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.
Thursday, March 07, 2013
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
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.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Inspirational Short
http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2011/03/13/thought-of-you/
I found this flash animation short extremely moving. Normally when one thinks of animation (or when i do at least) i think fun, light animation often geared toward children. This short is mesmerizing and quite a cool site if you back further out of the video as well. Instead of using words and sound from the characters themselves, this artist was able to use motion and soundtrack to make this piece speak.
By going to this link:
http://www.shortoftheweek.com/films/
You will be taken to the Film Directory where you can choose to see different films based on style (most pertinent to our class so you can choose flash animation), topic, or genre. For those aiming to continue in their animation studies this site will be a great resource for examples in other types of animation such as collage and 3D animation.
Have fun exploring!
I found this flash animation short extremely moving. Normally when one thinks of animation (or when i do at least) i think fun, light animation often geared toward children. This short is mesmerizing and quite a cool site if you back further out of the video as well. Instead of using words and sound from the characters themselves, this artist was able to use motion and soundtrack to make this piece speak.
By going to this link:
http://www.shortoftheweek.com/films/
You will be taken to the Film Directory where you can choose to see different films based on style (most pertinent to our class so you can choose flash animation), topic, or genre. For those aiming to continue in their animation studies this site will be a great resource for examples in other types of animation such as collage and 3D animation.
Have fun exploring!
New Media Exploration - Experiencing Music
Ahhhhh! Where to start! Identifying new media possibilities
has made me feel like John Nash, the mathematician depicted in A Beautiful Mind, not the genius part,
but the scenes where he is unable to harness his thoughts and writes on any
remotely flat surface, walls, wood, post it notes, completely covering the
interior of his garage. How do you begin to explain something that has
limitless possibilities? We are on the cusp of being able to be anywhere are
any time and have complete control of our experiences with new media techniques.
Wherever your interests lie: sports, music, television, art, etc., the experience is yours to create. Let’s narrow our focus on the direction
multimedia is going with experiencing music. A quick and dirty chronicle of the
evolution of experiencing music over the course of time includes: having to see
it live to experience it; then came the development of radio; then phonographs
enabled us to hear it at will; then music performances became televised; the
next big thing was music videos; with the development of the internet interactive
music videos became possible; subsequently we were able to select which
instruments the band would perform for a song; and the most recent advancement
in multimedia music technology can be witnessed through Chris Milk’s interactive film
production of David Bowe’s “Sound and
Vision” performed by Beck. The “Sound and Vision” production demonstrates the
ability to experience a concert from any location within a venue – even from a
catwalk – with perfect sound quality using 360 cameras and 360 binaural microphones
which makes for a true to life sound experience. The only thing missing is the
smell from puffs of smoke floating through the air.
The “Sound and Vision” project really expanded my thoughts
on where ideas will take us next. The first exciting thought that came to my mind was
the effect it will have on televised events. For instance, an NFL game has
several cameras at work during a game and a producer in a control room
determining which angle we view. In the near future it seems very possible for
every fan to select the camera/angle they wish to view at any given moment –or if
they are like me and pay little attention to the field, they could span the
crowd and sidelines for their own form of entertainment.
The evolution of multimedia music experiences can be seen on the following websites:
“Neon Bible,” Arcade Fire
http://www.beonlineb.com/
http://www.beonlineb.com/
Incredibox
http://www.incredibox.com/en/#/application
http://www.incredibox.com/en/#/application
“I’ve Seen Enough,” Cold War Kids
http://www.coldwarkids.com/iveseenenough/
http://www.coldwarkids.com/iveseenenough/
David Bowe’s “Sound and Vision” performed by Beck / Video
production by Chris Milk
http://loadbalancer.beck360-production.com/main/beck360.html
http://loadbalancer.beck360-production.com/main/beck360.html
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Artist Exploration- Bo Mathorne
The short film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVkDrIacHJM
The making of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnnbTaMXDqQ
This short is a creepy and dark animation about the undertaker. I love the animating style, and how everything flows together. the expressons of the characters, and the sound effects.
I have a draw towards most 'dark things', and this is just one video I couldn't help but share... It's not exactly a flash animation, it was done in MotionBuilder's Maya.
The making of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnnbTaMXDqQ
This short is a creepy and dark animation about the undertaker. I love the animating style, and how everything flows together. the expressons of the characters, and the sound effects.
I have a draw towards most 'dark things', and this is just one video I couldn't help but share... It's not exactly a flash animation, it was done in MotionBuilder's Maya.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Die Anstalt: Curing Crazy Toys
http://www.parapluesch.de/#
I recently rediscovered a site that I had found about a year or two ago. It is a German based site called Paraplusch: Psychiatry for abused Cuddlytoys. The main screen has two paths: an online shop and an attached flash game.
