Barnyard Decay

8-Bit Yearbook Project

I like the way these pieces turned out. The parts that I think could be improved or should be added are as follows (starting with the yearbook cover and working down): I have the trail run, math class and computers but honestly I want it to be even more reminiscent of school. Unfortunately the majority of 8 bit images I could find on the internet were related to the middle ages. This went with the Mario themed castle but I still wish I could have included more. Just want to point out the distressed monster in the back of the math class. I can totally relate to him, her or it. I know the colours are bright and garish but that is 8 bit games for you. Consider it realistic. I also wish I could have used Cosmo to a greater extent because I spent a long time getting all his edges square and aligned. The font looks great and there is enough going on that you can't take it all in at a glance and this keeps your eye going round and round noticing the red guy digging under ground or trail runner hiding behind a pipe. The font on the side looks almost right because I curved it just as it would be seen from the yearbook's spine.

As the cover was themed around 8 bit Mario, so the sports page is themed around Pac Man, a notoriously popular 8 bit arcade game. I would like to draw your attention to the cut out soccer players. Notice the quality of the cutting, the resaturation, improved contrast and superior lighting. The fading silhouettes behind them are to create movement while matching the colour scheme and the figures are largest at the bottom of the page and smaller at the top to create the illusion of distance. Notice how all the ghosts that I gave legs and cleats to play soccer with look eerily similar to those french-fry monsters that Ronald McDonald used to hang out with. Not important just pointing it out. But what is important is the layout of the level behind the pictures is a creation of my own devising and is meant to be a soccer field. You can see some of the line of scrimmage dissecting the centre, the goalie nets and all the other lines vital to a soccer field. If there was one thing I would like to change it would be to use pictures from this year (there were none). And to have the grass matching shades of green. 

Last but certainly not least is the Art of the Heart pages. These pages are themed on Space Invaders again a popular arcade game that was cutting edge back in its day. I stuck to a bright green and white colour scheme for the invading background and chose art that mainly featured blue (the tuba, the landscape, the flower). On the left page is an 8 bit version of Van Gogh's Starry Night. Not my personal work but an image from the internet and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to remind the viewer of the theme of the yearbook. After all the artwork was least incorporated into the theme so I feel compensation is necessary. I did use frames of the chosen colour scheme colours to relate them to the background. All the pieces of art I chose I admire extremely. Look at that sea horse. Beautiful. I used a plastic wrap filter to try and give the pages that shiny look you find in real yearbooks but in the end it falls somewhat flat because the curve of the pages would affect the lighting in reality. I really do regret how the pages didn't turn out. I used liquefy to try and get the distortion that happens to a curved image. It didn't really pan out. I'm not sure of a perfect way to get the desired effect I want so the only cure is to experiment and check online if anyone has a solution to this or a similar problem. Note that the page numbers do add to the realism but the green line should curve with the page. I wasn’t sure how to bend it and liquefy would butcher it. 

The bottom line of this project is my satisfaction with my work.

Media Arts Summative Digital Year Book Design

This project is an oppertunity to place a creative filter on ye olde humdrum yearbooke. The ideas so far are an a version of a bit-type Marioesque theme. Cosmo's and Mario's colour scheme are bothe red heavy and the catch phrase " Itsa meia, Mario!" becomes " Itsa meia, Cosmo!". Bowser, the villan from Mario can be changed as can Princess Peach. The enemies in Mario such as the Goombas (mushrooms) and Koopas (turtles) can be revisioned following the colour scheme and made into soccerballs or something school related.
The second theme is comic books. Students become heroes and villans, the style of the pages would be patently comic book and there would be explosive font: BANG! POW! KERPLAUNCH! The colours scheme can be based around the school colours of red and black. All I have to do is stay away from the the copyrighted marvel super hero junk and I'll be fine.

REDO Text in a Picture: Ain't No Rest For the Wicked

I redid these pieces to address the fact that the originals had monochromatic text. For the first I ensured that it was the most red, as the imagery was darkest there and I wanted it to look like brutal slashes of neon in a dim room. The size of the text was decreased as well. The second piece had to undergo major lighting changes so i used a neon filter to give the background big city colour without making it too bright. The text was shrunken from the size of a poster to the size of a window leaflet. The third piece needed a major colour change so I went with an unhealthy shade of pink to contrast the hooded figures skin. I also increased the amount of negative space so that the figure and and re sized text would dominate the piece.

