Motion, Sound, and Interactivity

Assignment two culminated in drawing and animating the symbol we came up with for ourselves in Flash and then adding sound to the project as well.  While Flash was (and is) extremely difficult for me to use at first, the adding aspect of controlled motion ultimately helped explain all of the ideas I wished to convey in my symbol.  As a narrative over time I was able to present an original symbol on its own (in this case the 5 circles of the solar eclipse), as well as present the symbol again in conjunction with the other original adjective symbols in the new combine symbol.  The motion I chose to use was simple, allowing the viewer to focus on words, which more dramatic motion would have taken away from.  I also chose to center the narrative and leave the objects on the page (never exiting or entering, except in the form of a fade) in order to allow the viewer to focus better.  After several revisions, I concluded with a sequence that begins with a very graphic simple symbol, and then fades to a more sketch-like symbol, and ends bringing the original symbol back, combining the graphic symbol with the sketched symbol and with text.  

In terms of sound, I wanted to approach the sound in this piece in a very different way than I approached sound with assignment one.  Instead of creating the sounds myself, or going out into the world and finding them (on the street, etc.) I wanted to use a sound that already existed, more in the realm of music than in the realm of sound effects.  After various tries with very different types of music, I still wasn't satisfied and finally got a piece that I liked, by altering and editing a piece that was largely based on sounds rather than music, even though it came from a piece of music.  By selecting sections of the sound and repeating them, and taking out chunks in order to get a start and stop feel, rather than a connected string of notes, I created a piece that has a circus-like fun quality and also a sense of building that I feel reflects the ideas of traveling, wandering, searching, and taking in everything you see.

Lengthening the piece by just a few seconds allowed me to extend the time the view sees the original symbol, so that they can fully take it in, and recall it when the eclipses come back at the end. It also allowed me to prolong the time the words appear on the fortune cookie long enough to have them be read.  Since I chose this concocted sound made up of repetitive pieces of music it was easy for me to extend the sound when I extended the piece simply by adding in a few more repetitions.  The simple motion at the end leaves the cookie static, but keeps a subtle movement going so that it is clear that the piece is not yet over, my take on the idea of a "pulsing movement" at the end.

If I can figure out how to post the flash animation as a swf file or convert it to a quicktime movie and play it that I will.