Collapsus Reflection

http://www.podsnack.com/published-players/details/?list&hash=ef7c97fda16bd68ac558c1ea9a396978

Gaming Reflections

Freak Factor

http://changethis.com/manifesto/45.02.FreakFactor/pdf/45.02.FreakFactor.pdf

            For this blog I will be taking a look at David Rendall’s ‘Freak Factor’ manifesto with a focus on three of his nine suggestions.  This article focuses on one’s weaknesses and how they are manifested and how they can be dealt with.  Three basic options are provided for the dealing of weaknesses, fix them, just build on your strengths or do a bit of both.  The stated purpose of this particular manifesto is to offer ways to meet weaknesses to this end as well as to offer up other alternative solutions. 

            The first suggestion I want to take a look at here is number four, forget it: don’t try to fix your weaknesses.  Personally I do feel that this suggestion is valid and I do agree with it.  This fallacy calls for accepting what you are and what makes you you and suggests that you use your weaknesses to understand that you have your limitations and your drawbacks just accept them for what they are, exactly that.  Recent polls have shown and brought to light that a majority of people felt that fixing these weaknesses were essential to personal development.  In reality when these weaknesses are really looked at and studied they are perfect for recognizing and bringing to light ones strengths and complimenting them, allowing you to direct you efforts toward these outlets and really becoming a master at what you excel in.

            The second fallacy I wanted to bring to light and put some focus on here is number five, which calls for building on your strengths.  This fallacy is also a great compliment to the previous fallacy and they both do well to play off each other and really help one to develop the skills they are best suited for.  As the article for this fallacy states one’s strengths are surely their passion and their proficiency so wanting to build upon them really makes the most sense.  The article also points out, rather correctly in my opinion, that if you don’t use your strengths or play to them when you can, then you just might lose them.  It also points out that many people tend to think and believe the opposite of this as well, believing that since these skills are exactly what they are, strengths, then they will always be there.  However, I believe that this is not always necessarily the case.

            The last fallacy and article I wanted to bring light to and focus on is fallacy number eight; Freak: The Power of Uniqueness.  This article brings into focus and discusses the Leaning Tower of Pisa and it’s unintentional success.  The tower that was being built have never been meant to start leaning or to have an unstable foundation, yet despite this millions of people around the world have spent millions of dollars just to come and see a exactly that, a leaning tower.  Also noteworthy, despite having the technology and the power today to straighten out the tower and fix the tilt even today people still wish to instead just leave it be as the marvel it is.  So this fallacy brings into light the false belief that it is good to be normal or to stay within acceptable norms, while the article challenges why being normal when one can be exceptional?

Character Comparisons

http://danwainio.blogspot.com/2011/03/herovillain-drawings.html

Ok so the first character hero and villain team duo that we have here is off of Dan’s blog.  The characters here are The Creep and The Ringleader and one can get a good look at them through the link up top.  First off both of these characters are very well drawn and definitely look like the stepped out of the same world/universe.  First off I would like to focus on the colors of these characters.  First, I’d like to draw attention to The Creep who has a fairly complementary color scheme going on with some element of analogous colors.  Mainly I noticed that the greens and browns do fairly well to complement off each other, especially around the character’s face and chest.  However, the colors are more analogous along the character’s arms as the colors are dulled and darkened and they just seem to flow together.  Touching on Contrast and Affinity as well it is fairly easy to note on how the two characters both have very complementary schemes with The Ring Leader being mostly made up of red with yellow and black highlights and The Creep being predominately brown and greens.  However, despite being the apparent protagonist though The Ring Leader’s color scheme and shadowing still gives him a fairly sinister air and brings to question his potential motives and style of ‘heroing’.  In terms of the affinity of the characters they’re overall drawing style and attention to detail coupled with the shading style leads the viewer to believe that they are from the same world.

http://katieeverett.blogspot.com/2011/02/character-and-movement-hero-and-villian.html

            This next character duo comparison is taken off of Katie’s blog.  This character project is staring Dr. Owen of the protagonist of this pair up and The Rib as the antagonist.  For this pair up I would like to really take a closer look at the differences in Lighting between the two characters.  Most noticeable upon initial inspection, at least what stands out the most, in terms of differences and contrast between lighting of the two characters is interestingly the time of day.  The protagonist, Dr. Owen, is standing in a city in plain daylight with clear skies and the background gives him a sort of clean, innocent kind of feel where he stands.  In comparison The Rib is standing in front of a Las Vegas at night casting an eerier or more sinister glare about the character who is also very slightly obscured in their own shadow.  Also, the recognition of the city of Las Vegas brings about thoughts of ‘Sin City’ and comparisons to the character, as well as musings as to why the character is standing and looking sinister before the skyline of the city.  In a way though this is more of a play on Text and Subtext, allowing the viewer to read more into the character and try to discern what their possible intentions might be.  Also on a side note due to The Rib’s bodily shape, which is a pretty much a perfect rectangle, the viewer also almost immediately and unconsciously comes to the conclusion that his character must be the antagonist of the duo. 

