my own code

Art Organizations

2012-01-10T16:39:00.030Z

As I am doing my client project for Prime Cuts, I thought I'd look at some art organization websites to get some inspiration and ideas.

Shape

Arts Council

Institute of Contemporary Arts

Paddington Arts

Research - Interactivity=Sales

2011-11-20T18:24:00.000Z

Interactivity = Sales

If you can draw your reader’s eye and successfully get them to do something, you are on your way to winning new customers.
Be interactive, because when your customers feel compelled to do something, they are one step closer to buying!

"Interactivity=Sales" [online]
http://www.thunderdata.com/thunder_bits/importance_of_interactive_websites.html
[Accessed 20 October 2011]

Research - Importance of Interactivity in Web Deign

2011-11-18T16:02:00.016Z

Importance of Interactivity in Web Deign

Interactivity has increasingly become one of the central themes of web design.
A truly successful website is able to encourage any level of interaction.
A good single user interaction should be able to provide the user with an engaging element on the website’s content.
A positive interaction will encourage a good relationship between the user and the content.

“Importance of Interactivity in Web Design” [online]
http://www.nethu.org/2011/07/importance-of-interactivity-in-web-design/
[Accessed 20 October 2011]

Research Project Topic

2011-11-15T21:53:00.007Z

I haven't said anything about the research project here yet :/

So I had several ideas at the beginning, and they were all based on the idea of Interactivity.
I looked at some articles on the internet like this one is about being interactive on commercial websites in order to gain more customers. And this one is about the importance of interactivity in web design.
I came up with this question after considering different topics:

How interactive websites help commercial companies build up a brand compare to ordinary websites?

And after talking to my tutor and looking at some more articles on this journal, I've moderated the question to:

Does different interactivity on a website affect users’ perception of a brand?

I've already submitted the Research Top Form and now in the process of reading articles and books. Will be updated soon!

Touch Screen Electric Guitar

2011-11-14T00:41:00.000Z

So I came across this touch screen electric guitars and thought they are really cool to share - The Misa Digital Guitar

So you can make a whole lot of different sounds from this guitar just like an electric piano but with a guitar. Creating special sound effect doesn't seem so hard now:)

And with the technology improving everyday, I believe daily object with the need of interactivity will become bigger and bigger.

Music Video - Even Now by Sung Si Kyung

2011-10-31T21:31:00.001Z

Hong Kong!
Some how it made Hong Kong looked so beautiful. I feel unfamiliar with my hometown...

Anyway, I like how the way this music video was shoot.

Simulated Client - Final Design

2011-10-20T10:15:00.001+01:00

So I made it. But I think it looks plain and too simple. So I go and searched for some more cancer-fund websites and then I had the idea of adding some colours into the paragraphs from this website- http://www.cancer-fund.org/en/index.html

I like how the colours in the paragraphs highlight some key words and makes the page less dull.

So here's the improved version-

Simulated Client - Wireframe & Mock up

2011-10-15T08:40:00.000+01:00

Since my idea is just a simple website, my wireframe isn't very interesting. But it showcase how my original design looks like.

So here's a mock up page for my design so far. 4 links at the bottom to go to other pages.

Simulated Client - Ideas

2011-10-11T23:43:00.000+01:00

I've decided to do a simple website for the simulated client project for NTU's Alumni Association specified in the Cancer Research area. I am thinking of doing a 5 pages website with only very few buttons showing the Cancer Research information on each page, which this website could be used to promote the Cancer Research Project for people to know more about this project and donate to help.

I am looking at some existing cancer-based websites for ideas.
I realized most of them uses simple font and styling in their website to make sure they look professional and serious. They have clear information page and details of their work.

So I will keep my website simple and fresh, so the audience would understand what the website is about right away.

Music Video - Hug Me Once by Girl's Day

2011-10-10T18:01:00.001+01:00

This is not exactly an interactive video, but it's fun as a music video.
You could click on some buttons but with the 'Game' some buttons are fake. I like the idea that it was filmed like a video game and you have different endings too.

~~I bet those guys like it (lol)~~

Interactive Music Videos

2011-10-09T18:17:00.001+01:00

I've always loved watching music videos. And as I find interactive music videos very interesting, why not use this topic for my Context 3 assignment.

Here are some inspirations:
10 interactive music videos powered by flash
and this one I posted already

I really like the 'I've seen enough' and 'Bell' video, but I am thinking more of the 'Keep Your Head Up' type video, where you have choices to choose from and form your own story.

Or like in the 'mirror' video, you upload a photo of yourself or you connect to facebook/twitter, so it takes some of your personal information from you to put into the video, so it becomes your own 'personalised' video.

I need to start writing something soon.

Illusion

2011-07-13T18:28:00.001+01:00

Group Client Project - Javascript for controlling font size

2011-05-25T18:05:00.001+01:00

As we realised that many software companies may have smaller computer monitors, I got the job to look up a Javascript which could control the font size in a page.
So here's the Javascript for changing the font size in the webpage.

http://www.white-hat-web-design.co.uk/articles/js-fontsize.php

I've tried it in one of the page we've got and it worked.

I've also created two icons for the changing buttons. (transparent background with white image so it doesn't show:p)

Group Client Project - more fonts

2011-05-24T23:55:00.000+01:00

As the font we decided to use turned out was a bit "fade" to see, we are looking for a font that looks similar to Caviar Dreams but also clear in a small size. So here's some I looked at.

1) Droid Sans - looks clear in 12 and 14px but it's not all that Caviar Dreams

(click to enlarge)

2) Arimo - looks less clear in 12px but quite good in 14px

(click to enlarge)

3) Quattrocento Sans - 12px doesn't look as good as in 14px but better than the second one

(click to enlarge)

4)
Raleway - most similar to Caivar Dream but not very clear even in 14px

(click to enlarge)

5) Nobile - look good both in 12 and 14px

(click to enlarge)

6) Ubuntu - clear in 12 and 14px too but itsn't very Caviar Dreams

(click to enlarge)

I personally prefer the 5th one-Nobile, I think it looks modern and professional, yet very clear in a small size. I am going to discuss with my groupmate and see what they think.

Music Video - Love Song by BIGBANG

2011-05-23T13:34:00.000+01:00

I can't believe I haven't posted it here. It's a music video from the famous Korean pop group BIGBANG.

