Indigo Days…

Intended Site to construct: Peninsula Beachside Golf Cottages

Target Audience
Having lived down the Morning Peninsula for 15 years and witnessing the type of people that enjoy coming down over summertime, I have firsthand knowledge of the kind of punters that would be looking for accommodation down the Mornington Peninsula via the web. It’s a known fact that I would be putting a website together for people over the age of 18, but that being said, the younger adult audience rely on organizing accommodation a little later than middle age families and elderly couples whom tend to do alot more research and organising before making the trip down.

Even if the younger audience went online to apply for accommodation long before the trip was to commence, they also like to see a more elegant and smooth-stylized look to the website than a modernized and alternative looking site. Call me crazy but I believe the reason for this is because the younger audience sometimes likes to feel a little older, a little wiser and feel more empowered when planning something big like a holiday. Especially if they are organizing it for friends, the more stylized and elegant the place, the more impressed their friends will be. And in the end, they can party anywhere they choose. All I have to do is give them the option and they will take it.

So in the end my target audience would be between the age group of 25 and 50. Meaning I would have to use a simple but suiting color scheme, no more than 4 colors. The use of no more than 2 different fonts would be wise, one for page titles and another for sub titles and main text. Pictures will be used, but not too many to give too much of the accommodation away. I will come to a decision in what colors, fonts and pictures will be used after research on different accommodation & flash websites.

Examples of Accommodation Websites
Example 1: Between the Bays, Mornington Peninsula
http://www.betweenthebays.com.au/

This holiday accommodation website is very easy to navigate. It is also very clean and has a simple color scheme of using a darkish green, a lighter shade of yellow and a simple black (I personally don’t like this color scheme). It also seems to have the right amount of text in a font that is simple to read in paragraphs consisting of 6 to 7 lines of text at a time.

For the main page they seem to use the correct amount of photographs to keep a portential customer interesting in looking into the accommodation a little more which is quite smart. The pricing information is simple to read and direct with the only pictures shown on the pricing page being of the credit cards they accept, very professional.

The equiry form is a smart addition for customers who get caught up in what they see and gives the owners a chance to contact the customer to finalise the deal. Without it, the customers can quickly forget about this accommodation while looking at others (which they are bound to do).

The location page could be worked on a little to give a better idea of where the customer will need to go. However it does give a Melways reference, but that being said, not everybody who comes to holiday in the South Eastern suburbs of Melbourne are going to have Melways are they? A more detailed map would be advised.

The Guestbook is a smart idea but seems useless as it only has one entry in it and would put people off whom were expecting to see many testimonials given about the resort. The contacts page is simple and to the point which is good if a customer wants to make the call but why this website would have a links page consisting of different accommodation alternatives is beyond me.

Summery
A easy to navigate website with some good, simple design but let down by minor flaws such as a detailed map, a pointless guestbook, a links page with the option of other alternatives for customers and a bad color scheme which in the end can make the difference.

Example 2: Cottages for Two, Phillip Island
http://www.cottagesfortwo.com/

Don’t even get me started on how damn annoying this site was to navigate around. And while I realise that this is a database website of different accommodation options for the Phillip Island area, I took one look at this and honestly said ‘fuck this’. There is way too much text, and way too many links for a homepage (Over 50). Fair enough, they have alot of accommodation options to advertise, but it seems to me this site seems more interested in getting a bit more money for placing peoples units & houses on the homepage than making things simple for the potential customers to navigate.

The colour scheme is made up of around 5 different colours mainly consisting of Blue, Red, White, Gold and Black which seems to work well but still gives a very cluttered feel to it, however using red for the links is a smart idea because the red does stand out vividly above all the clutter. In comparison to the mess that is the text they have put a limited amount of pictures which can be considered to be a smart move but at first glance the text is a little overwhelming to somebody just looking for a place to relax.

There are way too many links for me to go over so I will just go over the basics. One thing I do tip my hat to, is the amount of information that has gone into this one site, it reminds me of a smaller, more unorganised version of a microsoft website but that again does not excuse the mess. The main links are easy enough to follow due to consistancy in place through the navigation process. The equiry and booking form is simple which is more than what I can say for the rest of it.

Summery
A good looking site with a bit too much of one colour (blue) giving it a very claustrophobic feel. Way too much information and too many links on the home page for one to feel at ease during a first visit which makes it very easy to make it their last visit.

