Jays Blog

One Shot Film - Edited and Finished

2008-11-24T12:58:00.000-08:00

Here's the finished One Shot Film that I edited.
The quality is good and it seems to look reasonable.
Not too happy with the black lines round the width of the film, but at least it's all in working order.

Love More

2008-11-22T08:39:00.000-08:00

Visit the FIGURING LIGHT, Colour and The Intangible Exhibition at Djanogly Art Gallery, Lakeside. Choose a piece of work and write 200 words about the artist use of colour and light.

For this particular assignment I have decided to choose Rebecca Partridge's "Love More" painting which intrigued me greatly.

When I first saw the painting, I was mesmerised by the distinct use of shading in the middle of the piece and wondered how the artist even got away with using so many clashing and contrasting colours at the same time.
I then thought to myself, maybe it's because of the way she uses hints of shading between richer and more intense colours, that she creates an effect which is harmonising and easier on the eye.

The painting gives me the impression that each shape is flying past my face and that they are expanding further and further because of the use of lighter shading and smaller palette of colours, which is obviously a good thing, seeing that it makes me interact with the piece more and more.

Personally, I feel that the artist’s use of colour and light is great and the shading and toning in the painting gives the piece more depth.

The first image is the original and the second image is the colour changed version.
These two images are from the game "Dead Space" and I feel that my version of the image looks more ambient and has more of a science fiction orientation about it compared to the original.

My colour changed image has more of a purple shade to it and makes the viewer feel as if the character really is in outer space.

The first image in this selection is from a game called Fallout 3 and is the original.
The next image below it is my colour changed image, which is meant to represent a more rusty and polluted feel to the environment in the image.
The change I have made is also meant to make the Soldier look as if he is standing, watching a sunset.

One Shot Film - Video ideas

2008-11-21T14:25:00.000-08:00

Here's a list of ideas for locations, themes, genres, etc, that my group came up with.

VIDEO IDEAS

Location:
Large area - Constant pan
Long street - Camera on wheels
Shopping centre
The market square
Nottingham Castle
Restaurant

Genres:
Sad
Happy
Gangster
Horror
Serious
Drama
Love
Comedy

Camera usage ideas:
Constant pan
Monitors / screens
reflective surfaces

Theme:
Streetlife - Gun fights - begger in the street
Nightlife
The meeting
General life
Old times
POKER TABLE

Ideas:
Poker Table
Green material on table, very low lighting.
All players in suits (casino royale style)
gangster feeling, minimal dialogue. Use of eye contact would be good.

Schedule:
WEEK 1 PREPARATION
WEEK 2 FILMING
WEEK 3 EDITING

One Shot Film - Location ideas and thoughts

2008-11-21T13:07:00.000-08:00

On wednesday, I went with my group to scout for locations around the city and took some photos of where we thought might look best to shoot our one shot film.

Here are some of those photos.

This photo shows an idea of a person walking from the end of the street to where our shadows are and meeting a person to deliver a package or note.
We would film a pan shot near where the van is positioned and when the person gets closer to the camera, the person would walk to the left of our shadows and round a corner, past a television shop.

The idea at this location was for two people to meet at the seating area positioned in the middle of the shot and exchange classified information or a package.

The people would come from opposite sides or different directions.
For example, one person could come from the right of the camera, (behind the camera itself and past the right hand side, into the shot) covering most of the shot with his or her body.
The other person involved could come through either of the doors, which are situated to the left and right of the photo.

This photo involves the same sort of idea as the last photo.
Two people would come from either side and meet in the seating area.

Sounds like theirs a change

2008-11-18T15:05:00.000-08:00

The original idea of a low stakes poker game between students has been called off and we've had to revert to plan B.

The new idea involves two people who meet up in the street. One of the people is giving the other person a package, once the package has been given, the two people will talk and discuss something.
The rest is up to me, so I need to get writing a script for the scene itself. We are going to film tomorrow morning, so between us we will figure out how it will be filmed and where.

One Shot Film Progress

2008-11-14T14:19:00.000-08:00

The main idea that me and my group have gone for is the "Poker Table" idea, which is based on a low stakes poker game held in a certain students flat.
We managed to come up with a brief storyline and small amounts of dialogue that could be used in the film.

We were thinking of starting with the camera focused on a pair of cards held by one of the participants, then having the camera zoom out to shoulder level and to a distance where all the players can be seen.

The story and dialogue will start as soon as the cards appear on the film and the film will contain many comedy aspects which should appear throughout.

