To coin a phrse commonly used by Top Gear Presenter Jeremy Clarkson to describe the weekly challenges on his show, my work can often be described as “Ambitious, but Rubbish!” The key part of that being AMBITIOUS.
From the very start of the Xcode project, Pegg ran it like every good production team should be: team members were divided up into pairs, assigned different areas to focus on, and different code to implement. We were excited at the chance to try something new, and while I was absolutely terrified of code, as I would discover later, it actually can be rather fun 😀
After 3 full production meetings [that’s 2 more than either of the previous modules had 😦 ], we all had *fairly* clear idea of what we all had to do. In my little team, partner Jen Ryan would be in charge of visuals and photoshop work, while I would be tasked with implementing the content into Xcode. As it panned out, I would also produce some short After Effects renders, and take care othe voice overs, as well as a few hidden extras to give the app a personal flavour.
Under guidance from Pegg, we all planned to work our individual areas as part of a complete app; aiming towards creating a complete product for Harper Collins. However, as time slowly rolled on, our inexperience with Objective C began to show. With progress falling behind, each team gradually began to work on their project as individual applications, rather than parts of a whole.
If there was a UIButton for passing the module in one go, I wish I knew the code for it. Objective C, and the multiple derivatives, has challenged me in ways I never thought possible, and has yielded results I never thought I could achieve.
When this module first reared it’s head up, the choice between learning to use Adobe InDesign, and following a purely visual route towards a simple iBook style piece seemed liek the obvious choice for me; I’ve always been a visual practitioner, and it would be a chance to, well, if I’m honest, try and show off.
And then I thought BALLS TO THAT. I came to university to learn…and to meet a nice young lass to call my own, go out all the time, become a socialite who no one really likes, and alienate most of the friends I made…thank god that part of the plan fell through XD.
Having done a film art foundation course last year, it seemed logical to leave xCode and all that jazz well alone, especially with my ingrained fear of all things intensely computer-ey or deep beyond basic application depth.
However, and I to this day don’t know what tipped it, I decided to go with it. It was something new. Something exciting, something that I could be proud of myself for having at least tried. But most importantly, especially to a student, it makes money. And if you’re very good at it, it will make you LOTS of money 😀 People may scorn financial reasons when it comes to higher education, but hey, if I can’t afford food on my table, and a roof over my head, University will have been a glorious waste of time.
Having launched into Xcode, I was instantly out of my depth. For those who don’t know, Xcode is an apple supported tool that implements the API Cocoa Touch, and is used to design apps for Mac OS, and more specifically, the iOS. iOS powers the iPhone, the iPod touch and their magnum opus, the iPad. Without it, apps and all the various functions would be impossible. Even for seasoned media practitioners, delving into the dark and sophisticated world of app programming is a harrowing feat; it requires that the user (at least try to) learn Objective-C, that bastard child of C – the core of all computer language, and the masterpiece of Dennis Ritchie, who sadly died last year in October, shortly after Apples Tyrant/Saviour Steve Jobs.
Understanding the language is not the most important part; it is the logic. Understanding where you need to code something, and why it won;t work when you done, is the first step in understanding Code. But when you finally start to “get it”, there’s a buzz in coding more and more, learning new phrases, implementing more and more complicated code. Try it, and you might surprise yourself (;
A New Year, a New Day…yet nothing changes: stress, deadlines and an ever mounting pile of work that never seems to lessen. Welcome to Digital Media Production, the “easy” Media Degree….(attr. my friends doing English at Oxbridge).
The year has already yielded some fast and furious developments: development of an iPad app for the Digital Publishing module has been kicked into overdrive under the steely gaze of programmer extraordinaire Chris Pegg, due to the proximity to the deadline (just over a week).
Likewise, the Sound and Video Production module is also hurtling, terrified and aflame, towards it terminus. After a close shave with a deadline just days after the start of term, my colleagues and I believed we had a stay of execution when it was pushed back by a fortnight. Woo Nelly, things were about to get bumpy..
Good iPad apps, as with all the best things in life, have one thing in common: they are built form the ground up. The first thing the Pegg-Meister had us do was consider the content, rather than plugne head-first into design. Reading the text, and understanding it to a degree, was essential.
The text itself is an extract (possible the introduction?) to a new Book by renowned Particle Physicist Brian Cox. While loaded with scientific facts and statistic, Cox has clearly taken effort to write it in a almost poetic fashion, considering order of content, choice of adjectives and phrases in order to engage the audience to the best of his ability.
