Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Mind Map
Another task for GS. For this assignment, I had to make a "mind map" (a flow chart on crack) explaining a lecture or television program I had attended/seen. Because I don't take any really obviously visual classes right not except for gs, I decided to try to make a mind map of a concept in physics, in this case how resistivity works in circuits. Hope you like it! (Click for full view)
Coraline Soundtrack
Not at all related to Graphic Storytelling, or comics in general, but the Coraline soundtracks is one of the best movie soundtracks I have ever heard. The music is dynamic and interesting, totally different form anything else I've ever heard. The over all combination of the darkness of some sections with the somewhat childishness of others creates an incredibly unique and effective atmosphere. I strongly urge you to listen to at least a couple of the songs off it if you have the time, and these two are a good place to start:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8ry1f_3Lsk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxs2vS2gJ-c&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8ry1f_3Lsk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxs2vS2gJ-c&feature=related
An Exelent Example of Vissual Aid
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/02/12/world/middleeast/0212-egypt-tahrir-18-days-graphic.html?ref=world
I found this graphic while looking through the New York Times website, and cannot say enough how much I like it. In 6 frames it completely gives the viewer a full view of the recent revolution in Egypt resulting in the old president stepping down. The use of color coding to highlight which factions had control of which area in combination with text provide a very clear representation of the situations at a given stage. The pictures lining the bottom of the map give a much more personal and emotional feeling to the piece, bringing the reader in. The few moving arrows and shifting of the "camera angle" provide a dynamic feeling, and allow the viewer to appreciate the scale of the protest, as well as provide additional clarity. Finally, the text is short and succinct, giving accurate explanations of the situation without detracting from the overall visual nature of the graphic.
I found this graphic while looking through the New York Times website, and cannot say enough how much I like it. In 6 frames it completely gives the viewer a full view of the recent revolution in Egypt resulting in the old president stepping down. The use of color coding to highlight which factions had control of which area in combination with text provide a very clear representation of the situations at a given stage. The pictures lining the bottom of the map give a much more personal and emotional feeling to the piece, bringing the reader in. The few moving arrows and shifting of the "camera angle" provide a dynamic feeling, and allow the viewer to appreciate the scale of the protest, as well as provide additional clarity. Finally, the text is short and succinct, giving accurate explanations of the situation without detracting from the overall visual nature of the graphic.
Intstructional Vissual
So, for GS I had to make an instructional guide to some task or skill using visuals. I chose to make a brief tutorial on meta-trolling. Now, for anyone who is not familiar with the concept of a troll, a troll is a person who goes to forums or blogs and posts comments or threads specifically for the purpose of getting other people mad. So, meta-trolling is trolling by falsely accusing someone of being a troll. Enjoy.
Oh, and I suppose it might be helpful to know that http://paradoxdgn.com/junk/avatars/trollface.jpg is the most well know visual representation of an internet troll.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Worst... Graph... Ever...
http://www.fjhs.ednet.ns.ca/math/circlegraphs.htm
While I could of put this graph as an image, I wanted you to be able to see it's original content; the graph is from an instructional website for making pie charts. Now, looking at the graph, it might not be obvious what the issue is, which is exactly what makes it so bad. As a general rule in informational graphics like a pie chart, the visual area needs to be proportional to the percentage of that component. However, when one uses 3D graphs, it is very easy to forget this rule. By making the graph in terms of volume instead of area, larger sections are proportionally far larger than smaller sections. This creates the visual effect that Tuition and Fees account for more than 10 times as much of the total cost as room, when it really only contributes about 4 times as much. Further more, by makin the graph 3D, there has to be some amount of forced perspective created by "angling" the graph. What this actually does, however, is stretch the potions of the graph that are lower on the visual, and shrink those that are higher up. The end result is, again, a loss of visual accuracy in the pie chart. There is one last component of this graph that makes it misleading, and that comes from the organization of the graph. This chart seems to have decreasing values as one moves clockwise around, from Tuition and Fees to Room, to Board. HOWEVER, Books is a smaller portion of the total cost than Transportation. By placing it out of order, it is likely a viewer will think that books costs more than transportation, further misleading them. I am also disgusting that the graph DOES NOT HAVE A TITLE. As of right now, I am only guessing this is a pie chart of where college costs end up coming from, but as of right now I have no idea which college, or if it's something else entirely because whoever made this visual neglected to tell me. My final issue with this graph is what it's being used for. The graph is presented as an example for 2D pie charts. The page this is on does not teach you how to make terrible 3D graphs like this, it teaches you how to make actually functional 2D ones. This horrible graphic is not even relevant to the circumstances it's presented in.
(In case you couldn't tell, misleading graphs [that weren't intentionally made that way by myself] are one of my biggest pet-peeves.)
While I could of put this graph as an image, I wanted you to be able to see it's original content; the graph is from an instructional website for making pie charts. Now, looking at the graph, it might not be obvious what the issue is, which is exactly what makes it so bad. As a general rule in informational graphics like a pie chart, the visual area needs to be proportional to the percentage of that component. However, when one uses 3D graphs, it is very easy to forget this rule. By making the graph in terms of volume instead of area, larger sections are proportionally far larger than smaller sections. This creates the visual effect that Tuition and Fees account for more than 10 times as much of the total cost as room, when it really only contributes about 4 times as much. Further more, by makin the graph 3D, there has to be some amount of forced perspective created by "angling" the graph. What this actually does, however, is stretch the potions of the graph that are lower on the visual, and shrink those that are higher up. The end result is, again, a loss of visual accuracy in the pie chart. There is one last component of this graph that makes it misleading, and that comes from the organization of the graph. This chart seems to have decreasing values as one moves clockwise around, from Tuition and Fees to Room, to Board. HOWEVER, Books is a smaller portion of the total cost than Transportation. By placing it out of order, it is likely a viewer will think that books costs more than transportation, further misleading them. I am also disgusting that the graph DOES NOT HAVE A TITLE. As of right now, I am only guessing this is a pie chart of where college costs end up coming from, but as of right now I have no idea which college, or if it's something else entirely because whoever made this visual neglected to tell me. My final issue with this graph is what it's being used for. The graph is presented as an example for 2D pie charts. The page this is on does not teach you how to make terrible 3D graphs like this, it teaches you how to make actually functional 2D ones. This horrible graphic is not even relevant to the circumstances it's presented in.
(In case you couldn't tell, misleading graphs [that weren't intentionally made that way by myself] are one of my biggest pet-peeves.)
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