Thursday, December 21, 2006

7th Meeting (Week 7)

Date: 20 December 2006
Time: 10:30pm

Reason and Purpose of Meeting
One of our classmate saw our application and he comment that our whole application is too simple becasue there aren't much interactivities. His comment really struck our confidence in our own work. We at the beginning was very proud and satisfied with our own final outcome, but this is the only comment that he gave after he saw our work.

Discussion
So in order to add more interactivity, we held another emergency meeting. We don't have much time left as the submission is on tomorrow. We came out with these ideas:
1) Add television in Chinese New Year scene. After click on it, there will be a list of Chinese New Year songs MTV which allowed users to choose.
2) Add speaker in Wedding scene. After click on it, users are able to choose some love songs.
3) Add a radio in Birthday scene. After click on the the radio, users can choose other birthday songs.

- We think that the 1st idea is the most relevant one. However, it is impossible for us to search for those Chinese New Year songs MTV at this place within this 12 hours.
- It is kinda weird to add a speaker in the Wedding scene...
- Play birthday songs during Birthday party, it may works in someway.

Decision
We finally decided to add radio in the Birthday scene.

Actions Taken
- We started to search for birthday songs through Internet. Our target is birthday songs in different genres and languages.
- Draw radio and table using Macromedia Freehand.
- Edit the application in Macromedia Director.

Final Outcome
here is the images of the Birthday scene.
Top: Before edit
Bottom: After edit




Tool Used in Macromedia Director (Week 7)

BEHAVIOURS

1)Library>3D>Actions>Automatic Model Rotation
- Used on 3D text "Ang Pao" as the title in Introduction.

2)Library>Animation>Automatic>Fade In Out
- Mostly used on Backbround images when they appear.

3)Library>Animation>Automatic>Rotate Continuously
- Used on the big flower in the Developers page so that it rotates continuously and shows our names and group.

4)Library>Animation>Automatic>Rotation(frame-based)
- Used on ang pao and flower in Introduction, to show some animation.

5)Library>Animation>Interactive>Rollover Member Change
- Used on all images and buttons that can be clicked.

6)Library>Animation>Interactive>Turn Towards Mouse
- Used on the eyes of the little in the Developers page.

7)Library>Animation>Sprite Transition>Soft Edge Wipe
- used on the explaination boxes for the images.

8)Library>Media>Sound>Play Sound
- used on the buttons which used to play the background music.

9)Library>Media>Sound>Pause Sound
- used on the buttons which used to pause the background music.

10)Library>Media>Sound>Stop Sound
- used on the buttons which used to stop the background music.

11)Library>Media>Sound>Channel Volume Slider
- used on the volume slider.

12)Library>Navigation>Go Next Button
- used on the next button so that after clicked, it will go to the next marker.

13)Library>Navigation>Go Previous Button
- used on the previous button so that after clicked, it will go to the previous marker.

14)Library>Navigation>Go to Frame X Button
- used on buttons so that after clicked, it will go to the particular frame.

15)Library>Navigation>Hold on Current Frame
- used on behaviour channel so that the application will wait on current frame before any action is taken.

16)Library>Navigation>Loop for X Seconds
- put on the behaviour channel so that the application will continue looping on the current frame before any action is taken.


TOOLS

1)Arrow
- Used to select and move the sprites on stage, drag and drop cast members into score, and so on.

2)Hand
- Used to move the stage. After using Hand tool, we used View>Standard View so that we are able to view the whole stage in the standard size again.

3)Magnifying Glass
- Used to zoom in the stage when there is small image that is hard to drag to a particular place.

4)Rectangle
- Used this tool to draw a rectagle on stage to measure the distance of objects so that the alignment is correct. the rectangle is deleted afterwards.


WINDOWS

1)Text Window
- Typed in the window and after that change the display of the text to 3D text so that it can be animated.

2)Movie Window
- used to change the size and background color of the movie.

3)Behaviour Window
- after selected a sprite member, the Behaviour Window will appear under Property Inspector.

We can see what behaviours the sprite has, and also change the setting of the behaviour.

4)3D Extruder
- Used to change some simple setting of the 3D members created in Director.

5)behaviour Inspector
- Used to create some simple behaviours that is not found in the Library. After added the new Behaviour, we have to add the Event and Action to the Behaviour.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Audio (week 7)

Although we have to draw the all the images first, but at week 6 we have been started to search the music and songs for the assignment. Among the songs, some are we ask from friend, some are from our own CD and others are downloaded through website.

At the beginning, we use Nero to edit the songs. Maybe is because we install the software wrongly, after we completed editing, it is not allowed us to save the songs (the Nero software still can be used, it only not allowed us to save the song). We spent a lot of time to try to find out the problem, but we didn’t get any accomplishment, until now we still what’s going on with the software.

