The journal of an MDFcow

Client Project Designs

2011-01-23T10:33:00.001-08:00

Finished!

2010-03-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

All finially handed in and i'm off home for the easter!

Post Its!

2010-03-25T15:58:00.000-07:00

Right, originally wanted the comments to be posted onto separate post its which layered over each other but as ive been worrying about everthing else to do with this site havnt had time to try and implement this so it has ended up as two rows of five postits, which looks better than nothing!

The dreaded PHP DONE!

2010-03-22T16:08:00.000-07:00

All my PHP, finally done and dusted! not exactly flashy but it took long enough to do all that! woop!

Change of scenery!

2010-03-20T16:10:00.000-07:00

Had a bit of a change of mind and decided i didnt like how dark the previous background made the whole website feel so decided to change it for a lighter, but still quite scruffy and a little bit grungy looking. Think it looks a lot better now, and Adam seems to like it far better so by far worth it!

Another bit of Flash!

2010-03-15T16:24:00.000-07:00

Just about finished my first big bit of Flash work, I have made the main viewer for Adams work. On the main page when the user hovers over each project name it fades a few bits of work from the project. Then in each project, clicking on the pictures fades it into the main frame. Think it looks quite good. Quite simple in what it does, but it took me a long time to actually get it all working. Just kept on buggering up all the time for no reason. Oh well, only couple of bits on it left to do!

Last of the Flash!

2010-03-14T16:31:00.000-07:00

Just finished my last Flash element of Adams website! Ended up making a part for his about me section.When you hover over each red word, pictures form each different element fade into the page. Then when the user takes the mouse off the word the pictures fade out and the ones for the next word hovered over start to fade in.

Pretty happy with this and Adam likes it too. Now just for the PHP! gonna be fun.

Done a little bit of Flash!

2010-03-05T16:16:00.000-08:00

Done a couple of little bits of flash. Figured if I did two small bits and two big bits that should make up three proper Flash elements. The card pinned to the top left will be in the corner of every flash active page and flickers every so often, just to draw attention to it.The other is the main contact card in the middle which is based on Adam's actual business card. When someone goes onto the contact page, the card bounces in from the right hand side.

Finished design of artists site!

2010-03-01T15:06:00.000-08:00

Finished the design now, decided to go with a grungy background to match the feel of the paper. Also gone with quite a rough font for the main buttons to match this feel. Thinking it looks quite good, now just getting it to a working website! woop.

Artists Website

2010-02-25T14:54:00.000-08:00

Decided to make the main center page a bit more interesting by merging this tattered background into it. Iv'e also faded some coffee stains and splatters into it as well to make it look worn and tattered, think it looks better?

Artists Website

2010-02-22T13:08:00.000-08:00

I have made Adam's business card on photoshop to use in different parts of the site

Artists Website

2010-02-20T12:58:00.000-08:00

Started to design Adams website, a couple of pics here of how its looking:

Artists Website Update

2010-02-16T18:45:00.000-08:00

I have decided to create a website for my house mate Adam Walden who is a Graphic design student at Nottingham Trent in his 3rd year. He is looking for a website to promote some of the work he has been doing over the past few years and hopefully i will be able to make a good one for him.

Cool banner ads!

2010-02-12T07:18:00.000-08:00

http://www.bannerblog.com.au/2010/02/bmx.php
http://www.bannerblog.com.au/2010/01/infiniti_starplay.php
http://www.bannerblog.com.au/2010/01/best_buy_geek_squad.php
http://www.bannerblog.com.au/2009/11/apple_ipod_next_level_fun.php
http://www.bannerblog.com.au/2009/10/smart_maps.php
http://www.partyacrosstheinternet.com/ralph.html
http://www.bannerblog.com.au/2009/06/kelloggs_allbran.php

Rockatee:

2010-02-05T02:23:00.000-08:00

This is the website 'Rockatee' created by Maleika Esther Attawel, a freelance web designer living in Germany.

http://www.rockatee.com/portfolio/

Good:

The home page is very striking and extremly well designed, using a few different over lapping elements included in the header and main body. Yet the colour still isn't over powering
The RSS feed at the bottom of the page oviously keeps the user up to date with the most recent blog entries.
Simple to use navigation, with some more important parts made into giant buttons to make it even easier to get to.
Fills the screen nicely, even with such a big screen as background isn't one solid bit of colour, it intesad has a nice slight pattern to it.
The about page is well done, as it helps you to get the know what they are like in a simple, and fairly quick way.
The portfolio page is well layed out and easy to use.