The Rule Of Thirds

2008-11-11T09:09:00.000-08:00

Knowing the Rules

The idea is to imagine that your frame or image is split into nine equal parts which is made up of two horizontal lines and two vertical lines.

Once grasping this concept, you can then place your subject or key part of your scene, on or near a point of where the lines cross.
This is not essential in all aspects of photography because the rule of thirds does not work in certain shots and does not apply.
An example of the rule of thirds is shown below in a short video that i made.

Another example is shown below aswell.

This example shows how placing the sunlit peak at one of the hotspots gives this photograph depth and eventually leads us to the desired location.
The bottom third features the foreground, the middle third features the hills and pathways and the top third features the horizon and clouds. This is a basic composition that adheres to the rule of thirds.

Classic Remix

2008-11-05T05:37:00.001-08:00

I found these 2 remixes of Michael Gray's - Weekend,on youtube the other day and just had to put them on my blog.
They are nice groovin' house tracks mixed with a club style beat.

Enjoy

Final Pixelation

2008-11-04T15:06:00.000-08:00

I managed to upload the new edited version of my pixelation video onto youtube tonight and it's displayed below.

The main editing that I did today was sharpening each still picture and adding a slight gaussian blur to them. Re-editing the video seems to have payed off and the final video, uploaded perfectly to youtube and the quality is great.

Oh yes and before I forget, the soundtrack I used was a song by Future Sound Of London called Moscow (Remix). I never managed to display the soundtrack in the ending credits so their it is.

Now it's time to chill, good night people.

Old College Animation and More Video Editing

2008-11-04T13:59:00.000-08:00

Here's an animation that I created for my final major project when I was back at college.

It was based on certain Space Invaders Characters, which were grouped into armies on the actual animation.
It took me about 3 weeks to make, including post-production, sound effects, etc.

After today's lecture, I went to the Horn in Hand with some of the guys from the course and chilled out and played some pool for a bit.
When the rest of the guys went to their seminar at 1pm, I decided to head over to Waverley 105 and re-edit my pixelation animation and test some effects on the video itself.

At present, the video is uploading to youtube, but i'm not sure whether it will be done soon because the file is around 400mb.

I may do some research tomorrow on certain films and try using the thirds method to analyse shots and scenes.

Why Design?

2008-11-03T13:44:00.000-08:00

I recently decided to purchase an Apple iPod 120 GB classic at £179. I feel that the purchase was of very good value and that I made the right decision in buying an mp3 player of that size.

I could have gone for something different and less expensive like you usually do, but in my mind, I obviously had the desire and urge as many other people do, to buy something that completely wipes an original plan of purchasing a simple mp3 player with a reasonable amount of storage.

I had to have an all singing - all dancing iPod which can fit lots of music, videos and photos on it, as well as having games, a calendar and all sorts of other built in goodies.

Design played a huge part in my decision to buy, as well as the media and memory capabilities, which are the main factors to consider when buying a new mp3 player, but, did I need to buy an mp3 player of that size? And did I need to spend “X” amount of money, just to get a larger and more stylish mp3 player? I don’t think I did to be honest and I know that my decision was influenced by today’s media and advertisements that rule the nation.

Exported Video For Pixelation Project

2008-10-30T13:53:00.001-07:00

After today's seminar and lecture, I decided to go back to Waverley 105 and finish off what I had started this morning in Adobe Premiere Cs3.

I quickly batch processed a set of images from last nights new scene in Photoshop. Once I had done that, I had all the images ready to put into my pixelation movie in Premiere. I created all the sequences for the pixelation movie and added them and proceeded to edit the movie and add some sound, (Music for the time being).

Here is the video rendered in .AVI format.
The quality is obviously low because of youtube's compression, but still, enjoy.

Batch Processing

2008-10-30T13:39:00.000-07:00

I did some batch processing in Photoshop Cs3 last week and tried it out a couple of times on the different sets of images that I have.

Yesterday, I created another part for my Sock Adventure pixelation project.

Here are a few images of the new part.

Multimedia Technology Article

2008-10-27T09:31:00.000-07:00

A lot of computer manufacturers are trying to make gadgets smaller as they progress into the new digital age, but this isn’t the case for American based software and hardware distributor “Microsoft”.

Microsoft believes that bigger is turning out to be better, due to a recently developed technology that grasp’s the ideals of future multimedia technology and touch screen devices.

The device is called Microsoft Surface, which is a 30-inch tabletop display that lets users interact with digital content by touching and moving items on screen.