I mainly want to focus on the flash game, as the online shop has little-to-no flash and its main focus is to give people a means to buy the toys featured in the flash. The game is called Die Anstalt, or when translated, "The Asylum."
After choosing your language of choice and a brief, skippable intro, you play a doctor and your goal is to cure all your troubled toy patients. Currently, there are six toys to cure, though I believe they add a patient when they make a new toy for the online shop. Each toy has a different disorder and some are easier to cure than others.
Upon choosing a toy, you are given a variety of treatments to choose from. Depending on what you choose, you can either make progress in curing the patient...or you potentially make things much, much worse. Sometimes, the treatment you pick doesn't change anything at all. It all depends on the patient, for different disorders call for different treatments.
I found this to be a very enjoyable game. The animation is cute, simple and, for the most part, very smooth and very effective when it needs to be. I also enjoy the concept of game and the fact that it gives further depth and backstory to what is basically a quirky toyline.
I recently rediscovered a site that I had found about a year or two ago. It is a German based site called Paraplusch: Psychiatry for abused Cuddlytoys. The main screen has two paths: an online shop and an attached flash game.
I mainly want to focus on the flash game, as the online shop has little-to-no flash and its main focus is to give people a means to buy the toys featured in the flash. The game is called Die Anstalt, or when translated, "The Asylum."
After choosing your language of choice and a brief, skippable intro, you play a doctor and your goal is to cure all your troubled toy patients. Currently, there are six toys to cure, though I believe they add a patient when they make a new toy for the online shop. Each toy has a different disorder and some are easier to cure than others.
Upon choosing a toy, you are given a variety of treatments to choose from. Depending on what you choose, you can either make progress in curing the patient...or you potentially make things much, much worse. Sometimes, the treatment you pick doesn't change anything at all. It all depends on the patient, for different disorders call for different treatments.
I found this to be a very enjoyable game. The animation is cute, simple and, for the most part, very smooth and very effective when it needs to be. I also enjoy the concept of game and the fact that it gives further depth and backstory to what is basically a quirky toyline.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Studio/Artist Exploration: Brooke Jagoda
I came across a cool site that is the portfolio of a Canada/ Switzerland based digital design studio called In the Loop. The first thing you notice is how the word "Loop" follows your mouse. I liked how their color palate is mostly greys so it's a little sophisticated but the shape of the word "Loop" is much more organic looking and takes you back to wanting to play with Playdough.
The first thing I checked out was the tab titled "Works". They had quite a long client list. Most were
unidentifiable European projects. The only client I recognized was for Air Canada were users were encouraged to participate in the game-like interface that ultimately entered them into a contest. I didn't spend a lot of time investigating that site though. I was more intrigued with how they set up their own site.
After a little browsing around on my own finally discovered what the little icon is at the bottom center. You roll over it and it pops up to display more ice-cream shaped icons. When you roll over those you realize it's supposed to be like a game where you have to go and unlock the items to advance. I had some fun going along with it because a couple items were just goofy and others you had to tweet about the site or go and "like" it on Facebook. The one I liked the best asked the question "Who's the king of pop?" and then it promted you to type it at any time even though there was no field to type it in. And it worked! All I had to do was type Michael and I was able to advance a little bit.
From reading each of the developers descriptions under "About", it seems like they both have a big passion for designing digital media and creating a richer user experience. Well it worked for me! I feel like their work is set apart from others' because of the non-linear manner in which you can navigate their portfolio. I feel like the experience clean, and yet playful and innovative.
Here's another example of their work:
Siboire
This site had a nice layout, I liked the colors and the images they used throughout. It's a website for a brewery in France. Everything is in French so I can't really tell how the information is organized. One thing I managed to come across was a description of their beers. On the home page there's a set of tiles you can click on. It's the center one with the light bulb. They don't only use images but also video of the head spilling over. Then you used the hand to swish to the next one. The only thing is that it takes forever to load.
The first thing I checked out was the tab titled "Works". They had quite a long client list. Most were
unidentifiable European projects. The only client I recognized was for Air Canada were users were encouraged to participate in the game-like interface that ultimately entered them into a contest. I didn't spend a lot of time investigating that site though. I was more intrigued with how they set up their own site.
After a little browsing around on my own finally discovered what the little icon is at the bottom center. You roll over it and it pops up to display more ice-cream shaped icons. When you roll over those you realize it's supposed to be like a game where you have to go and unlock the items to advance. I had some fun going along with it because a couple items were just goofy and others you had to tweet about the site or go and "like" it on Facebook. The one I liked the best asked the question "Who's the king of pop?" and then it promted you to type it at any time even though there was no field to type it in. And it worked! All I had to do was type Michael and I was able to advance a little bit.
