E: INTERACTION

E: INTERACTION
My perception of a designed mark changes once it becomes interactive, because now it is more than a mark. It is a logo with motion, an animation. This animation is controlled by the viewer however; the animated mark enables the viewer to become more involved with the image because it creates an experience for the user. Not only is there a visual image, but there is a story to be perceived with the mark. It gives the viewer a deeper meaning of what is going on because he or she participates in the event. When I created my mark the three attributes I chose were loyalty, active, and funny. To express these visually, I chose a dog for loyalty, a tornado for activity and a banana peel for humor. The next step was to get these not only to make a mark but to come together to create a mark with animation. This resulted in dealing with narrative and time. Since these were supposed to be simple animations, I had to make them react and interact with time as a constraint. I now had to deal with the elements of narrative and time. The problems involved in making this mark involved where to being the interactivity after the user pushes the button, and how long to have the video run, where the animation should start, and how it should end? In order to do this I created a narrative wherein the dog begins barking because he the tornado as it begins moving. Next, the banana flies onto the screen as if it were something picked up by the gust of wind created from the tornado. Since this was to be a short animation time was a major factor. If I were making a movie, there would have been time for storytelling. I would have been able to develop the characters before they are used for the mark. However because time is a constraint I am compelled to make decisions. I have to display the elements and make them come together without buildup as in an actual narrative. It is almost like making a trailer versus creating the entire movie. My task is to convey an idea in a short span of time. Thus interactivity involves the process of utilizing narrative and time to enhance the user’s experience. If the animation is too long or if I do not begin the animation at the right sequence will the viewer lose interest? Obviously then time becomes more than just a decision about duration but also about the point at which it begins the narration. Indeed, the shortness of time forces the designer to create an animation with the intentions of being brief while aiming at being stark and concise.

C:SOUND

Regarding the interpretation of my work, developing sound to reflect the motion of the cards in my film was a bit difficult. Perhaps I should have been more aware of the possibilities of sound before I began this project. However I think the real trick was trying to generate a sound that would accentuate the effect of the action and idea presented. I chose sounds that expressed chaos and thus heightened the effect of the card toss for the viewer. It was a matter of making what I had work for the narrative. Experimenting with sound and blending sounds that we worked on in class provided a new realm, a new variable to be played with. This experience is an invitation to more experimenting. Sound itself can be designed. When I was adjusting the sounds for my narrative I wound up playing with the tempo, frequency, and other different elements that make up the sound. There are numerous ways to manipulate sound and I learned a lot from the class exercise as each of the students switched sounds with his or her neighbor. I came to appreciate the nuanced changes in meaning these sounds provided when used for films they were not initially designed for. I realized that experimenting with different types of sound for each action is a form of creativity that can develop a new language by changing or tweaking the actions being displayed. The sound I chose is more of a background sound which relates to the tempo of the cards being sprayed out. The background sound underscores the narrative because the chaotic sound relates to motion of the cards being aimlessly sprayed out and the mess at the end. As a result of this exercise I have developed an appreciation of sound and rhythm which can be created without the use of actual instruments. Although my initial intention was to generate a sound that would accompany shuffling of cards, I figured it might work for creating a spraying effect. When I started meshing the sounds something else developed. This influenced my thinking about how to incorporate sounds and it allowed me to realize sound can be more than the noise that you automatically associate with an image of an animal, vehicle or a human. It can also help establish untraditional relationships which can create a more amusing, entertaining and heightening, or add a different nuance to the meaning of a piece.