Class Excercise- Constructive Criticism

Only when I search the picture shown in the lecture that i realised that the picture was taken from Macdonald's PR stint of promoting Avatar movie, this app online calld "Avatarise yourself", where you can create your own avatar.

No wonder I feel there's something wierd about the picture when I first saw it during lecture.

Here's another picture that's similar to the one in lecture:














Constructive Criticism

Description:

Composite picture combining avatar and another real person's face. It is reflected against the background of the avatar's homeland- Pandora.

Analysis:

It combines the user's face and avatar in the movie to create another personalised avatar uniquely for the user himself. Colours are blended to create the blue distinctive in Avatar. The Macdonalds Logo uses this application as a sponsor of this movie uses it as a PR tool, not only to advertise Avatar, but also to reinforce its brand value in consumers' mind.

Interpretation:

It makes user to feel as if he has created his own avatar that is capable of living and interacting with the other species in the world of the indigenious people, the Na'vi.

Judgement:

It is a clever idea to engage people in an interactive way, to enhance the interaction and attachment of people towards the movie.

However, based on the picture shown during the lecture, the resulting picture is pixellated, due to its low-resolution nature. Also, the blends between the user's face and the avatar's blue skin are not done very well. The user's face ended up looking paler than the avatar's blue skin, making the whole end product looking very artificial.

There is no blending between the foreground (the avatar itself) and the background. There seemed to be no connection between the avatar and the background, but more of a statue taking a photo in front of a painted wall. Shadows and lighting could be applied to make the avatar more blended to the background.

It's interesting that it's a programme you can avatarise youself, too bad by the time i realised, it's no longer available. Oh well.

"If you were design a machine that'd enhance your imagination 1ooX, what would you draw?"

I wouldnt dare to show my piece after i'm done with my piece at first. I drew the first thing that comes to my mind.
I looked around, and there, all pieces of headlike gears, helmets and goggles.

"Why restrict everything? Does it mean that anything that's related to head/brain means you've gotta create something that can be worn etc?" I thought.

The rebel took over, and I refused to draw any helmet or goggles.
Maybe that's why I ended up drawing something that's totally out of the blue- an egg beater.
I have no idea how did I thought of that; it just, well, popped up in my mind.

Let me elaborate on my "creation":



THE ULTIMATE IMAGINATION BEATER- it beats the hell outta you (what a cliche product name) [UIB]

Objective: Makes the stale thinking locked in your mind be "beaten" into something more fluid, and let your resulting creative juices flow.

How it work: When the UIB is switched on, there will be an ionic beam produced that is able to penetrate through the skull and brain and free up all the unwanted stale thinking without harming the user physically.

Additional: LCD screen with a library of resources exists to allow more info to be stored in the brain, a starting ingredient for imagination/creativity to be produced.

Caution: Using on high-powered mode too many times might lead to possible headache. Try to use it sparingly. =)

Reflection:
The final piece might looked stupid, funny, even unrealistic. Then again, once upon a time, people called Galileo a mad man, Einstein a freak, but only future generations know how to appreciate their works and theories.

Well, I just thought that whatever our design is, it need not necessarily be based on the subject we'e doing. Let's just be crazy about it, and let our imagination run wild. That's what brainstorming is about.