Fire Effects

http://www.ffiles.com/flash/animations/fire_264.html

Great Fire Effects

2D Animation Assignment

I decided that I wany my animation to be on the the riots which took place in 2011.
Now that I have presented my ideas to Julian I want to start drawing the graphics and finding the images I want in my animation. I'm struggling with the style of animation I want. The images in the background will be of the actual London buildings, they wont be drawn.. Whereas the graphics are going to be drawn which is going to look odd I think.. I'm going to look at some other styles of animation today to see if i can come up with some different ideas.

My game...

Today ive been doing some more work on my game and managed to get the second level up and running. There are still a few problems with it that i'll need to sort out before i submit the work but I'm quite happy with how it is coming along so far.

Next lesson I am going to sort of my third level and start thinking about my fourth and then I am going to work on the grapahics and improve them.

Tims lesson

When you are dealing with a product you need to identify the demographics to begin with. It is difficult to come up with a product if you do not know exactly who it is for. Before you start a job, you must sit down with the client and discuss exactly who the audience is and what they want from the final product. Discussing with the client and planning the stages in which you complete the product is essential. You need to be clear on exactly what you need to do in order to meet the needs of the brief. You will need to look at what you need to consider in terms of logistics, budgets and schedules. When you a creating a product for a client you need to be sure that what you’re going to make is going to suit the audience. Demographics such as religion can become a problem if you don’t spend time researching the background of the audience.

The budget will all depend on what size the product is, what you’ll need and how much time it is going to take. A schedule will need to be created with the client in order to make sure that the product can be created in that certain amount of time. The budget will also depend on what equipment you’re going to need. If you have to purchase more software in order to do what the client wants then that will need to be taken into consideration. If you’re working for a company then you probably will already have the software that you need available to you, but when you’re working on your own then you’re going to need everything yourself, unless you can find someone that will do a certain element of the product for you.

If you are a professional then you can charge the client a lot more than what you could if you were a student. Clients won’t be willing to pay a student the same amount as what they’d pay a professional. When you are first starting out working with clients it’s a good idea to get a job and work alongside a professional. Allow them to pick up all of the profit but work with them along the way to pick up skills and experience for when you’re on your own.

drag and drop games

http://vectorgame.com/drag-drop

This game is a fairly simple drag and drop game. In order to complete it you have to drag and drop the cursor on to the ‘drop here’ button. The idea is fairly simple but it requires a lot of concentration and patience. To get the cursor on the ‘drop here’ button you have to avoid having any collisions with other objects.

The levels start off fairly easy but quickly progress to make it more difficult. If you do collide with any of the other objects your cursor gets put back into the original position so you can have another go. There are a total of 15 levels.

I found the game fairly addictive and didn’t want to give up until I had completed all of the levels. It took me roughly 40 minutes to get from level  1-15.

A new energy drink

What should go into the brief?

.What is the product?

. How do you want the product to be promoted?

.  Who is the product aimed at?

.How long you’ve got to create website/posters etc

.What you want the website to include

. What message you want to convey

Brief

The product I have created is a new energy drink which will go on sale in the UK. The drink is part of a range which will go on sale at a later date if the drink is proven popular amongst the audience. The product will be aimed at 16-30 year olds. The message the product needs to convey is that the drink makes you feel alive and gives you a boost when your energy levels are low. The promotional material that I want created includes a website and poster.

The following information needs to be put on the website:

-The background of the drink

-What the drink does

-What’s in the drink

-Where it’s on sale and promotions

The website will only need to include information on the drink so people will be able to understand the product. The website will need to be created in 2 months.

The poster will need to show an image of the drink with the logo on and also a caption. The maximum amount of time which can be spent on the creation of the poster is 2 weeks

A promotional video for the energy drink will need to be created to give the audience an insight into what the drinks about. The video needs to show how the drink gives you energy and makes you feel different.  The clip needs to be fairly brief but still show the audience what the product is and how it could appeal to them. The video will need to be featured on the website and take no longer than 1 month to film, edit and be working on the website.

During the process several meetings will be held to see how the promotional material is coming along and to review timescales.