One shot! Really like the angles and the zoom in and outs.
I love it's in black and white too, it adds a sorrow feeling to the video.
and...how could you stand under that smoke and dance!? I also would like to know how many times they've rehearsed before the actual shooting to get that one shot done! You know...there's a car explosion at the end where you need to get it right for only one time!

Apparently the production costs $200,000 USD and they have been filming it for 4 days using "Skycam (overhead cameras on wires)" and "4 point wire cam" (not sure if those are official names:p)

Just in case, this is the Making of the video here for you.

Cars 2 trailer recreated with LEGO

2011-05-21T16:45:00.002+01:00

It's a frame-by-frame recreation of the original Cars 2 trailer with LEGO bricks.

Isn't this cool. I especially like the explosion part! :)

Group Client Project - updates

2011-05-19T17:34:00.001+01:00

This is the homepage of the website so far.

The navigation and gallery jQuery are working, the pages are linked together.
As each member of our group have done different pages separetely, we are now working on putting the pages together with the same CSS style but the basic structure is done. We still have quite a lot to tidy up and a few jQuery codes needed to be add in but I think we've worked quite well so far as a group.

Group Client Project - Accordion

2011-05-16T17:32:00.000+01:00

As there are so much information in the website we need to include, we need some jQuery accordion to hide some of the content in a page so the content and the page will be neater and clearer.

This is the accordion we are going to use- jQuery Common Accordion - Horizontal and Vertical

Demo

Group Client Project - Product Icons

2011-05-12T16:55:00.000+01:00

These are the original icons for the products.

I've re-designed them to make them look moderner and more professional.

Group Client Project - front page pictures

2011-05-11T11:05:00.003+01:00

I've been working on the pictures that are going to be in the gallery box in the front page, like the one in the Windows homepage with buttons that can slide through the products and linked to the download page.

Each one of these pictures are for each one of the five products in AJC Soft.

They need further editing as they look a bit dull at the moment and we need to try to put them into the actual HTML5 to see if they fit and also ask the client's opinion first and then I could improve the quality of the pictures.

Group Client Project - jQuery gallery

2011-05-10T12:38:00.000+01:00

I am looking at some jQuery galleries for the front page gallery.

1)View Demo

script

We need something like this, with a description and buttons for users to click through the pictures.

2) View Demo

script

I think this is just what we need, with clear arrows and number of slides. Description with links too.

3) Demo + Script

I like this one, simple and professional.

4) Demo + Script

This is similar to the one above, simple and professional. An I think this looks even moderner.

5) Demo + Script

I think our group had came across this one and thought this would be a good one to use. I like it. It's like the two above combined.

Group Client Project - further mock ups

2011-05-05T11:57:00.002+01:00

After meeting up with our group, we've came up with an improved version mock up. I am glad that it's based on my first mock up as my groupmate liked my use of the colours.

This is the improved version mockup for the homepage I made.

This is basically how the website is going to look like with these colours and layout and this is the actual size too. The only thing isn't right is the font, we've decided to use this Caviar Dreams font.

So now we are going to work on the actual HTML5 and CSS3 and putting in some JQuery codes and the more complicated product pages, still a lot to do, more to come!

Group Client Project - Lavalamp menu

2011-05-02T18:04:00.000+01:00

So finally, we've decided not to use a drop down menu in the navigation bar, as it looks a little bit messy when it drops down. We've decided to use the Lavalamp Menu in the navigation bar, because it's neat and looks professional.

Here's the one we've chose to use - Lavalamp Menu

Demo

Group Client Project - Mock up

2011-04-28T10:01:00.000+01:00

Working on some mock ups at the moment. This is the first mock up draft of the homepage.
We've chosen this color template as our color theme as we all agreed to the colors of blues and greys.

More to come....

Group Client Project - Structure

2011-04-26T15:42:00.001+01:00

This took me a long time.
The basic structure of the existing website.
Since our client had updated the website recently, there are some changes in different sections. They've added a forum and useful article in the website, but the website now is much clearer and neater than the previous one which makes us easier to build a new one.

(click to enlarge)

It's probably a little bit messy, hope everyone at least understands the basic structures.

Group Client Project - Drop down menu

2011-04-25T22:27:00.001+01:00

Looking at some drop down menus for the website.

I like this one: http://www.webdesigndev.com/web-development/create-the-fanciest-dropdown-menu-you-ever-saw

DEMO

but it's probably a little too complicated.

This one looks quite good too : http://www.clarklab.net/blog/posts/animated-drop-down-menu-with-jquery/

DEMO

I like how the words go bold and bigger when the mouse move over.

I think this one is probably the most suitable for our website : http://javascript-array.com/scripts/multi_level_drop_down_menu/?st

I like how the menu is kind of faded in and out. It's clear and looks professional too.

Group Client Project - Wireframes

2011-04-18T02:09:00.002+01:00

Only one idea for now. More to come.

Group Client Project - Fonts

2011-04-17T23:15:00.005+01:00

I'm looking at possible fonts which we could use in our website.
I think the most important thing about the font in a software website is it should look professional, reliable and easy to read.

1) PT Serif

(click to enlarge)

2) Vollkorn

(click to enlarge)

3) Molengo

(click to enlarge)

Group Client Project - Colour Swatches

2011-04-17T20:06:00.004+01:00

Some colour palettes I think are possibly suitable for our website.

1) http://www.colourlovers.com/palette/92095/Giant_Goldfish

2) http://www.colourlovers.com/palette/381446/Before_All_Fades

3) http://www.colourlovers.com/palette/1490128/spirited_away

4) http://www.colourlovers.com/palette/2204/Retro_blue

5) http://www.colourlovers.com/palette/14664/son_o-prime

I've chosen mostly grey-blue colours as I think it looks professional yet comfortable.

Group Client Project - inspiring websites

2011-04-16T20:55:00.001+01:00

Our client is a software company called AJC Software.
This is their current website http://www.ajcsoft.com/index.php
All we need to do is basically communicate with the client and re-design the website.

So while getting in touch with the client, we decided to look at some software or similar websites and choose 5-10 which has an nice element where we could put in to our website.

1) http://www.comprousa.com/en/home.html

I think the moving news box is quite good to have. If you have a lot of news or updates then you can avoid having a long list but still able to see each news in one box.

