Ministry of (motion graphics) Sound

I've just seen a really cool advert that I thought I'd mention, and for the sake of this, ditch all prejudices/conceptions about Ministry of Sound and their affiliated connotations. Forget the brand altogether!

What caught my eye firstly were the neon/fluorescent colours. Add in the hip, hop and happening music, with some cool street dancing and you've got yourself a very Britain's Got Talent winner mixed with Itunes ad inspired piece. And we all how well those ventures have gone (hint#1 & hint#2: 11 million viewers and 1.5 billion songs as of financial year end 2007.)

The motion graphics which take the form of onion skinning with the colours briefly displaying the past movement of the dancer (ok, a little extra emphasised too) and then the paint making patterns, eye catching ones at that too. For me, the flow of colours are attractive, move very nicely and really make the piece, they have an almost drug-fuelled spectaclular visionary effect (not that I know what such a vision would be like!) Think of what it would be like without the m/g - "just" dancing. :P

When I see something like this, my main thought is did the designer have to actually sit frame by frame and get the shape to follow the pattern of the body, how long did it take to sit and make that? Although an excrutiatingly slow process, if that's what it takes to make something of quality, then obviously you do it. It's worth it. Oh, and you get paid a nice sum too!

So I thought I'd just bring to your attention the ad, it certainly seemed different (in quality, direction) from similar adverts that include graphic effects that in fact, aren't really that good in what they're doing. I know I'd certainly love to get a grip on how to make something like the MoS motion graphics. I think I'll be waiting a few more years though!



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The Future of the Web

If for ten mins you can hide your shame and listen to a Radio 4 piece, it informs on the new technologies the web will be heading towards in the future, called the semantic web.

It seems to revolve around a more database type structure, being able to simulataneously call upon and then report all sorts of things at the end of one search.

An example I can think of this being useful as, is when you book a holiday. Not only do you get your holiday booking confirmation, but the semantic web would bring up currency rates to purchase your currency, weather forecasts, and then also photographs from people's online holiday albums, without you having to manually input search details for these. Multi-faceted results is what I'd call it, they say 'linked open data'.

BBC iPlayer

Obviously with every up there must come some downs and I do start to think that computers could become too knowing when they are doing this all for us. They'd know where we were going on holiday and subsequently when we wouldn't be at home, they might be able to track how much we converted to Euros, see your family photographs... (they I mean as being the person/people who have access to all the search results data). Whatever next? Computers running your life for you?! They're not really that far off if we take Ironman to be the glassball view of the future. lol

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moonlighting in my student holiday - GLP

What with all the free time the summer holidays offers, I've taken on a little work project. Family and friends seem to love the idea that they can have something online all about them (surplus to Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, MSN!), so I'm currently in the midst of making a site for a 'Garden Lifestyle Planner' LINK

*UPDATE* For some reason, Internet Explorer 7 lowers the frame rate that you view a SWF at, so for the best results, use Firefox 3 with it's unlimited fps. Obviously I'll need to try and fix this for future use. *

First and foremost, it's going well. I think (&hope) that straight away you'll be able to notice the difference (&I hope quality) over other typical builder/landscaper sites you can find online. With FLASH being my new favourite program I've gone that way again. The motion opportunities and action scripting put it on another level to HTML, a fully rich media content opportunity (although I am aware that currently only 98% have Flash player installed in their web browsers, thats only 98%!!)

The first problem I found was that I couldn't think of how to make it look. I knew the basis of the look I was going for, from this site I'd mentioned before, which was a really good form of inspiration. The idea of a garden planner obviously has connotations with nature, so that's where I made the connection, but then thought I could usefully apply the other 'textures/objects' of a garden designer, for instance, bricks and tiles for backgrounds.

I sat for hours trying little things out for the main page, but nothing worked. I'll admit it was frustrating! I can always visualise something really nice in my head, the images, typeface, layout etc, but then try and put that into a digital construct and it doesn't work. History repeated itself again. Normally because of the obtaining of my pre conceived images, and then the legal requirement of payment for use afterwards (which you can in an company environment), I can't go through with such an idea!

The main components for the homepage I was working around with were synthetic: the grass I rendered in Blender, the sky used a gradient fill effect and they went together, it looked quite lush. Try applying a photo of something garden-y on top that I'd taken and it stuck out like a sore thumb (the contrast on the edge of the photo jarred with the background). The solution: get the digital rubber (because the magic wand utensil proved useless!) and remove all additional traces which you don't want. Timely, yes, but worth it, in the end.

