Archive for the ‘VisualAssignments’ Category
Monday, July 2nd, 2012
This is another Visual Assignment. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to join in on the fun of placing the image of DTLT’s own Tim Owens in an unlikely spot.
I immediately thought of the pyramids, though I’m not sure why. But then I found this great image from Flickr User wilhemja of the pyramids and the Sphinx, and I made a slight change in plans. I used Photoshop to flip the image using the Image Rotation–>Flip Canvas command and then rotated Tim so that he could slide down the Sphinx’s face (that daredevil).
Two final comments:
1) This image is not to scale. If Tim were this tall, he wouldn’t be able to fit into DTLT’s offices…or any other building on campus.
2) Umm Tim, where’s the nose?
Posted in Assignments, bunk3, magicmacguffin, Narrating the process, openonline, Visual Assignments, VisualAssignments, VisualAssignments595 | Comments Off on Slide Guy Visits the Sphinx
Monday, July 2nd, 2012
A ds106 assignment that intrigued me was
Newspaper Blackout Poetry. It’s a three star assignment and that seemed excessive to me, at first. Turns out, it is pretty challenging.
I looked at several articles and tried to plan out some possibilities. I actually wanted to avoid this one because it seemed to serious, too raw, too painful. But in the end it was the one that worked best for me.
Here’s the original article:
Here’s the poem once I blacked out a bunch of words.
rape
weeping
seething
harrowing
not usual
critical pain
And with that emotional end, I wrap up the visual assignments piece (a tad late, but it’s done!).
Posted in bunk4, ds106, magicmacguffin, openonline, VisualAssignments, VisualAssignments11 | Comments Off on More ds106 Visual Fun
Thursday, June 28th, 2012
I’ve been a bit MIA at Camp Magic Macguffin for the past week as the family has been in San Diego having a wonderful time. Oddly enough, even on vacation with my family ds106 has not been far from my mind. Walking around Legoland I had many thoughts about assignments, both current ones and possibilities.
We took in Miniland, an area full of cities and creations made of Legos. It’s really quite impressive. I took a few pictures of this Lego steamboat with the purpose of creating a wiggle stereoscopy image. I ended up only using two of the images after trying to get one that worked the way I wanted.
I’m finding as I work through ds106 assignments (slowly, but still) that I don’t fully understand why I think things work or don’t work. Hopefully as I continue with this process I’ll hone my eye and begin, to a bit at least, to be able to explain my thinking.
Posted in bunk4, ds106, magicmacguffin, openonline, VisualAssignments, VisualAssignments352 | Comments Off on ds106: Wiggle Stereoscopy
Saturday, June 23rd, 2012
Finally. I got around to making a few animated Gifs. I chose Ghost World. I love Thora Birch’s interpretation of Enid. Birch’s expressions are priceless, and kind of capture what I feel at least a few times a week. Is it healthy to possess so much teenage angst at 36? I’m not so sure.
I decided to use the first day of summer school since the expressions in this scene sum up how Enid feels about a lot of the bullsh**ery that exists in the adult world. For those of you who haven’t seen the movie or read the comic, Enid has just graduated from high school with the provision that she take and pass a summer art class since she failed the class during the school year. Enid happens to be a talented artist. I wonder how Enid would have done if she were in a class structured more like an independent study…
Here are those Gifs…
There’s too much dead time at the beginning of this first clip, but it was the first attempt.
Thora Birch in Ghost World
This one didn’t turn out quite as I had imagined either. I also screwed up on the resizing. But these things happen.
More Enid in art class
This one is my favorite:
Yup. Enid in art class
I followed Jim Groom’s tutorial. Very helpful stuff there.
Posted in Assignments, bunk5, Camp Magic MacGuffin, ds106, magicmacguffin, openonline, VisualAssignments, VisualAssignments2 | Comments Off on Animated Giff’n
Thursday, June 21st, 2012
jim groom posted a GIF of Henry Winkler’s infamous/iconic shark jump this morning.
I can’t imagine a world where media-saturated Bava had missed the origins of this trope. And if that’s really the case, then maybe he missed the Arrested Development sequel as well.
I’ve really been enjoying this process. Alan suggested that I detail the Photoshop steps for GIFing (simple, but often hard to find), so I tried to live record a tutorial video as I made this one.
The other voice Annika. She waved at the computer a lot.
Posted in Bava, bunk1, ds106, magicmacguffin, openonline, shark jump, VisualAssignments, VisualAssignments2, VisualTutorials2 | Comments Off on Shark GIFing for ds106
Thursday, June 21st, 2012
DS 106 gave me a chance to create my own meme, seeing as how “Bad Luck Brian” is one of my favorites I took the opportunity to make my own.
