Reflection Throughout the semester I learned more in depth about creative thinking, and the different ways you can go about solving a problem. I have done many creative thinking types of projects, and learned ways to improve projects or products. What really surprised me was the creative thinking strategy of making something completely opposite of what you want something to do. Such as building a chair for example, and then designing it to not work as a normal chair. This strategy was very new to me, and somewhat helpful. I would correlate this strategy to the method of walking away from a project for a while and coming back to it with a new perspective. In both ways it helps to free your mind from one way of thinking and in the end can help improve a project. With many of my projects it was easy to go into the project thinking it will turn out exactly how I want it to, but later on would have to work with a product that was minimal to what I was expecting. I had to learn to work with what I had and what was accomplishable. From this class, I learned to take nothing and turn it into something. Commitment As a digital artist I will have to use creative strategies in my work for as long as I continue my work. No question of that, but I have to say that there are some new ways of creative thinking that will more than likely help me go into projects with a different look on strategies. I will say that creative thinking is everything in art, making something out of nothing, in every way shape and form. I will definitely keep in mind all that I have learned from this class in my future.
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1. Problem Statement I as well as many others run into the problem of getting their earbuds tangled, and destroyed from putting them in pockets over and over again. Like many other daily stressors this one seems to be a regular annoyance that many people deal with. It seems that only one pair of earbuds can last a few months to a year before they get destroyed from use, either the wires get pulled apart ear buds get damaged, or get lost easily. I personally run into the issue of not having a decent place to store them that isn't my pants pockets. When I put them in my pockets almost every time I pull them back out the wires are tangled, and I spend what seems like forever trying to untangling the ear buds. So, I have tried to come up with a plan to make this issue go away, or at least make it not so much of an annoyance. 2. Plan I plan to make a small convenient device that will get rid of this annoyance and will be easily concealed. 1. I have drawn up some images of the device that should hold most ear buds, and will make it easy to coil up into a protective gadget. 2. After I drew the design I used the 3D modeling program SketchUp to make a more easily visible version of the device that will give me a better idea of how it will look and how all the pieces will fit. The model is still not fully there yet, but this way I will be able to 3D print the shell and some of the pieces to make it a prototype. 3. Once I get the prototype printed out I will be get a better read on how the whole thing will fit together. From this point I will most likely have to make some changes to the design. This step is what I am most worrisome because I won't be able to tell what will go wrong. 3. Creative Strategies I have applied the "Make" strategies that will be found on pages 201-213 in Keith Sawyer's book Zig-Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity. 4. Multimodal Here is some progress that I have made on the 3D model. If you look at my last Blog Post the design is a little different, and I am making more progress on the retracting mechanism. It is of course not functional in the program, but I think the direction that I am going is the right one. To give a better idea of the spring that I will be using for this design this is similar to the spring that I will be needing for the design. The reason I will be using this is because it is slim and more than effective for the mechanism. This spring is used in many different retracting mechanisms such as, tape measures, wire restractors, etc. 5. Creative Process Preemptively going into this project I knew there were going to be some things that would and wouldn't work out. What I didn't realize is the degree to which I had no idea how to build this device. I have never made a gadget like this before, and to add, I have never used a 3D printer before. So, most of this process is new to me. With what I have done so far it is going smoothly, but there is still the unpredictable things that will arise which I will not be ready for. I have felt some time pressure on this project due to other class projects that I am currently working on, which are also very much time sensitive. In developing this product I have have grown more curious with how the 3D printing is going to work, but it is making me more nervous. I expect that it won't be easy, all I am hoping for is that it will not be too hard to make my device. One part that I have run into is that now I will have to buy a piece or two for the device to work properly. The parts won't be expensive, but it will take time for the pieces to be mailed. In looking around I couldn't find one piece I need at local stores, I can only get them online since the piece is not a common requested item. Overall, I am making good progress with the project and I am excited to see where it goes.