2) http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/gb/en/Content/1150905725000

There are several elements I like in this site. I like the flash images in the center of the page. It's big and eye catching. You can see a lot of information in one image and it's effective. We definitely need some drop-down menus like this in our website as there are too much information in the current website but they are not very organized. I like how they have put different links into categories at the bottom so users can find the information they want easily.

3) http://www.novell.com/home/

I think the footer of this website is clear and useful. It has a lot of links but they are in categories so it's very easy to look for the wanted information.

4) http://www.fsf.org/

I like the part where it says "You are here". So users know where they are in the site after clicking into a few links, they know exactly which category they are in and they can go back to the page they want directly with those "You are here" buttons.

5) http://discover.epicor.com/uk/erp/erp-74N2-92056.html

I like the background and the image of the staffs. It looks professional and promising with the sky and the blue.

6) http://www.1sourcetc.com/

I like the picture of "About Us". It looks professional and cool. I also like the "Points of Sale Products" pictures. Because they are circular they look less boring than original rectangular pictures.

7) http://www.computersoftwareinc.com/index.php?page=1

I like the design of this website. It uses flash in both the navigation bar and the image/banner in the middle. I think the color of the website is nice too.

8) http://download-data.com/shop/testimonials/

The "Testimonials" part is simple and clear and I think that's good.

Quote

2011-03-25T22:26:00.000Z

In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning.

by George Orwell

Quote

2011-03-24T23:20:00.000Z

Having a good friend riding along your side is a treasure. So appreciate and cherish it.

from Twitter

Portfolio finished!

2011-03-23T12:36:00.001Z

http://www.salomeliu.com/

Although it's not the best website ever, and I could have done it better, I am so glad it's finally finished. There are still some little errors I need to fix, I will keep working on it over the holiday and hopefully it will be valided by WC3 standards soon.

I decided to change from the idea of having two galleries to one gallery of my work as I haven't got a lot of work to show at the moment. I was having some problems with the memos' position, it didn't look quite like memos at first but then I tried a fw times jusified some sizes of the frames and it worked out ok at the end. The font directory from Google and the JQuery gallery were easier than I thought, it was again only the problem of different frame sizes. Other things basically turnd out how I wanted it to look like so I was quite please. Hope my website has enough to say as a portfolio.

DP3 artist website

2011-03-18T22:57:00.007Z

Live version of the finished website can be viewed here.

It's a very simple black and white website with validated HTML5 and CSS3. I think I will re-edit it over the holiday to make it more interesting and hopefully with more materials from my friend that I could put in.

Sketches

2011-02-28T01:55:00.006Z

Sketches for my portfolio website

wireframe for my portfolio

2011-02-25T11:52:00.000Z

I have decided to make my portfolio website a one-page website, so all of the information I'd like to put into it are clearly shown within one page. I was inspired by James Lai's webpage and thought it's a clever idea.

I've created a wirframe for it-

My idea is making it look like my scratch book, in fact, I will take photos of my own scratch book and put them together to create a scratch book-like page. I will upload a picture later so you will have a better idea of what my idea mean.

ideas!

2011-02-10T22:05:00.010Z

Ideas for the artist website

　

DP3 Assignment 2

2011-01-25T19:34:00.001Z

This term's brief is to creat an artist / art organisation website in HTML5 and CSS3.

I have been thinking about some artists I know of and thought this comic artist and illustrator who's called Little Thunder could be a good one.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thunderlittle/

http://www.applekingdom.net/artist/littlethunder/Code/ (official website under her previous agency)

But then I want to design a website for an artist I actually know, so I could discuss how the actual website will look like with the artist. So I am thinking to do one for a friend of mine who is currently studying fine art at Nottingham Trent University too. I am going to talk to her about it first and see what she thinks then I will make a decision hopefully very soon.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T05:17:00.000Z

Merry Christmas !!

A little greeting from me.
http://salomeliu.deviantart.com/art/christmas-card-190704159

I know it's not brilliant but I didn't want to make a big deal of it anyway.
So hope everyone will have a great Christmas and a happy new year:):)

DP3 Evaluation

2010-12-10T12:33:00.060Z

This is the homepage of my finished website.

Since I am totally new to building a website, I chose to basically stick with the original design. I used to same brown-creamy colour as it is the colour of chocolates. The banner is basically the same as it is their logo, but I rearranged the words and added a chocolate photo so it looks more interesting.

I redesigned the navigation bar to the left side because of the F shape concept. I think it's easier to find the navigations if the bar is vertical. I also grouped the Location and Contact Page from the original website into one Information page, so there isn't too many navigation to choose from and the users could find the same kind of information in the one page.

Originally, I have put a chocolate splash photo as the background picture, but because of the issue of different browser resolutions, I decided to put the picture under the footer so it stays in the same place all the time.

I have put some pictures using JQuery and JavaScript mouse-over in the website, as I think the interactivity makes the website more attractive and the chocolates more appealing. I have also created an entrance page with a chocolate splash as the background and a mouse-over picture as a welcoming sign. The reason I have created this page is because I could like the users to experience how it feels like to go in the shop with appetite for chocolates.

Interactive Music Video - mirror by SOUR

2010-12-09T21:40:00.000Z

http://sour-mirror.jp

A Japanese music video called 「映し鏡」(mirror) by the band SOUR.

You need to have the latest version of Flash Player and it only works in the Safari or Google Chrome browser. Connect with Facebook/ Webcam / Twitter would be much more fun playing it.

I think it's an amazing idea of making an interactive music video like this. Very cool.

It feels like I am participating it in too. With the Google map and all that interactivity, I think it's really well done.

Web 2.0

2010-11-30T23:51:00.002Z

From the article 25 Examples of Web 2.0 and Traditional Design Rules Coming Together, I've chosen this Viget Inspire website as I found it inspiring. It is a blog-based website from the designers of the web company Viget Labs.

I really like the colours and the watercolour theme and feel. It feels calm when I was looking through the site.

I like the header a lot, I think the word 'Inspire' associated with the rising sun worked really well. And I think it's clever that they have their name and logo look like the sun coming up, looks like its telling you there are inspiring things behind the website, you just have to dig them out.

The font looks professional and it works great with the overall design.

I love their avatar, I didn't even realized there is an avatar on each post until the article pointed out. They are so nicely done they don't distract you from reading the posts at all which, many other avatars do.

