Wills Blog

Artefact 5/6

2011-05-19T07:01:00.000-07:00

Artefact 5 and 6 are very similar.Artefact 6 is basically just advancing on the features of PPT Improvement Programme,i am also attempting to develop this, i have used the JavaScript files from Robbe D Morris' website for the percentage sliders available at

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/articles/20030320.asp.

One of the key features that has been advanced is the notifications panel at the bottom of the website. This would intended to identify the weaker qualities for the student and offer help in these specific areas. These would include direct links to software's that would help.
Therefore if reading skills had only improved by 5% then there would be a link t a peice of reading software that they use in the school.

Artefact 5

2011-05-19T05:08:00.000-07:00

Here is a prototype image design of the application that i intend on creating, this is the students version of the application, where they can see the thresholds, remember there will be a teachers version so that they can set the score and also a parents version so that they can set the thresholds.

Artefact Five

2011-05-19T04:24:00.000-07:00

To improve upon the fourth artefact I have decided to open it up slightly more. By this I mean not only focusing on social skills improvements but also academic improvements. The concept i have come up with is this...

asically it is an application to improve children's qualities both academically and socially in and out of school time. This idea includes input from teacher pupil and parent.
The parent sets a target of improvement (say 70% improvement required in reading skills)
the teacher increases or decreases improvement relative to students progress as a percentage once a term
the child can log into a page to see their percentage of improvement and their target percentage
once the pupil reaches the percentage required they can receive some sort of reward off their parent (set privately at home)
the teacher and parent can encourage improvement with the incentive of a reward
The areas the child is struggling with, they will be notified on their page with links to software which will help them improve and boost their score for the next term

This includes the three subject pupil teacher and parent. They can all work together to help improve all aspects of the children.

Artefact 5

2011-05-19T04:14:00.000-07:00

Thinking back to working on social app i realised that it was a one way cycle between the parent and the child this is represented by the below diagram.

I experimented creating a diagram for how i would like my next design to be, this is represented by the diagram below. As you can see it now includes three parties teacher pupil and parent. The diagram shows the outside of the triangle with each erson offering support in some way for the child to reach the goal. The inside of the triangle represents the parent and teachers relationship working together to help the child reach the goal, whch would be the reward.

Artefact Five

2011-05-19T04:08:00.000-07:00

My Research has began for artefact 5, I would like to advance SocialApp in a way so that it is more practical. Having Discussed with my Tutor Simon Perkins maybe it would be nice to set academic goals hat could be monitored during school time, and also monitoring in the home with the parent after school.
I will be looking into the relationship between the pupil-teacher-and Student over the next few days to see how this relationship could benefit social app.
There is a nice quote by John. Walecka of Lincoln School Wisconsin USA to begin the research.
“The teacher’s relations with the child and with the parent do much to set the tone of the pupil’s reactions to the school situation and, consequently, to determine the growth of the child in desirable directions.”

J.Walecka http://www.jstor.org/pss/997127

Artefact Four

2011-05-19T04:02:00.000-07:00

Here is my fourth artefact. IT is the prototype for an application, it is pretty self explanatory once you go on the app. Basically just work through the stages for the child to receive the rewards. The idea is to set a balance between gaming and socialising for those children who spend a significant amount of time on computer games. To view the prototype please visit

http://www.willgilberthorpe.co.uk/socialapp/

Artefact Four Inspiration

2011-05-19T03:33:00.000-07:00

Here is some more inspiration with the app iEarned That where the parent sets the child goals such as homework, with a reward of going to the circus etc..
Tis is represented by a jigsaw puzzle, once a goal is set the a peice of the jugsaw is layed, once the jigsaw is complete the reward happens, and represents what is in the jigsaw, with the above example being a visit to the circus.

More Inspiration Artefact 4

2011-05-19T03:16:00.001-07:00

Above is an image of the app called MY LIFE RANK.
This app allows yu to set specific goals for yourself and for friends. This then detirmines your rank once the challenges are completed.
This has given me inspiration for the next artefact which will be the fourth.
I will be creating an application with specific goals. The theme of these goals will be test on social situations. The test will be aimed at children and judged by parents.
The child will be enticed by a reward which should hopefully help out by improving social life

Inspiration for artefact Four

2011-05-19T02:53:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2U1TjUO-VM

This video on children who are home schooled is the inspiration for my fourth artefact.
It is nothing to do with being home schooled but i like the idea of stage by stage help for children who need to go out and socialise more.

My artefact will also be aiming to help children who have addiction to computer games. Well addiction is quite a strong word, maybe a better phrase would be 'over users of games'

Mobile Site

2011-04-15T07:52:00.001-07:00

Ok so iv moved on to the mobile site for a couple of days, just inserted the image jquery slider, I reduced the pictures down to size and cropped them so that the important information could still be seen. See the below image.

Hands On Update

2011-04-13T05:20:00.000-07:00

There have been a few changes made to the Hands On client website Mainly style changes and moving around some of the div boxes. this has also happened mainly on the index page.

I have included a speech bubble with a quote from a client.The icons for facebook and twitter have changed and included in the footer, the blog has also been changed so that posts can be deleted by my client.

North Midlands Elite Development Centre

2011-04-13T05:14:00.001-07:00

Posts have been a bit less frequent recently as i have had an external poject as well as my client and prp to be getting on with. check out the new website at

www.northmidlandselitedevelopmentcentre.co.uk

Artefact 3

2011-03-28T10:02:00.001-07:00

Above is the document that I will be handing out to the school. The instructions will be for the children to have a conversation and copy down what they have said to each other in the speech bubbles. Each will take it in turn to fill in one of the bubbles.
The scenario will be 'a conversation you would have in the playground'
I have set out the document to be plain, so that this does not pucsh the children towards one subject.

Artefact 3

2011-03-28T09:55:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile thinking up a new question I am beginning the design of the third artefact.
My main aim from the artefact is to see the way that children socialise between each other. I would like to prove that children are less social because of gaming. I would also like to see the way the children converse with text, so that i could see examples of text abbreviations/ slang etc.

I believe that the best way to do this would be to have the children in pairs, and let them converse but also write down what they have said in speech bubbles. I will make sure that they are free to talk about whatever they like, they will not be observed because this will move away from the point of the artefact. I will set the scenario as the playground and let them free to speak and write what they please to each other.

Moving on to artefact 3

2011-03-28T09:39:00.001-07:00

For my personal research project i am looking for the subject area where the problem is. This should be a specific problem and as i move through each artefact, this should get more specific until i can attempt a solution at the problem. As i have explained in the previous post, i was proved very early that the subject area was not too much of a problem.

However the most interesting pieces of information that was called to my attention from the previous artefacts, which was the socialisation of children. Mrs White had explained that she has seen a significant difference with the way children talk, play and write.

She explained that children were less social in the playground there is more fighting (play fighting) specifically between the young boys. They often used text messaging abbreviations in their writing such as, you/U and LOL for laugh out loud.and finally there is more references to gaming in their story writing, for example the settings could be a war/battle field, or one specific example was jumping on cloud to cloud and more references to Super Mario.

This then tells me that it is gaming that is having this effect on the children and not the learning. Therefore inn order to reach the specific problem i have got no other choice than to reword/change the original question!

the areas of interest, are no longer between the thinking and learning of children compared to traditional methods. It has shifted towards, socialisation, gaming and parenting.I will have a think about the re-worded question and post it on the blog at a later date.

Artefact 3

2011-03-28T08:57:00.000-07:00

After artefact 2 i am a little stuck as to where to go. It seems that there is not a problem with learning technologies in primary schools. This is interesting for me because my research question has been dismissed!

My Question:
How can new technologies be used to enable new ways of thinking and working to enhance the learning in a primary school environment, when compared to traditional methods?

I was trying to prove that technologies were not helping children advance in learning however I have been proved wrong. My research document concluded that there where both good and bad traits for technological learning. I then asked Mrs White who believed that technology was helping the students, which was also the view of 90% of the teachers in the survey...

my results from the first artefact also show that during school time the children are not sat in front of a computer for any significant amount of time. 1-3 hours a week was the set standard, and therefore i do not believe that this is a significant enough amount of time to have any effect. I was expecting that children would be using computers 1-3 hours a day!

