I ended up seeing some posts about recording mouse movements through IO Graphica while playing League of Legends and i thought i would put in my two cents (since i did some research on this during my thesis this year). I also love playing League of Legends and feel that it certainly is a game that allows for this kind of research depth!

I tried multiple ways of recording mouse movement and mouse clicks, IO Graphica for me had some downfalls in my opinion (but is certainly a quick and easy way to see your actions). But here are some things i realized about recording LoL with IO Graphica.

• You cannot break down different phases of the game. Where is the intense back and forth clicking vs the later part of the game where we all roam around.
• It does not show any mouse clicks, only mouse movements and linger time.
• It is quite restrictive with its output format which makes is not really edit’able.

What i ended up doing was to look for an alternative way of recording gaming data and the best process i found is something along these lines.

Use a keylogger on yourself: I wanted a keylogger that could easily cull and edit the actions that were done and Jitbit Macro Recorder allowed me to do that. It brought the gaming data out of the game and into raw edit’able actions. Below is the text file that the keylogger ends up giving to you, it is much better to edit this in the Jitbit interface though!

Heatmap: If you want to have the mouse movements, in the keylogger software, cull all of the mouse clicks, change the delay between the points to a low number and add a left click down action to the beginning and a left click up action to the end. Now bring it into a software like Photoshop, full screen the program and use the airbrush tool. With this, you have full control over how it will look like in the end.

Heightfield: When you have gotten the above image, turn it into grey scale and convert it into a heightfield in a software like Rhinoceros. This is yet again another way of looking at the data. I also put the mouse clicks onto this one by running the original script on fullscreen with the point tool in Rhinoceros. This was interesting for me because i wanted to bring this data into the third dimension.

Beyond the screen: I ended up CNC milling out the shape just to see how it would look like. This was pretty much how far i got into researching this topic before i ended up going into another direction.

If i had followed this topic further, what i would probably do is to also do a fraps recording of the gaming session to see things like when the early, mid and late game periods are and cut them into parts with the keylogger. The comparison between beginners and professional players was also an avenue that i would have followed up on. Also looking into different ways of creating an interesting final physical piece (unlike the not so aesthetically CNC milled foam i have above). Perhaps i will look into it in the future, who knows!

As a first post i share on Reddit, hope you like it!

So the time has come to write a final summary of my thesis. I was unable to keep weekly updates on my thesis, which was a shame! However i am glad it turned out in the end and i am certainly looking forward for life beyond OCADU!

My thesis in a nutshell can be described in an equation that goes as following

Tetris (graphic design + interactive objects)

In my four years of graphic design, i have realized that graphic design is all about communicating “graphically” by any means necessary. By looking at the word “graphic” we see that it has multiple meanings, but more importantly the meanings do not specify a specific dimensionality. In an occupation that relies heavily on two dimensionalprinted media to convey a message, what i wanted to do was to challenge the comfort zone of graphic design through communicative interactive objects.

Through the use of a variety of tools and skills that are more focused on fabrication, my objects went beyond the two-dimensional realm that graphic design usually resides in to communicate the essence of Tetris. By taking advantage of my own skill set, multiple avenues open that allowed me to represent these different aspects of Tetris in unique and engaging methods.

What I will be taking with me beyond my thesis on Tetris is this extended definition of graphic and to me how graphic design is purely a tool to communicate a topic clearly and vividly. Graphic design is certainly an occupation that has embraced evolution andI believe that it will quickly move towards the third dimension in the near future.

Below are some images of the final objects that i created, the three aspects they communicate are the block formations, the drop rate and the point system. To go more in-depth on my objects, download my process book.

For my thesis class we have to do a writeup once every two weeks talking about what we have done and how we reflect on it. Instead of doing the writeup and handing it in, I think that blogging about it will be way more beneficial for people around me who are curious about what my thesis is actually all about. Compared to the huge semester summary that I did in a blog post, I think making it into these smaller chunks will shed more light onto what I have been doing. On another note, I feel more inclined to make a blog post than a writeup that is only seen between my prof and me.

As my first semester ended, I knew that I had a lot of things to think about for my second semester. In my final talk with my thesis professor, a topic that came up and really hit me hard was what I wanted to say through my thesis. My actions in the first semester can certainly be classified as one big exploration. All I did was to play around with the possibilities of what I had at hand. The actions that I was doing did not have any specific goal other than to stay in the explorative realm.

The holidays had given me ample time to think about what kind of message I would voice through my thesis. I was trying to boil down the reasons why I wanted to incorporate rapid prototyping into my thesis and what I realized was that my mindset had already created an apparent connection between the two. That graphic design is swiftly evolved beyond the use of paper and ink; it’s forced to absorb a magnitude of technologies, which then again pushes the occupation into many different directions. Some of these technologies include 3D printers, lasercutters and CNC machines.

Throughout the summer, I was fortunate to also get a number of books that I want to read through as the semester goes by. Compared to my last semester where I my literary part was somewhat haphazardly put together, this time around I will be ready for it.

As a student studying graphic design and a printshop monitor, I certainly am aware of the important relationship designers have with their printers. When we design something, the final output has to take into many different factors created by the chosen method of production. Printing a poster has to take into consideration like color correction, paper stock and size restrictions. As we become more experienced, we learn to push the limits of our tools. An example that I did was this typographic poster where the size restriction seriously limited the effectiveness of my poster. What I decided to do was create tabs that I ended up sewing together, increasing the size of the poster beyond the restrictions of the printer.

As many graphic designers are pushing the boundaries when it comes to paper prints, I realize that together with the influx of new technologies at our disposal comes the same opportunity, which is to push the machinery and their outputs to their limits. Another reason why this opportunity has only recently emerged can be attributed to the fact that these technologies have infiltrated the school systems, giving students a chance to use them at a reasonable price. At OCADU, our rapid prototyping room includes a CNC machine, lasercutter, 3D printer and 3D scanner, which are all at the student’s fingertips with the right knowledge.

An assignment that we on our first class was to get back into the groove of making things again. With the winter vacation, many of us still need to rev back up again and I think just forcing us to make something is a great way of getting back into it. What I wanted to do was to take a used book and transform it into something else.

I was not sure what this “something else” would be but I thought that it would somewhat work out in the end. As I was looking for a used book to buy, a book called “A Wallflower Christmas” popped up and shablam, I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to somehow create a flower out of the book and that’s what I did! Through folding and cutting, I transformed a section of the book into a flower. Since this assignment was just to get us back into the “making” mode, I didn’t forcefully make it encompass my thesis. However, when I think about what I did, it really does relate to my thesis. If I interchange the folding and cutting actions with a new technology like the lasercutter, it would become an exploration of the new technology through printed media. This is how i ended up creating, which represents the book and its content. Down below are some process photos of what i did with the book.

After the critique we had today about the form that we created, the Wallflower Christmas flower that I made lacks in a quite key department, and that is to actually represent the my thesis. What I need to get going, is to actually have these down and dirty relationships with the machines I want to commentate about. That is certainly a job for these two up and coming weeks!

As a 4th year OCADU student, we have a year long final thesis project that focuses on whatever you want to that relates to the major you are in. In this year, the graphic design thesis at OCADU has changed a bit. There is currently two different branches that one can pick. The first one is the regular one where you focus on a self generated topic for a year. The other one, from what i have heard is a series of smaller projects. The second seems to me to be an extension of the graphic deisgn core classes we have been doing previously. I had personally decided a long time ago and i was fully committed to the year long single thesis project. How can you NOT want to work on your own interests for a full year!

Below i will give somewhat of a summary of what my thesis looks like after the first semester, if you want to read a bit more about it, here is a download link to the final process book that i had to create for that semester (I would recommend downloading it and viewing two pages at the time, like it was suppose to be viewed. (in adobe acrobat its through view –> page display –> two page view/scrolling!)

My thesis statement in a nutshell goes as following “By pushing the boundaries of materials, I will explore the communication of information through the third dimension. “. This nugget went through a lot of refinement to get to this point. I am however super glad that it has changed so much over this first semester. In the beginning, i was kinda clueless as to how i wanted to approach my thesis but it has been working out well so far.

I did tons of explorations with paper and light throughout the semester. I also worked with string and wire to create some interesting shapes. In the lather part of the semester, i made it a mission to learn grasshopper (a plugin for Rhino which is a 3D modeling software!). That really became a black hole for my time allocation, in my next semester i will for sure focus on creating more stuff instead of trying to learn a software! Personally i think that i didnt really get into the thesis groove this semester, but hopefully that groove will come into play next semester so that an amazing thesis is created :D Below are some key images of the things that i did during my thesis this semester. I really recommend looking at the process book PDF that i made for a more indepth story on those images!

