Interactive

Today was the first day back & I used many codes on dreamweaver to get some ideas for my portfolio. I tried using background images & different div tags which can be seen here:

2 Weeks Off :)

Now have 2 beautiful weeks off! I am quite mardy as the second group have all been uploading their animation work & they are all amazing & I need to work on mine! I am also going to try & do as much of my visual essay possible!

:)

Practitioners..

I had 2 in mind who I wanted to use but have been really researching into web design this morning & now have a fair few practitioners I want to use so will be looking at all their work & deciding which ones are best to use!

Digital Me - Moodboard

Today we created a moodboard to reflect our personal interests & describe our personal branding.

Personal Branding:
"is the process whereby people and their careers are marked as brands.It has been noted that while previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal branding concept suggests instead that success comes from self-packaging. Further defined as the creation of an asset that pertains to a particular person or individual; this includes but is not limited to the body, clothing, appearance and knowledge contained within, leading to an indelible impression that is uniquely distinguishable. The term is thought to have been first used and discussed in a 1997 article by Tom Peters."

"Personal branding often involves the application of one's name to various products. For example, celebrity real-estate mogul Donald Trump uses his last name extensively on his buildings and on the products he endorses (e.g Trump Steaks)"

http://mashable.com/2009/02/05/personal-branding-101/

"Many people think that personal branding is just for celebrities such as Paris Hilton or Britney Spears, yet each and every one of us is a brand. Personal branding, by definition, is the process by which we market ourselves to others. As a brand, we can leverage the same strategies that make these celebrities or corporate brands appeal to others. We can build brand equity just like them."


This is my moodboard:

I created it on the IMGSPARK website, there is a colour theme of pink - hence being my favourite colour. I like "girly" things such as make up, shoes, my boyfriend. I feel this moodboard portrays me well as someone whom has never spoke to me could guess my personality from this. Doing this moodboard did give me ideas for my portfolio - such as themes I could use, what I want to include in the portfolio & how much I can put onto the portfolio to make it about me as much as possible. I also thought about font & although I love pink - keeping it black & professional will look better!

Interactive..

Seminar with Giselle today in which we went over the basics of html in dreamweaver. We created an index page & CSS.

We used text codes & added images for backgrounds. I have a rough idea how I want my portfolio to look already.

Also had a look on this website which was good for ideas: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/02/26/10-steps-to-the-perfect-portfolio-website/

Loving the sunshineeeeeeeeeeee!

Visual Essay

Over the last few weeks I have been concentrating on planning my visual essay. I know roughly what i'm doing & have begun creating the structure.

I am intending to choose the interactive pathway so am creating my essay in Dreamweaver. I feel this is a good way of showing my interest, enthusiasm and knowledge in the subject but through the project itself will also show where I want to be and how I want to improve.

My 3 practitioners will be the design company Un.Titled, which are a very good web and graphic designers. I know of them through the college i went to before joining NTU. One of their designers used to go to the same college as me and had designed the art and design prospectus for NTU from 2009. The other is Andrew Warwick from Warwicka, a local designer who has been submitted for many awards and worked with many high profile clients. The final is the company called Seismik who have once again been submitted for many awards and worked for many high profile clients, my personal favourite being the website for the small but eccentric shop called Le Chien Et Moi. Other references are Green sheep designer, JDR, Bubble and Kebler.

Starting Interactive Space! :)

Finalllllllly starting interactive tomorrow which i'm excited about as it was my favourite project last term, i've looked at the other groups blogs of what they have been doing & it does look like something i'll enjoy. Plus i'm hoping to choose it for my pathway next year! :)

Brief from the Now:

Project title: “DIGITAL ME”

Task: You are to design a 5 page interactive website using Adobe Dreamweaver that acts as a digital portfolio and promotional online resource for your artwork. This should display good design principles, a flair forself-promotion and a good understanding of the underlying coding. It should also show an understanding of the importance of networking and linking to social networks.

At your presentation: Submit the Dreamweaver source files (html, swf, etc) on a CDROM along with your presentation file/s.

In your online journal: A 500 hundred word rational describing your design decisions such as screen layout, user interaction and methods used. Provide appropriate references to support your decisions and contextualise your practise.

Influences: You will be given various links to designer and artist websites and online design resources. You should research your own particular interests and design preferences and write these up on a weekly basis in your online journal. We shall be looking for innovative and original lines of enquiry and a willingness to experiment.

