Philip Howlett | NTU Multimedia Blog | First Year

MY BLOG HAS MOVED

2008-09-29T13:29:00.000-07:00

Anyone reading this site should have a look at my new blog

EVERYONE GO HERE
http://www.philiphowlett.com/blog2

Don't expect to see any updates here. It's been emotional! Goodbye blogger, hello wordpress!

Site Flipping #4 - Getting Traffic

2008-09-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

When it comes to selling my first flip I'm going to need a good sales pitch, but I can't put a good one together without first of all having the features in place. A desirable site is one that's getting hits and making money. So over the last couple of days I've been doing some Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). There are a ton of ways to go about this, but here are some easy tips.

1. http://www.orangesubmit.com/ - Get your site spidered quickly by Yahoo, Google etc. It's free, and you only have to fill out one form. I'm not sure of how successful it is, but the Google bot visited my site two days after purchase.

2. Wordpress plugins - If you're using wordpress then you absolutely need to install some plug-ins. I reccomend the all-in-one SEO pack and sociable.

3. Social networking sites - Submit your contents and articles to sites such as Digg and Stumble upon to increase traffic.

4. Entrecard - Another excellent free resource for bloggers to advertise their sites.

5. Google Adwords - This ones going to cost you, but it's worth it for the potential traffic it generates. I got a free $50.00 coupon through bluehost so look out for offers.

It's important to continue building links to the site. So far I've seen a slow increase in traffic, from 4 unique visits a day up to around 30. Give me two more weeks and this site will be saleable. Check out how the site is shaping up at www.moneysaverpro.com. Once again, a big thanks to Kane Pickerill for offering me some free advertising space on his image hosting site.

Web Flipping #3 - The Design

2008-09-17T05:54:00.000-07:00

The design is a really important factor in a successful flip. If you choose a poor design or an inappropriate one, then you're profits can suffer. Even worse you might not get a sale at all. I think I know a bit about good design, so I spent around half an hour searching for a wordpress template. There are loads of sites out there which offer them for free, but these ones have been seen a million times before. Still, if it's a good design you're still going to get interest. Luckily I found a premium theme which has recently become a freebie. Awesome, a $45 theme for free.

Installing wordpress and the template was a breeze. Customising the theme so that my logo could be incorporated was a little more difficult. I'd like to take the time now to thank Kane Pickerill (check out his portfolio and blog, they're awesome). He sorted out the CSS and PHP problems I was having. I didn't want to skimp on the design, so getting it right has been really important. To see the whole package in action check out http://www.moneysaverpro.com

I've been keeping track of how long this project has taken me, so upon sale I can see if was worth the time invested. So far, I've totted up roughly 4 hours of work. It's more if you include my constant research in to web flipping through forums and dedicated sites, but I like to think of that as background reading. The majority of that time spent was getting the logo right and finding an ebook. For anyone interested in how to implement ebooks, I'll write an article on that soon.

Useful links:
http://wordpress.org/
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/
http://cssace.com/

Web Flipping #2 - Buying A Domain

2008-09-14T05:57:00.000-07:00

Maybe I'm jumping in to this too fast? Who knows? This is an experiment, if it fails miserably I don't care, because I can say I tried. After reading about the money to be made through these kind of ventures I figured that it's worth a shot. I've read about all kinds of money making, get rich schemes, but this one has many credited sources and lucky old me has knowledge with the web. So then, part 1 is upon us.

What domain name should I choose? I remember reading an article which explained that a good domain name is one you should be able to tell a friend over the phone, without them asking how it's spelt. I've been researching a fair bit in to which websites sell, so I think I've made a well informed decision here to buy the domain name www.moneysaverpro.com. Let me explain what influenced my decision.

Firstly, it's a '.com' address, which from what I've read will sell for £10-£20 more than the alternatives (e.g. co.uk or .org). It makes sense to me, after all it's the most commonly used suffix and therefore the most desirable. It's also pretty catchy, suits a niche audience and it's short enough to remember. Maybe even more importantly it contains keywords! I began to think about what kind of things are hot in the media right now, what's on everyones minds and what are the attractive niche markets. You can't get away from the fact that we're heading in to a recession, and the credit crunch is upon us. This applies in the U.S as well, where a lot of the buyers of domains are located (thanks to sites such as sitepoint). We'll all be cutting back on costs, and I've noticed a trend in people looking online for advice on saving money. In comes money saver pro!

I won't be money saver pro of course, I'll just lay down the foundations for a budding young business person to create their money saving blog. Wish me luck! Back to the day job for now though.

Useful links:
http://www.bluehost.com - A cheap domain name seller
http://www.123-reg.co.uk - Has a brilliant way of suggesting domain names
http://www.dnscoop.com - Can approximate the value of a domain name

Web Flipping #1 The Basics

2008-09-12T08:49:00.000-07:00

I read a really interesting article in The Guardian recently, about a relatively new web phenomenon. The idea is similar to buying real estate, improving it, and selling it at a profit. The difference here is you're working with domain names. So how does it work?

1. Buy a domain name (find a good one, that's expired recently). Minimal cost.
2. Get some webspace and install WordPress (with a professional looking theme) and get it all up and running.
3. Create a logo for the blog and get the whole site set up so it's desirable for people to buy.
4. Add articles to the blog (5-15), features and selling points. Maybe even offer free hosting to the buyer.
5. Get your site set up to work with google adsense, and get it tracked by the googlebot.
6. Sell the site.

Sounds far too easy doesn't it? That's what I thought, but then I saw how much money people are making. A domain name costs as little as £10, you spend a couple of hours improving the site, then sell it on ebay for £50 upwards. Imagine how many you could buy and sell a day! Big bucks to be made...I feel an experiment forming!

Useful links:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/sep/11/netrich.internet
http://siteflipu.com/
http://www.thenetfool.com/making-money-online-by-flipping-websites/

3D Modeling

2008-09-04T10:05:00.001-07:00

I used a tutorial to put this little scene together. How else am I going to learn? The results are really impressive considering how easy the shapes were to create. The texturing however is not good. From a distance, in these shots they're passable. I really need to learn more about texturing.

The Key To Reserva

2008-09-02T14:05:00.000-07:00

Imagine if Martin Scorsese came across an old, unmade Hitchcock script. Then imagine if Scorsese actually made that script in to a film, and stayed truer than you could imagine to Hitchcock's filming style. Well...there's no need to imagine. It's been done, and it's brilliant. This will only take ten minutes of your time so pay attention and marvel.

http://www.scorsesefilmfreixenet.com/video_eng.htm

A Short Love Story In Stop Motion

2008-08-20T07:53:00.000-07:00

This is simply beautiful. Before I say anymore, just watch the video.

A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

Created by Carlos Lascano, using various animation techniques this is a brilliant piece of work. Please have a look at his website to see how it was done. It's a work in progress and I can't wait to see the final thing.

Generation Kill Project #3

2008-08-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

Nearly finished...

Generation Kill Project #2

2008-08-10T10:10:00.000-07:00

I've blown up a couple of my stencils, just thought I'd post a photo for people who might be interested. It's coming together very slowly, mainly when I get a day off work! Here's a mock up...

I've got some cool ideas for the background canvas, which right now looks rather bland. My intention is to find online and newspaper articles related to the invasion of Iraq, along with some maps of the country. These will be cut out, stuck across the entire background, then faded out slightly with a white wash.

The entire background will be covered in PVA to give it a shine, then I can spray my stencils over the top and scratch away at the whole thing. If it looks a little empty I've got some smaller stencils to fill the space.

The logo will have some work done to it too. Firstly I'll use red ink to paint around the 'O' so it looks similar to the real logo. I'll scratch away at the lettering to give it a similar eroded look.

Maybe some drops/sprays of red and black paint here and there, maybe some sand mixed in to my PVA white wash. Ideas anyone?

Generation Kill Project

2008-08-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

Since I love the show so much, and I can't find a poster for it anywhere, I've taken matters in to my own hands. I'm going to make my own poster, using stencils and spray paint. There's an A1 canvas that's been sitting in my wardrobe for months now that I made during my foundation year. I've been doing some tests today with making stencils from the images I've found. If you're interested in the process please read on.

First of all I had to find some suitable images from the show, and preferably in high resolution. I found some on the HBO site located here. I then went about converting the image to something resembling a stencil. So I fired up Photoshop and desaturated the image, then fiddled around with the threshold until I got what I wanted. I then printed the image out, and cut it out the black areas with a craft knife.

The result

I sprayed this experiment on to unprimed MDF which explains some of the soaking up of the paint and the slight bleeding. I need to somehow create a larger version of this stencil (most likely by sticking sheets of A4 together). I've found the font they used for the logo of the show as well located here, for anyone interested. I'll more than likely have a couple of the characters on the final poster, with the logo located at the bottom. Not sure what details I'll add yet.

Carphone Warehouse Advert

2008-08-04T13:32:00.000-07:00

I remember this video from right back at the start of University. It was pretty cool to see it today on a Carphone Warehouse advert. I couldn't find that version, but I'm sure someone will upload it soon enough. In the mean time, here's the original.

Generation Kill

2008-08-04T08:58:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, I'm a huge fan of The Wire. I was doing a bit of reading on the net about Ed Burns (creator of The Wire) and was pleased to find out he's got a new project. Generation Kill is a 7 part series, each episode an hour long. Based on the American invasion of Iraq it makes for some absolutely unmissable viewing. Unfortunately it's not being aired in the U.K from what I gather, so you're going to have to be a bit imaginative about how you get to see it. At the time of writing, 4 episodes have been shown in the states. If you enjoyed Band of Brothers or war films in general then watch it!

Lastly, I can't stress to people just how good The Wire is. There's 5 seasons of that beauty for you all to check out.

