Step by Step

After photocopying my images and printing them using cellulose thinners I scanned the prints into Photoshop. I changed the levels to bring the differences in tone out more in the image. I then scanned in a piece of sugar paper and used the hue and saturation tool to change the colour, saturation and brightness. I then placed this in a layer underneath each of the prints in their separate Photoshop documents and then multiplying the prints to allow the texture to come through on the lighter parts of the image.  

I used Quick Time to save my .amr audio file in the.mp3 format so that I would be able to use it in Final cut pro. 

To import the audio tracks to the time line I set the in and out points in the viewer and then inserted the section. 

I adjusted the volumes of all the audio tracks so that the speech could be heard clearly along with the music. To do this I used the audio mixer tool. 

I added the cross dissolve video transition to the changes between pictures. This communicates the character fading away until he kills himself at the end. It generally adds to the lonely and sad feel of the piece as the transition is often used when showing pictured of people who have died. 

As I was creating the video I realised that some of the images were lasting too long to hold the viewers attention. To combat this I turned on the wire-frame in Final Cut Pro to allow me to change the size of the images. I then cut the length of the photo and made the second part zoom in to a smaller part of the image. This helps to keep the viewers attention through the piece. 

I used the tint filter and used key-frames to set the colour changes, and fade between these, to edit the images within Final Cut Pro. However I didn't like this effect. I felt that the video was more effect without the colour change, for communicating sadness and loneliness.

Evaluation

What were you asked to do?
Create a digital story based on monologues from a film, a poem, part of a script etc...
What did you make/present?
A photo montage film based on the character of Worsly in Caryl Churchill's Owners.
What did you want to communicate?
The character in the play is lonely, he makes many different failed attempts at suicide. I was not trying to take a literal re telling of the play but wanted to explore the loneliness of the character.
What materials and processes did you experiment with?
I used cellulose thinners to print my images. This gives a grainy effect, effective for communicating the loneliness and sadness within my piece. To do this I changed the levels of my photos in Photoshop to allow the differences in tones to come through more. I then printed and photocopied these before using the cellulose thinners to print. Once these were scanned in I changed the levels in Photoshop to bring the areas of tone out more. I then scanned in some sugar paper and multiplied the images on to this to give more of a feel of it being printed
I also experimented with getting the colour of the images to change, slowly fading between one another in the video. I used the tint effect in Final Cut to change the colour and key frames to create the fade between colours.
What materials and processes did you reject?
I rejected the colour changing of the images within the video. I didn't like the effect. I think that the video is more effective as it is. The feeling of loneliness and sadness was distracted from by the colour changing.
What did you do to ensure you worked with tools and materials safely?
Cellulose thinners were used outdoors to ensure good ventilation and care was taken not to spill any of the substance.
How well did you manage your time?
Apart from the fact that I had to compile my portfolio at the start of the project, putting my slightly behind  I think that I managed time fairly well during this project. everything was completed on time and there didn't seem to be any real rush to get it finished.
What were your strengths in completing this project?
I have used Final Cur Pro before and find that I Take to the program fairly easily. This meant that I didn't have to worry about controlling the program and could work on the creative side of the design.
What would you like to have done differently?
If I were to complete the project again I would like to get my own recording of some sad piano music. However due to time restraints I was unable to do this for the project.

This is La Jetee by Chris Marker, which uses the technique of photo montage to tell it's story.


I like the use of photo montage to tell the story, it takes the emphasis away from the action and places it on the narrative. It also allows the viewer to take in each image more thoroughly and pick up on the visual language being used in each shot to enhance the narrative. 


The panning and zooming techniques used with in the montage add movement and interest as do the transitions. The transitions within the montage help to create meaning for instance harsh cuts are used during dramatic events and soft dissolves are used when we are being shown the destruction of Paris - showing the way that the City has come to a stand still. 


I also like the use of sound and music within the piece. The music is used well to build tension as you follow it's flow. It build's up and then relaxes again as it follows the pace of the narrative. Whispering is the only sound used other then music and the narrator and shows the secrecy of the experiments they are doing and  the fact that what they are doing is dodgy. They need to whisper to cover up their act so others do not hear what they are doing. 

Evaluation

I started by researching other animations and how they had been produces. I like the animations using other day objects and people to animate with, so I decided to animate myself.
I found an animation of barcodes, which made me think of the theory that barcodes are actually the mark of the beast. So I researched more into that theory. It worked well with the theme of "The Beginning of the End of the Word". The song I chose was "My Given Life" by Mammuth, with the lyrics "trying to find the motivation, to live my given life" links in with trying to not succumb to the order that the Beast imposes with the Mark.

I conducted some animation tests, looking at how I could get the barcodes to appear in my eyes and how I could get my eyes to animate.

After I had completed my tests and edited my music to the section I wanted to use I animated and then edited the final footage.