I find the boxes in the sidebar really cool, the design is unique and contemporary.

It has a lot of information on this website but they are very clear and the content is not just about their work or company, but they also "write about design news, trends, techniques, buildout, inspiration, CSS, and our project" from a more general angle.

The content in the sidebar is rich and very useful. The information is also really well organized.

The site hasn't been changed since 2009, I think it's because the website works well and it's probably representative for them. It looks professional yet interesting for people to look at.

I would very much like to create my own avatar as clever as theirs. And I wish I could make a website which is clear and easy to use but yet content-driven too.

Adit Shukla

2010-11-29T19:12:00.000Z

I just thought this web designer Adit Shukla's portfolio website is so wise that I need to put it up here.

I find the header and the sidebar work together really well and the idea is really clever. I think the choice of colour is quite daring but it works out quite well. Although this is a simple website with not much content, the design of the website is really clever.

Photo Donuts

2010-11-24T19:09:00.002Z

So I found this website called Photo Donuts from my previous art teacher's twitter (That's when I feel twitter and my network useful).

Photo by Valerie Chiang

It is a photography website with different photographers presenting everyday. They are different in style and they are from all over the world. It has some inspiring photos and I think the website itself is quite nice too. It has a clear layout and instructions, I like the home page where its like a portfolio page with the daily photographers photos.

Colour in Design

2010-11-19T11:55:00.002Z

I think the colours of this logo indicate the elements of a cup of coffee.

Blue for water, Brown and Black for coffee beans.

As I thought of Cafe Nero I thought of Starbucks too, so I did an exchange of colours of these two logos.

The Original Logo

reminds me of trees...

christmas tree?

snow on a tree? :p

feels like it's a scary little coffee shop

I think they uses green is because they wanted to show their coffee beans are organic. I don't know about the mermaid, maybe it represents the sea? but what's the sea to do with coffee..........who knows!

The Original Logo

Don't know why but it looks like it's a dairy company...

same reason, it's the colours of cooffee beans, water and milk

This actually reminds me of a cup of latte...

Shigeo Fukuda

2010-11-17T12:28:00.004Z

When I looked at the Design Is History website, Shigeo Fukuda immediately caught my attention - a graphic designer which I had came across briefly before.

1979 Fukuda Illustration Exhibition Keio Gallery, Tokyo

Shigeo Fukuda is a Japanese graphic designer, famous for poster designing. His work is simple but yet effective. He then created illusion illustrations which I found really interesting too. His works are rational reflective rather than commercial, like his most famous work Victory 1945, an ironic illustration of the war.

1975 Victory Poland Poster Museum

He is good at communication therefore had created impacted works using simple illustrations. A lot of his works look simple and easy to understand but yet have complex meanings in them. His works shown concerns about social, cultural and environmental issues if the time. I like his works as they are inspiring and his style of design is so unique and thought provoking.

“I believe that in design, 30 percent dignity, 20 percent beauty and 50 percent absurdity are necessary"

"In terms of my graphic design, I feel visual communication is the most important element.

by Shigeo Fukuda

wireframe

2010-10-29T19:14:00.000+01:00

I have decided to do my 'Retail Space Website' on this chocolate shop called Chocolate Utopia in Nottingham. There are the wireframes I've created for the website.

The design is very simple and hopefully easy to use. I think I will basically stick with its original website for the content.

Illusions

2010-10-22T09:17:00.130+01:00

As we were talking about senses in the seminar yesterday, it reminded me the TV program called "Horizon" I was watching on Monday on BBC 2.

Is Seeing Believing? Interactive Experience

I found it interesting when I think about how our senses work after watching this program. Our senses work separately yet together to enable us to define information we receive. The ways we think, reason and act can be changed by different senses. And I think this could be applied to our multimedia field too. I believe in the future time, there will be more 3D devices within our lives, products like 3D computers and mobiles, and maybe 3D glasses are no longer needed for seeing 3D images or movies. Maybe even 4D products is coming, with our senses like smelling food from a movie?

Illusion quiz

Because our senses work together, although visual design is the most important element in web design, sound effect plays an major part too. If the right sound/music is playing, they can add effective impact to the audience while they are looking through a website. It keeps the audience's attention on the site and maybe concentration too.

Since scientists are working on developing a new sense on human body, I believe there are a lot more interactivity will be developed with the multimedia industry in the future as well.

We Think

2010-10-21T17:48:00.003+01:00

Charles Leadbeater - We Think

I think this is indeed true. I agree with what its saying in the video.

"Information is everywhere", and to me, the web is like a massive brain which stores information from everyone (who's willing to share their information of course) and everywhere.

"New ideas usually come through conversations" and because "More ideas being shared by more people than ever", it leads to mass innovation.

"Mass innovation comes from communities"
"It's like building a bird's nest, where everyone leaves their piece", just like people from different communities sharing/leaving information and ideas on the web which motivate innovation and creativity.

"That should be good for - Democracy because more people will have a voice; -equality because knowledge can be set free to help people who need it"

Yet country like China who has approx. 298 million people have internet access do not have the right to speak even on the web. They have lots of online media restrictions and many of those famed media sites such as Youtube and Facebook are blocked from the government.

Also,
"How do we protect what is private?"
"Are we always safe sharing?"
"How do we earn a living when everyone is freely sharing their ideas?"

So, What do We Think. What do You Think?

20 images about (salo)me

2010-10-14T23:04:00.000+01:00

website reviews

2010-10-14T16:11:00.012+01:00

1) Roth Aniko - http://www.rothaniko.hu/

This is a website of an artist called Roth Aniko from Hungary. Her illustrated-style is strongly presented within the website. I like that she combines her own face with the illustration on the front page, it makes people remember who she is. And along with the colour and the font, it makes people feel looking at this website is going to be interesting and joyful.

The layout is quite clear when you go in to the website, I could say it's user-friendly in terms of the interaction design. I really like the 'ship-carriage' and the balloons and even the fish because it flee when you click it. I also think the way that you can pick at the thumbnail of her works is effective as a work display, and when you enlarge it, there are 2 'angels' on the top which make the whole display more elegant.
I don't really like the font when I was looking at the info bit, as some of the words were not very clear because of the font. But overall I found the font and the website's style matches really well.

