core classes complete

I am now almost finished with my core graphic design classes. I need only one general education class to get my degree from Keiser. Hopefully soon I will be able to apply what I have learned over the past year to a job. However, there are still some areas I could improve on. The learning process won’t stop for me when I leave Keiser. I will continue to learn and improve as I go along. To students that have to take a lot of general education courses before they get their degree, it is important to keep graphic design knowledge fresh in their mind. Hopefully, I will have an advantage to use my knowledge while it is still fresh.

Planning my effective portfolio site

I have started to do a lot of research about what makes a good portfolio so I have information to put together a web site. A portfolio is a vital part to prepare for a graphic design job. The site will explain how to make a good portfolio and tie this in to getting a job. Through some research as well as what I have learned in the past months I have collected several good tips to keep in mind when creating my portfolio. It is important to keep a portfolio light to not overwhelm the possible employer. This will also ensure you are displaying your best work. Before an interview it is also beneficial to modify the portfolio so it better applies to the job one is applying to. Another thing I noted that is often overlooked is to provide some information on a note card for each piece. This will help if the employer is viewing your portfolio while you are not present to explain. There are other countless things to consider, so I believe I will have sufficient information to go more in-depth with these topics and put together a 5 to 7 page site.

Consistency on web sites

Even though it might be tempting to add a lot of different colors, images, layouts, fonts, et cetera on a website, this is not how an effective web site should be created. A website looks much more elegant and accessible if common themes are used throughout the many pages of the site. The layout will be familiar to the viewer as he or she views the separate pages of the site. This will also give the entire site a sense of cohesiveness and consistency. This is evident when viewing the most successful sites and comparing them to poorly designed sites.

The importance of an effective portfolio.

Because this is my last graphics class I have been busy putting together my portfolio. Portfolios are a vital element when applying for graphic design jobs and presenting them to potential employers. Because of this I plan to do my 2nd project on how to put together an effective portfolio. It will be valuable information to research not only for the completion of this project, but to help me put together my own portfolio. This will also tie into the 3rd project for the course in which I will be doing an online portfolio in addition to my print portfolio.

white space and simplicity in web sites

After viewing websites for many years I have noticed what makes a good web site and what doesn't. Now that I have begun to create my own web sites it has increased my knowledge greatly. I now have a better eye for analyzing a web site and can tell exactly what would hold someones interest and what doesn't.

A big factor for this is making a web site fairly simple, including a good amount of white space, and not over cluttering a page. If the web site presents too much information and contains huge walls of text, people are less likely to stick around and read it. Often times a simple interface is the best option.

The best example I can think of is www.google.com. This highly successful website owes its popularity for its extreme simplicity and great use of white space. Google gets right down to the point on its main page and doesn't bombard the viewer with too much extraneous information. I keep this theme of simplicity in my own design.

Curtains

Another cool technique I learned when working with Cinema 4-D is a way to kind of cut corners and have materials appear as if they were 3-D.

A good example is when I showed Todd my Comedy Club technique he at first thought I made the curtain as a 3-D object. Actually , it was just a material I made out of a texture I found on google images.

These kind of "cheats" can streamline the process making something look 3-D when in reality it isnt.

Antz

When I was growing up the film Antz was one of my favorite films. Now that I have played around with 3-D modeling I found a new found respect for how much work has to be done to create CGI films.

Generating hundreds of ants doing seperate motions is incredible when you realize how much work could go into just mere seconds of actual video.

It seems like they used a lot of instances and duplicates to show the large amount of Antz. I have a new found insight into the making of these type of films and I found it extremely interesting.