Faculty Member, University of Plymouth Colleges (UPC)
course manager FdA Animation/FdA Multimedia
Cornwall College
About
I have completed the first year of my part time studies for the mentioned course, and have re started my second year.
I have enjoyed the course so far, completing modules in: Negotiated Practice A, Invisible Architecture and Histories and Futures.
The first year of my course has proven very challenging due to lack of free time. I completed the first year successfully, so I was very pleased with that.
For Negotiated Practice module I worked as part of a team putting together a curatorial piece.
Our aim was to develop an online and open-source Application Programming Interface (API) designed and optimised for curators and artists, under the name Curatos. The API was user friendly, allowing both expert and novice the chance to make optimum use of its tools.
It is now possible to organise and manage a portfolio of their work in an online space, with the specific focus of eventual display of the work for public consumption. Users in the near future will be able to experiment with the content provided, or enhance or supplement their collections with data retrieved from various offline sources. Assembled collections could be parsed for output using specially designed Flash files chosen from a library.
For Invisible Architecture I examined Computer games and the effects of immersion, play and memory on their design and how they affected the user.
The invisible architecture I chose to look at was the brain and the regions within it involved with playing or creating games. Through further research I decided to look at why players chose a particular look to a character. I then came up with a character that went against the typical norm for games such as Unreal Tournament. I wanted to create someone that players would not immediately shoot, but try and communicate with or just ask “why are you here?”
This would hopefully add to the immersive qualities of the game. I also put together a number of small animations demonstrating how the character would move.
For Histories and Futures I produced a run me and a read me file to demonstrate a concept within my field of interest.
As my interest is animation I decided to explore the notion that storyboards are a programming language for 3d software, to generate animations and meshes. I produced an essay on this which formed part of the instructions on a storyboard as part of the scene descriptions. This in turn led to the creation of a Flash movie showing how the ideas would work. Again this was all presented to a group of my peers etc.
In my second year I am exploring the use of Second Life as a tool for education.
Contact Information
01209 617649
