The Flash file for Assignment 3 can be found here.
My initial concept for this poem was to have a small person formed of the words, which can be viewed here. This became problematic for me in the final version because I felt that the words wouldn’t be viewable or have the same impact if crushed into the constraints of a single scene in Flash. I decided to experiment with the idea of spreading each word or group of words in their own scene, giving me the space to branch out and try to represent each word with a series of movements I felt that were associated with the word. I revised the end of the poem from the mockup to the final version because I wanted to leave less closure (perhaps for a more open interpretation) and be less ominous with the poem’s intent. I did decided to leave the text as black and white for the final version to perhaps emphasize each word as if it were a command, but I did make “Enjoy it!” colorful to provide a bit of festivity, coinciding with the phrase’s meaning.
It’s been years since I’ve used Flash (and even then, it was rather basic – I had to relearn the entirety of the program for this assignment). Even then, I enjoyed this assignment and I hope I conveyed my message as well as I intended.
(The embedded image is a thumbnail linked to the full-sized version.)
My brainstorming for assignment 2 began slowly. I finally decided upon the subversive advertisement for a casino to mock the advertising structure of the “you’ll always come out a winner” mindset. These ads always seem to have an original slogan, photos of smiling players/winners in the casino, and bright, festive colors – complete with a sensation of riches and royalty. All of these tend to contribute towards a feeling of overwhelming ease in regards to winning; simply show up and walk out with millions of dollars in cash.
For instance:
This image portrays exactly that; simply drop a chip and win cash and prizes! Another along the same lines:
This image indicates you can win a wad of cash by simply continuing on the given highway and showing up at the casino – no skill or luck involved.
With this in mind, I began to work on my design. I incorporated a simple, catchy slogan to unite existing images I found using Google Image Search of people winning in various casino environments: roulette, craps, slots, etc, along with the idea that the casino helps “create winners and memories”. With these images easily manipulated into old-school Instant Polaroids, I tacked on a noticeable (and in retrospect, far too large) disclaimer proclaiming the odds of winning $1 million in a casino.
(The embedded image is a thumbnail linked to the full-sized version.)
This self-portrait of mine began with a simple pun of portraying my inner workings: my “sole”, so to speak. This led to the idea of a shoe, and objects therein which I can identify with. I soon chose to only contain objects in this shoe with some kind of hobby of mine, be it movies, games, Apple-related content, iPhone, music, transportation, electronics, etc; the reason behind this was that since I feel most identifiable with these objects that represent my hobbies, they belong closest to my “sole”. Anyone who wants to get me talking can ask me about these objects or hobbies, and thus can learn more about who I am and my core values. Surrounding the shoe’s environment is the abstract rendering of reality – a cartoony nature where the Sun has a goofy grin, and the grass color is unnatural. This is to represent a lack of grounding in reality. I’m a rather aloof person at times, and my humor can sometimes be rather childish. I hope the expression the Sun wears can relate that. However, it is not a simple surrounding the shoe sits in (no child could draw that “childish” drawing), which I relate to the world I live in; it’s complex. I chose to retain the colors as bright and vibrant as they are to depict my cheerful personality and my love for fun and laughter. I’ve had a bit of experience with Photoshop before, yet I decided upon preserving blur artifacts to underline the subtly abrupt changes in my life and that my life and my “sole” itself is not perfect.
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