Progress

Well its getting very near the end of my college course, that’s till next year when I start my HNC.
One week to be precise, now what have I to do still? Not a lot to be honest as I am up to date with everything, all has been handed in other than the presentation. That’s on my pen drive completed awaiting approval from the tutor. Passed the video assessment on Wednesday, was easy enough.
At this point in time I’m grateful for where I am and what I have achieved, so thanks to all that helped.

Two weeks left

Well there is only two weeks left of college and all has gone fine, passing all the assessments as expected. The web site for the presentation is just about complete, now includes the video with audio narrative, animation and general information and links. Just need to get the crossword completed and placed in the relevant page. Part from that there will be minor thing to attend too.
In other areas of the course I have submitted my audio, video, and still images assessments. So I can see the next two weeks being easy as all I have to do is corrections and build the second part of the presentation using PowerPoint.

Nearly finished animation

I have now just about finished the animation for my assessment, that included the motion, and shape tweening required. I have now placed the play and stop button, so you can stop the flash movie half way through. All needs to be done now is tweak so I am completely happy with my animation, so next week I will be adding the animation to the webpage, that’s if I don’t end up doing it at home. So all is going well with the animation. Etc.

Next class is audio, at the point of adding my effects to the samples and finalising next week. Then I can write the report the week after. If all goes well I should have the resulting week free to do as I please and look forward to the HNC next year.

Update

Well its Wednesday, college is going fine. All the assessment are either starting or due to start soon. Am doing really well with that big presentation, as I have all the button for the web pages done I have been working on the quiz I am creating, that’s practically done to be honest, just need placed in my web page.

Storyboard is done for my animation, just need to start creating it. It going to be simple, but will end up being more complex. Have also recorded my first lot of audio samples for the audio class, the samples will be placed over the top of my video to create narration once they have had the various effects added.

Not much to post about the video other than the storyboard is complete and I’m due to start recording today.

One step further

Haven’t been doing all that much today, other than write up questions and answers for the multiple choice quiz. Once I had thought of enough questions I downloaded a free quiz maker, smart quiz I have created to be honest. Never thought it would be that easy.
Have finally finished the page headings and buttons for my assessment, lot of hard work and grafting, but I got there. All I have to do now is think about content for the pages, that won’t be hard as the quiz will take up one as will the flash animation I will be creating.

Will have to create a storyboard for the flash animation, gives me something to do over the weekend, or at least gather some final ideas, have this idea of running the text in from different angles, for example, one sentence comes in from the left, while the others come in from the right and top. While I will have a logo animation in the middle.
Will look great when I get it linked to the PowerPoint presentation I am creating in digital media for applications.

Am also up to date in the audio class, have finished the planning, risk assessment and storyboard. So yesterday I created myself a script and recorded the first run of narration for the video I will be making next week.

Will keep you informed of my progress.

Finished all work

Well it’s towards the end of the week now and college has gone fine. Nearing the end of the year when all the assessments start. Don’t currently have anything to do as I have completed all the work required, so I thought id post to my blog and keep you informed of anything new. The big assessment starts next week, not too bad as I have plenty of ideas on what I’m going to be doing, the plans are written for the audio side, while the overall plan is completed, with the video storyboard nearly finished.

Dreamweaver is great fun, so if you ever get the chance to use it like I have. Go for it.

Animation

With not being at college on Monday it has been a very short week, first today was working with animations again and completing the task from last week. That was to create a simple animation, logo, and advert about fire extinguishers.

To be honest it is looking great now it has the buttons and sound added, fairly getting used to using the layers and different features of flash.

Then once I completed the animation I got the chance to use Dreamweaver again, it’s getting very interesting and fun. And I’m looking forward to the HNC next year.

Have now completed the plan, storyboard and risk assessment for the audio class, that’s basically about what I’m going to record and what sound effects will be added.

Secret Missons

With being off college on Monday it has been a long weekend, so now I’m back. Starting with the social Software class, currently undertaking a secret mission we had to generate last week. My chosen mission was to collect 600 gold in 30 minutes using the word bump, managed the task ok, as for the big assessment I have managed to create a animated heading, so that’s looking pretty cool.

Web Pages

Tuesday was taken up with working some more on my web pages for the assessment, a little more working on the heading and buttons for the various pages. Have found myself to come up with some good ideas, ideas I feel make my web pages look professional.

Now I have the software on my computer I have developed the skills to create my own buttons, so this makes my web pages unique and different.

Have just been given today’s task in the Social Software class, seems easy enough, develop a task or mission for a fellow student to carry out.

So all is well so far.

Ideas and Success

Monday morning has gone very quickly to be honest, first I was working with Microsoft Visio, but this time creating flow charts and finishing off the office plans from last week. Next was to finish off my practical assessment for install and maintain computer software, was completed with ease, and now I have passed that particular part.

Over the past couple of days I have been creating some of the heading and buttons for the web page I have to create, I did this using fireworks and Photoshop, and founds I got some really good results.

