Animation Portfolio Production - The Art Institute of Las Vegas: Fall 2006

Animation Portfolio Production

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• Syllabus

Week 10 :: Final Week
Your websites are due this week. Please follow the parameters below and use it as a checklist for what you will be graded on. Be sure to test your website and make sure all the buttons work.

Design (50 points)

• Balance and Composition (10 points): Does your site feel like a cohesive whole? Is it appealing and Inviting? Do the level 2 pages look related to the homepage?

• Color Harmony (10 points): Are you using colors that are harmonized with one another, and do they set the tone of your site?

• Alignment (10 points): Are you using a grid for a clear professional presentation. Do you have a sense of form to your design.

• Useability (10 points): Can we view your entire portfolio? A minimum of ten images should be viewable. Do your buttons work?

• Font Selection / Readability (10 points): Is your site readable, are you sticking to readable fonts? Are your fonts of the same family for site continuity.

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Overall Look and Feel / Professionalism / Execution (10 points)
How effective is your site as a whole? Does it do the job? Does it communicate your best work? Does it communicate a professional business sense?

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Deadline (20 points)
• Week 10 deadline: Is your site ready for viewing by the week 9 deadline?

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Demo Reel (5 points)
Is your demo reel connected and ready for viewing? I understand that you need server space for this. Show me locally on your computer what happens when we click your demo reel link. I will be looking to see how your demo reel will be displayed within the context of your site.

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URL & Server Space (5 points)
The Ai site is fine for now. However, you should think about having server space and your own URL. If you are using a free hosting site and banner ads are served on the pages, please have your site availabe for viewing locally on your desktop.

Week 9 :: Full Steam Ahead
Continue to refine and develop your sites. Remember that your sites must be ready for review by Week 10 (next week). In class today, we will be reviewing a few animation reels for your inspiration.

Week 8 :: Thanksgiving

Week 7 :: Schudule Update
Please be aware that your websites will be due during week 10 (Nov. 30).

Continue moving forward on your sites and let me know if I can help you in any way. When we return from the Thanksgiving break, you will have week 9 to work on your sites to stitch and connect everything together. Your site must be ready by week 10 for class review.

Please be mindful of the parameters for which you will be graded below.

Have Happy Thanksgiving

Randolf

Week 6 :: Schudule Changes
Please be aware that your websites will be due during week 10 (Nov. 30), not week 9. I forgot about the Thanksgiving holiday.

This week, I requested that you place a snapshot jpg of your site in the data drive, upon which I will make design suggestions. I'm glad that many of you are finding this useful, the sites are looking fantastic, if you haven't done this yet, send me a snapshot jpg of your homepage via email.

For next week, bring in your sculpture so we can photograph them. We will take our photos to create Quicktime VR turnarounds that you could use for your site. This is optional, so therefore keep refining your sites.

As a reminder, please review the grading parameters for your website. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Week 5 :: Be Fierce...Finish Strong

Every week when we work, we will be viewing the documentaries in movies that relate to our field. When you are done with school, this is a simple and fun way to continue your education.

Week 9 Deadline::
As discussed in class, we will be reviewing our sites as a group during week 9. This is because many of your will be graduating and final grades are due during week 10. I will be giving each of you evaluation sheets for which you can provide honest feedback to your peers' work.

Please review and follow the parameters below for your site. Following these will insure a good site for your use. Point totals will be given for each category.

We are nearing the end. Please do whatever you can to meet this week 9 deadline, 20 points will be given if this deadline is met.

The parameters are listed below for 100 points total:

Design (50 points)

• Balance and Composition (10 points): Does your site feel like a cohesive whole? Is it appealing and Inviting? Do the level 2 pages look related to the homepage?

• Color Harmony (10 points): Are you using colors that are harmonized with one another, and do they set the tone of your site?

• Alignment (10 points): Are you using a grid for a clear professional presentation. Do you have a sense of form to yoru design.

• Useability (10 points): Can we view your entire portfolio? A minimum of ten images should be viewable.

• Font Selection / Readability (10 points): Is your site readable, are you sticking to readable fonts? Are your fonts of the same family for site continuity.

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Overall Look and Feel / Professionalism / Execution (10 points)
How effective is your site as a whole? Does it do the job? Does it communicate your best work? Does it communicate a professional business sense?

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Deadline (20 points)
• Week 9 deadline: Is your site ready for viewing by the week 9 deadline?

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Demo Reel (5 points)
Is your demo reel connected and ready for viewing? I understand that you need server space for this. Show me locally on your computer what happens when we click your demo reel link. I will be looking to see how your demo reel will be displayed within the context of your site.

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URL & Server Space (5 points)
The Ai site is fine for now. However, you should think about having server space and your own URL.

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FINAL WORD:
Please watch your time management. I am only looking to see how your site works via static imagery and am not looking for full blown animation in your site. If you show me your general layout, I'll have an idea of how it will animate. For now, static imagery is fine. You can always animate and refine later. For now, be sure you meet the deadline.

