My MNS Online RVJ

Final Outcome

2007-06-01T18:30:00.000-07:00

I have refined this work and it is better than the one I submitted, I can say that it's more audio driven. Andy, please access my work here, alright? Thanks! ^O^

Here it is: 1 Day Adventure

Have fun!

Flash Interactivity

2007-05-20T16:01:00.000-07:00

I experimented doing the story part in Flash, it's divided into 6 parts and each of them will come out when click over it. /view flash\

I also experiment using fade in and fade out using actionscript but I didn't apply on my project. /view flash\

Basically the interaction I used for this project is drag and drop and load movie (bgmusic). There is also preloader in the beginning to let user see the loading percentage of the game.

Layout Design

2007-05-18T04:35:00.000-07:00

Sketch

Digital

Story board

2007-05-14T15:34:00.000-07:00

Scene 1: It was a typical day of refreshing morning.

Scene 2: I fell asleep in front of my laptop out of sudden. Probably I had insufficient sleep yesterday.

Scene 3: After a while, I disappeared from where I belong to.

Scene 4: I was as if falling into a virtual environment.

Scene 5: After I regained my consciousness, I found myself at the beach....

Scene 6: AHHH~~~ WHERE AM I?!

Visual Research

2007-05-12T15:32:00.000-07:00

Since my project location is on the island, I searched for island's visual references

Communicator World

I like the colours that this site uses, greenish and fresh. The water flows delicately and the character animation is very cute :D

Screenshot from an Anime called Nagasarete Airantou

Actually, I'm sort of inspired by this Anime, the island itself gives me guidelines on how I have to design the interface later on.

Neopets

This island is packed with lots of stuffs, but still the typical island kind of design.

Art Direction Research

I like the way where the trees animated when roll over them, I want to apply this to my project.

Screenshot from the same Anime as above

I'm going to apply this kind of effect when my character falls dowm from reality to virtual island.

Side Character Design & Object Design

2007-05-11T02:27:00.000-07:00

Monsters - Sketch

Monsters - Digital

Stones - Sketch

Stones - Digital

Boxes - Sketch

Boxes - Digital

Main Character Design & Research

2007-05-10T15:30:00.000-07:00

Not using Cyber Gal is a waste for me, at least I have learned something new from it. For 1 Day Adventure, my character is going to wear green costume and brown hair, emphasizing on island characteristics. At first I thought of using Tarzan-girl but I don't think it will work either, it's not like being casted away or survival game, she just wants to escape from the virtual island where she trapped.

Sketch

Digital

Charuca

Actually, the character design I did was actually inspired by this, I like its colour usage, simple and clean.

Identity Design - Logo

2007-05-09T15:02:00.000-07:00

I use "1 Day Adventure" as title for my project. Hence, I come out with a logo design

Sketch

Digital

The reason I use other elements to "decorate" the logo is to bring out the true meaning of the logo design - Island. Wave, sun, island are used =)

Logo Research

2007-05-08T15:43:00.000-07:00

The logo design I want to do is more like bubbly and plastic feel. The following reference is provided:

Game Planning

2007-05-07T16:20:00.000-07:00

Instead of using cyberspace, I changed the place to an island. It sounds totally out-of-track and unmatched to my previous ideas but what to do? My brain juice is drying up day by day... I couldn't afford to think ANOTHER idea anymore, must SETTLE with this!

OK... Let's start. Hrm... First, I will have a story of introduction, just like my previous story board. After the story ends, the game will start. It should be started linearly in order to pass and go to another stage.

Idea Version 4

2007-05-05T13:01:00.000-07:00

I have been changing ideas for so many times already, what happened to me? This is ridiculous! I used to give up ideas when I couldn't think any further possibilities in the project. Few days ago, I went to library to search for inspiration by flipping though design magazines. I came across Vectorpark.com. After that, I went back home and visited the site. Instantly, I was as if being "enlightened", this site gives me the idea of interactivity! I haven't tried doing this kind of project, why don't I give it a try? Hence, I start to re-think for another new idea yet sticking to the brief. If so, my Cyber Gal series cannot be used for this context already.

Vector Park

Samorost2

Vectorpark.com has similar game interactivity like Samorost2.net, where the player have to keep finding the hidden clickable button and proceeding the adventure to the end. The player cannot miss any possible clue, otherwise cannot go to another stage. I started to relate this kind of approach to my brief. How could it be? Maybe I can make it like an adventure for my character in the game in order to escape from the place. Yes! This idea can work! I give up using Cyber Gal's concept and concentrate planning the adventurous game. There is no time left!