Bad:

On the home page and the Portfolio page, smack bang in the middle of everything is a big picture of her latest project, which is a bit distracting, and doesn't quite fit with the rest of the site design.
The RSS feed is at the bottom of every page, even the blog page, which has the exact same things on. Also, i think it is a bit too much having the last 4 posts as it is quite a lot of text in a mainly image run site.
Can't view full websites from her portfolio page.
All of the pages match with second header and overlapping boxes apart from blog page.

Things I would take away from it:

The use of colours, not just using 2 bright colours, instead use a range of flatter colours.
Use a set of subtle repeating backgrounds, draws you in no matter what screen size.

Another re-work of Jugglers!

2010-02-04T21:43:00.001-08:00

I know I havn't really posted much about this re-work but here it is, not 100% done yet but it's almost there! I have to say, I MUCH prefer this one to the previous! Pretty sire everyone else can see why too!

Jugglers re-work

2010-01-25T16:55:00.000-08:00

This is where i first started to go with my re-work, instead of making the entire background juggling balls, I just made it a strip, so it's not entirely full on colour.

I wanted to create a different navigation for part of the site, so wanted the user to have to hover over a juggling ball and on each different segment it changes what it says for each product etc.

I then decided that I would combine the two ideas but when I put the juggling balls as the background with the original colours it didn't look very good, or right, especially because of the such dark background. This is why I decided to completely re-do it with new darker colours and personally I prefer it.

Thinking that it wouldn't look right putting pictures and text directly over the juggling balls I decided to create a box and partly opaque background for it.

Jugginling Website

2010-01-22T05:24:00.000-08:00

This is a picture from a Juggling website called oddballs:

http://www.oddballs.co.uk/?gclid=CJmaopSHuJ8CFReY2AodKjtw0Q

For part of the website they have a series of looping clips in which people are demonstrating the different products the shop has to offer, they are also links to the pages where they can buy the products by clicking on the videos.

I think this is quite an interesting idea, as it makes the site a lot more interesting to look at and draws you in. I intend to try and use something similar in my website.

Bit of a change in Direction

2010-01-22T05:05:00.000-08:00

After finding out my results for first term and having a chat with Shaun I have decided to change my plans for the Jugglers website which I am currently making.
This is where i have got with it so far:

Seeing as it it getting a wee bit boring, I have decided to try and remake it a bit different, maybe still using this in part of it.

2 Week Website Project

2010-01-18T12:48:00.000-08:00

As we have to create a website for an existing shop near by, my first thoughts were for a skate shop in Nottingham called Non - stop, especially as they have a really badly laid out website. Some of the parts f the website are very technical, but visually it's a bit crappy. Also, there are a hell of a lot of things that they sell at that shop, so it would take quite a long time to make.

href="http://www.nonstopsportuk.com">/

I have therefore settled on the shop Jugglers in the lace market.

This is their current website which is currently under production by a local Nottingham company.

href="http://www.jugglersonline.com/">

I've started on some wireframes and will post them when I've picked one and started plumping it out.

