My Evaluation, Website Portfolio

Evaluation:

As an overall i feel that i could have created a better looking more visually pleasing website portfolio.  However taking into consideration my struggles with the software i do feel that i overcame a lot of problems and resolved them to as best as i could.  With 5 weeks to complete the project i had to divide my time into; planning, designing and creating a website.  I had no previous experience with creating a website so i did find it probably my biggest challenge yet.  My 5 page website i feel is done to a level where it is visually and aesthetically pleasing, of course there is room for development and with a longer time period I’m sure I could improve on my website.

I found the planning process quite simple.  The way that i plan is to draw inspiration from other works which I usually find online.  I drew out some sketches so that i had my visual ideas in rough on paper and I worked around them.  As ive previously said im not the best with using Dreamweaver, far from it, but admittedly i will put my all into creating a piece of work to a decent level, hopefully a good level.  As i knew that my skills with Dreamweaver would prove to be a task – as they did, i tried to emphasise extra effort with the use of Photoshop as ive had plenty of experience with the software and i know my way around it.  I tried to incorporate some professional looking images which i hoped would set the standard for my website.  This was an element to the project which i felt i had no problem at all with.  For my homepage i had the idea to use my most powerful images to engage viewers and keep them browsing through my site, this was a process used in Dreamweaver which i found most easy to create with the use of Bridge.  When it comes to image quality i think i did well in terms of quality and display. 

However, I do think that the text on my website could have been explored more and made to look more creative.  I did try and experiment with my “About Me” page, in which I altered my text on Photoshop to add a different look as opposed to the matching style of my other four pages.  This was an element which I decided to alter towards the end of the 5 week project, all 5 pages with the same text began to grate on me as I thought that my users would find it boring to keep looking at and eventually lose interest.  With more time i would most definitely like to expand on my use of typography.

The most daunting experience throughout this project for me was using Dreamweaver.  I found the whole concept of CSS rules and HTML quite complex and i had difficulty with keeping up to the pace which was needed.  However i did manage to achieve some rules with html such as my links to Facebook and Twitter, this was a HTML aspect which i actually found very easy.  One difficulty i did have was the composition of the text and images on one page, i always had trouble with the alignment although when I added in floatright, margins and padding i was able to adjust these aspects.

Overall i found this project quite daunting but with a lot of effort and patience with the use of Dreamweaver i feel that i have made a website to a standard that is good for a first time user!  I would like to take some time to work on my website but nevertheless i am proud of my accomplishment with the website and using the Dreamweaver software itself.

Inspiration for the nation

I liked the effect that this video created.  It reminded me of one of my initial ideas of a cartoon but it had a more tribal look, really contemporary cartoon looking features.  However not having used the programme before would prove something like this to be quite a challenge.

Evaluation of Interaction Project

I have now complete a first version and an improved second version of my interaction project.  After i had completed my first version my tutor gave me feedback from which i was then able to apply to my second version and improve on my design for my actual project.  I am much more satisfied with my second version as i believe to be a vast improvement from my first piece, however there a still factors which i think could be improved on.

This is what my interaction piece looks like...

My interaction piece was aimed for a target audience from children aged 4-10.  I feel that my piece suits this target audience due to the illustrations, one design aspect which i feel applied to my target audience was the use of colour.  I began my first version in entirely black and white sketches but i felt that this would loose my target audiences attention which is why throughout my second version i added in the bits of colour which would hopefully gain more attention and make the interaction piece more interesting for the children.  The text i also used created by a font generator and then put into photoshop also applied to my target audience as its quite unprofessional and child-like looking, the font has a kind of squiggly effect which makes it more appealing to a child like eye.  One thing which i feel i was completely certain on was the fact that no actual photographs have been used and althought i feel my piece suits the target audience which means they will be able to interact with it, i feel that the whole idea of adding in actually images would make it seems more professionally created rather than just drawn.  However, i took my time on creating the illustrations which i do feel paid off.

