Second Life, yo

So I began playing Second Life. Again. I have to say, it does have a sort of addictive quality to it, like I said before, I had an account before, but I never really used it until yesterday. properly, anyway. So I spent quite a while on there last night, and I had met someone who had been on there for a while now and spends pretty much her whole life on there. I kid you not. She literally had a second life. I have some screenshots I'll put up a little later, but This particular girl had a family on Second Life, she had 3 daughters, or something, I forget. But she turned out to be a great help, she took me shopping(Lolz), she took me to a place where the clothng was free, along with other things.

I'm enjoying it too much. I need to calm it down a tad. But while we were on there, she saidto me another 'activity' on the game was o find a partner. This, to me, sounded a little weird. Its difficult trying to make money on this game, if you wanted some, you'd need an actual job. This means that you'd actually have to show up at your alotted times, and would have to be there for the actual amont of time you were supposed to be. I.e, 2 hours. This means you'd have to sit on Second Life for 2 hours, doing your job. And you'd get paid for it. With Linden Dollars, the currency for SL.

I'll probably continue playing again in a little bit, and then maybe I'll actually begin work on my Identities project. Hhahaha.

K2010

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuupdate.

So, its Christmas eve. I've been watching alot of movies. I love movies. and I'm beginning to think about the next essay. yeah, I know, work? On Christmas eve? Oh my god. There must be something wrong with me. Well, its just abit of pass time before I do something else. So, I didn't know whethere I'm supposed to relate Directors to the essay..Practitioners sounds like this to me..But Before that, Identities. I already have an account with Second Life, Kaz Weatherwax is my name. So I'll get right back onto that. So this should be fun. Screenshots to come soon.

K2010

Presentation

SO I had my presentation today, and I won't lie, walking in I was so close to throwing up. My firest proper presentation in well, pretty much ever. Did I mention it wasn't a normal powerpoint thing? No. No I didn't mention it. I made a video of me talking about my work. The lecturers enjoyed it gernerally, but said to me that if I was to do this again in the future, I must make sure to do something significant, and not something I could have just told them in person. But other than that, I think it went well. Now I just have to do my essay. Here we go.

K2010

Interactive narrative. Done!

Ok, so here it is. After countless hours playing around with the code and changing the frame numbers in the code, I DID IT! Oh yeah. So good.

Interactive Narrative by ~kazwordlife619 on deviantART

K2010

Interactive Narrative

Just a quick update, its coming on really well, I've added a few movie clips also, I'm up to 2018 frames so far, but some of those are video clips anyway. I want to get it done today, so there we go.

K2010

New idea

Ok, so maybe that idea wasn't the best, because thinking about it, it'd be quite limited as to what I could do with it. For example, clicking on a TV could only get you so far, but then what? You go back, try another area, then once again, limitation.

K2010.

EDIT: I might do it.

Interactive Narrative ideas

So ideas:

- Use photos for the whole thing
- Clicking on different areas in the photos for different outcomes

Thats it for now, I'll begin work on this stuff.

K2010

Storyboard/Set layout

This is the layout of the set we shot on. Click for a larger version.


This is the storyboard I made prior to shooting, but the ending went a little different, but it still gave a little idea. Again, clicky.

Addressing the art gallery situation thing.

So, I was supposed to go to and choose a painting from the Djangoly art gallery place thing, but thought I'd explain why I don't have one up. Now this is by no means an excuse, no matter how much it may sound like one. Because I commute from and to Nottingham, I live at home in Leicester, and also go to work here. So it is sort of difficult for me to go to this gallery thing, because as soon as I'm done at nottingham, I dash home to get ready for work. Boom. So thought I'd just announce that. I will get it done asap, but I'm gonna do everything I can that requires me not to be at home.

K2010

One shot short

Ok, so I think its about time I posted this, its been ready for a while now, just wasn't sure if I should've uploaded it. I think I may have got someone's name wrong, but bleh. We all know who we were.

I'll be posting the plans up soon once I get my scanner connected.



K2010

Rule of Thirds, yo.

Juzz. So heres my interpretation of 'The Rule of Thirds'. Basically, lets say we have a grid. a 3 by 3 grid. Lets say that this grid was on a camera lens when we were recording. Lets also say that when we were recording, we were being sure to film stuff only in 3 squares in that 3x3 grid. That, is my interpretation. if I'm wrong, then kablah. Sue me.
Video, yo. No no, Vidyo. Lolz.



Yeah, I realise the grid isn't exactly aligned with the stairs thing, but whatever, close enough.

Why is it that we want our belongings to do more for us than to function well? Why are we willing, as soon as we can afford it, to pay extra for things with appealing forms?

Not long ago, I owned a Nokia N82 mobile phone. This phone was a portable media center, had in built sattellite navigation, a 5mp camera, almost DVD quality video capture, a 3.5mm headphone jack, music playback, with expandable memory up to 32GB. This phone, for me, was the ultimate in portable entertainment. Recently, I received a HTC Touch, as pictured above and below. The reason why I liked this phone so much, was purely because the device operated via the touch screen. Now, this goes back to the question about how we want our belongings to do more than just function. Sure, it makes phonecalls, but it also does more than that. Maybe that isn't required on a mobile phone, but its what attracts people to buy these devices. Knowing there is a device on the market that does more than just call people makes one curious, leading to the purchase. I guess one possible answer to the question is envy. Once someone sees something superior to that they own, they feel the need to 'upgrade' the current item.

