Photographs. (:

These are the photographs I took yesterday for my Interactive Space project. I think they follow my previously drawn out plans very well actually! :o I have posted them in the same order as the narrative tree thing I posted before this.. so, yeah, quite complicated to visualise, but you can try to follow that! (Basically the doors and main objects in each picture would be clicked on - e.g. click on the stairs area to go upstairs or click on the fridge in the kitchen to retrieve the lucozade!!)

I have played around with "levels" and "hue/saturation" tools mainly on Photoshop to enhance these pictures. I have also reduced/cropped them to a 1024x768 size, as this is the size (I think!) they need to be on the final webpage.

Enjoy.

Rough sketches..

Emphasis on the "rough"! (:

Firstly, here is a rough idea of how my interactive narrative could work. I have drawn this in a tree-style diagram, showing how each of my numbered images would link together.

Here are some very quickly drawn initial storyboarded ideas. These are just to give me an idea of what and where to photograph tomorrow. Basically it (very roughly!) shows progression through different doors and rooms inside a house.

I now have an idea of what I will take pictures of and bring to my seminar on Tuesday. I doubt I will totally stick to this plan but at least I have a very rough idea how to go about it. :D

Interactive Space Project...

So, I have experimented with 3 short sequences of my own photographs in my first week of this mini project. Now it is up to me to produce at least 15 images for my final interactive sequence on the "Making New Maps" website.

To be honest, I am still not totally sure of what I will produce for my next seminar on Tuesday afternoon, but I have quite a good idea... I think.. (:

Although I think my second and third sequences on my previous post were more effective photographically, I think my first example using door ways and a more dramatic approach is one I would like to experiment with more. Therefore, my main idea I will try and produce this weekend is taking the idea of pathways in interactive webpages and representing them with doorways and hallways inside a house.

For example, I could start with an image of the exterior/front of a house, then take images of doorways and what appears behind each one. This idea could work well if the viewer could click on the door or handle themselves to access new areas/images.

I have also considered different ideas involving shadows, processes (drink/food?) and character interaction from suggestions in my previous seminar, but think I will firstly try my own idea and see how well it works. I will now sketch out what I plan my 15+ images to be and include, and then I will photograph them tomorrow when I go to my boyfriend's house (it is a lot bigger than my bungalow! haha :D)

Will upload some sketches and images when I have produced them. (:

Visual Storytelling.

Here are three sequences of my own photographs based on the topic of "Visual storytelling".



This sequence was based on the visual strategy of cut-outs and negative space. I used doorways and corners inside a simple hallway, which I also think adds tension.



My second sequence's main visual strategy is a reduction in colour richness, but also experiments with scale/zoom and linking through association.

My final sequence mainly uses the strategy of action-action-reaction, but also has a strong, consistant use of flat colour fields (blue).



 
 

My Design Process.

To help with my context module, I am recording my typical use of the design process, using my final major project from my BTEC National Diploma as my main example. My final piece was a short flash animation promoting awareness and support for depression sufferers. I also produced a range of storyboard designs to complement my animated piece.

Firstly, I chose a main theme of narrative imagery, where I would use animation and imagery to show action and/or emotions. This led to me basing my initial ideas on pictures telling stories and incorporating photographs and picture frames into my work. Therefore I photographed and sketched such things for primary research. Secondly I had to mind map subjects to base my animation and storyboard imagery on. Depression and mental health was my favoured issue to promote, therefore this was something I looked into in great detail. For example, I researched and contacted a charity I chose to use in my work, as well as looking at existing imagery for similar purposes.

The main part of my research and idea development was looking closely at artists whose work I admired. For instance, two of my main influences were Tim Burton and Benoit Guillaume, and I used this research to come up with illustrative styles to use in my animation and storyboards. I used these developed styles to influence my ideas, which I developed from my initial storyboarded ideas from the start of the project. From these, I chose my final ideas and started to produce rough animations and storyboards. This involved firstly hand-drawing my imagery, then scanning it in, manipulating it, and putting it together on Adobe Flash. These rough pieces of work gradually became my final outcomes as I tweaked them after frequent evaluation of my work. (This happened everytime I made a major change to my work and its appearance).

Storyboard Design 1

Storyboard Design 3



Linear Background - Ink Wash



Original Figure Drawings

My Flash Animation

Just to show the finished product...

Here is the final edit of all of the group's whiteboard animations from induction week.
Enjoy.

Induction Activities - Whiteboard Animation & Pinhole Cameras

As part of my induction week before starting my Multimedia course, I did a couple of group based activities to get into the swing of things, which helped learn skills as well as being fun!


The first activity I did was a group whiteboard animation. I have done a lot of stop motion animation previously in my college course, but had forgotten how laborious the process can be. :) However, it was a fun exercise to do with exciting outcomes and I look forward to doing more animation in the coming months!

This animation by Kristofer Ström is called Minilogue/Hitchhiker's Choice and was one we looked at before producing our short animations. I really liked how the animator has shown drawings being altered and transformed into each other, as well as the way he uses his hands to give an illusion of him pulling his drawings away from the board.




 
The second activity we did a day later was producing a pinhole camera from a 500ml can. To do this, I cut the top off the can; made a totally blacked out lid using paper and tape; made a pinhole in the side of the can; and made a simple shutter over this hole using a black piece of tape.

Here is my finished camera! :D

Once this camera was produced, I went into the dark room and curved photographic paper around the inside of my 500ml can pinhole camera. (Doing this, making sure the shiny, sensitive side was facing away from the surface of the can, and that the gap in my paper was where my pinhole was! Very important stuff.)

I then replaced the lid and shutter tape and went out into the Arboretum to take a quick photo. To do this I placed the camera on a sturdy surface (this happened to be a bin) and opened the shutter (removed tape from pinhole to be precise) for approximately 11-12 seconds, before replacing the shutter. This had exposed my paper to the image. Now it was ready to develop!

This meant going back into the dark room (making sure not to remove the lid at any point, of course) and placing the paper into developer, stop, fixer and water. My negative image was now printed.

After this I quickly dried my negative image under a hand dryer before scanning it into Photoshop, where I inverted it and altered the brightness and contrast until I was satisfied with its quality.

Here is my finished outcome. Despite the apparent chemical marks, not too bad for a first attempt, yes? :)