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.

Final Critique for Art 349 Comics et Picture Books!

Students get freak-ay at last year's Comics n' Picture Books final crit.

Final critique for Comics unt Picture Books is Wednesday, June 2 at 3:00 in MA 101. Bring 5 copies of your work, and we'll have a reading festival. Miles shall bring some snaks.

iPad'in

Catwoman, done by Jim Lee on an iPad using SketchBookPro.

Just got an iPad today, and it's groovy. Here's an interesting bit on Jim Lee of DC breaking his in as a drawing tool.
One of the most exciting things about the iPad is that the SketchBookPro software cost . . . $7.99
That's a difference-maker right there. Compare the costs of the following digital art start-up kits:

bottom-end iPad ($500-800) + SketchBookPro ($7.99) + some kind of stylus ($20.00-30.00) = $527.99

bottom-end Macbook Pro ($1199) + Photoshop (academic vers $200.00) + Wacom Intuos $309) = $1708

The iPad is not a ready replacement for laptop/wacom set up yet. Intuos pressure sensitive, high res, etc. . . But. . . it's looking real interesting, especially because. . .

I think the iPad is a bona fide publishing platform with significant advantages over olde-fashioned books. It's extra-spiffy. The comic-viewing capabilities are down-right spectacular.  The main difference I felt was that the contemporary full-blast digital coloring techniques in today's comics look loads better on the screen (where they were created!) than they do in print! I wasn't expecting that, but it blew me away. The mac Book reader also comes with a sweet free ebook of Winnie the Pooh. It's splendid, though I still imagine good old kids BOOKS are here to stay. Anyhow, I will bring this new robot girlfriend in to class on Wednesday for y'all to check out. I think it'll be a major development in the way comics n' picture books are "consumed" and created in "the future."

Assignment for Monday, April 19 - Final Project presentation

Finished and preliminary drawings from Maurice Sendak's Higglety Pigglety Pop! 

Monday, April 19, you'll present your final project idea to the class via your blog. Your presentation should include:
1. 3-5 images of your own work.
2. 5 images from your visual research.
3. A one paragraph written description of your project.
4. A one sentence description of your project.
5. Specific technical issues you'll need to figure out to get this project done.
6. A timeline for what you're going to have done on your project when.
7. What you will have done by Monday, April 26, which will be our next critique.
These Maurice Sendak images are reproduced from an article on a Sendak retrospective in the San Francisco Sentinel.

Early cover concept for Where The Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak.

Double-Edged Wednesday

Stealin' from the best. My shower scene on the left, Clowes' Ghost World on the right.

If the first blade misses yer beard, the second one does the job. . . yes. Here's the to do list for Wednesday, April 14.

1. Bring your FIVE copies.
2. Update your BLOG.
3. Write a one paragraph description of your final project idea.
4. Cite a specific piece of visual research you've used in making your latest and greatest work. Here's a link to a post I made discussing the example above!

Miles' Working Process

I'm an un-methodical, un-organized person by nature, but I've been forced to get a little more systematic as I've grappled with making comics and animation. Here are some observations that have helped me to carry out a project like a picture book or comic book.
1. Start a folder. When I know that I'm working on a big project, I go through my scrappy drawings, notes and sketchbooks and pull out stuff that might be relevant to the project; Then I stick it in THE FOLDER. I label the folder with a nice working title, and I'm off and running. From now on, ANYTHING even remotely related to the project goes into this folder.

2. After I've started the analogue folder, I scan my stuff in and start a digital folder. I then back this folder up to another drive or disk. Regular back up is the key to survival when you work on a long-term project.

3. Git to work dealing with the nuts and bolts design of your book. Font/lettering ideas, logo designs, panel layouts, etc. Eventually, I work out a template that forms the basis for all of my pages. A key part of this process is settling on a page size.

4. Get on the phone/internet and talk to printers to get turn-around times and submission requirements. Err on the side of too much information. Revisit step 3 as necessary.

Here are some more detailed posts on my processes.
How Miles makes his Arms and Ether web comic.
How Miles made the Arms and Ether comic book.
A link to Miles' Arms and Ether comic book page template.
Link to Miles' Arms and Ether web template. 
Link to The Ohio Players, Love Roller Coaster, 1975.

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

NYTimes on Animator William Kentridge

Art Review | 'William Kentridge: Five Themes'

Anger and Angst, Explored With Animation

By ROBERTA SMITH

Published: February 26, 2010

The Museum of Modern Art’s “William Kentridge: Five Themes” lays out the strengths and weaknesses of this prominent South African artist’s work with a forthrightness that is almost touching.
Click here for full article.

Artiste O' The Day

Sir Garrett of Eldenhalle sends us this lovely site of Raphael Lacoste's work. Nifty concepts from Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia, and the like. Also, Raphael's been studying his art history hasn't he? Piranesi, fo' sho'. And check out the Friedrich shout-out below.

 

  

Here's Caspar David Friedrich's The Sea of Ice from 1823-24. Friedrich's one of those guys that we should all dig on. Cheers, Caspar!