HBO Generation Kill Website (it's actually a pretty cool flash site to check out)

3D Building Model

2008-07-31T09:43:00.000-07:00

I haven't touched 3D Studio Max in a few weeks, and felt I should get back in to it. I'm still sticking to tutorials to learn the interface, so I had a go at making a fairly simple building. It was a pretty useful exercise. Now I need to learn how to texture stuff, and get a hold of Vray.

Making some changes

2008-07-25T09:50:00.000-07:00

I'm changing the colour scheme of my blog so it's more consistent with my portfolio. I'll be doing bits here and there, so over the next few days it might look messy. Let me know what you think of new cleaner, more inviting look.

Portfolio Nearly Complete

2008-07-16T04:06:00.000-07:00

I'm really happy with how my portfolio has come along. At some point tomorrow I'll be setting it all up so that philiphowlett.com links straight to the new site rather than my blog. Please leave some comments and let me know what you think of it in it's current state.

http://www.philiphowlett.com/tests/Portfolio.html

Update
The finished version is now online at http://www.philiphowlett.com

Pixeloo

2008-07-04T04:59:00.000-07:00

Imagine what Homer or Mario might look like in real life...

This guy can actually show you what they'd look like. With some immense Photoshop skills, a lot of time and a lot of photos to work with he 'Untoons' cartoon characters. Have a look at his blog. Some of them are pretty creepy.

Look at how bad ass Niko looks.

Something everyone should install

2008-06-28T03:29:00.000-07:00

I discovered PicLens a couple of weeks ago, and without a doubt its the coolest way of viewing photos. You install it on your browser, and it integrates itself very subtly to the interface. You then have the possibility to browse photos on facebook, picasa, google images etc at full screen and in 3D. It works with video too, and even better, it's free.

Portfolio Underway

2008-06-28T03:08:00.000-07:00

A week or so ago I began working on my online Portfolio. I've been using carbonmade for a while to showcase my work, but I really wanted to make my own from scratch. Seeing as I've got the webspace, the domain name and a bit of flash knowledge I thought now is a good time to start.

So far I have the structure of the interface layed out and animated, and quite a nice preloader added in there. It's a really simple UI, but that's why I think it works. The idea for it came from a portfolio website I found on the FWA for Joshua Stearns. The technique used places blocks of contrasting colour behing text. This helps to keep everything structured, clear and aligned. Pretty good use of CRAP huh? I've seen the technique used a lot, especially on posters, but also on a lot of other websites. If anyone could point out to me where the technique stems from please let me know.

I need to tinker around with the finer details of this interface, but I want to get the rest of the site working first. My intention is to create a slick gallery showcasing images of my work at fullscreen resolution, and also to have somewhere to display videos of my work. It's still early days, but have a look at what I've done so far. TEST IT.

Some worrying news for games developers

2008-06-21T04:59:00.000-07:00

The BBC have a story in their technology section discussing the current lack of well skilled graduates leaving university, who are looking to work in the gaming industry. I feel what I've learned so far has me on the right path to where I want to go, but without a doubt I have a very long way to go. I'm not looking to become a games engineer or programmer, and instead I want to concentrate on the artistic aspects of games. If you want to read the article it's here.

There's a nice video here too http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7460359.stm

Client Project #1

2008-06-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

My client project is well underway, and I could not be happier with how it's progressing. The overall look and feel of the site fell in to place nicely, and it suits the services being advertised. If you'd like to see what has been done so far click here. It's still a work in progress, with lots to be done. I've got plenty of free time though so keep checking that link to see updated versions.

I'm not really sure what to do with the white background of the html file yet. Any suggestions/feedback would be brilliant!

Pre-loaders

2008-06-03T10:50:00.000-07:00

Pre-loaders were once a nemesis of mine. I detested them, mainly because I didn't understand them. For my summer project I'll be putting a flash website together for a client who runs a golf coaching company. I want the pre-loader to look professional, so I've been getting to grips with putting them together in CS3. Here's one I just did using a 3D model of a golf ball spinning. I'll likely change it for the final website however. Let me know what you think of it.

TEST IT

Real Fakes

2008-05-23T03:39:00.000-07:00

I was reading an article in the Guardian today, which was discussing the growth of CGI. I'm personally a big fan, but it seems many directors aren't too pleased with current trends in movies. I'll admit CGI has pro's and con's, and the con's are becoming more evident. Films like Beowulf, in my opinion are completely unnecessary and only work as a technical showcase. On the other hand you have the mind boggling effects of Transformers. So why do some of the big names in cinema (Speilberg, Abrams, Nolan) have it in for the increasing use of CGI? They see it being used, just for the sake of using it. I agree, having impressive special effects doesn't make a good film. Using it effectively is more important. There are clearly good and bad examples of computer effects, but it's an interesting read still.

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,2281466,00.html

P.S Someone should tell the Guardian to take a look at the BBC website, that's how a news website should be done.

Reflection on Identities Projects

2008-05-20T07:49:00.000-07:00

I’m extremely proud of the resulting work of both projects. Project 2 in particular has helped me gain confidence with Flash, and I’m now excited about using the software. I think my work for that project was professional, and well polished. Making use of sound elements, a good deal of actionscript, video elements, 3D modeling and traditional 2D content I feel it’s the best piece of multimedia work I have created. The 3D elements wouldn’t have been possible without the work created in project 1. Again, I was very impressed with what I managed to create. Reflecting on that project now, I do see some room for improvement but I look forward to improving my 3D skills, so much so I’m considering taking the Virtual Environments pathway next year. If I was to do that project again I’d maybe dedicate more time to creating the work in 3D and less time in the research phase. While it’s good to research, I believe I’m still at a stage where I need to understand 3D Studio Max much more.

Project 2 became a little rushed towards the end, and this is reflected in the quality of the final interactive object. The coca cola object was my least favourite, and with better time management I could have created it entirely in 3D. I may have also made a smaller version of the site, to allow more people to view it as intended. I’m still very pleased with the outcome, but as always there are possible areas for improvement.

Graffiti Stop Motion

2008-05-17T05:03:00.000-07:00

I won't say much about this, because I don't know much about it. What I will say is that it's awesome.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Navigating My Identity. Fin.

2008-05-05T04:15:00.001-07:00

http://www.philiphowlett.com/ident

I decided to publish the completed site to a different directory with a smaller URL. The html file in which the swf is embedded is now an index so that directory shows the finished site. I also made some changes to the code that flash outputs. I now have a title and meta tag within the head of the script. Hopefully some of the search engine bots will reference my site when certain key words are input to their engines.

All that's left to do now is complete my evaluation. The user testing has been carried out throughout the project, so I just need to compile my results in to something a little more presentable.

I actually really enjoyed this project, especially when I grasped flash a little more. I definitely have more confidence with it, and I'm looking to create a flash website over the summer for a company. By the time we begin University again I should have quite a special portfolio as well.

Coca Cola Object

2008-04-27T04:25:00.000-07:00

Seeing as I need to get some user testing done, and complete my evaluation I thought I better wrap things up. My final object is now finished, and to test out the whole thing check out the site here:

http://www.philiphowlett.com/identity/Site.html

I'll be honest, I don't like this last object as much as the others. It works nicely, and it's fairly interesting, I just wanted to spend more time on it. I wanted to render all the elements in 3D, but seeing as my site is now a fairly hefty 2.3MB its becoming a little slow to load. I decided to cut my losses and go with simple 2D images. The interactivity is still there, it's just not as pretty to look at as it could have been. I've still got one thing left I want to do to get the site fully presentable, but until then visit the link above. Phew!

Film Collection Object

2008-04-25T04:10:00.000-07:00

I've got another object completed and published to the site. If you want to test it out visit the site here:
http://www.philiphowlett.com/identity/Site.html

I've spoken about my love of films when I made the wallet object. To go in to this a little further I took a picture of a few of my DVD's. The ones in colour are the interactive ones. The idea is that you click on the spine of the DVD and some information on why I love that film appears in the space to the right. To close the information on that title, simply click the green X symbol.

There's some sound elements added in there, and a few simple animations. Just one more object remaining!

Practioner Research - Rockstar Games

2008-04-21T02:34:00.000-07:00

My interest in games and everything associated with them spawned from the day I had the original Nintendo. Since then I've spent the majority of my spare time enjoying them. One series of games in particular has dominated my life more than any other. Unfortunetly, my life is about to take another set back on April 29th when the next one comes out. Grand Theft Auto, made by Rockstar games is probably one of the most eagerly awaited games of all time. My fondness of Rockstar games goes beyond the games they make however.

Rockstar have a particular attitude towards the games they make, and it sets them apart from much of the competition. Their catalogue of games set out to shock more often than not. Manhunt, Bully and GTA have all had their fair share of negative press. None of this has prevented them from creating hugely successful games, and instead it's made them one of the major players in the gaming industry. They're now a world wide company with offices across the U.K, U.S.A and Japan employing hundreds of people.

When researching Rockstar I was amazed to find they actually have offices based in Lincoln and Leeds. Not very far away at all. It's encouraging to see that games companies aren't concentrated mainly in the States or Japan as I expected them to be.

I like the bravery of Rockstar, in that they'll put content in a game which most developers would shy away from. They're the rebels of the gaming industry, and not only do their games shock, they also take advantage of the latest technology. GTA4 in particular is set to contain the largest gaming city in the series so far, containing more detail than ever before. NPC's think for themselves and the city should feel more alive than ever. They've even created their own game engine, named RAGE which I've seen in action once before in their table tennis game. My last point of interest is their use of the Euphoria animation system. Where as most games make use of predetermined/drawn animations and a physics system, GTA4 will let Euphoria process any animations. Rather like the rag-doll engine seen in Unreal games, bodies will now react in more realistic ways.

I respect Rockstar for their determination to takes things slightly too far. While they might be slightly arrogant and unprofessional at times, they know how to create a successful and enjoyable game. Sandbox environments and the latest technology. Thats the kind of company I'd one day like to be involved with.