End of the week

Today I made another ecard in flash, was very interesting because I gave it a happy birthday theme. With the happy appearing from the left hand side, while the birthday appears from the right.
Then I designed my ecard in a way of a strawberry expanding while moving towards the centre of the ecard, giving it a zoom effect. Once the strawberry had moved to the middle I used a explode effect to reveal another word.

This ecard was done using motion tweening, found this way far easier.

I finished the day writing an evaluation report in the audio class about the recent task we had done, was 400 words and easy to be honest.

More hard work

All has gone well so far today, finally got to buy a housed on Gaia online. The task I am doing in the social software class, then I got to furnish it with loads of different things like a bed and sofa, can’t have a house without a bed and sofa can you. The digital still images class was working with filters so I could edit the photos in different ways to improve them, this involved applying effect to a statue, but leaving the background untouched, editing a photo to make it look like somebody’s eye are closed. I did this using the healing brush and liquify filter, currently in the video editing class creating a video about effects. For example zoom and lighting, the movie seems to be coming on well enough and is nearly finished.

The course so far

Well its now mid week of the first week back to college since the Easter holidays, to be honest at this stage there isn’t much to report about. Monday morning I started using Microsoft Visio, was interesting to be honest. Designing various things like office apartments and manager offices, wasn’t too hard, it’s good that I am learning new things each week. As for that big assessment, I have nearly finished the story board. Indicating where things will be in the presentation, so all is well at this stage.

Ideas move forward

Well the week has gone fine so far to be honest. The snow, gales and blizzards have gone, and yes I can finally go do something, rather than sit at home. When I have seen at home I have been concentrating on my ideas for the assessment, this includes what my flash movie will be for the web page and practice ideas for the crossword. Have also been doing some research about health, safety and computing. Something to put on my web page. The web page has to be linked with the presentation. So to make these ideas work I have created a draft page using Dreamweaver, this includes a flash image when you open the page. All the flash image needs now is the play, pause and stop buttons put in place.

All CS3 versions apply

Now its Good Friday, it must be the start of the Easter holidays. What have I planned, not a lot to be honest, revise for the last part of the maths exam and have a play about with web premium.

With the web premium I want to start drawing and testing ideas for my assessment and see weather they will work or not. This will mean looking at other programs within the package, like Fireworks and Dreamweaver. Both could be very beneficial for bring out good results.

The future

Monday morning and I’m thinking how quickly the college year is passing, April already. The college course will be finished around June and July time, then if all goes to plan I will start the HNC in August. Now that is something I am looking forward too, feel I have learnt so since returning to college last year. Am a whole lot more confident when it comes to working with computers, I feel if I was in employment and asked to create a database or spreadsheet it would no longer be a problem.

With the time going so quick, means thinking further than the HNC, where will I be and what will I be doing. Do I take employment or study on toward a Degree after the HNC?

One step further

The week has been superb, feel I am learning so many new things that will help me progress to the HNC. Monday was the easy day, took the theory assessment for spreadsheets and databases. I passed, so that made my day.

Later on in the day I had the usual, made a small video about health and safety in software for applications. The video was about how not to sit in a chair when using a computer. Maths was cancelled to make way for a lecture about risk assessment in the lecture theatre, Important, as I will have to carry out risk assessments as part of the assessment.

Social software on Wednesday consisted researching online chats room and how to use them safety. Edited some more photos in the still images class, one was placing a driver in a car using the path tool.

Find myself getting the hang of Photoshop now, and I finally finished the small video about the bee. Used Flash mostly to make the background movie, then added some sound effect and transcript.

Easy week

I have now found that I am getting a little bit more confident using Flash and Photoshop CS3, considering at the start I hadn’t used the professional version. Have to say they are worth the money, got so many feature’s for carrying out different tasks. Have near enough completed the water pump task using flash, as for Photoshop, I started editing various pictures. One was to move a farmer behind a fence, with a little help I figured it out.

Audio today has been fairly simple, continue creating the audio radio show. I have now got the text of what is going to be recorded, so all that is left to do is find some sound effects. That I did, so all needs to be done is record and edit, then post to Duncan.

My plans coming to light

Has been a good weekend, other than work I have been concentrating on my presentation for the digital media, elements for applications. Have pretty much decided what I am going to be doing and how, one of my ideas is to use Flash to introduce the headings of health and safety. Then I read a book about flash for research purposes, basically to find out how to create a button to introduce the next page.

I am calling it a presentation because the general purpose would be to present the presentation to students who undertake the introductory level of computing.

So this is why the presentation would include a quiz to test the students, see what students know about health and safety. Health and safety is an important factor at the end of the day, and at the end there will be a small video as a run down to remind the students why health and safety is important.

New skills

End of the college week and all has gone as planned, a college week I have enjoyed with the news of passing my numeracy assessment. All classes are going fine as planned, getting that little more experienced using flash, did some interesting things with it today. Created a water pump, so when you pressed play it would animate the pump of water. Other than the small test given I practiced using various methods, for example using transform options on the tool, at the end of the day it is more experience for me and something I will take for granted in the future as a wed developer. So what’s next, one will be more dedicated hard work towards achieving my goal of passing the course, then there’s the HNC, and the final is getting a good rewarding job in the computing industry.