Multimedia

Final Video

/ Craig Dugan / Leave a comment
Music: Lights by Sappheiros https://soundcloud.com/sappheirosmusic
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/LightsSappheiros
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/-lbbHQbZNKg

I couldn’t think of anything to do, and didn’t have time to shoot video. This is a collection of photographs and videos of my cat, Prince. I trimmed the videos, added transitions, and overlaid it with audio. I was going to record my fiance discussing us getting and training him, but her final schedule and my work schedule made this unfeasible.

I apologize for the poor quality.

Final Podcast

/ Craig Dugan / Leave a comment
Music: Moonlight Reprise by Kai Engel / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WdyhHrMc-0

To create this clip, I gathered two short interviews and a backtrack. The interviews are of two women, one of which served a short jail term, and one of which served a moderate prison term. The intent of this clip is not for me to comment, but for people who have experienced time in our criminal justice system to comment on their own experiences.

To gather this audio, I asked 5 questions. They are as follows
1. What were you sentenced on?
2. Do you think your time in our criminal justice system changed you for the better?
3. What do you think should be changed in our criminal justice system?
4. What do you think was a positive aspect of our criminal justice system?
5. What would you change about how our society treats former inmates?

With these questions answered, I cut out my questions and alternated between the two interviews, presenting their stories in tandem. As a backtrack (and to cover up unwanted artifacts in the audio), I added some creative commons licensed music by Kai Engels.

After feedback, I trimmed some segments of the interviewee’s answers, and I added an introductory segment, outlining the purpose and the content of this video.

Final Logo

/ Craig Dugan / Leave a comment

My Logo is a simple design, consisting of 5 separate layers. In order, these layers make up the stars on the center triangle, the triangle itself, the 2 lines of text on the image, and the base circle comprising the background of the image. The background is a simple sphere, with a gradient going from white to dark blue and a hard 2-tone line encircling it. The triangle, the lone decoration on this logo, is a dark purple with feathered edges and a diffuse glow layered over a homogeneous 1-tone triangle. The stars on the triangle are flares simplified down to a single radius, with varying sizes to represent different sizes/distances of stars. The text, likewise, is simple. On the left we have “CD Media”, my initials and the broad category to correspond with the broad category of my blog. On the right we have “facts come first,” a simplified version of one of my personal axioms.

 Aside from the technical attributes, the gradient in the background represents the sky fading from white to black, and the triangle represents space, with the stars superimposed on a dark, fading background. Space is represented due to its mysterious nature, the long lines of questions left unanswered and facts left unfound that creates a sense of wonder and curiosity in most of us. The sky represented by the gradient is simply meant to be aesthetically pleasing.

All in all, this is not a very complex logo, and there wasn’t a significant amount of thought that went into designing it. I assume the text will need worked on to make this logo more easily scale-able, but I have yet to find a more aesthetically pleasing layout for the text that works with the overall design. I constructed the logo before the sketch, as I am terrible at designing things via sketch.

After receiving feedback, I decided to make a few minor revisions to my logo. While the design remained the same, I moved the title to the bottom of the image, and the quote to the left. On the right, I added a Latin translation of the quote to maintain symmetry in my image.

Final Collage

/ Craig Dugan / Leave a comment

This collage is a compilation of the pets in my family I hold near to my heart, on a morning photo I took because I had no clue what to use as a background.

Kaya, the grey wolf/malamute mix in the upper left corner, is my fiancé’s mom’s baby. At a bit over 2 years old, he towers over me standing on his hind feet, yet runs from anything larger than a chipmunk.

Rebel, the potbelly pig in the center, is my mom’s companion. He absolutely refuses to leave her side, and always forgets his inability to jump.

Bella, the German Shepherd in the right corner, is my brother’s dog. She’ll run for miles with him, but won’t budge for anybody else, even when being bribed with food.

Prince, the idiot black and white cat in the lower left, is my fiancé’s cat. He thinks flowers and plastic are food, and has a habit of closing doors on himself and crying until we let him out.

Freyja, the calico on the right, is my cat. After 2 years of working with her, she’s gone from a feral cat to a sweet headache. While it still takes 3 people to trim her claws, she has come a long way. Instead of biting anything that touches her paws, she now gives high fives on command. Instead of scratching everybody who comes near her, she now headbutts them until they pet her.

 

Aside from Kaya, all of these pets are rescues. Rebel was found locked in a room after his previous owner had moved away, Bella was a stray, Prince was an abandoned kitten, and Freyja was found injured after her litter was (probably intentionally) ran over by a car. Kaya was bought from a breeder after they lost their home and were unable to keep breeding wolves.

 

All of these animals might have been given up on as too hard to train, too hard to keep. Bella took two years to housetrain, Prince constantly injures himself and others on accident, and Rebel is, well, a pig. Instead of giving up on these animals, compassion and dedication have led to them being almost ideal pets (except for the idiot cat, but you can’t fix stupid). Rescued animals, while damaged, have stronger personalities and an even stronger will. However, they are far more rewarding to train, care for, and love.

On the other hand, breeders are often horrible to their animals. Things such as puppy mills, kitten mills, designer breeders; they generally exploit their animals and force them to live a life largely composed of cages, breeding, and boredom. This is not to say that breeders cannot do their job ethically, or that it is wrong to buy a young animal from a breeder. I would just recommend doing your research on a breeder before purchasing from them. Ensure that they care for their animals, instead of treating them only as commodities. And if you feel that you are capable of caring for an animal that needs additional training or attention, do so. You will find the experience far more rewarding than you could ever imagine.

 

On a side note, do not declaw your cats. It is a miserable experience for them that permanently deprives them of their primary means of self-defense and balance, and can lead to neurological issues and infection. Would you want the tips of your fingers and toes cut off? Because that is what declawing is to cats.