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Final Year Showreel

2010-05-28T05:14:00.001-07:00

Presenation Talk - Future of CGI

2010-05-05T06:34:00.001-07:00

This got me thinking. If ikea can produce a tool which allows customers to search through their furniture ranges and design a room out of it. Then a professional program designer can design software that allows customer to drag pre-set furniture from a large archive into a 3D space. Also they can have a large archive of textures and different lighting that they could drag into the scene enabling anyone with absolute no 3D skill to create a professional looking 3D environment.
3D software has developed rapidly over the years opening more doors for potential designers. But will technology advance to the point when software is made so user-friendly that the user can have no skills in 3D and create a professional looking environment? Well we will have to wait and see what the future of CGI will bring us

6th Artefact - User friendly programs for interior design

2010-04-27T04:35:00.000-07:00

Home page of ikea space maker. This gives the customer an option of starting with a pre-set made room, starting their own room or looking at the tutorial to design a room. Imagine in the future CGI software was user-friendly like this.

Extremely user friendly showing customers a list of furniture they can use. Simply click and drag on to the scene

Final Design taking 2 minutes.

EVALUATION FOR 6th ARTEFACT

The development of 3D software has now reached a stage where designs can be created on a computer screen and now people can learn the software or be trained to be able to create designs themselves. Will there be interior design programs made to be extremely user friendly requiring no training?
I researched the internet for other methods of creating a virtual environment and I came across the ikea space maker program. This was a very easy program to use as I created a room by simply clicking the size of the room I wanted and dragging certain types of ikea furniture from their archive. I decorated the walls by simply clicking the wall and selecting from a wide range of wallpaper and colours what I wanted. There are categories of furniture for the user to choose from e.g. wardrobes, carpets etc and all I had to do was pick the furniture I want and click and drag on to my scene. The program also allowed me to move my object anywhere in the scene and rotate my object 90 degrees at a time so I can position the object correctly. There is also a step to step guide which took me 2 minutes to read explaining to me step by step how to use the program which makes the entire program extremely user friendly. As you can see this program was created to allow anyone without any training to create a room.
To conclude programs such as ikea space maker is designed for users with no training or computer skills to be able to create their own interior room. It is a basic program and the interactivty is limited but it still gets the job done. With the tutorial and the basic tools of dragging the object and placing it wherever you want on the scene provides a user-friendly interface that anyone with no prior 3D animation package experience can use.

5th Artefact - How fast can someone learn the software 3DS Max to create an interior environement?

2010-04-20T08:51:00.000-07:00

Since the breakthrough of 3D the design industry has opened up doors for people with no drawing or techinical skill. People with a hunger for design can now become 3D artists which involves creating designs onto computer instead of paper. But can anyone become a 3D artist?

Over the easter holiday I wanted to put this theory to the test. I asked my Mum who has no 3D experience whatsoever to create an interior environment using 3DS Max without any supervision.
I will only train her for one day of the basic tools of modelling, texturing and lighting. I also wrote down a lsit of all the modelling tools along with their functions and basic tutorial of how to texture such as UVW mapping, and using bitmaps from the internet. This is how she got on.

I told her during the training that using splines to create any shape is the best way. This is her shape of her room.

Also I told her to convert the spline into a shape she needs to convert it into an editable poly where she can modify the shape.

Then with the guide that I gave her she managed to create good enough furniture to go with the room and she textured it well enough.

Finall the lighting, I told her during the training that to use a simple omni light with shadows.

To conclude my Mum has successfully created a living room without any supervision or any previous 3D experience in a day. So if my Mum can create this in a day imagine what she could with a month of training.

EVALUATION FOR 5th ARTEFACT

We have learnt that having CGI skills is a useful asset to have within the interior design industry. But can anyone become a 3D artist through training? And how much training does the person need? Over the Easter holiday I wanted to put this theory to the test. I asked my Mum who has no 3D experience whatsoever to create an interior environment using 3DS Max without any supervision. I will only train her for one day of the basic tools of modelling, texturing and lighting. I also wrote down a list of all the modelling tools along with their functions and basic tutorial of how to texture such as UVW mapping, and using bitmaps from the internet. In a day she managed to create a living room, fully textured with lights and shadows. The model was very basic such as the modelling was just pre-set shapes and the textures used were just copied on to the object without any editing. However my Mum without any 3D skill experience still produced a living room in one day with one day training.
This tells me that with the right training people can learn the basics of using CGI but with the right training, determination and passion for CGI that person can grow to become a professional 3D artist. For example that person is me as I have grown to know nothing about 3D to being able to create realistic and creative environments and with more training and learning and my hunger and passion to learn more I could only improve in my abilities.

AMF BOWLING ALLEY - FINISHED

2010-03-25T03:16:00.001-07:00

4th Artefact - Creating floor plan and elevations in 3D

2010-02-25T06:17:00.000-08:00

3D software such as 3DS Max not only is used to create high quality rendered 3D iamges but can also be used to create precise floor and elevation plans.
This is a 2D floor plan that I found from the internet but lets just say an interior designer has given this to me to create this room in the correct scale. How long would it take me to complete?
Here I am just gona create the ground floor lounge.

First step I ened to use the tool "tape" to measure out the precise length of the room which is 5.23m.

Same again for the width which is 3.65m

Ok now I have the precise mesaurements for the width and length of the room. Now to the height. (I was given a height with the floor plans but lets jsut say they gave me 1.5m). Here you can either use the tape pool and maually extude the wall to that length or simply type in the length as you can see in this image below.

Do the same for all the walls and I got the precise measurements of that room. Add some pre-set doors from 3DS Max and your accurately measured room is done in a matter of minutes. EASY

Now the 3D artist can concentrate on decorating the room according to the interior designer. This gives the customer a realistic view of what the room would look like.

EVALUATION ON 4th ARTEFACT

So we have learnt so far that using CGI is most accurate method for customers visualising their room and also allows them to give their input towards the design. But is using CGI better to use than hand-drawn methods when scaling the room to perfect scale? This is important because if the room is built to scale everything else in the room will be built to scale as well giving the customer a realistic view of the room. This gives the customer a realistic view of the room meaning the customer gets a more accurate understanding of what the room will look like.
I am going to test this by creating a room to the perfect scale from a floor plan that I have grabbed from the internet. I am going to build a lounge with the length 5.23m, the width 3.65m and the height 1.5m. Using 3D gives the user the advantage of building the walls to perfect scale without having to use a ruler which could lead to mistakes. You can adjust the units setup in 3DS Max to any unit of measurement (here we are using metres) and building a wall can be done simply by typing in the measurement you want and 3DS Max will build it automatically for you to the perfect scale. You can also use the tool “tape” which allows you to manually create the wall to the right scale.
To conclude, the process of creating the entire room to scale took me 20 minutes and from here I can start modelling the furniture, texturing and adding lights to the scene. This has proved that using CGI is the best method to use for visualising. Not only the customer gets an accurate idea of what the room will look like and can have flexibility with the design. But it is also done accurately and at a much faster rate.

