19 - Suggestions

1- More demos. great way to evaluate students
2- Group work or in class work. Just something to get students working
3- Get students to create something by applying what they learned.

18 - Second Demo

Post Modernism in Anime

Anime (the video screen format not manga the comic book format) is an interesting medium that is so much different than western animation because it is so much more post modern.

Post modernism is: an ambiguous overarching term for skeptical interpretations of culture, literature, art, philosophy, economics, architecture, fiction, and literary criticism.

Compared to western animation, anime usually have inconsistent art style for added drama, comedy, surreality, etc 

For example FLCL which is one of the landmark titles in anime that started the changing art style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl14LjKysW0

Some artists however as an extension of post modernism, have started embracing deconstructionism which means to take an artistic work or genre and disassemble all its components and rearrange them in an unexpected or skeptical manner to play with the audience's expectations.

One of these notable artists is Akiyuki Shinbo:

  

His art style is one of the most stand out notable ones in the industry. His art style integrates typography and image for create complimentary text and message. He also utilizes stark contrast and surreal imagery to test he viewers understanding (lots of gestalts in his art style)

Here is the opening clip from Maria Holic which he worked on:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOHwVZc6QYY

Shinbo's most popular work is a teen horror rom-com called Bakemonogatari (2009) which is an adaptation of the first set of visual novel teen horror stories from  Nisio Osin's horror stories

  The stories are about a cynical high school loner struggling with vampirism by being a half vampire. The story arcs are about how the protagonist helps girls struggling with supernatural afflictions. the main girl for example had her weight stolen by a crab spirit making her weigh 0.50 kg therefore she weighs herself down with school tools to not attract attention to herself (pictured below).

 

Here is a clip from the first episode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StiLcLiPD1E

Other notable artists are Hirohiko Araki for Jojo's Bizzare Adventure (manga: 1980's, anime: 2012):

Jojo is all about handsome, fabulous, muscular and macho-feminine men. the art sole purpose is to be fabulous resulting in art style filled with melodrama, crazy close ups and zooms and crazy colors and patterns.

Mahiro Maeda for Gankustsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo (2006) which is an adaption of Alexandre Dumas' eponymous work

 

The art style simply put, looks like a beautiful surreal painting. Gankutsuou is still regarded as one of the greatest visual achievements in anime. Very few art styles have come close to this anime's beauty. 

Finally, Hideaki Anno's Neon Genesis Evangelion (TV series: 1995, Movie: 1997, Reboot Tetralogy: 2007, ongiong)

  

I can't talk about post modernism and deconstructionism without talking about Evangelion. EVA is the most controversial anime in history (Anno got multiple death threats after the movie was released). It is also the BIGGEST deconstruction in anime and very high up in general. It broke all the rules, subverted all expectations and raped viewers' minds everywhere. It is one of the defining names in anime. It starts off simple enough but then... well, the simplest way to explain it would be like going down a rabbit hole... except the rabbit hole is humanity's psyche. There have been very few shows as cynical, degrading, nihilistic and spiteful of humanity. Seriously, watch the series then the mind fuck that is the movie and tell me you still care about life and other people! anyway the art style frequently dips into surrealist psychological imagery and religious symbolism.

Here is the clip of the last 2 minutes of the movie. Yeah big spoiler but I believe it is a blessing. I spared you and others a lot of unnecessary madness.

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJwGdefvoJ4

To conclude anime is just as important as western animation like disney. It is NOT for children but mostly for mature audiences. All the animes shown here were aired late night SPECIFICALLY for a mature audience. If you care about visual communication then try anime. You will be surprised at what you will find.

17 - First Demo

What makes a Story Memorable?

Selective exposure and perception is something embedded with in each of us to certain degrees. this selectivity of ours makes us a complicated audience when it comes to media. Media makers from all the media industries strive to grab our attention and also KEEP it. Most of the time, it's easy for them to get our attention however they have a much harder time keeping it. 

