Entertainment Design: Week 1
5 January 2017
Lecture
Matte painting
Matte painting is a visual effects technique that is commonly used in filmmaking. Traditional matte paintings are done by artists, painting on a piece of glass to integrate the photorealistic painting with what can be seen behind the glass to create an illusion that the painting is part of the background. This technique is used to create effects that are impossible or too expensive to achieve. Famous examples of matte painting in movies, thought mostly unknown to the audience, are The Wizard of Oz (1939), Spartacus (1960), Mary Poppins (1964), and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977).
With the dawn of technology, experts developed new ways of matte painting by incorporating digital elements. Travelling mattes are developed and applied more dynamically in filmmaking, its usage going beyond the background of a scene as seen in The Thief of Baghdad (1940) and Mary Poppins (1964), where the actors interact with the masks.
Assignments
Assignment 1 – Event Poster
The Brief
Produce an Event Poster for a fictional Movie, Video Game or Music Concert. Strive to produce the most creative and innovative poster that engages and interactive. Do consider 3D pop-up designs, augmented reality, scan art etc.
DEADLINE
Week 2
Progress
Poster for: Music concert
Genre: Jazz
Uniqueness: ???
Research
Topic: Video games
Question:
For more educational videos on everything video game, click here.
a) How has the video game history shaped your understanding of the industry?
b) What impact do video games have in your life?
Reflections
In our first class, we were introduced to the module: what Entertainment Design is, the assignments that are going to be given to us throughout the semester, and resources that might help us in the module. We were also split into groups for said assignments, which took quite a while considering the amount of people we have in class.
Entertainment Design turns out to be not that far off from what I expected, and as a student-designer, I view this module as a chance to involve more of my entertainment interests in assignments, which I find can be quite exciting. I know a lot of us are not particularly excited about reflective writing, but I will try to do my best to keep my writings professional yet truthful without getting too personal.
Our first lecture was about matte painting, which is a subject I am not familiar with. The knowledge I obtained from watching the video was quite intriguing, yet I feel that the delivery of the knowledge itself is not really effective. The video we watched was quite lengthy and draggy, and nothing about it really interested me albeit the interesting subject matter. I feel that I learn better when the lecturers verbally explain the material, since at least that allows two-way communication where the student can interject with a question. The video wasn't properly aligned as well, not to mention my uncomfortable sitting position, so it was hard to process information. On the contrary, the lecture of effective presentation was extremely beneficial to me, and this knowledge is applicable to the future presentations we are going to have.
This first assignment requires a lot of decision-making on the students' part, including sorting out the details that will influence how the end product will look like. My mistake was looking at visual styles and deciding on them first before finalizing these important little things, so basically I was working backwards, thinking that the little things can be decided on later. I also had a tough time trying to express my opinion or an idea that I have to Mr. Michael, most probably due to my own self-doubt and lack of command in language, which I will try to overcome with the best of my efforts.
Lecture
Matte painting
Matte painting is a visual effects technique that is commonly used in filmmaking. Traditional matte paintings are done by artists, painting on a piece of glass to integrate the photorealistic painting with what can be seen behind the glass to create an illusion that the painting is part of the background. This technique is used to create effects that are impossible or too expensive to achieve. Famous examples of matte painting in movies, thought mostly unknown to the audience, are The Wizard of Oz (1939), Spartacus (1960), Mary Poppins (1964), and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977).
With the dawn of technology, experts developed new ways of matte painting by incorporating digital elements. Travelling mattes are developed and applied more dynamically in filmmaking, its usage going beyond the background of a scene as seen in The Thief of Baghdad (1940) and Mary Poppins (1964), where the actors interact with the masks.
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| Digital matte painting (image credit) |
Assignments
Assignment 1 – Event Poster
The Brief
Produce an Event Poster for a fictional Movie, Video Game or Music Concert. Strive to produce the most creative and innovative poster that engages and interactive. Do consider 3D pop-up designs, augmented reality, scan art etc.
DEADLINE
Week 2
Progress
Poster for: Music concert
Genre: Jazz
Uniqueness: ???