Non web designer 3

2010-01-14T19:01:00.000-08:00

Tim Burton
I'm not entirely sure if Time Burton counts as a designer or not, but I have chosen to do him anyway. Ever since a young age I have loved The Nightmare Before Christmas... I know... but how the whole thing looks is absolutely amazing! Again, like Vivienne Westwood, I like the fact that you can tell apart all of his animated films and short from anything else, yet they still don't quite have the exact same feel all the time.
As we learnt last year, he was not the first to use the style that he does, the sort of twisted and strangely shaped look. Yet his is still vastly different to those which influenced him, and you would never mistake one for the other.
Being a fan of MOST of Burton's work, I fell that it will influence the work I produce by trying to stylise some aspects of it based on his work. This will only be done where it is necessary and applicable though. It's not as if I'm going to go out of my way just to get a minor reference to him in.
Tim Burton manages to make some incredible films, but most couldn't more different from each other (apart from the animated films), for example, Big Fish and Batman Returns, two of my favourites of his. And even though he seems to have a bit of an unhealthy crush or relationship with Jonny Dep, I will be looking forward to and influenced by his films for years to come. I should think that this will show in some pieces of my work also.

Non web designer 2

2010-01-14T18:22:00.000-08:00

Richard Rogers
I have chosen Richard Rogers as my second non web designer. The main reason I chose Richard is because he has sculpted so many skylines now it is incredible. Also I have always been a fan of the millennium dome, mainly for how much different it is to anything, not only in London, but the world.

This is Terminal 4 at Madrid-Barajas Airport. Normally airport terminals are just clinical, straight up and down, with nothing else to them. I mean I would go to this Airport just to see the terminal, then fly back.
Richard Rogers has managed to make spectacular things from usually mundane and boring sites or tasks. One thing that is definitely not mundane or boring, is one of the projects his firm is in charge of at the moment, designing tower 3, which will stand where the twin towers used to be, and will serve as the new world trade centre.

This should be magnificent when finished.

From Richard Rogers work, I take the knowledge that not all of your work has to be a hit straight away, as the millennium dome wasn't liked by most when it was first built, but most people now have managed to warm to it more, so much they keep finding different uses for it so it doesn't just get knocked down like it was planned to be from the start.

Non web designer 1

2010-01-14T17:14:00.000-08:00

Vivienne Westwood
I chose Vivienne Westwood as one of my designers as she is part of one of the biggest design aspects of the world, clothing, yet she is still so different, and you tell a piece of her clothing a mile off, even if it is a simple piece. This influences me greatly, as to have such a widely recognisable and desired look is what ever designer strives for. Particularly I like the more extravagant pieces she makes, as they truly are nothing like what anyone else has or will ever do.
Another thing I think is brilliant about her, is that she doesn't take any crap from anybody. This is best shown by her walking out of the Sex and the City film premier, for which she created a wedding dress, after only 10 minutes "publicly criticising the clothing featured as being frumpy and boring". Not exactly the approach to take if a client doesn't like what I design for them I know, but still, you have to admire it.
Vivienne Westwood creates her pieces in different collections. This could be taken into thought when it comes to web design, as you don't want to make everything exactly the same all the time. Taking a fresh look at things every so often would help freshen my designs and make them a bit more creative.
Another thing to take from Vivienne Westwood would be to not just follow the trends of the time because you know people are going to think that it's ok. You have to take a chance and become the leader of trends, not the follower of one. This will make work more well known and in demand than the wannabe copiers.

Waterfall and Whirlpool software development models.

2010-01-14T13:03:00.000-08:00

Waterfall
The waterfall development model is designed so that you only have to go through every part of the design process once. For each and every step you have to make sure that every little thing is finished before proceeding onto the next. The greatest strength of this method is the fact that you have to be very thorough and analyse every part of each section because it will be the only chance you get before moving onto the next part. It is also argued that it makes the development of a project cheaper as it is said to be quicker. this is because as each problem develops, it should have been found at its most basic stage, and therefore at its easiest to fix. This in turn makes the whole process more efficient.

Whirlpool
In the whirlpool development model you begin the development at one point which you keep cycling back to. With this model you constantly re-evaluate and re-develop all aspects of your design until you are happy with it all, instead of each piece individually one after the other. The downfall of this model however is that it takes quite a lot of time to keep going back over the same aspects over and over improving them each time. This also makes it hard to time manage as it is hard to say how many more cycles it will take to complete the product, unlike the waterfall method, where you can clearly see how much of the project is complete and what is left to do.

