Finished Ident! well pretty much....

Well I rushed toward the end, with the 5 logo,

I had completely forgotten about that! I like

how it comes into the sequence, but the square

box around it doesn't look good, if I were to

go back and tweak it I would remove that box

and just have the word 5. I would also have the

eggy custard word drip down over the five logo.

However I don't think I will be tweaking it anymore,

I doubt it will affect my mark, but maybe this is

something I could return to later if I want it in my

portfolio?

But right now I have too much other stuff to get on

with and would just like to move on!!

More storyboards!

Here are some new storyboards and ideas that I have been thinking about, basically I want to have more of a narrative involved so have decided to start with the eggs being shown in their box, but some are missing, a hand appears and takes one of the eggs, (I think it would look interesting to have a "real" image of a hand, rather than a hand drawn one, similar to the collage techniques used in some of the monty python films) the egg looks scared as he is set down only to see the remains of the other "missing" eggs lying around, he looks around nervously for a second or two before the "evil spoon" appears which then proceeds to crack him open, the remains spill onto the floor and then the word "custard" comes into play, via one of the methods shown above. I have decided to leave out the other ingredients and focus on the eggs in favor of narrative, I feel that although it would have been good to have the other ingredients thrown in as it would have had more of a connection to the brief title, it wouldn't have worked as nicely narrative-wise, and was only added in for the sake of it, I think to stick with the eggs as a storyline is much better, and I like the story, it has undertones of horror that I think will intrigue young audiences alike. Of course I will be asked why an egg? how is it relevant to custard? well you need eggs to make custard, and what you are seeing is in fact a part of the "custard making process" it's just been characterized and simplified for the sake of children's entertainment! The brief is to make something wacky and appealing and I think that's what I've done.

with regard to sound. I want to have an annoying zany beat with children's voices shouting "CUSTARD" at the end when the word custard appears onscreen and the channel 5 logo.

I have arranged to record this sound at my children's school and will then import it into my project!

Test movie

This is just a test film of how my finished work may look, or to give an idea of timing, this basically starts with one egg rather than the 4 needed to make custard, he is highly characterized and expressional. He is then cracked open by a vicious spoon and becomes a splatter of egg, (also characterized) who then looks up to see a bag of flour falling on top of him, this is followed by some sugar and salt, vanilla extract that all becomes a ball of mush, this then explodes into the word "custard" on screen.

I would like to start the film by showing a box of 6 eggs that is then opened and then one egg is picked for slaughter as such, the other eggs can look scared, relieved etc. I could even have some missing already, and then when the new egg is selected for slaughter he notices other bits of egg shell scattered around him and gets a bit nervous....

Visual Kandy Custard storyboards

Words...

I found some "words" from the constantine graphic novel that I liked, I can't for the life of me remember what they're called, damm my bad memory. I spent 12 weeks on a creative writing course and passed with a distinction but I can't remember the "official" names for things!

like verbs, subverted verbs, etc. so I don't know what this style of writing is called but we did alot of it in class, maybe if anyone is reading this and you know what they're called you can leave a comment and let me know? (I never get comments so it would be double awesome! lol)

Aha! just this second it has come to me! METAPHORS! I found some interesting metaphors in a comic and wanted to put them on my blog! here they are:

"The streets are hardened arteries leading to the city's dead heart"

"Ignoring the queasiness which quakes my stomach like an uneasy swamp"

"I turn my collar up against the toothless gnawing of the early november wind"

"A steetlamp winks it's sickly, yellow eye as I pass"

Writing this reminds me of sin city, I didn't really realize it was full of metaphors at the time, I probably wouldn't have taken much notice of them, I just thought it was an odd way of speaking! lol even though I use them myself without noticing, but now I notice them all the time, but I think they work the best in comic books, especially detective type stories.

Y the last man

I have just finished reading all ten trade paperbacks of "Y the last man" which I paid about £100 for without even reading a sample of it, I just read the "premise" and wanted to read it! turns out I made a good choice this time I couldn't put the books down! (unlike the "swam thing saga" I forked out for a few months ago) I read the whole lot in a few days, the story was amazing! It wasn't what I expected, and the character development was what kept it going, I wanted to know what was going to happen with certain characters and what they were going to do next etc which is what kept me reading. It's basically about a guy named "Yorrick" and his pet monkey who are left the only males on earth after a plague suddenly breaks out and wipes out all males on the earth at the same time causing  instant death.