Pre-Assessment Day

2007-05-01T05:56:00.000-07:00

I wasn't prepared for the day but I did attend the class and had seen some of the classmates' works. I was scared to present mine because the day itself I lost self-confidence. It was already lunch time and we had break, I thought of seeing Andy but I left campus for another-half-session. I'm so down... There are 30 days until deadline comes...

Internet Mystery Game

2007-04-28T17:47:00.000-07:00

Andy sent me this link via Moodle: Lost Experience

The crews really work in a big scale of project which involves audience, hope that I can experience playing it. After watching the video in the site, I don't think I have enough time to produce something like this. I rather stick to more basic idea of mine =(

Stressful

2007-04-28T12:49:00.000-07:00

Pre-assessment on first day of May is coming and I can't think of any idea to 'boost' Andy's idea, I'm such a failure. I think I should work something linear first. Internet mystery game is beyond my ability already T_T

Story Board

2007-04-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

I provided script below for visual aiding
Scene 1:
In a typical day, I fell asleep in front of my laptop because I had been working whole day since the day before and couldn't afford to find a chance to sleep.

Scene 2:
It had been a while that my monitor in screen saver mode. Suddenly... (The screen became white and shined upon the object in front which was me.)

Scene 3:
I disappeared from where I belonged to.

Scene 4:
After I gained my conscious, I found myself in another dimension. I tried to think hardly what was happening that moment but all I cannot think was who I was.

Scene 5:
I cried for being so helpless and hopefully there was someone who can help me to find my way back, because I knew, I wasn't belonged to this place. Meanwhile...

Echo: Please don't cry, actually you are being trapped in your cyberspace and has short-term memory lost. However, I will help you to find your memory back and get out of here, everything will be fine.

I stop crying after being comforted and get hold of myself. I must go on no matter how I frustrated I was.

Scene 6:
Suddenly, I saw a mystery folder with question mark appeared beside me.

When I opened it, a shining star flied out and said, "I will be at your side to guide you.

Scene 7:
I was so glad that I was not alone along the adventure it may be.

Idea Version 3

2007-04-23T20:10:00.000-07:00

OK... After consulting Andy, I changed my idea again. It's not going to be like what I click is what I want. Somehow, I'm too focusing in visual rather than interactivity, sigh... This time, my character will search of her fragments of memory using the existing webtools like Blogger, YouTube, Wikipedia and etc in order to escape. There are 10 missions in the game and Cyber Gal has to answer 1 and another before proceeding to next stage. At the end of the game, Cyber Gal, which is me, is able to escape from the cyberspace where I am being sucked into. Each stage, there is a question concerning myself since I lost my memory. After I gained the answer from certain webtool, I have to key in the answer (password) and go to another stage, something like that...

Dilemma

2007-04-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

During 2nd time of consultation with Andy, he gave me lots of ideas in creating Internet mystery game. Somehow the ideas he gave really inspired me to do another way of approach. If I really do this, I have to give up my initial intention which I want to improve my design sense. I'm in dilemma, should I changed my idea totally?

Layout Design

2007-04-21T08:27:00.001-07:00

Managed to design this, it's quite simple. I use pink as my main colour for this project to show that she's delicate. Personally, I also like pink very much and I used to apply pink in most of my projects.

Layout Design Thumbs

2007-04-17T17:20:00.000-07:00

Found some interesting layout design in Deviantart, which is quite similar to my art direction. My art direction is to have glassy feel in a 2D environment, since my character is already in 2D form. The glassy reflective effect will be applied on the logos. Somehow it's like my first idea, but it's not going to have so much graphics.

Art Direction 01

Art Direction 02

I downloaded some of the webstools' logos, wanting to apply them to my interface.

My sketch

Site Identity - Logo

2007-04-16T08:26:00.000-07:00

This is a typical 'cyber life' for my character, the Cyber Gal. I will transform into my character once I enter cyberspace under certain circumstances. In this logo, I intend to make 'Cyber Gal' to have bigger font size and "A Day in My Life" smaller to show that the Cyber Gal is the main character of my work. She is also standing alongside with "L".

