Web design studio Review- 2D-arts.com

2-D Arts Studio offers clients web applications and graphic services, and as the name implies, the whole website reveals artistic and creative feelings.

Review of the design

In the header, it shows images which combines traditional arts symbols(pencil and pen) with more modern ones associated with digital technology. The background in shades of gray combine with a bold, lime green square for a similar impression of balance and symmetry.

Also, the website has a color palette that pops and a simple landing page that directs users wherever they need to go. There is a carefully constructed sense of balance between traditional arts and digital technology, which can be a difficult balance to create.

Through the design of the website, it tells the viewer the messages that this company is as contemporary as it can be.

Review of the usability

One of the benefits of this website is that it easy to use.

On one hand, every part of it can be easily found and accessed from the front page.

On the other hand, the website pages are full of details but load quickly. It is easy to access the portfolio and to perform basic tasks such as getting contact information and making a quote.

Having a well organized and easy to use website is definitely a plus for a company that claims to design them.

Online Store Website Analysis - AMAZON.com

Amazon’s success is the direct result of a strong user shopping experience.

The design of Amazon.com is simple and distinct. The layout is stright-forward, the color scheme is clean and fresh. The whole design reveals a feeling of secure and reliable.

When the user scan the Amazon home page, a few clean, distinct elements immediately catch the user’s eye: the navigation section in the upper-left, and the search/shopping cart controls near the top.

With these elements highlighted, Amazon achieved:

1,The user is able to quickly find and purchase products

2,The seller is able to quickly process online purchases and make a profit

Also, Amazon keep a user logged in, and that user's shopping habits are tracked and stored server-side. It dynamically customizes the user's experience based on their prior searches, page views, wish-list additions and purchases. This is a really good enhancement too.

Online Newspaper Review - ATPWorldTour.com

ATP Tennis website is a website where clearly presents all the latest tennis news and player information you could want.

The main color of the website is light blue, which gives the viewer a sense of peace and freedom. The layout is simple and each section clearly present to the viewer. Viewers can easily access to the section they want.

The homepage gives the viewer the latest up to date news, results and the main rankings. There is also a full news and results section, player profiles and full rankings information for the men's singles & doubles.

Live Scores is the highlight of the website, giving the viewer scores as they happen, organised by location. This live web feed is a great way to keep up to speed, especially for those people who are in the office and not happened to have a television. Minute by minute action can be followed via the updates on the live system.

The player of the week is another nice section with plenty of great clips of the top players justifying their selections in the archives. Finally if the viewer really want to get interactive there is the Fantasy Tennis game, which is free to play. ATPWorldTour.com does a good job of covering all the bases, easy to dip into for some latest scores or real time action, and with deeper content for the real tennis enthusiast.

ATPWorldTour.com also links out to a Pro Shop and Player's Gear shop so the viewer can buy all the latest gear to help improve your own game.

Musician Website Review - Chrisamott.com

This is one of my favorite websites. If you are going to make a living as a musician, designer, or any type of artist, you must be a master of marketing and branding. The design of this website creates a professional and interesting brand for the musician( Christopher Amott)indeed.

Christopher Amott’s website uses CSS to begin to build a personal brand that will benefit each of his many pursuits. A simple however modern black and white photograph takes up most attentions of the landing page, with flecks of light to create a somewhat dreamlike and abstract feeling. The photograph of Chris Amott, as a signature below verifies. From here, people who are interested in the musician can visit the homepage of his band, several different social networking websites, and vendors selling his music.

The Twitter and Myspace pages use the same background as well as other visual elements, helping to create a well-rounded sense of branding. Even through this is not possible with iTunes and Facebook, but effort is still made to be consistent with the musician’s brand in the wording and the pictures displayed. This continuity is an essential part of building the Christopher Amott brand.

The website is simple and appropriate to the musician. It offers links to all of the right places. However, it does very little to introduce us to the musical brand being represented. A page of biography or discography will give us more information about the musician.

Generally, the most successful part of this website is creativity. I especially enjoy the play of the light against the black and white photograph - it suggests an older photograph of a musician from the past. Also, placing everything on the landing page certainly makes it easy to locate!

Review of film promotion website - Kungfupanda.com

This website is definitely a engaging promotion website for Kung Fu Panda and Kung Fu Panda 2 movie lovers.

When the website finish loading, the main character of the movie - "Po" shows up immediately. Entering the site, all the characters(3D) from the movie are the only focus attention of the whole page. By clicking on each one, the viewer can view all the detail informations.

The style of the website is just like what it looks like in the movie - same color scheme, both in 3D style and using the same soundtrack. Viewers can learn the style of the movie through the design of the website and get excited about the movie.

This website provide viewers all the informations of the movie, including movie showtimes, trailer, information of the characters, cast, filmmakers and even some games for the viewer to play. It also links to those websites where the viewer can buy their tickets from. These informations are useful enough for the viewer to get interested and walks into cinema.

Final look of "Crossing" exhibition

I create a 3D modle to see how exactly it works.

Flowing is the look of my exhibition:) (plz click the image to view full size)

"Crossing" - Moving image design

To enable the glass to have reflections, both of my moving images have black tone.