Euphoria Animation Engine

Speed Issues

2008-04-20T05:20:00.000-07:00

As part of my user testing I asked people to mark my site from 1-5 on how long it takes to load. 1 being poor and 5 being excellent. Considering the site is a fairly small 2.5MB, it shouldn't take long at all to load with a broadband connection. Even on the slowest broadband of around 2mbps it should only take 12.5 seconds to load. Baring this in mind, I received a fair bit of negative feedback so I thought I'd test the site out on my 10MB connection. It should have taken 2-3 seconds, but instead took about 10. So I got talking to support at my web hosting company. I'll keep things updated.

My Support Ticket
Fri May 02 2008 11:44AM by philhowlett@msn.com FROM:
SITE: http://www.philiphowlett.com
ADDR: 86.10.85.1

It seems that everything on my site is slow. I'm using a 10MB line, which I can max out on most websites. On my own website the maximum download is only 50kbps if I'm lucky. Just wondering why that is? I need the speed as a lot of my content is streamed video and downloaded images so I need fast download speeds.

I know it's not my ISP I've already checked that on my end. It's just all content from bluehost. Where as most sites will allow me to download at 700kbps to 1.1mbps I only get 35-50kbps when testing my site.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Reply #1
Fri May 02 2008 12:22PM by support-other@bluehost.com Try proxy browsing through turbohide.com or megaproxy.com and and test your speeds. If you need help doing this, let us know and we can walk you through it.

Thanks,
James Belliston
Level 1
BlueHost.com
888.401.4678

My Wallet

2008-04-17T07:33:00.000-07:00

I've added another object to my box of tricks. This one is my wallet. I spent just about all day yesterday getting it to work like I wanted, and now it's online in its final state more or less. If you go to the site here you'll notice there are still only two objects in the box, but the empty space in the lower right is now clickable. Have a go and tell me what you think.

Problem solved

2008-04-15T09:54:00.001-07:00

I was having a problem within my interactive work for sometime. If you clicked on my avatar controls, in particular the 'wave' button, an error message would appear. Apparently there was an error on frame 318, which was news to me, as at no point was the button pointing to frame 318. After having a look at it earlier today, I realised it was a simple problem. I'd missed out a stop frame, so I put it in. Problem solved? No, then I realised my buttons no longer had any functions. It was a simple fix in the end. Have a play around with the site http://www.philiphowlett.com/identity/Site.html

//CLOSE BUTTON//
stop();
function handleClick20( pEvent:MouseEvent ):void
{
if( pEvent.target == close_button )
{
gotoAndStop( 185 );
}
}
close_button.addEventListener( MouseEvent.CLICK, handleClick20 );

//WAVE BUTTON//
function handleClick21( pEvent:MouseEvent ):void
{
if( pEvent.target == wave_button )
{
gotoAndPlay( 265 );
}
}
wave_button.addEventListener( MouseEvent.CLICK, handleClick21 );

//LOOK BUTTON//
function handleClick22( pEvent:MouseEvent ):void
{
if( pEvent.target == look_button )
{
gotoAndPlay( 319 );
}
}
look_button.addEventListener( MouseEvent.CLICK, handleClick22 );

Flash Tests

2008-04-15T09:11:00.000-07:00

Here's some of the work we've been doing with AS3.0. I'm starting to get the basic rules, but I'm a long way off being able to sit and down and start typing code. The first example is a multiple choice quiz which you can try out here. The questions are ridiculous, but they aren't what was important in the task. Here's a snippet of the code I've been using:
var score=0;
q1a.buttonMode = true;
q1a.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,
function(myEventObject){gotoAndStop(2);});

The piece of code in bold is something I found myself. I didn't like the way objects were clickable, but they didn't act as a button would. Adding that line of code brings up a hand when your mouse navigates over the objects.

The second piece I did was a simple interface which moves a box around the screen. To have a go with it look here. It was a useful exercise in understanding how to create some simple controls. I'm not sure how I'm going to be making use of it just yet, but I hope to have my flash work completed by the end of next week. Again, a little glimpse of the code:
//UP BUTTON//
my_button.buttonMode = true;
my_button.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, function(myEventObject){box1.y = box1.y - 5;});

Usability Testing

2008-04-15T05:30:00.000-07:00

It would be great if some people could fill out my questionnaire. Just download the word file here. Fill it out then attach it to an email, and send to philhowlett@msn.com. It's quick and painless I promise.

The more I get the better.
Thanks.

Character controls

2008-04-08T05:40:00.000-07:00

I've added one, rather crude character control. Have a look at the site here. If you navigate your way through to my avatar you'll notice a list of controls opens up. From here you'll be able to trigger various animations, for instance, clicking on the 'wave' button will make the site gotoandPlay a video of my avatar waving. I've noticed that with my time line becoming so long, everything is becoming a lot more complicated. There are probably easier ways to do what I'm doing, and when I learn them, what I've done will seem amateurish.

It seems my problems with IE compatibility are down to a problem with my computer, as on other computers it works fine. So that's one less issue to address. The problem with size isn't as big as I feared either. By reducing the flv files from 3,000kbps to 700kbps I litterally halved the sites size without too much impact on quality. I also enabled compression on the SWF and set my jpeg quality to 80%. The site is now floating at around 1.2MB rather than 2MB. Success!

Lastly, the actual dimensions of the site. If you're using a resolution of 1024x768 or lower, you're not going to see the entire site. The site is still very much usable however. I'm considering setting up a low bandwidth version of the site, with reduced resolution and smaller video files. For now, if you right click and choose "show all" then you get the required effect.

Navigating My Identity Update

2008-04-07T10:28:00.000-07:00

I've put my first 2 objects in to the container and tested it out online. If you want to see the results visit here. For some reason the site refuses to work in Internet explorer so I need to look in to that. There are 1 or 2 glitches so far, but I'm pretty proud with the results. My AS3 skills have certainly come a long way in this project. If you're looking at this on a fairly low resolution screen then it's not going to fit, the video is 1000x800 pixels currently. Got a couple of pictures as well.

Container Changes

2008-04-06T06:50:00.000-07:00

I decided that my scene needed some lighting to set the mood, as well as make the box look a little more realistic. When I did this however, the box became rather dark and was no longer the focus of your attention. To overcome this, the box is now a pearly white, similar to an apple macbook. It now looks much smoother and appealing.

Updates and work in progess
http://philiphowlett.com/identity/Site.html
Problems: It's a work in progress, and a lot more has to be done. I'm having a couple of difficulties. Firstly the site won't align to the center even though I set it to. Secondly I can't work out how to make it stop on frame 25, and then with a button click play frame 26. I'm sure I'll fix it, but that's all for now.
Update #1 - 1/4/08 - Site is now aligned to the center
Update #2 - 6/4/08 - Button controls added

Problems: File size is a bit of a concern. Currently the site weighs in at 1.5MB. I'll wait to see how big the finished product is before I start using compression. I'm also looking in to sound controls for AS3 as I want my site to contain sound effects but not everyone will want them turned on.

Stop Motion

2008-04-02T14:45:00.000-07:00

This is the audiovisual piece I've decided to use to go in to my container. I started work on it a while back, and felt now would be a good time to complete it. It was a long painful process making this. The title of it is 'Lazy' for obvious reasons, and you can probably guess what that says about me.

Virgin Media To Disconnect File-Sharers, Sort Of

2008-03-31T06:36:00.000-07:00

I read some worrying news today regarding a U.K ISP. I wrote an article last month about the proposal of a 'three strikes and you're out' system regarding illegal file sharing in the U.K. I pointed out the pit falls of such a system, and I also flat out stated that it wouldn't be happening. It seems however that one U.K company has bowed down to the pressure of the rich and powerful record companies. The company involved, surprisingly is Virgin Media. It's surprising because they currently offer the fastest broadband in the U.K with no limitations. Why would people need a 40MB connection to read emails? On the other hand they're in some major debt so they probably don't want any legal proceedings. Surely they'll loose the vast majority of their users? Well no, funnily enough it's still good to be with Virgin. It seems that while they might ATTEMPT to single out illegal P2P traffic, they are also going to offer free access to UseNet. This suits me as I've been looking to use UseNet for some time, due to the high speeds as well as the better protection offered to users. Whether or not this will actually occur remains to be seen, but it's certainly something I never expected.

Read more

BBC Homepage

2008-03-31T06:17:00.000-07:00

I've been reviewing websites for a few months now, all of which from the FWA and all made using flash. Today however I thought I'd talk about a website which doesn't have a commercial aim. The new BBC Homepage is a in all respects a revelation in news based websites. I have personally hated online journalism for some time, mainly for my loathing of the websites. The old BBC site was a jumbled, inconsistant, overwhelming and difficult place to visit. It's the BBC though, so I found myself visiting the site a fair amount. A few months ago I had a go with the beta of the new homepage and was pleased with what I saw. Now I see that the BBC have thankfully adopted the new layout.

As you can see the site is clean and clear, but more importantly it can be customized. There's so much going on in the world, 99% of it I probably don't care about, so with this new feature I don't get bombarded with all the worlds problems at once. Instead I can select what I'd like to be informed about, and receive it in a way I understand. TABS, yes that's right. Little labeled tabs which keep the Internet clean. I can open them when I want to get a glimpse of the most recent headlines, or click the headers to visit that specific sub section. I don't know why it took the BBC so long to cotton on to this type of interface, but it's nice to see they've done it effectively. The site is also efficient in that it doesn't rely heavily on graphics. It clearly takes some pointers from the success of RSS feeds and blogs.

Layout

2008-03-26T11:21:00.000-07:00

I'm treating the layout of my flash canvas more like a website. Here you can see the look I've gone for, which suits the look of my blog accurately. I've got a functioning preloader now as well which will come in handy later. The gray space is where the video of my container will play, firstly with a camera flying towards it, then it becomes a clickable object. When it's clicked a video of the case opening will then play. It looks empty now, but it'll look awesome when finished. Still got some alignment issues to sort out but that will come in the tweaking stages.