3rd Artefact - Flexibilty the customer has with the designer

2010-02-15T12:01:00.001-08:00

First Render of a cafe but the client wants to change a few things.

First Change - Flowerly wallpaper
Second Change - Wood laminated floor
Time it took to modify -

On the process of making these new changes the customer decides that she would like to have a few more changes.

First Change - Wooden furniture instead of metallic
Second Change - Modern type of sofas
Third Change - Get rid of plant and replace it with long rectangular table

New tables and Chairs

Wooden Texture

EVALUATION FOR 3RD ARTEFACT

From the previous artefact I have learnt that using CGI to visualise is the best method for a customer to accurately visualise the proposed design quickly and them understanding what they are buying into quickly. However client tends to steer towards looking at quick sketches so they can give more input and get the sketcher to sketch out their idea at a much faster and cheaper rate.
But what happens if the customer wants to visualise the design using CGI and has asked for modifications? According to the interior design Mitchell Brewer he tends to give the customer the visualisation around 2-3 days after discussion of design.
This artefact will show if using CGI gives the customer the flexibility it has to give their input towards the design.
How I tested this was by having a fully rendered design of a café but the customer has asked to have the walls changed to flowerily wallpaper and have the floor wood laminated. This took 10 minutes to change which is nothing because all I had to do was upload a few bitmap images (maybe chosen by the customer) and simply changed the original texture to the new one.
Second change, the customer asked to change the furniture to a wooden Victorian style. This took 30 minutes which involved me to completely model the furniture from scratch and texture it. But making multiples of the same furniture in 3D takes no time at all as it’s simply copying and pasting it again on the same scene. This is a big advantage over hand-drawn methods as they have to draw each one out from scratch which is time consuming.
This artefact has proven that using CGI not only gives the customer an accurate understanding of what they are buying but can give the customer the chance to ask for modifications at a quick easy manner.

2nd Artefact - Questionnaires

2010-02-15T11:03:00.000-08:00

Questionnaire for Interior Designer

Questionnaire for professional CGI artist

Questionnaire for interior designer answered

Questionnaire for CGI artist answered

EVALUATION FOR 2ND ARTEFACT

My previous artefact proves that a customer can visualise an environment a lot easier by looking at a 3D walkthrough. However what method would a professional interior designer favour when it comes to visualising to a customer. I contacted Large Creative Limited in Nottingham and spoken to Mitchell Brewer who is a professional interior designer with 8 years of experience. By sending him a questionnaire I have gathered the information that I needed.
He says that throughout his career he has used all types of methods of visualising because it depends on the client type and personality, type of project, project stage, project value and timescale. Each method has its own advantages due to certain types of projects. He then says that CGI provides a very accurate visual of the proposed design meaning client understands and see what they are buying into quickly. But this could be a drawback to a customer as they will interpret CGI as a finish design and they feel that they have no power to influence the design meaning they would steer more towards sketch ideas where they have more input on.
However the client could still ask for changes towards the final CGI design but it would mean more time and money for the interior designer.
To conclude, 3D software has not made other methods of visualising redundant but has aided presentation techniques. In terms of visual communication, different forms of communication help get ideas across to clients depending on the client and the type of project. But when it comes to delivering an accurate visual design a professional interior designer would use CGI.

1st Artefact - Walkthrough of NightClub

2010-01-28T07:16:00.000-08:00

54 second walkthrough around the interior of a nightclub that I have modelled and textured

Compared to hand-drawn perspective view of an interior of a bedroom

What would you prefer to see when visualising an interior space you are about to buy?

Artefact Evaluations

2010-01-28T06:38:00.000-08:00

1st Artefact - Comparing a still hand-drawn image of an interior space to a 3D virtual walkthrough of an interior space

What was my artefact created to achieve?

I created this artefact to show the audience how the development of 3D software has helped customers visualise the interior of a space (which has not yet been created)at a more efficient fashion. As you can see this is a 3D virtual walkthrough of the interior of a nightclub exploring every aspect of the night club. This is a huge advantage over the traditional hand-drawn still methods as customers can see every corner of the club showing in detail what the furniture looks like, the size and dimensions of the walls, windows etc.
Comparing this to the still hand-drawn image on the bedroom tat you can see here, you have only one view which customers would find harder to visualise what the end result would look like. Example the customer cannot see the back wall, the ceiling or look closer at the detail of the wardrobe, lamp etc. If the customer would want to look at different views of the room the hand drawn artist would have to draw up another image meaning more time and money for the customer.

How did you create it / run your test?

I created a 2 minute walkthrough of a nightclub showing every bit of detail such as the dancefloor, the bar, the ceiling, the walls, the pillars, the speakers etc. I have rendered it fully and made a video compatible to Windows Media player. To fully model, texture and animate the walkthrough it has taken me a total of 7 days to complete and 1 day to render.

How did the artefact add to your understanding?

This artefact has backed up my argument that using 3D software to visualise an interior space to a customer has a lot more advantages than using hand-drawn images. As both methods delivers the same result using 3D lets the customer feel that he or she is actually in the space looking around observing every detail which eliminates the problem of the customer wanting different views of the space.

Bowling Alley Photos

2010-01-28T06:32:00.001-08:00

This is what the alley looks like and I am going to create a 3D duplicate of this in a two minutes walkthrough.

The walkthrough will be completed on the 26th March...

Live Client Project - AMF Bowling Alley

2010-01-28T06:27:00.000-08:00

This project I am undertaking is to help me learn in the future how to deal with real-life client’s needs and specifications when hiring me to create a piece of visualisation for them. My client’s name is Adam Ogerssy who is the manager of the bowling alley AMF based in Nottingham.
AMF Bowling was founded in America in 1900 and came to prominence in the US launching the first automated pinspotter machine and revolutionising the world of bowling. Then in the 1960s ten pin bowling came to the UK and built many AMF chains such as the one in Nottingham. http://www.amfbowling.co.uk/TOBC/history/default.aspx
I have had a meeting with Adam to discuss what he exactly wants me to do for him and arranged three feedback dates which is a chance for him to see my progress and add any changes he would like doing.
My client has just finished refurbishing the alley with two new bars with food services and other fun activities such as table hockey and pool. This is to attract a wider audience of not only keen bowlers but for people who like to relax and have a meal and a drink. He is hoping it will especially entice more parents in bringing their children for a fun day out.
What my clients wants me to do is to create a 3D walkthrough of the entire bowling alley consisting of two floors with all the brand new facilities built. This will then be uploaded on to their website giving customers the option to see the new bowling alley at the comfort of their own home. This will improve the website massively in terms of attracting customers because the information regarding the venue and the facilities is pretty basic and there are no images for the customers to visualise. With my walkthrough uploaded, this will eliminate all these problems.
My client also wants me to improve the access to the site for people with disabilities as they are building ramps, chair lifts and disabled toilets. This will again attract a whole new audience.

