Finally completed everything I need to do!

Just need to print some of it off at college today then got a long enjoyable summer to look forward to!

When we first recieved this brief I was puzzled as to how I would go about doing this and to be honest I struggled to come up with an idea that I wanted to pursue till very late on in the project, which left me less time than I would have liked to piece together my final flash.

Overall I am happy enough with the result but think the flash could be a bit more aesthetically pleasing and given the time I would probably redesign the way it is set out but keep the fundamental elements.

Still, I am impressed that I managed to create a 11,000+ frame interactive flash in the short time I had to put it together.

This year on the HND has been a great laugh, have learnt alot and cant wait to continue progressing next year.

One more image for the road, the sole reason this project is being handed in on time:

My Final Flash - Romney Marsh Interactive Tour 09

Some still images of the flash I have created:

DVD Case cover & Instructions Insert

Having printed both these 2 items at home, I realised the ink cartridge here is running low, plus the quality of the print is poor.

I will now re-print these 2 things when I go to hand my project in tomorrow.

I am also thinking of changing the font on the DVD Cover to Helvetica Ultra Thin. Might change this tomorrow.

Attempted creating a Hybrid CD-ROM with Flash Projectors

Well decided I wanted a CD-ROM that autoruns the interactive tour and possibly doesnt need the user to install Flash Player 9.. Easily discovered you can create an Autorun.inf to go with an exported Windows Flash Projector (.exe) but the mac version slightly harder as all the tutorials about creating a Hybrid CD-ROM say you need a .hqx mac projector file. Flash CS3 now exports its Mac projectors as .app folders.

I was not sure how to burn a hybrid disk using a .app folder but went ahead with it anyway.

I used MacImage on my Windows PC to create an ISO file, on Windows only the windows .exe, autorun.inf and the shared project_files folder will show up and on MAC OS only the .app folder and the shared project_files folder will show up.

Project_Files contains the project .fla, my dvd cover .psd. and my instructions insert .ai

As a backup incase the projectors fail for some reason. I am burning the .SWF on a seperate disc and handing this in aswell in a CD sleeve.

My Instructions Insert for DVD Case

For Part B I designed an insert to go in the DVD style case I am using for my CD-ROM.

Here it is:

Created a DVD sized cover for my CD-ROM

I decided to present my CD-ROM in a DVD sized case because I intend for it to contain a small How-To instruction guide inside the case. This would be the artwork for Part B of the brief.

Here is my design for the case cover.

Audio track for my Flash file and creating a Mute button.

I wanted to use a full size song on loop function so that there can be audio the whole way through the video tour.

Obviously most music is copyrighted though so I decided to look into some of the artists that dont belong to record labels that post their music on a BitTorrent site I use for everyone to listen to, use or reproduce. The way music should be.

Anyhow, I listened to a few tricks on this Various Artists compilation album, but settled on a simple track by 'Cortexalation' called 'Creationextol'.

To create a Sound Off button I used the Actionscript function:

on (release) {
stopAllSounds();
}

Have started creating my flash project

Started making the first menu screens for my flash, and some of the mouseover buttons for the interactions.

Heres an example of the normal state and the mouseover state of one of the buttons I am going to use:

Editing Video Footage

I took each part of the journey into consideration and mapped out which junctions and what places were going to be interactive, then decided that video near a junction or a place of interest should be at 1x speed and long sections of video without interaction should be sped up by 4x or possibly 3x.

I edited most of the footage as one big file, as I plan to embed the video as frames in my flash file, so I can interact with it using various other layers such as a Buttons layer and Actionscript.

I used Adobe Premiere Pro to edit and cut the footage where I wanted, using the razor tool to slice the video into parts so certain segments could be increased in speed to 400%.

I muted the audio track as I plan to later add my own to the flash.

Image of Speed Increase:

Second attempt at capturing video.. Success

Right, this time the battery was fully charged and ready to go. I attatched the camera to the dashboard of my friends car using blutac and celotape to make sure it held firmly in place and didnt slip at any point in the journey.

I decided to draw out each direction i needed to get video footage of on a piece of paper, so I didnt miss out any footage that I need for the project. I took this piece of paper out with me.

