My App Idea

The goal of my app, FaceScape, is to create a family friendly, interactive platform whereby people of all ages with access to a smartphone are able to communicate in an enjoyable space. Paired with Google Cardboard, the app allows users to enter a virtual chat room where you can speak to friends and family in a simulated space. The user is represented by an avatar of their choice as they manoeuvre around the world with other users that they have added (see Figure 1).

To move around, you move your head with the Google Cardboard attached to your phone as it uses the gyroscope in the phone. For the full experience of chat, users should have earphones plugged in so the stereo allows for better immersion.

Microsoft is working on a more ambitious project called Room2Room which projects a person into a room as a 3D hologram using Kinect technologies. The difference with my idea is that the user in the virtual world is represented by an avatar. Similarly Second Life is a free 3D virtual world where users can socialize, connect and create using free voice and text chat using avatars. My App would be incorporating Google Cardboard to navigate the field of view instead of a common PC monitor.

Strengths
– Free to join
– Full 360 interactivity
– Stereo soundscape
– Customisable avatar
– Customisable environments
Weakness
– Need fast internet connection
– Arms get sore after long periods of use
– Navigation around the virtual world would be hard without additional directional keys on phone

My next step to start creating this project would be to learn how to use Unity to create virtual reality experiences for Android and iOS apps running in Google Cardboard. Unity is a popular development platform for creating 2D and 3D multiplatform games and interactive experiences.

Figure 1: FaceScape Interactive Concept 1

Locative media – Backyard

It was a Thursday, not the best day to organise a 23^rd birthday party. I thought, why not celebrate settling in a new city and making new friends. The BBQ cleaned for a fresh feed. The weather gloomy but that won’t stop us.

On this table, three people came. One by one they each brought a gift, sweet and thoughtful.

On this table, we chatted and started cooking the veggies and snags close by. It sizzled warmth over us as the cold breeze kicked in. Soft music played in the background as the sun said goodnight.

On this table, we filled our tummies up after having seconds and thirds. Smiles as the cake came out. It didn’t get fully consumed, so in the fridge it went.

On this table, the night had to end early as uni was just around the corner. It was quite enjoyable even with just a few.

SEO for my site

SEO is the term that encompasses the methods you can use to ensure the visibility of your website and its content on search engine result pages. Google is paying big attention to user experience (UX) so providing a good experience for visitors would encourage repeat site visits. I will implement the following changes to my own site for better search engine results.

1. Keywords

Keyword research depends on what my blog posts are about. I will start to use keywords in the title of the blogpost, google combs the page for relevance to add to the list of keyword. Having the keyword in the first sentence of my first paragraph would also help.

Have the keyword throughout the post although Keyword Stuffing, the Overuse of keywords on your pages, may affect the readability of your site and Google’s ability to overcome keyword tactics.

2. Internal linking

Internal linking is a link from one page directing to another from the same domain. This is something I never really paid attention to when browsing the internet although I do end up clicking on to them to find out more.

This strategy will allow my site to improve ranking of certain keywords by linking similar pages with the same keywords. It will also provide my visitors with more reading options under the relevant topic to keep them using my site.

3. Title tags & Meta description

The function of a title tag is to tell visitors and search engines what the site or post is about in the most accurate and concise way. This will allow keywords in my title tag to show up highlighted after users have typed the keywords in the search engine.

Meta description is something I should be aware of. It is the short paragraph of text that appears under the URL on search page results. It will help increase the chances of people clicking on to my page.

Hour of Code – Programming

Javascript is the world’s most widely used computer language. When I worked on the Hour of Code task, I didn’t think that I would struggle as much as I did. My aim was to rush through it, as on the surface level it was aimed at kids. Once I slowed down, it was apparent that it was like learning another language from scratch. The tasks were built to allow users to slowly understand different commands using javascript. Who would have thought that a loop that repeats code over and over would be used in multiple ways.

Learn the basics and use them as building blocks is what I feel like I have learned doing this exercise. Most computer language only has 100 words or commands. Once you have taught the computer how to do an action once using the sequence of commands, you can make up your own name for that action – which is pretty amazing.

I am curious to know the amount of coding involved in programs that I frequently use such as Adobe Premiere and Photoshop. There are multiple tools that are in these programs which do entirely different actions when activated. You don’t really know what is under the hood as you only concentrate on the surface level of the program.

I feel like there will be a strong relationship between programming and filmmaking as films become more interactive. There will be roles in the film industry that require programming knowledge as barriers in digital technology is slowly being broken-down.

 

Audio editing

For our Digital story assignment, we filmed in the Dandenong ranges national park. One of the scenes that we had was where the protagonist talks to her boyfriend on the phone. Specifically, I wanted to know why and how the sound of a voice through the phone would sound the way it should. I also felt that, in the wild, there would be a lot of unwanted background sound. I have had recent experience with Garageband and Audacity, but I prefer to use Audition or Premiere.

We had an audio editing workshop that highlighted the problem I had.

