Project 6 and Text Artist Research

Project 6:

Project 6 - Text from Jessi on Vimeo.

Writeup:
I'm not sure where text plays a part in my idea for the semester so this project was difficult for me. Overall, I am dissatisfied with the outcome, largely in part due to the time and effort spent in it for this extremely minuscule, unattractive piece. I guess now in retrospect I could have created plant imagery and other objects to represent green but I just don't want to get too heavily involved in imagery if I can help it. And I tried to get away from the "Lisa Frank color scheme".

Katsumi Asaba
Katsumi Asaba was born in 1940 in Kanagawa, Japan. He created his own firm, Asaba Design, Co. with clients such as Suntory, Seibu Department Stores, Seibu Saison Group, Takeda Chemical Industries, and Nissin Food Products. He is at the forefront of advertising design in Japan and the world.
He studied lettering for five years after he turned 19 at the Keinosuke Sato Institute of Typography which might be what led to his vibrant use of calligraphy with modern images of electronics/machinery and table tennis. He is interested especially in Tompa hieroglyphic characters that actually stem from Chinese tradition, a tradition that passes down these characters in Lijiang China specificially.
Most of Katsumi Asaba's work is featured in commercials, on packaging, and on posters with much of it being very easy to identify stylistically as that of the artist's. He often fuses traditional Japanese calligraphy with modern elements or products.
He also includes the Tompa hieroglyphic characters for added visual interest. The Tompa characters are often pictographs of an animal, plant, or object. He weaves in these characters with English and Japanese text in his own original work.
In his advertising job, the Japanese calligraphy is very prevalent and combined with the product's mascot. Kewpie mayonnaise featured this type of work and Katsumi Asaba is very well known with the work he created for the Kewpie company.
His work is significant and relevant because he's blending a mixture of tradition, modern day, mythology, and science fiction. In a sense, he is combining our past, present, and future into one so that when someone sees his work they feel as if they are in a place where one can be more aware. Katsumi Asaba has a set style but it is obvious which of his images are used for products and those that are used for his own personal work. The personal work tends to be more radical and ambitious while the advertising work is obviously made in order to impress and satisfy corporate appeal.
I do believe his work is influential. I am a rabid fan of Suntory and Kewpie products myself so when I see these on the shelves or in my kitchen, I'm getting a glimpse of past, present, and future every time. The work he does not only satisfies corporations but also the art galleries. Yes, he makes work for consumer consumption and how much of it left to make for just himself is unknown. But eating is always a good thing and he has a good thing going on in him being able to have his own design firm and being able to live comfortably.

Work:
http://www.tdctokyo.org/awards/award97/97membersilver_e.html
http://www.kanagawa-arts.or.jp/16kiaf/en_event_7.html
http://www.dnp.co.jp/gallery/ggg_e/exhibition/g056/index.html
http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/bien/echigo_tsumari_triennial/2009/tour/matsunoyama/john_kormeling
http://www.2121designsight.jp/schedule/inori/outline-e.html
http://ffffound.com/image/ea5a645980bf5651dbb8c0a5c0b03ffb1ce4451f

Project 5

Writeup:

I had difficulties rendering for the first time. My second camera wasn't rendering out and I couldn't figure out why. This project doesn't have as many random objects this time. I focused in on organic lines that appear and disappear with a subtle background change. Essentially, this time I was going for subtle versus the overly striking mess that I have been doing thus far. And my Vimeo account hit maximum upload for the week so I uploaded on blogspot instead because I had no alternative. DAMN IT.

Project 4

Project 4 from Jessi on Vimeo.

Write up:

Since I really liked the squiggly lines from the last project, I decided to reutilize them in this project. I tried to get away from using exclusively blues since I know I've been doing that a lot lately. I used a nested comp for my background image so that when the opacity and motion changes for the different color lines, the viewer can see the color changes. I also made the background image stark straight lines and the foreground images organic shapes for contrast.

Project 3

Project 3 from Jessi on Vimeo.

I started exploring the idea of shape a bit more in this one since i've been so strongly concentrating on color in the last view. of courser color is a part of this, too, but i wanted to have shapes, polygon and non-polygon, interact/cut/overlap/dance with each other and see what happens. i think i want to push those blue figures farther because personally i believe they have a lot of potential with their odd, flowy shape. That and they animate in an interesting way. So for a revision, I plan on doing a lot of those in different ways.

Project 2 // Assignment Write-Up

Project 2 Test Trial from Jessi on Vimeo.