Week 4: Putting it all together
This week, we took our designs and connected them through Dreamweaver. We also got some encouragement and tips via e-mail from Jean at ILM (thanks!). As a reminder Jean reminded us about the importance of a site to view your work and that the work should be easily accessible. Jean also recommended a few do's and don'ts regarding your reel...something we could all talk about moving forward.

HOMEWORK :
After today, you now know how to connect a series of pages to create your website. For your midterm grade, we need to have something posted online. You will be graded on the following:

• Your site must be on a server (this can be on a purchased server space or your Ai 5mb of space).

• Design & Scannability - does your website have a harmonized look to it. Do the level two pages look like the homepage. Are you using a grid to keep things aligned and professional.

• Readability & Typographic treatment - is it clear, can we read it.

• Functionality - does it communicate your best work.

• You must have a homepage with the following working: the gallery page, and one link to a piece of artwork (detail page), contact page.

FEATURED SITE :
http://www.gobelins.fr/index-flash.htm

Week 3: Finalize Your Designs
Begin to finalize your homepages. We will begin to create web pages for them next week and will also be connecting them.

Exposure: to create a good site, you need to expose yourself to good sites. Below are sites from your research, that I thought would be beneficial. Look at them for inspiration. Many of you are creating sites that look similar to these excellent sites below. Enjoy!

http://www.jeandenis.net/
http://www.jeff-fowler.com/
http://www.jaganimations.com/

http://www.deltainc.nl/
http://www.banksy.co.uk/

http://www.dusso.com/
http://resonance-art.com/ Beutiful work here!
http://www.stephenbliss.com/
http://www.jenecio.com/

http://www.christopr.com/ Nice and Simple
http://www.gabrielanddresden.com/
http://www.bobe.cl/pages/home.htm

http://www003.upp.so-net.ne.jp/cowbell/
http://www.kyrrewangen.com/

http://www.jonathanyuen.com/main.html
http://www.graynode.com/main.html

Week 2: Graphic Design Crash Course
This week I gave you a handout that highlighted best practices for when you are designing marketing collateral, in our case, its a website.

Topics covered in the handout and in class :
• Knowing your audience
• Alignment
• Using a Graphic Design grid for speed, confidence and viewing comfort for the viewer.
• Fonts. Keeping things simple. Which one are you.
• Valuable real estate on a homepage.
• 800 x 600 Working Photoshop file.

HOMEWORK :
Take the homepage you chose as inspiration and begin to design your site in photoshop within an 800 x 600 space. Use your own navigation, colors and imagery. Also begin to design the next level pages (the pages that a viewer sees from leaving your homepage).

Next week, we will be revising and tightening our designs, and we will be discusing how our site architecture.

I have a working 800 x 600 photoshop file that we designed in class. It is in my teacher data drive under your folder. If you need it, let me know and I'll pull it for you.

REMINDER of the GOAL :
Remember, that the goal this stage in the game, is to get a working website posted on to server by midterm. In order to reach this goal, I need you to think of a simple and clean design. Once you have a working design online, you can spend the remaining weeks finetuning and refining. Keep up the great work.

Week 1: Welcome
Today, we discussed the importance of having an online portfolio. It is an important marketing tool that anyone, especially potential employers have access in seeing, so it must be presented clearly and effectively. There are many ways to create this, but it all starts with what your goal or objective.

This week, before any kind of designing, we will be hunting and gathering. Research websites that you like, take screenshots and put this in a folder. Take notes as to what you would like your portfolio to show and do. Be prepared to share with the class your findings.

In class we covered great examples of portfolios. If you are working on your reel at the same time, do yourself a favor and keep your site simple. I'ld rather have you be able to put something up on the internet that is clean and simple than having something too difficult to complete.

I will be consulting with all of you regarding your findings. Next week, we will be designing your homepages and your site architecture.

TOPICS COVERED IN CLASS:
• Preferred site design and the importance of communicating to your audience.
• Navigation: Gallery(this could be broken down), Profile(Bio), Contact, Resume*, Links* ( *Although these are optional).
• Importance of research.
• Think of your portfolio as a fancy dinner plate. Your work is the meat. Your plate is neat and is dressed with garnish.
• Having a logo.
• I just came across this portfolio from my MFA class.
http://www.1stavemachine.com/

• Another great place to look for sites is coolhomepages.com. This is usually the first place I start before I begin the site design process.
http://www.coolhomepages.com/

HOMEWORK
Reseach 50 websites that you like (you can start with the links page on this site). Flag 7 of them that you could use to help you design your site. Of the 7, choose 3 that will serve as your template for your final design and be prepared to explain why. Copy these URLS and paste them into a Word doc.

If you have a site already, be prepared to share what you have in mind in regards to your design and inform me of where you are. If you have a design already, be prepared for constructive criticism that will make it better. Also be ready to justify why you've designed your site in this way.

If you are new, be sure to secure URL's for yourself. Like www.yourname.com. the best place to check for this is www.godaddy.com.

NEXT WEEK:
Best practices for designing on the net. Graphic Design review.

Have fun in putting your sites together. I'm anxious to see what all of you will put together. If you have any questions, please let me know.