Process of Modelling the bowling alley

History of CAD

2009-12-04T02:44:00.000-08:00

Autodesk was founded by sixteen people in April 1982 in California by initiative of John Walker in idea to create a CAD program for a price of $1000 to can run on PC. John Walker has been running Marinchip Systems for two years before. The first version of AutoCAD was based on a CAD program wrote in 1981 by Mike Riddle called MicroCAD, changed later in Interact.
BUT THIS COULD ONLY CREATE SIMPLE 2D OBJECTS

In March 2007 Autodesk has finally upgraded their software to the means of creating high quality 3D virtual images. It can now “create, edit, and develop design alternatives using realistic solids and surfaces in an updated design environment. Communicate your ideas with powerful sketch, shadow, and rendering tools, including intuitive walk-through animations.” So it was only around this time that CAD started having a huge role in the interior design industry.

PRP: Article - From Hand Drawings, CAD and now BIM

2009-12-04T02:39:00.000-08:00

Architects, engineers, owners, contractors and building product manufacturers have been part of an amazing, and rapid transformation in how we communicate our building designs. We have gone from hand drawing, to CAD, to BIM is less than 25 years. This transformation has resulted in opinions as to which is best, fastest, results in the best designs and what should be taught in school. This article will provides an overview on each of these drawing approaches.

I. Hand Drawings

The first phase, hand drawing, has lasted for thousands of years. Over all those years, a consistency developed in the way contract documents are laid out, graphic standards used, and drawing sets organized. Interestingly, this consistency is an international language for drawings. In viewing drawings from many different countries, although the languages are different, the drawings are very consistent. And, one could easily conclude how a building was going to be built and how it would look. This consistence in contract documents has been a long process of trial and error, aiming for perfection, of the best way to communicate the designer's intentions to the builders.

Well done hand contract documents are beautiful; often they could be framed and displayed as art. The creation process was not so beautiful. Some designers spend some days erasing more than drawing. Every time a change is made to a plan it means days of changes to background drawings for reflected ceiling plans, electrical, mechanical, structural, plumbing and details drawings. The chances for errors and omissions were tremendous. There is little doubt that an experienced architect could find an error or omission in a set of hand drawn drawings in a couple of minutes.

Hand drawing also refers to renderings, sketches and thumbnail drawings. Once again, these can be works of art. At the thumbnail and sketch level, they capture the essence of the architect's concepts. The renderings tend to reflect the details of the design fairly early in the design phase. Architects use renderings to study design and having these rendering skills are tremendous. Unfortunately, many excellent architects are not great at renderings. There is a particular school that has applicants create a rendering of a campus building for admission. While this is an important skill, it is not necessary to be a great architect. Most of the spectacular renderings you have seen have been prepared by professional renderers (artists).

Hand Drawing Recap

Beautiful drawings
Time consuming
Prone to errors and omissions

II. CAD

CAD has only been around a few years, but has been an important advancement. It will be replaced, but has been an important transition to the more powerful future. CAD taught designers about computers, file management, and new organizational skills. CAD has been an amazing event. Instead of drawing on paper, you draw on a computer and see your work on the monitor. Fundamentally, CAD replaced hand drawing but did not substantially change the process or the way the information was displayed. A page of drawings was replaced with a drawing file, 100 sheets of paper are now (with some exceptions) 100 CAD files. Instead of spending days or weeks creating background drawings, they were ready instantly. Unfortunately, if you changed the base drawing, you still needed to swap out the old backgrounds for the new. Errors and omissions were not eliminated, but they were reduced. For example, dimensions were accurate. CAD based contract documents can be created much faster than hand created drawings.

You rarely hear of a CAD drawing referred to as beautiful or a work of art. In fact, in the first few years of CAD (1980-90), the drawings were terrible; no line weights, and only a couple of fonts.

CAD started as 2D only, but has now progressed to 3D. To date, it has not progressed to the level that it is practical to try to create a complete project in one 3D file. Certainly, for a quick glance at how the project will look, the 3D views are very good. And, as a background for creating hand renderings, it is a real time saver over the mechanical creation of the geometry.

CAD, linked to analysis, has been one of the most powerful reasons for using CAD. Analysis programs (structural, HVAC, electrical, energy) can extract data from the CAD file, run the analysis program, feed the information back to the CAD file and update the drawings (or even create new drawings automatically).

There has been criticism that CAD creates poor design. While I agree with many criticisms of CAD, I do not agree that CAD leads to poor design. For example, you can not tell a architect's experience when they show you a CAD drawing (or if they even created the drawing, compared to hand drawings where you could look at the drawing and make a very accurate evaluation of the architect's experience and abilities). Good designers look carefully at what they are designing, view the design from as many locations as necessary, and refine the design based upon the views (as well as the budget, program, site, etc.). Poor designers may be helped by CAD, as it is easier to see what they are proposing. An individual that is not a designer can use CAD to perhaps convince a customer that they have created a good design. The results of this individual's work will be the same, CAD or hand drawn.

CAD Recap

Faster than hand drawing
Less errors and omissions
Large, talented work pool

PRP Submission Form

2009-12-04T02:32:00.000-08:00

Finished Digital Piracy Advert

2009-12-02T09:07:00.000-08:00

Fifth environment - Nightclub (party promoted by itunes)

2009-11-18T03:59:00.000-08:00

The last scene of my advert. This will end my advert with a little caption "don't ruin your life before starting it, say no to digital piracy."
I initially was not going to use any captions but I feel it is a nice ending message for the audience to remember that illegal downloading is wrong.

Fourth environment - Cafe using itunes (correct way of downloading music)

2009-11-18T03:57:00.001-08:00

This scene I wanted to show the contrast of this to the first scene. As you can see the whole cafe is illuminated in blue to suggest the legal way of getting music through itunes. The camera will then zoom into the laptop to reveal the itunes logo to make it clear to the audience that this is the correct and legal way of downloading.

