Its been awhile

Its great to be finished and have my degree, I'll miss the laughs we had on a daily basis but sadly life has to move on.

Best of luck to everyone on the job hunt, see you all at graduation.

Its over

Hey guys hope everything went well yesterday, what ever happened its over and now we can worry about the exams oh the excitement.

Here's a little video sort of an about section or brief history. Just said I'd stick it up as a sort of conclusion to this blog.

E=mc²

Today I recorded a video of me making, printing, cutting and spraying a stencil. Wow, don’t actually know what else to say. I think the FYP report may have me burnt out when it comes to word. Em hope everyone is doing well over the Easter hols and progressing with the project.

Laters folks

Bust a Move

So word on the street is that if I get a 2:1 degree I will do a bit of breakdancing as I accept the degree itself. Well word on the street is right; if I get a 2:1 (unlikely) I will do a quick little six step. For the select few members of my class that have seen me pop this move they can tell you its something special *sarcasm alert* oh and Niall said he will collect his degree while walking on his hands.

3D Room

So here’s the opening I’m going with, it’s pretty much finished. A few more bells and whistles to be added like slowing down the opening but you get the general idea. After Effects and me are like that (doing a crossed fingers hand sign thing).

Postcard from Edinburgh…sort of

So did everyone enjoy the movie yesterday???
As you probably know I’m over in Scotland with tickets to the Ire vs Scot Six Nations game and couldn’t attend the movie. But my absence from college today hasn’t stopped me from working on my FYP, today I successfully broke my drag and drop code ARGH!!! But will hopefully fix it soon.

So onto the postcard thing, today I made three stencils that can fit onto a postcard and be reused over and over as they are cut into card and not paper, its basically the poor mans miniature stencil as this card can be got free in the students union and defaced or improved as you see fit. There are two freefalls and a gasmask (could be used to spray over a models face on an advertisement board, not saying this should be done but you can if you want) the freefall stencils would work great on the edge of a balcony or somewhere where there is a relative drop. See the pictures attached to this blog if you have no idea what I am talking about.

Banker

An idea I’m working on in the style of the Obama Hope poster that I’m sure you’ve seen all over the media of recent times.

The idea is to have a banker begging with a cardboard box made of money and bottle of champagne in a brown paper bag. Here’s what I have so far.

The card he is holding will say something like "Please Help I was once a banker and have spent all your money, any funds given will be put to good use, just like last time"

Fun (Paint) Filled Weekend

I had big plans for this weekend. Got a nice little camera to record the brief history section from the college, but I’ve been working hard painting a flat from floor to ceiling and everything in between, well not the floor but the rest was painted. Its recession time and cash is low so I was glad of the work but now its back to FYP.

So that took up most of my weekend but now I’m currently writing the script for the narration (while writing this too) and will have the audio recorded tonight and the video recorded before class tomorrow, hopefully.

A week of After Effects should give you a better idea of what I am trying to do here for the brief history section, instead of text for the user to read through I want to make a little video in same style as the HP Hands adverts that ran a year or so ago.

Flow Chart

My flow Chart so far….I think this is right. Anyone got any tips or advice on improving it the then don’t be shy.

Project Demo

Here’s a quick look at what I presented yesterday for the project demo, it may not look like much but I know what I’ve to do and I know where I’m going so happy days to have that section finished and now onto the hard hard work that comes with the last few weeks.

About the imaginary folder

....found the folder, IT WAS REAL!!

Rag Week

So Rag Week is officially over. My head is so sore from all the study I got done in the time off (the previous statement maybe untrue). So here’s the thing, I’m currently working on my FYP, of a Saturday night I might add and I’ve lost an entire folder containing a great papervision tutorial, comments and source code. It was exactly what I was looking for and I’m sure I had it a few days ago.

It was such a perfect tutorial that I am beginning to think it was all my imagination….or was it? Maybe the stress of the upcoming demo along with the alcohol of rag week made me imagine a folder that was never there.

I’m going to get back to work now, keep your fingers crossed that I find the imaginary folder again.

Can't think of a good title?!?!

Here’s a little image containing some stuff from my sketch pad with throw ups and possible urban characters for stickers or pastes. The idea here is to create a flip book in flash as an easter egg to the software I’m working on.

After Effect Opening

Here’s a quick tester video on how I’d like the opening sequence to be. At the moment it’s just a bunch of images to see if the video will work with motion blur, putting the images into 3D space and adding a particle effect.

Evenings are looking brighter already

It’s February which means the end of the January blues and its time to smile again. We’ve already had the Super Bowl, the beginning of the six nations is near and the return of the Champions League all this and Rag Week to look forward too. How could I not be smiling!



The project demo is on track and today I’m working on the opening. Its not looking too bad and more importantly its not looking like anything anyone else has done which will hopefully make it stand out in a positive way

Looking for Inspiration

Yesterday I went out to the art college for a little look. It was nice to get away from my own project for a bit and look at other peoples work from my own perspective. What I saw was some amazing typography, some interesting sketches and the very very odd toast display. Yes I said toast, about 150 buttered slices on the floor. To me it said this is student life, we live on the same dull food day after day with no room for change. But I’m probably way off the mark here and it’s probably got to do with the evolution of man, apocalypse and recession thrown in for good measure. You gotta love those crazy art students.

I also saw some displays that dealt with audio and video and how there presented. Sadly the photograph didn’t come out well but there were a couple of cool charcoal drawing that played around with the projector display to add subtle motion and the other to tell a story through quick frame changes.

So yeah I’d recommend anyone who feels they are hitting a wall with their FYP to head on over and take a look, clear your head and come back fresh to attack the project head on once again.

Design

So here’s a look at the template I’ve come up with. You’ll have three genres that the user can look through; each one will have four panels containing information and interactivity.

What you see in this image is the stickers page with the four panels that will most likely contain an interactive section letting you place stickers on different surface areas, a speed art video, brief history and a galleries section to top things off.

2009

Hey folks happy New Year and all that craic. It’s great to be back after the holiday season; I relaxed by doing a 40 hour week in the busiest shop in the Crescent, GAMESTOP. Really didn’t know what to do with my free time on Christmas day and January 1^st so I mainly just recovered from the previous nights out, or visited friends who are only home for the holidays. With all this going on it was hard to find time to do any fyp related work. But that all changes this week, a new year a new mentality.

It’s a shame my new state of mind is freaking out that we need to have a working demo by the 9^th of February. AS3 is so different to AS2 and trying to teach myself the code isn’t going down too well for the old brain here. My self learning After Effects training on the other hand isn’t going too bad. A job completely in this area would be a dream to me. So I have to do all this while trying to finish the enigma that is the Christmas Java Assignment. I swear it’s unanswerable; it’s like asking what came first the chicken or the egg. That statement might be a bit drastic as some students have completed it already (I want their brains…..just for a day or two).

Right, LETS DO THIS!!!