Ma Creations

Week 8: Update 2

2008-04-07T02:03:00.001-07:00

First version.
Second version(with a smaller beam)

Jo commented the colours for the (supposedly) pink one were too cold, so I used orange, a warmer colour. Now I'm indecisive. -.-|||

Week 8: Updates

2008-04-07T01:03:00.001-07:00

Finally done with my card!

I felt that the background was too plain and didn't give off a romantic enough feeling.. so I played around with the gradients and made a beam of light shining from above to focus on the centre where the hands are about to meet. I added the words just so that it would fit the theme nicely, but after consideration I guess it wasn't that nice after all. People have their own impressions of the card and it's best to let them express the words they want themselves; just like when you source for wallpaper and skins, you tend to not like those with words cause you don't think they fit it nicely and you could have done it better.

So removing the words, it turned out like this! I adjusted the beam angle so that the picture wld have a better sense of equilibrium.

I'm planning to print the card and gloss it for submission :)

Week 4: Updates

2008-04-06T23:44:00.001-07:00

Taking Jo's suggestion into consideration,i tried the idea of merging the speakers with the stereo set and it turned out pretty ok. I also made the play/pause button the focus which is quite symbolic for a music player. Therefore, final symbol is:

Week 9: Presentation on Poster

2008-03-31T01:13:00.001-07:00

Today was all about critque on two different kinds of posters, one good and one bad using the principles that we had learned throughout the course. Here's the presentation!

The good one chosen:

The poster gives off a good sense of equilibrium, which can be seen by the dividing lines. The weight on both sides of the poster are the same when divided by the middle red line and the curving lines which shape the middle are almost similar.

The figure in this poster would be the light in the middle as it attracts attention with the strong intensity given off. From there, you would probably look upwards, as if you were following the path of the snowy road, into the forest and finally up to look at the dreamcatcher at the very top. A sense of continuity is displayed.
Rule of Thirds: I tried experimenting how the dreamcatcher would have looked like if enlarged on the poster, and it does seem to give off a not as great effect, which actually shows that the rule of third is actually being practised and should be maintained.

4 main colours were used: black, grayish-green, gray and white. All together, they blend in well to make an overall sense of ominence and dreaded feeling, which can be seen as a good sense of unity. Furthermore the grayish-green is depicted as a stormy and cold feeling and fits well with the snowy landscape.

Words were contrasted against the dark background but did not rob the attention of the light in the middle.

Next is the bad one:

There is a lack in unity sense because of the cluttering of objects. No figure nor ground could be established properly because the audience will not know where to look first.

There is a bad clashing of the three primary colours as well as a few secondary ones. Mulitple usage of red and yellow everywhere which is supposed to be attention grabbing makes it hard to focus on which object to start off.
Suggestions to be made were to group the colours together to make it easier on the eyes, or change the colour for some objects. For example, maybe the heads could be grouped into a line at the middle of the poster since they are supposed to the focal point.

Week 8: Greeting card

2008-03-29T21:59:00.000-07:00

This week's was supposed to be on creating greeting cards and the theme was LOVEEEEEEEEEE. We were supposed to make 2 and get the class to pick the better one.

1st design:

2nd design:

To tell the truth, the 2nd one was done really hastily cause I spent too much time on the first. (and also because of the my laziness). But still it was pretty ok. But if I'm the customer, I wouldn't buy that card. Too plain for my taste ah ha.

Luckily the class chose the first one. Imagine the time I spent on the first, and if they picked the 2nd one, I think I will faint or something. Another lucky thing was that I didn't know that we could choose to turn the card into a normal postcard instead of a greeting card. Cause I didn't print the cupid love pte ltd thingy for the first one lol. But yeah, I would agree the first design suits more for a postcard.

Loads of comments given for the card because I don’t know why, the darn pink heart came out a deeper shade pink than expected and everyone thought my focus was on the heart instead of the hands. Had to explain the entire concept to them which had the hands on focus before they got the idea. -.-||| The heart wasn't supposed to be very visible, cause I was trying to create the shape of the heart using the fingers, and the viewer is supposed to visualize the rest of the heart himself/herself. Btw, the colour came out bad also for the background, so I have to tweak it or something.

Anyway, I’m considering including a few words in the center in cursive font for my selected piece. Let’s see how it goes.

Week 7: Update

2008-03-26T01:15:00.000-07:00

Final version for Week 7's assignment.

-changed the words to become horizontal
-instead of saying "save them"(pretty general), changed it to "save the victims"
- made the words look very static-like, like some kind of rural texture to it if you get what I mean

-lastly, repositioned "WAR" on top and made it especially staticly(it's just static, i duno how to say it properly lol), so that it would catch the viewers' eye. You are supposed to look at the poster from top to bottom anyways.