Third envrionment - Bedroom with fine and bars

2009-11-18T03:53:00.001-08:00

This image I have fiddled around with the gamma and the contrast. I think it has a cool effect on my environment.

This image is just using the mental ray renderer which give it a more realistic feel. Not too sure which one I will use for my final advert.

This scene as you can see is a poorer version of the first environment suggesting the person received a huge fine. Prison bars will also shoot down to show that you could also get prision time.

Second environment - Courtroom

2009-11-18T03:51:00.000-08:00

This scene will pop up and the hammer will slam down to show the audience that it could be them facing a charge.

First Envrionment - bedroom with illegal downloading

2009-11-18T03:48:00.001-08:00

This scene will start off my advert. The red illuminating the room suggests that there is some illegal activity occuring. Camera will zoom towards the laptop to see the "pirate ship with downloading bar" represting digital piracy.

Year 3 - Digital Piracy Advert

2009-11-18T03:44:00.000-08:00

This year I have to create a 20 second advert on digital advert to bring the message across to people that illegal downloads is against the law and there will be consequences if caught.

1) I have to create 5 environments all linked together
2) No captions, has to be understood by all people so I only have to use visual imagery

Visualisation - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (my version)

2009-10-08T05:29:00.000-07:00

FINAL IMAGE

FINAL VIDEO

ANIMATION!!!

Problems with Animation

2009-01-08T05:51:00.001-08:00

You can see from my animation that I the hand grabbing is not to its best quality. I wanted the hadn to grab the alien and lift it up, but this requires a lot more skill and knowledge off animation.

Problems with visual

2009-01-08T05:49:00.001-08:00

I really wanted to make my spaceships to look A LOT MORE real. Initially I wanted to have a rusty look with bolts and hatches, like what a real spaceship would look like. But I just could not make it how I wanted it to look. Later on I will have to ask for help on how to do this.

Animation

2009-01-08T05:42:00.000-08:00

My animation

FINAL IMAGE

2009-01-08T05:12:00.000-08:00

Here is my finale piece.

Continued on developing...

2009-01-08T05:08:00.000-08:00

This is the latest development so far on my board. You can see it looks a lot more different to the previous image you saw quite a while back. I have added a lot more to make my futuristic city look well..... futuristic. Stuff like the moon and the stars definitely help with that and I added some shadows so that the city looks more life like. I am definitely on the right track with this, just got to now go into more depth.

Developing my board...

2009-01-08T05:01:00.000-08:00

As you can see from this image, I am putting a lot more detail in because I have got a lot more time than I expected with this project. My idea is to make a futuristic city such as this image that I grabbed from star wars (see below). I really think this city looks really cool, it has a sort of dark, futuristic look that I want to go for. So for the visual side of things I really wanted to change the whole look from it being just a basic board, to a board based in a real life city.

Building my board tokens

2008-11-11T06:43:00.001-08:00

I am going to make human like tokens to adventure around my board game. I've decided to make my tokens look like ordinary board game tokens.

Animating my board game

2008-11-10T10:17:00.000-08:00

I have thought of a cool idea of animating my board game. First I will make my spaceship land on the pad and have 3 or 4 people walk out and move towards the board. I havent decided yet if I will make them walk realistically, or hop around space by space like you do with a real board game. But anyway, they will travel around the board game and I will make sure that 1 person will land on the robotic arm space which will then show the robotic arm do some damage on that person. Fianlly they will escape the robot and walk freely towards the castle of light. (quite like the name castle of light, makes it sound cool :D)

Robotic arm continued...

2008-11-10T10:14:00.000-08:00

I mentioned earlier that I needed to make my robotic arm more futuristic and mechanical. I found another material called "pro materials metal" and then fiddled around with the tools and found this cool chrome effect. I also added wiring to the arm to make it look more realistic.

Board game continued.....

2008-11-10T10:09:00.000-08:00

I have finally made my castle for my finale for my board game..... I experimented with mew amterials and found one called "pro material stone" which I then used marble to create this futuristic castle.

I had to see what my whole board will look like with that really cool "ink and paint" tool. This is the outcome.

Building my final piece for my board

2008-11-07T07:38:00.001-08:00

I need to build a finale for when the players escape the robotic arm. I was thinking of building a futuristic castle or palace, something that looks like this.

A futuristic idea

2008-11-06T17:37:00.001-08:00

This is what I have been working on so far, for my futuristic board game.

As you can see here in the image below, I used a the lighting pillars to create that futuristic look. Also I placed them next to my reflective blue glass to create that reflecting look to give it that modern look. The car paint material also creates a very good visual look too as it reflects the light also.

Now I am trying out different filters. I found this material called "ink and paint" and it really gives it a cool look.

SPP TASK

2008-11-06T03:15:00.000-08:00

"Using your own personal experience, write a few lines that describe how a personal contact has provided a creative opportunity for you."

I have been thinking about this a lot, and the only creative opportunity that I was given, was playing the cello. At the age of 5, my Mum wanted a cellist in the family because she loves listening to cello solos on the radio. So she started hiring tutors to aid me through. 7 years down the line, I was 12 and this is the age I realised how important playing the cello really is. I went for an interview to "Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School" which was renouned for their good grades, strong catholic belief and high class musical orchestras. I did not pass the interview as the questions they asked me was about religion, and at that time, I had no clue. But once they heard I played the cello, they were very interested in me. They asked me to come back and perform a few solos, and they were very impressed. I still remember what the guy said to me afterwards, "you are a very talented young boy." So this was the start of my journey through secondary school, and through thsoe 5 years, I have learnt a lot musically. If it wasn't for cardinal vaughan, I don't think I would be here today.

Process of making my board game

2008-11-04T08:35:00.000-08:00

Descision Making

For the board game Ive decided to make two seperate board games instead of making just the one. This is because, to make one board game with all three criterias will be pretty difficult so I'm going to make one board with both visual and animation aspects and the another seperate board game for playability purposes.

1. Visual (Roma)
2. Animation (Andy)
3. Playability (Brad)

So my inital idea (see below) of my game "Escape from the Robot" will be for the visual and animation bit of my project. This is because the futuristic theme for this will be great for the visual side of things and I've already got the animation and movement of my game already in my head, so everything is set to go on this.

Here is an image of what my board will look like. Its pretty basic looking at the moment, I need to start thinking of textures and materials for my board and robotic arm. Also I need to find out ways of making my robotic arm look more mechanical, maybe adding wiring, a metallic effect and other features that will make it look futuristic.
I will later on post an iamge of what my weavy pipe maze will look like.

Later on I will post my other idea of my playability game.

FURTHERMORE...............

