Identities Progress

I know it's been a while since my last post, sorry about that. I've been working so hard I've not really had the chance to write (rubbish excuse I know). My project is coming along really well, I've finished my brochure and web banner, pretty good even if I do say so myself. The website was a different matter. I've had to teach myself the whole of Dreamweaver, but finally I've managed to grasp the basics and a bit more. I didn't realise how much there was to learn so it has taken me a lot longer than expected, so i'm a bit off schedule, but thanks to my brain and my books I've nearly finished my website. It's not too exciting but I find it's really annoying when you see a website with too much animation covering nearly the whole page. Its simple to navigate your way around, but I need to get some more pics for it so I'm on a mission tomorrow to get out and about with my camera. I'll be back soon to tell you how its coming along.

Identities Progress

I know I should be writing more often, sorry about that. I've finished my web banner, finally after making loads of different versions and experimenting with different techniques in Flash. Ah well, at least I've decided on my final banner now. Theres only basic information in it as there is no one out there who wants to sit and read piles of information on a web banner when it pops up on a page they're already looking at. But although it's simple I think it's quite effective. I think keeping my web banner, brochure and website simple looking, makes people look more carefully at the content as they're not bombarded with animation and pictures gallore.

Identities Progress

I've finished my brochure! Its looking pretty snazzy. I've kept it pretty simple because there's quite a lot of information that I feel is important to include, such as, the modules and options on the whole of the course, the entry information, and of course a brief summary of what Multimedia actually is (as I've found out through experience that not many people know what the course actually is).

Identities Progress

My project is coming along, slowly, but at least it is progressing. I've collected all my information which I actually thought would take me less time than it actually did. I'm so glad I chose the option of the Multimedia course because I'm now a lot clearer on what I'm going to be doing for the next two years, so not only have I found out loads of information for my project but it's actually helped me too.

Website Usability Seminar

Evaluation of www.playmonday.com

Use of text equivalents rubbish
Ability to use site without plugins rubbish
Abiltity to use the site with just a keyboard rubbish
Colour combinations used on the site could be worse
Colour contrast of the site could be worse
Ability to apply user settings to the site could be worse but not by much

Evaluation of www.Vodafone.co.uk

Use of text equivalents quite good
Ability to use site without plugins alright
Abiltity to use the site with just a keyboard good
Colour combinations used on the site could be worse
Colour contrast of the site n/a
Ability to apply user settings to the site could be worse

Evaluation of www.ntu.ac.uk

Use of text equivalents pretty good
Ability to use site without plugins pretty good
Abiltity to use the site with just a keyboard not too bad
Colour combinations used on the site could be worse
Colour contrast of the site n/a
Ability to apply user settings to the site very good

Evaluation of www.hotmail.com

Use of text equivalents ok
Ability to use site without plugins not too bad
Abiltity to use the site with just a keyboard not too bad
Colour combinations used on the site not good
Colour contrast of the site n/a
Ability to apply user settings to the site a bit crap

Feedback from Design Board Presentation

MM brochure, website, web banner
Prospective students identified as target audience
Resources sources listed and why used
Brochure mock-up
Banner on other sites for cross-promotional purposes
Website mock-up would have been good for layout, colour and navigation purposes

Identities Progress

Last week was I did my design board presentation, I was suprised how well it went. I was really worried about it but now it's out of the way i can start getting on with creating my package. This week I have been looking at dreamweaver and flash tutorials to try and develop my skills in these programs further. I think the website I am creating will be my biggest challenge as my talents in dreamweaver are limited, but I feel this will make the project more interesting as I will be learning as I go. This weekend and next week I will start to create my web banner and finalise my designs for the package. The design is basically finalised for the website which i the main part of my project but I need to apply these designs to the brochure and web banner, this should be relatively simple but I must check that it will work in all media before I start creating my products.

