#ive been thinking about doing a brief video tutorial on my process

[genkais-arcade]

hi, I'm trying to figure out some stuff about gif-making, and I had a question -- the space on my computer is running out, *fast*, and I like your gifs so I figured you might have experience with this

I noticed that a saved file for one of the gifs I made was... 1.3 gigs. for a Majora's Mask gif. just the photoshop file to open up and edit the gif again at the source. which is insane. but I chose to save that document, so I could also delete it myself-- but - does Photoshop auto-save progress in a folder somewhere, or do something like build an insane cache? I know Sony Vegas has an autosave file, so I figure maybe this does too somewhere? I did a google about this and I can't figure it out at all. I'm trying to figure out where all my space is going because the gifs themselves aren't big at all, usually. no more than 10MB. and I very rarely save the project at all before exporting it. sorry if this is bothersome, thank you in advance!

Omg 1.3 gigs for a save file is bananas!

I actually do the majority of my gif making in After Effects and that program definitely has an auto-save. All of my gif-making files are AE because I only use PS to do the actual animating part.

From what I understand PS has an auto-recover feature but that only works in situations like an unexpected crash. There might be something in your preferences depending on what version you have but I'm not a PS expert :(

Sorry I can't be of more help!

[maddygriffithsfmp]

Self reflection and evaluation

Video diaries: Ive been taking a series of video diaries throughout my FMP that are self evaluations and reflections as well as ways in which to clarify ideas with myself. Below are the summaries of the most relevant of these. 

Video 1 : 

Firstly the FMP so far has been very open ended, difficult title to narrow down (particularly my own). I’ve been looking at simulations, things like whether we are in one, what indicators we have in our own technological capabilities that we ourselves have the capacity to produce such sophisticated technology, and therefore the possibility of being in one ourselves. The first bit of research I did was ‘standard’ (by which I mean I looked on quite a wide scope at the musings of others on the topic of simulations, aesthetics and ideas that I connected to simulations and virtual realities). That got me to look and kind of decide what angle I was going to tackle the simulations topic on. Mark suggested that I find an aesthetic I am particularly drawn to as a good starting point, so I did. I felt drawn to gaming and simulations for leisure, in a virtual sense, which became especially relevant during this time. I’m going down the route of gaming, sex, the senses on a virtual level - which I feel in this present time I cannot ignore right now.  

Here I talk about the relevance of sensory experience in these times, and where our technology is up to with that currently. I discuss phones, the transferring of sound and how far off we are with the other senses - why can’t we send taste ? Retrospectively here I can see the importance of me talking to myself to a camera to try and present an idea and the importance of this to try and clarify an idea with myself. I then go on to discuss which gaming aesthetics I’m interested in. 

I am interested in looking at what area of humanity is being stimulated by games. I want to look into the reason why people use games, when is it a healthy and unhealthy habit. What relationship do games have with loneliness? Is there a small minority of people, especially men, who have these unhealthy habits with games. How do we all deal with quarantine - gaming could possibly become very relevant. 

Looking back at this I see that I continue to need to narrow down, be more and more specific and let my interests guide me. I need to create ties within each topic that I’m interested in that have a central idea, to have a clear picture of what I want to do. There is lots of power in reflection and I think video journaling allows me to have that in the fullest sense: reflecting in that present moment,clarifying  ideas but also being able to reflect on that reflection and see how I could have further progressed, what I might have done differently. 

VIDEO 2: 

On this occasion I concluded to take a weekly journal of my ideas, plans, tutorial and peer comments. 

VIDEO 3: 

Had a conversation with my peers which was really helpful for continuing more specific research on my topic. I’ve been interested in a particular Japanese gaming aesthetic, the fashion inspired from that - which again needs to be narrowed down. Japan feels like an important central point because it has such a popular gaming and arcade culture amongst many people - in a more intense way (for example, one can get married to a game characters). I think there is also an interesting sub culture here which is one that incorporates this idea of loneliness and insular lifestyle, especially highlighted in Japanese bachelors - there seems to sadly be a real problem with loneliness and evidence to suggest that gaming is entangled within that, be it for better or worse. 

I am looking into the categories of games and which aesthetics would be the most interesting. I have looked into augmented reality, virtual reality and video games - and there subcategories, and looking which aesthetics I like - dystopian, realistic. I then want to look at their influences on fashion and combine the ideas between their aesthetics and how they are portrayed in fashion. I then want to look at which particular games target which particular audience. The reason why I’m interested in Japan is because gaming is more visible in a day to day way than in the west - it has more obvious influences on the fashion and the culture (or on a wider scale). Now looking at this I can see that this is probably more accurate for Tokyo as opposed to places like Kyoto. I want to look at How games help/ hinder people. 

VIDEO 4: 

Reflecting on the project so far: 

Right now feels like quite a good turning point, I feel like I’ve found some more solid ground, even though the topic continues to be wide it has way more direction. 

I got a bit scared because I felt like I wasn’t finding it fast enough by which I mean a specific topic but I realised I just needed to have a proper discussion with my peers about it to just clarify and see exactly what I wanted to do and they were very helpful. 

Not being in studios and usually being used to completely long briefs amongst a big community of people who are constantly talking about their work and discussing yours with you. Being in that environment makes you reflect and think and clarify constantly. But when you are on your own just dwelling and thinking you end up going off on tangents and not being able to come back, I think that’s really important take for me. To communicate with peers 

I think also, in terms of research it’s really important not to jump the gun on the design aspects, because I often do, because I think my research is taking too long. But I think my design would be more successful for more research, and really finding my feet in it. I believe my design process will be much more fluid if my research is stronger.