Progress

My project was originally supposed to be about parodied advertisements. When I started, however, I played with images of myself and turned them into cell-shaded-esque version of themeselves. I really like the way they look, so I think I'll keep doing them that way. The backgrounds and color palette are really bright, simple, offset by dark shading.

I've completed 3 images that I'll use. These deal more with the individual, identity, and the way we see ourselves. My main inspiration is the Obama ad campaigns, something I may try to do with the next few images, with a different take on it. All of these images are very simple, very clean, and have a semi-real feel to them.

Category

My project will be on the social level, specifically targeting what culture deems as controversial or cool. I will be blending some popular advertisements, such as Coco-Cola, with drugs, such as Coke. It will be a parody, but my main goal is to make people want to buy what I'm selling. If it looks enticing, then I've done my job. I've done a mock up of a "Go DJ" poster that I did, which is very pop-culturey, and in the direction I want to go in.

What Should I Do

I've decided to focus on 2-D images for my final project. The content of which, however, is still up in the air. I have two solid ideas that I think will work, and I could go either way. My first idea deals with smiles and clowns, something that has always interested me. I would take a stock photo of myself, and apply common smiles over my face, such as the Smiley smile, or the Joker's glasow smile. This would give an odd look as to how we as a society view joy, since the effects would undoubtly look kind of creepy.

My other idea deals with advertisements. I've always found it odd that most advertisements preach the "Use us and get laid" approach, and I think it would be funny to parody this. I'd use modern jobs (DJ's, plumbers, this sort of thing) and make them look epic. Another idea for this is to use designer drugs, such as meth ("It'll blow your mind!"), and glorify them sarcastically. Again, my style will be very bright, very happy, and very pop art.

Art Thoughts

For the past few weeks, we’ve utilized a variety of CS3 applications to achieve an array of artistic displays and sounds. Photoshop (my personal favorite) offers the ability to alter images, or enhance them. I used it to blend various pop-culture items together. With its relatively simple interface, and wide margin of options, Photoshop is able to achieve any possibility.

During the Sound Art demo, we utilized Garage Band, a very simple application. It allowed me to overlay various synths and loops, but in the end I went for a very straightforward parody of common commercials. Next, we worked with Flash, with moderate success. Personally, I found it difficult to understand the coding aspect, and was really only able to produce simple drawn images, and make them move very little. With Net Art, the coding aspect returned, which again provided a less-than-satisfactory experience. The difference, however, is that Net Art allows me to send a message through writing, as well as style. By providing different links and images from other applications, I was able to create a mini-Joel-world, which I feel came across very well.

With the final project coming up, I am leaning towards either Photoshop, or furthering my web-world with Photoshop enhancements. I’ve always leaned more toward simple 2-D images that don’t rely on flashy gimmicks or sound, but it is nice to have experience with those things.

Web Page-UPDATED

I think I'll change the format of the site away from facebook, and more towards a wikipedia format. The only subject, however, will be myself, with various link branching out to various aspects of my life, and achievements. Granted, the vast majority of these won't actually be true, and will be exaggerated comically. The structure will be almost exactly like wikipedia, but with my own symbols, pictures, etc.

With the advent of all these wiki's based on needless things (tv shows, for example), I think it'd be funny to have a site where someone can get to know the "real" me. Every aspect of my life will be written out, such as my triumphant defeat against the womb, and my brief, yet memorable appearance on The Jeffersons. I want to exploit the weakness of society's dependence on "useless" facts, and compulsion-like need to relate to the source material.

RE: Movie
I saved it as a quicktime, .mov, and something, but every time it says there's a "critical error." Even though these words frighten me, I think I'll try to shrink it, and see where that gets me.

I can web it all day long

For my web project, I'm going to parody typical teen websites, such as facebook and myspace. I think it's funny how much "truth and honesty" people put on these things, and I'm going to exploit that. It'll look like my homepage, with friend updates and the like. Depending on the time, I'll write fictional notes and backgrounds to some of the characters, and have an inbox with these things. I'll have a picture folder, which will probably end up being the same as my facebook one, just because I already have those on hand.

I'll need to come up with a parody-esque title, but that'll come during development. I think that exploring the more "embarrassing" aspects of life will be the primary focus--I once took all the responses to Obama's victory and published it as a note. Quite a few people apologized to me personally, not realizing that I was just making fun of them and their beliefs. This sort of thing will serve as the base of my project, and I'll build up from there.

Also, I still can't upload my flash project. Still working on it though.

I watch the Watchmen

For the past week and a half, I've been using flash to make a poorly drawn cartoon. After four days of trying to make something look awesome based off of my original concept, I've decided to abandon that entirely. My new project revolves around the pivotal scene in Watchmen, in which the Comedian's smiley button falls several stories. It is a very prominent scene, and I wanted to try my hand at it.

My version will be very cartoony, since that's kind of what I do. It's a fairly simple animation, and I'm not sure what I can add aside from the obvious blood drips, and falling schematic. Most of my efforts in class will revolve around making the background fairly detailed, so that it can at least have a nice visual aesthetic to it. I also intend to add some sound to it, so that the whole thing isn't horribly boring to those who don't know where it came from.