A Burst of Idea Bubbles

I was excited about the game

2008-12-06T02:08:00.003+08:00

Date : 6th December 2008
Time : 2.07AM
Listening to : My sis talks
Where : Room - Malacca

Ok...dead blog I know. Sorrryyy. Well...just a small update. As mentioned I'm the design lead for Design Method 3 and Tanyus is the Technical lead. And I think the job was very well divided. Today I worked on the remaining elements for the game and I got pretty excited. So I decided to try the different combinations that I can come up with.

Combination of Rococo and Art Nouveau (Pretty similar har?)

Combination of Bauhaus and Pop Art

Combination of Pop Art and Art Nouveau

I actually find this pretty interesting to experiment with. It's nice for me. Hopefully our juniors will feel the same. Presentation this coming Tuesday.

-chen-
[2.21AM]

The Guni Animatics

2008-11-12T12:23:00.003+08:00

Date : 12th November 2008
Time : 12.24PM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Room - MC

Here's my animatic for my 3D. Very sketchy though. 0.o! Dunnoe how I'm gonna model the human's legs. =.=!

And Kenny asked to make the 3D objects bigger. So here's an update on my latest poster. Still prefer the 1st one I did though.

Ok, off to school now. Cya~!

-chen-
[12.27PM]

MGD, DM3 & T-shirt Design

2008-11-10T08:53:00.002+08:00

Date : 9th November 2008
Time : 4.26PM
Listening to : My noisy spinning fan
Where : Room - MC

Ok, I've promised to put up my storyboard for Motion Graphic Design (Autism) and also Design Method 3 interface prototype. You know what took me so long? Laziness and watermarking. Every time I post something here, I have to resize it and watermark it. A bit troublesome but it's a good practice I know. Anyway...

Motion Graphic Design (Autism)
So this is my THIRD proposal. Sweat. I mean seriously, if kena reject another time, I will sweat until the whole world banjir. ha...ha...ha.... I changed my target audience to general public. Main aim will be to create awareness and generate support from the public to lend a hand to this community of people and their families.

Design Method 3 (Style It)
As mention in one of my previous posts, our interface design wasn't up to standard yet. And since I am in charge of designing the interface and Tanyus in charge of the technical aspect, I am responsible in making the front end look good. A bit stressful. And the job division is this way because OBVIOUSLY Tanyus scripting skills are better than mind a million times. =.=! But after critic session last week, we were so glad Sweii likes it. It was agonizing to present first and getting no feedback while the rest of the groups were either commented "very good", "good improvement" or having a lot of helpful feedbacks from the class. Ours, nothing. Huahhh... Stress. Cos of all the teams, our ideas were the one approved last. Then critic session, we were the last team to be called. Was so afraid the lecturer and tutor will ask lotsa questions that we cannot answer but thank God they didn't have much to comment and it was good enough. The night before, Tan and I had a crazy laugh over our character. Hahahaha... Cos I tried to do her voiceover in a very bimbotic way. Gah~!
Oh, btw...The character wasn't drawn by us. Found it on the net. Will give the credit when I get his name.

In addition to my work, I helped a church mate, Ian to design a T-shirt. Did it yesterday, completed today. I hope it's good enough. It's been ages since I last did my design on Illustrator.

Tested on a badge...Ohohoho~!

Last Friday, I had a very bad mishap. My flash FLA file for Digital Media was missing. All because of my hard disk. I accidentally detached it when I moved my laptop and then it just went missing. The file was still running when that happened. Sigh... I dunnoe how now... Have to redo. Unless the programme given by Musa to revert SWF to FLA works. Please please work~!

-chen-
[4.53PM]

The Guni 3D

2008-11-05T08:05:00.000+08:00

Date : 5th November 2008
Time : 8.06AM
Listening to : Rain outside my window
Where : Room - MC

Initially, I was preparing my watermarked storyboard for Motion Graphic. But it wasn't done yet. But anyway, it was approved. XD Oh, senangnyer hatiku. And Design Method 3 was approved too. Woohoo~! Good feedback. Later we'll have our 3D poster presentation and also my animatics work review. ust finished my poster. Rendering took more than 15 minutes. And it's only a still image. Oh well, I wonder how long it'll take for animation.

Anywho.... Here's my posters. I dunnoe which I like better. And yes, I'm using my guni-s as my character. They'll be in 2D form in a 3D world. Their mission is to fix the sewing machine and try to turn themselves into 3D by sewing themselves together which turned out to be a disaster. Will be making the trailer instead of the full animation though. Will update complete one asap.

K... Now for my animatics...sigh~!

-chen-
[8.12AM]

Interface for Fragments of Memories

2008-11-03T20:57:00.000+08:00

Date : 3rd November 2008
Time : 8.57PM
Listening to : Exchange of Heart - David Slater
Where : Room - MC

After the PD trip, I'm surprised I could even come up with an interface. And you know what? I really like it. :) Anyway, here's the overall mood and interface for my game in Advanced Digital Media. This week, we'll have to start coding already. And having test sammo. Next week will be MGD test. Aduhai~!

-chen-
[9.03PM]

3D first render

2008-10-30T02:34:00.000+08:00

Date : 29th October 2008
Time : 11.34AM
Listening to : Set adrift on memory bliss - BSB
Where : Room - MC

Finished 80% of my 3D modeling. I have a lot of adjustments and things to add. Everything look pretty loose here. Anyway, here's the first render test. No seriously... I dunnoe what's going to happen in this piece of work. Mak jaaaaang~! Can't really concentrate now. That bizarre weird dream is still in my head. Dang~!

I had quite a difficult time adjusting the resolution. I hate to find for tutorials but this time I had to la. Alamak..Camera settings and global settings not linked one meh? Meh....

-chen-
[11.37AM]

Design Method 3

2008-10-28T16:06:00.000+08:00

Date : 28th October 2008
Time : 3.43PM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Room - MC

For the past few days, Tanyus and I stayed up till 5AM to finish our Design Method 3 proposal. We really went through quite a "ribut taufan" in our project. I still think our first idea was pretty unique but I guess circumstances didn't really make things easy. So we brainstormed for another idea and we like it. Now we hope it'll turn out good. Anyway, this quick visual needs ALOT of changes. Basically our art direction is similar to scrapbooking. Will post up the updated version asap.

We are creating a flash game that requires the player to decorate a room according to a virtual customer's description. From the given description, player has to interprete what kind of art style and art movement that suits what the customer wants. Our aim is to evoke user's creativity in applying the fundamentals of art movement into their work. Not only that, we aim to help to train user to understand and interprete a job brief.

Below is our first quick visual. Gah. Next time I will post up a much improved one. Suddenly I feel so The Sim-ish. Hahaha... We have a very very bad name. Gonna change it.

Anyway, I am like so so so so so freakin in love with this blog. SO NIIIIICEEEEE~! See how I enlarge the link text. This is how much I love it. Hahahaha! Tanyus watched all my reactions in class when I went through this blog and she said this, "Chen, you're having furniture orgasm.." =.=! For once, I think I do agree with her. Oh goodness... Such beautiful creation call furniture and interior design. I will, I promise myself, I will one day work in a interior design firm.

-chen-
[4.07PM]

NASOM

2008-10-28T15:26:00.000+08:00

Date : 28th October 2008
Time : 3.27PM
Listening to : Crazy ppl playing with fireworks
Where : Room - MC

Aaaah~! My idea for motion still hasn't got feedback yet. I mean the latest one cos the previous one on Autism was too general. Oh, btw, I decided on Autism. But anyway...

I'm still doing on Autism but target audience will be general public on how needy an autistic child and their parents are. Organization that I'm doing will be our local NGO, NASOM (National Autism Society of Malaysia). I want to create an awareness among the public and also to encourage them to help out either in the form of donation, adopting a project or volunteer to help out in the centre. The motion graphic will contain the facts and also real situation of autism in Malaysia.

Previously I did my research based on foreign countries' situation. It was pretty hard to relate. Then when I moved on to Malaysian's context, I find myself feeling more passionate about this issue. So yeah... Still hasn't got any feedback yet but I'm going to proceed. Ok, concept board. For the very last time... =.=!

I hope by the end of the term I will have something satisfactory to post in this blog.

-chen-
[3.39PM]

MGD : Speaking Up

2008-10-20T02:38:00.000+08:00

Date : 20th October 2008
Time : 2.38AM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : room - Malacca

Last week I presented my ideas for Motion Graphic Project 2 : Speaking Up. I decided to do on abortion. But my concepts weren't strong and solid enough. But anyway, I came up with 2 more concept boards. One is for abortion and the other one is for autism. Will elaborate later on when I have the time. The first 2 are last week's concept board. The next 2 are my latest concept board.

Concept : Killing a child irregardless of any method is murder. So is abortion. Just because you have not see the child yet does not mean it is not an act of killing.

Concept : A fetus is not just an "it". It is a life and no matter how much you try to convince yourself that the first trimester does not make the the fetus a human, you are wrong. You are not God. You have no rights to terminate the child's life just because of your mistake.

Concept : Children suffering from autism can sometimes be hard to detect. This is to create awareness among parents and caretakers and to guide them on how to detect autism in their children.

Concept : Aborting a child is done in a cruel way. The child is helpless and silent. But if... he can plead to his mother... What will he say?

Anyway... I am not sure which one I'm keen on doing yet. The first 2 are not in my list. It's either the 3rd or 4th one. Hmmm... I wonder... Autism? or Abortion?

-chen-
[2.56AM]

Motion Graphic : Typography

2008-10-18T00:31:00.000+08:00

Date : 18th October 2008
Time : 12.31AM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Room - MC

My first project in Motion Graphic Design. Just submitted this week. Thank God my lappie did not crash.

-chen-
[12.33AM]

Fragments of Memories

2008-10-03T17:17:00.000+08:00

Date : 3rd October 2008
Time : 5.17PM
Listening to : Moolight Resonance Movie
Where : Parents' Room

Okay, time to update this VERY dead blog. Today's entry will be on Advanced Digital Media. We have only one project this term. But project yang bukan main susah lagi. We have to make a point&click flash game. I brainstormed for idea for a couple of days just for the storyline. For me, I think storyline is the life of a movie and also a game. But games like tetris and all diferent la ok. Anyway, I went to the library to research on Design Method. Tetapi... I saw this book by Japanese artists. Very nice the environment art. But when I flipped open the book, I saw a classroom scene. Then the idea came to me. But I had such a difficult time thinking of the ending for the story. So Zheng, Zafri and I brainstormed together. So funny la all the different versions we came up with. But I wasn't really satisfied. But in the end I thought of a weirddddd ending. And I like it. ^^

Hopefully the game will turn out well la. The title for now will be Fragments of Memories. It's a first person point of view. A very short description for the game is:

A boy woke up and found himself in a classroom he was familiar with. Familiar and yet different. The place looked the same but it felt different. Like everything was so dead. He could not remember who he was, what really happened and how he ended up in that classroom. But from the journal that slipped out of his bag, he knew his name was Bobby. As the story unfolds, the character will find himself in a school he used to attend and having no way to leave the school except through the main entrance. The problem is… he does not have the password to unlock the door. From there he would slowly work his way out and regained back his memory as he collects the missing pages of his journal by performing various tasks and puzzles. Along the way, the character will find many torn pieces of a photograph. By putting them together, he will find out that the photography was taken outside the school. Strangely, he noticed a tree that somehow stood out among the rest of the objects. And behind the photograph was the keycode for his freedom; or so he thought.

I came up with the walkthrough and puzzles already. I think I will enjoy this project. Was pretty worried about my capabilities to come up with the graphics. You know la... Lately, I've been drawing using flash. And among all 3 drawing software, Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash, my skills in Photoshop is the worst. =.=~! Darn stress ok? But I really want to try new styles. I attempted to edit photos from the net. Like what I posted in the previous post. But it's illegal to use ppl's photos ma. So I went back to my secondary school and became like a thief to take photos of the lab. =.= Sweat man. But then it's not very flexible. So I tried drawing on paper to scan but my perspective teruk lah. But In then end I drew in Photoshop anyway. Without references. Fuh, boleh tahan la. First time didn't trace. ^^

2 different color modes. Please comment yea.

-chen-
[6.16PM]

Art Direction - Moody

2008-09-25T00:03:00.000+08:00

Date :25th September 2008
Time : 12.03 AM
Listening to : Guard whistling -.=
Where : Room- MC

Okay, haven't been blogging here for a while. Anyway, here's my "Art Direction" for my point and click game. Not sure if it will work.

The real picture, which I've yet to ask permission to use.

The one edited.

-chen-
[12.05AM]

Motion Graphic (Typography Motion) - Concept Board

2008-09-15T01:36:00.000+08:00

Date : 15th September 2008
Time : 1.36AM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Room - Malacca

Gonna have Motion Graphic class at 2PM later. Required to do 2 concept boards for my first project. Typography Motion. Anyway, no time to elaborate now. Will just post up the Concept Boards for now.

The first one was hand-drawn except for the smaller text. A bit cartoonish, colourful feel. The 2nd one I took a different approach. Typewriter feel. A bit more suitable for the audio given. Just now when I looked back at the original video, I was quite appalled that the typewriter's concept board has so many similiarity with the original. Dang, I am conformed to the original one. Crap. Even the colors are the same. Bugger. But honestly, I did not intend to copy anything. I guess I might just go ahead with the first one.

Gtg! Ta!

-chen-
[1.44AM]

Neighbours by Norman McLaren

2008-09-11T13:01:00.001+08:00

Date : 11th September 2008
Time : 1.01PM
Listening to : Washing Machine
Where : Room - MC

While doing research for motion graphic class, I decided to check on Norman McLaren. He's one of the pioneer that played with typography for opening credits. Anyway, I stumbled upon this stop motion film by him entitiled, "Neighbours". Pretty funny i'll say.