Container Trial

2008-03-26T07:43:00.000-07:00

I may well end up using this container. It's got the compartments I need, as well as a cool chrome finish. The idea is to have a video of a camera zooming in on the box, when you click the box it opens to reveal the objects within. I need to work out how best to incorporate the videos. I'll be back later with the flash template and colour scheme I intend to use.

Site Maintenance

2008-03-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

I now own the domain name www.philiphowlett.com. At the moment that link will just redirect you to my blog, but the intention is to set up my portfolio at that address. Until then it's useful for storing my video content which is used on the blog. Thanks to Kane Pickerill for the hosting recommendation. I now need to go through my blog editing all of the addresses to the new domain, so you if you notice a video or image isn't working, please help me out by leaving a comment.

Containers

2008-03-25T05:04:00.000-07:00

I need a container in which my five identity objects will sit. The first thing I did was go around my house and look at everything which works as a container for objects, and took pictures of them. These scans show part of that research.

This was useful in terms of making me think about all kinds of containers, and broaden the possibilities with this project. I don't however want to work with photos. Firstly I want to create something of my own, rather than use a container made by someone else. This way I can make it precisely how I want it to be in terms of aesthetics. I'd also like to use 3D studio max, so I've got more flexibility. I will be able to manipulate the camera in different ways, as well as set the lighting and mood.

The second image is a reference from http://www.techrestore.com

Logo Ideas

2008-03-24T09:10:00.000-07:00

I've done some research in to logo's before, and looked at some legends in the Identity field such as Paul Rand. I've never created one for myself however, so I decided to go back to my sketchbook. I've looked at famous logos, presentations on the VLP and had a think about how I should create mine.

Logo's should be simple, and iconic. If there's too much information then it isn't easily absorbed the viewer. Anything unnecessary should be stripped away, leaving just the fundamentals. I decided that my logo will be font based, allowing me to produce it any size I want. I chose to use my initials, after all it is my identity. The way in which I've used them can be associated with the pH scale. Here's a nice biggun for you to look at. The second image is me forgetting what I'd learned, still, it looks pretty slick.

Initial Reasearch

2008-03-12T09:48:00.000-07:00

Just some mind mapping, reading etc. I made a little list of things to do, just so I have some idea of what I need to achieve over easter.

Reading through the brief it seems I need to do the following:
Decide what kind of container my objects will go in
Choose the 5 different items to go in to my container (logo, avatar and AV item cover 3 items)
Create a logo
Use sound elements
Create a flash loading page
Embed the entire project to a HTML page
Conduct user testing

What other kind of interactive items could I incorporate? That's the hardest part for me right now. I've created a logo, got a rough idea of my container, my avatar is complete, and I've got a really good idea for a stop motion video. I need 2 or 3 more 'interactive items' though.

Game Over

2008-03-06T07:39:00.000-08:00

When I first heard of second life I was excited by the prospect of creating a virtual character, exploring online worlds, meeting some people along the way, and doing some interesting things which aren't possible in real life. The reality of virtual reality in this instance is that it's dull, and for me, meaningless. The first major draw back to second life is the visuals. I understand that it's a huge world being streamed to your computer so there's restrictions. This doesn't get away from the fact that it's incredibly boring to look at, to the point where it lacked character, and it felt soulless. There might be people walking around, and the odd few might strike up a conversation with you, but it's never going to match real life socialising. I visited clubs, shops and shows but none of them would ever be a substitute to the real thing. As I've mentioned before, second life became a glorified chat room to me, mainly inhabited by people with nothing better to do with their time.

Another disappointment for me is the way everything is centered around money. I was hoping that in my virtual world I'd be able to do what I want without having to pay for it. It's an achievement that such a society has been created, many of whom generate their own content to make the world even more interesting. It's just a shame that I can't make my avatar look how I want it to without having to pay for it.

I've never enjoyed a role playing game, and my time with second life has only bolstered this. Second life isn't even a game, it's an escape for millions of people, people who want to be someone else if only for a couple of hours a day. I however don't want to escape and I'm more than content with my real life and facebook. It was a fleeting experience, one which you couldn't pay me to go through again.

Just like the real world....weird

2008-03-06T07:22:00.001-08:00

I've been using second life for quite a while now, and it's getting near the end. Other than a short synopsis of my experiences, this will probably be the last time I mention second life on my blog.

Again I thought I'd move on to a new island, just to have a more varied experience in second life. I looked up the most popular places, and surprisingly enough they were the places with mature content. It seems that currently you're free to go where ever you want in second life, regardless of your real life age. This is something that's being addressed with recent reports of online abuse. As always with the Internet, it's not policed so people are always at risk.

Still, I had a look, who wouldn't? It was kind of what I expected, it's like the real life sex trade but now it's spilling over to the virtual world. Now anyone can sit at their computer and have virtual sex. It's slightly worrying just because it's so easily accessible to everyone of all ages. That's the world wide web for you though. I think I'll call it a day with second life now.

Final video and stills

2008-03-05T08:26:00.000-08:00

Camera Tests

2008-03-03T08:08:00.000-08:00

I had to test mine out with a lot of the effects turned off just so it would render quickly. Here's some examples of what I've been doing today. Hopefully the next post I do will be the final thing.

Nearly there

2008-03-03T03:42:00.001-08:00

I've been taking some screenshots as I've gone along, but haven't put any on here for a few days. I've made good progress, and there's only small details left to add in. Seeing as I still have a while I think I'll add a bit of animation to my character, as well as make a video with some sound in. I've got my presentation to prepare, my second life diary to finish as well as complete my ideas for part 2 of the project! What do you reckon?

ilovedust

2008-02-26T08:55:00.000-08:00

http://www.ilovedust.com/

I heard of ilovedust sometime ago in Computer Arts, and I'd seen some of the clothing they make. I forgot about them until recently when I saw some of their work on zunearts. I bookmarked their homepage, but at the time it was under construction. The site is now online, and working very nicely indeed.

Being a company with skills in a wide range of medias they obviously had to create a website which could display multiple medias effectively. It would also have to match the quality of their work. The loading screen is cute and fun, with a little bear rowing a boat. Straight away I loved it. The graphics are typical of their print work. It's colourful and elaborate, but more importantly it's interesting to look at. As a nice touch they've animated the main graphics so something is constantly happening.

I noticed there was a clear colour scheme for the site, something which a lot of websites ignore. The background is a dark gray, and any text is a light gray. It makes text easy to read, and at the same time makes the work and images the focus. You don't have to read through the text to understand what the company is about, picture of their work do that for you. The main logos make use of specific shades of green, blue, pink, yellow, all of which are mirrored in the menu. It keeps things consistent and at the same time creates obvious categories.

Like just about every good flash site it's centered to the browser window, and bordered by the background colour. This makes it all very focused, and also makes it easy to browse on standard and widescreen monitors. It's a simple and effective site, which works for commercial purposes. It's got all the information a possible client would be looking for, whilst at the same time working as a technical show piece for what they can do.

A Little Glimpse

2008-02-25T09:33:00.000-08:00

Now that I'm modeling my environment (with the avatar being 90% complete) I'm starting to work with things on a pretty huge scale. To say I'm loosing patience is an understatement. Here's some images of whats cracking right now. You can see how I've used my buildings which I made a few days back. It's just a case of cloning those over and over again, resizing them in various ways, adding a map to the grass area, modeling some trees, creating a sky/atmosphere dome, doing some animation, and sitting back and letting it render. Rather a lot really.

Good and Bad

2008-02-24T09:31:00.000-08:00

http://bowenstudios.com/

Again, this is a site featured on the fwa. This time however, I wasn't all that impressed. When you've seen flash sites done really well, it's disappointing to use one which fails on many levels. The company itself produce Architectural illustrations, so the main focus of the site is the imagery they can create. This aspect has been covered, in that your entire browser window is filled with an image from a project. The quality of images is rather blurry however, and they still take a while to load up. When they do load, they don't quite fit in to the area of the screen properly, so you have to move your mouse around to view all of it. While it's a nice interactive element, it slows things down. I also found it a bit misleading, in that there's an arrow which follows your cursor. I thought this was to move around the image with, but what it acts as is a forward and back button, but this isn't clear. The user interface is, like the rest of the site, a bit slow and a bit dull.

http://www.fabiolana.com/

This is an example of an effective portfolio site, especially for people who want to display a lot of still media. Fabio Lana is a photographer who produces a lot of commercial pieces. His website is very flashy and modern. I suppose that being a photographer, you have to keep everything related to your work fashionable. It makes great use of contrast, with white text on a black background. The typography is very clean and vivid as well, reducing any clutter. Navigating the site is a lot of fun. Images are browsed using the arrows on your keyboard, and it flicks through photos, rather like apples 'coverflow'. While it looks cool, it can be a little slow and confusing, so an alternative is provided which makes browsing a lot faster.

Changes

2008-02-23T09:50:00.000-08:00

I wasn't happy with how my original avatar was looking, mainly because of the face I'd been modeling. As a result I've changed to what you can see below. I've decided to make my face in to a flat screen television, on to which a video of my eyes has been mapped. It looks pretty cool in motion. I've still got the limbs to do obviously, and I'll make them using the same method we used to make tentacles for the squid.

Another thing I had a play round with was particle effects. I want my character to fall to the floor in to deep grass and lay down. On impact I want a dust effect to cloud up from the collision. Doesn't look much like dust, but it'll suffice.

Lighting Experiments

2008-02-20T09:26:00.000-08:00

An important part of my project is going to be the environment I create, and I've got some pretty big ideas for it. I thought it would be best to do some experiments with how easy it is to create a building, and what kind of lighting is going to create the best look. As I thought, omni seems to be best. It's quick to render, but creates quite an atmosphere with some accurate shadows. I'm probably going to create my own materials and maps, but for the purposes of this experiment I used a free texture from Deviant Art.

