Best Flash Websites of 2009

So since our next project is to build a website in Flash I started looking around and came across an article about the best Flash Websites of 2009 from Ebiz MBA Here were a few that I really liked
http://www.sectionseven.com/

http://okaydave.com/

http://www.mono-1.com/monoface/main.html

http://www.marcecko.com/#/

The Bunnys

This is some pretty fun animation that I found featured in an article for Communication Arts about a new Duracell batteries. I am fascinated by the idea of using one image/character and multiplying it hundreds of times to create this effect style.










































http://chuckandlulu.wiredrive.com/l/p/?presentation=f8be82aca0772dc7659f5f153b1106c4

Rick Valicenti is AMAZING

http://vimeo.com/3302805

http://www.rickvalicenti.com/#/section:the_works/view:all/page:1

So during class tonight there is an amazing speaker, Rick Valicenti. Since we cannot attend I thought it would be nice to blog about him, I can do this because I was lucky enough to have him as a guest in my Type I class yesterday. Rick is in a word--inspiring. Here is a link to his latest project that began as a way to work though some difficult personal issues and turned into a tool to reinvigorate his design perspective, he said it really gave his career a whole new life.

A few things that Rick said that I really enjoyed were ( about being in grad school) " Celebrate your indulgence int he process, " Make sure you are at the table where the idea's come to life ." (on not being a photoshop monkey)
(advice to deisgners) "stay curious"

I encourage everyone to check out his personal website as well as his design firm Thirst in Chicago's site. http://www.3st.com/

Poetry in Motion

One of my biggest passions is poetry. In many ways I see its qualities like I do motion design. It is all about tone, rhythms, motion, emotion and expression/communication in a new form. One of my favorite poets is Cornelius Eady. He draws upon many influences, but one of the main ones is the music genre of blues and jazz. He wrote a poem after the jazz musician and civil right activist Nina Simone died, it is called "Nina's Blues." I love this poem and recenlty discovered that someone had animated it. This was very exciting! I think this could have been improved with more typographic detial but i love the idea behind it. Hope you enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1TVFcJgkfo

A graduate student message in After Effects

So here is a very simple After Effects video that I think really shows great pacing, and contrast in mood and it is done by a graduate student just like us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAAoaNMM-xc&feature=related

Vine growing makes everyone say "ahhh"

Professor Shin says students are always fascinated by the vine growing trick, well I am one of them and here is a video I found that does it in our ten second time frame effectively.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXntq0DfY5Q&feature=related

On that same note here is a diffrent kind of flourish technigue that addresses the popularity of the effect. I love the message: "Any good flourish is a combination of technigue and style use wisely..."

ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1lbfUGB8fw&feature=related

Another type video

So now that the first project is done I can't stop searching for other great animated typography examples. Here is another one that I thought was very powerful with only type.
http://vimeo.com/1250327

After Effects

After learning Flash, which took me an embaressing amount of hours I am pretty nervous to learn another new program. Beyond learning the basics on Lynda.com I started searching for video examples to get an idea of what we could ultimately create. Below is a video that brings together numerous After Effects videos to show a wide array of examples and I really enjoyed it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Y3kDE8gok

This one was also really beautiful and elegant motion using After Effects
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG2tV-X5NiQ&feature=related

Rethinking the Shape of Everyday Life

Below is a link to a great New York Times article about how design has changed over time. My favorite was the quote " After decades of being an evolutionary process of incremental improvements, design is now revolutionary."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/arts/design/05iht-design5.html?_r=2&ref=design