So it’s summer…

Thought I may leave a post on here to see if anyone actually bothers reading it!

Anyway.. summer so far hasn’t been the most fun (haven’t been on holiday) but probably my most productive. I have learnt a lot of web-design based things and am in the process of completing my portfolio page!

I have focused my learning on xHTML, CSS and PHP whilst also trying to intergrate CMS including wordpress and also learning some fancy tricks with jQuery!

As well as this I have joined a fantastic web-community for UK based designers/developers.. it can be found at: http://www.webdesignerforum.co.uk/

Other that, just the normal going out.. and working (which I am soo bored of!) I cannot wait to get back to Uni!

Anyway I shall be moving to a new blog soon on my web-site, which I will update more often, but will also include out of uni blog posts.. however all posts will be correctly tagged so will be able to find my uni posts easilly! (not that you would want to probably)

Summer Project

Summer Project – Isle of You

I’ll be honest with this, I was quite pessimistic about this idea. The rest of the group (a great bunch by the way), seemed to like this idea straight from the start, so I followed with the group doing my best to improve the idea.
Our idea, the Isle of You, is to help promote positivity as we feel that there is a lot of negativity surrounding the world at the moment.
I have been working hard to create the website, for which I have had to increase my knowledge of PHP and learn MySql. It is quite tough, but I want to learn as much as possible whilst doing this.

Blogging underway again!

A Progress Report

OK, my laptop has been broken for a good while now, but I have finally got it back and working!
So it’s time to work on this blog a bit now!

Audience project is now complete! I am a bit disappointed with my final mark but it was still a high-ish mark. My final project was FlashTube, an interactive version of Youtube. I had several interactive video clips, with sound included. The main website was a flash desktop, with various links to parts of the website using desktop icons which could be dragged around.
I am hopeful for my essay as I feel it was quite a good essay, however I felt I had to put a lot more effort into it, by reading more books as lectures weren’t particularly useful for this essay.

Audience Research

Audience Group 1 – Professionals
Honda: The Power of Dreams :: www.iwantmyflashtv.com

I consider this to be among the audience of professionals as the artistic quality and narrative idea is of a strong quality. It wasn’t designed for entertainment as such, but rather as an art form. The animations are smooth and somewhat realistic, with more emphasis put on creating a realistic animation than on dialogue or entertainment.

Audience Group 2 – Adults
Sun in the Night Time :: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/A30475820

Similar to the professional group, but this story has a serious narrative. The drawings still look slightly realistic but are 2D and less emphasis has been put on the realism of the piece. However unlike the “Power of Dreams”, the story is the most important part of this animation. It is too serious for young adults and teens to appreciate fully.

Audience Group 3 – Young Adults
Burnt Face Man :: http://www.burntfaceman.com/8.htm

This animation is cartoon drawing, which is not meant to look realistic. The colours are bold and are in blocks of colours. The animation isn’t as realistic as those in the animation above. The purpose of this animation if for humour and entertainment, however the language used and the violence would put it as young adult rather then teen.

Audience Group 4 – Teens
Gerbil Cider Bounce :: http://joecartoon.atom.com/cartoons/958-gerbil_cider_bounce

Very similar to the Young Adults group, this animation is not realistic either. However there are elements of realism, such as the cause and effect of the gerbil jumping. The remit for this animation is also to be humorous and to entertain; the language and actions are of a comical nature, which appeal to the teen audience group.

Audience’s Project

Initial Ideas

Stick Tube:
My first idea for this project was to create a selection of “Youtube Hits” in stick men form. My first thoughts about ideas for the flash videos was to recreate the “Evolution of Dance” video, “Charlie Bit my Finger” video and the “‘Torn’ Mime” Video.
The website layout would be similar to the Youtube website, but instead of block colours and the web 2.0 gradient look to have a freehand/scribble look to the page, where the lines are not all straight and perfect.

This is my life:
An animation based on a fictional person’s life, where it starts with the red book from “This is your life”, then zooming into the book to reveal the animation of the person’s life from the first time they open their eyes to the last… with different landmarks throughout the animation.

So far I am more inclined to go with StickTube as it sounds more fun to do, and more original.

Final Production – Cinderella :: A Modern Tale

Click link below to go play it!

Clicky!

Once upon a time…

Once upon a time, in a bedroom not too far away…
Uhhhhhhhhhh! Starting to hate this narrative project, not only was I slightly disappointed with how our final project compared to some of the others project but now I am having trouble with the essay! I cannot think of anything to write! Whenever I try to write something I then feel like it doesn’t relate at all in the slightest and start arguing with myself about it! I can’t even write a decent introduction! Ahhhhhhhhhh! As well as this all my friends back home facebook status’ are “It’s snooooowing yay”.. In bournemouth — no snow
Last time I looked at my clock it was about midday it’s now 5pm! I have only done about 300 words in that time! Wanted to be finished by today! I think I may have written more on here then in my essay… oops!