Deadline day was similar to the last with a few less headless chickens running around frantically trying to tie up the loose ends. I felt a sense of 'freedom' after the assignment was handed in and am now fully in the Christmas spirit, happily singing Christmas songs at work ad finally opening up a few neglected advent calendar doors, left shut through terror of the deadline date looming ever closer!
The first semester has passed so fast but I have learnt more from this course in the first few months than I have in the full duration of any other course I have done.
SketchBlog
The first major assignment given, I have never really had to record my thoughts and feelings in a Blog before, in all honesty never having used one either, but this process is something I look forward to now as it is a great help when writing evaluations, looking back etc. The Sketchbook, another new element to the course, is again something I have never used but mine is hopefully getting better with a few pieces of inspirations (and not one comic in sight).
That's The Plan
The first submittable assignment, this was a good break-in gently' assignment although it wasn't all plain sailing. The first thing that made more or less everyone cringe was that dreaded set of initials P + M, otherwise known as PageMaker! With the template PageMaker seemed easy to use and to get used to but the screen designs were a new and sometimes painstakingly impossible to get measurements right. I think the thing I made an advantage on was the master page putting all the same elements on this page so I didn't need to redo them.
Back To BASIC
Another website plan but this time we were promised that we could make the website, first feelings were 'oh god not another web plan' but this is practice into making a web plan which is necessary to making a website. The screen designs were easier to do this time and I found it easier to do the measurements this time. I even managed to educate myself with some of the content for the site. The thing that stalled me a bit was finding the website images, this will need to be thoroughly investigated before I continue next time.
Picture This
The assignment I had been looking forward to as I finally got to play in Photoshop, looking back I could have done things better but people have to start somewhere don't they? I did not like the image restoration task and if I ever see three old men on a bench with a cup I may turn slightly mad... However much I liked / disliked this assignment it was very good practice and it was fun to complete and let me be creative and I think this has re-ignited a creative element to my life.
Overall the semester has gone fast but with fun and a lot of new friends to which I say Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year, and I am looking forward to going back in the new year to a fresh start with time planning!
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Thursday, December 14, 2006
'Things are Starting to Heat Up'
As assignment day is looming ever so near, I thought I had managed to get everything sorted and to submissiom standard. However the road to success is never a straight flat road as I have found out.
After the feedback meeting on Thursday this did nothing but throw up a few errors in my work and missing pieces. This felt annoying at first and made me panic again... but it has to be said that I will do a better assignment afterwards. I did think that the major part of the assignment was completed and to be honest it still is but there is still a little thought nagging at the back of my mind that it might not get finished in time.
The first hurdle to face is the fact that a website used to retrieve images has said that their images are the property of the creator and cannot by copied. This means that I have to search for the remaining images that were found on said website.
The second is the Back to BASIC assignment, this needs some tweaking although all the references are in place and so are the figures [image figs]. The only thing that needs to be done is the Budget Statement and now a table on the website hosts displaying which will be the best to use.
On the A4 assignment front all that is needed now is to print the colour images out and finish the image restoration exercise. I didn't think that I would complete the two essays as good as I have as I didn't really know what to write in the assignment and this is why I think they were left until the last minute.
The final exercise is to complete the two evaluations but with all the problems I think that I will have enough to write.
After the feedback meeting on Thursday this did nothing but throw up a few errors in my work and missing pieces. This felt annoying at first and made me panic again... but it has to be said that I will do a better assignment afterwards. I did think that the major part of the assignment was completed and to be honest it still is but there is still a little thought nagging at the back of my mind that it might not get finished in time.
The first hurdle to face is the fact that a website used to retrieve images has said that their images are the property of the creator and cannot by copied. This means that I have to search for the remaining images that were found on said website.
The second is the Back to BASIC assignment, this needs some tweaking although all the references are in place and so are the figures [image figs]. The only thing that needs to be done is the Budget Statement and now a table on the website hosts displaying which will be the best to use.
On the A4 assignment front all that is needed now is to print the colour images out and finish the image restoration exercise. I didn't think that I would complete the two essays as good as I have as I didn't really know what to write in the assignment and this is why I think they were left until the last minute.
The final exercise is to complete the two evaluations but with all the problems I think that I will have enough to write.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
'Every Superhero Needs a Sidekick'
On Wednesday I was greeted with 'a new best friend', in the form of a Spongebob Toy. I managed to get my screen designs started and nearly completed, but another bomb was dropped when I discovered that images count as content.
I quite enjoyed Thursdays lesson as we started with a quick fire 'art attack' kind of session. We were asked to draw 6 wide skyscraper layouts and 6 medium rectangle shaped banner ads in our sketchbooks. We were given 2 minutes to draw 6 rough designs for the banner ad assignment, per photograph. I found this daunting at first but found it really exciting to do and, in the end, discovered I had completed the bulk of this last assignment task.
I feel my artistic qualities could be better but that is something I'm wanting to work on. The final designs that I came up with were interesting but a little hard to explain on paper. I have shown an image below to try and show what the effect I was after was in the form of a single sleeve from U2.
I quite enjoyed Thursdays lesson as we started with a quick fire 'art attack' kind of session. We were asked to draw 6 wide skyscraper layouts and 6 medium rectangle shaped banner ads in our sketchbooks. We were given 2 minutes to draw 6 rough designs for the banner ad assignment, per photograph. I found this daunting at first but found it really exciting to do and, in the end, discovered I had completed the bulk of this last assignment task.
I feel my artistic qualities could be better but that is something I'm wanting to work on. The final designs that I came up with were interesting but a little hard to explain on paper. I have shown an image below to try and show what the effect I was after was in the form of a single sleeve from U2.
This is not so much meant by the background image but I do like the text as some letters are capitalised and some are lower case. This also shows a form of contrast in the different case of letters and colours. I also like the lines behind but I have to be wary with the file sizes. This image may even find its way into my sketch book.
Last but certainly not least is the fact that assignment hand in date is looming ever so closer. Feelings of panic are starting to set in and I can see the weekend being taken up with a lot of work, as self study hasn't been efficiently used the 16 hours and it is starting to show the effects of this. This is my own fault and I know that so tonight on the train home will envolve a little 'list making' exercise to see what needs doing and then organising it into a routine to stick to.
I can see this list getting quite long but not as long as my Christmas list, hopefully! I have an extra day off this week so that gives me another day to do some work.
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