Fear and Loathing Online – Assignment Bank

Ghost Opera.

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FanFic Assignment: FacFic Picture

This is a fanfiction assignment which you “take the name or title of your favorite band, song, movie, or tv show and display it in the form of photography”. The image you create needs to somehow capture your theme.

My all-time favorite band is Kamelot when they were with their former singer Roy Khan. Many of my favorite bands come from either the ’70 or the ’80s like Rainbow (with Dio or Graham Bonnet,), Show-Ya, and Iron Maiden. Anyway, Kamelot is an awesome power metal band I recommend to people. Their music is theatrical and not too loud for non-heavy metal listeners.

I chose the title track from the Ghost Opera album (released in 2007) for this assignment. To fully understand what is happening in the picture, you would want to watch the video for the song. Check the lyrics as well, to get the feel of it.

As I imagined, the creative process demanded working with paths and cutting. Everything was done using Gimp. Through the process, I came up with a bit of new ideas that altered my initial intentions such as adding a glow of light, filtering the background with a newspaper-ish effect, and so on.

I have a fond memory of Ghost Opera from back when I was in high school. I knew the band existed, but I didn’t really discover them until I actually listen to the song “Ghost Opera”. The album was also the very first Kamelot records I bought. Soon after the purchase, I had to listen to them more. Another thing that I remember about it is that me and my ex got to know each other by me lending the album to him. Isn’t it kind of peculiar that a heavy metal record can draw people together?

Image: Music notes by YngveNilsen – CC lisence via Flickr
Image: Red dress by Photogrammaton- CC lisence via Flickr
Image: The Stage by mrjoro – CC lisence via Flickr
Image: When all else fails….. by Sandy Kelly.- CC lisence via Flickr
Image: 100th Anniversary of the Seattle P-I Newspaper by Michael @ NW Lens- CC lisence via Flickr

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Ghost Opera.

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FanFic Assignment: FacFic Picture

Image: Music notes by YngveNilsen – CC lisence via Flickr
Image: Red dress by Photogrammaton- CC lisence via Flickr
Image: The Stage by mrjoro – CC lisence via Flickr
Image: When all else fails….. by Sandy Kelly.- CC lisence via Flickr
Image: 100th Anniversary of the Seattle P-I Newspaper by Michael @ NW Lens- CC lisence via Flickr

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Ghost Opera.

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FanFic Assignment: FacFic Picture

Image: Music notes by YngveNilsen – CC lisence via Flickr
Image: Red dress by Photogrammaton- CC lisence via Flickr
Image: The Stage by mrjoro – CC lisence via Flickr
Image: When all else fails….. by Sandy Kelly.- CC lisence via Flickr
Image: 100th Anniversary of the Seattle P-I Newspaper by Michael @ NW Lens- CC lisence via Flickr

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Ghost Opera.

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FanFic Assignment: FacFic Picture

Image: Music notes by YngveNilsen – CC lisence via Flickr
Image: Red dress by Photogrammaton- CC lisence via Flickr
Image: The Stage by mrjoro – CC lisence via Flickr
Image: When all else fails….. by Sandy Kelly.- CC lisence via Flickr
Image: 100th Anniversary of the Seattle P-I Newspaper by Michael @ NW Lens- CC lisence via Flickr

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Ghost Opera.

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FanFic Assignment: FacFic Picture

Image: Music notes by YngveNilsen – CC lisence via Flickr
Image: Red dress by Photogrammaton- CC lisence via Flickr
Image: The Stage by mrjoro – CC lisence via Flickr
Image: When all else fails….. by Sandy Kelly.- CC lisence via Flickr
Image: 100th Anniversary of the Seattle P-I Newspaper by Michael @ NW Lens- CC lisence via Flickr

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18 Makes 1.

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Video Assignments: 1 Second Video

The description for this assignment asked: “How much of a story can you tell in a 1 second video?” and left a link to an inspirational sixty seconds film. I first had no idea what to do, but the super-short film sort of explained it all how to start mine.

Generally, I think, the interpretation of an assignment objective is up to the creator. DS 106 is about being creative and experimenting, after all. Therefore, I decided to do a collection of one second videos. My video consists of bits and bits of moments that tells a story.

There is nothing special about the process of the work for this assignment. It’s simply taking videos, putting them in order using a video edit application, and adding music in the background. The process was easy after I figured out how to do it, but the application was last opened in 2008…so that meant there would be a technological confusion in my way.

I was mildly amazed when I uploaded my first video ever (congrats to me) on YouTube. YouTube lets you edit your video after uploading it just like other image files. It offered trimming, altering effects, and free audio to have some music playing in the background. I only chose to add an effect and stuck with what I had. One problem I found disappointing was the resolution. I didn’t expect the camera to be that bad.

Publicizing your work takes a bit of courage. I set the video to be available to the everyone, but posing a real-life visual content gave me an unexplainable sensation. I felt quirky, I guess, to display a work that is more closer with the creator in means of reproducing live moments.

I hope nothing happens to me with copyright issues…the music I used in the background is the intro of Rasen by the band lynch.

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Iconic You. Iconic Me.

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Design Assignment: Iconic You

The objective of this assignment is to “create an iconic image/design for your own site that somehow represents you”.

More than half of the semester has ended and the schedule we’re managing is like a roller coaster. Yet, I still had not put out anything particular about my blog title or my name, mhacca. This design assignment has not much relevance to what I was just wondering, but I would like to note on that too in the article.

My title of the blog you are looking at right now is called “neopessimist23″. I took it from a song title by the band Moi dix Mois. The number “23″ at the end comes from the Japanese era. Year 2012 equals to Heisei year 23 in Japan. In a image like this, maybe the blog title was better off placed to the side instead of how it was finished design-wise. I guess it works fine this way because you wouldn’t want to tilt you head sideways to look at it…

I personally love the fancy design of the number.

The process of the assignment was done on GIMP and Pixler. I find it easier to use GIMP for cutting out pictures as I want it to be. There were some experiments done with effects as seen below. I played around with colors, dots, and lighting.

Now, I’ll explain the imagery. The oval white object on top of the vase is an egg. It represents myself as being a newbie. I hope I’ve become a semi-newbie or someone more experienced at the technology we’re all manipulating. Next is the flower sitting upon the egg. I put the rose there to show my (past) identity as being called the “flower girl” back in secondary school. We keep a garden full of trees and flowers in front of our porch back at home.

Speaking of plants, my name “mhacca” refers to peppermint (hacca) in Japanese. My mother’s hometown used to be one of the world’s busiest peppermint growing area.

Image: Egg in Vase Art :p by Offbeat Photography – CC Licensed via Flickr
Image: rose remastered :p by ninja 4 life – CC Licensed via Flickr