Artefact 2

2011-03-28T08:36:00.000-07:00

I created a survey including the same questions as i had asked the headteacher mrs White of Gorsey Brigg Junior School. I sent out the survey to random primary schools in the Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire regions of the UK. I received 21 responses in total, i have displayed some of the more interesting results below in tabulated format.

I asked the participants what they have notice change in terms of socialisation between the children. below is a round up of the best responses.

App Design

2011-03-28T08:14:00.000-07:00

So thinking ahead about my PRP Project, i have an app in mind. The thought of mking an app scares me therefore i will begin by creating a prototype. I realise that ipad iphone etc does not support flash. However an easy way round this would be to use the i pad peek link, this will give an examle and will allow me to create and test the prototype.
I have shown an example of the flash in ipad peek in the image with my piracy project.

=D 100th Post Yeahh

Twitter feed JavaScript JSON

2011-03-24T05:11:00.000-07:00

I have finsished my twitter feed which is to go into the footer of every page of the website, the image is above, just need to style it now :D

Artefact 2

2011-03-22T08:14:00.000-07:00

Since completing artefact one I have decided that the one opinion is not really enough. I need more data so that I can move forward with my investigation. I have decided to create a questionnaire with very similar questions to what I asked Mrs White in the previous artefact.

Client Meeting

2011-03-22T07:57:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday the 16th March I went up to Mansfield to have a meeting with my client. This included receiving the content for each page, feedback for the site, and also changes they wanted doing, and additions they had later thought about.
changes included...
1)changes to rolling image on the homepage
2) selecting images for each page
3)collecting images for partners and awards
4)size of the blog reducing
5)email form
6)twitter feed in footer
7)List of services bullet pointed and different sizes
8)Information from leaflet
9) Contact details changed, and map created.
I will try and get all of this done for next Friday

Artefact One Conclusion

2011-03-14T06:19:00.000-07:00

Since the interview i have looked at the results, and tried to pick out the interesting comments made by Mrs White. The main areas of interest came from the 'social' question. It was interesting to see that the children do seem to be becoming less social together, incorporating computer games into playtime situations. Also the idea that the letter 'U' is often used instead of 'You'.
Another thing that was interesting was the settings in stories, often battlefields, or jumping on clouds (super mario) comparing them to stories of 10 years ago when i was at the school.

For my next artefact i feel like i need opinions from more teachers to get a better view of the spread around the area or across the country. I will create a questionnaire and send it round to as many schools as possible with similar questions to what i asked Mrs White.

Artefact 1 The Interview

2011-03-14T05:55:00.000-07:00

Would you consider Gorsey Brigg ahead or behind the average school based on the technology opportunities?
Not ahead average really
Some schools have children allocated with a laptop each

What process is taken to accept a new piece of technology? Is it the government or you personally?

It is a school decision finally

It is a government driven decision.
What happens is that the school gets grants to spend on say interactive white boards; they can only be spent on the specific things. If they do not the buy the technologies there Ofsted grades will be reduced.

How many hours a day do the children spend on a computer?
Not daily

How many hours a week do the children spend on a computer?

Weekly or twice weekly daily use of the interactive white boards.

Do you have a specific ICT teacher or does all of the staff have access to teaching on the computers?

All teachers must have basic skills
ICT Coordinator Phil Mullins
ICT Technician 3 hours weekly to solve problems.

Are the interactive white boards and projector screens used more than the regular white board?

Both used every day

It was year 5 when Mr. Hitchman introduced me to the internet, there was one computer in the classroom, how many do you have today (10 years later)?

30 ICT room two or three in each room

Do the children spend time on the internet or is it mainly software based?

Internet for research topics
Teachers use the internet all the time

What software’s do you use?

The Sherston Software Packages games include
Lower School Goldie Locks, Splodge, Young Mcdonalds Farm, Seasons of Little Brown Bear.
Upper School Junior Viewpoint (spreadsheets), Model Shop, Map Detectives (geography), email detectives (email)
Games off the internet too CBBeis

Do you use specific computer games or software’s to help children learn? If so which ones?

Mainly games
Do you believe technology is excelling learning in general?

Cant not believe that
It opens up a world that cant be accessible otherwise
Its all about balance

Do you believe computer based technologies will dominate classroom teaching in 10 years?

No can only do so much

Do you think this would affect the social skills of the children?

There is a change in social skills
Problems with speech, writing in text language you/u
Settings in their stories are often game settings, violent settings, such as a battlefield, or jumping on clouds (Mario)
More play fighting in the playground

Do you think the children are more difficult to control when using the computers compared to a regular lesson?

Not really no, they are engaged in motivational tasks
There can be frustration when things crash or work is not saved properly.

During my time at the school there was always a strong teacher student relationship with all the pupils and teachers is this still as strong today?

Yes not particularly changed

Do you think increase in technology will reduce the strength of the relationship?

Yes in some ways, teachers cannot bond with students properly if they are walking round problem solving.

Do you think the teacher will ever be replaced by the computer?

no

Other interesting technologies?

Kalleidos- online learning space to display work, it also allows a safe secure and monitored social networking alternative to facebook which can be accessed both at home and at school.
Parent mail, allows teacher to easily send emails and texts to personally speak to parents or even inform of snow days etc.

Artefact 1

2011-03-14T05:21:00.000-07:00

Following on from my research document with the question
'How can new technologies be used to enable new ways of thinking and working to enhance the learning in a primary school environment, when compared to traditional methods?'

I came to the conclusion that it was very difficult to judge weather or not a child's thinking and working was affected by the use of technologies.
I decided that my first artefact should go deeper into the investigation by talking to a teacher.

I chose my old primary school teacher Mrs White to interview, the interview took place at the school, I also had a tour of the facilities, and talked with most of the teachers. The interview with answers will be on the next blog post.

Mobile Version Hands On!

2011-03-02T06:13:00.000-08:00

I have decided to take a break from the main website, and look into creating a mobile verison for Hands On. I took a look at the BBC's mobile version and looked through the code and styling. I have used one of their images of andrew strauss just to measure up what it should look like on the mobile browser. Below is a screen shot taken from my iPhone of the logo an image and the links. I will now spend time on the mobile version while i am waiting for the content for the main site.

Hands On Website Update

2011-03-02T06:06:00.000-08:00

I have been spending most of my recent time on the Client website. Additions since the last post are increase in header size, small alterations to the jQuery Slider images. I have created a working login and blog using PHP. The navigation is all now working and i have created blank pages for the other links.
To create the login i used the code which i used in the second term last year for my first PHP project. I also created the blog by editing the code David Downes taught us last year in the CD example. Next On the agenda for the site is to get all of the content for the other pages of the website. I also would like to include a PHP image uploader and also the othion to delete images and posts.
For the latest vesion view www.willgilberthorpe.co.uk/handson

Image Edits for Slider

2011-02-18T03:58:00.000-08:00

Here are the first drafts for the images for the slider on the homepage of the Hands On Website, to see the slider with the images at this stage please see mhttp://www.willgilberthorpe.co.uk/handson/

Photographs

2011-02-18T03:50:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday i went down to the Hands On warehouse to take some photographs, as you can see its not the greatest place in the world to photograph however with a bit of editing i think that some of the photos should look good. Here is a small selection of some of the photos.

jQuery Slider for Homepage

2011-02-08T10:55:00.000-08:00

Just made the jQuery slider for the home page of the website, i used some code given to me from a tutorial on youtube, the like to part one of the tutorial is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ9Km3bPte0&playnext=1&list=PLF959F0A41FF13AAE

and here is the link to the slider on my Hands On website, the images are obviously not the final ones, also the slider works well in all browsers apart from google chrome, i am trying to sort this out as soon as possible.
http://www.willgilberthorpe.co.uk/handson/

Curriculum Vitae

2011-02-07T10:53:00.000-08:00

Aboveis the first basic design for my CV

Development 7- Solid Footer

2011-02-01T07:16:00.001-08:00

Development 6 Orange Background

2011-02-01T07:08:00.001-08:00

Development 5-a Contrasting Colour

2011-02-01T06:45:00.000-08:00

4

2011-01-31T10:39:00.001-08:00

Mock Up Development 3

2011-01-31T06:06:00.000-08:00

Mock-Up Stage 2 Development

2011-01-31T05:31:00.000-08:00

Hands On! First Basic Mock Up

2011-01-30T10:14:00.001-08:00

Here is the first design for my Client Project Website Hands On!