If I were to do the project again I would hope to get my idea quicker. I had to put quite a bit of time into idea generation.
I quite like the idea that I came up with for the animation, I feel that it explores the idea in an abstract way, allowing the audience to think about and question the theme that I was referring to.
I feel that the biggest threat to the project for myself was the tutor being off ill, resulting in a lack of input from a specialist animation professional.
The opportunity presented to my in this project was being able to explore ways of animating with a different medium, the human body and learn more about experimental animation techniques.
I would also like to light my animation better if I were to do it again, to give a better visual quality to the final.

Animation Final

Animation tests

Test 2:



This is a test for my animating with bar codes. I had wanted to animate myself so that I boil slightly and have an animated quality to the visuals however when automating cutting out the eyes in Photoshop the head doesn't stay still enough so I have decided to use a still frame within the animation. I used the fish eye effect in FinalCut pro to make the car codes look more like eye balls. 




Test 1:



 I am going to make sure that my eyes open fully in my final. This is just for a short section of the animation. I will also make sure that I am wearing a white t-shirt and have a white background when I produce the final animation to make it look professional.

Webdesign Final

My website has been hosted at the following address http://nwep.james-lock.co.uk/

Web design evaluation

For this project I had to create an online information system for an apocalypse scenario.  I chose to use a nuclear attack as my scenario.
I decided that I wanted to mix flash and HTML to create my information system.


Due to time constraints I feel that I ended up rushing the creation of the flash and this has had an impact on the quality of the work. I feel that visually it doesn't work as well as I would have liked. The white backgrounds to the flash are too harsh against the dark template for HTML. I would also have like to have created mroe interactivity in a couple of the pages, however again I ran out of time to do this.

I wanted to keep my navigation clear and consistent throughout the site as this is easiest for the user, making their use of the site more enjoyable. It means that they are more likely to use the website for a longer time and also return to the website. If people get frustrated with navigation they are unlikely to want to use the website.
I feel that I have been successful in this aim as my navigation is consistent throughout the website, at the top right of the web page.

As part of the creation process I learned how to create my own scroll box using actions script and masks. I have also generally become more confident with flash. I do generally get the way in which Flash works and understand how the coding works

Next time I will plan my time more effectively to allow myself to complete the design to the best that I can rather then having to rush. Part of what caused this for me is that I had to design the HTML elements as well as the Flash.

Website Step-by-step.

To create the shelter page I firstly used a motion tween to get to doors to open.

The text had to me masked to get it to work in a scroll box.

This code was added to the actions layer:

function downward(){

if (txt._y>-32.8) [this bit stops the text from being able to scroll outside of the area which it is meant to]

txt._y=txt._y-2; [this controls the scroll and tells flash to more 2 pixels every time the button is pressed]

}

function upward(){

if (txt._y<27.2)

txt._y=txt._y+2;

}

function mover(myscroller){

goer=setInterval(myscroller,1000);

goer;

}

And this to the buttons for the scroll bar

on(press){

clearInterval(mover);

mover(upward);

}

 This makes the custom scroll bar work.
I made an invisible button using the rectangle tool and deleting the frames apart from on the hit state for the handle, to make the doors open. This code was used:

  on(press){

  gotoAndPlay(2);

  }

This gets flash to play frame two, which has no stop command, so flash plays to the end of the doors opening as that frame has a stop command.

To create the login page I used three keyframes. The first holds the password message and the text field for the password to be entered. The second frame displays the password fail message. And the third frame has the password protected information in it.

var myPassword:String= 'password' [this sets the password, in this case it is password]

submit_btn.onRelease=function(){

if (password_txt.text== myPassword ){

gotoAndStop(3); [if the password is correct this tells flash to go to and stop on frame 3]

}

else{

gotoAndStop(2); [if the password is incorrect flash will go and stop on frame 2]

}

}

To create my food page I use the alpha channel and motion tweens to get the page to fade in. 

I wanted hot spots on the background image over the tin and the packets to make more text appear in the bottom text window. To do this I put text in a movie clip on frame two with a blank frame one. I then create invisible buttons over the tin and the packet and used the following code

packsbut.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER,packsplay); [the button will do something when the mouse hovers over it]

function packsplay(event:MouseEvent):void

{ packs.gotoAndStop(2);  [the button will cause flash to got to and stop on frame two of the packs movie clip, this will show the text]

}

packsbut.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT,packsstop);

function packsstop(event:MouseEvent):void

{ packs.gotoAndStop(1); [when the mouse leaves the invisible button it will return the movie clip to frame one, making the text disappear again.]

}

To create the web pages I sliced my template in Photoshop. In Dreamweaver I then selected the table cell which covered the area I wanted to input the rest of my design and deleted it. I then used the image as the background to the cell so that I could enter information etc into it. I inserted my flash interface for each page in this cell. I also selected each of the slices that contained the links and linked these to the pages which they needed to link to.  This was repeated for each of the pages I wanted to create.