Further website creation

"background"
coding:
loadMovieNum('nav.swf', 5);
"nav"
coding:
page1.onPress = function()
{
 loadMovieNum('page 1.swf', 1);
}
page2.onPress = function()
{
 loadMovieNum('page 2.swf', 1);
}
page3.onPress = function()
{
 loadMovieNum('page 3.swf', 1);
}
page4.onPress = function()
{
 loadMovieNum('page 4.swf', 1);
}
page5.onPress = function()
{
 loadMovieNum('page 5.swf', 1);
}


"page 1"
"page 2"
"page 3"
"page 4"
"page 5"

all the page numbers labeled as their page numbers

* remember to publish each page after every edit!

creative commons (CC)

Sunset from Lancaster across Morecambe Bay. for SD1385

The local weather system around the South Lakes and Morecambe Bay means that we have many beautiful sunsets. Friends of mine were quite unimpressed at the sunsets on a holiday to the Caribbean when all the American tourists were in raptures. "We get much better ones at home."

  © Copyright Robin Madge and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons licenses free of charge to the public. These licenses allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators. An easy to understand one-page explanation of rights, with associated visual symbols, explains the specifics of each Creative Commons license. Creative Commons licenses do not replace copyright, but are based upon it. They replace individual negotiations for specific rights between copyright owner (licensor) and licensee, which are necessary under an "all rights reserved" copyright management with a "some rights reserved" management employing standardized licenses for re-use cases where no commercial compensation is sought by the copyright owner. The result is an agile, low overhead and cost copyright management regime, profiting both copyright owners and licensees. Wikipedia uses one of these licenses.

we made these in class today, using julians tutorials "

Photoshop Tutorial - Part 3 - 3D text, Clouds, Lightening and Filters - Part 3

"

Unit 12: Understanding the Interactive Media Industry

Unit 12: Understanding the Interactive Media Industry

Assignment 12.1a:  Job Roles

Hand-in Date:  November 19 2012

Word Count: 1000+ words

Write a report on the following job roles of a typical interactive company

Use research to explain what each role entails, and how the job roles relate to each other.

Also use your own experience of producing a product to inform your answers.

Task List: explain how the company should organise team members to:

·         Games designers

·         Programmers

·         Scripters

·         Artists

·         Sound designers

·         QA / Testing

·         Producers / Project Managers

·         Marketing

Grading Criteria
Pass	Merit	Distinction
P1 describe organisational structures and job roles in the interactive media industry with some appropriate use of subject terminology	M1 explain organisational structures and job roles in the interactive media industry with reference to detailed illustrative examples and with generally correct use of subject terminology	D1 comprehensively explain organisational structures and job roles in the interactive media industry with reference to elucidated examples and consistently using subject terminology correctly

Every typical interactive company have a basic set of job roles that are a necessity when being successful in the industry, the components that compose the team very important and so is the co-operation between each of the individual elements of the team. Each of the roles link in with at least one of the other part of the team, making interaction with other team members a key skill needed when going into the industry. These job roles consist of very different jobs within a company all as important as each other as without one of these products could not run.

Firstly there are game designers, who are in charge of the creating of the storyline/rules of a game during the pre-production stage. They require good writing and artistic skills with typically a good technical competence; there are different roles among game designers, such as head designers, level designers and writers all with different creative roles and responsibilities. Designers normally come across programmers, artists and the scripters on a day to day basis and work directly under the producers. After they have created the basic idea of the game they have to work with the more visual side of the creation and help them see the idea from their point of view, this means their communication skills must be above par.

Secondly there are programmers; these are the members of an interactive team that actually write the software. To be programmers you have to have a very good understand of primary computer language or code. Their job is to write the coding, maintain its upkeep by fixing any bugs or flaws and test their coding. Programmers often connect with all members of an interactive team especially the; designers, testers, sound designers and artists. We had a go at writing code for a basic game and re skinned it to create our own basic game, this was no easy task and took us several attempts to perfect our basic programming skills.

Next there are the scripters; whose job is to create the initial story board and outline of a games story line. They create the basic elements which a programmer would then build upon to create the end product. They are the ones who lay down the ground work and foundations which pave way for the designer’s ideas to be implemented. Scripters are normally found in between the designers and the programmers and in direct contact with the artists.

