For my website, I had the idea of personifying a website.
This website would have a variety of pages. I had the idea of using human problems, to explain certain internetal problems. For example, if a page doesn't load, and causes the internet user to get angry, the website can have a rant about how hard it is operating at full functionality with so much pressure. Things like this will be used to portray the mental and emotional state of this character. I might only just touch on this however.
The character's backstory will also be looked at, and the troubles it has faced in its life. An example of one such trouble, would be how when he was a youngling, he frequently had problems with colour schemes. This was made even harder by the fact that it is completely colour blind. While I might not use this exact example in my final project, the wry style of it will be omnipresent in the website.
Relationships will also be looked at, such as its relationship with different fonts, and the ongoing conflict between said website and Comic Sans MS. This is made especially hard with Comic Sans' constant antagonism and iniquitousness. This also may just be a small part tho.
I was also going to create a facebook fan page for the entity, as well as include a googlemap location page as one of the pages. And use the idea that he is a webpage, and thus is essentially omnipresent. I'll also weave in the GIF way we learnt in class, although I currently I'm not sure of what. I want to play around with GIMP and the GIF idea, to see what I can do with the program before deciding what to do.
In this project, my aim is not to be inherently funny or humorous, but hopefully somewhat wry. This hopefully will be aided by the sullen website, and the idea: 'websites have feelings too'. I am also aiming for a storyline, perhaps ending in the suicide of the website. So it will be black humour, and it will have depression references in it. Which may not be appropriate for some people, but I believe that writing should have no taboo boundaries.
The 'so what' is that hopefully the website will make the viewer open his mind a bit, and the odd nature of the idea will hopefully help this. I also wanted to 'prove' of sorts, that one can have a narrative in a single website, I think I will be able to pull this off really well.
But yes! That's my general idea. There are a lot of parts that I'm still a bit hazy about the specifics of, but I have the idea of what it will be like, and I know the tone. The reason I can't be in detail, is that I will write what flows into mind at the time of writing. The website and written parts will have better fluency and flow this way. That's what I believe anyway......
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
6. Xtranormal
For my Xtranormal project, I decided to create two videos of one and a half minutes each. I felt like this was a better option, as it would be more interesting.
The first one, Indian Taker, is a somewhat humorous one about an Indian Robot. It uses stereotypes as jokes throughout, and uses a variety of actions, shots, expressions and various other features of Xtranormal. This one is interview of sorts, and the character is talking to the camera for the entire 1.5 minutes. Some people may find it offensive, so WARNING if you are one of those people. I also critised parts of xtranormal in the video.
In the second one, Funky Music Night, I chose a TV show approach. I titled the show Funky Music Night, as FMN appears behind the characters, so I created a title around that. This one is a talk show type thing, where the host has a DJ on the show, and premieres his new film clip. The interviewer tries to find common ground with the DJ, by using words from what she thinks is his discourse. She fails however. I also used a variety of features of Xtranormal in this. I used music in this one, and I inserted a scene in the middle, which was somewhat long-winded and vexatious to do. Note this film doesn’t keep up the illusion of the TV show, as I decided to sometimes have the shot be from a camera that wasn’t part of the TV show. I did this as there simply wasn’t enough camera angles to keep in the TV show world without it becoming bland.
Overall I'm rather happy with my two videos, although I did find Xtranormal very annoying. I lost whole scenes of work merely because there was an error in the program, and it wouldn’t let me render the scene. I do really like Indian Taker though. I feel like it is a good use of the software, as it harnesses the positive aspects of the program. The main problem I had with the software though was the inability to have character movement (to have the characters move around the locations). Scenes just felt so structured and bland without it. Another improvement I suggest would be the ability enter the amount of time an action or pause should go for (like in seconds). This would greatly improve the program. More actions and voices are also needed. Especially with better vocab, I continuously had to dumb down and change my script as my word choice was out of this programs range. Exhale. It was also annoying that I couldn't enter diacritical marks into the program all the time. Sometimes entering an eñe for example, just wouldn't work. Sometimes I had to misspell words to get the program to say it correctly (for example, I had to enter 'halapenyo', to have 'jalapeño' pronounced more correctly (note I didn't use this in the end)) Other times I went to create a movie, and it simply said 'Problem Creating movie', and nothing could be done.
