Assessment 3 Blog Post

This is my assessment 3 blog post talking about what we have done so far in class for MPI104. MPI has been a subject dealing with all facets of the internet and web design, and has been a helpful and challenging class to take. We have learnt about several websites, as well as learning to create our own, which was a steep learning curve for me.

We started out by creating our own gmail account, which was very easy to set up. I have never had a gmail account before, but found it very easy to use and helpful too, as through your account you can set up mail, news and games on your google home page. It also allows you to set up an RSS feed reader too, allowing you to read the content from several web pages at once.

Flickr was another website we focused on, and I found it extremely useful. Flickr is especially good now with a more streamlined uploading tool, making it much easier to upload photo's, label them and organise your sets. I use flickr a lot since learning about it in MPI104, it is really easy to upload and share all of my concept art with my fellow VFX101 students, as well as simply sharing what I have been doing with family and friends without emailing every person the photos! This is great for holiday snaps, as well as for business, as often people link their websites to their images so people can buy prints.

Delicious is another great website we learnt about, and I have really used it a lot! A couple of my stacks got featured on the home page of delicious, so I was really proud of that! It is really fun compiling different stacks of websites you already love and visit often, but it makes them easy to access all from the one place. I enjoy sorting out my websites I frequently visit, and this makes them much easier to sort through.

Lastly, we worked on creating an html website, using external css sheets, which for me was a real challenge. I have never created a webpage before, and have never used html-coding especially, which is quite complicated! In the end I was quite happy with my webspace, even though it was not as fancy as some, I was still proud of what I had managed to make from not knowing anything about html.

Here are my important links!

Blogger- Laura Wingrove's MPI104 Blog
flickr- Laura Wingrove's Flickr Stream
delicious- Laura Wingrove's Delicious Account
My Webspace (not currently active)- Laura Wingrove's Webspace
MPI104 Masterblog 2012- Master Blog 2012

ilomilo

I don't know if you guys have heard much of this game, but it is super duper cute! I have been playing a bit of it with Jem, and it is very sweet, and quite tricky!

It centres around two cute quilted-style friends (Ilo and Milo) in their quilted world, who each morning are separated by a changing landscape of cubes. Players can play by themselves, switching between the two characters, or as a 2-player game. The aim of the game is to reach each other in any way you can, and by picking up various types of cubes and putting them in your backpack, they are able to build bridges and propel themselves across chasms to reach their friend. When you finally do meet up, Ilo and Milo do a cute little dance, which has to be seen!

It is a tricky puzzle game, as often to reach each other requires several steps, changing the blocks again and again, as well as changing between players (if playing two player). It is challenging, but fun and very, very cute. The design of the game is amazing, and similiar in ways to Little Big Planet's look and feel, but with an extra edge of whimsy and cushiness. It also has some gravity changing levels, like Super Mario Galaxy, so those with queezy stomachs might need to look away! It's not so bad when you are controlling the characters, but it can be a bit nauseous-making.

I highly recommend! It is a simple x-box download, and costs about very little. Check out IloMilo!

IloMilo Blog
IloMilo on Xbox.com

More Animation Stuffs

Hi everyone, how's everyone's animations going? Mine is going fairly slowly at the moment, as I am really struggling with toon boom, it's not really getting much easier for me, so I am going to focus on working on hand drawn animation for a bit and see if my productivity is increasing as at this stage I don't feel like I'm going to finish! I know I will be spending a lot of time on it, but the good thing is the only other assignments to finish are the MPI104 blog posts as well as studying for my VIS101 exam, so I just really have to knuckle down and work!! X

Assessment #2 Post

For our second assignment, we were charged with creating a webpage using HTML Coding. I have never really used html codes, or really understood them fully, so this was a big learning curve for me.

We began learning simple html codes such as inserting a link to a website, and italicising our text. Some codes to generate simple things like borders and margins can be very complicated, and I was really surprised. It has been difficult to become accustomed to learning the language of the computer, but once you understand the conventions, often they can be applied to other codes, which once I learned made the whole experience a lot easier.

I also relied heavily on the tutorials on the w3 schools website, which goes from the most simple codes all the way up to some of the most complicated, walking you through every step of the way. I found the site extremely helpful, especially as a novice coming in to html. It gives pretty clear step-by-step instructions, but I found that HTML is a process of trial and error, as sometimes there is just one bracket that needs to be closed, or a semi-colon missing from the end of a code.

I am fairly proud of my website as it took a very long time to make. I used TextEdit (the mac text software) to generate my website, flicking between that, my blog and the w3 schools website. Using html is a good way to create a website if you do not have other software systems like iWeb or Dreamweaver, which can create much more sophisticated sites, but there is something to be said for building your own site from the ground up.

Pictures for new website

Hi everyone, please forgive me, I just needed a space to upload a few images for my new website we are working on for MPI104! So please excuse this weird jumble of images, all will make sense as soon as the MPI website is up and running :)

New Web Banner I Made!

