Recycle Bin Drag Race

For this project, we will be using objects from the recycle bin as the material for a vehicle design. Choose any object you find in a recycle bin (bottle, can, carton, etc...) and create a design for a vehicle that will utilize the recycled object as the primary material.

The components of the project are as follows:
Brainstorming
Thumbnail sketches
Vehicle design (using Photoshop, Corel Draw, Flash, )
Animation of the vehicle (using Flash)
Collaborative race design, storyboarding, compositing, animation

The finished, animated car is due Friday March 6th at the end of class.
The finished race is due Friday March 13th at the end of class.

Vehicle Design
Create some thumbnail sketches detailing the look of your car.
Photograph your recycled object from the front, back,side, top, and bottom against a plain white background. Get a classmate to take a photograph of you in a driving pose.
Using Photoshop, create a new document and name it “yourname_car”
According to your concept in the thumbnails, create a vehicle which is able to accommodate a human and contains at least 1 moving part.
Each moving component of the vehicle must be saved into a separate document as a PNG. Be sure that the vehicle and the components have transparent backgrounds.
The vehicle must consist primarily of a manipulated photograph of the recycled object but you may use drawings, effects and other techniques to enhance the look.

Animation Part 1
Using Macromedia Flash, create a new document sized 800 x 600px and set to 15 fps.
From the insert menu, insert a movie clip.
Import each of the PNG files saved for your vehicle into their own layer and position them appropriately. Name the layers according to the content.
On a piece of paper, plot out the way in which you wish to see your vehicle animated including approximate timing and the types of motion required (position change, rotation, scale, opacity, colour).
In the Timeline window, right-click on a frame which will be your end frame (15fps means that 60 frames would be 4 seconds) select insert frame.
Do the same action for each layer.
Right click on the keyframe at the beginning of each layer and select create motion tween.
Right click on the last frame of each layer and select insert keyframe.
At any point in the timeline, right click and insert a keyframe and alter one or more properties of the image in the particular layer.
Continue with a similar strategy until your vehicle is moving the way you expect.
Save the animation as vehicle followed by your name.

Team Animation
As a team, you will create a race between your two cars. The race will consist of at least 4 shots covering the beginning, middle, and end of the race. Each team member is responsible for half of the shots.
Design and animate a background with at least 1 moving layer.
Distribute at least 2 shots to each group member to animate.
Bring together the finished shots and place them in order on your main timeline.
Export your finished movie and save it with “yournames_race.swf”

Marking

/10 Photographs are well exposed,
/10 Planning and project management. Workload was well organized and submitted in a timely fashion.
/30 Vehicle Design is convincing and appears realistic. Driver looks to be in the car. Numerous techniques were used in Photoshop
/20 Vehicle Animation is well executed and detailed. Movements make sense
/20Background Design is suitable for the race scenes and has numerous layers moving convincingly
/10Storyboard Storyboards are complete and well concieved. Go
/30 Collaborative animation.The finished animation is detailed, well-constructed and paced. Cinematography works well together. Entertaining.

Wall-E Questions

1. What are some of the prevailing themes in Wall-E? List at least 3 and choose one to explain in greater depth. Explain your answer.
2. How does the movie explore the theme? Give examples.

3. Wall-E uses references to 20th and early 21st century media, design, and society. Give examples. Why do you think these have been included in the film?

4. Choose from the following: sound design, character design, cinematography, editing, script, architecture, lighting, character animation, or music. How was the particular element used to convey emotion, describe context, move the plot etc…Describe an instance in which your chosen element is used effectively.

5. The movie uses repeated motifs (for example the cockroach getting run over). Describe one and explain why you think it is repeated.

6. The robots take on human characteristics and the humans have taken on robotic characteristics. What does this serve?

7. Overall, would you describe this film as a “good” film? Why? Why not? What would you change?

Found

This animation fuses Dadaist collage, surrealism, cinematic miniatures and web banner aesthetics.
This piece is both a mixed-media sculpture and an animation. You may use a wide variety of media in your diorama including paint, drawing, found objects, photography, collage and any other media or technique you decide will suit the project. The found photograph must be integrated somewhere in the piece. You will be making a looped, animated dream sequence with a combination of assemblage, stop-motion, hand drawn animation, Flash, and Photoshop.

