Nature vs Average

As another part of my course we've been asked to study other artists and also do a project on typography... But because i've been so swamped with all the other tasks we've been set, i haven't really had chance to do much work focusing on _________ (can't remeber the guys name!), but recently i had to rake my garden for my mum so i decided to try use the leaves in a crazy-arty-linear-structury-thingy-me-giggy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is the result, along with a mild dose of rake burn. Don't enjoy, just look and leave.......... Now!

The tale of a boy named 'POPS'

Aswell as the normal projects i get given, i have also been asked to create a PDP, personal developement plan. This can include anything creative or related to college and is to be carried out throughout the whole year. As my first blogged piece i will tell you a little story about a boy named 'POPS'.............

At a young age 'POPS' always loved to doodle on shit and after having spent the first twenty years of his life doodling how other people told him to doodle, he decided he wouldn't obey the government permitted doodle laws any longer and he would show people how well he could doodle in public.
After recieving training and advice from many fellow doodler's, mainly his drunken master 'The Incredible Sensini', he decided it was time to do his first real doodle!
He tucked his jeans in his socks, packed his rattle-rattle cans in his backpack and set off into the night with his chemically altered buddy to find the most boring wall they could.
Along the way they encountered many dull walls and took it upon themselves to brighten up everyones world with their ultra-stinky-ink doodle tool, which 'POPS' always carries for emergencies such as this.
Some people, mainly the 'Blue Piggies', don't allow the un-corporate to do this and often punish people in a worse way for this playful act, than they would punish someone who beat up an old biddy for instance.
This aside 'POPS' and his mentor sneaked through the night across many rivers and under countless bridges until they found the most boring wall in town.
So as to make it a surprise for the public, 'POPS' worked in total darkness on his doodle, spending many hours inhaling the lovely colours and enjoying the feeling of ice on his balls, before leaving
on his journey home with his now mysteriously red eyed teacher...They left before either could see the doodle they had created, but soon returned the next day with their average friend and his crazy-silver-box contraption.
When they viewed the doodle from the other side of the river 'POPS' became very excited and when he crossed over to view the doodle up close, something wonderful happened................................................HE BEGAN TO FLY!!!!!!!!

'POPS' now realised why the 'Blue Piggies' didn't like people doodling everywhere, because if everyone doodled in their own special way and worked together, then maybe the corporate ghouls which watch over them from their oversized billboards, would no longer be able to tell them lies to keep them scared and in turn stop them flying too.
'POPS' vowed from that day forth that he would try to doodle more than ever before and hopefully one day others like him will help people understand the importance of doodles and the reasons as to why the 'Blue Piggies' don't want you to doodle!

THE END

Its all ME ME ME....

The brief for the 2nd project was based around the design process for creating a 30 second animation about yourself, with focus on the use of 'Final Cut' and 'Photoshop'. I once again got my brain-storm on, coming up with as wide a range of ideas as i could related to the subject of me.
This ranged from a photo-timeline of all my grand 22 years of life, graffiti/toy related work, artist/architecture research and then onto photographs i took whilst travelling. After completely exhausting the sketchbook for all its worth, i came to settle on the ideas of doing a stop-frame animation of a toy spray can running round a scale model of the Hulme bridge, causing all sorts of colourful mischief...
I decided on this because i thought it would reflect my urgency for creation and within the blank canvas of the model i would be able to include references to my life, such as my girlfriends name or a favourite album.
I created a few trial animations to test out frame rates and the way in which i would apply paint to the canvas. Whilst i simultaneously created a beat in Pro-tools to synchronize my work to, which was constructed as a tribute to my favourite band 'Company Flow'. I also got my friend and graff writer 'Nayse' to create final designs for me to replicate onto a wall of my model, as i personally suck@graffiti. I then set about shooting my animation.....
The shoot took me 7 hours including set up and was a one time occurance as once i had applied the paint there was no going back. I used regular poster paint, toothpicks for application....

((Whilst performing the shoot i was mostly listening to 'Dark Side of the Moon' & 'Led Zep II'))

In my sketch book i had shown aspirations to edit the backgrounds of my animation and replace them with skylines from my travels, but this deemed to time consuming as i didn't have enough time to learn 'Photoshop'. I edited my piece together in 'Final Cut' to my beat@96bpm, this took around a week as i was still getting to grips with this program aswell.
I re-shot one of my opening scenes as it was out of focus, but found i couldn't replicate the correct lighting and camera angle as i had to try and exectue it on a different model, this led to the scrapping of this re-shoot.
As a project deliverable we had to design a CD cover to accompany our work, which i did as a paradoy of the famous Pink Floyd cover featuring a Prism, which i replaced with a silouette of the toy i used in my animation.

Everyone from the group had to present their work to the class individually, with our fellow students then helping in the grading process, so as to help us understand the course criteria better and thus developing our critical eye. I received a distinction for my work, but this was mainly due to sketchbook work i had done and not the final animation. Both myself and my tutors were disappointed with the out of focus scenes and the loss of narrative within the animation, but this only leaves room for improvement in future, which always is a good thing!
Hope you enjoy it and if you don't please tell me why...

How'd ya like them apples?

For our 1st project we where given a list of words from which we were to generate 25 ideas, these ideas can be as abstracted as we desired from the original subject and had to act as an introduction of yourself to your fellow students.
I choose apple, then got my brain-storm on and from that came up with idea for my final presentation...
(I will post pics of sketch book+final piece when my pesky mum comes back with my camera!)

The Start of the Ending....

Morning folks,
This my blog for my New Media FD, on it i will be posting work i've created for the course and other items i create soley for the my own jokes. Enjoy!!!