Both have their strengths and weaknesses. Personally I think that the Whirlpool method of development will work best when making a website. This is because it is very hard to get things 100% perfect in each stage so that you can progress onto the next. Also, as you are constantly getting new feedback from the client and others, different parts will need to be changed from each stage. This will really scrap the waterfall method from use.

2009-11-30T17:01:00.000-08:00

2009-11-24T01:20:00.000-08:00

Colour Changes!!!

2009-11-13T02:53:00.001-08:00

www.allprofitallfree.com/color-wheel2.html

Website review!

2009-10-29T17:37:00.000-07:00

Thought id do a quick review on a website ive been using a hell of a lot at the minute! its another user content based website and would have been perfect for the assinment last week but oh well!
The site is sporcle.com by the way! you may have heard of it! pretty much you go on and try out loads of quizes which you have a certain amount f time to finish. its really fun with a couple of mates on the sofa all trying to remember desperately what the 10th pixar film is that you were all certain you'd be able to get a piece of piss 3 minutes ago. the website its self is pretty basic to look at, but everything runs smoothly and its easy enough to create your own quiz for others to try their hands at so i can't see it going anywhere but up from now on!

Thoughts for website...!

2009-10-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to think of what I will make a website of and have come up with this list off the top of my head:
-Nottingham Skate park- (arnold bowl/ Maple street park)
-Non-stop skate shop
-My old primary school- kinda ruined when Shaun said it as an idea to everyone! oh well!
-Other shop- maybe backlash (local one not chain shop)
-Arbouretum
-Rock City
-Inside my dads man draw at home
-Old Vicarage (abandoned house in my home village)
-Tuxford School- my old secondary... because it isnt there anymore!
-The progression of my Drum kit!

My favourites are the progression of my drum kit, as a lot has changed with it over the years and will change more over time, skate park, Man draw and my old secondary school. any thoughts on these are very welcome by the way!

3 user content driven websites.

2009-10-22T17:10:00.000-07:00

These are my evaluations on three websites which run on content added by the users.
Ratemyink.com
Rate my ink is a website based completely around user added content. There are many other websites which are like this one where predominately you are rating something part of a person or something of theirs. I have used rate my ink a few times to look for any good tattoo designs to build on for my own. The website itself is very very basic looking and not exactly smooth around the edges. There are not many options for the user to keep them interested. You can become a member but all that does is make it so you can view tattoos that are rated as being explicit. Apart from these there are top and bottom ten and a few other links. My opinion of the website is that it is useful to the user but it doesn’t have much to it, especially design wise to keep the user coming back very often.
Blogger
I thought as this website which we have to use to post is all to do with user added content I would evaluate it. Straight off the welcome page is far better than rate my ink. It’s quite a simple design, but very well done with neutral colours. Once you log in it’s more of the same with the nice simplistic layout and design. This makes it very easy to navigate, and never takes very long to find what you want, as all of the buttons are highlighted in blue against the brown background. Because of it looking so nice and being so simple to use from the start, it is a website you end up coming back and using very often, which has got to be one of the main things you aim for when designing a website.
911 Tabs
I have used this website quite a few times to find drum tabs but I know quite a lot of other people who use it for guitar, bass and piano. All of the tabs are added by users for others to try out and alter if they think they’re wrong. There isn’t that much to the website which keeps it simple, however it is still nice to look at and doesn’t look cheaply made like ratemyink. The whole site is very logically set out and therefore easy to use. Over all I very much like the design, and it shows that the designers have thought a lot about how to keep it very simple but classy enough to make you want to go back to this site and not bother finding another tab site.

Flash Game for Box!!!

2009-04-16T16:53:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of screen shots that ive been taking from the TV show Metapocalypse for my flash game, i havnt exactly decided what to do with it fully yet, but i will come together soon!

Filmed the Stop motion druming!!!

2009-04-16T16:46:00.001-07:00

Ive now filmed the stop motion drumming with my friend! here are a couple of pics from it...
hopefully get the editing done soon!

Inspiration for AV element!

