Cowan Studios Logo

This is the logo that I created for week 2's assignment.

Cowan Studios Poster

This is the poster that I created for week one's assignment. I went back and included my logo.

Cowan Studios Animation Ad

This animation ad was created for my week 3 assignment of my Graphics Animation Course. It was created with Serif PhotoPlus and Windows Movie Maker. The music was retrieved on November 23, 2010 from Windows Music Samples. The featured song is "Distance" by the artist Kale Karsh from his album Realize, 2001. The model in the ad is my little sister, Rebekah Matthews. The final product was uploaded to YouTube.

Design in Ancient Manuscripts

After examining “A Portrait of St. John” from the Book of Kells by Edward Sullivan for examples of design principals, I was completely amazed at how this artist was so in tune with the need for color and balance. The details in the designs are stunning. I feel that our society is unaware of the challenges that would be faced in trying to create such detail by hand. What a difficult and laborious process! Although the creation of illustrations have come a long way since then, it is still important to respect the beauty of the ancient work.

When viewing this ancient manuscript, it was very easy to locate the four principals of design. My findings are as follows:

1. Contrast-the vibrant colors of the Celtic from are contrasting with lightly colored background.
2. Repetition-is the predominant design principal in this manuscript. The entire work is a series of patterns. The frame, clothing, chair and background all depict repeating designs.
3. Alignment-since the piece is symmetrical, the entire work is aligned vertically and horizontally. Imaginary lines could be drawn to show complete symmetry.
4. Proximity-the artist did group like objects together. The designs around the “throne” are all equally place around the chair. The Celtic knots on the corners of the frame are also in the same areas throughout the piece.

Edward Sullivan, the creator of the manuscript book, took the time to give the readers insight into the story behind the transcripts. He organizes the information by title page, prefatory note, preface, list of plates and the introduction. He provides an understanding of the location of Kells and the detail on how the Abbey came about.

Reference

Sullivan, E. (2010). The Book of Kells . Retrieved November 14, 2010, from Internet Sacred Text Archive: http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/bok/index.htm

Image URL: http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/bok/img/pl18.jpg

Blog Web Conference 10/12/10

Apparently, I forgot to blog this web conference that I attended in October! Today, I will document then notes I took from the conference with Dr. Abshire. During this conference, we discussed the upcoming midterm. The test will have 20 T/F questions and some scenarios.

We also discussed FERPA with Dr. A. She explained that we should know the policies and laws and as we move into leadership roles, it will help us to know that laws and enforce them. We should help others to practice them. When rules are being broken or laws are being violated, it is important to ask supervisors to put information in writing to cover yourself, and ask for help to understand. Speak with respect so that you do not appear to be challenging authority.

Shawntee’ Cowan

Internet Safety PSA

You may view our groups Internet Safety PSA Video Here:



You Tube Address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qChu87JL-4

Music Open Source:
http://www.freesoundtrackmusic.com

A-M Classical
amclassical.com
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Final PSA is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

PSA Production Project-Internet Safety

During the course of the last 3 weeks, I have had the privilege of working with a great group of people on our required PSA assignment. We first began by deciding what tasks each member of the group would focus on. Once we decided this information, each person worked diligently to carry out their task. Once we completed or pre-production activities, we began the actual production phase. My role was to create the shot list and to assist in providing footage for the shots. Our production came to a halt when we discovered that we would need to use moving footage. We quickly regrouped and reassigned different tasks. We then worked together to get all of the footage that we needed for the project. Other members began to fill in the music and narration. Finally, we were able to construct a well-produced PSA on Internet Safety.

Although our PSA in my opinion was a work of art, there is always room for improvement! My only suggestion for improvement would have been to add the use of a different software program for the final production. Our group unanimously chose Movie Maker to use because it is software that we are all familiar with. After learning about Video Spin in week 2, it would have be interesting to try this software and use some if its features such as multiple effects, transitions and sound effects with our footage, sound and narration.

Our group chose to use a Non-Commercial Creative Commons license. This would allow us to borrow works from other people and reuse it for educational use with the intent not to sale.

Our team collaborated with one another multiple times daily through the use of email. We were able to come up with tasks, ideas, updates and much more through this process. One of our group members, Brandy, created a wiki page for posting documents and files. This form of communication also allowed our team to be able to add and edit information that we could all have access to. Most of our footage, narration, images, and documents were stored on this site. Our group also utilized Skype as a means discover how the project was coming along and to correspond with one another in real time.

Overall, this assignment has been beneficial to me. I have learned a lot about myself and others. I have also learned how this type of assignment will work with students when working in a group. It is valuable to know exactly what to anticipate when working with this type of group assignment.