Posts Tagged artistic
HD and Blu-ray Quality Movies Getting Too Real?
Digital Media Academy News + Events | February 17th, 2009 by Philip Harding
There I am standing in front of the most beautiful high definition audio and visual setup money can buy. I have completely lost reality of where I am. I have totally forgotten what I am doing inside an electronics store. I am surrounded with the televisions, computers, cameras, gadgets and only the latest technology (at the best prices I’m told), but none of that matters to me now. I have completely lost touch with reality. I am completely transfixed with the 60″+ flat screen, crisp surround sound system with the super 1200 watt subwoofer, and the high definition blu-ray player in front of me. It seems nothing can suck me out of this odd technology trance I have been sucked into.
For a moment I feel as though I am a real pirate in the Caribbean on board with Captain Jack and the crew. I get kind of grossed out with Davy Jones squirming tentacles. Ewww. I never noticed his mouth moved like that when he talked! I have to turn away, but my eyes become glued to another 65″ flat plasma screen. Then I am suddenly on the back of a funny looking dragon flying down into a huge canyon. As silly as it sounds, I was momentarily scared. Then I stop and realize the 3d dragon looks…. fake. Lame. I turn to another huge LCD flat-screen to get pulled into an amazing live concert. Now this is great! The crowd is screaming. The music is pumping out of the awesome surround sound speakers, the lights are flashing. I feel like I am inside a Rock Band video game. I feel like I am on the front row at the concert…. and all of a sudden I realize how scratched and ugly Sting’s guitar is. Actually, the whole group looks really old. Look how much he is sweating. OK. That’s enough.
Then, all of a sudden I am pulled out of my technology trance and out of the home video and audio department. I need to go find the Apple computers. Do they have those new 17″ MacBook Pro laptops yet?
As I stroll back down the large aisles I begin to think about how quickly technology is moving. Can designers, digital artists, 3d animators, filmmakers, audio technicians, and creative programmers keep up? You better bring your best 3d models and animated characters if your viewers are going to be critiquing them on a ginormous flat screen TV with the highest of high definition disc players.
Think about it. I was snapped out of the movie by thinking about how fake the 3d character looked in the movie. If the the movie had been on a low resolution, old-school setup, I might have been able to pass over the poorly rendered and animated polygons. I wouldn’t have noticed. I’m just saying….
It’s time to flex your creative muscle at Digital Media Academy. Get in some of the computer courses this summer at any of the prestigious summer locations.
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Flash, taken to the next level
Digital Media Academy News + Events | February 14th, 2009 by bfrazier
As an educator, I try to enhance my knowledge every year during the summer with workshops. Most of the time I only get a few bits of useful information, literally only a couple of items that I can use in my classroom. I was very fortunate to be able to attend DMA’s workshop on Flash. WOW! I have studied Flash for the last 6 years, but I gathered so much from this one single workshop – more than I have from all the other workshops I’ve attended in the past.
The instructor was someone who had real experience in both the artistic and programming elements of Flash. I bow down to Michael Clayton! More importantly, he explained very difficult concepts in terms that were easy to digest. Programming is the hardest part for me. He also provided me some tips on how to teach these concepts to my students.
We were a small class of students – from an 8th grade student to the graphics designer for a company. He skillfully assisted each of us where we were at in our Flash knowledge and opened the door to new possibilities.
I am not an artist. Stick people are my forte. Clayton gave us tips on how to take our Flash projects to the next level. Specifically, I had my students create caricatures of themselves (just like the picture above) as we learned to use Flash’s drawing tools. My students had such great success with this project! The Technology Coordinator for my district saw the work and was simply amazed at what they created!
The students were so proud of their work, sending their finished projects to their family members and posting them on their personal pages. We then created our very first podcast, with animated mouths, which I learned from my DMA course. I’m really looking forward to taking the workshop on Photoshop and seeing how I can charge my creative juices!