Leaflets

2011-01-27T08:56:00.001-08:00

The only peices of documentations to visually represent the company have been sent to me, they are pdf posters or leaflets, i hav included two of them in the post. I have been sent 7 of them but they are all very similar to each other. There is a distinctive colour pattern of purple and white, and the hand theme is also clear from one of the posters.

Fonts

2011-01-27T08:44:00.000-08:00

I hav started looking at some various fonts to suit the Hands On logo. I have narrowed it down to five fonts which i have downloaded. Below are the examples, number one is Sketch Book, two is Adobe Regular, the third is Walkaway, the fourth is Coolvetica, and the final one is Comfortaa Light. I downloaded these from dafont.com =D

My two favourites that i think suit the company best is either coolvetica or adobe fonts.

Portfolio

2011-01-27T07:18:00.000-08:00

Finally after two years meaning to I have finally got round to creating my portfolio. I am not happy with some of the older work that i have done on the portfolio, but it is all I have at the moment, so I will just replace better work which will come in the next couple of months with some of less better work. Below is an image and the link to the site is www.willgilberthorpe.co.uk.

Nottinghamshire Hockey

2010-09-30T10:23:00.000-07:00

Last year I was approached to create a website for Notts Hockey.You may have seen some of the earlier posts. However my skills were not up to the standard as they are at this year, so i decided to have a go at creating a new one without telling them, and just offering it them for free.

It is not a finished article at this point in time but the improvement is clear when looking back at the previous one. The Link is below http://www.nhdg.org.uk/

Term 3 Group Project

2010-04-23T06:05:00.000-07:00

During the third term i will be completing a group Porject With Gayr Stares, Nick Cox, and Emma Charnock. This is a client project and we have chosen to create a website for an Ice Cream Parlour called Yumi, which is based in Hyson Green in Nottingham. We have created a seperate blog where all four of us can edit the content. Therefore to keep up with the development please visit www.ukyumidesign.blogspot.com.

Sedi Wire Frames Design 2

2010-03-31T08:54:00.001-07:00

Above it the first wire frame design for the home page. This includes a horizontal menu with the vertical sub-menu on the left hand side of the page. In the header there is a small link which changes the language from English to French and vice versa, so the user can switch to and from as they please rather than having to return home. Contact details will be displayed on all pages with the box on the bottom right. We have also included a related documents box at the bottom of the page for users to easily find the associated documents. We have also suggested a FAQ quick search where a subject, country and specific document can be found.

The first design for the services page includes links to related items such as the ‘Incorporation Step’ PDF. On these wire frame designs there are all the same features as the home page design, however the related items have changed.

Above is the wire frame for the France page containing all the French documents. This includes the new sub headings as expressed in the site map description. This has all the same features as the other pages down the right hand side of the page.

The final first design wire frame created was for the contact page. This page contains the contact details in the main content. Therefore the contact details feature usually in the bottom right is not included. There are also two maps included directing to the Paris and London Offices.

SEDI Wire Frames 1

2010-03-31T08:52:00.000-07:00

Above is the second suggested wire frame design, this includes a similar horizontal menu as the first designs however there is also a horizontal sub-menu just below. There is also a small menu in the footer which is exactly the same as the top menu. Down the right hand side we have some similar features to the first design however this design includes the related items, and then a link to the FAQ’s, with a random frequently asked question which changes from page to page. This also includes an identical contact details box. The logo is located on the right of the header this time, with the same feature which changes from English to French. With a simple search feature located next to the menu.

Above is the second services page example wire frame. This includes all the same features as the home page apart from there is an image included just below the main content.

Above is the second example of the France page wire frame, which will of course be identical to the UK and Irish links. This also includes the image below the content, and contains the same features down the right hand side as all the other pages.

Finally the above image shows the second wire frame design of the contact page. This includes a map at the bottom of the page, and the contact feature has been removed due to the contact information in the main content of the page. However the related documents and FAQ’s features still appear down the right hand side.

SEDI Site Map

2010-03-31T08:51:00.000-07:00

Site Map S.E.D.I
Above is the suggested new site map. The main issues we had with the old site map was that there were image documents and PDF’s spread out around the website which may not have been easy to find. Therefore we concentrated on grouping the content and information in more specific areas.
As you can see the main change is to the main menu, were we have broken the bulk of the content down into the three sections of France, UK and Ireland, rather than having the documents with the choice of the three countries, this is where we have grouped the images and PDF’s into more specific categories. We also wanted to create a simpler menu for users to understand, specifically those who have little knowledge of the subject. We have also added a frequently asked questions section which we though was important when comparing to some of your competitors.

IMP Project

2010-03-22T11:16:00.000-07:00

I am creating an artist website on a band called the Shadow Empire, i know two of the band members through school therefore can easily get regular contact with the band. they are all currently studying in Brighton therefore it is inconvenient to meet face to face however we will keep regular contact via email. Below are some initial designs for the layout of the site.

Initial Sketch Ups

2010-03-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

Design Exercise 14

2010-02-26T01:06:00.000-08:00

I am thinking about creating my second term artist project on my friends band. The only social networking sites that i am really familiar with are Facebook and You Tube, although i am also a member of myspace, which i have not looked at since 2008 and and also i am a member of twitter, which i signed up to last summer but never returned back until today.
Based on my project the best social network link would obviously be myspace because it is known worldwide as a place to store and display music, especially popular with up-and-coming or unsigned bands. The pros of this social network is that there music can easily be displayed to people all over the world, it also has an application with links to live gigs at various venues and ticket selling websites.
However the cons of this would be that myspace has dropped in popularity since the Facebook and Twitter boom of recent times. Which obviously equals a smaller audience looking at the material, although you do not have to be a member of myspace, or a friend of the account to access the material. Youtube would also be a good link to have on the website, because the band has video footage of live gigs and practice sets etc.
Facebook would be a very useful tool to have linked in too, because it has a large user base which is very good for spreading the word around, there is also a good invitation tool which gives information of gigs, who is attending, who is not attending, and who is awaiting a reply from.

Adit Shukla

2010-02-05T03:04:00.000-08:00

http://aditshukla.com/

Adit Shukla
Male
New York City
Creative Director of 'Two Toasters' Mobile App Designers
Graphic Artist
Freelance Web Designer

Adit Shukla's portfolio is shown in the image above. I feel that the colours overall work well on the website, they are all warm, but not too hars on the eyes, they also link well together for this particular site.

The content may be a little sparse although the background image may influence you to feel this. The image contains a lot of depth and is an image of a sparsely populated area. In fact their is a lot of information given on the website with loat of links to various social networking websites such as ttwitter, deviant art and facebook, so that the users can find more information on the designer.

There are links dotted around all over the place which offers options and choice, although this comes across quite messy because they are spread around the page in all different areas, all of which arer in different fonts sizes and colours. The sidebar is the main way of navigating around the page. This looks good when used with the background image of the river however the sidebar takes up a lot of space on the page, and is almost as large as the content box.

He uses different font sizes cleverly to show the users what he wants them to see. He is selling his name as a freelance designer by having his name at the top of the page in extremely large font when compared to the rest of the site. He also increases the font size of the links to his various social networking places like deviant art. This gives the user an option to look at more work for his portfolio, although this is navigating the user away from his website, whereas i would want to advertise the work on my own portfolio more than the work published on deviant art etc.

There are examples of his work on the website, although most of his examples seem to be images and logos that he has designed for various companies. These images are of very good quality and do show off his tallent as a graphic designer vey well. The website, also shows examples of phone applications that he has designed, which is not of much use to people who havent got a iphone, however he displays the concept well.

