Interactive Hug

DRY = Don’t Repeate Yourself - OOP / Life Philosophy

Balind — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 06:48:55 +0000

Also known as Single Point of Truth, is an OOP philosophy intended to remove the process of repeatedly writing the same code. The theory is that duplication decreases clarity and increases the chances of inconsistency through interpretation.

Also kind of seems like a decent life philosophy as well, in terms of the company you keep. I find the more I have to repeat myself, or explain what I mean to someone, the less likely we’re on the same level.

When the DRY principle is applied successfully, a modification of any single element of a system (like a specific function within an AS3 class), doesn’t change other logically-unrelated elements. Additionally, elements that are logically related all change predictably and uniformly, and are thus kept in sync.

Task Management Software for the Mac

Balind — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 06:21:47 +0000

If you’re like me, you probably have a lot of personal passion projects that are in your mental queue. Time goes by without you ever seeming to execute these ambitions. The reason why is because they consist of more than one step. When you consider investing your spare time toward these creative ventures, the sheer volume of work needed to reach your goals dissuades you from beginning and you opt to start it another time.

If you’ve read books like “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity” by David Allen… you know, the road to achievement is by defining long term goals comprised of short term goals.

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I recently researched a variety of Task Management Software for OSX, my operating system of choice - and I like “Things“. It’s simple and intuitive and does the job that’s needed to bridge the gap between idea and execution. It gives you the opportunity to create a project, then slice it up into individual tasks. Tasks that you can complete in a 2-4 hours period, like say… an evening.

We use a very detailed and effective process at my work - why not employ the same strategy to my personal projects?

I’ll give you an example of why I’m so pumped about this software.

My original talent is that of an illustrator. I felt like quite the protege and thought of myself as one of the top of my class at a school world-renowned for it’s illustration program. However with my career in full swing, interactive, motion graphics design and 3d - very rarely do I spend any time drawing or painting anymore.

For a few years now I’ve been meaning to tap into my talents to compose an animated, illustrated narrative. Some cool, motion graphics piece with an intense storyline that creates an emotional reaction because of the compelling idea and execution. I feel like I’m part of a small majority that can write it, illustrate, design and animate it front to back myself and compete at the highest level. Yet year after year… I don’t.

Once I downloaded and installed Things, the first project I put together was this Illustrated Narrative that’s been circling around in the back of my mind for a while - and I very quickly got the satisfaction of discovering exactly why I haven’t begun it, even though it’s been calling my name for so long - which was a lack of process - I wasn’t sure where to start and how long it would take.

Design and Animate an Illustrated Narrative

Seek Inspiration - Find a magazine article or a news topic that speaks to you. Use it as your idea source and build a concept around that.
Write a Script -
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Create a context by writing some sort of storyline. Make decisions around whether you want it to be more dramatic or humorous.
Define a Style - Research and find illustration and design styles you’d like to emulate, log and refer to them.
Find Reference Material - Find a photo shoot with the right kind of images to use as reference, or if possible take the pictures yourself.
Sketch Your Characters - Start drawing out a style and lead characters to focus on. Take your time and get this down.
Build a Storyboard - Draw out your animation loosely on paper so that you can plan the flow and vibe. Complete the story through images.
Sketch Detailed Screens - Draw each screen. Do as many drawing as needed to get each screen right.
Create the Screens in Photoshop - Paint / Design the screens that need to be imported from Photoshop into After Effects. Do them one at a time.
Animate in After Effects - Import your screens and build the narrative through animation.
Publish and Post - Render out the animation and post in your portfolio. Perhaps submit to some film festival.

Above is what my project looks like. I broke the beginning stage down into very detailed steps that I could accomplish in an evening or more. Now I can march my way through this task at my leisure, with the fulfillment of knowing where I’m at in the process, which I think was the missing link.

Using Music Videos for Inspiration?

Balind — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 06:34:03 +0000

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I don’t watch a lot of music video channels anymore… I’m not sure if they got younger or I got older but, I just can’t relate to the general vibe of today’s popular artists. Every so often though, I stumble across a real piece of art.

A good example would be Beyonce’s “If I were a Boy“, which I totally judged as not-my-cup-of-tea, based on it’s childish title. colchicine in plants

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Great song of course, but the video was beautifully acted, art directed and even had a message that was kind of insightful. Made me wonder how many other masterpieces I may have missed since Jay-Z’s “99 Problems“

Adobe Flash CS4 - Motion Editor Z Depth - Preliminary Thoughts

Balind — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 16:33:46 +0000

One part frustration and one part fascination. CS4’s motion Editor and 3d capabilities are both exciting and annoying at the same time.