The females are left to deal with everything, politics, food, energy supplies, entertainment, wars etc. Some go crazy and become "amazons" cutting off one of their breasts and burning down sperm banks thinking that "god" wiped out mean because they were the inferior race...

except yorricks sister becomes one of these amazons and when they hear of the last mans existence vows to hunt him down and kill him.

there are also an abundance of women dressing up as men to please the women that miss them and can't live without them, and countries are at war- even worse than before!

Everyone seems to be after the last man, however yorrick has help in the form of agent 355, a secret agent sent to protect him from the "Culper ring" she is also my favorite character in the whole thing, then there is Dr.Mann- a cloning specialist who teams up with them to try and save the world- a character I didn't so much like, and all the while yorrick is obsessed with finding his girlfriend beth who is at the other side of the world! I think i've said enough, but the good news is they are making this into a movie! it will make a brilliant film i just hope they do it right! there are rumours of "Aleesha Keys" set to play agent 355, but I think "Jada Pinkett" should do it, then for Yorrick they are saying "shea lebouf" which i can see as him but i can't see him working with Jada or Aleesha keys? either way I can't wait for the film!

speaking of films I went to see Coroline in 3D tonight! it was everything I hoped it would be and more! I was suprised to find out it had nothing to do with Tim Burton however! it had his name written all over it in terms of visual style and story-telling, but it was actually based on a graphic novel by Neil Gaiman, (sandman) I'm now in the process of buying this and the sandman books, however there are so many of them! I think it's over 100 books! so i am going to go for the pricey option and get the special edition volumes that contain 20 novels in each one, I wish I'd thought of this when I still had my student loan! don't know how I will get them now, there are 4 so far at £48 each on amazon! but I always find a way to get the things I want...

Second life project!

(My sky room)

(the new rooms that have been put in)

On Friday I met up with Katherine (in second life) and we made some changes in order to make the place more "Japanese" as was our original plan, we made the floor darker and the logo panels white lights, I also made an enclosed area with the 3K logo as the walls and changed the tunnel into a bridge! which I am very pleased with! I made a big sofa with 3K logo on it and put various leather sofas and tables here and there, the outside area was made into a funky little pod/garden!

and over in the right there are Japanese silk screen panels and another waiting area, Katherine wanted an "outside/in" area in the middle of the room so I suggested a fountain, we then put a wooden oriental style "hut" (can't remember the correct name) over it and added flowers and trees! Katherine put the reception in front of it and some rugs on the floor. all we need now is posters putting up and links to websites! we also need to design a nurse avatar and a receptionist.

REPULSION!

I have been searching through some "vintage" horror films to watch in preparation for the 1 minute video module and came across a few, "I spit on your grave", "rear window", "repulsion", and "The man who haunted himself" I am going to watch a couple of them and review them later, hopefully this will give me some ideas for my 1 minute horror! I am thinking of filming it in Black and white with a grain effect, and want to incorporate some of the special effects and techniques used in horror films from the 40's and 60's and later... 

I don't know what the plot is going to be yet, but I plan on making more than one of these 1 minute features, I'd love to have one as a live-action film and at least another done using some sort of stop motion technique, and then if I have time I plan on doing something a bit more uplifting and quirky!

1 minute film

I thought it was quite good as it touches on something we all experience everyday, or at some 

point, and it was nice and simple and to the point!

the sound worked really well also, if it had been covered by music it would have 

glamorized it a bit, the sound of all the plastic been torn adds to 

the frustration you feel from watching it. 

this video won an award in the 1 minute film thingy, we are going to be making one 

minute videos for our 

next brief so i thought i would check some out!

character design

I've been looking at character designs and wanting to get back into it as I used to carry a little book around with me and just come up with designs all the time, I can't find the book anymore so am a little upset as it had a years worth of my ideas/drawings in it.

I wanted to buy the pictoplasma books but thought they were a little expensive so I got one called: Great new characters, and I'm glad I did! it's an awesome little book, packed full of characters across a broad range of mediums! 

and here is a picture I took of some sweets given to the kids at easter, I couldn't eat them if they were mine, they're just too cool! 

