Assignment 10A

Freak Factor Link

At the basic level, this article basically just says "don't spread yourself too thin." It gives several great suggestions on how to improve pretty much every aspect of your life, no matter what that may be. You should focus on your strengths, instead of attempting to improve your weaknesses. Since they are likely to have been our weaknesses for our entire lives, it's difficult for us to change course. You can't teach a old dog new tricks, after all. It is a good idea to exploit your strengths for maximum effectiveness, even if those strengths may appear weird or odd at first to you or others. It would also behoove you to focus your effort on one task at a time. This is one area that people often go wrong when working on multiple projects. They usually work on one for a little while, then switch to another, and so on and so forth.

#5 - Building on your Strengths
This is one area that I found to be extremely interesting. It is a very good suggestion, and probably the simplest we could possibly exercise. We often will achieve success while working with our strengths, so that will boost our self-esteem and push us to try even harder. Nobody can have high morale if they are constantly failing, perhaps unless they are learning from such failures. I know that I have a great amount of strength in the area of creativity, but sometimes have a difficult time in memorization of facts. Based on that weakness, you would think that I would be a bad test taker. This is surprisingly not the case, as I try to integrate the memorization in a creative way that I will actually remember. I also do very well in the story making aspect of video game development, so I hope to focus on that.

#3 - Flawless: There's Nothing Wrong with You
I never really thought about this before, but I have an equal weakness to every strength that I possess. My creativity is offset by low memorization skills, my strategic mindset is offset by low body strength, and my leadership is offset by fear of failure. I found it very interesting when this was brought up, because I had never really considered it before. Just as every reaction has an equal and opposite reaction, so to do strengths and weaknesses.

#8 - Freak: The Power of Uniqueness
People are often afraid that they will be rejected for being different. This is attention that can be used in a positive manner though, any publicity is good publicity. It is each person's individual quirks that make us unique and attract attention. If we weren't all a little bit freaky, life wold be very boring indeed. Like it said, the people who built the leaning tower of Pisa brought immense tourism value to the area completely by accident. Happy accidents are something else that adds to our own individuality. I don't consider myself to be normal in any way, and I am extremely proud of that fact. I am proud of my own unique creativity, and I am glad to have had the chance to expand upon it for MDIA 203.

Assignment 9B

Collapsus Link

Assignment 9A

Assignment 8B

Nathan's hero/villain combination was pretty humorous. I wouldn't necessarily consider a worm to be the best of superheroes, but I suppose it works. The brightness of both scenes are very high, which suggests that both characters are outside. This makes sense since they are both outdoor animals. The worm has several very bright color hues, which suggests that he is a good guy. In contrast, the bird is almost completely black, with no white saturation at all, which suggests that he is evil. Generally, evil characters are represented by dark coloration, which is a far cry from the worm. The two characters share an affinity of upwards and downwards movement, but there is a contrast in the exact nature of such movement. The worm reminds me of a character from a video game I used to play way back when I was a little kid. The game was called Earthworm Jim, and it was about a superhero worm similar to this one. Earthworm Jim's mission was in text, and all of his motives were clear to the player. On the other hand, this worm's motives are subtextual. You would assume that he defeats birds, but you are not wholly sure as to why exactly he fights them. It was explained that he fights them to protect the rest of his worm brethren, but we wouldn't have known that for sure without explicit talk about the subject.

MacKenzie had both the hero and the villain in her animation. She used basic stick figures, and the hero looked as if he could fly. I could tell the difference because of the shapes used. The hero had a round head and the villain had a triangle head. I'm not sure exactly what the square-head figure was...so that led to some confusion. Their movements contrast because the villain just shuffles along, and the hero usually flies. Being stick figures, their bodies share an affinity of shape. Your thoughts need to be active when material is presented, because you are not told what exactly to believe as is the case in didactic material. The sun being in the picture with the hero creates a positive mood, but it's gone when the villain is present. The lighting is meant to be brighter for the hero when he is under the sun. Shadows are meant to be present for the villain, because bad guys are generally represented by dark colors or black.

A third commentary was supposed to be done...but nobody else posted their hero/villain animations.

Assignment 8A

Superhero Audio

Assignment 7

The two videos that our group did were much different from one another. With basically everyone else's videos, they were nearly identical with a few aspects changed around. My video had the same basic joke, but strayed really far from the exact joke setup. Most of the characters in my video used what I would describe as "normal" movement. Billy, on the other hand, used erratic movement that made him appear extremely creepy. It gives the audience a sense that he is suspicious, and should not be trusted. On the other hand, the movement of the characters in Jenna's movie have a bigger diversity. The way one character moves suggests that he is bored, and the way another moves shows that she is nervous or antsy. The movement of the others is all very similar to one another.The space in each video is restricted by the close proximity of the walls, with the exception of the opening scene of my video. My opening scene is outdoors with a wide area, so it doesn't feel restricting like the rest. The space extends far on all sides of the characters, so wide and medium shots are most prevalent. Tension and release is used in my video when awkward pauses appear in the dialogue, and when the camera zooms in on my face as I look creepy. The tension is released when someone speaks again, breaking the odd silence. I implement this several times in my video, but Jenna's does not. Contrast and affinity is present in both videos through the characters. In my video, the male and female characters have similar movements to one another, but drastically different styles from Billy. In Jenna's video, the son and daughter have an contrast of movement, while the mom and dad have an affinity of movement.

Villain Animation