I made this metal knot using a tutorial and it was really what I was looking for as I have to build a robitc arm and I want to make it look as metallic as possible

Robotic Arm created in 3D Max

2008-11-03T06:20:00.001-08:00

Done this with Andy Love. Made the arm able to pick up objects and move around, which will be very useful for my board game as my board game consisits of an robotic arm which picks up the players tokens. This was done by not using any bone structure but instead linking the differnet parts of the arm so that they move together.

Board Game Notes

2008-10-30T12:05:00.000-07:00

Board Game Notes

Board Game Title – “Can You Escape From The Robot”

1. Turn Base Game
2. 2-5 players
3. Players have 5 models to choose from, each having their own colour. Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Black
4. Aim of the game is to reach the end of the board to escape the robot.
5. Players move their model by using 1 dice.
6. If player lands on the “Robot” space on the board, the player must grab the ball “energy source for the robotic arm” and put it in one of the 5 pipe holes. When the ball comes out of the pipe, it will land on a specific colour which will trigger the robotic arm to grab that coloured model and place it all the way back to the beginning.

Image of game

The robotic arm will look something like this, which will be placed in the middle of the board game.

The actual board

The weaving pipe maze

It will look something like this, but the maze will start with 5 vertical pipes up top where the player will choose which pipe to put the ball in.

I am going to try and make the pipes rotate as well as being extremely weaved to give it that extra motion look.

Toy Train in Environment

2008-10-30T08:55:00.000-07:00

Chose to put my toy train in a babys room. This decision is due to the spacing and suitablity that we discussed about in the previous lecture. The toy train situates on a shelf with a lot of place, meaning that the toy train has some sort of importance over the other objects in the room.

Toy Train

2008-10-30T08:53:00.000-07:00

My toy train

My toy train

YEAR 2 - VIRUTAL ENVIRONMENT PATHWAY

2008-10-30T05:20:00.000-07:00

THE ART OF SEEING!

What is the object or surface?

Metallic Bullard

What is the important feature that stands out for you?

Its shiny and reflects the sunlight. Also its the only thing metallic in the area.

What is it made of?

Steel

What does it sound and smell like?

I flicked it, and it made a "ting" sound. It smells like metal.

How is the object surface lit? Where is it situated? How does this add to the textural quality of the object?

The object surface is lit up by the sunlight. Its situated next to the orange tree pub. The textural quality is that is very smooth and has a cold feel to it.

What is the object or surface?

My winter jacket

What is the important feature that stands out for you?

It's my jacket and its a mixture of cotton and leather

What is it made of?

Cotton and leather

What does it sound and smell like?

I scratch it, and it makes a sound like when your moving around on a leather sofa. It smells of smoke.

How is the object surface lit? Where is it situated? How does this add to the textural quality of the object?

It's situated on me because i am wearing it. It has a contrast of textural quality because its a mixture of smooth leather and furry cotton.

What is the object or surface?

A Wall

What is the important feature that stands out for you?

It's an unusual wall because its a greyish and green colour

What is it made of?

Bricks and cement

What does it sound and smell like?

It smells of nothing

How is the object surface lit? Where is it situated? How does this add to the textural quality of the object?

It's the wall of the orange tree pub. The textural quality is that is very smooth and has a cold feel to it.

Poker Logos

2008-04-16T06:44:00.000-07:00

I like this logo because it shows the contrast of style and colour between the suit spades and hearts. The idea of using the suits of playing cards might be inspiring to make my logo.

This logo is quite cool aswell, as it quite a unique idea, using the pictures of the cards and creating a meaning with it. This logo shows the king looking quite depressed as he most probably got a bad beat on poker, hence the name "Bad Beat Poker Club."

Ideas for my interactive box design

2008-04-16T06:34:00.000-07:00

Ideas for my interactive box design

I was thinking that my interactive box design would be poker based, so I was thinking my design would start at a poker table.

Chinese zodiac, rabbit (aspects of a rabbit)
Picture of a joker (sense of humour)
Annoyance (eczema)
Picture of Bruce Lee (my hero)
audiovisual (documentary)
My avatar design

Firstly I was thinking of opening my project with a first person view of the casino where it will seem like the person is actually walking towards it. Then the casino doors will open allowing the uesr to ahve a glimpse of the glamour in the casino. Then the camera will guide the user to a door which will show a small room consisting of a large poker table. I was thinking of having this room very smoky and dark with a large light on top of the table, giving that old school effect where in the olden days, poker used to be played like this e.g. in really old gangster films. Then the camera will zoom on to the table (over-head view) allowing the user to interact with the items on the table.

It would have 5 cards faced up with pictures of my 5 objects that relate to me as a person. The 5 cards will still look like playing cards, it will make out to be a royal flush (best hand in poker).

There will also be poker chips which give the user more options, what the functions of the chips will be, I will figure out later on.
The pictures will be interactive allowing the user to click them, which will then open up another window showing the content of the picture he or she clicked.
Was thinking, once the user clicks the card, the card will lift up and turn around showing the content at the back.
BUT…. This isn’t finalised, I could come up with a more creative idea.

Still images of my poker world

2008-03-10T11:38:00.000-07:00

Here are some still images that I have rendered from my poker room.

Image of my avatar design. (poker player)

THIS IS MY LAST YEAR FLASH PROJECT.... PLZ click the link below

CLIFF COOK FLASH.swf

Creating my human avatar

2008-03-10T10:33:00.001-07:00

Here is where I show you how I started creating my poker player avatar. Firstly I created a box which will be the body and starting point of my avatar. Then I used the bevel and extruding tool to create new polygons which formed my neck, arms and legs. (The beveling tool slants the arms so it looks more realistic).
This was the easy part, now I have to create the hands, feet and head with all the features so that my avatar will look as humanly as possible. Oh and I nearly forgot that I had to mess around with the vertexes to make the body look more human, such as the pecs, biceps, thighs etc.

I found creating hands to be a nuisance because I wanted my hands to look really realistic as I had a plan for my avatar to be holding some playing cards. So all the attention will be drawn to my avatars hands so I want the hands to look really good.
Therefore I used this tutorial to create the hands which consists of knuckles and fingers.

I also used this tutorial to create my feet and head.

Now that I got my human shaped avatar ready, I had to input features on to it to make him look like a poker player.

Baseball Cap

First I started with the baseball cap which was done by extruding and beveling some polygons, then moving some vertexes around to get the correct shape.

Sunglasses

I insetted the polygons and then extruded them slightly to create the lens. Then I used the cutting tool to create the handles.

Nose and mouth

This was done by moving the vertexes and insetting and extruding some polygons.

