HTML Web Authoring

Today we have started our new subject, Web Authoring (Unit 59) For this we will have the opportunity to develop our media history and research through writing and communication skills.

The notes i took in class today were, A category of software that enables the user to develop a Web site in a desktop publishing format. The software will generate the required HTML coding for the layout of the Web pages based on what the user designs. Typically, the user can toggle back and forth between the graphical design and the HTML code and make changes to the Web page in either the design of the accompanying code.

To design and create a Web site, from writing the site's underlying code to writing the text to managing the site's upkeep.

Veiwer FeedBack

Once it was complete and uploaded to youtube it was time for the critisism. The first thing that stuck out of the sheets were (1887 not 1987) as i had mannaged to misstype the title sequence of one of my slided as the wrong date. However it was too late to change it as i had the evalutation to write aswell as the rest of the post production. The most common feedback that i got was the way it was nice too look at and the info was in bitesize chunks made it easyer for the veiwer to understand.

The ratings out of 10 from 10 different reveiws was.
The ratings were as followes 7, 8, 6, 8, 7, 9, 8, 7, 7, 8
Thus making the average 7.5 out of 10. Not a bad mark for the first time i ever used flash.

Adding the Audio

Now that i had complete the animation it was time to add some audio. The first thing that came into my head when i though "Animation/ History" was mozart, Im not sure why but it just seemed to fit the idea. Once i had added that i needed the audio for a train so that it came to life. This was not easy to get hold of as i needed a sound effect not a recording. And then inorder to get the birds tweeting in the background i simply took a sample off the internet.

Creating the Animation

Now it was time to create the animation. The first this I did was scan in my sketched of how I wanted the animation to look, then looking at those designs more closely I added more detail and altered them to how I though was necessary, However in doing this I managed to get myself lost amongst the midst of design, Spending what must have been no less than a couple of hours on each slide making it perfect when in actual fact that’s not what’s seen as "Important" So I managed to waste allot of time creating the first two slides in complete 3D as well as a train that would have been way to complicated to even continue throughout the rest of the animation, in realizing this I decided to scrap the whole thing and start again with a very basic design and very basic train however as I got further into this I again went off track spending much more time than needed creating an "Eifel Tower" Completely un-necessary however visually immaculate.

More Pre-Production for the 2D animation

After i had complete the script for my 2D animation it was time to create the final detailed storyboard for it. To do this i looked at the three of my origional designes and chose the one that i though would best work for me and create a more origional animation than some other ideas i had come up with that were already in use by other students.

The design i decided to go with was the train. For this i would have a train rolling through the stations of time indication the different time zones when each key animation was created, who by and a GIF file of the device to show how it worked without the extra text that would be required to do so.

The first thing i did was assign each peice of infomation to an idea i had in my head of what that should look like. What i then came up with was three different station designs and three inbetween scenes to give the veiwer a break from infomation overload. (as its aimed at a younger audiece)

2d Animation

Creating the script for my animation was the first thing i had to bare in mind before i actually created so i could work out in my head roughly how long each slide needed to be. So to do this i decided to look at the reasearch i had done in the history of animation and use that as a guidline throughout my slide, for example. i used the detailes included in the research such as, Pictures, Names and year. Also i included a breif of how some of them were used and how they worked. The basic script for this was as followes.

“The History of animation.”

Scene 1.

}  The first successful animation device was the Phenakistoscope, although there were many other illusion toys at the time, the Phenakistoscope used pictures on one side that when spun could be viewed from a slit on the opposite side, creating the illusion of movement (animation) .

Scene 2.

}  It was two year later that William Horner released the zoetrope.  Horner had originally named it the Daedalum however it was released as the zoetrope.

}  This device was based on joseph plateau's Phenakistoscope, But instead of using a mirror with only one viewing hole, Horner's device allowed multiple viewer's at the same time. The zoetrope worked by having equally spaced slots around the outside, then once the drum is spun the pictures would spin, the faster the drum was spun the smoother the images would appear to move.

Scene 3.

}  It was not until 1879, 40 years after the zoetrope was invented, that Emile Reynaud invented the praxinoscope. The praxinoscope was An optical toy that would give the illusion of movement to characters in a setting,  the only difference from the Zoetrope was the fact that you viewed the images through mirrors in the centre of the device instead of through slots in the sides.

Scene 4.

