RockBlog

Wisdom from Neil Gaiman while addressing college art grads:

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

Neil Gaiman Addresses the University of the Arts Class of 2012 from The University of the Arts (Phl) on Vimeo.

http://www.madefire.com/about/

Testing Gifs
http://www.d.umn.edu/~lindb495/LindbeckAnimation.gif
Samantha's gif

http://www.d.umn.edu/~atind001/animation.gif
Eddy's gif

View Twin Ports Arts Align Map in a larger map

Here are some snapshots from the last few years of UMD Art&Design Open Studio Events:
http://www.d.umn.edu/~jrock2/openstudios/

After touring the Art & Design Open Studios on on SATURDAY April 27, 2013, please join us from 6-8pm in the Tweed Museum for the Annual Student Exhibition Opening Reception. Awards Ceremony at 6:30pm with Live Music!

Art & Design's Annual Student Exhibition features creative work across a range of media, including animation, ceramics, digital art, drawing, graphic design, interactive design, motion graphics, packaging design, painting, photography, printmaking, robotics, sculpture and video. The plurality of media and aesthetic approaches represented reflects the diversity of the department's students and faculty. This year's show was juried by Anne Dugan, Curator at the Duluth Art Institute, and Jenna Akre, a Minneapolis-based art director/designer and a 2005 UMD graduate. The exhibition runs April 9 - May 12, 2013 in the Tweed Museum of Art at University of Minnesota Duluth.

http://www.d.umn.edu/~jrock2/imaginary_land.gif

can we post animated gifs to our blogs? yes we can!

The ReMixed-Media Project has multiple steps:

First you contributed to the class Image Bank.

Then you:
1. Used the image bank and your own work to create an Imaginary Landscape with an Organism-Machine.
2. Created an animated gif or cinemagraph using this landscape, or other images of your own.
Next you:
3. Found your favorite image by a famous artist and did 3 mashups of their work with your own work.

4. Explore your own take on digital compositing and remixing using your own aesthetic choices.
Generate multiple digital versions, testing options. Plan ahead to bring ANY images or materials to class that you need to be very productive. Each person will work in their own way... using imagery and content that they prefer.
(In class, I discussed seamless digital compositing vs collage approaches...
Surrealism vs Dada aesthetics, and ways that digital media makes it possible to work in various ways.)

5. Create a Remixed Image for display in the classroom to fill specified size: 20 inches tall by 16 inches wide.
The piece can be built with four 8.5 x 11... or two 11x17 printed pieces... that then get trimmed or image-transferred.
SEE png example file for FORMAT / orientation
GENERATE multiple versions as you work toward the final printed version. (Keep testing and remixing as you go)

6. Experiment with digital image transfer to various materials (such as a range of paper types, or canvas, fabric, wood, silk, glass, metal...)
Transfer your best remix imagery to a new surface.

Links to Remix Concepts / Copyright issues:
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/jrock2/rockblog/cat_remix_culture.html

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/jrock2/rockblog/cat_copyright.html

Links to Tactile / Digital Image transfer techniques:
Techniques
More Tutorials online:
http://www.graphicsfairy-diy.com/2012/01/12-easy-image-transfer-methods-for-diy.html
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/jrock2/rockblog/183837.html#more
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/jrock2/rockblog/cat_tactile_digital_mixed-media.html

Every easel in a life drawing class captures a different angle of the model. This film was created by editing each drawing with the next, moving around the circle of easels. Find out more about life drawing classes at The Book Club visit wearetbc.com
Shot, produced and directed by Wriggles & Robins
Graded by Aline Sinquin at MPC
Sound Mix by 750mph
Music by davidkamp.de
Life model: Clelia Rinaldi

Tuesday March 26 2013 at 6pm in Montague Hall 70

Sharon M. Louden graduated with a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from Yale University, School of Art. Louden's work is held in major public and private collections including the Neuberger Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, National Gallery of Art, Arkansas Arts Center, Yale University Art Gallery, Weatherspoon Art Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among others. Louden's animations continue to be screened and featured in many film festivals and museums all over the world. Her newest animation, Carrier, premiered in the East Wing Auditorium of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC in March, 2011 in a historical program of abstract animation since 1927.

link to her work
http://www.sharonlouden.com/work/

In addition, Sharon recently had a solo exhibition on view of a major installation work entitled Merge, which was made of over 250,000 units of aluminum at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, MN, and was on view from October, 2011 through May, 2012. Sharon was commissioned to make a site-specific work for the Weisman Art Museum that is in dialogue with Frank Gehry's new additions to the Museum.

Many students don't realize that they can animate in photoshop. It's not the same as animating in Flash or After Effects, but you can create a range of movie files (from animated gifs to quicktime movies), without learning an entirely new program.
Try it!
Be sure to watch tutorials for the version of Photoshop you use. (The animation tools are slightly different in every version of Adobe CS...)

