Lee - Evaluation

The brief we were set was that we had to create an interactive interface where the viewer/audience could interact either by playing games or pressing buttons. I began by collecting research on different interactive designs on websites. I found some interesting techniques and designs through my research I liked the idea of having animation or motion-tweens within my work. I began my design ideas revolving the disaster around meteors as I felt they were something different to the global warming idea that has been associated in the news lately.

The skills I have used are creating password and a scoring game as well as
I have used different skills creating a shooting game which involved using invisible buttons and creating scores so the player could keep keep a score of points. I really liked the idea of creating something this interactive and I had a lot of fun making it but found it challenging to keep track of the coding.

I think my weaknesses in this were the coding, I found it very difficult to keep track of what had to be added and what was needed in the coding. I think I struggled with coding but I think stress got to me in this project as I wasn't able to get my head around what had to be done within flash.

I like my idea for my design, I like the rough cartoon style of it which contrasts to dark and mysterious room in pitch black at the beginning of the design but I think it was let down by in terms of the execution as it didn't come together as well as I had hoped, but I hope for the next project I will be able to successfully create an interesting design as well as executing it well and effectively.

lee - Research

Here are examples of bomb shelters as I thought these would be appropriate in my research, as one of ideas is having a bunker after a meteor strike has happened.
The rooms are cramped and tends to be only one small room with everything within it, such as food and the beds. The shelters are always underground, so I think a stairway or ladder would be appropriate in my design, as well as the room/rooms not being decorated properly they are just the raw materials and the necessaries within the room.

This could be the view of outside the bunker if I decide to create an outside to my design, I think the grassed over effect would add to the authenticity of the shelter.

lee - Research

Here are two different meteors I like the glow on the left picture as it makes it look more appealing and mysterious.
Whereas the one on the right looks like it could be a rocket with the bright white light behind it.
I think I may use the glowing light within my design because I think it is more eye-catching and more visually interesting as it isn't just plain.

Lee - Research

A meteor is a bright streak of light that appears briefly in the sky. Observers often call meteors shooting stars or falling stars because they look like stars falling from the sky. People sometimes call the brightest meteors fireballs. A meteor appears when a particle or chunk of metallic or stony matter called a meteoroid enters the earth's atmosphere from outer space. Air friction heats the meteoroid so that it glows and creates a shining trail of gases and melted meteoroid particles. The gases include vaporized meteoroid material and atmospheric gases that heat up when the meteoroid passes through the atmosphere. Most meteors glow for about a second.

Most meteoroids disintegrate before reaching the earth. But some leave a trail that lasts several minutes. Meteoroids that reach the earth are called meteorites.

Millions of meteors occur in the earth's atmosphere every day. Most meteoroids that cause meteors are about the size of a pebble. They become visible between about 40 and 75 miles (65 and 120 kilometers) above the earth. They disintegrate at altitudes of 30 to 60 miles (50 to 95 kilometers).

Meteoroids travel around the sun in a variety of orbits and at various velocities. The fastest ones move at about 26 miles per second. The earth travels at about 18 miles per second (29 kilometers per second). Thus, when meteoroids meet the earth's atmosphere head-on, the combined speed may reach about 44 miles per second.

Meteor showers

The earth meets a number of streams (trails) or swarms (clusters) of tiny meteoroids at certain times every year. At such times, the sky seems filled with a shower of sparks. Streams and swarms have orbits like those of comets and are believed to be fragments of comets.

The most brilliant meteor shower known took place on Nov. 12-13, 1833. It was one of the Leonid showers, which occur every November and seem to come from the direction of the constellation Leo.

Meteorites

There are three kinds of meteorites, stony, iron, and stony-iron. Stony meteorites consist of minerals rich in silicon and oxygen, with smaller amounts of iron, magnesium, and other elements. One group of stony meteorites, called chondrites, are pieces of the same material from which the planets formed. Another group of stony meteorites, the achondrites, were once part of a parent body, such as an asteroid, that was large enough to have melted and separated into an iron-rich core and a stony crust. Achondrites come from the outer crust; stony-iron meteorites, from the inner crust; and iron meteorites, from the metallic core. Iron meteorites consist mostly of iron and nickel. Stony-iron meteorites have nearly equal amounts of silicon-based stone and iron-nickel metal.

The size of meteorites varies greatly. Most of them are relatively small. The largest meteorite ever found weighs about 66 short tons (60 metric tons). It fell at Hoba West, a farm near Grootfontein, Namibia. However, much larger bodies, such as asteroids and comets, can also strike the earth and become meteorites.

Meteorites reach the earth's surface because they are the right size to travel through the atmosphere. If they are too small, they will disintegrate in the atmosphere. If they are too large, they may explode before reaching the earth's surface. One such object exploded about 6 miles (10 kilometers) above the Tunguska River in Siberia in 1908, leaving a 20-mile (32-kilometer) area of felled and scorched trees.