Interactive Youtube Games

Super Mario Slots:
This game has been split up into 3 sections and requires you to click on the screen when you want the scrolling image to stop on the first layer. The first layer is images of the mario characters heads. Once you have picked which characters head you want you go onto the next layer and give them a body. (You could have marios head, with princess' body or whatever you like) Lastly, you go onto the last layer and pick some feet from all of the characters. The idea is to be able to dress up the mario characters how you want them. I think this game would appeal to young children but as it's so basic I don't think anyone would really want to play the game more than a couple of times because it becomes boring (in my opinion)

Interactive Spelling Bee:
This game is about seeing how far you can get with spelling a word correctly. The word will appear three times spelt differently and you have to click on the word which is spelt correctly. If you get the answer right you will go straight onto the next word but if you get it wrong a screen will appear saying "incorrect" and then it loads a new screen with a different word to click. I think this game is fairly useful but I don't think it really appeals to a wide range of audience. To improve the game I think the user should be able to select what difficulty they want the spellings so different age groups can use it.

Feedback for my website

What's good about it?
What can be improved?

Sophie:
I think that the simiplicty of your website is really good and effective, it also suits the film that you picked. I like the way that you have done the menu with the gun and the cast page looks really good. I also like all the bits that you added to the homepage that add more effect such as the way the images brighten as you scroll over them, the only way I think you could inporve it is possibly doing the same with the centre image. Overall a really good website.

Louis: It's all shit (Constructive Crititism)

 Ashley: I think the website is pretty good. Everything looks well constucted and works properly.

Website

Today, we saw what everyone did for their websites. I thought everyones looked really good and it was obvious that people had put alot of effort into them. For some reason, I can't get my video to play on any other computer than the one that all of my files are on. I have tried to put my folder onto a disc and a memory stick but still no luck. I got some good feed back from my site which I was happy with. Some how I am going to try and find a way to get the video to play with help from Julian so that my website can pass. I'm quite happy with the outcome in the end from my site, I would like to change a few things like the backgrounds on the pages at some point but for now I am going to leave it how it is.

My Website

Today I have been working on my website. I managed to get my video and galley page working today and did some alterations the story page. I imported the SALT movie trailor to my video page and added a firey background to make the page more interesting. I also added a scrolling picture gallery to my website with some help from Matt Bush who was doing a tutorial. The website is nearly complete but I will spend the next lesson on adding a link to Facebook and Twitter as well as making some small changes to improve the website.

Pokemon..

Website ScreenShots - Constructive Criticism Please

Flash Site

Today I worked on the "Cast and Filmmakers" page on my website. The characters names were listed down 2 coloums on the left and right side of the page with the image in the centre. When the mouse hoveres over the names the image would fade in slowely in the centre. Now that I have that page working, I am going to concentrate on getting the gallery page to work. I want to include a scrolling picture gallery into my website which I will work on next week.

Website for Jules

I have been working on Flash or last week or so and managed to get the basic structure of my website working. I have alsop added an after effects composition for thr title 'Salt'. This composition is a light ray will be continuously going from the left to right. I have also added some effects to the images. The images I used were fairly dull and I wanted them to get brighter if the mouse hovered over them so I did that and think it looks a lot better. Next time I'm on Flash I want to see if I can get a scrolling Picture Gallery working. I think I am going to look at some tutorials and find the easiest way to do it. To conclude, I think the website is going fairly well but I'm finding it tough and slow going on Flash. I find that If I get a problem then it holds me back alot. Surprisinly, I am starting to remember and pick up things on Flash which is helping me find a problem a lot quicker than I used to. :)

Byeee

Scope of Work

Today I completed the first steps of the project and have got my scope of work ready to hand in. Now that the Scope of Work is complted I am going to consentrate on getting the basic structure of the website up and running on Flash. I have decided what I want the site to look like after creating Photoshop Mockups which I will import into Flash

Flash games

http://www.flashgames247.com/play/25.html

I started off by playing a simple flash game called Snakes. The aim of the game was very simple but it required a fair bit of time to 'level up'. Before I started playing the game I didn't think it would be very addictive as the game didn't require me to do much. Although I thought I would be getting bored of the game within a few minutes I found myself playing the game over and over again. I found playing the game very frustrating as it took so long to actually get anywhere without being sent back to the beginning again.

Unit 62

Unit 62 Criteria 1

With digital video technology becoming more technically advanced it is a good way for designers to use it to their advantage to enhance a user’s interactive experience in such mediums as web design, interactive T.V and short films. Online video advertising is one way in which designers and brands can connect to people. Online video advertising has been extremely successful in the way it can get information out to consumers without making television commercials which may not been anywhere near as successful. A company called IAB, researching the upcoming success of online marketing, learnt that this method of marketing engages a lot more with the consumer than T.V commercials do. According to the research which was carried out in 2006 a company’s advertising contributes to around 40% of brand engagement whereas T.V contributes to about 17.6%. (see: http://lbug.co.uk/research.html)

Every day more than one million video’s are being shared and streamed on YouTube (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWVlQTeNXIo) With YouTube being so accessible to everyone it means that advertising marketers can create a video which will help promote and sell their product. Marketers aim to create videos which are entertaining to watch in order for the audience to feel involved and for the audience to remember that product. One good example of a video which interacts with its users is from TipEx.  (see,  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ba1BqJ4S2M0) This video has 43,852 subscribers and 41,127,588 views. (Information collected on 19^th January 2011) One of the reasons I like this video is because I can decide on the outcome of what happens in the advertisement which is different from most every day commercials. A typical advertisement wouldn’t let the user have that control.  As there are so many ads being shown everywhere, I think it is important for designers to create something different which will make their advert more rememberable.

Marketers who are advertising online make sure they target the youth culture they are well aware that popular videos are quite often the conversation topic at schools, colleges and universities. Christianet.com (link below) outlines the fact that the youth culture has grown up in a world of video-saturated technology and that the familiarity with certain popular video sites is undisputed. Music which is recognisable and popular with the younger generation is also included into the majority of videos as it is another way of getting a large amount of recognition for a brand or product. see: http://www.christianet.com/advertising/onlinevideoadvertising.htm) A survey which was conducted in 2007 by a company called IDC shows that a lot more time is spend on the internet than watching television. (see, http://www.impactlab.net/2008/02/22/people-spend-twice-as-much-time-online-as-watching-tv/)This indicates that marketers will continue to use video technology to advertise rather than putting a high budget into an advert which will be shown on the television.

YouTube allows videos to be shared by anyone for free. This makes it suitable for a much larger audience as you can not only post your own video up but you can view other peoples. Social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter help promote videos online. For example, posting a status with a link to the video you are watching may also be an interest to somebody on your contact list. Posting videos on social-networking sites also allows consumers to comment on the video, this is helpful to the person who created the video as they get instant feedback from the comments they receive. 

Viral marketing uses digital video technology to pass along messages in a different way than traditional ad campaigns do. Viral marketing relies heavily on individuals to help them improve brand recognition. This method spreads the messages a lot faster than what a third party ad campaign would do. Research done by Wisegeek.com concludes there are different ways that people use viral marketing but they all have the same outcome. “pass along messages encourage users to send them along to others) (see: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-viral-marketing.htm). Personally I think that one of the strongest viral campaigns would be the Gorilla Cadbury Advert. This was first advertised on television but didn’t take long before videos were being uploaded to be seen by others. By the end of 2007 the ad had been seen 6 million times online.) The marketing campaign which had carefully been put together proved successful with the increase in sales all around the world. (see: http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/viral-marketing-examples/) The information on IgniteSocialMedia shows some of the other viral marketing campaigns which have also proved massively successful. 

Creating a simple video is easy for anyone wanting to put their files online. Videos can be recorded on even the most basic mobile phones and transferred online using a usb cable. Some smart phones such as Blackberry and iPhone will allow you to transfer your video file from your phone and straight onto YouTube. As I have a Blackberry myself I know that it saves videos in an mp4 format. YouTube will be able to play videos in a variety of formats:

·         WebM files (Vp8 video codec and Vorbis Audio codec)

·         .MPEG4, 3GPP and MOV files - (typically supporting h264 and mpeg4 video codecs and AAC audio codec)

·         .AVI (Many cameras output this format - typically the video codec is MJPEG and audio is PCM)

·         .MPEGPS (Typically supporting MPEG2 video codec and MP2 audio)

·         .WMV

·         .FLV (Adobe - FLV1 video codec, MP3 audio)

3GP is mainly used on mobiles phones with 3G. 3GP works by saving media streams as a MPEG4 file and audio streams as AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AMR-WB+, AAC-LC, HE-AAC v1 or Enhanced aacPlus (HE-AAC v2). This allows the video taken on your phone to be played back on Youtube. (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3GP_and_3G2)

Compressing files is a big factor in uploading videos, especially if the video has an interactive element as most video sharing websites have a limit on either the length of the video or the file size and sometimes both. There are many applications which can compress video files to make them suitable for uploading which can be found with online search engines. File compression works by reducing the amount of bits and bytes in a file in order for it to transmit on a connection with a reduced speed. The files on a computer tend to have identical information repeated which increases the file size, when the file is being compressed the information will only be listed once and not over and over again.  

