Up

Last night I went to see Disney Pixar new film; Up, and I have to say that I thought it was a brilliant piece of animation. It had the whole group of us in fits of laughter and even reduced a few to tears!

The film itself had a very good story line that both adults and children will enjoy: " Carl Fredricken, a 78 year-old curmudgeonly balloon salesman, is not your average hero. When he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America, he finally fulfills his life long dream of adventure. But after discovering an 8-year-old stowaway named Russell, this unlikely duo soon find themselves on a hilarious journey in a lost world filled with danger and surprises."

After speaking a little more about the film today, I became interested in learning out more about the making of the film and the design process that the animators have to go through. I went on both the disney and pixar websites to gain some inside info! I discovered that in preparation for their assignment on 'Up' members of the creative team went on their own adventure to South America. Once there they fell in love with the scenery and were left facing the problem of how to design a place that looks 'otherwordly and yet still believable'. To do this the team took thousands of photographs and made many sketches. The images of the vegetation, etc that was captured during this research, can be seen throughout the film.

An area which was discussed online and I found very interesting was the character design:

I thought this was conveyed brilliantly, you could instantly tell what type of person each character was. This didn't necessarily apply to the human characters but the animals too.

The amazing attention to detail was something else that surprised me. I learnt online that one of the technicial directors calculated that it would take between 20 and 30 million balloons to actually lift Carl's house. The team used between 10,297 and 20,622 balloons for most of the floating scenes. The number varied from shot to shot 'depending on the angle, the distance, and the finetuning the size so that it feels interesting, believable and visually simple.'

Even though I knew that a lot of research and planning goes into making an animation I didn't realise that the details were so precise. This hard work has really paid off as the film is definately worth seeing!

Making Connections

"Design is a subject that intersects with so many other disciplines (science, psychology, social studies, geography, politics, economics) and at undergraduate level you need to start making those connections by taking an interest in things that, at first sight, don’t seem to have a lot to do with your chosen subject."

For assignment 2A our Seminar group had to brainstorm each of our chosen topics from Assignment 1B. Working in a small group was encouraged as we could all work on our chosen chapters but were able to help one and other. This assignment's purpose was to help us think differently; both as individuals and as a group. Prior to starting the brainstorming session we read over the rules. The one that really stood out for me was that "there are no dumb ideas". Everything that was said had to be written down, no one could dismiss an idea as silly or stupid. I think this encouraged us all to contribute a lot more.

We decided to set ourselves a time limit of ten minutes to come up with as many ideas relating to each of our chosen topics. After allocating a note taker we got to work, remembering that the assignment requested quantity rather than quality. After completing this process for all three topics, we decided to take a well deserved break! I found this very useful, it was good to take time to think and reflect on the work we had just done. On our return to the studio we all had a few ideas that we went on to discuss further. After looking back at out brainstorming session we realised that we hadn't come up with that many ideas that related to design so we have organised a pub lunch so that we can have a good blether for task 2B. Aswell as a wee drink!

At college we never worked in groups so this process is fairly new to me. However I have been really enjoying it, and I think it a crucial skill to have, especially when working in the Creative Industries.

Stereotypes

During break the other day a group of us were discussing tattoos. One of my classmates told me that he could picture me with a sleeve. This made me wonder if I did have a sleeve tattooed would people treat me differently? Would I change from an innocent looking girl to a wild child with a radical outlook on the world?

Its amazing how we instantly stereotype people by how they look, and often don't take the time to get to know them first. I decided to look up this topic online and found many webpages dedicated to this subject. One website explained, "Many "minority" groups have long complained about being judged solely on their appearance. People of these groups are automatically stereotyped into a class of certain expectations. The body art community is no exception. From schools to the work force to every day life, people with body art are generally perceived as rebellious and irresponsible."

As someone who has a tattoo myself I would like to think that I am neither rebellious or irresponsible (The fact that I am in the process of getting it removed may go against that argument!). However I know many people with tattoos and I think its a great way of self expression and many of the designs are great works of art in their own right.

However will my friends that have tattoos go on to have problems when finding a job? For instance would you be allowed to get a job for the government if you had a visible tattoo. Would people not take you as seriously? Or could it go in their favor? If you worked in the Creative Industries, for instance, your employee may welcome body art and see it as a sign of creativity.

Another topic that got raised in a chat room was how footballers don't get negatively stereotyped for having tattoos but heavy metal rockers do? To be honest I don't think this is at all fair after all aren't they both doing a job that they are passionate about? Why is it that celebrities, pop stars and sports people don't get discriminated against but others might?

After looking at online articles relating to this subject, I decided to find an image to attach to my own blog. I would like to know whether you think this young gentleman falls into the common stereotype or not?

Cinema Tickets

Why is it that we keep a hold of our used cinema tickets?