Thousands of small meteorites have been found in Antarctica, providing a rich supply of specimens for scientists to study. Scientists study meteorites for clues to the types of material that formed the planets.

Impact craters and basins

When large bodies such as asteroids and comets strike a planet, they produce an impact crater or impact basin. Impact craters are bowl-shaped depressions that measure up to about 10 miles (25 kilometers) in diameter. They have shallow, flat floors and uplifted centers. Impact basins are larger, and inside their rims there are one or more rings on the planet's surface.

Scientists have found more than 120 impact craters and basins on the earth. One of the most famous, the Meteor Crater in Arizona, is about 4,180 feet (1,275 meters) across and 570 feet (175 meters) deep. It formed nearly 50,000 years ago when an iron meteorite weighing 330,000 short tons (300,000 metric tons) struck the earth.

Most impact craters and basins larger than the Meteor Crater are heavily worn away or have been buried by rocks and dirt as the earth's surface changed. The largest known of these is the Chicxulub (CHEEK shoo loob) Basin centered in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The diameter of the basin is about 190 miles (300 kilometers). Rock samples obtained by drilling into the basin indicate that an asteroid struck the earth there about 65 million years ago. This was about the time the last dinosaurs became extinct. The impact hurled much debris into the sky. Many scientists believe this debris caused climate changes that the dinosaurs could not survive.

Scanning Media

Here I used the scanner to scan in the textures I needed to for my designs as well as textures that I ended up not using.

I altered the size on the preview of the scanned image so it cut out the area I didn't need using the crop tool I then selected finish and this began the scan.

Digital - Evaluation

For this project we were asked to create a digital story to do with ‘the beginning of the end’ then the chosen subject we could decide, I chose the beginning of the end of hope. I started by researching into things that I thought of when I thought of hope, such as doves and researching different graphic designers and illustrators to give me ideas, which I could create into the six designs. This gave me the idea of actually using the dove, as it is the main thing that appears in my mind when I think of hope so I thought by using the dove in a disturbing way.

I mainly used scanned images in my design such as the background and the drawn doves. Then within Photoshop I experimented with different effects such as hue saturation and vibrancy.

My main inspirations for my designs were Patrick Boyer and Tayla Baldwin as there designs focused on soft backgrounds, which allowed the drawings and photos to be vibrant and stand out. The backgrounds tended to be a mixture of watercolour and texture and I liked the effect so I wanted my designs to have a similar effect.

I like my final designs I think they display the message I wanted them to portray, I think the mix of media works well with the message as I wanted it to be quite rough and unpolished with my subject of hope, so I didn’t want it to look perfect I wanted it to display how the ‘seems were coming undone’.

However I think the sound, which accompanies the movie isn’t clear enough as it from my own digital camera in hindsight I would ensure that the sound was of top quality as I think it doesn’t seem as if it has had time and effort put into it.

I think my time keeping from the last project has improved and I have been more involved in other activities such as drawing and painting more than I had previously, this project really inspired me terms of creativity.

For the next project I want to eliminate the need to procrastinate which will allow me to focus all my attention on my work.  

Lightwave Screenshot Analysis

I first created the terrain for the environment by clicking on the bottom right corner choosing [new] then creating a new weight map then pressing surface I selected the texture I wanted the terrain to resemble, then choosing the modify tab then pressing the key N and choosing apply weight map. I then dragged out the the flat box I had previously created upwards to create the terrain. Then to create the raised surface by using the magnet tool creating a circular shape net for the dragged area clicking command this is to create the raised area of the cliff/waterfall.
Then on a new layer I created a cylinder then using the boolean tool to subtract from the terrain to create a cave inside of the raised terrain.
I then selected the edges of the polygons on the edge of the terrain which I then dragged out so the edges became sharper.

I then created a new surface to the terrain and used automatic sizing the texture looked right.
I then began creating the ledge for the waterfall I did this by using the boolean tool again and then using the drag tool to drag out some of the sides so they were random and looked as if they had been formed by the rushing water.

 

I then began creating the houses by using the box tool to create the shape of the housing. Then creating four boxes of the same size to form the window glass which will be subtract from the walls using the boolean tool. I then created a new surface for the windows so they were slightly transparent. The roof was made by creating a box and then dragging the corners so they made the roof shape as seen here.
I wanted the buildings to look different so I added more storeys and changed the size of the building.

I then created the water by creating a flat surface using the box tool I did this on the waterfall and on the top of the waterfall. Then by using the drag tool to make it will make the water look more random when in layout.
I changed the transparency on the surface so it will resemble water and will be more realistic. As well as changing options of bump, reflection, glossiness as it made the surface look more like water in layout.

