Final Project!

After countless hours, I've finally finished! I'm so happy with it! When I got my link images to work I couldn't stop clicking it to see if it worked because I loved it haha. I can't wait until critique and see what everyone else thinks.

  

I decided to add Snoopy into this because I forgot one important thing, what influenced Kurtz in the first place. I thought it'd be a cute little addition to it since the space to the left of the text box was just plain and boring. In the process of learning how to make the images link boxes, I learned how to make another tab pop up instead of it just doing it in the same tab. I'm glad I found this out because I hate it was link do that and you have to do it another way. 

Last Week of Class Progress

So, as of now, I am feeling a lot more confident in my coding which I'm so glad of. I finally got the whole layout of it, pretty much, figured out now. I really did change a good amount of the design from the original sketches, which were probably for the better. I feel like I was able to capture the overall essence for Kurtzs' style and artwork. I'm honestly happy that I was able to pick him as my artist because I love his style and webcomics are just awesome in the first place.

Here is my progress so far at the end of the week:

I just need to finish the synopsis of PvP, add the text into the scroll (where his notable achievements are going), and making the Facebook and Twitter logos links. This coding stuff is pretty freakin' hard. Though, it is really challenging and it's a nice change of pace besides the fact that finals week is coming up.

Interactive Design Conference

On November 22nd (which was my birthday), Professor Pannafino and some of his students were able to put together this really cool conference about different types of interactive design. They were able to get four speakers together for this conference and they all have extremely different backgrounds:  Melissa Zane who is the Vice President at Godfrey, Kent Eisenhuth who is a UX Art Director at D3 Infragistics, Teresa Wagner who is a Web Designer at Neo-Pangea, and Vinoad Senguttuvan who is a Data Scientist at High 5 Games. To me, Zane and Wagner were the two that interested me the most. Zane told us a lot about leadership skills and techniques on how to approach creative designs. I felt like I learned valuable information from her. Wagner seemed like a sweetheart and very knowledgable about using space creatively in effective ways. Since she is a web designer, its very important to understand that you can't put a lot of information/graphics within the given space but you need enough for the viewer to not feel disappointed and cut short about the design/information. It was a great experience to be able to have people from extremely different backgrounds of the design world. I do wish that I was able to see more of their work and have them talk about said work like the process, inspiration, what the client wanted and what they did to make the design better, etc. But, overall, it was really cool to have those different backgrounds of design and have a bit more understanding for the fields that the speakers are currently in.

The Week of Thanksgiving Break

So, I have been having a lot of trouble trying to figure out my concept and I keep throwing out ideas of what I want to do with my artist webpage. I want to do certain things but then I don't like it and I try to do it in the code and it just does not turn out what I want it to be. I have pretty much started over about 4 times now. I'm having a hard time just trying to figure out what I want to do and keep starting over and not liking it. I think I have what I want to do though now... I'm going to have to work my butt off though this coming week since I was having such a hard time trying to figure out the initial design of everything. I do not have the sketches of what I did though because I got so frustrated with them and threw them out. I was just not happy with the placement of things the first time around... I have pretty much went with my initial design because I think it's kind of decent but I'm not all that happy with it. Since I started over, essentially, this is what I have so far...