2) The Egg Republic - http://www.theeggrepublic.com/

The Egg Republic is an agency which specialized in 3D animation, branding and interactive works based in New York. The website itself is very computer game alike. The little robot is like controlling the screen and I like it acts like a human too. There is a little helicopter flying in the home page and when you poke it, it disappear like it had been shot by guns which I found it quite interesting.

You can pick on the works they produced and also pick the ones at the back like a pile of folder, the way that the information presented was like in a computer game too, where it appears like typing in the computer. It's also really cool that the links are all connected like a runway and I think it represented the meaning of transporting information well. The whole website is very 3D based, you can tilt around the works, which is fascinated but I found it hard to handle after times as it keeps moving when I tried to read the text.

3) Earth Pilgrim - http://www.sachabiyan.com/

This is a website of a photographer called Sacha Biyan. This website is very simple and clear, very easy to use and very understandable. No fancy fonts or designs. The website is based on grey and brown which echoes with his works really well as most of his photos are black and white. And so is the calming background music.

I think the layout of the website looks like a book which makes his journal and photos even more professional and serious. Also in contrast of the clean design, his works look appealing and fascinated. This simple design gives people an image of a composed person which I think suits Biyan as he had travel around the earth and has a lot of different and precious experiences. It's kind of a reflection on his website and works.

Summary of Complete Beginners Guide To Interaction Design

2010-10-14T14:07:00.003+01:00

"Interaction Design bridges the gap between man and machine"

http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/complete-beginners-guide-to-interaction-design/

This article basically tells you the basic info of interaction design and a few things interaction designers should be aware of and what they should do while designing.
Interactive design hasn't got a long history and it's all about the interaction between users and machines.

5 concepts of IxD

Goal-Driven Design - It is essential to know what the users' goals are before designing. And this is the constraints designers have, which need to be considered in order to meet the users' needs.
"Interface As Magic" - The best interaction designs should be simple, easy and unnoticeable, because users don't necessarily think of the interfaces when using the website.
Usability - Should be easy to use and understand in order to give users to get what they want easily.
Affordances - The functionality behind a website or service gives the best interaction designs. It should look like what it is.
Learnability - Familiar components are important for a usable interface, and interaction designers should make interface learnable.

Interaction Designers do...

From/inform a design strategy - Designers need to know who she's designing for and what their goals are in order to design a usable interaction.
Identify and wireframe key interactions - Design and sketch out the interactions wanted.
Prototype interactions - might include XHTML/CSS, prototypes, and paper prototypes.
Stay current - Keep explore new interactions from the web. Be aware of the industry.

My portrait

2010-10-11T17:44:00.003+01:00

This is the first time I play this game, and it's actually fun:)

We can play it online and send it to other friends, see if it come out as an interesting monster:P
http://www.drawandfoldover.com/

And this is actually a very good flash website itself too.

useful websites

2010-10-10T23:17:00.005+01:00

One of the good points of using twitter is I got to know some interesting and useful websites from other people from the industry

Here are some I looked at recently:

17 Websites that all web designers and developers should know

http://veryinspirational.com/blog/web-design-blog/2010/10/06/17-websites-that-all-web-designers-and-developers-should-know/

50+ Beautiful Flash Websites for Your Inspiration

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/beautiful-flash-websites-for-your-inspiration/

40 Must See Cool Short Animation Websites

http://dzineblog.com/2010/09/40-must-see-cool-short-animation-websites.html

Holga 135

2010-09-07T11:29:00.000+01:00

Second roll of my Holga 135 camera.

Photos through out my first year uni life, from Dec 2009 to Jul 2010.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/salome_liu/sets/72157624351781883/

I am getting use to this camera now. This second roll came out better than I thought which I was quite satisfied.

Nove Drink Advert

2010-05-22T22:32:00.008+01:00

Can't find it on youtube. Click the link if you can't see:-
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTc0NDU3ODg4.html

very cool pixilation.
I wonder how did they do the street graffiti thing. Use a desolated area or something?

DP2 Moving Images - Film Ambient Vapour

2010-05-18T23:04:00.001+01:00

Our film is finally done!

Ambient Vapour

I am quite pleased with it. As it is our first "professionally-done film", I would say it worked quite well.
There were a few feedback last seminar about our film that could be improved-

Too many zoom in's-

Some of the zooming in was meaningless, it's not necessarily needed,

Zoom in shots should be done in 3 separate shots instead of 1 continuous zoomed in shot, so the scene could be clearer

The audio was good, but Jools suggested us to put the mystery music in some other part of the film as well, so the mystery feel continues as the film goes along.
Repeated some scenes, as the film was inverse, repeat some scene will make the film clearer and makes more sense

filming

2010-05-05T23:33:00.004+01:00

Storyboard

Scene 9

New Scene

behind the scene

Filming Ideas

2010-04-30T20:54:00.000+01:00

We had a lot of ideas on how our scenes should be filmed, and how the new scene is going to work.

We liked this 2 things happening in 1 scene idea from the film '500 days of summer'

so we decided to use this idea for our new scene.
Hope it work well in our film.

Design Practice 2 - Short Film

2010-04-24T17:42:00.003+01:00

So we've started our last project of DP2 - Moving Images

Our group's script is called 'Ambient Vapour'
We think it is about some kind of addiction and the character of finding herself.
It's a mysterious story which we will leave a lot of spaces to the audience to think what the story is trying to say.
My role is the camera man. I haven't done any filming apart from the one we did in the first term, so hopefully my groupmate Vyte will help me along and we will make a great film.

We had a lecture on making storyboard and prepping the shoot yesterday.
Jools introduced us the production tools Celtx and FrameForge 3D. I found FrameForge very interesting and fun to use.
And as a camera man, I need to be very clear about the angles and shots of how each scene would be like, so we've discussed this yesterday and hopefully it will come out as we wanted it to be.

Web Designer - Nick La

2010-04-15T23:10:00.002+01:00

so I've found this American illustrator and web designer Nick La along with his fascinating studio website and blog.

http://www.ndesign-studio.com - portfolio & blog of Nick La

http://www.webdesignerwall.com/ - a public blog of design ideas, web trends and tutorials

http://bestwebgallery.com/ - a gallery site full of range of web designs

http://icondock.com/ - collection of stock icons that you can buy for your own website

http://jobs.webdesignerwall.com/ - where you can find design jobs

16/03 Context 1 Seminar - Interrogation

2010-03-22T15:11:00.001Z

We split into groups and came up with some questions that could lead a person to talk about thier development.

What have you done last week that reflect on your development?

Online journal, class work and the visual essay

What sources have you used?

youtube, websites

What issue/problem did you have?

The whole project is about problem solving

How did you overcome the problems?

Same as above

After looking at other people's work, how highly do you rate your development?

Not very high, makes me want to do more, feel a bit behind

It seems that msot people start off by researching on the internet. And I do agree that after I look at other people's work, I feel I need to do more, I want to push myself to improve on my development too.

Little bits and pieces for the visual essay

2010-03-18T18:23:00.001Z

I think I will start off by telling what my pathway choice is.

Then show what I am interested in, which explain my choice

Practitioners

IMAGI STUDIOS

Frank Stella

Inspirations

The International Biennial of the poster in Mexico

Moving Flash

2010-03-11T18:00:00.005Z

This is the first moving flash we have been tought

A bouncing basketball

http://salomeliu.deviantart.com/art/trial-quiz-156914569

and my little mario using sprite sheet

http://www.swfcabin.com/open/1268327551

A simple quiz for practice

http://www.swfcabin.com/open/1268328827

Music Video - Troublemaker by ARASHI

2010-03-10T23:12:00.000Z

This is a music video called Troublemaker from a Japanese Group ARASHI.
The reason I like it is simply that this is the first music video I've watched which it's a complete pixilated video. And I still think pixilation is very cool.

09/03 DP2 Seminar - Flash Games

2010-03-09T20:53:00.001Z

Today's seminar was about good and bad flash games.

I have looked at some flash games on http://www.flash-game.net/
and found this game called 'Run Bolt Run' interesting.

http://www.flash-game.net/game/4135/run-bolt-run.html

It's basically a jumping-to-collect-coins and fighting-against-enemy game. It's easy to play, have straight forward instruction and tasks, and also a clear layout to see scores and health.

Another one I tried was called 'Toy Factory'

http://www.flash-game.net/game/2918/toy-factory.html

The quality of the game is quite good as it's 'half 3D'. But the instruction isn't very clear, and it's hard to control with the keyboard arrows. I took a long time to get use to how to play it.

So we have made some conclusions about the important things to remember when making our own quizzes.

quick and easy to play
some kind of awards
music makes it interesting
easy control and easy to get use to
clear instruction and layout
not too easy or simple

Design Practice 2 - flash Quiz

2010-02-28T15:52:00.001Z

The second session of DP2 is Interactive Media, making a flash quiz.
like this one - http://www.pubsquiz.co.uk/quiz/virtualquiz.asp?quiz=1

This is the very useful website to follow our seminars and learn about flash
http://bit.ly/axOKlz

so we learnt how to make a moving image from a sprite sheet like this.

I have decided to make a quiz about the world's famous countries and cities as I love travelling and have found some places are quite familiar in some way.
and I enjoy doing this so much I am really sure about choosing Interactive media as my pathway.

Mexico Poster Competition

2010-02-25T23:03:00.000Z

The 10th International Biennial of the poster in Mexico (2008)

Some very inspiring posters of the competition

http://www.bienalcartel.org.mx/indexBak.htm

Music Video - It's You by Super Junior

2010-02-19T16:59:00.003Z

This is a music video called It's You from a Korean Group Super Junior.
This 4 minutes video is all in one shot, and I really like its way of shooting. I think it's clever how one person goes away and another person comes in the scene in one shot.

Design Practice 2 - Hero Lair

2010-02-12T04:20:00.004Z

This is my hero for my DP2 project

http://www.yatterman-movie.com/

It was originally a Japanese TV animation and had been made into a movie last year.

I am trying to build a lair that looks like the one shown in the movie.

Music Video - Bandage by LANDS

2010-02-01T23:04:00.002Z

This is a music video called "Bandage" from a Japanese band LANDS
(from 5:49 is the making of the video)

The reason that I like this video is because the movement of the frame is really cool.
They didn't use one camera to shot it but a lot of digital cameras to make the freeze scene (see 5:53), Just like how we did our pixilation but the other way round.

Graphic Designer - Shigeo Fukuda

2010-01-28T22:39:00.003Z

"In terms of my graphic design, I feel visual communication is the most important element."

by Shigeo Fukuda

http://www.icm.gov.mo/exhibition/fukuda/philoE.asp

Recommend readings

2010-01-24T23:49:00.003Z

So I've borrowed these two books from the library.

Digital Multimedia by Nigel Chapman & Jenny Chapman
Managing Multimedia by Elaine England & Andy Finney

I started on the first one and have only read the first chapter, but having read the introduction I now understand what multimedia really means.

19/01 Context 1 Seminar - Research

2010-01-22T14:22:00.003Z

We talked about "Research" in this week's seminar. It's interesting that some people thought Research is everywhere happening all the time, but I'm more agree on "you're not researching when you aren't specifically looking for something, it's only taking in information". We also have to think about the Starting points and the way of our research.

And this week our task is about creativity.
I think my creativity in the past few years have been mainly school works. Although it's school work and we have topics that we have to follow in school art work, I enjoy it. And I think those had been Descriptive and Exploratory Researches as we have to research for the topic given and generate something new based on the given topic. I really want to develop my creativity in these 2 years in uni. I think I need to do more art work outside school in order to widen my art work's range.

I should be getting more, and different inspiration by researching, as i think inspiration is essential for creativity. It is also important to explore different views and ideas from various artists. And by broadening my knowledge in multimedia by researching, hopefully I will be more creative.

I think the starting point that I'm most drawn to is In Front of because it would help me to understand what other people think and theresfore could improve from there. I'm a bit wary of the Behind bit as although I do agree that it's important to know about the economic, polictical, social cultural context of the work, it gets complicated. I don't think any of them are irralavent as the other two would also allow me to understand more of the topic.

Astro Boy The movie

2010-01-21T23:04:00.000Z

So this is the movie that I thought we were going to watching on Tuesday's lecture.
It is a Japanese CGI movie called "The Astro Boy", which he is an iron man too
and I just found out that it will be on cinema next week in the UK!
(it was already on cinema last year in HK but it's a shame I didn't go to see it)

http://www.astroboy-themovie.com/

The website is very cool. There are games that you can play too!