Example 3: The Courtyard, Mt Eliza
http://www.thecourtyard.com.au/

We go from too complex with the previous example to too simple with this one. While being easy to navigate around, at first glance this site looks very bland and as simple as it may sound, the site represents the service it is offering. The main links are located at the bottom of the page which I think is a terrible idea because if a user is running at a low resolution they will have to scroll down with each page they click on. The use of the same photographs on different pages becomes a little repeditive and the user looses interest very quickly. The testimonials are better than that of example 1. The booking page is simple and has a security code which makes this unprofessional site have a hint of professionalism in it. Again this site has links to other methods of accommodation which is beyond me as I stated before. However the map is much more detailed and easier to read if printed out in comparison to example 1.

Summery
A very simple website which gets its point accross but not in any interesting way. A customer will be woo’d by another site if they take the time to look. The pricing is compeditive but the web alternatives are a lot more appealing and tempting to a customer.

Example 4: Hilltonia Homestead
http://www.hilltonia.com.au/

At first glance I didn’t know what to think of this website. It looked simple enough and had an elegant feel to it, add to the fact that it wasn’t too cluttered with text or images and it seemed to be a great site. However the first thing that seemed to aggrovate me was the links located on the left hand side of the page and while I know this shouldn’t bother me, it did. The site had an easy feel to it but looked too simple. But then it came to my attention that this site was made to show me what I needed to see and help me in paying for it if i liked it. And it was at this that the site in question delivered well.

The accommodation it was selling was some of the greatest available, hence the site didn’t need to be anything fancy or flash because the product they sold and advertised through the site reflected on the product more than anything else.

Summery
The site was easy to navigate around, simple to use, looked nice, had a simple but stylish colour scheme and brought forth a quality product in a timely fashion. Ticks all around accept for the navigational links being on the left. For some reason I don’t feel that suited. Top navigational links would have been much better.

Example 5: Trueman’s Cottage
http://www.truemanscottage.com.au/

A truely fantastic example of how an accommodation website should be put together. The first thing that came to my attention was the simple, stylish and smooth color scheme and how it was very evenly worked through out the home page. The white, blue and yellow make for an easy on the eyes experience, and I have always been a big fan of links (which are consistantly and in the same place) highlighting as the mouse rolls over them, specially in the secondary color of the website (in this case being yellow). Perhaps the one thing I didn’t like was the main picture on the home page and although the idea of one picture made up of different pictures seems like a good idea in theory, they seemed to have botched it a little with a hint of bluriness and by straying off the main color scheme.

However, the rest of the site seems to be spot on. The Accommodation page is very well set out with each unit / cottage highlighted with either a white or sand colored background giving it a good consistancy and balance. There is a single photo of each unit next to brief discription and if clicked on, more details and pictures of that unit are exposed to the user.

The location page is also fantastically layed out with each unit having a different location with a link to zoom to that very location, making it very simple for people with no prior knowledge of the area to find. Equires and contact info is also spot on as in previous examples and I am happy to say that this site does not have any links to other accommodation options.

Summery
Truly a perfect example of how a beach side accommodation website should look and feel. On the acception of the home page picture, everything is spot on.

Example 6: Azimuth Connections
http://www.azimuth.com.au/

Like the previous example this really is a fantastically layed out website. There is a tad bit more professionalism in the color scheme (Beige, White and Black). With drop down menu’s for more complex navigational links (which are located at the top). But it does seem we are dealing with a great number of properties in the owners bag, so that being said there is alot more money to put into a well made web site.

Summery
Very simular to that of the previous example, with a few more professional cuts here and there. Most likely the best out of all the 6 examples here. But see for yourself. Links are above.

Examples of Flash Websites
Example 1: 2Advanced Design Studios
http://www.2advanced.com/

I have been followng this design team and their fantastically produced flash pages for a few years now. Inspiring to anybody who views their skills in animation and web design they excel in many forms of digital art. And while I am not setting a standard here for myself to try and equal, I am still pushed to do good things via browsing through their sites. Although this most recent addition to their flash sites is not their greatest, it still sets a tone for what to expect through their work. Somehow being able to make a sight look so futuristic, sharp and clean while also making it simple to navigate through. There is never too much on screen for one to process and they always keep a simple colour scheme of no more than 3 to 4 colors usually consisting of an industrial, mechanical and/or futuristic tone. Pages are always extremely quick to load in comparison to other sites of their quality and always eem to have a smooth flow in animation. I highly recommend checking out their first works (Especially v3 - Expansions [pictured below]) as well as their most recent, they are masters at their game.