After that, we decided to use Sony Sound Forge to edit the songs. It is a very interesting software because we can change the rate of the song. It will create a totally different feeling when we changed the rate. All of us are very enjoy the editing process, it is really fun. Then, some problems occurred again. As we know, MP3 file can imported into Sony Sound Forge, but some of the songs which are in MP3 file format can not imported into the software. In addition, some songs can not be saved after editing. It makes the process of editing become harder.

There are some same problems we faced when used both of these software like both of them don’t support all the file format, so that we have to find others songs to replace the songs which we want used in the assignment. In this process, we faces a lot of frustrate, but we all have the same opinion- editing sound is very interesting.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

The GUI and Buttons(week 6)

Here are the Buttons and GUI of our application. Some of the Buttons rollover are included.

Friday, December 08, 2006

5th Meeting (week 5)

Date: 7 Dec 2006
Time: 11:30pm
Duration: 2 hours

We hold a meeting after the submission of assignment 1 of multimedia authoring to decide who’s “introduction” will be choose and used for our assignment 2. After we saw each other’s “introduction”, we decided to choose jun’s design, because we all think that her design is more accommodate with assignment 2’s style. But there will be some changes or editing of her design.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

The Complete Proposal (Week 5)

Theme/Title
Red Envelope/ Ang Pao

Objective
- To introduce Chinese culture in Malaysia
- To Introduce usage of Ang Pao

Target Audience
- Kids
- Age: 6 - 12

Brief Description
Content
1)Introduction
~ About - Red Envelope/Angpow is also called as laisee.
~ Origin - There was a Chinese story about the origin of Ang Pow. Our ancestors used to harm by a monster named "year" (nian) which could even eat human being. When those who are lucky enough to survive for another New Year celebration, the elders will give the young people Red Envelope to restrain the sense of tenuous existance and give protection against evil or inauspicious Chi.
~ Ang Pow is in red color because Chinese believe that red color is lucky and auspicious.

2)When to Give?
~ Chinese New Year - Ang Pow are given by married couples to small children, teenagers and unmarried adults, elders(grand parents) to young people and also parents to children.
~ Weddings – Ang Pow are given by the relatives and guests to the married couple as a sign of blessing. The couple will also give Ang Pow to the children who follow their parents to the ceremony.
~ Birthdays - It is traditional to give red envelopes to parents when their baby celebrates his/her first month. Or the parents give to their own children during their birthday as a sign of blessing. Sometimes, the elders also give them to the younger generation when they celebrate, for example, their 70th birthday.
~ Baby born - It is traditional to give red envelopes to parents when their baby celebrates his/her first month.
~ Prior to the New Year – It is given by the boss to the employees as a gift or bonus. It is believed that if you gift them, their good fortunes will come back to your company.

Concept
The main design theme for our prototype is cute as our target audience is kids. There will be cute characters with thick outline.

Elements
Images are the element that will dominant in the application. Most of the images are drawn using Macromedia Director and Freehand. Some pictures such as the samples of ang pao will be edited in Adobe Photoshop and then import into Director. Besides, different music will be added in as background music for each scene, depends on their contents. At least 6 songs will be used, some of them are crystal and instrumental music, mostly are without lyrics but only melody.

Timeline
Week 1 - Form group
Week 2 - Discuss theme/title, contents
Week 3 - Storyboard
Week 4 - GUI
Week 5 - Drawing
Week 6 - Scripting
Week 7 - Audio and Submission

Flowchart
Intro --> Origin --> Chinese New Year --> Wedding --> Baby Born --> Birthday --> The End os the year --> End
We arrange the storyline as shown because there will be a main character in our application. The overall story is about the life of a boy, from his childhood until he is old, the events which are related to Ang Pao that he has experienced. He will have a special mark which will make him easier to be identified.

Graphic User Interface (GUI)
This will be the design of our application. A different column at the bottom for all the controls.









Storyboard
Origin of Ang Pao


There will be the monster “Nian” and firecrackers, some Chinese traditional houses, the boy(main) who is receiving ang pao from an elder.



Chinese New Year


Parents giving ang pao to the boy(main), and another kid holding ang pao in his hand happily.




Wedding


The boy has grown up become a man(main), and going to marry. He together with his wife, receiving ang pao from their parents, and they also give ang pao to the children who attend their wedding.

Baby Born


The man(main) and his wife has their first child, their relatives celebrate the first month of the baby and give the couple ang pao, as a blessing to the new baby.


Birthday


It has been some years and the man(main) is now old, celebrating his 70th birthday, accompany by his wife, together give ang pao to their grandchildren and other kids.


