Jump to content

Cyan_Ide

Members
  • Posts

    207
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Cyan_Ide

  1. No no, you misunderstand. I haven't been here in awhile. That information is old....very old.

    I live 12 blocks north of the *Chicago* River, on Dearborn, near Division. I assume you are from the uni of Chicago just south of Union Station....just west of the river, no?

    Google Mapping your location, that's kinda far from me...although you do live pretty close to BardicKnowledge.

    And what's with all these Hoosiers here? I hope you guys don't go to IU :razz: .

  2. The thing you have to remember with many technologically-based degrees is that they often are hard-pressed to keep up with the industry in terms of software and methodologies. With places like Adobe pumping out new Suites every year and a half, and new technologies becoming popular by the year, it's hard for the school to keep up. With any of these sorts of degrees, the onus often falls upon the student to make up the ground that the programs have weaknesses in through industry research. That has been my experience with multimedia degrees in general. You will live and die by the work that you produce. The degree serves as a piece that shows that you have the dedication to slog through four years of college classes to earn a bachelor's in your field, not necessarily that you are an expert in your field. You determine that by your actions.

    Choosing the type of school that you attend is an immensely personal process that requires you to recognize the type of environment that best fits your educational growth. I have my opinions on particular schools, certainly, but where I see a degree mill, a person who attended the school saw an excellent experience with what they thought were good professors, which is why it is hard to say that you or anyone else should go to DigiPen or FullSail instead of a traditional uni.

    I don't know if this is what skews the facts or not, but it seems like they are arguing that traditional uni makes you more well-rounded as opposed to a specialist, that you could program anything as opposed to just video games, so of course that would seem better because people are getting jobs out of industry as well as in it, so job placement seems greater. Maybe I'm wrong on their meaning, but this is how I interpreted the article. I think it's just a matter of knowing your own mind. Some people prefer application, while some people like the academic atmosphere of traditional uni because it prepares them to absorb the information they need. I think it's a bit of a flawed article in that it seems to assume that everyone's mind and learning mechanisms work in the same way.

    As with many of these types of degrees, you get out of them the amount of work and dedication that you put into them. A person determined to be in the industry will do well to do all they can to know all they can, and take full advantage of resources available, regardless of the institution that they are attending.

  3. We need some plucky graphic designer to make a final logo solution once and for all.

    But whom? WHOM!?

    If you're talking about yourself we'll need to see some print work in your portfolio since all of yours appear to be screen. :D

    ...Is there a well-traced Vector EPS of it somewhere...? I sure hope somebody has one, even if it's not distributed.

  4. I honestly don't believe games are art. Art is the work of an artist, so when a game gives you freedom, you are basically taking the control from the creators. My point is that you are puting some input into that work, so it's not just the work of the "artist" anymore.

    Try telling that to an installation artist. Audience interaction is the name of the game for many of them.

  5. I don't think there has ever been a game made that really deserves to be labeled as art, by virtue of the fact that video games are more commercial than literature, painting, sculpture, and even film. Because they are a for-profit product, video games are meant to cater more towards their audience than a specific artistic vision. Video game developers invest millions of dollars into producing their product. They're not going to take chances with an avant-garde art project. The same thing is happening in hollywood right now. The fact that the medium is catered towards the viewer also limits the artist's vision to a story that the customer would actually want to interact with. Imagine playing the novel crime and punishment. It would suck.

    Arguably, you could say that video games are a 'visual medium', and that the graphics in video games are meant to affect viewers in the same way as (this is a stretch) a van gogh. However, to this I would argue that there is more to art than detail. What makes visual art unique is that every artist has a specific style in which they paint that offers a unique perspective of our environment. And while you could argue that cell-shaded video games, and games like okami reflect that quality, you can't say that each developer has a specific artistic technique, or even artistic intentions, when they design their models. For the most part, video game design usually ends up being a competition for who can create the most realistic world. To me, that's not really art.

    If being 'for-profit' is a disqualification from being art, then our art galleries, art history books, and music libraries would be empty. Be careful when attempting to condemn the whole of commercial art for doing it for the money.

    How on earth do people believe artists are able to not starve to death with this sort of thinking?

  6. QFT - why is a ban necessary here?

    I disagree. Jill’s statement came off very hostile to me. It sounded a lot like censure to me. A ban is merely the final form of censorship. Maybe you want to take it out of this thread which is utilized for support of OCR OurStage? Fine, but don't outright end it.

