Finish

Now I have Finished my A2 coursework as I have gone trough all the necessary points to hopefully get me a good grade. The dates that my posts where added isn't necessarily the date which I have completed the section. I have changed the date on the  majority of my posts to set them into a well organized list from research to the evaluation. My final post was finished on the deadline. Just so you know all of my images on the blog can be enlarged to their original size by simply double clicking them. By doing this you can see a lot more detail as they are downgraded in their smaller sizes and to have them all full size on the blog would look ridiculous and clutter the page.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

For these 4 parts of my coursework I have used media technologies troughout as I have used the internet at the start of my coursework to search and find some media online to analyse for research as well as flicking trough magazines to fine adverts. The main media technology which I have used for my research was to viev and take print screen of music video on http://www.YouTube.com/ to analyse.

For the planning stage of my coursework I mainly used Microsoft word or publisher to create templates to sketch my initial ideas into which i could then briefly analyse and then choose one to use as my actual task. To plan for editing and some 3D modeling as I planned on and have created a 3D model of a DJ set to give my music video an innovative part although i have only used it on one small quite section of the video as it is one of the view parts where I found it to be relevant. to prepare for these two parts I used Adobe After Effects in school and a Auto desks 3Ds Max out of school. these two programs are quite difficult to use especially 3Ds Max as they are both professional forms of software which are used for the real things.

For the construction of these tasks i used adobe premiere elements to piece the clips of my filming together to create my music video I then rendered it.Once rendered I used Adobe After Effects to ad some special effects to the music video such as glowing edges and higher contrast which make the video look allot better.
For the evaluation of my product other than the audience feedback questionnaire which I have created on publisher i have only mainly use http://www.blogger.com/ which is what were on to evaluate my tasks.


Here is a list of the majority of technologies which I have used throughout my coursework.
After effects                            Auto-desk's 3D's Max                    Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Premiere Elements      Printer / Scanner                         Print screens
Online Resources and sites e.g. YouTube                                  blogging online
Microsoft Office                       Adobe Audition                             A small camera
A HD camcorder                     Sound Recorder

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

I believe that the combination of my main tasks with the two ancillaries is very effective as they all link into each other in their own different ways. The music video which is the main product/task has clips of the artist on a stage which is where the photo for the CD cover came from which links these two products and then the fact that I have added this image at the bottom of the magazine advert for any viewers to relate the CD easily which may help to sell the CD. By using this and the fact that I have used similar effects on each task along with them all being quite dark.

My main product which is my music video works extremely well with my ancillary projects as they all work around the same genre and target audience which is dance music and people aged 16 to 30 years. These two main conventions are what links these three products together as they all contain similar effects and shots. All these products contain images of the artist and the music equipment with different photos which makes each product different but still links them together.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

From my audience feedback I have found that viewers on average have found my three tasks to be alright as I have received on average 5’s and 6’s out of ten when compared to similar media products. From my audience feedback for my CD Digi-Pack I found that some viewers found my products to be quite dark as I haven’t used many bright images or colours. Although this is true they also marked that my main task and ancillaries represented the style in which dance music is advertised.

One of the negatives which I found trough research is the amount of people who didn’t like some of the images used for my magazine and some of my shot in my music video. These points are quite justified as the main image which I found was not great on my magazine was the image of a guitars pickups. This image is good and looks nice especially with the effect that I have added although my audience didn’t agree on it fitting into the dance theme which is a fair comment.

The response I got for my music video was good although some responses have indicated that the start of the video was a bit boring as not allot happens. This is true as I have used some slower shots for quieter parts of the song although it would look allot better if the shots were somehow enhanced. One way in which I could improve this section of my music video would be to add some CGI animations similar to one of the music videos which I have research which is “Sub Focus’s “Could This Be Real”” this video uses an animated box around the artists head in its video which would work quite well as I have found that most dance music videos are quite unusual.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My main media product which is a music video uses convention from previous music videos with the same music which is dance. As you can see from the beginning of my blog I have analysed music videos of this genre to find the codes and conventions which I have applied to my own music video to create something of a similar quality and mainly style. From these codes and conventions which I found one was the use of animation although the animation which was used for other videos was quite light and put over actual shots where I wanted and did make a shot completely out of animation which I have added to the music video.

This animatic shot is extremely detailed as I spent a lot of time creating and colouring it due to this time and effort it almost blends into the rest of the video which helps me to add some shots where I believe they’re needed without having to go out and film more footage. I also followed the conventions which I found as I have used simple/ easy shots for quite part of the song and then some more exciting shots for louder parts of the song.

Here is a small image which I created to show how my CD cover uses codes and conventions from similar CDs of its genre:

Evaluation

Now that I have completed my main task (the music video) along with the two ancillaries (CD cover Magazine advert) I will know evaluate them using the four set questions. To keep my evaluation simple and quite easy to understand I won't have ridiculously long essays of text although I will mention the main points and abbreviate on them if needed. This method should stop me from repeating the same concept or explanations in the same question so I can hopefully get more points across.

Audience Feedback On My Three Ancillaries Results

After sending my questionnaire around school and town over the past few days whilst showing my main task on a iPod and my ancillaries trough print I have found these results.

