Identities Exploration

As part of the identities module for next term, we've been told to find out what self identity means to us, and here's the beginning of a picture of various things I'm going to be working on.

The red symbolises the empowerment and feel I have over my future right now, being a successful colour and the darker tones give it a more sexual feel to it. The picture of me posed like that represents the sensitive side, but the bright colours show my more excitable personality. The Spice logo is part of what make me me. Growing up through the Spice phenomenon, it gave me a light into different people and to become a more sensitive person, so I felt it important to add it in here.

Second Life Diary - 4th Entry

Another jump into second life, this time I've experimented with the educational aspect. What is great about second life is that because its so diverse, you can create places that no longer exist. Like this photo shows, the Globe Theatre has been recreated and is available for students and people interested all over the world to look at.

Will this be a way of preserving our beloved buildings in the future or capturing a view of what life may have been like, rather than reading books about it? It could even replace actually going to museums as we become more reliant on technology and less wanting to step outside.

Second Life Diary - 3rd Entry

Well it appears to me that Second Life is based on reality and then the hopes and dreams of real life come from that. As you can see in this new snapshot, my avatar is sitting on a very luxurious looking double bed.

For some reason, I was also able to sit on the top of a television, a table with glasses on and even a chair and a picture frame!

Second Life Diary - 2nd Entry

After wondering around the world trying to find some clothes and a nice hair do for free, I finally managed to get it after about an hour of looking.

It seems as though everyone in Second Life is there to make money, and to pay real money to buy a few coloured pixels seems rediculous! So i'm sticking with this dude, he looks quite handsome after all.

I love the 3D graphics, but I think it's a bit ahead of its time. It seems to me as if it's consistantly downloading graphics all the time, and by the time you've finished doing what ever you wanted in that part of the world, it's just about finished downloading. I think as internet speeds get better and the transfer of data increases, we'll see an online second life come into reality.

Second Life Diary - 1st Entry

I've landed into the Second Life world.

I selected a simple avatar that looked a little like me and decided to begin my journey into the unknown.

I tried to use Second Life once before when I was about 13, the technology then was fairly new and it is nothing like it was back then, either that or I was just too young to understand.

The picture above was a snapshot I took to show the beauty of the water. The 3D modeling has made the rippled in the water look so realisitc, I wouldn't be suprised if this was infact a texture rather than 3D modeling.

I'm still getting my head around it, it seems quite difficult to create an avatar that actually looks like you, and if you're not prepared to spend real money making your avatar look nice, you're pretty much stuck with looking how you do.

Presentation

I've finish editing my presentation in regard to the lecture we had on Thursday and I am very pleased with it. I've tested it on my Dad's laptop and it seems to work fine if run as a show.

Fingers crossed that it'll work right on the night!

Technology Advances

Recent events have made me realise just how far technology has come in such a short space of time.

Logitech has announced their 1 billionth computer mouse has been made recently and that it's also the 40th anniversary of the computer mouse. I found a video on the BBC website about the very first computer mouse. The design of it is clever, yet simple and performs a task that we now take for granted.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7772376.stm

The design of the mouse hasn't changed much at all, from two sliding wheels, to a ball inside the mouse and then to optical mice. The only major change really has been the ability to have a mouse without wires.

Various other products such as touch pads on laptops and touch screens have tried to rival the mouse, but each have their downsides. The touch pads are fairly inaccurate and not much use when trying to draw on computer screens. The touch screen methods are great for diversity, but you can imagine holding your arm out for hours is going to become painful.

Another advance in technology I noticed recently was the addition of WiFi Internet on the bus I take home. You can now actually surf the full Internet at a modest speed whilst sitting on the bus. A couple of years ago, this seemed like miles away, yet we've seen a rapid increase in WiFi hot spots thanks to the use of the Cloud Network. We can even access the Internet while sipping on a coffee in Starbucks or indulging in a burger at McDonalds!

Done, Done and Almost Done

Had a lecture today on Identities, which I'm really excited about!
I love the way our tasks are to play Second Life, how crazy?

I can't wait to start working on our little boxes. I really hope mine turns out well, I wish I could use flash as well as the examples that were shown to us, they were stunning. I'll have to watch a lot of those tutorials, and maybe even invest in the software.. hmm..

Well I've finally handed in my 3 projects. The Pixilation, One Shot Short and Flash Narrative have all been slapped onto a DVD and submitted for assessment. Eek! Apparently, I was the first, so that's good!

I've also written the first draft of my essay, so that's one MASSIVE pile of bricks off my shoulders.

And I've even created my entire PowerPoint presentation too, so I just hope that it a) plays correctly at Uni and b) goes well and I don't trip up over my words too much.

Right, I'm off to download Second Life, what fun!

Flash Fury!

Much to my annoyance, I spent hours working on Flash trying to figure out audio settings, yet I just can't get my head around how to make the music stop after each frame.
Instead of submitting my work late, I have removed the audio from the narrative and compacted the Flash Project into a .SWF and .HTML file for submission.

I am not pleased!

Flash Narrative Progression

After our seminar which was moved to Friday, I've started worknig on my Flash Narrative project!!

Even though it's very simple and the photos I've taken aren't that creative, I think my Flash Narrative is awesome! Especially to say I've NEVER even seen Adobe Flash CS3 before and only really started planning this project a few days ago due to all the stressing with my essay.

I will hopefully come back and add some music to the narrative once I've edited it. I'll be adding cheesey music to the Primark scene, cooler music to the River Island scene, and more sort of rappy or RnB music to the JD scene. This will make it more diverse.

Project is due in next Thursday and if I handed it in now, I'd still be very pleased with it!

Essay Hell

Well it has to be said that I hate writting essays with an absolute passion and the one we've been set is no different.

Usually, I generally know what I can write about for my essays and can wack one out pretty quickly. However, this time I had absolutly no idea what was require from the essay question and no idea about how to find out, I was stuck and lost in a world of words and phrases I had never come accross before.

After swapping various emails with one of our lecturers, and getting a book out at the library, researching a few practitioners, I'm finally getting my head around the question.

I'm setting this week, 1st - 7th December, aside to research for my essay, and next week, 8th - 14th December, to write my essay. This gives me one week to have as a cusion incase anything goes horribly wrong.

On top of my essay, I have to actually think about our current project on Interactive Narratives AND produce a presentation of my best work, it's going to be one heck of a busy few weeks! I just hope there's no work set over Christmas!