Research - Project 1

Throughout the project some research has helped me back-up my project which helped me show off the meaning of identity, I put it in my sketchbook so I could quickly jot down some notes on what I thought. Here are few photo's that I have taken of the research in my sketchbook.


The images on the left were spider diagrams that I made about my identity i.e. how I look, what I like etc. I also thought that I would create a spider diagram on objects I like because Roma said that we could portray ourselves within an object.


After choosing that I wanted to portray myself as an object I thought that I woureld research into what the objects would look like so I could get an idea on what I would like to sketch out.


After researching self identity I thought that I would research a bit more into the whole meaning of identity itself. So I thought that I would look at different examples of identities that we don't really notice in our every day to day lives.


I thought that should share my images with everyone of who I am now and what I was like in the past and it turns out that I haven't really changed which, I feel is a good thing. But it was a good example of identity.


A bit more research on some artists that I admire and some information from Roma giving me some feedback (which I need) about what to do for the next project.




These were final pages of research that I have done so far. I was experimenting with what the environment would like, what objects would be used etc.

I will continue to pursue my research throughout the project because I feel that researching into my work will really help me push forward, improve and learn more about what identity is and how to work with it.

Second life - Diary

I have been having a few problems trying to log onto second life for the past few days so it looks like I haven't been posting my diary entries for a few days. Like I said in my last entry I wanted to explore second life in the day time, it wasn't quite day time more like early morning but there were certainly a few more people around.


I was still on freebie beach because doing my research I relised that this island was one of the more popular places that avatars like to go. I also really like this place, it looks like a really sociable place.


As it was early hours of the morning I thought that I would explore the island a little bit, change my outfit and wait for day light and for more avatars to enter the virtual worlds. So I browsed the free stuff danced a little bit and then day light broke out. There were suddenly lots of avatars around.


Ok so this image is not showing daylight it is an example of what the virtual world calls camping. I was trying to look into this and now I know what it means. Its when an avatar sits down an either a selected bench or seat for a certain amount of time and receive linden money for it, I would like to try it sometime by I am quite impatient.


When morning came my aim was to try and talk to people. So I teleported back to the beach. The image on the right shows an example of another way on how to teleport to other places quicker. Back to my aim I went to try and talk to some other avatars but it was harder then I thought. Everytime I went to speak to someone I was either blank or it took quite along time to send messages so I wasn't very successful.


The two avatars to the left of my avatar seem to have a close friendship and from what I heard they had only just met that day. But they planned to meet up later on in the day so they have someone else to walk around the virtual world with. So maybe my next aim on second life would be to find another avatar who would give me some more information/be a friend whilst i'm in this virtual world. And so i'm guessing that will be my next aim in my next visit to the virtual world.

Avatar - Development ideas 2

Ok once I had sketched my design ideas out I thought that I would design my ideas on Photoshop to see what my pencil identity would look like.


As you can see on the left I started off designing just the basic outline of the pencil. I wasn't too sure about the what colour I wanted my identity so tried different colours to see what worked well and what would relate to me, but looking at them I relised that the original colour worked the best. I used the gradient tool to add tones to give a more 3D look to the image. It took me along time to actually create this shape but I am pleased with the outcome.


Once I had got my shape I thought that I would edit it to give it a more feminine look. The image on the right shows the process of how I did it. This was Roma's advice that I took and I really like it.



I came up with the idea to add pencil sharpenings to give out the impression of hair, this took me quite a while to create but I showed a few people the outcome and they were impressed. My decision now is whether to go for the pencil with the sharpenings or without, so I think that I am going to create the identity on 3D Max and see what feel looks better.

Viral Marketing

We were set the task to reference one of the slides in the 'being connected' lecture. At first I wasn't too sure on what I had to do but after last weeks tutorial I saw that Craig had looked into viral marketing and I found, what I saw really interesting.