My colleagues and I have been playing with our copies of Flash CS4 the past week and the developers and designers alike seem to have a general consensus. Our over-all attitude is a combination of both, pumped and confused.

Z Property

This is kind of like a dream for me on some level. Being able to manipulate a movieclip in 3d space really suits my animation and interactive style. More importantly it means I can execute my 3d Flash ideas myself, rather than relying on a developer to build them in Papervision.

I’ve begun animating the Z property both in code and on the timeline and have found some unexpected results. Sometimes I’ll push a clip straight backward into space then when I publish, it’s moving from a different point on the stage. I’m sure this has to do with setting the vanishing point of the parent clip or something simple like that, but in my preliminary work I’m yet to detect an obvious pattern.

Z Property: Update 11.27.08

I’ve gotten the hang of working with Flash’ Z property and while it’s definitely got potential, I have to warn you it’s clearly in its baby stages. Adobe released this functionality way too early, I’d use it sparingly and not on any client work until you learn the in’s and out’s. For starters you can’t use a mask within a movieclip that uses Z depth, nor a blend mode. But that’s nothing. More concerning is the never ending issues I’ve run into working with clips that have a Z depth… inexplicable results with basic code and timeline animation forcing me to formulate new methods to accomplish simple tasks in order to workaround these odd behaviors. The Z property is as limiting as it is freeing.

Motion Editor

I’m reserving judgement on this newly developed aspect of Flash. While it seems to be more complex and powerful It doesn’t feel intuitive at all, at this point. It seems you can control the easing of an entire layer of animation with one long bezier curve that you add keyframes to manipulate. Once I’m more familiar it’ll feel logical, but for now, it feels buggy and weird.

I have high hopes the Motion Editors brilliance will shine through soon because I’ve been doing all my animation purely with code for years now and while I’ve gotten really fast, it’s still sometimes faster to do things on the timeline, it just feels limiting when you get used to the power of animating with code. I’m excited about the prospect of using the timeline to animate more often.

Motion Editor: Update 11.27.08

The new way of tweening on the timeline in Flash is not so much more-powerful as it is, just… different. Little bit more like After Effects. It’s renewed my interest in timeline animation but I’m not certain I can do anything now that I couldn’t before.

I don’t want to bag on Adobe because I obviously love their products and a good friend of mine works for them but… I feel like this release was rushed - likely due to a mandate from Adobes marketing department that they release new-and-improved software every couple years. Since they’re not making any new products, that would be how they make their money. I for one would have preferred if they waited another year before releasing CS4 and sorted out some of the Z property issues so it wouldn’t be so bitter-sweet.

Profiling The Adventure-Experience Site

Balind — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:57:55 +0000

With the cross promotion of Movies, Television Shows and Video Games - we’re collectively watching the maturing of what I call the Adventure-Experience site. I’ve noticed many of these types of sites have been popping up lately on The FWA and such. They’re going to become more common and keep getting better, so I’ve made them the subject of today’s post.

An Adventure Experience site, is one that leads the user through a story either in a linear manner, or in a style that allows the user to choose their own path. The intention is for the user to feel as though they’re traveling their way through a custom adventure. We recently finished an Adventure-Experience site for Paramount, below I’ve share some of what I learned along the way.

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Eagle Eye Experience

created by Red Interactive Agency, 2008

Examples of ass-kicking adventure experience sites:

Elements that every Experience site should have to successfully engage the user:

Compelling script.

All the smoke and mirrors in the world can’t hide a weak story. If the user isn’t interested in what’s happening next, they’ll click away mighty quick. Either retell the beginning of the story for the movie, show or game being promoted, or create a new script that mirrors but isn’t identical, so the user can play a parallel reality.

The illusion of user control.

It’s far too much work to create a handful of different storylines so the user can choose their own path to the end. The best balance is to create a linear experience with options along the way for the user to diverge slightly, giving them the feeling of a custom experience.

Rewards.

The user needs an incentive to play. Challenge a friend, unlock content, special downloads, etc. Something to keep them pushing forward when their focus starts to waver.

Map and/or percentage done.

Users always need to have some sense of completion, so that they feel oriented and can decide whether it’s worth it to continue playing.

Intense audio.

Good Sound Effects are key in every site but especially so in an Experience site. Make them intense and constantly changing with the pace and mood of the adventure.
Instead of bringing every sound effect into Flash and syncing them up separately, use software like Adobe Soundbooth to mix a loop of ambience containing multiple subtle sfx. There should be peaks and valleys.
Try using a new soundtrack for each change of scene. Each one should suit what you suspect the users reaction will be.
Use a voice-over, it will add so much. There will always be parts where the user has to read - having the script narrated can make the difference between a boring and engaging site.

