Minutes…Hugo

Ken has developed a basic CSS white space layout and instead of using extensive flash on the homepage, he has used Javascript. Well Done! We have told him to do a tutorial on his javascript imaging transition on his blog as this will be a beneficial thing for us.

Suzanne will be selecting images i.e. photos for our gallery on the front page. Luke will be looking up his flash slideshow, although Aqeel has suggested using the javascript method, which we all agree looks very effective and clean. Me and Luke are going to look over flash animations possibly 3D.

In terms of future plans. We are looking to finalise the layout and come together with at least the staff profiles layout finalized in the nearby future. Aqeel needs to define the services content using selling language and this will need to be reinforced in the final presentation aspect.

Ken is feeling very brave and wants to “do this” and get this finalized as we have a lot of courseworks kicking in the next couple of weeks.

So the target for this week…

Suzanne to finalise pictures
Luke to finalise some flash galleries and animation
I’m going to come up with some portfolio material i.e. flash and 3D stuff.
Aqeel is going to have the logo ready for ken by Friday (THIS IS A MUST!) and then will look at finalizing content and looking at some illustration over the weekend.

Next Monday, touch wood, famous last words, anything else that falls into that category we should have something at a near ready/finished stage.

The Organism Project…

Me and Big Aq worked on the final stages of the organism project last night. We were very happy with the work we achieved, even though we had great difficulty in trying to achieve the desired effect. The problems that we have had to overcome was mainly coding. However, I was reading over the brief and the main emphasis was on the organism itself and do feel we provided a pretty extensive explanation and created an organism that has the ability to grow by itself and the user doesn’t really have a control over it whilst they are browsing.

Our desire to create our own project i.e. coding for an application that could do everything dominated our processing approach and has proven to be a challenge bigtime. For further explanation about our thoughts with regards to the organism, check out the site mentioned above!!

Here’s the youtube entry if you can’t wait!!!

We done our presentation today, it fell kind of flat with the different styles colliding with each other giving a mixed messages to the listeners. The comments from Chris were harsh but definitly taken on board.

Organism Project on YouTube…

Update on everything…

Well we have the organism project deadline looming on tuesday and a presentation again on the wednesday, the project has gone well a few chops and changes but our final outcome is what i think will get us the best marks and it’s been an exciting process, trying to learn basic concepts of processing (which by the way is alot fucking easier than java and that bloody langstons ant crap), I think aqeels’ laptop is still crashing! lol Just a few more tweeks and I think we’ll be sorted! I named it Venom… symbiosis, spiderman kind of thing.

Kenny mentioned about using the Arch-OS system a few days ago, which I fully agree would be a good thing to do but with the lack of time that he mentioned it at would have just snowed us right under with a project that would give us less of a creative output.

I’ve spent all day today doing my animation finally!!! it took about 6-7 hours to render about 7-8 secs of animation (Shrek eat your heart out), i’ve now just put on the second clip to render as i type this, it’s considerably shorter so hopefully i can animate a longer one overnight so that anther part of it can be done before i leave for university.

I’m still a bit undecided with my balancing my time between the essay and the animation, the essay is in first but i think my writing style works better with less time to do it, the only bad things is my writing skills are terrible and a really need to get my work checked over before I hand it in. Also, I have been picking up books and reading them! I’m now taking in alot more information, its still not fully absorbing yet but my brain is getting there.

Now the ugly bit, Hugos website… Oh my fucking god, this has gone on far longer than it could ever take. Websites can be knocked up in a few days to a decent standard and we still havent decided on a bloody colour scheme or logo. The thing is we have all been appointed roles for this project as decided by ourselves and we just arent agreeing on anything. I’m supposed to be doing the animation side of things, but I want to do more! I’ve done a few logo designs whcih were rejected, Kenny done a ton of designs and a mock website and they got rejected, we could have had this project dusted off a couple of days after he set it.

Well now i’m going to chill out for a bit, might watch a movie then hit the sack.

I say Good Day.

Augmented Reality

Java today…

My my what a practical that was, Ollie and I kind of came together after the first few exercises due the information that we were being fed was slowly being taken away from us and making things alot more difficult, in my opinion its not the best way for us to be learnign this way, with regards to the langstons ant thing, yes i agree it does give us knowledge about creating some silly game which no-one wants to look at because its just awful, but we have been doing this for 5 weeks now, and we havent really been shown how to apply this to other areas, that may sound silly but all we are doing is antWorld antAgent and antIDontGiveAShit.

To top it of we were baffled at creating a few lines of squares and changing the colours of them of the from red to blue, so simple to say but after 3 hours of non stop brain racking we still hadnt finished, now I know my java skills are lacking in some areas but 3 hours to create some squares and changing the colours, something isn’t right…

Finally i’ve decided indefinetly what I might want to do my HCI Essay on…

well i’ve just home from work, sat down trying to thikn what the hell I can do my essay on, i’ve been asking people in work, but to know avail just crap that doesnt really interest me. Sat in front of my PC eating chilli and chips then BAM! Let’s do Augmented Reality, i’m a computer geek so why not do it on developing innovative ways of interacting with just like the Wii. I was thinking of a Headset that would cover your eyes like a small TV, and just like GPS tracking it will be able to sense which way you are facing and this would corralate to movement in the game.