After I synchronised my model with Layout I then began creating the scenes, I first started by making the camera slowly move around the environment by creating a new keyframe in the time line and then adjusting the camera where I wanted it to travel so it created a tween in the timeline so it steadily moved around the environment; I used the same method in the other renders.

Animation - Research

Simon's Cat 'Fly Guy'



I love the simplicity of the design for both characters and background. I think has been created in photoshop as the lines are all very clean cut and it would be a lot simpler to create. I like the simple lines without any colour, but with the detailing still in the furniture and characters still giving depth to the animation so it doesn't look half done. I may use the simple black and white aspect in my animation as it gives a clean cut design however I want to use a little colour in my design as I think it fits well with the song. Instead of having just black and white I want to incorporate some colour into my animation.

Replay



The CGI textures look good with the atmosphere of the polluted world the music works well creating a flash back like feeling with the playground, I like the how the animation becomes full circle with the tape always playing and being the main reason why the boy leaves the safety to experience what he once knew but can no longer go back to.





Father and Daughter
The sepia tone type background with the characters looking as if they have been drawn in ink so they stand out from the background.
I like the simple tones used in the animation which give the characters depth even though they aren't extremely detailed.
To recreate this I would use black ink to create the characters and objects which using either sepia tone or scanning in a texture similar to the one in this animation to be put on in photoshop.




Angst
I love the old movie type of effect which has been put on the animation, which I think would have been done through photoshop. The roughness and sketchiness suits the style of animation. I like the idea of it being quite glitchy and sketchy in my design in a similar style but I don't want it to look as depressing and have such a dark atmosphere.





Rich Tank
I think the timing in this animation is brilliant,I want my animation to be in time with the beat of the song. The bright colours are eye-catching and attract the viewer in with the neon glow. There isn't much textures that are obvious in this animation it seems quite simple but it is still affective. I want my animation to be similar in terms of the simplicity.





I like the simplicity of the animation, I think the movement of the dress is affective and I may use this as a reference in terms of how the dress moves when she is falling. It looks as if this has been hand drawn and coloured then animated through istopmotion.




I like how it plays out with the different media interacting with each other, I also want to use different types of media in my animation such as photo and drawings. The way it has been executed looks brilliant.





The imposed images look brilliant they're so detailed it makes it look as if it were three dimensional. The animation appears to be quite simple but if looked closer it is very detailed.
I think this has been been made in photoshop with a shadow on the back of each layer so it looks as if it were dimensional.


I love the idea of the pop up book with the different scenes and weather and how the character interacts with the surroundings. I may make my character in a similar way as if it were made out of paper as I want to use different medias in my animation.



The simple characters which are famous people are only resembled by a few simple drawings but because of the surroundings we know who they are as they are iconic.




8-bit trip
This has been made in istopmotion, the lego gradually builds up into new and different things involving people and different objects.
I like the idea of this but I think it would be too time consuming and it is too similar to the actual official music tracks amv so I want to use something different.

Lightwave Evaluation

We were asked to create an environment, which we thought the world would look like in the future. I started by researching on different futuristic cities other artists and designers had created. I liked the idea of creating an island which was floating on the water with other islands connecting to it but could be disconnected at any time; my idea was that the reason why the world was now like this was because of the rise in water levels where humans were forced to live on the sea and this was the easiest way.

However when we were given a tutorial on weight maps I decided I wanted to do something a little more challenging, I decided I wanted to create a waterfall with the cities inside of the cave behind the waterfall.

I then researched various different waterfalls to determine which type I was going to use I decided I wanted to use a high cliff type where the water flowed straight down in one continuous river.

The software we used was new to me so I experimented with lots of different tools just to see what looked right. I used the booleen tool many times for the inside cave as well as using the surface editor which I found interesting to change the different textures and surfaces. I also used the magnetic drag tool, which I found useful when creating the terrain as well as the drag tool to tie up loose ends.

I found it quite difficult to use the software, at first I strived to make everything look the best it could and experiment as much as I could but I feel for my first project in Lightwave I took on a difficult design in hindsight I wish I had made sure I asked for more help on the practical work as I struggled to get the design done.

I think my enthusiasm for this area helped me a lot as I didn’t want to give up because I wanted to get it right as I wanted to do well in this field in future I will make sure I ask for the help I need and not try so hard to figure it out myself and cause myself to panic and thus make mistakes.

I feel by project is quite weak compared to what I imagined it to be the end result is a rough around the edges and looks unfinished which I am disappointed with as I really wanted this to the area I strive in but for the next project I will make sure I know exactly how and if I don’t know how do something I will ask for assistance. I also want to improve my timekeeping as I feel I was poor at keeping at the time period given as I was experimenting with the tools.