2009-04-16T16:37:00.000-07:00

This video is by Lasse Gjertsen, and i am hoping to do a similar sort of thing with one of my friends, Norm, who is one of the most rhythmically challenged people on the planet, so thought it would be quite fun getting him to play an instrument, Give another update when ive filmed it an shiz!

2009-04-16T16:21:00.000-07:00

Update on what ive done with my Drum Kit box so far.
at first i tried to do all of the lugs and bolts by extracting it, but decided against it and went another way. im pretty happy with it at the minute, but pleanty more to do with it!

2009-04-16T16:16:00.000-07:00

These are some of the sketches from deciding how my Drum Kit 'box' is going to be set out an look, well hopefully when i have done it!

Research For Box...

2009-04-16T16:10:00.001-07:00

These are a few of the pictures that ive found of 3D Drum kits that other people have made, and has made me definitely want to make a drum kit for my box!
i dont think im going to make it quite as big as some of these though!

Logo!!!

2009-04-16T16:00:00.001-07:00

Just posting some of the development of my designs for my MDF Cow logo...

I have decided that I'm going to make my logo customisable as well, so people will be able to change the colour, clothing, glasses etc on it. will post some pics of them when ive designed them.

The Box Project!!!

2009-04-16T15:53:00.000-07:00

Just a note to say what i have decided to be the box and what the objects in it are going to be...

The Box its self will be a drum kit made in 3D studio max
My avatar is going to kind of look like me, and be a cross between the Mii avatars and the X-Box 360 avatars.
My logo is an MDF Cow
My AV element will be an edit of my friend playing the drums from little segments of film.
Another element is going to be a Flash game of the TV show metapocalypse.
Not 100% on the last thing but am thinking it will be another AV element!

2009-01-15T08:52:00.001-08:00

I have been trying to get along with second life, but have not had much luck yet! i gave it a chance last term, and got stuck on some weird little place by my self, so ended up giving up and trying World of Warcraft instead, which to be honest ended up being even worse! I'm now on my second attempt with second life (ironic) and its going a bit better. I've managed to alter my Avatar's appearance, wander about talking to a number of people and even go sledging. Still cant see all of the hype of it tho! I shall continue tho, and try to find something fun to do with it! i am also going to try and get Playstation Home sometime soon, as i think this will been much simpler and better suited to me! Until then it's Second Life tho!

2009-01-15T08:45:00.001-08:00

After going to the Figuring light, Colour and the intangible exhibition I chose to talk about the use of colour in the “Dreaming” by Rebecca Partridge. First of all I think that it is extremely cleverly done, by just using red, blue and green, yet creating all of the colours shown by over lapping them. The painting as a whole reminds me of a dodgy disco ball at a party, which is what first attracted me to it. I like how Rebecca has made the colours go from being dull and dark around the edge, to really bright and vivid in the centre, pulling your focus mainly to the centre, where a contrast is made by just having it black in the middle. The spiral effect made by the ovals used in the painting getting smaller towards the middle, and over lapping made my eyes actually follow the path of them as I was looking at it rather than looking at it from a distance and as a whole. I like this, as it gives you a different way to view it rather than just a few quick glances at the main parts.

Colour changing

2009-01-15T06:09:00.000-08:00

Im not too sure whether i fully understood this assignment, but any way, these are the two photo's i edited in photo shop contrasting each other.

Batman Flash Game

2008-12-05T17:53:00.000-08:00

Just finished the flash game, decided to make it about Batman and Robin, here are a couple of frames from it!

2008-12-01T11:59:00.001-08:00

Sod it, found the other one of Tom and Jerry edited clips so thought i'd put it up as well!!!

2008-12-01T11:39:00.000-08:00

Someone just showed me this video on YouTube by Venitian Snares, and as we've been doing all of this editing melarkey, thought it was kind of relavent as it is so well made and edited to the music, so am sharing it! check out some of their other videos on YouTube too, they've done another really good one edited to bits of Tom and Jerry clips!

Stop Motion

2008-11-19T17:51:00.000-08:00

Made another stop motion today, only quick, it on youtube now i think!