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/WSB8C58284-9DEB-44f2-9D8F-7F77594A8CC2a.html

How to make a Cinemagraph
http://blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/how-to-make-a-cool-cinemagraph-image-in-photoshop

How to create frame-by-frame animations in Photoshop:
http://blog.teamthinklabs.com/index.php/2012/02/22/animation-in-photoshop/

Create an animated avatar
http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorial/Create-an-Animated-Avatar-The-Dark-Side-of-Human-Nature/79319

In this video you can witness the power of Photoshop's animation features...

http://www.pxleyes.com/blog/2011/04/were-all-in-this-together-commercial-created-with-photoshop-only/

http://filmmakermagazine.com/66272-zeega-on-new-ways-of-digital-storytelling/

Filmmaker Magazine and MIT Media Lab team up on this series of blog articles about new forms of digital storytelling

Zeega http://zeega.com/

Korsakow http://korsakow.org/
http://korsakow.org/interview-with-florian-about-his-korsakow-show-was-ist-geld-gr-athens-greece-102212/

StoryPlanet https://www.storyplanet.com/index

Klynt http://www.klynt.net/

3WDOC http://www.3wdoc.com/en/

Galahad http://www.theshadowgang.com/

Conducttr

Experimental works of digital media are showcased in New Frontiers
at the Sundance Film Festival
http://filmguide.sundance.org/event/new_frontier

Here is a link to the Moviestorm blog, where they made the announcement yesterday:
http://moviestorm.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/winner-of-moviestorm-bett-2013-future.html

So...Great News...We are going to be getting Moviestorm software for use by Art&Design students at UMD. We won educational licenses... that will be installed in the Digital Arts classroom, the Multimedia Hub, Montague Lab and VizLab.The Moviestorm software will
be good for students interested in 3d animation, digital storytelling, pre-visualization,
game design, filmmaking, and machinima.

What do people do with Moviestorm?

View Movies made with Moviestorm:
http://www.moviestorm.co.uk/community/

More info here:
http://www.moviestorm.co.uk/

Digital compositing is the process of combining two or more images to create a believable illusion. The term is applied to both still photography and CGI film effects. There are MANY tutorials online that take you step by step through the process of creating a digital composite.

Welcome To Berlin Episode I (#Photoshop CS6) Alexander Koshelkov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsmQ7lb28LE&feature=share&list=UUW5QNKHyHpXvxsvkid8aJIQ

Photoshop Cs5: Digital compositing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOOksn-I44E

View the Portfolio of Oliver Wasow
http://www.oliverwasow.com/photographs9799.html

For Fun... view You_Suck_At_Photoshop
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Suck_At_Photoshop_(web_series)

ImageBank Remix : Exercise #1

Use the folder on PUBLIC
ImageBank_Art2016
with subfolders:
Pattern, Texture, Landscape, Machine, Organism

Create a digital composite of a machine-organism in an imaginary landscape.
Use textures, patterns, color, light and shadow techniques to alter the landscape into a believable composite. Please read our Textbook: Digital Art Revolution for step by step compositing tips in excercise 1.

You must use at least a few images from the class ImageBank in this exercise. You are free to use any number of additional images (of your own or from the art2016 ImageBank) to complete the Imaginary Landscape. All photographs and digital images must be original, none can be borrowed from outside sources or the internet.

Please POST Photoshop tips and demos to the comments here!

The term remix often refers to the creative process of sampling and recombining pieces of electronic music to form a new composition. It is also an aesthetic found in literature, visual art, and digital media. The process of cutting up, reordering, and collaging images is prevalent in works by visual artists in the 20th century. Access to digital duplicates makes the process of remixing an even more complex issue for contemporary artists who appropriate images by other artists into their own works.

The term remix often refers to the creative process of sampling and recombining pieces of electronic music to form a new composition. It is also an aesthetic found in literature, visual art, and digital media. The process of cutting up, reordering, and collaging images is prevalent in works by visual artists in the 20th century. Access to digital duplicates makes the process of remixing an even more complex issue for contemporary artists who appropriate images by other artists into their own works.

For the ReMixed Media Project, Please BRING TO CLASS:

Everything you need to be VERY productive...your laptop, your imagebank, your mouse or tablet, your sketchbook. BE PREPARED to work in class on digital remix exercises.

Please BRING your 5 images that you will freely share for remix projects in the class Image Bank on Flickr. These images MUST BE YOUR OWN, they can be drawings, photographs, digital illustrations... any media as long as YOU created them.
Please provide at least one image for each of the 5 categories:
1. Pattern (repetition, deliberate design)
2. Texture (tactile, random, natural)
3. Landscape (wide view of exterior location)
4. Machine (any size, please remove from background)
5. Organism (plant, animal, human, please remove from background)

You will upload to the Flickr group AND share on public folder if necessary.
Title EACH image with EXACT name:
Pattern_yourname.jpg, Texture_yourname.jpg, Landscape_yourname.jpg, Machine_yourname.jpg, Living_yourname.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/groups/2139377@N24/

We will discuss use of this public domain mark for use in the shared imagebank:
http://creativecommons.org/choose/zero/

We will be doing MANY things during the ReMix Project. You will be experimenting with MANY ways of digital imaging, AND then we will test MANY ways of transferring and remixing the imagery onto other surfaces... such as various papers, fabric, ceramic, glass, metal and wood.