The first one, Indian Taker, is a somewhat humorous one about an Indian Robot. It uses stereotypes as jokes throughout, and uses a variety of actions, shots, expressions and various other features of Xtranormal. This one is interview of sorts, and the character is talking to the camera for the entire 1.5 minutes. Some people may find it offensive, so WARNING if you are one of those people. I also critised parts of xtranormal in the video.
In the second one, Funky Music Night, I chose a TV show approach. I titled the show Funky Music Night, as FMN appears behind the characters, so I created a title around that. This one is a talk show type thing, where the host has a DJ on the show, and premieres his new film clip. The interviewer tries to find common ground with the DJ, by using words from what she thinks is his discourse. She fails however. I also used a variety of features of Xtranormal in this. I used music in this one, and I inserted a scene in the middle, which was somewhat long-winded and vexatious to do. Note this film doesn’t keep up the illusion of the TV show, as I decided to sometimes have the shot be from a camera that wasn’t part of the TV show. I did this as there simply wasn’t enough camera angles to keep in the TV show world without it becoming bland.
Overall I'm rather happy with my two videos, although I did find Xtranormal very annoying. I lost whole scenes of work merely because there was an error in the program, and it wouldn’t let me render the scene. I do really like Indian Taker though. I feel like it is a good use of the software, as it harnesses the positive aspects of the program. The main problem I had with the software though was the inability to have character movement (to have the characters move around the locations). Scenes just felt so structured and bland without it. Another improvement I suggest would be the ability enter the amount of time an action or pause should go for (like in seconds). This would greatly improve the program. More actions and voices are also needed. Especially with better vocab, I continuously had to dumb down and change my script as my word choice was out of this programs range. Exhale. It was also annoying that I couldn't enter diacritical marks into the program all the time. Sometimes entering an eñe for example, just wouldn't work. Sometimes I had to misspell words to get the program to say it correctly (for example, I had to enter 'halapenyo', to have 'jalapeño' pronounced more correctly (note I didn't use this in the end)) Other times I went to create a movie, and it simply said 'Problem Creating movie', and nothing could be done.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
5. Image Hotspot Work
Viewed Here
For this hotspot project I went with something a little different than a simple photo with hotspots. I first started coming up with various things by playing around with the language. Things such as homophones, alliterations, and sentences with assonance. I the drew, albeit badly (I'm not a very good drawer), various pictures on an A4 page, pictures that correspond with the sentences I had created. I then scanned the A4 page in, edited it in photoshop, (such as removing the paper colour, and cropping the image) and then added all the text into the hotspots.
First off, the two images actually correspond and tie in to each other. One is meant to be sorta the 'question' page, while the other is more the 'answer' page, and you can switch in between the two by clicking on the hotspot. In this, Image 1 has the sentence, while Image 2 has the sentence, along with the 'language play' that is included in this sentence. (They're the same image, but the text is different.)
So what? This was merely an experiment, and is meant to be an interactive way to learn. (So if kids were learning about alliteration and assonance, a page like this could be created. Although not this one, this page does mention sex, among other things.) An example of how this style of project could be used in the learning environment, would be with learning a second language, take an English speaker learning Spanish. One might have an image, which is a drawing filled with animals. On the Image 1 page, this image would be displayed and when the cursor is over an animal(all animals will be hotspots), a drop down box would give the name of the animal in English. The viewer then goes around the image and tests himself on the language (in this case, nouns, specifically animals). (For example when s/he puts his cursor of a dog, s/he can then say 'perro' to himself, which is the Spanish word for dog.) If the viewer doesn't know the Spanish word for the animal, s/he can can click on the hotspot, where he will be lead to 'Image 2' - which is page with the same image, but instead, the animals names are in Spanish - and find out the Spanish word for the animal) Hence, it can be used as a interactive way for someone learning a second language to test themselves.
Technical Jib-Jab
I used over 40 hotspots in this image, and had a lot of code. But each drop down menu didn't have much text in it, so it evens out with the 4-6 hotspots/couple of sentences in each menu guideline that you gave us. Unfortunately, this guideline was given to us after I had been working on the project for a week, and hence couldn't really change it.
