Last Day of Class

Today was out last real day of class. We decided to take the final exam on our actual last day instead of taking it over finals week. We came to class and got everything we need to know for the test and then that was it. I finished my Deconstruction ad already so I got to leave early.

Deconstruction Ad

For the final ad, I decide on using the animation that breaks apart and comes back together. Instead of just stopping at that, I added a little something extra. Once the ad breaks apart. It comes back together in the end. There is an extra step included. It will still run on a loop, but it is more interesting than just coming together and separating again. The site would not let me upload the animation. Instead, I have uploaded a picture of the original advertisement.

Deconstruction Ad

On Friday, I created a second animation with my advertisement. Now I have to decide which one is better. I need to figure out which ad fulfills all the parts of the assignment. In class, I used layers and separated the text and boot. For the second ad, I made the text and boot come together by spinning from opposite corners. Next, I reversed it and made them spin out. Lastly, the two images glide along and come together in the middle. The Sunsilk bottle also appears in the lower right hand corner. I cannot decide which ad I like better. I don't know if I should use the ad that spins the entire time, or the ad that spins and glides. Well, I will decide by tomorrow morning when I upload my ad in class.

Deconstruction Ad

For the second day in class working on our project I decided on an ad. I am going to use a Sunsilk ad. It is an Anti-Frizz ad. It is a picture of the stiletto boot. Inside the boot reads "My frizz is so wild even a dominatrix couldn't tame it." At the bottom of the ad is a little anti-frizz Sunsilk bottle. First, I separated the text and the boot and then made them each movie clips. Next, I made the bottle its own movie clip. I put all three movie clips together and motion tweened them. The boot and text spin clockwise and the bottle spins counter clockwise. They spin at different times, and then come together and then at the end, they explode. It came out well for my first time. I do not know how to do a lot on Flash though. I do not know how to do the shape tween. Once I learn how to do more on Flash, hopefully my ad will get better.

Deconstruction Ad

Today in class, we began our final project. It is the Deconstruction Advertisement. We will be using Photoshop and Flash. First, we take the graphics apart in Photoshop and animate them in Flash. I am going to use a Red Bull ad. It is a picture of a genie, a lamp, and a man drinking Red Bull. I am going to animate the tail of the genie. I am also going to try to move the lamp so it looks like the genie is coming out of it. I have the first part of the project done. I have to wait until the next class to start part two.

Flash

Today in class, we started learning how to use Adobe Flash. We started learning how to import files to the library and how to create animation. I got confused with it some and I was having a hard time. When I did it the first time, I used the motion tween. The second time I tried doing it with the shape it was not working. Instead of getting the arrow to show animation, I got dashes and nothing happened. The picture just disappeared and there was no animation. I am going to have to keep working on it and practicing. I will figure out how to get it working.

Political Ad Recreation

The first ad that is posted is the original Camel No. 9 cigarette ad. It reads Light and Luscious. The second ad is my recreation of the Camel ad. It reads Light and Lethal. I only changed one word but it gets the point across. Smoking obviously is bad for you and kills you. With changing luscious to lethal it creates an entirely different mood. I used the same text and colors to create the new message. It goes along with the original ad and it looks like it belongs. I used both Photoshop and Illustrator to recreate this ad.

Political Ad Recreation

Today in class, we got a new project. It is an extension of our ad recreation. We have to find an ad and then change the message. I chose a Camel cigarette ad. It is for their No. 9 cigarettes. I started working on the ad during class time. I am going to change the slogan on the bottom. The original ad reads "Light and Luscious." I am going to change it to "Light and Lethal." I am planning on finishing the ad Thursday in class.

Ad Recreation

The first ad that is posted is the original Hpnotiq ad from a magazine. The second as posted is my recreation. To make the recreation I used both Photoshop and Illustrator. I changed the background and pictures of the bottle and glass in Photoshop. I did the text in Illustrator. It was difficult finding a good background picture. I had many options and then all of a sudden I found the blue and white one. It was perfect because it was the same colors as the original ad and the objects in the ad. I think my recreation came out well. In the beginning, I started with a different ad and after it was almost done, I went back and changed it. I am much happier with my new ad. It came out well. I am excited to see what else we will have to create.