Identities Project Time plan

Week beginning/ Mon/ Tues/ Wed/ Thurs/ Fri/ Sat & Sun
12-02/ Research Dreamweaver Techniques/ Research Dreamweaver Techniques/ Research Dreamweaver Techniques/ Research Flash Techniques/ Research Flash Techniques/ Research Flash Techniques
19-02/ Further develop web banner/ Further develop web banner/ Further develop web banner/ Finalise web banner design/
Create Web Banner/ Create Web Banner
26-02/ Create Web Banner/ Create Web Banner/ Create Web Banner/ De-Bug/ De-Bug/ Finalise brochure design
05-03/ Finalise brochure design/ Create Brochure/ Create Brochure/ Create Brochure/ Get brochure printed/ Further develop website
12-03/ Further develop website/ Further develop website/ Further develop website/ Finalise website design/ Double check all information/ Back to Newcastle
19-03/ Create Home Page/ Create Home Page/ Create Home Page/ Create Home Page/ Create Home Page/ Entry Req page
26-03/ Entry Req page/ Entry Req page/ Module info page/ Module info page/ Module info page/ Link pages together
02-04/ Year one modulespage/ Year one modules page/ Year two modules page/ Year two modules page/ Year three modules page/ Easter wknd
09-04/ Application page/ Application page/ Application page/ Students work page/ Students work page/ Back to Nottingham
16-04/ Day off/ Students work page/ Students work page/ Students work page/ Students work page/ Check links
23-04/ De-bug/ De-bug/ De-bug/ De-bug/ De-bug/ Day off
30-04/ De-bug/ Plan Presentation/ Create Presentation/ Create Presentation/ Create Presentation/ Day off
07-05/ Finalise Presentation/ Final de-bug web banner/ Final de-bug website/ DEADLINE Package/ Rehearse Presentation/ Rehearse Presentation
14-05/ DEADLINE Presentation/ Day off/ Plan report/ Plan report/ Write report/ Write report
21-05/ Write report/ Write report/ Write report/ Write report/ Write report/
Day off
28-05/ Proof reading/ Corrections/ Corrections/ DEADLINE Final Report

Live performance

For anyone who reads this, me and my group will be staging a protest outside Green's Mill, Windmill Lane, Sneinton, Monday 29/01/07 from 11am. Anyone is welcome to come along and watch us in action or even join in!!

hi ho, hi ho, it's back to work we go...

Right, I've got two projects on at the minute, the main one being Identities, the other a factual exercise. In the main project I've decided to use the multimedia course option. I will create corporate logo to base my website and advertising material around. I will start by researching what available information there is about the multimedia course at Nottingham Trent at the minute and also check out the competition from other universities. I will then research website and advertising design, I will also have to use software tutorials to enhance my skills in Dreamweaver as they are quite basic at this point in time. During the next couple of days I will devise a timeplan to help me keep on track with this project as I learnt this is very important from my last project. The second project is going to be slightly challenging as I'm not really sure what we (my group of 5) are going to do, first we have to start by researching George Green who we have already found out was a mathematician and physicist in the 1700s. We then have to create a 'sight specific performance event', of which, live art must be at the core. We can use any medium, and we have to make some money, whether it be 50p or £500. This is difficult as we do not yet have any clue what to do.

International Space Centre Trip

Questionnaire

Choose an interactive display that you found exciting and engaging at the Space Centre - I liked a game called 'Do You React Fast Enough'

Describe the elements in the display and say why you found it exciting and engaging - The display included a series of large buttons that light up in random sequence and the user has to hit the buttons before the light goes off, this makes the user excited as it is a game they can win.

How successful were these interactive multimedia elements? - I thought the interactive elements were very successful as the buttons were large and the game is suitable for all ages as there are two different levels to play the game at, i.e. easy and hard. the only downside is that some buttons were quite high up and it may be hard for small children to reach these and that would lead to them losing the game which isn't really fair as it is mainly designed for children.

Now choose an interactive display that you find is not engaging at the space centre. Why do you think it does not work? How would you improve it? 'Satelite Navigator Assistant' was not very engaging as there was not many options to choose from and this was quite frustrating. It was also not very clear what was actually happening and if I can't understand it then what chance has a primary school child got...? I would have made the screen look less busy and crowded by enlarging the key text. I also would have simplified the language used to explain the options and the consequences of the choices made.

I really enjoyed the Space Centre, most of the exhibitions were aimed at a much younger audience but it was still fun to explore. The best part of the trip was seeing the film 'Astronaut', the effects used in this film were amazing and at many points you were dizzy because you actually felt as if you were travelling through space. I think cinemas would be a lot more exciting if they used a dome ceiling as a screen and created the same effect.