1. Creative Strategy Right now since I am still in the beginning stages of designing and making a plan for my project I haven't gone into trying creative strategies. My plan is to finish a model and get feedback from others has to how the device will work, or if it will work. I even plan on trying out different design ideas for the device I want to work on. 2. Multimodal Here is a short video of my progress on my model for the design I want to make. After I get a more developed model I want to 3D print the pieces to see if it works like I want it to. I first started off with having a sketch of what I think the design should be, then I tried to look up different ways that cord retracting mechanisms work, and started basing my design off of said mechanisms. 3. Depiction of Process
When this project as first assigned I started with a very complex idea that after a week I realized I would not be able to get very far in the process to finish. So, I went through about five or six ideas that I thought of, and finally landed on this headphone coil device idea. I have yet to come up with a name for it since it is still in the processing phase. Once I decided on this idea I thought that I could use a 3D printer to make the pieces to build the device. Then I did some sketches of the device as shown above in the image. Once I brought it to the professor she told me that I should think of ways that I could get the cord to retract back into the device with a trigger. So, I started looking into cord retractors that are in vacuums. I didn't find anything to promising that I could depict how it works. I checked Youtube, and found some more promising results. Now, I am modeling my device from close resemblance to my device. I have a couple doubts about my design, but I am making steady progress on the design. 4. Reflect Overall, I am happy that I switched the idea for the project. I think that I will be able to handle this project more smoothly and efficiently. This project will not come without it's troubles, but this has my attention more than my other ideas. When this project started it was hard to determine what the best idea was to start. It is hard to start a project when there are no guidelines of what to work and not work on. I didn't know if I should build something, or research a topic to pursue. 5. Next Steps Next, I will need to continue designing the model in Sketchup, build a prototype, test the prototype, and make a trial and error process to see how this device will work. 1. This Project was one that I worked on for a production class, and the biggest issue with this project was that it had a lot of freedom to figure out what I wanted to do. We were assigned to work on multiple things that interested us and by the end of the semester we needed to make a final project based on what we learned over the semester. I found it hard to come up with topics to work on over the semester, and then trying to turn it into a final product. I decided that I would work on multiple visual effects in Adobe After Effects, and then implement them into a final video. 2. To narrow down what I wanted to work on over that semester I looked at multiple video tutorials on Youtube to find techniques that interested me. I made a playlist on youtube of the videos I wanted to watch and learn from over the semester and tried to work on a new technique each week. 3. Here is a link to one of the things I have done so far. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGB6bUQj0QM 4. I watched a youtube tutorial of how to mask, and make motion graphics. It took me a couple hours to make, and I was able to do it all in one sitting. This was a great skill to learn for what I want to do as a Media Arts Major. The name over the graphic is a brand name example that I came up with that I thought might be something good to add over the graphics. This I could use as a intro clips to video projects that I would work on in the future, which is what I really was going for with this clip. I am excited to continue with this After Effects work this semester, and will hopefully get better at it as well. 5. I learned some really cool new things in After Effects that I will most likely use in the future, and I will continue to work on over the semester. I think this example of what I have done could be better, but I would need to spend more time on it to really get the graphics right. This is the original image that I took for this project.
1. In class we were given the lab to disassemble different types of bags, and make them unusable to carry anything in them. Then after that we were told to make a way to carry something for someone else that they made a design for with the bags that were made unusable. The hardest part about this in class assignment was just to make something for another person. To try and make something that fit what that other person wanted. 2. For the design that I was given I had to make something that was to hold memories, or objects that someone could carry with them to help remember good memories or thoughts of a loved one that was lost. In trying to think of someway to carry memories. I thought of something that was therapeutic for the holder, that was also going to be no bigger than 6 inches and light weight to carry. So I thought of something that was similar to a wallet that could hold pictures, or small objects that could fold up into the size of a wallet. 3. The pictures below is the bag that I had to disassemble for this assignment, and this is what is an example of what we had to work with in class. 4. My process I did not take any photos of, but I was unable to finish the Memory holder in class, and I will continue to work on it at a later time this semester. The progress that I did make was getting close to finishing the design, and it should only take a little more attention before it is finished. Right now it will have some pockets and it does fold up nicely into a wallet sized holder.
5. Overall this was a difficult assignment to do. The hardest part was trying to make it for someone else, and in trying to make something for someone else you have to try and sympathize with them; which for my design that I was given was not an easy task.
Creative Process
In trying to post some files to show my progress the website builder won't let me post the files because they are too big without upgrading and paying for the website. Which I can not do because I'm poor... sorry |
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