FIRST CONTACT FINISHED VIDEO AND EVALUATION

Finished "first contact" video, now with sound!

I decided to come into college today to do a bit more to the video in terms of editing as I wasn't really happy with it just as it was. I also wanted to change some of the camera angles in maya but it wasn't having it, by not allowing me to see the key frames for the perspective, so I decided to leave it alone.

EVALUATION:

When I read through the brief and discovered we were making an animation about "first contact" between two characters, I was genuinely looking forward to it as I like to create my own characters and enjoy story-writing.

I was still working on my interactive story which I was really getting into and having fun with, (although now I am wondering why I bothered? it has not been shown to the group and I can't figure out how to have it on my blog) anyway, as soon as i'd finished that I decided to get on with my maya, yes I had been dabbling in it and drawing up storyboards, but was not ready to give it my full attention until my other projects were finished.

Moving on, my first impression of maya was "oh my god! what the hell is this?" I never thought I'd be able to use it and didn't even have the heart to try to be honest, I found it visually- a total eyesore, chaotic and far too "techy" I didn't even like looking at it! never mind touching it!

It took me weeks to get to grips with modeling, I found this frustrating and feel alot of time was wasted, (looking back I don't know why I found it so hard, I think I was trying to use too many tools that I didn't need to) 

I asked for help but it wasn't getting me anywhere, I just didn't get it! but after maybe the 6th week something twigged and I started getting to grips with it and a small surge of confidence came about, maybe if the interface wasn't so hideous I would have "twigged" sooner, but nevermind!

I was happy with my finished sperm model, I did attempt to make quite a few, never happy with them so I kept trying till I got a pleasing result, in the end using a picture imported into the software to model against, (wish I'd known that sooner!)

The next stage was to use deformers and handles to make the sperms "wiggly" and to also keep their tales in a swimming motion, this wasn't so bad, it was explained to me step by step and once I had done it once I found I was able to repeat this for all of my sperm models.

I disliked the rotation tool, every time i used a deformer it would appear in the wrong position and I would spend several minutes sometimes faffing about with rotation to get it in the right place, (as when you think you have it, you turn the camera and oh you don't have it!) I realize there were other view that could be used and a graph view, but I didn't like looking at any of them, it just looked like advanced physics to me! (all those lines and dots-yuk) I much preferred working in the standard view with shaded models, not see-through liney confusing wireframe!

anyway enough of that, on to animating, again this took a couple of sessions to get used to, but i found i picked up each new obstacle quicker each time, having got that bit more used to the shiteness that is maya! (sorry i just really hate it!)

I found that the delivery of this module was a bit too fast for my liking, by the time I was coming to grips with say A, we had already moved on passed B, C and D! so most of what I have learnt has been from pestering the teacher for one on one time as I just couldn't follow the group classes, If during the classes the steps had been broken down a bit so that we had to follow them step by step I feel I would have learnt more as it would have been beneficial to have done the steps whilst they were still fresh in my mind, rather than us all forgetting as there was too much information in one gulp.

besides that I really appreciated the one on one time I got otherwise I doubt I would have been able to progress at all. 

I am surprisingly pleased with the outcome actually, I had begun to design some backgrounds in photoshop but felt they looked "tacky" and rubbish, I chose to stick to the black background in maya, and I actually quite like it, the shadowed edges of my models blend in with it, although I had to add some additional lights to add balance, and it gives it a dark undertone which I like to have in my work anyway, I am pleased with the sound effects- I chose to have the jaws theme as I did in my animatic, and some bouncing sound effects along with screams of terror as the "Egg" kills off the sperms one by one.

In the end the story-telling, idea and editing have made it shine through as always, not my technical ability!

but to say it was complete utter rubbish to begin with I am more pleased than I thought I would be considering and am happy with the end result.

It's a shame we will probably have to use maya again at some point, I have no interest in 3D animation whatsoever, but at least next time we have to do this I will have some prior experience- if I don't forget! 

First contact finished movie

Here is my finished video "first contact" for maya.

To say I am not happy with it would be an understatement!