In this demo I talked about how certain elements media makers use to grab our attention but fail at keeping while finally showing elements that make a story memorable to me (my opinion).

1- Sex appeal

 

 Most of us remember this movie for it's raunchiness and blatant sex appeal. It caught our (males) attention with T&A but do we remember the story? I don't.

2- Cheesy Romance

Yes most girls in class loved it but this is another easy trick used in Hollywood a lot. Honestly think about how many movies have a tacked/forced romance so they can grab a female audience with the the male? Now movies like Titanic, I remember the beginning and the end (James Cameron with all cannons firing!). Everything in the middle seemed pointless and forgetful (except draw me like one of your french girls - sex appeal). Honestly the romance between Jack and Rose really demanded I suspend my disbelief!

3- Cars and asses! Its every man's dream!

Fast cars everywhere! Sexy chicks everywhere!

Tough men+Fast cars+ a sexy actress= movie that the teens and macho men will flock to= $$$

It's a simple formula that Hollywood uses to different degrees to score some quick cash. Honestly I have watched a few movies from the Fast and Furious series and the only think I remember is men challenging each other to race for women or their manliness. Oh before I forget, there were a lot shaking booties and rap songs...

4 - Power Fantasy Action 

Seriously who remembers anything about these kinds of movies except one-liners and that scene where macho guy X does something badass? These movies just revel in wanton chaos and destruction for no artistic reason. The explosive stuff happening hardly serves to advance or improve the plot.

5 - Girly Movies

GASP! Its a movie for women! With shopping sprees, expensive dresses and heels, girl talk, gossip and sexy men! Its every woman's dream! NOT! Honestly movies that try to cash on their female audience because they think they are feminine and demonstrate women's life are just dumb. Focusing too much on what is perceived to be common in women's life (like the stuff above) and forgetting that telling a good involving story is more important. Of course this could be a matter of target audience meaning I won't get it...

6 - Excessive Shock

 Oh my God something just jumped out of the closet! Oh my God his head is gone! Oh my God she got dragged by Jason! Oh my God he's got 1 minute before his head explodes!

Well you get the idea. Most horror movies nowadays are guilty of producing quick shocking scares instead of building tension and scaring you to death with one well executed scare. Stuff like Saw just makes you think whether the directors wanted to scare you or gross you out with the excessive gore.   

7 - Lavish Production Values

Beautiful movie indeed but where is the plot? The character development? The things that matter?

Movies like Avatar seem to be the current trend now in Hollywood. Awesome visuals to get the audiences interested and then serve them a cliched or boring story.

Now that i talked about common techniques or elements that media makers use to grab your attention let's talk about things that make a story memorable

1- Great set pieces

Memorable set pieces like Hogwarts or the Matrix allows to create a link between us and the world where the story happens. We become so enamored by the world that we want to be a part of it (I still want to be a Wizard damnit! Hagrid, where you!?)

2-  Great Villains

Some us just love a good villain. Whether because he's so despicable or too cool to hate. A movie with a great villain will make the story memorable because obviously the villain is a big part of the story; if you remember what he did then you will remember most of the story. 

Here is one of the best video game villains, GladOS an AI that is all about schadenfreude and verbal abuse:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVlLOGL9ezE

3 - an amazing introduction

An amazing intro can really cement the story and world in your head watch these clips and disagree. I DARE YA...  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGP5QjwbBjo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz5dkLuEPc0

And that was the demo in a nutshell. A lot of important things like good writing, character development and some of the positive stuff I mentioned are needed to craft good and memorable stories not the redundant stuff above. They should be a little extra or bonus. The cherry on the cake not the whole freaking cake!   

16 - A Picture of Morocco

The King comes into mind when I think of Morocco.

This classic picture is really well done.

Brings out his handsomeness

15 - Signifier 2

Yeah, this is superstitious and I am NOT superstitious but whenever I see the number of the beast whether it's in video games or something else, I try to somehow get rid of it.