Looking over the internet I relised that viral marketing mainly depends on each person passing on the message to over friends. The more people who sends the ad/message the quicker the message is spread and can be known globally, the message could also slow down if people do not send the message.

When we were discussing this in the tutorial last week it came to my attention that the majority of viral marketing is used for more personal use i.e. jokes and I thought a good example of this would be links to 'youtube' Last friday I watched a program about youtube showing the most popular videos on youtube. It showed us the top 50 viral marketing videos. I have posted a few examples below showing clip from the show:

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This was on the top ten, I could see why people would want to send this to other people.

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Yet again another video mainly for the audience entertainment. In my opinion I think viral marketing is mainly for the viewers entertainment and is good way to share each others common interests.I am going to carry on researching this subject because I find it realy interesting and would like to see how this will expand in the future.

Avatar - Development ideas

I haven't posted a blog about my avatar for along time so I thought that it was about time to share my work. Since the end of week 27 I took Roma's advice and created a gannt chart to make my timing easier and I have to say that it really did help. I am ahead of my schedule at the moment and about to start my environment design on 3D Max. Since week 28 however I have been working on my initial ideas for my identity idea. The work that I did mainly involved sketchbook i.e. research and sketches.Below are a few images that I have taken from my sketchbook showing the process of my ideas.

Back at my review meeting I was told to add images of my sketchbook to show people my work away from the computer.


Initial Ideas
The camera - I love to take pictures and photography has always been a great passion of mine, however there is no sense of identity that I could add to this image.
Ballet shoe - I always love dancing and I thought a ballet shoe would be the best way to portray this. This image could work well as an identity.



Initial Ideas
Laptop - I couldn't live without my laptop its what I live and work with all the time however like the camera there is no way I could make it my identity, its just an animation.
Straighteners - As my hair is naturally curly I need my straighteners. I loved this sketch because it was so easy to create an image. I like this idea but then I would have to think what environment would work well with this sketch.



After choosing my sketch I liked I then developed the ideas further by giving the sketch a different look. I choose the pencil as my avatar so I developed my ideas by giving the image a more feminine look.
I have been evaluating my work as I have been going along to help me improve my work. I have designed my final look for my avatar on Photoshop doing a series of experiments to see what gives the best look.

My little bug

Haven't posted a blog on here in a while so I thought that it was about time to post something. Last week Andy set us the task of creating a small bug or worm just like the BBC3 worm. Below is the outcome of my work.



Its very basic but it shows how to create slow yet effective movement to an object.

The aim of the task was to learn the technique of morphing an object so you would be able to create a number of different movements and be able to make it into one sequence.

I found the task quite simple and helpful. I already knew the basics on how to create the shapes and the instructions given were easy to follow, the morphing wasn't as hard as I thought. I didn't realise that creating clones of one object would be a way of how to make an object move. Having done this exercise I think that I could use this for my identity. I have come the the conclusion that my identity will a pencil, and in my opinion I feel that morphing will be a good way to make my pencil look more like an animation. I also hope that it will give the pencil more of an identity, it will add emotion but my main aim if I was to use morphing in my project would be to give the pencil a more girly impression.

I will be posting some of my design ideas on my blog shortly as I have done my initial ideas through sketch books and photoshop.

Second life - Diary

Right my in my last post I had two aims and they were to join more groups and to learn more gestures and I think that I've done it. When I return back to the virtual world I was allowed back into Happisland and I wanted to make some money and messages kept popping up saying the best way to earn free money was to take a survey. So that was what I planned to do.


The image on the left shows what the survey boxes look like. They are called however ATM machines and when I clicked on them it wasn't what I was expecting. When I clicked on either machines a link would appear but not to surveys but to membership form for either gyms or online companies. I did not pursue this as I don't really trust these types of sites however this has now shown me one example of how companies advertise their business, doing this method advertises globally and because it is free linden money avatars will sign up.


I lost interest of Happisland because no one was willing to help me join the group so I went to few different clubs and, I suddenly learnt gestures all you have to do is right click on the object/floor and select what you can do. The image to the right is an example of my avatar sitting down.