Rule of thirds

2008-11-19T07:28:00.001-08:00

The rule of thirds is probably the most well know photography technique. It is a fairly simple technique, where the photographer imagines four lines over the image, two vertical lines dividing it into three, and two horizontal lines doing the same. Using these lines can help a photograph be more interesting and draw the viewers’ eyes to different parts. An example of using these lines effectively is, when taking a picture of a horizon, imagine the horizon lying on one of these lines, instead of in the centre of the picture, or anywhere else. The same applies when taking a picture of a person or a building, apart from using the vertical lines to place the object on. Where the four lines intersect are known as points of interest. The main focus of a picture should lie on one of these four intersections, as a viewer is naturally drawn to these points in a photo, rather to the centre. However, this rule is not definitive, and doesn’t always mean that it is going to make a picture better than if rule was not applied.

Pixilation

2008-11-19T06:55:00.000-08:00

Another quick bit of Pixilation

2008-11-17T17:40:00.000-08:00

Made another quick pixilation today!

heres a frame from it!

I'll upload it to YouTube soon!

Favourite Designed Object:

2008-11-05T04:50:00.000-08:00

Think about what goes on in your head when you buy something new, take a photo of your favourite designed object and answer the following:
· Why is it that we want our belongings to do more for us than function well?
· Why are we willing, as soon as we can afford it, to pay extra for things with appealing forms?

I have decided to talk about the Sony PSP, I recently got given one by my work, as I am going to be promoting it and the PS3 around Nottingham. I think that the PSP is especially well designed, as in it is incredibly aesthetically good looking. I can even remember when they first came out, a girl at my old school went out and bought one just because of how good it looked, don’t think she ever really actually used it though. I think that we are willing to pay more for things with appealing forms because when something you’ve bought looks nice, you like other people to see you with it, so are more likely to use it, just like the clothes that we buy, some of them not so practical, but look nice. For my job, the fact that people are willing to pay more for things which are appealing should help, as the PSP looks, feels and works brilliantly. The reason we want our belongings to do more than function well is because more and more these days everything does more than one thing, and the more likely its going to be that we end up with one thing that does everything, for example the I-Phone, not just a phone, its pretty much a stylish, fashionable PDA.

300- 500 word artical!!!

2008-11-05T02:58:00.000-08:00

Sorry it has taken me so long to get this up on my Blog, but for some reason my internet hates Blogger.com, just like it hates the NOW! well here it is anywho!!!

The new technology which I have decided to write about is Playstations online community called Home. Its is currently in its closed Beta version but when it is fully up and running it will be a free down load for Playstation Network users where you will be able to create your own avatar and home (call HomeSpace) to live in. Users can then buy new clothes and furnishings for their avatar, and will eventually be able to buy them bigger apartments and maybe even design their own furnishings. It is very second life-ish, however in Home, one can invite people over to their apartments where you can share anything that you have on your hard disk drive. You do this by, in the case of a video or film, sit down in front of the persons virtual Sony TV, everyone can then watch it full screen on their TV at home. For pictures you o over to a virtual picture frame and can scan through the persons pictures on their HDD.
Outside of the HomeSpace their will be a lot more to do such as; meet up with friends to chat, either by text or through headsets, go into playing multiplayer on an online game with friends, play other types of games with friends or anyone else such as bowling and chess. Home will also have a virtual cinema where people will be able to go and sit down next to other people’s avatars and watch a film that has been released in DVD/ Blu-ray, they will be able to make the film full screen so it will be just like watching a DVD at home. There will be shopping malls for you to take your avatar into, in which you will be able to make you avatar try on clothes and trainers, which you can then pay for and get the real items delivered to your door.
Personally when I first heard about all of the features Home will have, I was amazed, I mean it is pretty cleaver. However thinking about it, is it not really going a step too far? I’m sure the security on it will be fine, as Playstation have said that they will block anybodies account and IP address if they break the rules, so it should be a safe place for people of any age, but surely some people won’t have a proper life because of it. Fair enough meeting up with someone who lives really far away to chat and watch things, but I bet the majority of people who use this will live a few houses down, or a 10 minute walk away. I think it will be fine to use every once in a while, but for some people I can see it nearly becoming their life, almost as much as World of Warcraft or Second Life, which personally I cannot see as being a good thing to happen to society.