At this stage in time, I have installed all the background work, and the transitionary motion pieces. From here on in, the contents of the site are easy to implement: the textual information, thumbnails and sized images, and possibly a contact form (OK, that might be not so simple!) I'm also pondering adding an Expedia type cloud that floats nicely in the background on the homepage? lol



That's all for now!

Adios amigos,

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BIG catch up - ashleyelton.co.uk

Blimey its been a while! I've been tinkering away in the background, but blogging just completely passed my mind... partly because I have only just gotten round to finishing my little project - my very own online portfolio!



http://www.ashleyelton.co.uk/

One of the reasons behind the wait was due to the fact that Adobe had halted all it's free trials til July 1st. So it is only now that I've been granted the power to weave through my dreams (it is a really weird name when you think about it!)

It has been a work in progress. It all started off looking quite differently. I wanted to recreate the NTAL site I found a while back. That hit me as being a great site, definitely my personal taste as can be seen in my analysis!

I managed to make the motion graphics, after several agonising and frustrating attempts. My scene list indeed got very complicated (and there is probably a much more intelligent manner to do it) but hey that's what learning is all about.

Colour wise, I went along with trying to use something like my logo - so the grey, white and turqouise were applied. I think they are now becoming afixed - my three colour palette when trying to brand myself. *UPDATE 7/7/08* I am very surprised to find that the NATL site now uses the same colours - I swear I got there first! (But on a plus, it appears great minds think alike, ha!) *

The font was a custom made one I found on a great site, da font.com, named Distro. It's a little different, quite bubble like and rounded, definitely better than the bog standard MS offerings anyway!



I've put up a preview/test version just so you can have a quick look. The reason I opted out of using this design after all the labour was in fear of the dreaded copyright (and luckily so really, as the similarities are now so striking!) At the time of making I was researching for my SPP1 essay and the big C had me fearing all kinds of law suits. The most important thing I learnt was that originality is needed. You must have some, somewhere. Never mind, this wasn't a wasted excursion as I developed more skills, and experience in Flash. (Needless to say, Jools pointed out that I would probably have been OK to have such a site, copyright can only be associated to certain things) BUT I was already onto my next design at that stage, which in terms of the visual design is a clear leap I think.

It all started off when I was playing around with the wording, PORTFOLIO. I was trying to use the P shape in some way or form. I noticed that the rounded corner could make some sort of box... when I say box, it's more like a suitcase. This EasyJet orange was my first iteration.



After making a complete suitcase, I had sort of got used to the orange, but something just didn't sit right. It was bright, bold, punchy and in your face (exactly what I like), but it stank too much of EasyJet for me! I couldn't get away from thinking that in my head. That's when my trusty logo colour scheme came back.



I decided to try reducing the thickness of the lines, which instantly makes it more sleeker, minimal. Adding a contemporary deep grey background, which contrasts very nicely brings a sense of completion to the piece. Clever people amongst us may notice it is simply an invertion of my logo:



to...



I wanted to incorporate the motion style used in my first attempt, so switched it to being less so obvious, and made the wipe ons and offs horizontal. For my first... okay, second attempt at getting a site online, I'm pleased with it. The most striking thing for me are the visuals. They look uber sleek to me, professional. I would certainly think that if I saw it elsewhere.

One issue I found in the Identities module and again with this, was the size to have the swf on the html page. People use all manners of resolutions. 1280x1024, 124x768, 800x600. Google Analytics actually have a statistics section which show percentages of the users using each display type. Obviously as time has progressed, screens have got bigger and so too have resolutions. But that doesn't mean that we should just wipe out all the big, bulky eighthundreders! At this stage in time, I have chosen to cater for all resolutions - there should be no need to scroll up or down, it should all fit, cos it fits the smallest of them all (I hope!)

Soooo after setting the size, applying the content, learning about skinunder swf files to allow videos controls, I then lept into the world of ftp, meta tags and google submission. I had uploaded stuff online before, but due to the larger sizes of the files this time, I needed to get me a proper program. In walks Filezilla. It's a great program, most importantly because it's free, and also so easy to use. You log in, find what you want and push go. It's then online! (Ha, if only everything were that easy!)

Next up, I read on a web designer's site that you should never use just Flash on it's own with nothing else HTML wise. OOPS. Screen readers can't pick up the words in your pages due to the different technology in play. But read this, looks like things are on the up for Flash, so altogether now, "yipeee!"... - only me then? * Also, Flash doesn't yet have an in-house way to add meta tags. So this is where Dreamweaver has recently become useful. I have added my Flash to a page, centered it nicely, added informative meta tags, and now, ta da, (after submitting) Google finds it, warts and all!