INTRODUCTION TO AUDIO EDITING
Dr. Camille Robinson p.40

Following the exercise in the class maximised my ability to manage the background noise in this clip. This was done by using Audition and looking throughout the spectrum and finding a bright straight line. I didn’t think it would be visually simple to target the humming noise and eliminate it using a DeHummer effect.

Man dialogue phone test

With the project in mind, I asked the teacher questions regarding sounds out of the phone and he came back with a technical solution. His suggestion was that to replicate the sound on the phone on Audition, I should go to Filter and EQ > Parametric Equaliser and set the High Pass Filter to 700Hz and Low pass Filter to 2000Hz. I took this information home and examined the difference. I edited the audio clip below in Premiere (since I do not own Audition) and added a filters to hear the difference. In order they are: Lowpass with a 1373.5 Hz cutoff, Highpass with a 1373.5 Hz, Bandpass with a 1373.5 Hz center and finally Highpass Filter to 700Hz and Lowpass Filter to 2000Hz.

Before I edited the clip, I thought that the suggested change from the teacher would sound like Bandpass, but you can actually hear the slight difference which sounds much like you would talking on the phone.

Raster vs Vector

My first choice of digital drawing is to use Bitmap or Raster. Bitmap formats are best for images that need to have a wide range of colour gradations and detail. When the image is zoomed out, it has a smooth and natural look. However, when it is zoomed in, jagged edges are visible. 

It has a smooth and natural look when not zoomed in but when you are zoomed up close you can see jagged edges. As each pixel is assigned a colour, it is hard to control the pixelation when scaled and would be more noticeable.

Dead Road – Opening title (2016)

For our Digital story project we wanted our first scene to include a title screen which tracked with the movement of the road. I felt that, if the title was made using bitmap, it would ultimately become pixelated as it came closer to the frame. Therefore, I used the inbuilt title tool in After Effects which used vector algorithms.

Unfortunately, the use of pixels is still a major component in the video file format. In 2012 the University of Bath released news demonstrating a vector-based video codec with a press release asking “is the pixel about to die?”. Nothing has really come of it since then as there is more content being produced. I know that at the end of this the title won’t retain the advantages of being created initially as a vector graphic.

The flipped lecture on drawing digitally mentioned the importance of the relationship between the aesthetics of your project with the digital drawing. I added a drop shadow to separate the title with the video to make it more distinguishable. This is to highlight that the title isn’t actually in the shot but only acts as a title for the audience to experience.

Hashtag research

I started by identifying the genre of our digital story and using it as a foundation for hash tags.

I didn’t really understand how to decipher hashtag statistics on Twubs so I started using Hashtagify.me and eventually used a free trial for ritetag.com which had more information available.

Using the #thriller I found that there was a strong correlation with eBooks/books and readers. This isn’t the audience we necessarily want to appeal to with our short film.

 

hashtags data by Ritetag.com

I then explored the ‘film’ and ‘thriller’ hashtag in correlation to see similar hashtags. The horror hash tag kept appearing and considering its popularity I thought it would be a good way to market our film.

The geographical use of #Horror is more frequent in the US with 38.64% in comparison to Australia which only has 1.95% of users using the hash tag. Publishing the hash tag accompanied with English text would be beneficial as 84.62% are English speakers according to the graph on Ritetag.com

I looked at the popular accounts that used #horror. The first few were accounts that were associated with book readers but as I continued looking through the top list there were many that are film based.

#horror had a strong link to #film which would make it an ideal hash tag to use for our digital story film.

Using VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol)

My experience using VOIP was through Skype with my CMWP group. We used Skype to discuss the logistics of our film, primarily how to promote the film and when we should publish it. It was a productive conversation and overall, the discussion went fairly well.

A main benefit of using Skype is its free communication (as long as you have internet connection). This means you can Skype from virtually anywhere. Instead of having to plan to physically meet up to discuss our project, it was much more simple to have a dedicated time slot for a Skype conversation. For example, since I live 40 mins away from RMIT, variables such as train time, traffic or weather are eliminated. Just a few clicks away and we were connected, I don’t know why we didn’t use Skype sooner. I found that the ease of Skype rendered our conversation as a group extremely efficient.

Our voices were fairly clear. I could hear every word each member said. I didn’t have to project my own voice, so it was like a normal conversation as if they were next to me. If the audio failed there was the option for us to use the chat which we didn’t end up using.

One of the few downfalls of the interaction was that we attempted to video chat to each other but throughout our discussion the video stream kept disconnecting at random times. It must have been the internet since Skype relies heavily on the connection. There were also times when we would talk over each other because we have no way of knowing when one person is about to stop or start talking.

In summary, I found Skype to be very useful for our group interaction. I am excited to see how the VOIP communication medium will evolve, and what will be in store for the future.

 

Melbourne Noir

The broken promise

The call

The lover

Death

Flipping the classroom

This clip introduces the problem within a traditional classroom and tackles the issue with a solution that reinvents the learning space. It uses stop animation as a device to convey the message in a playful tone. The decision to have a optimistic background track softens the mood and encourages a lighthearted approach to the issue at hand.