Power Point

I have major issues with Microsoft Power Point. It doesn't seem to like to cooperate at all. There are good things about it such as the linking feature were it is easy to create lets say, a game? It starts getting a little hairy once you get into around 70 slides all linked together? Right about that time is when it decides to switch some of the links on you to keep you on your toes. It does a very good job of making you have to pay attention to detail. I think that they need to work out a lot of bugs. If your computer has been shut down or sleeping for a while. You have to reset all of the links for music/sound effects/other slide shows/etc. Compatability issues are my biggest problem. Microsoft really needs to figure out how to get mac files to run cleanly on windows. I sent my project to my brother to test it out on his windows and all of the links had been changed and it didn't work. Imagine that? A project that decides to not work when you need it too. It also boggs my computer down like crazy. I thought it was going to crash. I found numerous websites that talked about not liking how Power Point runs. "Power Point, make an awesome looking slide show/game only for it to not work when you need it too!"

Face

I'm not sure who made this or why but this is cool looking. It is a line version of somebody with glasses on. I like how this whole design is made. They put a color gradient from a light green at the top to an orange color at the bottom. There is a good mix of positive and negative space. it is framed well and is a very beautiful picture.

Celtx

Celtx is a free scriptwriting software that you can download offline. It is an easy way to write scripts. It has a few different options for Title, Action, Dialogue, etc. If you don't know, script writing is very much about the formatting. You can do it in Microsoft Word, but it is going to take you some time. Software like Celtx makes it easy to format. It makes your scripts look professional. In a lot of cases if you send scripts in to companies to read, the ones that get thrown out first are the ones that are formatted poorly. There are softwares you can pay for that are good too such as Final Draft. I had the trial of Final Draft and loved it. Being a college student with no money made it hard for me to justify buying it, so I went with Celtx. I love the way Celtx works. It takes a little getting used to but once you are used to it, it is a breeze to write up your scripts. From reading online blogs, forums, surveys. I have determined that Celtx is a more popular software. Final Draft is always going to be an industry standard, but while your scripts are still underground why spend the money?

Breaking Benjamin's Symbol

I have always wondered what Breaking Benjamin's symbol was and what it meant. I thought that this would be the perfect type of thing to put in my blog. Through researching I found out that their symbol is the "Celtic Knot". I also found out that this design started to get popular in the late Roman Empire. There wasn't much written in history about the meaning of the celtic knot. According to whats-your-sign.com the celtic knot is a symbol of the endless time of nature. There is no beginning or ending in the celtic knot. It can be a protection symbol, warding off sickness and setbacks. This symbol works good for a band symbol. It is a symbol of protection and it also is a symbol of endless life. Breaking Benjamin could have chosen this symbol because they wanted there music to last forever.

Vertigo Shot

This is one of my favorite film techniques. This is the vertigo shot. The vertigo shot is made by a mix of zooming in and moving the camera backwards, or zooming out and moving the camera foreword. It makes for an ominous feeling shot. It is commonly used for a revelation in the story or for fear. The shot was developed by Irmin Roberts. Roberts was a Paramount second unit camera man. His technique was first used in Alfred Hitchcock's Movie "Vertigo". Giving it the name "Vertigo Shot". This in camera special effect is now used commonly amongst films now. FIlms such as: Event Horizon, Pulp Fiction, Undercover Brother, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Etc. I have even used it in my films.

EXIT!

Exit signs. I am going to analyze the design of the standard exit sign. Now there are two different styles of exit signs. There are exits signs that are green and exit signs that are red. Now why is this? Both of these colors communicate two totally different feels. Green usually communicates: abundance, growth, nature, and it is a cool color thus feeling calm and laid back. Red however communicates: violence, war, blood, and it is a very hot color signifying urgency and fear. Why are both of these colors commonly used amongst exit signs? I can see maybe why green would be used. It could be used to calm the people down as the exit, maybe this would be better for younger crowds. Red would be good during emergencies, it would communicate urgency and people would automatically run to them to get out. So why don't they invent an exit sign that changes from green to red according to the situation? This type of exit sign could be affective. When there is an emergency, the sign could change to red.

Adobe Photoshop's Clone Stamp Tool

I love this feature in Photoshop. From research I found out that this tool has always been a feature in Photoshop. This tool is an amazing design. All it really does is take a selected spot of pixels and clone them to wherever you want on the grid. It makes it easy to replace different things. You could take someone and essentially erase them strait out of the photo. It is genius. It is such a simple design but nobody had thought of it before, or at least never mass produced it. Once again I could not find facts on the popularity or this particular tool. There are a lot of tutorials for it online though. Making me think that it probably is pretty popular if lots of people are wanting to learn how to use it.

GarageBand

GarageBand by Apple is one of the easiest music editing softwares there is. Apple does a good job of making different things a lot easier to do in there softwares. GarageBand is my favorite. Within minutes, you can create almost any style of song you want to. There are instruments such as: stringed instruments, sythns, guitars(as crappy as the distorted ones sound), pianos, drums and many others. I can sit on this software for hours and just create music.

There are a few issues I have with this software. I have had problems with recording my guitar. I don't know if it is the software or the amp but it seems that the recording speeds up and slows down. It makes things difficult when I am trying to right songs. I enjoy Metal/Rock/Hardcore. Witch requires heavy distorted guitar which GarageBand doesn't exactly supply. It is more fun to record yourself playing than using software anyway. Another issue I have with it is the fact that the strings take a long time before they start playing. I have tried to make "Epic" sounding songs that require instant play from the strings and it just doesn't happen. There are ways around this but they are time consuming. One of the major problems is if you have "Too many instrument tracks". You will be trying to play a project through and it will stop in the middle of it popping up a box that says "Part of the project could not be played".

Overall they have made music making more easy for the consumer with this software. All of my friends that have Macs use GarageBand. It is fun and easy to use.

Bloons Tower Defense 4

Bloons Tower Defense 4 has a very clever design. They improved on some things that were frustrating in the last ones and made it more fun. This game is free and online. They added different characters and different upgrades. In this version of BTD, you have to rank up (you rank up by popping a certain amount of bloons). By ranking up you unlock more characters and upgrades for the locked characters and for characters you already have. I think that most people would agree that games with goals are more interesting to play. It is always more fun to have to unlock stuff and then use those unlocked items to upgrade stuff. Out of all of my friends, 90% of them have or currently play BTD.

Digital Penguin

In searching the web for “Digital Penguin”. I came upon this image. In researching a little more I found out this is in fact a Christmas ornament. It is called the digital penguin ornament because it looks like a penguin and yet for some odd reason it has a 1.5” LCD screen in its stomach. From researching I found out that penguin ornaments are pretty popular among Christmas ornaments. I could not find demographics on this, but I found a lot of websites that subjectively state that penguins are popular as an ornament. I also found out that digital screen ornaments are just as popular, so why not put the two together and create this Frankenstein style Christmas ornament, that is a penguin with a digital screen in its stomach.

Digital Candy

Here is an example of digital candy that I found on google images. I think that it is a perfect example of digital candy. I personally don’t like digital candy, it makes me want to eat it, but I can’t. Digital coming from the Latin word “digitus” meaning literally fingers, toes (digits). Digital means: Relating to or being a device that can generate, record, process, receive, transmit, or display information that is represented in discrete numerical form (digits). Candy meaning: Any of a variety of confections made with sugar, syrup, etc., often combined with chocolate, fruit, nuts, etc. So together Digital candy basically means: A confection made of sugar, syrup, etc represented by discrete numerical form or digits.. Digital candy, you can’t eat it but it sure looks good.