This shot is an example of object movement. The camera is stationary while Packard moves from left to right in the background.
This shot is an example of linear motif. The wood of the barn in the background gives this shot its linear motif.
This shot is an example of size difference. Milo is in the foreground so he’s larger than Audrey who is in the background.
Rhythmic Patterns
The fight scene between the protagonist and the virus was a rhythmic pattern. After 1 or two actions the environment would change to a different game where they would fight again before changing.
Relative movement
During the fight scene there is relative movement when the protagonist jumps in the air because of the buildings in the background.
Control of movement
During the fight scene each shot change is designed to blend into the next one. In one shot someone is about to slam the ground and in the next shot they do. Or in one shot the protagonist is gliding in the air and in the next they are in a plane. This matching is a control of movement.
For my video I chose the visual trend extended human. The trend is about how technology is changing our lives and changing what it means to be human. For my video I showed this with a person modifying themselves with technology to make their life easier. However to his friend this seems pretty weird and vaguely creepy. He keeps adding stuff in more intrusive ways till his friend finally confronts him and points out that these upgrades aren’t worth the cost.
In this shot I used one point perspective to focus the viewers attention. Both of the rails focus the viewers attention towards the right of the frame. Then when Aidan walks in the viewer is already looking there.
For this shot I used movement to do a reveal. The camera focuses on Aidan and his use of technology, then the camera moves to reveal Tom has been sitting there the whole time. This is used for humor by contrasting how far Aidan has gone with changing his body and how weirded out and concerned Tom is.
In this shot I used color contrast to draw the viewers attention. The 4K logo is the only thing yellow in the shot, and a bright yellow creating a contrast with the rest of the frame. This contrast is used to make the viewer focus on it.
For this presentation I looked at some of my previous work and how it relates to what we’ve talked about in Senior Seminar.
The first project I talked about is the VR Room project I made last semester and how that relates to our reading on the medium is the message. The room itself is like a dream, you’re stuck in a house where one door leads into a portal, there’s frozen lighting outside surrounded by fog. However the main message of the piece comes from the medium, VR. With VR the wearer gets to experience the piece in a different way compared to a photograph, you don’t immediately know where everything the artist wants you to see is, and you have to go and discover it on your own.
The second project I talked about is my accentuating action project from motion graphics and how it relates to our reading on filters. For the project we had to take live action footage and add motion graphics elements to it to accentuate what was happening. For my project I took footage of someone taping their hands, feet and bobbing their head to a song. To accentuate it I added pulsing circles around where the person was moving. By doing this I was creating a filter that altered how the person looked at the footage and drew their attention to certain parts.
I then talked about a fan project I was part of for a while, Stage9, a recreation of the Enterprise-D from Star Trek The Next Generation based on plans to the ship. Unfortunately the project was shut down by CBS as it wasn’t protected by fair use. However this made me appreciate fair use even more, since if we can’t make things based on old properties because of copyright law, at least we can use footage from them and make parodies while being protected by fair use.
Continuing on the topic of fair use I talked about an idea for a documentary I’d like to make. I noticed a trend that after the early 2000s many well known videogames franchises such as Quake, Doom, Duke Nukem, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Xcom, Deus Ex and others seemingly disappeared for a significant amount of time before coming back. To make this documentary I’d need to rely on fair use so I can use footage of games and game events. Especially since some developers like Nintendo have tried to shut down people playing their games on Youtube in the past.
The next thing I talked about was videogame critics, specifically on Youtube and how that related to our reading The Spectre of Democratization in the Digital Age. Many Youtube critics are seen as less professional compared to those on websites like IGN or Kotaku, however they are still important and shouldn’t be dismissed just because of the platform they use. Youtube critics can cause a game to fail and get a lot of bad press such as Fallout 76, and many can make games popular such as 5 Nights at Freddys. And when I start making videogames it’s important that I listen to my critics regardless of the platform they use.
The Final thing I talked about was my dream game project I’d like to create. The idea is something similar to the point and click adventure games of the 90s but in full 3D and no restrictive camera angles. You play as someone who arrived in a desert town in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico, and you go around solving supernatural mysteries. The first reading I connected this to is the one on disapora, when I’m writing these characters I want to take into account why they’re in the town. Who is in the town to get away from somewhere else? And who is in the town that wants to be somewhere else? These are questions that heavily impact the personality of the characters. The second reading I connected it to is Barbie and Mortal Kombat. When creating these characters diversity can be important but it isn’t the main thing you should focus on when creating a character, personality comes first. If you make a character black and that’s all you think about is that they’re black, the character is going to be boring and uninteresting. Being black can affect their personality, but it shouldn’t be the main thing that defines who they are.
I would do a documentary on the history of video games after the videogame crash. I’d talk about the history of the industry in chronological order year by year, starting with the NES and SEGA Master System. I’d focus on the different consoles of each generation, how the hardware improved from console to console and how different games took advantage of those improvements. I’d also focus on games that were considered important for their genre such as Quake, Final Fantasy 7, and Half-Life and what made them important. In the case of Quake it was the first 3D game and its engine was used for numerous other games. Additionally I’d talk about the rise and fall of franchises, and which ones disappeared for several years before coming back to prominence such as XCOM, Deus Ex, or Sim City. I’d close the documentary by comparing games today to the ones of the past, and speculate on how games and hardware will change in the future. Such as VR and AR becoming cheaper and more widespread.
The point of this piece is to show how games have evolved alongside hardware, and explore what made some games significant. For this art piece I could use Fair Use to add footage from videogame trailers and videogame events such as E3 and Console reveal events. At the end I could also speculate on the use of AR in future games.
Precious Blood by Andres Serrano uses the material it was made with to convey a message. Precious Blood was made using blood, by doing this he challenges the way that people normally look at blood. Normally blood is seen as disgusting, however Serrano has managed to make it look like something beautiful instead. The picture itself is reminiscent of Nebula that can be found in space, something beautiful found in nature, that connection then suggests that blood is beautiful and not as gross as people normally see it.
1) For the first exercise I used the 3D layer option to make the text and background 3 dimensional. I then added a point light which would affect it differently depending on where the text is on the X,Y and Z axis
2) For the second video I used the color range key to remove drake from a green background, and I used a mask as a garbage matte to remove the green edges. I keyframed the position of drake so he doesn’t move with the video
3) For the third I applied 3 different effects to a Star Trek badge. I used CC Lens to round out the image and transform it back to normal, the liquify effect to distort the image, and Sphereize to push the image outward.
4) For the fourth exercise I found an image of a robot online and removed the background in photoshop, and saved it as a PNG to preserve the alpha channel. In after effects I used the puppet pin tool to animate him to wave
5) For the fifth exercise I made 5 different text compositions and applied a different text animation effect to each of them. I then put all 5 compositions together in a 6th composition so I could edit the position and timing of them easier
Matthew Ehrenhofler 