}  1894 is when the animation industry really began, with Thomas Edison's invention of the kinetoscope. The kinetoscope was a projector that had images on glass, it works by  conveying a strip of film with sequential images over a light source with a high speed shutter.  When in action the kinetoscope would project the images creating the illusion of movement.

Scene 5.

}  In 1894 Another peepshow device similar to the kinetoscope arrived. The Mutoscope invented by Herman Casler worked using a flip-card device to provide the motion picture.

}  Needing a camera he turned to his friend W.K.L Dickson who, unhappy at the Edison Company cooperates and with several others they form the American Mutoscope Company.

Obviosuly when it came to making the final infomation some of the detail was cut down inorder to fit it the the time guide i had (60 seconds) Also only three of the selected 5 were used in the final peice.

Todays Lesson

Continuing with the work set in class, today i started on my detailed storyboard. This contains High detail images of exactly what’s going to be in my animation. for example the first scene is going to be the title page, saying "The History of animation By Zach Stewart" The following scene is placed at a train station with information graffiti’d onto the wall, then thirdly is a train rolling on the track with images in the background related to animation history in the decade of the device. This pattern continues throughout.

Using Adobe Flash

Today’s lesson as about the use of motion tracking in adobe flash. In order to do this we were required to start off as we would when creating the rolling ball that we did last lesson, Instead this time we needed to create a new Motion Tracking layer and use the pen tool to create a guide for the ball to follow. Once we had done this we needed to align the ball to each end of the motion guide, then we had to tween it so it followed the course we had set and looked like it was bouncing. The first time i tried this however i was unsuccesfull as without realising i had selected an ordinary new layer for the motion path when i should have you the motion guide layer. So when i animated the ball it did not follow the line it just moved across the page.

In the previouse lesson i was unable to blog what i had acheived as the lesson time ended. However in that lesson we were required to create a ball rolling across the page. to do this we had to first create a new layer and use the oval tool to create a Ball. We then had to create two keyframes and select the start and finish point for the ball. In doing so all that was then required was to tween between those key frames so that the ball would smoothly roll across the page.

I have found using flash for the first time very interesting as there is alot to take in from the program unlike adobe Photoshop wich is a much less complex program. I look forward to my further progress in using this program.

My Design For a 60 Second Animation

For my ideas on the 60 second animation, I used a series of images and text to create a mood board of animation. For example I collected imagery from the progression of animation, starting with the first animated cartoon, up to the later more advance animated films. From this I thought It would be a good idea to add these images into the background of my animation to show what was made in those dates, as well as the device used.

Once I had done my mood board and played around with sketches, I put together two storyboards, one of the train rolling along the track stopping at different station (points in time) that were relevant to animation history and the quality of the image developing as the dates increase to make it look  more realistic to animation production.

I think this idea will work really well if i manage to develop my skills in flash enought to produce it. I look forward to exploring the features of flash and learning new skills.

2D Animation Research into Pioneers

History of 2D animation

For this unit we have been asked to use different methods of research to find out the key dates in 2D animation, For example how it has developed over the years, the inventors and the names of the devices and techniques used.

“Learners will research the content and production techniques used in historical and contemporary examples of work. Learners will develop understanding in such things as persistence of vision, frame rates, stop-frame techniques and the production of cells. This background will inform planning and production of work using traditional methods or some of the digital tools for 2D animation. In order to develop their understanding and skills, learners will need to keep their intended audience constantly in mind, and to that end their animation

work will be exhibited to audiences after completion and responses evaluated.

Animation has become an increasingly important media form and examples can be seen in platforms as different as advertising, feature films, mobile phone content, the internet and television. Good animation skills are also important in the computer games industry.

The animation industry includes both large production companies and individuals working on small digital projects. Animation on all scales requires people with fresh, exciting ideas for new work, whilst larger companies will need individuals with specialist skills, such as storyboarding and ‘tweening,’ or the evidence to prove that they can develop them. This unit provides learners with the opportunity to develop their competence in both areas of work. Learners will also be encouraged to experiment with both content and technique.”

The first thing I am going to do to approach this task is to use the libraries resources to get some initial research and ideas of what I am going to be doing.

When in the library I came across a few relevant sources for animation, for example Animation Now (book number 741.58) Pages 554 - 555 contained some very useful information that I will be able to link to my written document. Also The Foundations of animation Written by Paul wells was a highly source full book.