Barbara Kruger Project

a.       What do you see in this piece of art (describe it)?
I see a woman of the forties, thirties or fifties who is pretty damn proud of her position in life. Do you see her eyes? Can you meet this feminine glare? Those are the all too perky pupils of a serial killer. The lips split into a smile that stretches from ear to ear. This unnatural Stepford smile epitomises the hopeless servile housewife who brainwashed by a capitalist patriarchal society now whole heatedly believes that a woman's work is in the kitchen. Her pretty little world consists of matching pastel coloured appliances, a hot meal on the table by six and a drink in his hand by seven. The arrogant Betty-Crockeresque demonstrates that what was most detrimental to woman's rights was the mindless gals who agreed with their male oppressors, those who worked against womankind from the inside. This is a picture not of a woman but of a pawn.

b.      What kind of message did you try to give in this piece of art?
Suffrage hasn't stopped no more then the manipulation of the brain dead masses has stopped. The wheel is spinning but the hamster is dead. Oppression may take new forms now and there is advancement for the roles of women and their place in the workforce but this was not always the case. The message that the words convey in their yield to the left lane yellow is that of one frustrated with being trapped in the role of the housewife, angry with her life, angry with herself, giving the only piece of advice that has allowed her to maintain any facade of sanity in an oppressive marriage " JUST BAKE THE ANGER AWAY, HON". She is emotionally dehydrating each day and expressing her pain through the gift of baking. The bottom piece is based around the idea of a window with a pie just left to cool on the window sill. The rightmost piece is more reminiscent of the bars that keep women in the kitchen and out of the workforce. The only outlet is aggressive baking and the pies taste bitter. So very bitter.

c.       Do you like or dislike this piece of art?  Why?
 I saw this picture on the web and despite ibosses futile attempts I have it.

I knew form the moment I saw it it was the picture that summed up the motif I was striving for. She was my muse and my medium.  So yes I do like this piece of art. I'm happy with my colour choice as yielding yellow is a bright eye catching colour and goes with the theme that runs through the art. My choice of wording is decidedly different from Kruger in that there viewer is more addressed than society as Kruger more often then not addresses society as a whole. Usually she expresses her message in less words too, but I am content if not personally please with my choice of words, the thoughts they provoke and the balance between the image and the wording. One thing I wish i could change is the size of the wording in the last piece. I would make all the words except THE and ANGER smaller so you could read the emotion and see the smile beneath from across the room. I did not do this because the text was already very pixelated and I could not risk losing the message.

Plaque Attack Reflection

What did you like most about your game?
The enemy organisms a.k.a. Wurms. I liked the way their animation turned out and if I had more time I would animate their bodies to writhe and squirm. If I could make the game more complex I would have a end boss fight. Allow me to set the stage: you click the PLAY button. You, Jerry the germ are drifting through the dental void but you cannot see a tooth marked for colonisation. Only rows of glittering white chompers and one conspicuously massive enamel mountain (a super big tooth). Without warning the tooth explodes revealing the Queen Wurm! you must fight for your life, shooting protoplasmic bullets at the Mother-of-All- Wurm, all while not crashing. This boss battle would be epic beyond  belief and there would be heaps of confetti for your triumph. I would also have Wurms that hide under teeth and then pop up wearing the tooth a hat/ camouflage and spit projectiles at you. Another factor could be the mouth your colonising could close slowly. Just think of the pressure you would feel as you avoid collision with the teeth below only to find teeth above slowly crushing your single celled body. FUN. Also my landing pads are clearly marked and you don't die one invisible obstacles.

What could be improved?
I do not know how to or if a Wurm/ movie clip can be edited by I wish I did so I could make the Wurms in the last level look better in size, individual in wrinkles and as stated before I would make them squirm. So much potential. I could make it look like they actually bored out of the teeth they inhabit. Any other complaints I have are simply do to the efficient but simple programming.

How is this game an improvement upon the original?
Where the original was mundane I tried to create a sense of purpose and attachment to the character you play: Jerry. His struggles are your struggles, his triumphs your triumphs and his horrible cytoplasmic explosion your annoyance and encouragement to try again. You feel the patriotism for Germopia, a home you've never been to. But only if you read the text.
You don't have to read the text because the game is so simple and visually pleasing. You play a cute little green germ in an unwelcoming environment composes of yellowing enamel, decaying cavities and grotesque Wurms. This visual and thematic creative is vastly improved from the original moon lander that was dull.

All in all I'm please with the result and have gotten various compliments from fellow classmates.

Barbara Kruger Forethought

a.       What do you see in this piece of art (describe it)?

I see a pair of leather shoes on a shag carpet. The shoe style is decades old, very well cared for, very polished. They make me think of the smells of shoe polish and leather. Old leather. The angle is looking down on the shoes as you would look down on a coffin in its grave.

b.      What kind of message did you try to give in this piece of art?

A cold slap into the face of materialistic society, this piece commented on the multitudes that spend their lives accumulating STUFF and the bottom line that in the you won't have your possessions forever. In reality people can think of themselves as the renter of STUFF, because despite so called ownership you can't keep it forever and must eventually pass on your accumulated wealth. Or debt. The latter seems more likely these days.

c.       Do you like or dislike this piece of art?  Why?

I LIKE this piece of art because of the message that ponders answer less questions, tears at societies self conceptions and pleasing imagery. Although a tad morbid it tackles the very real issues involved in materialism, wealth, mortality, social and personal morality and possibly spirituality.