As part of our general assessment criteria, we have to create a flash based artwork on a specific theme. The theme which I chose was Abstract. In the beginning, I really wanted to concentrate on the theme Satire, because it is a challenge in itself and a need to be comical yet serious at the same time. I had an idea to create a “I’m watching you” subject with privacy issue at the core. I started off by doing this project, yet quickly realised that it was extremely cliche and unoriginal. After showing Jason some of my paintings, it seemed to be a good idea to work with my painting Moi.

What I wanted to do it retain subtleties within the work. I wanted to make the eyes blink, and have little movements here and there. Starting with the eyes was my first challenge. I found a site which showed me and taught me how to do, but after trying to do this tutorial over and over again, it ended up being too time-consuming and complicated for a computer illiterate person like myself. Therefore, as a solution, I tweened the eyes. It ended up been much simpler for me.

As the task went on, my imagination was fleeting. I could not find anything interesting and imaginative to do with my project. I wanted to incorporate video and sound, not because it was part of the criteria but because it adds effect. In the bottle section of the painting, I added a video to show the binge-drinking culture but also to analyse the bottles and glasses which have interesting shapes and forms in themselves.

With the circle in the top right hand side of the painting, I made it twirl, to symbolise its neverendingness. An arrow points to the orange section of the painting which says: Live life to the fullest for you only live once. In the background there are barking noises. This is abstract in itself because it can be a type of warning or the idea that the world is a ‘dog-eat-dog” world, or to simply mock Jason’s email and precision of “no dogs linking to other dogs” towards the project. I did in fact go out to record these sounds at the Welfare Shelter in Helensvale.

Towards the bottom, there is a little man which stands out from the comformity of the group. Yet, as part of being an individual, we are each unique in our own way, just like everybody else. I wanted to write it like the “BEN” agendas (famous french commercial stationary artist) who writes quotes in diaries.  

The hand print moves slightly to show a wave, with the idea that I acknowledge your presence and I am interacting with you not as a painting, but as a person. (This can also be seen with the eyes).

The point of art is that it is pointless. That is what I wanted to portray in an abstract, absurd and strange way.

Although the artwork in itself is not a grand, fantastic, superb or even flattering work, it is a progressive step towards my flash understanding. I attempted in so many ways to link the separate flash files together but failed in vain and felt in pure desperation unwell because of it. I even called a friend’s brother in Canada to help me out. Yet, even by putting the sections into different Scenes, I could not figure out how to link them together. I even tried to add in Script by adding “go url()”. And I failed miserably at tat also.

Therefore, my last hope to link the files together was by using Dreamweaver. It was not done very well and it basically has a next, next, previous feel to it which I know Jason did not want  BUT it was my last na only hope.

I am not pleased with my artwork. I am a bit of a perfectionist but have stayed up for days and hours trying to do this. I am more of a hands-on kind of person and the web-based artwork just annoyed me to tears and increased my stress levels to the maximum.

My next step is to learn how to link these flash files together!!!!!

Why can’t this be easy?? 

http://newformsreview.com/newmedia/Chedotal%20Jordane/For%20Artwork%201/TITLEPAGE.html

Doing these tutorials is a helpful idea. I did manage to get a few of them right, however, masking is not my strong point and I failed to do an adequate ‘mask’ twice. I guess I’ll just have to continue on trying…

I did find these tutes well explained, yet, I am still not confident enough to do the workshops which are situtaed at the end of each tutorial hour.

I will eventually get there and be able to do one of the tasks required of me whitout a step-by-step guide.

To see what it is I have done, please see the Filezilla Client Program.

As part of our blog task for the week, we had to write about flash as a tool, the possibilities, cofusions etc which come about using this wondrous program. Although my skills and patience in technology are minimal, I do enjoy using flash on occassion (especially when it works the way I want it to work). I have done a few rollovers but my buttons never turn out the way I want them to or when I use the ‘Test Movie’ tool, it never works… I imagine you could do alot of amazing things with flash – I mean, some of the sites which I’ve been on are incredible (this coming from a non-technological perspective).

I would love to learn how to make a movie in flash. I know how to import one but not to actually make one.

Here are a few websites I found interesting which use flash:

http://www.newgrounds.com/ 

In this website, you can access games, animations and short movies made in flash. A few of these like Metal Gear Awesome 2.

Could Happy Tree Friends be flash documents? Or are they too refined for that type of programming?

www.biteycastle.com is another website which does flash animations. It is quite funny in a very sadistic manner. But, I guess, Shadenfreude is what people like.

After carefully reading and re-reading what the task at hand was, I finally managed to get onto the turbulence.org website and search for artwork which may in fact be interesting to me.

One of the piece I have seen is “I can’t go on. I’ll go on”. It is a complex piece which encompasses writing, digital media, sound and film. There is alot going on in the piece however, you cannot really interact with it not change it around. There is a dark gloomy feeling arising from the piece and a jumble of words being spelt out. This makes it aesthetically pleasing but not digitally practical.

Another file on turbulence which seemed interesting was Flou which I found in the archives. The concept of it was intriguing: navigate a spaceship in order to make a sound. It seemed quite interactive and easy to manage. Yet, once I opened the file, Java did not want the file to work…

Alothough my undersatnding of this website is minimal, I did stumble across another link which explained things a bit more clearly to me about a few of the artworks shown on the site. What it said was: “They allow audiences to experience real and fictional places simultaneously in Imaging Beijing and The Vitruvian World; debate the value of virtual labor and currency in No Matter; communicate physical data from multiple sources through Remote; and question mediated communication itself in Caterwaul.”  From what I understand of this quote is that there is a lapsing of the real world and the virtual world which can make a new reality through cyberspace…  

As part of this week’s assignment, I have decided to do some of the flash tutorial offered on the net.

I found a website to learn how to use flash: http://www.video-animation.com/flash8_001.shtml because I only have Flash 8 on my computer. I have attempted to make a simple button, I have followed every step precisely and gone over them again, however the result does not come out the way it says it should. I’m certainly doing something wrong but I cannot pin-point it.

The second tutorial I did was a bouncing ball one which worked wonders. It was particuarly simpe and all I had to do was enter a code:

import mx.transitions.Tween;
import mx.transitions.easing.*;
new Tween(ball_mc,”_y”,Bounce.easeOut,ball_mc._y, 280,3,true);
new Tween(ball_mc,”_x”,None.easeNone,ball_mc._x, 400,3,true); 

I also changed the x value to a greater number so the ball bounced off the screen.

 The third tutorial I did was the “Playing Sound in Flash”. It was quite easy to be honest. I was a bit stuck at first, especially transfering the wave sound into the layer but it all worked out in the end.

 I re-tried the button tutorial later on with yet no more success as my first attempt.  However, I did try a different approch and got this result: http://newformsreview.com/newmedia/Chedotal%20Jordane/week1-button.swf and I did another one, not so successful: http://newformsreview.com/newmedia/Chedotal%20Jordane/Eye%20Rollover.swf

My conclusion to my new-found relationship with Flash has proved to be a bit more generous and easy-going that our first time together.