Posted in bunkx, magicmacguffin, openonline, VisualAssignments | Comments Off on DS 106 gave me a chance to create my own meme, seeing as how…
Tuesday, June 19th, 2012
I mentioned it yesterday and couldn’t sleep last night for thoughts of GIFing Hal Hartley’s Trust. This was easier in Schizopolis in many ways, because Hartleys films are already focused on faces and moments. But, oh… the faces, the moments. In the kitchen this morning, in between coffee and rinsing a quart of hair gel off of Annika, I watched the last 3 minutes of the film and bawled. Schizopolis was our Saturday night party film, the “OMG you have to see this!” film, even though most people passed out or lost interest before the dentist-transmigration.
Trust came on after that, and always ended in tears. My conscious (but always denied) attempt to live in the stilted Hartley language was certainly a contributor to many of friendship disintegrating fights in college. It’s an old film – almost as old now as The Conversation was when I first saw Trust in 1998.
Even as the fashion ages into comedy, there emotional core will shift and grow with you. Here’s my attempt to do some meager justice to this in a handful of frame grabs.
The lines and music under that last GIF add everything.
“Why have you done this?”
“Done what?”
“Put up wth me like this.”
“Somebody had to.”
“But why you?”
“I just happened to be here.”
That’s pop song strength – lines that can grow with you from bleak reflection on relationships into a tear-wrenching reflection on the arbitrary unconditional love of parenthood. They just happened to be there, and I needed them.
Posted in bunk1, Camp Magic MacGuffin, ds106, GIF, magicmacguffin, openonline, Schizopolis, trust, VisualAssignments, VisualAssignments3 | Comments Off on I just happened to be here.
Monday, June 18th, 2012
For a few years, I’ve watched the explosion of amazing film-clip GIFs take over the web. Even as the #ds106 crew churned out fantastic artifacts in class after class, I consistently viewed that as a consumer. Clearly it involves a lot of aestetic judgment and technical skill. It belongs in the “complicated with Photoshop” bucket, aka the “Not for me!” pile.
WRONG! Make art!
So while I know that my craftsmanship is weak, at least I can step it up on a curatorial level. These are all from one of my favorite films, Soderbergh’s cinematic throat clearing excercise Schizopolis!
“I believe so strongly in mayonaise.”
That last GIF is cut from an amazing sequence where Soderbergy runs through a dozen hideous faces in a bathroom mirror, and then snaps back into normalcy in a split second when someone else walks into the restroom.
The other cult gem of my DVD/VHS collection is John Greyson’s Zero Patience. Sadly, most of my immediate thoughts for GIFs involve incidental or pupet nudity. I’m living with a holistic public identity, but I recognize the benefits of keeping the bathouse barbershop trio out of my google results.
Oh, and while I’m at it, have a little Fred Rogers.
Posted in bunk1, Camp Magic MacGuffin, ds106, GIF, magicmacguffin, openonline, VisualAssignments, VisualAssignments2 | Comments Off on I Believe So Strongly in #ds106
Monday, June 18th, 2012
So the Slide Guy took a bit of a visit to the MineCraft incarnation of Camp Magic MacGuffin this week, looking for appropriate places to practice his sliding skills.
He was captured trying out the stairs at the Bunk Five Archery Range …
“SlideGuy at CMM Archery Stairs” by aforgrave, on Flickr
… checking out the Bava lava at the camp centre, …
“SlideGuy at CMM Bava Lava” by aforgrave, on Flickr
and giving a good ol’ head-first go at the Fall Out The World Fun Ride.
“SlideGuy at CMM Fall Out The World Fun Ride by aforgrave, on Flickr
As it would turn out, however, he seemed to spend the most time at the Waterslide over at CampX. Here is Slide Guy enjoying the waterside. Over and over!
SlideGuy at CMM Camp X Waterslide
UPDATE: I took a close look at all of the Slide Guy images to see if anyone had done the waterslide — and somehow missed Martha’s. When I saw the work of Noise Professor Maybe Next Time D’Arcy and Tim Wins, I decided to go with an animated GIF. So clearly Slide Guy was on that waterside during the day, AND still at sunset. Or maybe at sunset, and STILL the next day. At any rate, he must love sliding.
Slide on, Slide Guy. Slide on!
ds106 Visual Assignments 595
Posted in bunk1, Camp Magic MacGuffin, ds106, imaginages, magicmacguffin, openonline, slide guy, VisualAssignments, VisualAssignments595 | Comments Off on Slide Guy at Camp Magic MacGuffin
Monday, June 18th, 2012
This week I chose to do the splash the color assignment. The reason I chose to do this one, is because I feel that this type of art is very cool. I actually did this assignment on my iPhone. I downloaded a color editor app and swiped my finger across the area that I wanted to be in color. 
Posted in bunk1, magicmacguffin, umwsum12, Visual Assignments, VisualAssignments, VisualAssignments340 | Comments Off on Splash The Color