Links to Remix Culture / Ideas
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/jrock2/rockblog/cat_remix_culture.html

Creative Commons
http://creativecommons.org

Creative Commons on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

Digital / Tactile Mixed-Media Techniques on this blog
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/jrock2/rockblog/324544.html

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/jrock2/rockblog/183837.html

Erik Loyer will be a visiting artist on UMD campus on TUESDAY...
His Lecture is OPEN to the PUBLIC Tuesday March 5th at 6pm in Montague Hall

Erik Loyer is a media artist and creative director working at the intersection of interactivity, story, music and animation. As a digital media artist he often works in collaboration on creative projects that use emerging media such as iPads and game systems for innovative digital narratives and interactive poetic works... like STRANGE RAIN:

His work has been exhibited online and internationally at venues including Artport at the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Digital Gallery at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Prix Ars Electronica; Transmediale; and IndieCade. Loyer's award-winning website The Lair of the Marrow Monkey was one of the first to be added to the permanent collection of a major art museum, and his serialized web narrative Chroma went on to win the Best Digital Creation award at the Montreal International Festival of New Cinema and New Media.
As Creative Director for the experimental digital humanities journal Vectors, Loyer has designed over a dozen interactive essays in collaboration with numerous scholars including the Webby-honored documentary Public Secrets, and his commercial portfolio includes Clio and One Show Gold Award-winning work for Vodafone, as well as projects for BMW, Sony, and NASA.
He is the founder of interactive design studio Song New Creative, and develops story-driven interactive entertainment under the Opertoon label, including most recently a critically-acclaimed iPhone application entitled Ruben & Lullaby. A recipient of a Rockefeller Film/Video/Multimedia Fellowship, Loyer has a B.A. in Cinema/Television Production from the University of Southern California.

View his work here:
http://erikloyer.com/index.php/projects/

http://erikloyer.com/index.php/projects/detail/upgrade_soul/

Spring 2013 Digital Arts / Mixed-Media Studio:
Please watch this entire documentary film online:
RiP! A Remix Manifesto (it's about 86 minutes)
http://films.nfb.ca/rip-a-remix-manifesto/

Directed by Web activist and filmmaker Brett Gaylor, RiP explores issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century and shattering the wall between users and producers.
http://ripremix.com/

Take notes on what you find most revealing or surprising about the contemporary practice of remix artists. How does the video relate to recent internet blackout/protest and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) legislation?

Prepare your comments (about 150 words) and have them ready to post to the blog here by MONDAY March 11.

Tom Jones / Artist Lecture 6pm
February 5, 2013
http://tomjoneshochunk.com/
Tom Jones is an Assistant Professor of Photography at UW-Madison. He received his MFA in Photography and a MA in Museum Studies from Columbia College in Chicago, IL. Jones' photographs examine identity and geographic place with an emphasis on the experience of American Indian communities. He is interested in the way that American Indian material culture is represented through popular commodity culture, e.g. architecture, advertising, and self-representation. He continues to work on an ongoing photographic essay on the contemporary life of his tribe, the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin. He is critically assessing the romanticized representation of Native peoples in photography through the reexamination of historic pictures taken by white photographers. This reassessment questions the assumptions about identity within the American Indian culture by non-natives and Natives alike. Jones is a co-author on the book "People of the Big Voice, Photographs of Ho-Chunk Families by Charles Van Schaick, 1879-1943." Jones' work is in the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian, Polaroid Corporation, Sprint Corporation, The Chazen Museum of Art, The Nerman Museum, and Microsoft.

Here is where you will post the short description of something interesting you have recently noticed in Digital Culture. On Monday in class we will post to the blog. Please include the complete URL (http...) and tell us what you have noticed and credit your source. Thanks!

Blog Assignment:
Please Watch this PBS FRONTLINE show Online
Digital Nation
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/

Watch the entire 90 minute show in segments online.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/
Make notes and write a short reflection on what you found most interesting or surprising about the show. (about 150 words)
Save your comments and I'll have you post them to the blog in class on Monday January 28.

Watch The Art of Animation and Motion Graphics on PBS. See more from Off Book.

Posted on Brainpickings blog
The Science of Lucid Dreaming and How to Learn to Control Your Dreams, Animated
by Maria Popova
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/10/12/the-science-of-lucid-dreaming/

http://kinecttopin.fox-gieg.com/
Experiments in Open Source + After Effects. Home of KinectToPin, an application and UI Panel designed for Kinect motion capture for After Effects. Also home to the more experimental FaceToPin for facial tracking animation and AEwriter for generating AE keyframes in Processing with open source algorithms.

software created by
http://www.fox-gieg.com/