Sketch

Digital

Series of Cyber Gal

2007-04-14T20:23:00.000-07:00

Wow! Can't believe that I am able to create a series of Cyber Gal within a designated period of time. At the same time, I searched quite a number of tutorials on how to create Manga character in DeviantArt using Adobe Illustrator, especially for line work. Actually, this is what I want to learn an extra skill for myself. I like this site a lot. The longer I stay in this site, the more I want to learn more, especially digital colouring for Manga character. Well, I don't think I have much time for now, it is going way too far for my project XD

Here are some of the tutorials I searched:
Chibi Girl Pencil Sketch
Illustrator Outline

Here goes my sketch as well as my Cyber Gal~

I use yellow and purple as both of them can complement with each other in colour wheel.

Character Design Drafts

2007-04-05T22:20:00.000-07:00

Here, I sketched some character design in 2 forms, one is using simple line and stroke to construct, while for another one is drawn in human form. Notice that I use '@' to symbolize 'online' for both. The first one is easy but it's not what I want, just sketch for fun. I'm happened to draw helmet for my characters to wear on their heads. I like to draw something 'chibi', it's my style of drawing. So, my character for the project is going to be like Manga style, which I would like to learn. I'm going to search for tutorials on how to construct 'chibi' Manga character.

Idea Slightly Changed

2007-04-01T23:13:00.000-07:00

It's not going to be educational anymore, instead, I will have categorize my online activities and create different chambers for my character to play around with, which is what I usually do online. For this idea, I have to design my character in different poses to represent the particular activity.

Here is the flowchart:

Flow Chart & Sketches

2007-03-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

My character will wander from scene to scene and each scene will have different design to represent different kind of environment.

A very rough sketch for the identity, simply draw without knowing purpose XD

Idea Version 2 & Visual Research

2007-03-29T09:44:00.000-07:00

Well... Even since I spend most of the time in cyberspace, I decided to transform myself a character which resembles me and she will travel from a dimension to another within a cyberworld. She will be exploring around. I also feel like adding a section called 'knowledge corner' which will be talking about selected internet terms, rather like glossary. Eventually, this project is more like educational basis (am I going too far?). The entire project will record what I have learned from the adventure. When click on 'Exit', I will back to normal.

The idea is actually I was inspired by these 2:

Dubois Meets Fugger

The interactivity used is very engaging and interesting. There are 4 different links which lead to different colours and different animation as well. There will be different animation if the page leads to another page in different sequence. I really like the way of the character being 'tortured' XD

Honda (UK) - Make driving fun again

I like the idea of different cars have different environment to display their characteristics in certain way. Also, there is transition of animation from menu to the product itself and the background colour will change spontaneously as well as the graphics. I also like animation that appear in every page of the car. Also, every page has its unique colour, there are 11 in total. I like the art direction, it's my favourite style of design. Linear type of interaction, but still, I like the colour combination and animation overall.

Online Activity Analysis

2007-03-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

For your information, I'm an international student and not many activities involve in this foreign country as it will spend money. The most economical method is... Staying in my room and do more cyber activities more than spending time on 'reality', how ironic. But it's true. Occasionally, I will go for traveling and shopping outside though.

I have been analyzing what I usually do in a day and this is the result:

1. Watching web TV
2. Downloading Anime, Drama, Songs, Images
3. Playing online / offline games
4. Chatting with friends and family
5. Checking mails
6. Blogging
7. Visiting community sites
8. Watching movies
9. Listening to music
10. Managing my desktop
10. Cooking
11. Reading E-News
12. E-Shopping
13. Sleeping

How typical and uninteresting regarding to all these. I wonder how to make them into my project =(

Fight Club

2007-03-25T15:07:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching Fight Club that recommended by Andy after I proposed my idea. I forgot the reason Andy asking me to watch, but I can't see any relation to my project, lol. Andy, would you please remind me again? Thanks ^^

This movie is produced in year 1999. There is person who suffers from insomnia and has split personal in him. There is no name for the person in the movie yet his 'imaginary friend' has, it's called Tyler Durden without his realization. In the end of the movie, I only knew that what his 'imaginary friend' did is what he did, indeed. His friend's action reflects himself. Maybe I'm quite slow in response, I only discover that Tyler Durden is not a 'human being' in reality >< It's not necessary for me to summarize the entire movie but all I can say about the movie is violent, explicit and vulgar. But the movie uses soap as the identity in the movie, for me it's sort of unmatched XD In the beginning it's quite boring as this involves physical fighting, but after knowing he himself is so called Tyler Durden, that part only becomes exciting when almost come to an end. Two hours of watching without moving around is so tiring...

Please Help Me~!

