The idea of this peice didn't come from research, it was the first idea that came to mind after reading the brief so i went with the flow!
I had used Adobe Flash prior to starting this course and so knew the basics and roughly what i could achieve with the software. Although not having used Actionscript or buttons at all I had to gain a basic understanding. The template we were given allowed me to do this plus asking students in the years above and lectures helped!
I had taken a 360degree view of Rome's Colosseum when I was there last year, and so I used these images as the background.
I also had this photo of a Roman Soldier and my sister, and used it to create a game style interation. The idea is to navigate yourself around the Colosseum and when you spot the soldier, take a photo of him.
I got this image from google. Tracing it in flash allowed me to edit the image, so i was able to create a window in the back of the camera and make buttons etc.
I am quite pleased with the final outcome of this peice however, i would've liked to create a zoom function so the viewer could zoom in and out of the images. I found using Action script quite complicated, and although i eventually got it to work it kept throwing up errors due to very simple human errors such as an odd {. this i found quite frustrating!
Interactive Narrative
iNtErAcTiVe MeDiA
www.cavemanscrib.com
I found this through facebook. it is a interative flat owned by the caveman. You are able to venture around his crib and read emails on his laptop, play music on his ipod, read his magazines etc etc.
I really enjoy this site. The graphics are of a high quality, its easy to use and extremely well thought out.
It gives the chance to be a proper nosey parker, while you nose about the caveman is still in the flat, and occassionally you bump into him and occasionally tells you off which I quite like. , there is a real sense of humour in the entire set up, especially with his personal blog. i can't critisise it.
www.scifi.com/tinman/oz
This is a very visual piece. the funtionality is easy to understand however the site is not as interactive as the Caveman's Crib is slightly limited as you can only fastforward and rewind the visual. the site does not incorporate the classical imagery of The Wizard of Oz, which for me, made me intrigued
www.stevelawler.com
this is a graphic designer's website designed to basically show his technical capabilities. i especially like the inhaler that the viewer must pump up to reveal the links to other interative pages.
he also has a number of games on his sight which stimuate the viewer, they are all just for fun with no aim, but still work well
Narrative One Shot
i found it quite difficult to come up with a good idea for this project. My group hit on the idea of using a spiral staircase as the setting, but thinking of a narrative for that setting without it being cheesy was difficult.
The videos on the single-shot website explored some very individual and experimental ideas. I especially like the Glass Gun by Julie Hill. The way the viewer has to wait for a while until anything happpens is very nice. It is remonisant of a painting at the beginning, adnd the slow motion adds an almost romantic feel.
i have tried to incorporate the same idea in the way i have edited my one shot film. Although it doesn't give it a romantic mood, more sinister i feel. this is the reason why i have chosen the audio i have. i think t compliments the visual. And although i tried hard to go against what the rest of my group have done in fear of copying, making this into a happy peice didn't quite work.
Narrative Pixilation
Ideas page
Storyboard
Evaluation
The idea for this animation came mainly from researching into George Melies. I heard about him from reading 'The Art of the Storyboard'(immediatly above) and from watching a documenatry style movie on Youtube about him (below), i got thinking about the theme of magic.
I am significantly happier with this piece, compared to my lamp animation. It took me a long time to create the set and make the woodman's clothes but i can't say i didn't enjoy it. I learned from my previous mistakes as to the pre-planning process, and made a storyboard/ideas page to help me and Laurel when we were filming.
First frame.
The woodman magician walks on stage while crowd cheer
He thanks the crowd for their cheering and explains that he will perform a card trick. He then walks over to the prop box to get the pack of cards...
...and starts to deal.
As he pans his hand over the dealt cards they disappear one by one.
He raises his hand, and a wand appears in his grip. He then taps the pack of cards three times and they vanish.
He takes off his top hat and takes out a red hankerchief.
He stuffs the hankerchief into his hand...
...and when he opens his hand the hankerchief has gone.
He has an idea!
...and takes the red hankerchief out of his hat.
Makes the hankerchief disappear again and puts his hat back on.
Raises his arms...
...and he disappears, to the crowds amazement.
This short animation of a confused lamp is in no way original, but not having done stop frame animation much before I thought i would stick to a simple idea.
I have taken direct influence from the stick-man example (further down on my page) which I found on YouTube over the summer and it also has similarities to the animated lamp for the Pixar logo.
i am reasonably pleased with the final outcome, although i think i could have taken more frames with less movement between them; as the movie is a bit jolty in places and aiso quite short. I could've tried being a bit more adventurous with the 'look' also. i didn't do a great deal of pre-planning, which, in my opinion comes through in the final product, and ideally i would re-shoot but, producing this has given me a building block inorder for me to progress if i choose to produce another pixelation animation. i see this animation as a practice run. Before i did this i was unaware and inexperienced with the software we used, and not to mention the technique, but even taking these points into consideration, i remain pleased.
this animation i find to be very crude. it was shot in 'Speak Easy' and was the first attempt with my group. we planned it as we went along and didn't finish it either.
narrative scrap book
These are examples of other peoples work that i have come across previous to starting the multimedia course, and also since. They all have relevance to my Narratives project, so i thought i would include them.
Snooker table
Flash animation
George Melies
Pixelation 1
Pixelation 2