Author: trp297

Link to HTML/CSS Portfolio About Page   http://imanas.shanghai.nyu.edu/~trp297/week1/ploywebsite

This project was really fun. I ended up liking to design my about page a lot. Initially, it was really hard because it was something that I have never done before. It is like learning a whole new language. It is all about trial and errors. At first, when I didn’t get what I expected, I was frustrated. However, as time passed, I feel like I became more patient and I embrace the process. Once I got what I expected, I’m so happy, as if I have accomplished something really great. 

I faced many difficulties along the way. First of all, it is really hard to align the different parts. For instance, I want the profile picture (circled) to be right next to the contacts me session but it instead went above. Therefore I need to play around to change the margin, the display, and the position.  Another challenge falls into my profile picture image. This is because I want to make it a circled frame so that it would look like the profile picture of my Instagram account. When I do so, the image of me does not show up in the circle, because the image automatically was cropped so that the only part visible is the top left. 

One of the silly mistakes that got me stuck for a long time was the  IMA main page. I forgot that my IMA main page was in the week 2 folder and not the week1. Therefore, the hyperlink does not work. 

Ultimately, this project is challenging but I like how we can be creative with it. I like the trials and errors even though it took quite a while to be successful. 

“Understanding Comics” is not so much like a typical comic book that aims to entertain. Whereas, “Understanding Comics” is informative and “sort of a comic book about comics!” (McCloud 6). Before reading this, I have never touched a comic book before even though I have seen them lying in my brother’s room. The reason why I do not read them is just how McCloud describes – as comics have the stereotypes that are less useful compared to the actual book or novel. I was totally wrong as I am currently so surprised by how complex it is to compose a comic book.  

Since it was my first time in a comic book, I definitely see the differences between a book and a comic. it seems very interesting to see the different logical order of reading comics. I like how there are images everywhere. Sometimes I do catch myself off guard looking at these images rather than reading. Lastly, I feel like comics are very powerful as it does not fit a certain standard or ways of writing. I like how it is less formal but effective in sending the message to the audience. For instance, the bolding or some words, the capitalization of specific phrases, and unique borders which add to create a new emotion to the readers.  It ultimately gave room for the audience to make their own interpretations. 

I ultimately like how McCloud puts it out that “it should be kept in mind at all times that this world is only one — (start a new panel) — of many possible worlds”(23). It emphasizes how we shouldn’t limit ourselves to one single aspect because it does not cover everything. It is interesting to see that comics are everywhere – even in Egyptian hieroglyphs. Moreover, throughout the chapters, he seems to be revisiting the idea that “our attempts to define comics are an on-going process which won’t end any time soon” (McCloud 23). 

Link to the CSS exercise: http://imanas.shanghai.nyu.edu/~trp297/week2/css-external-example/indexcss.html

I find quite a lot of difficulties in this task. One of the major ones is that I couldn’t position the box in a row rather than the given column. I found out that it is because I used flex-direction: row in the div for content-box rather than content. Another issue is that the margin of many of the different categories such as header, footer, and navigation box take excessive space. For instance, my content part does not move upward towards the top of the page because the navigation box takes too much space. Therefore, I need to define the width and the height as well as adding the code of display: inline-box. This is very challenging for me, however,  I learned a lot from this process. 

Background and Inspiration:

To start off, this is my first time working on photoshop and it came out very fun. What inspires me to create this image is that I want to reflect how a metropolitan city full of tall towers shining with light never have existed together with a beautiful scenic city. This is because it is always one way or the other. Once the city becomes develop and advance, they are giving away the natural beauty for this man-made buildings. This is why I placed the buildings behind the peaceful, calm mountains and lake. In the foreground, I incorporated an image of traditional Thai boats that used to be a major part of many of our lives. By placing the boat there, I am trying to express that once we move into a new era – which we seem to be pushing ourselves to  – it would result in many changes to our lives.