Example 2: AgencyNet Interactive
http://www.agencynet.com/

My God, these people are the god’s of the digital design and advertising industry…there is honestly not one single flaw I can find within this flash site. It is highly interactive, easy to navigate, graphically wonderous and well executed. Even if a person was not interested in their design team or advertising at all, they would still be impressed with this web design and become obsorbed in using it. A fantastic example of what we should all strive to build as web designers. Its only after seeing websites like this do you start to dislike many other websites for filling the internet with utter crap like this: http://www.00.com/ . Which I am not even going to give a screen shot of for 2 reasons. The first is because its really, really, really terrible. And the second, because I have been here for 4 hours doing this blog entry and I want to go…So with that, i’ll leave you all to it.

Much love

3d programming, design and animation is something I really do take for granted, and while I may not have a huge interest in it, a lot of the activities which consume my modernized life are based around it and its creations.

It is very rare that I will turn on my Xbox or computer to play a game and not see a classic example of what 3d animation is. And many of us go to see a film and don’t even catch on that even in special effects of films that aren’t even 3d animated, there is still a strong presence of 3d within it.

A classic example of this would be the Matrix Reloaded, pictured below…

There is a scene called the Burley Brawl in which there was so much fighting and so many replica’s of the enemy whom the hero is fighting against, that 3d was used in order to capture most of the fighting shots which the actors or stunt doubles were unable to do. Not to mention the use of 3d to create the replica’s to begin with. The scene in question is shown here…

To develop the technology needed for the Burly Brawl, Eon and Warner Bros. launched ESC, a visual-effects skunk works in an old naval base across the bay from San Francisco. ESC ultimately produced more than a thousand visual-effects shots for the two sequels, and the company has operated in stealth mode until now. The word Matrix didn’t even appear on the scripts’ title pages; instead, they were tagged with a code name, The Burly Man.

The Burly Brawl became Special Effects Supervisor Gaeta’s personal obsession. Like many in the film industry, he has been talking for years about the promise of virtual cinematography, a confluence of technologies that would allow directors to sculpt actors’ performances with the ease of tweaking a CAD file. The traditional ways of doing this, however, reduce the world to the kinds of data that computers easily understand, and the result often ends up looking like a glorified videogame. That wouldn’t work for the Burly Brawl, a fight that erupts in a virtual prison indistinguishable from the real world.
The standard way of simulating the world in CG is to build it from the inside out, by assembling forms out of polygons and applying computer-simulated textures and lighting. The ESC team took a radically different path, loading as much of the real world as possible into the computer first, building from the outside in. This approach, known as image-based rendering, is transforming the effects industry and is being taught to us in 3d classes all over the world…including Frankston Chisholm. Classic examples of this go into many of the short lessons you have shown us Simon. Such as when you used the real life Jeep to create the 3d animated Jeep as well as using the texturing of the apple in 4 different sections to give a much more life like look. But back to the Matrix…
When the hero; Neo and the villain; Agent Smith walk into the courtyard, they are the real Reeves and Weaving. But by the time the melee is in full effect, everyone and everything on the screen is computer-generated - including the perspective of the camera itself, steering at 2,000 miles per hour and screaming through arcs that would tear any physical camera apart.
Effects designers have been swapping CG faces onto the heads of stunt doubles for more than a decade, but typically, these faces were seen for only brief moments, from afar, or were occluded by other effects, like flames or smoke. Previous attempts to render faces with enough verisimilitude so that a camera could linger produced virtual visages that had a plastic, androidal quality, like the all-digital actors in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Pictured and trailered below…

For the most part, a 3d animation and rendering program called Maya was used for shot development, digital sets, rendering, camera animation for Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions. They also used Maya for modeling and design. Rendered the scenes with mental ray using proprietary shader library and light extraction algorithm. For the night scenes, the sets were built around the ESC virtual background tools for photogrammetric reconstruction and extended dynamic range texturing methods. Responsible for the sets around the freeway chase, the jet shot and the night flight in Matrix Reloaded. Responsible for the city design for the sky fight sequences in Matrix Revolutions.