EVALUATION:

Follow the link for my INTERACTIVE story!

http://6567567709421278201-a-1802744773732722657-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/digitalparadiseproject/Home/Spritefinished.swf?attredirects=0&auth=ANoY7cq1neb9m6RH7pHRIPiex55S2_FDw3PJ6BlhzMKYzyPRvLCV7Vo1GQB4J09UqvKQGbHFAksLkZzAlqf2DA16fwICcXQ3AKnG8V9eUrYSNB4UFn96YKIRDlaqkAl67q7sHnAoXkA2dz-EWTlWpMXM39mOGLOg_gJmESde4aFw3-He1_LFOQxOstYj-ULqh79g673ZGPtEE4uE3bLrysa9nBtkDOLJZILkn9HKso1SBvHfvFs2r_g%3D

Second life survey

This is the survey questionaire we developed and put into practice as part of our market research.

Second Life group project

We have had some fantastic ideas for second life, starting as a house in which each room focussed on a different aspect from the government initiative, ie: sexual health, healthy eating, environment etc. but then we were told to focus on one aspect as this would be too much and that quality is better than quantity! 

we then decided to stick with general health and create a virtual doctors surgery that people can visit and obtain information and guidance on a range of health issues, although my gut feeling was always that it would be more appropriate for teens who may have sensitive issues that they are nervous about discussing with a GP face to face.

Our next move was to do some market research, this resulted in devising questionaires that we then planned to take to the leeds student health practice down the road in order to question patients to find out if they would use a 2nd life doctors and why, and also to get their thoughts on the service and why it might be useful!

However after asking the receptionist for permission we were told that we couldn't conduct the survey there, so we had to come back to college and question the students here, we also made sure to question staff so as to get a more balanced result.

After reading through the answers together we came to the conclusion that the service would definitely be more appropriate for sexual health issues concerning younger users who may find it difficult to express their concerns with a person face to face.

The contraceptive pill is now available for girls aged 11 up WITHOUT their parents consent, this is to try and combat the rising number of teenage pregnancies in the UK, however it is also rather alarming in that children as young as 11 are having SEX! we feel that at such a young age they are very likely to be misinformed, what parent is going to talk to their 9,10 or 11 year old about sex? sex education in schools is currently done in stages, between the ages of 11-14 pupils are taught about the menstrual cycle and how it relates to human reproduction, physical and emotional changes brought on by puberty, how the fusion of a male and female cell causes fertilization and how a foetus develops in the uterus, they are not taught about sexual intercourse, and more importantly STDs until they are 14-16 and even then the focus is more on hormones and fertility with STDs sessions being limited to one day or one week workshops!

so as you can see information is limited and very mediocre at that.

going to a sexual health clinic for information will most certainly be very daunting for a young teen/child who has symptoms for an STD, just think this could be any number of things which I won't go into but I imagine they would be extremely frightening for anyone, especially when doubled with the mentality of an 11 or 12 year old, that could be a very life-changing and scarey prospect, not to mention the emotional distress that comes with first time sex.

Our virtual clinic, (which we are now thinking of making into a "ride on" experience) will be light-hearted and informative, we don't want to scare clients to death but they need to know the facts, what to look out for, symptoms, information on how "Exactly" STDs are transmitted, this may seem obvious but of course someone as young as 11 may not know this, and of course we all know how "kidz" like to make up stories! 

here are some posters I designed for the surgery but will probably not be used now that we are focussing on STDS! 

Salmon fingers!

I Love this advert! saw it the other day and couldn't stop laughing! stuff like this makes me wanna go into advertising cause i always have lots of ideas. Oh, I just watched it the whole way through and realized it's not the ad from the TV! obviously! lol but this is still funny, in the TV ad the 2 male fishfingers faint when she takes off her crumby outer skin! then after the "birdseye bit" one of them leans up to the other and says he wasn't expecting that! I think the TV add is funnier, I don't see how adding some swear words makes it any funnier, but I did laugh cause I wasn't expecting it, but that's it, it's not funny anymore but the original still holds it's "laugh appeal" for me anyway...

2nd life

how cool?!!!

OOh look an ambulance! but where are the patients? awww, i wanna see blood and gore! hehe think I play too many games, but  Ican't help but look at 2nd life as a game!

