Project 2: Navigating Your Identity [Researching Websites]

My first task is to look at three or more websites and discuss a range of issues on my blogger.
The first place I decided to look for websites was on the Favourite Website Awards

1)
http://www.commonwealth.pl/
A website for international exhibition which presents the history of tolerance and cohabitation of various ethnic groups in the territory of Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth. Made for the National Library of Poland and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. from www.huncwot.com
Having a little bit of Polish in me I thought this may be an interesting site to start with.

My immediate thoughts were that it may be a government website and therefore really boring and full of text, such as the Mi5 website. But to my surprise I am welcomed with a nice flash introduction to lead me to the English or Polish website. After I clicked English and waited for the website to load I was really impressed by the the way it looked.

Look...
They haven't held back on quality of sound or video. This is evident from the main page where a very nice classical piece starts playing.
The main page also consists of a very sleek menu. Move the cursor over any word (above the word commonwealth) and the image will move backwards, becoming slightly transparent then slides open a preview box that contains a moving image and a description of that link you are hovering over with the cursor. The main menu contains 8 links.

To the bottom left-hand corner is a picture of a white crown on a black background. This icon is another menu that you can get to when you go deeper into the website through sub-links. It is very easy to use because it contains images and words to help navigate yourself around or to and from pages.

There is also a control button to switch on/off the music that they have playing in the background for every page. This is a must for all websites and the good thing about there music player is that it doesn't repeat!! The control switch is a picture of 3 boxes that animate by expanding and shrinking one after the other.

Ease of use...
I really enjoyed navigating around the website. It is very simple with a few great ideas. All the sub-pages are consistent; they each start with a nice animation and then contain a picture, a blurb and 3 icon links. On the left a video link, in the middle there is a further reading link and finally a link for pictures.

Relevance...
I think all the content in this website is relevant to its subject. After leaving my computer for a few minutes and returning to the main page I realised that the colour scheme of red and white is obviously that of the Polish flag.

Organisation and Design of content...
There is a great use of the space in the website. I don't think it has been cluttered by text or images. It feels very spacious.

The Reflection of identity through Design for the company...
Every page has the same two images, like the two colour scheme on the Polish flag. There is an image taking up the upper half of the screen horizontally and then a dark shade brown in the lower half.

Reflection through philosophy of the company's brand...
Themes of Polish history throughout the website, such as the crown in the bottom left-hand, which is significant to their royal history.

Success of the interaction design elements...
I think this website is very successful when it comes to interactivity. An abundance of links and flash animation. It is a good example for a multimedia website.

Music: Frank Zappa - Honey, Don't You Want (A Man Like Me?)

The Second Self - Complete and Utter Animation

I really wasn't happy with the way my animation ended, something about it was too abrupt. So I've added a little more, nothing special or intricate in the slightest but just a way of making it feel like a it has ended. I edited the song quite a bit to make it fit to the video so I'm very pleased with that. Now I shall go get some well deserved sleep and present it first thing tomorrow morning!



This will probably be my last post for a few weeks as I'm going on holiday tomorrow. So I hope everyone has a good one!

The Second Self - Complete Animation

Animation: Maya 2008 Unlimited
Editing: Final Cut Pro
Music: Cinematic Orchestra - All Things (CO's music works well with any visual!)

Here it is pretty much done now. I would have liked it to be longer, but I couldn't think of anything else to do. I wanted to make the magic carpet roll but at the time, with the method I was using (controlling each vertex) it was taking much too long. Then after rendering I thought of an easier but still very time consuming way, and as I still have an essay to write, I'll leave that for now!
I tried to use the Neb II submarine too but it was acting up; when I moved it was being stretched about and not moving freely. So again with lack of time to make improvements I decided to leave it out.



Comments are welcome!


Watching: The Simpsons - Revenge Is a Dish Best Served Three Times

The Nebuchadnezzar II Mysteriously Finds Its Way To My Avatar

The Neb II has a new role now, this time in my environment...


To be honest it's not exactly how I would have liked it to look - I'm unhappy with the colours more than the way I've built and structured it - but time is of the essence and it's a ship none the less!
I got the idea from The Matrix, which was my favourite film from when it was released until about 4 years ago.


Music: Charles Mingus - M D M

The Second Self - An Avatar Is Born

My avatar is on it's way...


Update...
Using mental ray's depth of field




Music: Frank Zappa - In-A-Gadda-Stravinsky

Second Life Diary - Week 3

Darth Nikitin Strikes Back!... A New Hope?... Attack of thevirtualclones

Okay that's all the SW related names I can think of, for now.

So back to my second life I go and I as I go with a fresh mind raring to experience new things and talk to new people I find myself taking a mission that sounds a bit strange from the beginning and... well, has no end!

I met a Buddha looking statue called Phatt. That's me with Phatt pictured below. He asked my name and I said "Hi, i'm Darth Nikitin, who the hell are?" Then he replied "Ah! Darth I've been expecting you. The volcano up this hill will erupt and kill us all unless you can convince Pele, the volcano goddess, otherwise. Great!"



Wow! I thought. What a way to start my second week, this should be fun, oh so fun!

So I ventured up this hill and found the volcano, but after searching, on land and in the air for Pele without any luck I decided to give up.

Then I started to talk to someone called Solice Sideways (pictured below). We mentioned the usual shaith like: Hi I'm new, How do I explore/get out of here and do something good? But I also told him of my all important mission that was still casting a dark shadow of guilt over my relatively bright second life day, at 01:00 Nottingham time....!
He agreed to help and we flew back over to the volcano and................ to cut a long story short we STILL couldn't find Pele.

To summarise I still don't like second life. I find it boring, but maybe that is because I haven't unlocked the door to explore all of it yet. Hopefully by the next diary entry I would have done this and therefore justifying (to some degree) that my time has been well spent.


Music: Yes - Long Distance Runaround

The Second Self - Part 1, 2 & 3

Animation: Maya 2008 Unlimited
Editing: Final Cut Pro
Music: A clip from something I wrote and recorded about 3 years ago, then re-wrote and re-recorded last year. It's called Minima.

I still have to make my person/avatar/alter-ego 3D thingy whatsit, but I'm pleased with the way it's heading so far I decided to upload and add music for the purpose of watching it progress...



Comments welcome!



Music: The Beatles - Blackbird

The Second Self - Animation Intro

Animation: Maya 2008 Unlimited
Editing: Final Cut Pro
Music: None yet. I'm going to add all the music when I have all the clips together

So after much faffing I have finally got to the stage where I feel quite comfortable using Maya. There are of course still things that I need to work on and I intend to over the course of the holiday.
Here is a short animation I am using to introduce the environment:



Let me know what you think.

Music: Medications - Safe and Sorry

Maya: In The Beginning

Chair: Volume Light: mental ray...


Table and Chairs: Specular Shading: Raytrace - Reflections & Refractions: Rendered with Maya software...


Submarine: Animation...





Music: Led Zeppelin - Custard Pie