Week 7- Save, Stop, Prevent or Kill

2008-03-20T07:05:00.000-07:00

Some unknown person *coughs* ivan *coughs* was complaining that I didn't update my blog. Well have been reallly busy with some other stuff so....yeah.

Anyways, to update on my previous works (which I forgot totally also):

Btw I'm skipping like, 1 week ahead. Cuz for the previous week I have to redo the photos(urgh).

Anyway, the theme this time round is save, stop, prevent or/and kill, and we have to do it on A3 size paper, and as a poster. What got me really troubled was that A3, cuz I usually print stuff on my own printer, and it definitely can't accomodate an A3 paper! (plus I'm lazy to go print in specially from somewhere else.. >.>) Luckily I found a solution in the end, phew.

After working from 2am to 4am, I finally produced THIS(really last minute I know):

Basically, this poster focuses on stopping or preventing war. If you see the picture magnified enough, the lines of the drawing is actually rather rough. I purposely made it so that it would give off the sense of violence, as with the impact that war gives. Also, I choose the main colours white, black and red, cause they stood out very significantly against each other especially in a dark background(espeically e blood). The person who is actually lying down is a little kid. Why didn't I draw an adult? Well people know that towards a child who faces abuse, most people will feel more guilt over their expected innocence and vulnerability, and hence it will give off a greated effect than that of a normal adult. White was chosen for her, so that she would give off a ghostly image.

Words wise, I was browsing through the fonts, and I felt they were rather "army like" kind of fonts. Primitive, practical. I didn't want to give great emphasis on the words cause I wanted the girl and blood to attract attention, so I went for a pale yellow. I thought of giving some kind of balance for my picture, that's why I made the word "WAR" big and put it at the bottom to give it some kind of balance to the other side comprising of vertical words.

From here, it looks pretty Ok. But for those who attended the tutorial, it looked pretty crap cause I printed it on sub quality paper and sub quality ink. -.-|||(not to mention my crappy voice that accompanied the explanation due to sore throat) And I had to join it up with 2 pieces of paper to make it into one A3 and our tutor was like going so you see such tiny details(quality and paper) make a huge difference in our work. So I think I have to really go all the way to print it out on A3, with GOOD ink, GOOD paper. Darn. T.T

Comments:
- most of the class (those at the back) squinted pretty hard at my poster. Words might be a tad too small, but REALLY, that's why I made the word "WAR" and "save them" big to attract attention so they can come closer

- some commented on how the words were laid out. i.e. vertical words make it hard to tell what I'm writing. So okayyyyyyyyyyyy, point taken.

-I have to take note of the colour when it's printed out and on the comp. Different effects.

-some girl liked the way I drew the blood. Um, yay? =D

- I think I'm going to do some major realignment with the words, since the entire class was harping on it so much.

Last thing to say, I will never put this poster up in my room. I'll scream if I wake up to see it first thing in the morning.

Week 5: E-learning week

2008-02-25T06:20:00.000-08:00

Apparently the entire CnM section will be operating a E-learning week! Say hurray to no tutorials and lectures!(sort of hah)

The forum was opened for my tutorial slot, and basically the first hour was for commenting on other's work, while the 2nd hour was defending our work from any comment.

The thing was, I forgot to comment for the 2nd hour =((((( What a disaster.

Based on the feedback by my peers, generally many of them found it fine, saying that they could tell that it was a stereo set and there was a clear transition, which was fine by me. I distinctively remembered someone saying that it wasn't abstract enough. Well to me, I find it pretty abstract enough. If I removed the speaker covers, did you even know it it's a stereo set? Someone asked me to merge it together cause it was 3 items. However if I did, it wouldn't really seem like a stereo set anymore =/ Some said they couldn't see the transition from the 3rd to 4th, but I thought it was rather obvious to the naked eye that there were much less buttons. Ok, maybe they preferred more missing buttons.

Jojo suggested changing the knob and cd drive and to put in the play/pause key, as well as the stop button. Pretty good idea I say. Also it would help in making a transition (especially from the 3rd and 4th part) clearer. The speakers are still identifiable and they do play a key role in ensuring the picture from gg too abstract. So I'll remake it and post it up asap. Toodles!

p.s. my photoshop is still unusable =(

Week 4: Icons and blah.

2008-02-17T10:02:00.000-08:00

New week, new assignment.

I couldn't touch my other pictures at all because my photoshop screwed up! Urgh. I can't even open the application to edit my pictures after feedback. Got to get it up asap... will post the results once I am able to =D

____________________________________

Well thank goodness we are allowed to use sketches for our prelimary designs (phew), so yup, here it is! Initially I wanted to do a keyboard, but after trying it out, it didn't seem too good so I switched back to this.