Content: Via considering the various elements needed to make an interactive and multimedia website we shall explore the various aspects of incorporating graphics, video, sound and text as well as considering the
audience and social networking aspects of contemporary arts promotion. We will consider various existing designer portfolios and their methods of promotion and distribution. After completing this pathway you will be able to build an interactive and multimedia website for promotional advertising.

Visual Essay Lecture..

Last lecture of the term today about the visual essay.

Our essay needs to:

LO2 -Demonstrate awareness of critical evaluation and review
methods used for judging your own work and the work of
others.

LO3 -Demonstrate awareness of appropriate methods for
structuring design commentary.

LO4 -Explain the critical and contextual dimensions of your
Multimedia practice as informed by social, cultural and technical
issues.

At least 50 images should be used, 3 videos & about ten minutes long.

Need to demonstrate knowledge, understanding & reflection on development.

Moving Image Evaluation

For this project we were put into groups & given specific roles for the short film. A script was also given to us - ours being "Herds" I was given the role of Assistant Director.

The basic storyline is that a man unknown to what reason he does it - walks about, knocking on people's doors and entering their house like he knows them. They are unsure how to react but him entering & he then proceeds to eating their food in the house.

We changed it slightly in the fact that Agnew is cooking a romantic meal for his girlfriend when Monty knocks on the door. Agnew is portrayed as a very weak character who doesn't know how to handle the fact a strange man is in his home. Monty is very upfront & confident - he drinks the wine & food Agnew prepared. We changed the script as well as it is actually Agnew who lives his own house & lives Monty alone.

My main ideas and intentions that I was trying to express in the project were: That we had been given a script & had interpreted it in our own way as a group – it may not have been how the creator of the script wanted it to be read but how we produced it into a film is how we saw it as a script. Wanted to express the idea that there was something wrong with “Monty” – it’s clearly not normal to do what he was doing but wanted the audience to have their own idea of why he did it. Was he mad, sick, rude? We wanted to create a strong character but at the same time not give too much away about him as a person.

The methods I use to develop my ideas were: (brainstorming, , visual research, storyboards etc) I have blogged all my methods since starting this project that developed my ideas. Being assistant director, I felt this was quite an important part of my role – to keep the group organised. WE created a group blog so we could always blog ideas & updates about our film and give feedback to each other on how well we thought it would work. At the start of the project I created a brainstorm and storyboard – which have changed slightly but this gave us a good insight to the idea we had to follow which made it a lot easier on the day of filming. Me, Joe & Harry also researched into quite a lot of film clips to get inspiration for shot & angle ideas. “Hot Fuzz” with the quick edit gave a tense atmosphere which is what we also wanted to create – so we have adapted this into the start of our film. We also had a seminar about lighting which helped when coming to film as without the lights it does make a big difference on how good the final piece looks. Posters for our film were created in a seminar.

I took a risk by trying something new. (Explain): Normally when working in a group we don’t have roles we are all expected to do the same. I feel having roles & being assistant director did give me more of a chance to suggest my ideas more than I have done in past situations. I liked the role of having to be organised & not just stepping into the background. Although some of the ideas I suggested we didn’t use in the film, we did try them to find they didn’t work very well. For example, Agnew is cooking a dinner for his girlfriend & I suggested her & Monty walking past each other on the stairs when he leaves but it didn’t really fit into what we had filmed already & looked a bit out of place.


Some of the unexpected problems I had to solve while working were: I think at the start of the project we all really had our minds set on the film & did a schedule for what needed to doing & by when. Then we kept putting off filming and in the end when we finally decided on a day to film – our actors couldn’t do that day. The lighting was quite difficult, either too dark or too bright but after a while we did manage to set it to the correct balance. Working in a group is always hard as sometimes people don’t turn up to seminars or can’t make it which was slightly frustrated when we wanted to edit our footage to find the editor wasn’t there.

The decisions and choices I made to help solve these problems were: We improvised on the actors and used Mark & Joe in our group – which doesn’t make the film as effective as it could be. Our group did communicate well through Facebook and texting and we would try and say if we couldn’t make it and then we could do something instead to make up for missing what had been done. For example Harry said he would take charge of finding actors but he then had to go home that weekend so I said I would do it, it wasn’t a problem to have to do it as Harry had let me know in plenty of time.