So this year i decided to participate at Canzine. Since a ton of illustrator peeps that i usually hang out with decided to participate, i thought, why not! This also became a “better late than never” post since it occured some months ago! :D

I was not sure what i would be making for the event but the thought of me doing something illustrator’y was looming around in my head for quite sometime. In the end i didnt make any personal zines, however i was a part of a larger collaboration called Fingerbiter, where a bunch of my buddies had to illustrate the theme of fingerbiting on a double spread page. Therefore the zine aspect of the show managed to get checked off without me creating an individual zine.

Some accessories that i had accompany the selling of that zine were posters and iPhone cases. The posters were images that i thought were interesting, printed on a brown sheet of paper. Before i printed on the brown sheet of paper, i used paint to create an interesting pattern on the brown paper. When the paint had dried, i put it through the large format black and white printers we have at OCADU (I totally recommend this printer if you are on a budget, $1 per linear foot, and our roll of paper is 36″ wide (this means that you can get a 36″ by 12″ b/w print for a dollar!)) If you can be creative with the black and white print, you can create a lot of awesome prints for cheap!

The iphone cases that i made were somewhat of a last minute addition to the whole fleet. I felt that what i had was kinda sparce so i ended up making them the night before the event. With some fabric that i had lying around + some free bags that i had acquired from the CMTS show that i went to, i ended up creating a handful of fabric cases.

The morning of Canzine, i went to Emmet’s place to make some buttons with her button machine. There was some mismatch between the supplies that i bought and the button machine (which i knew of but somewhat ignored), this mismatch made the button creation success rate around 30% haha.

The event itself was a good experience. I did not come early enough so i was kinda squished into this room that was was not a part of the main hall which was quite unfortunate. I had also brought the Omnion to add some mood lighting which i must say added a lot to the table that i was at. There were tons of great stuff around the place, what i ended up buying was tons of stickers (one day i will put em on my bike) and a t-shirt! It has somewhat become a staple thing for me to buy a t-shirt at these events. The t-shirt is a screenprint of a cat with what i think is an AK-47 gun. Not the regular motive i would wear but amazing nonetheless! Also i got the coolest cupcakes ever at this event! The cookie on one of them is seriously bigger than the cupcake itself haha.

In terms of sales, the posters won by a large amount. The zine, even though it was really nice looking did not sell at all. I think that the competition with all the otehr zines out there really made it a hard battle to win. Posters, which is somewhat of a more niche item during canzine stood out way more. I only sold + gave away the iPhone cases to my buddies, the didnt really sell either haha.

Oh man, i am quite the procrastinator when it comes to publishing posts in a timely fashion… So here we have some Nuit Blanche images :D I must say this was one of the most enjoyable NB i have been to so far. One aspect that really made it for me was that i had a bicycle (which made it sooooo much more efficient and better to explore areas) Some things to remember from the day,

• Maggie + her flat tire. We ended up meeting this old couple who allowed us to borrow their bicycle pump which was a few blocks down the road.
• Hansel and Gretel reinterpretation (that installation was awesome!)
• Funnel cake + corn + other foods!
• OCADU’s Digital landscape installation
• The crusty food tent
• Keita’s art battle at the AGO

Last tuesday i went to the CMTS (Canadian Machinery Technology Show) where i got to see bunch of crazy machines! What was really interesting about this show is that its target audience was large companies, so i got to see all of these heavy duty industrial mechanical beasts (some of them bigger than the apartment that i live in haha!).

Looking beyond the big machines (since they are obviously awesome) what i really liked was the display of the different bits one could purchase for the different machines. Some of them were coated in gold, others had a diameter of half a meter’ish. Tons of variety!

I also tested out my iPhone 4s during this show (since i got it the previous day!). I made some videos and took some photos, the phone is really beasty o.O

Canadian Machinery Technology Show from Paul Tseng on Vimeo.

The summer went quite well, after coming back from Norway, i knew that i had to take summer school since the exchange student program i did mentioned that i would not receive any liberal study (but in the end i DID get a liberal course which i could not use since they told me too late + i took it over the summer… =_=). Anyhow i ended up taking 4 courses over the summer! I did it so that my course load during thesis would be a bit lighter as i am in my 4th year + taking a year long thesis program (highly recommend people taking summer school, i should have done it earlier, thats not sarcasm!).

As the fall semester began, so did thesis. I managed to get Roderick Grant as a thesis teacher which i am quite happy so far. I am also taking two other classes,

Beyond school, my sister, her bf and i ended up buying a CNC machine. If you dont know what a cnc machine is, watch this video (has one of the most enthusiastic commentary ive heard in awhile ‘sarcasm’). Here is also a photo of it with my sister in the background. Its currently located in Matthews garage uptown, but hopefully in the coming future it will be relocated somewhere closer to toronto (or thats what im hoping!)

