More Cinemagraphs....

 

I found a site with more interesting cinemagraphs:

http://graphicriver.net/forums/thread/cool-cinemagraph-/53129

Assigment #4: Music CD Packaging

 

(image via)

Assignment: design packaging for a music CD.

Front Cover
Booklet
Back Cover
Strange nd interesting packaging ideas

Designing CDs and CD Packaging -- boilerplate conventions:

The packaging of a music CD must persuade customers to buy/download the music -- the visual brand or style should reflect if not visually define something of the music recorded. The CD and its packaging must communicate a variety of information.


Specifications for designing the packaging for each CD:

CDs can be packaged in any of a wide variety of containers, but most popular by far is the jewel CD case. More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_disc_packaging

The front lid contains tabs to keep the liner notes in place. The liner notes typically will be a 120 mm × 120 mm (4.72 in x 4.72 in) booklet, or a single 242 mm × 120 mm (9.53 in x 4.72 in) leaf folded in half. In addition, there is usually a back card, 150 mm × 118 mm (5.9 in x 4.65 in), underneath the media tray and visible through the clear back, often listing the track names, studio, copyright data and other information.

FRONT Cover:

1 - The paper for the front cover must be 120mm or 4.72 inches wide as well as high.

2 - The music publishing company's logo, name, copyright statement, location, and catalogue number must appear. You may use any of the recording company logos posted on this page.

3 - The name of the recording artist and the title of the album must be prominent texts.

4 - Other: misc. logos; compact disc symbol; etc.


BACK Cover:

1 - The paper for the back cover must be 135mm (5.3 inches) wide and 120mm (4.72 inches) high.

1 - The music publishing company's logo, name, copyright statement, location, and catalogue number must appear.

2 - The name of the recording artist and the title of the album.

3 - The playlist -- the list of separately recorded pieces of music -- must include titles, their order and duration (minutes:seconds).


4 - Other: barcodes; logos; etc.


Your assignment is to design the CD's brand and packaging and to post your designs on your blog.

Your assignment also stresses creativity: innovative ideas, imaginative attempts are all more important than keeping to the boring old conventions (even if you fail!)

Here are some sites with CD designs that you may find useful or inspiring:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/08/03/35-beautiful-music-album-covers/

http://bestdesignoptions.com/?p=7947

http://www.touchey.com/post/15395825342/15-creative-music-cd-cover-designs


http://blogof.francescomugnai.com/2010/03/the-30-most-impressive-cd-and-dvd-packaging-ive-seen-in-a-while/

http://asideproject.com/music/

http://cvhsdesign.edublogs.org/assignments-2/assignments/cd-album-cover-art/

The 'Cinemagraph'

Here is the history and definition of the cinemagraph, from http://cinemagraphs.com/about/ :

A Cinemagraph is an image that contains within itself a living moment that allows a glimpse of time to be experienced and preserved endlessly.

Visual Graphics Artist Kevin Burg began experimenting with the .gif format in this style in 2009 but it wasn't until he partnered with photographer Jamie Beck to cover NYFW that Cinemagraphs were born. Marrying original content photography with the desire to communicate more to the viewer birthed the cinemagraph process. Starting in-camera, the artists take a traditional photograph and combine a living moment into the image through the isolated animation of multiple frames. To quote supermodel Coco Rocha "it's more than a photo but not quite a video".

Beck and Burg named the process "Cinemagraphs" for their cinematic quality while maintaining at its soul the principles of traditional photography. Launched virally through social media platforms Twitter and Tumblr, both the style of imagery and terminology has become a class of its own. The creative duo are looking forward to exploring future display technologies for gallery settings as well as pushing this new art form and communication process as the best way to capture a moment in time or create a true living portrait in our digital age while embracing our need to communicate visually and share instantly.

 

via http://cinemagraphs.com

 

 

 

Assignment #3: Animated gifs

For Assignment #3 we will be using Photoshop to create animated gifs and "cinemagraphs."

First we will focus on animated gifs: produce two separated animated gif projects:

Project #1: Create a humorous or "happy" animation (in keeping with the tradition of animated gifs; see examples); 

Project #2: Create a serious or "sad" animation (going against the grain of the typical animated gif).

While creating your animations, keep in mind the following:

•  You can use anything: found imagery, create texts that tell a story, shoot your own images; but remember to reduce your frames to 72dpi BEFORE you import them into Photoshop to animate them.
• Do your research: look at other animated gifs online before you start your projects. This will give you ideas.

Consider these projects as a contrast or counterpoint to your billboard project, which was all about Public Art or Advertizing. Consider these animations to be more personal.


I'll demonstrate how to construct an animated gif step-by-step. Take notes if you feel the need, as there are some essential details you may forget. I will show you how I made this gif:

from this image of a series of die-cut book covers by NY-based (famous) graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister:

Check out this blog post about Stefan, which is where I found the images so I could play with them for you!

Watch this brief video of Stefan's:

THE ASSIGNMENT (#3): ANIMATED GIFS

You have the next two weeks to play and experiment, and to upload your various animated gifs to your blogs.

Make an animated gif using at least ten layers. Use images that you make or images that you find. Make one animation or make more for extra credit! Have fun!

Here are a few sites that contain animated gifs, which you might find inspiring (I did!) especially this one from the New York Public Library:

Create and share animated GIFs and 3D anaglyphs using more than 40,000 stereographs from The New York Public Library.

http://stereo.nypl.org/

Also:  

Tom Moody's blog. Tom is sortof the Animated Gif King of the art blogosphere:
http://www.tommoody.us/
http://www.tommoody.us/archives/2012/02/20/various-gifs/
http://www.tommoody.us/archives/2010/11/03/animated-gif-q-and-a/
http://www.tommoody.us/archives/2009/09/16/the-affect-of-animated-gifs/


These are fun: Eyekhan's gifs, and remixes of Tom Moody's gifs:
http://eyekhan.com/eyekhan/EYEKHANLABS-WEB.html
http://eyekhan.com/eyekhan/EYEKHANLABS-WEB-EE_MIX.html

The following artist duo makes animations that are not animated gifs, but they may give you an idea of how to animate texts (also, they are worth looking at):

THE NEW AND IMPR0VED
Y0UNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES
PRESENTS
http://www.yhchang.com/ 
This one is funny:
http://www.yhchang.com/PERFECT_ARTISTIC_WEB_SITE.html

+++++++++

I came across these on twitter and thought I should share them with you all:
http://illusion.scene360.com/art/27877/awesome-animated-gifs/

Here's the original post that led me to these gifs by Dain Fagerholm:

Via BoingBoing:

Dain Fagerholm's incredible animated GIFs

By Rob Beschizza at 7:59 am Wednesday, Mar 28

Dain Fagerholm creates animated GIF art similar to traditional stereo 3D photos.
Pictured here is Daydreamer. Other favorites of mine include Four creatures in a room and "Seven Headed Creature".

Dain's latest, Creature in Cube with Gem looks anagyphic as well as stereoscopic (but I'm not sure if it is)! [via Illusion 360]