New Blog

Our group has decided to start sharing a blog, as it will be easier to translate and distribute our ideas to one another. It can be accessed here:

http://sirhandlebar.tumblr.com/

Ideas

I found an image today when surfing the net that I thought corresponded with our theme of Video games and displaying them in urban unused areas. This selection just shows characters from the well known video game franchise Pokemon. I really like the way the artists have displayed them in settings that suit the specific characters, and place them as if walking along the ground or hovering as they would in the game. This helps add a sense of realism and interactivity- as if they are right there beside us. 

Expansion of Technology

Our group has decided to focus more on the technology & design aspect of the Wellington region-

In recent years sudden booms in technology has greatly effected society, and how we interact with one another. Major cities, for instance Wellington, has free access to WiFi. This, along with things like smart phones have given most people vastly more creative outlets and ways of sharing their creations. For example things like Vine, Gif-Boom and Instagram give people with access to smart phones and WiFi the ability to share anything with the world in a matter of seconds. 

Advances in technology have brought about more interactivity with the technology we use. Giving us the ability to use technology the way we want, creating what we want. Which is very evident in creative based software, in particular apps, that are available with portable devices. With the advances in creative based technology, traditional methods of things like animation, have been challenged and changed. Due to the accessibility to the knowledge and technology needed to make animations. 

Gaming in particular has been altered by new easily accessible and portable technology. The concept of playing games has become more of a sociable activity, that someone can do anywhere on their smartphone. As opposed to 15-20 years ago, were someone who played video games would often be seen as someone with no life.

Wellington

To kick start this project, we first decided to do a brainstorm of Wellington City-

We then conducted some research-

• Wellington is New Zealand's centre of government and the world's southernmost capital city. It is also the country's cultural capital and the third most populous urban area in New Zealand.

• The city is home to many museums, theatres and arts festivals, including Te Papa Tongarewa (the Museum of New Zealand), the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Royal New Zealand Ballet, and the biennial Festival of the Arts.

• Wellington is also a leading centre for creative industries, such as film and computer technology, and it is the home of the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX).

• The city is situated alongside Wellington Harbour and surrounded by natural beauty including Zealandia, an award-winning eco-attraction just minutes from the central business district.

• Wellington enjoys around 2,000 sunshine hours a year. By comparison, London averages 1,500, Edinburgh 1,350 and Vancouver 1,850.

• Incomes in Wellington city are well above the average for New Zealand with over 40% of households having annual incomes of over $89,000.

• There are 25,284 Wellington-based businesses and there has been a 22% growth in business units here since 2000.

• As the capital, Wellington is the home of many artistic and cultural organisations, including the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Royal New Zealand Ballet. It has a lively urban culture, with many cafés, restaurants and performance venues.

• Weta was formed in 1993 by a group of young New Zealand filmmakers including Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor and Jamie Selkirk. It later split into two specialized halves - Weta Digital (digital effects) and Weta Workshop (physical effects).

Group!

For this project our group will consist of Nathan Laird, Ryan McKone, Matt Wehner, James Crosbie, Georgia Winter and Myself.

Urban Dream Brokerage

Urban Dream Brokerage brings together property managers and the creative industries to lead creative development and urban revitalization through the temporary use of vacant space by innovative projects. Urban Dream Brokerage (UDB) is currently running as a six month pilot with support from Wellington City Council, with other funding partners being sought for the Brokerage to continue.

For this project, we will be working in conjunction with UDB creating gifs that will be displayed in one of their Wellington properties that interact with passers by and bring life back into the city. The gifs will be created in a disused urban space in Wellington, and must interact with the physical and social environment.

Here are some notes I took when Sophie from UDB gave a presentation to our class-

Experimentation

Nathan Laird and I created a couple of more developed gifs. The first depicts an optical illusion we discovered, and the second portrays me creating origami :)

PES

This stop motion 'Game over' created by PES displays a number of different video games recreated using food and inanimate objects. Its a nice rendition of the classic arcade games giving it a post modern feel. I think its very unique and creative and found it very entertaining to watch.

  

Blu

Blu is an Italian street artist well known for his stop motion mural paintings. I really enjoy his aesthetic and works hes created because they are unique and very interesting to watch. My personal favourite videos of his are-


FFWD

http://vimeo.com/427154

I love how the video starts with a still life photograph which as time progresses 2D images become part of the photograph, creating a completely new exciting surreal scene. The character style I find adorable at the start, and I enjoy how the video takes a succeeding unexpected turn part way through. His use of foreground, mid-ground and background I also found very successful and engages the audience.

Merano

I like the publicity of this videos scene, how Blu has painted his mural on a street wall. The image he's drawn gives a nice contrast of black and white and the characters integrate nicely together and has a nice figure-ground element to it. Also displaying him painting the mural over time helps give us an idea of the creation process he uses. This integrates the characters with the environment painted in nicely.

Morphing

 

The music for this animation helps bring a specific darker mood to the artists concept. The stop motion technique used helps give a morphing sense to the artwork, as reinforced by the title. Having the video looped helps reiterate to the viewer the importance of the message and make sure they don't miss it. Because the camera has stayed stationary, the loop appears continuous creating an almost story/ narrated feel.

Experimentation

Sketching

Ripping pages

Experimentation

Saturday cricket with Christine

Mysterious cat in flat

Playing with paper

I decided to create a couple of cartoon characters, and experiment with animation using them :)

JT Yean

I found an artist who makes really nice gif's out of cut out paper. His name is J.T Yean and is a 3D animator and graphic character designer. Yean currently works for a number of clients including Defiant Magazine, Mythopoet, Nicholas Jary and Paulo Goldstein. He often spends his time making gifs of his paper crafts adding a sense of realism and a third dimension to them-

Merry Go Round Animation

A slower more precise animation of the ride