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Friday, December 29, 2006
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Sunday, December 24, 2006
A New Look To Dynamic Movement...
i have a new look to my web page- new buttons, and slightly thinner, a new work page, some graphics are re-done to
Monday, December 11, 2006
I have finished....
The rendering worked, although from the wrong camera angle so I did the camera bit again and tried that. It looked ok, be it a little slow and boring. Plus having a black background sorta made it look like it was in space and there were these random satellites or something….so I changed the background to white and rendered again.
The next step was to add sound effects, a soundtrack and edit the whole thing using final cut. I found some sound effects online, and added text at the start and changed the speed of a couple of bits of footage, I added several effects including a tint, ripple and saturation. I faded certain bits in and out having it fade to white each time till the end.
I thought that “banana co” by Radiohead would be an appropriate soundtrack and appropriately named also... I wanted to use one of the less popular tracks, and have something that fitted the overall feel of the animation.
I’m happy that I managed to get the project done in time and have learned a lot about 3d max, although I haven’t really achieved what I set out to do, given my current knowledge of 3d max I think that I could get a better result if I were to start over again…as I would start with the smallest object (say a worm) then add more and more objects to it. Then texture the objects last of all.
During this project the skils I have obtained are (but not limited to) ; using the main interface of 3d studio max, how to use standard primitives and compound objects, how to loft objects and edit them using edit mesh feature, I’ve learned how to optimize objects and import and export them. Used the edit polly feature and “cap” to repair gaps. Add key frames, and animate objects. Alter the objects form; I have learned how to split objects using cut and weld methods, collapse areas, smooth objects and chamfer sides. How to alter the background; change the colour and texture of objects. Add cameras that can follow a line and have a set target (the banana). Use different views and render my work whilst saving to different formats.
heres a screen shot of the final piece:
My Resources:
World Wide Web
http://www.k10k.net/
http://www.rushes.co.uk/
http://www.3dtotal.com/
http://www.rushes.co.uk/
http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/3DS-MAX/1
Films
Toy Story (1996) John A Lasseter
A Bugs Life (1998) John A Lasseter
Finding Nemo (2003) Andrew Stanton
Bladerunner (1982) Ridley Scott
Pi (1998) Darren Aronofsky
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Television:
Walking with dinosaurs
Books:
3D STUDIO MAX 3 FUNDAMENTALS, Micheal Todd Peterson, 1999
The next step was to add sound effects, a soundtrack and edit the whole thing using final cut. I found some sound effects online, and added text at the start and changed the speed of a couple of bits of footage, I added several effects including a tint, ripple and saturation. I faded certain bits in and out having it fade to white each time till the end.
I thought that “banana co” by Radiohead would be an appropriate soundtrack and appropriately named also... I wanted to use one of the less popular tracks, and have something that fitted the overall feel of the animation.
I’m happy that I managed to get the project done in time and have learned a lot about 3d max, although I haven’t really achieved what I set out to do, given my current knowledge of 3d max I think that I could get a better result if I were to start over again…as I would start with the smallest object (say a worm) then add more and more objects to it. Then texture the objects last of all.
During this project the skils I have obtained are (but not limited to) ; using the main interface of 3d studio max, how to use standard primitives and compound objects, how to loft objects and edit them using edit mesh feature, I’ve learned how to optimize objects and import and export them. Used the edit polly feature and “cap” to repair gaps. Add key frames, and animate objects. Alter the objects form; I have learned how to split objects using cut and weld methods, collapse areas, smooth objects and chamfer sides. How to alter the background; change the colour and texture of objects. Add cameras that can follow a line and have a set target (the banana). Use different views and render my work whilst saving to different formats.
heres a screen shot of the final piece:
My Resources:
World Wide Web
http://www.k10k.net/
http://www.rushes.co.uk/
http://www.3dtotal.com/
http://www.rushes.co.uk/
http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/3DS-MAX/1
Films
Toy Story (1996) John A Lasseter
A Bugs Life (1998) John A Lasseter
Finding Nemo (2003) Andrew Stanton
Bladerunner (1982) Ridley Scott
Pi (1998) Darren Aronofsky
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Television:
Walking with dinosaurs
Books:
3D STUDIO MAX 3 FUNDAMENTALS, Micheal Todd Peterson, 1999
the end of term....
its the end of the term, alot of work on right now...definatly not a wind down to christmas...i went up on my terrace now so as not to miss the sunset...just thinking that i havent been down to the how in ages...i miss it :(
On the first shot you can just about see the sea in the background
On the first shot you can just about see the sea in the background
Saturday, December 09, 2006
slow progress...
At first I went home last night and the saved 3d max file didn’t work on my laptop at home- as I have 3d max 7 and not 3d max 8….great!!!... So got some sleep.
Its half past eight and I’m in Smeaton 108 again doing 3d max, I’m tired, hungry and irritable due to having spent hours on this getting very frustrated….
The 3d max file was going in-explicably slow so I found an import and export bit- which means that you can make things in other windows and import them in…ah, good I thought…maybe I can make files and import them in and that will speed it up and work fine…..
Nothing in 3d max “works fine”…
Any how I made the main television animation happen slightly later so that the cameras could pan around it and show it off a bit before it started to break apart…that meant doing the cameras bit again, but never mind.
I thought that once I had the tv looking alright I would slice apart a sphere and then put an orange skin texture on it and then have the banana come out of that…easier said than done…here are some screen shots.
I decided to scrap the whole idea of the ball as I was having all sorts of problems making it look like it was splitting apart realistically and then fall of the screen (as Id done with the box)….however it fell of to an angle, was to small, was sometimes visible within the box…nightmare!
