Blog Reviews

First Person(Emma Hawke):

What is being communicated?

It appears to be communicating forest fires, the bright coloured tree looks like its on fire however it also looks like its simply changing colours in the season

Is it clear?

Fairly clear, could be a bit more obvious though. The second image I had to do a fair amount of looking around to find the link to the last page

Does it answer the brief?

Yes it does.

How might it be improved?

(sorry, this may end up being long)

Starting off, I would suggest adding smoke in the first image, this will help guid the eye much better to the burning tree however it will also make it more clear that the tree is on fire and that the leaves aren’t just dying. That is what needs to be improved on the first image. second one I suggest working a little more on cleaning up the branches as white spaces are visible when the clouds darken, which brings me to my next point. The clouds don’t loop smoothly, this gives a jarring experience. To fix this I suggest that you have a small section of just empty sky on either side of the image, this may help fixing this and prevent attention being pulled away from where it needs to be, the tree in the centre of the image. I would also suggest having everything but that tree greyscale, maybe use a layer mask with a greyscale adjustment layer to remove the colours from everything. Upping the contrast of just the tree could also help with this.

Second Person(Cameron):

What is being communicated?

It was a bit difficult to tell at first and needed some explanation. Essentially it is on how the Witcher creator is suing the game company. It also has a link to his wiki.

Is it clear?

Not at all

Does it answer the brief?

Not entirely

Can it be improved?

Finding a less pixelated of the creator would be a good start. Finding ways to bring focus to certain areas would also be a good idea. For example, remove the thing in the top and have the guy clearer. Desaturate the background then adding some animation, doesn’t have to be major.

Third Person(Emma Clarke):

What is being communicated?

Animal adoption, funny and cute dogs as well as a list of dog breed

Is it clear?

Fairly clear, would be clearer if the second image wasn’t so big

Does it answer the brief?

Yes it does

Can it be improved?

To start with, the second image is too large, maybe export it smaller. The first animation would be better if it looped smoother. The dog’s head also tilts a bit too far and thus makes it rather unnatural, tilting it a bit less would make it less unnerving

Fourth Person(Aaron):

What is being communicated?

A specific view on choices within World Of Warcraft, specifically which team you join

Is it clear?

Not entirely, focus is difficult especially on second image

Does it answer the brief?

Partially, no visible animation

Can it be improved?

Decrease the size of the second image. Add some animation, perhaps a glow?

 

Other people’s reviews+my responses

 

Review(Emma Hawke):

What is being communicated?

This series of webpages encourage the user to interact with them in order to lead the user to the artist’s channel at the end. This could be a way of promoting the Scarlett Rose’s work or encouraging others to listen to her music.

Response:

This is what I was aiming for.

 

Is it clear?

I think the message is very clear from the start as the first webpage features artwork with is specifically drawn to match Rose’s style. The name of the webpage also pertains to one of her songs — ‘Melody of a Murderer’. The second page also features a flattering picture of Scarlett Rose, again, promoting her work and not criticising it.

Response:

Same as previous statement

 

Does it answer the brief?

I think this interactive webpage answers the brief as the first page has an animated GIF witch catches the user’s attention and keeps their focus on the part of the page which is a working link. The second webpage also relates to both the subject matter and first webpage, keeping true to the website’s theme. The second webpage contains a working link to Scarlett Rose’s YouTube channel. This ties the work together nicely as as he has been the continuous theme throughout the webpages and is the overall inspiration for the work.

Response:

The initial plan was to have the link lead to the the song that inspired the artwork however I decided against this

 

Can it be improved?

Though the website is compete on its own, you might want to consider experimenting with adding sound to one or more of the webpages as Scarlett Rose’s channel largely revolves around music. You could also incorporate lyrics in the form of typography and try out different fonts. This could give your work an additional message or keep it in theme with the gothic aesthetic.

Response:

I will take this into consideration. At one point in time I did consider placing lyrics however I chose not to do this as this would draw attention away from where I wanted.

 

Review(Dan):

What is being communicated?

2 slender looking people ball room dancing with a 3d overlay with the link going to the youtube Scarlett rose

Response:

Not entirely sure what you are saying here

 

Is it clear?

The inspiration is clear however from my perspective not knowing the youtube and the significance of how the two merge is not clear from my point of view

Response:

I am not sure what you mean by this, what I had attempted to do was give a feel of Scarlett’s music without needing the audio

 

Does it answer the brief?

Yes

Response:

Ok?

 

Can it be improved?

Not from what I can see.

Response:

Thank you

 

Review(Emma Clarke):

What is being communicated?

Something to do with dancing and singing.

Response:

That is sort of correct, it is bringing attention to a specific music artist

 

Is it clear?

I think it’s clear at first that it’s either going to be about dancing/singing but the second page doesn’t make it very clear what it’s about.

Response:

The second image is the artist of the music, its meant to show the viewer who this musical artist is.

 

Does it answer the brief?

It does answer the brief by being interactive.

Response:

No response needed

 

Can it be improved?

Make it a bit clearer about what it’s supposed to be about (referring to second image).

Response:

I can try add her name? Although I feel this would ruin the feel of the image

 

Review(Aaron):

What is being communicated?

you should watch Scarlett Rose on youtube

Response:

 

 

Is it clear?

I guess

Response:

You guess? That is really helpful

 

Does it answer the brief?

it might do

Response:

No response

 

Can it be improved?

probably, do more

Response:

A little more information would help. I need to know what I can do

 

Making a website

First step: get em images(to use and to reference

Step 2: Do le art(this was necessary for me as I had a drawn layer)

This is where the program I use for drawing is installed, on my hard drive

Brush settings for sketching

Using a pose reference, I do a rough pose sketch which I then scale to how I want it. I use different colours for different characters

I had begun to line the drawing when I had realised that I forgot to sketch the outfits, so I did so quickly then finished lining. After this I adjusted the brightness to near black, I do this as I never use pure colours even when lining.

I then used the magic wand tool to select around the mannequins and then used a select brush to clean I. After this I inverted selection, turned off the line layer and used the paint-bucket to fill in the selection. I do this so that I am less likely to go over the lines when colouring an image

I created an additional layer and lowered the opacity, this layer is meant to look like veil. I also renamed the layers for housekeeping. I began to colour on the colour layer, having protected the alpha

I used hue and saturation to dragon the veil

I noticed a few mistakes I had made while lining so I fixed them

Resized and then exported to a photoshop document(.psd)

Opened the image in photoshop and created a Hue/Saturation and a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer just above the background 

Adjusted the background to fit in with the marionettes better, cool yet dreamy is the sort of look I was going for

Added a layer above the marionette group and clipped it to the group

Changed the layer kind to colour burn and used blue to colour in shaded areas

Used gaussian blur and eraser at 2% flow to smooth the shading

Animate em!

Duplicated the layers twice then created 2 

Step 3: Cut up and make into a site

Interactive media- UX,UI and wireframe

UX is the user experience, it is how the actual experience of the program feels

UI is the user interface, its what you see and interact with

Wireframes are essentially the structure of the website. Its the code that tells what goes where and how it operates. So for example, when you are able to click on a certain part of the page, its the wireframe that is saying that you can click.

Gif website

I started with a picture I had taken of the barbed wire

I then edited out the one wire bit by bit on separate layers, adding frames as I go along.

I then did the same backwards.

The end result is an animated gif.

I then took the necessary steps to make it a url