Obviously at this point in time, the product itself may not be very practical for an average household, but is perfect for businesses such as, restaurants, hotels, retailers, public entertainment and public information. This is because the device offers interaction for multiple users, which is key to the integral part of communication that lies in every business.

A given example would be an information desk in a town or city, because users would be able to search for tourist attractions or plan routes to destinations from the information desk itself.

One feature that I was particularly impressed by was the fact that Microsoft Surface can deal with Multi-Touch Contact, meaning that more than one person can interact with the display at any given time, as opposed to an original touch screen monitor that only let one user interact with the display.

Object recognition is also a key element that lies within Microsoft Surface. Users can place physical objects on the touch screen display which range from digital cameras to drinking glasses. The objects trigger different types of digital responses which the user can interact with, for example, users can browse through the content of an mp3 player on the tabletop display and then drag and drop a file to be played by the music software on Microsoft Surface.

In a business situation, a physical object such as a glass could be left on the tabletop display with a certain amount of liquid in it, the tabletop device would be linked to staff behind a bar in a hotel, once the drink begins to get low, the device would then tell the bar staff that maybe the customer would like another drink.

A diagram is noted below to show how the tabletop display system works.

1. Touch sensitive acrylic pad and tabletop display.

2. Infrared system which reflects light to measure such things as amounts of liquid in a glass placed on the tabletop display.

3. The computer hardware (CPU, Central Processing Unit) that powers the operating system, Windows Vista.

4. The projector, which projects the screen full of 1024 x 768 pixels onto the tabletop display.

In conclusion, Microsoft Surface will make a huge impact on businesses and companies around the world, thanks to their new technology which will take users through new and easier experiences.

This new multimedia experience will expand and most definetely be a feature in all businesses in years to come.

Bibliography:

http://www.cheaplaptops.org.uk/20070601/microsoft-surface-diagram-how-it-all-works/

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/about.html#section=Press

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2008/10/computer-table-hybrid-knows-wh.html

Last Weekend And Pixelation Progress

2008-10-22T15:02:00.000-07:00

Last Weekend I went back home to see some of my friends and obviously my family.
I went out driving and played some pool with my friends.

I got back into Nottingham on monday because I had no lectures on that day.
I had a lecture on Multimedia technology on tuesday morning which was so-so, to be honest.

After the lecture, I went to the Horn in Hand pub with some of the guys off the course. I met some new guys from the course aswell, (I hadn't met them in earlier lectures, so technically they are new xD) which was nice.

I went around Nottingham for the afternoon with Joe and Alan. Joe was taking pictures for his first person pixelation project, so me and Alan decided to assist him.

When I got back to my flat, I decided to take some pictures for my pixelation project.
Here are some of the images from my camera phone that will be used in the pixelation animation.

First official lecture

2008-10-15T09:04:00.001-07:00

I had my first lecture yesterday and surprisingly, I really enjoyed it.
I have a longer session in Uni tomorrow, consisting of more lectures and an introduction to the boots library.

I can't wait for Fable 2 and Dead Space to come out next friday, Only 9 days to go :D.
Also, Fallout 3 comes out on the 31st of October. It's going to be WILD.

As you can see from my posts, I am a big gaming fan and love to play on my xbox 360 when I can.

I read through the booklet that we were all given at the end of the lecture and I really want to start the "Identities" module because it sounds just up my street, (Designing an environment with a 3d avatar included). Sounds awesome :D.

Mid - Week Madness

2008-10-10T02:22:00.000-07:00

Hello again, freshers week has been absolutely crazy.

I've been e-mailing some graphic design and advertising companies in Nottingham, to see if they have any part time positions for students.

I suppose getting a part time job whilst studying at university is an added bonus, (Money :D) but it will be great to have the work experience.

Think I might just chill today and play on my Xbox 360 to pass the time, haha.

First Time Blog Entry

2008-10-07T04:15:00.000-07:00

It's my first blog entry and i'm new to the course.
Just thought i'd get into the habit of blogging and posting stuff on here.

I don't know whether I will have many things posted on here until next week when I officially start my course.

I definetly want to gain newer skills within the multimedia area, (being a past multimedia student at college). I want to be getting used to Games Design practice as I feel this is the route I want to take in the second and third years of my course.

I also want to gain extra skills in web design, like flash scripting and creative graphics.

In my welcome week, I have had main lectures on subject breakdowns and what modules I will be covering in the first year.

I've been out 3 nights in a row since I moved to Nottingham and it was my birthday yesterday, so i'm feeling pretty rough at the moment but enjoying the induction to my course :D.

Catch you all later........... so until my next post

Adios