2007-03-24T14:31:00.000-07:00

HELP!!! I'm facing critical time with my external hard disk... It started to act very weird since few weeks back then until now it's finally down. Its current situation is the sound of spinning is abnormal and cannot be initiated by my system. I am so worried that my data will lose for good... And I don't afford to buy a new one though. My SATA 3"5 hard disk is from Seagate, it has 320GB capacity. Any advice on where and who should I consult to deal with this technical support? My mind just can't stop thinking about this matter and become anxious, I almost lose myself as I have so much precious data inside and I have no idea on what I should do. I feel like flying back to Malaysia and get it fixed =( I know it's impossible but... I only know how to sigh T_T

glue London

2007-03-22T16:04:00.000-07:00

Well, just as I expected, I didn't attend to the session because I couldn't wake up in the morning. Therefore, to decrease the grief for not attending, I decided to write an email to glue London's one of the person in charge who set the brief, Jo Hagger.

Dear Jo,

I came across to the D&AD awards and looked through the brief that your company set. Although the competition date almost expires, but I intend to work on the brief for my project in university. Anyway, I'm a final year student in UCE Birmingham and my course is BA(hons) Visual Communication.

My purpose of emailing you is to know more in depth about the brief that you set. Do you expect contestants to submit work based on available web savvy such as blogs, flickr, myspace to be included in a typical of my life? My initial ideas is to analysis what do I do in a day and illustrate the visuals. But after confronting with my tutor, he suggested me to work on more 'technical', like what I used to browse or surf in Internet and make a story something like that, but make in more interactive way and interesting. So... After that, I realize that my idea is too general and decided to go for the direction that my tutor suggested. Any ideas for me to succeed my projects? I'm not going to participate the awards though but as the person who set the brief would you give my some advice? Your kindness will be much appreciated.

Thank you very much!

Zoey

Her replies:
Hi Zoey,

To be honest, the openness of the brief is intentional – you should do whatever you feel best and most creatively expresses what a day in your life is like. There’s really not a ‘right’ or a ‘wrong’ way of doing it. That said, it’s probably clearer to have some kind of ‘angle’ or direction for your project rather than just trying to illustrate/describe every single aspect of your day, so your tutor’s advice is probably pretty good.

Good luck with you project & your final year.

Best regards, Jo

Joint Managing Director
glue London
www.gluelondon.com

After analyzing her words, still, I can't focus some of the aspects. I need quite some time to 'digest' and think of a new solution for my project.

Tutor Meet-Up

2007-03-19T21:41:00.000-07:00

The meet-up session was started off late due to the sharing of physical computing session was ended late. Well, since my meet-up time was 3.30pm, I joined Maria's and Xiao Yan's sessions just to kill my time and listen to their proposals as well.

When it was finally my turn, I proposed my idea to Andy and he gave me lots of ideas, which are out of my area of thoughts. He suggested me to work on more 'technical', like what I used to browse or surf in Internet and make a story something like that, but make in more interactive way and interesting. He also informed me that the sponsor of the brief - glue London is coming to BIAD to have sharing session, I supposed, and advised me to join the session on Thursday 11.30am in Room 201. He added that there are a few former graduates from BIAD work there too. I hope to attend, if I can make it =P Andy asked me to look for experts to talk about Web 2.0 and this might help my project. He also recommended me to watch Fight Club and Se7en o.O

Somehow I think my project wouldn't incline to have much technical solution but rather linear and easy-to-understand approach in order to cater to my ability.

Idea Version 1 & Visual Research

2007-03-18T05:26:00.000-07:00

My very first idea after reading the brief is to have more visual led piece of work. The reason I choose this approach is because I want to improve my design sense throughout the project. First I will draft out the activities that I used to do in a typical day generally and design them in consistent in terms of using same design elements hour by hour. I haven't really sketch them yet, it's just came to mind suddenly but I will start doing more visual research. The design should be combination of vector and raster. However, I'm afraid that I will neglect interactivity if I overdo the designing. Let's see...

http://www.prismgirl.org/

She is a Japanese designer. I like the way she arranges the images and luminous ornaments is outstanding enough to bring out the identity of this site - illusion

http://www.wiiik.com/

I like the ornaments behind the dwarf, it's so lovely.

http://eepmon.com/

This artist has done a lot of great works, this picture is similar to what I intend to do for the idea.

