Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Home of the Future - Research

Pixar’s WALL-E to portray our superobese descendants

Pixar may be having second thoughts about the box office impact of portraying future humans as superobese couch potatoes in its future robot-themed animated feature WALL-E.

We previously reported that the plot of the movie takes place 700 years in the future, after mankind so completely trashed Earth’s environment that it had to relocate to spaceships.

In their new orbital home mankind has evolved into huge floating fat blobs.

Now a CalorieLab correspondent reports that he had the opportunity this week to view an early focus group screening of WALL-E in Portland, Oregon, attended by Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook. Our source judged the movie to be very entertaining and well done, despite large sections where the animation rendering had not yet been completed.

WALL-E indeed seems to be making a statement about fitness and the obesity crisis. “It shows a future in which mankind literally spends all day on a giant starship moving around in floating chairs, drinking liquified food from Big-Gulp-esque cups, and forever surfing (and chatting) on chair-mounted video screens,” says the source.

A section of the film reveals the history of mankind’s fall into sloth and fat: “There’s an amazing sequence where the camera pans over portraits of the previous captains of the ship — and we watch as they slowly devolve into amorphous blobs with each successive generation. Will the lethargic humans re-awaken to their possibilities as people? I hate spoilers: you’ll have to see the movie to find out!”

retreived 23/09/09 from http://calorielab.com/news/2007/10/31/pixar-wavering-over-wall-es-portrayal-of-our-superobese-descendants/

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Music Festival Poster

Poster for Music Festival - 'CRANKD'

Week 5 - Music Festival Poster

Music Festival Poster
2. My music festival will be host a number of current popular mainstream rock bands, as well as some local bands. The audience will be comprised of young adults, and teenagers (over 18) who like listening to rock. The festival will be in an open venue at the Telstra Dome. There will be a stage in the centre of the ground and people will congregate around the stage and in the stands. It will be a loud energetic atmosphere, a lot of moshers etc. It is a whole day event, which will start of with some of the local bands and then the bigger international bands will play into the night. There will be bars and cafes open around in the stands.

6. Appraisal
In my poster design, i have used solid line to outline the silhouette of the guitarist and a much softer, glowing line to outline the guitar. It creates the effect that it is a real person, and the guitar creates the effect that it is a big part of this festival. The line in the text is solid, as it contrasts with the background colour it does not need any decorative line.
Shape is used in the silhouette image. After doing research, I found silhouettes to be very popular and effective. The shape used in the text is all solid caps, with some imperfections to make it look more 'grungy'.
The two colour systems i used were analogous and contrast. The background of the silhouette is analogous, and is designed to look like the glow of coloured light from a stage; hence the gradient and the diminishing colour. The main background is black with white text layed over it so that it stands out, aswell as coincides with the whole layout as these are both neutral colours and therefore does not clash with the blue and purple.
There isnt really texture in this design, however the fade of the colour in the centre implies real light. There is some texture in the text, it looks slightly rough which suits the style of music festival.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Ben Harper

One of my favourite musicians, I like this poster because I like the way the designer has formed a realistic picture out of another object, so the audience can see both a tree and the face of Ben Harper.

Week 4 - Positive and Negative Space

Poster Research - Negative Space

• Negative space is used well in this image to create the silhouette. It creates a unique shape from the positve space. There are almost two levels of negative space, within the silhouette becomes negative space to the photographed image also inside.
• Shape is the most dominant design element in this poster, as it creates the silhouette. Line is very precise and neat around the edge of the shape, creating a cutout effect. The colours are contrasting; the black back negative space compliments the lighter coloured image.
• I like this design because I like the use of the silhouette; its not just a plain cutout image it combines shape with a photograph.
• I would like to incorporate some sort of silhouette and use the strong contrast of light and dark in my poster.