Hey everyone, just testing out a little web banner I made today as a test, so it's a little scrappy! Haha! It's just as a test so i'll see how we go.
xx

HTML

At the moment in MPI104 we've been working on HTML code websites. It does take a bit of time to do each set of coding, but I am interested in it as I never really knew that was how websites worked! It's just a whole crazy jumble of formatting and code, and it is hard to think that everything on every web page you see has a whole set of code right behind it.

The hardest part about coding is making it look as pretty as other website generating programs. I think it'll be great once it's done, but I hope I can make it look nice and pretty in time! Fingers crossed :)

VIS101

Hey y'all in Animation etc, how's everyone going for VIS? I did my presentation yesterday, and I think it went pretty ok, if a bit long! Oh dear, I hope I wasn't boring everyone!
Anywho, I've just been trying to get studying for the test in a couple of weeks, as a break from working on our website for a moment, and I am finding it really difficult, as there are 30 readings or so as well as 5 or 6 40-page chapters from our text to summarise! It's pretty crazy! Even with the study guide of things we have to read over and define, it's still a ton of stuff!! I guess I feel like I'm drowning in definitions a bit! Haha. I guess I just get a bit freaked out about tests and I always feel like I'm going to study the wrong things. Oh well! At least it's a bit of time before the test. Just have to finish another three assignments out of five for this week and then I'm there! Yay...

Toon Boom

Hi all animator peeps, like you all I am trying super hard to get to grips with the animate software, and am finding it a little tricky, but I know just like with photoshop it will eventually get easier.

I am hoping to get a hang of it as soon as possible as I have heard how much easier it is so use than photoshop for animation, because of the flash-style work flow, but I'm not so familiar with flash either! I think it will be a bit of a learning curve, and even with taking into account the time it will take, it may be worth it to speed up the workflow later :)

I have been doing the online tutorials as well, but it is quite difficult if one thing or small check-box is different to the video, it can totally screw up, so I am just trying to work through as best as I can, but I am finding the software extremely frustrating.

Here's hoping I get the hang of it in time! Are you guys experiencing the same thing?
xx

New photos on Flickr

Hi everyone! I have the start of a new photoset up on flickr, about all our adventures in the new house. After moving to wagga from sydney a few months ago, we have had a few visitors in our house! Some nice, some nasty, but I took photos of them all for you to enjoy. Here is a link to the flickr set-

Laura Wingrove's Photostream- Fun Times At The New House (Set)

Has anyone else seen some really cool flickr set's out there? I'd love to see if you do! There are some amazing photographers on flickr, I particularly love all the vintage-style photography out there. Not instagram though! Bleugh.

Animatic

Hey everyone, here's my mostly finished animatic ready to show pam tomorrow- the last few scene or two I wasn't able to get finished in time, but this was just a rough flash animation to show how it's all going. It has a few timing issues, which I will sort later on tomorrow and post a better version :) I am really happy with the story, but just trying to wrap my head around getting it done it time! haha! I'm sure that's how everyone in my animation course is, or has been, feeling too, it seems so crazy. Anywho, here is my animatic work-in-progress :)

Laura Wingrove's Photo Stream- Flickr

Feel free to leave any feedback, as all advice from fellow animators is always appreciated! Please bear in mind that this is just a very rough version, and the final will be much nicer! haha!

Thanks everyone :)
x

New Delicious Stack!

Well hello there everyone! I made a new delicious stack today! I'm not sure if it will be enjoyable, or just further convince you that I am a crazy old cat woman in the making, but it is all about kitties :)
I do love kitties, I think I've just always been more of a cat person than a dog person. How can you say no to this face?

(via Jar Of Kittens.tumblr

You can find all the kitty-tastic-ness is over at my delicious account!

Laura Wingrove's MPI104 Delicious Account

Tumblr

As well as being a huge fan of blogger, I am also highly addicted to tumblr. It's much more of the visual version of blogger, which is mainly text. Being able to follow certain blogs that post all kinds of images does have it's drawbacks, as some personal tumblr's can vary wildly in what they post, but most themed tumblr's are true to their point. It also has easy auto-scrolling, so you can quickly access all of these images without having to click next pages, which can turn you off webpages all together.

Here are a bunch of my most favourite tumblr blogs, most of which can also be found on my delicious page too :)

F*** Yeah Link!. tumblr (Legend of Zelda)
LATINAMERICANA (Vintage)
Old Hollywood (Vintage Movie Stills and Photographs)
The Internet's Greatest Cat: Maru (Everything Maru)
The Rebel Base (Star Wars mania)


Here is a link to my delicious account for the rest-


x

More Concept Art!

Hi guys, just updating on what's been happening with my idea for the 1-3 min animation. I was a bit hesitant from the start with my original idea, because I didn't want to have to go into the history of how he became a ghostie, it would be too sad! The story now centres around a very similiar ghostie, who every year goes trick or treating in a ghost costume so he doesn't scare anyone, until he meets and falls in love with a little girl dressed as a ghostie. It turns out they are both real ghosts and shouldn't have been so afraid to be themselves :)

If you would like to check it out so far, here is a link to the concept art page :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurawingrove-mpi104/

Concept Art

Hello everyone, sorry it's been so long between posts! I have been getting headlong into my animation due in about 5 weeks, so its been a bit crazy here!