And I just found out that the production company IMAGI STUDIOS is a company that produce CG-animated films with operations in HK and the US! wow

http://www.imagi.com.hk/web/eng/

and I LOVE this website! if you click on "behind the scenes", they explain how their films were made and they have videos and photos showing what they look like during the production, which I found really interesting and fun!

3ds Max

2010-01-20T22:00:00.001Z

oh This is fun!
although I still have a lot to learn about 3dx max

Music Video - Mola by Tomohisa Yamashita

2010-01-20T19:21:00.002Z

This is a music video called Mola from the Japanese singer Tomohisa Yamashita.
I think the special effects of CG is very cool.

12/01 Context 1 Seminar - Active Learning

2010-01-17T23:46:00.003Z

Active Learning is, when students are given the opportunity to take a more interactive relationship with the subject matter of the course, encouraging them to generate rather than simply to receive knowledge.

The aim this term is to decide which pathway to choose to study for the next two years. I haven't really decided which one to choose yet. But I don't think I would choose moving images as I didn't enjoy the shooting part last term, although I love watching dramas and TV programs.

And this week our task is to write about our practitioner development activity. So basically the independent study activity we do outside uni/school. So my brain was blank when I heard this, but then when Jools said reading, watching, talking, listening and making all fits as practitioner development, I realised I do lots of things which does help me as a practitioner

I love to watch TV programs and dramas especially Japanese ones. I discuss with my friends and other people on forums about the story, structure, scripts, characters, editing, background music etc. after watching them.
I also help in forums making banners, icons, wallpapers, GIF pictures (i just realised it's pixilation) using PS and I really enjoy this job.
I listen to a lot of different types of music. I have collected some original sound music from movies and dramas and I started to keep the instrumental version of Japanese songs from last term as those Japanese CD usually include an instrumental version of the plugged song. And which these songs are useful for our multimedia course

As I said in the last post, I really need to widen my knowledge in the multimedia/film industry. I need to read more books and keep up with the news on this side. I think it would be helpful for me to write about the dramas I'm on-going watching, and keep looking at interesting websites and videos.

2010 Term 2 - 12/01 Context 1 Lecture

2010-01-16T17:39:00.001Z

We had to discuss and argue with other people (Theater Design and Design for Film and TV people) the Key to the development of discipline (multimedia) using -

Technologies,
Individuals,
Movements,
Techniques

We had a lot of opinions -

3D
Sound
Internet
Lighting
Color TV
Class of Stages
Method acting
Shakespeare
David Bowie
Andy Warhol
Peter Jackson
Kate Bush
Lindsay Kemp

So basically what I've learn from this lecture is,
That it's interesting that the thoughts and opinions from different courses are quite different but yet we are all linked- same technology using in different ways by different courses (e.g- Lighting is more needed in film industry than theater)
We had a quite long discussion on Shakespeare, Why is he so successful and how some people think that he's just a copier, and first time to know that we had to study Shakespeare because it's the English law.
And most importantly, I've heard a lot of names that I didn't know before. I realised I really have very limited knowledge about the multimedia/film industry. I need to read more books and look out for news about multimedia to widen my knowledge.

Interactive Narrative Final Piece

2009-12-10T03:30:00.009Z

This is my Final completed edited Flash.

The Treasure Land by ~salomeliu on deviant ART

When we were in the first seminar, we were asked to come up with some stories for our flash.
I had three ideas at the time and all of them were targeted to children, because I think an Interactive Flash like this could be fun for children to play with.
Then I chose this story of treasure finding after listening to other people's ideas in class as I think this one could be more interesting because the player has to go around to find the treasure.
Once I have decided which story I would used, I did a flowchart to plan out my story.

And then I did something like a storyboard to remind myself of each step.
I actually drew out what each images would be like too.I decided to draw out my own images because I don't think I can find the images I want on the Internet.

I tend to keep my images simple as my target audience are children.
Once I have all my images, I edited them in Photoshop to add a “cartoon-like” feel, so it looks more interesting for children.

This is my first time using Flash, although I was confused at the beginning, it became much easier once I have understood how Flash works and I actually enjoyed it.

What was good:

I think the plot was quite good. The player has to find the right path, so will be curious of what will happen next.
It is simple and easy to play. I think children would like to play it.

What was not so good:

If I have more time, I would make the images prettier. Maybe add more colours and make them more interesting for children.
It is too simple that I think more instruction is probably needed.

One shot film Final piece

2009-12-07T23:23:00.004Z

This is our final One Shot Film.

The quality of this video isn't very good as I have to get down the file size for uploading so there's a reserve link- http://vimeo.com/7764945

We had a meeting for gathering ideas together before filming it.
As we all liked the idea of the camera being the eyes of the audience and this idea worked quite well on our practice piece, we used this concept again but only in a different story.
Then we came up with this story of a guy trying to do his essay in his room but his flatmates keep coming in and try to get him out drinking.
We discussed our plot in detail and the order of things happening. I think we worked quite well as a group as we discussed the problems and tried to find solutions which we think might occurred when filming it.
Although we did quite a lot of takes on the shotting day and finding problems as we were shotting along, we were able to get the problems fixed.
Sometimes we just go along to film it and see how it worked out and what didn't worked well.
But we all were pleased about the final piece.

What was good:

It's very realistic and situation like this does happen in real life. I think it makes the audience have a feeling of 'ah, I understand'.
It's simple and easy to understand. Nothing fancy but real.
I think the camera handling was good. It did look like how our eyes would see.
Put aside the acting, I think the plot itself was good.

What was not good:

The voice of the guy's thought wasn't as good as I thought it would be. We probably need some professions for help.
The time passing issue was the biggest problem we discussed. It would have been better if we could change the time on the clock to show the time passing.

Through this project, I understand that a one minute short film is very hard to do as there's a time limit. And especially we are doing a one shot film, there's a lot of limitations and it is very important to keep the film simple and easy to understand.

Trial One shot film

2009-12-05T23:40:00.002Z

The second project we need to do is a one shot short film.
We have to make a one shot film using a DV camera and a tripod.
The film needs to be only one shot and about a minute long.
We cannot move the tripod or the camera, we are only allow to turn the camera around on the tripod.