I think that next time i come to use the software i will be able to create a piece of work at a higher level as i feel that i have learnt a lot since creating my second version and i will be able to improve from the aspects i didnt like whilst creating my interaction project.

C.R.A.P Lecture

Contrast - With how something appears to the eye visually, warm colours, cold colours, big fonts, little fonts, italic text, bold text etc
Repetition - Relates to when you repeat one aspect of the design throughout the piece to form consistency
Alignment - nothing should be places on a page arbitrarily, everything should have a connection
Proximity - In relation to how close things are visually, what forms a relationship

Interaction Project!

For our first seminar for the interactive project we were told that for 3 weeks we would be looking at how to create an interactive three dimensional space on the web.

Throughout the whole course i have been designing and sketching my different ideas as part of a design process in an A3 sketch book.  This gives me my initial ideas as im able to brainstorm and draw out my thoughts as to what i want to do with my interactive project as we found out that there is really no limits as to what you can do.  Throughout the seminar we also looked at last years interaction projects which also showed how much variety there is and how much scope we have between ideas.

A particular idea which i became fond of was to create an image of a robot which would act as the basis of my interaction piece, so to get ideas i searched images on google and came up with something like this...

Robbin Hoodie Evaluation

After completing my first edit of Robbin Hoodie i feel quite pleased with my outcome.  The filming process took a couple of days to complete, as me and my group tried to get different varations and styles of one shot so that when it came to creating our short film on Adobe Premier Pro CS5 we had different selected footage to choose from.  Whilst filming i found that as a group we all worked really well together, we all had a lot of influence in the process and we all went about things in different ways, which i believe when filming is exactly what you need.  However, although we were all working well together i felt that the actual process was quite a challenge, i haven’t had much practice with filming before and using the equipment after joining the course late without having tuition and an understanding of how the equipment worked did slow my personal filming process.

In terms of locations and shots i felt that we did really well, individually and as a group.  We only worked with a few various locations such as the Arboretum, The Castle and also some shots which were filmed on the road sides in Nottingham to help us get our establishing shots.  One shot which i found particularly effective was the establishing shot of the tram as we got the camera to pan, following the motion of the tram to add effect.  I also had one idea in my head which i had thought of and knew i wanted to capture before we actually began filming.  This was a shot which would bring one of my initial sketches from my planning book to life; it was a medium shot of “Robin Hoodie” himself stood in a kind of grunge looking place.  Once I had this shot it was then really the editing which would make it what I had already pictured, however I knew I needed the shot as a starting point so to get multiple variations of that one specific shot really helped me bring my ideas of what i wanted the outcome of my short film to be.

Throughout filming I did find that having to continuously adjust the camera position, the stand for the camera and also the level that the camera was at fairly tedious, although adjusting these and then also the white balance gave us a lot of good shots so the extra time put into adjusting it all was worth it.

When it came to actually editing my footage to create the short film i came across a few problems.  Sound was probably my biggest dilemma as i knew how to cut and edit the clips together but altering the sound I wasn’t too sure on. Especially when there was a lot of movement from clip to clip, or if it went from movement to a still shot it was hard to keep up the continuity with the sound.  Although I was able to get round the dilemma by unlinking the sound from one clip and continuing it over following clips so that the sound was integrated from clip to clip.  The only thing is that I wished as a group we would have recorded the atmospheric sounds, that way I wouldn’t have had to copy the sounds but imported specific ones to match the shots.

Overall i feel pleased with the outcome of my short film.  It has enabled me to gain a wider understanding of Premier Pro and i will be able to create a higher quality piece of footage the next time i use the software.

ROBBIN HOODIE

Since transfering onto the Multimedia BA course, ive had to put in a lot of work in order to catch up with the progress that other students had already made.  However, working in a small group to create a short film has definitely helped me to make the progress which i needed to make :). 
Here's my version of our short film "ROBBIN HOODIE"

ROBBIN HODDIE from zoe bannister on Vimeo.