Interactive
There is often a certain level of apprehension when it comes to the technical details of interactive work. Me, I hate coding. I understand the basics of stuff like CSS or Actionscript and can hack away at it, but in a perfect world we wouldn't have to speak another language to make an animation or website do what we want. We're not there yet. But where we are is at a time where technology can barely keep up with itself. Something faster, smaller, louder and cooler is created every day.
At Portfolio Center, you can sense the shift towards interactive coming. Print won't die. Traditions die hard, and there will always be a need for messages communicated on paper. But the great thing is that the transition from print to interactive is not as big a chasm as many seem to think. It's like taking a poster and saying okay, what if I added music to this? What if it moved? What if you could interact with it somehow? What if there were hidden secrets or rewards from that interaction? As a kid of the Nintendo generation, that sounds pretty exciting to me.
But the perceived technical details get in the way. After Effects is really just Photoshop with a timeline. Flash is just After Effects with interaction. Making a personal website is easier than ever thanks to stuff like Blogger, and you could learn the basics of CSS in a day. My knowledge of all these things is average at best, yet the general perception at school is that I'm tech savvy, which is probably only due to the fact that there are so few people currently interested in this stuff at PC. But the truth is that I've only known Flash and After Effects for a year, spend less time on my computer now than when I first started school, and...gasp...don't even own an iPod.
Someone I respect very much recently said In print today, you can become a rockstar. In interactive today, you can become a pioneer. No matter what way you slice it, it's an exciting time to be a designer, but there isn't an enormous barrier to overcome between the rules of a print and interactive designer. Actually, these distinguishing labels are irrelevant. I just enjoy doing anything creative; if it's a logo, wine bottle, movie, blog entry, song, chair, treasure map, or something entirely new and challenging, I'll be happy regardless.
Wednesday, August 10 at 9:51 PM
Okay Samurai Multimedia is Dave Werner's personal site. I'm currently working at Minor Studios in San Francisco. Thanks for visiting! (more...)
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