Meep.

Research time.

Thoughs on HCI essay again…

Only one lecture today, HCI, firstly we read an article on the Star design made by Xerox, in short they designed this interface by thinking of how the user would relate to the system and then the hardware and software followed after that. Here are some notes that i took while reading the first 3 pages.

April 1981 Xerox announced an office based PC.

Allow user experience in one area to apply to other applications.(consistency)

Star is based on an experiment called Alto.

The Mouse is first introduced as a way of pointing to graphics, Cursor step keys are to slow as there is now more information on the screen.

Xerox devoted 30 working years to the design of the Star user interface.

It was designed before its functionality was decided.Methodologies

The provision of languages by which users can express their commands to the computer.

The design of system/technical information about the system displayed to the user.

Abstract issues that affect the users understanding of the systems behaviour.Task Analysis
Task Analysis involves establishing who the users are:

What their goals are

How they perform tasks

what information they generate and desire

What methods they employDesign Methodologies must precede the design of any successful user interface

After reading some of the article I found myself pondering and over analysing everything which I associate with and interface, this evening both Me and Aqeel got talking on the great and wondering MSN. Here is what we talked about:

1) I hate the remote interface on television, can’t stand em. There’s two much variance between them. Then the volume buttons…they are all so clunky…the rubber aspect. Then the whole point…where is the remote?!

2) The washing machine interface is really does my head in. Or am I just not machine washer friendly, whatever the point. There should be a summary as to what you have entered, or even RFID technology telling you whats good to put and whats not. Or a summary where it asks to check you haven’t added a red with your whites.

3) Chat clients that should be cross platform…i.e. same on all platforms…the same keys etc. So its easier to communicate and share same features. The ability to switch groups of buddies off whilst others on…without blocking.

Still not entirely sure about which direction I want to take the essay, I’ve read other blogs, not quite sure about the Train Control System… I know i’ve never used one and I can safely say most people have never used one, maybe when I was in Toys ‘r us I admit I briefly played on Train Simulator by Microsoft but that surely cant be an accurate interpretation of the physical design…

Anywho, beddy bies time, and I might need a twosies(Scrubs).

I say good day

Sexy Title Sequence

AN interesting title sequence…

HCI essay

Well, I should be starting this essay in the next few days, i’m just trying to figure out which system interface I would change, i’ve been looking around at everyday opbjects and thinking how we intereact with them, i’ve asked a few people in work what do find hard to use or what isn’t as safe as it should be, so far i’ve come up with a blender… she said mainly cause it’s a bitch to clean.

Anywho, I managed to find some previous essays so this gives me a starting point in term of what I need to say about the system. Now I just need to read some stuff for my practical session today.

Another glorious meeting with Mr Speed

Yesterday was an exciting day, we have finally got some visuals for the organism project, and we have made it so good that its and organism in itself so in effect we have 2 organisms, kind of living off each other. I first suggests symbiosis when we were first bouncing ideas around, and lo and behold we end up with 2 stunning pieces of work, after the meeting with Mr Speed we were directed into the path of another Chris, but this one was a lil’ code monkey, he helped us bring our ideas to realisation, and literally within a few hours of speaking to him we had a working example which we could then take forward and tweek.

Also we look sure to be presenting our work on the big screen, no not the cinema on the big 5m by 8m screen on the front of Portland sq, the presentation will be next wednesday in Ride or Cuba, also might I add no-one else is presenting hehe

3D thoughts

With regards to the 3D project for Katina, I definietly know what I need to do but i seem to be avoiding doing the animation, it’s kind of a good and bad thing, good because I know if I start it I will be so absorbed by it, other projects that are due in will suffer, and the bad i’ve set myself a fairly complex animation so the render time is going to be fairly long. On that note it took 10 million render hours for the production of Shrek 3 and 1 frame took 35 hours to render, so fora seconds worth of footage it took over a week to render…

P.S I have all the components for the animation.

The Virgin on Rocks

An absolutely gorgeous painting, I keep seeing this image pop up in some books that i’m reading, judging from the side captions in the book it was once in The Louvre, but now it resides in the National Gallery in London.

Scenes Outline…

Personal Site

I’ve been working on my personal site today, the blog is now viewable on there but its not formatted to suit the same style as the site. Check it out at www.moilmedia.co.uk/index.html

Perception and Cognitive ability vid in ISAD

Only one lecture today, we watched an interesting video in Mr Fordes’ lecture, it was mainly about extreme examples of brain damage and the effects therein. One man couldnt recognise anyone that he knew, not even himself or his wife. There was a woman that couldnt see motion, in brief if you think of the eye as a video camera, her “Frame Rate” was one every few seconds rather than the average of 25 frames per second.