From reading each of the developers descriptions under "About", it seems like they both have a big passion for designing digital media and creating a richer user experience. Well it worked for me! I feel like their work is set apart from others' because of the non-linear manner in which you can navigate their portfolio. I feel like the experience clean, and yet playful and innovative.
Here's another example of their work:
Siboire
This site had a nice layout, I liked the colors and the images they used throughout. It's a website for a brewery in France. Everything is in French so I can't really tell how the information is organized. One thing I managed to come across was a description of their beers. On the home page there's a set of tiles you can click on. It's the center one with the light bulb. They don't only use images but also video of the head spilling over. Then you used the hand to swish to the next one. The only thing is that it takes forever to load.
New Media Exploration
I came across this site while I was reading this article about Flash. A developer was mentioning that flash would be non-existent soon and that he no longer uses it on his websites. But I was reading the comments and a lot of people were disagreeing especially when it came to interactive media. One of the people who commented posted a link to a site which I never been to before but it has over 11 million facebook likes. It's called http://www.takethislollipop.com/
You log into the website using your Facebook account. It asked you to allow the site to access your friends and photo's just for the interactive experience. Then it shows this psycho guy going through your account and all your information and your pictures come up. Then google maps pops up and it shows your city and location. Then the guy jumps into his car and then supposedly drives to your location.
I think this was a pretty cool site. The interaction was pretty intense especially when it uses your actual pictures. It makes you wonder how the developer came up with this Idea. The way it was filmed looks very professional and where they filmed it definitely set the tone.
You log into the website using your Facebook account. It asked you to allow the site to access your friends and photo's just for the interactive experience. Then it shows this psycho guy going through your account and all your information and your pictures come up. Then google maps pops up and it shows your city and location. Then the guy jumps into his car and then supposedly drives to your location.
I think this was a pretty cool site. The interaction was pretty intense especially when it uses your actual pictures. It makes you wonder how the developer came up with this Idea. The way it was filmed looks very professional and where they filmed it definitely set the tone.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Design Exploration - We Choose the Moon (Aimee Robidoux)
The Flash-based site I found was wechoosethemoon.org, a website linked to the JFK Presidential Library and Museum site.
The site takes you through eleven stages of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon in 1969, from launch to landing. Each stage is an interactive scene, where the user can look at photo galleries and videos related to that particular phase, and listen to the actual audio transmissions sent back and forth from the mission control station and the spacecraft. The user has the option to go through each phase in order, or, by using the Mission Tracker menu on the bottom of the interface, choose a stage from any part of the mission.
When the user first arrives at the site, there is an introductory page which gives instructions on how to navigate site. A user’s eyes are immediately drawn to the center of the page (where the Apollo is), then left and right to the menus. The eye stays longest on the Apollo, because the entire site revolves around its trip to the moon.
I thought the site very clearly conveyed it’s purpose, and was well-designed. The layout is very simple, very facilitating to inexperienced users. The buttons are very clear as to what they do and where they lead. I saw no design elements that were distracting from the experience.
The site depends heavily on visual and audible information, with the animation of the space flight, and the mission transmissions. There’s not a whole lot of textual information, but a lot of visual. There’s no sense of clutter, everything is very sharp and clear. In fact, there is an option to “clean up” the interface by making the menus retract. The information is nicely packaged in little sections; some of it is only available when you click buttons on the page.
There is minimum typography differentiation. It is all one font, but some of the type is all caps, the font size varies, and the type color in the Mission Tracker bar is blue instead of white. The Mission Tracker menu bar is portrayed differently from the Mission Status and Transmission Menus, as it is an interactive image of the route Apollo 11 took, rather than text information.
The layout of the site is strongly aligned, with no design elements that are distracting. Both Mission Status and Transmission menus are in close proximity to the Mission Tracker menu, and are directly across from one another. Everything is very uniform, categorized, organized. The animation of the Apollo 11 is centered, but it doesn’t make it boring. Everything is very balanced in terms of size and alignment. This site has symmetrical balance (similar shape, size, color, weight, proportion, texture). It is overlaid with dark tones, and brighter text: blues and blacks of the background, contrasted by white and light grey of the text.
The designers of this site were probably facing the problem of making the website interesting for adults, yet simple enough for younger people to enjoy as well. For me, this site elicited a feeling of interest and fascination, and a bit of excitement as well. Part of the emotional appeal is the running audio commentary from the original mission, which includes Neil Armstrong’s famous “one small step for man, one giant step for all mankind” line. It gives an atmospheric feeling that you, the user, are a part of the mission. And I think that that is what the designers set out to do.