Scott Kurtz

To start our new project, we were to pick an artist from a list that Professor Pannafino had chosen. From this list, I chose Scott Kurtz, a founding father of the medium of webcomics. Scott is 43, was born in Watsonville, California, March 15th, 1971 and attended University of Noth Texas. When I searched Kurtz on Google Images, the first thing I saw was a drawing from the classic webcomic Penny Arcade. I immediately thought, "That's so awesome! I wouldn't have thought he was a part of this!". I always heard on how nerdy and geeky Penny Arcade was but I never had the chance to read it. Going further into my research, I found out he has collaborated with some of the most renowned "geek" webcomics such as: Penny Arcade, The Trenches, PvP (Player vs Player), and Table Titans. PvP and Table Titans are actually his own comics. PvP has been running every week day since 1998 and Table Titans, every Tuesday and Thursday, since 2013. Table Titans, to my understanding, is a spin-off of PvP with reoccurring from the PvP series. It follows the endeavors of the characters Alan Fischer, Andrew Drummond and Val Bronzebottom while playing Dungeons & Dragons. Sometimes the story does stray away from Dungeons & Dragons and goes into their actual lives outside of the game. Not to forget, Kurtz has also been working with Wizards of the Coast, publisher of D&D, to release official rules, books, merchandise, and much more to add on to the experience of Table Titans. Another aspect of Table Titans that is really neat is that there is other information that is released weekly like Bestiary, information about all of the monsters (every Monday), Proclamations, random news and tips for the comic and anything related to D&D (every Friday), and Tales from the Table, fan submitted stories about D&D (every week day). This comic has be really interested because I have played D&D before and it's pretty challenging. Whatever our next project is, I know I would like to play off of his Table Titans comic in some way. Scott has also received awards for his comics and artwork. He won the Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic in 2006 and the Harvey Award for Best Online Comic Work in 2010. The awards were both for his PvP comic. There is also a website called UStream where Kurtz streams himself drawing and talking about PvP. Kurtz seems to be very active since he is involved with a couple of webcomics other than his own. He has been in the webcomic business for over fifteen years. From reading some of his Tweets, it looks like he is an avid gamer as well. This definitely adds to his character and what influences him on a daily basis. It's really nice to know that he tries to communicate with his fans through social media so everyone knows what he likes, dislikes, and what he is thinking. Overall, I'm glad I chose Scott Kurtz. His style is really great. Each comic series he works with all have the same kind of artistic tone to them and you know that it is his work.

Works Cited
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Kurtz
http://pvponline.com/about
http://www.tabletitans.com/new-readers
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/pvptv
http://archive.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4news/20121207

Below is the MoodBoard I have created for Scott Kurtz.

Week 11A

In class, on Monday, I had worked on my resume page and watched the Don't Fear the Internet videos, #5 and #6. I had also gone through about half of the HTML_101 pdf file exercises. Here are all of the exercises from said HTML_101 file.

All these exercises were about were simple HTML code that we had experimented with our resume page. It was just a quick overview of everything we had recently learned. From the last class, however, we started to learn about CSS elements and how to externally use them with HTML files. So, from what I learned from that I added the new elements to my resume page.

The videos I had watched after adding the CSS elements to my resume page had mainly just explained a bit more about CSS in general. Inline, external, and internal. They said that the best way of adding CSS elements is by the external way. You do this by making you HTML file and adding <link rel: "????" href="?????"> in the <head>. The second video discusses the differences between what Classes and IDs are. Classes are more specific than IDs but IDs are easier to use than Classes only because you need to put more Class tags than ID tags.

Week 10A

So, today we started learning about code! More importantly, HTML code. We went on a brief discussion on what the internet truly is and what it consists of like servers, server hosts, websites, what kind of files are shared between computers, etc. It's such a broad concept so we tried to narrow it down in terms of what to actually study for for our test and what to keep track of. Pannafino showed us how to "hand write" code through different programs such as, Komodo Edit, Sublime Text, and TextEdit. We're literally just scratching the surface of coding and it seems like I have a long road ahead of me. Though, I am glad we're learning this because I've always wanted to know the basics of coding so now I can say that I know some! Below is the in class exercise of practicing with HTML format.

Work In Between 9A and 9B

So here is the finished product! I'm pretty happy with it. The placement of everything is a lot better than the last one. I feel like the logo saying what Link is "saying" is a bit more dynamic. I fixed the color on the screen a bit more for the cord and the webcam to pop out more. I also made a background for it... I just felt like it needed some more depth to it and that is why I decided to do that.

Here are the images that I used in my project as well.

Week 9A

Today, we had our progress up on our computers, left a piece of paper in front of them, and went around the classroom (five minutes at a time) to leave comments to improve on our concept. I'm really glad we did this because I feel like I needed some major feedback and I got it! I was also able to scan the image for my project (seen below).

I am using Link in it. I absolutely love the character Link and he looks pretty shocked so I feel like it will work really well. Actually, I think it did! Here is what I finished during class/last night.