Following the scripters you have the artists, as you would imagine they are in control of the media within the game, they are in first hand contract with all other members of an interactive team due to their wide involvement in all aspects of any game. They are employed to create and edit graphics which become characters, background and other interactive elements. They provide the images in which designers and scripters work with, under the supervision of the project managers with input from the marketing team whose research and targets will have a huge influence on what the artists create and promote.

Next you have the sound designers, they are a very important element of the interactive team when designing anything yet they are often the first to be overlooked in terms of credit. They design and script all sound media involved in a project, editing and fitting it to a strict design brief. They are under constant scrutiny from project managers and have to fit in their work with the artists initial creations of characters and environments. If they did not do this it would be off key and would not be successful.

QA and Testers are often seen as the bottom of the pile in terms of importance by other members but they have the very important job of finding out how popular game is after being released whilst testers find faults in the game before it is released. They also offer new ideas and improvements when a fault is found allowing them to meet most members of a team, which is important as an entry level into the industry. To be successful in this part of the team testers have to have good communications skills, great attention to detail and other traits that allows them to pay attention for a long period of time.

The people in charge of these teams are known as the producers or Project managers, they have the job of organising the team and delighting what a games overall aim is to do. They take in all information from the marketing and research team and decide what they are going to create via vacancies in the industry. The pressure involved in their job ensures they work with all parts of the team to ensure success in terms of popularity, remaining in budget and overall profits from a completed project.

The marketing team are the ones who provide the spark for the game; their initial research inspires the idea for any game. They have the job of researching spaces in the industry which allows companies that produces games to exploit. Their primary role also includes taking care of public relations and PR, they are in charge of getting the game out there in the public’s eye and are generally the reason a game hits it off or flops. If a company has a poor marketing team they will not know what to create, furthermore the public will not know that they have created anything. They are often in contact with most elements of the team also, especially the product managers, games designers and the artists.

These are the elements in a team involved in producing and creating games, without each of these team members a company will not function and be successful. Complete cooperation provides functionality in this industry and is imperative in the popularity of a game in the modern industry. Although each role entails different tasks and jobs the communication between departments equally as significant making the ability to work as part of a team and communication huge skills when getting into this industry.

Firstly when developing software you need to take in to count the customers’ needs and what is good at the time, this is the initial analyzing of the market. these ideas are then approved by a bigger external company to finalize the rights to a product for example: a company like coca cola put out a request for a design team to design their newest coca cola game, the design team are chosen and given the rights to the game, they analyse the market and come up with a rough mock-up of the game, if this is approved the game goes into the production stage if it isn’t approved it will go back to the drawing board to be worked on. The client always wants perfection as it is their money going into the project and their company’s reputation on the line.

A software development company would then go onto mocking a basic piece to show to the client, this is then approved by several external factors and it is then going into the creative stage. The initial mock up is then taken to a new level and completely re-created. After weeks of creating and then perfecting it is sent to testers who spend hours and hours rifting through all elements of a game trying to find faults before it is released to the public eye. This is to ensure they have nothing to complain and reasons to pick holes in a piece of software.

The piece of software is then released to the public which is the most risky part, if it had been released too early it could be catastrophic for the creators and their stead with the client. Being very specific whilst in the process of the software development is vital for development teams as they more often than not get paid more if their piece is successful and is fully functional. 

Unit 1.1 Website Preproduction Guides.

Unit 1.1 Website Preproduction Guides.

What preproduction is needed for Website Design and are the elements important?

Pre-production in terms of website design is the detailed logging of processes carried out during the creative period of the website done by website designer. Although there is no strict way this process is done it can be carried out in several steps to ensure the greatest level of completion, and is carried out to provide plans and mock ups which can be provided on completion to various benefactors like testers and in the end the clientele. There are several key elements which are required in the preproduction file all with different planning and design purposes.

