Studio/Artist Exploration #1

For my first blog exploration I chose the studio/artist option and the studio that attracted me was Big

Spaceship at www.bigspaceship.com. Their company began very early in the whole scheme of

digital age it was in 2000 when they launched. I became attracted to this exploration of Big

Spaceship,

because it reminds me very much of iPoint project we are about to work on for our next project in 

my other class focusing on web design.

     The layout of this whole site is very simple, thorough, and professional all at once which is very

attractive in itself not many sites have this it creates a sense of uniqueness Their technique of

attraction and sophistication of being able to explain their company in the simplest form is quite

innovative and intriguing. In fact, so much so that they seem to draw you into their site making you

want to read and discover every little nook and cranny with all their secrets and details of how and

what they are and have become today.

     I knew this company was professional and driven as soon as i saw this quite impressive and long

client list. Some of the clients they showed that worked in partnerships with them were as follows:

Absolut Vodka, Activate, Activision, Adobe, Alienware, Altoids, Big Spaceship, Chobani, Chobani

Champions, Crayola, Epson, Fast Company, Finish Line, Glaceau, Google, HBO, hp, Lands End,

Life Savers Gummies, Lucas Films Ltd, Microsoft, Moma, NBC Universal, Nick Jr., Nike, Orbit,

Seventh Generation, Shake Shack, Skittles, Sony Pictures, Starburst, Target, The New York Times,

Urban Daddy, Victoria Seceret, and Youtube.

    I myself being a drinking advocate and was looking at one of their ideas for branding Absolut

Vodka from the bars to the backyard but in way without saying hey just party with Absolut but,

instead making the partiers want to have it on their own. They created a site for Absolut party

generating tool for the users in order to communicate the brands message the link to that site is

http://www.bigspaceship.com/projects/absolut-host/.

Another one of Big Spaceships works I really enjoyed is starburst. I love how their them theme for

catching the consumer is contradiction. By pointing out lots of contradictions starburst grabs their

consumers attention for example a solid juicy candy. On the starburst site they have created fun

games and links to entertain us like funny analogies such as "boneless ribs or a clumsy ninja." You

can check out the digital presence they have created at www.starburst.com.

    Overall this company was highly impressive and look forward to using it as a reference for Karl's

other class in web design. Its a great resource and I recommend all of you use this site as a source for

branding and connections.

New Media Exploration

http://www.tokyoplastic.com/dm.html

I discovered this website recently to where I love interativity through the web. So I love making music and playing around with it. This website was something cool and entertaining. There is always something different happening when you click over on them. Concerning flash it has the basics and even more I like the uniqueness of the style of it.

http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/technology/rollercoaster

This website I came across on and thought it was interesting because its like nothing you see on the web. It uses interactivity for the user to chose which path you want to take. Also it uses graphical elements that are unique as well. Its different and has a lot of potential to it!

Newgrounds

stick figures

I chose to concentrate on Newgrounds.  It's a site that lets users showcase and collaborate on flash animations.  I've been going to the site off and on for years as an observer.    One of the first flash animations that I watched where I was aware of it being flash, was stick figures kung fu fighting.   Over the years there's now 80 of them.

     Newgrounds offers support and critiques to become a better animator, and the site navigation is easy to use and understand what you're supposed to do.  It's a great resource.

Cyriak: Animation, Graphic Design, and Illustration

Main Website:  http://cyriak.co.uk/index.html
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/cyriak?feature=watch


Cyriak is a UK free-lance animator whose animations, more often than not, delve into the...strange, and sometimes disturbing. While he does not state if he uses Flash for his animation, on his about page he does state that he uses Adobe Photoshop and After Effects for most of his animations.

He does a variety of work, including commercial projects, television advertising and music videos. His website has all of his work, including animated GIFs such as these:

     

I believe that he designed his website himself, and it has some basic interactivity at points, though it's main focus is to give easy navigation to his works .

For the most part, I enjoy his work. It is admittedly bizarre, surreal, and some of it is downright frightening.  However, it’s the bizarreness, along with the strange humor, I enjoy about it and the craftsmanship is something to respect, especially with some of his more complex animations.