Adit Shukla style is more graphic than technical. He feels his tallent lies mostly in graphic design and photoshop which i feel is true, however he displays his images and logos in an orderly fashion but there is no text or any information about the images. Therefore this can sometimes seem pretty useless, because i would like know more.

Design Exercise 11

2010-02-04T09:03:00.000-08:00

I am firstly going to focus on the Microsoft Surface, for those of you who do not know what the Surface is

“its a multi-touch product from Microsoft which is developed as a software and hardware combination technology that allows a user, or multiple users, to manipulate digital content by the use of gesture recognition.”

(Wikipedia, 2010)

The surface is a large machine which looks like a coffee table hence the name Microsoft Table which is also commonly used. There is a camera below the screen which detects where your finger is touching the surface. It recognised multiple touches so than more than one person can work on it a at any one time.

On a social side of the argument the surface is very beneficial, more than one person can work on it at any time, and the way it is advertised is that It will be used in coffee shops and bars so that people can flick through their photographs and share them with each other over a social drink, there is even the idea of paying the bill by laying the credit or debit card on the surface. Therefore the surface opens many social opportunities. The content that is being produced is by Windows Presentation Foundation or XNA. And it is application based. “Developers already proficient in WPF can utilize the SDK to write Surface apps for deployments for the large hotels, casinos, and restaurants.” (Wikipedia, 2010)

It would be very difficult to steal a Microsoft Surface machine, as they are very large pieces of machinery, and likely to be secured in place if used in a bar or casino, however it takes 15 minutes to take off the side panels so it should be attended at most times. However the content has as much security as any other desktop computer, antivirus software and firewalls are required.

On the distribution side the surface is not available to an individual consumer at the moment, however they can be sold to large scale companies and industries, the surface is being used for the security at the American Football Super bowl.

The second item that I am going to look at is the mobile phone, specifically the i-phone. I do not own an I phone, and I have not spent very much time at all looking or just playing with one, however I am very interested in owning one of these phones one day.

On a social scale the phones are very high up the ladder, they allow you to keep in touch with friends and family all over the world, although this is the idea of any mobile phone, however the I phone has many specific social features and applications which are very different to other mobile phones.

The I phone has an application known as the ping application, this works exactly the same as a text message however it is free to ping another person, however a ping application can be only be used on the I phone. The phone also holds other applications such as Facebook which I hear rave reviews about as an application for usability. There are also other applications that link up your Facebook Live chat, MSN and Windows live messenger into one application, hence not having to log out of different accounts to speak o different people.

Apple produced the I phone, however the content on the I phone, the applications can be made by anybody, and people are making money out of making the applications. The content can be received by download via the phone, sometimes free but most are at a small cost.

The device is a secure device, however the security of the product Is completely down to the owner, the machines are rather small and therefore are more likely to get stolen when compared to a large machine such as the surface.

However I have been told that there is a way of getting hold of the applications that aren’t free without having to pay, this can be done by performing an illegal jail break on the phone. Therefore it is a risk for the people who want to make money out of selling applications for the iphone.

This could have a huge impact on me If I was a content creator, because I have most of the software I would need available to me, but is there any point in me taking this field of applications work seriously if people are going to be stealing the software constantly. Maybe this pathway would suite people more who want to create the applications as a hobby and not try to make a living out of it.

The final product that I am going to be talking about is the recent ipad, this is also made by the company Apple and is also application driven, it Is just like a larger version of the apple iphone which I reviewed before this. Therefore it holds similar qualities such as jail breaking the machine to receive free applications.

However the Ipad is a lot more expensive than the iphone, has a larger screen, larger memory and better applications. The I pad would be just as secure as the I phone in terms of hacking, although it is down to the personal owner to keep the ipad away from theft, as it is a very expensive piece of equipment it would be very appealing to thieves.

I believe that in one years time that there will not be too much change on the market, I believe that the iphone will still be a large seller, I cannot honestly see the ipad making a huge impact on the multimedia world within the next year.

I believe that an impact could be made but the price would have to be reduced because it is just crazy to think that people can afford this amount of money on one gadget.

I think that this could only create more opportunity for me as a digital designer, the more platforms which come out will offer me more ways of displaying my work. However I have to have training on the certain software’s to be able to do this.

GFSA Wire Frame 2

2010-02-02T09:18:00.000-08:00

Here is the wire frame of the redesign of the Gosforth Fields Website,

GFSA Website, First Rejected Design

2010-02-02T09:05:00.000-08:00

Above are some of the images of the first design for my Gosforth Fields Sports Association website. I decided that it was just not looking special in any way and i was very dissatisfied with the layout and design, therefore i have decided to start the project again by desingning a new template.

Mock Up 1

2010-01-21T15:10:00.000-08:00

Here is my first mock up of the GFSA website, i would like to keep it clean plain and simple with the white background, but would also like to incorporate the club colours of red and black into the design in some way, hence the red. I am still considering other options of colour including the background, howevere the structure shown in this mock up will definatly be used.

GFSA Wire Frame

2010-01-21T07:11:00.000-08:00

Here is the wire frame for my Gosforth Sports Fields Website

Retailer Website GFSA

2010-01-21T07:02:00.000-08:00

For my next Design exercise, we have been asked to design another website for a retailer, we only have two weeks to do this which could be difficult. However i have chosen the GFSA, the Gosforth Fields Sports Association in Dronfield Woodhouse (my home town) which is a sports clubhouse and bar. However I am going to concentrate on the bar side of the project mainly. The clubhouse has recently been built and opened around Christmas, it also accommodates a full size ATP pitch, below you can see an artits version of the clubhouse and pitch before it was built. I also worked in the bar facilities over the Christmas break so have opportunities for photos and information. For more information on the GFSA look at the websites http://www.sportdronfield.co.uk/ and http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk/sport/Brooking-and-owen-share-top.5999769.jp

Waterfall And Whirlpool Methods

2010-01-13T14:58:00.000-08:00

The Waterfall Document model is a software development process set up as a sequence. The process is visually displayed in such a way that the diagram is displayed like a waterfall. This symbolises that progress is flowing steadily downwards, like a waterfall would. Below is an example of the waterfall method

(Wikipedia, 2009)

In this example the project goes through each stage of the waterfall process, in all cases of the waterfall model the only way to move to the next stage of the waterfall is through the completion of the prior stage, hence in the above diagram including Requirements, Design, Implementation, Verification, and Maintenance. Requirements would have to be fully completed before I could move on to Design.

The whirlpool model is similar to the waterfall model in many ways however visually the process goes around like a whirlpool would. This means that you would produce each of the sections to completion like in the waterfall method. However the process would then restart back at requirements. This means that the product is constantly improving and that the whirlpool method is an ongoing process.

I believe that the best model to use for a web designer would be the whirlpool model. I believe this is the best method for a web designer because most websites will need to undergo changes and have updates, therefore the whirlpool method I ideal in the industry because the designer can go through the steps again and again every time the website needs updating.

The waterfall process can be very useful in design when it is a one off process, If you are not going back to the design to improve then the waterfall model is perfect. The Whirlpool design is much more practical for most designs because in general products will always have to be improved to the best possible standard to keep up with the surrounding industry and constant upgrades of technology.

3rd Non Web Designer

2010-01-05T09:20:00.000-08:00

The third non web designer that i have decided to evaluate is the Graffiti Artist Banksy. Banksy has not always been a main influence for me and my work. I only discovered his work last summer on a trip to London hence the reason for not influencing any of my work yet. I had glanced his work before but had never really got the time to find out what he was about; I researched him and was fascinated by his story and the quality of his work under the circumstances.

I purchased a book on Banksy (Wall and Piece) after the trip displaying some of his most famous work and giving some brief information about the guy however he remains anonymous. It is thought that he was born just outside Bristol in 1974, and became interested in Graffiti art during the great Bristol aerosol boom in the late 80’s.