On most occasions the first thing included in the preproduction file is the original proposal which more than it is not is sent to an external client with the rough ideas and basic intentions of the website. This process is very important for establishing healthy working relationships with clientele which allows them to have a broader knowledge on what their money is paying for and allows ideas to be shared via all parties, good communication between said parties is crucial in the successful production of a website. Also to prevent confusion of any nature all communications to external contributors should be evidenced in the pre-production file, one to give credit where it is due, and also to prevent any mistakes effected by poor communication for example: mistaking what a client wants as content on their website, as this can be proven with appropriate documentation in the Preproduction.

Following the proposal is most commonly the “treatment” file, which is the write up of the initial plan after the proposal, with what is going to be designed already done this piece is more how it is going to be designed, what programmes are going to be used and how long each individual element will take to create to an acceptable level. This piece aids the designer in the creation of a timed plan and helps in the end with more accurate estimates of the amount of time it would take to complete the desired website for a client.

This is followed by the initial planning of a schedule, this is documented in the production file as a way to show external parties how much time is being put into or had been put into the work at hand. Also this is used to keep designers on track and on top of their work, with a detailed day to day schedule of what they should be doing at all times. Keeping up to date with this schedule will prevent the designer from falling behind schedule and evenly portioning his time between interactive elements correctly. This particular piece is good when the job isn’t a solo effort, keeping all members of a design team at all times is important for an employer who’s money is going into a project.

Once a designer or team of designers know how much time a project is going to take them roughly then can provide a price to their client that is why it is important for them to follow this basic outlines when creating a preproduction file. Knowing how much actual time is going into a project helps them to put a correct estimation of money on the piece. Which can then be corrected on completion of the project, this can also prevent designers rushing on their work and prevent them doing the opposite. This element of preproduction is very important when working on a longer project as they know they are getting paid correctly, also so they can look back on the finished piece and judge whether the initial pricing of the website was correct.

Again following this is the research into the market, this information is vital when producing a website; designers need to be on top of their market if they want their website to be successful in a hugely competitive industry. This research would include looking at similar websites, and maybe some primary research into the targets audience with questionnaires. This prevents you creating a website for the wrong target audience and gives the designer the chance to be inspired by similar products. Documenting this process with some picture evidence and evaluation again shows clientele the amount of time and effort a designer puts into their project.

After the research has been carried out and a schedule, target audience and basic budget is established the next file would be the evidence of the initial web ideas. This is the documenting of all the original ideas that are in the end chosen from, with annotations on why the designer did or did not chose it to be the final piece. This is important as it shows external parties a thought process is carried out and the best original idea is picked from. Furthermore having the plan of your original design allows you build upon it, and also how you strayed (if you did) from the original idea and to what benefit. This is good in the preproduction file as proof of your progression on the piece, once more this is used to re visit and build upon by the designer.

With the basic design for the website in place, it is then good to include the story bored of any media or interactive elements that are planned to be included on the website. File size and type have to be taken into consideration here as not everyone has the newest technology in terms of compatibility so they have to be presented in way that is accessible to everyone. This can be proven by Screen shots which can be added to later on. As frequently before this is used as evidence of progression as the original idea is developed and this process is recorded. The evidential information of these processes is very important when looking back on a completed website as clients can sit down and see where there product blossomed from creativity under the work of the websites creator.

With all the foundations in place, a designer would then crack onto producing his selected ideas: this can be a time consuming and tedious process if a lot of interactive elements are desired. This is great to evidence and include in the preproduction file. Step by step progression is great as evidence like on all the other separate pieces it can be viewed by external team members and they can see into your creative process and get a grip of the individual pieces of media. All of these documented processes are also used a last resort back up file, if a designer loses his work he need only follow his organised, chronological annotated documents and follow the steps they had already carried out.

This all leads to the final piece, the final website picture evidenced and proofed on different computing software to ensure compatibility. Included in the production file as the final product with all improvements made from the initial ideas and plans, this is the best way to show progression. Annotation of this final document linking it to the treatment document to show external parties what programs the designer used for each individual piece. Lastly on the final write up of the completed website a designer could add in how good his estimations of their time was, how long they actually spent on each element by accurately compiling evidence of the time they use along the way.

Then the concluding document in a preproduction file is the assessment of the website, what a designer thinks went well, what was harder than first anticipated things like that, their views on the processes carried out to complete the website. They can go onto evaluate how good their preparation was in terms of ideas and the documenting of their plans, basically sum up the interactive elements of the website and explain why each individual element was included to suit the prescribed purpose and target audience. This is to show the client and external parties that the designer has worked to their set requirements and has complied with their audience and targets in terms of suitability and style.

