Blog 7

Pixel art often holds a very nostalgic feeling when presented in the in the modern light. Oddly enough, visibly sized small blocks composing a low resolution image is often enough to spur a sense of nostalgia in a lot of populations today. Pixel art is often seen as very dated graphically so it is interesting to see major progressions in how the art is presented today. Perhaps it's the lack of clarity that draws people into enjoying the art form? Pixel art is interesting because it was abstraction by necessity. Personal computation was limited in sheer power when pixel art become present, forcing developers to generate artwork with as little detail as possible. Items that would often be seen as a complex forms in 3D space are replaced with a simplistic blocks that abstractify the item. 4 colored cubes can represent a charm on a necklace, a facial expression, or even a a symbol like a star or cross. Pixel art can also be combined with more traditional graphical techniques that enhance the work substantially. Traditional lighting can be implemented and overlaid into the work. The fusion of two vastly different styles of art direction creates something substantially different from the norm. Depth of this light can make the 2D Sprites appear almost 3 dimensional in space. Light interacts with certain sprites in certain ways, generating depth in the different layers and forms of the object. Pixel art is a remarkable style of graphic that has stood the test of time and continues to develop to this day.

Zines are an independent, self published, novella that can describe any array of ideas that can be held in a book format. These little booklets have a storied history in the literary and artistic world. They were at the precursor to the comic book and nowadays have become more of a niche collectors object in the art world. What’s interesting is the overall scope of what zines may cover. Because everything is independently done, a vast assortment of different artists and genres and styles exist in the art world. The sheer diversity of the medium is quite exciting, as hundreds of different authors escaped the filter of publishing to present their work to the world. It’s almost like a literary type of public art display. Zines also have an element of being a very personal item. Books are small widows designed to be viewed by one person. This makes interacting with the craft and artistry a much more personal experience when viewing the works. An artist may make a zine specifically tailored towards one specific person, which makes deciphering what the comic fully means as an interesting endeavor. Another interesting component of this medium exists with the ephemerality of the work. Because the project is often limited in its release and very personally made, there doesn’t exist an endless supply of copies. Thanks to the internet, a lot of these works can be scanned and uploaded to a database, but this does not remove the ephemerality of the physical book. Zines are a very interesting medium that hold a lot of potential in the presentation of ideas and stories. I may attempt to produce my own zines at some point, depicting my own wildly obscure, interesting tales.

I recently have been interning for a friend's company creating ads for Instagram, videos, and working on their website. He wanted one of the ads to have self writing text in it so I had to teach myself how to do this (I'm not super familiar with After Effects) So here's the ad I made and how I did it! Ad for Sublmnl Gear How To: Self writing letters in Adobe After Effects 1. Pick your font style and size. 2. Position words were you want them 3. Select pen tool 4. Make sure the text layer is selected then trace the letters like you would if you were hand writing them with pen tool. 5. After it is all traced select Effect → Generate → Stroke 6. Select reveal original image 7. Make sure your brush size is large enough to cover all of the letters 8. Select the drop down effect menu for your text 9. Click effects 10. Click Stroke 11. Set start to zero 12. Drop a key wherever along the timeline when you want the writing to start 13. Set start to 100 14.Drop a key wherever along the timeline when you want the writing to stop And here's the final product!