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Task 1: Research material

For task one, I have researched two examples of websites which have interactivity, two examples of tutorials for software, two examples of animations, two examples of games and interactive presentations.    

http://www.zunejourney.net/

The Zune journey websites is very colourful, cheery and interactive. It has a variety of different interactivity features. It has the feature to interact with there product, spin around the product and examine it. The animation is very odd, colourful and exciting. The animation also has a song playing whilst interactive animation is running. This is relevant to the product as it is a music player. This is a good website because it has current songs playing and the interactive animation is fun and colourful. Despite this website being very well made, when you view their products and you click on buy now, it takes you Xbox Live music and a questions area, so this is a broken link.   

http://www.whitevoid.com/application.html

Portfolio for a software and hardware company. This webpage has a very modern layout and it is in 3D so it adds to the interactivity. This page has no sound when you are viewing the page but it has videos on some of their portfolio pages to show-off their creations. Their is no information on their company so you have to work out what kind of a company they are by looking at their work. 

 

http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Learn-And-Explore/Product-Tutorials/index.page

 Tutorials for Nikon products is very easy to use, you simply select the product you want a tutorial for and it will start playing and displays it in a step by step guide. The tutorial is easy to understand as it has a simple layout and is not cluttered. It uses text and highlighted areas to show what the tutorial is showing. The tutorial also has some light music in the background which is cheery and calm. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B3UydyYbyI&list=UUDfJlseFwUx2X0h3m5PRILA&index=84

 This YouTube tutorial is for Photoshop. It is by BlueLightningTV and it is made simply for the viewer to understand as it is in a step by step guide. It shows the number and keys which you have to use on the screen and their is a man who talks over the tutorial for extra guidance. He provides short-cuts for both PC and MAC which is helpful to a wider audience.

 

Toy story

The plot line of Toy Story is about a cowboy doll who is the favourite toy of Andy. Andy is have a birthday party and the toys are scared of replacement. All the presents are given and the toy are relieved, until an odd shaped box comes out to the surprise of the toys. The toy is an action figure named buzz light-year and becomes Andy's new favourite toy, by replacing Woody. Buzz becomes a favourite with everyone to the anger of Woody, who then tries to get rid of Buzz. In his attempt Woody gets lost with Buzz. They then have to work together to take on Sid and scare him by coming to life in front of him so they can get home before the delivery truck comes. They miss the truck so the fly to get in the car with Andy. This animation is fun and exciting, it makes children to want their toys to come to life and buy into the toys of Toy Story.     

Cars

Cars is about a race car which is going after the Piston Cup. On his way to the race, he gets lost and ends up in a field where he gets chased by tractors. This causes havoc to a little town on the route sixty six. He has to repair the road to get freed, along his struggle, he makes new friends and understands tat his life shouldn't be revolved around the Piston Cup and that his friends are more important. This is a great animation and the use of cars allows Pixar to distribute toy cars to the world.   

http://www.redbullsoapboxracer.com/

 The game is designed by RedBull to promote their downhill soapbox race that they do each year and also promoting their products. The layout is easy on the eye, there not too much going on and is easy to navigate because it is simple. The game allows you to design your own racer, paint it and race it. This gets the player involved into creating their own racer and allowing the player to have some sentimental value to their creation which adds to the replay value. It has sounds in the game like crashing sounds and power up sounds which add to the game. RedBull are promoting their event and their products by them both being involved in the game, you take part in the soapbox race and you must hit the RedBull drinks which gives you energy.

http://gorillaz.com/plasticbeach

This game is on the Gorillaz website has a game called Plastic beach which is promoting their newest album, Plastic beach. This is a very random game and has some good animations, but it is boring. You have to go from point to point figuring things out. This game is to promote their newest album, but they don't take the opportunity to have their songs playing in the background, instead they have some calm flute and bongo drums playing. 

Interactive kiosk provide instant information on a products or a location.