How I overcomed my problem with 3D Max

2008-03-05T07:45:00.000-08:00

If you have read my blog, you would know that I have been struggling with this project because of my lack of experience with the software 3D Max. I was not able to create a human looking avatar but I overcome this problem by asking for some help from my lecturer and reading this 3D Max book that I got from the library called "Foundations 3ds Max 8 architectural visualization." This book taught me all the basic tools needed to create my avatar, and with the help of my lecturer and friends, I was able to create my avatar exactly how I wanted it.

Planning my avatar......... FINAL

2008-02-27T07:27:00.000-08:00

Success!! I have thought up a really good idea for my avatar which relates to me in every single way and is also quite easy to create on 3D Max. I decided to create an avatar based on the card game "Poker." For the past 4 years I have been obsessed with the game and art of playing poker, I really love playing and watching the game. So my avatar will look like a real professional poker player. The environment he will be placed in, will odviously be in a poker room which will consist of my avatar sitting down on a poker table in a casino.

MY AVATAR

I did some research on what my avatar will look like and I really want my avatar to look like my favourite poker player "Phil Hellmuth."

So basically I got an idea to have my avatar wear a black baseball hat and black sunglasses preferably holding some playing cards or poker chips. The clothes he will be wearing will be a simple black polo shirt, maybe with a poker logo on it, blue jeans and white trainers.

MY ENVIRONMENT

I have an idea of my environment being a poker room in a classy casino. The main thing you will see is the poker table in the centre of the room with my avatar sititng down playing with either chips or cards. Around the table there will be a bar, a large, flat TV screen and other features that will make my environment look more like a casino. Because I have experience in going to poker tournaments in casinos, I know exactly what poker rooms look like, so this will be useful in making it look as realistic as possible.
Here's an image that I got from the internet showing you what a poker room in a casino would be like.

The main object of my environment will be my poker table so I think its important that I know exactly what my table will look like. I grabbed this image that I like from the internet because it has the poker chips and playing cards on it, so people who see my project will instantly reaslise that its a poker table.

A real life professional poker tournament

I decided to add this video to my blog to show what a real life poker tournament looks like. As you can see from this video, the poker room looks very classy, with a bar and beautiful waitresses in dresses. This is how I want my poker room to look like.

3D Max Work

2008-02-21T08:50:00.000-08:00

My cartoon blob thing

My robotic legs

Here are my two pieces of work that I have created in my seminar group. I learnt how to do these pretty easily so I could use the concept of how I made this in creating my avatar.

Planning my Avatar Continued.....

2008-02-07T09:39:00.000-08:00

I was on the internet browsing through some websites to give me inspiration on what my avatar will look like. At this stage I am thinking of a simpler design due to my lack of experience using 3D Max. I came across this site "create your own south park character" which I found pretty cool as the design of the characters are so simple.

I started creating my armoured avatar on photoshop, but then I realised that I would have to create this on 3D Max. My avatar design was too complex for me to implement this on to 3D Max as my skills on this software is very limited. Instead I am going to create a simpler avatar based on the idea of a manga character armoured.
Here is a simple manga character that I took from my manga book that i am going to use as my starting guideline.

I went on Adobe Illustrator and opened up the image that I got from my manga book. First I removed the head because I am going to replace it with a picture of my face and then I used the pen tool to draw an outline of the body which came out looking like this. I did this because it will be easier for me to draw my final sketch and add some features to it.

Here is my final design of ym avatar. As you can see I ahev added some features onto the original drawing to make the character look more robotic and less human. When it comes to designing this on to 3D Max, I had an idea to add circuit boards and wires that I will grab from the internet and place it onto the skin of my avatar.

Thinking of what character my avatar would be, its got me thinking of this game I used to love palying when I was a kid. The game is called "worms" which as you can see from the top, looks really cool and is SO simple to design. I like the idea of creating a simple, animated character like this because it looks really effective. I still want to keep with the theme of my avatar being armoured or well protected due to my skin disease. But importantly I need my avatar design to me much more simpler than the design I had at the bottom because there are too many features I need to create on 3D Max and I don't have the knowledge to overcome it.

Here is a little preview of my attempted human avatar design, I tried to make it as human as possible but creating the bodily areas such as the pecs, shoulders, hands, knees I found too hard.
So now I am going to sketch out a few simple ideas on my sketch book and come up with a design that relates to me and preferably easy to create on 3D Max

Here is a design that I was working earlier on, as you cans ee I have used the robotic legs that I have made in the past and I thena ttached a body on to it. I was going for the idea of creating a half robot, half human character but then I decided that this cahracter does not really relate to me in anyway and I did not really like the design of it in the first place.
So after some long tihnking I decided to go back to teh drawing board and think of another idea for my avatar.

Planning my Avatar Design

2008-02-07T08:34:00.000-08:00

I decided that my finished avatar will be in manga form as I have some experience in drawing manga characters. Also the manga features would be easy for me to make on 3D Max as it involves a lot of simple drawings. Due to a lot of thinking of how my avater would relate to me personally, I thought I will make my avatar wear some sort of protective armour or be half human and half robot. This is because I have eczema which causes me a lot of stress and irritance in my life and if I had a second identity, that identity would prevent any sort of skin disease occuring.

I have got these images from the internet and this manga book that I have, and I want to base my avatar design around these pictures. I am going to attempt sketching my avatar then publish my sketch on to my journal later on

Second Life Diary

2008-02-07T06:48:00.000-08:00

Day 1

On my first day on Second Life I watned to get familiar with the controls and interactions I have with ym avatar. This is the main window with a lot of tools and functions that enables the user to be fully interactive with your avatar.

Here is my avatar that I have designed so far.

Once I created my avatar I decided to explore more of the second life world, so I clicked the search tool and decided to go to freebie Island where it says I could buy clothes, accessories for free!!

I teleported to this location and it seemed like a popular place for users as it was very packed. There were a number of displays which were actually interactive and if I clicked on it, a window appears enabling me to browse the items I could purchase for free!

Then I met my friend Damien who is also doing Multimedia in Trent and we decided to sit down next to each other and have a pleasant chat. It was really easy to find him because when he logged into second life, a message appeared telling me that he’s online, so I sent him a message, telling him where I was and we explored the rest of second life together.

Day 2
Me and Damien (his avatar name Decker Doobie) decided to go to the club “oxygen” to meet some new people and to socialise. But unfortunately it was a bit too early for people to start clubbing.

Mission Viejo

I decided to go to a museum to check out some art, so I teleported to Mission Viejo which appeared to be a sex museum as there were a lot of erotic content. Some of the displays are interactive for the user, such as this one below, you can click the arrows to change the display.