Enjoy!

-chen-
[1.04PM]

A very random doodle

2008-08-03T04:09:00.000+08:00

Date : 3rd June 2008
Time : 4.09AM
Listening to : My own typing
Where : Room - MC

Another random work. Too bad the color doesn't look as good from web. It's so much duller. =.=! I don't know whats with me lately. Doodling non-stop. Malas wanna do the background. Maybe next time. I don't know what to name this piece yet. Any suggestions? Hehe... Karen if you happened to read this post, maybe you should name this. You come up with quirky names. XD
Going back Malacca later. Then have to speed up on the game's character's animation already. Only finished a couple.

-chen-
[4.15AM]

Introducing Blue Guni

2008-07-31T14:21:00.000+08:00

Date : 31st July 2008
Time : 2.22PM
Listening to : High & Dry - Radiohead
Where : Room - MC

I feel so unproductive after class ended. I've been doing nothing lae. Actually got la... Was doing Casually Killed characters and also interface. But I watched too much drama and I sleep too much. It's not something to be complained about la obviously but it's pretty sickening not to have anything to do lor. Took a break and did some paper craft for my upcoming website. Therapeutic to do something I like. Hoho... Obsession with papers. Anyway... This is Blue Guni. I did several others but next time la yea.

Update soon~!

-chen-
[2.28PM]

Some very random updates

2008-07-16T15:58:00.000+08:00

Date : 16th July 2008
Time : 12.16AM
Listening to : Fan spinning
Where : Room - MC

Apologies for not updating this blog. Been busy working on video, web and attending my sister's convocation which I foolishly forgot my passport when I was on my way down Malacca. Lucky I didn't have to really enter Singapore. The biggest mangkuk in the whole world. =.=! Well anyway, Things are going pretty well with our work. I haven't upload my pretty terrible work for Photography yet because I want to do more touch up for my future portfolio before I actually post it up. So forgive me for the delay yea. Btw, we got back our grades for Photography. Phew... A-. So very the grateful with that. Attached with the grade was a reasonably long comment on my work. And Video we're almost done with it. Kenny likes the sequence but the audio wasn't inserted yet.

And yeah, another thing I want to mention is that my class, Tanyus, Selvia, Diana, Chris, Wahyu and I bought the domain name designerds.de and also hosting site already. I won't really elaborate on the asal-usul desig[NERD] but I hope what we have in mind will be translated into an online media. We'll see how things turn out. Don't bother to even check it yet cos we haven't start on anything. When launched, I'll inform you guys k? Keep your fingers crossed that everything will fall into place; which I strongly believe it will if commitment is given by all members.

Also, really thank God foldees extended the deadline for the "We are all geeks" greeting cards competition cos' I really want to give it a try but I don't have the time. I've seen some of the entries and I think (No offense), many misinterpreted the meaning of geeks and got mixed up with nerds. But I absolutely love the star wars one with the green needle. Too bad cos I wanted to do something with star wars geek also. LOL. But it's ok... See what I can come up with. Hopefully it will work. Do check it out and send in an entry too!

Last but not least, I really love this person's work.

Fuhyoh... Somehow reminded me of goofy. Haha... But really like her works. I haven't really gone through her portfolio yet but I love it aready. Petra Stefankova. Dunnoe who's she but yeah, glad that I bought that RM75 Website2 book and saw her work. XD

Dunnoe why I feel so happie right now even though my web still have extra dunnoe how many white spaces due to the div tag~! T_T Oh yea... 6 of us visited the gallery for the Multimedia Starlites exhibition before our web class with Eugene and Chong. We spent our time there scribbling and doodling on the guestbook and we took up one whole page. And then a bunch of MM lecturers and tutors came in and Chong & Eugene were there too. Hoho... So no need go class first. Chong said we'll be having the class in gallery. Lol. And we actually bising-ed so much because we needed to balik class that Eugene decided to postponed it to 1.30PM. Hehehehehehe! And we managed to bising-ed Chong into doodling the guestbook too. What a class. And glad to see my works in the gallery although I think they weren't that good. Honestly I think that.

Well... Anyway... Here's the doodles!

Okie~! Till the next post! Daaaa~!!!!

*Edited Petra Stefankova's gender... Made a mistake on her gender. Got to know of it when she emailed me. That's how fast the net is mannnnn.... I just posted the post at 12AM and I received the email ater that. o.0! Sorry!*

-chen-
[12.50AM]

Domino's Pizza full web layout

2008-07-07T01:15:00.000+08:00

Date : 6th July 2008
Time : 1.15AM
Listening to : Stand by me - Oasis
Where : Room - MC

Woo~! Been ages since I last updated this blog. Sorry yea. Was really really busy with Photography final and also videoshoot in Malacca. Sorry sorry... No time to update on those two yet. For now I will present my complete set of Domino's Pizza (8 pages) layout. It had been fun drawing all these but very tiring.

Medium used to draw : Flash CS3
Medium (going to be) used to slice : Photoshop CS3
Medium (going to be) used to generate in HTML : Dreamweaver CS3

Chong and Jo, both my lecturers said not many people draw their interface in Flash. Heh? I didn't know that. But anyway... It will be terribly difficult to do the slicing and transferring after that. Seriously and I am not kidding but I found it easier to draw in flash pasal... pasal I've been drawing in flash since last term.

*click to enlarge to full size*

Ok... Gtg do the transferring and slicing now. T_T Anyway, tell me what you guys think ok? Thanks thanks. Constructive criticism only please.

-chen-
[1.24AM]

Domino's phone order page

2008-06-30T10:23:00.000+08:00

Date : 30th June 2008
Time : 10.23AM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Uncle Gary's place

Darn tiring. Went down Malacca for video shooting project from Thursday to Saturday. Turned out quite well. Will update on that later. Finished my trailer for Photography but can't upload it yet. For now I have only one new page for my web design. And yea, edited the main page also. Been quite slow lately due to assignments piling up.

Please comment before Wednesday. Thank you!

-chen-
[10.AM]

Extendable layout

2008-06-26T06:26:00.000+08:00

Date : 26th June 2008
Time : 6.27AM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Uncle Gary's house

Aih...Edited the layout again. This time to allow it to expand the content area should the need arises. It's not that obvious how it can be extended yet. Maybe when I have along page done then it will be shown. Anyway, drop your comments in the comment box ok? Thanks alot!

*Click to enlarge*

-chen-
[6.30AM]

Final shortlisted for print

2008-06-24T21:50:00.000+08:00

Date : 24th June 2008
Time : 6.50AM
Listening to : Jentayu - Sheila Majid, Nora. Johan Nawawi
Where : Room - MC

Yeh~! Finished editing the 29 shots. I am pretty satisfied with them except for the blood. I guess that's the down side. But it's alright for now.

Please do comment. Thanks.

-chen-
[10.37AM]

Revised version for Domino's

2008-06-23T12:18:00.000+08:00

Date : 23rd June 2008
Time : 12.18PM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Bro's room - MC

Edited the interface but no data yet. Please comment. Background will be added later. I still couldn't decide. Suggestion anyone?

Hope it looks better! Please comment ok? Thanks!

::Update::
Critique session summary:-

Eugene - Find ways to allow the web info to grow.
Colors not to be so dark.
Change element for evey page maybe.

Chong - Navigation buttons colors to make it more obvious.
Purple doesn't really go with the whole layout.
Phone number to be in stronger colors.

But all in all, the art direction is approved for now I guess. Still, please do comment on this current layer to help me further improve my work. Thank you so very the much.

-chen-
[12.20PM]

Critique Session

2008-06-22T22:22:00.000+08:00

Date : 22nd June 2008
Time : 10.22PM
Listening to : My own typing
Where : Bro's Room - MC

Ok... haven't been updating for a while. Anyway, after the last critique session for my website, this is what i gathered from the lecturer, tutor and senior lecturer. Some of them were from classmates and some from my own analysis, post-critique.

::Navigation::
Main navigation buttons too small. (Suggestion : Text to be rollover instead)
Icons can be bigger.
Rollover can be quirky and fun.
Icons look too separated from the entire graphic.

::Colours::
Put in more corporate colours.
Make it more friendly and approachable. (Current one too cold)
Maybe try colouring in flash.

::Information Planning::
Don't put the text too formal.
Show it in a more graphical manner like accordion tab.
Always put the phone number.
Try to explore ways to allow the information to be expanded.

::Graphics::
The strokes not confident enough.
Can have other elements like hot air balloon or something like that.
The clock rim could be pizza crust.
Animated clock hands.
Pizza boy looks like ninja, snatch thief, penculik, and other bad elements. Hahahah!
Buildings could have silhouette.
Speech bubbles.

Well, that's all for now. Will post up the updated version by morning hopefully.

For Digital Photography, Wei Meng changed my topic a little bit. Sathom and Zafri did very well for the murder scene so she said I should just do a trailer based on that and not on the book. But still, I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude for those who helped me so much during the production period especially Francisca, Danny, James and Bryan and also Zheng. And of course Zafri and Sathom for doing such a wonderful job. Will post up the selected ones by Tuesday morning.

For Digital Video, I went back Malacca for the final round of discussion with Uncle Lee Tai. And also at the same time did a couple of shots for my personal interview video for project 2. So, if all go well, we'll shoot by Friday. Will keep you guys updated as much as possible. The trip this time went well actually and I gained extra information from his mom. ^^

Marketing going well I hope. And tomorrow final exam. i think I'm going to flunk it. Oh no...

-chen-
[10.41PM]

Domino's Pizza new template

2008-06-18T22:24:00.000+08:00

Date : 17th June 2008
Time : 10.25PM
Where : Room - MC
Listening to : Classic - Adrian Gurvitz

The outline of main template. Will update along the way. Please comment yea.

*Update(4.08AM)*

Quite difficult to get good pictures...

*Update (8.23AM)*

Still a lot to edit. Be back asap.

-chen-
[10.27PM]

Portrait Lighting

2008-06-16T23:56:00.001+08:00

Date : 16th June 2008
Time : 11.56PM
Listening to : My dad snoring
Where : Room - MC

Haven't been updating bout my photography lately. Yeah..didn't have the time. This week I canged my model again cos' the original two couldn't make it for the morning shift. SO I had 2 of my really good friends, Zafri and Sathom to replace that two. I will post up their photos first lah. James and Danny's one have to wait. Neway, It's not exactly good yet so.. yeah...

The tomato ketchup did the trick ok-ly la but when convert to B&W... man...macam glue wei. Haha... My photoshop skill darn bad kot. Neway... Might just post up the colored ones when I have time. I like them in colors actually. Both of them did a good job. Made them perspire like running water. -.-! Eheheheh.. Revenge is sweet. And Zheng was so nice to tahan the sun for me, helping me out and all. Weird how 4 of us ended up doing this. Lol... And yes...we got into some police trouble. Got questioned and all. Pretty scary.And the owner of the door that we used, he got pretty disgusted with the mess. Kinda funny la actually. Will update more details in my other blog later. Oh yea, Did some shots of Francisca and Bryan in my room too. May have to re-shoot Bryan though. Post the pics up later.

As for my weekly assignments, I thought I might just have to forgo it. But with my ever kiasu-ness and not willing to lose marks... I finally camwhore koa koa this morning for human portrait lighting. I have NEVER camwhore like this in my entire life I tell you. So camwhore maaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn. Cannot tahan. No model to pose so have to use myself as model. Sucks.... And God blessed us with an extra studio this afternoon before Vincent's class so Diana, Chris, Wahyu. Tanyus and I kinda hung out there. Chris, Diana and I took turns to shoot. Tanyus, Wahyu, Diana and I took turn to model. Kinda fun I must say. Thanx to the camwhoring practices I had this morning. Made me kinda sick putting timer 80 times. Lao... By the end of the studio shoot, we decided to go for catalog model shoot. hhahahaah.... And when I reached Mentari at around 9PM, I tangkap Bryan and asked him to pose for me. Eheehehe... Thanx dude.

::Natural Lighting shots::

I somehow like this overexposed shot. The chair spoiled the shot. =.=

::Studio shots::

My fav shot. Tan looks like she was in love.

One of my fav shot... Dunnoe why. Love that expression.

::Studio Shots by Dee using my camera::

Blur one but I love the body language. Macam sial onli...

I like this...

::Night lighting::

My fav shot...

K...will update more later. Gotta start on my character design!

-Chen-
[1.03AM]

Color Palette Day

2008-06-12T17:57:00.000+08:00

Date : 12th June 2008
Time : 5.57PM
Listening to : Nothing much
Where : Room - MC

It's always fun to do random silly stuff especially when our class is so small. 9 people plus retakes and all. So the original 5 girls decided to do dress codes according to a color palette chosen from colorlovers.com... Inch Worm Invasion....

This is what we've got....

Unfortunately (actually quite fortunate)... Ehehehehe... Hazmer dropped in to return our DM2 assignments... And we forced him into this crazy thing which he sportingly posed for us. Eheheheeh....

More pictures in my other blog!

-chen-
[6.05PM]

First visual for Domino's

2008-06-09T10:45:00.001+08:00

Date : 9th June 2008
Time : 10.45AM
Listening to : Fan spinning
Where : Room - MC

The first visual for Domino's homepage. Haven't done the flash one yet. Tried out a few colors. Whatcha think?

And Photography~!!! Aaaaaah~! Actually turn out quite well except for a couple of shots that looked pretty lawak bcos of James' and Danny's expression la. Sammo got one with Zheng's head floating in mid-air. Ehehheeh... The prob is when I converted it to black and white it looked weird la. Adoih.... Takper la. Next wekk will be shooting Bryan and Francisca.

K k..will upload Photography later.