There are definitely areas for development. For one, it only has a few things on there. I can definitely predict I'll be adding more pages, as my offerings of work increase. Also, the quality of the stuff on there is obviously going to be nowhere near as good as what I'll be spitting out, like a factory machine, come the end of my degree. For instance, business cards, and letterheads aren't that interesting, but at this stage, it's the most recent work I've done, and I'm a believer of skills and technique, and subsequently talent, accruing, so the most recent should be the best (in theory). For now in the least, it serves the purpose of showing people a bit of what I've done, and also, what I can do technically.



I've learnt that Flash has a nasty habit of getting you hooked into constantly touching things up! Why not try another shade of that colour? What about altering the size of the font? Obviously this is a great thing about the digital era, you can constantly update and without too much hassle - no need to do all from scratch. Also sites are continually updated, and likewise their design is never static for years upon years (if you know what's good for web), so I will probably be changing it every now and again as I learn a new trick, and get into a new design scheme!

So I think that's enough about portfolio. If you've not checked it out, you can still get a decent free one from Carbonmade, which allows you to upload images and looks quite good on the eye. In terms of getting your own domain, I found an all in one offer on one.com. The customer service is good cos you can web chat (I presume around the clock as they are an international company), rather than find yourself hanging on the phone for half an hour listening to Mozart. Also, what with so many customers, they are established, and the reviews on site indicate no need to worry about reliability for their servers etc.

I'll be blogging again very shortly. 

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A promo is a copy...right?

The copyright wars continue.

BBC News report that Universal Music Group are suing an E-bayer who was selling rare, specialist promo CDs. They deem this as an infringement of copyright.

Have a read to make up your own mind, but to me, I can see it from both angles - the record companies give out these CDs free to DJs etc. Is there that much harm for a devotee fan getting hold of unreleased material from their favourite bands?! But then again, the company didn't give the disc for you to use and there needs to be some discipline in business.

At the end of the day, I think this all leads back to money. People want the money they think they deserve. If I remember correctly, we read in the Bible that the love of money is the root of all evil. Hmmm...?!

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Introducing Apture

Lessig, the guy who writes about copyright, copyleft, copywrongs, also wrote on his blog about a useful application for blogging.



It is a really effective reference tool that makes your entries more enhanced, or more multi-media. You simply highlight a word and it provides all the links that you may possibly want your users to see for reference, enlightenment etc.

You can choose from wiki information, youtube and google video, flickr images, yahoo website searches, or even upload your own images, along with Word, Powerpoint and Excel files, PDFs. It really has great potential in this area.

There is a slight downside in that the info box that pops up to users is quite like those adverts that most of the time you click off before it can even load.

As you can see, jotted around this post I've used Apture to add reference points to show what it can do. It makes it so easy.

So, those interested can have a browse, download and get adding more media to your blogs!

Apture.com

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Ironman - the technology

I know I'm a little late in getting into the buzz of this film, but I saw it the other night, and wow, was it impressive.

If I were to sum it up in two words, it would be this: technologically definitive.

The computer system seen in the film was unbelievable. For one, he had a voice recognition system that could perfectly handle a human conversation, including knowing when to stop and listen, along with being able to handle pauses for thought and interruptions. It seemed perfectly in sync with it's user. Cut to reality and we have robot like computer voices dictating direction for sat nav, or requesting that we repeat our request, for the seventh time! Speaking to a computer to dictate words seems bland in comparison.

Furthermore, Stark's system was intelligent, running commands in advance of being requested. The computer even mentioned the need to upload hundreds of terabytes, once more, confirming they are ahead of our current technology generation. Terabytes are slowly being introduced to our market at the minute. One terabyte is 1024GB and we deem this huge. It is! But I wouldn't be surprised at all if in the film, they streamed ultra HD (the next step up - yes, the generations can keep advancing!) media flawlessly. We are only just being introduced to HD streaming, and that is still a way off from perfection.



The film really was a computer geeks nirvana whilst watching. We've seen it before with the likes of Terminator, but the visual feed from the Iron Man suit that tracked items, referencing information just seemed unbelievable. The mechanics that work his suit were superb too. Who wouldn't turn down the chance to be able to fly?

The film in all, was exciting, gripping and very much a successful comic book translation. The CGI was superb, seeing him interact with holographic constructions.
I have the tiniest grain of sand of knowledge in 3D, but I knew this
must have taken ages, and from someone with real skill. Hats off to
them. It blew my mind!

Even the piece of kit Stark supposedly is able to produce in a grubby, dark cave to keep him alive is far superior to what we could do, both in size and functionality. Maybe I'm getting too hooked up in science fiction though. All this stuff is completely hypothetical, it's a story after all!

But I wish it was here now though... hang on, there is a place where I could live a life like that, and in 2008... Hollywood! lol

5 Stars from me.

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