IDD 301~ Coca- Cola Elves

The website I chose to write about this week is The Coca-Cola Christmas Stars the 2004 3D winner at the Flash FowardFestival San Francisco. This site has 4 Swedish television commercials featuring Christmas elves. Each one of the movies is different even though they share the same theme of an extreme snow sport; for example mountain snowboarding and snowmobiling. At the end of one of the commercials, the elves sit around a fire and drink Coca-Cola.

To me, the technique used is very “movie editing-esque.” The camera angle is constantly changing. It showed close-ups up faces as well as under and over head shots. That aspect made the movies feel as though they had a 3D appeal. To complement the camera angle shots, the mountains as well as the sky were very real in appearance. If I hadn’t known it was made with Flash, I would have thought someone used a video camera to capture the landscape of the mountains and sky. The one shot I found to be my favorite was when the close up of the elf was shown and a reflection was shown in his snow goggles. It was a nice touch to a well done short Flash 3D movie.

IDD 250 ~ Interactivity

Visit my webpage on interactivity.

301-The day I performed knee Surgery

Upon visiting Flash Forward 2004 ., I noticed I had a wide array of different Flash movies to view. I chose the 2004 San Francisco educational winner, Virtual Knee Surgery.

I don’t like having surgery, let alone watch it on someone else, but nonetheless, that was the movie I picked. The movie was very interactive. I performed the surgery using all the tools and answered medical questions correctly. Even though the graphics seem simple and uninvolved, there are small unique qualities that set it apart from amateur movies. For example, when the doctor is talking and explaining what will take place, he taps his foot occasionally and moves his arm. I didn’t notice it though until I re-watched it.

Since I have never performed a real surgery, I can not compare the two. The movie seems to be quite accurate in the steps taken to ensure a successful surgery. It was interesting to see how involved the user can become in a Flash movie.

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IDD 250

Visit my Webspace This week I wrote about narration and interactivity in design.

IDD 301

Who would think that I would color in college? Certainly not me. These past two assignments I found to be fun and brain wrecking at the same time. It’s not very often that I will have to create something and show for it on paper. I wasn’t sure how I was going to approach the Tulip in the Rain until I got my Crayolas out. Soon as the crayon hit the paper I knew what direction I was going to take. I didn’t change much from my original sketch. I just incorporated two week one’s storyboards (flower growing and man in the rain) with the second week’s.
I found a web site that had simple Flash animations. I watched quite a few, even though there isn't one that stood out in my mind, they all showed different techniques. After watching them a few times I hope I can apply what I know to get the same effects.
New to Flash

IDD 250 - Perspective

After reading the first chapter of Pause and Effect, I can honestly say I’d never been fully aware of all the interwoven forms of multimedia. Sure, I’d seen the movie references in TV Guide and the extras on the DVDs, but I’d never given it much thought before.
For reasons beyond my knowledge, I kept thinking about the Disney parks. There, they use many forms of interwoven interactivity as well as forced perspective. The buildings on Main Street are not actually 3 stories, but by the angle of the windows they can appear to be. Some rides have different forms of content for example, the Buzz Light-year ride is based on a video game. The rider scores points for all the targets that are hit with the “laser”. I guess from now on I will have to pay attention more closely to the different media forms.

Forced Perspective.


Delusion by Design: Architecture and Manipulation at Walt Disney World.

IDD 301- Past ... Present

I haven’t watched this many cartoons/ computer animations in a long time. This week, I made a point to do so. I’d forgotten how they looked. When I looked closer, I noticed things that I didn’t or would even think to look for or pay attention to when I was little. Throughout the week and better part of the boring weekend I watched the Disney channel and Nickelodeon and even for a bit, the Cartoon Network. It was interesting to see the simplicity of many of them. I paid attention to the different layers of cartoons. I saw which body parts moved, and when the backgrounds moved and not the subject. Over the years, cartoons as a whole have not really changed. Computer animation however has greatly improved over the past few years. Toy Story, a computer animation pioneer is so “simple” in some respects compared to Finding Nemo and Shrek. On Sunday, I watched Shrek 2. The complexity and detail that go into computer animation computers is amazing. Imagine what a few more years will do…
To go along with this past and present theme I found an interesting article on Netscape.com. Atari is re-releasing the video games that became classics. I don’t remember ever not having a computer at home. When I was little, it was some No-Name computer prior to the Atari. I grew up playing the simple games. I’m glad to see that even though times have changed and graphics are better, the originals weren’t forgotten.

Atari to re-release games

IDD 250- Interactivity

Dictionary.com describes interactive in the following way:
in·ter·ac·tive adj.
Acting or capable of acting on each other.
Computer Science. Of or relating to a program that responds to user activity.
Of, relating to, or being a form of television entertainment in which the signal activates electronic apparatus in the viewer's home or the viewer uses the apparatus to affect events on the screen, or both.


Over the past week I have paid close attention to my so called “interactiveness.” At the movies, I had to pay a person who gave me a ticket. After the movie got under way, I “interacted” with the characters. They said something funny, I laughed. Super Nintendo was unearthed from boxes this week. I played Super Mario Bros. (and lost) many times. I controlled their actions on the screen. There is one thing that is connected to me in a sense that is interactive in the medical way. I have an Medtronic ICD (implantable cardioverter defibrillator and pacemaker) in my chest. If my heart beats too fast or too slow it will shock me into a normal rhythm. Of course though, the most common form of interactive I partake in is the internet and instant messaging. I’m at my computer for a good part of the day mindlessly surfing the ‘net and chatting to friends.
http://dictionary.com
http://www.medtronic.com