His work fascinated me because they are not just pretty pictures there is a meaning behind each of his pieces of work. His work often has a hidden message mainly on the delicate topics of politics, ethics and our culture. His work is not only highly illegal but also holds the greatest detail created by just stencils and spray paint. Banksy’s work has been illegally displayed in Bristol, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Paris and Israel. It has been know that art experts have auctioned off Banksys work on site, where the winner of the auction has to deal with the Graffiti, for example if it is ordered to be washed off the new owner of the piece will have to do this. There have been roumers and articles in newspapers about revealing the identity of Banksy, weather these are true or not I am not sure.

Banksy could have a great influence on my graphic designs on the websites I create in the future; I am especially interested in the hidden meanings behind the images. I would like to be able to create graphics which make people stop and specifically think about the meanings. This would of course depend on the genre of the website that I create. I also think that the look of graffiti art is very effective, I am not recommending graffiti art however the circumstances of Banksys work makes it all the more exiting and impressive. I could attempt graffiti art for a future project; this greatly interests me as I did Art at a-level and have never tried it before.

Non Web Design Practitioner 2

2010-01-05T09:05:00.000-08:00

My second choice of practitioner is the Photographer Dave Beckerman. The reason why I am interested in Beckerman’s work is because he specialises in New York black and white photography. I am fascinated by New York photography because it is unique to any other city across the world. All the buildings are built and look similar in fashion and the city is easily recognisable from any photograph or film. The reason why I find the prints so fascinating is because it is a life long ambition of mine to visit New York City, or maybe even work and live out there in the future, and the fact that I have never been shows a mysterious side and makes me more eager to go and explore.

The reason why I like Beckerman’s images so much is because they are all in Black and white, I feel that this makes the photographs look vintage even though they are extremely modern.

I feel that Black and White New York City photographs are more effective than colour photos because the city does not have too much colour anyway, the colours of the older buildings are very grey and dull colours therefore can sometimes spoil photographs; however the black and white shows the history of the building.

When I think of colour I immediately think of the yellow Taxi’s. I have seen prints of black and white New York photography with only the colour yellow for the taxi’s in the photograph. I feel that this is effective because it shows a bright colourful logo for the city.

Another reason why I like the work of Dave Beckerman is because he also has an interest in Paris, this is another unique city with identifiable buildings and unique people. I have visited Paris before therefore I am very fond of the images and I am defiantly fond of the city itself. Beckerman’s work relates to may on so many different levels however I feel that the main similarity is his interest in New York City, and Paris, because these are defiantly my two favourite Cities in the world.

Beckerman could inspire me as a web designer in many different ways; I could have a black and white rustic theme for one of my websites. His work also inspires me to go out and actually take photos for my websites. I have not always been interested in photography, and have often been lazy in taking photographical evidence for my work, however as my interest in the subject rises this inspires me to create my own photography, rather than the far easier method of finding other peoples images on the internet. I have to bear this in mind for when I loose my student status as everything will have to be my own when I start my career.

Non Web Design Practitioner 1

2010-01-05T09:04:00.000-08:00

The first non web design practitioner that I would like to talk about is the film director Stanley Kubrick. Born in New York City in 1928 he spent most of his later career living in England, Kubrick was a writer, producer, director and photographer of films. He is famous for his innovative and influential filmmakers of all time; some of his films have been known to be very controversial to the public eye. Some of Kubrick’s most famous pieces have been Full Metal Jacket, Eyes Wide Shut, The Shining and 2001 a Space Odyssey. However I would like to concentrate on one of his most famous and controversial films, A Clockwork Orange.

I studied the novel during A-Level in English Literature during my time at school, therefore know it very well having completed coursework on the novel. The Novel was created by Anthony Burgess; the novel is famous for its nadsat language throughout the story. This is the language the gang use between each other e.g. Krovvy means blood and Droog means Friend.

However focusing on the theatrical version I was first introduced to the Film by a friend and found it very odd because I was quite young and didn’t really understand the meaning behind it. However watching it in 6^th form during an English Lit lesson I realised just how good the film really was.

The soundtrack is based around classical music and is fantastically linked in with each scene to show different moods and atmospheres. The motion picture features disturbingly violent images of attack and rape based in a futuristic British society.

The lighting is uniquely used the set the atmosphere, especially in one scene inside a milk bar, I also have to mention the props used to create a futuristic setting.

The innovative ideas used in A Clockwork Orange could be very useful to me in the world of web design. The music used in the film and the way it is could help me set a certain mood or atmosphere on a web design project for the future. Kubrick’s use of scenery could also help me for my graphical work or setting for the websites I create in the future.

Website Done and Dusted

2009-12-11T07:17:00.000-08:00

The Baseball Ground website is finally done and dusted and handed in, below is the meada link for NTU computers

http://maeda/~n0220956/

Logo first Drafts

2009-11-23T11:16:00.000-08:00

Here are a few of my Logo designs. These are rough designs and not the finished product. My favorite design is the one above, i fell that the design is simple and effective as a logo, although there may be issues with the distortion of the font.

Fixed and Fluid, Design Exercise 6

2009-11-20T03:14:00.000-08:00

Above is an example of a fixed and a fluid Website, the fixed one on the left will not move when the screen is minimised and adjusted. The Fluid website on the right will alter to fit to the screen when minimised and adjusted.

Website Design 3

2009-11-19T04:21:00.001-08:00

Above is my third design for the look of my website. I am really pleased with how this design has turned out. I really like the background image and colours used, although blue is not a general colour associated with the football team. This shows an example of the gallery page, hopefully this will include a number of images, and will also allow users to leave feedback on the images or just express their memorys of the Baseball Ground.

Website Design 2

2009-11-17T10:08:00.001-08:00

Here is my second design for my baseball ground website. This design is simailar to design 1 in terms of layout however aesthetically it is completely different. I have decided to use a black background with the same logo in the background faded. This is an example of how the 'personal experience' page would look, the information on the page is just a quick draft.

Web Page Design 1

2009-11-16T07:01:00.001-08:00

Above is the first design i have created for my Baseball Ground website, i designed theis using photoshop. as you can see this is exactly the same layout as the wire frame, however this also contains the images and text. This is a rough design and will be improved upon.

Colour Branding

2009-11-13T03:01:00.000-08:00

Below is my rebranding Design for the Red Bull Logo. I decided to change this logo because of the use of 'Red' in the name. I also wanted red bull to look greener, e.g. better for the environment, by using the green and yellow colours, i thought of this because of the bad press the energy drinks companies have been recieving lately.
Here is a Hex colour chart with most of the codes i will need to create my website.

Design Exercise 4 CSS Website

2009-11-12T10:39:00.000-08:00

Here are the Css version of my basic website, above you can see the coding that i have used and below you can see the HTML document.

Baseball Ground Video

2009-11-09T10:01:00.000-08:00

I have found a video with a bit of information about the Derby County Baseball Ground. It is not completly about the Baseball ground it is more like the area it was built in It is pretty stupid to be fair as it is about football violence and the acting is pretty bad but still it is more information. This video could be useful as it has information about what atmosphere the stadium caused which is quite interesting. Start watching the video 1 min in and continue watching until the 3rd minute. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNOBOqvO938&feature=related

Source: Youtube, and the show is the Real football Factories, the Midlands.

Design Exercise 4 HTML

2009-11-06T03:26:00.000-08:00

Design a home page only, in basic HTML and then Exactly the same page in CSS. Include Header/Logo, navigation, a central image, some text, a footer.
Here is My HTML version above.
and below is the code used.

Wire Frame

2009-11-05T09:50:00.000-08:00

here is the basic wire frame for my website. The above image shows the homepage and the layout for this is very simple and quite plain although i think that this setup is most effective. Basically the logo and title will be based in the top left corner, as this is generally the first place the user will look. across the top centre is where the navigation links will be horizontally placed. Just below will include a sequence of images of the stadium which will fade into one another. The main content of each page will be below this spread across the page.

Navigation

2009-11-05T09:32:00.000-08:00

Above is the navigation bar for my website, these are the 5 pages that will be included in the website. The homepage will include a breif introduction to the purpose of the site. The past page is self explanitory, this will include the history of the stadium explaining club honours and legends such as Brian Clough. The present will include the new stadium and how the football club compares to past nowadays. Personal experience will explain why i decided to choose this as my project and my experience playing in the stadium. and finnaly there is the gallery, this will include images of the stadium past and present, and i also hope to include a wall so that people with other memories can post their thought on the past.