End of The Year


The old man(main) as the boss of his company, deliver ang pao to his staff, as bonus for them.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

4th Meeting (Week 4)

Date: 28 Nov 2006
Time: 10:30pm
Duration: 4 hours

We have this meeting in order to discuss and complete our proposal, flowchart, storyboard, and GUI

It took some time when discussing about GUI as we are still new with the macromedia Director software. And we heard that it will only have some special effects as we use scripting language. So far, we have this idea, and it may change later due to our knowledge about the software.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

3rd Consultation (Week 3)

Date: 22 Nov 2006
Time: 2pm
We had changed our group from group 2 to group 5 because there were too many people in group 2. Therefore some of students in group 2 had to change group and we were selected by tutor of group 2. We showed our new interface design to our tutor. Pn Noorazlina had been given us some suggestions on our design and the content of our assignment. She asked us tried to make our design more interesting.


The reason our design was rejected:
1) The buttons are too obvious and straight away.
2) Lack of interactivity.
3) It is hard to put some interactive images which can match the theme "classical".

Puan Noorazlina reviewed our proposal again and helped us to make some changes. She also gave us some advices on the storyboard.

1st scene: The Origin of AngPow
~ A scene which has the monster Nian, some characters, old traditional chinese houses...

2nd scene: Chinese New Year
~ Parents, children, grandparents, guest, environment with New Year feeling...

...and so forth...

2nd Meeting and Research (Week 3)

Date: 21 Nov 2006
Time: 11.30pm
Duration: About 6.30 hours

Through internet, we made researched about our interface design. We had referred many designs which is very profession. Beside that, we also discussed and decided our theme of interface design as classic and found some suitable pictures to design our interface design of our assignment. Lastly, interface design of our assignment was created. It is totally different with our sketch. This is our new interface design.



These are the previous titles:
1) Introduction
2) When to Give
3) How Much to Give
4) Where to Get
5) Varies Design
6) Reference

We have shorten them to:
1) About
2) When
3) Amount
4) Where
5) Sample
6) Reference

Besides, the theme of our interface is "classical".

2nd Consultation (Week 2)

Date: 15 Nov 2006
Time: 2pm

The simple proposal that we showed to tutor.


How it should be?
Theme: Red Envelope/Ang Pow


What I wan to do?
1)Introduction
~ About - Red Envelope/Angpow is also called as laisee.
~ Origin - There was a Chinese story about the origin of Ang Pow. Our ancestors used to harm by a monster named "year" (nian) which could even eat human being. When those who are lucky enough to survive for another New Year celebration, the elders will give the young people Red Envelope to restrain the sense of tenuous existance and give protection against evil or inauspicious Chi.
~ Ang Pow is in red color because Chinese believe that red color is lucky and auspicious.

2)When to Give?
~ Chinese New Year - Ang Pow are given by married couples to small children, teenagers and unmarried adults, elders(grand parents) to young people and also parents to children.
~ Weddings – Ang Pow are given by the relatives and guests to the married couple as a sign of blessing. The couple will also give Ang Pow to the children who follow their parents to the ceremony.
~ Birthdays - It is traditional to give red envelopes to parents when their baby celebrates his/her first month. Or the parents give to their own children during their birthday as a sign of blessing. Sometimes, the elders also give them to the younger generation when they celebrate, for example, their 70th birthday.
~ Prior to the New Year – It is given by the boss to the employees as a gift or bonus. It is believed that if you gift them, their good fortunes will come back to your company.

3)How Much to Give
~ Chinese New Year - different age, different amount. If it is for kids, a small amount would be enough because they don't need to spend too much expences. If it is for teenagers, the amount would definately more than the kids.
~ Weddings – don’t overdo, based on own financial situation. Naturally you will be glad to gift a little more money you have a very close relation with the couple.
~ Birthdays – Depends on the financial situation too.
~ Prior to the New Year - Depends on the company and also the job of the employees.

4)Where to Get
~ Some companies will design Ang Pow with speacial or beautiful theme and you can buy the Ang Pow from them.
~ Another easiet way is get from the bank, super market or shopping complex when using their services. Ang Pow are given free.

5)Varies Design
~ We will show the Ang Pow with different sizes and designs.

6)References


Why I Want to Do So?
~ To introduse Malaysian Chinese Tradition.
~ To give information about Ang Pow.


Who is the User?
~ Non-Chinese/Foreigner


The Bacis Interface


Conclusion
Proposal
~ The overall ideas was accepted by lecturer, just the titles for each categories have to be shorten.
The Interface
~ The idea of the dragons, colume controls and the scroll buttons are acceptd, but he red frame/border are rejected because it limit the space. Have to find a theme, plan on the interaction.