Storyboard

Scott McCloud's transitions: My first storyboard is a clear example of moment-to-moment transitions. They show actions but not complete actions. It shows the moment-to-moment actions of a soccer ball being kicked, then the wall reacting to the ball, then the ball going in the net. It is three different moments that tells the same story that a slide containing many more action-to-action clips can tell.

The second story board uses more of a scene-to-scene transition for each panel. The first scene is the man watching the news, the second is the sand storm and the third are the people caught in the sand storm.

It is interesting how when we have to use two of the pictures instead of one, it changes what type of transition we use. For me, when I only needed to use one picture, I was drawn to make an action to action story. When I had to pick two I used more of a scene to scene type of story. It is much harder to have a moment to moment or action to action type story when you have to relate to random pictures.

The storyboard project was a challenging but also fun project. The hardest part of this project was to come up with a story that had to do with the given pictures. For the first story, where I had to use one of the pictures, i chose the four kids in a soccer wall. Since I played soccer for much of my life I knew the situation these kids were in. I knew there was some sort of free kick, that is why the built the wall to try and block the ball. When looking at soccer pictures online i found one of a person kicking the ball and one of the ball going in the net. Right away i decided that although the kids mad a good wall, the kicker still managed to get the ball in the net.

The second part of this project was even more difficult. Choosing two pictures and making a story made it much more difficult to link them. After looking at them for a while i decided that the man with his hands up to his face had a sort of sad, and worried look to him. After realizing that I saw the four men in masks in the middle what i took top be a dust storm. I decided to relate them by having the worried man be watching the news, of a dusty storm hitting a spot where his best friend was.

This project was difficult but was a good exercise. It helped me link images which i was unfamiliar with, and build stories around them. This is in a way like some of the things Scott McCloud was talking about when he came to visit RWU. He said that it is common for an author to write a story, and give it to an artist that can then make a story based only on the pictures. This was similar to our project except we started with pictures and had to make a story.

Table and Charts

  Being a science major i have a lot of experience with excel. In almost every science class i have to use excel very often to create tables and graphs representing scientific and experimental data. During this project i chose to do the percentage of accepted RWU students according to GPA. Before I even began to experiment with different chart types I had a feeling the best way to represent the data would be though a pie chart. Although each of these charts represent the same data it is obvious that the last pie chart is the most successful. The only difference between the first pie chart and the last one is I decided to put in the percentage of students right into the chart. This helps because you are able to visualize the actual area each percent takes up and you can also see the statistical data to get a visual and statistical representation.
  After doing this experiment I learned that although every chart represents the same data, there are some that represent the data better than others. For example in my chart i experimented with three different types of charts: a bar chart, a donut chart and a pie chart. I posted them in order of success. The bar chart represents the data but it is not easy to compare the area of each part. The donut is better than the pie chart but the whole in the middle also makes it hard to compare data. The pie chart is most successful because each art is touching and you can actually visualize one are being different size than the other.

Flow Chart

 When doing a flow chart you have to plan ahead what all the steps are. For example in my flow chart about how to buy a book on amazon, i first went ahead and went through the whole process like I was actually buying a book on the site. Once I knew all the steps i began to create my flowchart. I tried to keep the chart as need and organized as possible so it was not hard for the mind to flow through. I decided to color code some of the symbols. Starting and end points are blue, descisions are green and processes are pink. I realized, and found it very useful, that i could re-use some of the steps in the flow chart. When a descision came out to be a "no", I would have two different branches. At one point the two branches can meet up again, for example when the descision of wanting the book new or used. Two different branches joined up in this one branch.
  Flow charting is a good way for a person to follow steps and learn how to do something. It is an easy step by step process that can be usedto epxplain many things. I think it is a very useful tool and should be used more often in explaining things like recipies and how to set something up. If a graphic were also involved with a flow chart it could make things like setting up a entertainment system much less of a headache.

Explanation Graphic

    In my explanation graphic I decided to use the life cycle of a butterfly. Being a science major I knew that a lot of life cycle graphics can be very confusing. When I typed in life cycle to google images this is one of the first pictures that I saw and right away I realized how confusing and unorganized it looked. 

    In my first iteration i started off with the beginning of the life cycle on the top (the egg stage) and moved in a downwards pattern from their. When i got to the bottom and realized that the last step connects back to the first step i realized i could make a better layout. Since it is a cycle and there is not necessarily a first and last stage. It is an on-going process. This made me think of the idea of an actual cycle image (left image above). This came out well and became my final draft.

   I think my image is more successful than the original because it is much more simple, and gives the audience the idea of a cycle before they even get into reading the text. I learned that a lot of aspects go into making visual graphics. The gestalt principle, cognitive load and working memory all come into account when trying to make a successful image. I used the gestalt principle when grouping together arrows with text and images for each step. I reduced the cognitive load and working memory of the audience by removing informational text that was not important in understanding the main idea. I removed some of the words describing color of the butterfly and replaced them with actual color images. This allows the audience to automatically know the colors and looks of each stage of the cycle without having to read anything.

  In conclusion this assignment allowed me to realize that simple is sometimes better, as long as the main point still get across.

How to Make a Pasta Dinner

  When doing this assignment i had to first take into account the steps that went into making a pasta dinner. I am not the greatest cook, nor the best artist so this was not the easiest thing for me to do. I started off with the ingredients and utensils needed  on the top left. I then went ahead and got into the steps of making the pasta. I started off with boiling the water, then added the pasta once it was boiling. After that I drew the pasta going through the strainer then pouring it back into the pot. I then drew the pot back on the stove to add sauce and heat the sauce up on the stove mixed in the pasta. The last step is pouring it onto the plate and enjoying.
  Do do this without any words was just as difficult as the lawn care assignment, and maybe more difficult. Their are a few steps that go into making a pasta dinner. I tried to draw it in as few steps as possible to reduce the cognitive load. I wanted to get it done in fewer steps that i ended up doing but I could not find a way to do this.
   While doing this project, and the lawn care project I learned that i had to keep things as simple as possible while still giving directions that are accurate and easy to follow. I also learned that this is not always easy to accomplish. Instead of just drawing each step out, you have to thing ahead and see if any steps can be added together in one drawing. I had the idea of doing an explanation all in one step/drawing. I got the idea after I saw how simple one of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich explanations was. It was very simple and easy to follow, and still got the directions done. I could not end up doing a pasta dinner in one step but i got as close as i could do.