YES!!!

2008-10-27T07:13:00.000-07:00

HI THERE!!!

Sorry this is my first Blog, but i have been trying to get this sorted out for the past couple of weeks but have failed miserably, hence the two other 'Journal of an MDF Cow's which don’t work... yeah sorry about that! Hopefully you can do something with them! I ended up having to kind of half guess, half get bits of info from other people on how to set it up!

ANY WHO...

... The reason i didn’t know how to set up my Blog in the first place was because i couldn’t make it to any of the Welcome Week shenanegins due to me being a freshers rep this year, so i had to do things for that all week.

SO HI TO EVERYONE! Guess everyone else talked to each other in the first week things!!!

Yes, so i am in my second year at the WONDERFUL Nottingham Trent Uni!
Last year i did Criminology, so have had a bit of change in direction, and from what it seems like this course is going to be like, it should be MILES better!

Well, what do I say, I’ve never blogged before, or kept the old school version of a diary either!

Hmm, well Freshers week was amazingly fun, but also absolutely nackering too, think it took me three days to recover after! Hopefully going to be doing it next year too!

Onto the course then...

I noticed everyone must have been told to write about what they want to get out of this year of Multi media studies, apart from a pass. Well without getting into too much detail, as in flash scripting etc, i mainly want to make some friends, have some fun with the projects and experiment as much as i can with every aspect of what we do this year so that i can make the right decision of which path to take for next year. I'm still pretty uncertain, and I’m sure i will be pretty much until i have to make the decision, and maybe a little bit after, but hey, what can you do.

The Course So Far!

I wasn't quite sure what to make of our first lecture, i didn't really take that much away from it, but the Lecturer seemed pretty fun so hopefully should be a good module! Andrew Love's Lec and Sem were pretty interesting, and some of the video's we were shown were amazing, so much so i ended up sitting down watching YouTube for a good few hours afterwards watching the likes of 'The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb', nearly all of PES's work that’s on there (especially liked the ‘sex on the roof’ pixilation), a lot of other random pixilation work mainly posted by other multi media students across the world and, well I can’t remember the name of it at the mo, but the one that 12 Monkeys was based on. The one 12 Monkeys was based on was really well done, I liked how it wasn’t pixilation as we are doing it, it was more like reading through a picture book. To be fair, I got a bit bored of the story and kept drifting in and out, and knew the story to 12 monkeys so didn’t end up watching the whole thing. Kind of did the same thing with Tom Thumb, watch the first few segments of it on YouTube which were extremely visually impressive but the story got a bit boring after a while. It must have been a painstaking process of pixilation with stop motion.

From the seminar work (which I was only there for an hour due to having to go to London for job training… which by the way is promoting PlayStation 3! How good is that, anyway) I got a couple of ideas of what I would like to do with pixilation. I had already had a couple of ideas, the first being a first person shooter game, I started a couple of test and it ended up being quite difficult so decided to go for a Mortal Kombat sequence. It took me WAY longer than I thought to draw out all of the writing and life bars for MK and I originally wanted the life bars to fall throughout and there to be the time ticking down, but this ended up being too much of a pain, especially as two of my friends were doing me a favour by participating in it as well. Due to all of this, it didn’t end up being as good as I hoped. I am still in the process of changing all of the pictures in phtoshop from this sequence. I am planning to do an even simpler pixilation, maybe in the market square in the next couple of days to replace the MK pixilation.
Before I started the MK pixilation I did a couple of test ones around my house too which I will post on YouTube when I figure out how the hell to animate them.

I’ve been thinking for a while of just doing some time lapse sequences in this project, maybe at the train station or market square.

WOOOOO

Just realized how much I have just written! So I will leave it at this for now but shall keep it updated from now on, that is if my laptop and internet ever do like this website, or the NOW for a matter of fact too!

Anyway, Toodle Pip! And anyone on the course… say hi to me when you see me next!!!