http://carterbeth.blogspot.com/2011/02/character-development.html

            Lastly I’m going to be taking a look at the character duo displayed on Beth’s blog.  This duo is consisted of a duo of, what are most likely, cowboys.  The protagonist of this series consists of The Good, who is paired off against The Ugly who portrays the antagonist of the duo.  It is quite fairly evident that both of these characters most likely came from the same world as they are both, well, cowboys and are dressed in fairly similar attire, despite the look of the characters.  For this comparison in this case I would like to take a look at the more noticeable differences in the characters which are the use of complementary colors to clearly contrast the two characters. The Ugly in this case is dressed predominately dark blues and black, all dark colors.  In contrast The Good is dressed in a light orange shirt, giving him a more innocent and friendlier look.  Also the brightness of the characters varies with The Ugly dressed up in duller, darker colors.  It is also noteworthy to take a look at the more subtle differences in the characters appearances that help to add subtext and allow the readers to make inferences based on them.  What I noticed in terms of this right off the bat was that The Ugly is ‘dirtier’ in his appearance is relation to The Good who is more clean cut and made up of smoother lines.  To this effect The Ugly can be seen as having cuts and tears on his face and in his clothing.

Video Game PPT

SUPERPOWERS and SUPERHEROES!!!....ok so he's a supervillian so sue me

www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/178/superpowers

Multiplex

     

http://www.podsnack.com/playlists/bd43539e749e16d79dacc79bfa393038

Character Developmentation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FhIA9_kdz4&feature=player_embedded

Video Joke Vids

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d7DSkVC218


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP3iviWcK6w

 

            For this blog I am going to be taking a look at and comparing and contrasting our two joke videos and their overall styles.  I will be looking at how they compare in terms of their contrast and affinities with one another.  First off, for this comparison I really want to take a look at and really focus on the use lines in both of these videos.  The first video, which has been set up as though it were a case study, really takes an evident advantage of actual lines as opposed to virtual lines.  They can be seen best in this version of the joke principally as the man in the blue shirt approaches the house and attention is brought to him with the help of the lines on the structures of the houses themselves.  The house in his background brings a good accent with its white lines seeming to point down towards him as he walks across the foreground.  The use of lines are also more clearly exploited as well when the owner of the house exits and is accented within the box of the door frame he is standing in.  The following shot of the blue-shirted man shows another exploitation of the lines as well as the fence to his side stretches off out of the shot and adds a feeling of depth, an exploitation of space.  This exploitation of depth and space is seen again as well in affinity with the other video as the office that the successful attorney is sitting in has vertical lines that stretch off into the background, giving it a grander air, while the office that the non-profit workers are sitting in is closed off and has a cramped feeling about it as it is accented by horizontal lines that seem to close off the room.  In contrast though the second video has more of an exploitation of text and subtext as they is less info given on character interactions and leaves more up to the viewer’s interpretations.

Visual Framing

 

For this particular blog we are going to compare and contrast the two images show to see exactly what kind of affinities and contrasts can be derived between the images.  For this comparison I want to focus primarily on the Line and Shape of the Images, the utilization and exploitation of the Rule of Thirds, as well as the use of Depth Cues out of the given list of topics.  In this case, first off, I want to touch on line and shape of the original image and why it drew me into reframing the image around the center.  First off the shape of the tree is interesting to note as the sides are made up of two curvilinear lines that are in vertical affinity with each other and curve inward somewhat so at a spot where they just even out to come out straight parallel to each other they are contrasted and intersected by the thick dark line in the image that crosses directly horizontally to them.  These are is more of a simple use of lines as well, and this is what really drew my eye to the center of the image here.  Secondly, and also fairly noticeable, is the exploitation of the rule of thirds in this photo.  The way the photographer set up the shot here also place the image I focused on not quite directly in the middle but just below the horizontal, bisecting line and places it in the bottom center box following the rule of thirds, thus bringing further focus to this particular spot.   Lastly I wanted to more quickly touch on some of the depth cues within this image as well, in particular on the photographer’s exploiting of the background in relation to the foreground.  What I mean here is how the photographer put the focus on the foreground and made it stand out a put more by getting the tree in the foreground so that it is shaded darker and illuminated by the background, which as well has been most notably blurred so that it fades more into the back and does not draw the eye as much as the tree that is in focus.  All these factors put together really played into my decision of reframing and the middle focus of my reframe.