Thanks to "Davidmcb" for the cool facade texture

Modeling update

2008-02-20T07:36:00.000-08:00

I'll do these updates with images, just because it's easier and probably more informative. Take a look...

Yes, I do realise my blog isn't working as it should be, I didn't pay my bills again!

Robot Legs

2008-02-19T09:17:00.001-08:00

It was pretty overwhelming to see what goes in to such a simple set of movements, especially when you consider how complicated things could get later on. Thought I'd post up what I managed to produce anyway. I had a few problems with my hierarchy which is why I haven't done the walking animation. As always, there's a nice big still as well as some videos below.

Clubbing?

2008-02-18T10:55:00.000-08:00

Well, after being disappointed by the fact I had no money I thought I'd do a bit more exploring. I had a look at the list of popular locations on second life, and jumped in to the Dance Island. What I came across was shockingly sad. I walked around the various shops on Dance Island, all of which sold various clubbing outfits, some of the better ones were actually being modeled by people walking the streets who would try to flog you some of their clobber. I was quite happy with the way I looked, so I went in to the main club. Surprisingly enough it looked very much like a real club, complete with a DJ, lights, dance floor and most importantly lots of people dancing.

The cool feature of the Dance Island is that you can use the animations associated to that island, which in this case were dance moves. I got in my Saturday Night mood and busted some fine moves on the dance floor. I actually found the whole thing to be pretty hilarious, mainly because of the dancing, but also for the fact that 50 or so people got together to dance in a virtual club. People were talking in the public chat, chatting each other up, and dancing near one another. One guy even offered to phone a woman in 'rl' (real life). My god...

I'm really starting to worry about some people. Not only does second life seem like a glorified chatroom, it also seems like a place that people with very little social skills might visit to talk to other equally socially retarded humans.

Indentity Update

2008-02-18T10:33:00.000-08:00

I promised I'd be modeling my avatar by today, and I am! Still got some fine details to sort out, but it's all there now. Just thought I'd put some more scans on today so you can see what's been going on.

Play launches a new music download service

2008-02-15T04:36:00.000-08:00

Finally, a company is starting to get it. We want to be able to download music without having to download some software to play it, we don't want any DRM, we want it in high quality, and we want it at a better price than iTunes offers. So, when I went on play today I was surprised to find this.

It seems that for 65p-70p you can download a 320kbps MP3, without DRM, directly through your Internet browser. That's 9p-14p cheaper than iTunes currently offers, and it's at almost twice the bit rate. More importantly, as it doesn't have DRM there aren't any restrictions on what you can do with the tracks. At the moment the library of tracks isn't quite up to the competition, but hopefully this will make apple get their act together.

Environment Ideas

2008-02-14T09:19:00.000-08:00

Knock yourself out

Progress tis a fine thing

2008-02-14T06:46:00.000-08:00

Well, I've completed a research sketchbook and I've got some really strong ideas running through my head. I went ahead and got myself another sketchbook to start doing some ideas in. With all this research my ideas should come together really quickly, so fingers crossed, I'll be modeling my avatar on Monday. If I'm not then I need a kick up the arse!

CGI Characters

2008-02-13T09:17:00.001-08:00

I just stumbled across this image from Pirates Of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest. I was amazed by the effects when I saw this film, but I didn't know how they created these characters. As it turns out, every single frame was drawn and rendered in CGI. Quite an amazing computer performance really.

Click to see the animated GIF

Why your ISP WONT be banning you from the internet

2008-02-13T05:18:00.000-08:00

I heard and read some pretty scary news yesterday which the BBC and the Times published. According to them, we now have a 3 strike policy in the U.K regarding illegal downloading. The fact is, we don't, and here's numerous reasons why.

1. No law has been passed to enforce this. It was a draft proposal only. Even worse it was a green paper, so it's about as useful to the government as a piece of bog roll with a hole in it. Makes you wonder why the story was ever published doesn't it? If this isn't reason enough for you, then I'll continue.

2. It's impossible to enforce, if it were actually being enforced...which it's not. ISP's can't possibly monitor every packet going through their servers, and why would they want to start banning their customers? Are you trying to tell me that people need a 20MB connection to read their emails? No, they don't, so don't ever think your ISP will ban you for using the service they provide to you.

3. It's impossible to tell the difference between legal and illegal downloads. Simple as. P2P and BitTorrent can be used for legal and illegal sharing. What about online gaming VoIP etc etc.

4. It would break EU laws for the ISP to do this.

5. Unsecured wi-fi connections aren't a rarity. How does the ISP prove it was you who downloaded something? They can't.

6. Encrypted packets are being used more and more. People can browse and download anonymously. There's no way of knowing who's downloading what. Plus, if the ISP's were to go ahead and enforce this policy, then all the downloaders would move to encrypted services, putting them back at square one.

7. How can you create an e-enabled society if your ISP is banning the very people who use it?

Basically, the music and film industry should stop shoving their weight around and they should stop using their power and money to force governments to make laws which suit them. For now, continue as you are!

Update: 16/2/08
Nice to see the BBC agreeing with me

Wormy Worm

2008-02-13T04:56:00.000-08:00

I spent a fair few hours fiddling around with the morphing modifiers, as well as lighting and mapping in this scene. I wanted to make it look like the actual BBC Three worm clips, so I put some time in to the environment. The draw back of using extensive lighting has become clear...RENDERING TIMES. Even on my beastly P.C it's going to take hours to render the video I created. It's not even that great of a video, so instead I'll upload some stills and put the video up later. *Video Added* Forgive the poor quality but I had to lower the samples so the rendering time was reduced.

Sketching

2008-02-11T04:30:00.000-08:00

I've been doing some sketches of parts of my body, as well as some material objects. When I look really closely at myself it's weird some of the crazy shapes your body has. If you're wondering why I'm doing this, is just to understand my form a bit better, and have a close look at what means something to me. It should help me create an avatar which is meaningful and has reason.

Being Connected

2008-02-11T02:15:00.000-08:00

The idea of being an 'interstitial node' makes me think about the internet and global networks in a completely different way. I look at is as a series of swarms or aglomerations of small networks, connected to larger networks. With the advances in web design, everyone is effectively becoming much closer to one another, and the world is becoming smaller. Networking sites work with other networking sites, and you get 'track backs'. As a result I feel like there's no longer a third party publisher, or anyone controling the content. Much of what has appeared on the web in the past 5 years is user generated, and this is largly thanks to advances in technology. People now have a voice on a global scale, and with the help of facebook, blogger, diggit, youtube etc our work can reach a much larger audience. The networking sites create an online environment where a group of people can thrive and be heard, rather than a single author struggling to get noticed.

Other than your internet bill, the internet is a free method of distribution which we can all take advantage of. You now see viral marketing campaigns stirring up huge amounts of hype online. One of the most memorable of these was the Halo 2 ad campaign where a mysterious site name www.ilovebees.com appeared in a trailer for the game. From that point on, fans of the game went wild, trying to get to the root of the riddle. Rather than spending millions on an advertising through television, radio and magazines, they got the fans of the game to do the hardwork for them. There are specific viral marketing firms who can be hired to set up interest around your product for far cheaper than ever before such as www.rebelvirals.com.

Similarly you also have new ways of distributing large files without having to pay bandwidth fees. The popular BitTorrent client is a hugely successful piece of software which has opened things right up for independant film makers and musicians. www.stealthisfilm.com is film about the history of content sharing and discusses many of the intellectual property arguements that are currently occuring across the world. Other more commercial films have also made use of what's available on the internet to create their work. Snakes on a plane for instance allowed fans to contribute to the film from start to finish, something never attempted before.

What I've discussed here is only a miniscule part of the larger picture, but these are some examples I'm aware of where being connected is changing the world in big ways.

Face Your Pockets

2008-02-07T08:07:00.000-08:00

If you've had a look at my scans you might have seen a page on www.faceyourpockets.com
The page in question is this one so have a look if you want to know more about it, or just hit up the website. Anyway, I did some of my own. If you think these look cool, do some of your own and let me know!

Identities So Far

2008-02-07T07:32:00.000-08:00

If you take a look at my Labels on the right, you'll see I've got all my Identities work linked there. Those postings don't tell everything though, as much as what I've done is in my sketchbook and I'm trying to get as much of that online as possible so everyone can see my progress and hopefully offer some feedback.

The Identities project is something I'm beginning to feel really positive about. I'll admit that early on in the project I was a bit too relaxed with my work, and I didn't get too much done. I completed all the small projects we did with Andy, and in all cases took them further when I got the work home. I also did a little bit of extra stuff with 3DS so I understood the interface and features a little better. I've got the confidence now, and I reckon I'll be able to create the avatar I dream up, albeit with a little help. Or a lot.

I've done a lot of research in to my identity, and others who have explored this field already. Things are moving a long nicely now, and with the deadlines firmly in mind I know what I've got to get done in the following weeks. Right now I've completed my research phase, and in the process of doing that I've come up with some cool ideas, specifically for my environment. I've given myself until the end of next week to have a firm idea of the avatar and environment I want to create. That will then allow me 3 weeks to create everything, more than enough time in my mind. At the same time however I'll be continuing my second life work, any tutorial assignments and creating a presentation for week 33. It's quite a lot of work going on at once, but I prefer it this way, it keeps me on my toes.

I'm so happy to be doing a sketchbook once again. I can remember loathing them in my foundation year, but being without one for so long you realise why it's so important. One thing I'm a little worried about however is dreaming up a character. I've never been much of a comic reader, or a cartoon watcher, neither have I ever attempted to draw a character. I'm much more at home with accurate drawings like you can see in the image on the left. Roma's seminar on Tuesday explained things to me, and I now understand the possibilities.

Image Movers Digital

2008-02-07T07:11:00.000-08:00

http://imagemoversdigital.com/

From what I can gather, Image Movers Digital are a company who create computer generated environments for film. They have experience in many big films, such as Beowulf. Their portfolio, which I found through FWA is really effective in displaying their work.