Steps:

1.Find an interesting neglected object or photograph. You might find this on the street, in your basement More than one person may use the same photo. Alternatively you may choose to use a combination of a photo of a person you know and the aged/weathered appearance of the found photo (this is a more advanced Photoshop technique).
2.Apply a character to your found object and create a dream sequence for him or her, it or them. Create a written outline of the dream including the imagery and how it will be used to communicate a narrative without using (spoken) words.
3.Develop a series of thumbnail sketches for each of the following: background, middle ground, foreground, characters and other elements. Make notations about materials, colours, dimensions and construction techniques. Consider that the elements will need to be able to be moved for animation purposes and plan accordingly.
4.Create a storyboard with all of the details of your animation. Use arrows to indicate movement.
5.Build the elements of your animation being sure that the elements that will move in the animation can be repositioned easily.
6.Photograph each element separately using a camera, tripod and a stand. Upload the images to a computer. Make a back-up of the files on a removable USB stick or hard drive. You may choose to carry out the entire animation in a stop-motion technique.
7.Open each element in Photoshop and mask out the unwanted background. Save the original files as PSDs and save a copy of each in PNG format (with transparency). Name each file appropriately.
8.Open Flash and create a new file with the dimensions 1024x 768 and a framerate of 24fps. Import each PNG to the stage in Flash. Arrange each element in it’s own layer. Name the layers accordingly. Save regularly.
9.Create an animation with a minimum of 72 frames to a maximum of 720 frames. You can use tweening and frame-by-frame animation techniques.
10.Publish your finished animation as a SWF with the quality set to high. Name the finished file with your name_animation_final. Copy the file on to a removable drive and submit the file to me.

Brand

PHASE 1 (Due Thursday November 6th
You will be creating your own brand for your own company.
1. Decide on what type of company you will be (anything related to communications technology - even remotely - will suffice)
2. Brainstorm a name for your company. This could include your own name.
3. Create a list of characteristics that describe your company: personality, aesthetic, market, philosophy, etc...
4. Develop a group of possible strategies to represent your brand. This could include logo, copy text, business card and other collateral as well as more innovative and brand-specific strategies: virals, interventions, music, etc...At least one element should be visual.
5. Begin to develop your logo (logo system, visual conventions).
6. Create at least 3 good candidates for your logo and determine which is best.
7. Research at least 2 companies that are in a similar business to your own and deconstruct their brand: write a precise breakdown of the elements and strategies utilized by your chosen companies. How do they achieve their brand? This should consist of 250 words per company.
8. As you complete a phase, form your own blog that is linked to the wcicommtech blog and begin to construct your project there.
9. Read and provide quality commentary to at least 2 classmates blogs.


PHASE 2

Create an advertisement, collateral, or other visible instance of your brand for use in at least two of the following contexts:
Web
Print
Video
Clothing
Objects
Viral
Storefront
Other

Your brand examples should include rationale as to why you have chosen such a strategy, how it will work, who it will appeal to, and how it reinforces your overall brand.
All work should be exclusively your intellectual property (no unlicensed images please)

Brainface Product Design

You will be creating a custom Brainface product to be included in a catalogue.
The product will be based on an actual object that you photograph and modify in Photoshop.

1.Bring in an object that you feel would work as a Brainface item.
2.Photograph the object against a plain white background. Be sure to use manual settings on the camera.
3.Do a rough pencil sketch of how you want the product to look. Include the Brainface logo somewhere on the product.
4.Bring the photo into Photoshop and clean up the background.
5.Modify colours, add the logo and other custom elements in Photoshop. Be sure to make the finished product look photorealistic.
6.Save the finished. File and copy it into your hand in folder.
7.Post a compressed version on the blog along with a short descriptive statement.

Logo

Create a logo for Brainface. Do several thumbnail sketches and determine the best option. Transfer the design to the computer and execute the logo using Corel Draw. Create at least 4 final variations for comparison and choose the best logo to present.
Due at the end of next class.

Elements and Principles

From the list below, choose one of the elements or principles and become an expert on it. Develop a 100-200 word explanation of your chosen element or principle and include an example image to support your work. Include links to any research sources you have used. Post your finished work on the blog.

Elements
LINE
SHAPE
TEXTURE
COLOUR
VALUE
FORM

Principles
BALANCE
EMPHASIS
MOVEMENT
HARMONY
CONTRAST
RHYTHM