Common jazz artist characteristics: African-American (Negroid), adults (on the older side), male
Common jazz instruments featured in performances: piano, saxophone, trombone, trumpet, most other horn instruments, bass, drums, guitar
From the list of common jazz artist characteristics, an "uncommon" jazz artist would be: either Mongoloid (more uncommon) or Caucasoid (less uncommon), young (ranging from a child to an adult below thirty), female
The Mongoloid race includes: North Mongol, Chinese & Indochinese, Japanese & Korean, Tibetan, Malay, Polynesian, Maori, Micronesian, Eskimo, American
The Caucasoid race includes: Aryan, Semitic, Hamitic
The following instruments are anti-mainstream in the jazz genre: harp, oboe (less uncommon), ukulele, clarinet (less uncommon), bassoon.
Therefore, in order to shape a person that is unique enough to be a pulling factor in a jazz music concert, I have decided the performer to be a young Polynesian female who is a ukulele player.
Topic: Video games
Question:
How has the video game history shaped your understanding of the industry and what impact do video games have in your life?
a) How has the video game history shaped your understanding of the industry?
After watching the resources that was given to me in order to answer this question and other resources from the web, I think it's important to know that the creation of one of the oldest and pioneering video games came out of curiosity and self-motivation. In 1946, MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club is a club for university students interested in trains, basically. On a deeper level, however, members of this club are actually interested in the technology behind the trains. Naturally, these students had their curiosity piqued when the computer appeared. It is said that the group would roam the campus at night and sneak into labs to learn how to use computers. A member of the club named Steve Russell then created a simple game called Space War! in 1962, which serves as a catalyst to many other video games in the coming future.
With that background information, I understand that part of the video game history that shapes the video game industry within my understanding ultimately boils down to curiosity and the willingness to explore new media. Due to this, and especially with advanced and new technology within our grasp, the video game industry continues as a very dynamic field.
b) What impact do video games have in your life?
(It's hard to answer this question without being personal, but I'll do my best.)
Different people play video games for different reasons, and for me, video games serve as a form of amusement or distraction—for almost all the time, it's both simultaneously. Psychologically, it helps me distress to a certain degree by taking my mind off of whatever that is on my mind. Additionally, some other positive effects from video games that I could gather was language comprehension, exposure to foreign culture, and logical/decision-making skills, etc., though only in some measure.
(image credit)
After entering education in design, however, I have mostly thought about the technical/inner workings of the game or how it came to be. I look at games from more of a design perspective, observing things such as art direction and typography, illustration styles and game mechanics. The fun in playing games remain, nonetheless. To answer the question directly, it impacts me in terms of 1) lifestyle, to a certain extent, 2) inspiration/reference for design work, 3) how I think.
Reflections
In our first class, we were introduced to the module: what Entertainment Design is, the assignments that are going to be given to us throughout the semester, and resources that might help us in the module. We were also split into groups for said assignments, which took quite a while considering the amount of people we have in class.
Entertainment Design turns out to be not that far off from what I expected, and as a student-designer, I view this module as a chance to involve more of my entertainment interests in assignments, which I find can be quite exciting. I know a lot of us are not particularly excited about reflective writing, but I will try to do my best to keep my writings professional yet truthful without getting too personal.
Our first lecture was about matte painting, which is a subject I am not familiar with. The knowledge I obtained from watching the video was quite intriguing, yet I feel that the delivery of the knowledge itself is not really effective. The video we watched was quite lengthy and draggy, and nothing about it really interested me albeit the interesting subject matter. I feel that I learn better when the lecturers verbally explain the material, since at least that allows two-way communication where the student can interject with a question. The video wasn't properly aligned as well, not to mention my uncomfortable sitting position, so it was hard to process information. On the contrary, the lecture of effective presentation was extremely beneficial to me, and this knowledge is applicable to the future presentations we are going to have.
This first assignment requires a lot of decision-making on the students' part, including sorting out the details that will influence how the end product will look like. My mistake was looking at visual styles and deciding on them first before finalizing these important little things, so basically I was working backwards, thinking that the little things can be decided on later. I also had a tough time trying to express my opinion or an idea that I have to Mr. Michael, most probably due to my own self-doubt and lack of command in language, which I will try to overcome with the best of my efforts.