The site fills your browser window, making effective use of the space on everyones screen. In the background are some detailed renders, and pieces of art from their projects which are darkened slightly by a black layer over the top. This helps to distinguish them as the background, so the menus and information are in the foreground. The menu's and information within the foreground make use of bright colours, creating a contrast between the two areas.

Along the bottom, you have a pop up menu which I've seen used on many sites. The benefit of this is that when it's not needed it can be hidden away so as not to clutter the screen. What I liked most of all was the way images could be navigated. When choosing a project, the background darkens, and new centered window appears. Within this window are a series of thumbnails which when clicked fill that window. A nice added interface feature is a next and previous button which appear from the left and right hand side of the browser.

Is This Counter Strike?

2008-02-07T06:57:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have played Counter Strike, take a look at my screen shots and you'll understand where I'm coming from. I broadened my horizons and escaped from Help Island, never to return. I decided I'd have a look around some of the character customization stores. I stepped in to the "Good Life" store, where I saw some shop assistants stood around twiddling their thumbs, much like in real life. Having a walk around I saw the scope of what you can do to yourself, and the range of avatars you can create. While I have customized my character to some degree, he still looks very much like the generic character. So I wandered over to the wall in the corner with all the women stood around.

It was amazing to see all these people looking up at a wall with how they can make their body look. I can draw parallels with real life, and people having plastic surgery. It's kind of scary that we're moving towards something not to different to what you see here, buying you're body from a menu.

Good Life seemed to be a little female orientated, and it didn't suit me at all, so I flew to the shop across the street. This place seemed a little emo, which was fine by me. I saw some cool characters being advertised so I thought I'd have a go with them. INSUFFICIENT FUNDS was the message I got. I'm sat there looking at my screen, thinking, GTFO. I've got to earn money in this world as well, what a joke.

How will I earn money? I'm thinking of selling my body maybe. Not sure how much you get for that though.

Lost

2008-02-07T06:46:00.001-08:00

I can remember this part of my second life feeling a bit like an episode of lost. I was stuck on the Help Island, with all the boring newbies. Being a n00b myself, I didn't have a clue what I what I was doing so I proceeding to sprint around the place, banging in to people, and just generally making their time on Help Island a bit frustrating.

When I realised that what I was doing was getting me nowhere (and the inability to start shooting people to make things more entertaining dawned on me) I decided maybe communication would help. I started to ask people with weird names if they knew how to get off the island. I didn't know if there was a boat, or some kind of cross channel ferry boat which arrived at various times of the day. One guy I asked was in the same boat as me (no pun intended) and was completely clueless. Then I realised you can chat to everyone who's close to you, so I flew towards a crowd and asked all of them. They all ignored me, which I found a little rude, but I'll let them off as they're probably still working out how to turn the HUD off.

In second life it seems you don't have to cope with transport, instead you teleport, one great relief to me. Also, even though I was ignored by people, at least they don't called me a 'fag' like they do on Xbox Live. If you take a look at the second screenshot, it seems that sex sells even in the virtual world. Guess where I visited next...

It's Been A While

2008-02-07T06:31:00.000-08:00

Since setting up my second life account a couple of weeks ago, I've been doing some playing around in the god forsaken world. I took a load of screen shots, but because I hated it so much I didn't bother putting anything on my blog. The fact is, now that I understand second life a little better, I'm starting to enjoy it a bit more. I'm going to put my snapshots up in a few separate postings because I seem to remember I had some quirky article titles. Anyway, I'll start with my appearance!

The options for editing your character are vast, and slightly overwhelming. I've never been a fan of RPG style games, mainly because I don't have the patience for it. I stuck with it a little and managed to make a skinny, athletic looking bloke with a similar hair cut to mine. Unfortunetly he also looks slightly gay, and he appears as though he might be part of a highly regarded dance school. Looking around the "Help Island" everyone else looks equally as ridiculous as me, but at least I've got dancing skills. I know that once you get out in to the second world a little more that there's lot of ways to change you're character, so I thought I'd save a lot of the customization till later.

I also took the time to learn the interface a little better. Flying for instance saves a lot of time. The HUD on the other hand is the most obtrusive one I've ever had the misfortune of using, so I turned it off.

Research Scans

2008-02-06T03:29:00.000-08:00

I'll be back with some second life stuff, when I can bare to use that piece of shit again. Maybe I'm missing something with second life? I seriously hate it. Really badly.

Valyard Portolio

2008-02-05T09:52:00.000-08:00

http://www.valyard.ru/

This site is loud, garish, bright and slightly overwhelming. It displays the work of a Flash designer and programmer called Valentin. He's clearly very capable with Flash, and the site is hugely technical. I would however question some of the design choices. First of all, navigation. The main menu proves to be effective in wowing the user, and at the same time being clear and simple to use. Once you delve in to the menu system you find it increasingly difficult to get what you're looking for. Browsing through images is much more annoying than it ever needed to be. I understand that portfolios are a technical showcase, but at the same time you need to prove that you understand how people use a website.

The colour scheme of this site is also awful, a bright blue and purple completely throw you on entering the site. When you start examining the background you can see it's nothing more than a series of Photoshop brushes being layered up. There are some nice subtle animations thrown in to the mixer, which keep you from getting bored (if that was ever possible). Another thing to note is that fact that this is a very high resolution site, which takes an eternity to load up even on my fast connection. I think it's a case of things being taken too far.

More Scans

2008-02-05T09:22:00.001-08:00

Just a few more scans from what I've been doing in my sketchbook. In no particular order.

A good portfolio example

2008-02-01T08:51:00.000-08:00

http://www.sksantos.net/2008/

I was thinking about that fact that at some point I'm going to have make my own online portfolio. Right now I'm using a portfolio which is built by someone else, but it serves it's purpose for the time being. Looking on theFWA I found a site for a photographer which has many features I'm fond of in a portfolio. Firstly, the site loads quickly, good news for impatient people like me! Secondly, when its loaded, it's incredibly simple to find what you're looking for. When you actually open up his projects you get a series of thumbnail images which pop up before you click any links. When you do open up a photo, you get a full screen, high resolution image. This is exactly what's needed when displaying still imagery. The same navigation and display system is used for the video projects he's done, so this kind of template could fit in to a multimedia portfolio very nicely.

I do however have a couple of gripes with the site. I know that this is for commercial purposes, so information is always going to be a little scarce, but still I think each image or project should have a paragraph or so of text. I also don't like the way the menus constantly hide them selves, and pop up when you're mouse hovers over them. It's not very clear where the hotspots are at times, and you can end up with a barrage of menus cluttering up your screen.

Wollaton Hall

2008-01-31T07:09:00.000-08:00

As part of our identity project is to create a world for our virtual character, I thought I'd visit somewhere I really enjoy. I took a load of pictures while I was there, and did a few sketches which I might scan in later. There's something strangely enjoyable about walking around cold windy fields. I'm not sure why it appeals to me...

And yes, the photos are huge. Live with it.

My Identity

2008-01-30T07:04:00.000-08:00

Thought I better put up some scans from my sketchbook today. Hopefully these show you how my mind works. I'm still in the stages of exploring my identity, so I really know who I am, and how I want to show myself. I find it quite strange writing about myself, and doing an entire project on myself. My aim is to do lots of drawing in this sketchbook because I miss it!

Predicting the future

2008-01-30T04:50:00.000-08:00

I've been asked to make a prediction on the future of a technology. I took a look at the 'movable projected display', but if I'm being honest, I have absolutely no clue how that hardware works, and so I have no idea of it's possible applications. One thing I can predict the future of, primarily because I actually understand it, is media distribution.

The latest battle for our expendable income comes from two rival companies, with very similar products. It's blu ray vs HD DVD. This isn't the first time consumers have been confused by rival products. Back in the day there was beta max vs VHS, and just about everyone knows how that turned out. Beta max was a Sony product, a tape very similar to VHS which failed for numerous reasons. Now they're back with blu ray (after some other failed attempts e.g. UMD and A Track) and this time they mean business.

Now, HD DVD and Blu ray have their pro's and con's. HD DVD is a cheaper and more efficient format to produce, whereas Blu ray is still having trouble reducing it's production costs. This leads to higher prices for the consumer both for films and the hardware. HD DVD however has less storage space currently per disc, meaning that they can't store as much content. When it boils down to it however, both have identical HD picture quality, as there's more than enough space on both formats. Where this war is won and lost is with the films, and as it turns out Blu ray is winning.

Blu ray recently acquired Warner Brothers pictures, which carries with it many other studios (including Fox). This was seen as a massive blow to the HD DVD camp, who are now short of many exclusive films. When you couple this with the fact that every PS3 sold is also a blu ray player, then you can't see HD DVD competing. This war is still in it's infancy however, so a lot can change. I personally believe that in 5 years time, many of us will be watching our films on a Blu Ray player.

Qtrax and it's lies

2008-01-30T04:31:00.000-08:00

I saw the hype build around Qtrax when it was announced a few days, and to be honest, I thought the whole thing was too good to be true. The concept was a legal P2P programme, boasting a ridiculous library of songs to download for free. The music industry would make their money through advertising on the site, therefore making everyone happy. What a brilliant idea, possibly the future of music distribution! Well, not quite.

It seems that Qtrax doesn't actually have any major record labels signed up yet, and it doesn't look like they're going to either. There's an article on BBC news about this which you might want to look at. This comes as a major disappointment for me, as I thought the record labels were beginning to see the light. Obviously not.

Wacky Tree

2008-01-29T08:31:00.000-08:00

I know it's weird looking, but I actually think it's pretty cool looking at the same time. I'm starting to understand modeling much more now, something I originally struggled with in the beginning. Again, I've produced a nice still render of this ridiculous looking thing, as well as a quick video.

Still render coming soon...

Squid type creature thing

2008-01-28T10:38:00.000-08:00

This was a useful exercise in animation, as well as frustration. At times I want to kill this piece of software. Still, here's an image render and some videos for you.

