Batman is out to play....

These images were taken at night all around the college campus. I was so impressed with the projectors capabilities, it was working really well. the only problem was that by the end of the night i had used every vantage point that the college could provide and i still only had 65 photographs, and some were duplicates. this was very disheartening, i needed to think of a different way of projecting the images maybe just onto one object or smaller so that i could use different backgrounds. One thing that did work though was getting the images to be taken as if from different peoples vantage points, this worked really well and i was very happy with the outcome. I was writing off these images as a final resolution but i still wasn't sure, even with some photoshop editing some images would just never show up.

BATMAN BREAKTHROUGH!!!!

On the 29th of January, i went into college after having a shocking time trying to sort out my Batman silhouettes and had a chat with Amber. Luckily Amber came to my rescue, she told me that i could use the projector at college to project my images in and around college. It was like the preverbal music to ones ears. It mean't that i could go back to my original idea and work with it and develop it further. As soon as i was told this i sorted out my silhouette and connected it to the projector. The only problem with using the projector at college was that it severely restricted me in regards to projecting on other buildings, there were only so many plug sockets in college. But i was willing to give it a try. So i took the projector out for a test run and got my first set of images. Although some were unclear, as i hadn't projected onto a suitable surface others turned out great and i was really impressed at the sheer size and length i could project the symbol and it still be clear. Has to be said i did get a lot of strange looks, but non the less i persevered. Below shows the images that i collected after my first round.






All the images were taken during the day time which meant i couldn't get a good projection outside and i would have to late untill later in order to see how effective the projection would actually be.

Back up idea...

As i was struggling to get a good projected Batman silhouette i decided to come up with another idea, still working with the batman sign but this time maybe just focusing fully on it. I decided to use the background of various batman comics (maybe even a 100 different ones!) and then place the Batman silhouette over the top and essential sut that frame out. I decided to experiment with this idea futher. Essentially it would still be an animation but this time not using live images, just using images that i created. Which to be fair i wasn't a huge fan of but i did like the idea. Below shows the development of my idea, trying out different comic book strips and silhouette designs.

The bases of the idea worked, however the images i created were not great. The images were way too over exposed which meant that you lost out on a lot of detail which i think for this idea you would have to have in order for it to work properly. I still like the consistency that runs throughout these images though, the fact that they are clear and crisp and it can show a clear transition from one image to another. But what i did think was after 30 seconds wouldn't it get a little monotonous and boring?

Project your Inner Batman

The next stage of my development was to look at Batman silhouettes. I wanted to test the best way to project the silhouette onto objects, whether it be buldings or just objects. I bought myself a large torch with a big lamp to give myself a good projection..or so i thought. I also put a cut out silhouette onto my lamp in my bedroom to compare what was best. These were only tests but i was hoping it would help me suss out how the images would look and help gage distances etc for the best picture.

The images that i took using my bedside lamp worked very well. A lot better than i thought they would. They gave a clear and crisp image which was strong. Also there was enough light around the silhouette for it to form a recognisable Batman signal shape. although it was only projected in my room it still helped me see the potential of the silhouette. Below show some of the images that i took with the lamp. as you can see some are clearer than others, the ones taken from further away do distort that shape but it is still recognisable, if i had a stonger form of projection it would work.

The next part i was looking at using the torch that i had bought. At the time this seemed like a really good idea i couldn't see it not working. However once i attached the cut out to the torch it was terrible. The images were so unclear, you couldn't distinguish the shapes at all, it looked horrible. I took it outside to see if it may have just been inside that was effecting it but when i got outside the images were worse, not only did the image not show up but because of the light pollution to it made them even worse. I was very disappointed about this, i thought that it would work and i would be able to project the image onto buildings. I had to go back to the drawing board, either to think of a new way to project or to try a completely different idea, which was a shame because i really liked this idea and i think it summed up batman perfectly. Below are the images that I took, just to show how bad they really were.

I decided to go back to the drawing board and try out a different silhouette that was smaller that might work with the torch, unfortunately the results were exactly the same. However it project it with the lamp again and with the new silhouette it was even clearer, i knew it would look good it was just frustrating think about what i could use to project the image. another idea i had while project the images onto walls and my celling i thought it might be good to project the shape onto clothes in order to give it a 'rippling' effect, as seen in the comic books when the sign is projected into the sky and on the clouds. The image always looks a little disjointed. I tried this out but came to the conclusion that the images i was getting were too unclear, and although some of them worked a lot of them didn't and if i wanted to take this further i would have to use specific clothing. Having said that it was a good experiment and helped me work out framing and the right angle to shoot close ups.

Batman

Batman start/stop part 2. this is a trial for my second idea, just playing with type and seeing how it would work. this is only a trial i think i will develop it further though.