• The negative space in this poster design is used to blend in well and become part of the positive space. The negative space starts at the top and continues between the numerous images to become part of the positive space.
• Line and shape are used hand in hand in this poster, some images are comprised of shapes and others are just simple lines. They are not perfect to give a hand-drawn effect. Texture and shading is also created by line, especially on the trees. In terms of colour, apart from the strong contrast with the black and white which is used to identify the positive in negative space, the user is immediately drawn to the title as it is the only coloured element in the whole design, so colour is used to create hierarchy.
• I like the imperfection of this design, I feel the hand drawn images are more effective in connecting with the audience and resembles live music, as it too is not digitally created, it is phyiscally performed each time by musicians. I like how a series of individual images have all combined to create the larger image to represent a usic festival. I also like the colour scheme, it almost as if it’s a spin off of ‘Sin City’.
• I am influenced by the hand drawn images and use of colour to display hierarchy.

• Negative space is used in this poster design to compliment the positive space, by making the sure the positive space is top of the hierarchy. It creates balance because it is not plain and used solely to outline the positive image, it has so design elements to it.
• The first thing that stands out to me in the poster is colour. Within the postive space the colours are complimentary, bright and vivid. It immediately conveys entertainment to the audience. The black negative space also compliments the positive colours as it makes them stand out more and appear brighter. Shape is used within both the positive and negative space. Some of the images in the positive space are just basic simple shapes and in the negative space shape has been used to make the text a bit more interesting. Line has also been used to show texture on the musician/artist in the centre of the poster.
• What I like about this poster is the use of negative space, its not just there to enhance the positive space, it also requires attention. However, some elements are overused, I feel the overlapping text in the negative space is useless and unnecessary and the way the musician/artist has been designed doesn’t tie in well with the design and looks out of place in my opinion.
• I would like to incorporate a similar use of negative space in my poster, apart from the way the ‘experience’ overlaps everything. I like how there is text used in the negative space but its not important to the reader and no meant to be readable, it just adds a good effect.

• The negative space in this poster appears to be just as important as the positive space, therefore a balance is achieved.
• Shape is the most dominant element in this poster. Again it is used to create a silhouette or both the head and the French horns. Line is used more in the negative space, to show the stave and handwritten music. It’s a contrast from the perfect line of the positive space. Colour is used to contrast, bright versus dark. It also helps to bring balance with the negative space.
• Again I like this poster because I like the silhouette effect, but also I like the contrasting negative space and the way it is almost as important as the positive space.
• What I want to include in my poster design is the different contrasts used in this image and also the creative use of the negative space so that it is not just plain.

Contrast

• In this poster design, contrast is used in the different style of line. The line in the text is informal and made to look like it was handwritten quickly, whereas the line in the image of the horse is formal; it is very precise and defined.
• The line and texture in this poster work hand in hand, the precise lines used to create the image of the horse are used to created texture of the horse's hair. In terms of shape, the image has been cropped and placed on a solid colour background, creating a shape around the positive image. The colours are a bit dull however, which i do not find to be very effective.
• I like how this poster is both simple yet detailed at the same time. The whole layout is simple, while the foreground image is detailed.


• Contrast is used in this poster in the type of lines/shape/pattern. The image of the bird is made up of solid shapes, however, its made to look a little more realistic because there is airbrushed shadow and air coming out of from its mouth. The bird is a solid fill colour whilst the rest of the image, (besides the background) is pattern/airbrush.
• I like the way shape has been used in this image, a series of random shapes make up the bigger shape of the bird. I also like the way texture is included; it could have just been the bird on its own but the airbrush texture coming from the mouth brings it to life. In terms of colour, i think this stands out because most colours are complimented by white, as it is a light and dark contrast.
• I think the simplicity of this poster grabs my attention the most. It doesnt look cluttered and is more concerned with the artwork, hence why the text is so insignificant.

Week 3 - Shape

Red Riding Hood Silhouettes
Complimentary
Analogous
Monochromatic

Week 2 - Texture


Textured Red Riding Hood

Week 2 - Colour


Coloured Red Riding Hood
I chose to colour this image with darker, less saturated colours to add to the negative feel created by the lines. The air brush works well with the overdrawn lines, as it implies imperfection and does not make the image look digitally coloured.

Week 1 - Line


Red Riding Hood sketch
The emotion i wanted to create from these lines was a sort of tortured/scary effect. I think that the roughness and overdrawing of the lines displays this quite well, along with so bolder lines.