Kim Bogdan

Hello fellow New Media peoples! Welcome to my blog! I hope you like what you see ;)

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This is my Nikon D3200. It has been behind my photos since the beginning of the year, and I think it deserves a little spotlight! The design of the camera body is, for me, amazing. The grip for my trigger hand is deep and has a slight lip on the edge, nothing uncomfortable, but provides that extra security when holding the camera. The on/off switch surrounds the shutter button, so I can easily switch the camera on and off with hardly any extra movement. The shutter release button, on/off switch, and hotkeys video record, menu info and exposure details are within millimeters of each other, making minor adjustments easy without disrupting positioning. The display is clean with a high resolution, with the buttons needed to access certain menus arranged in a clean, orderly fashion around the screen. Other hotkeys, such as flash and Fn buttons, as well as the focus and VR sliders on the lens, are next to my other thumb, making those adjustments near effortless. The image quality itself is very good, even when shooting video (up to 1920x1080 at 30p). There are a plethora of other settings and tweaks that, after some practice, are quite easy to use. The lens itself is very grippy, allowing me to pull focus precisely and zoom in and out with ease. 

Some downsides is the autofocus. It is quite loud. I wouldn't usually recommend using auto focus in professional projects, but there have been times when I have used it while filming and it was very noticeable, especially compared to another camera I have used before. The image menu button is on the left hand side, the same side I use to support the lens, and so I have to adjust my whole hand and position to view images (if I’m not using a tripod). I prefer the design where the image menu button is on the right hand side where your other thumb (that’s already in that vicinity of the camera) can easily slide down to open your images for quick review without disrupting your positioning. 

All in all, a great camera at a reasonable price ;)

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PORTFOLIOS!

If you guys are looking for inspiration while developing your portfolios, here are a few AWESOME ideas.

http://www.creativebloq.com/portfolios/examples-712368

Especially this guy!! If you want to make video games, why not make your portfolio into a game? :D  ----> http://www.rleonardi.com/interactive-resume/

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Dragonframe makes everything 10 billion times easier :D Thanks Nick for letting me borrow your laptop!

In this animation, I wanted to show the additive process, a simple concept taught in class, but I wanted to show it in an interesting way. I kept to the simple RGB as well as Black and White pallette to keep things from becoming complicated or distracting, which I believe adding cyan, magenta and yellow when the three RGB colors come together would do. It may have completed the whole concept to add these colors, but I felt it would have taken away from the quick animation and simple color scheme. 

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Here’s me fooling around a little bit.

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Starflower Desert

At least that’s what I see when I look at this!

For this pattern, I decided to go with complementary colors, as well as a few other analogous colors to add depth. The tone of the yellows are meant to reflect a sand/desert kind of feel, while the blues are reminiscent of the desert sky, while the purples reflect some extra color you may see on desert flowers. The background may seem like diamonds and squares, but I actually used triangles. I overlapped four huge ones and changed the opacity on each, creating the cool blue/purple design behind the middle flower. For the gaps this method left, I merely used the pen tool to make some more triangles and fill them in. For all the star/flower patterns I utilized the technique we learned last semester (rotate and copy) to make symmetrical shapes. For the yellow and dark yellow silhouetted star-shapes on the split-tone diamonds, I used two stars, one light and one dark on their contrasting wedges, on the right and bottom edge of the pattern so they stuck out of the square, and when it came time to repeat the pattern, those two stars fit snugly onto the opposite wedge with their same color. Hence, the partial silhouette! Hopefully that made sense.

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My main technique here was the use of textures, and a somewhat limited palette (namely with complementary colors red and green) to provide heightened interest and contrast between the green of the forest and the red of the fire. The tree (representing wildlife) is being burned away and replaced by a dark road. The article mentioned that a significant amount of species and wildlife are lost when roads are built, and that wildfires are more common around construction sites. I wanted to show these ideas by fire burning away wildlife, which humans have done before, to be replaced by a road, and surrounding land (which appears to be lifeless), highlighting the dark road that our actions have taken us on. 

The main photo was made in photoshop with custom textures designed by me as well as images found in Google that were listed as free use with modification. I painted the main outline of all the images here with help from references, and then used clipping masks to segregate the textures from the rest of the photo. For the fire, shadows and highlights, I simply painted and used blending modes. In illustrator I arranged the text and extended the road using the pen tool and rectangle box tool. 