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
Orisinal : an Uber cute Flash Game site
Orisinal has been one of my favorite pastime online. It is the brain child of Ferry Halim, a professional flash artist based out of Clovis, CA. He started this site for fun in 2000, and kept adding new games to it ever since.
His graphic style is clean, refreshing and whimsical. The game play is simple yet addictive, though wonderfully well rounded when it comes to user experience (he thought of all the conditions of game interactions).
My favorite games are "A Daily cup of tea", in which a team of 2 tiny mice tries to steal a whole cupboard full of sugar cubes, evading bouncing balls, falling books and bees. Another one of my favorites is "Cats", in which the player "herds" cats, its quite ingenious how he (presumably?) used the invisible buttons as cats.
He has since started developing/converting some of the popular games into iOS games. I have a couple of these games, and he has not only incorporated simple game play from Flash but also user experiences unique to iOS such as the accelerometer. I highly recommend these games (online and on iOS).
by Angela X. Wang
Flash presentation
This is the flash presentation I would like to submit to the class
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/new-fantasyland/
As I was surfing for a good flash example I was not sure if some where flash or not
I liked this site because of it simplicity, and its magic appealing effect.
The sense of hierarchy is very strong through all the scene as the end comes only when everything was revealed.
It is a very easy site to use as its navigation is catered for young viewers.
The pictures are very artistic and blend easily with the static background as it interact during the
video or the slides show.
There is a good consistency in the use of navigation with the special effects and the active commands that take the viewer from one story to the other
The design is well balanced and in harmony as it goes from peace to drama, to tension and magic effects.
The videos have a good interaction with the main frame and background and blend perfectly as they
are playing.
Great drama effect with the storm, the lightning, the fire bobbles and the symbols of each stories
Even though it is a simple example of what can be done with flash I feel that the overall effect was
pleasing, interesting, amazing and well done.
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/new-fantasyland/
As I was surfing for a good flash example I was not sure if some where flash or not
I liked this site because of it simplicity, and its magic appealing effect.
The sense of hierarchy is very strong through all the scene as the end comes only when everything was revealed.
It is a very easy site to use as its navigation is catered for young viewers.
The pictures are very artistic and blend easily with the static background as it interact during the
video or the slides show.
There is a good consistency in the use of navigation with the special effects and the active commands that take the viewer from one story to the other
The design is well balanced and in harmony as it goes from peace to drama, to tension and magic effects.
The videos have a good interaction with the main frame and background and blend perfectly as they
are playing.
Great drama effect with the storm, the lightning, the fire bobbles and the symbols of each stories
Even though it is a simple example of what can be done with flash I feel that the overall effect was
pleasing, interesting, amazing and well done.
Tuesday, February 05, 2013
Artist Exploration
www.joecartoon.com
This has been website that I like to look at for many years. I think the cartoons are very funny, and this one of the reasons I wanted to take this class. I want to be able to make this type of short animation in flash. Some of the cartoons are play only but some are interactive, letting the viewer decide on the outcome of cartoon by choosing options.
This has been website that I like to look at for many years. I think the cartoons are very funny, and this one of the reasons I wanted to take this class. I want to be able to make this type of short animation in flash. Some of the cartoons are play only but some are interactive, letting the viewer decide on the outcome of cartoon by choosing options.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Design Exploration: Hello Sour Sally
Hello Sour Sally is a cool website with rich interactive, game-like features. I was attracted to the design because...
http://www.hellosoursally.com/
http://www.hellosoursally.com/
Wednesday, December 05, 2012
Resources Exploration
kirupa.com
Kirupa is a website that has flash and actionscript tutorials among other tutorials such as HTML5. Flash tutorials are divided into different sections including basic tutorials such as animations and actionscript basics and more complicated ones such as game development. This website also has a forum with a lot of resourceful information.
gotoandlearn.com
gotoandlearn.com is a website that I particularly like mostly because the tutorials are instructional videos with step by step teachings. The tutorials are completely free. I also like the interface, I find easy and simple to navigate through all the videos. There is also a blog by the author Lee Brimelow that can be helpful at leebrimelow.com.
flashperfection.com/
This is a website with a very large collection of Flash tutorials and articles from various website. Anyone can submit tutorials once they register on the site. Tutorials are organized in a lot of different categories which is a nice feature to have as it makes the search easier and more efficient.
flashmagazine.com
Flash magazine is an online magazine and independent resource about flash news, reviews, resources and also tutorials.
entheosweb.com
This is a website with a large free collection of different tutorials for different programs including Flash, Dreamweaver and also CSS and Web design tutorials and plenty of resources. Each section is dedicated to a program. I also like the interface, I find it user-friendly and easy to navigate through.
