OMG if only i could create this in 3Ds Max!!

I was searching for some interaction design practioners which proved a challenge! But managed to come across this jem, the detail is amazing and something I can work to achieve within the second year of study. To watch the video click the picture and to view his portfolio follow the link :).

http://www.stevesportfolio.co.uk/

Digital Arts Magazine

http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/

The digital arts magazine allows me to keep up to date with whats happening in the world of digital design. it includes product reviews, featured news and articles and tutorials on software. this is an easy way to find and incorporate up and comming techniques within my work in the second year.

BIMA awards 2007

I took a look at the winners of last years British Interactive Media Awards (BIMA) and see who the judges felt represented last years best designers and projects to draw inspiration from them especially since the pathway I wish to follow next year is Online enviroments so interactivity will play a large part. Below are some of the winners which I felt were of the highest standards.

http://www.goodtechnology.com/home.html
Project: What is in The Box?
Client: Adobe

http://www.flamingpear.co.uk/index.php
Project: The Interactive Dive Cage
Client: Oceanarium, The Bournemouth Aquarium

http://www.flamingpear.co.uk/divecage/video.html

http://www.thegrandunion.com/
Project: Commit to save your 20% campaign
Client: The Energy Saving Trust

http://www.thegrandunion.com/bima/est_progress/est_progress/leaderboard01.html

http://www.lbigroup.com/en/
Project: Sony - This is Living
Client: Sony

http://www.lbigroup.com/en/our-work/sony-ps3/

http://www.inbox.co.uk/
Project: Jelly Jumper
Client: Logitech

http://www.jellyjumper.com/

User Feedback!

The user feedback showed that each part has a level of interactivity within it as interactivity was marked highly. Due to the AV aspect being marked low within the user testing I feel firstly they could be speeded up, once in the site the playback speed was slower than I had anticipated; also the quality of the videos could be improved by working on the pixilation. Another low scorer was the sound, this could be improved by having a background track on each of the pages, however after looking at websites in the research stage I decided against this as I sometimes find this irritating as the user. It was also suggested the buttons could be made of a larger area in the opening page as they were originally just along the lines and this is an improvement I have made. The most successful part of the site according to the user feedback is the draws opening whereas the least liked section was the perfume as it was said to be hard to navigate.

Publishing!

I published the flash file as a HTML and the screenshot below is how the website looks to the user.

Problems :(

The main problems that occured whilst making the interactive box were that I could not stream the video so was unable to have full controls to accompany the videos for the user to have full control.

Other probelems which occured were mainly due to actionscript, the first being the perfume bottle movie clip and getting it to play which with a little fiddling was sorted within little time. The other was again simple but with the amount took a while to change as I used scenes for each object so needed to link them all to the main page. However I had never linked scenes so had to research how to do this, in doing so I found that the code was supposedly...

gotoAndStop("main",1);

Although when I came to testing that all the links worked I found that they didn't :( However I seeked help and found the simple mistake I had made, which was...

gotoAndStop(1,"main");

Object #5 - Shoes!

I decided on shoes as an object as I love shoes and have an ever growing collection! Each one shows a different side to me and a part of my identity. I felt this could be represented interactively with the use of a slide show allowing the user control. Alhtough simplistic the slideshow works well but if given the chance to improve the slideshow I would perhaps use a photo idea similar to that of which I used for my Tunisia identity project as it may be more effective.

Object #4 - Completion of AVI :)

I have now added the words I feel represent what dancing has added to my identity. The audio track used is a track from a CD used within my dance school in my Intermediate Ballet lessons, and after working hard to pass this exam at the Royal Ballet School I know each of the tracks off by heart and still remember every step. Therefore I felt this, as an embedded memory for life was appropriate for representing dance and identity. Enjoy :)

The video itself will not actually be within the main box but instead ballet shoes will be present to be dragged and dropped out. When this happens a play button will appear so the movie can be watched, making it interactive.