My Personal Space/Building

2009-11-03T10:10:00.000-08:00

For our main task in exploring multimedia for the first term we have been asked to create a website based on a personal space or building. I immediatly came up with my idea because this building is very special to me even though i have only visited the place once in my life. I have chosen the Derby County Football Club Baseball Ground, the stadium no longer exists because a new stadium has been built for the football club. This building is very special to me because i had the oppertunity to play football in this stadium before it was demolished in a Year 8 school football final, which we eventually won 1-0 to be crowned the best y8 school team in Derbyshire. It is not only a special place for me because of what happened, it is also because i played with my closest friends at the time, also because the stadium holds so much history and so many honours.

Website 2

2009-10-22T11:08:00.000-07:00

www.football.mitoo.co.uk/

Football Mitoo is a website including all types of information on junior football in the uk. this website allows all football teams from all age groups across the country create their own space on the web for their team. Teams submit scores and goalscores onto the website via their club secretary so that regular updates of their leagues can be created. Their is also fixtures and results for each individual football team, and their is also the option of creating player profiles with images of the players. This website is used across the country with most leagues submitting results weekly for the pleasure of not only the players but also the hugely competitive parents.

Task, website 1

2009-10-22T10:56:00.001-07:00

As one of my first online journal tasks i was asked to find 3 user content driven websites. The first website that i chose was http://www.dontstayin.com/. This website is classed as a social networking site which is based around night clubbing mainly in the UK but also the USA. The main aim of the website is to allow users to review the clubs and club nights they have attended. Users are also encouraged to upload photos and videos to show what the night spots have to offer. The website is extremely useful especially in cases when the club or bar does not own a website, the user can easily read up on any new places they wish to explore.

Logo

2009-09-16T04:45:00.001-07:00

Here is my edited version of the logo. I cut out the font and colour of the original shirt image. I have added my own font to the image and changed the background colour to the same as the original website i created so that this could be tested out. I feel this looks neater and more proffesional. I edited using fireworks.

Logo

2009-09-16T04:40:00.000-07:00

I have been sent an image of the hockey accosiation logo. However this is only a digital photograph of the logo on a club t-shirt. I am now going to have a go at editing the image to make it look more proffesional for the website. Above is the original image.

Templates

2009-09-16T04:37:00.000-07:00

I have now created the template for the website, this consists of tables with a different number of cells on each page, this is based on the amount of information that will be on each page. I have all the information that i need to fill in the JAC, JDC, and JRPC pages so this is what i will get on with immediatly afteer creating the logo for the website.

Changes

2009-09-13T12:59:00.000-07:00

After displaying my prototype of the website to the chairman of the company, he then decided to create an example for me to copy, he presented the example in a table form and told me that he would like it in this style. I did not want to start by getting into bad habbits by creating websites in this format however this is what the client wanted and therefore i went through with it. I got given a word document with an exact replica of the homepage, with a particular red and blue themed colour throughout. I began to design the website.

First Basic Design

2009-09-10T01:05:00.000-07:00

I have created a first basic design for the website, this is the template that i originally created. I had no idea how the association wanted the websites to look aesthetically, therefore i had a go at how i thought it would look good. I decided against a tabulated structure, because i have been advised against this method throughout my multimedia learning. I decided upon a colour scheme and a menu format. I had asked for information on how Nottinghamshire Hockey Development wanted the website to look however i had no response for a number of weeks, i was also asking for content for the website which was also very tough to recieve. Above is the original version.

Hockey Website Contents

2009-09-08T04:10:00.000-07:00

The main aim of the website is to advertise the training academys for under 13, 15, and 17 girls and boys, this will display information on Junior Development Centres (JDC), Juniour Academy Centres (JAC), and Junior Regional Performance Centres (JRPC). This will also include documents such as registration forms so that players or parents can download and send off to the Nottinghamshire Hockey Association. The website includes all contact details and also information on school Hockey Competitions.

Website Oppertunity

2009-09-04T02:30:00.000-07:00

I have been offered the oppertunity to create a basic website for the Nottinghamshire County Hockey Association, I will get paid for creating the website and i am going to snap up the offer. This will include updates throughout the year therefore i am employed by them for the year!

Fears Room

2009-04-16T08:59:00.000-07:00

The final room in my interactive box will be the fears room. This will include an interactive flash narrative taking the user through my own personal deepest and darkest fears. The aim of the game will be to avoid the fears to win the game. This is very personal to me because i seem to have many fears. I have decided that the fears that i amgoing to be including in the narrative will be snakes, heights, needles, being late, commitments, sharks and depths of the sea.

Enjoyments Room

2009-04-16T08:50:00.000-07:00

Storyboard

Door Design

Interactive video design

THE SECOND ROOM IN MY INTERACTIVE BOX WILL BE NAMED MY ENJOYMENTS ROOM. THIS ROOM WILL BE CENTRED AROUND stand up comedy because it is one of my favorite past times at the moment. Here is the design and developments centred around the enjoyments room.. The final image shows the storyboard of this room. This will include a video of my favorite stand up comedy moments including clips of my reactions to the comedy to make the video more personal to me.

Experience/Ambitions Room

2009-04-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

This room is the first and most important of the rooms in the interactive box. This will include a whitboard animation mainly describing my life and ambitions from day 1, this will begin in the past with my ambitions of becoming a pro footballer, this will then move on to my past experiences and move into the present day, it will then cross the line of reality and move into my future experiences and ambitions including graduating from university etc. Below is the story board describing what the white board animation will look like

Box Design and Development 2

2009-04-16T08:22:00.000-07:00

Above are the final designs for my box, they are both in plan view and i have decided to include 3 rooms containing, enjoyments, fears, and experience/ambitions. The story behind the project is based around the ambitions room. My ambition as a child was to become a proffesional footballer, this is expressed as the unreal down one end of the tunnel, where the avatar can see the football match being played but cannot get onto the pitch, because it is expressed as the unreal, however the avatar can walk up to the other end of the tunnel where reality lies which is present day fears, ambitions and enjoyments. Below is a storyboard of the opening scene.

Box Design and Development

2009-04-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

I decided that the box theme would be based around the theme of football, i decided this because the theme of the identities project will be based around ambition and the line between reality and the unreal. Below are the first stages of design of the football tunnel, this will be where the avatar will be based and will also cantain the rooms with all of the interactive items that i will include and explain about later.

Avatar Design and Development

2009-04-16T07:36:00.000-07:00

Here is the design and development stages of my avatar. When designing the avatar i also decided to use the initial thoughts from my mood board therefore i included the adjectives that i used to describe my appearance and my personality. These words were tall, competative and fast. Therefore the appearance of my avatar is obviously tall, andtherfore i decided to portray the competative and quick side to the personality through making the avatar constantly run. the above images show all of the designs and development of the avatar so far.

Logo Design and Development

2009-04-16T07:22:00.000-07:00

Here are the designs for my logo for my identities project. I thought about the logo portraying my personality and immedietly my initials came to mind, because there is noting else that can really get more personal to an individual. I also though about using my signature as part of my logo. I decided to experiment with some other ideas that i had in my head including my interests such as sports and watches. I then thought about the mood board that i had created earlier on in the project, so then the idea of strength came to mind, therefore i decided to experiment with the two arms in an arm wrestle, i thought that this could also portray competativeness. I then decided to move on o the city skyline because i had included this im my mood board and also thought that it could portray strength height and could also include my initials, this is the design that i think i will move along to develop further.