The darkness allows a reflection to be seen more clearly.

There will be 2 moving images play on each wall, one is the video I took at night and the other is the animation of skeleton.

The dark videos do not allow the viewer to know where exactly the footage was taken. This enabled the viewer to think more freely about the space and interpret it in their own way.

The skeleton is like the reflection of us.

As we are walking through the exhibition space, we see the animation of the skeleton and we can also see the reflection of us on the glass --- this makes us fell that we are walking with the skeleton, an it seems to be one of the viewers.

This also refers to the dark videos. If the viewer ltry to position themselves to get some images from the glass, they will easily notice that this animation can actually combine with the dark videos to become a complete story.

If the viewer look at glass, the moving image of one wall will be reflected on the glass; and the reflection combine with the moving image which they see on the other wall, they will get a new moving image like tihs:

Inspiration

"Nowhere near here" is a stop animation that uses a combination of light with stencils and long exposure photography to tell a story of dog running around the city at night, doing whatever a dog does.

For my moving images, maybe i can create 2 kind of moving images - one is the enviroment, and the other is the character animation. With the idea of reflection, 2 moving images can be merged together on the glass can become a new story.

"Crossing" - exhibition space design

There are 2 black walls opposite each other in the exhibition space. And there will be a large piece of glass between them.

Each wall will have specific moving image to play.

The viewers walk through the exhibition, they can interactive with those videos which showed on both walls, create narratives by playing with those reflections on the glass, and they could have their own understanding of their views.

Material I need to build the space:

1 glass, 2 projectors, black papers, 2 laptops, loud speakers

Concept:

The idea of the exhibition is to create a sense of narrations and allow the viewer to be inspired and blend into the space as they are playing with the reflections.

3 ideas for exhibition design

1, "I will die.” Interactive installation

My first idea is to create a disconcerting, soberly exhibition that confronts the viewer with existential question by participating them in the p

rocess and showing them the video.

The exhibition space have 2 parts – a studio room and the display room.

How to play:

People speak “i will die.” to the camera (in any language).

Push the red button to record their own sequence.

The viewer can change the background in any color.

How it works:

After the audience recorded his sequence, this sequence will play on wall a after its pervious sequence; wall B will appears moving image which changes according to his voice.

If there is no one recording in studio room, the video on wall a will play repeatedly.

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2,Video installation

My second idea is to create a video installation and exhibition space that remind us of the enviroment we live everyday - full of white noises and small narratives.

There will be 9 footages (CD shape) play on the wall. The CD will keep rotating as the footage plays.

- the sequence plays in each CD will be a short footage that recorded from our point of view;

- the CDs will keep rotating as the footage plays(represents those small narratives play in our daily life over and over);

By showing the most familiar squences from our daily life, I want to embrace the idea that seeing and hearing life in a way that we all do.

The exhibition is like a documentry of life drom our point of view.

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3, “Crossing” exhibition

My thrid idea is to create an exhibition space that based on the idea of “reflection”.

Idea

The idea of this exhibition is to create a sense of narration and allow the viewer to be inspired and blend into the space as they go through the exhibition .

Inspiration

I find it is an interesting experience to see your own self reflected in your own surroundings. With this you can begin to create your own narrative by positioning yourself as you were an element of the scene.

The exhibition

There are 2 parts of the exhibition. The _rst space has 2 walls opposite each other; abstract animations on the black wall will be re_ected on those dark videos; the audience walk through the corridor, interactive with those images and could have thier own understanding of their views. After walking to the end of the _rst part exhibition, the audience get to see the second part - videos which would be my personal thoughts on the initial images.

The videos showing on the white wall will be the base video. The darkness allows a re_ection to be seen more clearly. These dark and mystery images do not allow the viewer to know where the footage was taken. This enabled the viewer to think more freely about the space and interpret it in their own way.

On the black wall, i will show a series of abstract animations that refers to the dark videos. The viewer could interactive with the image and relate their own feelings to them. All videos and animations conveys a mysterious sense.

The moving image

The moving image today has been applied to a wide range of areas such as fashion, commercial and experience design. The use of moving images communicates the event and the art piece in a new way, it creates experiences that we have never had before.

The example of Diesel “Liquid Space” holographic fashion show, which was held in Florence, Italy on July 21, 2007. During the fashion show, models walking the runway were accompanied by holographic sea creatures. 3D sea creatures’ images were projected into the middle “space” using a combination of mirrors, and seemed to be interacting with the models in an underwater runway.

In such a settled environment, one would have a sense of being in another environment. By using moving image art technologies, this fashion show is remarkably effective at creating a sense of “Liquid space”.

The flowing video is about the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas, Nevada. A permanent canopy has been constructed to cover the casino-lined street with two million lights and a state of the art sound system. Every evening, motion pictures are projected on the canopy ceiling with music, and different themes are presented through the moving images. As most travelers who have been there say, "The Fremont Street Experience is definitely something not to be missed, it is well worth the time to go.”

Complete story and Synopsis for animation "STANIC"

Theme

For the project, I am going to produce a black humor animation that reflects the theme of POLAR WARMING. As a result of global warming, glacier melting is all over the world. Thousands of polar bears died because they have no place to live or they were unable to cross thin or nonexistent ice to hunt any seals.