Then faces started to warp….id extruded a bit on the back of the TV however later for no good reason it became transparent…so I managed to repair some bits but not others.
Also when swapping between open 3d max windows using the import and export tools the textures don’t work so I had to do them again.
I’ currently rendering my work – so hopefully it will be around the right time- and not to slow or too short etc….its really not the project I had wanted….but I’m trying- I think that we should have more than 5 tutorials for 3d max- the internet often seems the primary source of information these days!
Its half past eight and I’m in Smeaton 108 again doing 3d max, I’m tired, hungry and irritable due to having spent hours on this getting very frustrated….
The 3d max file was going in-explicably slow so I found an import and export bit- which means that you can make things in other windows and import them in…ah, good I thought…maybe I can make files and import them in and that will speed it up and work fine…..
Nothing in 3d max “works fine”…
Any how I made the main television animation happen slightly later so that the cameras could pan around it and show it off a bit before it started to break apart…that meant doing the cameras bit again, but never mind.
I thought that once I had the tv looking alright I would slice apart a sphere and then put an orange skin texture on it and then have the banana come out of that…easier said than done…here are some screen shots.
I decided to scrap the whole idea of the ball as I was having all sorts of problems making it look like it was splitting apart realistically and then fall of the screen (as Id done with the box)….however it fell of to an angle, was to small, was sometimes visible within the box…nightmare!
Then faces started to warp….id extruded a bit on the back of the TV however later for no good reason it became transparent…so I managed to repair some bits but not others.
Also when swapping between open 3d max windows using the import and export tools the textures don’t work so I had to do them again.
I’ currently rendering my work – so hopefully it will be around the right time- and not to slow or too short etc….its really not the project I had wanted….but I’m trying- I think that we should have more than 5 tutorials for 3d max- the internet often seems the primary source of information these days!
Friday, December 08, 2006
More 3d fun.....
Its ten to ten on a Friday night (I was here since 2:30pm) and I’m sat in the smeaton building room 108 working on 3d studio max when my friends are all down the pub, or if not getting ready to go out for the evening…
I spent several hours earlier trying to get a box to cut into parts without going hollow etc…I realise that this is possible now as you can use the cap tool within the border part of the editable polly…although I wouldn’t know this if not for being shown that it was there….
So in the end it turned out far to complicated to make the banana peel into another object as it is one object its self with many segments it means that it could potentially be cut into parts but it would warp and look ugly and unnatural, and that using lofting to create a banana is fine so long as your not intending to have the skin on it….some information I found out a little to late. If I had to start all over again I realise that I could make a loft and then add several more shapes to it and texture them and then animate them one by one to peel off.
I find 3d studio max to be slightly un-user friendly…for instance they don’t have a way of cutting objects nicely and smoothly…they don’t have a history like on Photoshop where you can delete several states back and see where and when you did them. Also unless you have a super computer it seems to not want to handle the models you are trying to build…even if you make some objects hidden to speed it up and don’t add textures, it still goes incredibly slow.
Any way the new idea is that there will be a television, the sides will unfold to produce a banana- or maybe one object before the banana inside it….I took several pictures of my TV at home and manipulated the picture in Photoshop so that they could be used as textures using the multi sub feature again as I did with the banana.
To create the TV set I started with a box then changed the shapes of it slightly and then mesh smooth it and extrude certain parts and chamfer certain edges to try and make it look more realistic.
I have also started experimenting with camera angles and having the camera pan around the TV set…this seems to slow it down even more.
Maybe ill just work in the wire frame mode from now on as this will probably speed it up at least a little bit.
I spent several hours earlier trying to get a box to cut into parts without going hollow etc…I realise that this is possible now as you can use the cap tool within the border part of the editable polly…although I wouldn’t know this if not for being shown that it was there….
So in the end it turned out far to complicated to make the banana peel into another object as it is one object its self with many segments it means that it could potentially be cut into parts but it would warp and look ugly and unnatural, and that using lofting to create a banana is fine so long as your not intending to have the skin on it….some information I found out a little to late. If I had to start all over again I realise that I could make a loft and then add several more shapes to it and texture them and then animate them one by one to peel off.
I find 3d studio max to be slightly un-user friendly…for instance they don’t have a way of cutting objects nicely and smoothly…they don’t have a history like on Photoshop where you can delete several states back and see where and when you did them. Also unless you have a super computer it seems to not want to handle the models you are trying to build…even if you make some objects hidden to speed it up and don’t add textures, it still goes incredibly slow.
Any way the new idea is that there will be a television, the sides will unfold to produce a banana- or maybe one object before the banana inside it….I took several pictures of my TV at home and manipulated the picture in Photoshop so that they could be used as textures using the multi sub feature again as I did with the banana.
To create the TV set I started with a box then changed the shapes of it slightly and then mesh smooth it and extrude certain parts and chamfer certain edges to try and make it look more realistic.
I have also started experimenting with camera angles and having the camera pan around the TV set…this seems to slow it down even more.
Maybe ill just work in the wire frame mode from now on as this will probably speed it up at least a little bit.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
getting a bit further.....