::UPDATES::
First visual always doesn't work. First attempt failed. Surprisingly I wasn't upset la. Sebab maybe I don't really think it's good anyway. :) K...will come up with new one soon.

-chen-
[1.03AM]

Sketches, Moodboard & Technical Brief (Domino's)

2008-06-05T00:57:00.000+08:00

Date : 5th June 2008
Time : 12.58AM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Room - MC

Here's my sketches for Domino's website. The tagline that I will be using is:

30 Minutes. That's all we need.

I use half a clock to indicate the page location. Below are a few of my sketches, starting from the earliest to the most recent one.

And below here is the proposed moodboard.

For my technical brief, I am not too sure of what it is. But if according to my notes, it would be the features in the website. Basically, there will be flash embedded. Also user ID and password driven features in the web. And because this site will put a stronger emphasis on Online Ordering, digital form will be included for customers to place order. Other than that, everything will be in a simple HTML format. Probably I will not have any pop-up window. This site will only have one fold, meaning it will not be scrollable. Will make use of I-Frame to fit in the content.

That's all for now I guess. About Digital Videography, will update it asap when we have our next meeting after web design class.

Maybe I will be casually killed this weekend. Ehehehee... Dunnoe happy or sad but pretty sugar high right now. Mat Kool ice cream really gives ppl sugar shock.

-chen-
[1.21AM]

Depth of Field, Motion and Final

2008-06-03T12:06:00.001+08:00

Date : 3rd June 2008
Time : 12.06PM
Listening to : Nothing in particular
Where : Room - MC

Haih... My first few attempts for photography were horribly terrible. Anyway... Just post it up la.

Motion assignment. Tried panning. Quite fun la. But darn tiring by the end of the day cos we traveled to Malacca for Digital Videography project thingy. And at the same time my group members and I (Joanne, Chris and Wahyu) took the opportunity to shoot whatever that we can. It's not that good yet I know but hopefully this will do.

Depth of Field assignment. The 3 out of the many that I've taken. The colors seemed extra saturated in my laptop compared to my PC... Wonder why.

These are the trial shoots for my final project. I was not very well prepared for this I must admit. I was really upset that day and yeah... I don;t want to elaborate. ^^ Anyway... I edited some of the photos to see if it'll be better in black and white or colored.

Francisca was one of my female model and she was really nice to help me out. Had some difficulties when we tried to come up with some of the emotions cos' I had no idea how to depict some of it yet. And I couldn't get the rest of the models to come together also cos James got BBQ at nite~! And David had to attend a wedding dinner and Danny fell asleep~! T_T

Danny... I had to wake him up from the back lane. Haha... Anyway, he followed me back to Mentari Court to shoot. It was quite funny la actually. But so darn glad he offered to help. Got really dirty laying down on the floor to shoot him and after that rushed off to James' bbq. Ehehehehe.... I love the 1st picture. The parang was from Bryan Chang. Thanks Bryan!!

Okay, I gtg for class now. Will update bout our Videography trip later~!

-chen-
[1.13PM]

5 websites with good Typography (Very difficult to find)

2008-06-03T00:16:00.000+08:00

Date : 3rd June 2008
Time : 8.45AM
Listening to : If I don't have you - BSB
Where : Room - MC

It's been very hard to find websites that have good typography on it. I don't really know how people define good typography so basically I just applied whatever that I've learned in Sharon's Typo class when I analyzed the websites. Sources for the web below came mostly from "Practical Web Design" and random search of brands from the net.

::WWF New Zealand::
I like the hierarchy in this website. They used different colors to highlight the headline for the title. The font size and colors used are also easy on the eyes. Readability is good. Neat and information is not scattered all over place. Actually, I want to comment on the colors used in this website also. It's very soothing and relaxing to surf this site. It is well suited with the theme because the site is to create awareness to preserve ocean wildlife.

....................................................................................................................................

::Idea Farm::
This website is not fully running yet but I like the way the title is defined into 2 words by using 2 different colors instead of using space. The intro page has a nice hierarchy. For the main page, I like the different font size used for defining the links' name. Font size used is big enough and easy to read. Words in one sentence are limited to 12-14 words and does not stretch from one end of the page to another so it's quite pleasing to the eyes when read. Colors used are not too bombarding and not straining to the eyes.

....................................................................................................................................

::Strato Cucine::
This site make use of the font size to grab users' attention. And they hav really good level of hierarchy to lead the eyes of the audience. You know what to read or focus first. And to highlight or emphasize on a word, the site use a different color for it instead of making it bold or italic. It creates a more balanced feel by having all the text in the same weight.

....................................................................................................................................

::In Your Element::
Really love this site. Aside from the concept that they use (which I think is good. Relevant to their target audience), I really like the way they arrange the typography. Unlike Strato Cucine, instead of using colors to emphasize on a word, the uses bigger font size. Notice the buttons. The links title is bigger and the description is smaller at the lower right hand corner of the button. In the inner page, texts are not cluttered and they are nicely arranged. If users want to find out more, links will be provided rather than bombarding all the infos at once.

....................................................................................................................................

::The Forgotten War (Congo)::
This site made use of a good hierarchy also and also utilizes the trick of emphasizing a phrase or word by using a bigger font size. This site although doesn't have much text at the main page, but it does contain a lot of users' contribution of thoughts. So instead of arranging it the way we usually sees it (in table form), users could click deeper into the map and the messages will be shown one by one (as they go deeper). Font size used for reading is at a comfortable size.

Well, that's all for the typo analysis now! Update more soon!

-chen-
[9.06AM]

Sitemap & Executive Summary

2008-06-02T08:50:00.000+08:00

Date : 2nd June 2008
Time : 8.50AM
Listening to : My fan spinning
Where : Room - MC

::Executive Summary::
As mentioned before, Domino's placed very great emphasis on their delivery service and their online order is one of their greatest asset that placed them as the first online order fast food chain in Malaysia. But the current state of the website is quite unappealing. There's redundancy in the information given and arrangement of content is not that efficient.

The site is to be revamped for easier an smoother navigation. Main keyword for this will be user-friendliness. Currently the website has only one level of navigation for most of the pages. The content will be arranged in a more manageable and logical way. Right now, there are so many links in the main page Most of them could be arranged into the same category.

Secondly, the website needs to communicate with the target audience more effectively without bombarding them with such long bunch of text. The aim is to reduce the chunk of information into bite size info. It's easier to digest and it doesn't bore the audience.

Thirdly, The website need to be redone to make it more visually attractive so users would want to stay longer to explore the site instead of having just one glance and leave. The current site holds little strength in capturing users' attention. Corporate colors should be used just enough to create and strengthen the website identity but not overused. The page layout should have more hierarchy to guide the audience. Currently everything is too plain and filled with text. There is no focus point and even if there's image, it's too bombarding.

Last but not least, this site have to further strengthen my client's strong point which is their delivery services and convenience. Right now, it placed very little emphasis on that. And also to further improve the online order usability and make it more attractive for users to do online ordering.

Next to be updated will be the Technical Brief and also idea development.

-chen-
[10.00AM]

Chronicle of a Death Foretold

2008-05-29T20:41:00.000+08:00

Date : 29th May 2008
Time : 8.41PM
Listening to : Billy Jean - David Cook
Where : Room - MC

This is my idea for Digital Photography class. I'll base my subject matter on the book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez entitled Chronicle of a Death Foretold.

.......................................................................................................................................
ThePlot (Skip the entire bunch of text if you have no intention to find out)

The narrative outlines the events surrounding the murder of Santiago Nasar, a young man who is thought to have taken the virginity of Angela Vicario. On her wedding night, after discovering that she was not a virgin, Angela's husband, Bayardo San Roman, returns her to her house. Angela's twin brothers, Pedro Vicario and Pablo Vicario, ask her who took her virginity, and she tells them that Santiago Nasar did. The brothers find Santiago and kill him.

The narrative is non-linear. The narrator begins the story by telling us about Santiago Nasar's household the morning he was murdered. In the course of the chapter, we learn that Santiago lived with his mother, Placida Linero; their cook, Victoria Guzman; and her daughter, Divina Flor. Santiago's father, Ibrahim Nasar, has died three years previously. After his father died, Santiago took over the family ranch, which has been very successful; the Nasars are wealthy in their community.

The day that Santiago is murdered was a significant day in town because the Bishop was coming by boat to bless the marriage of Angela Vicario and Bayardo San Roman. Many people were heading over to the dock to see the boats. Pedro and Pablo Vicario were sitting in the local milk-shop, which was en route to the dock, so that they could see Santiago Nasar either going or returning in order to track him down and kill him. The narrator's sister learns that Angela Vicario was returned home on the night of her wedding.

Bayardo San Roman had come to town to find a bride. After deciding on Angela, the courtship was short. Because Bayardo came from a prestigious, wealthy family, and the Vicarios were relatively poor, Angela did not really have a choice, even though she did not love Bayardo at the time they were wed. The night before the murder, there had been lots of wedding revelry that had continued into the early morning at a local whorehouse run by Maria Alejandrina Cervantes, where Santiago Nasar had been carousing with the twins and the narrator until early in the morning. After returning home and finding their sister in disgrace, the Vicario brothers set out to avenge her honor by murdering Santiago Nasar. Even though they repeatedly announced their intent to murder him, the butcher, the police officer, and the Colonel all thought that the Vicarios are largely bluffing. Clothilde Armenta, the proprietor of the milk shop, even told the local priest about what the Vicario twins were threatening to do. However, in the excitement surrounding the arrival of the bishop, he forgot about her warning.

After the murder, the entire Vicario family left town because of the disgrace the combination of events had brought upon their family. A week after the murder, Bayardo San Roman left with his family; they came and retrieved him by boat. The Vicario brothers were imprisoned for three years. After their release from prison, Pablo proceeded to marry his betrothed, Prudencia Cotes, and Pedro went back into the armed forces. After Bayardo returned Angela to her home on their wedding night, she fell in love with him. After she moved away from the town where she was disgraced, she wrote him letters every week for seventeen years, and eventually he returned to her.

For years after the crime, it was all anyone in the town spoke of. The narrator tells how his friend Cristo Bedoya searched frantically for Santiago the morning of the murder in order to warn him of the Vicario brothers' plan, but failed to find Santiago because he did not realize that Santiago had gone to the house of his fiance, Flora Miguel. Her father was the first to warn Santiago of the murder. At this point, there were crowds of people outside who had come to see the Bishop but had lingered because they had heard the rumor that Santiago was to be killed.
When he left Flora Miguel's house, Santiago was very confused. Clothilde Armenta yelled at him to run, and he ran the fifty yards to his front door. Due to miscommunication, Santiago's mother locked the front door just as he approached The Vicario brothers easily caught up with him, and stabbed him to death right outside of Santiago's front door.

......................................................................................................................

That's the plot. So my plan revolves around the idea of making a trailer or preview of this book using series of still photographs. Basically it will give some kind of short summary of the content of the book. I am doing Emotive Photography. I had no intention of model driven theme at the start of the class but somehow I was pretty intrigued by humans body language that could channel emotion without showing facial expression. I am not sure if I will include snippets of facial expression in this project. Most likely not. I am doing model hunting now. I have the visual in my head but it's quite difficult to get the location set up. Well, anyway, although I will be doing a trailer for this book, I am not going to set in a Latin town theme. I am going to make a local version of it. Dang...sound so cheap but hopefully it will work. I mean come on la... Where am I suppose to find Latin girls and Arabian guys la.

::Selective Scenes to shoot in chronological order::

1. The marriage
2. The missing stain of honor (virginity)
3. Return of the bride & beatings
4. Return of the twin brothers
5. Naming of the perpetrator (Santiago Nasar)
6. Santiago Nasar climbed out of bed
7. SN took some aspirins
8. The last talk with his mom
9. Preparation to kill Santiago
10. Whispering of the crowd
11. Spotting of Santiago
12. Chasing Santiago starts
13. Refraining action by bar mistress
14. Santiago running for home
15. Locking Santiago out & cornering
16. The murder
17. The conclusion

Basically that will be the few selected key frames I will be shooting. I did some location scouting a couple of days ago. I have yet to get a proper indoor location but I found some quiet spots behind the new Sunway Pyramid. I probably might use there. And I intended to use the parking rooftop right here in Mentari. I seriously in need of indoor location with proper bed with window. If anyone could offer me their place just for a day or two I will really be grateful.

For models, I managed to persuade James into this and he is fine with the schedule for now. I've gotten David for this shoot also. Zheng will be part of it but I may ask Francisca to be my main female character. I would prefer Zheng to help me in my technical part. I need at least 2 more male models to help me out preferably with similar height and built. Please (I am really pleading), do tell me if you could help me in any of the area at all.

The mood I am going for is probably black and white the depict the solemness of the entire setting.

Well, I guess that's all for now. Will be going down Malacca for location scouting for Digital Video class. And this week, there're at least 80 photographs to be taken for weekly assignment and another 10 or so for trial final project shots.

You tell me, die or not die?

-chen-
[9.39PM]

Competitor Analysis

2008-05-28T11:43:00.000+08:00

Date : 28th May 2008
Time : 11.44AM
Listening to : Making love out of nothing at all - Bonnie Tyler
Where : Room - MC

My project brief for Web Design 2 is to redesign the website of my client, Domino's. I checked out a few of its' competitor's website. PizzaHut is obviously the biggest competitor and they offer delivery also. The 2nd one is McDonald. I know I did McDonald in my previous corporate analysis but the current one that I did is a Malaysia website. Same goes for PizzaHut. Same thing, I chose McD cos' they offer delivery also. The last one that I did does not offer delivery but it's a fast food chain also. Kentucky Fried Chicken.

PizzaHut (http://pizzahut.com.my)

Target audience that PizzaHut aimed for would be for families and also group of friends. But for Domino's Pizza, most of the combo and offers are for working adults, people who order their meals to be delivered to the office. Probably for working people who does not want to face the hassles of going out and get their meals but prefer to order for delivery.

Type of food that PizzaHut offer ranges from pizzas to even rice. They do not offer only pizzas but also other meals like pastas, rice, and even offer appetizers and deserts. Same goes for Domino's but my client does not offer such wide range of food. Even though they do have pastas and desert, they are all categorized under side orders. It's clear that Domino's place a big emphasis on their pizzas.

Delivery Service offered by PizzaHut is available only in certain outlets but their dine in service is for every single outlet. No guarantee of the time taken to have the orders delivered. But for their take away, a guarantee of 15 minutes is given. Compared to Donino's, of all the outlets in the whole country, every outlet (except for 2) offers delivery & take away. But only the 2 outlets that does not offer delivery has dine-in. Domino's is all about delivery. 30 minutes for delivery, that's their guarantee to their customers.

The Advantages that PizzaHut has is obviously the dine-in availability that they offer. And also they have more outlets compared to Domino's for easier accessibility.

The disadvantages that PizzaHut suffer from would be their delivery offer. Compared to Dominos, PizzaHut cannot give a specific period of time taken to have the orders to be delivered. And not all outlets offer delivery.

The website itself has a good use of corporate colors. But it took some time to load especially the side bar and I have no idea why. And their online order page, if accessed from the blinking icon, it will redirect us to another page via a new tab. But if accessed from "how to order", it will be redirected to the order page without using a new tab. The problem to this is that there is no side menu to access and also no back button also. Aside from the loading problem, I think it's quite sufficient when it comes to the information.

McDonald's (http://www.mcdonalds.com.my)

Target audience that McDonald aimed for is mainly for kids. Their sets like Happy Meal obviously stated so. And all of their menu sets are for individuals, not for big groups of people.

Type of food that McD offers usually cater for individuals. Unlike Domino's, McD does not offer combos or sets that could be shared by more than 2 people. And their menu is limited to only burgers, fries and nuggets for the main products. But they do offer side orders like porridge. And different time of the day, they have different offers and menu sets such as breakfast set.

Delivery Service offered by McDonald will be charged RM3 for delivery and also limited to certain areas only. No minimum order is required. As for Domino's, a minimum order of a regular pizza is required.

The Advantages that McD has would be the no minimum order required. And also, McD is a hit with teens and kids nowadays. And they cater for individual sets.

The disadvantages that McD has would be their delivery services also. Although they offer delivery, the food that are delivered usually do not taste as good as compared to Domino's. I think it's the kind of food that they offer. And Domino's deliver their food within 3 minutes in a hot pouch. But McD, fries and the bread kinda get soggy after that.

The website irritated me. I don't know if it's just my browser or what but the flash for main page just jammed my browser for seconds and I think it's pretty annoying. Other than that, information is quite easy to access. Layout is pretty consistent.

Kentucky Fried Chicken (http://kfc.com.my)

Target audience that KFC is aiming for is families and children. It's quite apparent in their ads and commercials.

Type of food that KFC offer is of course poultry related products for main course. They also offer side orders. KFC is more flexible in their sets and combo because they cater for both individuals and also group of people.

Delivery Service is not available.

The Advantages that KFC has would be their flexibility. Since they cater for both individuals and also group of people and also the accessibility of dining in, people may tend to choose KFC.

The disadvantages suffered by KFC would be the lack of delivery. This means those who want to have KFC, they have to go to the outlet.

The website in terms of navigation is quite confusing. Some links are repeated. And I think the buttons are too scattered. The colors used is quite consistent except for some pages like kids meal and kfc e-cravings for example. The main page and most of the pages will have that rays lines coming out of the logo but some of the pages doesn't. And in some of the pages, the second bar of navigation isn't there anymore. And in terms of colors usage, I find it hard to find a focus point. Too many colors and everything stood out too much.

One point that I noticed when analyzing all these websites and also some of the others, all these fast food chains, they included info on how they are contributing back to the society or environment. And the same goes for Donimo's website. I think it's a kind of publicity in away. Some environment/society conscious customers may choose which fast food chains to go for according to this factor.

All in all, Domino's put great emphasis on their delivery service and also online ordering. Yes, my client's competitors may have more to offer, more dine in options and more outlets compared to my client. But Domino's target audience is very different from the rest of its' competitors. Domino's targeted for working adults, a totally different target audience from the rest. And it's the delivery that drew its' target audience to choose Domino's because of the guarantee offered. And I think Domino's website is a very important media to attract more customers. And currently, Domino's website is not that user-friendly. Some pages are so long and it gets kind of boring to even attract me to scroll down further. Information are not sorted out properly. So it could be quite a task to improve this. :)

Well anyway, please do drop comments on what you think of the websites that I've shared. Any info that I might have missed out or anything like that.

-chen-
[6.31PM]

Walking an Alien's Dog

2008-05-23T00:47:00.000+08:00

Date : 23rd May 2008
Time : 12.49AM
Listening to : Winhill - FF8
Where : Room - MC

Sketched some random stuff during marketing class. I am not saying that it's a boring class ok. Vincent was pretty entertaining. I just had the urge to scribble. Lately, (even in church), I've been drawing random characters... a lil' robotic in a way. Decided to convert it to digital file. The background was crap cos' I became lazy after a while. Ehehehehe.... Might work on it later. Just for fun.

-chen-
[12.53AM]

Corporate Website Analysis

2008-05-21T00:44:00.000+08:00

Date : 21st May 2008
Time : 12.44AM
Listening to : My own typing?
Where : Room - Mentari Court

I'm visited some corporate websites but most of them were mainly food/beverages producers. The reason is because I'm going to work on Dominos website (M'sia).

The first one that I'm going to review will be Yakult (Malaysia). Yakult is a company that produces cultured milk drink. Originally founded by a Japanese scientist, Malaysia came up with an improved Yakult: Yakult Ace. This site is to promote this product.

Main Page

Company Profile

Health Professionals/Research

Product Info

Navigation is very simple. It's top menu. Easy to access and the title used for each segment gives a clear hint of what I should expect when I enter the page. Sub navigation would be side navigation on the left. This sub-navigation is only available when there's more links inside a particular segment. There is one more individual button for direct jump to the wallpaper page at the lower half of the page which I find it quite redundant since the site structure is not that complicated. And it is repeated in each page including the wallpaper page itself. Another annoying point is that there are some "buttons-like" icon that I thought could be clicked at first glance but it was proven not to be functioned that way. i.e. the 5 rounded cornered pictures at the top right hand corner. Also, at the lower half of the page, there's a red box entitled Yakult Message with description. When the mouse cursor rolled over the box, a hand icon will appear which made me feel like it's clickable but again, it was just a false alarm. It does not do anything when clicked. So I think the navigation could be improved in terms of what could be clicked or what could not be clicked.

Design wise, I did feel like I'm in Yakult's site. Aside from the fact that the logo is always at the top left hand corner, the usage of Yakult's corporate colors, red and white played a vital part also. And the fact that a yakult bottle standing out at the bottom of the page clearly wouldn't make me miss that. Each sub page actually has the same structure. Side buttons on the left and an iFrame on the right. The iFrame has 2 sets of scrollbar even though the site utilized only the top down scrollbar. So I think they should just lose the unused left right scrollbar because it is very distracting. Not only that, I think the usage of the sunflower field background really clashes with the rest of the design. And it doesn't blend in at all with the bottle. All the elements look pretty separated from each other. Typography wise, I think some of the point size are too small. Quite hard to read. I think it can afford to go bigger than this.

Content within the website itself is very well organized. Very straight-forward and informative. I know what page to go to. The sub categories for each page also help to break the big chunks of information into smaller portion for easy info digestions.

Grid system for this site is basically divided into 2 types. The grid for homepage and also sub-pages as shown at below.

Main Page

Sub Page

The 2nd website that I am reviewing will be Heinz (Ireland). Heinz is a company that sells food product, mainly ketchups, condiment, sauces and even meals and snacks.

Main Page

Baby Food

Good Food Every Day (Sub)

Good Food Every Day (Intro)

Brands & Products

Navigation is very easy. The main navigation is top menu. Links are very well indicated, allowing me to go straight to the segment that I want. Aside from Homepage, the rest of the pages are supported by another set of sub-navigation in the form of side menu. Some of the links at the side menu are also in the form of drop down list to reveal more in-depth information links. At the top right of the page, there's another set of navigation. It's more like a secondary set of links. The main navigation contains links to information while this secondary navigation is registration kind of links.

Design wise, I like the simplicity and clean look of the entire page. There's consistency in all the pages. The Heinz brand logo is always situated on the top left hand of the page. Colors are very well put together, easy for the eyes and doesn't clashed. And images chosen for the banner for each page supported the design of the site also. Typography wise, it is ok except for the main page where the description for some of the sub pages are too small I could hardly read it.

Content in this site are well organized also. Within the content itself, some additional links are provided to lead user to additional info outside of the website itself. The search function is also very useful. It helps me to grab the information that I want without having to go through all the text in the whole section. All information are arranged on the right, just beside the side bar. I like the way they put the main headings in the content but gave the option to read the details by clicking on the link provided instead of having to scroll down through all the details at one shot. What I don't like about the content arrangement is that they do not provide breadcrumbs to allow me to track back what page is the subpage of another. For example if I clicked the baby food from "Our Brand". When I'm in that page, I wouldn't know that the main page is "Our Brand". I think by adding in Breadcrumbs, it will solve this problem.

Grid system for this site is basically divided into 2 types also. The grid for homepage and also sub-pages as shown at below.

Main Page

Sub Page

The last website I'm going to review will be McDonald's (Australia). For this website, I will be reviewing the Flash site, catered for broadband users and also the supporting HTML site, catered for dial-up users. This what I really like about the website. It is very user friendly and it allows users of any internet speed to access the site without causing them additional waiting time. I think everyone knows what McDonald's is all about. It's one of the most successful fast food chain the whole wide world. To be honest, if one day all the fast food chains has to stop operating except for one, I would have voted for McD. Don't think I can live without my Fillet-O-Fish. Hehe... Anyway....

These are the screen shots for the flash version

Main Page

Nutrition Calculator

Our Food

McDonald's Restaurant

Tomatoes

And these are the screen shots for the html version.

Main Page

Main Menu

Our Food

Navigation for the flash site is very interesting. It reminded me of the Big Pencil website by Leo Burnett. The page icon will float in the middle and is significantly bigger and the colors more saturated compared to the inactive pages. There will be other clickable icons floating around it. When clicked, the page will zoomed into the icon's element and reveal all the information the page. And within the active page itself, there are some pages that have their own set of navigation such as side menu. I.E McDonald's Restaurant page. There is also an additional kind of navigation. The drag and drop navigation in the Nutrition Calculator page (html version does not have this function). User can drag the food that they want and find out what is the nutrition content. "Back" button is provided at the side of the page frame itself to allow users to track back the previous page. There is another set of bottom menu to allow user to access to the html version, track back where they are, contacting the site and terms&conditions links (same as html version except for the tracking back where user is).

For the html version, it's very simple. The main navigation will be in the form of top menu. And as we enter the page, the rest of the links will be provided in the same icons used in the flash version but in the form of side menu on the right. Under the main top menu, inside each subpage, there is another secondary top menu. It serves as the page indicator cum alternative buttons for the sub links in a particular category. Both html and flash version will link user to a new page if Happy Meal link is clicked.

Design wise, both flash and html versions are similar with the use of solid black background and icons. All icons are in a way related to McDonald's either by the color scheme or the elements used. Typography arrangement is very nicely done. The hierarchy is very clear. It's easy to read and the images used to support the content are very well chosen. The colors made the whole site look rather appetizing.

Content in the flash version is arranged within the frame of the elements used in the page itself. If the content is more than what the frame can whole, "next" button is provided to allow user to read more on the particular information. Although the icons seemed scattered, the information is very well organized because the icons that float around the active page are related to the page itself. For the html version, the contents are also well put together. Related links are grouped under a main category. The information is displayed on the left hand side of the page or sometimes it's in download able pdf form.

Grid system for html site is basically the same for every page. The grid for homepage and also sub-pages as shown at below. As for the flash site, it's divided to 2. The bottom navigation and content area.

Main Page

Sub Page

Yeap. That's all for my analysis. Please feel free to comment.

-chen-
[2.56AM]

Missing Pages

2008-05-20T00:07:00.000+08:00

Date : 20th May 2008
Time : 12.07AM
Listening to : My own typing
Where : Room - Malacca

Watched Missing Pages last Friday with classmates. This is part of our Photography assignment. So we divided ourselves into 3 groups. I was grouped up with Tanyus and Selvia. (Easier to communicate since they are my downstairs neighbors) Missing Pages is a 24 minutes movie made entirely out of still photographs. It's technique known as "Fotomation". Produced by Chage. Written and directed by Jerome Oliver. It's really interesting to watch it. So, basically, each team have to select 3 scenes that we like the most and state why. Have to present it in class. So yeah, Tanyus put together the selections into a very nice presentation kit. So all credits should go to her after this for her effort to make it so presentable. :) Thanx short-haired woman!!!

Below are the screenshots that we've selected. Click to enlarge. (Then you can kill your boredom and read why we chose it)

Index Page

Scenes Selection

Scene chosen by me

Scene chosen by Tanyus

Scene chosen by Selvia

So yeap, dats basically all for the sharing. Especially love that roll over effect for the scenes selection. ^^

-chen-
[12.21AM]

My Scanogram : Characters

2008-05-18T22:49:00.001+08:00

Date : 18th May 2008
Time : 10.49PM
Listening to : From a distance - Bette Miller
Where : Room - Malacca

Changed the skin for now. Bleh. Don't like it still. Only like the character design. Never really like black as the background anyway. Just hope I will find the time to do the layout myself. =.=!