I pressed record and started the journey. The video was captured in the order:

Millhouse Stores (Dymchurch) --> Hythe --> New Romney --> Littlestone --> Millhouse Stores.

I will later edit the footage and speed up certain parts so users of the tour will not have to watch long pieces of video without any interaction.

There was a bit of a problem with video I captured, on certain parts of the journey the sunlight was reflecting onto windscreen and onto the lens of the recording equipment. If I had more time left on the project I would re-shoot the whole video on a more cloudy day but I really need to start editing and creating so am going to proceed with what I have.

Image of Sunlight problem:

Attempted to capture video footage today..

Suffered a bit of a set back today, the camera I am using to record the video footage I need died half way back from Hythe. So will have to do this another day that my friend has time off work.

Should have checked the power before we left, doh!

Welcome video for Millhouse Stores - Video Tour

After taking the pictures I would need to map out Millhouse Stores I decided I might aswell have a little video of entering the store and a welcome message from my brother.

So took this little video:



Here is one of many failed attempts at the small video due to my brother goofing around:

Took first of the images I need for my project today

Well, today I decided to take some of the photos I will need for my project, as its so close to home, I decided to start with some photos of the shop my father owns. One photo of outside and a couple inside.

MIllhouse Stores will be one of the destinations you can choose to start at on the tour.

Here are the images:

Part B of the brief.

Having decided on my idea for my final piece for the project, I have been thinking about ways of completing part B of this brief, at first I didnt really understand what I had to do for part B, but after asking a few people I hope I have grasped roughly what I needed to do for it.

One idea I have got for Part B is to have a small map type image showing which roads and places are included in the interactive tour. This could go on the back cover of a CD or DVD Case, or on a website if I choose to present my project like that.

Been thinking more about Video Tour Idea

Have been jotting down ideas of what methods of interaction I could include and how big of an area I can cover within the time limit we have. I decided on covering the areas:

New Romney
Littlestone
Dymchurch
HYthe

I also decided along there should be one place of interest in each of these places that people can visit on the interactive tour. I picked a supermarket, the shop my parents own, a miniature railway station and an indian restaurant.

- Romney Spice Indian Restaurant (New Romney)
- Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway (New Romney Station)
- Millhouse Stores (Dymchurch)
- Waitrose (Hythe)

Each of these places you will be able to view inside, with a series of pictures you can scroll through, and maybe even a video with a message from the staff. Also read information such as address and phone number of the place.

The video content will be driving from one place to another and being able to interact with junctions and roundabouts.

Awesome video I saw

Watching music videos today I was browsing through songs I like and came across The Prodigy's new music video for the song 'Warrior Dance'. They have used stop motion animation and other techniques to create an amazing video for the song.

I would love to be able to create something like this but with the time restraints we have would not be possible.

Idea of Interactive Flash

Having used flash briefly before in the past and after the other days session being based on flash I have had a think about possible ways of interpreting Flow and Course using flash to create something a user can interactive with. I would also like to create something that has a purpose, something that would have a target audience.

I was looking at google maps and thought about doing something similar to the google maps street view but with video interaction instead of photographic content.

Also thought about how the journeys could represent the flow of traffic and the flow of the roads. Course can be represented by the directions and course you take to find a place that you want to view.

Editing and compiling the blog some more

Today I just spent the day brushing up the design of the blog and sorting posts into the correct order, adding videos into the posts that help demonstrate what I am writing about.

Introduction to Flash MX

Todays session was used to teach us basic knowledge of Flash MX. Paul did a simple introduction into Flash, we was shown how to draw buttons in Illustrator, take them into Flash MX and then add a hover effect and a mouse down effect to it.

We was then shown some basic actionscript used to stop the multimedia in places and how to link to other parts of the flash, acting as a website type flash.

We used the 'stop();' function and we also played with the 'gotoAndStop();' action.

We kept playing around in flash and experimenting with linking to pages and back again. Most of the stuff covered today I already had some experience with so found the tasks quite comfortable.

Some amazing Stop Motion Videos

Just a quick blog post with some youtube videos of some fantastic stop motion animation: