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Artist Chose for new Brief

2011-01-28T03:11:00.000-08:00

Bear Hoods

My artist for my project is a friend of a friend who has recently graduated from Nottingham Trent after doing textiles. Over the course of her degree her and a freind from her course decided to go into business together making what they call 'bear hood'. It's basically just a fashion accessorie, which is a loose hood not attached to anything which goes over the head and has bear ears on top. I have already seen people wearing them around Nottingham, and considering their business dosent even have an official name yet, their doing quite well.

The hoods look similar to these:

*Please note that these images are not owned by the company I am doing a breif for, these images are just being used to give you an idea of what they look like.

I was asked by my friend if I would be willing to do a website for them already, so I feel it would be a great excuse to use these people for my project.

I will be researching and seeking out websites related to textile design, and also look at fashion design websites to draw inspiration and get a general outline of what most fashion design websites offer in terms of content and layout.

Design Site Reviews

2010-10-14T11:34:00.000-07:00

Creative Nerds

http://www.creativenerds.org

I first heard about creative nerd via browsing Myspace. I realised they were responsible for the recent influx of great looking and well made Myspace layouts being made for many artists in the underground grime scene (many of which have gone on to mainstream success such as Tinchy Stryda, and Tinie Tempah) I established they were a partnership of two college students (same as me at the time) so I found it easy to relate to them.

I feel their website is looks very appealing. What I think works well is the first thing you see when you first access the site is a slide show showcasing various examples of their work. This gives a potential client a great opportunity to see if their work suits them. The tool bar at the top is easy to understand and use as it is laid out well. The only downside I would say this website has is that it lacks a certain professional look. All the people behind the company are quite young and I guess have a lot to learn. Because of this some potential clients could be put off maybe by the amateurish look of the site.

Open Edge Design

http://www.urbanedgedesign.co.uk/

I stumbled across this website in a search for 'urban design' after flicking through some of the work showcased, I decided I like what I saw. The design of the website is very simple and minimal. Only two colours are used through out which are white and grey. This could be classed as quite boring, but I think it works well in conjunction with the type of design they are producing.

The website shows off previous examples of work and roll over code to show the preview image of the work in colour (the image is black and white before it is interacted with to keep the colour scheme going). The layout of the site is well done, all is accessible and it is easy and instinctive to use and navigate your way around. The general look of the website is good, although as I previously mentioned, the fact that the colour scheme is very minimal could be a potential put off as it can come across quite boring. Their isnt anything that grabs you instantly and draws you into the site.

Virtual Environments Assignment

2010-05-23T21:09:00.001-07:00

Virtual Environments assignment, done! Here is my attempt at a super villain’s lair. When I first read the brief for this project I instantly thought of Batman with his state of the art Bat cave. This initial idea led to a vision of a big room which stored vehicles, sort of like a car show room. This was to be the first room I created, and the rest of the structure was constructed around it. I decided to have one additional back room which was to be the armoury housing all the weapons your typical super villain would have in his possession. I then decided I would make use of the roof by putting a space ship there, and this would be my third area. My fourth area I turned into a defence centre, with four turrets positioned around a circular space, also stairs to the second floor were accessible from this space. I textured my building using mostly metal textures. The walls were textured with an image I had which was a sheet of metal with a yellow warning like strip on both the top and bottom. I feel this worked well as it made the building look gritty and dirty. I had an extremely suitable floor tile. I say that because it was metal, and it had the pattern many metal floor tiles have on them, which added to the realism. Instead of using the free camera as Andy advised, I used a target camera. This was mainly down to the fact that I found it a lot easier, as using it in conjunction with the time line, was extremely similar to Flash, as it used key frames.

What I liked about this project was the level of creative potential. You could literally make ANYTHING, and you were God. I like the facts that even though I did struggle with this project a lot, I found it easier than I thought I would. Before I started this project, the idea of creating any 3D objects seemed to hard and too complicated, but I now feel I have overcome a fear now I have tried it. What I liked about my structure the most was the texturing. I felt I managed to get good images to use and they all tied in together leaving my structure looking pretty good. I also felt my camera sequence went quite well, as you get to see all of the structure.

What I did not like about this project was the program 3Ds Max itself. I never really properly got to grips with it, and I struggled massively at the start. I felt the whole process extremely frustrating, and I feel this shows in the final outcome. I feel the whole structure is a bit simple, and the interior could have been a lot more detailed. I just did have the passion to try and create something original and different, and I feel this was mostly down to the fact that I found using 3DS Max very hard.

Interactive Narrative: Flash Quiz

2010-05-23T17:31:00.000-07:00

Here it is! After many frustrating hours, writing code, deleting code, replacing code, and repeating code I finally have finished it! I decided to do my quiz on the English Premier League, as it is Football, it’s something I am interested in, and also because I found it easy to think up questions for it! I decided to ask one question about each team in the EPL (20 questions). There would be 3 possible answers, one correct two incorrect. I first had the idea to implement a cheer sound as the correct answer was selected. I managed to do this, but only in the first frame. I was being told by Flash that I had repeated a definition. I half knew what this meant but my attempts to correct it, and research on the internet failed to work. I also tried to implement video, and at first it seemed to work. By using the FLV video player preset, everything seemed too easy, and I soon later realised the video didn’t play if the directory where the video is stored was removed (I assumed Flash embedded all files from the inbuilt library). I later found out (after it was too late to correct) that SWF file had to be handed in with all files in a folder, and this would have corrected my problem.

What I enjoyed about this task, was it allowed me to exercise all the relevant skills I feel I am best suited to. For example, designing the layout and look of the quiz is what I enjoyed the most as being on Photoshop creating images is something I always like doing and also do it in my spare time. I chose to stick to the traditional colour scheme the EPL uses as I thought this would give the quiz a more official look. I placed in the back drop of the question box, three players from the team you were currently answering the question for. These players were either old legends of the team, or modern players. I also tried to keep some relevance between the players and the question. Also the coding part of the assignment I enjoy. All though I admit coding isn’t my strongest point, I still enjoy it and I am always looking to learn more.

There wasn’t much I did not enjoy about this assignment. I felt that if I had given myself more time to do the project I could have made changed to the quiz that would have benefited it. For example if I though more about how I wanted the quiz to look, I could have simplified the design, and still kept the look of it. I say this because the way I siliced my image in Photoshop, meant that if one image was one pixel out of shape, it was completely noticeable.

I really enjoyed this assignment, and it put to rest any doubts I had about going forth onto the Interactive Media subject next year.

(Click here to access quiz)

Interactvie Narrative

2009-12-15T03:09:00.000-08:00

Here it is! Finished.

(Click link to open)

http://spamtheweb.com/ul/upload/2709/7805_narrative.swf

Initial One Shot Ideas

2009-12-02T13:58:00.000-08:00

Me and my group (Ricky, Tom, Matt & Boris) gave a lot of thought as to what our one shot short video would be. Original ideas that were flung into conversation all seemed to be based roughly around the same sort of theme, which I thought was a good sign, as it seemed to show that as a team, we were thinking similar things. We browsed through a few themes, and seemed to always be returning to two similar themes. We had a few ideas that centered around a sort of covert CCTV sort of theme, where someone was caught doing something they shouldn't be without their knowledge. We originally found a room we thought might be suitable, and placed out tripod on a table to give it a suitable height that could act as a CCTV camera. We then decided to have someone enter the room on the phone. We hoped we could put across the fact that he only entered the room as it was ‘originally’ empty, and that he may get some privacy. We were then going to have numerous people enter the room, make a lot of noise, and be generally distracting. Then of course the man on the phone would blow a fuse. This idea fell flat the instant we realised we could not use the room, and no where else seemed suitable!

We then focused on our second theme. Horror. I think this idea came into conversation because we realised that Waverly building is situated opposite a grave yard! We devised a plan to shoot at half 3, as the graveyard shut at 4. We decided we would make the video dark in editing, to hopefully show we wanted it to look like a night shoot. Again, we thought we would use a CCTV sort of shot for this piece. We devised a simple story, that we would see various people walking past the camera, as if they were just walking past, but then have various creatures follow them, and eventually attack one. We would have relied quite heavily on effects in editing for this piece, as we would of had to put in various noises, and if we were to have some sort of ghostly figure, some form of transparency would have been relevant. But, on the last available day we had to shoot, RAIN. That idea was impossible. That led us to go back to our original idea, where our “To Catch a Thief” video was born.

Pixelation by BLU

2009-11-25T11:15:00.000-08:00

Found another great example of Pixelation today, and thought I'd share. I liked the rough and edgy effect the video gives off as the location for the video is a wall that seems to be in quite bad condition. This also shows me that the animator must have planned an extensive amount to make sure no serious errors occurred. I also noticed that some images that had people walking past, or standing to stare at the drawing on the wall, were left in. I thought this was an interested idea, as it showed the viewer just how much effort went into the animation itself, as you were able to see roughly the extent of the number of images taken. It also brought a much needed sense of reality back to the video, as it is so bizarre.

One Shot Short

2009-11-25T11:12:00.001-08:00

To Catch a Thief

This is our finished and edited one shot short film. Filmed in the seating area in Waverly building, we devised a simple story of one man on a mission to catch a thief by planting valuables. It didn't quite go to plan!

To Catch a Thief from Marco Jeffery on Vimeo.

First Project (Pixelation)

2009-11-04T17:23:00.000-08:00

This is my pixelation video. I am quite happy how it has turned out.

Things I wish to improve on is the way the images flow from one to another to create a more consistent stop motion effect. I will try and do this by taking more pictures in between each movement.

When I next attempt a project of this nature, I will seek a suitable audio track to accompany it.

Flash Websites

2009-10-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

I have always liked the effect a good Flash website can achieve. I found these two websites that had been nominated for awards based on their Flash capabilities.

The first one is a website called Waterlife.

"Waterlife is a showcase for the documentary film of the same name that offers its audience a wonderful preview of the lush cinematography and rich storytelling found in the film. The true genius of the site, however, is found in its fluid navigation that recalls the gentle motion of a lake." (http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/best-flash-site)

Here is the loading screen for the Waterlife website. As it loads the vertical blue lines acrossthe screen, they turn into a wave (as seen in the image) when the mouse is rolled over.

After the website has loaded, you are introduced to the home page which offers a brief description of the websites content. The background image is a short video clip of an underwater scene.

On this image, you can see a mini photo collage. Each photo represents a different topic relevant to the importance of water. When the mouse is rolled over the picture expands with a caption at the bottom.

After selecting a topic, you are directed to a page which gives an explanation. The background image is constantly moving.

Website URL: http://waterlife.nfb.ca/

The second flash website that caught my eye was a website for NVIDIA graphic cards called NVIDIA - Speak Visual.

"Speak Visual is a Flash based micro site designed to promote the power of NVIDIA's graphic processors and was developed in a collaboration between the Odopod & Cutwater design studios. The site was launched in December 2008 and currently serves as a showcase for a multimedia design contest sponsored by NVIDIA."

This is the loading screen for the website. It has a green object moving in and around the two white pillars. There is also sound for this loading screen, because as the green object moves around, there is a swishing sound to accompany it, which gives a realistic effect.

You are then greeted by this page. It shows all the different people involved with Speak Visual. When the mouse is rolled over each individual person, they come forward, and look around as if they have been effected by the jolt forward.

Once you selected a person, a bio of them appears and their picture moves to the right and they continue to look around. They also follow the mouse if you wave it above their head.

The video also starts playing in the middle of the box. Also to the side you have an option to select other people's bios. Again they react to the mouse, and smile when you hover over them.

Website URL: http://www.speakvisual.com/#/spotlight

Pixalation

2009-10-18T07:36:00.000-07:00

After trying out some Pixalation for ourselves, and been shown various examples of Pixalation. I was reminded of a music video I watched a couple years ago that used great Pixalation. I was also intrigued to watch it again to compare it to one of the examples we were shown, which was the Sledgehammer music video with Peter Gabriel (1986). The music video I'm referring to was made 20 years later, but the results are still similar.

Plan B - No Good: