Lecture topic:
SuperHeros:
Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff) is a
Marvel Comics super hero/super villain
associated with the X-Men and Avengers.
A mutant, Quicksilver originally possessed
the superhuman ability to move and think at great speeds, making him Marvel's
counterpart to DC Comics' The Flash. He often commented that the rest of the
world seemed to him to operate in slow motion, which may explain his impatient,
arrogant temper.
Superhero
–noun, plural - Superheroes
a hero, esp. in children's comic books and
television cartoons, possessing extraordinary, often magical powers.
A figure, especially in a comic strip or cartoon,
endowed with superhuman powers and usually portrayed as fighting evil or crime.
Superhuman
adj : above or beyond the human or demanding more
than human power or endurance; "superhuman beings"; "superhuman
strength"; "soldiers driven mad by superhuman misery" [ant:
subhuman]
What are they and why do we seem to want them?
Are we “post-human”? No longer human?
SuperHero
Ultimate Alliance trailer
A Short History: Comic Book Cultures
Genderplay:
Successes and Failures in Character Designs for Video games April 16, 2003
posting by Jane
_________________________________
Digital Games and the Military:
Amusing ourselves to death: “killer
entertainments”
the military industrial complex and gaming:
Games are:
* interactive & participatory (not passive)
* Immersive: physically, spatially
* playful
Play:
v. played, play•ing, plays
v. intr.
1. To occupy oneself in amusement, sport, or
other recreation: children playing with toys.
2. To take part in a game: No minors are eligible
to play.
b.To participate in betting; gamble.
3. To act in jest or sport: They're not arguing
in earnest, they're just playing.
4. To deal or behave carelessly or indifferently;
toy.
5. To behave or converse sportively or playfully.
6. To act or conduct oneself in a specified way:
play fair; an investor who plays cautiously.
7. To act, especially in a dramatic production.
8.Music. To perform on an instrument: play on an
accordion.
b.To emit sound or be sounded in performance: The
band is playing.
9.To be performed, as in a theater or on television:
A good movie is playing tonight.
10. To be received or accepted: a speech that
played poorly with the voters.
11. To move or seem to move quickly, lightly, or
irregularly: The breeze played on the water.
12. To function or discharge uninterruptedly: The
fountains played in the courtyard.
13. To move or operate freely within a bounded
space, as machine parts do.
ludic space
French ludique, from Latin ludus: of, relating
to, or characterized by play, playful
Pretend
Suspension of disbelief
Two contrasting ideas about Play:
Play creating culture
Homo Ludens written in 1938 by Dutch historian, Johan
Huizinga
"play-instinct" as an instinct that
emerged very early in human prehistory - in fact, he sees it as one of
humanity's primary instincts, one which provides the fundament for other
elements of society, such as religious ritual, war, and poetry. He has an
esthetic approach to history, where art and spectacle play an important role.
He was held in detention by the Nazis where he died in 1945.
The Ambiguity of Play
by Brian Sutton Smith, a
Play shows us the dark underbelly of the world
Catharsis and inoculation against the dangers of
reality
Symbolic side of human culture
A child gets the chance to make mistakes
Adaptation, teaching skills
Introducing us into certain communities
Fate, power, communal identity, frivolity, the
imaginary, the self
The Oxymoron of “Virtual Violence”(J.
Baudrillard)
Jenny Terry: Killer Entertainments: Conditions and
Consequences of Remote Intimacy. The project theorizes remote intimacy by
tracing the relationship between entertainment technologies and militarism in
the
The technology brings its military weight to
creators
Are
we constructing our game characters or are they constructing us?
Screenings:
Why We Fight, Eugene Jarecki,
Learning about the military industrial complex
Waking Life,
flash and rotoscoping
Visiting artist:
Theaters of War: the
Military-Entertainment Complex
By Tim Lenoir
and Henry Lowood
Saving the World, One Video Game at a Time by Clive Thompson New York Times article
Studio skills:
Flash basics, animation, roto-scoping, morphing
* Do the basic tutorial in the application, then
See:
* Layer
& Animation explained in Flash
* Designing
and Animating Characters in Flash 8
* Lots of Flash Tutorials http://www.developal.com/tutorials/tutorials252.html
* Some Flash games http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/games/
* some characters http://www.nectarine.com.au/2005site/site.html
Project:
Create your own, original new superhero and make
a short animation using Flash.
See: Flash superhero movie about Flash haha
seriously
http://jeanphiblog.media-box.net/download/flash8toons/toons.swf
Task:
Create an original super hero character with a
short bio and description of superpowers. It can be a roto-scoped character who
moves in any way including transforming or morphing.
Deliverables:
An original superhero character animation
(minimum of 3 second (12 fps) 36 frame done in Flash. A short (1 to 2
paragraph) bio which names and describes the superhero powers and
characteristics of your character.
Grading Criteria:
1. Assignment completed on-time
2. Adherence to the size and file format
specifications
3. Appropriate use of flash animation
4. Exploration and application of creative tools
in creating flash animation
5. Quality and clarity of class presentation
6. Quality of Inventiveness, expression, and
imagination in your animated flash superhero
(If you know Flash well, then challenge yourself
to making your superhero interactive!)