IDAT 108: Last week's meeting, progress and this week's filming

Last week's meeting managed to get everything sorted for the following week, which included getting the work schedule together and getting the storyboard onto a flowchart, in order to get an idea of what scenes are to be filmed and how they are going to be linked into the Facebook element before the multiple-choice endings, which involved various scenarios. This meeting gave me a much better picture of what will be expected out of the movie project, and how long we are going to take on the movie, as well as putting the foundations in place for preparation, ready for the filming, which was my part.

The work schedule included the filming schedule, which started from about 6pm on the 28th to the party at approximately 10pm, which then formed a central part of the character meeting the new partner, before then starting to reach the decision points where the viewer decides which ending is going to be used for the end scenario.

This week, filming has already commenced on the first and the last scenes, but due to time constraints (and the fact that the USB cable for the camera had been left at the director's house by accident owing to two bottles of cider on the first day of filming!), an extra day has been added to the schedule for the next 3 last scenes before filming is all wrapped-up and then the clips editing will be done before the premiere is due on Thursday, and also before the interactive movie is due to go live. Progress, on the other hand, is going very well, and despite the short timeframe that the project was given, it looks very good and when the premiere comes, it will all be polished up ready for it's debut.

IDAT 107: Know what standards you'd need to go for, not veer off course! And also, about the originality of design

As the marks for my last two assignments came back, I now know about the true meaning of a design theme, like for instance, I know know that the true meaning of a web 2.0 logo is something that is completely lower-case, mine didn't feel that way. Although at least I did something modern, maybe I was a bit too vague about the definition (at least in terms of what trends are being done in the world of web 2.0). It's like saying that if something calls for a Disney theme, I'd have to include something that is Disney. I saw an example of compliance in the shape of an electricity pylon that is within the limits of Walt Disney World; the designers knew that the juxtaposition of WDW with the highway meant that they should captivate it, so they designed it in the shape of the silhouette of Mickey Mouse, which in terms of when doing something Disney in specifications, it always ticks all the boxes!

In addition to standards, originality also has to be considered too. During the 3D design part of the coursework, drawing teapots similar to the famous Utah teapot isn't what many consider in the world to be something that is original, because the idea has already been taken, even though my object originally called for something that resembles some kind of teapot (but with a barrel instead of a spout, and a lot more added to it), I had to take it into account that just that isn't going to get me the high esprit-de-corps of originality, so what I decided to do, is create a more surrealistic object, that captivates the spirit of famous surrealists Salvador Dalí and René Magritte, whilst at the same time takes it to a whole new level, kind of like thinking about the windmills of Don Quijote, but making it more literal, and illustrative of one of my favourite design themes, especially since I've done works of something similar at school, I became enamoured of it, and decided to use it to effect in order to have something that I at least have savoir faire in, rather than vaguely presume that it is surrealisim, as it was demonstrated in the digital signature.

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!).

Back to work: things to come

It's been quite a while since I've done an update, but rest assured, I had been busy working on the essay for IDAT108 and the phonics game for SOFT131 (both of which are now complete and are being submitted as of the date of publishing), in addition to starting off the IDAT107 animatic. Christmas has been very good, and although I do miss those homemade chili con carnes and quality Indian takeaways (although I'm pretty sure that somewhere in Plymouth could fill in the gap), I'm glad to be back to uni for many things which will be interesting, and talking of which, there are a lot of things to come, including, but not limited to:

• Bumper video for IDAT107 after the animatic
• Life-sized board game project for IDAT106, crossover with Year 2s
• Beginning work on 3D
• Practicals in IDAT108
• Custom Flash game for IDAT102 (the racing game was just a taster)
• ...and much more

Also, I will start sailing soon, every Wednesday (since there is now a huge gap between SOFT131 on Tuesdays and IDAT107 on Thursdays) and some Saturdays. Looks like 2011 is set to be very eventful and interesting at the same time.

IDAT 101: Blog review day

Today, in IDAT, we look into each others blogs. So far, a particular blog (which of course I won't name as he'll probably start putting something on soonish, in fact he is now doing it as we speak!) hasn't got anything on, not even a single thing (despite that he put a disclaimer as a build up to his blog, then it disappointingly resulted in an empty space)! Oh well, c'est la vie!