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ART 141 Scripps: Introduction to Digital Imaging

This blog represents the collected notes and assignments for the Scripps-offered Digital Imaging course, taught by professor Julie Orser. I will be updating throughout the semester, in hopes that not only my prowess with Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver, but also my knowledge and familiarity with digital art, might all show marked improvement.

Also, it's graded. :D
Peter Molyneux, creator of Lionhead Studios, has had direct creative control for many high-budget games, such as the Fable fantasy-RPG series, as well as the critically-acclaimed title Black and White.  He is an excellent designer, and he knows what he is talking about. …Which is why much of the gaming community finds his bombastic and bold statements both endearing and comical.  He seeks to revolutionize the way people consume and interact with games, and tries to elicit very real, empathetic responses from players.  However, the games never seem to live up to the world-altering promises.  One fan has taken it unto himself to parody Molyneux’s boundless optimism, and churns out fantastic Molyneux-inspired quotes about game design, and the industry in general. Source: http://twitter.com/petermolydeux

Peter Molyneux, creator of Lionhead Studios, has had direct creative control for many high-budget games, such as the Fable fantasy-RPG series, as well as the critically-acclaimed title Black and White.  He is an excellent designer, and he knows what he is talking about.

…Which is why much of the gaming community finds his bombastic and bold statements both endearing and comical.  He seeks to revolutionize the way people consume and interact with games, and tries to elicit very real, empathetic responses from players.  However, the games never seem to live up to the world-altering promises.  One fan has taken it unto himself to parody Molyneux’s boundless optimism, and churns out fantastic Molyneux-inspired quotes about game design, and the industry in general.

Source: http://twitter.com/petermolydeux

Occupy Wall Street, illustrated via Pong

This brief video topically looks at the Occupy movement, but could be applied in broader context to the nature of all social gatherings and protests.  There is strength in numbers.

…Though the gamer and the skeptic in me wonders, “which bar gets bigger, once the multitudes begin scoring?”  ”The rules never changed, though…  Wouldn’t the losing side be in the exact same position of power, had the game turned out otherwise?”

Source: http://kotaku.com/5860580/let-pong-explain-the-occupy-wall-street-movement-to-you 

tfnyyu:

Baroque.me (2011) by Alexander Chen. Video capture. Interact at:http://www.baroque.me. Baroque.me visualizes the first Prelude from Bach’s Cello Suites. Using the math behind string length and pitch, it came from a simple idea: what if all the notes were drawn as strings? Instead of a stream of classical notation on a page, this interactive project highlights the music’s underlying structure and subtle shifts.

I love this project’s reliance on string length to denote pitch, rather than the mentioned system of traditional notation.  As a frequent performer in choral ensembles, I have encountered non-traditionally notated musical scores only occasionally, and they are fascinating.  Musical notation is designed to present information in a universal, pan-linguistic format, and to upset that standard tends to disquiet some musicians, and embolden others.  

Even the common aesthetic of notehead and staff is not without historic precursor, though; the neumes of liturgical chant are one such influence to modern notation.  Even today, composers have difficulty emulating unmetered chant into the confining modern notion of musical meter.  Performers often suffer from a strange truncating of a musical line, merely because a bar-line bisects a musical phrase; in chant, there were no bar lines, and the flow of a musical phrase was visually unfettered.  

betonbabe: GYÖRGY DOCZI DIAGRAMS OF THE CENTER OF A DAISY / THE GENERATING SPIRALS MOVE IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS, THEY ARE LOGARITHMIC AND EQUIANGULAR, 1981

betonbabe:

GYÖRGY DOCZI


DIAGRAMS OF THE CENTER OF A DAISY / THE GENERATING SPIRALS MOVE IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS, THEY ARE LOGARITHMIC AND EQUIANGULAR, 1981

Aether, developed by Armor Games in 14 days, is a game about whimsical exploration and atmosphere.  In it, a boy encounters a magical companion, and together they leave the planet in search of a new place to call home.  The color palette of the game is extremely monochromatic, and the player is tasked with solving puzzles at each of the discovered planets, in order to restore color to the world.  

Aether, developed by Armor Games in 14 days, is a game about whimsical exploration and atmosphere.  In it, a boy encounters a magical companion, and together they leave the planet in search of a new place to call home.  The color palette of the game is extremely monochromatic, and the player is tasked with solving puzzles at each of the discovered planets, in order to restore color to the world.  

In relation to the flash application depicting planetary and lunar orbits, I also wanted to post this as well.  It represents the nine planetary bodies of our solar system (even Pluto, bless it’s cold, planetoid heart) and their relative orbits; each planet plays a particular note when it crosses an imagined axis, and creates a very succinct way of visualizing the motions of the planets around our Sun. Source: http://www.whitevinyldesign.com/solarbeat/

In relation to the flash application depicting planetary and lunar orbits, I also wanted to post this as well.  It represents the nine planetary bodies of our solar system (even Pluto, bless it’s cold, planetoid heart) and their relative orbits; each planet plays a particular note when it crosses an imagined axis, and creates a very succinct way of visualizing the motions of the planets around our Sun.

Source: http://www.whitevinyldesign.com/solarbeat/

Dynamic Diagrams - dD Orrery In our ongoing work to provide innovative visualization solutions for our clients, Dynamic Diagrams has continued to explore data-driven presentations and applications. As a proof of concept for using an XML data set to “power” a Flash application, we took advantage of a wonderful free data source provided by NASA. Using this collection, we assembled an Orrery that illustrates the positions of the planets and moons in our solar system and allows a user to view their alignment at any given date in the past or present. The remarkable flash application built by Dynamic Designs is an arresting example of data put to an aesthetic framework.  When confronted by a bulk of research data and often-archaic information, many tend to turn away from knowledge that, with proper explanation, would otherwise have captivated them.  Visualizations such as these are an excellent way to both inform and inspire.

Dynamic Diagrams - dD Orrery

In our ongoing work to provide innovative visualization solutions for our clients, Dynamic Diagrams has continued to explore data-driven presentations and applications. As a proof of concept for using an XML data set to “power” a Flash application, we took advantage of a wonderful free data source provided by NASA. Using this collection, we assembled an Orrery that illustrates the positions of the planets and moons in our solar system and allows a user to view their alignment at any given date in the past or present.

The remarkable flash application built by Dynamic Designs is an arresting example of data put to an aesthetic framework.  When confronted by a bulk of research data and often-archaic information, many tend to turn away from knowledge that, with proper explanation, would otherwise have captivated them.  Visualizations such as these are an excellent way to both inform and inspire.