NEUTRAL HABITAT RECORDS

Neutral Habitat Records has a very edgy intro page using 3D flash animation.

Once the landing page has opened at http://www.neutralhabitat.com ,scroll the menu bar, select a category, and watch the space ship uptake your command,very cool.

Imedia Studios created Neutral Record'swebsite and is a very forward media studio owned by David Masters. Another project David has worked on is http://tomcruise.com.

Tom Cruise's website allows you to navigate through media that has been on the Big Screen,and

has flash animation as a background.This site is really amazing and a well organized website using many flash elements. Video streams and links function with ease and speed.

BY Patricia Brady

Exploration -Cross-Market Advertising

                                                            Effective Interactive Cross-Market

                  Advertising

SBE has taken Cross-Market advertising to a new level, Los Angeles based and driven by CEO Sam Nazarian, it has three major divisions which effectively bring the interrelated world of modern hospitality,restaurants,special events,nightlife,real estate development and film production all together for the connoisseur of LA.

SBE acquires,develops and manages hotels, restaurant, nightlife and real estate through specialized divisions,and together with Bolthouse Productions and elements Films,the three operate in "synergistic equilibrium". SBE has already moved beyond So.Cal and many target markets in line with the upscale consumer it targets.

http://www.sbe.com/will welcome you to its home page with a pleasant skyline view of downtown Los Angeles created with flash and 3-D animation.There you may navigate through the street and enter any storefront that interest you. Once inside a division you will then be able to sort out where to go and can visit the location by link.Here you are able to plan dinner the night out,or find a film of interest. IT`s almost as if you have a private concierge at you fingertips.

By Patricia Brady

Lights, Camera, Virtual Action! Graphic Novel Comes To Life

Lights, Camera, Action! At least for film (and still photography as well), this philosophy still holds. I became a photographer because I couldn't draw my way out of a paper bag. So cameras, photo equipment became my medium of choice.

Now that I'm learning Flash, I'm back in the 'motion picture' realm once again. Thing is, I'm quite attached to my cameras, and quite used to the concept of still images. Imagine my surprise and delight, stumbling upon these great examples whilst recently pursuing my voluminous stack of emails: Animation that uses photography as its drawing tool (with a little help from Photoshop)!

A series of artworks illustrated that you are about to see, is Stephen King's "N is Here," a graphic novel comes to life, complete with an interesting soundtrack. Stephen King is a wordsmith extraordinaire-- he creates unusual stories that preys on the fears we all share, and brings them to life (pun intended)! What's notable is that this erstwhile author of horror stories is actually experimenting with new ways, rather, new methodologies to deliver his material.

What makes this series unique and challenging is this: Each episode is less than 2 minutes long, and ends with a rather dramatic closure. The soundtrack enhances the experience, which doesn't usually exist with a graphic novel, adding dimension and mood to the illustrated scenes. I like to call this still frame animation. It's retro approach with restrained motion, lends itself a certain charm-- not usually in seen in current graphic novel adaptation.

In addition, the graphic novella has built in marketing, to better encourage the viewer to be on the lookout for the next chapter. This viral marketing campaign conducted via the web, is a form of 'branding,' a way of preselling Stephen King's upcoming book, "Just After The Sunset," coming out in November 11, 2008, with other stories, including the current presentation.

What makes this series work, is the attention lavished on details. For example, the ability to give a photograph a 3-D feel: there must be a foreground, middle ground, and lastly, a background of sorts. There's an aura of believability that also comes into play with the use of selective focus. The character in the middle ground is sharp, whereas the background is softened, much like that of viewing the scene in reality.

Stephen King's Animated Graphic Novel: "N Is Here"

Design Exploration: Rapp Collins Worldwide & Schematic

I chose to do my Design Exploration on Rapp Collins Worldwide and Schematic. They are both marketing companies that have major companies for clients. They focus on creating branded experiences; and both their websites are just that!

I have some nice screenshots of the websites to show, but for some reason Blogger won't upload the images...??

I really like the design of the Rapp Collins site, for its originality, consistency, and attention to detail. The design strays from the template style for most websites, by using an interface that is not only unique, but also clean, artistic, and visually interesting. It does this while still keeping the possibly less intuitive user in the loop, with the option to use a more conventional nav menu.

The layout is very clean. In the intro, we are introduced to our site guide, a little humming bird, who is actually the result of the animated preloader. Then we head into the main site, which does not seem like a standard website at all, but more of an exploration of artistic expression. The site is still easy to navigate because it presents you with the nav menu from the beginning, which gives you clues on how to navigate the different locations. When you go to a particular location either by moving the mouse down the page or via the menu, you are greeted with a nice animated preloader that loads the visuals for that location. The visuals for each location are playful animations that are just awesome. Then if you choose to enter that location a really cool thing happens. The main page blurs out into the background and flowing vines of cables, coming from the main page, connect you to a new window with more info on that topic.

The feeling that one gets is that you are never really leaving the main page, all while still getting the info you want. The whole site and the windows themselves are an awesome combination of crisp raster graphics and stunning 2D vector illustration. THE CONTINUITY IS AMAZING!!!! This site is a brand experience in itself. It is inspiring design work! The amazing thing is, is that all this does not overpower or detract from the goal of the site, but only lends to the experience.


The website for Schematic is just as well designed, but with a completely different style. The whole website is on one huge page that the user navigates, one tile at a time. So, when the page loads, you start at the Home tile, but you can see that their are more tiles surrounding it because they are partially visible and are allowed to run off the screen. They still give you a nav menu that travels with you to each tile, but its content changes to suit the current location. Going to main categories of the page is a cinch, and going the home tile is just as easy. You also have the option to zoom out at any time to see all tiles/pages that you can navigate to. THIS IS AWESOME!! I am amazed at how easy and quick it is to move from page to page. On each tile you can read the written content, admire the graphics and design, or you can view videos/images that are present on that page. The attention to detail and level of consistency, which is very important, is top level.

Both these sites are amazing! They are an inspiration for new and cutting edge design. YOU HAVE GOT TO CHECK THEM OUT! I can see now, why Karl wanted us to do these explorations. Thank You Very Much.