In comparison to other 3d rendering programs such as 3d Studio Max which was first released much earlier on, Maya’s first version was released in 1998. Making it a late starter but also able to have a lot more recent advances within the program, as well as an improved layout (pictured below) which made it easier for users to navigate and create their pieces. Thanks to wikipedia, I was able to track down the different versions and their release dates… listed here…

* 2009 (Support for Windows Vista, 10.0)
* 2008 Extension 2, Only to subscribers(9.2): February 2008
* 2008 Extension 1, Only to subscribers(9.1): December 2007
* 2008 (Support for Windows Vista, 9.0): September 2007
* 8.5 SP1: June 2007
* 8.5: January 2007
* 8.0: August 2006
* 7.0.1: December 2005
* 7.0: August 2005
* 6.5.1: December 2005
* 6.5: January 2005 (last shipping IRIX Version)
* 6.0: May 2004
* 5.0: May 2003
* 4.5: July 2002
* 4.0: June 2001 (no Mac OS X Version)
* 3.5.1: September 2002 (Mac OS X only)
* 3.5: October 2001 (first shipping Mac OS X Version only)
* 3.0: February 2000 (first shipping Linux Version)
* 2.5.2: March 2000
* 2.5: November 1999
* 2.0: June 1999
* 1.5: October 1998 (IRIX only)
* 1.0.1: October 1998 (Windows Version)
* 1.0.1: June 1998 (IRIX Version)
* 1.0: June 1998 (first shipping Windows Version)
* 1.0: February 1998

What I was most surprised about was the fact that Maya was first created as a combination of 3 different 3d software programs. These included; Wavefront’s The Advanced Visualizer (in California), Thomson Digital Image (TDI) Explore (in France) and Alias’ Power Animator (in Canada). In 1993 Wavefront purchased TDI, and in 1995 Silicon Graphics Incorporated (SGI) purchased both Alias and Wavefront (due to pressure from Microsoft’s purchase of Softimage earlier that year) and combined them into one working company, producing a single package from their collective source code. In the mid-1990s, the most popular pipeline in Hollywood films was a combination of tools: Alias Studio for modeling, Softimage for animation, and PhotoRealistic RenderMan for rendering. This combination was used for numerous films, such as Jurassic Park, The Abyss and Terminator 2: Judgement Day. The combined company was referred to as Alias|Wavefront. It took Alias|Wavefront two more years after the merger to release Maya.

Maya became a popular, integrated node-based 3D software suite. The software is released in two versions: Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited. Maya Personal Learning Edition (PLE) is available at no cost for non-commercial use, although the resulting rendered images are watermarked which is what we had to work with for quite some time at the start of the year. Maya was originally released for the IRIX operating system, and subsequently ported to the Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS X operating systems. IRIX support was discontinued after the release of version 6.5. When Autodesk acquired Alias in October 2005, they continued Maya development. The latest version, 2008 (9.0), was released in September 2007. An important feature of Maya is its openness to third-party software, which can strip the software completely of its standard appearance and, using only the kernel, can transform it into a highly customized version of the software. This feature in itself made Maya appealing to large studios which tend to write custom code for their productions using the provided software development kit.

A Tcl-like cross-platform scripting language called Maya Embedded Language (MEL) is provided not only as a scripting language, but as means to customize Maya’s core functionality (much of the environment and tools are written in the language). Additionally, user interactions are implemented and recorded as MEL scripting code which users can store on a toolbar, allowing animators to add functionality without experience in C or C++ programming and compilers, though that option is provided with the software development kit. Support for Python scripting was added in version 8.5. The core of Maya itself is written in C++.

But as grand as Maya in its youth is, it still does not overcome it’s competitors in the software market. Here is a list of the top 10 sold 3d animation and rendering software products on a well known seller of 3d computer software Trinity3d. Website: http://www.trinity3d.com

1. ZBrush 3.1 for PC
2. Softimage XSI Foundation 6
3. Rhino 4
4. Softimage XSI Essentials 6.5
5. ZBrush 3.1 for PC (Academic)
6. 3ds Max 2009 - 3D Animation Software
7. Xfrog 3.5 Light
8. CINEMA 4D R10.5 - Spring Promo
9. Maya Unlimited 2008
10. Maya Complete 2008

Out of all the software listed here, the most recognized would have to be 3DStudio Max. Which i responcible for effects shots and imaging in these movies to name a few:

Classic example of 3D within the motion picture: The Mummy

* Battlefield Earth
* Black Hawk Down
* Blade: Trinity
* Cats & Dogs
* Die Another Day
* Dr. Dolittle 2
* Driven
* Final Destination 2
* Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
* Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
* Hellboy
* I, Robot
* Jurassic Park
* K-19: The Widowmaker
* Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
* Lost in Space
* Mighty Joe Young
* Minority Report
* Mission: Impossible II
* Panic Room
* Paycheck
* Planet of the Apes
* Reign of Fire
* Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
* Sin City
* Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
* Spider-Man 3
* Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith
* Swordfish
* The Cathedral
* The Core
* The Day After Tomorrow
* The Green Mile
* The Incredibles
* The Italian Job
* The Last Samurai
* The Majestic
* The Mummy
* The Thirteenth Floor
* The Truman Show
* Toy Story
* Toy Story 2
* Traumschiff Surprise - Periode 1
* X-Men
* X-Men 2
* X-Men 3