Project Proposal

2007-03-17T14:26:00.000-07:00

When I was trying hard to think of what I should do for my final project, I came across D&AD website. After going through all the briefs of the competition, I decided to do my final project based on one of the briefs under Digital Media, which is A Day in Your Life. It might be late to participate the competition, but somehow, I think I would do something base on brief rather than doing things out of the blue, at least I have guideline on what I should do throughout the project. According to the brief, I am asked to design a website which creatively demonstrates a typical day in my life.

Adapt from the brief:
Analyse the activities and experiences of a typical day in your life and design a website which creatively demonstrate your findings in an exciting and engaging way to any viewers.

Mandatory requirements
Your website may reflect your actions for the whole or any part of a typical day.

Consideration
This is a chance for personal interpretation an experimentation - push the creative possibilities of the web and resist the temptation to over-complicate. A single creative idea is worth a thousand more prescriptive pages.

Think about the entire interactive experience and how you would most creatively communicate the information to a social network. What would you be willing to share?

Background
Blogs, MySpace, Flickr, Web 2.0... Technologies are converging and we are all becoming part of an online social revolution. Each on is an experiment in documenting a part of yout life - but how would you describe your whole self in order to share it with others? Your belongings, your thoughts, your belongings, your pleasures and dislikes...

My initial idea is to analysis what do I do in a day and illustrate the routines in visuals, I hope this will work.

Throughout the project, I will understand every single thing that I do in my so-called typical day more detailed and precise, hopefully.

Aim for Learning Outcome!

2007-03-16T14:18:00.000-07:00

Manage your own learning including self-evaluation through reflection, and take action that results in self-development
Evidence of work that is thoroughly informed by a reflective and self-evaluation process, and demonstrates your evaluation method (including criteria), resulting in the application of a coherent, formal and original strategy of self-development, indicating why and how aspects of your learning have been achieved.

Apply technical and analytical skills to the conception and production of a range of visual communication media
Evidence of relevant and competent technical proficiencies applies at an advanced level to produce work that is visibly informed by a thorough process of analysis, including examples of media analyzed and a clear methodology in the conception of visual media.

Demonstrate a systematic understanding of key aspects of your subjects, including acquisition of coherent and detailed knowledge, at least some of which is at or is informed by, the forefront of defined aspects of a subject and/or professional practice
Evidence of the coherent synthesis of key aspects of the subject attained through systematic learning and identification of practice/knowledge that is considered to be at the forefront of defined aspects of the subject and/or professional practice, applied to a body of work that demonstrates at least some elements of originality in either development or outcomes.

Generate a body of work that is considered to be at a professional level in terms of conception and realization
A body of work including development and outcomes, that demonstrates a coherent methodology that supports development and learning. Visual outcomes that are clearly informed by thorough development work and are considered to be comparable with work produced within a professional context in terms of concept and realization. Originality demonstrated in terms of concept(s) or method(s) of realization.

Demonstrate sophisticated communication and presentation skills
A visually led, coherent and articulate reflective presentation that encapsulates a thorough process of learning that has resulted in the production of visual media. The presentation should include clear methods of evaluation, research and visual development that support visual outcomes. An appraisal of learning achieved and an indication of future learning needs in furtherance of development in the subject area.

Welcome to My MNS Online RVJ

2007-03-15T20:02:00.000-07:00

P/S: Please allow me crap before the real stuffs going up to my online RVJ ^^"

It's going to be very challenging for setting up such RVJ as I have never post my progress of my work in the net. This chance has opened my enclosed mind and be free to the outer space of Internet. It seems a bit exaggerated but it's true XD Hopefully, throughout this online RVJ, I will be able to do more research for my project and expand my research area as well. Thanks, Andy for suggesting to have online RVJ~ ^^

What a surprise! I have not been blogging for so long and I didn't notice the changes of Blogger. I used to blog last time by using my own designed template and I never know that Blogger has improved in terms of user friendliness. It can now be logging in by using Gmail account and create a new environment of blogging experience. It allows bloggers to customize templates as it has more variety of settings. I would never know these if online RVJ were not exist XD Well, I choose Blogger to be the host of my online RVJ as it is easier to manage. I thought of using more advanced blogging service like WordPress but it will take time to figure out the configuration and settings. I don't bother to waste my time on that so here I go. In my online RVJ, I wanted to show research which is not in my knowledge area but also related to my project, so please don't laugh at me if anyone of you know my research than I do :P

Argh!!! Can't wait until the day I finished my project and also how's my RVJ going to look like. Hopefully, my fellow classmates and tutor can drop by and contribute some comments. This will help me to grow and expand my thinking area.

That's all what I want to say. Thanks for paying me a visit~~