Week 14: Web Authoring Investigation Research Completed

Over the Christmas holidays I have been continuing with my investigation for web authoring. This week I have focused on completing my research into the different web authoring terms and also to start writing up my investigation.  From last week’s post I stated that I aimed to complete research into the remaining 7 terms, although I only completed 4 of these terms. Therefore this week I completed the research into these 3 remaining terms. I did not want to rush the research stage as it is important that I understand what I am researching in order to write the investigation. This week I have completed all of the research in self-study time.

I believe that I have completed this research into the web authoring terms in a sense that I understand what I have research and I am confident that I will be able to write an investigation relating to this subject. Through this week I have researched into the different terms and I have learnt a lot about web authoring which will help me within the rest of this project. I have also adapted my skills in terms of researching into a given subject. I believe that this week I have completed the task but also the process of researching into the terms has improved. I feel more confident in terms of researching a given subject easily to help with my written work. From this week I also aimed to start to write up my web authoring investigation. I aimed to write about three of the web terms using my research to help me.
Reflecting on my aims for this week, I have achieved the tasks which I set to complete. I have finished my research into the remaining web authoring terms and I have also started to write up the document. A strength which I had this week was the planning of how I would set to complete these tasks. For example, I planned the time in which I would spend on the rest of my research. By giving my self a time scale I was able to easily plan how much time I had to complete the other aim. Time planning was a strength this week as I did keep to my time deadlines in order to start writing the document.

Overall, this week I have complete my research and started to write the investigation. I believe I am still on track to meeting the deadline. I feel that I would be able to repeat the process of researching again as I have adapted an easy research method in order for me to carry out the research easily. I can now continue to complete my written investigation on web authoring.

Week 13: Web Authoring Investigation

I have been continuing with my web authoring investigation. I started this investigation last week and I had started my research. Through this mornings session I aimed to complete research into six out of the 13 terms which I need to include within my investigation. This will then allow me to start to write my investigation on the information I have found out from the secondary research. Whilst carrying out this research I have gained knowledge and understanding of the different terms related to web authoring. I found a good website which gave me information on the six terms I was researching into. The terms which I was focusing on within this session were:

• HTML
• XHTML
• CSS
• Metatags
• Javascript
• DHTML

I have completed the research into these terms and I have started to write up my investigation with a definition, how it works and how I will use it within my own work. I started this investigation last week and I was slightly unsure about these different terms and how they are used within web authoring. Although, through researching into just 6 of the the 13 terms it has allowed me to research thoroughly and understand how they work. In the next session I can then research into the next 7 and repeat this process.
By the end of the session I have achieved what I intended at the beginning of the session. I have researched into the six intended terms and I have started to write these up into my investigation. A strength which I have from this session is the organisation of what terms I need to research into by breaking them up into two groups. I can then understand what I need to research into and this allows me to research into these thoroughly ensuring I understand their uses. This reflects the fact that I have overcome a weakness which I had last week. This was that I was unsure about the uses of the web authoring terms. I did not understand how they worked as I did not manage what terms I would research into and I was unclear about how the terms linked to each other. Therefore I now understand the terms uses as I have managed what I will be researching into. A strength which I have therefore had within this session is researching correctly and taking notes to help write up my investigation.
I did complete the activity I intended to do within this session and I believe it went well. This is because I have gained knowledge from the research I have gathered in relation to web authoring. This will therefore help me in writing the investigation as I have a clear understanding of what am writing within my investigation. The research skill which I have used within this session is a transferable skill. I will use this within other work as it is a good method of researching into a given subject/ term to help with related work.

Within the second session today I intended to complete research into the other 7 terms in relation to my web authoring investigation. Last session I completed research into 6 of the terms for me to understand what I am writing within my investigation. Throughout this session I continued with my research, again I have gained more knowledge and understanding of the different web authoring terms. I have found reliable sources for my research such as books (ebrary) and websites. The terms which I aimed to research into in this session include:

• FTP
• Divisional Layers
• Framesets
• Behaviours
• Attributes
• Event Handlers
• Sub- Divisional Layers

By the end of this session I had researched into 4 out of the 7 remaining terms. I did aim to research and understand all of these 7 terms, but a reason why I may not have been able to do this was because I was writing up my investigation after researching into two of the terms. I would have liked to have completed all of my research for the above terms today. Although I believe I will be able to complete this in self study time. I have a clear understanding of the research I have undertaken today and this has helped me in understanding web authoring in general.

