juggling
My room is a ladybug grave yard. I have no idea why the little guys feel my room is the best place to die, but there are tons of them. If it were any other kind of bug I’d be really grosssed out. But since they’re little ladies I just feel kinda bad for them.
When I have 3 or 4 projects going at the same time it is hard to love them all equally. Unfortunately it seems that the one I love the most is the one that is for neither credit nor money. Or maybe that’s why I love it more than the others.
Speaking of loving, 2007 is apparently going to be a good year for my favorite bands. A bunch of people are coming out with new stuff like Air and RJD2. Both are awesome.
Time to start working on stuff…
gerbil on bike
Messing around with After Effects. This is the first thing I’ve made from scratch and on my own. (this is not for that class, just me seeing if I can actually remember how to do things on my own).
Obviously I have mastered After Effects. DK should clearly just hire me now based on this awesome piece alone…
Pretty goofy, but it makes me happy.
The DK class is going well though. Tuesday we talked about our concepts and next week we bring in storyboards. He spent some time showing us their story boards for various projects. It’s cool being able to see how things work behind the scenes. Thursday we learned how to make lots of circles do stuff. Hence the circles in the video..
Also, walked to Green Lake today. It was like almost 5 miles of walking (2ish there and back and 2.8 around) so I was pooped. I should really go down there more often, it was nice clearning my head and being away from the computer. But now I should really stop playing with gerbils on vespas and do some real work I guess.
brain tap
I am at the point in the quarter where I sort of feel like I’m trying to just constantly juice my brain for ideas… It’s slightly overwhelming I think. It’s weird cause even when I’m not “working” I just constantly try to come up with ideas for my projects.. I think this part of the quarter is kind of the hardest, cause what goes down now determines so much of the rest, and without good ideas everything falls through.
I’m struggling with really solidifying any ideas for my interactive design class.. It’s like some things connect.. but not quite everything… sigh.
Motion
My intro to motion design and intro to after effects classes started this week. I think they should be good, although I’m a little worried about the time commitment.
So on Tuesday was the Intro to Motion Design. I am definately the youngest person there. Everyone else is in the real world already. Senior designers and others. One person from Methodologie and a few from Hornall Anderson. And others from other places I don’t remember. Either way, I feel pretty damn intimidated being surrounded by people who are way more experienced than me. It is also 3/4 guys. It’s such a different experience to be surrounded by designers who aren’t the VCD kids. I sort of feel like I’ll have to work harder prove myself more at this thing.
Anyways, He showed us a bunch of their work, and sort of went through how they were made, from basic to most complex. I think the most interesting pieces for me were the ones which were apparently just stills and stopmotion, but looked like much more than that. Near the end we were given our assignment for the class. I get to make a 30 second opener for a show called Masters of Horror, so apparently I get to try out the dark and moody thing afterall. I’m pretty excited for it, although I’m having a really hard time coming up with a good concept that isn’t typical horror crap. I’m finding myself more interested in this class than my Interactive Design class. I also think it’s a lot more organized than that one.
Thrusday was the After Effects class. A lot of the interface is fairly familiar to me since I’ve played with it a little, but it’s good to have a refresher cause I’ve forgotten a lot. We got to animate a little logo. Apparently our project will be to animate a little logo for ourself to use as like an opener thing for our reel. Should be good.
see jayne
Hooray! Tonight I present to you, my relatively non existant loyal readers…Jayne’s new portfolio site!
It’s been bouncing around for a while now but it’s finally done for the most part! Thanks to Zach’s amazing coding skills my life was made much easier. Let me know what you think (esp. if any of you vcd kids are stumbling upon it) or something is broken or spelled wrong.
I think the pop up windows are sort of unresolved still. They’re sort of an awkward size, but I can mess with that later. And I probably shouldn’t have my entire catalog up there, but it’s there for now cause I still kinda like it.
I think it’s pretty simple and straightforward. I wanted to make it easy to look at quickly and sort of get a good idea of what I do.
Yay! It’s so much better than my old one, but that may be partially due to the actual work on it as well.
Okay. Time for bed.
clips and beeps
I’ve been stumbling upon some quotes I like lately and I felt like putting them together where i can find them later:
It’s up to you
From Nick Artcade a blog about what it’s like to be at Art Center, one of the most reputable art schools in the country, especially on the west coast:
“So how much work is there?”
“How good do you want to be?”
I think that’s a really good answer. Cause really, workload is not actually something that people dish out. Obviously you don’t have a whole lot of control over the assignments and tasks you are given. But it’s up to you to decide how bad you want to be good. A good reminder to myself while I stress out and stay up late over this quarter’s projects.
Metaphors
From Folklore a site with stories from the early days of the mac. This particular quote is from Alan Kay, from 1982:
“Find a central metaphor that’s so good that everything aligns to it. Design meetings are no longer necessary, it designs itself. The metaphor should be crisp and fun.”
That’s the second reference to metaphors I’ve come across in the past few days, and I’m realizing it’s a really useful way to think about design problems. Some of my favorite pieces (of mine and others) are the ones where there is a strong metaphor holding it all together. And I’m also realizing that all that talk in highschool english classes about metaphors and symbolisim is actually pretty useful.
Solitude
From Psychology Today: The Call of Solitude
“The question is, are we routinely using the computer and television to find alonetime without really realizing our unfulfilled alone need? Or are we becoming incapable of living in the moment except in technological time-outs like the computer?”