Texture technique inspired by: Jeffery Bowman (found here http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/authors/jeffrey-bowman/), what we did in class and also this website (http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/07/03/creating-custom-textures-photoshop-techniques/), 

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Here are all of my illustrations: “Day at the park”, “Who owns the forest?”, and “Cost of technology”.

I feel like I could make a trilogy here. “Day at the park” turns into a brutal game of life and death in “Who owns the forest?” due to a innocent mistake during soccer, and then finishes to reveal that the panda was in a game all along in “Cost of technology”! D: What a great story that would make! :P

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“Who Runs The Forest?”

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Journal Prompt #8 - Twitter Article Response

           The illustrations in this article were done by Andrew B. Meyers. His style is very colorful and very clean (the use of digital media contributing to this look). While still being clean, the more realistic design of the birds (rather than the two dimensional twitter logo) helps to connect the idea that actions within a social media outlet can have real world consequences, and anyone who knows Twitter will be able to connect the bird with said social medium. In essence, a person who looks simply at the illustrations would easily be able to distinguish what the article is talking about. With slight exception to the tar covered bird illustration, the style, to me, is too clean and a bit too colorful. This element as well as how some were composed, namely the one of the bird in the corner with the shaming cone atop its head, brought a lighter sense to the presumed topic, and even a bit of humor (which can play into the story, considering that, according to Justine in one of her quotes, her tweet that started this whole thing was meant to be humorous/satirical). The article itself turned out to be slightly more serious than the illustrations had led me to believe. This small detail brought a somewhat distracting element to the article, but it wasn’t overwhelming. The illustrations did in fact enhance the story. We as human beings are very visual creatures because our eyes take in visual features before we even begin to read anything. Even the shape of paragraphs or the style of font registers before we read an article. With a plethora of material on the web, it is important to have some design sense in the layout of an article, and to add illustrations or another visual aid. Having illustrations gives the audience a quick overview of what an article will be about, and having a good illustration, one that is visually appealing to the audience and valid to the subject matter, pulls the reader in even more. The fact that these illustrations are very clear in the idea they are trying to convey, enough that if I were just skimming through I would be able to pick up on the idea in an instant, and they are quite appealing to the eye, leads me to conclude that these illustrations work well to enhance the reading experience.

Article Here------> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-saccos-life.html?hpw&rref=magazine&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

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Thought I’d post this now before I procrastinate any longer! I somewhat updated it but I’ll have to post that another time.

In light of recent events, it is apparent that racism is still a major issue in the United States. While a single video most likely won't change this fact overnight, especially in something that still hasn't been solved in over one hundred years, I hope that my video and Robert F. Kennedy's voice can be added to the many others who oppose racism, and who would see their country as full of Americans, rather than blacks and whites.

This video is based on Robert F. Kennedy's announcement of Martin Luther King's Assassination in 1968. It is based in the United States, but can be applied to the whole of the human race, no matter what country you may live in.

Speech: Robert F. Kennedy announcing the death of Martin Luther King Jr in Indiana, 1968

Figures: White played by Elitsa Ivanova and Black played by Corwin Smith

Directed and Animated by Kim Bogdan

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Here is my data visualization project. My main focus was to show the contrast between how many photos and videos I take and how many I delete, edit, and share between my two cameras, DSLR and phone. I found that a bar graph was simple enough and effective enough to show this contrast, with color separating the two different cameras used. I was slightly surprised myself to see, in each case, I delete over half of what I take, and share hardly anything. 

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Many of the choices I made here were made in context with the rest of the animation. The grey background is a shade specific to it’s black/white contrast abilities, as many of the lines previous to this screen shot are black and white, and I needed a shade in the background that could equally bring out these two colors. Having a grey background also allows for a good contrast between color and gray scale, without it being to harsh on the eyes. The blue and red are specific color choices as they tie in with the final frames and message of the animation. I used different shades to better illustrate the human heart without compromising my color scheme. The use of the dark black lines also ties in with previous content, but it better separates the illustration from the background. The shape of the illustration, from the middle heart to the arch that leads to the smaller, less realistic heart in mid formation, allows the eye to move with the illustration. This shape, and the dynamic swirls of the lines leading to the small heart as well as the drips on the bottom of the heart, give a sense of motion, making it more dynamic. It also unifies the two hearts. The larger, more defined shape of the middle heart occupies most of the space, but the smaller heart and the space taken up by the lines causes your eyes to drift every time you look back. It is balanced in such a way that it is still compositionally sound, but it is slightly uncomfortable to the eye to have that small shape change the center-oriented human heart, so your eyes are constantly drawn to the little heart, which is the new center of attention (at least in the animation). 