K2010

Stop motionness, yo.

Ok, so after trying to upload it onto YouTube twice, lets see if it works on here.
This video, I guess, is a temporary solution until I figure out how to add more tracks to Premiere. Blah.

EDIT: The quality is quite bad. I'm not sure what I did wrong, I'm gonna have to go over it again. What I've found with Premiere, is that it screws your videos up to hell, but Windows Movie Maker doesn't. But premiere is better. I hate it. Well, I don't.

Recent multimedia technology

Write a 300 – 500 word article that tells the audience about a recent multimedia technology that is being or has been developed in the last six months and explain what you think the impact of this technology will have upon society.

Motorola mobile phone/head mounted display hybrid


Motorola recently patented a design for some sort of phone/visual display unit. Now, I'm not entirely sure whether this product will actually even go into production, as the idea (at this point in time) seems too farfetched. I think that the whole idea is good, but does anyone really want to walk around with a huge box over their eyes? Well, I don't actually think walking with this thing would be a good idea. So then what would be the point? Who would be the target audience? Lets say, for example, one is at home with this device on. Lets say they feel the need to watch a movie. Why would they put the device on? Why not just switch on the TV or Computer and watch a movie from one of those? Sure the concept of literally carrying around an entire media center around in your pocket(or bag by the looks of this thing) is a really good one, I'm not sure whether it would catch on. I suppose the only time a device would become useful would probably be on a long plane/train trip, or a long road journey.

I think IF the device ever becomes available, it could have a significant amount of difference on society for a short amount of time, but because of the revolutionary device, the lifespan of the product could be quite long, because if there is high demand for the device, Motorola could then think about further improving the headset, compacting it so it fits into one pocket, or improving the current model. The thing about technology is, no matter what new idea there is, there will always be a better one.

Introducing the headset into the market could potentially be a good move on Motorola's part, but could also be a huge loss - taking into consideration the amount of money it would cost to manufacture such technology, not to mention the quality of it, if such a product was to be made, the overall quality of every feature on the phone would have to be up to standard also. But again, thats IF the product will be released. But in the meantime, there are plenty of other alternatives, all of them are not that different at all to whats pictured above; Nokia N95, N96, HTC Touch, all of these have the same media center type capabilities, and although the prices are quite steep, the features alone are worth every penny.

K2010

2nd Lego Animation

One would think i would want to pursue an Animation pathway. One would be wrong. So wrong. The point of this excercise is for me to get an understanding of whats going on dammit.



Behold. My 2nd Lego animation. Production value was pretty high on this one.

Lego Animation

This was basically just a test to see how well a stop motion animation using Lego would turn out. Not that bad, actually.



The sound effects were probably not needed, but i felt it needed some sort of excitement.

Movies

Well, I feel I have to take this oppurtunity to say how much I love movies. I want to know the ins and outs of movies, I want to BE a movie. More to come.

Whiteboard Animations, yo.

This is something we did last week, which I had to leave early, so I didn't get my face in the shot. I got my name at the end though, so that'll suffice.



Our group started at 2:22.

First lecture, yo.

SO I had my first lecture today. not much going on there, did a couple of 'excercises' with groups and such. Then we got these really handy handbooks. Handy. So anyway, I had a vanilla frescato from this coffee place. That stuff is not cool. It tastes like 10 gazillion times better than crappy milkshake from McD's, its not even right. So anyway, I made the 2nd episode of 'The Home' which I'm gonna upload to YT. Yay me. Podcasts are another new thing in Kazed's life which excites him. I listen to SModcast, which is done by Kevin Smith (holla.) and I've listen to a couple of NinjaVideo podcasts. This blog is so entirely pointless its upsetting me.

K2010

Mirrors

So I saw Mirrors last night. The one with 24 guy. Kiefer Sutherland. I didn't think it was that bad, there was a part where Amy Smart rips apart her jaw, and I'm not gonna lie, its been a long time since I've shuddered like that. It was pretty wrong. It started to get abit ridiculous toward the end once the Demons had possessed Anna, I mean, a Demon with superhuman strength..Really? Meh, it was a good watch. I'm even gonna start watching 24 now. Oh yeah. What now.But anyway, Good movie. 7/10 from me.

Blog from NTU, yo.

So I'm suppose to write about what i want out of this course and what I got up to this first week. Straightforward really.

What do I want out of the course in addition to passing? - Not sure to be honest, something to do with movies/TV, editing, something along those lines. Guess I'll find out eventually.

What did you get up to in the first week? - Honestly, not alot. I commute, so its hard for me to do much at all. I also work, which makes it ridiculously stupid. Meh.

Thats it, yo.

K2010

New Laptop. What?!!!