Off on search again I came across a list of popular places and Jazz bar sounded quite interesting so I teleported there and wow!!! the avatars there look stunning. I was guessing that these were regular users and had the money to buy glamerous dresses. Even the assistants of the islands looked the part but as I did not and look quite casual they didn't seem too interested in talking to me.


I worked out how to dance yay!! but as I didn't look the part no one seemed too interested in dancing with me oh well I wasn't too fussed because I now know how to dance and do gestures.

I would like to try and experience second life more in the day time because when ever I go on its always night time for the virtual world so I will go on at a later time and have a look around, maybe something different will go on.

Second life - Diary

Back again and not very happy with my outcome on this venture to second life. My aim for my next trip into the virtual world was to learn more gestures however this was not completed. But I did manage to get into some different islands including Money island which I was unable to do previously.

After watching a documentary on second life an island called 'Avalon' was mentioned where one of the couples met so, I thought I'd check the place out to see what it looked like.


When I arrived there you could see why they went there, it is such a beautifully designed island (as you can see in the image) there has been such detail put towards this island to make it look like a small paradise, there was even a dolphin been designed that would continuously jump out of the water.


The only downfall to this was that there was a lack of people online and not many people in the worlds that I had looked around. I think that is what I need to start make more friends with other avatars and get some more information/ advice on where to go.


This screen print is an example if just how empty the islands were. This was suppose to be a disco ballroom club and yet no one was there but I've come to realise that as second life is build on American time it was 6:30 in the morning so I could see why it would be so empty. After looking around I decided to try teleporting to money island and I did, what a disappointment. No one would do anything, all the avatars did was sit around....boring. So I teleported to happy island which was hippy place.


This screen print here shows me outside the island. Now I wanted to show this because I was kicked out of the island because I had not joined the club that lets you do things so, that was a first for me.

I now have two aims for my next visit to second life and they are to join a few more groups and, learn some more gestures.

Seminar

Roma took the seminar this week and I have to say that now I have spoken to Roma about what I would like to do, I am now inspired about what my plan for my final avatar is. When I spoke to Roma about what I would like she encouraged me to pursue the piece because I was unsure if my outcome would be what the brief wanted but Roma said that it was going in the right direction so I now plan to pursue this identity.

I found this clip on youtube that will give you a rough idea on what my avatar will look like:



This video was along the lines of what I plan to do. However to make it my own identity I have to add my own image to the pencil itself and the environment around the avatar. For the next week I plan to work on my ideas for my avatar to improve it and to get it ready for next weeks seminar so I can show Andy what I would like to do so I could maybe get more of an idea on what I have to do.

Looking at this short film I obviously have to make my identity have more female qualities in order for the viewers to understand that it is me. I will continue to do a series of sketches models and mood boards to help give me an idea on what my outcome will be.

Second life - Diary

Haven't posted my diary entry on here for a few days reason for this? the slowness of the laptop and its hard to get around places. In my last entry my aim was to go to a different place rather then just going to freebie islands and I did manage to get to a few.


The first island that I managed to get on i'm not quite sure what its called but it was very strange. Everyone was grouped in one place so I decided to go exploring and everywhere I looked was empty. It looked pretty run down. There were also a few unusual buildings that held weird art.


I did however spot some pretty fancy cars (audi tt) and thought why not try and drive it so I did everything I learnt in my orientation and do you know what happened? I got chucked!! After being thrown across the road a message appears saying 'unable to drive ' which i'm guessing that someone owns the car and it must of had some lock on it which only lets the authorised user able to use the car.

After having a few talks someone told me that you can type in a searh word and t would come up with all the islands that you could use so, that is what I did.


This was the screen that I come up with. It gave me all of the information that I needed to know about the island i.e. popularity, resources etc. When I was happy with what I saw I just had to select teleport and I was there and what a shock I got when I landed on that island.