Writeup:

Well, since I missed class for surgery I fell a little behind and had a hard time figuring out how to even start this project. I was unsure what starting composition I should use because I had no idea how this was going to work out when 3D layers were enabled. I ended up having to do more than one trial/experimentation before I understood the basics of how to use the 3D layers.
My idea was to use monochromatic scheme and show how opacity changes and layering changed the hues of the blues utilized. I was trying to control my experimentation down to hues of the same color in order to challenge and force myself to think within a confined criteria.

After Effects Project 1

Project 1 Test from Jessi on Vimeo.

Proposal

My idea is to demonstrate how shapes and color interact on the computer screen. I want to illustrate and animate how shapes affect one another when they collide, disintegrate, orbit, bounce, along with other movements/reactions. I also want to explore color in several ways such as the emotion evoked from a certain color scheme, how colors react differently to be placed against other colors (i.e. do they brighten, dim, "change" the color, etc. to each other), and how restricting colors affects a piece.
I want to explore this idea because it is a challenge for me. I have played with the concept of "changing" a color simply by placing it on top of a different color and it is intensely difficult. I need to explore this concept of using shapes and color because my formal processes are not fine tuned. Simply, I need more experience with it along with my ambition to be able to make color work in my favor, for my purposes. By exploring this topic, I can see myself being able to more effectively create illustrative and animated pieces that use shape and color to push the piece further, to give the piece a more meaning. Choice of color can effect the mood, vibe, and underlying meaning. Choice of shape can effect the way we see a character or item and make complexities within those. I want to control those elements more effectively in my work and I believe this topic will help enhance this for me.

Library sources:
1. Color Codes: Modern Theories of Color in Philosophy, Painting, Architecture, Literature, Music, and Psychology by Charles A. Riley II
2. Concepts and Images: Visual Mathematics by Arthur L. Loeb
3. Art and the Computer by Melvin L. Prueitt
4. Color by Editors of Time-Life Books
5. Mathematics by David Bergamini
6. Color by ed. Helen Varley

Internet sources:
http://www.colormatters.com/comput.html
http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theory-intro.htm
http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/cs092/VA10/HTML/start.html
http://viz.aset.psu.edu/gho/sem_notes/color_2d/index.html
http://www.pdf-word.net/science-computer/color-theory-on-the-computer.html
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Polygon.html
http://www.kirupa.com/developer/actionscript/shape_camera.htm

Outline:

I. Color & Shape

A. color
i. effects
a. vision
b. mood
c. vibe
d. meaning

ii. exploring
a. colors "changing" one another by being overlayed
b. color schemes
c. restricting colors
d. transparencies


B. shape
i. effects
a. assumptions
b. movement
c. physics

ii. exploring
a. movement
b. reactions

iii. types of movement/reactions
a. orbit
b. bounce
c. jump
d. knock over/off
e. smash
f. disintegrate
g. fuzz
h. toss

Visual Metaphors

1. Make a list of at least 40 similiar or related words or ideas.
1. shape
2. color
3. polygon
4. circle
5. square
6. rectangle
7. octagon
8. decagon
9. nonagon
10. quadrilateral
11. trapezoid
12. pentagon
13. hexagon
14. heptagon
15. sphere
16. black
17. white
18. yellow
19. red
20. orange
21. blue
22. green
23. violet
24. indigo
25. brown
26. gray
27. cube
28. cone
29. triangle
30. pink
31. crayons
32. markers
33. paint
34. pens
35. watercolor
36. brush
37. compass
38. ruler
39. mathematics
40. pie chart

2. Make a list of at least 40 opposite ideas or words.
1. line
2. clear
3. transparent
4. translucent
5. limpid
6. deform
7. destory
8. clarion
9. crystal
10. fuzzy
11. ambiguous
12. indistinct
13. mysterious
14. obscure
15. unintelligible
16. vague
17. amorphous
18. bewildering
19. bleary
20. blurred
21. nebulous
22. enigma
23. perplexing
24. misunderstood
25. indefinite
26. inexplicable
27. ill-defined
28. impalpable
29. hidden
30. subtle
31. puzzling
32. superficial
33. problematic
34. generalized
35. hazy
36. dreamlike
37. made up
38. lack of rigidness
39. lack of containment
40. not simplistic

3. Thumbnail sketch or photograph at least 20 visual metaphors for your topic.


4. Thumbnail sketch or photograph at least 20 contrasting visual metaphors.