Here's my Scanogram. Some were rearranged using photoshop. Bleh... It's interesting to work this way but I had very lil' time on Thursday. Have to finish it by then cos' I wouldn't be around during the weekend. So got pretty limited scans.

Maybe next time when time allows, I will have more than just this to present. But for now, this will have to do. :) Hope Wei Meng doesn't see this.

*Update*
Hsemate (Zheng) asked what inspired me for this project. Actually really nothing la. I am so random right. I pretty much work with things within my arm-reached. And also in semi-darkness. SO I just grabbed random stuff. But I guess within the period of time working things out, I guess I was driven by facial expression and robots. So yeah. Thanx Zheng for provoking this thought. Dang.... I am so random I might just end up in Jupiter.

-chen-
[11.08PM]

Assignment update + Handover

2008-05-18T17:15:00.000+08:00

Date : 18th May 2008
Time : 5.16PM
Listening to : Cartoon Network
Where : Parents' Room - Malacca

Ok... assignment updates.

Digital Photography
Scanogram - 2 sets (4R) : Bring your raw files along
Bring your camera
Presentation on Missing Pages
Those who are purchasing cameras please meet in lobby at 2PM (Tuesday)
Ideas for your final project

Web Design 2
3 website analysis on corporate website (Post it on blog)
Research on the website that you picked and their competitor

Digital Videography
Propose ideas for documentary

Marketing
15 questions for survey
Research on business proposal (I might be wrong... will update asap)

That's all for next week. Another announcement will be, (Although I told everyone already), I am handing over the monitor position to Selvia. So look her up if you need to know anything.

-chen-
[5.23PM]

WD2 Test 1 - Healing Therapy

2008-05-14T04:36:00.000+08:00

Date : 14th May 2008
Time : 4.37AM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : MC - Room

Finished the website for healing therapy. To be honest, I couldn't really track my time that well. Some disturbances along the way like talking to bro la and all. But I would say approx. 3 hours plus minus. T___T I know... Exceeded the time limit. But seriously this must be the fastest I've worked. I'm just using back the elements in the main page. No time to do new one. Here are the screenshots.

Lavender Therapy Pop-up

GreenTea Therapy Pop-up
Main Page

I know it's not the best but yeah... Broke my own record. Stressnyer~!

-chen-
[4.43AM]

Wedding Card & Cassette Badges

2008-04-30T12:57:00.000+08:00

Date : 30th April 2008
Time :10.34PM
Listening to : Best of my love - The Eagles
Where : Room - Malacca

Wooo... Been a while since I blogged here. Thought of posting up some works I did last term but... neh... Don't think I will. Current side project at hand now will be my friend's wedding card. I came up with something but I am not really satisfied with it yet. T.T Help~! Take a look.

The final 2 I've chosen to test out the typo and all. But you now, I really didn't like how it turned out to be. Maybe it's just me. But it's too fairytale like. So not what I want to achieve. But anyway, I'm not spending more time on this unless there's feedback and all. So far, a friend suggested photo montage of a real champagne glasses and all. So I'm gonna try on that. And edit maybe some colours also. Other than that, I'm trying a few more styles and feel. This is the first time I attempted this style. I am so not used to it but I guess it gave me more option. =) Still, I don't like it yet. K... Will update on this next time.

Anyway, I have another project coming up. Out of school project. Don't know how it will go yet. So yeah, hope it will be all well and all. This term break I haven't been helping out with my mom yet. So ehehehe... no ID stuff to share. But I found this on nicefuckinggraphics.

Cool huh? I love cassettes. I have like so many of them at home but it's the normal transparent one. I have a couple of really old ones but really have to dig them out. Most of them are still usable. You know, the old 60's emmy award recording. I claimed that as my own property already. Haha... Anyway, find out more if you are interested. Effektive.

Ok then. Will see if I have more to update later. maybe will research more on next term related stuff. Till then! Buaiiiiiiiiii~!

-chen-
[11.02PM]

Nescafe Storyboard

2008-03-31T13:30:00.000+08:00

Date : 31st March 2008
Time : 1.32PM
Listening to : Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham (Yes, I love Hindi movies)
Where : Room

Aih...Been so long since I've blogged here. Basically, almost done with web. But won't post it up yet. Haven't take proper screenshot yet. But here's visual fund. storyboard for Nescafe.

-chen-
[1.36PM]

Webdesign 1 - Final Layout

2008-03-19T08:18:00.000+08:00

Date : 18th March 2008
Time : 8.18AM
Listening to : Perfect Moment - Martine McCutcheon
Where : Room

Aih... Finally the layout for project 2. Not too sure if the colours will come out right on your computer screen. For mine it looks fine. Tell me if it works/looks fine from your screen ok?

::Welcome Page::

::Main Page::

::Materials&Tools Page::

::Inner Page for M&T::

::Ideas&Projects Page::

::Tutorial Page::

::Scrapbook Page::

::Pop-up Page (Scrapbook)::

::Download Page::

This is my 3rd try for the layouts. Really will appreciate any kind of feedback. Will like to do user-testing, any volunteer? ^^ Thank you.

-chen-
[8.31AM]

Agencies research & web layout

2008-03-18T01:35:00.000+08:00

Date : 17th Marh 2008
Time : 1.35AM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Room

Did some research for typo regrading design agencies. Instead of doing Leo Burnett, Saatchi&Saatchi, I decided to check up on design agencies that did some good stuff but noobie me never heard of them. Well, I am secretly hoping others will be doing Leo Burnett, Saathi&Saatchi and Ogilvy&Mather tomorrow so that I will know more about them. I did research on the 5 Giants of the Ad Industry but I couldn't really register mch for now. Anyway... I decided to share on these 5 agencies. Check them out.

TBWA
3nitydesign
McCann Erikson
draftfbc
y&r

Dunnoe why my brain is not taking in info well these few days. Kinda feel the stress streaming in. Not because of work to be honest. More to personal struggle in spiritual sense. Gah... Nevermind.

Anyway... I have an awareness video to share.

It's really cool how they send the message across. =)

Anyway... This is my latest webdesign layout. I...don't like it that much. I still think my first try looks fresher. What do you guys think? Wahyu gave his feedback saying it's better cos' it's not bounded by box. Selvia thought it looks less cluttered. Hmmm... They have a point there. But my housemate prefer the previous ones. Hope to hear more feedback. Please do comment yea. Thanks. Below is the main page.

-chen-
[1.48AM]

TYPemotion + Interior Design

2008-03-16T21:53:00.000+08:00

Date : 16th March 2008
Time : 9.54PM
Listening to : The Only One - Readymade FC
Where : Room

Gonna share on Typograpy and a lil on Interior Design (Cannot help it. My passion =.o). Well anyway, for TYPemotion assignment, I've chosen to do on Child Adoption. So it's a community reach out message. Still considering whether it will be a TV based kind or Internet. But that is not too much of an area to be concerned about. Ok, moving on from the discussion, I had a rough idea on the concept that I will be using. Will talk about it later. So, I did a research on the organization that I will be supporting. Went through several before I decided to settle down with OneWorldAdoptionServices based in America.

Basically, my concept is this:

"Adopting" letter(s) into a negative word to totally change the meaning to something positive.

For example the word "harm". Adding the word C will change it to something positive, "Charm". I hope this example is clear enough to send out the idea. Anyway, the message I want to convey is that adding a child in the family is not necessarily a burden. It can be a blessing. (B+LESS=Bless) Got it? Something like that. So my final tag will be including this:

option when add the letters "ad" = adoption:: Adoption, adding the options to your life::

Something like that. I am still not satisfied with the tagline. Not at all. SO any suggestions? And I've been going through dictionary, one whole bunch of unrelated text and even the Bible to get the inspiration for the words that I am going to use. I actually came out with a couple.

Hate + r= Heart
ward+re=reward
lie+f=life
lie+v=live+s=lives
maze+A=Amaze
kill+s=skill
ordinary+extra=extraordinary
rival+ev=revival
deceive+r=received
bounding+a=abounding
bile+a=alive
heave+n=heaven

I know it's not the best yet. So will really appreciate it for you guys who read the blog to contribute some help here. Thanks.

Continuing on from here, I researched on typo treatment. Check out the videos below. Very interesting use of typo to convey a message. Love the music video. Anyway, initially, my idea of execution is very type-based. meaning there will be no images none whatsoever. But I am considering other methods of execution to fully utilize both. Will update on that later.

This is the music video for The Only One by HomemadeFC

This is the typography poster by LETMAN on students final works at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.

This is some jokes told thru typo.

Ok..now to my passion. I super in love with these bookshelves lor!!!

It's a deco by itself already(the books)

Hanging books. Woooooooo~

Doesn't this remind you of action script????

I know it doesn't look nice but this is my fav. one. How flexible. Extended area by unrolling.

Staircase bookshelves. So clever.

There are more here.

And here is the house that I want to bring the attention to. I like. This is the house that has that staircase bookshelf.

Sebastian&Veronika's Rooftop Apartment

Last but not least... A must check-out blog. nicefuckinggraphics.

-chen-
[11.02PM]

Visual Fund2 + The Nautilus Home

2008-03-15T18:46:00.000+08:00

Date : 15th march 2008
Time : 6.46PM
Listening t0 : Embrace - Gravity
Where : Room

Gosh...I really cannot draw. That guy is out of proportion. But what the heck. I guess improvement is something to look forward to. K..k...Have to go finish up 4 simplified figures. Neway... will share on typography tomorrow.

And here's something that I've seen long time ago but Tanyus shared a new one that I've never seen. There are many houses that were handmade. I saw a couple in a book in Kinokuniya. And saw one documentary on Astro before. Fantastic architecture. But honestly, by far. This is the best yet. Thanks Tan!

The Nautilus home...

-chen-
[6.57PM]

Assignment week 10

2008-03-15T13:05:00.000+08:00

Date : 15th March 2008
Time : 1.06PM
Listening to : ColdPlay - The Scientist
Where : Room

Assignment to be completed this week:-

VisualFund
4 simplified figs
Storyboard rendering

WebDesign
Screenshots to be completed for presentation

Typography
Typography (Storyboard)
Tee Shirt presentation
Company research

DesignMethod
Research for project partB
Submission of I-Map and 2 hardcopy of summary

DigitalMedia
Flash to be completely finished for prototype (Should start scripting)
Script Library (5)

Announcements:
DesignMethod2 class (20/3) will be replaced to Saturday(22/3). 9AM-1PM
Webdesign classes will be switched .
Presentation to be on Wednesday and Tutorial to be on Tuesday.
Trip to National Islamic Museum.

That's about it. And please, do update your blogs guys. And comment on each other's work. Remember that marks will be taken in from our blogs also.

Nice painting eh? Love the flip-flop~!

-chen-
[1.15PM]

Smelly Shoes!

2008-03-14T13:12:00.000+08:00

Date : 14t March 2008
Time : 1.14 PM
Where : Room
Listening to : Nothing

This is the screenshots for DigitalMedia2 for my smelly shoes project. There are 2 slides that weren't refined yet. So basically the storyline is that Righty, the smelly shoe was accused of murdering a man in a hotel with its' stinkiness. So user have to go through the evidence room, crime scene, Righty's owner and employer to gather information on this case. Will elaborate more later. Gotta go class liao!

More to add and refined on soon! Gotta start scripting already! x.x!

-chen-
[1.24PM]

Mistakes and Lomo

2008-03-13T20:15:00.000+08:00

Date : 13th March 2008
Time : 8.15PM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Room

Let me bore you guys with my summary. ^^

Mistakes in Visual Communication (And how it led to Lomography)

Mistakes are generally defined as something bad, negative and unwanted. That is in general. This is human tendency; reject mistakes, reject imperfection. But in the world of design, “mistakes” are not mistakes. Mistakes could be regarded as an element that could push a particular piece of work forward. It really depends on how the designer looks at that particular mistakes made. Mistakes can be defined as an element of unpredictability. It leaves the designer not having a certain amount of control on his/her work. This creates surprises. Most people strive for perfection. But how perfect is perfect? A closer look at perfection will reveal imperfection. For example the period at the end of each sentence. Usually perceived as a perfect circle, if enlarged many times over will reveal jagged sides or smeared. Mistakes create but perfection put a stop to a particular work. There is beauty in imperfection. When things went out of control, the outcome could be surprising. And think about it, no two mistakes are the same. Nobody can achieve the same kind of strokes smeared. Nobody can achieve the same tear line on a fabric. Mistakes are therefore unique. It gives a sense of originality to a designer’s work. Embrace mistakes. Embrace unpredictability. In term of visual communication, mistakes done on purpose are able to convey message that perfection can never deliver. Mistakes give birth to new techniques. A few fine examples are misprinting, dirty (smeared) fonts, and collages. And also, human inability to be perfect always leaves room for creativity to bloom in order to make up for the flaw. Isn’t that what design is all about? Creativity. Finding solution to a problem. Look at “mistakes” in the classic, common formula 1+1=3.

Mistakes + Original Plan = Explosion of Ideas.