Lithia Motors Internship - Looking for a FLASH designer

 Hey guys, here's a very cool opportunity. Lithia is looking for a paid intern for 10 hours of work per week. Needless to say, this would be brilliant professional experience: national company, major brands, wide distribution of your work, etc. etc. If you're interested, here are the specs:

Build a flash element for a Lithia store. The winning student
(s) would have an opportunity to present their work here at Lithia, or we
could come there to review.

What we would like to see from the designers as part of the project, is a
flash build that has:

technical elements of:
1. follows IAB standards
2. is under 40K
3. size is 300x250
4. 15 seconds
5. one loop
6. a swf, fla and jpg (the jpg is the final frame used for browsers that do
not have a flash player)
7. if Rich Media can be incorporated, that is an added bonus

Lithia elements of:
1. includes store logo, Reno Subaru, logo attached
2. includes a vehicle
3. the final frame would have a strong call to action
4. uses a circus theme or spring cleaning theme

We would like to see creative by March 8th if possible.

Here's the Reno Subaru logo:

 

Let me know if you have questions, and get your work to me by Friday, next week! Get that career goin'.

Final Critique Times For Miles' Classes

Art 351 Interactive Studio: Wednesday, March 10, 7:30-9:30 a.m.(!)
Art 399 Concept Art O' The Rich & Famous: Wednesday, March 10, 3:30 p.m.
Art 353 3D Modelin' & Lightin': Tuesday, March 9, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Art 450/496 "Special" Projects & Capstone: Wednesday, March 10, 5:30 p.m.

Have all yer work blogged up and ready to present.
All critiques will meet in the regularly scheduled labs.

The Excellent Bill Wray

Lots of nice stuff at Bill Wray's site. I like the backgrounds he did for Samurai Jack.

Controlling MovieClip Timelines!

Your event handler will look something like this:

function onYourButtonClick(event:MouseEvent):void
{
 startPage.gotoAndStop(2);
}

If you wanted to control a clip within a clip, use dot notation!

startPage.cuteMovie.gotoAndPlay(30);

Mac vs. Adobe: It's Civil War, I Tells Yuh!

 

Articles on the Adobe Apple feud. Will Flash survive??? Probably, but hopefully emerging much improved by the struggle.
Wall Street Journal
The Guardian
New York Times
As an artist/animator, I like Flash, I really do. To me, its strength is the integration of drawing, animation, and programming into one nifty flexible environment. Yay, for me. However, that's not why Flash is a dominant web presence. I think Flash has risen because it has serious Adobe market muscle behind it. In its evolution, Flash has become a classic bit of bloat-ware--it can do things like play video and generate slideshows for the web, but it's by no means the best way to do those things. Sure, Flash has a video player, but most people hate it and want it dead. And why the hell should people be forced to use Flash to make a web slide show?

So, what's the point of all this? As an academic teaching studio art and "emerging media," I don't like the idea of perpetuating olde techniques and approaches to doing things just because I know how to do them. Over the past few years, I feel that some complacency has set in, that we're still using a lot of this corporate bloat-ware because that's what us olde perfessers know what to do. There's much more to say on this subject, but I'll end it for now with the thought that I want to make sure I'm not teaching some corporate party line, but rather some basic principles and concepts that my students will be able to adapt and develop into their own approach to things.

Here's How To Start and Stop Sounds (Flash AS 3.0)

Here's the .fla file for you to download.
Here's the .as file for you to download. (right-click and save as for best results!)

package
{
// here's where you import the Sound and SoundChannel classes
    import flash.display.MovieClip;
    import flash.events.MouseEvent;
    import flash.media.Sound;
    import flash.media.SoundChannel;
   
    public class Main extends MovieClip
    {
        //these first variables are to hold sounds that have been imported to the Library
        var noo:Noo;
        var waterloo:Waterloo;
        var ooh:Ooh;

        //this creates a variable to contain a SoundChannel. To play a sound, you must have
        //a SoundChannel to play it in.
        var soundChannel:SoundChannel;

       
       
        public function Main()
        {
            //here we load up the sound variables with instances of the Library sounds
            noo = new Noo();
            waterloo = new Waterloo();
            ooh = new Ooh();
            //here we load the soundChannel variable with a new SoundChannel.
            soundChannel = new SoundChannel;
           
            //here are the Event Listeners!
            //buttonRoll is the instance name of the button in my scene.
            buttonRoll.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, onButtonRollOver);
            buttonRoll.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, onButtonRollOut);
            buttonRoll.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onButtonRollClick);
        }
           
            //here are the Event Handlers
        function onButtonRollOver(event:MouseEvent):void
        {
            //this starts the waterloo sunset guitar playing in the soundChannel.
            soundChannel = waterloo.play();
           
        }
        function onButtonRollOut(event:MouseEvent):void
        {
            //this stops any previous sounds that have been playing in the soundChannel.
            soundChannel.stop();
            //this plays the annoying noo sound
            soundChannel = noo.play();
            trace("out of this world");
        }
        function onButtonRollClick(event:MouseEvent):void
        {
            soundChannel.stop();
            soundChannel = ooh.play();
            trace("clickin and tickin");
        }
    }
}