All of these individual processes of information are key to establishing the website for the client, the documentation of all the work carried out helps then view the website from the designers eyes, it also shows them where it can be improved and worked on in the future. If a designer hopes to thrive in the industry their pre productions skills must me above par, the process of planning they desired piece of media is key in the production of a website that is meant to thrive in the industry. But like previously stated the preproduction does not have to be carried out in these specific elements, as long as the detailed documentation of the three stages is carried out: Research then Planning and Design then Lastly the Evaluation. These are vital and are expected in part and parcel with the completed piece by clientele.

Understand principles of digital video technology in interactive media

UNIT 62 Criteria 1

Understand principles of digital video technology in interactive media

How designers use digital video technology to enhance a user’s interactive experience on different delivery platform by Scott Harding

Designers of different interactive platforms use videos differently too suit different roles according to their; design criteria, target audience and aims. They use digital video technology for many different purposes when enhancing a user’s digital video experience whether it’s a short video clip used as a background, or an advertisement used as link in another website, or information which again can be a link to another website, attention grabbers to show what the website is all about to throw out a greater appeal to the website or in most cases videos on the internet are used for pleasure, pornographic or entertainment purposes, but the biggest provider which the majority of my information will be based around is YouTube.

The biggest entrepreneur in the portrayal of different video technology is the world’s most active site www.youtube.com that run off their soul exportation of video technology via adobe flash video player, and its modern simplistic design via the use of HTML5. Since its arrival in February 2005 YouTube has become a huge internet sensation ever, with over two billion videos being watched a day, three billion views on online blogs which YouTube provide, and a staggering four billion videos streamed from the YouTube server every day. Over an hour of video is uploaded every minute by individuals and companies like VEVO and the BBC, with this service so easy to access with provision by the internet YouTube has changed lives. Its content has made people famous for example Justin Bieber who has now had numerous number ones in various international charts all because his mother uploaded videos of him singing onto the internet for family to see which luckily was spotted by the man which soon who went onto become his manager

News, gossip and popular music flies across borders with the use of YouTube, because of the introduction of high-quality video cameras in everyone’s phone across the world recording videos has never been easier. Every major event in the last few years has been caught on camera and placed onto the internet for example: the collapse of the twin towers, the earthquake in china even the private executions of the dictators, Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein appeared on the internet and had millions of views in an amazingly short period of time.

This huge influx of internet activity caused by the new ease in the ability to change and mould social ideas with the use of videos on the internet with popularity videos become thrown into the ‘social mainstream’ where popularity will only bestow even more popularity as it is introduced to more popularity based news feeds and home pages thus increasing its likelihood to be seen by more people. This is greatly contrasting to how video distribution used to be, when you had to attach a file and send it via an email service to a single recipient or copied onto an external memory device but with the progression of technology and ideas now allow us as internet users to load and watch videos in seconds without opening any separate pages to successfully watch a video.

DVD replaced the VCR and now watching films and series online is quite rapidly in my opinion replacing the DVD as its cheaper, quicker and generally more effective in terms of choice and variation of genres. This is one area of platforms video technology can be presented by, first film, then disk now all digital over the internet or via some sort of wire/wireless connection a greater source of information. This being true the technology in video presentation has increased greatly over the past decade; this implements all new video producers in the fact that they no longer have to produce their media in a way that would appear to be archaic and the requirements of their work are higher due to public demand and technological advances on a global scale.

The new technology allows the new generations who are passionate about filming and video design to film, edit and create and most importantly compete efficiently in what has become a very dangerous volatile industry at a much cheaper cost in comparison to what it used to be. The competition between rival distributors in the market is keeping prices of brand new user friendly technology down which is perfect news for young entrepreneurs who are looking to thrive as newcomers in the industry. YouTube is a talent scouts dream website, with all the new producers and video designers who can develop amazing work with not even professional standard equipment or software, not only getting new talent out their but within practical terms but it’s also getting new producers and video editors spotted. New updates for software has made it possible to film and edit on a handheld device, on the move at a near professional standard just one example how the new technological developments have enabled people to distribute their own media into the world wide audience over the internet and therefor effect how interactive videos are used on a huge scale with new young designers coming through a lot younger and with courses in colleges to further young skill full designers prospects in terms of progression in the industry with qualifications and experience.