When an original plan is deviated from its path, it may unfold better and more brilliant ideas. Design world in Visual Communication cannot be limited to only what is known to be good and perfect. The main aim of visual communication is to be able to communicate the message to its intended audience. There are still many things to be explored and one of the ways to discovery is through mistakes.
In context of mistakes that brought benefit to the design world, there are far too many to be mentioned. But one of them is Lomography. Lomography term is derived from the word Lomo, a manufacturer name: Leningradskoye Optiko-Mechanichesckoye Obyedinenie in Russia. It was a manufacturer that produced advance optical and medical equipment and also consumer cameras. The Lomo camera is a crappy and bad camera that produces images that has low quality by definition of the photography world. Photographers usually buy a camera that gives good quality pictures that are clear, good color and sharp. But why lomography? It is the low quality pictures that are produced by this camera that gave birth to the new breed of photographers; aptly called the lomographers. Lomographers are so charmed by the unique, colorful and sometimes blurry pictures that the camera produces. The actual attraction of the camera is actually its’ weaknesses. As ridiculous as it may sound, it is true. Vignetting is seen to add uniqueness to photographs, while inaccurate settings open up your creativity. Lomo cameras do produce amazingly beautiful colors although the colors maybe over saturated and the images may be distorted.
Lomography is a snapshot photography. The motto for lomography is “Don’t think, just shoot”. What is interesting about lomography is that the accidents or mistakes are not done on purpose. The weakness of the camera are the factors that tend to over saturate the colors, over/under expose and add noise to the images. But other that the weaknesses that make the lomo camera interesting, there is an advantage too. The camera allows the images to be taken under low light thus it is great to be carried around. Just point and shoot. No composition or lighting to be worried about. Another wonderful fact about lomography is that you can never predict what is the outcome of the snapshot. It is always full of surprises. Although critics may argue that the effects can be achieved through Photoshop, the original lomo is still better because unpredictability yields a more original and diverse result. Not able to be controlled by the user, the work has the freedom to be how it is meant to turn out to be. Lomography not only influenced the photography world but also extended into the cinema/movie industry, Now, how cool is that? Mistakes rock. Lomography rocks harder.

Lomo love

2008-03-13T08:31:00.000+08:00

Date : 13th March 2008
Time : 8.32AM
Where : Room
Listening to : Antara Anyer dan Jakarta- Sheila Majid

First of all...

I WANT A LOMO!

Suddenly lae... HAHAHA... Dunnoe lah!! I want a lomo! T.T!

Lomo~! ^^Y

Progress #4 for WD1 Project2 (Navigation Analysis)

2008-03-11T07:41:00.001+08:00

Date : 11th March 2008
Time : 7.41AM
Listening to : Water dripping
Where : Room

Homepage

Materials+Tools page

Ideas+Projects page

Scrapbook page

Download page

Hmm... The interface is not exactly finished yet. I totally forgotten about 2 other things to be put in it. The breadcrumbs and also user log in area.Will touch up later on. Well... Anyway... The colours, hmmmm.... I am considering to touch up on that also. Was really in rush of time. Electricity was out yesterday. I have around 2 more sub pages to do. Ok..Anyway, I will now describe my website's navigation.

The main navigation will be on the side. It's very simple and straight-forward. There are 4 other pages besides homepage. The tutorials will be filed under "Ideas+Projects". User can have the option of clicking the link and to browse through what tutorials are there OR choose from the menu tree. Under the "Materials+Tools", there will be a brief introduction to the different materials and tool recommended for projects. Inside this page, there will be an i-frame to hold all the content. For the "Scrapbook" page, there will be image thumbs for user to click on. This page holds the contribution of other users and their work. The image thumb will serve as the link. When clicked, a window pop up will appear and display the work. All the templates and images that will aid the user in projects will be filed under "Download". Here user can click on the image thumb to download the desired templates. Indication of the user location will be shown on the lower right corner. So basically, my site will utilize the side, menu tree, image thumbs, pop up window and breadcrumbs navigation system.

That's all for now. If no images could be seen loaded in this post, it's probably the google server probs. And yea...please comment yea.

On David Carson and Stephan Sagmeister

2008-03-05T23:26:00.000+08:00

Date : 5th March 2008
Time : 11.26PM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Bro's room

Was doing a research for Design Method. As suggested by Bryan, I decided to finish watching "Helvetica" today. I didn't finish it the last time I started watching it. Something came up. But anyway, as I mentioned in the previous post, I sent an email to David Carson. Honestly, I doubt if I will get the reply. But anyway, I have to find an alternative to my research. ( I did email some friends who are in the design industry to do the survey too and also the students in TOA) So I watched Helvetica even though the title may be unrelated to my scope of topic but they featured David Carson in it, as informed by Bryan. And on the plus side, Stephan Sagmeister too! I am so in love with his design approach. Bold, Daring, and different. Oh...and not to mention the accent he has... Hahaha... Just kidding. But anyway... Besides these 2 designer, the movie featured many others also. And even though they were commenting about the typeface (It's celebrating the 50th birthday), I actually get a handful of insights on the topic of experimentation. It's one of the definition that I am covering in my topic Mistakes in Visual Communication. And David Carson is one of the many people that I am really interested to know more about. Anyway, I am hunting for the book " The end of print"... Oh yea... btw Chris... You will love Sagmeister as well. He loves designing CD covers. Check him out. And his accent... LOL! And yea... for you guys who want a copy of helvetica... Feel free to get it from me. And meanwhile..guys... For you who's doing the same topic as mine, you can check out the short interview with David Carson here.

OH! Btw... Website of the week for me is this... idecorabili... Super duper love this site... Flash of course but check the interface design man. Anyway... I will do another review on the site navigation and content planning in a couple of post to come. Till then, enjoy work!

If I am not wrong... he really have these words cut on his flesh. The first time I saw this work was in a copy of Dazed and Confused. I cringed like mad but now... I got used to it. And now I know it's sagmeister's work.

-chen-
[11.40PM]

I don't believe it...

2008-03-05T02:30:00.001+08:00

Date : 5th March 2008
Time : 2.30AM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Room

I don't believe it. I just sent an email to interview David Carson for Design method 2. I don;t know why I feel something amiss. It's not a long one. Just 4 simple questions. Hoping for a reply. Anyway, will have to redo my web. Post later.

-chen-
[2.32PM]

Progress #3 for WD Project2

2008-03-04T04:00:00.000+08:00

Date : 4th March 2008
Time : 4.00AM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Room

Finally... Managed to get the layout that I want. But I am still not that satisfied yet. Looks a bit cluttered. There are still some adjustments that I need to do. But for now, I hope to hear some suggestions.

I think some of the elements are too big. Afraid the buttons will be below fold. Will change that. But other than that, my main page will look more or less like this.

-chen-
[4.06AM]

Navigation Analysis 1

2008-03-03T12:39:00.000+08:00

Date : 3rd March 2008
Time: 12.39PM
Listening to : fan spinning
Where : Room

Ok...first thing first. MM students, please do update your blog on web project 2 progress. And also please post your review and research on navigation. Please do so before tomorrow morning.

Ok... I went through a few websites. Going to do an analysis for some of them. For now, I will post up 2 of the websites first.

AgencyNet Interactive

This is a design company official website. The sort of navigation here is a combination of Image Map, Bottom menu, Image Link, Side Menu and drag+drop style (besides clicking). Homepage will always have 2 types of button navigation. One is the Image Map (the top view of the office) and also the Bottom Menu. User can either click the bottom menu for easy access or they can explore the Image Map. The Image Map is really simple actually. If the room is clickable, the room will glow once and the bottom menu will move a little to show what page link it is.

In the portfolio page, there are also 2 types of button navigation. One is the side menu (on the left) and the other one the bottom menu. The bottom menu is consistent. No matter what page the user is at, the bottom navigation will always be there. So it is unlikely that the user will be lost. For the side menu, the links are to load in the screen area.

This is the culture page. As usual, the bottom navigation is there. And notice the remote control. It's another type of navigation. Although it functions to play and pause the movie, I find it interesting that the designer integrated the real remote control with the buttons. Most of the site that I explored usually just use the YouTube style, where the buttons are below the screen.

This is the news page. Actually when you clicked the link, it does not load this page because the page that will be loaded is in the digital form style. When you clicked the newspaper archive, they will show the news in a more traditional way; the newspaper. And to flip to the next page, user can click and drag the edge of the newspaper. There is another page that I did not screenshot, which is the client list. That page also utilizes the drag and drop navigation. Check out this page. Even though it's using flash, I think the navigation style for the buttons are interesting.

UDirect NYC

This is also another design company. Also flash based but then again, it can be used in HTML also. This site also combines several type of navigation. For the main page, there are one type. The side navigation on the right. Notice the orange button. In this whole website, if the buttons are in orange, it means there are other sub buttons that are collapsed within the main one.

For example this one. When you rollover on the orange button, another list of links will appear. I don't know if this qualify as menu tree or not.

But anyway, just like the one at the top, in this page (studio), the orange button has sub-menu in it. But the "image" button is in grey. But when you click on it, you can choose which picture you want to view. For the grey buttons, you need to click on it to see extra option.

For this page, it resembles the traditional drop down menu but for this site, when you clicked on the spots link, the drop down menu style will be in flash form but it will not collapse back up until you click another main link.

The last type of navigation style that I could find is the thumbnail link. When you click on the image, the picture will enlarge and user can read the info on it.

That will be the end of the my first review. I think the web designer arranged the content and planned the navigation well. Even though there are many types of navigation style used in one page, it does not look cluttered neither did it confused the user.

Now for assignment updates.

Visual Fund2
4 figs
Haunted House

Typo
Presentation for project2

WebDesign1
Show progress in digital form
Research and analysis on navigation
Update your blog on project2 progress

DesignMethod2
Research on your chosen topic

DigitalMedia2
Prototype

That's all for now.

-chen-
[1.21PM]

Final typo for Project2

2008-03-01T23:19:00.000+08:00

Date : 1st March 2008
Time : 11.20PM
Where : Room
Listening to: Nothing in particular

This is my final work for typo project 2. Please comment yea. It took me quite long to be satisfied with the layout and color scheme as well as the texture and elements used. I modified the whole layout so many times, including the tee's design. I actually have a couple more that I would love to use but I guess it will make the whole page too congested. I welcome feedback. Thank you! Oh wait... I especially like the red stamp that I did on the bottom right. It's my name in Chinese characters!!! Cool eh? Maybe not so but still...cool eh?!?!

Oh, btw MM068-1... I will really try to update you guys on assignment asap! Gtg!

-chen-
[11.24PM]

Progress #2 for WD Project2

2008-02-27T10:22:00.000+08:00

Date : 27th February 2008
Time : 10.22AM
Listening to - Rock with you - Michael Jackson
Where : Room

Yesterday I decided to just shift my tools and materials nearer to me so that it will be near bed, near references, near scanner, near computer, near resources and so on. Save time fro walking thru and fro. So now my shelves really look empty and my bed area really congested. As usual...since school days, my bed = workstation. Anyway... Yesterday I continued experimenting with texture and possible background for the title design. And also tried scanning the alphabet for the initial of my page name. Still have to do some color editing.

Preparing to stick the alphabets to the wire.

Used glue gun to stick it. Other glues won't work.

This is the colored wax string. One of my collection. I scanned it after forming alphabets out of it. Adjustment of colors needed.

Ribbons...Tried inversion of colors to get different hues.

Laces...

Trying different texture. The inversion of colors was just for experiment.

And this is some photos that I took. The lighting and color mood will be something like this la. Hope can achieve the same kind of lighting and mood when I do the tutorial. So prob have to do saturday morning already cos' at night the lighting will be so yellowish or greyish due to my fluorescent light. Like the photos I took yesterday.

Close shot...

With the basket...

Kla...have to prepare go school. Please give comment yea! I will try to update on assignment asap!

-chen-
[10.44AM]

Progress for WD Project2

2008-02-26T07:38:00.000+08:00

Date : 26th February 2008
Time : 7.38AM
Listening to : Fan spinning
Where : Room

I surfed the web and I came across these few beautiful websites to feast my eyes on.

orangebeautiful.com(blog)
orangebeautiful.com(official site)
designformankind
cricketpress.com
luxepaperie.com
theartblob
essimar.etsy.com
creativeorganizing
shimelle.com

I find these websites rather helpful an inspiring especially for this current project for web design. Well, anyway, I am quite ashame to say that I didn't progress that much since last week. Did some cuttings for the interface design purpose. Still not quite satisfied with the color selection. Have to enhance on photoshooting also. And so my whole interface will look like either a scrapbooking style or handmade card style or simply just cutting mat and materials style. Below are the cuts that I've made.

These are some of the references I will be referring to.

Will update on assignment soon.

-chen-
[8.14AM]

Martha Stewart vs. Delight.com

2008-02-16T12:37:00.000+08:00

Date : 16th February 2008
Time : 12.43PM
Listening to : Still Nothing
Where : Room

Anyway, I checked out Delight.com and Martha Stewart sites. Delight looked very e-bay-ish to me. And navigation also not that comfortable because there are too many links that could actually be complied under one category. And the colours used here does not appeal to me actually. Compared to MarthaStewart's, I find more fun exploring the site mostly due to the navigation comfort and content provided. Delight does not have a strong indicator to let user know which page they are in. And that confused me a little because all the pages look the same. Just picture and then the prices. But MarthaStewart's has different colours for each page but still maintain the consistency of the background colours. Only the buttons and the page title have a different colour. But I took quite some time to find out the tutorial page. Maybe because I need to go through a few sub pages to reach the page. Other than that i think the whole page is very nice. Below are a few snapshots of Delight.com and MarthaStewart.com.

-chen-
[12.54PM]

Old Town vs. Secret Recipe

2008-02-16T11:17:00.001+08:00

Date : 16th February 2008
Time : 11.33PM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Room

After going through both sites, I must declare that Old Town is still way better than Secret Recipe's website. The main reason is probably the navigation and also the level of reading comfort. I will start off with my analysis on Old Town.

Old Town White Coffee
After choosing the preferred language, a window will pop up, bring user to the site. One thing good about this is that the pop up window is fixed a certain screen dimension; so no scroll bars will appear. The buttons are at the bottom of the page. It is consistent throughout the entire site.