With some simple mapping

Light and Colour

2008-01-19T08:42:00.002-08:00

Erik Natzke - "CA"
www.natzke.com

I found this image in Computer Arts February issue. I haven't read the article yet, but I know this work is created with algorithms which produce beautiful colours, shapes and compositions. When I saw it I thought of the work we'd been set about light and colour.

There's so many colours seen here, built up on top of one another, overlapping to create another shade. They're quite warm tones which explode out from the top of the canvas and they grow in to the foreground. Sitting in a white space, it could appear quite cold, but the warmness of the shapes counteracts this effect. Instead I get a feeling of light which is emanating from the explosion of colour. It's a very abstract composition, created in a computers mind, an interesting emerging art form. The code is obviously created by a human, but the way the art comes alive with the computer is what interests me.

3D Studio Max #2

2008-01-18T10:58:00.000-08:00

I've been doing some more playing around and decided to do a more advanced tutorial I found on youtube. Admittedly this has nothing to do with my identity, but this is helping me learn the software. There was quite a lot of mapping involved in this one as well as camera movements. I'm really pleased with the results, and for anyone who likes it you can download a high res wallpaper of it. Next up, world destruction.

I wanted to create an explosion at the center of this, but I think I might be getting a bit ahead of myself there. If the world ever ended like this everyone would be officially disappointed.

3D Studio Max #1

2008-01-18T01:19:00.000-08:00

This programme is insane, insane in a good way. It's a bit overwhelming I'll admit, but my god I want to learn how to use it. When I got home from the lecture yesterday I downloaded 3D Studio Max 9 and did the tutorial Andy gave us. I went a little further and added in some camera movements. Next up is lighting.

Jumping Text

Jumping Text with camera movements

Chrome text and shapes with camera movements, mapping and lighting

Genius

2008-01-18T00:47:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if this is real or if someone made this up at home for fun. I doubt Burger King would like to be quite this original anyway, but if this is real I'm eating only their burgers from now on.

Found on http://www.ilovedust.com/

The Masks

2008-01-16T07:13:00.000-08:00

I can't remember for the life of me how I heard about this, but I thought it was really good. Created by Pandapanther this is a commercial animation selling the Zune Mp3 player. Called "The Masks" it shows a battle between two rival tribes, with peace prevailing in the end. Unfortunately the pandapanther is completely terrible and tells you nothing about what goes in to their projects, so I did a bit of snooping around on the Zune website. This is part of the "zune arts" campaign, where emerging artists get together to create some really amazing work.

http://www.zune-arts.net/
That website has some really cool wallpapers, posters and videos to download so have a look. I spent a good hour watching the videos on there. Someone please tell me where I've heard of "ilovedust" before.

Love this one about the dog too

Braun 1960's vs Apple Classics

2008-01-16T06:53:00.000-08:00

I read a cool little article in The Guardian G2 today, comparing designs from Braun in the 1960's with the designs from Apple today. Looking at the images, it's amazing how comparable the products are, even though they're generations apart. The designs of Dieter Rams were based on simplicity and the urge to do away with anything unnecessary, because he believed that made a design stand the test of time. With gimmicks, and fashions there's the chance what you've created will fall out of fashion. When I think of apple products, I do think of absolute simplicity, but I also get the feeling it's 'form over function', something I've never been interested in. Johnathan Ives however really understands what works and thats why his designs have become so iconic. He's the modern day Dieter Rams, and both of their designs will be remembered.

I've provided a nice big scan so you can read the article and check out the images. I'm not sure if this breaks some kind of copyright laws, but frankly the more people who get to read this the better.

Article written by Jonathan Clancey. The Guardian. 16.01.08

Talking of 'absolute simplicity' and doing away with the unnecessary, have a look at the new Macbook Air. The worlds thinnest notebook, courtesy of apple. But how is it so small? Well, there's no CD/DVD drive, a feature which a lot of people use less and less nowadays, so why not get rid of it. The fact that solid state memory is getting cheaper and larger is also a driving force behind this.

FWA Websites

2008-01-14T09:55:00.000-08:00

I didn't know about 'The FWA' until today, but the site is now officially bookmarked for me. It's a brilliant resource for me because I can see how people have used flash and other technologies to be creative. Looking through the huge archive of sites I found a couple that really stood out...

http://www.group94.com/

The best word I can think of for this site is 'slick'. I've seen hundreds of portfolio sites in my Internet days, some good, many bad. Being a portfolio site, it's a true showcase of the companies technical abilities, whilst also being informative. All the information needed is there, you've got their previous work, a list of clients, and a nice contact form. At first the site seems incredibly simple, which it should do. I hate websites which overwhelm you with information, sounds, and graphics. Once you start looking through the menus you begin to appreciate how damn easy everything is to use. The UI is complemented by smooth and subtle animations, and some funky effects. If you delve in a little closer you get to see how the site actually works, and what they've created is an ingenious flash/HTML hybrid.

http://www.livefreeordieharddvd.com/
This is a very commercial site for the Die Hard films. The purpose of it is completely different to the last, in that this is selling a product rather than a service. It offers fans of the series some information in both text and media forms. The way it does this is the interesting part. Like many games websites take inspiration from games, this site is heavily influenced by film. The navigation system plays out like a film, and as the next piece of content loads up, you get to watch clips from the film so you're not getting bored. If you can't be bothered with the impressive, but slow navigation then there's a 'Quicknav' option. Nice to see them catering for those with A.D.D.

Clark and Michael

2008-01-06T07:21:00.000-08:00

If you're a fan of Arrested Development or the film Superbad then I suggest you take a look at my new favourite comedy 'Clark and Michael'. I'm not posting this here because I think Michael Cera is a legend, or because I want to promote his latest piece of comedy genius. I'm posting it here because the entire series is free to watch online now. It's free, it's legal, it has no DRM and you can watch it as many times as you like. I'll admit that the humour fits in to a niche market, which is probably why this series never made it on to television. If you haven't found Cera funny up until this point, then you're not suddenly going to start loving him now, so don't even bother. On the other hand, if you're bored and want something to do that's free then give this a go. Each episode is around 10 minutes long, and I applaud these guys for not giving up. They've brought their work to the masses without a television network.

Stop Motion

2008-01-02T07:11:00.000-08:00

I took the photographs for this stop motion piece a couple of weeks ago, but I've only just got around to publishing it today. Ever since we did the pixilation project I wanted to play around with stop motion some more. What I've done was relatively simple and quick. I got my camera set up on a tripod, and started taking photos around my house. I didn't want to do pixilation, and instead I wanted to bring objects to life, a great feature of stop motion. I thought, wouldn't it be brilliant if everything that's monotonous and a chore in life was done for you? I can remember at the time I was going to take the idea further and have a series of actions happening around someone, making their life easier. When I came to edit my images together and add music to the video I could see that there's room to expand on whats happening.

I resized my images and used the auto levels feature of Photoshop to improve the quality of the colours and shadows. I didn't want to put any special effects on the photos because they weren't really needed for this video. In Premier I used a couple of simple transitions (Dissolve) to fade out sections of video. I overlayed some music which I felt was fitting to the tempo of the images on screen. I chose a song by "The Smiths" called "Rusholme Ruffians", it's a quiet acoustic track with a section devoid of lyrics which could fit the length of my video.

This was just an experiment with what we'd learned with Andy Love, but I enjoyed going back and doing something myself without a brief. I still want to create one of these in High Definition at some point, but the camera I have is a bit old and wouldn't do the format justice. Some really beautiful compositions and animations could be created and then displayed in HD. Just a thought!

Second Life First Steps

2007-12-19T04:15:00.000-08:00

Well I spent the last hour of my life signing up to second life, downloading the software and completing the tutorial. If I have to continue using this piece of software over the next few months I'll probably throw my computer out the window in frustration. I haven't reiterated the point in a while that I absolutely despise RPG's and MMORPG's. With that in mind I'll give my impressions on the experience so far.

The most awful part of this whole experience are the graphics. I suppose I expected them to be terrible, as this is an online game with huge environments so they're limited as to what can they achieve. When you've been spoiled with the kind of graphics seen on the PS3 or Xbox 360 you feel like you've gone back in time and you're punishing your retinas unfairly. It's very clean, linear and sharp, but ultimately it's boring. I didn't feel any desire to explore the environment as a result. Walking through the world felt like a chore more than anything. The instances of pop in is incredible, you're looking in to the distance and you can see the world loading up in front of you. There's not even an effort to make this less obvious such as a fog or smoke effect to cover up the draw distance. Even as you walk past a tree you see it load up from the low res to high res version. With my loathing of how this game looks it's hard to have any kind of fun. There are some positives in this cyberworld however.

After having a play around for a while I started to realise the scope of what you can do. I've only been on the tutorial island so far and there was a ton of stuff to play around with. For example you can sample the vehicles, interact with objects, watch video streams and buy objects. What impressed me was the tutorial system. This game at it's core is very complicated, and being thrown in to it unaided would be really overwhelming for the average Joe. You get four distinct paths to begin with, which are colour coded, and they add up to create a jigsaw when completed. When you work that out it's very clear what you have to do to progress. Tasks are indicated by a big flashing circle and when you reach it a step by step tutorial is provided which you go through at your own pace.

The main reason we're using this software is to play with the character creation feature. I've not decided on how I want my character to look, so I'm saving that for later. I had a look at what was possible though and it's a very in depth system they've implemented. I'm actually quite looking forward to getting stuck in to that.

Interaction Complete

2007-12-05T05:40:00.000-08:00

I got all the photos taken today, so I thought I better get on with it in flash. I managed to get it published as an .swf and .html file and here it is for you to play around with. I think I might take a couple more pictures to add to this later today or tomorrow. If there's anything wrong in the sequences let me know please. SWF or HTML

To display how my story works I created a flow diagram of how events occur. It's modeled on the original diagram I drew when I had the idea. You can see how my idea progressed from a simple concept on paper, to the final piece.