The very first YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw titled “Me at the zoo” got over nine million views over its seven years on the site, thousands of comments even though it is a basic 19 second quite plain video diary of an average person. This shows to what extent YouTube can to do an individual video over quite a short period of time, another good example is the new number 1 “Gangnam style” a south Korean party dancers disco style video has become world renound. Social experiments have been carried out via YouTube, the one I remember quite clearly is the ‘Stop Kony 2012’ video on YouTube which was an instant hit as it appealed to basic morals in all people across the world it was getting over 1 million hits per hour at one point and was dubbed as “the new way to move the world to action” said one news reporter. As it peeked at over 93 million views this proved morally this experiment proved that this video affected a lot of peoples viewing experience as it a different feeling portrayed by the media, it appeals to the fundamental properties we live our lives by. The purpose of this experiment was too see if they could make the genocidal dictator of the IRA Joseph Kony famous and his atrocities with it and fundamentally to stop the IRA and their movements in Africa. It worked actions have been made and further more planned to stop the illusive leader Joseph Kony.

The only real limits YouTube first implied were basic ones, the viewing of YouTube videos required the installation of adobe flash player plug-in which has since became one of the most commonly installed elements of software and is now pretty much a necessity on personal computers as it is required for around 75% of online video. But in 2010 an experimental version of YouTube was issued that used a built in multimedia with capabilities of browsers supporting HTML5, by doing this they allowed videos to be viewed without the requirement of Adobe Flash Player or any other plug in. You can still opt to use the HTML5 trial browser but not all videos are available in this format of YouTube.

When uploading videos you have to trim videos at a standard of 15 minutes long which was increased from 10 minutes in 2010, users with good track records of uploaded may be offered a longer standard of video by up to 12 hours with a new file size limit 2GB limit also. In terms of format of uploaded videos:

“YouTube accepts videos uploaded in most container formats, including .AVI, .MKV, .MOV, .MP4, DivX, .FLV, and .ogg and .ogv. These include video formats such as MPEG-4, MPEG, VOB, and .WMV. It also supports 3GP, allowing videos to be uploaded from mobile phones.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube

There aren’t many things types of video that aren’t used in the present era; to inform, to persuade, to entertain, to instruct and lastly to convince all have different purposely intended effects on the viewer. Its social brainwashing when you think about it, most videos you watch whether your waiting for your YouTube video to load or in the break of program on sky1 your subconscious mind is being fed information which will benefit someone’s business from. Most advertisements are trying to persuade you to part with money or time, whilst convincing you it will be worth it or you will benefit you somehow.
http://prezi.com/1nqy0vxngrbl/different-uses-of-video/

In conclusion designers use digital video technology to enhance a user’s interactive experience on different delivery platforms by purposely targeting audiences with media portrayed in a specific way. The biggest deliverer of these different portrayals is YouTube which has changed the whole prospect of video over the internet; it has bettered the lives of thousands of people like new talent Justin Bieber also it has informed billions of people millions of different pieces of information. The user friendly way YouTube has been created has made everyone who is interested in viewing video over the internet’s lives easier, in my point of view, I watch more YouTube videos day-to-day than I watch television due to how easy it is to use and the wide variety of genres you can access on YouTube. Due to the speed it has progressed and it continues to progress at I think YouTube will carry on being successful and prosperous for years to come, as long as the average user or “little guy” isn’t over powered by corporate media and giant advertisements.


Bibliography

www.youtube.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube

http://prezi.com/1nqy0vxngrbl/different-uses-of-video/

Conduct primary market research into mobile gaming formats, pricing and popular mobile games.

Task 1 (17^th September)

Conduct primary market research into mobile gaming formats, pricing and popular mobile games.

Conduct secondary research to discover the most popular selling devices and platforms.

Also research current ‘hot’ cultural memes (e.g. Mine Turtle) which you could use or imitate in your own game.

