Plug! (for myself)

I’ve recently completed my online portfolio and thought it would be nice to post its link here <insert plug here>.

And just so I don’t look like I’m trying to sell only myself here is a link to a blog for our client project. Anne Thomas, Lara Blanche and I worked with Gesture Tek and the Government of Ontario to create an art installation depicting Innovations of Ontario that was featured at the Ontario Premier Innovation Awards. OK, so it’s still a partial plug for me, what can I say, I’m shameless.

Here’s us with the Premier and our display:

Smoking is bad, but Making Smoke is Fun!

Today’s post will focus on After Effect and more specifically a little project entitled “Coolest Effect”. Originally I was going to do a completely different coolest effect but after completing a client project focusing on that wonderful ‘cutout’ look I basically reached my quota of how much cutout I can now take. My first idea was to do something along the lines of Juno’s opening credits. But as I said cutouts make me want to cut wrists (just a joke, calm down). So I decided to find a new inspiration. Enter Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy video. Throughout the video there’s a really cool ink blot feel and I wanted to recreate it.

Of course I had no idea how to go about it so I did the next best thing– I searched for a tutorial online. Thank you gomediazine! So now I had inspiration and a fun tutorial to teach me how to do it. Now of course comes the hard part–actually doing it.

I ran into a few problems (I had animated birds flying through my video but the trial version of trapcode doesn’t allow for rendering without those wonderful red ‘x’s across the screen) but my idea was different from the one online. I didn’t want it to look like inkblots, more like smoke. Once I got that working I had to figure out how to combine this smoke effect with something relevant. And what’s mroe relevant than cigarettes? Smoking isn’t cool anymore (at least its not as cool/accepted as it once was) but back in its hayday smoking defined status. And who has had more icon status than Marlyn Monroe?

Using an image of Marlyn smoking I was able to play up the smoking theme this project was going for. But how was I going to get the message across that I don’t actually support smoking?

Easy.

Smoking is bad, but making the effect is fun!

There’s this General, he was a surgeon and he had a warning and I took it.  HA! Take that supporters of smoking (really, I’m not a crazy activist against smoking person, I swear)!

Overall, fun project, probably would have appreciated doing it more had I not just spent the past week and a half in what I like to call web creation purgatory, but that’s besides the point!

Information Architecture aka Your Local Grocery Store

I like keeping my options open.  When I go on a trip to Cuba, I over pack.  I’d rather have too much than too little. Imagine if one day during my time in Cuba I decided that I wanted to wear my blue shirt (which looks very similar to my baby-blue shirt) but I didn’t pack it in order to ’save’ space in my luggage.  That would totally ruin my day!

OK, I’m not that dramatic, but I think it’s a good example of keeping options open.  I don’t want to put myself into a box and then have a difficult time of getting out of it. The IMM Program is designed to teach you a lot of different things so that when you get out there into the workforce you can do (or are at least familiar with) many applications and programs.

Today, our class had the pleasure of meeting Trish Thornton, an information architect. Not only was she a complete pleasure to have in the class she also spoke to us about her field of work.  (This is where I get into the explanation of not limiting myself).

I never thought of myself as a person who could become and IA. But after listening to Trish, I can now see it as a viable (and achievable) employment option. Thank you Trish!

The key thing to think about as an IA is to remember the user. Who is the user, what do they want to get out of your site, what does the client want the user to get out of their site, etc.

With today’s technology we can do a lot of things but all of that is useless if the user can’t get to what they want. CONTENT is key in today’s society. We all want it, and more importantly we all want to get it in as little time and with as little effort as possible.

Trish gave us a great metaphor when thinking about the architecture of any site (or really any application you can think of). Information Architecture is like a grocery store. No matter what grocery store you go into you know that the basic necessities are all located on the outer perimeter of the store–any extras go in those middle aisles. For websites you want to do the same. Let people get the information they want in a quick and dirty way. Don’t send them searching through the aisles for what they want unless they actually want to take the time to peruse the things in you aisles.

Another thing to think about is that an information architect often plays the role of the glue that holds designers and coders together. Designers want everything to look pretty, creative and innovative. Programmer’s want things functional, straightforward and simple. Taking the time to ‘marry’ the two disciplines can create great and outstanding work. Not only that, but it can make usability great for users. Which really, is what the end result is all about.

Finally, one of the most important tools you can have is your common sense. When you first look at the layout does it feel right? Should there be a left nav? Is the navigation in a weird place? Should all of this information be on one page, or split up into categories? Thinking like this can really save you time and hassle in the future.

So, it seems that organization is really important in this world of IA. Does it take a completely organized person to be an IA? Not if we take Trish as an example. She lives in what can be fondly called ‘organized chaos’. Thinking in an organized manner is important but that doesn’t mean you have to be organized. And let me tell you, that’s a good thing to hear!