I found it very interesting, John mentioned about how young babies brains develop the
the notion of facial recognition, this starts from a very early age. And unlike the people in the video, it seems that car crashes and strokes were two of the main causes, this suggests that sudden movements to the brain are bad, and prove that the brain struggles to heal itself.

In comparison to software interface design one main point which was mentioned by John was the change between MS-DOS to the GUI version of windows. MS-DOS was completely type based, no graphics were used, the basic concepts of using the software were fairly hard to grasp and potentially put people off using it.

The GUI model was far more successful, a novice with no computer experience was able to use the machine at a fairly competant level, even now windows still use a mixture of text and images to display buttons and folders etc. This greatly increases the usability because the images are representing the words, i.e. a Image–[folder] looks like the word ‘folder’.

Over the years Microsoft have release newer versions of the operating system, I haven’t managed to play on Vista yet but my laptop and desktop both run on Windows XP, the usability in XP is far great than it’s predecessor Windows ME 2000, I can think of a few reasons why… better systems to run the OS, higher demand for computers and of course financial gain, the more people use it the more money they will make.

There may be a few downfalls to changing the OS every few years, people get qualifications in using certain programs, these programs soon become obselete due to the OS moving on and changing the user experience, making things easier or in other words dumbing down everything. To put that into context I would never be able to grasp the lastest 3D modelling program if it wasn’t through the help of those pre-made buttons that aid you in creating something which it doesn’t know what it’s creating…tangent moment there.

Also on the subject the the upgrade of any software package generally keeps the same layout witha few treaks here and there but its mainly adding new features and/or making the layout easier on the eye. The worst piece of software that I have noticed recently is the Office package… what is with all the crap at the top?? It’s like someone has just shit buttons all along the top of the screen and then realised that there is supposed to be some typing going on somewhere.

Summary: good day appart from the surprise essays 2 x 2000 words…

I’m tired and hungry.

New name for 205!!

All in all, its been a positive week, despite a bit of a burn out week.
I have come up with a new name, and it is the final one!!! Dead Pixel.
It’s very apt for our specialty. The dead pixel represents an annoying thing, i.e. a company that has an identity that just isn’t working, or is dated like an old monitor, and our job is to get rid of this dead pixel, give it a fresh look and new dynamic.
We are now moving forward to this and have been thinking about designs, and where we can go with this. We have decided to look at Howies .

We love this site because it’s clean, crisp, sharp and well laid out. It has the right message and concept. Using this same website, we can adopt a similar principle and maybe introduce a picture element to it.

The target for next time we meet up, is a vector based image. Just to brush up on our skills and maybe introduce it into the site. There is a definite possibility that this may not fit in with our site, but we are willing to give it a shot. Also there’s been a suggestion that we add some content to the branding, marketing and media section. So we’re going to give some description and see how we can incorporate it.

The aim is to get this site completed in CSS format asap together and then complete a flash format. So far we are on track and have done well all round.

Bjork – All is full of love…

3D Animation…My thoughts

Well today had the chance to run by my ideas about the 3D animation project, I received alot of praise and helpful constructive critisism. I can say i’m now fairly set in what I want to achieve I can see the whole movie in my head. Here is my brief tkae on what I have thought about… Firstly, I thought about the direction robots are heading i.e. making our life more easier to do day to day tasks with ease this conjured up thoughts about implementing a robot into history and think about the effects it would have on us now, then I thought about emotion, I’m fairly confident that my toaster doesn’t fancy my kettle but…

So i took the word love, should be an unknown feeling to a robot, the comparison between humans and robots, what would they be? the symbolisism of a rose to a human has a much different meaning to a robot, red is a lustful colour whereas to a technical being red is danger. The setting was a difficult one to decide on, again I thought of putting the robot in a period of history, I’m thinking of the 50’s with a woman in a pinny tidying the kitchen (pardon the sexism), how odd would that be if they were both robots? the male robot would be outside lusting after this female as she goes about her end of the day routine, the emphasis would be on his inability not to muster up some courage to give her a rose… the ending scene is very supermanesque when he whisks Lois above the clouds with the deftning sound of silence.

I’m a huge fan of eastern movies like crouching tiger hidden dragon, house of flying daggers etc the composer of crouching tiger is a man called tan dun, i have listened to many of his compositions before, and when put into a story like crouching tiger it creates this vast sense of lust between two people. It almost has to be a starting point for the music accompanying my animation.

Character Design has been done using Poser and 3D Max, I thought about how these robots would just simply be models i.e. serial numbers in which one came out after the other etc and to define either of the I thought the colour would be the simpliest option, the robots will be identical but the male will be stereotypically blue and a little taller, whereas the female robot will be pink and lacking is size and masculinity.

In other news I had a extremly brief idea about my essay for Joasia: I thought about the new Heavenly Sword game and the production that went into it and how the use of live actors acting out the cg characters in the game. Can this method replace conventional acting? essentially its just moving and voice that you need.

Pen and paper thoughts