Getting a bit further but progress Is very, very slow, looking at the odd tutorial online and trying to get to grips with 3d max a little more. However yesterday I spent a large amount of time adding a more realistic texture to the banana skin using a multi sub/object option in the material editor. Then when that was looking a bit better spent a while trying to smooth it over; and I didn’t like how one end stuck out- as this isn’t particularly realistic of a banana. I tried deleting the end when it was on edit mesh mode and I selected and deleted it, but this left the object looking hollow when I rendered it. So after playing around with feature for about an hour I discovered a tool called collapse, with deletes a certain part of the object yet covers it also. The next big step is making the object peel its skin… this could be very difficult and time consuming…I now realise why people use the “terminator 2” style liquid metal re-shaping effects when doing this sort of thing!
Here is a bit of 3d work that I think is quite relevant to my work:
http://www.rushes.co.uk/heineken/mainframe.htm
killer app for the semantic web proposal
Carman and I decided to scrap the idea with festivals and birthday alarms etc… and thought about an application that would be used on a personal organiser. However the main feature of this would be that it’s an global positioning system with a greater level of interactivity and dynamics.
A GPS device that not only would tell you where on a map you were but could connect to your friends and let them know where you were. Also you could view where your friends were due to they would “accept” you as their friend, therefore adding you to their friends “list” or social network….all the information about yourself and your friends could be found and updated including pictures and video- much like facebook.com….so if you were in town and several of your friends were there too then they would show up on screen, you could search the where abouts of specific friends….however you could “sign of”- or set your status to “invisible mode” if you didn’t want your friends knowing that you were in a certain part of town/house/ shop/ pub for instance.
You would have a log in and log out part of the application. You would also be able to find out where your wallet and keys were using GPS, as they would have a mini GPS device of there own- as small as a sticker- as this is in the year 2100 (maybe).
How many times have you lost your keys and wished that you could track them on a pc or something instead of searching everywhere or not finding them at all!
This application would stop thefts, track criminals, be proof of where about to a certain degree, be a social networking tool, aid Businesses, help mountain rescue, eradicate need for txt messaging and potentially phone calls too; as messages could be sent direct to the user’s inbox. And make the internet as much a part of your life outside the office/home as it is inside.
The user would need to buy the gps device/organiser in the first place, however in its early stages they could run it through there pc/laptop with a gps device attached.
Similar applications or websites would include www.facebook.com, msn messenger and www.frappr.com the main difference being that it would be updated all the time and have greater user interactivity.
A GPS device that not only would tell you where on a map you were but could connect to your friends and let them know where you were. Also you could view where your friends were due to they would “accept” you as their friend, therefore adding you to their friends “list” or social network….all the information about yourself and your friends could be found and updated including pictures and video- much like facebook.com….so if you were in town and several of your friends were there too then they would show up on screen, you could search the where abouts of specific friends….however you could “sign of”- or set your status to “invisible mode” if you didn’t want your friends knowing that you were in a certain part of town/house/ shop/ pub for instance.
You would have a log in and log out part of the application. You would also be able to find out where your wallet and keys were using GPS, as they would have a mini GPS device of there own- as small as a sticker- as this is in the year 2100 (maybe).
How many times have you lost your keys and wished that you could track them on a pc or something instead of searching everywhere or not finding them at all!
This application would stop thefts, track criminals, be proof of where about to a certain degree, be a social networking tool, aid Businesses, help mountain rescue, eradicate need for txt messaging and potentially phone calls too; as messages could be sent direct to the user’s inbox. And make the internet as much a part of your life outside the office/home as it is inside.
The user would need to buy the gps device/organiser in the first place, however in its early stages they could run it through there pc/laptop with a gps device attached.
Similar applications or websites would include www.facebook.com, msn messenger and www.frappr.com the main difference being that it would be updated all the time and have greater user interactivity.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
The group marketing project
The group marketing project
Are decided group roles:
Darrel Fox: Project Manager/Web Development/Flash
James Veale: Co-Production Manager
Matthew Knight: Co-Production Manager
Carmen Tse: Research & Development/ Company Image
We filmed footage of us throwing a screwed up piece of paper to each other and when we each unfolded it and showed the bit of paper to the camera it had our individual job roles…
This required some editing to make it flow …but the idea being that it would be seamless and on a loop when put in profiles page of the website.
So in our group we decided on a name (par four) and a variety of ideas to do with a spoof viral advertising company…we looked at some examples websites such as eatmail, Viral Factory and rubberrepublic that were researched by Carmen.
So the plan was to go away and make a few funny clips, after looking at the existing marmite adverts and there website etc… I came up with this:
I chose to do it because a lot of the existing marmite adverts seem similar to viral adverts already, The idea being that it would be slightly over the top and in your face taking the slogan of “love it or hate it” in its simplest literal context.
After researching into viral adverts a bit more I realised that it is better to break the conventions of a normal advert if possible and give the viewer an unexpected twist at the end. This clip was shown on “UKTV g2”:
http://totallyviral.uktv.co.uk/clip/196
The other advert we did was one for Plymouth University:
Darrell created the web layout and the others concentrated more on the text and content.
After talking to our tutor Hugo it appeared that we had more time to do the work than expected, however this was changed in a later email back to the original presentation time. Matt was due to work Monday morning, and I injuring my knee over the weekend and had to get it checked at the hospital... so given the circumstances we were given an extra day.
Matt was left in charge of the marketing side of things (being as he did a marketing degree)- to come up with the presentation and what to say on the whole, also in charge of some of the web content.
The presentation went ok, strange to have to pretend to be a marketing company instead of talk about how we had put the project together… thank full though that this is one less project to worry about.