In fact I have torn and burnt this paper after the taking the picture.

14 - Signifier 1

I am reminded to brush my teeth when I see my tooth brush and tooth paste

13 - Branding

I think I have been branded by Sony.

I own a Sony Bravia widescreen TV. A Sony Playstation 3 console with its controller and Playstation Portable.

There is also the fact that I do trust Sony products more.

12 - Goals

1- Get a diverse and reliable game design experience
2- Understand the varying programming languages
3- Learn different design and story telling techniques to get the audiences/players attention and throughout                                                                                                                        the experience

11 - Mission Statement

As an aspiring video game designer, I want to make games that will make people think, feel and even immerse themselves into a different person's life or a different world in hopes of helping them learn more about themselves by simulating  unlikely situations, moments and consequences.

10 - Figure/Ground Relationship

 I had a bit of a hard time with this one I can't adjust my iPhone camera lens into being a telephoto-ish lens to blur the back ground.

Hope this is good enough

9 - Closure

An incomplete peace sign should demonstrate closure.

8 - uniform correctedness

The bravia Sync area shows uniform correctedness through the use of the white line

7 - Proximity

I think these video game boxes are grouped together to make demonstrate proximity.

6 - Backlighting

I think both these pictures demonstrate good back-lighting, right?

Took these during when the sun was brightest. The rim lighting is probably better in the second.

These pictures are of Kenza Yousfi, a friend and a classmate in professional com.

These pictures were taken with her consent.

5- Similarity

From the moody indie video game limbo. The game's art style is completely like this, all gestalt like and that's what makes this game visually brilliant.

4 - Depth

Sorry for posting 3. I just love the art of this bittersweet anime movie "5cm per second". I couldn't pick one!!
There are clear visible depth cues in each picture.
The first shows depth in a city. Elements such as the phone booth and main character get smaller the further they from the foreground. Everything in the distance is hazy.
In the second we have a landscape picture with blue blurry sky and indistinct elements in the horizon,
In the third we have 2 characters in foreground whose size in the picture is large in relation to the other elements in the picture.

3 - Point, Line, Plane

Image from the highly artistic anime "Bakemonogatari"
Strong uses of line, plane, depth and color is common in this Anime

2 - Color

Mass Effect 2 art.

Complimentary color scheme: Orange and Blue

1 - Lighting

This image is taken from the most effective 1st person horror game created named Amnesia: the Dark Descent.
In this game light is a friend - a friend whose presence you will constantly yearn for as there are few sources of light and barely any well lit rooms or areas. Light is important in game not only for path finding but also to keep your character sane. The less light your character is exposed to, the more distorted his perception of things and his surroundings become.
The lighting from this picture well represents the usual lighting in the game. Small amount of light just enough to give you a sense of direction but useless when it comes inspecting or examining things. The lighting is also particularly here as it obscures the figure in the center whose a sort of "bogey man" that must be avoided in order to survive. Obscuring this "bogey man" makes him more mysterious but as the same time more terrifying as the player has no idea what to expect from him except a swift horrible death. 

0- intro

Name:

Mohammed Serghini

Hometown:

Morocco, Casablanca. Grew up in the UAE

Interests:

• Video Games
• Anime
• TV Dramas
• Movies
• Manga
• Music (Specifically Classic, Alternative Rock, Jazz, Blues and Trance. I hate pop) 
• Art 
• Psychology
• Mysteries
• Dreams
• History (Pre-Industrial Era only)
• Stories
• Daydreaming
• Mythology
• Reviewing
• Categorizing
• Swimming
• Occult (just curious)

What I expect out of this class:

• Deeper understanding of Aesthetics, Visuals, etc
• Lots of discussion
• Meeting people of similar interests
• Learn how to communicate visually
• Learn useful stuff!
• Have fun! (in an educational manner)