After all there is no real use for them. They can't get you back into the cinema for free, and even if they did you would have to sit through the same film again. Which in the case of some films would be a pretty terrible experience.

I tend to keep my cinema tickets, bringing them home to spend the rest of their lives in a small box alongside other random artifacts collected over the years. It made me wonder why these small tattered pieces of paper are so sentimental to people?

I am sure some individuals have kept their stubs from every film they have ever seen. But I wonder whether, like myself, they are stored away or are they looked at from time to time? Are they seen as souvenirs? A physical reminder of an outing?

There will also be many cinema goers who throw their tickets away, seeing them as useless pieces of paper. Rubbish. However for me these small bits of paper are rather special. Looking through my small collection I can easily assign a memory to each and every one. And I think thats probably what most people love about them!

Mind Mapping

Prior to my assignment for Design Studies I had never used mind maps. I had used spider diagrams on many occassions, thinking that they were the same thing, but I have since learnt that they very different. Mind maps can be very creative, with the use of colour and imagery encouraged inorder to help the user distinguish between the information and also to remember as many facts as possible.

For Assignment 1A I had to use Tony Buzan’s Mind Mapping technique to produce a summary of The Tipping Point. Doing this is intended to help us "learn a method of summarising complex information that is useful for everything from remembering the content of books and lectures to planning essays and making notes in briefings and tutorials."

The Designs Studies Module Handbook advised a twenty minute time limit for this task which I tried to stick to. This was an individual project but it was recommended that you work collaboratively, as talking to others can help you remember sections of the book which you may have forgotten about. Firstly I wrote the book’s title (The Tipping Point) in the centre of an A3 sheet of paper, then drew branches for each of the six chapters. I went on to draw branches from each of these six headings, each line of thought contained information on the main topics from each chapter. I tried to complete this section of the Assignment from memory alone. However after discussion with my classmates I was reminded of other sections of the book, which I went on to add to my mind map.

For Assignment 1B I had to pick a chapter of the book which I found interesting and complete a more indepth Mind Map. I decided to look at 'The Law of the Few' as I found this section of the book quite fascinating. This time the Handbook suggested a time limit of fourty minutes, however I was allowed to use the book for help if I needed to. I tried to do as much as I could from memory but I did have to look through the Tipping Point adding any information/ theories/ research that I had forgotten about to the mind map.

"The third part of the assignment revolves around the idea of evidence. Nothing Gladwell writes is based purely on his opinion, but on what he has found out, and that in turn is based on research based evidence." I had to go through the chapter of the book, that I had chosen to look at, and highlight names of authors, researchers, or any papers which had been mentioned and add these to my Mind Map. I was surprised at how many different names and research programmes I discovered during this section on the task.

The final part of the assignment is to complete a blog (which you are reading just now!).

Reflecting back on this assignment I have to admit that I enjoyed using the Mind Mapping technique. Having never used this before I found the instructions very easy to follow and the technique easy to pick up. One of the most important elements for me was colour. I found using a different coloured pen for each chapter of the book really helped to separate the information and facts I had written down, aswell as showing a clear line of thought.

Using uppercase writing made the information presented much easier to read. What was also helpful was the use of different sized lettering; large words for the title of each chapter, medium sized characters for sub chapters and then smaller text for all other information. This made finding key pieces of information amongst the vast amount of words much easier. Finally I felt that being able to work with others on this assignment very helpful. Discussing the book and the Mind Maps themselves with my peers made me remember sections of the book that I had forgotten. Amending my Mind Map by adding these forgotten facts helped spark of more topics which otherwise would never have been mentioned.

Web Design

One of my projects is to create my own website which will contain my biography and portfolio. After researching various websites I have to say that I think simple designs work best. Many of the webpages I viewed used Flash, and I have to admit that I found myself becoming impatient whilst waiting for them to load. The main worry with sites such as this is that many people become bored and click of the site before it is loaded up. In the case of a portfolio site, this could be extremely damaging. If clients and indeed the public dont see your designs it will limit your chance of getting work.

Over the next few weeks I hope to learn how to create a website that is easy to use and navigate. One where the simple layout enhances the pieces of work which will be on display. Hopefully the simple design I intend to create is a success!

Vinegar

So, I was given a new brief this week - to research vinegar! I thought the lucky dip had failed me again, but I have since discovered that vinegar is used for a lot more than just a bit of flavour on our fish and chips! Not only are there lots of different kinds of vinegar ranging from rice to coconut, it is used for medicinal purposes and is pretty good at cleaning your dirty windows!

However what I think is good about this assignment I have been given is that I have no idea what the end product is going to be. I can look into the historical, cultural, nutritional and visual properties of this food. I can go off in tangents and record my ideas through sketches, photos, drawings and notes.

I have never worked like this before but I think it is a very interesting approach, and lets just hope that the things I discover prove useful for the next stage of the project!