Wednesday 8 December 2010

my opinion on digital and analogue production

In my opinion, digital methods of capturing, editing and creating work will continue to improve both in quality and scope. For example, earlier versions of Photoshop had fewer effects and filters than it does today, and it was a lot slower and less effective. Digital methods will also become easier to use, both because the user interfaces will be further developed, and also as people become more used to the technology, ie, digital natives as opposed to digital visitors. Computing power will continue to improve, and with this increased power and speed will come more capabilities at lower prices.

There will always be a demand for analogue methods of capture - people will always want to pick up a pencil and sketch without the need for specialist equipment, they'll always want to write poetry to capture their feelings and emotions, and sometimes it is quicker to work in analogue than it is digitally; no specialised equipment is required to make a drawing, just a pencil, pad and your own senses. Digital production also has the problem that you are constrained within a program that is written by someone else - with analogue the only limit is your own creative abilities.

What I believe is going to happen more is a combination of the two forms. For example, drawing tablets incorporate the feel of a traditional pencil or airbrush but the work is in a digital form. Digital cameras also use an analogue method of capture (lenses and apertures forming an image on a light-sensitive surface), but the information captured is stored electronically.

Tuesday 7 December 2010

black and white

These two pictures are experimentation for my comic to see show the difference between black and white and colour. I preferred it in colour as it's easier to see and to tell what's going on.


flash site

Here I was shown how to make a website using Flash. The buttons were pre-made and part of the program, and when each of them is pressed the background colour changes to simulate different web pages. The buttons were programmed using action script, and the timeline was used to activate them.



Tuesday 30 November 2010

Good and Bad website design

I was asked to research websites to find which ones were designed well.
I like the design of this one, I like the reflections and the way it's laid out so you can drag across the panes to make them rotate. The background is quite subtle, which draws the attention to the bright colours in the foreground.

This website has a straightforward design that is logically laid out and is easy to navigate. This site has a tan background and the panels are dark red and brown, which draws attention to the text and pictures within them.

Here on this site there are three columns of text. It feels like an old, cheap design. The font used for the title looks like a graffiti tag and is hard to read. I feel this is a mediocre design.

 The designer of this site tried to incorporate 3D effects, it's hard to say how the effect looks as I didn't have any 3d glasses with me when I found it. It looks like a floating land mass with various features upon it.

Even though this site looks fancy, it doesn't make it clear who's site it is or what they do. When the sections of the brain are moused over they flip to show the other side but then nothing happens.

This website is the worst site I found during my research; there aren't any links, the photos are poor and the tiled background is distracting. It's generally ugly, especially the way the red colouring bleeds into everything else. This is a site about ambulances.