net, saw a post on limits and the light went on at last. Here's the code for the "no" button. The minLimit variable is initialized as 1 and the maxLimit variable is initialized at 101. As the computer guesses, its guess becomes either the new max or the new min limit. The computerPlay function just runs the animation and keeps track of the number of guesses.

function onNoButtonClick(event:MouseEvent):void
{
output_txt.text = interestingMessage;
if (computerGuess < userNumber) { minLimit = computerGuess; computerGuess = computerGuess + (maxLimit-minLimit)/2; computerPlay(); } else if (computerGuess > userNumber)
{
maxLimit = computerGuess;
computerGuess = computerGuess - (maxLimit-minLimit)/2;
computerPlay();
}
else
{
output_txt.text = lieMessage;
}
}

Game Developer's Conference - Career Stuff

Here are some links about gettin' the ol' game career going. Our very own Ms. Lindsay Peck is off to the GDC (Game Developers Conference) next week, so we look forward to some good stories. These big conferences can be a good opportunity to see the game world in action and make it all a bit more flesh and blood. Often times you can apply to be a student volunteer, or take advantage of a reduced cost student pass.

Gamasutra - GDC Career Pavillion Tips For Success
Game Career Guide - GDC Tips For Students
Siggraph Career Page - includes The Demo Reel From Hell and The Five Minute Career Mentor.

SIGGRAPH Conference Site
Game Developer's Conference Site