If any of you are already on the animation and vfx CSU course forum, here is a link to my page of posts, just a record of what's happening really. It can only be accessed by members though, so if you are already a member, feel free to check it out!

Laura Wingrove's Posts- AnimationVFX Forum

Just in case you are not a member, here is my latest of posts about ideas and concept art- it is still in the baby stages yet, but as always, any advice is greatly appreciated :)

"Hello there peoples! I have a new idea that I have been working on, and I apologise up front for the utterly shoddy nature of the following image, I reworked it so many times, then I got it wet! Arg!
Here is my first concepts for the main character (the little fellow on the far right) and two background characters that don't really ever move (the two on the left).

Here is a general overview of my idea- I hope you enjoy!

It centres on an adorable little ghostie boy, bored in his basement. All the technology is very old, and he is sick of playing with old sega systems and rusty old bikes. Well, trying to play with them anyway. He just goes right through it. His only other source of entertainment is his calendar, which is slowly counting down the days. He is so very excited for halloween, his favourite day of the year, when he can wander the streets without worrying about scaring anyone. It is also the day he can visit the family he left behind.

What do you guys think? It will mainly focus on his counting down the days and how he passes the time until halloween, and I think this idea will be a bit better for me now. My other idea involved experimenting with a style that I'm not really used to, so for my first animation I'd rather just go with what I know and love- really cute spooky things :)

xxx"

Delicious homepage? What?

Apparently the lovely people at delicious liked my stack so much they put it on the home page! That is outrageous, and awesome! Yay!

Mine is the "Favourite Tumblr Blogs- Vintage" one.

You can check out the stack here (Laura Wingrove- Favourite Tumblr Blogs- Vintage) if you like!

MPI104 Assessment 1 Post

Hello there everyone, just an update on how MPI104 is going so far.


In terms of Blogger, this will be my seventh post, and I think these are a few of my favourite posts-

- Laura Wingrove's Blog- A Few Favourites (My Flickr Stream)
- Laura Wingrove's Blog- Delicious!
- Laura Wingrove's Blog- Inspiring

I also had some fun adjusting the colours, after mucking about with a few different templates and settling on a gorgeous stripey wallpaper-like design. I also made it electric pink, as I do love pink rather a lot.

Here are a couple of the posts on other blogs that I have commented on-

- Parker Bear Blog- Two Sleeping Boys
- The Cutler Family- Like Changing

I also find it so helpful to tag my posts, for my own reference as well as others, but here are a few of my most commonly used tags- mpi104, photo, cute, art, flickr, websites and delicious. Delicious is great!

I also added some features to either side of my blog, that show my recent posts and recent comments, and also a section allowing people to follow me by email if they wish to.

Here is my Blog!-
Laura Wingrove's Blog


We also did some setting up of a delicious account. I am really enjoying delicious, and love being able to share my favourite sites so easily.

I have 23 bookmarked webpages, that centre mostly on my favourite nerdy pages! I also have stacks for fun websites, vintage blogs and the MPI104 related sites too.

These are probably my 3 favourites-

- Distracted By Star Wars (DBSW)
- LATINAMERICANA- Vintage Blog
- 1001 Rules For My Unborn Son

Here is my delicious profile to check out all the nerdy goodness-
Laura Wingrove's Stacks- Delicious


Last but not least is my flickr stream! I am not such a big fan of flickr as I am of delicious, but I do think it is a good and easy way to share images.

I have 17 Images on my flickr stream so far, some personal pictures and some artworks from over the course of the last year.

Here are 3 of my favourites!-
- Laura Wingrove's Flickr Stream- Lost Kitty
- Laura Wingrove's Flickr Stream- Tiger Brand Coffee
- Laura Wingrove's Flickr Stream- Hawaiian Shirts, Kauai

Here is a link to my Flickr Stream if you would like to check out the rest-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurawingrove-mpi104/

So far MPI104 has been good for opening up the idea of blogging regularly, and I do really like delicious, I think that has been the best, most useful, website so far.

Thanks for reading!!
:)

Inspiring

Hi guys, I found a really inspirational post about a woman dealing with one of her daughters being diagnosed with diabetes, which I left a comment about and thought I should share-

Life Changing

Cute!

I commented on an adorable picture today, it had two adorable kids and a cute kitty! What more could you want?

Parker Bear Blog- Sleeping Boys

A Few Favourites

Here are a few of artworks and things that are on my Flickr Stream- head here to check them out!!

My Flickr Stream

Delicious!

Here is a link to my delicious account, which I am in the process of setting up. Hopefully soon I will be able to share some of the coolest sites, mostly Star-Wars-ish in nature probably! Also I love vintage anything, so there will be a hefty helping of that too :)

My Delicious Account

Flickr

Hi guys, here is a link to my flickr account! Flickr is a great way to share and find images that you are searching for, as well as seeing some great art that people have created to inspire your own.
Here is a link to my account with just a few of my own favourite pictures if you'd like to see :)



My Photostream

My First Post!

Hi everyone this is my first post, hooray!
www.google.com