Here is a list of our research:
http://www.nmk.co.uk/article/2003/04/02/viral-marketing
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/5179166.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4547680.stm
http://www.nmk.co.uk/article/2003/04/02/viral-marketing
http://www.ideasfactory.com/business/marketing/know_it/feature7.html
http://www.tamba.co.uk/portfolio.asp
http://www.davechaffey.com/Internet-Marketing/C8-Communications/Viral-marketing/Viral-marketing-research-survey
http://viralchart.com/movies.php
http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/viral-principles.htm
http://www.theviralfactory.com/
http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/viral_marketing/
http://www.leeanddan.com
http://www.dsemotion.com
http://www.channel4.com/learning/microsites/I/ideasfactory/germ/about.htm
http://www.hotcherry.co.uk/www/index.php
http://www.eatmail.tv/site/main.htm
http://www.rubberrepublic.com/casestudies/polarbearparking
http://viralchart.com/movies.php
http://www.10yetis.co.uk/viral-marketing.html
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=3225
Are decided group roles:
Darrel Fox: Project Manager/Web Development/Flash
James Veale: Co-Production Manager
Matthew Knight: Co-Production Manager
Carmen Tse: Research & Development/ Company Image
We filmed footage of us throwing a screwed up piece of paper to each other and when we each unfolded it and showed the bit of paper to the camera it had our individual job roles…
This required some editing to make it flow …but the idea being that it would be seamless and on a loop when put in profiles page of the website.
So in our group we decided on a name (par four) and a variety of ideas to do with a spoof viral advertising company…we looked at some examples websites such as eatmail, Viral Factory and rubberrepublic that were researched by Carmen.
So the plan was to go away and make a few funny clips, after looking at the existing marmite adverts and there website etc… I came up with this:
I chose to do it because a lot of the existing marmite adverts seem similar to viral adverts already, The idea being that it would be slightly over the top and in your face taking the slogan of “love it or hate it” in its simplest literal context.
After researching into viral adverts a bit more I realised that it is better to break the conventions of a normal advert if possible and give the viewer an unexpected twist at the end. This clip was shown on “UKTV g2”:
http://totallyviral.uktv.co.uk/clip/196
The other advert we did was one for Plymouth University:
Darrell created the web layout and the others concentrated more on the text and content.
After talking to our tutor Hugo it appeared that we had more time to do the work than expected, however this was changed in a later email back to the original presentation time. Matt was due to work Monday morning, and I injuring my knee over the weekend and had to get it checked at the hospital... so given the circumstances we were given an extra day.
Matt was left in charge of the marketing side of things (being as he did a marketing degree)- to come up with the presentation and what to say on the whole, also in charge of some of the web content.
The presentation went ok, strange to have to pretend to be a marketing company instead of talk about how we had put the project together… thank full though that this is one less project to worry about.
Here is a list of our research:
http://www.nmk.co.uk/article/2003/04/02/viral-marketing
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/5179166.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4547680.stm
http://www.nmk.co.uk/article/2003/04/02/viral-marketing
http://www.ideasfactory.com/business/marketing/know_it/feature7.html
http://www.tamba.co.uk/portfolio.asp
http://www.davechaffey.com/Internet-Marketing/C8-Communications/Viral-marketing/Viral-marketing-research-survey
http://viralchart.com/movies.php
http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/viral-principles.htm
http://www.theviralfactory.com/
http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/viral_marketing/
http://www.leeanddan.com
http://www.dsemotion.com
http://www.channel4.com/learning/microsites/I/ideasfactory/germ/about.htm
http://www.hotcherry.co.uk/www/index.php
http://www.eatmail.tv/site/main.htm
http://www.rubberrepublic.com/casestudies/polarbearparking
http://viralchart.com/movies.php
http://www.10yetis.co.uk/viral-marketing.html
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=3225
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Modelling in 3d studio max
I have started to look at modelling my objects in 3d. Here are some screen shots from 3d max, I looked more at tutorials for lofting, as there are probably quite a few ways to make this shape.
One part of the project that is going to be very hard is making one object appear beneath another one. As if it’s the same
After talking to Katina in tutorials I’ve decided that the objects list is very long and to make all this in 3d and make it look realistic just is not possible in the time given this is my first 3d project also.
One part of the project that is going to be very hard is making one object appear beneath another one. As if it’s the same
After talking to Katina in tutorials I’ve decided that the objects list is very long and to make all this in 3d and make it look realistic just is not possible in the time given this is my first 3d project also.
the objects
After having a think about what objects I wanted to use I decided that it could follow this order:
Therefore showing the contrast in man made things and natural things, the common link is the form of the object, rather than the object its self…so that the object the evolves from the last is completely unexpected.
- Grapefruit:
- peels away to become a ball…
- Ball exploded and becomes a banana…
- Banana peels away to become a “mag light” torch …
- mag light torch unscrews too reveal some batteries…
- the batteries merge into a chilli pepper…
- chilli pepper would become a worm and wriggle away…
- the become a cable and grow a USB head …
- then finally becomes a half USB half Worm creature
Therefore showing the contrast in man made things and natural things, the common link is the form of the object, rather than the object its self…so that the object the evolves from the last is completely unexpected.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
IDAT 205-GROUP MARKETING PROJECT (35%)
"Each group will present itself via a live website as an independent media company or digital arts agency/organisation. Whatever form it takes, each group must ‘sell’ its products or services by demonstrating its professionalism and excellence through superior web content and effective marketing, such that it will immediately attract and impress any potential client or visitor to the site. The information presented must be based as far as possible upon actuality, so that you are really demonstrating the combined skills of the members of your group.
You should research as many existing sites as possible, in order to find inspiration and guidance for your own site. You will be expected to reference these sources and any other books/journals/materials and incorporate them in a webography to accompany your site, with annotations explaining why you were drawn to these sites.