    Listen, I see both sides of the issues. PhiJayy is pointing out the [blatantly obvious] flaws in the system, and honestly, the nepotism is pretty thinly veiled, and even encouraged by the site proper, it appears. But you guys are leveraging the power of a community to which you have dedicated many hours to, which is also understandable. After all why not use it to gain more community exposure? The only difference is that PhiJayy is a bit more idealist, and pointing out the fallacies of the broken system. You guys are utilizing the Machine to its fullest potential in order to beat it. Not your fault the system is broken, you’re just working in it, which is why I can’t definitively agree with PhiJayy or disagree with you. I can’t say which one is right, but obviously it has spawned a discussion that has involved more than just PhiJayy, including McVaffe and Dhsu, so obviously it *is* a topic that merits further discussion. That said, comments like ‘there’s no need for drama’ and ‘you’ve made your point’ are clear-cut attempts [to me, at least] to nip any dissent at the bud. If you disagree, do so, but don’t go about it by shutting PhiJayy up.

  7. Alright. I'm not quite sure what you want to know, but you said talk about media and technology classes. I recently graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in Multimedia Design. As I do graphic design and non-Flash based web design, that is the programming and work that I will be touching on. I've had a lot of good experiences, and quite a bit of bad, so here we go.

    First thing first, students NEED to have the WYSIWYG web editing stuff NOT TAUGHT to them. Too many students are coming out of schools not knowing the first thing about CSS and (X)HTML and getting jobs laying down web pages. Why? Because in school, they were taught that Dreamweaver can do it all for them. But what Dreamweaver does is convolute code and create messy structure. Case in point, in my educational experience, for the first two years of school, I thought CSS was the name of the little toolbox that let you edit styles in Dreamweaver, not a separate markup structure (it's not technically a language) in its own right. I completely learned CSS and XHTML on my own. Classes only helped insomuch as they provided an arena in which I was able to practice my learning.

    Second, this is from a designer perspective, there must be a basic understanding of both sides of the coin in order to do either of them. Now, if a programmer can't design to save his life, that's fine. That is what a designer is there for. But experience in working in web design has shown that one cannot create a *good* functioning site without a knowledge of how the design translates to code. This is a fundamental flaw in the graphic designers that make PSD files and get them sliced somewhere else. As much as CSS designers don't like to admit it, there are just some things design-wise that are either far too obtuse, or out of reach, given current technology. Conversely, the guy who does the PHP has to have a basic understanding of how the design creates a user experience and how the user works his or her way through the interface in order to create an application which best suits the need.

    One major criticism I've had for our program is that we need professors that can do the stuff that they are teaching. Quite often, I've either had a professor who knows, say, Flash, and thus teaches a blanket interactive class but knows nothing about static web. When that has happened, the onus basically falls on Lynda.com to teach us what we needed to know about web programming. I don't know about anyone else, but if a tutorial isn't engaging nearly to the minute, or is working toward some huge greater goal that I am directly applying, I don't want to watch it. And I most certainly do not have a short attention span. Web design is not a culmination of one's knowledge of Dreamweaver, but an understanding of user interaction, graphical layout, and clean markup which leads to faster rendering and better indexing by search engines.

    Lastly, and I saved this for last because it is something I feel strongly about, there absolutely needs to be a disruption of the myopia that afflicts many multimedia courses. Whether this is a weakness in the academic systems or the instructors, I cannot say, but I would say that all of the work we were taught in class was outdated by at least a year. On top of that, no one has ever sent me to any sort of resource that would keep me informed of what is happening in the web world. I have found all of those resources in my free time. If I were to drop all of my plans and were given a master's degree right here and now and become a professor, I would constantly seek out what people in the field are doing RIGHT NOW and apply it. For example, perhaps a few week's introduction to Wordpress, or a project that centres on a workflow that involves integrating CMSes with design. I would encourage my students to visit CSS galleries as often as possible to see what other people in the field are doing. As workers in the fields of multimedia, it is our job to be at near the forefront of technology, thus I would also encourage them to learn in unconventional ways, through online communities, blogs, forums, etc. It is my opinion that the fellow students that I have watched succeed in school are the ones who in their spare time are participating in that which they are going to school for. The good animators have gigs of hard drive space and dvd seasons of their favourite cartoons. The good web designers are watching the galleries. The 3D folks are all on CGTalk and similar communities. With the advent of machine-made design, our field has become muddied with Photoshop pirates who think they can design because they have the software. With this immense oversaturation, we are having huge problems finding work unless one is at the pinnacle of the field. What this means for us as web people is that in order to succeed, we need to completely devote ourselves over to the craft. I was actually talking about this to a graphic design professor and some other students tonight. If you don't eat, sleep, and breathe design, you better start packing your bags because right now this is the completely WRONG field to enter unless you are totally on board with design, because it's a tough crowd.

    So those are my thoughts on the matter. I think in terms the workforce, there's far too much generalization going on in the seeking of employment, and not enough specialists. If you want my opinion on what should be done for your program, I would say seek out the applications of programming in relation to the various media fields, rather than just an introduction to the media itself which offers no actual gain other than an increasing sense of being in over one's head. But that's just my opinion.

  8. Yeah, fun stuff. Too bad they left to go play on their server. Might start playing on the OCR one more, also played 2fort for the first time in a few months, kinda refreshing, but I see why I hated it.

