Category Archives: work
Proiect facut in colaborare cu Apex-ul lu Dogu pentru Neoset Romania.
Later edit: si in colaborare cu Coralu de la IT CORE
FOREWORD
There is a deepening chasm in the Flash world between those who understand and use ActionScript in their work and those who don’t. We sometimes erroneously call this the difference between “designers” and “developers.” The assumption is that “designers” do not understand code and “developers” do not understand design. This is, at best, a convenient oversimplification.
The labels “designer” and “developer” may have sufficed in the early days of the Web when we were all still trying to make sense of this new and exciting medium. More than a decade since, we have discovered that the medium is not entirely new and that it does not exist in a vacuum, separate from all that came before it and all that exists alongside it.
Today, the “designer” and “developer” labels do not tell you much about what a person is or what a person does. And yet they are frequently used to describe both.
As a description of job function, these labels are woefully inadequate in detail. What type of design work do you do? What is your function on the team? Do you do graphic design, or motion graphics design, or information design (architecture), or object design (modeling)? By lumping graphic designers, information architects, animators, and illustrators under the huge catch-all category of “designer,” you strip that label of any meaning whatsoever.
The role of the “developer”—at least in a Flash context—appears to be somewhat better defined. You can assume to some degree of accuracy that the person’s job involves building user interfaces and, more than likely, programming.
Where these titles lack the necessary granularity in describing job function, one thing is certain: They are overly restrictive when it comes to describing who a person is. “I am a designer,” for example, is often used to justify time not spent learning to program. Similarly, “I can’t draw a straight line” is an oft-used excuse by “developers” to rationalize a lack of invested time in learning the basics of graphic, motion graphics, and user interface design. (Contrary to popular belief, many of the best graphic and motion graphics designers in the world couldn’t draw a very impressive straight line either if given an easel and brush; similarly, some of the most talented artists I know couldn’t design a passable user interface layout to save their lives.)
No, at the personal level, you should accept no less than the title of “artist” and aspire to earn the right to carry the title. And earning this right is influenced not so much by your accomplishments as by your approach: a relentless pursuit of perfection, where the journey is the destination.
Like it or not, we are the artists of our era, and this crazy and wonderful conglomerate of digital media are our easels, palettes, and brushes. We can create beautiful things, thought-provoking things, things that can make a difference. And we can potentially reach more people in more ways than has ever been possible in the past.
Our medium is so broad that it encompasses, among so much else, graphic design, with a static emphasis on form, contrast, repetition, color, and typography; motion graphics design, where framing, editing, and composition come into play as well as the animator’s toolbox of expectation and expressiveness and the art of the storyteller, director, and actor; user interface design and information architecture; and last, but definitely not least, that newest and most unrecognized of art forms: programming.
But is programming an art form? Only so far as photography or film are art forms and painting and puppetry and theater before them.
When photography was first developed, it was heralded as a wonderful technical achievement but nothing more. It was seen as the technical act of capturing reality. Over 150 years later, we can now read the photographic text as a subjective device and a means of artistic expression.
A mere century ago, we saw films as absolute, objective slices of reality—as documents, devoid of artistry. Today, we can appreciate their subjective nature and the many intricacies that separate a master work from a home movie. This was not always so. When Louis and Auguste Lumiere first showed their film of the arrival of an express train at Lyons station, the audience fled from the theater in terror, afraid for their lives at the sight of the oncoming train. Today, we know better. We know how to “read” film. We are film-literate. We cannot yet say the same thing about programming.
There is a magical line that separates artist from artisan: a line conceived by a spark of creativity but carved, laboriously, by boundless passion, energy, and dedication. The artist exudes an envious ability to simultaneously inspire awe, impart experience, and evoke emotion in others. Whereas once the title was reserved for the master painter, sculptor, and architect, we now have a wider appreciation of what composes art, and thus what composes the artist.
Today, we look upon programming as a purely technical pursuit. We talk of a divide between the creative and the technical, and lump programmers in the latter. The programmer is today as the filmmaker was early last century: an artist toiling in relative obscurity, awaiting a codeliterate society to appreciate the nuances of her art. Will it take a century for this happen? I don’t think so.
Thanks to programmer/artists like Keith Peters, we are seeing bridges being built between the realms of programming and the visual arts, leading to a growing social understanding and appreciation for the art behind programming. Keith’s code is visual, alive, pulsing, breathing, growing, changing—many times in wholly unpredictable, unique, and wonderful ways. Variables, statements, loops, methods, and classes combine to create emotive, moving experiences that take us beyond our everyday experience to discover new worlds made entirely of light and sound.
This is a book about art.
Programming is a new, exciting art form that is growing daily in audience, relevance, and recognition. And the best way to learn any art form is through apprenticeship—by sharing the invaluable experience of a skilled master. Within the covers of this book, you will find such a master to lead you on your own artistic journey of programming. This book is the next best thing to having Keith next to you, guiding you on your own journey of discovery.
So budding artist, prepare to join the ranks of the Flash masters. The knowledge within this book will provide you with the grounding to unlock your own creative potential. The rest, as they say, is 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration. Dreamers plan, artists create. Get cracking!
Your easel and brush await, and your journey begins . . .
Aral Balkan
January 8, 2007
San Francisco
Richard William - The Animator’s Survival Kit - poate reusesc sa o citesc sapt asta.
Pentru ca tot m-am uitat la deke mcclelland ieri si azi, am adoptat si eu o tinuta mai adecvata pentru craciun.
Cam asa ceva cred ca se purta acum 2000 ani. Cambrat si trendy!
Imi iau si sandalele in picioare si plec la colindat.
Alta viata cu penu. Adio soricelule!
Pestisorul a muscat, proiectul merge bine, suntem in grafic cu toate. Inca 2 proiecte d-astea si imi iau masina:d
E perfect sa muncesti ceea ce iti place. Ce fac la munca fac si dimineata inainte sa plec, si seara cand ma intorc de acolo, si in zilele libere si in uichend si o faceam si cu un 1 an inainte sa ma angajez.
Pentru ca am fost cuminte, optimist, matur si m-am angajat in sfarsit, Mos Craciun mi-am comandat si tableta grafica de la pcfun. Comanda sambata si in seara asta mi-o aduc. Mult mai bine ca la emag (cu tot cu serviceul lor). N-am testat-o, nici n-am pus mana pe vre-o tableta pana acum. Dar daca tot o sa lucrez in domeniu, merita investita.
Diseara urc poate si prima opera de arta creata. Am mai zis eu asta si despre screensaver. Am facut unul pana la urma, chiar ok, pentru munca, dar nu cred ca am dreptul sa-l uploadez pe aici. Ar trebui sa apara pe siteul de la dero pe la levantica.
Mersi mult Fifila pentru cadou!
vom vedea maine!
Cand te plictisesti…gasesti mereu ceva de facut
Adino dk vreti si voi sari cu o stiuca: 
Cu asta o sa ma ocup zilele astea
