Write From The Heart

"Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back."

Visual Studies Seminar Post #5: Upperclassmen Work and 4 Neat Websites

October13

Part 1: Visual Studies Senior Presenters

Last Friday, I noted on how informative and fascinating each presentation for the respective Visual Studies majors were. Graphic Design had a fascinating intro where the student accidentally discovered her dream major, a nice little reminder that great things can come from mistakes and an equally fascinating portfolio, showing off numerous pieces, published work, and opportunities. Photography provided excellent insight into the environments one will see taking the class, but also stressing the amount of diligence and patience it takes to manage a full-fledged career in photography. My favorite presentation by far was Fine Arts. The speaker was a little awkward, but, in my opinion, it added to the personality and humor. She clearly showed a before and after for her development as an artist, showing the shift from focus on shadows and color theory to exploring the abstract and colors by their element. There were many more opportunities than I projected to see coming out from her major, especially the work at a local organization, which resonates heavily with me. Unfortunately, I believe the presentation that was most lacking was, ironically, my own major, Interactive Games Studies. The speaker seemed very uncomfortable, deliberately used self-proclaimed poor examples when showing off her work, (even though I thought the Romeo and Juliet game had an interesting concept!), and then derailed from the major to discuss her art. Not that the content she provided was bad, I liked how she discussed her development as an artist, but only very briefly did she actually go over the opportunities given by the major and discussed the work entailed by her major, which was a simple, “You’ll be working for 12 hours in a lab” with no added commentary. If she discussed current projects it probably would’ve left a better impact since it would show her growth as a game developer, but she chose to show development as an artist and say how stressful game developing is, which just leaves me wondering why she stuck with a major it seems like she doesn’t have fulfilling experiences with instead of feeling excited for the classes and projects to come.

Overall, the presentations were fantastic and the speakers were mostly confident, but Interactive Games Studies’ negativity and lack of substance stood out like a sore thumb among the group, showing a significantly smaller portfolio than the others and feeling more like a rant about how game developers have to work constantly for little to no reward instead of an informative presentation about the classes and experience.

Part 2: 4 Interesting Websites!

For the 4 websites I’ve checked out, I stuck to artist portfolios/bios to fit the theme of portfolios given by the prompt and each link will redirect users to the main page of the website, if there are multiple pages.

  • Yul Moreau: http://y78.fr/

I chose Moreau’s page for two reasons, one, the 80’s synth aesthetic is incredibly done on the site and makes the scrolling feature much more stylized, creating an enjoyable experience in itself when browsing the portfolio. Two, the portfolio itself has a lot of unique, telling work. Particularly the game, the first project listed, stood out to me for its visuals and, from what I could gleam of the French I don’t speak nor read, its story. The 2 dimensional, postmodern simplified animation style goes nearly perfectly with a conformed, futuristic society.

  • Gisele Jaquenod: http://www.giselejaquenod.com/

Jaquenod’s page is just too dang adorable to pass up. Her art style is very pleasing to the eye and her personality comes off as very approachable. She puts a lot of emphasis on animals, from her theme to actual links to her pet cats, which I thought was an endearing touch to an already cute-loaded portfolio. Again, her art is high quality; her products have bunches of charm to them and her original blog themes have their own unique style that makes it a good purchase for those looking for an individual setup.

  • Javier Pineda: https://www.javierpineda-animation.com/

Pineda’s page is structured and organized well, having a preview strip of each of the projects and links designating original work, animations, and more. I was mainly drawn by the original animation styles; they were quite energetic and felt like they would look amazing in motion, but what caught my eye upon browsing was Pineda’s board work for hit animation shows The Simpsons and Dilbert. It’s certainly an impressive note to put on a portfolio and the boards themselves provide great insight into what went behind beloved scenes.

  • Stevan Zivadinovic: http://portfolio.hobolobo.net/

This final link is actually a personal connection! I’ve worked with Stevan before back in my hometown, where Say Sí is located, for a mentorship and helped his team out during PAX South to debut their students’ original game. I chose Stevan for that reason and also because his portfolio has a brilliant deadpan sense of humor that’s consistent through his titular webcomic series, Hobo Lobo of Hamelin, which is linked in his website. The comic has been put on indefinite hiatus, but the content that’s available is outstanding. By using an “infinite canvas,” parallax scrolling, and a sketchy, yet charming artistic style, the comic sets its tone well and mimics children’s picture books, just with more imminent doom and rat plagues.

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