The things I have learnt from this particular project were: (Specific examples should be cited.) Although it was only a 3 minute film, it takes a lot of work and equipment to make a really good effective final piece. On the first day of filming we thought we could get away without using lights & looking at the footage afterwards it looked pretty bad, it made such a difference when the lighting was used. We have used dialogue which is recorded on the camera and sound effects such as wine being opened, water boiling and plates being used on the microphone and the quality of the sound is a lot better on the microphone. It does take a lot more effort to do it but its better in the long run as the quality of the film when doing it properly makes it so much better. For a 3 minute film we had about 2 hours worth of shots & although we didn’t use a lot of them, I’m glad they were filmed because if we hadn’t of had the right shot it would have been nearly impossible to re shoot it trying to get the same lighting as the previous footage.

Areas for improvement , If I were to do this project again I would change or do differently: I have really enjoyed this project and the group I worked within made me enjoy it. I think if I could do it again I would like to have a different role. I did like being assistant director but I would also like editor, sound or camera in which I could actually get involved and not just give ideas of how to hold the camera but actually be able to do it myself. We have still got the original footage so I may do my own edit of the film to add to my presentation as well as the group edit. I also think the theme and genre is a bit vivid, it is suppose to be a thriller but I think it lacks a little bit in some of the conventions so is also quite hard to pin point a specific audience for the film. I would improve this to make it stronger.

A new project that might grow out of my experience maybe: I liked the fact we got given a script and only had that to work from, if I did choose moving image as my pathway I would like to do adverts/commercials. So could perhaps look at scripts online for adverts that have been produced and film them how I think they should be interpreted to the audience.

Slumdog Millionaire

Today in Phil's seminar we watched a scene on editing from the opening of "Slumdog Millionaire." I've never seen the film before so decided to go home & watch it. I thought it was such a good film & the storyline was brilliant. I also enjoyed how it had the set theme that everything you do really does happen for a reason.

Edited Versions Of Herds

First Edit:





Not quite finished yet so comments would be appreciated! negative & positive :)

Some Photos From Film Shoot..

Update On Film "Herds"

We are planning to film tomorrow, Sam is cameraman & has sorted the hire for it all as has Naomi for lights. Naomi has also recored sound on the microphone such as pasta boiling, wine being opened & plates being used. I have produced a storyboard which I am still yet to upload. Have blogged the script already but was quite a while ago so will again:

1 EXT. DOORSTEP. NIGHT 1
TITLE: Herds
Knocking on the door MONTY skips from foot to foot
As AGNEW opens the door Monty slips past him, entering
MONTY
Bloody hell you took your time. It's a bit
quiet though better be early than be late,
never got into the fashionably late bullshit
did you?
AGNEW
Who are you here for?
MONTY
No reason we can't crack these open though is
there?
Monty holds the bag up and clinks the bottles together
2 INT. KITCHEN. NIGHT 2
Monty and Agnew sit at the table. They are drinking beer
MONTY
Not alot in the way of snacks at this party
AGNEW
Is there a party? Lads don't tell me
anything. Had work after lectures so...
MONTY
Where is everybody else?
2.
AGNEW
I'll text them now. Are you a mate of Johnny
then?
MONTY
Don't know Johnny
AGNEW
Billy's mate?
AGNEW
Never been friends with anyone called Billy.
On principle
AGNEW
Prior?
MONTY
Would love a sandwich. Love it. You got any
ham?
Monty crosses to the fridge/cupboard and spends the new few moments
making a sandwich
AGNEW
Do we know each other?
Monty crosses and shakes hands
MONTY
Monty
AGNEW
Agnew
Monty sits and eats his sandwich
AGNEW
Well I think someone's having you on Monty
MONTY
Having me on?
3.
AGNEW
Told you there's a party and sent you this
address
MONTY
You got any salad cream? I couldn't find any
AGNEW
But there isn't a party
MONTY
Or mustard?
AGNEW
And we don't know who you are
Monty sits and chews, and chews, and chews
3 EXT. DOORSTEP. NIGHT 3
Agnew holds the door open and Monty exits
4 EXT. STREET. NIGHT 4
Monty stares down the street. He is looking at houses
5 EXT. DOORSTEP. NIGHT 5
Monty knocks on the door. SHARPY opens it. Monty holds up his carrier
bag of beer
MONTY
Bloody hell you took your time
The END

The basic storyline is that a man unknown to what reason he does it - walks about, knocking on people's doors and entering their house like he knows them. They are unsure how to react but him entering & he then proceeds to eating their food in the house.

We have changed it slightly in the fact that Agnew is cooking a romantic meal for his girlfriend when Monty knocks on the door. Agnew is portrayed as a very weak character who doesn't know how to handle the fact a strange man is in his home. Monty is very upfront & confident - he drinks the wine & food Agnew prepared. We change the script as well as it is actually Agnew who lives his own house & lives Monty alone.

Joe found this clip from "Sexy Beast"

This the sort of relationship that we want between the charcters, one is clearly in control and superior, whilst the other is terrified in his own home.

We found actors and although they were able to film for one day for us the day we had all the equipment ready - camera, lights, etc - they couldn't film so we have had to improvise & use Mark & Joe from our group instead. It won't be as an effective short film without the actors but it's better than nothing. All props have been brought & are at the location - such as wine, candles, wine glasses, pasta & a huge clock.

For our title sequence we are going to have overlayed digital text, we will have this over the top of the slow shots at the start of the film which show Monty making his way to the flat. We will cut back and forth between Monty and Agnew, Monty shots will be all about the sound and the detail establishing that he is making dinner, we dont want any text here because we want the focus to be on the sound, when we cut to Monty the shots will be slower and darker and this is where we will place our titles, we are hoping to find some good music to overlay to this part of our film. After looking at anumber of title sequences Deborah suggested this one Joe found as he really liked how it remains dark throughout and thinks our title would work well like this with the right music.




We have left filming later than the other groups in our seminars but I think we have planned well & have everything ready for day of filming.

Group Name: Ntu Dolmio Day - due to eating a lot of pasta when filming :)

We are also updating our group blog with ideas http://herdsfilm.blogspot.com/

Poster For Herds

Today in Phil's seminar we had ten minutes to produce a poster for our Film "Herds."

All of my groups were pretty good & Harry's won out of the class for being the best & he won dvds & cinema tickets hahaa. Here are all of my groups as I think we should use one of them for our final design.

My design:

Harry:

Naomi:

Joe:

Sam:

Started Filming :)

Yesterday we started filming scenes for our film. We did the starting scene in which the audience can see Agnew preparing dinner and Monty walking - although his identity isn't yet revealed. We wanted to create a fast paced edit to create tension - like the scenes from "Hot Fuzz" & "Shaun Of The Dead"...

(Embedding disabled)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAGr4oOyOc0&feature=related

Our cooking scene looked a little similar to these shots:

Lecture On Visual Essay..

Today we had a lecture in which 3 students from 2nd year each did either moving image, animation or interactive spoke to us about the assignments they do in the 2nd year and what helped them decide make to take the pathway they did.

I found it really helpful as I was stuck between interactive & film (although I am yet to do interative this term I really enjoyed it in the first) but after today have decided I will be taking the interactive pathway.

They had the task to create a website for an existing business which I liked the sound of.

Now I know what pathway I am doing I can start my visual essay which will be in the form in html.

Also going to look at 2nd years interactive online journals.

Blogs of 2nd years from todays lecture:

Chris Allwood (interactive) - http://www.allwoodmultimedia.com/
Charlotte Cochrane (moving image) - http://charlottecochrane.blogspot.com/
Callum Whitehead (animation) - http://doodlesd0main-ca11um.blogspot.com/

Their blogs are all pretty amazing & work is really good standard. Not only do they do uni projects but also out of uni projects for clients.

:)

Colour & Light

Today in our seminar we did some work on lighting. We were told to create a dark atmosphere for an interview:

                                 

Film Update...

Our planning for film is coming on well :) hoping to film early next week.

Risk Assessment:

Also think we have one definate actor & a maybe which is good :)

Have a seminar today with Debs where we get get all our storyboard ideas put together & upload it.

:)

Visual Essay

Been starting my visual essay today, swaying towards the interactive pathway although really enjoy moving image at the minute.

Going to research into a few practitioners & then try and have some design idea for the layout of the essay.

Also some photos of the location for our film on the group bloggggg!

Reflective Practice..

