Assignment 4 - Adobe Flash

I chose to base my flash website on the film resident evil starring Milla Jovovich. This meant that I could explore different backgrounds and use the different techniques that I have recently learnt though the Creative Technologies workshops.

I used a very basic preloader for the video as it isnt very large and doesnt take too long to load. The preloader, which is used to entertain the user while the video loads, therefore doesn't need to be too ellaborate. The background for the preloader is the same as the ones for the video and the user interface.

The video is about 30seconds in length so the user will not be sat around watching a video for too long. However, if the user does get bored, there is a skip button below the video which can be used to take the user immediately to the user interface.

The user interface is very simple to use. The buttons are clear and change colour when the mouse pointer is over them. Also, an image that relates to the subject of each button appears in the empty space.

I used the library to create graphics and buttons. The graphics included all of the images that are used and also the background. I made the background into a graphic as i used it a few times and it was easy to reuse the same image rather than importing the image numerous times.

I also used three different scenes. This meant I could have one scene for a preloader, one for the movie and one for the interface. This made creating the whole project much easier.

I have used action scripting in all of the scenes. To create the preloader, action scripting is needed to determine whether or not the video is ready to be viewed. During the movie, action scripting is used on the skip button. In the final scene, the interface a simple stop command is used so that the interface isn't skipped and the whole project is played again.

10 Second Film - Assessment Two

For this assessment, I was asked to create, edit and produce a 10 second film. The 10 second film could be about almost anything (within reason). The 10 seconds does not include titles at the beginning of the film or the credits at the end.

I had quite a few initial thoughts about what I could film. I originally wanted to burst a water balloon and then slow the playing speed down so that the whole sequence lasted ten seconds. When it came to filming this, it was very hard to burst the balloon without obscuring the view of the ball of water as it fell. It was also very hard to capture the whole process within the constraints of the viewing field.

I also had the ideas for filming an essay being created and speeding it up to 10 seconds but I couldn't find a way of having both hands, the keyboard and the screen within the viewing field. I also wanted to film an hour of what life looked like out of my window, but because I tried filming this on a Sunday, it was incredibly boring and not really worth keeping.

I finally decided to film an amateur game of Texas Hold 'em and speed the game up so that it fits within the ten second constraints. I first tried to find a way of filming from a 'birds eye view' of the game but this turned out to be near impossible as there was no way of attaching the camera to the ceiling. I settled on pointing the camera so that it was just above table level. This meant that the whole game could be captured and includes the player’s hands and some additional props. I included a drink for each of the players, the playing cards, a green mat, an open poker book and the poker chips.

I edited my video using Adobe Premier. I used this because I found using Avid very difficult and I was able to easily find my way around the software and was able to familiarise myself quite quickly.

After brightening the film and adding a very basic title and credits I thought that I had a ten second film to be proud of, but after watching the whole film through a couple of times, I realised that sound of some description was needed. As I am not very good at creating my own music, I thought that it would be a better idea to add a copyright song to the film and then not submit my final piece to the 10secfilmfest website.

I needed to add a song that fitted well with the video and to keep up with the pace of it too. So I chose "I'm a Scat Man" by Scat Man John. With a little bit of editing and careful positioning of the video, I have been able to nearly perfectly set it so the video starts and finishes at a near perfect position in the song. Using this song means that I cannot submit my video to any website, including the 10secfilmfest due to the copyright laws. Adding the soundfile is shown below:













I then included transitions so that the blend between the film and the end credits is a lot smoother. I have used two cross dissolve transitions so that the film fades to black and then the black fades into the end credits. I chose the cross dissolve transition because it seemed to make the whole ending of my film run very smoothly. Adding the transitions is shown in the screen shot below:

My film plays using Windows Media Player. This means that it can be played on the majority of computers quite easily. On playback some of the image quality is lost but not a major amount.

This website, Blogger, does not allow me to publish videos and due to the copyright laws, I have not been able to publish my video onto any other websites. This means that the video cannot be seen over the internet. Therefore; I cannot show any previous edits of my video.

BigStockPhoto.com - Assessment One

For the first assessment I have been asked to capture a number of images and submit 4 of them to BigStockPhoto.com. We were asked to get into small groups of 3 or 4 and choose a theme to work with. After much deliberation, the other members of the group and myself decided on the theme of technology. We chose this theme because it meant that we didn't necessarily have to rely on good weather to be able to take some good photos as they could easily be taken within a household.

I took a total of 71 photographs which I could play with and make look as good as possible. I finally chose 4 photos which I altered so that they would possibly be published onto BigStockPhoto.com.