The amount of avatar's that were there!!! I had never seen so many avatars in one place. From what I could gather if you dance for a certain amount of time then you received second life money in return. I also noticed that avatars were asking where you could camp now I still not too sure what that means so I still need to seek out that answer and I also need to know how you dance for certain amount of time. I could dance for a bit but never continuously.

My next aim is to move into some more popular islands as I could not get into them this time due to the capacity allowed. I would also like to try and find out how to do more gestures because i'm now struggling with that.

Self concept/ self identity

Looking on the internet I found this brief paragraph on wikipedia that summarises up what the meaning of self concept is:

"This brief overview of self-concept theory has focused on describing the ways people organize and interpret their inner world of personal existence. The beginnings of self-concept theory and its recent history have been discussed. Three major qualities of self-concept--that it is: (1) learned, (2) organized, and (3) dynamic--have been presented. Individuals have within themselves relatively boundless potential for developing a positive and realistic self-concept. This potential can be realized by people, places, policies, programs, and processes that are intentionally designed to invite the realization of this potential."

Now this interested me because it doesn't mean realising the awareness of one self but the understanding of one self. To make this avatar work I have to understand what I'm like. The article on wikipedia also states that self concept can be influenced by my beliefs, ideas, habits and attitude towards life.

I think now that I have read this I am going to look at what I feel/belief in. This may show me a good idea of how I would like my avatar to turn out.

Second life - Diary

My last entry I said that my aim was to change the appearance of my hair and guess what? Yes I did it but it did take a bit longer then I intended too. Whilst I was in search of the island that would sell hair I was transported to another Island. It wasn't that busy and not many avatars were around (it was the early hours of the morning) However I made friends with another person.


The avatars name was Feenix Carver. The avatar spoke to me about general things, I found out that they were on the virtual world because they were interested about the network. Feenix Carver also gave me some bikes to ride explaining I could use them in certain islands. After having a chat with him I decided to transport again in hope that I would get to the island with hair


And I did! It was like a stereotypical island, pink and very girly (how I expected it As I walked around I was amazed at all of the different hairstyles you could get. The image on the left show the mouse view, if I zoom into my avatar it would give me the view of what my avatar could see. I had no idea what I wanted and what to do but luckily the other avatars were there to help and this one especially helped me alot.



Her name was Halo Lunasea, this avatar look like they knew what to do and she did. The avatar approached me and assisted me throughout the whole process on how to get a hair style. What was even more surprising is that the avatar gave me some money to buy the hair!! I didn't know what to say, to make things better she showed me how to put on the hair. This however was different to the normal way. The avatar used their computer microphone to actually speak, hence why I know that this particular avatar was a woman.

Thats one thing that worries me about second life sometimes is that you don't know who your really talking too, it could be anyone. My next plan is to try and find an island that has more real life to it rather then just a newbie place, I want to see the city virtual worlds, fingers crossed.

3D Max - playing around and mapping

Slowly but gradually I'm starting to understand more and more about 3D Max I wanted to play around on the software to see what I come up with and within 15 minutes I came up with this very basic piece of work:



It was a very basic piece that I made in my spare time but I wanted to upload it because thinking back two-three weeks ago a simple task like this would take me over an hour.

Now in our seminar last Friday Andy showed us the different effects we could use when using maps (mapping) our task was to create a tree however it wasn't as easy as it sounds. I could understand the basics on how to actually make the tree but creating the tree leaves itself I found quite difficult. I found the different modifying options complicated but after looking around and experimenting I found how to input curves into a box. For the material rendering (mapping) I did not think that it was as hard as I thought it would be, I now understand how duffusing an image works. This was the outcome:



As you can see I have also inputted camera action and a bumpy floor, my aim was to try and get a more 3D look. Andy also helped me create a night back drop. I was shown so many things that I lost track of some of the information given to me so I plan to attend this Thursday's surgery and get some more information on the camera movements when using 3D Max.