You should include the following elements on your website:
Original idea for company/agency/organisation
Description of same (mission statement)
Products/services offered
Profiles of individual members
Selection of best work (based on course projects) with annotation
Compelling images/sound/text
Content and form appropriate to such a company/agency/organisation"
(student portal idat 205)
You should research as many existing sites as possible, in order to find inspiration and guidance for your own site. You will be expected to reference these sources and any other books/journals/materials and incorporate them in a webography to accompany your site, with annotations explaining why you were drawn to these sites.
You should include the following elements on your website:
(student portal idat 205)
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
IDAT 201- simulacra continued
Part of our brief was to find an object and then think about how to explore its form and function through re-modelling using 3d max. I got thinking about what simulacra actually is; perhaps what I had in mind originally was to produce a more basic version of “walking with dinosaurs”, but instead of dinosaurs have something else as the focus of attention. Maybe have 3d cars or trains in the background, super imposed into real footage. Perhaps it could be quite dark to confuse the audience as to what was real and what wasn't...still this maybe didn’t quite fit the brief like I’d hope.
Some examples that have been mentioned in lectures or on the student portal include toy story...The way that some of the toy soldiers still have joined bits of plastic, this is un-necessary- but adds a certain reality to it... it’s a good example of an object that has been designed to look a certain way.
I thought about the idea of one object merging into another...in the film "terminator 2" the bad guy turns into liquid metal and then takes another shape, I think that this is one way to re-construct an object with 3D. Although this could look very conventional...
With technology today it changes and adapts to surprise us, so I would perhaps like the idea of something quite organic to be compared to that which is purely man made. Genetically modified food and experiments in science produce will change objects composition- the form, dimensions, tactility, weight etc.
The way that you peel a banana is familiar to everyone and they expect to see a banana inside when they peel back the skin. What if it was not banana inside, but instead something different.
Everything is not always as it seems and I want this to be the primary focus of this project...so taking the object (for example) of a banana, modelling this in 3d max and then recreating the object so that underneath the skin is something else completely different.
Id like the animation to look as if the banana is actually being peeled rather than merging into a different form, as it is more natural, all be it harder to make in 3d.
So the idea that everything is not as it first appears will be the basis for my simulacrum. However I may change between several different objects. During the animation.
Friday, November 17, 2006
IDAT201 -Trans-Spatial Design
The brief:
"1. Choose an object.
2. Research your chosen object heavily to develop a full understanding of the social contexts in which it has and does exist. This includes its form, historical development, practical and social function.
3. Explore the form and function of the object through a process of remodelling and experimental redesign.
4. Construct a three-dimensional model of the redesigned object.5. Produce a simulacrum for the object that conveys all aspects of your redesign including history, dimensions, tactility, weight, sound and social context.
The simulacrum is an individually produced presentation that encapsulates a reinterpretation or innovatory development of an object. The presentation of the object should be in the form of a 90 second animation / video."
(idat 201- module decriptor)
We have started doing 3D studio max in tutorials, learning basic techniques of 3d modelling and 3d animation. We started of by making a wine glass as this is one of the simplest things to model in 3d max, also looking at spines, modelling with primitives, texturing and rendering.
In lectures and tutorials I have been finding out more about what simulacrum actually is.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Idat 204- the new project
Killer Applications for the Semantic Web
"A killer application (commonly shortened to killer app) is a computer program that is so useful that people will buy a particular computer hardware, gaming console, and/or an operating system simply to run that program… There have been a number of new uses of the term. For instance the usefulness of e-mail drew many people to use the Internet, while the Mosaic web browser is generally credited with the initial rapid popularity of the World Wide Web. The term has also been applied to video games that cause consumers to buy a particular video game console to play them. " [Wikipedia.org]
We are required to investigate the development of the Second Generation Web (also known as the Semantic Web or the XML-based Web).
Then to come up with an idea for a killer application that would be possible using the technology that is developing on the semantic web...and then to simulate or implement this idea using flash xml.
"A killer application (commonly shortened to killer app) is a computer program that is so useful that people will buy a particular computer hardware, gaming console, and/or an operating system simply to run that program… There have been a number of new uses of the term. For instance the usefulness of e-mail drew many people to use the Internet, while the Mosaic web browser is generally credited with the initial rapid popularity of the World Wide Web. The term has also been applied to video games that cause consumers to buy a particular video game console to play them. " [Wikipedia.org]
We are required to investigate the development of the Second Generation Web (also known as the Semantic Web or the XML-based Web).
Then to come up with an idea for a killer application that would be possible using the technology that is developing on the semantic web...and then to simulate or implement this idea using flash xml.
Friday, November 10, 2006
idat 203- negotaited project proposal
Description:
“This project requires you to set a problem and provide a unique, innovative, creative, informed and culturally aware solution. Projects are to be negotiated with your tutor through an initial proposal written up in your workbook. It is essential that the production work is informed by critical debate underway in seminars and lectures”
More music options are available to people these days through the power of technology, use of bit torrent and “lime wire” are popular internet resources for downloading music. Websites like “amazon” will record your recently viewed items and suggest recommendations. There is an increase in digital radio and as before people were restricted by the area they live in, now they can tune into London radio stations like “XFM” in Plymouth. Again the internet opens up even more options with internet radio taking off, listeners can listen to radio stations the other side of the world through their computer, it is now cheaper to broadcast music from the net. Till now it has been possible to ring up a radio station to request a song.
So….
