sandr093

Here is my final 3DS max animation for the design practice 1 module, The main addition is the camera scan of the swords at the start and the plunging into water. I believe It adds a little adventure.

Last Monday i completed my design practice one module: interactive spaces, as i explained in my last blog post a simple task became a complex one with lack of research, using notepad instead of dreamweaver increased complexity ten fold, although now everything is completed I am very satisfied with what I have produced. After finally importing all my notepad files into dreamweaver I began to link the pages with boarders, the process was quite complex as I had alot of nodes that branched of to different options, If a user collected a certain object the interface of the image changed as there was a new item in the your inventory. So in entirety i had to produce a lot more photo shopped images than normal to indicate a person has an item in there inventory. I defiantly learnt that planning is crucial when it come to interactive spaces, the simplest things like using front slashes instead of backslashes can cause problems. I also understand the aspect of journey better, this was the first t...

I have finished my interactive space module which should have been alot of fun and relatively easy but wasn't. I first set out to get the photo's which I would be using, this section went as smooth as can be, got the camera, asked some people to pose for some shots in the Waverly building and had a nice coherent sequence of images to link. The next stage was when things started to go wrong, I had previously missed the lesson on dreamweaver, so like a old school pro I thought we were meant to use notepad, I painstakingly produced a good chunk of my work in notepad before realising dreamweaver is available and makes working so much easier. The next problem was that, as I 'd missed a previous lesson, I was unaware you could link pictures directly from your image directory, so like a pro again I uploaded my pictures to my blog and was using the URLs from there to direct the pictures. This posed even more problems as the loading time between pictures was terrible as it was downl...

Now I have the basic concepts and designs for my one shot film, but have made no solid judgements or sense of the development stage, I like to identify the implications of my inspirations and brainstorming before I continue with later processes. This allows me to learn further and avoid possible problems arising in the future. I  adapt any new ideas created by my analysis/synthesis at this point and usually incorporate them into my current project. Analysis involves listing as many questions as you can think of regarding your project. The questions will vary from project to project but usually the majority of these questions are the same, whatever the project you are attempting. the Synthesis is the following section in the design process and is a list of answers. Quite simple really. 1) What software is most appropriate to use? 2) How long do I estimate to completion ? 3) What genre will it be? 4) What story am I trying to tell? 5) What is the main funct...

To get things kick started with the module I began conjuring up thoughts in my head, specially past examples of interactive spaces I've enjoyed. As with all my designs, inspiration is the key to turning ideas into reality. Firstly Final Fantasy VII is the first game I can recall playing which involved exploring and a meaningful journey. Final Fantasy VII is a role playing game, that had excellent graphics, game play, music and story for the time and was highly praised in the gaming community. The stand out feature for me was that it mixed technology, playability, and narrative to create a fascinating journey. The main character (you) had to choose your path, collect materials and items to advance to next levels and make interesting choices along the way which ultimately decides your fate. It had many different outcome which were influence by making different decisions. The formula for this game turned the average linear story into a much deeper structure of nodes and paths to dec...

So, I was very satisfied with the group edit we produced, but to show that I am able to go back to a project and refine through an iterative process I have produced a individual edit. My new version is called 'Chalk Nightmare', It works on basis that the story of the girls parent breaking up remains but she is recalling the events through a nightmare. The shot is reversed to indicate that the more recent memory's are being recalled first and the earlier ones last. To reinforce the idea of dream, the dip to black transition is used first to symbolise her eyes closing and the dip to white transition last to show her eyes opening. The nightmare aspect is created by lowering the brightness and gamma to create a dark and eerie atmosphere, I also changed the camera zoom and angle so the pictures is more visible and the angle creates a quirky feeling. Finally to match the mood of the lighting I change the coat from red to blue via colour changer, It fits well with th...

Two down, one to go. I have progressed onto the final design practice of the first module interactive spaces, this project involved designing a virtual space through a mixture of still digital photographs and HTML/JavaScript. It is made possible through the use of hyperlinking which allows users to explore the digital world around them, giving the audience decisions about there actions, which ultimately shows a free roam style journey. I've learnt over the last months that compositional elements and relationships play a huge role in how audiences interpret an image, I will have to consider: colour, negative space, angle, proportion, focus,narrative, association, linking 'hot-spots' and much more to create an engaging and inventive sequence of images. To start of the experimentation of interactive spaces, I produced a short sequence of 5 Images trying to show a story and journey, my idea for the test was what my dog gets up to when nobodies around, It doesn't really have...

Here is my 'Design Practice 1: One Shot Film' final group edit submission, I am very pleased with the outcome, It could almost be an advertisement for child abuse, I almost cryed (joke). There is always the possibility for my own individual edit in the future. Here it is in all It's glory: One-shot film chalk emotions from Samuel Dobson on Vimeo .

The other day we began to produce our one shot film, our ideas and inspirations had been concluded into a solid idea, there was no further planning required and the weather was perfect for shooting (we were postponed one day due to rain). We began by locating the perfect spot for filming, in terms of lighting, dryness (for chalking on the floor) and free from public interruption. We decided upon the area in front of the main gates in the park next to our university campus, not only did the sun rays here create excellent imagery and wonder due to them being split into segments by the gates and trees, we were also granted full permission to chalk away as long as we washed it afterwards. Secondly our cameraman began work on setting the white balance to achieve a prime realistic light, he also tampered with the iris, as we were filming in sunlight it was vital the iris wasn't overwhelmed by the light, he reduced it to ensure a good picture quality. Next we began to experiment with vari...

Now I have the basic concepts and designs for my one shot film, but have made no solid judgements or sense of the development stage, I like to identify the implications of my inspirations and brainstorming before I continue with later processes. This allows me to learn further and avoid possible problems arising in the future. I  adapt any new ideas created by my analysis/synthesis at this point and usually incorporate them into my current project. Analysis involves listing as many questions as you can think of regarding your project. The questions will vary from project to project but usually the majority of these questions are the same, whatever the project you are attempting. the Synthesis is the following section in the design process and is a list of answers. Quite simple really. 1) What software is most appropriate to use? 2) How long do I estimate to completion ? 3) What camera angles and lighting are best and why? 4) What story am I trying to tell? 5) What ...

To get our creative juices flowing we arranged a group meeting 12:30 Friday afternoon, our self-imposed task was to inspect and get inspiration from existing one shot shot films from the Internet. We gathered ideas, plots, visual styles and shared our findings as a group. We all had different ideas, some stronger than others, my main idea was to create a cinema environment in a studio and have several seemingly random events occur distracting a young women from watching her film. I wanted to elaborate on this one shot film by Joe Swanberg: I also looked at short films and long takes in existing films. Firstly Tom Yung Goong 2005, Prachya Pinkaew, although this isn't the greatest film in the world it has a fantastic long take on flights of stairs, whilst people are fighting and falling over the edge. I believe the long take creates a huge sense of unstoppable momentum and 'badness' which wouldn't work with conventional shots. You can't fault the cameraman, this scen...

Well hello again. I have now progressed onto the second design practice of three: One shot film, I have to  produce a short film collaboratively in a team of students. We have to develop, plan and shoot an original one shot film idea, showing every detail of the design process along the way. The camera may either pan/zoom/crab or track only once, and must be on a tripod.  I realise one shot films aren't as easy as they sound, to create a truly inventive and unique one shot, I will have to consider carefully visual composition, focus, movement, lighting and your choice of location. I hope to create a 'strong' one shot, that involves the audience but at the same time displays an interesting message. I realise that one shots films may require a long 'trial and error' process, experimenting is the key to ensure the atmosphere and messages are portrayed accurately. To jump-start the project we were put into groups (which I was initially unable to attend but joined later)...

I have produced and rendered two stations idents, one with sound and one without. The one with sound may need some minor tweaking and I believe the quality is reduced because access to adobe premier, to add the foley was unavailable . There isn't much to discuss at this stage until I am requested or decide to refine and alter, I doubt major changes will be necessary to the shapes and models, more likely the colours, formats and camera angles will be an issue. Here they are, in all their glory:

Now I have the basic concepts and designs for my animation, but have made no solid judgements or sense of the development stage, I like to identify the implications of my inspirations and brainstorming before I continue with later processes. This allows me to learn further and avoid possible problems arising in the future. I  adapt any new ideas created by my analysis/synthesis at this point and usually incorporate them into my current project. Analysis involves listing as many questions as you can think of regarding your project. The questions will vary from project to project but usually the majority of these questions are the same, whatever the project you are attempting. the Synthesis is the following section in the design process and is a list of answers. Quite simple really. 1) What software is most appropriate to use? 2) How long do I estimate to completion ? 3) What shapes and fonts are best and why? 4) What colours will I be adapting to my work ? 5) What is the main...

My first design process being inspiration, I decided to note down any visual styles of existing work that I enjoyed and could see potential in. These included thumbnails, drawings and videos. This helped extremely, as my creative juices were allowed to flow. Now I had my inspiration I started to brainstorm any ideas I could incorporate into my animation. These included sketches, story boards and annotations, which helped identify colours, fonts, shapes and animation movement. Samuel Dobson