You also said that we should change the part of the image where a hotspot is. Due to a similar problem (me working on it for a week), I didn't really do this. I did however replace the background colour with a plain white in Photoshop. So essentially, it's a white canvas, and wherever there is 'ink', there is a hotspot. So the hotspots aren't actually hard to find.
In the hotspots I used all three methods: Circle, Rectangle and Polygon(crazy boat thingy). I also changed the width and colours of the boxes, although I stuck with the same colour for most of the boxes. I did however think that this assignment was rather tedious work. Trying to get the boxes to the right size, as well as making sure I had all the sentences with the right hotspot, and hence, right drawing, was really annoying. This hotspot thing isn't something I would want to use to regularly, as it (well to me at least) was rather tedious.
I do however, (as with the learning a second language idea I provided above) think that it does have some rather interesting practical applications. For artist, It would be a good way to imbed your artwork into education, and is a rather sly way to get people to view your drawing. Unfortunately, as you would have figured out from my drawings, I'm not much of an artist. I am however, learning Spanish, and have been trying to find interactive ways to test myself. For me, the Spanish example I proved would be very useful. :)
For this hotspot project I went with something a little different than a simple photo with hotspots. I first started coming up with various things by playing around with the language. Things such as homophones, alliterations, and sentences with assonance. I the drew, albeit badly (I'm not a very good drawer), various pictures on an A4 page, pictures that correspond with the sentences I had created. I then scanned the A4 page in, edited it in photoshop, (such as removing the paper colour, and cropping the image) and then added all the text into the hotspots.
First off, the two images actually correspond and tie in to each other. One is meant to be sorta the 'question' page, while the other is more the 'answer' page, and you can switch in between the two by clicking on the hotspot. In this, Image 1 has the sentence, while Image 2 has the sentence, along with the 'language play' that is included in this sentence. (They're the same image, but the text is different.)
So what? This was merely an experiment, and is meant to be an interactive way to learn. (So if kids were learning about alliteration and assonance, a page like this could be created. Although not this one, this page does mention sex, among other things.) An example of how this style of project could be used in the learning environment, would be with learning a second language, take an English speaker learning Spanish. One might have an image, which is a drawing filled with animals. On the Image 1 page, this image would be displayed and when the cursor is over an animal(all animals will be hotspots), a drop down box would give the name of the animal in English. The viewer then goes around the image and tests himself on the language (in this case, nouns, specifically animals). (For example when s/he puts his cursor of a dog, s/he can then say 'perro' to himself, which is the Spanish word for dog.) If the viewer doesn't know the Spanish word for the animal, s/he can can click on the hotspot, where he will be lead to 'Image 2' - which is page with the same image, but instead, the animals names are in Spanish - and find out the Spanish word for the animal) Hence, it can be used as a interactive way for someone learning a second language to test themselves.
Technical Jib-Jab
I used over 40 hotspots in this image, and had a lot of code. But each drop down menu didn't have much text in it, so it evens out with the 4-6 hotspots/couple of sentences in each menu guideline that you gave us. Unfortunately, this guideline was given to us after I had been working on the project for a week, and hence couldn't really change it.
You also said that we should change the part of the image where a hotspot is. Due to a similar problem (me working on it for a week), I didn't really do this. I did however replace the background colour with a plain white in Photoshop. So essentially, it's a white canvas, and wherever there is 'ink', there is a hotspot. So the hotspots aren't actually hard to find.
In the hotspots I used all three methods: Circle, Rectangle and Polygon(crazy boat thingy). I also changed the width and colours of the boxes, although I stuck with the same colour for most of the boxes. I did however think that this assignment was rather tedious work. Trying to get the boxes to the right size, as well as making sure I had all the sentences with the right hotspot, and hence, right drawing, was really annoying. This hotspot thing isn't something I would want to use to regularly, as it (well to me at least) was rather tedious.
I do however, (as with the learning a second language idea I provided above) think that it does have some rather interesting practical applications. For artist, It would be a good way to imbed your artwork into education, and is a rather sly way to get people to view your drawing. Unfortunately, as you would have figured out from my drawings, I'm not much of an artist. I am however, learning Spanish, and have been trying to find interactive ways to test myself. For me, the Spanish example I proved would be very useful. :)
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