(click on picture for better preview)

Basically, it is a picture of a stereo set (I hope you can realise it!!!). I had to carefully observe all the details for the first drawing, so it was pretty troublesome.

For the 2nd edit, I started to remove all the shadings from the holes and the netting at the speakers, as well as scraping away the words and symbols found on the stereo to give it a slightly cleaner look.

3rd edit: started to remove some of the buttons and reducing the complexity of the volume control design (too many buttons there)

4th edit: to make the picture even cleaner, I only inserted the bare essentials: the cd-drive, volume control as well as the screen.

last edit: reformed the shape of the stereo, and took away the screen because no one knew it would be one anyway. I retained the cd-drive as well as the vol. controls because they are stuff that can be found in any stereo set, quite a common sight to see. For the speakers, I decided to make it simpler by removing the holes, since it wouldn't really affect the impression of a speaker IMO, since many can link it to the stereo.

Week 3: Photoshopping designs

2008-02-17T08:19:00.000-08:00

Had a really horrible time using photoshop to make these images, did I. =(

So my images looked like these because I didn't have a working scanner at home and was inept with photoshop. I had to do them purely from those photoshop tools =.=|||

My boot on the cigars. (I'm stepping on myself! )

Self comment: Something has to be done with the cigars. And I should get a scanner.

Other's comments:
- change the colour combination
-make the cigars more distinct
-stay with the previous design for the boot

The scene for badminton.

Comments for self: Well I'm quite satisfied with it... but it's really hard. Better scan it.

Comments by others: Lines for court are not recognizable(?) "S" can be improved on to make it obvious.

Well regarding the lines... they ARE like that. Maybe I could try extending them a little longer. And I'm thinking of changing the angle of view for this scene to make it look slightly more realistic. Colour scheme wise... I don't think there will be much change even if I switch colours, so I'm leaving it this way.

Week 2: Evaluation of selected designs

2008-02-17T07:36:00.001-08:00

Blogger's timings are a little screwed, they aren't reflecting the correct time of my posts*frowns* Will settle that later.

__________________________________________

With reference to my previous post...

Why did I choose the 4 ideas?

Badminton Idea 1:
Looked pretty neat in my opinion, and there was a rather fair representation about the theme, 'nuff said.

Badminton Idea 3:
I thought the concept was really good! It would give a feeling of how badminton would look like when actually played, which was much better in plain boring idea 1.

Smoking Idea 2:
A personal statement would actually do well for this idea, because many people doesn't represent me, nor will people who view the picture will know that I'm inside(duh!). However as much as I scratched my head, I couldn't find an idea to incorporate my name into the shoe except for making a mark there. Still, I like the idea of stamping on it.

Smoking Idea 4:
Well the picture speaks for itself, and I like the "n" personally, that's all. =/

(click on image for better preview)

These are the ideas that I redrew for badminton. A5 size!

Some suggestions I received for them: The one depicting a scene for badminton would be a better picture than just using the equipments.

Guess I'll use idea 3 then ;D

Comments received for them:
- preferred the 2nd one
- should not mark my name on the shoe
- form my name out of the cigars (wait isn't that stepping on ME? =( )

Guess I'll follow them anyway. Haha xD

Next week, we will be using photoshop to do the images.

Week 1: Selecting themes

2008-02-17T05:55:00.000-08:00

First week:

We were supposed to choose something that we love and hate i.e. two themes. Well when it comes down to asking me what I like, I daresay I do have a great variety to choose from, but the ideas just wouldn't flow in the lecture, haha.

Anyways, at first I went for chocolate and peaches, but after awhile I changed it cause it was too complicated somehow. Ended up choosing...

My LOVE : BADMINTON

and...

My HATE: SMOKING

So as you can see from the scan...

(click on the picture for a larger view)

My ideas for badminton was: (from top to bottom)
1. using badminton equipments to make out my name
2. some random people who are supposed to go crazy about badminton (those odd shapes and such, gah)
3. depict a scene where a badminton match took place
4. trying to inscribe my name on the shuttle

My ideas for smoking...
1. getting a bunch of stickmen to trash the cigars into dust.
2. showing myself personally stepping on the cigar
3. forming my name out of the smoke
4. well... it's pretty obvious. Take note of the "n" letter where I put an unhappy face! =D

Next on was to actually choose 4 out of the 8 ideas I had... so the results are... (drum roll)

TAH DAH!!!

Badminton: ideas 1 and 3
Smoking: ideas 2 and 4

Ok, read the next post for updates ;D

A new start

2008-02-17T02:37:00.000-08:00

Well due to E-week starting soon, I'm starting on my blog! =D

Ok, refreshing a little of my memory and showing others what I've done for the past few weeks on NM2208. I'm going to break up my posts to show each individual scan.