 
And in case you were wondering, I did bring both my blue and baby-blue shirts, and I’ll have you know, I wore both of them!

For more info on information architecture check out these articles at Digital Web Magazine:
Don’t Forget to Architect the Home Page
Getting IA Done, Part I
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (Third Edition)

Getting Inspired by the World Around You

As this graduate program comes to an end our worries increase. Deadlines get closer, pressure gets higher, and worry about finding a job skyrockets. One of the great things about this program is that even though we are stressed our instructors find the time to book speakers from the industry who give us valuable tips and who, sometimes ease our stresses by providing realistic expectations of the industry we want to get into. 

Our speaker this time was Val, an interactive art director from Ogilvy who also freelances. He spoke to us from a broader perspective; rather than just simply showing us the work he’s done, he explained his creative process.

As you know, inspiration can come from anywhere, watching on-line lectures can teach you things you would never imagine. Ted.com is another great source for getting inspired. And it’s the things which happen in your daily life that often let you or at least inspire you to be creative.

Coming from a non-media degree, Val sort of fell into interactive design. He fooled around with some HTML code and tried creating his own site and then seeing that he liked designing sites a lot went to Sheridan’s Web Design post-grad program. You may be thinking “that’s great but what does this have to do with anything?”. Well, I come from a non-media background. (You can’t exactly say a degree in English Lit and Criminology are very media-esque). Knowing this is vital! Anyone can do it, you don’t have to be studying design for years to be a good designer (but let me tell you, it doesn’t hurt either!).

But let’s move on from my little rant!

How does someone get into this industry, especially at a time like this. Val suggests doing things for free! Wait! Don’t Leave! Let me explain!
Doing things for free can get you hired in the future. Doing things for free can get your foot in the door. Not only this, but if you do a good job the company you did a site for may hire you for another job, or refer you to someone else. Not to mention that doing things for free gives you a chance to hone your skills, and act as an outlet for your creativity.

Val tries to do a lot of volunteer work for organizations he believes in. Check out idealist.org. There are tons of companies and organizations looking for free work out there.

One thing to always keep in mind is that while the economy may be in a slump, interactive is not. Advertising is always going to be around and while people may be cutting back on advertising, the piece of the pie left for interactive is getting bigger. Interactive, unlike any other media can quantify the work and success of an ad. You can count mouse clicks, minutes stayed on the site etc. And these quantifiable areas prove that interactive will continue to be on the rise.

Interview Tips for Interactive People

Mark McQuillan, yet another jam3media mastermind and Sheridan IMMalumn came in to talk to our class. This time it was more about the job market and what potential employers are looking for. He provided a lot of great tips which I’ll be sharing.

His first suggestion–which also happens to be the one he most emphasised– is to talk passionately about you work and about what interests you. He says there’s nothing more interesting to a potential employer than to see your passion. It not only shows that you’re interested in the interactive world but that you take an active roll in it. Moreover, it lets you shine in your element.

Another suggestion, one that I think is superb, is to turn your back on your computer. As a student we’ve got tons of assignments due, most around the same time. Add to that, the time it takes you learn how to use certain products, applications etc., the errors and debugging you have to do, along with other commitments (work, extracurriculars, friends, family…). We students are left with little time to come up with really great designs for our projects. So Mark suggests that we keep the project in our portfolios but during interviews we take the time to explain what the project taught us rather than just showing them what the project looks like. Did we learn how to code something on our own and it was a great achievement? Did we learn how to solve problem that was keeping us up at night? This type of discussion shows that you’re not only a self-learner, but are self-motivated, resourceful and hard-working; all qualities I’m sure employers are looking for.

Next, he suggests to stay on top of technology. Technology changes at the blink of an eye so keeping up with the trends is important. Last year the tech everyone was talking about was papervision. This year it’s the FLARToolKit. Getting to know technology, fooling around with it, puts you in a better position. And employers want to know that you know how to work with these technologies.

Finally, Mark suggested that in this interactive industry, as opposed to those other cookie-cutter type industries which look for your typical business suit worker, is looking for personality. They want to work with someone like themselves. Do you like to play video games? Well that’s great, because a lot of the elements in video games can be translated to the web. Not only that, it also gives you something to talk about at the interview. Trust me, an employer will remember you more if you have personality than if you come in there looking like Mr. Typical.
- show ur personality (they want someone like themselves)

While a lot of these tips seem self-evident, it’s always great to hear them reinforced. Having these tools in your arsenal is a sure way to blow your competition out of the water.

So for all those job-searchers: Good Luck!

For more tips check this site out.