Lossless compression is a different way of making files smaller without losing any data like you would if you compressed the files normally. Lossless packs files in order to make the file size smaller. This method of saving files has its advantages and disadvantages. The files which you compress will be decompressed to be exactly the same as the original file. A compression ratio is used as a term to describe how much data is being represented after it has been compressed.  To work out the compression ratio you will need to know the original size of the file and the size of the file after it has been compressed. For example: If you have a file that is 8MB which has been compressed to 2MB the compression ratio will be 2/8=0.25. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_compression_ratio ) Lossless compression is useful as it can free up hard disk space or transmission bandwidth

In order to view videos on your pc it is important to have a media player which is compatible with a range of different file formats. Windows media player is a good example of a media player which will play nearly all movie file format as well as allow users to burn MP3 files from an audio CD. Windows media player will allow users to have two separate libraries for movies and music, this makes it easy to organize files. The media player allows you to burn music and videos to a CD or DVD disc which is convenient for people who want to transfer their files to a different device or even share files with friends. Some of the advantages of using Windows Media Player are:

·         It’s extremely easy to use

·         Nothing needs to be installed to use the application

·         Windows Media player gets all the information from your CD and embeds the information in the MP3 files which means it will automatically insert the album cover and song titles.

·         The application will automatically rip your CD without you having to press any buttons, it will eject the CD when it has finished ripping.

Although the programme has many benefits it also has its disadvantages. The CD cover which Windows Media Player automatically downloads is fairly small. The average size of the album art is only 200x200pixels, the majority of other CD ripping programmes rip images of at least 300x300pixels. The programme also offers a very limited amount of sound quality choices.

Quick time is another media player. Just like Windows Media Player, the software is capable of handling a range of different file formats.  Although QuickTime is free, it only offers a limited service unless you purchase the full package from Apple, the developers of the software. Quick time is a popular choice of media player with one of the reasons being because it supports MOV file formats. Although QuickTime was previously made just to be run on the Apple operating system it now supports Windows. Despite being made specifically for their own operating systems both Windows media Player and QuickTime will run on other operating systems.

To conclude, I think that digital video technology will continue to get more successful. Interactive ads have proven they can create a huge amount of media attention. I believe interactivity will continue to be a rising trend as users are more engaged with the brand or product. Most popular videos online contain content which allows the audience to have an impact upon it, dictate it or control it. I think that the interactive element in videos keep consumers a lot more connected which creates useful links between marketers and consumers.

Photoshop Tutorial

Video Conferencing

Video conferencing is a good way of communicating as it allows you to reach people immediately. Many businesses have started using video conferencing to allow people to talk without having to travel long distances for meetings. Video conferencing can allow large groups of people to interact with one another at different locations all over the world. Most video conferring software will allow you to share power point presentations and other documents with each other.

Some video conferencing software can be pricey but if you are looking for some software with only a few features it will bring the price down a lot. However, this option will be a lot cheaper than continually flying clients around the world if you are part of a business. If you are a business situated in a remote area with a slow internet connection their may be issues with the quality of the audio/video. However, the majority of business’ looking to communicate through this protocol won’t have problems very few suffer from slow internet connections.

Broadband ADSL

Broadband ADSL –

ADSL broadband (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is the most popular type of broadband. ADSL broadband is supplied by BT and uses a standard phone line to connect people to the internet. Broadband works by converting your normal analogue phone line to a digital phone line which allows to you to transmit data at a faster speed that you would if you were using a dial-up connection.

If you are using an analogue modem you will get an approximate speed of 56kbps. ADSL broadband will allow you to get a speed of about 512kbps or even faster. ADSL can provide internet to 99% of homes and businesses in the UK.