Thursday, March 10, 2005

Ignore this it's for school... just in case my disk fucks up.

Example 1: Star Wars Episode III Poster This poster was designed by the same person responsible for the other five Star Wars movie posters, Drew Struzan. The reason for using this designer and the type of poster style (which looks slightly dated by today's standards, as the first movie premiered in 1977), would be to give longterm fans a sense of nostalgia and connection with the older three movies, and to give the entire series it's own distinct feel. Each character's placement on the poster reflects their roles in the flm, and their characteristics. Anakin Skywalker, the main character, is placed in the center, while Padme Amidala and Obi-Wan Kenobi, the next two most important characters, are placed either side of him. The center of the poster is comprised of the duelling of Anakin and Obi-Wan, a much anticipated scene in the movie, and is stylized with a lens flare effect and over-the-top lighting, to give the picture an almost holy sense. The character of Darth Sidious is hunched over in the lower right, reflecting the fact that he is one of the main evil characters in the film. The mid-left hand side of the poster shows the character of Yoda, who is an important character in the series. I think it's strange that his picture isn't very prominent, but then again, there are many other characters on the poster, and they may have held more importance. Below Yoda, we are given a glimpse of the origins of the TIE fighters, ships which featured prominently throughout the original three films. On the mid left side of the poster, Mace Windu is given a small image reference, though he is obviously given the least priority out of all the other charcters on the poster, as again, his character is probably less important than the others. The largest image on the poster is that of the iconic helmet of Darth Vader, and the placement of it slightly to the left draws the viewer's eyes downwards towards the type on the poster. Regarding the type, the title 'Episode III' is highlighted, as this is the most important part of the name of the movie, as it tells people where the film fits chronologically within the series, and it's the name most people use to describe the film. I think that this poster is effective in the way it fits in with the rest of the Star Wars films. However, I do believe that this proved to be a burden on the designers. It may have worked for a film released over 35 years ago, but by today's standards this style looks outdated, even though this is what the designers intended. However, I'm sure long-time Star Wars fans would be pleased by it, so that's what really counts. Example 2: theOtaku.com Website Banner TheOtaku.com is a site that allows anime (Japanese Animation) fans to create their own online journals, post things like fanart and reviews and do other anime-related things. The banner was designed by James Burns. The most prominent thing about the banner is the website logo, which is presented in a stylised, dynamic font. The logo is further emphasized by the orange streak, which stands out from the grey used on the rest of the banner. This design is very simplistic with its use of colour, but I think that this is effective because of the afformentioned prominence of the logo. The orange streak leads the eye towards the right hand side of the banner, and the grey anime character. A simplistic representation of the anime style, it's drawn with the usual large eyes, spiky hair and flamboyant clothes. The streaks that are used in the banner appear to be coming off its back, in an almost cape-like way, and this links the whole banner together. Outlines are used heavily throughout the banner, on the type, streaks and the character itself, probably for stylistic reasons. I think this design is effective, as it fits in well with the anime theme, does what it aims to do, which is to introduce the viewer to what the site is about, and to provide an eye catching design that will make the viewer want to view the rest of the site. As an anime fan, it appeals to me, so it is also effective in this way. Example 3: Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory Album Cover Linkin Park is one of my favourite bands, and the album cover for their debut album, Hybrid Theory, attempts to capture the spirit of the band. The first thing the viewer notices is the band's name at the top of the cover. Like the rest of the album, it has a grungy, graffiti style to it. The choice of the backwards Ns in the band's logo may just be to look distinctive and different, but I think they also promote a sense of retaliation against the norm, and this would appeal to my age group. The 'street soldier' in the middle of the cover is, again, depicted in a graffiti style. It carries a flag and is depicted as having wings - however, the wings are done in a different colour, which somewhat detaches them from the main image of the soldier, as if they're not really a part of it. I don't know if there is a symbolic reason behind this, but I think it works well in breaking up the image, and providing something interesting to look at that almost acts as a frame for the soldier picture. The album name appears in the bottom right of the screen. It's probably placed here because the viewer's eye is drawn from the band name at the top, through the soldier picture and finally down to the album name. The album name is the same colour as the background, but the paint streak effect behind it makes it stand out. Letters appear in various places around the cover, but it is unclear if they have a specific meaning or whether they are just placed randomly. This further helps the grungy theme of the design. I really like this album cover. I think it does a great job or representing the style of the band. When you look at it, you can pretty much work out what type of music Linkin Park plays, which is an alternative rock style. They colours chosen also appeal to me, and are in my opinion a good fit for the overall design.

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Friday, February 11, 2005

>_< FRUSTRATION. A certain boss in Metroid Prime 2 has left me feeling mighty pissed off. It's just so damn frustrating. GAH. The game is mostly brilliant, but this one stupid boss... So yeah, I got pissed off and turned off my GameCube, and watched Excel Saga instead. ^_^

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Sunday, February 6, 2005

Just below my banner you'll see a product of my boredom ^_^ I put ghosting in it so it would be easier for me to put any stray frames in order on ImageReady, and I thought it might make it smoother. Meh. And there's black blood in it because my monitor has screwed up, so it doesn't show red. The only colour I needed, dammit. So I thought I was putting red blood in it but I selected black instead... oops. More to come, maybe, if I'm ever stuck for time again.

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Tuesday, January 25, 2005

A made an amazing discovery today... we have an air conditioner in our house. I mean, I thought it was just a heater, but if you change the settings on it it makes cold air come out. Nifty, eh? So the whole heat thing isn't a problem anymore. Funny how the newspaper had this article about how Tasmania hasn't had any hot days this summer, then the day after it's published we get a heat wave. THATISALL.

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Haw... just trying a little something out last post. Nothing to worry about, just me getting reaquainted with html. My own computer's completely packed it in, so I have to use our older one... which is kind of annoying. I had to type a heap of html for the afformentioned post out by hand because for some reason this computer doesn't understand the meaning of ctrl+c. It's a hot day today, for some reason. Summer could have something to do with it. Because of said heat, there seems to be ants everywhere, which sucks. Ahh... nuff said. Cyas.

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*KABAM*

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Saturday, December 18, 2004

HEY THERE. I'm back. I made a new layout and stuff too. Thanks for the image hosting site sugestions, btw. I've forgotten how to use html and now I'm getting confused :(. Meh, I hope I pick it up again soon. Took me half an hour to get the banner up the top of the page^^. So, I dunno if I'll start posting again, I might. I just thought that I should clean up my site a bit. Mehhhhhh. Here's a quiz. Cyas. You are Lloyd! Which Tales of Symphonia Character Are You? brought to you by Quizilla

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Saturday, May 8, 2004

Fucking websites...

Hey look, Anglfire isn't allowing me to link my layout pictures from them anymore. I'm going to make a new layout when MyO V2 is done. Does anyone know of any sites where I can host my pics? And am I the only one annoyed by that stupid banner ad right up the top of our member pages?

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Saturday, April 3, 2004

Whoa, I haven't posted in ages. So yeah, I survived camp, it was pretty damn cool. On the second night we camped up on this cliff type thing, and you could see out really far, it was awesome. On the kayaking part of the camp, me and a friend were in a double kayak, and we had the video camera on the front of it (in a waterproof case of course). There was this big jumble of sticks up ahead, so we decided to ram it, and it looked sweet when we watched it on the camera later. But our teacher went off his face at us. I'm over 1000 hits now, but my rank has slipped from 86 to 104, because I haven't been updating I guess. But it doesn't really matter that much, I've had heaps to do so I haven't had time to get on here. One final thing: the Zelda Collectors Disk has been released in Australia, but you have to buy two games, send in the dockets AND the barcodes from the covers into Nintendo. Cut out the barcodes??!! I could never do that. So I'm trying to work out what to do. Anyway, cya.

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Saturday, March 20, 2004

So now that I've done my (almost) week of work experience, I get to go on survival camp for another week. On survival camp, we have to go out into the bush and follow maps etc. to find shelter, food and cooking gear. It's kinda like Survivor I guess. Then after that we go on a big kayak expedition thing. Should be fun. I hope. We had to make our own packs, and mine turned out really crappy; it's pink because I made it out of a pig-food bag, and the straps are made of multi-coloured towels. I'll look like a walking rainbow. So I'm updating today to say that I won't be on for a week. So cya when I get back, if I survive.

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