I still feel like I have a lot to work on in terms of composition so we will see how it turns out for the next class.

Week 8 Outside

This weekend I experimented with the purple background for the project. Here are 4 variations below.

I really love working with this brush and the scattered effect it creates. The two things I need to do right now is scan the image I found in an issue of GameInformer and fix the color of the computer screen. I'm really hoping I can get great feedback in our next class on Monday.

Week 8B

I was not in class today due to being sick. I had heard from a classmate that we had gone over our 25% completion of our project and had done a critic on them in class.

This is what I have come up with so far. I feel like I should fix up the highlights and shadows so far. However, overall, I do not know if the composition is good. I feel like I should have the computer a little bit more in the middle and the logo should be smaller. I like the black background I made for the computer screen because it bring the screen forward into space. I may want to fix up the the actual background for it. It may be a bit too frantic.

Week 8A

We didn't have class today due to Fall Break. I have made a bit more progress with the project concerning the background for it. I have chosen to do a purple background because one of Twitchs' colors is purple. I'm not sure if I want to incorporate black into it but I will probably experiment with it. This is the background I have come up with so far. A friend of mine let me use his brush concept that he had made in Photoshop.

Week 7B

We quickly went over screen resolution in class today. Pannafino showed us how to change our resolution on Mac computers. By showing us how to change the screen resolution, he then transitioned into our 404 error page project. He told us how large our resolution is going to be. Our background for our project is going to be the initial resolution and then we are using a type of code that will duplicate it. Pannafino is giving us this code so he does not have to give more class time to show us all about coding and such.

The image above is what I have so far for the concept. I plan on taking the "logo" and putting it at the bottom with the direct links to the homepage, browsing the streamers, and the help button.

Week 7A

Today, we turned in our ad integration. The ad integration was basically a warm up for photoshop for our next project that Pannafino had announced today. We are going to make a 404 error page for a website of our choice. After looking at different websites, I have decided to make a 404 page for Twitch. Twitch is a game streaming website and I love going on it to watch all of the latest games that come out. Twitchs' 404 page is quite boring (Image below).

For the project, we are to incorporate a scanned image, a photo, and a graphic created in Illustrator. The whole project is to be done in Photoshop.
Right now, this is the concept I have come up with.

I want to take a picture of my computer screen and my webcam and make that the premise for it. I want to put a character from a video game into it somehow but I haven't figured that out yet. All I know is that I want to scan that character from an issue of GameInformer.

Week 5A

Today I worked more on my monthly wallpaper for October. Everything is mashed together and is pretty chaotic at the moment. Though, after talking to Professor Pannafino, I think I can make this head in the right direction. I am planning on moving the October down to the bottom to where the tree's extended line is. The dates are too close to the edge and he mentioned it would be better to bring that in closer. I am stuck on whether or not i want to get rid of the gradient in the corner or get rid of the blue as the sky. There is still a lot of things I need to decide on what to change or keep.

Week 3a; MindMap & MoodBoard

Today we went over our first project, the Desktop Calendar Wallpaper. We are using the month of October and our idea has to relate in some way to this month. So, to help the class, Professor Pannafino showed us a new technique called MindMapping. This method is used to broaden a central idea that you have to make something a bit more creative. Pannafino had mentioned that if it takes you more than five seconds to think of something related, you're thinking too hard. The point of this process is to make you think fast and creatively, no matter how silly it may be. Below, I have posted an example...

After making a MindMap, we then went over what a MoodBoard is. A MoodBoard is essentially a collage of ideas and concepts that you create based on a branch of the MindMap. The MoodBoard is usually the base of your project and shows others in what direction you want to head in.

Logo Recreation; Week 2b

For homework this weekend, we were assigned to recreate logos that you see everyday in Adobe Illustrator. I have had experience with Illustrator before but this was a really nice refresher on things. My two favorite ones would have probably been the Apple and FedEx logos. They were both fairly simple and colorful. The most challenging ones were the NFL and the Chili's logo. There were so many curves and both have much more detail than the others.