While he has a lot of work and it is very easy to watch them all and lose track of time, here are some of my personal favorites:

Counting Song (with illustrator Sarah Brown):  http://youtu.be/WXvsl8xgRxc

Baa:  http://youtu.be/WQO-aOdJLiw

cows & cows & cows: http://youtu.be/FavUpD_IjVY

MEOW (with illustrator Sarah Brown): http://youtu.be/QNwCojCJ3-Q

Beggin'- Frankie Valli video re-mix: http://youtu.be/qN3kC_4xURA

Resource Exploration – The Bestest, Most Cool Sites Complied 4 U by Xperts

In my search for great interactive media I found it easier to link to great interactive sites through organizations that did the legwork for me, these include: Best Web Design Awards, Interactive Media Awards, Horizon Interactive Awards, and The Webby Awards. These sites provide plenty of examples from winners and nominees from various digital platforms that get your creative motor running. In my opinion, www.bestwebdesignaward.com is the most user-friendly, providing screen shots, details and links to the featured pages, and above all, identifies the software used to create the media.

Best Web Design Awards

Horizon Interactive Awards

The Webby Awards

Interactive Media Awards

Cartoon!

I really wanted to showcase the work from late night work club (http://latenightworkclub.com/) because I have been watching the trailers they keep putting out. What I really liked about this is that there is a bunch of people with completely different styles creating one video.  I was hoping that the full length production would be done by the time I had to present my blog but hey time was not on my side so I thought I would give you a couple of links to the trailers I have found for the production. http://vimeo.com/53444485

Since I couldn’t showcase the works of lnwc I figured I would take a peek at what the members of the club have done on their own. One of the members caught my eye their name is Eamonn O’niel so I looked at his website and he had 4 videos one of them was really short I am not sure if it is a trailer or not but it was pretty cool mainly because of the music. The video that I really liked is call im fine http://www.eamonnoneill.ie/I-M-FINE-THANKS . This is kind of a weird one but still fun I thought.

A lot of the members have great little shorts and I recommend that if you have any time on your hands you should check them out! http://latenightworkclub.com/?page_id=10

Resources Exploration - Aimee Robidoux

The first site I found and explored was flashkit.com. This website has a plethora of resources, including tutorials, free flash animations, sound FX, and written reviews of other Flash-related technologies and resources. It has a forum where Flash designers can ask questions, request help, have discussions, and etc.  It also provides another forum, dubbed "The Lounge" where just casual talking is allowed; no Flash-related issues.  This site would be useful for pretty much anybody, professional or beginner.

The second resource website I found was entheosweb.com/flash.  This site has resources available for other Adobe products as well, but it's Flash section was what I looked at.  It has tutorials for some of the basic steps, like bitmap tracing, drawing in Flash, etc.  It also has detailed guides for more difficult effects, like making a static image of water give the appearance of motion/rippling.

ffiles.com is a repository of free flash files.  They've got files for pretty much everything: buttons, actionScript, animations, clocks, games, image effects, etc.  Great resource if you just want to download some cool effects, or play games.

This weblog has some good, basic tips for working in flash: pat-burt.com/adobe-flash.

pearljamtengame.com is a really cool puzzle game made in flash.

saizenmedia.com/newsite/works/ is the website of a digital media agency that makes interactive experience websites, mobile applications, illustrations, TV ads, 2D/3D animation, print campaigns, social media games and applications, integrated campaigns, etc.  They might not be flash-specific, but they doubtless use it in some of their projects.

http://www.matthiasdittrich.com/

This is a really cool portfolio site.  I really enjoy the animation in the transitions.  I find a lot of flash sites to have low usability and I feel this site does a good job of being edgy but still useful.

New Media Exploration

I came across this pretty cool video game while searching the internet. It's from the history channel http://www.history.com/games/arcade/ice-road-showdown/play. It is based off the Ice Road Truckers show. The game is easy to play with the up, down left and right keys. I think the graphics are pretty cool and the music really adds to the experience. The goal is to deliver your cargo as fast as you can without crashing and by avoiding hazardous cracks in the road.