Video/motion

If the Adventure Experience is for a video game, you’ve got your work cut out for you because you can use gameplay footage. If not then you need to get video assets or find excuses to create motion yourself. In the case of Eagle Eye, we created a 3d map for the user to traverse between each transition and we scripted a shaky parallax in each scene so the characters and background would never be perfectly static. Small efforts like this will make all the difference.

Pacing.

Make sure there are build-ups and climaxes. The user should be kept guessing as to what will take place next.
While the user is engaging in one scene, ensure the next one is pre-loading in the background. Keep them moving forward with as little load time as possible.

Snappy graphics and animation.

One of the biggest challenges you’ll face with the Adventure-Experience site is keeping it exciting. Usability is always your top priority but, a good portion of the users will only partially be paying attention to the storyline, so you need to give them more reasons to hang out.

Incorporating an Executive Mentality to Streamline Your Success

Balind — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 04:24:59 +0000

It’s been said that ones mental attitude and ability to communicate are key to their success. I’m going to outline the aspects of an Executive (Sales, Project Manager, Producer), mind-set and how these traits can be combined with your Creative talent to potentially chart your path quicker.

When I was 19 I studied Entrepreneurship at UVic. I chose Business for the same reason everyone else does - I didn’t know what I wanted to do, just that I wanted to make money. After a year, my father reminded me of the option to pursue a career making use of my creative talent.

A year later, while studying Illustration at the Sheridan Institute, I noticed subtle differences between myself and the bulk of my fellow students. While I was focused on building a portfolio and mapping out my future, they all seemed to be judging their personal development based on their grades, satisfied to just ’see what happens’, after graduation. So odd.

Traits of the Executive mind-set every Creative should incorporate:

Ensure success. Clients base a lot of their decisions on what they consider to be ‘proof’. If you work in a manner that demonstrates results at intervals, you’re more likely to retain creative control.

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From individual projects to your entire career, every work related aspect of your life will evolve quicker if you have milestones and a final destination in mind.

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Become incredibly organized. Your desktop and folder structure are a direct reflection of your mental dexterity.

Be passively ambitious. Don’t do what’s asked for and hope for the best. Make sure your work covers every angle before you present it. The less the client has to manage you, the happier they are.

Focus on the client.
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Each project should have two main goals, equally aligned, (a): An extremely positive experience for the client and (b): Creating a totally unique interactive piece.

Be cool. If you grew up playing video games in your parents basement rather than competing in sports or talking to girls, that’s fine - but it’s the real world now. Learn to enjoy intense discussions and key decision making with clients and co-workers. Make developing your inter-personal skills one of your favorite hobbies.

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Top executives are motivated, goal-oriented winners - there’s no reason why you can’t leverage the same attitude.

5 Keys to Becoming a Successful Interactive Designer

Balind — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:57:41 +0000

Here’s a list of what I consider to be the fundamental skills needed to make it as a designer in the interactive advertising world.

1. Talent

A lot of people confuse artistic talent with a trait that someone is either born with, or without. Talent is just intelligence combined with interest - so the good news is that anyone can cultivate a talent if they want, they just need to be motivated.

2. Education

We all know that the majority of your learning will take place on your own time, however if you want to crack the bubble of being used as someone else’ tool - you need to have a balanced skill-set. I recommend studying both Interactive design and Business / Marketing. To go all the way you need to have the skills of a designer, developer and producer.

3. Core Software

Photoshop, After Effects, Maya and Flash should be your best friends. Everything you see on T.V and the internet should potentially be within the realm of your skill-set given the time and resources. Leave the back-end math to hard-core coders and ultra-custom-sfx to audio engineers, because you can’t do everything, but dabble in it all and make sure you can handle the core shizz.

4. Experience

Resist the urge to join a big agency right out of school. Freelance for the first few years of your career while working at a smaller agency. Learn the ropes of both business and the interactive advertising world - not to mention the value of hard work. At a large agency out-of-the-gate you’ll simply set yourself on a path to complacency. Knowledge is power and there’s no better way to get it than throwing yourself in the fire. Step up to the next level as your game evolves.

5. Attitude

Don’t expect it all right away. Be prepared to work hard and humble yourself. Find a winner and become his protege by taking on additional duties. That’s your ticket. Never go over your directors head to try to look good to the people above him, instead focus on making his life easier - his superiors will be impressed when he gives you a glowing report.

Using After Effects to Transition Between Content in Flash

Balind — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:15:32 +0000

Today I’m going to walk you through the process and execution of the event micro-site UFC 82: Pride of a Champion. This article was originally written for Layers Magazine but wasn’t approved in time to go to print, so I’ve modified and posted it here.