Vector Study

While working on my project Friday in class I found it hard using Illustrator. I could not figure out how it worked. Finally, I got it working and I decided I did not like my ad. I changed it to an Hpnotiq ad. I can change little things about it to make it mine. I started using Photoshop and in class on Tuesday, I will finish it in Illustrator. I will also need to use the scanner in class, because mine is not big enough. I have picked an elongated ad. I like this project because it teaches us about the differences in Photoshop and in Illustrator.

Vector Study

Today in class, we learned about vectors and Adobe Illustrator. I liked using it. I actually liked it better than Photoshop. You can do more, especially with text. I started the project we were assigned. I tried finding a conversational ad in Cosmopolitan. I scanned the ad onto my computer. Next, I found text that looked like the original ad. I twisted it and changed the colors. I also took pictures from the ad. I used the picture of the leaves and the picture of the bottle. I hope that what I have so far is on the right track.

ID Tag

When I was trying to figure out an ID that would represent me the first thing I thought of was FRIENDS. It is my favorite show and I watch it every day. There is also another reason. I love my friends and I love hanging out with them. Friends are something that represents me throughout. Friends are personal to me. I decided to use my name in the FRIENDS font and logo because it is the best thing to represent me. While making this tag I used the layering effects, free transform and shapes.

Abstraction

I looked for an example of abstraction in Cosmopolitan magazine because I read it all the time. There is a VO5 ad about their Extreme Style line of hair products. There is also a TV commercial about this line of products. In the print ad, on one side, there is a man and woman standing in an elevator with boring hair. On the right side of the ad, both the man and woman have their hair styled in crazy ways. In the TV commercial, both people have boring hair, and after using the VO5 products, their hair is styled and is no longer boring. In these two ads, there is a promise of stylish hair. If you use their Extreme Style line of products, you will have the hair you always wanted. When I look at the ad, I think about my hair and how I wish my hair could look like the people’s in the ad.

High Culture vs. Low Culture

High and low culture can also be in the form of magazines. The high culture magazines are the expensive, thick, and "high class" magazines. Examples of this type of magazine are Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Glamour. These magazines have a lot in them. They include beauty, fashion, real life stories, health and love. In society, all the rich and fashionable women are the ones walking around with these magazines. They are looking at the new beauty secrets and the new fashion trends. The lower classes of people who are not concerned with fashion are buying more magazines like US Weekly and Star. All these magazines have in them is gossip and some celebrity fashion. These are all about celebrities and everything that they are up to. These magazines are cheaper and much thinner. The gossip queens are the ones buying these types of magazines.

High Culture vs. Low Culture

Pop up ads and ads tailored to specific interests can be defined as high and low culture. The low culture ads would be the pop ups. They occur randomly when you click on a website. The ads can be about anything. Some are chances to win prizes, others are games, and some are simple questions to answer. They have nothing to do with the website that has been clicked on. On the other hand, there are ads that will tailor to a person's interests. For example, if I were interested in the beach, the ads on that site would be about vacation destinations and travel deals. This makes the ads more personal and the people interested in them are more likely going to click on them. Having ads tailored to a person’s likes and interests is more of a high culture.

Encoding and Decoding

As I was reading the encoding and decoding section, the part about Who Wants to Be a Millionaire interested me. I never would have looked so far into the show. All I saw was people who wanted to win money, and had a shot if they knew trivia and had a great amount of knowledge. I guess I did not watch it enough to realize that mostly American white males were on it majority of the time. I do remember when the first person won a million though. He was in fact an American white male. There might not be anything wrong with that though because if they changed the type of question for when a women or a different race went on the show that would take away from the value. I think if they tailored the questions to the certain contestant when he or she was up it would not be fair to the others. Each person should get the same type of questions no matter whom they are.