Batman

this is my first experiment with stop/start animation. i took some photographs of Batman figurine and manipulated the figurine to create different poses. I haven't got it right at all yet but it just meant i could try out iMovie and see how it works.

Idea generation evaluation...

Once i had done my categorizing i then went on to just start developing some initial ideas, i knew that i wanted to include the Batman Signal somehow, i really liked the shape and it was so transferable. This also meant that if i incorporated it within my designs then i could create a level of consistency. Also the Batman signal is universally accepted to represent Batman, so therefore it would be very clear to people what my product/packaging would be about. below shows the initial ideas i generated with their own evaluations.

Idea 1. Really like the idea of projecting the Batman symbol onto objects and buildings. I think this is a good idea because it provides relatable imagery, people will look at it and instantly recognise that it is Batman. I also like the idea of trying to make it as if people had just stumbled across the signs, like when people take pictures of flying saucers etc.
Idea 2 - I like this idea but not as a final piece i don't think. I need to develope it further but i think that it will be too boring and a little too generic, just moving a batman figurine. Having said that it is a good way to take my practice with final cut further and quicktime player. Idea 3 - This idea is quite boring, i think the concept is sound but i think that a 100 second animation of how to open a comic book would be pretty boring.
Idea 4 - This idea is more of an idea that can help em with the rest of my project, by collecting the various pantones from different comic books will enable me to create a very good colour palette to work with, with future packing ideas and designs. This also means that no matter what my project fully relates back to Batman. This is another theme that can run throughout my project to give it that continuity.
Idea 5 - This is a simple idea for the packaging, although it is quite a good idea there needs to be a lot more development with the content of my porject before i can take on the packaging because i need to work out what it is exactly i will be packaging, as i may be doing more than one dvd.
Idea 6 - Typography animation idea. I really like this idea but the problem is i don't think i am skilled enough to work this one properly. I could do it hand drawn but i just think that it would look a little too messy. Another problem is that it doesn't directly involve the Batman sign which is something i want running throughout, again to add continuity. I think if i have more than one DVD then i need some continuity between each DVD in order for them to work as a set.

For the next stage I have experimented with two of the animation ideas (idea 2 and 6) this was just to see what they look like, below shows some of the original images and i have also posted the videos to the blog with an evaluation. \

I will 100 your brief

For the next part of our brief we were told to organize our research and information into categories, and come up with 100 different ways to categories, in my case, Batman. This sounded a lot easier then it actually was there arn't that many ways to catagories batman, so i decided to split up my analysis into 5 different catagories and then think of 20 different catagories per one. This helped me focus what i was thinking about and it mean't i wouldn't go off on a tangent.

Once I had completed this i then went on to pick my favorite catagories, although we didn't have to do this as i knew the brief was research based it would make it easier in the future to base my research and development around my favorite areas of research. Below shows the working out that i produced for this sections of the brief. I didn't really see the point of this task at the beginning but then found it to be extremely useful especially when it came to helping me catagories my future research.

100... Objects

For this part of the project i wanted it to be as much primary research as could, if not all. Which was a lot easier said then done considering where i live there are no comic book stores. I started out by looking at what i had around the house, which wasn’t much. So i decided to go door knocking on all my neighbors doors who i knew had kids as well as asking my friends if they had anything that related to batman. I also trawled the internet and bought as much memorabilia as i could for £30 (which turned out to be quite a bit, lucky January sales). I really enjoyed collecting all the memorabilia because when i was little I used to love Batman - surprisingly not a massive fan of Robin. What was also very lucky was my Uncle Nick, who lives in Hexam, is a huge comic book collector and memorabilia collecter and his two top superheroes are Superman and Batman. I managed to get in touch with him and he took photos of all his best memorabilia that he had collected over the years and things he had bought for his kids. What was also lucky was my local Post Office worker got curious about all these packages that were arriving for me and asked about them, so i had to explain what i was getting and it turns out his brother is a huge Batman fan and got him to send me some of his Batman memorabilia for me to take pictures of. As i couldn't collect 100 objects, i went and did some secondary research by looking at products on Ebay, i aimed to get images that people had taken themselves not generic products from big resellers. This worked out quite well because i managed to get images of some very old memorabilia (the scatter pillows) and random objects such as the Batman toilet seat. This meant that my research consisted of primary and secondary research which i think was a good mix because it meant i could get some more interesting objects than i would be able to get my hands on from toys'r'us, hmv or amazon.co.uk.

I have thoroughly enjoyed doing this project its got me back in touch with my childhood and now any mention of Batman on TV/Radio etc i immediately perk up.

I won’t be able to put all the 100 images that I have taken on the blog so i have decided to pick 20 of my favorite and the rest are in my folder.