The original 3D Studio product was created for the DOS platform by the Yost Group and published by Autodesk. After 3D Studio Release 4, the product was rewritten for the Windows NT platform, and originally named “3D Studio MAX.” This version was also originally created by the Yost Group. It was released by Kinetix, which was at that time Autodesk’s division of media and entertainment. Autodesk purchased the product at the second release mark of the 3D Studio MAX version and internalized development entirely over the next two releases. Later, the product name was changed to “3ds max”. It is the most widely-used off the shelf 3D animation program by content creation professionals according to the Roncarelli report. It has strong modeling capabilities, a flexible plugin architecture and a long heritage on the Microsoft Windows platform. It is mostly used by video game developers, TV commercial studios and architectural visualization studios. It is also used for movie effects and movie pre-visualization. The layout has been criticized in comparison to that of younger software developments such as Maya as I mentioned earlier on in this report. However 3DS Max has opposed those critizisms with the latest releases of their software which have a much cleaner, sharper and modernized look and feel. and A picture of latest 3DS Max layout is shown below.

In the end, it all comes down to which software a user is more comfortable with. There are few functions which one can do that the other cannot, and there are many, many more rendering and animation software tools. So I guess one could say, that just as technology is limitless, the software used to run that technology is also limitless and must keep up that infinite role as time goes on…

A 3 shot montage can still tell a story if you want it to. This proves that every second of a film should not be wasted in trying to develop emotion or establishment with a central character…

This was filmed with a HD Sony Handy-cam, with Adam Brunsdon as Assistant Director. Originally we were going to do a comedy based around the cake and Jaben which is why we bought many different props. However as filming progressed we realized we could do something very emotional with the setting and props. Add to the fact that Jaben can cry at will (watch out for the tear in his right eye just before he blows the candles out) and we were convinced that we should make it a sad event and not a happy one…

After filming nearly 2 hours worth of footage, we only used 30 seconds worth of video…just goes to show you how much film-makers put their time into something where only a fraction of it is shown to the world.

This clip for the song Lines was put together to put forth to management of the band Dead Letter Circus in an attempt to land the making of the official flip clip for the song Disconnect and Apply which is shown below this entry.

This was the first film clip which Adam & myself completed in full. We filmed, edited and exported for widescreen specially.
As you can probably tell we have one HD camera and one SD camera. The programe used to edit this was Adobe Premiere.

Filmed at the Evelyn Hotel in Brunswick, Victoria, Australia. This was not their best performance to capture but we did our greatest regardless…
2 cameras, 1 show and no other footage…

Yes, yes. Indigo 8…being the production company Adam and myself are attempting to get off the ground helped in the making of an official flip clip for Australian band Dead Letter Circus. Keep in mind was edited by others who used footage from many different shows and many different angles…

It is quite obvious that the budget was limited for the production of this clip but that finla result came up pretty clean and well edited. And although Indigo 8 only contributed to some of the filming, I still feel proud that we contributed to this clip.

Here is the official clip for the song Disconnect and Apply

Well…

After looking over other people’s blogs. I must say…mine is made of fail and cat shit…so here are a few little things I put together…

Rook - Desley

The Band Rook is:

Tyson Fish — Guitars
Adam May — Bass
Forbes Mckail — Vocals
Rod Crowe — Drums

The footage from this video was shot at 2 separate shows;

- The Hi-Fi Bar and Ballroom (Shihad & Mammal)
- The Prince of Whales (Hinge Album Launch)

The footage was shot by a single Panasonic NV-GS250 handy cam, from multiple angles through out the shows. This of course forced me to try and sync the album track to the footage which was a complicated process. For the most part I had to work with a faulty tripod which has been fixed since shooting these shows. And the major flaw in this video is the consistant darkening of the footage which was done so i could extend the video footage to play in sync with the album track without a noticable jump in the video. This had to be done due to the guys playing a tad bit faster on stage than on the original recording.

Rook are one of the greater bands to rise from Melbourne in my opinion, and hopefully this video will give them more of the recognition they deserve.

Memorial Video - The Times that Were

This is dedicated to ‘The Crew’. They know who they are This video will mainly only appeal to those who attended / attend the metal nightclubs known as Switch, NEXT and BANG!

Any other people who watch it. It most likely won’t do anything for you. But i don’t really fucken care.

Music used: Karnivool - C.O.T.E (Center of the Earth)