Kirupa is a website that has flash and actionscript tutorials among other tutorials such as HTML5. Flash tutorials are divided into different sections including basic tutorials such as animations and actionscript basics and more complicated ones such as game development. This website also has a forum with a lot of resourceful information.
gotoandlearn.com
gotoandlearn.com is a website that I particularly like mostly because the tutorials are instructional videos with step by step teachings. The tutorials are completely free. I also like the interface, I find easy and simple to navigate through all the videos. There is also a blog by the author Lee Brimelow that can be helpful at leebrimelow.com.
flashperfection.com/
This is a website with a very large collection of Flash tutorials and articles from various website. Anyone can submit tutorials once they register on the site. Tutorials are organized in a lot of different categories which is a nice feature to have as it makes the search easier and more efficient.
flashmagazine.com
Flash magazine is an online magazine and independent resource about flash news, reviews, resources and also tutorials.
entheosweb.com
This is a website with a large free collection of different tutorials for different programs including Flash, Dreamweaver and also CSS and Web design tutorials and plenty of resources. Each section is dedicated to a program. I also like the interface, I find it user-friendly and easy to navigate through.
Wednesday, November 07, 2012
Design Exploration
Edison Innovation Foundation
This website, in my opinion, has an excellent interactive interface design. This site animates its typography throughout the website in a very entertaining, consistent, and clean way. It captures the essence of the website which is mainly educational about Thomas Edison and his creations by giving the user the feeling of discovery and innovation, and that is well delivered through the spiral navigation and the background images.
The design is simple and clean, using deep colors, it focuses on typography. I thought the menu navigation was neat, especially the way it animates slightly differently, from one page to the other. The timeline, for example, forms into a list that expands and contrasts. The main navigation is user-friendly and easy to access from anywhere in the website.
There is no frame around any of the content and the navigation which gives the feeling of openness and creativity.
There are small tricks throughout that are also well done: the light bulb that can "light up" the website, the "e" which rearranges the background into a visible image, the launching of the website, the way his signature takes form...
Varywell Studio
This is a website about a studio that specializes in website and application design, and interactive installations. The site showcases their work in a very cool and creative way which reflects their design ability. I liked how you have different cubes representing each project that change forms and speed depending on how fast your scroll up or down. It gives the user a feeling that it is a desktop application except that it was executed in flash.
The color scheme is very limited except for the project cubes and that creates a nice contrast especially when they are expanding. I liked how you explore one project at a time and how each image in every project you are looking at is highlighted while the others aren't. You can also minimize those images into small cubes themseleves.
I found it all to be very creative, my only issue was however, the navigation. I thought it was too small and not very intuitive. Although it didn't take me too long to figure it out I still didn't get it quickly enough.
This website, in my opinion, has an excellent interactive interface design. This site animates its typography throughout the website in a very entertaining, consistent, and clean way. It captures the essence of the website which is mainly educational about Thomas Edison and his creations by giving the user the feeling of discovery and innovation, and that is well delivered through the spiral navigation and the background images.
The design is simple and clean, using deep colors, it focuses on typography. I thought the menu navigation was neat, especially the way it animates slightly differently, from one page to the other. The timeline, for example, forms into a list that expands and contrasts. The main navigation is user-friendly and easy to access from anywhere in the website.
There is no frame around any of the content and the navigation which gives the feeling of openness and creativity.
There are small tricks throughout that are also well done: the light bulb that can "light up" the website, the "e" which rearranges the background into a visible image, the launching of the website, the way his signature takes form...
Varywell Studio
This is a website about a studio that specializes in website and application design, and interactive installations. The site showcases their work in a very cool and creative way which reflects their design ability. I liked how you have different cubes representing each project that change forms and speed depending on how fast your scroll up or down. It gives the user a feeling that it is a desktop application except that it was executed in flash.
The color scheme is very limited except for the project cubes and that creates a nice contrast especially when they are expanding. I liked how you explore one project at a time and how each image in every project you are looking at is highlighted while the others aren't. You can also minimize those images into small cubes themseleves.
I found it all to be very creative, my only issue was however, the navigation. I thought it was too small and not very intuitive. Although it didn't take me too long to figure it out I still didn't get it quickly enough.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Website Research - Britnee Sapp
http://www.openloops.net/#/music/changing/
http://blabla.nfb.ca/
I found this website (openloops) to be so so neat! I want to be able to use some of the features in this website into my online portfolio. I love the negative space and how clean it is. My favorite part about this site are the links. I love how everything is linked together. When you click on or even hover over one link, a bunch of other links branch out from that one link as sublinks. I found that to be so creative and clever! I want to be able to create these features in in my own website in Flash.
