Personal Geography - Artifact Map

The goal of this project was to successfully use symbols to communicate something. In this case we were to create a map from home to school (or school to work or any one path during our day) and explain this path using an artifact map.

The first artifact map I turned in:

In this map, because the distance between school and home is so large and boring, I tried to explode the school and home sections of the map. 

The final artifact map I turned in:

In this map, I decided that exploding the sections didn't add the appeal I wanted. By the time I edited this map, I had also figured out the color palette I desired for all three maps and used that palette to help give my map definition. I created both maps in Adobe Illustrator.

Critical Mass

  The object of this project is to build up, through creating and experimenting, a large amount of material and piecing them together using After Effects skills. Then, we are to create a 45 second HD movie (or less) that is an allegory of a science concept: earthquake, volcano, photosynthesis, climate change, reproduction, or evolution.

11/3: finally finished the movie! Using play-doh, I made a stop motion movie representing reproduction in an allegorical way - i had the colors of play-doh mix to create a third color (or a child). I also added in some vector art to give it another dimension, and the soundtrack is all thanks to Mike McNeil. It really adds another dimension to the movie and it wouldn't be nearly close to what it is now without his help. The video was taken with a camera and then the images and audio were pulled together in Adobe After Effects to create the final composition above.

Interaction Exercise

     This project was an interactive exercise using flash. We used our symbols project as our topic and picked one of the three branches to do our movie on (see blog entry titled Symbol Methodology). I used the branch of Manufacturing called Creation for my movie, and showed a gradual progression through the brainstorming process from written ideas, to sketches, to final drawings. In flash I used mainly fading in and out with little movements to help emphasize certain progressions. Halfway through my movie I give the viewer a chance to interact and choose the correct symbol, as well as added a replay button at the end. 

     In order to fully take advantage of this project, I had to learn small amounts of ActionScript, as well as how to use different Flash features including color, creating graphics/buttons, layers, movement, Alpha, and Fade in/out. 

Scales

     This was a Photoshop exercise to help us practice using our use of selection tools as well as creatively being able to put things together in a limited amount of time. We were told to spend no longer than 30 minutes on each piece, and we were given a large list of questions, in which the instructor would pick a number of them to answer each day. Not only were we given these limits, but also we had to follow certain design styles each day as well.