Research

Looking at my creativity, and what and who I’ve been using it for, I find that all my projects fit into two groups/under two titles. The first group/title is personal use and gain and the second is one is client based. I have been designing and creating websites, graphics and illustrations since GCSE level and since being on the Multimedia course I have produced taster trailers for a future film project.

I’ve designed my own online portfolio, created a logo for myself and recently been developing my Adobe Premiere Pro skills by creating trailers for a film idea called Doll Death Demise. This film project, which is currently in the early stages of storyboarding, will be a creative collaboration between my brother and I that will hopefully be hitting the big wide world next year.

When looking at the specific projects listen above, I find that my creativity has been use to think up and designed these projects for my personal use which has been a good platform for experimental work and the testing of new skills.

The second group, client based, is where I believe most of my creativity has been going, not that I’m running out our losing it, but where I feel I am more focused towards. I have designed logos for local businesses and companies, which includes the design of a logo for the WHAC Scheme run by the Welsh Hockey Union, websites for various clients, like Katalyst Theatre Productions and Tom Wright Photography and the design of a poster for the Nottingham Trent University EdCam (Education Campaign).

I find when looking at personal projects I don’t restrict my creativity due to the fact that I am the client and I allow myself to express myself in a creative way however, when looking at client based projects, my creativity could seem to be restricted slightly due to the fact that they might have different opinions and tastes to myself but when looked at in a different light, my creativity is never restricted, it’s just manipulated and adapted in a different ways to fulfil the client’s needs.

For the future, I seen my creativity blossoming into something unique and original. This will be used in the form of web design but also in graphic design and film design. I have always enjoyed creating things that look good but I also like making things that work well underneath its exterior. This is where I find myself falling towards the wide world of web design and its pathway, but don’t worry - no one pushed me.

When using the powerful tool of Research, I find that I can develop and build on skills I already know but also find new things by learning new technologies and skills through various tutorials. The web is a brilliant place to find a huge collection of inspirational blogs and website which include designs, images and ideas that could be nurtured into creative original ideas.

When looking at the four starting points of research, behind the text, in or through, in front of and finally for, I find myself drawn to ‘in or through.’ With regards to web design I find it interesting to look at the html/xhtml coding of websites to see how each image or paragraph comes together to make that website. By looking at the coding or source of a website, you can see its bare back bones. However, I find myself feeling wary of the ‘in front of’ starting point due to the fact that there can be so many opinions. When it comes to designing a website, you might like using large images as backgrounds but others with slower internet connection hate the fact you are using a large image because I takes so long to load in their browsers. When looking at which one of the four starting points seem irrelevant, I think that they all should have an equal importance in research however, I personally don’t tend to look at ‘for.’

Avatar Development

Here are a few sketches/traces of an idea for my avatar. My avatar will be called The Disco Ninja since this is a tag I've had for many things.

Interactive Showcase - Changes

Here is the latest copy of my interactive showcase. This copy also includes audio however I am tempted to add music. I want to make it as if you are listening to music using headphones and not paying any attention to the teacher/speaker. The only one problem with this is copyright but fear not, I have recorded my band playing original material so I will use that. All links to the buttons work and I have included a test video to see how if it works. Other links are just to blank pages because I have created the finished product for all the five elements yet.

Feel free to comment on my work - It would be useful to know what others think and ways on how I can improve it!

Lets get that constructive criticism flowing!


Interactive Showcase - Take 2 by ~TheBigDiscoNinja on deviantART

Interactive Showcase - Changes

So after showing my mood board in the seminar on Friday I've decided to use my mood board as my interactive showcase/box. This is because the mood board in more visually pleasing and has more elements that could be developed.

Here is how my showcase is going to look -

I have imported it into Flash and begun work on making it more interactive. To do this I'm using invisible buttons so when the user moves their cursor over certain images they become clearer. The user would then click on the objects to see more/go to another frame.

Here is what I've done so far -

Interactive Showcase by ~TheBigDiscoNinja on deviantART

Does take a long time to load

In other news, in the seminar on Friday I was able to play around with a Wacom Bamboo A6 Graphics Tablet and enjoyed it so much I have decided to purchase one. The reasons for this are because I can product illustrations of a high quality, trace images and photos accurately, develop my 3D avatar and hopefully, using a this graphics tablet in my work will improve my ability to draw.

Below is a trace, using the Wacom Bamboo Tablet, of Superman -

Moodboard - Avatar

This is a moodboard for my avatar

Moodboard - Interactive Showcase/Box

This is a moodboard for my interactive showcase/box

Identities - Ideas

Here are some images and scans of ideas for the Identities project -

Instead of designing a box, I decided to design a poster that would have different elements that were clickable. This skeleton/body idea came from Omid Djalili's website (http://www.omidnoagenda.com/)

As you would move your cursor over certain areas of the skeleton/body, the red drawings would appear. After clicking on this red writting, another image would be shown (see third image below)

This would be displayed after the red writting has been clicked on -

Identities - Logo Ideas

Here are the logo ideas for my identities project -

I have designed two different logos. One for Kitty&Wool, which is the name of my blog, and the other, City&Wool, as a mainstream design company.

How the names came about...
I wanted a blog name that was witty and cool but couldn't think of anything until I swapped the first letters around. This then became 'citty and wool.' After thinking about my blog name a little more, I saw that I could get two names from it.

The first would be 'Kitty&Wool' for my blog becuase the blog is a way of documenting ideas and the way we play with and develop our ideas. In the same way, kittens play around with wool.

For the second name, City&Wool, (Ok, maybe it does sound a little like the outcome of a random company name genarator but it isn't!) I wanted an original company/brand name. City&Wool is relevant becuase I'm studying and living in a city (Nottingham) and the wool part is relevant because its a connection of people and ideas to produce and end product/design.

Image | Heroes, String Theory

A Diary of an Avatar 04

For my last for diary entry I decided to take a break in Second Life. I found a nice comfortable seat and sat down on it, well, at least I tried to...

And then tried I tried to lie down...

But nevertheless, I also enjoyed a nice warm jacousie...

A Diary of an Avatar 03

Here is my third diary entry for my Second Life Avatar - Steel Silvercloud.

The more and more I play Second Life the more I get board with loading times for graphics and texture. When trying to look at a building you would have to wait a few minutes untill you could see it in its entirety. The viewing distance from my Avatar, at which the server rendors the objects and textures, has a too smaller radius. When flying in paticlular, I approch objects like building walls too quickly for the server to even generate a wall.