Narratives Stage 4 Report

Highlight the skills and knowledge you have gained and developed and show how you have gained them. Provide suggestions for improvement and how these attributes will inform your study in future modules this year.


In this project we were asked to create a two-minute film. The brief was divided into four stages to help us break the project down; the first three stages required us to work as part of a group. In this report I will reflect on my learning and development during this module highlighting the skills and knowledge I have gained. The first stage was to come up with a brief outline of our film, and we worked well as a team to develop a basic storyline and decide the genre and intended effect on the audience. We decided to produce a film with a basic but humorous storyline, with some surreal aspects. Our seminars and lectures about narratives helped us largely with the structure for the film as we learnt about basic storylines (i.e. man on quest, girl meets boy, etc.) and this gave us a frame to work around. The film would be made up of a series of still images and text slides, we decided this would be easier to complete than a motion picture as none of us had any real editing experience. When we thought about this later we were sure it would not challenge us enough so we came up with the idea of using computer graphics as backgrounds, and this would make the film more original as well.

Once we had completed the first stage we moved onto the next, which was to produce a ten-minute presentation. We divided up the tasks that needed to be completed before putting this presentation together. One of the tasks, which had to be done straight away, was writing the script, this was important, as it would enable another member of the group to put together a storyboard for us to present. Another main job was research as that would help us throughout the project, and it would back up our ideas for the film in the presentation. This research made us realise that the most efficient way to do our photography would be with a blue screen, as we did not need the backgrounds. This presentation was our first major task as a group and it was quite difficult. As we did not know each other before this project it was hard at first to realise how different people work in different ways. After our presentation I felt we were more of a team, as we had to work together for this.

In future presentations I will learn from the mistakes we made and use the skills I have picked up. This will include more preparation, such as, extra rehearsal time as this will make the presentation look professional through added confidence and knowledge of the material I am presenting. In this presentation we should have rehearsed in the room we would be presenting in so we would have known what equipment is available and been able to check it all worked, for example our sound file that was attached to the presentation would not play but if we had known this earlier we could have either fixed the problem or taken the sound file out. From the feedback we received after the presentation we realised that it may have been a good idea to theme out presentation to make it more suited to what we were presenting and this will be a key factor for any future presentations.

I devised a detailed time plan for the for the next stage of the project, this broke the time down day by day giving tasks to each individual member of the group. By this time we had hoped for completed storyboards so we could get straight into the photography stage but unfortunately this was not the case so in the time plan I gave an extra week for this to be finished, the other group members and myself carried out some more detailed research, I created some sample text slides to show the group and Ian created some simple backgrounds for us to get an idea of how each scene would work, I felt it was important that this extra week was not wasted by waiting for someone else to do something and that we should all do something constructive.

In the second week we had booked out the TV studio in order to use the blue screen, so everything asked to be done had to be done by this day. As we had looked at the blue screen earlier we knew that it was not big enough for a full length photograph and we had ideas on how to deal with this by certain camera angles and poses. When we came set up the lights we realised that none of us had any lighting experience and the research had not been done, because of this there were too many shadows on the blue screen which made the use of it pointless when it came to cutting out the backgrounds of the photos later on in Photoshop. Now we have had seminars on lighting we know for the future how to set them up properly to avoid this happening again. We knew that none of us had much photography experience and because of this we had decided to use a simple digital camera that we would all be able to use, because of this we were all able to have a go at the photography. We worked from the storyboards to take the photographs but unfortunately two of the five scenes were still missing so for the last two scenes we had to work straight from the script which was much more difficult. At this stage we should have taken the job of storyboarding away from that particular person and passed it on to another group member as they had now missed many deadlines for the work to be done by, if we had done this we would not have been delayed in later parts of the project, this is a tactic that I plan to use in future group work.