This is the homepage. A short flash will play when we are at this page.

This is the "about us" page. The page name is cleverly manipulated to make it more interesting and in my opinion gives more identity to the whole site. This page allows me to know more of the origin of this company. Not too long, not too short. And the text is not spread from one end of the page to another; unlike Secret Recipe. The image on the right also enhanced the whole look of the page. Since it's telling the history of the company, I think the images used suited the content perfectly.

This page tells the user about their product; how they are made and produced, the ingredients and the advantages of their products compared to other brands.

This page provides information about the range of products that they have.

This page provides user with the fresh updates of their products. One thing that i don't really like about the page is the display of the different logos of the supermarkets that sell their products. I personally think it spoils the page. Maybe the box that contains the logos could be of different colours, not opaque.

This is the final page where users can find out how to contact the company. One mistake here is that they forgot to change the page site. The page title display remained as Fresh Updates instead of Your Favourite Contact. Also, I noticed that for each page title, they emphasized on a certain word with consistent graphic so that users will know which page they are in. Overall, I like the look of the page. They kept it short and simple but with sufficient information. The images used give the whole site and company a strong identity also. Old.

Secret recipe

I think the whole layout of the page is not interesting. The introduction page is okay. But for the rest of the page, it's really not appealing to me. For one, the text spreads from one end to another, making it hard to read. And the content is too much. Also, their navigations are too divided.

This is the homepage. The navigations are divided to 3. One is above the company logo. Another one is below. And yet another one is at the side. It took me around 3 times going through the page to actually notice the buttons above the logo. And the one on the sides, it didn't attract me to click to find out more but that link actually features their product. I think it should be together with the rest of the buttons at the top of the page, right underneath the logo.

This is the example of the page I mentioned about the level of reading comfort. The sentences constructed are too long and it made me not wanting to read more.

Another thing about this site is that the small details are not taken care of. Like the margin. This page, the text sticks right at the edge of the page.

I know this image is very small, but I want to show how long the entire page is. The thing is that the page provides no "back to top" link. So I have to scroll all the way up again. Not only I cannot access to other page without having to scroll up, but I think it's really a waste of time having to scroll so much. A "back to top" link will fix the problem.

This is the product page. I think among all this is the best page I could find. probably it's just because of the cakes. ^^Y.

That's all for my analysis. Now I will update on our assignments.

Visual Fund2
Concept Board
4 figures

Typography
Sketches for Project 2
Research

Web Design1
Set on:
1.Items you want to make
2.Your base and theme
3.Sketches

If got time:
1.Moodboard
2.What are the steps in the tutorial
3.If got reference book/ images you want to use, bring to class
4.Bring the content(site diagram also)
5.Do flowchart and file management

Also, please remember to do the web analysis:
1.Personal blog,forum, etc
2.Martha Stewarts, Delight.com (everybody)
Old Town, Secret recipe (Judy)
netdiver.com, deviantart (Chris, Wahyu, Tanyus)
ChristinaAguilera, Apple.com (Selvia, Diana)

Design Method
Finish the Peer Assessment
Check out the imap sites
http://www.art-design.herts.ac.uk/a/mihs/imapcontents.htm
http://www.art-design.herts.ac.uk/a/mihs/imaptext.htm
http://www.art-design.herts.ac.uk/a/mihs/imapimage.htm
http://www.art-design.herts.ac.uk/a/mihs/examples.htm

Bring A1 mounting board, cutting mat, cutter, scissors, glue, sketches, references, records and whatever that are relevant to your imap.

Digital Media2
Refine your flowchart
Please come out with your sketches already.

That's all for now. Enjoy!

Kiwi, Pony

2008-02-15T08:43:00.000+08:00

Date : 15th February 2008
Time : 8.43AM
Listening to : water dripping
Where : Room

Found these animation on YouTube.

Anyway... check out this site also. Alberto Cerriteno.

Pressure Cooker week

2008-02-03T13:26:00.000+08:00

Date : 3rd February 2008
Time : 1.26PM
Listening to : My own typing
Where : Living Hall...

My goodness.... What a week! In a pressure cooker!!! It's not that we procrastinated that made us rush for our assignments. We've been working for the whole week getting around 4 hours of sleep a day and then for the rest of the 2o hours we will either be in school or doing assignments or having discussion group to troubleshoot each other's assignment problems. But honestly speaking, none of the assignments given to us were heavy by its' own. It's just the schedule that made us feel like we don't have enough time. But really thank the Lord for the classmates that I have and also the lecturers. My goodness.... If it was like the lecturer that I had for 1st year 2nd term, I think I die d. =__+!! But thankfully,we got our rest for the weekend.

A special thanks to Wahyu for assisting us with our flash. And also Joanne for extending the deadline. And Sook Chiung for sharing with us the animation by usavich. Hehe...

Ok..assignments for the week.

VisualFund2:
4 figures
Storyboard for Mama Chicken

Typo:
Submission for Project 1

Web Design:
Show at least 2 linking pages in HTML

Design Method2:
Submission for Project 1 (after CNY)

Digital Media2:
Flowchart and content drafted out
Research on art direction
Interface and interaction design
(To be shown after CNY)

*refer to job brief for details*

That's all for now. Happy Chinese New Year! And have a good rest! And semangat!!! Don't be disheartened. Tired and fatigue means we are doing our best. ^^Y (<---peace)

-Chen-
[1.39PM]

Design Method 2 - stickers and poster

2008-01-31T02:49:00.001+08:00

Date : 31st January 2008
Time : 2.50AM
Listening to : Some chinese song lah
Where : Room

Wah....So many nights staying up late. =.+!! Anyway... I decided to change my flash thingy to alien stuff. I don't know why I chose alien. Lol. Anyway... Nothing to show yet for flash. Still in progress. Typo I actually did the photo editing but I decided to change the color scheme in school after it appeared so terrible looking in MAC. My laptop display "off" colors. +.+

As for Design Method, I finished the stickers and poster already. But I think still can improve lor. Have to take into consideration user behavior also.

The stickers...

The poster.

Click to enlarge ok?

Web Design interface still in progress. Today's HTML class was fun I would say. Heehee... Though we were all so sleepy. After class, we troubleshoot-ed Tanyus' and Diana's flash. But strangely, Chris' and mine...we were still like dot dot dot.... We figured we need to use the While function and gotoAndStop function. Guess we need to try it out asap. Because tomorrow is submission. T___T!!!

Anyway... Please give feedback yea.

-chen-
{2.55AM]

Assignment updates week 4

2008-01-28T21:58:00.000+08:00

Date : 28th January 2008
Time : 9.58PM
Listening to : Suddenly - Cliff Richard + Olivia Newton John
Where : Room

Okay... Figures was fun today. We had to do a storyboard on Big Mama chicken stealing corns. And we had such laughs listening to each others' storyline. Wahyu, Tanyus and I came up with "Jack Sparrow" chicken. Super lawak. And my Super Duck. And puny dog and ultraman with fishnet stockings. Haha... This is the most relaxed class we have this term.

Sorry...forgot to rotate pics....

Anyway... Had a critic session with Joanne and Sook Chiung. Got a green light to proceed. Need to adjust some area. Gosh... Tonight going to be sleepless for all of us. Got Typo and Web Design to do. Kla... Will update assignments here.

Typo :
- Main page and 1 sub page for interface
- 3 edited pictures
- 1 layout structure for the image (with text and display type)
- Title

Web Design I:
- Jpeg with color

Design Method 2 :
- Have to show visual already (particulars as below)

*Printed Medium*
- Visual (Material used)
- Mechanism (Folding, size)

*Interactive*
- Visual (Interface)
- Structure + Flowchart

*Motion*
- Visual (Subjects used)
- Storyline (Content)

*Installation Art*
- Visual (How it will look like)
- Mini Mock-up
- Bring materials to class. We need to work on it.

Digital Media 2:
- Submission for Project 1
- Continue to develop Project 2

Figures :
- 4 Figures
- Big Mama storyboard

*Replacement Class on Saturday for Web Design. 9.30AM. Video Lab*

That's all for now.

-Chen-
[10.21PM]

Interface Design for WebDesign 1

2008-01-28T02:04:00.000+08:00

Date : 28th January 2008
Time : 2.06AM
Listening to : Sweeney Todd's soundtrack in my head
Where : room

This is the interface design sketch I have. Hopefully it's not too messed up.

-Home-

-Office-
-Advertising-

-Greenery-

-Employees' Quarters-

-Farm-

Been so super tired these few weeks. Don't know what's with this term. Like so hard to cope. -.-! Anyway...Colors need to be filled in before it looks proper. Hopefully. K..now off to do typo. Ta!

p/s: Will update assignments later.

-chen-
[2.17PM]

Happy Thaipusam!

2008-01-23T13:03:00.000+08:00

Date : 23rd January 2008
Time : 1.03PM
Listening to : Water dripping... again
Where : Room

Happy Thaipusam people!!!! Well, anyway, web design interface ideas were approved. Partially at least. Now need to have a more refined thumbs. Will try to email asap to lecturer and tutor. Please check the brief for further progress requirement.

As for Typography... Still lack of a couple of alphabets. Sigh.... Hopefully really will go back Malacca this time la. Then can take more pictures. Title design was accepted also. Need to improve on it. And interface design also approved. Now have to start to work on it.

I tried white charcoal on black paper for figure. Been wanting to do that since last week. But bought the wrong paper. Sugar paper doesn't work. Anyway, I tried and it didn't turn out that good. But going to pass that up anyway ust to see. -.-!

Progress on Design Method will still be nil. I am really having idea block and I think I will go search for more inspiration like about now. If not I am going to freak out tomorrow... o.-!!

Kla. Ciao!

-chen-
[1.10PM]

Replacement classes for Web Design I

2008-01-21T19:27:00.000+08:00

Date : 21st January 2008
Time : 7.31PM
Listening to : How many hours - MLTR
Where : MC-Room

Okay, MM068-1... as you guys already know, please comment on your group members' web analysis. And since our class is so small, might as well comment on everyone's if possible. And updates on replacement class for Web Design I:

23 Jan 2008 (Wed) replace to 02 Feb 2008 (Sat)- 9.30
06 Feb 2008 (Wed) replace to 16 Feb 2008 (Sat)- 9.30

Got the email from Joanne. No empty slots on Wednesday. So Saturday it is. Any questions please forward to Joanne tomorrow. And all the best in assignments!

Semangat!!!!

2008-01-20T18:39:00.000+08:00

Date : 20th January 2008
Time : 6.39PM
Listening to : CHildren playing, water dripping... (so tak menginspirasikan -.-!)
Where : Room

So... I have nothing much to update on my assignments. It's driving me crazy actually. I've been having difficulties to sleep because every time I tried to, I will be having all sort of different themes for different assignments running through my head. Thinking about assignments and stuff. And as if it's not bad enough, I actually dreamed about them. And I heard from Wahyu and Selvia that they too dreamed about them. Is that a good or bad thing? Personally, it's disrupting my rest. So I ended up having a room looking like this :

That was last week. And yesterday I added this to my wall.

Isn't that a little mad? I guess it's actually not that bad. *shrugs* I dunnoe. It never happened before. Haha. And the amount of sentences I've spoken to my housemate for the entire week could be counted with my fingers and toes. 0.-!

And I know of some of us who actually kinda feel that things couldn't be handled this term , including me. But I guess having people like Tanyus, Selvia and Wahyu chatting in the chat room, inviting me in (but I was actually away) and tried to boost up the class mates' semangat was really an effort worth taking note of.; besides the point of Tanyus flaunting her new Wacom. *grinz* And so when I got back to the computer, I read back the whole conversation which cracked me up at some points. And so this is our mascot to boost everyone's semangat up!

Drawing courtesy of Wahyu. So, guys, this term may be tough but we will pull it through together yeah! *Please say you all very touched ok, Wahyu lukis dengan susah payah* Hahaha... Anyway, my main point is, don't give up.

Okay, assignments update:

VF2 - 4 figures + redraw the test

TDM - Show your pictures
Think of your title and design the typo for it
Research on flash interface
Art Direction for interface
side project : plan the singapore trip + eating gathering (EQUALLY important)

WD1 - Mood Board
Refine idea for project 1
Sketches
Interface design
Revise on last 2 weeks lessons!

DMethod1 - propose min 5 ideas with:
::BIG idea::
::Medium chosen::
::Sketches::
Bring your references along

DMedia2 - Start doing the visual for Project 1
Start brainstorming for Project 2
::Art Direction, interface...blalabla...just rough idea for Hazmeer::
Revise on last 2 weeks lessons!

Btw, please settle on a replacement class date and time for Web Design. The time given by Joanne clashes with our other classes. So either Saturday or if lecturer's time allows it, 2 web design lecture back to back on the coming Wednesday.

That's for now. More to come next week.

On a even brighter note, (besides our assignments) Sel, Tan, Wahyu and I planned to got for Sweeney Todd together and we hope rest of you guys from MM class could join us as well. Please let us know. Planned to go after Web Design Class on Tuesday.

Till then, bye!!!

-chen-
[7.08PM]

moodboard

2008-01-18T12:42:00.000+08:00

Date : 18th January 2008
Time : 12.43PM
Listening to : Ingin Bersamamu - Syafinaz
Where : Selvia's room

My mood board... (to be updated)

-chen-
[1.21PM]

Group study on Web DEsign 1

2008-01-18T10:59:00.000+08:00

Date : 18th January 2008
Time : 11.00AM
Listening to : Prodigal - OneRepublic
Where : Selvia's Room

Finally get to update. Anyway, after Web Design 1 class on Wednesday, the whole class minus Judy and Melvin went for lunch in Chola. We agreed to gather for group study that morning but unfortunately, Selvia and I had an upset stomach. SO we did it after class instead. Browsed through each other's reference books and also mags. After lunch, we headed to the study area and we started our group study. We reviewed and discussed each member's idea for web design. We took turns so we started off with Selvia's project, then diana, chris, wahyu, tanyus and then me. It was 2 hours! Wah...By the time we reached the last few people, our brain were dead tired already but we agreed to do this each week. It was really good cos' we get to see more options to our project and to figure out how to solve a certain problem. Well, so anyway, by the end of the day, I am pretty sure everyone had a clearer direction of where to go. And not to mention a tired brain and arms. With the whole stack of reference books and mags, I think we could build our muscles up. -.-!

