My Station Ident

Recently for my first project, I had to design a Station Ident using 3D Max Studio. To be honest I found this one quite a challenge. This was because I have never used this software before, the closest to it-photoshop which is no comparison. I found it interesting and had the opportunity to design anything I wished. When practicing and learning how to use 3D max I learnt how to create "jumping jellies".
This is a rendered still frame:

By learning how to 'wind up and snap' I used this knowledge in my final station ident and also added a twist and changed the name. I changed the colours and added audio also. 

My station ident turned out like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogMivIGQlxU

My audio is not in perfect sync with the video however I think it worked in a way. I also created a flower in my station ident which I found interesting and learnt how to clone objects.  Since our station ident was to be based on ourselves I used my name and created a flower since poppy is my middle name.  Yes it is basic however was all I could manage at this stage. Hopefully I won't find the other two projects as difficult as this one was. And may be able to design something more complex. 

However, these three weeks have given me an insight into animation but I don't think I will be wanting to do it in my future career. What I am beginning to become interested in is screen writing for media. I have been doing some back ground research and it looks very interesting. 

I did some other research into station idents and came to the conclusion that the signifiers are the colours, logos, theme and audio put into the making of the ident producing a type of brand. Many of them don't really stay in the public eye for long, they dye off. Exceptions do occur as an example the Nokia theme tune ident. In my station ident I am obviously not trying to sell anything however it is a reflection of me and would look acceptable on social networking such as twitter, facebook or even fliker.  The semiotics included in my ident were feminine and light hearted. The signs were obvioulsy the wording, ALEX and the flying flower. Semiotics were not complex, they were rather basic. Roland Barthes was actually the person who influenced and designed the conception- semiotics in the late 1960s which is a broad term used. However, in my station ident I do not have a lot of semiotics used and my sound is also basic using two types of 'Boing' used to give the ident a bit of depth and character.

My station ident  does not have a noticeable genre, I think it is more of a social construct if it was to be put into a genre category. Obviously does not have a horror/thriller/romance/adventure etc. My ident is what it is really. Through more practice and time I am sure I would be able to grasp 3D max and produce a better station ident but was great introductory project in which i received help from my animation teacher.

          

My Mulitmedia

A piece of multimedia technology im interested in at the moment is the iPad. Yes it is just one giant ipod however it is much more complex and great to use for social networking. In which I am on face book a lot of the time!!
The iPad is designed to suit a broad range of users since people can choose what applications they want to download. The iPad is not designed to be essentially a computer to do all work on every day, but are great to use for bussiness and social.
People meeting up in cafes for meetings can use the iPad to demonstrate and show representations and ideas. On the other hand people can use the iPad to play games and generally entertain themselves whilst talking to others online.

I think it is a fantastic invention as well as listening to music, and placing your photos albums on it too. A neat creation as like on the i phone is that you can turn around the Ipad to suit either portrait or landscape view- depending what your looking at. The speed of the internet is pretty impressive to wiht wi-fi network and optional 3G networking. Yoe can even download books and read them on the iPad. They are great organisers too with notes sections/ calender/ calculater etc. It really is a decent mulitmedia invention.

Some people think they are a waste of time saying we can just use laptops/ ipods/iphones etc. But it depends on the person. Off the internet i have downloaded a picture of the iPad.

Whiteboard Animation

As part of my introduction to multimedia, I had the opportunity of taking part in making a interactive drawing film!.....and so I have seen, it is now up on you-tube! I quite enjoyed making this since it gave me an insight into what factors are intwined with multimedia.

Sketching

Yesterday I throughly enjoyed the drawing lesson that took place. I didn't  realise we were going to be having lessons in drawing, however my first project set is on animation. I felt yesterday that having lectures on sketching is essential in creating my station ident to help me design it.

Our lecturer advised to start drawing anything frequently and so today I sat and drew a Jack Wills bag in my room. Since our station ident is about ourselves,- I am interested in fashion so thought this is relevant to my animation project. Since I have no qualifications in art, I thought this would be a good place to start!  I have incorporated it into my blog as follows.

Today, I also had my tutorial in which I found very useful, because I now know what Im doing in my coursework! The most challenging part of the course so far is learning how to use the animation software, but i'm sure I will get the hang of it! Tomorrow I am going to start researching for assignment one. So far I am taken to Reverse Engineering and Market Research-however I have a lot of studying to do!

My Design Process

 During my A levels for my media A2 coursework, I produced a short film documentary genre. I did a lot of research analysing other short film documentaries. I found the BBC channel useful for this. I studied documentaries such as Eel Girl. I also studied sequences from feature films such as Mr and Mrs Smith, Parent Trap to get an idea of lighting, mise-en-scene etc. With the production of my short film I also had to design a poster. And so I also studied and analysed other documentary posters to gather information and ideas eg, The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane. In order to film at The Public I had to produce a Location Recce to confirm it was suitable to film at The Public.

Here are two shots of the exterior and interior of the building:

I decided to film in The Public in West Bromwich. This gave me an insight into design in which a lot of research and planning was needed. In order to design my film I needed to produce a storyboard. I have uploaded my storyboard onto blogger:

I found the storyboard vital in that I could lay out my ideas and so I could get a clear idea what my film was going to include. I could therefore plan, virtualise and produce a narrative.

In order to develop my ideas I wrote three different treatments. This was to include, outline of ideas, resource list, strengths, weaknesses and a conclusion. I also got ten people to fill out a questionnaire in what kind of films they find entertaining and interesting to watch. This helped me choose what to put into my film. For example, asking if it would be ideal to have one presenter throughout the film, what people find boring about documentaries etc.

Even though my film was only five minutes long in total, I recorded over 90 minutes of footage so that it gave me the opportunity to choose what was going to be the final product. I had three drafts in total and used Final Cut to produce the film. I learnt so much from this project not just design but underlying  theoretical significant information in filming.  Learning how to use a camera, using professional software such as final cut was a challenge however a useful introduction to studying multimedia as a degree. I have taken my a level in media as background knowledge into what is essential to know as a multimedia 
student.