Oh yeah. What up. What up. So I got a laptop now, I've made two videos so far, and the main advantage of having this laptop is that I can take it everywhere. And that, is an awesome thing. I'll tell you why - If I get inspiration while I'm out somewhere, BANG! I can stick some of my thoughts on this here bloggo. I probably might have to maybe not change to another blog, because of some university thing. We'll find out. In the meantime, take a look at these two:

This is a 'music video' for Times Like These performed by me and a friend. Quality is quite bad, I had to encode pieces of the video a few times. So, this was the result. Still watchable, but meh.


This is kind of a parody of The Office, created by myself, stars myself, and directed by a friend. This is the first episode of a few. We've shot quite a few, I'm planning on getting them all up eventually. yay me.

Crappy attempt at Lightsaber effect

Ok, So after like 2 hours of staring straight at the monitor, I came up with this. I realise Its not perfect, but its my first attempt, so who gives a ball. I'm actually happy with the way it turned out, Theres just a few frames where you can tell I didn't put a keyframe in, but I guess that was my bad. Here it is.




K2010

6 days..Yo.

So, it's been 6 days since my last post, what can I say, I've been kind of..'busy'. I've had the AE training window open for days, and haven't tried anything out yet, I really should though, but I have watched a few 'basics' videos, from this website, which is pretty damn helpful, some things they offer to buy, such as small plug-ins for AE, sound effects, or how to create a 3d bullet in a live action footage. There are also basics tutorials, which can be found here. Uber helpful stuff.

On another note, listening to Black Stone Cherry at the mo, new album. So far so good.

I'll update later, yo.

K2010

Away from home.

Aite, so check it, I'm at my cousins, thinking about special effect video thingys. I figured I should write them here in case I forget them.

- More research on After Effects effects.
- Watch examples of othr special effect videos.
- tutorials.
- bleh

That was for my benefit. So there.

K2010

Lightsaber

Ok, well this has annoyed me. So I just gave up. I'll probably revisit it at some point, but screw it at the mo.

Thanks Rabbit for the comment, I'm actually gonna rework the hand lightning thing, its pretty fun.

Well, I'm gonna head off to work, then I'm spending a couple of days with my cousins. I'll try and update via my phone, otherwise I'll continue on wednesday.

K2010

Lightning Kazed.

Ok, so after a day of trying, heres what I came up with. Keeping in mind I had no clue how to use AE prior to this, so meh.

Army of Research.

Played a little Xbox, finished Army of Two, been playing it for a few days, good game. Good game. It only took me the entire game to realise you only get achievements for the missions on Contractor difficulty. But thats another story.

Anyway, gonna begin doing some research on how to add special effects to videos n sitch. See how difficult this crap will be. Maybe it won't be that hard, but who knows. I also got a letter today telling me I have a confirmed place at NTU. Yay. Now I actually need to drive down there. See how the hell to get there. Anyway, peace. Later.

K2010

Plans for next 'Project' and other stuff.

So I've begun writing notes down for another project of mine, I've had god knows how many 'projects', some of which I haven't even started/finished. Anyway, The one Ii've started making notes on invloves me. That's all I'll say. Wouldn't want any info to leak out. *Sarcastic face*

Bleh, enough on that though, lets talk about things that annoy the crap outta me. You know what I hate? When people say their into 'all kinds of music' then you ask em if they like Rock..then they say 'eww no. I hate rock' What the HELL is that? Like, for realsies, that doesn't classify as ANYTHING. So gay. You know what else I hate? Alot of things. ALOT. We'll come to that a little later on.

Let's talk about my project again. We'll call it 'Untitled project from Kazed' oh yeah. Eat your heart out default file names from Microsoft Paint. Ok, so from reading it back to myself again, it sounds like a pretty dumb idea, but then..it could still work. But then, who cares..? Not even sure if my other YouTube videos worked, but hey, what can you do. Heres one for yous.



K2010

Morning, yo.

Aite, so its 11:57am. At least, it is where I am. So I was reviewing some of the blogs that some of the students down in NTU wrote for their Multimedia course. Some pretty good stuff on there, I love the whole idea of doing something I'm gonna enjoy the crap out of for 3 years, and actually gettting something out of it.

So I'm watching 30 Rock at the moment, I actually left this show last year sometime, mainly because I began watching like 4 shows at one time. Kind of got overloaded with taking in plot points etc. So like now, I've just finished watching how i met your mother, which I enjoyed. Alot. I don't know what exactly dragged me into the show, some of the jokes were real lame, Jason Segel was quite 'unfunny'..his jokes- No..His "jokes" were lame as balls. But enough on that, we'll return to that soon.

Lets talk more on why I began a blog. Well, for the course I'll be studying at University, Multimedia, they encourage us to keep a blog for thoughts and feelings. Yay. We'll see how it actually goes.

Anyway, that was my first offical post I guess.

K2010

First EVER post. Awesome.

I figured I'd make a blog. Why? I'll tell you that later. Its my first time. Right now, it's pretty damn late, so I'll continue this in the morning. Doubt this has even been discovered yet. It'll be fun.

K2010.