UFC 82: Pride of a Champion Created by Red Interactive Agency, 2008

What makes this site unique is the heavy use of AE but not necessarily in the way you might think. Yes you can see we used AE for button rollovers etc. but did you notice the transitions between pages within Flash were also done in AE? That means the entire content area in Flash consisting of Textfields and Movieclips is replaced by a large (1280 x 720), FLV that carries the user from scene to scene ending on a content area. This is truly an example of integrating the broadcast medium of video within Flash without bringing attention to it.

Why do the transitions in AE?

To give the animation a broadcast touch that the user isn’t expecting. There’s things you can do in AE that you can’t in Flash. In this example we make use of 3d layers, motion blur and particle effects, (It should be noted that with PaperVision it is now possible to create 3d layers in Flash).

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How did we integrate the FLV’s so seamlessly?

Strong communication between the animators and developers. These things need to be planned out to the pixel, so the lead-designer and lead-developer need to be solid buds.

It’s not unusual to start off with a sketch.

What’s the process?

The final design is contained within a well-organized PSD. Once approved, sections within sub-folders become their own PSD file, which is imported into AE as a composition and cut up into separate PNG’s to be imported, converted to Movieclips and aligned in Flash. The FLV is embedded within a Movieclip, when the playhead reaches the last frame it’s told to move forward one frame in the parent directory, which puts it on the Movieclip containing that sections design elements and interactivity.

How did we optimize?

We determined that the motion needed to be fast-paced and large, so we settled on a resolution of 1280 by 720 for maximum impact, by keeping the motion quick and the videos short we were able to keep the file-size low for quick loading and optimal playback speed.

Your Ticket to Success: A Killer Portfolio

Balind — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:11:52 +0000

I’m writing this post to remind the younger designers of the one and only key to a successful career - a crazy portfolio website branded with your skills and attitude augmentation breast denver

When I say a “killer portfolio” I’m referring more to the portfolio site itself than the work in it. If you do things right, you should only need 3 strong portfolio pieces to get the recognition you need. Focus on quality over quantity.

Brand Yourself Honestly

Don’t pretend you’re a company. If you want to describe yourself as a “collective” because of your vast network of friends, great… just make it clear who you are and what service you provide.

Tag Line

Sum up your skills and services in the clearest and fewest words possible. Stick that somewhere throughout. For my 2004 portfolio, it was: “Independent design, direction and production of interactive and animated media for broadcast or broadband.” For where I was at the time, that really summed up what I was about.

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Re-Invent Yourself

Throw your best ideas into your personal site and keep trying until you’re happy. I did a new site every year for the first 6 years of my career. As a designer it’s your identity, it should represent you perfectly.

Make it Simple and Clever

Clean and effortless. Don’t look like you’re trying too hard. Simple in it’s foundation and complex in its details. The manner in which the user browses and interacts should have a certain amount of intelligence laced within it. Those details will pop out to the right eyes.

You only need 3 sections:

Home Page - showcasing your latest project or demo reel.
Portfolio Page - Easy and fun way to browse your body of work.
About Page - clever way of getting to know you.

If you nail these 3, users will spend less time clicking links in your page and more time interacting and appreciating it, which is ultimately good.

Some Good Examples:

Why don’t I have a portfolio website anymore?

I have a weblog instead of a portfolio because of where I’m at in my career… however, when I was up-and-coming my portfolio was a tool I used to both express myself and showcase my abilities - my portfolio site and it’s many iterations were absolutely key to the road I traveled. Here they are for your viewing pleasure and so that you can see my development as a designer over the years.
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Review of the iPhone

Balind — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:19:54 +0000

The iPhone has been out for almost a year now. I think it’s time for my official review.

Overall I think it’s a peek into the future of mobile devices. One day I’ll be setting mine to “stun” while I’m exploring new territory.

WHAT I LIKE:

Visual voice-mail

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Basically you get to view your messages like tracks in your iPod. See how many messages you have, who their from, how long they are and fast forward to any point in the message by dragging the play-head. This feature alone makes it worth it because I hated checking voice-mail the old way.

Google Maps

It’s not quite like a real GPS but, you can always find out where you are, where you’re going and how to get there. I know the streets of L.A better than if I didn’t have this option available.

Sync’s with the Address book on my Mac Book Pro

An address book that gets backed-up constantly, so I have the confidence of knowing that everytime I add a contact, it’s there for the rest of my life. Never again will I have to re-create all my contacts from scratch when I change my phone.

iPod Exercise

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and watch them on my phone while I do cardio. Jealous much?

WHAT’S MISSING:

Copy and Paste

It would be really nice to be able to select text and paste it elsewhere.

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You can take a picture and send it in an e-mail, but you can’t send one through text message.