Goal

For my self directed project, I want to produce something meaningful and that’s why I choose an environmental theme. However environmental issues are no longer new to us, and the mood of the production is always very serious. For my animation, I want to make it funny however it still reflects the theme of POLAR WARMING.

Therefore the goal of this animation is to increase our awareness of polar warming and emphasis the idea that regards to the issue of global warming - we will pay for it eventually; at the same time, I hope the viewers enjoy watching my animation.

Inspirations

My inspiration is come from an real news. “Polar bear swims for 9 days, 426 miles to find ice for refuge.” This is the title of the news. I was really shock when I saw this news and I decide to create an animation based on this news. I researched the theme of polar bear, and I found one very interesting video called “Bundjugend” created by Macaia. The idea of this video is to ask people to support a strong and fair climate agreement. The story is very funny however it cause viewers to think deeply about the idea behind the scene. This inspires me of my own story design - to develop a funny story to express my idea of POLAR WARMING.

Story

There are 3 main characters in this animation. Polar bear, Jack and Rose. And there are 2 storylines of the story.

1, One polar bear swims for 8 days, haven’t found any ice to stay. In his ninth day, he meet Jack and Rose on the sea. He took Jack’s ice away - this ice saved his life.

2, Jack and Rose fall in love on “Stanic”. Soon after, Stanic crash into an ice burg, they both jump into the sea. Rose jumped to an ice where it full of polar bears. Polar bears kick Rose away because there is no more space for her on the ice. Jack find her while he is holding an ice, he gives the ice to Rose to save her life. Polar bear pass by and take the ice away from them to save polar bear itself.

environment design test:

character design part2

character develop (style & color scheme)

character design part1

polar bear sketch and develop

my story board

GLOBAL WARMING

nice concept and nice music.

but for mine, i m not evoking this kind of feeling. I will communicate the idea of "polar warming" in a funny way.

POLAR WARMING

Global warming threatens polar bears' live. Thousands of polar bears have no place to live. Their situation now is very serious.

Here is an real report about polar bear. My animation will be based on this report,, and i will design a funny story to evoke viewers' thinking about POLAR WARMING.

Refrences

These are the animations that reflects environmental issues, but in totally different style.

20 Years of Freedom.

The idea is simple but very effective.

Bundjugend is a german enviromental protection organisation
This video refers to the Kopenhagen Climate Conference in december 2009 and invites people to sign the petition at their website.

This one is my favorite. The concept is very interesting. It is not a complicate story but it tells the story very well. Cute and though provoking. Very inspiring.

I also like this kind of illustration and animation style a lot.

The Story of Stuff

I changed my idea for my self-directed project.

I've been research information about environmental issues and i found this interesting website.

Its very educational and inspiring.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/international/

It is a short animated documentary about life cycle of material goods.

A music video

This video created with a vast array of materials - mark drawings, stop motion, live action, motion graphic and so on..

I really like the style of the first part of this video. I'm thinking doing a short film or music video for my self directed project.

Rough cut

Almost finish my animation! :)

DEVELOPED STORYBOARD

Future Technology: Your day in 2020

excellent video and concept !

storyboard for my animation

Story and Character design

I change my idea(evolution) at first week, and come up with this " Perfect Phone" idea.

Basically the concept is:

In the future, there is a "perfect phone". It does everything for us, and it's just like our phones that we always carry it around. The "perfect phone" has a lot of different brands. People have choice of which brand they want.

In the end, i want to communicate a message that in the future people too rely on technology, their best friend is "the perfect phone". They don't really communicate with other human beings because they don't need to.

Here is the character i designed:

Here are the phone brands:)))

POSTHUMAN concept inspiration - “The Stepford Wives” (1975)

To give a little bit review of the plot :

The main character (Joanna ) moves with her husband Walter and their children to the perfect suburban neighborhood of Stepford, Connecticut. Slowly she realizes that there is something odd about Stepford. Most of the other wives are shallow creatures who live only to please their husbands. Joanna and her new friend Bobby, begin to investigate their strange neighbors. Then even Bobby becomes the perfectly vapid wife. Joanna finally realizes that Stepford's husbands have conspired with a male scientist to replace all the wives with robotic replicas.

Technology may make us perfect. But It's so pathetic that we could us technology to control our minds and emotions. And when everyone becomes perfect, where's the joy of living?

35 mm

35mm from Felix Meyer on Vimeo.

This is my favourite motion graphic piece.

This is about cinema itself. They picked 35 of their favorite movies and tried to simplify them as far as possible. The outcome is a 2 minute journey through the history of film.

I like its style, simple but very effctive.

A Record Of Life

For my POSTHUMAN project, I start thinking about the concept of “evolution” and “transformation”. I find this interesting video while researching.

A Record Of Life from Owen Gatley and Luke Jinks on Vimeo.

This is a short animation based on the scientific recording of life's species. The idea is " to dis cover the secrets of the evolution and diversity of life on earth."

I like how it transfer from one scene to another, and i think the music works really well. Also the story developed very well through the animation plays.