I also found another website (blabla) that is strictly created for interactivity. I love how you can play with the characters and how there are just so many features. I want to be able to create similar features in my own site using my own characters I've drawn myself!
http://www.openloops.net/#/music/changing/
http://blabla.nfb.ca/
I found this website (openloops) to be so so neat! I want to be able to use some of the features in this website into my online portfolio. I love the negative space and how clean it is. My favorite part about this site are the links. I love how everything is linked together. When you click on or even hover over one link, a bunch of other links branch out from that one link as sublinks. I found that to be so creative and clever! I want to be able to create these features in in my own website in Flash.
I also found another website (blabla) that is strictly created for interactivity. I love how you can play with the characters and how there are just so many features. I want to be able to create similar features in my own site using my own characters I've drawn myself!
Maurer Klimes - maurerklimes.hu
Maurer Klimes
I wanted to look at a site that is doing something with Flash, and I stumbled upon this site while looking for icon and logo inspiration. This is an artist exploration more than a studio one. I was browsing through the collection of work that artists present on the behance.net network. This is, by the way, one of my favorite resources for inspiration and constantly makes me want to push myself farther.
The designer of the site and the company branding has some information about the project at this link http://www.behance.net/gallery/Maurer-Identity/2385026
The logo animates onto the top right corner of the screen as you enter a site made of clean lines and easy to identify symbols. The interface is a unique experience, a drag and drop interface that begs to be played with. All of the icons react to the presence of the mouse and move towards the users actions.
When you combine different icons you get different results on the website. You make combinations of the icons and it gives you the result. This is all done with actionscript and it looks really cool.
The design reminds me of that swedish style of graphic design that seems to incorporate a lot of clean lines. It is definitely cool looking and has a modern design appeal to what it is showcasing.
The person the website is about is mr. Ákos Maurer Klimes. I like his website work than the work that he does, his personal claim to fame is a a gravestone that fills with water like a bird bath. Its not really what I am into to say the least. I like his site more than his professional work. If he never had such a cool site I would never have seen his work though. I just like being exposed to design ideas and trends on an international scale. Other countries speak in different paradigms, with unusual semantics and peculiar syntax
GE Website - Toni Wiltsey
http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/landing_page
In my exploration of flash websites i can across this one and was extremely impressed. The creators really enhanced some basic design elements to affectively interact with the visitor. On the home page it is basically a simple pie cart turned 3-demenssionl and by having the area you are rolling over start animating the viewer can't help from exploring more pages. Another element I was impressed by was once you clicked on a piece of the pie cart the information that is presented is a VERY VERY simple graph and by angling it, adding shadows and showing it grow it becomes intriguing rather than a boring graph. Then there is the menu, by having it on the bottom and kind of hidden forced you to interact with the page and while moving around you notice the other elements. The alternate energy page is one of my favorite pages, like the others it is an animated graph, but this graph the visitor controls the information by plugging in more or less turbines. But, the augmented reality page is awesome! On this page you can print out a piece of paper and control the animation through your computers video cam, what a totally cool feature. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting this site and hope you do too.
In my exploration of flash websites i can across this one and was extremely impressed. The creators really enhanced some basic design elements to affectively interact with the visitor. On the home page it is basically a simple pie cart turned 3-demenssionl and by having the area you are rolling over start animating the viewer can't help from exploring more pages. Another element I was impressed by was once you clicked on a piece of the pie cart the information that is presented is a VERY VERY simple graph and by angling it, adding shadows and showing it grow it becomes intriguing rather than a boring graph. Then there is the menu, by having it on the bottom and kind of hidden forced you to interact with the page and while moving around you notice the other elements. The alternate energy page is one of my favorite pages, like the others it is an animated graph, but this graph the visitor controls the information by plugging in more or less turbines. But, the augmented reality page is awesome! On this page you can print out a piece of paper and control the animation through your computers video cam, what a totally cool feature. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting this site and hope you do too.