Second life - Diary

Right I know I've been boring you with wanting to change my image but this time I really have!!! secomc life is still very slow but I guessing that it is the internet connection.

In todays second entry I managed to search some islands that I have been given from either some people or found. The main island that I stayed on is called 'Dove'its a freebie island that has been created for as second life like to call us 'newbies' When I got there I did not have a clue what I was doing.


These are the boxes that have the free clothes in. I managed to find a sign that gave us instructions on how to collect the boxes. To receive the boxes all I had to do was right click on the chosen design and select buy. I would get a confirmation stating what I have received and hey I have new clothes.I managed to do that fine the problem I had was getting the clothes on! I know how to change my appearance i.e. body, eyes, hair etc but I didn't know how to put on the new clothes.


To my luck there are some friendly people on second life who love to help newbies out. An avatar called 'Alain Gloster' offered me some help (it must have been obvious I was struggling) he walked me around the place and explained what I had to do. The avatar also explained how to use different files or boxes.


Once Alain Gloster left me to it another avatar approached me named 'Midori Yatsenko' This avatar looked like they had been around for a bit. They talked to me also giving me advice on where to go and get things from. The avatar also gave me a link to place where you receive free skins products. Also they showed me around because I missed out certain objects.

Now that I have quite a few different pieces of clothing I think I can now move on maybe a new hairstyle? When I look around the virtual world I notice that everyones hair looks amazing and I want that. So hopefully in my next blog I should have found out where to get some hair.

Avatar - Ideas

Ok now that I've started second life and seen different examples of avatars i'm starting to think of mine.Looking at different peoples ideas I feel that when I create my avatar I would like to show a hidden meaning behind my avatar and show it. For example like hiding behind a mask,like some people what people see in a person might not be the real them, they're hiding behind an identity.

Superheros are a good example of this so maybe I could be a superhero?

Second life - Diary

Ok went onto second life again and learnt a few more things. I had a few problems logging on but eventually got there. After looking around at different avatars I noticed that most of them had very unique clothes and I want some!! So I asked around and one of the avatars posted me a some links (different islands) where clothes are free!! So I've been to one place and it transported me to hair professional.

As soon as I landed on the new island I was greeted by what I'm guessing the owner of the island. They explain to you where you can find help and state the rules, something I learnt if you break the rules given out then you are banished from that island. I walked around for a bit but looking around it all seemed to cost money (which I don't have) until I spotted a gazebo with quite a few avatars in.



When I walked around I found out that it was given out free hair styles, yay!! but there was a catch. You had to sit down under the chosen hairstyle for 200 minutes and you had to stay logged on.



Now as I'm quite impatient and second life wasn't working very fast I thought that a new hairstyles can wait. Who knows I maybe able to find somewhere else who does quicker hairstyles. I have now moved into another island who have a selection of free things from eyes to clothes, I'm going to look around there for a bit and maybe talk to some more people who know more about second life.

Oh another thing that was introduced too was a way of making money, someone was playing trivial pursuit with people and actually give second life money away too people who get it right how cool is that, I was too slow so missed my chance but hoefully it will come back.

BBC 2 Documentary

The other day I watched a short documentary about second life however this was not too good. It explained to viewers how real life people get too involved/addicted to the virtual world that they go to the extremes to get the dream that they want.

When I watched it I was shocked at how powering this virtual world could be. They showed examples if two different examples of this which had a good outcome and a bad outcome. One was showed two married people meeting in second life and falling for each other in the virtual world, when they finally decide to meet they know they want to be together and so get married virtually before getting together in the real life. The second example was the same scenario however it ended when each other met in real life.

Now I've seen this has just shown me another side of second life. It can be a fun thing to try out, explore etc however having, controlling and being someone who you always dreamt of being in a real life (but virtual) situation I feel can be a really dangerous/scary feeling.

I watched it with some of my friends who were interested in what I was doing and they had exactly the same thoughts. So it just makes me wonder how far people would go to make this virtual world a reality.