Final for Art 450/496 Special Projects n' Capstonez

Leavin' a patch at the Art 450/496 Final Critique. Eat my fire, suckahs!

Final Crit for Art 450/496 is Thursday, June 3, 5:30.
Note! This is NOT the final for the Comic/Picture Book class. See the previous post for Art 349 final crit times.

ARt 450 and Art 351 notes. Art 450 Final Crit.

Ashland Independent Film Festival Talk Friday, 11:00 Meese Auditorium!

ART 450 Final Critique will be Monday, March 16 at 6:30 p.m. in the digital lab.

Whitney Biennial 2008 site
Here's a nice image from the 2002 Biennial. It's Gilles Barbier's Nursing Home.

Nifty Bit of Bloggery

Here's a cool Blogue from Graham Annable (that's his "Kodiak Mary" image above). He's a story artist, animator, and "comic fellow" who works for Laika up in Portland and recently worked on Coraline. Most importantly, he's a hockey teammate of SOU's own Jill Bruhn. Some very nice stuff; this guy's good. Check it out and get inspired.

Art 450--Naruto review on NPR

Audio review of the Naruto anime and how it's achieved mainstream popularity in the U.S. A . It's a good example of how a project is described to people who don't know anything about it. Could be handy in refining your project descriptions.

Also, I'll be checking your blogs before this week's critiques, so get 'em updated if you've been slacking. I'd like you to make bloggin' a part of your daily web-surfing routine.

Blizzard 3D Environment Artist Job Listing

Self-portrait as Tourgot, Level 56 Undead Rogue

For all youse 450/496 types. Check out this job offer at Blizzard for a 3D environment artist.

Recommended Reading

Here's a good post from Jen Harlow about a visiting animator lecture she attended down at CalArts. He talks about the process of making a first film and the importance of completing projects (warts and all) vs. sitting around thinking about starting a project. Anyhow, good stuff.

Here are a few links to discussions about collision detection in Flash. I don't think we'll be getting into collision detection until the 2nd half of the quarter, but for those of you who want to read ahead, hop to it.
8bitrocket
troygilbert and follow-up at tink
ickydime
Also, here's an article on adventure gaming with a discussion of interactivity

Spelling--It's the New Black

For my students' edification, I post my typo-marred business card above. Spot the typo and win a prize (my undying enmity). Here are some "teachable moment" lessons.

1. Always, always have someone else proofread your stuff. I am a better speller than most (and a braggart, apparently). And I am a mighty fine proofreader. . . of other people's stuff.

2. So, GET OTHERS, PREFERABLY MANY OTHERS, to read whatever it is you're making-- website, t-shirt, business card, comic book, graduation announcement, resume, letter, tattoo -- before you send it to print it or put it before the world. The next time I do this, I'm gettin' Bill Gates, Stephen Colbert, and Rahm Emmanuel to read this ma' fa'.

3. Ironically, I caught this mistake myself within an hour after getting a shipment of several thousand cards and three t-shirts. I only saw it when I put a shirt on, looked in a mirror, and started reading the words backwards. This is a good example of how important it is to get some distance between our poor brains and the stuff we make. Mirror + Time = a clearer perspective.

4. Silver lining: better to catch it last night than after I handed out 1000 cards at a classics scholars convention. Tough crowd.

5. Silver lining #2. I'm not actually heading off to a classics scholars convention tomorrow. Since I had a soft deadline for myself, well before a "hard launch" this screw-up doesn't actually put me in a bad position. I can get order enough new cards to last me for about $25.

6. Silver lining #3. The cards look great and were easy to create online. I used vistaprint.com. But I would also check out the local offerings as well.

Art 450 and Art 496 Capstone--Fear The Reaper

Okay kids--
We'll meet next Wednesday the 14th at 2:30 or Thursday the 15th at 2:30, depending on which section you're in. You'll bring the following to that class:

A written description of your project including:

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 your specific products of study or deliverables that you will be creating for your project.
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: "January 27th", not "some time in January."
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.
10. Your magic sunshine. See you then. If you have questions about any of this, ask me or post a comment. I will check it. Ask earlier rather than later. I'll post our meeting schedule here as well.