Once we had all of the photos I took them into Adobe Photoshop in order to resize them to the standard PAL format and to cut out the background from each photograph leaving just the main character(s). As I knew that I would be carrying out this task I had done some research into ‘batch jobs’ (www.sitepoint.com/article/file-processes-photoshop). I found out that by creating a batch job I would make my life much easier as once I had done one photo, it would copy what I had done and apply it to all the rest. This sounded too good to be true and unfortunately it was. Due to the amount of shadows that matched the dark colours on the character, and the small blue screen that we had in the photos each photo had to be cut out individually. This was highly time consuming and frustrating.

Ian had done a great job producing the backgrounds for each scene, but was let down at the last minute when another group member was unable to produce their share of the work, this took valuable time away from the editing part of the project and meant we were unable to do a viewing of the film, which we had planned to do in the final week, which would have given us valuable feedback before the final deadline of the project. We used Photoshop to insert the photographs of the characters into the backgrounds, but again this was hard to do without the storyboards and therefore took longer than originally planned. When we finally started putting the photos and text-slides together in Adobe Premiere it was Tuesday of the final week, two days before the deadline, this left us little room for manoeuvre. This was also made even more difficult as our audio was not produced until Tuesday night. We learnt our editing skills. We had to rush our editing and therefore the final film was not as good as it could have been had other members of the group managed their time better.
In this project I found myself in an organisational role which I did not know I was capable of, I did however find that because of this I was the one who was left feeling responsible for the entire project and this could be quite stressful at times. I feel that in future projects a lot more research is needed than was done as we did not have the technical skills needed for certain parts of the project such as the lighting and editing, if we had researched thoroughly we would not have encountered as many problems as we did. Through my research I have learnt to use software, which was necessary in this project, from Adobe Premiere, which I have not used before, to Adobe Photoshop, which I have learnt to use to a higher standard. I also carried out some basic research of SDK Hammer so that I would have a clearer understanding of what other group members would be doing and I found this very interesting to learn about.
I now know that time management is extremely important, so creating a time-plan is no good unless you stick to it. It is also important to make group meetings more formal, by taking minutes for example, as this gives everyone a clearer understanding of what has been discussed and what needs to be done and by when. In this project the most important thing I have learnt that it is important to choose your team members carefully as this is the foundation of any project when you are required to work as a team. In this project I quickly realised that each group member had varying levels of skills and commitment, which made it difficult to assign equal amounts of work to each person. In future, when choosing a group to work with I will be looking for people with skills and attributes suited to the project, and also people who are highly motivated to complete the task in hand to a high standard.
Overall I think there are many areas for improvement in this project. On the final film the quality of the sound editing is not very good as it was rushed and we did not research this thoroughly enough. Towards the end of the project many group members lost their motivation and this hindered the outcome of the project, in future I would try to find this out early and what caused it and the we could work as a group to keep team spirit up. I enjoyed this experience and I feel I have learnt some invaluable skills for the future, both at university and in my career.

Bibliography

Adobe Photoshop Batch Jobs Tutorial
www.sitepoint.com/article/file-processes-photoshop
SDK Hammer – Getting Started
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Getting_Started

Useful Lectures
Narrative 1 (Jools Ayodeji, Week 11, 13th October 2006) https://elearn.ntu.ac.uk/mle/system/learningroom/moduleview.asp?folder=true&href=https://elearn.ntu.ac.uk/07VLP/2005%20Modules/Level%201/MMPR10107_0/notes/&modulecode=MMPR10107&modulename=Narratives
Narrative 1 (Jools Ayodeji, Week 12, 20th October 2006) https://elearn.ntu.ac.uk/mle/system/learningroom/moduleview.asp?folder=true&href=https://elearn.ntu.ac.uk/07VLP/2005%20Modules/Level%201/MMPR10107_0/notes/&modulecode=MMPR10107&modulename=Narratives
Video Editing (Danny Kaye, Week 15, 10th November 2006) https://elearn.ntu.ac.uk/mle/system/learningroom/moduleview.asp?folder=true&href=https://elearn.ntu.ac.uk/07VLP/2005%20Modules/Level%201/MMPR10107_0/notes/&modulecode=MMPR10107&modulename=Narratives

Useful Seminars
Narrative_2_seminar.doc
https://elearn.ntu.ac.uk/mle/system/learningroom/moduleview.asp?folder=true&href=https://elearn.ntu.ac.uk/07VLP/2005%20Modules/Level%201/MMPR10107_0/seminars/&modulecode=MMPR10107&modulename=Narratives
Video Editing (Danny Kaye, Week 16, 16th November 2006)
Lighting (Danny Kaye and Deborah Tuck, Week 17, 23rd November 2006)