I propose that you could do exactly the same online, using a website with a simple interface where by users could log on and submit their own audio tracks, be it music by there band or latest chart topper, or any audio file that they wanted to be played. It would enter a play list, and eventually get played. Everybody could go to the website and listen.
Research:
I started first of all by looking on search engines for online radio, and online juke box; however found this to be a waste of my time, as there wasn’t really anything about it.
In terms of generative art regarding audio there doesn’t seem a vast amount out there. For a while I looked into musical algorithms- this is a set of rules that the computer is given to compose music using procedures, without much need for user interaction. Karlheinz Essl is known for the creation of the “real time composition library”- software that would allow the user to produce music, based on functions within its library using a simple interface, rather than having to program operations. Karlheinz Essl has done a lot of work with musical algorithms and generative art in term of audio
There is now more work being done with customized internet radio, where software will filter the content to suit the user, much like amazon will give recommendations, they will automatically play you content that you will like.
One example of the above is jukebox alive, where as an artist or a listener you can log in and search for different types of music based on genre, artist, track or album and it will filter through all sorts of music to find music to suit your taste.
So my idea will be to effectively have a radio station where the public is the DJ- therefore a piece of media that may be changed to a large degree depending what songs or tracks people upload…the order and logic of conventional radio stations even customized radio stations will be replaced by interactive and random audio and left to the listeners to control it.
Technical solutions:
I will use a database to store the tracks that people upload, and use query strings to call each track from the data base play it, then move to the next track until end of file.
At the moment I think that I will try to use asp (active server pages), as sql can be used to find files in a data base.
I have also looked at shout cast- a web site that “permits anyone on the internet to broadcast audio from their PC to listeners across the Internet or any other IP-based network”
I will create the website interface using adobe Photoshop and dream weaver; this will be simple and easy to use.
Proposed production timetable:
Now > 01.01.07
Research into more technical solutions, find help with coding and how to implement this idea
07.01.07
Start writing code, testing it
14.01.07
Finish writing code, have it working
28.02.07
work on the Gui
15.03.07
Finish working on Gui
23.04.07
hand in date
Netography:
http://www.essl.at/works/rtc.html
http://www.amazon.co.uk/
http://runme.org/
http://shoutcast.com
http://www.jukeboxalive.com/music.php
http://www.google.com
“This project requires you to set a problem and provide a unique, innovative, creative, informed and culturally aware solution. Projects are to be negotiated with your tutor through an initial proposal written up in your workbook. It is essential that the production work is informed by critical debate underway in seminars and lectures”
More music options are available to people these days through the power of technology, use of bit torrent and “lime wire” are popular internet resources for downloading music. Websites like “amazon” will record your recently viewed items and suggest recommendations. There is an increase in digital radio and as before people were restricted by the area they live in, now they can tune into London radio stations like “XFM” in Plymouth. Again the internet opens up even more options with internet radio taking off, listeners can listen to radio stations the other side of the world through their computer, it is now cheaper to broadcast music from the net. Till now it has been possible to ring up a radio station to request a song.
So….
I propose that you could do exactly the same online, using a website with a simple interface where by users could log on and submit their own audio tracks, be it music by there band or latest chart topper, or any audio file that they wanted to be played. It would enter a play list, and eventually get played. Everybody could go to the website and listen.
Research:
I started first of all by looking on search engines for online radio, and online juke box; however found this to be a waste of my time, as there wasn’t really anything about it.
In terms of generative art regarding audio there doesn’t seem a vast amount out there. For a while I looked into musical algorithms- this is a set of rules that the computer is given to compose music using procedures, without much need for user interaction. Karlheinz Essl is known for the creation of the “real time composition library”- software that would allow the user to produce music, based on functions within its library using a simple interface, rather than having to program operations. Karlheinz Essl has done a lot of work with musical algorithms and generative art in term of audio
There is now more work being done with customized internet radio, where software will filter the content to suit the user, much like amazon will give recommendations, they will automatically play you content that you will like.
One example of the above is jukebox alive, where as an artist or a listener you can log in and search for different types of music based on genre, artist, track or album and it will filter through all sorts of music to find music to suit your taste.
So my idea will be to effectively have a radio station where the public is the DJ- therefore a piece of media that may be changed to a large degree depending what songs or tracks people upload…the order and logic of conventional radio stations even customized radio stations will be replaced by interactive and random audio and left to the listeners to control it.
Technical solutions:
I will use a database to store the tracks that people upload, and use query strings to call each track from the data base play it, then move to the next track until end of file.
At the moment I think that I will try to use asp (active server pages), as sql can be used to find files in a data base.
I have also looked at shout cast- a web site that “permits anyone on the internet to broadcast audio from their PC to listeners across the Internet or any other IP-based network”
I will create the website interface using adobe Photoshop and dream weaver; this will be simple and easy to use.
Proposed production timetable:
Now > 01.01.07
Research into more technical solutions, find help with coding and how to implement this idea
07.01.07
Start writing code, testing it
14.01.07
Finish writing code, have it working
28.02.07
work on the Gui
15.03.07
Finish working on Gui
23.04.07
hand in date
Netography:
http://www.essl.at/works/rtc.html
http://www.amazon.co.uk/
http://runme.org/
http://shoutcast.com
http://www.jukeboxalive.com/music.php
http://www.google.com
Sunday, November 05, 2006
the organism project (idat 204)
I decided to be in Darrel’s group for the organism project, Darrel already had an idea, although we discussed possible alternatives, and tried hard to think about what an organism actually is. The ideas that I thought of such as animations or a type of film weren’t really digital enough.
We decided to stick with Darrel’s idea of programming something in flash. In the English oxford dictionary it says that
“an organism is a living complex adaptive system of organs that influence each other in such a way that they function in some way as a stable whole”
Therefore as long as we make it adaptive, complex and independent then we are keeping to the right guide lines in terms of making the organism.
We came up with a sample version, which would follow the mouse around the page. The next step was getting it to blow bubbles. Once this was done, we had to think about further ideas to change it.
I got talking to Darrel about what everyone else was doing, and whether it needed to be more dynamic, perhaps by using rss feeds or something as with last years flash project. The idea that it could be made generative, and potentially never stop changing is quite appealing. We talked of the idea of a forum or large screen where people could add there own orb to a chain of existing orbs, and they could feed it…or perhaps that the persons message left on a forum would affect how big the organism would get, ending up in a snake of orb/ball organism things.
The next step was coming up with our own spec; a list of things that It should be able to do and in keeping with being adaptive, complex and independent; in a way that would represent real organisms. If the organism was fed then it should change size accordingly and if you didn’t feed it enough then it would eventually die, hence making it adaptive and complex.
It would duplicate and each organism would have its own identity, therefore independent, also that the organism you clicked on would display name and follow the mouse, the program would only feed one organism at a time. It environment would be a square box, coloured blue and when duplicating the cell in a different colour background the organism would be a different colour, green for example instead of white.
In the end after a struggle with adding new organisms that were independent and using procedural coding instead of object orientated (which may have made things easier), and debating what sort of soundtrack should be in the background (maybe massive attack if the back ground was red and aphex twin for green) the project got finished and looking pretty nice in my opinion.
View organism project
We decided to stick with Darrel’s idea of programming something in flash. In the English oxford dictionary it says that
“an organism is a living complex adaptive system of organs that influence each other in such a way that they function in some way as a stable whole”
Therefore as long as we make it adaptive, complex and independent then we are keeping to the right guide lines in terms of making the organism.
We came up with a sample version, which would follow the mouse around the page. The next step was getting it to blow bubbles. Once this was done, we had to think about further ideas to change it.
I got talking to Darrel about what everyone else was doing, and whether it needed to be more dynamic, perhaps by using rss feeds or something as with last years flash project. The idea that it could be made generative, and potentially never stop changing is quite appealing. We talked of the idea of a forum or large screen where people could add there own orb to a chain of existing orbs, and they could feed it…or perhaps that the persons message left on a forum would affect how big the organism would get, ending up in a snake of orb/ball organism things.
The next step was coming up with our own spec; a list of things that It should be able to do and in keeping with being adaptive, complex and independent; in a way that would represent real organisms. If the organism was fed then it should change size accordingly and if you didn’t feed it enough then it would eventually die, hence making it adaptive and complex.
It would duplicate and each organism would have its own identity, therefore independent, also that the organism you clicked on would display name and follow the mouse, the program would only feed one organism at a time. It environment would be a square box, coloured blue and when duplicating the cell in a different colour background the organism would be a different colour, green for example instead of white.
In the end after a struggle with adding new organisms that were independent and using procedural coding instead of object orientated (which may have made things easier), and debating what sort of soundtrack should be in the background (maybe massive attack if the back ground was red and aphex twin for green) the project got finished and looking pretty nice in my opinion.
View organism project
- Click feed to increase size,
- Select the organism by clicking on it,
- Hovering mouse over will let you know its identity (cell01 for example)
- Duplicate to reproduce organism
- Click red, green, blue to change the colour of the background (try duplicating cells within different backgrounds)
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Expect the un-expected {the last india blog}
This is long overdue what with me being back for just over a week now (although it feels like about 3 months I’ve been back). Anyway I thought I would write about all the things that I left out of the other blog entries. India is defiantly a place to expect the unexpected and having new experiences.Up there with the random things we have done is being extras in a bollywood film…they required white people to dance around in a mock London club, so if your into ya bollywood films keep your eye out for a film named “Namaste London” and you might well see me and tom dancing about like a couple of fools in the background…along with a crowd of other westerners that had been found the day before on the streets of Bombay.
Fishing at 6 am after a long night in Goa drinking in the “café del mar”….with some Irish guys in the morning after staying out all night we were going for some breakfast when a bunch of fishermen were pushing one of the boats out (they are heavy boats, and it takes a number of guys to lift them)…we leant a hand and then me and a guy from New York decided to jump in…instead of telling us to jump out they motored it away from the shore and round the coast a bit where we dropped the nets and heaved them back onboard again (really hard work actually)…this is possibly one of the most random things that has happened to me on a night out.
The driving is crazy and you put your life in someone’s hands every time you step into a cab or tuk-tuk- im very surprised there aren’t more head on collisions. On time on a bus to the north there was a steep cliff to on side of us and a drop of to the other side…there was all of a sudden a loud crash of rocks and rubble as there was a landslide right there in front of the bus, the driver slammed the brakes on, backed up and then drove round the pile of rocks on the road that had nearly taken out half the bus. Most of the Indians seemed to be oblivious to the fact they were nearly crushed- or just thought this a normal event…I on the other hand was standing up out of my chair scared sh**less.
They don’t use handbrakes either as I found out on our ride to the rotang pass when the driver of the 4x4 stepped out of the vehicle for just long enough for me to insert a tape to play and turn on the ignition (making sure it wasn’t in gear), the thing staled straight away and lurched backwards rolling backward down hill, tom tried the handbrake that didn’t work.. so I jumped into the driver seat and slammed the foot brake on…the 2 Canadian guys who were in the back had got ready to bail, before we rolled of the side of the mountain pass.