Animated Ghost

My ghost animation was difficult. I had a hard time working with Photoshop. At times, the program went all funny and my animation stopped working. After I finally got it to work, it turned out pretty good. It was fun to create this moving picture. The ghost travels around in a circle. (Click on the picture to view the animated ghost.) I hope to go more in depth with it soon. Maybe next time I will try moving the tail back and forth, or moving the arms up and down. I also uploaded the animation to the e learning page. The animation works on there and you can see the ghost in action.

Intended Meaning

There is no way to know how a person will interpret or react to an image. Everyone thinks and feel different things. No two people will interpret one meaning the same way, unless of course it is a well known image such as a stop sign or the men and women signs for the restroom. This makes it difficult for advertisers to portray a message. They do not want their audiences thinking the wrong thing, and getting the wrong message and therefore losing the consumers business. They can never have full control over the images they produce. Overall, it is solely up to the reactions and interpretations of the audience.

Pixel Art Icons

For my pixel art icons, I chose a Halloween theme. I thought it would be fun since fall is starting and we are not too far away from Halloween. I chose the candy corn to represent the actual candy and trick or treating. Everyone has candy corn around Halloween. I do not even like it that much but I will still have a little. I chose a ghost for the spooky factor of Halloween, and I chose the pumpkin because everyone has to have one of those for this holiday. I liked using Photoshop for this project, even though it was a little difficult at times. I started out using Gimp and then I moved over to Photoshop.

Unseen Media-Junk Mail

I check my email all the time, and almost each time I check it I have junk mail. I do not know how it is sent to me, because most of the time it is not even addressed to me. In addition, when I subscribe for something online junk email always comes along with it. I will then unsubscribe to the emails, but they still somehow keep coming. What is the purpose of junk emails? They are sent to everyone, yet no one responds to them.

"This Is Not A Pipe"

While reading chapter 1, the representation section stood out to me. I thought it was interesting reading about Rene Magritte, The Treachery of Images. If I looked at the painting, I would see a pipe. I would say this is a pipe. I would not think anything about representation or the painting being a representation of a pipe. I like how the artist adds text to the painting saying, “This is not a pipe.” As the text says, it is not a pipe itself; it is a representation of a pipe. It shows the relationship between words and images.

Unseen Media-Directories

Shopping is one thing I love to do. I go to the malls around here and at home. Of course, in a mall there are advertisements all over the place. The advertisements and types of media I do not really notice in the mall anymore are the directories and the ads that are located on them. This type of media has become unseen to me because I know where the stores I like are located therefore I do not have to use them. The directories in the mall would be the medium. The actual content is the words, images and diagrams located on the directories. The message or the purpose of directories is to make it easy for shoppers to locate stores throughout the mall. Directories also advertise movies, TV shows, and products, etc. Sometimes directories can also be located on vending machines.

Unseen Media-Billboards

After the last class, I realized I had to go back and rethink my unseen media. I thought about it and I figured out some media that I never really noticed before. Every time I drive home from school, there are billboards on two of the highways. The billboards are the medium. The actual content on them are the written words and images. The message of the billboards is to advertise products for increased sales and awareness. You can learn about the product and then they become stuck in your mind. The billboards give products appeal and it makes people go out and buy them.

Unseen Media

As I was reading the news today I noticed some of the ads. I felt like none of them applied to anything I needed or was interested in. There were ads perfectmatch.com and Home Funding. I feel the reason that I do not see this type of media, is not only because I do not read the news, but also because the ads that are shown do not pertain to a person my age.

Unseen Media

When I was asked the question, what media is not seen to me, I was stumped. After thinking about it for awhile I realized that there are lots of different types of media I do not see. The reason is because I am never exposed to them or they do not interest me. Next, I started to think further about what types of media I do not see that I have now recently started to notice, or at least want to start. That brought me to the news. The news has become a forgotten piece of media to me, along with the things around it. I never watch or read the news, whether it is on the TV, in the newspaper or on the internet. I do not notice the commercials on TV, the print ads is the newspaper, or the web ads on the internet. They are forms of the media I hope to notice in the future. I am going to start reading and watching the news. Once I have more exposure to the news, the media around it will begin to pop out at me.