So, anyway, I've already settle more or less on my website elements. Actually by the end of the dicussion, I was still at daze a little on my project. Maybe too much output and input. Haha. But on the way to Giant, Selvia actually suggested something that really hit the touch point. Treehouse concept. Something like that. So my factory and farm will be located at only one spot. It will be a big tree and all the processing will take place there. (Later after I sketch out I'll scan in) Also, everybody will stay in a treehouse because the main planet has very limited space. (That's why they need a planet) So it's like a flat owner buying a bungalow.

As for art direction, I have yet to decide. Too many possible ideas and I need to narrow down to one. Maybe I will do mix media. Like what I proposed earlier.

Yesterday Design Method 2 class was super interesting. What influenced me? That's the thing that we need to think about. I didn't notice that before but it was a habit of looking out a window or a door. I've been doing that since young. Sitting inside the bus, looking out the window and sometimes wondering what's inside a particular house by taking a glance at the windows that we passed by. Sweii said that's the first time she hear of such habit among all the classes that she hed this workshop sessios with. Anyway, I will be doing windows. I don't know what to use as the media yet. -.-!

Anyway, I spent a night in Selvia's room. Yesterday, I came at around 10.45PM. And after supper and a long chat with them, we started on or moodboard for web design. We searched for illustrations by artists and went crazy over all the stuff that they feature. Man, we were "Aaah...so niceeeeeeeeeee" here and there. -.-! Anyway, by 3.30AM, Selvia and I were too exhausted to continue. Tanyus hung on till 4.30AM and she too went to bed. So here I am, blogging at this hour cos' I just woke up. Now I have to finish up the moodboard. After it's done, I will post the jpeg up and together wit my flow chart. -.-! I forgot my gantt chart. Crap.

-chen-
[11.20PM]

Critique Session 1 - Web Design 1

2008-01-16T10:03:00.001+08:00

Date : 16th January 2008
Time : 10.03PM
Listening to : Water dripping
Where : Room

Yesterday after TDM class, we had Web Design Tutorial class. Had a critique session after that on our progress for roect 1. So it seems that most of us had a corporate kind of flow chart. Hmmm... So the feedback I got from Joanne and also Sook Chiung were:

1. Too corporate.
2. I have to make the story real, personal and about me, myself.
3. Rename the links.

Something like this. Maybe later on after class I will post my flowchart jpeg. Please comment yea. It will very helpful.

Now, I have to go for our class group study. Were discussing about it in TDM class yesterday and we thought it would be a good thing to share our reference books and ideas.

Ok...Assignments to update:

Digital Media 2 - Start planning for project 1 already. I am not too sure bout project 2. Please refer to brief.

TDM - Show photographs
Interface art direction
Reasearch on flash interface
Choose a title name and design the font

Web Design 1 - Refinement of Project 1
Sketches
Interface Design

For reminder purpose, Amir and Diana, you guys are to present project 1 - Wonderful world (Design Method 1) to the juniors next week. Same time.

-chen-
[10.12PM]

Mamak-ing!

2008-01-15T10:47:00.000+08:00

Date : 15th January 2008

Time : 10.42AM

Listening to : Yenny (hoho...)

Where : MMLab1

Currently having Typography for Digital Media (TDM). Just finished my critic session to settle on my theme for the photography thingy. So... My theme is...

MAMAK-ing!!!

Inspired by Malacca mamak trends. Heeeeee... So, maybe I will plan a trip back to Malacca. Hopefully jadi la... If not.. aduhai..susah sikit. And have to get the camera d...

Anyway...yesterday we had a "brainstorm" session ala online style. Main people there were Selvia, Tanyus, Wahyu, Diana and me. It was quite fruitful. And we stayed on till like 3.00AM I think. I was at Tanyus and Selvia's hse actually. Did our flowchart on Web Design 1 and also to search for art direction. Penat giler. Luckily tonight no need to stay up late. Hopefully. HAHAHAAHAH!

K! bye!

-chen-

[10.48AM]

Web Design 1 - Web analysis and Project 1

2008-01-14T12:04:00.000+08:00

Date : 14th January 2008
Time : 12.05PM
Listening to : My Interpretation - Mika
Where : Room

Slept at 5.00AM yesterday. -.-! But managed to finish my figure drawing and send my storyline and proposal of "What if I am a farmer" to both Joanne and Sook Chiung. was a little concern about the whole thing because what I planned to do was a lil' "out". But super glad I got the green light to move on this morning. Hee.... Anyway, here's the storyline. Please help me to improve on it cos' it's a little brief I think. It's just a rough storyline.

What if I am a farmer...
Yes. I am a farmer and there ain't no "if". But I am not any ordinary farmer. I plant Planets. By now I think you would have figure out that I do not live in the ordinary world. Here, planets grow on trees. And planets are like homes here. Not everybody could plant planets. In fact, I am the only one! And planets don't come cheap but people need it. The world is getting too congested. But of course, I couldn't work alone. I need helpers. And in order to prevent my secrets of farming Planets from leaking out, I choose my helpers very carefully. Not humans but animals. Unlike how normal human beings would perceive it, I don't regard mice, beetles, snails and other insects and rodents as pests. They are very helpful; performing tasks better than the others. Through my website, I will narrate the story of my life as a Planet farmer. "A day with a Planet farmer". I will bring the audience through a journey that would describe how a planet could be planted, nurtured and harvested. And possibly how my whole lifestyle is like.

Will develop more on this. Please leave opinions in the comment page. Excuse my language. Bleh.

Ok... here will be my website analysis.

#1 One Republic

This is the official website for the band OneRepublic.

What I like about this page : I like the site's banner. I like how the glowing particles will follow your cursor.

Well, other than that, I think the whole website is kind of ordinary in term of the layout and navigation. But it's userfriendly. Loading time is not long. The grid system can be divided to a few section like how I've highlighted below.

This is the first site that I want to feature here because the next 2 other websites that I am going to share will be quite interesting compared to this. (Although I personally like OneRepublic band alot...)

#2 loworks

This site is graphical and interactive. The navigation of this site has assimilated with the illustrations.

What I like about the site : I like the graphics. I also like the layout. And it is interesting how the user could drag the display screen around. And the fact that the page doesn't need to refresh everytime I click a link saved me a lot of time. When you click on something, a small screen will appear. This display screen, like I mentioned could be dragged around.

The grid system could be divided as below.

Well, the thing about the page here that left me a bit lost was the buttons. Too many clickable things. Some just for animation purposes and some just to lead you somewhere. I don't know about you guys but I think they should just keep them separated. Reserve the illustrated part for the animation purpose and the rest of the page for links.

#3 Blueprint Studios

Last but not least, my fav. one among all 3. Of course I found many other websites that are interesting but for now I will just settle with these 3 first. If I have the time I will post the sites up. Anyway, this is a website for a recording studio. This is one site that you guys should explore on. The navigation is simple. Just click. But once you click the link, the page will start to move following the coloured strip of paper and lead you to another page. And the loading page for each link is interesting too. It will be animated. Don't know how to describe but please check this page out. really like it. So i don't think I need to tell why I like the page so much. Haha... I like the colors used here also. And the typeface also. basically... One of my fav. sites.

But I am not oo sure about the grid system though. So if you guys could help me out, all the better.

Sorry for the snapshot. Too small. Anyway... Hope you guys could give feedback on the sites too. And sorry if I haven't been able to check out the sites you people from MM068-1 recommended. Ok.. Till then! Ta!

-chen-
[12.43PM]

Another exhibition trip

2008-01-13T20:34:00.000+08:00

Date : 13th January 2008
Time : 8.34PM
Listening to : Nothing
Where : Wen's Room

Well, I really have to send the story to Joanne like today. So figures have to wait an hour. And I haven't post up the webpage analysis. -.-! Anyway... Like I mentioned in the previous post, I said I will be going t the Malaysia After 50 exhibition. Well, I did. I brought my cousin to The Star Education Fair. Met Beatrice there... doing demonstration to promote TOA. Haha... After that we headed to Pasar Seni. Met up with Melissa in Old Town White Coffee. Had a talk on Psychology and stuff. Interesting. Joined Zafri and Zheng after that.

I enjoyed the exhibition. There were 2 going on. It was interesting for both. To be honest, I was disappointed that not many works were exhibited. Still, it was good. It will still be going on. The Malaysia After 50 one will be until 27th January 2008. Sacred Legacy (Photography on Native Americans by Edward Curtis) will be running till 17th January 2008. I like Sacred Legacy. The photos weren't printed on normal paper. Check it out yourself k.

Then I found out that there will be another exhibition entitled Di Dinding (Visual and Wall Relief) at Pelita Hati, House of Art located in jalan Bangsar. I don't know where's that but I really want to go. I will enclose the postcard I got here. It will be on till 24th January 2008.

And those who are interested in The Independence Project at Galeri Petronas, it will still be up till 10th February.

And also, there is another photography exhibition in Balai Seni... Maybank tower near Pudu. Too bad it was closed on weekend. We went there and was stuck there cos it started raining heavily. Luckily I brought my reference book in my bag and a few loose papers and my job brief. So I did a brainstorming session with my friends. What can you do with SMELLY SHOES and also...What if I am a FARMER. Got quite a number of ideas... Some may be ridiculous but like how Melissa would put it, just put it in. It might lead somewhere. We did more on smelly shoes than the farmer one cos' I did the brainstorming with Zafri a couple days ago already. It was one heck of a hilarious session. Lol...

Okay... So update for assignments. Apart from what I mentioned before this, we have to start planning for our Digital Media 2 Project 1 and 2 already. And remember to revise also. I don't know about others but I am still blur about some stuff. But really... This means extra effort. HTML and Action Script 3.0.... *Big drop of sweat*... Hopefully everyone can cope.

Ok..now have to do visual and Web Design d! ta!

-chen-
[8.53PM]

Independent Artists - Petronas Gallery

2008-01-11T12:24:00.000+08:00

Date : 11th January 2008
Time : 12.24PM
Listening to : Grass cutter machine -.-!
Where : Room

Yesterday, Zheng an I went to KLCC. Went to Kinokuniya to search for her photography book. Anyway, they extended the bookstore. Now they have this section filled with japs art crafts book and stuff. Stuff that can make me drool. My goodness, I will suggest Tanyus and Selvia to check it out. It's really things that you people will like.

Anyway, after that, we met Melissa, my classmate back at Malacca. Went to Petronas Gallery. It's Independent Artists. Malaysian and Australian artists. It's interesting and by far, I love Ahmad Fuad's wor the most. The one he photoshopped himself into old pictures. His works are good. It kept us rooted there for like 15 minutes or so. And there's this work by Vincent Leong entitled, "Shut up! You are not real!".... Lol...It's about dolls. And there are a few other interesting piece of work there. It's too bad I missed the Spain one. Wasn't around. And there will a photography exhibition in The Annexe. It's entitled Malaysia After 50 I think. This Saturday and Sunday. I think other days also but I couldn't remember. It will be interesting to go. I'll be going. With Zheng and Mel again. =)

Ok..have to get ready for class! Ta!

-Chen-
[12.51PM]

Week 1 (Monday - Wednesday)

2008-01-09T19:23:00.000+08:00

Date : 9th January 2008
Time : 7.23pm
Listening to : How Come, How Long - Babyface & Stevie Wonder
Where : Room

Just changed some of the template. Still don't like how this layout turned out to be. Don't really have the time. Sigh..I am gonna puke looking at it. Well, anyway... Today we had our Web Design 1 Lecture class. Learned about HTML codes. I guess it's okay for now. Just a few reminders for MM068-1...

Visual Fundamental 2
4 figures. (Simplified or shaded)

Typography for Digital Design
Settle on your art direction and themes for your first project (T.Y.P.E do speak). Come up with at least 3 themes.

Can start collecting pictures already.

Web Design 1
Have your blog set up.

Analyse 3 websites (Grid system, what you like and don't like about it, Content placement, Improvement) and post it on your blog.

Send a copy of your story for project 1 (If I am a ....) to Joanne and Sook Chiung via email before class next week. Also, post a copy on your blog if you want for comments.

As for next week class, (refer to brief), define your idea and concept already. Produce sketches. Will ask Joanne more on this. So I guess better send the story to Joanne as early as possible. This one is for Tuesday Tutorial class.

That's all I guess. If I've made any mistake please tell me yea. Now gtg find inspiration for the storyline d. Gah!

-chen-
[7.24PM]

Birth!

2008-01-08T23:29:00.000+08:00

Date : 8th January 2008
Time : 11.29PM
Where : MC - Room

Birth of a new blog as requested by our lecturer Joanne Ng for Web Design class. Sole purpose for this blog would be to share my research, ideas, thoughts, inspiration and artwork. Hmmm... Probably will use this blog to remind the classmates of the assignments of the week. Just a brief introduction here. Will start on the assignment tomorrow and please feel free to comment on each of the post related to my work. Will do me a lot good. Thank you. And of course, I will not limit this blog to only Web Design class. =) Oh...and will stick to this blogger skin till I have time to change it. Which I doubt I will have the time to do so. -.-! Enjoy!