Day 3 – I teleported to an island called HippiePay which is one of popular places listed on second life. I asked around what this place actually offers. Apparently if I go on to these machines and click on it, a web page appears opening up a survey which I can complete for some Free Lindens (second life money).

I didn’t take part in the survey and on this island there’s not much to do, so I decided to leave and go to another popular place called Freebie Beach.
When I arrived at my location, I first saw this large billboard with a lot of options that I could do on this island. (Shown below)

I first clicked on beach and it automatically took me to the beach where I decided to sunbathe for a bit

I found this pretty boring as all I was doing was sitting down admiring the water. So I decided to be adventurous and buy some weapons which I found pretty cool. There were a lot of weapons on offer such as guns, swords, futuristic weapons etc but I decided to go for a Melee type of weapon, the sword. This feature of Second Life reminded me of this online game I was playing called “Might and Magic” where I can go to shops and purchase weapons to aid me on my adventures. I thoroughly enjoyed picking out different types of weapons and making my avatar wear them.

During my journey around Second Life I found out theres not much you can do without Linden Dollars. All the exciting things such as buying land, furniture, swimming pools etc all need you to have money. So at the moment now, I have no idea where to go.

Identity Research

2008-02-07T06:35:00.000-08:00

IDEO, Identity cards- http://www.ideo.com/identity/introduction.htm

I found this website very interesting and helpful for my research on identities. The first thing you see on this website is a list of different business cards that people have created to show the identity of the owner of the card. For example the “hair card” a strand of the owner’s hair will be implanted onto a standard business card. The hair strand contains the unique DNA of the owner so if the receiver scans the hair strand, all the details such as qualifications, authentication will be displayed. The same goes for the blood card. Another reason why these cards are good for providing identification, it’s because there is no risk of identity theft as the owner’s hair strand contains his own unique DNA that no one can ever copy

Now coming to digital identity, I came across a business card which I personally think is a really good idea. The “lightstick” by designer Duane Bray where a business card can reflect new information by bending or shaking the card. It is done electronically, at first the card can hold personal information of the owner, and then shaking it will reveal other information such as qualifications.
Moving on, I discovered another really good idea by designer Steve Heron called the Pin Box. The Pin Box is shaped like a business card but can recapture moments in meetings like the pin-hole camera idea in photography. The owner will peel off the cover to produce a photograph.

Second Life is a 3D virtual world where people can create new identities (avatars) and live their 2nd life in this virtual world. This is their second identity where they might not be able to do the things they can do in their first life (reality world) which they can do here e.g. a disabled person can be a superhero in second life. In second life you can create a character to look whatever you want your avatar to look like. You can make your avatar do whatever you want it to do, you can explore, meet new people etc. Second Life is a great idea as it gives people two identities, so if people are not happy with their first identity they can always go on second life to live out their second identity.

Interactive Work

2007-12-08T10:39:00.000-08:00

Our new seminars were taught by Jools who's specialised in Flash software. He asked us to design an interaction piece of work where the user has full control. Jools gave us a "gotostop" template with all the coding done for us so we dont need to code it ourselves. I decided to make a "virtual tour" of nottingham which shows the daily life of a student in university.
The template consists of 2 buttons which if you click them will take you to a certain frame, so for e.g. button1 will take you to frame 20, button 2 will take you to frame 30. My project started off in the Nottingham city square which I got from google images (have made a bibliography so no plagarism :P) and it ahs two options for the user to choose e.g. left button takes the user back to the student halls or the right button takes them to the shopping centre. I continued this and I reached 110th frame so the tour is relatively quite long. I also inputted sounds to my project so that the user can click or move the mouse arrow over a certian object in the picture to make a sound, hence giving the user a more interactive feel (the feel of the user actually being there). So this project concentrates on the whole interaction of the user and the computer, and my project accomplishes this by making the user feel that hes in Nottingham and actually seeing the different places he could go.

Editing the film

2007-12-08T09:52:00.000-08:00

As you can see from the raw footage it needed some editing done to it to make it look professionally done because there is a lot of blurring from the camera we used and there are odvious bits in the film that needs to be cut out. Firstly I decided to have a title screen saying "Why me" emphasising the pain of the main actor. Then I cut out the beginning so the start of the movie is plain darkness then the light comes on to me. I added an effect to the film to make the main actor stand out, so the audience concentrates on him, maybe fade out the other characters of the film a bit too. At the end I also added credits, names of everyone who helped make the film.

One shot film (RAW FOOTAGE)

2007-12-08T07:32:00.001-08:00

This took at least 7 shoots to take. Now im going to get on with editing this.

Final - One shot film

2007-11-21T11:57:00.001-08:00

Donna one of my group members wanted to do the scripting and the story line for our film so she made a really good storyline where it is perfect to emphasise the main characters loneliness. Then everyone joined heads and we all thought about how we can use the lighting, background and camera to create a really effective film set that will enable us to film this story plot.

Firstly I was chosen to be main character as out of all of us I had the stronger voice so the dialogue will be heard. Donna contacted me to let me know that the scripting was on her blog so I went on her page and decided to learn the lines to get me prepared for the shooting.

The plot of the story

Basically the story starts with the main character (me) where he has found out that he ahs been betrayed by 3 of his closest people in his life. One being his girlfriend (played by Donna) where one drunken night she has slept with my best friend (played by Thomas). This has completely destroyed the main characters's life and is indeed the loneliest guy.

What's going to happen during filming

The main character will be in a spotlight in a completely dark room so all the focus is put on him. The other two will be behind him but less visible and once the main character starts talking about what he feels about his girlfriend (Donna) for example, Donna will then step forward to the spotlight so the audience knows who I am talking about. Once i finish she will slowly step back into the darkness where I will continue on about my best friend (Tom) etc.
Then once this is over, it will show during framing that there is no one next to me showing that I am alone, then the lights come off showing complete darkness which emphasises that he is truly alone.

How we filmed it?

When we met up on Wed 21st, we set out the set using the main light and the fill light on a raised level so pointing straight to the floor creating a spotlight for the main character. The room was in total darkness and we saw using the camera that it was too bright having two lights on because we need the characters Donna and Tom to exit the framing without being seen walking off set. So we decided to use one light in a 45 degrees angle so that concentrated light is pointing on one side of my face. This made a perfect set for the other characters to leave and we also took advantage of using the studio curtains for them to walk behind making sure they are not in the frame whilst they are leaving.
During filming we needed one person to control the light (Hayley) because at the start of the film and end of the film we need someone to turn off and turn on the light. (Also Hayley did a sound effect of a body dropping to the floor using a bag :P )
The filming began, there was not much trouble, except for me forgetting some lines and everyone else trying to keep a straight face lol :P but other than that, shoting went down perfect and we all thought we did a really good job.