FINAL IMAGE: 

  

Below are the three photos I used: 

https://www.google.com/search?sa=G&hl=en-HK&q=kunturiri&tbm=isch&tbs=simg:CAQSmQEJZ50ehm1j704ajQELEKjU2AQaBggVCAEICQwLELCMpwgaYgpgCAMSKPgV6hX5FZEW9RX7Fe8V9BXpFZAWpCrHOOco1CilKsg4xCLFItMo1SgaMFUVjrXrU1RnVKfU6ACBQ7r5xZBTTuhBYJVle0p_1XYUf33_1HJ8SVh6LKqlzeH2SruSAEDAsQjq7-CBoKCggIARIEN9tn2Aw&ved=0ahUKEwiqlbTQ8czgAhUyBKYKHdn5Av4Qwg4IKigA

https://www.google.com/search?sa=G&hl=en-HK&q=new+york+night+skyline&tbm=isch&tbs=simg:CAQSlwEJkHnwU5RGnLAaiwELEKjU2AQaBAgVCAEMCxCwjKcIGmIKYAgDEijBCsIKkgvACoEVgBWEFYgE9guNC9M40jjJIpor5j63KsoimyvpPswiGjBrhkUh1chUsibwZytndnlmSiA-aD-91-OiHlLvJWWPol_1Wo0vBJQwgTTQuJfinFWcgBAwLEI6u_1ggaCgoICAESBJnypnwM&ved=0ahUKEwjZwZHv8czgAhWBF6YKHbsfAi0Qwg4IKigA

https://www.google.com/search?sa=G&hl=en-HK&q=long+tail+boat+thailand&tbm=isch&tbs=simg:CAQSlwEJT4THnXtabWUaiwELEKjU2AQaBAgVCAEMCxCwjKcIGmIKYAgDEiiIFoUWqAOlA6cDhhaEFvQVkxaBF78ikyq-IqAgjivSObwiuCKPObkiGjBNAOrs_1NtnanGzKHFfFoS72QAv6-T8d3JZKsJH0FB0qB6UejcBDCoEO0Yfvwx83XUgBAwLEI6u_1ggaCgoICAESBDW2eJcM&ved=0ahUKEwj1kPOE8szgAhVLyIsBHWfsDxMQwg4IKigA

Process:

First, I placed the images of the scenery as the background layer. Then I created the new layer of the buildings. I cropped and positioned the image so that it fits behind the mountains. Since the background of the buildings seems to be too strong, I decrease the opacity to 50%. Another major thing I did was erasing parts of the building layers. I used the eraser tool to delete the part that overlaps with the mountains(from the first image). This is because I don’t want the buildings to be seen in the mountains. Thus, it distinguishes the foreground and the background better. Lastly, I created a new layer and placed the boat. I used the selection tool to remove the background behind the boat out. I had a few difficulties with this part as I cannot get the selection out from the background. Therefore I need to first click the layer tab then layer mask and then reveal the selection. The selection doesn’t come out as good as I wish it to be, because the cutting is not really smooth. This would be one of the parts that I wish to improve in my next photoshop session. 

Just like the title, “The Medium is the Message”, Marshall McLuhan points out the relationship between ‘medium’ and ‘message’. I started out quite lost in the piece of reading but I started to understand after the example of chicken and eggs, “Instead of asking which came first, the chicken or the egg, it suddenly seemed that a chicken was an egg’s for getting more eggs” (McLuhan 154). It all falls down to how it is conveyed that affects us. Ultimately, the most important thing is how the mediums forms and controls, leading to the effect on our lives.

Furthermore, as technology progresses and medium develops, it impacts human-thinking differently. For instance, when I am young I would only know that communications happen when we talk face to face. After that, technology develops and I am introduced to phone calls. Then a few years later, those phones turn into smartphones that we could text. Ultimately, it is evident that those new technologies affect the mediums which in turn change the whole society. For instance, having family gatherings and dinners are no longer completely talking, but rather composes of people using their phones for various reasons. Thinking about it, it is kind of ironic that these mediums bring us closer to each other by texting rather than seeing, but sometimes it is distancing us further away as we are no longer truly interacting. This explains why societies today prefer to text rather than call or meetup.

The main takeaway I got from this reading is that we should recognize how the different mediums affect us. We shouldn’t allow this medium to take control of our lives, our behaviours, and our perceptions.