A strength which I believe I have had throughout this session is that I was focuses on researching into the given terms. I have taken notes about for my research as this allows me to understand the information clearer. A weakness which I have had is that in researching some of the terms I did not understand the Attributes very well. Therefore I will research this in more depth so I have a clearer understanding of what the attributes are.

Overall, today I have gained knowledge for my investigation. Although, I did not complete the task in full as I aimed to complete my research and notes into all of the 13 web authoring terms. I believe that I will be able to complete this research in my own time and start to write up my investigation from my research. I feel that I this activity went well today as I researched into 10 of the 13 terms and I most importantly I have a clear understanding and knowledge of these terms.

Week 12: 2D Animation Assignment Complete- Evaluation & Sample Viewing

I have now completed my 2D Animation assignment. I have submitted all of my pre-production, production and post-production documents to turnitin. Over the weekend and today I completed both my Evaluation and Sample Viewing. Through my evaluation I have reflected on the entire project. I believe I have been critical within my evaluation as to how I feel the project went and how I could improve my animation. Within my evaluation I also discussed my sample viewing and feedback I gained from the target audience of 14-16 year olds. The response which I got from the sample viewing was positive. I initially handed out 10 questionnaires but I only got 9 of these back. I stated this in my evaluation and said how I would ensure this didn't happen if I repeated the project. I asked 5 14-16 year olds and this was the majority of response and feedback. I asked the participants to express their opinions on my final animation and whether they believe it will appeal to the target audience and themselves. The response was positive in relation to the layout and how the information was presented in my animation. They also gave me improvements for the animation to appeal to the audience more. The main improvement was to add colour to the animation to make it eye catching. This is an element which I would include if I could improve my animation. I have stated the feedback from the sample viewing in my evaluation. I have also stated how I would respond to this feedback if I could repeat the project.
Overall, throughout this assignment I have learnt many new skills in terms of using Adobe Flash and I have gained knowledge in terms of Animation History. I believe I have created an animation which appeals to the target audience and I have been reflective within my evaluation as to how I think I performed within the creating my 2D animation. I have also shown how I can respond to feedback on my written and practical work. In terms of responding to feedback initially in terms of pre-production work, one of my improvements was to be more reflective in my blog. I believe I have taken this improvement on board and I have been more reflective and critical. I will continue to do this on my blogs for future projects.

Week 11: 2D Animation Completed

I have now completed my 2D animation. I am happy with the final outcome of my animation and I believe this fitted the brief which I was responding to. This was to create a 2D animation for the target audience of 14-16 year olds. I believe I have created an animation which will appeal to this target audience. From the pre-production stage of creating the idea and storyboarding my final animation idea the target audience have been considered. This is because I have been asked to create an educational 2D animation for this target audience. When I was creating the animation in Flash I had also made changes for the animation to appeal to the target audience. I have documented these changes on my blog and also in my evaluation which I have started. I also made other changes in general as I developed other ideas within the production stage of this project. These have also been stated on my blog and evaluation.
I have also started to write my evaluation, this document will allow me to reflect on the process of creating the animation. I will discuss: skills developed, knowledge gained, problems encountered, technical considerations and what I would do differently if I were to repeat this project. This evaluation allows me to reflect on the production of my 2D Animation and be critical of the production process.
I have started to carry out my sample viewing for my 2D animation. I will be asking 10 people to participate and complete a questionnaire to give me feedback on my animation. I can then explain in my evaluation what I would do differently if I were to repeat this project from the feedback I gain. I have created the questionnaire and I will ask people to view my animation and share their opinion.
I have also completed the improvements which I was given in relation to my pre-production documents. I have completed the improvements in relation to the investigation into animation history and my blog. I have listed these improvements in a previous post last month. I will be submitting my improved documents on Monday (5th December) along with my other production documentation.
My final 2D animation is shown below

I will continue to complete my evaluation and sample viewing for the deadline which is Monday (5th December).

Week 10: Continuing Creating 2D Animation

I have been continuing with the completion of my 2D animation. Through this lesson I have added the audio of a music soundtrack and narration. I did initially record the narration, although it did not fit in with what was being shown visually within the animation. Therefore I re-recorded the animation for it to play with the visuals of the animation. Another problem which I encountered was the speed of my introduction title; this needed to be faster than the frame rate which it initially was. To overcome this problem I originally planned on creating a new scene using action script. Although, this was not working correctly, therefore I decided to create the introduction title again using less keyframes. This therefore made the speed of the animation faster because I had created this title by adding keyframes.
I created this animation by creating the text, adding an initial keyframe, breaking the text apart. I then worked backwards and used the eraser tool to erase each letter and add various numbers of keyframes to create the animation. I then reversed the keyframes to make the title animation appear in order of ‘The History of 2D Animation’.