Interactive Narrative

As I have never used Javascript before I found this project quite challenging. After taking the photos we had to resize them all in Photoshop, I found this quite simple as I have used Photoshop a lot for previous projects and at college. Once I had my photos I had to link them together, we had been shown how to do this in an earlier seminar but for the life of me I couldn't remember what to do. With the help of a fellow student I was able to link them in a basic way. I then decided it would be more interesting for the user to be able to link to more places from on page so I started to create more 'hotspots', this made the narrative more interactive. After this I realised that I could have taken more photos and this would have made it even more interactive. I tried adding rollover text but this never seemed to work properly as I could not get the script right so I eventually gave up on this idea. I am happy with my interactive narrative even though I know now I could have done more with it.
The project was a good learning experience and I hope to become better at javascript through the course as I find it challenging but still interesting and you can create some really amazing stuff when you know how to use it properly.

narratives project

Heres a picture of Mr Pickles in our film

narratives project

The narratives project is still going really well, we did our first photoshoot on wednesday night and thanks to us all working together we managed to get the photos finished in this session and did not have to use our second session in the TV studio. Thanks to this I was able to get straight on with the 'photoshopping' of the photos. I had to delete all the backgrounds in each photo which I had planned to do by using the 'batch job' setting, unfortunately due to shadows and changing camera angles I couldn't do this and had to work on each photo separately which took a lot longer than I originally thought. I have now completed all the photos and the text slides and this will allow the editing to start. Firstly all the photos will have to be inserted into the backgrounds that have been created in SDK Hammer. I can't wait to see how this looks when they are all put together.

narratives project

The narratives project is still going really well, we did our first photoshoot on wednesday night and thanks to us all working together we managed to get the photos finished in this session and did not have to use our second session in the TV studio. Thanks to this I was able to get straight on with the 'photoshopping' of the photos. I had to delete all the backgrounds in each photo which I had planned to do by using the 'batch job' setting, unfortunately due to shadows and changing camera angles I couldn't do this and had to work on each photo separately which took a lot longer than I originally thought. I have now completed all the photos and the text slides and this will allow the editing to start. Firstly all the photos will have to be inserted into the backgrounds that have been created in SDK Hammer. I can't wait to see how this looks when they are all put together.

Explanation

Sophie P and me found this amusing video of boxing ballpoint pens on youtube and thought it would be fun to make a reply. We first created our video using Sophie's own mini DV camera, unfortunately this made our film in 'asf' format and we were not able to find the software to either view the film properly or convert this to a format suitable for us to post on youtube. Due to this problem we created another 30 second film. The second version we shot was slightly different to our original idea. Our first film focused on the 'mating rituals' of bluetack beings we had made to stick on top of the pens, this developed to the bluetack beings just being stuck on pen-lids, and in the end the pens had nothing to do with the film, which in turn meant our reply to the youtube video had nothing to do with the original film. With the second film we decided to just use plain pens and have them chatting about the original youtube video we were making the reply to, through this they end up arguing and fighting. This version has a lot more to do with the original youtube video so we thought this would be a more appropriate reply. I enjoyed making this film, and working with Sophie P made it easier as we could work out the problems we came across together. I have learnt a lot from this experience, about the cameras we used and the computer side of things too.

original youtube video

my reply to a youtube film

narratives project

At the moment we are doing well with our narratives project. We've got a good plan of action, with a well divided time plan, explaining day to day what each person of the group has got to do. We are goin to take our photographs this week with a blue screen, its all pretty exciting really. We're meeting tomorrow to discuss what everyone has done in the past week and to check that everyone is keeping on track with the timeplan. My part of the project is coming along nicely, I've completed my research and through this I've found some useful tutorials for photoshop and SDK. I've also been creating some text slides to show the group tomorrow and with their go-ahead I'll pick which design to go with and create the rest. As we do not need to wait for the photos to be done before we complete these slides we can get slightly ahead, and by doing this early on we are saving valuable editing time later on in the project.