Past, Present, & the Future acting concurrently

Today’s speaker Wayne McPhail talked to the IMM class about the past, present and future of technology. We can all imagine those huge honking computers of days gone by. Those that you had to build a room around and needed a degree to operate it. But you never quite grasp how much computers and computing memory has changed in a few short decades.

In 1969 man first conquered the moon. The computer technology that took man to the moon can now be found in your typical Hallmark musical card. Yeah, that’s right, a flipping card can hold that much technology– technology that in 1969 seemed to be, well, advanced.

But once you hear this information it doesn’t seem that crazy. Wayne clues us in that in general computing power doubles about every 24 months. So from 1980 when the first ‘personal computer’ was really marketed to 2008 we have 4 million (let me write this out: 4,000,000) times more memory! Insane.

So we’ve gone from the past to the present, but what about the future? Well, Wayne tells us that in order for change to occur there needs to be ‘disruptive innovation’. This disruptive innovation always supplants low quality versions first. Take for example the digital camera. When it first came out it was such low resolution and bad quality that those avid film based photographers were like “WTF? You want me to give up my camera for a digi?”. But because digital photography (and technology) has become better, it has now surpassed traditional cameras. Kodak has basically become irrelevant and they don’t even MAKE film rolls anymore. So, it’s technology like this that will lead the way for new ideas and innovation.

Wayne predicts that Twitter is (as of right now) a fantastic tool for low quality news that people can give/receive instantly. Newspapers beware!afraid? It seems that the next phase of technology is the movement towards free (well relatively free) bandwidth, storage, and memory. Can I get an Amen!

Who else needs to be

Computers, more specifically, will be completely reinvented (ok not really but the way we interact with them will). Computer interface is going to be focusing on multi-modal usage as well as context aware features (be it through speech recognition or hand gestures). Microsoft’s Surface is already looking at this. We’re not going to be dealing with just keyboards and mouses anymore!

jam3media jam’s with Sheridan IMM students

Today we were lucky enough to get to chat with Adrian Belina of jam3media (and a Sheridan IMM grad). This was by far one of the best talks we’ve had in this course.  As students we don’t quite know what’s going on out there in the industry.  Sure we got the basics, but until you immersed in the scene it’s difficult to know. And jam3media is definitely immersed in it. They’ve gotten recognition for their work from everywhere.

Adrian’s presentation focused on motion and flash giving real world examples such as Little Mosque On the Prairie’s Curling Challenge and Baked Lays: Only in a Woman’s World.

One of the great things in his presentation was that he took the time to talk about jam3media’s work process. Moreover he went through specific examples and talked about what their designers and coders were thinking during construction.

Some of the best animation tips he gave:

His key statement was “animate everything”.

Remember to slice us the work and bring things in separately to cut down on load time

Overlap animations for fluid-ness

If you’re going to animate in make sure you animate out (and animate out in half the time it took to animate in)

FORGET the time line! Use tweens. Tween max, tween lite are best.

“quint”, “expo” and “back” are the best tweens to use. While “bounce” and “elastic” should be used with caution

Personally, I found these tips to be extremely helpful. They all make perfect sense and looking at his examples you can see why jam3media is one of the heavy hitters in this industry.

So now I’m off to learn myself some TweenLite.

The extinction of 3D glasses

…well not quite.

Today, James from Spatial View came in to share his wealth of knowledge about 3D and where it’s moving in the future. Stereoscopy, or as it’s more widely known as 3D-imaging can create the illusion of depth in an image.

Anaglyph images have generally been the traditional way to go in 3D. We’ve all seen them at work. The images look unusual without the fantastic-fashion-statement-making glasses but almost as if by magic, putting on those glasses creates a three dimensional spectacle from a two dimensional image.

These images work by offsetting two layers of colour on the original image and then when the glasses get put on the image gets reintegrated into 3D.

These images have been around for years and one of the reasons for this is because they give you the best resolution. You don’t have to cross your eyes in order to see the image, it takes no skill whatsoever to see the image (once you have the glasses on). For these two reasons alone the extinction of the 3D glasses will be difficult (at least I hope so).

But James didn’t come in here to talk about what’s been done in the past. He came in today to talk about what Spatial View is doing in the 3D world.  Spatial View is focusing on a newer technique called Autostereoscopy. Autostereoscopy, basically gets rid of the need for the 3D glasses (or any other headgear you can think of that creates 3D imaging).

James explained that there are two main techniques of autostereoscopy. The first is the parallax barrier.  There’s a cool video of this effect that can be found here. How the parallax barrier functions is it takes your vision and blocks certain information from an image depending on the angle from which your eyes are looking. On a day to day basis humans don’t normally think about how each eye is actually seeing from a slightly different perspective. The parallax barrier technique plays upon these varying perspectives to create 3D.

The second technique is lenticular. It works similar to holograms. There are lenses over top of a screen that are seen depending on which angle you see them from. I’m going to assume that everyone’s had (or seen) a holographic card at least once in their life.

Spatial View has taken this technique of putting a lens over top of a screen (the iPhone, or a computer screen) then using your webcam it tracks your eye’s movements and with this lens it calibrates the 3D image. What’s great about it is that you can take it off when you don’t want it and put it back on when you do. It’s small and sleek so it wont take up too much room and is completely transportable. Their cutely named 3DeeFlector lets you enjoy a 3D effect at your convenience and without those cool glasses.

To learn more about Spatial View’s 3DeeFlector check out this video.

Gesture Fun

Last Friday the IMM class got a chance to visit Gesture Tek. Gesture Tek’s focus is mostly on, you guessed it, gestures.  The company uses “camera-enabled gesture-driven interfaces for interactive displays” which come in a variety of shapes and sizes.  As pioneers in the gesture industry they’ve come a long way.

What began as a camera capturing a person’s movements in front of a green screen and inserting that person into a game has now moved on to creating amazing visual displays.  Though personally, I still think the ability to put yourself into a game is pretty cool.

The idea of gesture intrigues me.  It has so many possibilities, but then, I suppose it also has many setbacks which need to be overcome.  It’s clear that our world is moving into the world of gesture.  The idea of pointing to something and having that thing understand you’ve selected it and then being able to manipulate it sounds fantastic.  No more mouse clicking!

Yet another great thing Gesture Tek technology can and is used for is physiotherapy.  Their systems can be used to rehabilitate individuals.  The technology projects the users image onto the screen while they perform certain stretches.  It’s great since physiotherapists can prescribe specific exercises and activities for their patients and this technology will let patients know if they’re performing the tasks correctly. Read up on this more here.

One of the coolest things our presenter at Gesture Tek mentioned was the movement to eliminating remote controls for gestures.  To flip channels you’d simply wave your hand in front of the T.V. screen and push through the channels until you’ve reached your desired destination.  Volume could be controlled using up/down movement.  And most importantly, this technology would eliminate the 7 remote controls you currently own.  Obviously, there are some things that need to be overcome: anyone know (or is one) of those people who use their hands when they talk? That could get annoying.

2009 UCU Summer School

THE UKRAINIAN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY’S 2009 SUMMER SCHOOL LISTINGS

The Ukrainian Catholic University’s Summer Schools offer academic learning in an international context. Their purpose, to enable intense study while encouraging growth in personal faith, is done so through forums which promote intercultural understanding and spiritual growth.

The summer programs cover a variety of fields, including both modern and classical languages, as well as theology, art, and leadership – themes closely related to UCU’s mission. Every summer from late May to early August, UCU welcomes some 400 students world-wide who primarily study within the disciplines of liberal arts and social sciences.

School of Ukrainian Language & Culture Summer School

June 22 – July 31, 2009

Each summer, highly motivated students arrive in historic Lviv from all over North America and Europe to immerse themselves in Ukrainian language and culture. Our international faculty consists of experienced teachers of Ukrainian as a foreign language. The program is divided into three or six-week study periods (eligible for University credit) at the beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. No previous experience of Ukrainian is required for this program.

For more information, please visit: www.ucu.edu.ua/uss
 
Application Deadline for sessions beginning June 22, 2009: June 1, 2009
Application Deadline for session beginning July 13: June 30, 2009

The Summer School of Icon-Painting

July 5 – July 25, 2009

The Summer School of Icon-Painting not only teaches participants basic icon-painting skills, but also introduces them to icon theology and reveals the spiritual richness of iconography. Participants will have a chance to experience spiritual growth while working on their own icon and by taking part in the Liturgy of the Byzantine rite.

For more information, please visit: www.ucu.edu.ua
 
Application Deadline: June 2, 2009

The Sacred Music Summer School

August 2 – August 23, 2009

UCU’s Sacred Music Program provides a uniquely spiritual experience for church choir conductors, cantors, liturgical singers and teachers alike. Classes include: liturgical singing, voice lessons, conducting, theology of church singing, history and theory of liturgical singing, etc. All those called to sacred music ministry are invited to apply. Knowledge of Ukrainian is an asset, but not required.

For more information, please E-mail: irmos@ils.org.ua

Or visit: www.ucu.edu.ua

Application Deadline: May 1, 2009

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS – Teach English as a Second Language in Ukraine!

July 3 – July 25, 2009

Interested in teaching abroad? UCU is seeking volunteers for its Carpathian English Summer School 2009. The month-long program offers a chance to live with Ukrainian college students, experience Eastern Christianity, and learn about the new challenges facing this ancient country. No prior knowledge of Ukrainian is necessary.

For more information, please visit: www.ucu.edu.ua

Application Deadline: March 30, 2009