Create a blog entry in which you explain:

• the importance of market and audience research in the interactive media industry (GC3.1);
• the comparative uses of primary and secondary research (GC3.1)

your research methods and results (GC3.2, GC3.3).

Market research in the interactive media industry

Market research is the simple investigation into similar into a information about a market or customers, it is hugely important business strategy. research teams in companies carry out this research to find out: how competitors in the industry are getting on with their products and what the current generations opinions are of their media, what is the best piece of media on the market at the time. This research can be carried out to make sure a company doesn't make the same mistake as a competitor, or maybe use ideas from other companies which could benefit the researcher. All in all it is to keep up to date with the competition and what the market needs, market size and what the customers want.

Audience research in the interactive media industry

Without research teams in industries they would not be able to anticipate any success or popularity in the industry, audience research is one the most important research companies (especially in the media industry) can carry out. They need to make sure their piece of media whether its a game or a website had suited their target audience and will be successful on the market.

The comparative uses of primary and secondary research
Primary research is the investigation into to collected data in through methods like: questionnaires, quizzes, feedback sheets a collection of data by a number of people which they can contract percentages and data from. Secondary research is the step after primary research, it is also known as desk research as it is very much done behind a desk. It is the process of using the data and results concluded from the primary research it is the process of turning individual pieces of information and formatting them in a way that can be presented as data.

Quantitative research
Quantitative research is information collected based on number, IE; graphs, bar/line/pie charts which can be used to present data. Normally deducted from simple surveys and simple feedback sheets.

Qualitative research
Qualitative research is more personal than just numbers and data, this can be reviews and feedback left by an individual used on mass to deduct the general popularity of a product or piece of media. This technique also allows you to use these comments as another form of advertisement as positive feedback can be used to attract more customers.

This research technique is used through out the industry and is another very important business tactic

What we did.
Market research: our market research was basic investigation into gaming platforms and popular games in the industry. Our results showed us that although Android are on paper the most successful and popular platform of phones, iPhone netted a lot more profit last year and people between the age of 14-16 prefer to play on an xbox than any other gaming platform. Most importantly the majority of mobile gamers prefer to play on an android platform rather than: blackberry, Sony or IOS.

What else we did
To collect some more personal data, we sent a questionnaire to our class containing questions to gain feedback of our re skin of the basic catch/avoid game. We gathered a decent ammount of data from this questionaire but it wasnt conclusive as we cannot base the prospects of our game on what a class of 25 think. On our survey we tried to create a set of questions to allow us to collect some Quantitative and Qualitative data at the same time, which we succeeded in, although we collected the numeric data we required to proceed with our research we collected some more personal informations, people views in words rather than numbers and statistics. We then used these positive pieces of information to premote our game to our audience. 80% of our sureverys said that the game was enjoyable and 100% of our replies said the game suited the target audience which was a huge plus, our game recieved an average rating of 6.8 which again was a big bonus for us. We then went onto using the negative parts of the survey to bulster ideas for improving the game, for example alot of the replied said that the graphics could be improved, and there could be more levels introduced into the game which we will look into if we ever decide to improve on our game on a bigger scale.

With this information we collected via our new research techniques we presented our data to the class in a business type pitch to get our information and the concept of our game across. On a whole it was very successful.

First post.

Getting used to the basic princples of website creation.



Double click after duplicating by holding the 'alt' key and dragging, This will allow you to go into the button view and allows you to change the colour and effects of your buttons before during after they are in use.



Coding to link buttons to their destination pages.


stop();
btn1.onPress = function()
{
 gotoAndStop(1);
}
btn2.onPress = function()
{
 gotoAndStop(2);
}
btn3.onPress = function()
{
 gotoAndStop(3);
}
btn4.onPress = function()
{
 gotoAndStop(4);
}

coding for page links

onEnterFrame=function()
{
 obj._x = _xmouse
 obj._y = _ymouse
};

coding for mouse shaddow

onEnterFrame = function ()
{
 obj._x -= (obj._x - _xmouse) / 25;
 obj._y -= (obj._y - _ymouse) / 25;
 obj2._x -= (obj2._x - _xmouse) / 12.5;
 obj2._y -= (obj2._y - _ymouse) / 12.5;
};

coding for distant mouse shaddow x2