Monday, October 08, 2012
Exploration: Mantherapy.org
Though mental health issues and suicide are not a topic generally associated with humor, I have found a site that takes a very different approach to a mans mental health. Mantherapy.org is exactly what it sound like, a website designed to help men who believe they are having any type of mental health issues. Normally one would think that a site dedicated to mental health would just be line upon line of text that the user would have to read through before making any progress or learning anything in general. This site, with the use of flash of course, has a very unique interface that resembles a therapist's office, but this therapist acts like he is employed by old spice. With a very "manly" sense of humor, this "doctor" guides the user through the sites many features and online resources, all geared toward promoting men mental health but without giving the vibe of a suicide hotline or actual doctors office. This is a very fascinating humorous approach to a subject that unfortunately plagues many men today.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Design Exploration: Looper offical site
I found an interesting site for the new movie "Looper", the movie basically revolves around the mob and how they use time travel to order hits on people. The site offers a very simple yet cool interactive game that can be played with just the mouse. In this game the user must eliminate the target when it appears by clicking on it, after the target is eliminated cut scenes from the actual movie play leading to the next level. After about three levels the user is surprised when their characters older self appears and actually avoids being shot, this takes the user to a new phase of the game where they must "close their loop". The game continues on for about two more phases, and it provides the user with a fun interactive way to find out more about the movie.
address: http://www.loopermovie.com/game/
address: http://www.loopermovie.com/game/
Design Exploration
I found a website I'd like to share with you all. Its pretty fun (and could be nauseating). Its called the "Infinite Oz". It is one of the leading web design sites for 2012. They start with a few (like 5-10) large images and just use the zoom tool with tweening I assume. Inside these images they nest videos for the little things, what gives the site more personality. If the whole zoom/spinning/animation doesn't blow your mind, check out the navigation. I am not 100% sure how they do this but I love how everything spins down. Theres two sets of navigation through this wheel though. There is the scrub (outer circle) for controlling the speed of the screens zoom between images, and the inner planks, which light up in the over state. The center of the wheel also has a different icon for each of the rollover states of the planks. If you dont like the zoom between the different stages of images you can click on the menu and select the scene you want to view without the animation.
Second Story: Design Studio Exploration
I chose to showcase the work of a design studio that I think is doing some really amazing things in the world of interactive media. They are constantly looking for new ways to pull the user into the experience that they are creating. To do this they are not only innovating techniques but pulling new and cutting edge technologies into their projects.
They remind me of the way the future should be shaping up, not what we have to settle for. According to back to the future we should be driving around hovercars and living in houses that talk to us. Now the smart house of the future is not far off, but its only in the reach of those with pockets deep enough to reach far enough in to pony up the cash for the experience they desire. It is not an industry that everyone can interact with.
The initial article that brought my attention to Second Story Design Studio was the way they are creating interactive advertising. The project was a mockup for the way things might work in the future. The article was “ Sightlines: Augmenting an object with Face-Tracking and Reactive Content” http://blog.secondstory.com/sightlines-augmenting-an-object-with-face-tra Users approach what appears to be a clear glass front box that has a plain old wooden clothespin inside, as the user approaches the display the real magic begins. The display recognizes where your face is in 3-d and the content displays in such a way that it does not overlap the object but enhances it. An example is brackets displaying around the object highlighting its 8 gauge steel spring for gripping strength and the durable hardwood construction.
This is a very mediocre object but it has been augmented in such a way that provides a lot of room to grow for advertising in the future. As you move past the display the augmentations do not overlap the object, rather they react to where you are and display appropriately. This is achieved by combining a see through lcd screen and a Kinect for windows sensor. This is truly innovative and groundbreaking.
Satellite: http://blog.secondstory.com/launching-satellite#!/ is the other project from this studio that caught my attention. It is an interactive music creation tool that lets users interact with a touch sensitive display and also manipulate sound creation in a 3-d space. Users pick up small Sifteo cubes with are touch sensitive, where the cube touches the screen it is picked up from dictates what chord of sound it will create. Users then touch tap and interact to create sounds and interact with the touch enabled table. This is interesting because it combines multiple technologies into one experience.
Watch the video on Second Story’s site to get a better understanding of how these two technologies are combined to get users to interact in ways that were completely unfathomable until recent advances in technology. I look forward to seeing the new ways that the people at Second Story will create new innovations and push the envelope even further.
Cool site: Machinarium
Machinarium is a highly styalized point and click adventure created by Amanita design. Though it may seem complex a lot of what is present in the game are things that we have already learned. These combined with the amazing art style have made this flash game an instant classic among many who love point and click adventure. You can try out a short demo here: http://machinarium.net/demo/
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Studio/Artist exploration
Projector Inc is a Japanese agency that does digital, web, and interactive development.
I chose this agency because I found it inspiring. I like the way they approach each project. The concepts they come up with are innovative, interesting, unique, and most importantly effective. Often times, their solutions are not directly related to the products they are showcasing, but yet they find a smart and witty way to link them together, thus achieving high product awareness and engaging people from all over the world. For example, in order to sell a navigation system by Sony, they came up with a "singing in the car" contest on YouTube. The concept being that "singing is the most natural thing to do when you have fun driving". Connecting this idea to their product sale point "driving is much more fun" when using the Sony navigation system.