For the task of finding an interactive kiosk, I went to the storm front where Apple products are presented and in HMV where new Xbox and PlayStation games are on show to play. 

The stormfront shop had a vast display of Apple products which you were able to interact with. They had IPods, IPads and Macs which you can understand each product by using it as much as you want.

In HMV they were running new games on for people to play before they buy. This lets the customer play the game, get a feel for it and lets them decide whether they want to buy it or not. I think that having interactive kiosks in shops is a great way for the customer to feel comfortable in the shopping environment.  

Principles of interactive media authoring

After researching into a variety of interactive media authoring, I feel that this is the only way forward for the future of advertising, tutorials and entertainment.

Amongst my research, I looked at websites which had a lot of interactivity and sound. From the websites I looked at, they provided sound, 3D animations, interactive rollovers and clicks. I looked at the Zune journey website which aloud you to interact with the companies product, analyse every corner in 3D graphics. There was an interactive animation were you had to select, music, video, pictures, social, radio or podcasts. You had to use your mouse to control what happened in the small animation. This gets the customer intrigued with this little piece of fun and the music is really uplifting which just helps interactive media expand into other possibilities. Although this website was successful in displaying the potential of interactive media authorizing, another website, White void made great use of modern 3D animations, but it was a boring site and I don't feel this would intrigue a wider audience as much as Zune journey. For interactive websites to be used at their full potential, I feel that 3D animations and graphics, sound and full interactivity should be used to really intrigue audiences and make them feel the interactive media is constantly moving forward.

After I researched interactive websites, I looked at online tutorials. This is a great opportunity to find help for software which the customer may not be accustomed to. Firstly I looked at tutorials for Nikon cameras and their software. I made you of music in the tutorial which was calming, so their was no voice. The tutorial used text which was clearly placed so no problems were caused through out the tutorial. It highlighted areas and the viewer was able to pause, rewind and select steps that they needed help with. I think that tutorials on websites for big company products is important as this is the first place the customer will look for assistance. 

I also looked at tutorials on YouTube as this is the biggest video sharing website and their are videos for everything. I looked for tutorials on Photoshop and looked at a channel called BlueLightningTV. The tutorials are very clear and it uses images of the keys for shortcuts to broaden the viewers knowledge on Photoshop. Online tutorials will constantly be uploaded day after day because of the advancements in technology.

Next, I researched animated movies. Animated movies is where interactive media is best shown. It is shown on a high quality scale which is designed to entertain. I looked at Toy Story and Cars, two of the biggest animated movies known. These two films have made millions in the box office and have made millions from merchandise from the films like; costumes, toys and games. Animated films can have influences to create games which also broadens the horizon of interactive media.

After I completed research on animated movies, I looked at how games can endorse a product. I looked at RedBull energy drinks and band, Gorillaz. On the RedBull soap box racing website, It had lots of interactivity and sound. It allows  you to create your own soap box racer and track. This keeps the player involved at all times as they can constantly create different things all the time. The sounds are like that of an arcade game, fun and not serious, allowing you to enjoy the game. this game is endorsing their downhill racing championship and their drinks product, which is done very well.
On the other hand, the Gorillaz adventure game doesn't take advantage of playing their own music in the background of a boring game that is time consuming. The sounds are boring and it would have been made better by having their own music. This game has playability, it makes you want to finish it, but doesn't sell you their product and this is what I think games should be used for on big company websites.

Finally, I researched kiosks. This is a great way to get the customer to view the product up close and interact with it for as long as they like. I went to shops to view kiosks in HMV and Stormfront. In HMV they had games where the customer can play them, get a feel for them and make a decision through personal experience.
I also went to the Stormfront where Apple product are on display, allowing you to interact with their touch screen products, speakers and computers. You were able to test the products out and again enjoy them in your own time. 
These are the best way interactive media can be displayed as the customer can enjoy the product in the shop and then buy straight away.         