I have now synced by voice over into my animation. I did initially have problems with my voice over being not being synced with my visual animation. I have stated this in my previous post as it was an issue which I approached and I have dealt with. I also stated in my previous post of the changes which I have made to my animation. I have made some significant changes to my animation since I created my detailed storyboard. I will justify reasons for these changes within my evaluation as I have made various changes to make the animation the best it could be. I can start to plan my final evaluation for this project, starting with the skills and knowledge which I have gained throughout this assignment. I will also be updating my skills audit for the skills I have developed in the past month whilst creating my animation.  

Week 10: Progress of 2D Animation

I have been continuing with my 2D Animation in Flash. I am aiming to finish the animation by the end of this week, this then allows me to have 2 weeks to gain feedback and write my evaluation for this assignment. Through this week I have made some changes to my animation which will make it more appealing to the target audience. Some of these changes include:

• Animating Continuous Film Strips: I have decided to animate and create a continuous movement of the film strips at the side of the screen moving upwards. This gives the effect of a film playing throughout the animation. As I have now included this animation I have had to change the original timeline effect which I was using. I was using the timeline effect of Wipe transition to show the animation continuously moving from one part of information to another. I have taken out this transition as the continuous movement of the film strips gives the sense of the animation progressing.
• Animation of the Title: I have animated the initial title which appears within the first few seconds of my animation. I have animated this to give the effect that it is being hand written. I understand that I need to change the frame rate on this as it is quite slow, I am aware of this and will change it within my final animation. I animated the title by writing the text and breaking it apart and erasing part of each letter and adding a key frame whilst repeating this process. I understand that there is an easier and less time consuming way of creating this effect, which is by creating a shape tween.
• I have added the animated devices to my animation, this has been stated in my storyboard. I decided to include these to keep the audience interested within the animation. I have created the Thaumatrope and the Zoetrope which shows the audience how the devices work, whilst the narration is playing.

I have stated the changes I have made to my animation and justified the reasons for this. I can include these within my evaluation to show how my idea had developed within the production stage of this assignment. I therefore believe that the changes I have made will appeal to the audience and they will be interested in watching the animation because of the changes I have made.
I will continue to complete my animation and I will reflect in my blog the techniques which I have learnt through this project in terms of Adobe Flash. I can then gain feedback from the target audience and start my evaluation.

Week 9: Progress of Animation in Adobe Flash

I have continued creating my animation within Adobe Flash. Within this animation I am showing the history of animation, by showing three devices which helped develop 2D animation. These devices are, the Thaumatrope, The Zoetrope and The Kinetoscope. I have been away for the last two weeks, but I have still been able to continue creating my animation. I have made some changes to my animation which I will be discussing within the post. Below shows the process which I am currently at creating my animation.

• Adding the soundtrack to the animation: I have added the soundtrack to my animation, I decided to create a narrative soundtrack. The reason for this is because the theme of my animation is 'music chart show' inspired countdown for animation history. Therefore I am using a narrator who will narrate the countdown as it would be heard on a radio show countdown.
• Starting to create the animation as a final animation: I have continued creating my animation by using my detailed storyboard as a tight guideline. As this has all of the narration, effects, duration and timeline effects which I will be using within my animation. Therefore this storyboard has helped me in understanding clearly what I have planned to create and I can bring the idea from the storyboard to life in Adobe Flash.

Changes made to my animation
I have made some changes to my animation from my initial idea. I have come over some issues, one being that the effect which I wanted to create, being a number countdown cannot be created in Adobe Flash. Therefore I changed this within my animation and I have now made the animation strip move along continuously as though it is playing a film.
Another change which I have made to my animation to make it clearly appeal to the target audience. This change is to add more colour to my animation to appeal to the target audience. This colour will be added towards the end of the animation, as this shows the time passing within the history of animation and colour becoming noticeable throughout time.
I have also decided to animate some sketches which I will create within Adobe Flash. These drawings will be of the animation devices which I am discussing within the animation. I decided to add these animated images into my animation because I did not believe my initial animation with still images would appeal and catch the audiences attention. The video below shows my animation of the Thaumatrope animation which I have added to my 2D Animation.This shows how the Thaumatrope works as the two images merge when the device strings are twisted, created one continuous movement.

I will continue to create the rest of my animation in Adobe Flash by completing the last 2 device history within my animation.