Second Life

2009-04-12T03:34:00.000-07:00

Today was my first attempt at using second life, at first I was skeptical because I did not like the thought of spending time on a computer to socialize with random strangers. As I began to experiment I first found out that my computer did not have the required graphics card for the experience to work correctly, therefore the screen was very jolty and quite slow. I decided upon the name Willy Lectar and began straight away. I began to walk around the virtual world which is shown in the first image, I then decided to attempt a conversation with someone after 10 minutes exploring the virtual world. I began to talk to one random woman asking her advice on what to generally do In the virtual world, she didn’t seem too sure and then suggested that we should fly!!!! Therefore I began to follow her in the sky and very shortly after decided to log out. At this point I decided that I was not interested in logging in too soon in the future.

Research And Creativity

2009-02-23T10:40:00.000-08:00

My creativity over the last few years has mainly been for personal satisfaction but also most of the best work was done for various school projects, mainly during A-Levels. The two main subjects were Art and ICT at which I best showed my creativity. Therefore I first thought that most of the work was for the teachers, but thinking about it the work was actually done for myself because it was me who wanted the qualifications out of the course not the teachers. There has also been cases in which the work was requested, in one particular case with my cousin’s sports shop, I was asked to design and create them a website, this was linked in with one A-Level project.
It has been done in this way because my school projects always took priority over personal projects, and I felt I could get more out of putting more time and effort into my school projects from the qualifications that I would receive. All the work I have done in the past has been decided by me however, I have been guided in different ways by teachers, tutors and family, to which may have made me change my decision.
In the future I would like my creating to be unique and independent, at this stage of my life I feel like I want my creating to be in web design. However this may change over the next couple of years with so many new fields to try at.

Research can help me get to the new places in many different ways, it can give me experience of successful work in specific areas, and it can also help me link other work in with my own for the future. Out of the four starting points I feel most drawn to the “In Front Of” method. I chose this because I feel that when I see other people’s reactions it can help me as it opens new thoughts in different areas. However, individually I am not brilliant at reviewing work, without some basic information or at least one opinion on the work. The method I feel most wary of is the “Behind” method, this sounds the most complicated although it sounds interesting to look into work in more detail, however I do not feel that I would use this method as a first choice. I do not think that any of the staring points are irrelevant; I feel that they could all help in one way or another.

Mood Board 1

2009-02-06T03:47:00.000-08:00

Above is the mood board for my Avatar, i thought of 5 adjectives to decribe my personality or appearance. The first word i came up with about my appearance is tall, because i am quite tall, i used the empire state building to symbolise my height. The second word i came up with was fast, i used a cheetah to symbolise my speed, as when i was younger i used to be very quick at running. I then searched the meaning of my name on the internet, most of the websites i found described my name as 'protector' or 'resolute protector' therefore i represented this as a shield. I then struggled to come up with two more words, so i asked my flatmates and i was described as reliable and competative, therefore i represented reliability with the large rock in the background and my competative nature is represented through the boxers.

Practitioner Development

2009-01-26T05:19:00.000-08:00

I feel that I do not purposely go out to improve my practitioner development day by day, I think that it happens in everyday activities and it happens without me even realising it. One prime example of this is when I’m listening to music on my ipod, and even more when I’m downloading new music on the computer. I feel that this is useful in many ways, because when I create a project, say for university, which requires a soundtrack I usually manage to think of a perfect fitting soundtrack to add to it, from my music collection. Therefore, I feel that it is important to keep up to date with music as it can always come in useful, most importantly to develop skills. For example, my one shot video required a song which dragged on to portray awkwardness, the song Zorba the Greek immediately popped into my head. I had this ion my music collection, and I had originally discovered the song from a television advert.

Therefore Watching TV is also a useful way of developing practitioner skills. Television adverts express many different methods of getting a message across to an audience, and this is very useful for a Multimedia student like myself. Many adverts nowadays are animated and as of recent many cars companies have expressed their cars in extravagant ways using animation. The methods used are often useful to use in my own independent projects, as their ideas seem to be fresh and new and very useful.

One other method of developing skills is actually making products. On a couple of occasions, I have been asked to create a website for two different organisations. This is a form of independent learning because I had to create a website for the first time all by myself without the help of teachers, tutors and other pupils. I used the internet to develop my skills on creating the websites; online flash tutorials helped me in many ways. This method was probably the most beneficial for me as it helped me create the perfect animations for the websites I created. All the animations I found were free, and accessible to all, which also made life a lot easier.

One final example of independent study is when my younger brother requires help from me with his ICT A-Level work. This has happened many times when he asks me questions that I do not have the answer to, mainly when using flash. However we both try to solve the problem, mainly with trial and error when using flash, or many times we have looked on the online tutorials. This is not independent learning as in the sense of me working on my own, but I feel that it easily fits into the category of me developing my practitioner skills.

Personal Identity

2009-01-15T09:18:00.000-08:00

I have begun to start thinking about Personal Identity for my up and coming Identities Project, before i started thinking about the statement in detail i looked up the meaning, this is how Wikipedia described it:

"personal identity refers to the essence of a self-conscious person, that which makes him or her unique. It persists: though a person may change in socially important aspects, such as religious belief, these modifications happen through one single identity."
Wikipedia the goes on to describe:
"The question regarding personal identity has addressed the conditions under which a person at one time is the same person at another time, known as personal continuity. This sort of analysis of personal identity provides a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for the identity of the person over time. In the modern philosphy of mind, this concept of personal identity is sometimes referred to as the diachronic problem of personal identity. The synchronic problem is grounded in the question of what features or traits characterize a given person at one time."

I would find it very difficult to describe my personal identity without a great deal of thought. The aspects of me which makes me unnique from every other human being would be my looks, as in my features and my personality. However i do not feel that i am unique through the way that i dress or my interests because there are many other people in the world who will dress in the same clothes as me and have the same taste in music as me etc.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

2009-01-15T08:26:00.000-08:00

Since starting my course in multimedia and moving into halls of residence i have found that i am watching films much more regurlarly than when i was at home. This is probably down to the fact that i would rather watch sports at home using SKYtv whereas i do not have that luxary here in Nottingham. I have also found that i am watching more and more animated films, as i feel it is useful to watch these as they have a great relevance with the course.
I have watched animated films since i was very young, the early Disney films such as Lion King, Jungle Book and Robin Hood. I feel that these animation are the best of all time and i find that they will be hard to beat. Other animation blockbusters i have watched that i feel didnt cut it have been Lilo and Stitch, Toy Story 2, The Lion King 2, Walle, Flushed Away the list goes on. I feel that the more modern style of animation has allowed the films look amazingly true to life however i dont feel that they quite reach the standars of the classics that i mentioned earlier. However recently i went to the cinema to see Madagascar: Escampe 2 Africa, the sequel to the first Magagascar movie. I found that this film is the closest that has come to the so called classics of the earlier Disney Films. The film is created by Dreamworks and includes many big movie stars for voiceover, such as Ben Stiller, David Schwimmer, Chris Rock and Sacha Baron Cohen. I found that this was one of the funniest films that i have watched over the last couple of years and is definatly the funniest and most entertaining animated films since my childhood. This modern film diferentiates from the older classic films because it is computer animated, whereas the the likes of The Lion King is drawn animation. This reduces the quality of the films but i feel the drawn animations need more of a stimulating storylinebecause they do not have the graphics and special effects to back it all up if it fails.

Madagascar 2 has a unique stle of character features, unlike all other animated films the animals have dramatically squared off features all over their bodies but mainly in the faces of the animals. This is a unique feature to the Madagascar animals that seperates the graphics from any other modern day animated film. Another point that makes the film different from any other is the contrast in relationships throughout the film. It is quite strange in real life to think that a Lion, Hippo, Zebra and Giraffe would stick around together in one small group, however Madagascar has made this possible. This would be impossible in real life as the Lion is the predetor and the Zebra is the pery, however this is one of the strongest relationships in the film. Not only this but Madagascar allows the food chain to be reversed, for example the lion who is supposed to be king of the jungle seems to be in least command, he is dragged along on the whole trip by the zebra who should be below Alex the lion. Also the penguins who should be near the bottom of the food chain seem to have the greatest command, not only over the other animals but also over the humans that feature in the film. The comedy in the film is cleverly formulated to be highly ammusing to both adults and children I would recomend all ages to watch this film even if you did not enjoy the first one.

