Digital Media Design & Development Overview: Exciting Projects, Guidance, and Resources

1. MU120 Digital Media Design & Development • This presentation gives pointers to what was covered in the lecture • Attendance + persistent use of the module website is essential • Assignments give you a chance to think outside the box

2. Investigate the website • What’s inside this module (homepage)? • How will you learn? • Module Guide • Lectures • Resources • Showcase – what others have achieved • How did they start? • Perhaps more important is the progress they made during the year.

3. Induction week • What did you learn from the Course activities and the Storyboarding session? • http://spark.glos.ac.uk/mu.html • Confidence in your abilities • To get to the right place at the right time • your creative potential • Are you feeing rather superior? • A tad over confident?

4. Student-centred learning • NOT “Me, me, me” • in the sense that tutors are at your beck and call • BUT “Me, me, me – I can do this!” • “My learning” • Nobody else can do this – rights and responsibilities • Tutors will encourage and discuss • If you choose not to engage then that’s your right – unless it interferes with the rights of others to learn • Cost of retaking a L1 module £800+ in addition to £3K+ fees in Level 2

5. Assignment scenario • Cheltenham Panorama • An interactive, electronic poster for the town • Including animated characters (real/imaginary) Bitmap/photo Images as raw material

6. Example posters • Ronda, Granada, Cordoba in Spain • Dornbirn, Austria

7. Assignment 1 Portfolio of 5 tasks • 1. Drawing • Iconic images of the town (vector drawing) • 2. Layout • Illustrate Design principles by positioning text and graphics on the poster • 3. Character animation • Vector character to ‘live’ in your poster • 4. Simple scripting • Demonstrate the use of Actionscript 3 so that the user can click and find further info in text/graphic/animated format • 5. Interactive Poster

8. Designed to be done in stages • Keep working in practical sessions and at home and the assignment will almost do itself! • Leave it till the last moment and it will be too much and you will fail 

9. Assignment 2 • Assignment 1 due Thu 16 Dec 2010 • Assignment 2 begins in January • Working in a pair to create an interactive, multimedia product • Either Cheltenham Informa • Or Cheltenham Motorsports Game • Full details of all assignments in the Module Guide available from http://mmedia.glos.ac.uk/mu120

10. I’ve done all this Flash stuff before! What about me? • Great! • The assignment assessment criteria are designed to allow you to demonstrate your learning from whatever your starting point • Cautionary tales • Dr Kawashima...... 

11. A word about Flash Versions… • Current version Flash CS5 • In labs – CS3 – until January 2011 • Both use Actionscript 3 (AS3) • If you use CS5 at home then you will need to File-Save As – CS3 format if you want to open the FLA file in the labs and continue working on it.

12. Things to look forward to… • Drawing brushes • http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/whatsnew/?configListID=0&chapterID=0&npObjID=14 • Bones for animation • http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/whatsnew/?configListID=0&chapterID=0&npObjID=18 • More flexible text control • http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/whatsnew/?configListID=0&chapterID=0&npObjID=23

13. Introduction to Adobe Flash • Scene • Tools • Ellipse • Fill/Stroke • Colour Mixer • Object Properties

14. Pencil tool for tracing • Remember to use the Smooth option • Pick a colour which will show up • You can select it all and change it later • Use the Selection tool to improve the accuracy

15. Lab Practical sheet is a start • Now practise being selective about the features that you trace so that you create iconic images – lines only!! No fills please. • Once these are vector images in Flash, they can be made into symbols and animated • Publish as a jpg and a swf • Remember to email nreeves@glos.ac.uk with your own icon! • Recognition game next week

16. Any other questions?