One-shot film continued...... (My story plot)

2007-11-19T08:09:00.000-08:00

I was thinking if this film can only be a minute long it should be a quick story so I came up with that there will be a group of 4 people in the studio working on building a set for a film shoot. So they are setting up camera, lighting etc and out of the group there will be 3 people who are really close friends with each other which leaves out one person feeling left out. The 3 close friends would be making jokes, laughing with one another; chatting about old a time etc whilst the other person is quietly doing his own stuff and then maybe makes an attempt to try and include him in the group but fails.
Then at the end where our main theme of loneliness will come up, one of the friends will suggest getting some lunch and all three of them leaves the studio leaving the other person alone in the room. At this time the room will get darker and we will use our lighting to concentrate on him with the camera zooming out showing the audience how alone he is.

One-shot film

2007-11-19T08:08:00.000-08:00

Deborah Tuck has set us a project to do in a group to create a film using all the methods that we have learnt to shoot a really good film, keeping in mind to concentrate more on the framing rather than the story. I was set in a group and we all took each other’s phone numbers down so we can keep in contact with one another to make dates and times to meet up and plan our film.
We finally met up one day and sat down and looked at the scenario that we were all given and started jotting down ideas about what the theme would be for our film so we can analyse how we can emphasise this.

Theme – Loneliness – this was decided together because we had an idea that we can use the lighting shooting at the main character in a dark room showing that he’s really alone.
Location – We decided to shoot the film indoors in one of the studios so that we could use the lighting more efficiently, and we can also use darkness in the film as well.

Then after we figured out our theme and how it could be emphasised we decided before we leave that each one of us will come up with a story of how the person could be left in a dark room feeling alone.

Audio and Visual classes

2007-11-19T08:07:00.000-08:00

In the past three weeks, we have had a different lecturer called Deborah Tuck teaching us more about the audio and visual side of multimedia. Yet again we have had lectures telling us about the importance of framing (way of filming) rather than the actual plot itself. Also we have learnt different effects that can be used to enhance the film itself, so far we have had an introduction to how lighting is used to emphasise certain moments in films e.g. the theme loneliness can be emphasised by concentrating light onto one person surrounded in darkness.

Pixilation and filters

2007-11-19T08:00:00.002-08:00

This part of the multimedia course we had Andrew Love teaching us about the usefulness of pixilation when it comes to filming. We also had a lot of lectures beforehand to give us a brief idea of what pixilation is, so in the seminars Andrew Love set us all practical work, to make a one-shot film using just a camera. This involved taking at least 300 snapshots from the camera to make. I was set in a small group of 5, including me, and we decided to use the advantages of one-stop-motion to its full extent to create a film that you cannot do using a camcorder e.g. making an orange un-skin itself (if that makes sense :P). But the main part of the project was to edit the film using a program called Adobe Paint shop Pro where we can create our own filters to give the film a really effective look e.g. change contrast, saturation etc. Below shows the film that the whole group has made. I will shortly add my film with my own filters to my blog when I get the chance to buy my hard drive.

Whiteboard animation continued

2007-11-19T08:00:00.001-08:00

At the beginning of the course, the multimedia lecturers thought it would be a good idea to put everyone into small groups and create a white board animation. I thought this was really good idea because this project got everyone talking as team work is essential in completing this task. In the end we all created a really good animation and made friends at the same time. Below shows our white board animation.

Whiteboard animation

2007-11-12T03:32:00.000-08:00

Multimedia

2007-11-05T14:20:00.000-08:00

Introduction to Multimedia Systems

Introduction to Multimedia

I picked up this book from the library titled "Introduction to Multimedia Systems" and literally taught me exactly what its says on the title. I learnt the whole concept of what Multimedia is from the different types of elements it has to what exactly Multimedia is and its importance to the world today.
Below I've written some interesting points from the book which I found really helped me get the understanding of what multimedia is.

Communication is an important aspect of life, without it no one would be able to interact with each other. In the early days, communication between two people started off as having a face to face conversation using speech, facial expressions and even sign language. Now today, technology has advanced from a person sending a letter to another person to a person sending a video which includes sound and visual interaction so the other person gets more information on what the other person is actually doing e.g. a video of him or her on holiday.
This is when Multimedia comes in because now that computers have developed from simple text as output, now we can get sound, pictures, videos etc. So the course multimedia is about the combination of text, graphics, sound and motion delivered to you by a computer.

The word “multimedia”

The word multimedia is derived from multiple and media. The word media means a transmission channel e.g. sound is transmitted through the medium of air, or electricity is transmitted through the medium of wires. So mix that with the word multiple and multimedia means “multiple ways of transmitting mediums.

Elements of multimedia

Audio – Audio is one of the most appealing elements as the impact of sound sets the mood and establishes the ambience e.g. a really sad and depressing part of a movie, the sound will be set to suit that mood by playing a really slow, sad song.
Audio can:
Reinforce a message or theme
To set the mood
To catch the interest of the audience
To alert the audience

Graphics – In multimedia, graphics i.e. pictures and images conveys information in a easier form to understand, Graphics can be:
Still pictures e.g. photographs
Two dimensional
Three dimensional
Animated

We could mix these elements together to create a really good form of communication e.g. mixing graphics and audio to create a video which is a effective way of communicating.

Interactivity

In a multimedia system, if the user has the ability to control the elements of when and what is delievered to the audience, then this system is called an interactive system. For example most mass media such as television and radio, these are all controlled by the user of when and what will be delivered to the mass audience originating from one source, hence the name “mass media.”
Usually interacting with the system consists of using a keyboard, mouse, touch screen etc.
So the key difference between mass media and multimedia is the shift from audience to users, and one way communication to two-way communication which is accomplished by interaction.

The nature of Sound

Sound is a key element in multimedia. Imagine watching a film without sound, or the sound gets very distorted in one of the major scenes in the film. The presence of sound enhances the effect of a video or animation.

Use od audio in multimedia

You can use sound in multimedia projects in two ways:

Content sound
Ambient sound

Content Sound

Narration – provides information about an animation that is playing on the screen
Testimonials – sound tracks used in movies
Voice-overs – used for short instructions, e.g. to navigate the multimedia application
Music – may be used to communicate in a song

Ambient Sound

Message reinforcement – the background sounds you hear in real life such as the crowd at a ball game
Background music – set the mood for the audience to receive
Sound effects – to liven up the mood and add effects to the movie.