Christmas Work

2009-01-15T07:56:00.000-08:00

http://n0220956.deviantart.com/art/What-Drink-Are-You-109549648

During the christmas period my brother asked me for some help with his Applied ICT A-Level coursework. This involved him creating a website for the local pub at which he works on a part time basis. The website was to be made in flash and he had an idea about a page for the websitewhich would involve a short questionnaire, at which would determine what kind of drink you were. He was having major problems with this because he did not fully understand how to use movie clips correctly. therefore above is the link to the section of the website i helped him create. All the link shows is the single movie clip on one of the pages it is not the full website, as i did not help him with any other sections apart from linking all the pages up.

Punch-Drunk Love

2009-01-12T04:34:00.000-08:00

Having been suggested by Roma Patel to watch the film Punch-Drunk Love during one of the complimenting colours lectures, I had chance to watch it over the Christmas period. In addition, the fact that Adam Sandler is one of my favourite actors now gave me the drive to watch it as he is the main character in the film. Right from the start of the film I noticed that the film could be based around colours because the title screen is clearly expressing the contrasting colours of red and blue on a colour spectrum.
Immediately when the two main characters meet (Adam Sandler and Emily Watson) we notice that they have the same colour contrast on their clothing. Sandler has a blue suit on which he remains wearing throughout the film and Watson has a bright red dress on. The producer always makes this contrast clear by the was he positions the characters face to face at each side of the screen. The coloured clothing could have many different meanings although I believe that the blue suit is expressing the personality of Adam Sandler’s Character, this personality is warm and friendly most of the time although a cold violent angry side of his personality is regularly expressed to show the issues that he has with himself and his family. In a complete contrast, Emily Watson’s character is warm and friendly ass the time, this is expressed through the bright red clothing that she regularly wears throughout the film. There is also the contrast of their personalities, which becomes insignificant as they fall in love throughout the film.
Finally, the film has small animations, which regularly get thrown in to skip through to different other scenes. These animations also contain the two contrasting colours of red and blue, this shows that the contrast of colours and personalities are one of the main themes throughout the film.

Narrative Project

2009-01-05T15:16:00.000-08:00

http://n0220956.deviantart.com/art/Wembley-106035451

The link above shows the finished results of my interactive narrative project. This was created using macromedia flash, and it called Wembley. The basic idea behind the project is to take the user on a journey where they have to make their own personal decisions to achieve certain outcomes. There are two possible outcomes at which the users can achieve, either a win or lose, there are two of each of the win and the lose outcomes in total. The theme of the interactive narrative is of course football, I chose this theme because it is of particular interest to me, I also thought about actually playing the game myself and realised that it is completely based on decisions and actions. These real life decisions and actions determine if a tackle is completed perfectly, or a foul is committed, these reflect on whether the decision is a win or a lose.

The interactive narrative includes images, animation, sound and text. The images I used for my interactive narrative are what I managed to find on Google, these images had to be of the specific player in the same or a similar shirt. As I was half was through completing the project it was pointed out to me the risk of copyright. However I made changes to the shirts and the logos using Photoshop, and I was told that this would not be too much of a problem as the brief did not include publishing the narrative, it was only to present it. I created all the animations myself, all of the animations are very basic and suite each frame perfectly for the theme. The sound I used for the interactive narrative reflect the mood of the outcome, if the player wins the game there are cheers, if the player loses the game boo’s can be heard. There is also the sound effect of a football being kicked, this sound plays whenever a link is clicked on, this adds a more realistic element to the game. The text is the most important part of the narrative as this explains the choices, which determines the user’s decisions. The user interaction is one of the most important elements of the flash narrative, this is because the user has to make the decisions, therefore it is important for the narrative to be simple, and clear to use, I feel that I have managed to achieve this on a reasonable scale.

During planning and creating the interactive flash narrative, I spent most of my time in the computer room with other multimedia students. One of the members of my seminar group asked me if I knew why his links were not working correctly, I noticed that he was not using instance names and therefore his problem was easily revolved. I was also helped by one of my classmates at finding specific sound clips for my narrative, which was very helpful. Although this was not group work many of my group had time to help one another and work together on the project.

Overall I feel that I have created a good flash narrative, I feel that it is entertaining for all types of people even if they are not interested in football. I feel that I could have spent a lot more time on the narrative, if we had of had more time to do it in. We had around a week to plan and complete the project so in some places it is slightly rushed, although overall I am happy with my interactive narrative.

The Meeting One Shot Video

2008-12-01T07:41:00.000-08:00

Above is my one shot video called 'The Meeting'. We were basically selected into groups one morning and were told that we would be shooting a one shot film with the title 'The Meeting'. Our idea came to us when we were first sitting in our group trying to think about what our story could be about, it was suggested that we should re-enact the meeting that we were having at the time, because it was quite an awkward situation and no one was really sure what to say to each other.

Our film basically begins with four people entering a room for a meeting about a group task that they will be performing in the future. The one shot we decided to use was a constant 360 degrees rotation for the full two minutes of the film. We planned to have the camera in the middle of a table and have the four people sat at each side of the table, so that different facial expressions and body language could be portrayed within each person. As we practiced this we found the rotation difficult, one reason for this was we had to use a power cable to keep the camera on as the battery had not been charged before we rented the camera out. The second reason was that we found it difficult to keep the camera at a consistent speed as it rotated, while keeping the camera man out of view. The final reason was that as the camera was rotating there was only a brief second that the actor/actress was in view as it passed and therefore wasting time filming the wasted space between the actors/actresses.

The idea behind our movie would be that there was no dialogue therefore we could each edit the movie individually because the work was a single project after all. We used this method so we could all add our own subtitles to the piece so that they would all be individual and have different meanings. Therefore the constant 360 degrees rotation was not practical because there was not much time to insert the subtitles before the image of the person had passed. As a group we decided that we should have the same rotation idea but pause on each actor and actress to allow time for us all to insert our own subtitles. We held the image of the person for around 3 seconds and then increased speed on the camera movement through the wasted space so that we were not wasting valuable recording time.
We finally filmed the scene to the standard we required after many re-takes and 5 hours of filming. I then had chance to edit the video to my own style as shown above. I decided to include thought bubbles instead of subtitles, I did this because the idea of subtitles is to show what the person is saying, however there was no mouth movement and my thought bubbles show that there is no communication whatsoever between the four students.

One shot video Editing Practice

2008-12-01T07:13:00.000-08:00

Above is thae practice that i performed on editing video clips. I did this task so that i could be familiar with the features of editing and cutting clips of film so that i would be prepared for this process after shooting my one shot video.

Complimenting Colours

2008-11-24T15:06:00.000-08:00

Here are the two photographs in the state of before and after, I created by altering the colours to pairs of complimentary colours. As I researched the definition of complimentary colours I found many websites showing a visual example of the colour spectrum. I found that complimentary colours were to be found opposite to each other on the colour wheel.

The first image I chose to use was an image of the bandstand in the Arboretum in Nottingham. I decided to take a photograph of the band stand because it involved I strong green colour and was surrounded by blur railings. I found that the colours blue and yellow were complimentary to each other because they are opposite to each other on the colour spectrum. Therefore I edited the green colour of the bandstand to a strong yellow, and highlighted some of the weaker blue colours on the railings and to some parts of the band stand. I really like the effect that the yellow creates when added to the blue of the railings, the yellow lightens up the image to give a sense of a warmer atmosphere and a more exciting mood.

The second image I used was a photograph that I took of a large house located just outside of the Arboretum. I found out that the colours green and red were complimentary to one another, and therefore decided to change the sky from the light blue colour to a light red, simply because this was more realistic than a green sky. I then decided that a nice effect would be to create the roof into a green colour to give a moss style effect, this turned out ok but I didn’t feel that the image had enough of the colours to compliment each other. I decided to add the effect of a warm glow to the windows to give an eerie effect to the house, I also added the red effect to the street lamps to add a scare factor. I like the effect and mood that the new image gives off but I don’t feel that this looks as professional as the image of the bandstand, simply because I airbrushed in the glow from the windows. This often looked slightly messy and also a bit rushed.