This made our first decision a hard one: how much of the text to use. Initially, Pegg suggested animating and illustrating just 3 paragraphs, to limit work load and allow for maximum attention to detail on each paragraph. However, the team came to agree that the content had been written in an almost narrative fashion, and that to take any 3 paragraphs out of the context in which they were written, would butcher the sense of flow and continuity which Cox had clearly intended. With this in mind, although it meant having an increased workload, we decided to utilise the entire text. In order to not saturate the piece as well as the audience, a section by section approach was adopted, in order to pick out the parts best suited to animation.
We then began to think about UI, and how to best display the content. Team-Member James Guyan suggested the idea of Info-graphics (colourful, fact-based charts and graphs which are designed for maximum information retention by the reader), which went down a storm with the class.
At last, Digital Publishing kicks off with a vengeance! 😀 After finally receiving our brief from the nice people at Harper Collins, we could finally get a handle on what Digital Publishing means to them, and therefor, us.
The use of ebooks has taken off of late, ranging from top-brand products like the Apple iPad, to more affordable, dedicated e-book products such as the Amazon Kindle (which has moved into full tablet-PC territory with the new Kindle Fire, http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Fire-Amazon-Tablet/dp/B0051VVOB2)
The importance of Digital Publishing to us as students, seems to be underscoring the validity of the use of interactive media to read material instead of conventional paper. Some applications, such as the dedicated iPad “iBook” app, attempt to emulate the experience of reading a book, right down to layout of pages which turn, conventional chapters and page numbers:
However, for some, the best way of securing Digitally Published material is to set it apart from traditional books, and utilise the full functionality of the device which is displaying it: Accelerometers, gyroscopes, audio and video. While not a traditional reading experience, the importance of device-based reading is that it doesnt have to be.
One of the most popular, and in some cases, virulent forms of Digital text is Kinetic Typography. KT takes audio clips from films, speeches and lectures etc, and animates the transcript using basic (or not so basic) computer animation. This allows people to view the audio track as well as hear it, creating a multi-sensory media experience.
After an initial burst of ground-breaking videos, the internet became flooded with copycat pieces, either lacking in originality, or were too simplistic to impart the audio with any visual impact.
However, there are many exceptions to this. The sheer saturation of the web with Kinetic Typography shows its effectiveness; it’s audience has embraced it, and it has now infiltrated advertising on both television and the internet. The following Kinetic Text was cited by Harper Collins as an example, but not a template, for what they wanted to see:
Another interesting example of Digital Text is the partial transcription of a speech by Ken Robinson at the RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce). It follows the guidlines of KT by utilising text alongside an audio track, but utilises far more graphical content that almost borders on Inforgraphics: charts, graphs and illustrations:
Indeed, the entire back-catalogue of the RSA Animate page is full of similar animations, that enhance the reading/listening experience of the audience without detracting from the meaning of the text:
Although a long animation at 11:41, the majority of the class, myself included, found the video to be both entertaining and engrossing: the illustrations perfectly underscored what Ken was saying, and moreover, made what he was saying easier to comprehend, much like a school lesson (is it pure coincidence that the style very much resembled a school whiteboard?)
Having processed (or so we thought) what the Brief wanted from us, we hit upon an interesting divide within the Digital Media group: how far to take the Digital side of the project.
Point-5 lecturer, App-genius and all round nice guy Chris Pegg (whose WP site can be found here: http://wickedysplits.wordpress.com/) advocated the full utilisation of our iPad’s and X-Code to create an iPad App to display the content in a dedicated fashion, specifically tailored to compliment the text.
Head Lecturer, Industry-Veteran and owner of the quintessential Brummie accent Phil Beards proposed utilising Adobe InDesign to create an e-magazine type document to view on the iPad. Both were equally valid, but explored 2 different focusses of the course; functionality vs aesthetic design.
While the App design with Pegg would certainly require considerable thought concerning visual style, it would mix in considerations for interactivity, animations, use of audio and video, and how Digitally Native the audience is. The Digital Publication side with Phil, while just as important, focused more on one aspect of the module.
While much more challenging for someone with little-to-no code knowledge, I chose the Application Development project, simply because it would enhance me as a practitioner in ways I haven’t been enhanced before (giggity). And that, I’m sure, will be the focus of my next blog post 😀
pneumatictuna 