    Yeah, my roommate and I aren't huge fans, either. It's nice to play once in awhile, but it really stagnates far too easily.

    Thanks for the nice night of playing everyone. With school over I should probably be able to participate quite often.

    Wes, I'll pitch in money in a couple of weeks when a more steady cash flow permits extra spending.

  9. Correct. To me, it'd be something more like seeing if people with proven skills like Bean, Rama, Cyan_Ide, Maximo, etc. could come up with something OCR-themed that looked cool, that could be produced, and that people would be interested in purchasing.

    But counter to what Chad was implying, I don't see anything wrong with eventually opening things up to the community, which is full of visual artistic talent, much like DeviantArt does for their limited edition gear. Not by giving out the logo mind you, but by simply putting out the call and seeing what comes back creatively.

    Also noting that of course there's a huge hi-res logo. It's just not publicly available, AFAIK. No, I do not have it.

    No no, that's not necessarily what I meant, Larry. By all means, allow and encourage community participation in such matters as potential marketing campaigns, whatever else people come up with, etc. Handing out the logo liberally as some have suggested is what I was more commenting on, as that could lead to potential misuse of identity standards and a dilution of brand that has already become well established by the actions and steps that OverClocked ReMix has already taken in regards to the gaming and game music community at-large.

  10. Hate to be a spoilsport here, but I disagree with the democratic distribution of logo files to the populous for uses of their own discretion. Given OCR's recent moves into the more public realms and its rise in exposure, the control of the brand becomes of critical importance. Maybe if someone offers a specific utilisation or piece to be made, then it may be given away at discretion, but brand is a very powerful entity, and one that I can see OverClocked ReMix further developing and evolving. It can become a powerful entity in support of the site and its ideals. It needs to be kept in control of those who will most determine its use.

    Of course, this is all djpretzel's decision, but potential brand erosion or weakening [not saying anyone will do anything bad, but the chance looms nevertheless] will not help the image of OverClocked ReMIx as it continues to grow and evolve.

    Just my quasi-professional opinion.

  11. So I'm guessing this thread is no longer about personal experiences (of varying levels) and preferences with Mac and PC OSs, and is now about "You're stupid!"/"Nuh uh, you are!".

    Silent Mike- It's the computer version of the console wars argument. Happens every time.

    Take this thread. Yes, all of it. Copy all of the text in it. Now, repost it at least once per week. Deja-vu? Welcome to the world of forums about graphic design. :)

    I don't care whether you use the newest mac, a pc monster build, or a machine made out of wood that you have to hand-crank. If it does whatever it is you need it to do, however you want it done, then you have a successful computer/operating system.

    Mac/PC/Linux threads are so tiring.

  12. If you disliked the pale/goth/stripe stuff, why did you go to the movie in the first place? "I think Burton's "signature style" has become his own stereotype" This is completely true, except that it is a STYLE. Tim Burton does the films that he does because the content matches what he does stylistically. It's how the industry works. Many artists and illustrators die without ever having sunk into a signature style that brings them success. Now, we go to Tim Burton films to see precisely the things that Tim Burton brings to the film. We EXPECT those things when we see his movies.

    It's like going to a Pixar film and complaining about them doing 3D animation for it.

  13. Re: Metatron and Jam Stunna

    I used to be of that mind, but I think you're taking the blogs which are blatantly misused, or blogs clearly meant only for, say, friends and family of the blogger, and supplanting them as a blanket stereotype for their entirety. You are right, I could care less what bgc or djp ate for breakfast, or that they broke up with their significant other, etc. That's why I'd say if this is done, that that sort of content stays out. I don't subscribe to anybody's blog that talks about their day, or their life, however, my RSS reader is full of professional blogs of the design industry (my profession). Blogs such as this which keep abreast of industry news and goings-on show that the blogger knows their stuff in terms of the industry (which is why I would hope that more of the hardcore remixers do this) which could help them both as a remixer and given their chosen career, if it is related.

    On top of that, if this is done right, connexions via reviews or trackbacks with various areas of the blogosphere related to OCR, such as gaming, game music, electronic music, electronic music equipment, and so on, will create tremendous exposure for the site.

    With RSS feeds, it is now tremendously easy to keep in the know in regards to various topics. If run as a press-release style blog, readers can become aware of the professional news that strikes the remixers. Andy's news page features only things related to his music, and as long as the blogs stay along that regard, be it remixers news, or game reviews, or especially game soundtrack reviews, it will be a powerful tool for keeping tabs on the musicians and creating a large amount of activity and exposure for the site within the blogging realm.

    In regards to your comment, Metatron, that's fine, you can tell your people what you're thinking, and since you're so good at it, you can act as liaison to the remixers, and personally inform ALL of their would-be rss feed subscribers their music-related news. :)

×
×
  • Create New...