This is our groups first attempt on the one shot film - Vending Machine
(Edited by Dan Stewart)

We got the idea of the camera being our eyes from this video called "Guy Stuck in History Class" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7hzcLZ7uRc

We really like this idea so we used it and plugged in our own story.
I think this piece was really good. It went well.
It wasn't very hard to do once we have the story planned and we knew what to do.

Human Beatbox

2009-11-25T20:09:00.000Z

These are two videos from a Japanese TV program.
They created these two videos called "Human Beatbox" which basically, they gathered several people to record some short and random voices and movements and then put them together and edited it to become a short video which sounded like a beat box.
I think it is a very cool idea and the videos came out really cool too.

Short Film - Strangers

2009-11-09T20:35:00.001Z

I found this video on youtube and I really liked it.
Although it's short but it created an anxious atmosphere through this 6 minutes and the music helped a lot too.

I know its not a one shot film but it helped me to understand that a short film needs to be easily understandable.
We need to be very clear about what we want to say from the film we make.

Pixilation Final Piece

2009-11-04T22:50:00.000Z

Final version of my pixilation - "Illusion"

I got my inspiration from a stop motion video called "Copenhagen Sleepwalker" - http://hk.video.yahoo.com/video/video.html?id=83879
I think this video is amazing and the story is very interesting.

So I took this idea of "dreaming" and made my version of it.
The story is, in my dream, I became my friend and went Aldi's at night. Then I woke up in my dream and went to the kitchen but got hit by the saucepan lid. So I was scared and awaken by it and realised I have actually got my ring on where I wore it in my dream.

What was good:

I really like the music. I think it works quite well with the video, makes the audience wonder what would happen next.
the plot itself was quite good because what happened was not expected
many people like the shoes walking scene, but I like the bench scene more. I think it worked really well. I was very pleased with the outcome effect of this scene

What was not good:

The lighting. I have brighten up the photos using photoshop but the lighting outside wasn't good when it was dark. So I have to use the flash on a few shots, which I think seemed a little bit disconnected with other shots. I should have taken the photos at day time.
I shouldn't included myself as a model too. Only the first part of the shots were taken by me, the rest was taken by my friend. I should have taken all the photos as I would know what angle and what effect I wanted, it would be all control by me.
As I have said, because the photos were taken by my friend, we both didn't realised she took her finger in the photo too. It was a mistake to let her do the photographing.

If I'd do it again:

will not include myself as a model.
edit the photos more. probably more blurry or in a cartoon style
try to play with other things more

My first attempt on Pixilation

2009-11-02T19:06:00.005Z

This is an unfinished piece.
I got a lot to work on.
I got more photos now and this one is just too fast.

I watched several stop motion videos online and got some ideas.
The idea was I do some stupid movements on the street and found out I was only dreaming.

I will update this as soon as I've worked out a better piece.

Trial Pixilation

2009-10-29T23:03:00.004Z

My first Design Practice group is Pixilation

The first seminar we worked in groups of 5 and went outside the Waveley building to take a sequence of photos for a frame rate of 12 per second for a 30 second piece.We first discussed as a group what kind of ideas each of us have and had an overall idea what to do together. Then we just basically came up with new ideas as we go along and do it. We went down to town to take photos. We went to McDonald's to capture the eating too.

It was fun but its kind of tiring too cos we needed to take a lot of photos in order to make a long enough video. We also needed to make sure every move was well-planned and well-done. Our group didn't have much trouble of taking the photos. It was nice and smooth as we talked and came to compromises at each stage, like capturing in turns etc

The second seminar on Pixilation was learning how to resized and edited the photos we took using Photoshop. I am quite keen on PS but I have never used this record button before. So it was sort of new to me.

But it was a quick and easy process because once we have known how to use the record button on PS we are sorted. We don't have to do the same thing for hundreds of photos.

We had our last seminar on Pixilation this week and we finally got to know to how to put our photos together to be a real video. We use Adobe Premier Pro to edit our photos, we can also add sound effects, add titles, subtitles, fading effects, cutting bits off and adding more in and all sort of things which Andy had shown us.

It is a very fun process from what I have seen. But when I had a go in class, it wasn't as smooth as I thought it would be. But I believe once I have the hang of it and with a few more practices I should be capable of it just like how I taught myself into PS :P

Multimedia Competitions

2009-10-22T19:23:00.002+01:00

We've been asked to search for any multimedia-linked competitions
and I found some recent interesting multimedia competitions:

The 6th Annual Citizens for Global Solutions Multimedia Contest
"CHOOSE YOUR GLOBAL SOLUTION"

http://multimedia.globalsolutions.org/2009-multimedia-contest

The Piano

2009-10-18T01:28:00.002+01:00

A very beautiful story with excellent animation.

NYC Poster

2009-10-16T22:47:00.004+01:00

Photography by Mitchell Funk. Image@Getty Images Design@ Pyramid Posters 2008

I bought this poster at the poster sale in uni last week.
To be honest, I love everything in this poster :)
I love the angle of the photo
I love that it's fish-eyed and
I love it's in black and white except the yellow taxis which,
is a very representative image of New York City.

Pinhole Photo

2009-10-16T19:37:00.007+01:00

my pinhole camera photo

I love the effect of it, it's like fish-eye, which I didn't know it would have this effect before.
And I love the atmosphere of it too I think it's because it's in black and white.
I didn't think making a photograph could be this easy just using a can.
It was a fun process. The first time I get to use the dark room and going through all the different liquid.
My photo was taken on the ground floor in the Waverley Building facing the road.
It isn't the best photo but it's actually better than I thought.
I have seen other people's photos in our group, some of them are really nice.
I think mine will get better by making more attempt.

2009 WhiteBoard Induction

2009-10-15T23:36:00.002+01:00

My group is at about 1.08-1.15
Although it was fun, the process of taking photos at each move is tiring.
As a group, each one of us drew a little bit in turns and giving different ideas as we go along.
Surprisingly, what I like the most is the end bit where one of our group member turn the "page" over. I think it work quite well although it didn't look good at the time.
It's very nice to see other people's work too.
Some of them are just amazing. Some of the ideas are really creative which I wouldn't think of.
I like the group at about 0.49-0.59
I like the idea of a real person involved in it by holding the little bit of paper and putting "on" the board and I just love that little black person :)

first post

2009-10-07T12:26:00.000+01:00

starting the first lecture tomorrow :)

06/10
made a pinhole camera

07/10
created this blog
made a short video using whiteboard