“The natural creativity in all of us—the sudden and slow insights, bursts and gentle bubbles of imagination—is found as a result of alonetime. Passion evolves in aloneness. Both creativity and curiosity are bred through contemplation.”
I stumbled upon this one at a particularly relevant time. While it’s not really new information at all it sort of serves as a good reminder to myself. Since the quarter has started again I think I’m re-centered, despite the fact that I was feeling socially awkward during the first few days of transitioning back into being social. As weird as it may seem, by the end of winter break I was ready to get back to school.
While I spent a lot of fulfilling time doing what ever it was I wanted to do for 3 weeks, but I did things in spurts and in relative isolation from other people, so it wasn’t really balanced. I was inconsiderate of the fact that some people had less free time than me. In my quest to fulfill my need for interaction I overlooked their needs for personal time. I’ve realized the ideal set up is time for myself, working on ingaging creative projects, in the context of other people. Even if I’m in my own zone doing my thing, I like having people around to interact with if I want.
Interaction Design
Also, this is not really related to the stuff above, but I think this Dutch Circus Musem site is really well done. This is one of the few times I think the element of sound actually adds to the experience, as opposed to many where the sound is just annoying. I think the key is in moderation. I also like how subtle the “paper” texture is. And the little navigation spotlight on the right side is cool. And I like old timey circus posters.
parappa jayne
This is sweet!
niche
Yum
I was drawing little piggies for class and little robots for work today, and I realized that I apparently have some sort of inner drive that compells me to want to create cute little characters for everything… I’ve been trying to think about where the desire to draw all these little guys come from. And I think maybe it’s from all those goofy Yum Pop t-shirts I use to wear in Highschool.
I stopped wearing them years ago (although I still really want the we got the beet shirt) but I think the spirit of Yum Pop still lives on in my drawings.
I mean, I like drawing these little guys cause they amuse me, but I also kinda feel like I should try doing more “mature” stuff. I feel sort of like a one trick pony when it comes to that kinda stuff. I also don’t really know how my “audience” actually responds to it, even though I’m in the target audience (at least at work). Do I just have a weird fixation?
Digital Kitchen
Some of this wondering sort of stems from looking at a bunch of Digital Kitchen’s work tonight at their free talk at SVC. Some of my favorite pieces by them are the ones with a sophisticated, darker emotion to them. Their latest piece, an opening title sequence for Dexter, is a pretty good example of that. It’s filled with metaphors and really sweet imagery. And it sort of makes me wonder, could I even do the whole “dark and moody” thing if I wanted to? Or am I stuck in a sort of niche?
Anyways, I’ve been rambling, I actually just got on here to just share this little list of 8 tips from the DK presentation tonight:
1. Look at problems from all possible angles
2. Make your thoughts visible
3. Be Prolific
4. Make novel combinations
5. Force relationships
6. Think in opposites
7. Think metaphorically
8. Prepare for chance
Also, the new Apple products are sweet.
six…seven
So winter break has been really nice. It was great to just chill out and do whatever I felt like, and I actually did quite a bit, especially considering I slept in so much, though most of these activities only happened once.. list time!
How I spent my winter break
Set up my screenprinting area (and did some printing & taught other people how to),
Did some figure drawing
Learned how to drive a stick (sort of)
Went cosmic bowling
Went on a little hike
Went running
Watched Top Chef and a few movies ( Waiting for Guffman, Little Miss Sunshine, Everything is Illuminated, Cars, probably some others I’m forgetting)
Shopping (mostly gifts)
Cooked lots of tasty foods
Had Moroccan food (NYE dinner)
Played board games
Took care of animals
Played Poker
Helped create a holiday rap song with Zach’s family.
Made Margaritas and got tipsy
Had a Chanukah dinner
Had a Christmas dinner (both firsts for me)
Put up a portfolio site! (It’s ALMOST done… just some more tweaking before i can unveil it)
Sleeping! It’s good!
Also, I was slow with my year end top song of 06 list.. But I narrowed this years down to just the top 5 (Although it’s really more like top 5 artists) and only things that came out this year. And songs I’m still not sick of and listen to over and over still. And of course, let me know if you want this mini-mix.
Jayne’s Top 5 of 2006
1. The Killing Moon - by Nouvelle Vague
2. And I Was a Boy From School - by Hot Chip
3. Futures - bu Zero 7
4. Like a Pen - by The Knife
5. Hi - by Psapp
Also I suppose I should make New Years Resolutions, because I’m optimistic that this will be a good year, if only because of the inevitably huge tide of change that will bring. I’ll try to keep these realistic and specific…
Things I’d like to do in 2007
• Graduate. This one is fairly simple I think, if I remember to fill out my forms and such.
• Get a real design job or internship that I enjoy. Considering my days of living in the college bubble are ending soon, it’d be nice to use that fancy degree for something. And hopefully that something pays me enough to keep up my lifestyle.
• Lose 5 lbs. It’s not that much really, if I got it all in a year, surely it can’t be that difficult to lose it in one as well. I dunno, it’s not really that big of a deal, but i figure it’s more specific than eat better and run more (although those are part of it). It just seems easier to plan for a specific target.
• Travel. At least once out of the state, maybe California.
• Meet new people. I think I’m sort of falling into a comfort bubble, which is nice, but I feel like I should try being more social and outgoing.