These empty beds would look better if they had dying virtual patients on them....

Posters....

We got together in our group today to discuss our project and come up with some ideas, the first thing we thought of was to design a house that people can visit in 2nd life and it would have interactive rooms each focussing on a different area of personal health, ie: Kitchen for healthy eating, bedroom for sexual health, bathroom for personal hygiene etc. but after discussing this with anna we discovered that we should only focus on one area as there will be alot to do, research, modelling, moodboards, planning, themes, slogans, logos, posters to design, textures etc. so we have decided to focus on one area.

Then we looked at doctors surgeries, dentists and the NHS and decided it would be good if we had a 2nd life doctors surgery in which maybe young people come come for information and guidance on a range of health issues. This would be mostly beneficial to those that may be worried about speaking face to face with a GP about embarrassing matters, or even for those who don't have the time to go to the doctors or can't get an appointment in time, rather than looking through pages and pages of text for information users can visit our virtual surgery where they can ask questions directly and get answers from one of our virtual doctors or nurses. This could be done by either pre-programming set questions and answers or by having live health officials actually working there and giving live responses.

I think that sexual health would be something that users would want to enquire about the most, simply because it is the most awkward subject for them to talk about and this way may be easier for them, anyone from the age of 15 upwards can come here for information, or maybe younger? but that is where market research comes in, we plan on making questionaires to give out to students and young people, or to have them answer the questions on the spot, to find out if they would use the service and what they might use it for, or what they think the majority of young people would want it for.

We need to carry out this research to assertain how this service would be beneficial to users and if the users themselves feel it would be a useful service?

typing NHS into 2nd life we found that there was already a london based NHS service, which surprised me as I didn't think there would be anything like that on 2nd life! after looking around we saw that some of the ideas we had, ie: having posters and webpage links were already in place, but what it was lacking was interest, interactivity, fun! yes we need to make it fun or people will not want to go there as it will just be another 3d world, we felt that nurses should have been walking around for you to maybe interact with, it would have been fun to see patients being rushed in on trolleys, (as we were in an A&E section) the whole place seemed a bit dead and boring, it was cool that they had coffee machines etc, but I kinda felt, why walk all over the place for information? surely it would be easier and more accesible on google? 

so we will have to make sure our virtual world has character, vibrance and holds visitors interests whilst giving them useful information at the same time! so maybe we could make a game out of it? 

we have all decided to do individual research over the weekend and then bring it all in on monday so we can develop it further as a group. 

I will be designing questionaires in the hope to find out the main reasons young people visit the GP, and what issues they may find easier talking about virtually, and if they find this idea appealing or not. 

The 3 of us in our group on our empty land! this will soon hold a masterpiece of design!

5 Sperms!

this is it now, I can't make hundreds, so here are the final 5, each with own color and swim style!

I will only have next week now to animate them and provide the interaction with the egg. I stopped doing my flash animatic half-way through because it was taking up too much time, and i'm not working "exactly" to a storyboard anyway, this is because I am such a novice with maya, anything could go wrong, and due to my limited "skills" and time limit more importantly I am just going with the flow, if something works then I'm leaving it in! if it doesn't it's going! I am not expert enough to stick 100% to my storyboard, I just have to do what I can, and if that means I can't make them have a fight, i will have to do something simpler, etc etc.

Anyway gotta go! here's a screen shot! all the animation for next week! 

This is wicked!

I wish I could produce something like this! it's awesome! 

it's the opposite to my idea, as my egg ultimately kills the 

sperm and doesn't let him in!

I like the way they turn their heads to look at him, it's brilliant! 

and the way he moves in a sophisticated swagger, excellent. 

It has made me think about the sizing, I was having my eggs 

and the sperm almost the same size and a sperm to an egg, 

but in fact the egg should be massive in comparison, with

hundreds of sperms around it. 

so that's something to think about. 

I might make it more realistic...

3 swimming sperms!

Just thought I'd upload a picture of my 3 swimming sperms! I am very pleased with them and never thought I would make it to this stage! I have hope that I can get a bit further, but 2 weeks! gah!

well I will just take it one step at at time and get as much done and to the best of my ability, that's all I can do!