About a week ago it was: three days of flash, one coffee every half hour, and three cookies tucked into my pocket for good measure. The FITC was well worth experiencing. As someone who is not very familiar with flash, a few of the sessions whet a bit over my head. But all of them I went away with something. Some sessions left me with a feeling of excitement from seeing something creative and mind boggling, other times…grogginess and an awareness that new things are happening, but are still a work in progress. Here are my accounts of the past three days.
Adobe keynote - Richard Galvan and Justin Everett-Church
My very first session was nothing amazing or mind boggling but informative on the current Adobe applications for flash. They spoke about the features in Flash CS4, Flash Player and Adobe Air. I still don’t really understand what Adobe Air is about but it seems to be a work in progress.
His most interesting example was the double sided cloth. The wireframe of this cloth was based on triangles which could be manipulated to move in a more realistic manner. The triangles could also detect two sides. This enabled a movie clip to be played on the cloth while it was swaying, moved or being manipulated by the user. When the user flips the cloth around to the other side it was apparent that the cloth had two sides. I feel that it this is a really interesting user experience application. It would definitely bring a new level to the manipulation of objects but until technology is more easily accessible and powerful for everyone, this type of application would only be experienced by a small population (worldwide).
Another example that was shown were changeable text fields. Basically you could create individual text boxes which could be moved around to create text fields that are not big square fields. Text could be placed on an angle. The text in the boxes would also be linked together so that when they are manipulated the content is cohesive.
In short you can integrate text in your page so that it flows how you want it to and not in a big boring box. (not that boxes are boring)
Adobe is definitely coming up with some interesting things, how applicable they are or if they are even going to come to full fruition is another thing. All in all, it was an informative session. Here are a few links they mentioned in the session:
Tv Adobe
Adobe Labs
Closure Game Click “Play This Game” on the right hand side
Space - Joshua davis
This was by far the most interesting and lively session. He is an incredible speaker. Not only was he entertaining and funny, but insightful and inspiring. I don’t really understand how he creates his works, but it was a treat to go through his thought process with him.(Action scripting is foreign to me and I have learned that it doesn’t like me when I try to play with it.)
His process work is extremely in depth and he is constantly tweaking and experimenting. In this session he was attempting to define space and what happens to the concept of space when variables change.
Through code he created a grid of shapes (started with circles and squares, replaced them with decorative flowers decorative shapes) which acted as his base in order to evolve his solutions. Minor changes in his computations would yield massive results. For example a small change in scale, proximity or even alpha, in his code, would create a totally different look or feel to his work. The grid which was at first orderly began to look randomly organized.
He continued on and dealt with his dislike for kaleidoscopes exploring different images, trying to find out what assets create what kind of results. He used objects such as Christmas ornaments and crests to create images that were different and interesting. This eventually moved into how bezier curves could be be used to further his explorations. He created voids where objects would move around, attempting to predict a path along the curves. All these explorations resulted into what you see on the Toronto FITC programs and schedule. But it doesn’t stop there.
In Rovereto, Italy, he printed out his work as outlines and set up an installation. Anyone who was passing by could stop and colour in his work with chalk. What he observed is something we should all take into account. He said that the older the person, the more reluctant they were to participate. I think that so people get caught up in growing into a “mature adult”, that they forget they’re allowed to have fun and experience things. I believe that inside we’re still like children because everyday we encounter new things and learn from our surroundings. Yes, it’s not always fun but, learn everyday and it’s important to hold on to that curiosity and need for fun. That’s what makes us human and gives us the ability to be create.
For me, his session put creativity into a different perspective and brought out the excitement to create and to be inspired. (or it could have been the Red Bull, ha ha) This, for me, was the highlight of my three days. (Aside from the free coffee/tea and three cookies.)
Digital Creative Agency-Joshua Hirsch
Big Spaceship. I love that name. Plus, they seem like a very berry fun bunch who do really awesome work. The two main things that I got out of this session was, the importance of keeping up with the tried and true analog ways and….that everyone in the field should be considered a creative.
I completely agree that making projects by hand should be kept alive. We all know that it takes the same amount of long hours and hard work to make amazing things in the digital world. But nothing amazes people more than creating something visually exciting and appealing by hand. I know that I tend to be extremely amazed with the laborious hours someone has spent into making something with tools and materials, finding a way to make a world from the things around us. It’s like getting a gift made by hand versus a virtual gift card or, the first star war movies versus the new prequels. It just ain’t the same.
Big Spaceship runs their agency in a way that involves everybody. Departments are not separated in a definitive way. They have created small “sub agencies” within their agency with fun and a bit of healthy competition in mind. Each team has a name and mascot and each develops their own way of developing their projects. The phrase that he came up with and stands by is: fun begets quality. Everyone can attest to this. When we’re having fun we can come up with some pretty amazing ideas or ideas that are at least worth the memory. The hope vs. despair mini project was a pretty good example. The premise was to detect when smiley or sad faces occurred on twitter. The office got together and created a visual aid out of paper and a lazy susan, then programed a computer to detect smiley or sad faces. This brought out the desire in one person to program it in a language that he wanted to learn and didn’t know (Python). For people passing by, smiley faces made them happy and sad faces made them a bit disappointed.
I found Big Spaceship’s way of keeping up with creating things by hand very inspiring. It’s nice to see a company that takes the time to create by finding ways that are not considered “conventional”. It might not be the easy way to do things, but it keeps people guessing and that sense of magic and creation is upheld.
Seeing Sound, Source + Imagination-Jared Ficklin
A truly entertaining session that would have been extremely boring had it not been for Jared’s humor. He search and used many examples to explain complex information that made it fun to watch. I didn’t really have a clue what he was talking about when it got into the mathematics and formulaic explanations, but he made it interesting with his quirky examples, photos and Rubens tubes. This was worth every minute my behind spent on that chair.
MTV Jackass on Air-Brett Rampata
You would think that something about Jackass or MTV couldn’t possibly be boring….but it was. The concept was interesting, get your friends, create a community online and play pranks. Throw poop, blood, vomit and “love” grenades. Brand penis on your screen….. yes… typical Jackass humor stuff. It was a little gross for my liking, but I was amused at how “life-like” they made the bodily fluids look like. Seems like they worked hours on end to make that vomit poop and cum on your screen look like the real thing. But they should have gotten a better speaker. I could not sit through to the end. That’s pretty much it for that one. I’m not being a prude either, half the people walked out. Sorry, but I wish I could have said it was worth sitting in on. Action scripting next door seemed a lot more interesting than this one.
The last one I attended was a panel discussion on freelancing.
Information was good and a lot of questions were relevant. The only problem I had was that the lady at the end of the table was mumbling and speaking away from the microphone. I couldn’t hear a thing she said. The other ones (sorry I forgot their names) spoke clearly and it was clear that they had a lot of experience. It was rare to see females in this crowd so I’m inspired to see such strong woman leading in a male dominated industry.
That’s pretty much my experience at FITC. Hopefully I’ll be able to go again! I lost a bit of wind by the end of this blog so my apologies for that. Hope this leaves you with some inspiration or at least information on what to expect at FITC!
Karen Lui