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Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Visualized by Pitch Interactive at http://drones.pitchinteractive.com/

This is an incredible visual representation of deaths in Pakistan incorrelation with drone attacks made by the USA. Through a very simple color scheme, timing, and brief explanation throughout the animation, the author was able to drive home the negative impacts of drone attacks. The colors grey, white, and two shades of red appear on a black background, setting the mood of the project. These colors are not only visually striking at first sight, but given the subject matter it supports the negative feel of the visualization, as red is often associated with blood and black can be easily associated with death. The simple, curved, animated lines and soft grey circles that appear at their impact on certain years represent the drone strikes per year. This simple element is a genius way of connecting drone attacks with deaths caused by them, since each impact sends a stream of casualties plummeting into the darkness that is the black background. After a pause and some text signifying where in the timeline Obama is sworn into office, a steady stream of drone attacks begins, and picks up pace until it ends on Christmas Day of 2013. This pacing and the striking visual elements of the piece really make you pay attention to the scope of what they are trying to communicate: drones are as simple as those little lines and soft grey circles, but they can have devastating consequences not originally intended by their operators... and their use has only increased. The bar across the top of the page, showing the casualties in children, civilians, and those unknown with their respective colors of bright red, dark red, and grey, shifts with each drone strike. This highlights the fact that this visualization is focusing on collateral damage. All of these deaths were not originally intended, or, at least, they weren't the main target. It displays a shocking percentage of those unknown, killed by faceless drones controlled by people who didn't know who they were, with no voice to defend themselves. After the initial animation, the visualization becomes interactive, and by rolling over your mouse you can view the location, number of deaths, number of attacks, and other details on specific dates. A magnified view option reveals that each dot to represent each death is in the shape of a person. This aspect is extremely successful for the visualization, as it humanizes the statistics and better communicates the message at a more personal level for those who are distant form the violence.

 Overall a very effective data visualization.

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UPDATE: She ended up winning. So yeah. Basically all me. :D jks 

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So over reading week, I had the opportunity to work with my first ever client to design some posters (not trying to advertise here, I promise ;) ) The experience proved that there is definite possibility for things to not go smoothly, especially when you have only about a day to do something, but in the end she liked the posters and that's what matters! :D These four are the ones she chose. I'm open to feedback if anyone thinks of something I can improve!

Danielle was looking for something that was very simple and professional looking, but at the same time was fun and playful, with special request for the color red. I hand drew the letters and copied them into illustrator. The use of hand drawn letters (with sharp, not round, edges) helped to achieve the professional-playful kind of look. I used as little words as possible, as big as possible, and against a plain white background to make them easy to read as students walk by. Simple, yet effective, always highlighting her name next to a clear picture of her face in order to help voters remember her. The blue color was intended to match her scarf in most of the posters I did, but the baby blue color seemed to go well with the red color (even using it as a shadow color for some red letters softened the red a bit and made it seem more playful, while still catching the eye). The one where she is black and white with a red scarf was to give her something with only her requested color, red, while giving the chance for a different kind of poster. Grayscale pictures usually have a professional feel about them, and adding points of color help heighten the interest. Hallways are usually lined with brightly colored posters during the elections as well, so I wanted to try using the dynamic between color and lack of color to gain attention. 

All in all, it was a fun experience. 

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Photoshop Tennis: The Internet

When cats are involved, the inevitable conclusion is the internet. Always the internet. By the end, the internet meet real life! (I couldn’t help but bring Lord of the Rings in here, the white clad person on the right looked too much like Gandalf :P Thanks Charlee for being my tennis partner! : )

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Nikon D3200; 55.00 mm; 1/20 sec; f/5.6; ISO 3200

For this portrait I wanted a more natural setting. The lights in the room, including the ceiling lights, the monitor in front of her, and the overhead screen to Callie's right contributed to a natural three point lighting system. It evened out the shadows while keeping enough to allow for depth. I changed the color of her hoodie slightly to allow her to draw attention more. The screen to the right may attract too much attention, but it also may contribute to the 'natural student environment' idea. I wanted a more dynamic portrait than just the regular head and shoulders, so her pose, and the framing of monitors in front of her, add to the effect. Thanks Callie for posing for me! :D