The first photograph that I chose to edit and consequently publish is shown below:

This was the original photograph that I took. I chose this photgraph because I thought that it covered a lot of the area that was possible. I also knew that I would be able to improve the quality. I was trying to get a range of different circuit boards and electrical components into one image.

To improve the quality of the image so that it might get published, I first changed the colour levels very slightly so that the colours of the image were more vibrant. I then changed the brightness and contrast. I then cropped the image so that the circuit board covered the whole visible area of the image. The disadvantage of this was that I had to remove some of the components from the original photograph. The final product is shown below:











I felt that this image was worth publishing because it definately fits the criteria of being aesthetically and technically good. The image fills the whole area which means that it could be used for many things.

When I published this to the BigStockPhoto website, I was asked to include catagories and keywords that best describe the image. The catagories I chose were - Objects -> Electronics, Computers -> Miscellaneous, Business -> Objects. The keywords that I chose were - component, components, electronics, computers, computer, electricity, motherboard, chip, computer chip, wires, wire, RAM, random access memory, circuit, circuit boards.

With the next image, I was trying to take a photograph of some of the main components, close up. I feel that this photogrph shows my success. The next photograph that I decided to edit and publish was:

As you can see from the two images, I didn't change the photograph too much. I cropped the image slightly to enhance the focus of the image and remove any unnecessary parts. I boosted the brightness and contrast to make the image more clear.

For this photo, I chose the following catagories - Objects -> Electronics, Computers -> Miscellaneous, Business -> Objects. the keywords that I chose are - component, components, electronics, computers, computer, electricity, motherboard, chip, computer chip, wires, wire, capacitor, circuit, circuit boards.
The third photograph that I chose is shown below:
















I liked this photograph because I was able to get really close to the circuit board and I was able to get most of the photograph into focus. I was aiming to make the viewer feel like they are part of the circuit board. I didn't fully achieve this as the camera had to be raised so that the circuit board covered most of the frame. To alter it, I cropped the image so that the main focus was on the main components of the board. I also needed to remove the unnecessary background of my desk. The final image is shown on the below:

For this photo, I chose the following catagories - Objects -> Electronics, Computers -> Miscellaneous, Business -> Objects. the keywords that I chose are - component, components, electronics, computers, computer, electricity, motherboard, chip, computer chip, wires, wire, circuit, circuit boards.

The fouth and final photograph that I chose is my favorite:

The original is admittidly, not very good as the image is quite dark and there is a very busy background, but I only wanted to capture a different angle of a very ordinary object such as a light bulb, and I think that I have achieved this quite well. I started to play with this image and the outcome is shown below:

I first cropped most of the original image out because it had no need to be there. I then removed the remaining background so that the image was over white. I then played with the brightness and contrast so the the lightbulb was clear and bright. I really like this photograph because it fills the whole frame, has no shadow, which makes it look like it is floating, and for these reasons it makes a very good image.

The catagories that I chose were - Objects -> Electronics, Business -> Objects, Industry -> Electronics. The keywords that I chose were - bulb, light, light bulb, screw, volts, amps, watts, electricity, electronics, idea, ideas.

All four of these photgraphs have been uploaded and accepted on BigStockPhoto.com.

Workshop Task 3 - Photoshop Fundamentals (continued)

The black and white image shown was given to me for the next task. I was asked to colour the image. To do this I had to select small parts of the image in turn with the magnetic lasso tool. I then selected the colour balance from the image menu on the tool bar and altered the levels until I had the colour that I desired:














The image shown is now completely coloured with all of the correct colours in the correct place.

Workshop Task 3 - Photoshop Fundamentals

For this workshop I was asked to improve the quality of some photographs supplied to me. My first taks was to improve the colour balance on this photograph:



The photograph below shows the changes that have been made:












I increased the colour balances on the image so that the photo didn't look as old and as worn. I then altered the brightness and contrast levels which helped improve the image quality. I had to slightly crop the image so that they could be shown on this blog.

The second part of the workshop asked me to again edit an image to improe its quality but the focus was on the hue and saturation. I was given the photo shown below:















I altered the hue and the saturation so that the photo look more life like and had more colour in it. To achieve the best possible image quality, I also had to slightly change the colour levels. The colour of the photo is now much more clear:

Workshop Task 1 - Create a Blog

For the first workshop task, I have been asked to create a blog which will help lecturers and myself keep track of all of my work throughout the Creative Technologies (CMP1014) unit at level one.

I was asked to include a "suitable" photograph of myself and include all of the relevant information linking to the unit and myself. I feel that I have successfully met these targets and hope that this blog will be very useful to everyone involved.