When its displayed in this way it makes the whole process seem so simple. I really struggled to find a narrative which could fit to this framework, mainly because I've never attempted anything like this before. The resulting piece of work however I'm quite pleased with. I don't feel it's as successful as the last two projects, mainly because I don't like the media here as much. It's difficult to display the depth of your story through still images and sound alone. Giving the user control also makes things more difficult because you can't guarantee that everyone will have the same experience. I know that in all medias people draw from things what they want, but with this media in particular there are more ways the user can be influenced.

I decided to keep things as simple as possible within flash because my knowledge of it isn't brilliant. I've used it in the past a little, and the template provided made sense to me straight away. I also knew how to implement music, but getting everything to work seamlessly was a difficulty. There aren't any transitions between images so the entire sequence becomes rather jumpy. The most disappointingly thing, is that after taking time to think of a narrative, take my photos and edit them, that some of them might not get seen. Everything happens so quickly as well because the decisions are really simple to make. If anyones managed to create one of these where the user feels under pressure to make tough decisions then they've done very well.

The only sound I've implemented is on the first frame where the alarm clock goes off. I didn't feel the rest of it needed sound to make sense, as the imagery was strong enough already. The narrative is also centered around the alarm going off, and the difficulty a lot of us experience with getting out of bed so it made sense to highlight that. If I'd of used more sound I think it might have become a little overwhelming for the user, and it might have become messy with sounds overlapping.

The images are something I'm really proud of. They tell the story themselves whether it be through the editing, or the poses of the character. You might also notice subtle differences between the "good" and "bad" paths within my narrative. You can see that I added a lighting effect to my photos to make them darker, but also to draw the users eye to what I wanted them to see. The lighting effect creates a white circle which focuses attention, and also adds a darkness to the edge of the frame to indicate to those dark winter mornings. On the "good" route where the user gets up for work and gets ready, this darkness isn't present. The brightness of these shots is subtlety saying the user has done something good.

Using photoshop I also incorporated text in to some of my images quite cleverly. For example in one photo of a clock face, I edited the word "snooze?" on there. This was to create a less visually confusing piece. I didn't want to add text over the top in flash all the time, because it was starting to look messy and I wanted a seamless look. Another example of this is the text popping out from the phone when you're being informed that you've been sacked. Another small touch is adding a brighter colour to the clock face in the first photo, so the user knows exactly where their attention is supposed to be.

New Narrative

2007-12-04T10:43:00.001-08:00

Seeing as the last idea I had started off badly and went down hill from there I've completely changed things. I had a little think about what I could do that was simple and achievable in the time I have left. I again thought about things which effect all of us, this one on a daily basis. We all know the feeling when our alarm goes off, it's the worst sound in the world. It's the sound that means you actually have to get up and do something. What you do from there boils down to two options, you can get up and get on with the day, or you can put the alarm on the snooze and sleep in. Recently I've been doing this a lot, maybe it's because it's so dark in the mornings I'm not sure. My story breaks down as shown in the diagram below.

I'm going to add an effect to the photos I take which will make everything much darker and dull. A lot of people hate this time of year because its so dark and depressing all the time, I want to get this across in my imagery. I'm also going to use my Photoshop skills to edit the shots in other ways. Here are some examples of what they're going to look like.

You can see around the edges that the image has been darkened using a lighting effect, this gives the impression of those early mornings. You can also see how I've intensified the colours on the timer of the clock, to make the time more obvious to anyone using this interactive piece. Hopefully the images are so clear that very little explanation will be needed, if any at all.

The obstacles presented to the user are the choices to go back to bed, which is always an easy option when we're tired. The problem here is that if you decide to stay in bed, you're either going to be late for work, or get sacked. The positive route you can take is to get ready and leave the house on time. I find myself caught in two minds at times as to what I should do, and this should should display that feeling of confusion and guilt. I aim to have the photo's taken tomorrow, and maybe even the entire sequence compiled and posted on my blog.

Not Going Well

2007-12-04T08:40:00.000-08:00

My initial idea was to create a satire piece around the idea of Piracy. I spent today taking photos and putting them in to flash, but I really wasn't happy with the way it was panning out. It doesn't really have a narrative, and it became a bit silly. I wanted something a bit more serious. This is a real set back for me as I had this idea in my head but I just can't realise it how I want to. I'll upload the images I was going to use anyway just so you can see how horribly wrong it went.

Interative Narrative Explained

2007-12-03T08:43:00.000-08:00

The way I work is to research and brainstorm and think as much as possible, but without trying to force an idea. The advantage of this is that an idea can sometimes come out of no where, but it'll have been well considered and thorough. The downside is that sometimes I spend too long pondering over it and nothing happens. I know what I want to produce now, so I've got four days to get the thing done. Luckily I know flash well, I've studied the script, and I know what I need to get images of to make my piece.

Something I have a keen interest in the hot topic of file sharing. I think our generation in particular is well informed on the subject, we know that it exists and we've probably all taken part in it at some point. From the days of Napster, to the todays BitTorrent, it's a topic which sparks a lot of debate. I for one want to express my opinion that I feel there should be nothing wrong with sharing songs, films, games and applications with one another. I for one don't want to pay the inflated prices that the industry demands, and particularly when I'm on a student budget I can't afford a £10 CD or £15 DVD. I suppose it's like many other laws which people break on a regular basis because 'everyone else does it'. For instance people break speed limits. Want I want to do is present the topic to people in a way they understand, and the possible repercussions of their decisions.

I'm in the process of laying this out in a narrative form. It's going to be quite difficult to make a narrative out of this, but having a topic to work on top of is an important step.

Interative Research

2007-12-03T08:20:00.001-08:00

I mentioned in my last article that I was going to do some further research in to this type of media. Due to the interactivity of this project, the most obvious area of media to look at was games. They're currently about as interactive as media can get, and one game I played recently stands out as one to talk about.

Bioshock is a game created by "2K Games", it's primarily a first person shooter, with some RPG elements. The area which interested me the most were the moral decisions thrown at the user throughout the game, which actually effected the outcome of the plot. Much like the project we're about to do, there were two options presented. The screen shots below show in some detail how these decisions are played out.

What you can see happening here is the user choosing whether or not to kill the "little sisters". If you choose to kill them, you're instantly presented with "Adam" a necessity to survive in the game. The downfall of this is you become evil and this effects the outcome of the plot. The other option is to save the little sisters, for which you're presented a small amount of Adam, but taking this path way presents you with rewards. The way you choose between the two is to simply press a button, as in our work. It adds a twist to the usual gaming formula, and I loved making these kind of moral decisions. While you do get different endings either way, the rest of the game plays out exactly the same no matter which path way you take. I was a little disappointed by this as I wanted my decisions to have more of an impact on the story.

I've also been looking at other peoples blogs to see what they're doing for this project. Looking at Kane Pickerill's blog he had a link to a really useful website which went in to great detail on what Narrative is. In particular it discusses narrative in relationship to interactive design. They've produced a very similar narrative formula to the ones we've seen in lectures and seminars.

I'm starting to gain some confidence with this project now, as I was quite weary at the start. We don't have much longer to get this finished, but I feel I've got enough time so not to rush things. I like to take an ordered approach to work, but I think maybe this time I've left things a little too late. We'll see what happens in this next week though.

Struggling to find a narrative

2007-12-02T05:14:00.000-08:00

I'm having a hard time with this project because it relies so heavily on Narrative to be successful. The previous project was the same, but then I had a group to work with and discuss ideas with. Prior to starting the course I don't think I'd written or created a story in a few years, and I've never written a narrative which the user can have control over. I thought it would be a useful exercise to go back through the lecture notes I've made to concrete the idea of narratives in my head.

"A chain of events related by cause and effect occurring in space and time and involving some agency or intentionality" - Wilkens (2004)

When you explain narrative like that it seems rather simple. You need a series of occurrences which are interlinked with one another. Somewhere along the line you need a character or narrator to create the agency or intentionality. When I'm creating my story I need the story to be explained through the images alone, or my narration (through text or sound). This is providing me with some basic framework to work upon.

"Record and transmit information in order to explain" - Benford and Tallyn (2005)

The narrative I'm telling is basically an explanation of information. It doesn't always have to be clear, because some stories aren't always that obvious. Again it sounds easy enough, but I'm finding the media we're presenting the narrative within to be the difficult part. It's quite a therapeutic process to go through notes and dissect them though.

Narrative is also the point of view of the creator in my mind. If I'm making a film, animation etc the story is mine and mine alone being expressed. Any of my feelings or themes may be expressed as a result. The difference here is that the user is given some choice and control in the matter, so the story can go in different directions. This is quite worrying for me, because how do you guarantee a good experience for everyone? Or don't you? I'm still deciding on this. Using signs and symbols was also discussed. A piece of imagery can tell a story all of it own so at times no explanation is needed. I'll have to see how strong my pictures are.

Structure

Structure has been discussed many times in the lectures. What I'm looking at is the 'three-act structure'. You begin with an inciting event to spark off the rest of the story. This is what I need to think of first of all. If I can make a piece about something I'm passionate about then that's going to be something I can get involved in properly.

I just got an idea for what I can do! Brilliant, this stuff actually works.

After the inciting event, you're forced to react to it. Conflicts and obstacles are placed in the way. This is what creates the real meat of the story. Saying that though, if the initial event isn't interesting then no one will care about the obstacles. I want to make something which a lot of people can relate to and understand. In the end it all comes down to a resolution and the story is complete. Everything I've looked at is laying things out in terms everyone can understand, but putting them in to practice is the hard part. There's some more research I want to do, as I've spotted some articles in other peoples blogs which I found really useful. I also want to discuss the game Bioshock a little as I feel that relates to this project very well.

Philip Howlett | NTU Multimedia Blog | First Year

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