A vacuum table is currently being made for it so the production of objects has been put on hold for now (this is to hold flat pieces of material down without the use of clamps). It has been a huge project for both Fei and Matthew, not so much me haha. Since i still havent seen the machine firsthand! Ill probably head up there when all of the things are working as intended, kinda leaving the setup process to those two :P

Another thing that happend this summer (and is still going on) is both my sister and i doing some commission work for a cabinet company called PDT. Its kind of been dragging out for a bit but hopefully we will it it under wraps soon!

Recently in one of my summer courses, i had a course which i thought was a small bundle of joy! What i am referring to is a course called “Small Object Design”. Now this course is probably not everyones cup of tea (You had to learn Rhino (a 3D modeling software) from a huge manual on your spare time, the course was condensed since it was offered during the summer and it went into the third dimension). But nonetheless i found it super enjoyable!

What i think made me enjoy this course more than other courses was the 3D aspect of it. We had to model an object in Rhino and use CAM (Computer Aided Machines) tohelp us create the object. Now i have always had a hidden passion for 3D object, but after thinking of what would benefit me in the long run, i decided that a Graphic Design Major would benefit me more than an Industrial Design Major… Who woulda known that i would be getting the best of both worlds!

So in this class we had to take a prior project and recreate it with the benefits of CAM. What i decided to redesign was my egg lamp, i have always thought that the lamp i created back in my first year was one of the most enjoyable object i have made in my time at OCAD which is probably why i wanted to try and recreate its success!

What i ended up creating was a minimalistic two piece lamp which one could attach different lasercut paper lampshades to, depending on what kind of lighting effect you were aiming for. Instead of having me talk about the lamp, take a look at these images!

A small update on me, i am still taking summer courses (took a total of 4 this summer, also the first time i have ever taken school courses during the summer). My sister and I are working on a website job so that will hopefully pay the rent for awhile. Went to Kirk’s castle, for two days, oh man how much of a blast it was + recently learnt how to not hold my nose under the water!!

______________  Cover Letter  ______________

Dear Mrs. Juli:

I am interested in applying for the Internship position at Mjolk which was advertised on the OCAD job board.

As a Graphic Design student going into my 4th year at OCAD, i have developed and honed my skills to efficiently work and create on a Mac platform with the Adobe suite. I was born and raised in Norway for 14 years which has gives me an extensive understanding and feel of the Scandinavian culture. My passion for Europe lead me to an exchange student program to Glasgow last semester. My resume can be found below with further specifics about me.

I would love to be a part of Mjolk since i feel that your values resonate well with my own. If you need more information, you can call me at 647-377-0132 or send me an email at design@paultseng.net. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Paul

______________  Resume  ______________

Work Experience

Server for The Standard Pizza & Pasta Bar – College Street, Toronto
May 2010 – Aug 2010

Busser for The Standard Pizza & Pasta Bar – College Street, Toronto
May 2009 – Aug 2009

Barista for Timothy’s Coffee Shop – Dundas Street, Toronto
Aug 2008 – Feb 2009

Sales associate for Sport Mart – Shopper’s World, Brampton
Nov 2006 – Aug 2008

Accomplishments

Obtained both a Smart Serve license and Bartending Certificate through the Toronto Institute of Bartending.

Been accepted to an exchange student program to Glasgow School of Art in the United Kingdom.

Received a high school diploma from Fletcher’s Meadow Secondary School, attaining the Honor Roll every year of attendance.

Languages

Spoken and written English and Norwegian.

Education

Ontario’s College for Art and Design – Toronto, Ontario
2008 – Current

Fletcher’s Meadow Secondary School – Brampton, Ontario
2004 – 2008

Høyenhall Skole – Oslo, Norway
1997 – 2004

______________  Sample Work  ______________

nakedpin is a website i have been working on in my spare time. Coded it from scratch (HTML, CSS and PHP for WordPress). It will eventually be a place for me to upload guides and tutorials. It is still in the making so many elements do not work/are not dynamic yet!

A lamp that i am currently working on. The stand is finished but i am going to design and laser cut different lampshade patterns. The concept of the lamp is to layer multiple paper lampshades so that it creates interesting shadow patterns.

Published Work

Typographic Poster

Coptic Binding

Letterpress

Wooden r

Feel free to look around on this blog for more work i have done.