Ollie Tristram

Well, I have finally finished my interactive showcase and to be honest it hasn't been that stressful. I haven't tried to be too adventurous, but I think the main reason I haven't had too much grief is because I have been using ActionScript 2.0. All the tutorials I used online to help me were all in AS2.0 so I would have been buggered if I used 3, and when I used 3 for that last Flash project I did it turned out well crap.

I will post the showcase soon, but I just need a few people to test it for bugs etc first.

P.S. I know I haven't posted in a while but I've been playing GTA IV too much! Ha!

The above video is a competition entry made by me and my friend Andrew (who did most of the work). The competition was to create your own music video for Feeder's new song "Miss You" and the prize is to have it featured in the extras on Feeder's upcoming DVD, plus some other stuff I think. The quality is pretty poor because it has been compressed so much (I think I'll have to let Andrew know), but you can understand it lol.

The video is mainly old footage from our A Level music video to a different Feeder song which we have re-cut. Other footage you will see is from my Uni work such as the One Shot Film and Pixelation. We did shoot some new footage in the same woodland area so not to lose continuity, but on saying that, the video doesn't really have any particularly continuity to it other than repeated effects. Nonetheless, Andrew has done a very good job editing it and is easily in the top 5 compared to the other competition entries.

Have a look at some of the other entries by clicking this link: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=feeder+competition

Over and Out.

The stress has begun. On saying that, things have gone reasonably well for me on day one of creating the showcase in Flash. What's been the main issue is time. I have only got as far as creating a preloader and creating buttons for the 'homepage', and it's taken me nearly 3 and a half hours!

I'm not even sure if the preloader works because the document seems to just load on frame 2 everytime I test it, i think it might be because there is so little information for the preloader to load its loaded and gone in an instance. If that is the case then hopefully we'll see if it works by the time I have added videos.

I have been browsing tutorials most of the time, only finding the preloader one most helpful. I sort of found out on my own how to made the buttons work and they do so as I intended which I am very pleased with.

Here are two screenshots of my days work:





In my next session I am to begin importing videos, pictures and music onto the frames which the labelled buttons lead to.

After today's lecture on Flash and the Interwebs this idea came to me. It is an idea (which will probably be final) for the 'homepage' of my Interactive Showcase. It's simple, which I wanted to originally go for, and also a memorable layout idea.




I started with a basic image of me and imported it into Photoshop. Then using the Polygonal Lasso tool cut myself out. Next, I inverted the selection and painted the background white but because this gives you hard edges I used the blur tool to soften them up. I tampered with the brightness, contrast, hue and saturation until I ended up with this final image. I altered the canvas sizes to divide the image into six segments, five of which can be seen in the image. I changed the dimensions of each to give the image a distorted perception and finally added drop shadows. Also seen there is my logo idea which may act as a button to bring users back to the homepage.

In the image you can see my colour theme, which I explained in my previous post. The five images of me will act as buttons to take you to the next frames hosting various things about me and my identity. For example in the image you can see one will lead you to videos I have made.
With the other four, I am planning on these being Pictures, Music, Avatar and then for the other I'm not entirely sure, but I'm thinking of writing a short Multimedia Autobiography that will let users read my life so far using Multimedia and my influences.

I am planning that when users hover over the buttons a blue border will highlight it and the title of where the button will take you will appear.

Now just to put it into Flash... :(

Right I have been looking for ideas and inspirations for my interactive showcase.

Hello blog.

Feeder (the band) have a competition in where they invite fans to make a music video for their new single "Miss You". As my friend is a big Feeder fan he pointed it out to me that we should make something, and as it is helpful towards Multimedia and AV in particular, we have begun.
Using past videos - primarily our Feeder music video from A Level (which can be seen at the start of this blog - we have re-cut them to fit with the new song, Miss You.
The prize for winning the competition is get your video in the bonus features of Feeder's upcoming DVD. Some of the videos already posted on YouTube are somewhat, er.. n00bish! So hopefully we have a good chance. When it's finished it shall be posted on here of course. I will also be using this as the 'work I have done outside of studies' at the review in a couple of weeks.

Another thing I would like to mention is a couple of ideas that I have for my next Identities project. I think I'm going to make it personal and by this I mean everything in it is going to be by me, or at least co-produced by me.
An idea for my layout will be my bedroom in its usual state as it represents who I am. Users will then be able to interact with different parts of the room to reach different aspects of my Multimedia personality. For example, clicking on the TV will bring you to be able to watch videos I have made or clicking the guitars will bring you to all the music I have made. Each of these sub-screens will give users an idea of my tastes and abilities - or even my potential. Somewhere in here my avatar will be included.

See you soon.
x

http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/ -

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have created an entirely synthetic “child-like” artificial intelligence and introduced it to the virtual world of Second Life. “Eddie”, as he was named, is the result of a complex model of AI components. Eddie can reason on his own and has a belief system unique to his own experiences. He runs on a supercomputer that is claimed to be the most powerful university-based system of its kind. The system can produce over 100 teraflops (that’s a lot) of computing power, and runs through Blue Gene supercomputers, Linux and AMD Opteron clusters.

Eddie uses what is called “Theory of Mind” that gives him the ability to interact with other avatars within the virtual world in a dynamic way. He can reason independently of direct input and can arrive at conclusions in a way that mimics a child’s own mental processes.

Eddie, of course, is only the beginning and the researches are already looking far into the future for applications that may benefit from an advanced AI such as Eddie’s. “The apps, frankly, are endless,” says Selmer Bringsjord, the head of the institute’s Cognitive Science Department, “Imagine being able to step into a simulation environment in which you interact with synthetic characters as sophisticated as those seen in the Star Trek’s holodeck.”

The implication of this technology to the future of videogames is almost inconceivable. Can you imagine playing a shooter where the virtual enemies can actually adapt to the way you’re playing and learn your weaknesses? It would introduce a whole new level of enemy AI that has been promised for many years but has never really materialized. Currently, most AI is derived from a series of If/Then commands.

IF Player 1 is firing his weapon // THEN Hide behind a wall

IF Player 1 stops firing his weapon // THEN fire at Player 1

An ideal AI would think dynamically and remember the player’s previous habits.

IF Player 1 is firing his weapon // Notice that Player 1 is in an enclosed location and would be vulnerable to a grenade thrown with a short delay. Remember that Player 1 favors the crouching position when shooting with the M16. Remember that Player 1 frequently uses the knife on enemies within close range. Etc…

It sure would add replay value to nearly any game that could be conceived, and it truly would make the gameplay experience unique to each and every person that plays the game. While this kind of AI is probably so far into the future that we’ll all be old and gray by the time it finally shows up, and there’s currently only one computer in the world that can handle a primitive version of it, I’ll certainly be looking forward to it, should it ever become a reality.