Lecture with Simon as Jools wasn't there, pretty boring about reflecting on our work to have continous learnin & the habit, structure or route about examining experience.

We do this on about journals & through rehearsal.

Film Seminar

Today we had a seminar with Deb in which we did a little about storyboards and what one needs to have - shots used, what's happening in the shot, lighting, transition to next shot etc. We decided Jo will do our storyboard with input from rest of the group.

We then created a groupblog - http://herdsfilm.blogspot.com/
where we can all blog ideas / updates. We then made a plan of what needs to be done, when by and also props needed:

Pitching Our Idea

Today we pitched our idea for our short film "herds" to Phil & the rest of the group. We changed the script abit in which instead of Monty going in and eating a sandwich, we now have Agnow making a romantic dinner for his girlfriend - who is yet to arrive & Monty eats / drinks the food being prepared for her.

We are keeping our story interesting mainly by the character of Monty. We don't want to give too much away about him - is he mad, homeless, sick or rude? We want the audience to have their own interpretation of him.

Tomorrow we are planning our props, location etcccccc :)

My Haunted House Animation

Here is my video of my haunted house, which Andy helped me to render :) it's not great / finished but I will improve it for the presentation. Just wanted some evidence of my progress over the last 5 weeks in animation.

Rendering Animation

Today is the deadline to submit the animation work, I have completed my animation but my 3dsmax anaimtion won't render I have been trying for hours :( Going to try again tomorrow and upload to my blog.

Animation Evaluation.

For my first project of 2011 I started with animation. The brief was to create a haunted house with 3 scare scenes. We were told to think of a theme for the haunted house, I had the inital idea of either a halloween theme aimed at young children or a death/murder theme aimed towards an older audience - such as young adults. I decided on the halloween theme as scare scenes were easy to relate to this theme - pumpkins, witches, ghosts and skeletons. It could also be quite a fun / amusing ride as the audience was younger. There was the normal convention of the ride entrance having the sign entering the haunted house will say "Enter If You Dare.."

My main ideas and intentions that I was trying to express in the project were that the theme came across well, the name of "Trick Or Treat" related to the halloween theme. The scares such as the pumpkin tunnel, witches and skeletons in graveyard created the mood for a haunted house which also fit well into my theme, scary yet an amusing ride for young children.

The methods I used to develop my ideas can all me seen on my blog posts over the duration of the project. I created a 3d model with wire on a theatre plan of the waverley building to give me an insight of ideas for a track. I made a few moodboards of theme ideas which helped me decide which theme idea to have for my final idea. I created drawings of the cart, ride entrance and scare scenes. I made a storyboard for the ride - including entrance, scare scenes and exit. To develop my ideas I also looked on sites such as youtube at other ride animations & looked at previous haunted house rides (such as the Pasaje Del Terror in Blackpool) to help with ideas.

I took a risk by trying something new, most people in the group were doing quite a deathly theme and had more of an older audience. I thought the theme and audience was different to everyone else & although it may not seem as "scary" as some of my peers work, the young audience should be taken into consideration.

Some of the unexpected problems I had to solve while working were that I really found the software 3d max hard, some ideas I had - such as a sweet cart to go with the trick or treat title couldn't be done as I was unable to make the cart so had a basic square cart which looks no where need as good. The scare scenes were't as good as I had hoped, although I did really try to make them as effective as I could.

The decisions and choices I made to help solve these problems were that although sometimes I did feel like giving up as mine looked pretty poor compared to my peers, it wouldn't get me anywhere. When I had done the basics such as making the track and plan for the ride I went onto youtube to look at online tutorials. Some of them weren't the best but I did find a few good ones which can be seen on my blog which helped me to produce scenes such as my pumpkin.

The things I have learnt from this particular project were that research is important to produce a good product. Last term i also struggled with animation but throughly reasearched into female idents such as living tv so I had a good idea of what to produce - even if the end product wasn't brilliant the idea was there. I researched everything for this product from the cart to the music. Producing moodboards and storyboards helped me with specific ideas for my theme.

Areas for improvement , If I were to do this project again I would change or do differently would be to have a cart that fits my theme I would also really have liked my track to be more interesting / thrilling for the user. I am hoping to add music by the end of the term.

A new project that might grow out of my experience maybe not so much to do with 3d animationn but maybe whiteboard animation which we did in induction week of a haunted house or ride.

Updated Pumpkin..