How would you mark your CD Digi-Pack compared to other Digi-Packs?

 Did you like the images used throughout the Digi-Pack?

 Do you believe that the style I have used on my CD Digi-pack is relevant for Dance music?

 How would you mark my music video out of ten compared to other music videos?

 Do you believe that the shots taken for my music video are relevant compared to other music videos with dance music?

 Do you like the effects in my music video?

Dis you notice the animation in my music video and if you did was it realistic?

 How would you mark my magazine advert out of ten compared to other magazine adverts?

 Do you think the images used for my magazine advert are relevant?

 Does the magazine advert relate back to the CD Digi-Pack and the style of dance music?

Audience Feedback On My Three Ancillaries

Some feedback from class mates

Tylor

Elliot

Finished My Ancillaries

Now that I have finished my main ancillary task I will move on to my evaluation work where I will ask some people in my school what they think of my three tasks. This will then give me idea on how i might of improved my tasks or how I can improve tasks to do with the media given time. Once I have completed this I will then answer the evaluation questions on how my work has gone and more importantly what I have found out and learned from doing it.

Finished Magazine Advert

Finished Music Video

For some reason YouTube has squeezed my video although it does and should fill the whole box

Finished CD

Creating the magazine advert for the album

Here are the stages which I went trough to create my magazine advert

To start off I created an A4 page and added a simple black and white gradient to work with. I then added the title to the top of the advert.

Here I have added the songs which are included on the CD and are stated on the Cd's back cover so the viewers can see whether they like the music or not.

Here I have added some photo of the DJ equipment used to play and mix music as there is a photo of a stylus on a turntable and the knobs/ buttons on the mixer.

For the next stage and to give viewers something to relate to when looking for the CD I added the same image from the front cover. I then gave it the glowing edges effect which makes it look a lot darker and brings the colours out.

Now that I have added everything i went back to the background and decided to use a simple picture of my guitars pickups to represent music. I then added the glowing edges effect to this to match the image of the artist so they would blend nicely.

Piecing The Music Video Together

To start to piece my music video together I first had to create a new project and then import all of the filming that I have done for the video into the program. along with this filming I also added the soundtrack which "Rain by Armin Van Buuren".

Once all of the shots which I took whilst filming were imported I then added the soundtrack to the time line and slowly added shots where I felt they worked.

Now that all of the shots are added i will now trim each clip to save memory on export and to smarten up my work are as you can see from the print screen below.

Since I have already matched cut and placed each clip for the whole song I will now start to add some basic effects such as glowing edges and some lighting to give some shots more of an impact on the viewers.

Finally I exported the video as a high quality AVI video format to be edited in Adobe After Effects.

Emailing For The Permission To Use Rain By Armin Van Buuren

The introduction into the song

Here I have created the DJ's name and the songs name in Adobe After Effects so they move into and then out of the screen to let the viewers know what song and artist it is.

The Finished Animated Set

Here is a rendered shot of the Animated set now that I have finished it.

To make this look more realistic after creating the whole set and assembling it I then used some life like materials and paint which I added to the animation.

Although I have now completed the animation/ 3d models using them slows my computer right down to the point where it might overheat. After finding this i rendered some sections which took about 2 hours each for about 3 seconds of footage so it is unlikely that this will have a major role in my video although I has been good practice and i have learn allot from it. I will use some of the footage which I have rendered but without a more powerful PC I wont be able to use it to its full extent which is disappointing to say the least.

Production of Animation For The DJ Equipment (Stage)

Here are some screenshots of me making the stage for the music video where everything else animated will be.As you can see it is made up of sections of blocks and i have then added lighting to colour the open room.

Production of Animation For The Dj Equipment ( Turntable )

To make the animistic part of my music video I have created some DJ equipment on 3d max. As you can see from the images below to make the turntable I have first made each individual part and then merged them together to create the desired object. To do this is very time consuming but to make it work well with my music video I should make it as detailed as possible.

Production of Animation For The Dj Equipment ( Mixer )

Here I added the final objects to the dj mixier as i have added a few simple switches and some crossfader which took a bit longer to create.

Here I have added some LED lights to the mixer. Since I wasn't to sure how to create LED's on 3ds max ,I created some spheres and sunk them bellow the surface of the base. I then covered them in metallic material so they shine when the light is on them.

On another 3ds max document I created some switches. To make the switched i first made a box and hollowed it out for the trigger of the switch. I then smoothed the box to make it more detailed and to work with the rest of the objects. i then made the trigger in a similar way as the knobs as i created a cylinder and shrunk one end to give it a constant angle. I then added a sphere to the end of the cylinder and assembled it to create the switch. Finally i added both abjects to the base positioned them and copied and pasted them many times.

On another 3ds max document I created some simple knobs. To make the knobs I created a cylinder with eight sides and one top/bottom I then extracted 4 of the eight sides to to make its grips which gave me the basic shape of a volume knob. I then coloured for of the sides which I extracted white and made the base colour black to give it a realistic look. These where then added to the base and copied many times to create what is shown above.

To start I created a simple box using the shapes list on the right hand side. I then smoothed it by making it an editable poly and using ms smooth in the modifier list. This then gave me the shape in the print screen above.