Task 2: Ideas generation

Friendly fish
 

This concept is to teach people about the stories of animals from the national marine aquarium.  The idea is to tell the stories of a shark that is afraid of the dark, the octopus that chose his name and the turtle that was washed up on the shores of Devon.

The menu page will have the game title, description of the game and the animals themselves.

The idea is when you click on an animal a description page will pop up, this will tell you about the animal and after you have read the description, you click on the animal and it takes you to the game.

You will play as the octopus and you will have to find his real name in the jars and you have to say if it’s right.

You will play as the turtle that was washed up on the shores in Devon who is partially blind and you have to avoid pieces on floating plastic.

You will play as the octopus and you will have to find his real name in the jars and you have to say if it’s right.

You will play as the shark and you have to follow a sequence of buttons to make the lights turn on to stop the shark from going mad.

Client contact notes

Presentation

Client contact notes

After presenting our interactive media, the client gave us feedback on our ideas. She liked the overall idea of our interactive animation, but she felt that in our turtle game we could include levels and to not instantly loss with one hit of a plastic bag to add longevity. Possibly after hitting three bags, you loss so the game doesn't end straight away. We could insert jelly fish which provides health. When you loss the game, there will be facts which explain the plastic bag troubles.

The screen size for the website

1024x600

Notes from after test


Sounds need to be added on the following; sounds for buttons on shark game, eating sounds for turtle game and ambience.
The turtle game needs a 'How to play' instructions
Check the text
Create a boundary for jellyfish and plastic bags on turtle game
Slow down the speed of the lights in shark

Make paly button smaller
Rearrange lives, levels and scores on turtle game
Make all buttons the same size
Define the name Kashikoi in octopus game
Make text bigger on the scrolls in octopus game

Change some names in octopus game
Insert 'Try again' button in octopus game

After receiving these notes from our client, we made the amendment to improve the game. 

Task 4: Product documentation

This is our plan sheet for what we will do and when we will do them.

The ocean scene I have created for the turtle game. 

This is a work in progress on the main menu.

This is my further development on the main menu, this might change but I need to add the animals to the menu.

This is the finalised information page but animals and descriptions need to be added.

http://www.freesfx.co.uk/sfx/underwater

Task 6: Evaluation report

Our team’s idea was to create three games that feature the umbrella species. The three games consist of a Simon says style game for the shark, helicopter based game for the turtle and a guess who the octopus.

We started by talking about ideas for the umbrella species. After we decided what we were going to do, we made some rough graphics and presented our ideas to the client; we received feedback and developed our ideas further to our final outcome.

When we knew what we were going to create I created a time plan by discussing with the group to decided who was going to what by focussing on strength of each individual; jack is good with scripting, I’m good at graphics and tom is good at graphics and a bit of scripting.

My contribution to this project has been a lot of graphics and a bit of scripting. I created the background, jellyfish, plastic bags and turtle graphics for the turtle game. I continued to do graphics by creating graphics for the octopus game; I made the background, jars, scrolls, octopus and the octopus celebration page. I also made the graphics for the main menu, information page and created all the buttons that are in the page.

Although I feel that scripting in flash is not my strong point, I scripted the main menu to each of the information page. I did this to hopefully improve my skills and the save time when the game were finished and ready to be linked to the games.

When we finished production, I searched for copyright free sounds to add to our game. I found many different sounds and took them into audition and edited the pitch for the shark game, so each button in the game had a different sound.

Jack was predominately focusing on the scripting as that was his strength and Tom created graphics for the games as well as helping with the sounds. I feel we worked well as a team, we were constantly talking about our ideas, pieces of text, graphics and how the game works. We all had a major input into the creation through idea and criticism.

Improvements I would have liked to make to our final outcome better would be to add more animations. The turtle, shark and octopus are very static and I feel it would be better to add animation to bring it to life. I personally would have liked to improve my skills in Flash but I would not have been able to create what Jack created because his skills are far greater than mine.