Andy has just helped me with my pumpkin as I struggled to put him onto my track due to his mouth being higher up than my track. Also smoothed the edges off & added a stalk.

Short Film Example

Low budget short film we watched in todays seminar:

First Seminar For Film.. :)

Just had a seminar with Phil for moving image. We were put into our groups, given our roles & script.

6 People in my group

Harry: Producer
Joe: Director
Me: Assistant Director
Mark: Editor
Sam: Camera
Naomi: Sound & Lighting.


An assistant director (AD) is a person who helps the filmmaker in the making of a movie or television show. The duties of an AD include setting the shooting schedule, tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking the arrival of cast and crew, maintaining order on the set, rehearsing cast, and directing extras. Extended responsibilities may include taking care of health and safety of the crew. Historically the role of an assistant to the director (not the same as an Assistant director) was a stepping stone to directing work; Alfred Hitchcock was an AD, as was James McTeigue. This transition into film directing is no longer common in feature films, but remains an avenue for television work, particularly in Australia and Britain. It is more common now for ADs to transition to production management and producer roles than to directing. The role of AD has also expanded to become a separate technical profession.


We were given the script of "Herds."

1 EXT. DOORSTEP. NIGHT 1
TITLE: Herds
Knocking on the door MONTY skips from foot to foot
As AGNEW opens the door Monty slips past him, entering
MONTY
Bloody hell you took your time. It's a bit
quiet though better be early than be late,
never got into the fashionably late bullshit
did you?
AGNEW
Who are you here for?
MONTY
No reason we can't crack these open though is
there?
Monty holds the bag up and clinks the bottles together
2 INT. KITCHEN. NIGHT 2
Monty and Agnew sit at the table. They are drinking beer
MONTY
Not alot in the way of snacks at this party
AGNEW
Is there a party? Lads don't tell me
anything. Had work after lectures so...
MONTY
Where is everybody else?
2.
AGNEW
I'll text them now. Are you a mate of Johnny
then?
MONTY
Don't know Johnny
AGNEW
Billy's mate?
AGNEW
Never been friends with anyone called Billy.
On principle
AGNEW
Prior?
MONTY
Would love a sandwich. Love it. You got any
ham?
Monty crosses to the fridge/cupboard and spends the new few moments
making a sandwich
AGNEW
Do we know each other?
Monty crosses and shakes hands
MONTY
Monty
AGNEW
Agnew
Monty sits and eats his sandwich
AGNEW
Well I think someone's having you on Monty
MONTY
Having me on?
3.
AGNEW
Told you there's a party and sent you this
address
MONTY
You got any salad cream? I couldn't find any
AGNEW
But there isn't a party
MONTY
Or mustard?
AGNEW
And we don't know who you are
Monty sits and chews, and chews, and chews
3 EXT. DOORSTEP. NIGHT 3
Agnew holds the door open and Monty exits
4 EXT. STREET. NIGHT 4
Monty stares down the street. He is looking at houses
5 EXT. DOORSTEP. NIGHT 5
Monty knocks on the door. SHARPY opens it. Monty holds up his carrier
bag of beer
MONTY
Bloody hell you took your time
The END


The script is how we interpret Monty as a person, is he lonely, mad, sick, rude?

Rihanna (LLLLLLLLLL)

Rihanna at the brits, yummmmy!

Valentines Day & Film..

Happy Valentine's Day - ultimate waste of money & the only good thing about it is an excuse to go out for food!

Finished animation now, will render all on thursday with a bit of help from Andy & post to blog with evaluation of it.

I will now be starting film so had a look on the NOW at the brief..

Project title: "Interpretation"

Task: In your allocated group of five people and working in a specific production role you should plan, film and edit the short fiction script allocated to your group.

Roles to take are: Producer, director, camera & lighting, sound design and production and editor.

Other jobs and roles, not attached specifically to a major role in pre and post production should be divided amongst the group in an organised way. For example a location researcher, booking equipment, risk assessment, etc. The producer will need help to complete these tasks and should allocate the jobs in preproduction as appropriate.

At your the end of the module presentation: Submit the film (approximately 3 minutes max) on a data DVD format Pal format – H264 codec with dimensions HDTV 1080p, 25, High Quality (1920 x 1080, square pixels).

