last ist lesson for term one.

yesterday (30.03.10) we learnt how to change the layout of the blog!! it's so cool!
what you do is go to your dashboard, then on the URL change it to draft.blogger.com instead of www.blogger.com. Then you go to layout and you have a bigger range to choose from. :)

It would be so awesome if we could design our own blog skin but. Mr Lennon if you read this maybe you can teach us how next term ^^

I have just read the marking criteria again and the bit that says animation displays smooth motion. My one depends how fast the computer the viewer is on. And I sort of wanted it to be a little 'jerky'.

And the bit that says an obvious meaning. The meaning of my animation is that Clare (represented by oranges) has lots of house spirit and that were very cheerful and we are like a team and stuff.

Since this is our last IST lesson for the term, I'll like to say IST is an awesome subject and I encourage anyone to choose it for an elective.

orange animation.

Orange Animation (<--) Mr Lennon this link is my final animation.

if thats not working, just mark the movie maker one (below)

I couldn't upload my actual GIF animation as it wasn't uploading properly but atleast I got the URL. It's odd that GIF images from the internet works on the blog but my GIF images won't, so confused. Some of my friends had the same problem, apparantly to do it you have to save/upload your blog to a website like 'image shack' or something and then put it on your blog.

animation backup.

I did another of my animation on Windows Movie Maker because it wasn't uploading properly. Windows Movie Maker was very easy to use and it is good for getting the timing of your frames right. You can even add music to it, but I wasn't bothered :P The only downside is when I published the movie the colour of the orange went all yucky, like its like so dark and dull when it supposed to be bright and cute! --"

animation journal.

09.03.10

For our IST assignment, we are creating an animation supporting our house colour (mine is Clare -Orange)

I have decided to make my animation on 'Inkscape' as I am used to using the program and being modest, I would say I'm fairly good at it :) It is a free drawing program which you can easily download it from the internet at home as I have already done.

I enjoy using Inkscape as it is easy to use since there are many tools to choose from. My favourite tool combination is using the one that allows you to 'Draw Bezier curves and straight lines', I use this tool to make polygons and then using the tool 'Edit paths by nodes' which allows you to fix/edit your shape by moving the corners around and also if you click on one of the corners and then clicking the 'make selected nodes smooth' it turns the curner into a curved corner. Then I love playing with 'Fill and Stroke' to play around with the colours and outline widths. And using the grid (shift and #) should make it easier to ensure the animation stays in line.

I would say I'm pretty experienced in Inkscape and using it I have become a big fan and I use it for my other assignments. Like in Commerce I designed a logo for a project using Inkscape: (copyright LOL)

This lesson we learnt how to change the size and colour of the canvas and how to export images (in Inkscape).

10.03.10

Inkscape Notes:

• Set background colour of CANVAS
• Size canvas (around abouts 400x400px)
• SAVE DRAWING FILE (.svg)
• When exporting from inkscape select "PAGE"
• create and use ONE folder for your files .

I spent this lesson planning my animation and I have decided for my animation to make dancing oranges :) on Inkscape which spell out the name of my house (Clare). My idea is for 6 oranges to roll into the centre of the page and they will take turns putting up a sign that will spell out 'CLARE!'. After that they will roll back off the screen and a orange flash that says 'GO CLARE!' will pop up for a bit and then the animation will restart..

12.03.10

This lesson I have designed what my characters will look like...As you can see they all look the same, it is a very basic drawing to do, however I believe the simplicity makes them look even cuter :D I just made an orange circle and thickened the black outline a bit. Then I made a smaller black circle (for the eye) and copied and pasted it for the other eye. For the mouth and the leaf, I used the tools 'Draw Bezier curves and straight lines' and 'make selected nodes smooth'. (see my explanation on my first entry). Next I used the select tool to draw a box around my orange and then I grouped it (Control and G) to make it one image. After I grouped it, I copy and pasted it to make the other oranges, and I just flipped 3 of them.

btw copyright :)

16. 03.10

My orange animation is going okay but my original plan of them rolling to the centre and back isn't working out. It is fairly simple to make them roll as all you have to do is rotate them, however the timing/positioning gets confusing, I mean like I want to roll them to the centre but when they reach the centre they are like upside down or sideways when I want them to be upright. Since it was taking so long to get the timing/positioning right, I gave up and instead I have decided to just make them shuffle along to the centre. They are just tilting themselves side to side towards the centre, it is a lot simpler to do so I am happy with my desicion.

Another problem I had was fitting them all on the screen. I thought this problem would occur so I made the canvas a little longer than average(400 by 500px) when I first started. However, it ended up being still a little too small but I managed to squish them in (they're just slightly overlapping) but it looks okay to me.

17.03.10

I believe I have finished all my frames but the thing is there is only like around 27 frames so I'm afraid its like too short. But yeh it was annoying making them because the inkscape kept saying a problem has occured so it kept closing itself without saving so I had to keep on starting again.

I am also confused about how to put all the frames into one animation. I am thinking of using windows movie maker to make it into an animation cause I have done that before but I'm wondering if there is some special way to put it into an animation. I'll ask Mr Lennon next lesson.

19.03.10

I have been told that I had too little frames so I spent majority of this lesson adding more frames to my animation. I have about 58 frames now, but I was told we'll need about 70. Mr Lennon gave me advice to duplicate some of the frames to make it stay on longer. I asked Mr Lennon about how we are going to put it into one animation and he said that we will use Gimp to make it.
My homework is to make more frames.

23.03.10

This lesson I finished making my frames. It was a little hard as I didn't know what else I could add so I decided to double up all my frames and add a sequence where the oranges a jumping. Next lesson I'll be making it into an animation :D

24.03.10

I have made my animation XD i'm so happy! I think I'm like one of the first. I made it on Gimp. To me Gimp is a little confusing as it opens up as 3 windows instead of 1. What I had to do was import all my frames into Gimp (and it made it like layers), then I went on save as and saved it as a 'gif'.After it will give you an option to either flatten it or save as an animation, obviously choose save as animation. It will then give you an option to loop forever, meaning have the animation run continuously. Then click save and then the animation is done.

When I first made the animation, it was a little fast so I made it again and slowed the pace a little.

All I have to do is upload it to my blog.

25.03.10

PROBLEM!!! I tried uploading my animation to my blog but it's not working !!! ><

And I don't have any lessons before its due to ask Mr Lennon because its like due tomorrow =="

I have come up with a back up plan! I have re-done my animation on Windows Movie Maker but yeh I'm not happy with the outcome, it's very pixelly and the colour went so bad. My hypothesis is windows movie maker pulishes with only a few bits and therefore the colour didn't turn out 100% and why you can see the pixels. I guess my finished animation turned out okayy but i wish I could put the one GIf one on, but I can't upload it :(

eight of clubs activity.

Monochrome Bitmap 24-Bit Bitmap

It sort of looks the same but I guess the 24 bitmap is slightly smoother and clearer but very very slightly.