Character and Animation

Below is my character drawing and animation for the Character and Movement project.

Joke Videos

Below are the two joke videos that I worked on, along with Lauren Worthington, Megan Kirn, Tyler Dawley, and Yingqi Zheng. Enjoy.

Our first joke video, titled “Ye Olde Room for Waitin'” takes the approach of a black and white silent film. Since we could not use synched audio for this project, we decided to insert piano music and put the dialogue on cards for the viewer to read (like an old silent film). We then acted in an overly dramatic, comical manner to make the viewer laugh at the video. This was an interesting approach because it conveys the punchline to the viewer without actually telling them the joke. Instead, this video is highly based upon visual cues and the movement of the characters to provide the entertainment. Movement is especially important since we were not allowed to move the camera during a shot. Instead, we had the characters move in interesting ways to keep the movie interesting. In a similar sense, we used space to establish depth within the frame as well as to make the video more comical. For example, we played with both space and movement to make the movie funnier when the doctor moves closer and closer to the girl until she is sitting on her lap.

Our other video, titled “The Ole' Switcheroo” tells the same joke. However, this video takes the plot in an entirely different direction, since the patient actually receives a female brain. This movie includes intentionally poorly-synched audio to add to the humor of the piece. This establishes both a contrast and affinity with the other video. It contrasts in both visual style, since it is actually in color and takes place in several different locations, as well as aural style, due to the fact that it not only has audio but uses it to tell the story. Though the two videos are different in many ways, they still tell the same joke, which is how the affinity is established. Finally, these videos make use of text and subtext in several ways. The both videos use text in their own unique ways. The first uses text literally, since the viewer must read the dialogue from the cards. The second video relies on the spoken dialogue and actions of the characters to provide the story's text. The second video also uses subtext, however, in the form of irony. The main character, the male patient, goes to the hospital to receive surgery to fix a problem with his brain. Ironically, however, he ends up receiving a female brain, which completely changes him and makes his problems worse.

How I Can Be Creative

How I can apply the suggestions from Hugh Macleod's article "How To Be Creative"

Splinter Cell Lighting Analysis

An Analysis of Forrest Gump

Re-Framing A Photo

I have cropped the following photo by Ben Goossens:

Before

After

The main reason I cropped the image the way I did was because I wanted to focus on the picture that was originally in the center of the frame. I felt that this picture was the most interesting part of the image and that this is the portion that contained the artist's message. As you can see from the top image, the original picture had the person with the painting for a head centered and taking up little space. The person also fit perfectly into the gap in the wall and their verticality and height mimicked the columns to the right and left of them. Therefore, the person and painting blended into the picture rather easily. I was drawn to this original image mainly because of the visual intensity of the colors and lines. The warm colors that fill the frame give the viewer a welcomed feeling and attracts your eye. The lines of the floor, columns, seats and even the shadow on the ground lead the viewer's eye to the painting (of an eye).

I decided to improve upon this image, however, and create a greater focus on the painting. To do so, I changed the shot from a Medium Shot, in which much of the room including the ceiling to the person's waist is visible, to a Medium Close Up that focuses on the painting and only displays the top of the painting to the bottom of the person's shoulders, and much less of the room. I ensured that the viewer's eye is attracted to the painting by giving the painting the most visual weight, since it takes up most of the frame. The painting is also much darker and cooler than the rest of the image, which offers a contrast of colors within the image. To further emphasize the painting, cropped the photo according to the rule of thirds, so that the eye and person's body lay on the left intersections, and the edge of the columns lie on the right.

I think that the artist wanted to provide more of a contrast with the rest of the image by leaving it as the dark spot in the center of the frame. I also think that, consistent with the rest of his images, this artist creates landscape images with a twist, in which something out-of-place is put into an ordinary setting. Therefore, he left more of the room visible to remain consistent with his other images.