While there isn't much information about the agency online or on their own website, (at least not in English!!), one thing I liked was the case studies they provided for their projects. They give enough information to let us understand their concepts and their way of approaching and resolving projects. They have two really good interactive websites, in my opinion, the first one being the one that made them famous.
The Uniqlock website:
Uniqlock is a website for the Japanese clothing company Uniqlo. They wanted to increase awareness internationally and promote their business expansion outside of Japan. The Uniqlock incorporates music and dance with a world clock. Random video clips of four Japanese girls dancing wearing Uniqlo clothing appear every five seconds. The clothing is updated with every season, and at midnight, the girls sleep for an hour.
It is a very engaging website. Users can download and add the clock to their own sites and blogs.
The website was executed in flash. It is minimalistic yet very engaging. I loved how they animated every second using just one color, depending on the time of day, but changing its animation. It alternates coming down, up or from the sides.
The Intel's Museum of Me website:
This website is another example of coming up with an engaging and clever project that is not directly related to the product they are showcasing; an Intel new processor in this case.
Facebook users log in through the website, which will then pull all their information from Facebook and turn it into an online exhibit about themselves. The show starts with a title of the Facebook user's name describing the exhibit as, "a journey of visualization that explores who I am." Then the exhibit continues with galleries of images, videos, and text constructed from the user's wall on Facebook. The show ends with robot arms going through all the images of the Facebook user's friends.
This experience is pretty cool and it is worth trying it at least once. There is a disclaimer at the beginning explaining that the website does not store any of the user's information, nor share the exhibit unless the user wants it to.
This "visual experience links to the core value of Intel, which connects people through their digital lives". This statement, from the case study on the agency's website, clearly shows the relationship between the concept and the product.
This website was also executed in flash. I loved their use of typography, the layout and the depth of perception of the whole exhibit. Most of all, I enjoyed the visual experience of an actual museum about yourself, with museum goers present at the exhibit.
I chose this agency because I found it inspiring. I like the way they approach each project. The concepts they come up with are innovative, interesting, unique, and most importantly effective. Often times, their solutions are not directly related to the products they are showcasing, but yet they find a smart and witty way to link them together, thus achieving high product awareness and engaging people from all over the world. For example, in order to sell a navigation system by Sony, they came up with a "singing in the car" contest on YouTube. The concept being that "singing is the most natural thing to do when you have fun driving". Connecting this idea to their product sale point "driving is much more fun" when using the Sony navigation system.
While there isn't much information about the agency online or on their own website, (at least not in English!!), one thing I liked was the case studies they provided for their projects. They give enough information to let us understand their concepts and their way of approaching and resolving projects. They have two really good interactive websites, in my opinion, the first one being the one that made them famous.
The Uniqlock website:
Uniqlock is a website for the Japanese clothing company Uniqlo. They wanted to increase awareness internationally and promote their business expansion outside of Japan. The Uniqlock incorporates music and dance with a world clock. Random video clips of four Japanese girls dancing wearing Uniqlo clothing appear every five seconds. The clothing is updated with every season, and at midnight, the girls sleep for an hour.
It is a very engaging website. Users can download and add the clock to their own sites and blogs.
The website was executed in flash. It is minimalistic yet very engaging. I loved how they animated every second using just one color, depending on the time of day, but changing its animation. It alternates coming down, up or from the sides.
The Intel's Museum of Me website:
This website is another example of coming up with an engaging and clever project that is not directly related to the product they are showcasing; an Intel new processor in this case.
Facebook users log in through the website, which will then pull all their information from Facebook and turn it into an online exhibit about themselves. The show starts with a title of the Facebook user's name describing the exhibit as, "a journey of visualization that explores who I am." Then the exhibit continues with galleries of images, videos, and text constructed from the user's wall on Facebook. The show ends with robot arms going through all the images of the Facebook user's friends.
This experience is pretty cool and it is worth trying it at least once. There is a disclaimer at the beginning explaining that the website does not store any of the user's information, nor share the exhibit unless the user wants it to.
This "visual experience links to the core value of Intel, which connects people through their digital lives". This statement, from the case study on the agency's website, clearly shows the relationship between the concept and the product.
This website was also executed in flash. I loved their use of typography, the layout and the depth of perception of the whole exhibit. Most of all, I enjoyed the visual experience of an actual museum about yourself, with museum goers present at the exhibit.
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