In your online journal: On a weekly schedule for the five-week duration you should each produce an entry that describes and
reflects on your specific role. Each entry should make explicit the research you have undertaken each week and what you have done towards your coursework during the week. You should include the preproduction research and paperwork you prepare as part of your role.

The reader at the end of the five week journal should be clear about the visual and conceptual influences for your piece, your reflections on your role and your ongoing reflections on the work as it progresses and
concludes.

In addition to these weekly ( minimum) entries you should also, at the end of the five week project insert a web link to your finished film work and a 500 word self-evaluation on the NOW module drop box. Deadlines for this link and entry are given in the module guide in the deadlines section.

There are 6 scripts to choose from for the film - ticket, dog, gaze, brick, herds and shift. When I am in a group and decided what script to do will post it on here

:)

Gagagaga

Lady GaGa's new song, Born This Way. Not sure on it but I now want to go & see her again! :( (LLL)

My Pumpkin :)

Coming along okish...

Second Class Mail

Andy showed me this in tutorial I was the only one who turned up :( aha. This animation is done by Alison Snowden who like myself also said "they can't draw." I think it's pretty good :)

Pumpkin Videos..

To hopefully help me later on. Look pretty complicated but better than nothing!

Convergence

I have siniusitis which is ultimate hell so going to doctors to get some antibiotics so won't be in for lecture today so looked at notes on the now.

Chambers dictionary definition of convergence:

- To move towards or meet at one point.
- Opinions that tend towards each other.

Animation Update..

Tuesday is my last seminar on animation haunted house. I have planned my cart - pumpkin shape although is hard to design on 3dsmax so may have to keep the basic square cart I have, Could perhaps have a sweet cart to go with the "trick or treat" theme. I have made a basic cart on 3dsmax which animates by moving along my track attached with a light & camera.

The scare scenes are a pumpkin in which the cart goes through his mouth on the track - his mouth moving up and down. A room with witches and sound effect of a cackle. The last scene is a graveyard in which arms come up from the grave. I need to do all these on tuesday which I am slightly worried about as it will be so complicated & I stuggle to draw a box on the software let a lone a pumpkin.

Will be pretty happy when animation is overrrrrrrr :)

Haunted House Storyboard

Had a seminar with Yelena & made a storyboard for my design:

worst person at drawing in the world.

Also had the idea to add an animating hand from the grave for a scare scene:

Pretty worried that I have all these halloween ideas & tuesday is the last animation lesson and I have to design and animate all my ideas on 3dsmax.

:(

Looking At Visual Essays..

Today i've been looking at visual essays from other students - which is my assignment 2.

Interactive Media Pathway: http://cdja.co.uk/web%20design/visual%20essay.htm

I like this one in which I will probably choose this pathway and they haven't stuck to powerpoint but done it in html which is what interative media will be doing. I like the layout & how the title "visual essay" on the homepage leads to introduction, conclusion etc. The colour theme is also kept the same throughout which looks proffesional. Videos and shots of websites are included on the website.

There were 2 virtual environment examples ( animation ) & although I have NO ITENTION whatsoever of doing this pathway I had a look at the way the essay had been designed.

One was a fairly simple basic powerpoint, I say simple it had a beasty 59 slide to read. I found it hard to understand the 3 practioners & to navigate it. Html layout looked a lot better.

My computer wouldn't let me open the other animation or film example so will do this when on uni computers.

I think I will do mine in a html layout & i'm 99% sure I will be choosing interactive media as my pathway. I'm dreading the essay a little as i'm much better at writing & expressing my opinion that way than through images & artists :( On the wrong course but not alot I can do about that now. Don't want to leave it all last minute dot com so will start on it very soooon

Future Husband

Currently watching p.s i love you, thought you'd like to see my future husband Gerald Butler. (LLLLLL)

Animation Lighting

Seminar about using light on 3dsmax.

Also made my cart I did want the pumpkin design & attempted many times to create one on 3dsmax but it didn't work so just stuck to a square cart. Also managed to animate it around the track.

Tried to add a camera to follow the cart but will continue with this next week which is the last week of animation in which I also have to add scare scenes and render. :(

Interactivity..

Had a lecture on interactivity for context with Jools today. We discussed it being a form of communication between an object & person e.g tv, radio, internet. It is a two way exchange. Also discussed user choice & user control & watched a 20 min video of Ted Talks which was quite interesting discussing how lots of choice in the modern world can now be seen as a negative thing & lead to more disappointment than if there was less choice.

Also watched this video:



Also some examples of visual essays are on the NOW so will have a look at them to get some idea of what I need to be doing.

Skins (L)

Skins series 5 starts tonight (L) I am watching so much rubbish on tv lately - Big fat gypsy wedding, sun sex and suspicious parents, waterloo road, also got brought misfits series 1 and 2 on dvd which I loveeeeeee.

So excited for skins the script is written by young people so can relate to the audience. Characters are also so strange and edgy.

Awhh Yehh :D

Got a B in my first assignment :D

Animation. Mardy. Depressed. Want To Quit Uni.

Yesterday we had a seminar on materials & textures ( can be seen in previous post ) but I got so wrapped up in doing that & trying to do it right I didnt even get started on my haunted house :( so now i'm feeling more behind than ever. I've done the track & plan and that's it. I went in to uni today to do some but I just find it so hard to use the software I ended up doing pretty much nothing.

I have 2 weeks left in animation, the last week will be mostly rendering & adding sound so next week is pretty much it.

Big fat fail.


:(

Assignment Number 2..

The deadline for this isn't until 27th may but i'm going to start it now & hopefully find stuff that will help me produce it.

Title: I am choosing my Pathway because…?

Background: Towards the end of Term Three you will be expected to choose from one of the following pathways as your course of study throughout Level Two.

Those pathways are:
Moving Image Pathway
Interactive Media Pathway
Virtual Environments Pathway

Task: Produce a visual essay that outlines and describes your pathway choice for Level Two. This explanation and description is your thesis.

Your essay should identify and discuss three pathway practitioners.
One of these practitioners must have been identified on the Multimedia
Field trip. You need to make the relevance of these practitioners to
your thesis explicit. Remember your task in identifying; describing and
examining the work of these practitioners is to reflect on your own
work and your pathway choice.

Why have you chosen these practitioners to discuss above all others?
Pay particular reference to particular concepts or ideas that these
practitioners or their work espouses.

I'm unsure what pathway I am yet to choose, either film or interactive! Hopefully over the next few months when I have the task for each one I will be able to decide :)

3d Textures

Right now we are learning about textures & material editor on 3dsmax. I have started with a simple box in which I have changed the texture to bricks.

Also created this window imaged box:

I Hate The Feeling..

Of dread :( which is what i'm feeling right now as I have animation later & I feel so behind & like my design is so so bad.

Tomorrow is my day off & i'm going to look at the other tasks for the other pathways on the NOW to have a good idea of what i'll be doing when I finish animation.

I also need to look at year 2 and 3 blogs to look what work they do for film / interactive.

Narrative

Data Vs Information.

Data: Often viewed as lowest form of abstraction from which information and knowledge is derived.

Information: related to notions of constraint, communication, control, data, form, instruction, knowledge, meaning, mental stimulas, pattern, perception & representation.

How is data turned into information & then this turned into knowledge?!

Narrative Vs Authenticity.

Who am I ( autobiographical )

Who are we ( organizational )

Future stories ( visionary )

- don't arrive at question "who am I?" - continue living it.
- narrative is who we wish to be.
- culture values.
 - conditioned thoughts.
- who are you writing it for.

Task For Jools...

In preparation for Monday's Threshold Concept:Narrative Lecture I want you all to find a website for a company/organisation. From examining that website describe the type of brand that site represents.

I want you to define a brand as "something that company/organisation offers that that company/organisation would to be seen as making them distinctive from other similar companies/organisations."

The website can be for any type or organisation. A water company, a sporting gear company, a political party, anything really that is represented through a website.

After choosing your website/company you need to find three elements from the site that demonstrate how you came to your brand description.

Bring your notes and the url into the lecture. be prepared to discuss your choice and reasonings.

http://www.apple.com/uk/

Apple is a well know brand for products such as computers, laptops, ipods and phones. The website makes them distinctive from other brands that do these sort of products such as Windows, Sony, Nokia and Dell because the layout and navigation of the website is visually inspiring- already giving it advantage to it's competitors. Colour scheme is kept to a minimum - grey and white which adds to the feel of class. The constant show on the website of the apple logo shows proffesionalism.

FINALLY PASSED MY DRIVING TEST

14th attempt, so happpppy :D