Getting ripped of is generally due to your own bad bargaining skills, a lot of the time you can walk away and use your common sense so as not to get ripped of…however…some things are unpredictable…buying head and shoulders shampoo and finding out after a wash with it that it was in fact a type of fabric conditioner, asking for a pint and finding out that in India- a pint means any measure of liquid that they see fit (usually a bottle)…in varkala we decided to buy some beers based on that they were listed as 30 rupees on the menu….later after they had taken the menu they tried to charge us 70 rupees per beer….yet they conveniently couldn’t find the menu that said they were 30…or in fact any menu with the prices displayed.
In munnar (famous for its tea plantations) we went to several different places thinking we could find a normal cup of tea, or maybe even ginger tea or badam milk or something…based on that every other shop is a tea and spice shop)…but no…every where just seemed to sell chai- a tea made with powdered milk and lots of sugar…. eventually we found one but after going round to about 5 different places…as tom said – never mind “couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery” more like “cant get a regular tea in a tea plantation”. Also whilst in munnar we went to the “midnight café” for a snack, only to find out that it closed at 10:30 pm!
Buying things can be interesting in India, opportunities to buy all sorts…one time walking along the shore in kerala a group of kids were throwing bags and things about buy the water…turned out they were gathering mussels…me and tom were able to buy 2 peoples worth of seafood for 20 rupees (that’s about 26 pence or so)…and had them cooked buy a restaurant. We have been offered saffron several times by saffron dealers….who come up to you and in a hushed voice offer “saffron, you want? 1 gram 60 rupees!?” . We were up in the north of India on something called the rotang pass in manali and we were approached by a saffron dealer who offered us a deer’s nipple…at first thinking he was talking rubbish he then asked me to hold out my hand, he proceeded to place an actual severed deers nipple in my palm!
Although it seems like a world of unpredictable slightly undesirable experiences, this is what makes India so great…waking up in the morning knowing that you cant predict what will happen, and not knowing even where you will end up that evening or what you’ll be doing…. that and things are so, so cheap make India a very desirable place to travel indeed.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
India: The Highs and Lows....
We have spent a bit of time in a place called Hampi, where on the other side of the river everything is as relaxed as can be. The landscape is one of scattered boulders, river, intense green coloured paddy fields and temple ruins dotted about the place; tom commented that it seems more like a theme park or something due to it being a surreal landscape. Having looked forward to this for a while due to the climbing I was glad to be able to rent bouldering mats and a pair of shoes for tom (I think he did about one climb for 2 days rent but never mind). A few days climbing and one day driving round and getting somewhat lost on mopeds this has been one of my favorite places in India if not my favorite.
Tom and Wahed left a day earlier what with being not overly enthused with bouldering I guess there wasn’t a whole lot for them to do. Wahed is a guy from Bangladesh that tom knows from uni- he came and joined us for a portion of our trip starting off in goa.
The atmosphere on the other side of the river in hampi is what the Indians call “shanti” – meaning calmly and quietly- or something very similar. I tested out my new hammock at a place we were staying and we hung out with some German guys we met and I went of climbing with them several times- much fun. The restaurant (what with being off season) took about an hour and a half on adverage to serve up food, -perhaps the slowest we have come across in India, however the food was good, and it’s a very relaxed atmosphere any way so just put it down to "island life".
Unfortunately I had to leave Hampi to meet the others and continue the journey south to Bangalore. I set of a little late due to a mornings climbing flowed by a relaxed lunch etc… I got a bus to hospet (about 11km away) for 7 rupees- that’s about 8 or 9 pence in real money. I took a auto rickshaw (tuk-tuk) to the train station and the sorted out ticket and things about ½ hour before the train departed…after talking to one random Indian bloke for a while about why he couldn’t get a work permit for England, and that 5 years ago they let anybody (meaning anybody Indian) get one, and what a hard life he had led, etc etc….the guy was interesting enough to talk to, but I didn’t really want to liusten to his whole life story. I was in a friendly mood (a lot of people who talk to you are after money so this can get wearing sometimes). The typical conversation will start of something like:
“What’s your name, were are you from, how old are you, are you married, what do you do for a living, how long are you in India”
This was how it went later on when I was sitting on the train, and another question of “what you dislike about India?” arose…
I stopped to think for a second, before blurting out a stream of problems and botherations from one tangent to the other all about that which is rubbish about their home country: the harassment- beggars, touts, drivers, the filth- people pissing in the street and the sickly strong smells, the littering in beautiful places , bad service and nothing getting done unless you make it, being treated based on skin colour- and paying in some cases 700 time the Indian priced as a fixed rate, poor hygiene in cooking, how its manically busy in the cities, and excessivley noisy and having to watch your stuff with such a close eye.
I think i must have rambled on with a passion for about 5 miniuts, by which time about 5 indian passengers were all ears to what i had to say...
The guy who was next to me (who it turned out had been to london, and spoke good english, and probably quite well off what with being in 3ac sleeper class) commented that "problems are plenty, yet people still want to come here, and even travel here and come back again and again". i assured him that there are many very good points about india and i was travelling here because of the difference in culture, meeting random people on trains etc, that things are cheaper travelling on the pound, and perhaps above all the unexpected events that occur on a daily bacis that seem to be lacking slightly in everyday english life....although i spose its what you are use to!
I am currently in munar after taking a bus last night with tom and wahed, this is a place full of tea plantations, rolling hills, trekking and elephants...although a great deal of rain so far also.
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