DAT204: background and asset design for Blue November HTML5 canvas game groupwork

As part of our groupwork for HTML5 canvas game development, I was commissioned by the team to design a background for the game, Blue November (link: http://giantkiwi.co.uk/sites/aotbn/). I've designed the background using Adobe Illustrator, and made use of Bézier curves to emulate the waves, as our game takes place in the sea:

In addition, I've also vectorised an existing asset that will be used in the game's introduction page. Because the carrier needed to be simplified, I've toned down the details:

DAT204: Evolution of the design

After trying to make the website work with the originally-proposed design, I've then decided to take a different approach. Whilst trying to implement as many CSS3 features as possible, I've then discovered something that can make the website very lightweight yet powerful; in addition to the existing polyglot markup approach, I've also discovered the wonders of JQuery and AJAX.

The JQuery will be used to make the Edit dialogue hidden until the user clicks on it, and the AJAX will be used to paste the content from separate HTML documents making up the pages into the same website, via the use of tabs, without having to go to a separate page, replacing the need to press backwards whenever the user wants to go back to the previous page.

In terms of interface, I've decided to change it to one that can relate to businesses very well, with the content of the eCV centralised, so then more emphasis can be placed on the content, and with the tabs linking to the different sections coloured in a rainbow-style scheme, in a similar fashion to how Filofaxes are sectioned by colour code, or how some documents are bookmarked, to make the sections easier to remember. The goal that was envisioned in my specifications was to create something similar to Zerply, with a more business-oriented interface and a standardised layout.

SOFT 131 & IDAT 108: JIT (Just In Time)

After the time of Christmas and a few weeks afterwards, the end result of SOFT131's and IDAT108's coursework is now here. Many factors have affected how I tried to get around SOFT131, but after trial-and-error and a few rectifications of the code for the phonics, it has now come all together to form the final piece of the puzzle. Initially, I had problems trying to get the arrays to work, but after I managed, I then had to try and get the sounds to work, however, they didn't seem to work, until I had to change a few things regarding the variables and the syntax of the sound files (file = gender + soundnum[array]), which then resulted in sound. After getting the girl's voices to work, I then changed the code so then it randomly selects between a boy's and a girl's voice, but after changing the code, I was clueless into why it will only play the boy's voice and not randomise between boy and girl (and sometimes even go silent, which turned out to be caused by the randomiser not being coded properly), until I realised that I had to change the scope of the repeat so then it continues for 8 corresponding letters and at the same time also have a wider selection compared to previous. After all that it all works according to the Ronseal method (it does exactly what it says on the tin!) and also according to specification.

The essay was just another story. I was in my depths with my chosen technology as I knew that all the resources will be useful to my essay, and also because I am a huge fan of Apple, I'm familiar with the community side of things and that proved to be a boost when mentioning that the community, in addition to the media, drives the prediction to refinements that results from the first product evolving to add more features that would make Apple the leader in every market they compete in. That said, I have constructed detail that hopefully should result in a very good result, who knows?

These two assignments should pave way to something that is more interesting, whilst at the same time it provides a very good challenge to what I already know and what I will know for the future (at least I do get up for lectures all the time!).

IDAT 102: Flash, boxes and things to come

Re-igniting old flames from the times that I've experimented with Flash back at college, we flock to Flash for the next assignment that will be coming up soon: developing a game.

In the meantime, we had a bit of a refresher. We made a box that flies around the screen (the software uses 'the stage' as a metaphor) by using a path. When publishing it to HTML, we discovered that it automatically creates a line of JavaScript that is extensive (not to mention confusing, unless you're fluent in it!) in the code, below the piece of code that references the source file in the same directory. We'll also be soon covering ActionScript 3.0 (I can hear more movie industry metaphors, best boy grip anyone?) during the course of the coming weeks.

IDAT 102: It's here! The completed result

The specifications of the website consist of a conventional layout with a navigation menu to the left-hand side of the page and the content in the main body of the website, with a header consisting of the title and a footer consisting of validation information and links to my Twitter, Facebook and my blog here. The layout is defined by using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), which is referenced externally in the HTML code, but stored locally in the folder and on the server the website is hosted at. The website is constructed using XHTML 1.0 Transitional and CSS2. The colour scheme, which matches my personality of minimalism and Apple, will result in less issues regarding colourblindness due to the fact that when there are less colours (especially when they clash), there are less problems, and because the text is bright on a dark background, it's easier on the eyes and because my website did not rely heavily on text-on-images (especially if it had paragraphs on it), my website will not have problems with screen readers.

After ironing out a few things (mostly regarding the validation of the email submit form on the Contact Me page), I now have a completed result of my personal website, which is at http://www.elnormo91.co.uk.

IDAT 101, IDAT 108 & SOFT 131: Interesting stuff and a snake

Yesterday's and todays lectures brought many interesting things to my mind; more stuff about spaces and a cube that recognises your voice and adjusts accordingly (imagine saying 'antidisestablishmentarianism' into the cube?). Then there was more about the history of photo and video (even in history, someone can prove that high-quality images equivalent to what we can get now was actually possible back in the day) and then more about JavaScript and guess what? A snake came along to the lecture, and at first I didn't see the link about what we were learning until it was explored: literature about keeping snakes is in Fahrenheit because it came from our friends the other side of the pond, so therefore, a converter must be created in order to then change the units to Celsius, which we, like the most of the world, use.