Task 6 Evaluation

Ultimately upon the completion of my project and the work it consisted of I was rather pleased I managed to reconstruct most of if not all of my FMP in such a short scale of time so close to the unit deadline, I was able to show myself that I was able to work under preassure and under short timescales. it also taught me that when I work on big projects that I need to make back up copies of files so that if large files go corrupt I have a backup ready to go instead of having to redo hours upon hours of work all over again.

in the short space of time that we had I also helped my fellow students and tutors in constructing the theme for our class, the theme for our class consisted of a zombie theme where we had models and lighting put up with art and design spread around the classroom.

the art styles of the class consisted of similar design to this image below.

it was aimed at students and designed in such a way to be a general theme so it was more of a classic zombies theme. I helped put some of the boarding and silk throughout the classroom and designed my desk which consisted of maps with graffiti on them to help match the zombie theme, the maps I wanted to help my application stand out for a theme which I worked hard on to put together and spent 20 Pounds on mapping and essentials to hold it together. My area also consisted of some of the previous work I had done in the 2nd and 1st years of college. 

Feedback

I had beta tested and asked for feedback on my app from 2 students in my class, Lewis Wain and Jack Challoner both which helped me beta test for any bugs or missing code which helped push it into the final version and finalize it in tablet form and also helped with some feedback including issues surrounding user friendlyness and questions about how students may react to or behave while out on these journeys. I replied and responded with adding more information to the journeys as Jack said there was not enough information on some of the pages which I agreed with, I then before release upgraded the app to contain more information about the journeys. 

Specialist Factors.

My influence for this project was purely down to culture and marketing, I wanted to know what we had and what we didn't have and how my project could stand out among a crowd, I had analysed what we didn't have and came to the conclusion that students and travellers do not have a mapping system capable of guiding them in first person. Originally I did want to take the application further, and so I did do a little market research in the development process, this consisted of legal issues, data protection, how much money I could potentially make and extras for the application. I discovered that I would have to go through all my photos and cover each license plate and face down to laws on data protection, this knocked me back a little and I decided not to pursue it further, however I still did market research to find out if pedestrians would be willing to pay for such an application if it came into existence.

The answer in turn was yes, and they'd be willing to pay 1 pound a download for something to help them feel more aqauinted to the city this was good news as it showed that I have the potential to create something that could possibly market well and rival other applications. after my research my scale of production had significantly reduced as I did not plan on taking it any further than my final major project for private use, thus its function and form are purely educational based and private to help me achieve the grades and knowledge required to further develop my abilities as a games developer. 

all of this research and knowledge influenced the development of my idea and helped construct its current appearance today, I feel happy I am capable of developing something that could have potential to stand with other apps on a market. 

Task 5 Production

All the Images seen below are most of the images I designed myself for the production of the app. Once I had the idea of what I wanted to do it was fairly easy putting it all together. I had placed all of the images into a image processor and shrunk them down to size, this effectively allowed me to have the application run a bit more conveniently compared to running at a slower speed with larger files. 

within my timeplan I had everything more or less developed, and was more or less on schedule for the summer show and the development of the application I had named " the students guide to plymouth ". I then continued to spend the weeks placing my application together until I ran into several complications on the 30th of may which involved flash proffessional locking up and removing all my work. this set me back significantly and under alot of preassure I decided I had to try and do it again.

 this became rather unfortunate as I had to replace some of the code and every single frame and mechanic all over again. this in turn lead to several drawbacks including a lack of some journeys, some sounds and finishing touches i'd of liked to of added to my FMP. during this time of development I had ended up spending long hours in college to catch up to my original point and finish the project, one day leading an 11 hr session of working in flash and fixing many many errors but eventually with sheer determination I did manage to complete it to a presentable state for the summer show and transfer it onto a Nexus tablet in working order. 

Task 4 Detailing Designs and Production Timeline

After my presentations and design ideas I started production on the general outlines of how I was going to design my application. I started to develop flash proffessional in a manner where each journey had a seperate area of the timeline.

this stock photo shows examples of timeline where certain parts have seperate areas, this is essentially how I had to design my application, although I had to do it frame by frame which consisted of about 300+ frames altogether. 

I had also had to go out and take 300 odd images also including journeys from town to plymbridge as seen below, journeys to saltram and the barbican among some of the popular places people enjoy during the summer, these developments were very time consuming as during the time the weather was not up to standard and taking electrical equipment out in the rain was not very convenient. 

The Journeys took several hours each to capture, and I had to ensure the images were captured and saved before returning the equipment to the ERC suite in PCA.

During these developments it became rather evident that I had to develop a time plan that would aid me safely into the summer show and deadline periods. this time plan consisted of taking the images and if possible videos, editing them down to the correct size and placing them with code into the application. 

Task 3

Task 3 tasks us with the job of doing a little research into our FMP and how we can create a portfolio. we had started off with the idea of sketchbooks, and had did a little research into sketchbooks. However; the work that I am primarily focused on is not illustration or drawing. I am currently working on a application for tablets. still; I continued to do a small amount of research into the idea of sketchbooks and went onto youtube to have a look at the different approaches other people have done their sketchbooks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfU0LkDaw7M

The Link above takes one to a video describing one artist's personal experience on how he designed his sketchbook, his drawings are very detailed, they do not consist greatly of colour but are heavily designed with their drawings. the amount of detail and time it must take to create such detailed concept arts must be lengthy.

He also talks about how a sketchbook can be used for a personal use where you are able to create several different drawings and yet continue to create another drawing of similar spec to correct the original errors made in the previous drawing.

my FMP primarily consists of an application for IPAD which is heavily based on its ability to help students navigate through the city upon arrival in their first years of college or university. it will consist of a pyramid design to its software, where one option leads down to the final optional selection, which in turn will guide students to their locations.

Although the method of my work will probably more represent a tree diagram, where one selection leads to 2 and that option will lead to 3, and the last branch of options will be the location held within the area. 

Upon deciding that my initial development of the app I wanted to create would be of a pyramid design, I started researching into different types of approaches to developing the app, per say what icons could appear like, or what the front page could appear like, or even the menu's. I had started to look at images similar to the one below, to try and brainstorm the kind of images i'd like to appear. I knew that my app had to be map related as it was a map application for students so I thought how could I go about creating something which symbolizes navigation? 

During this process I also looked at designs of view, I was still trying to work out if it would be better to develop an application in a birds eye view like google maps or to create something different. I looked at diagrams of buildings and architectural design to see the kind of approach I could have, after much consideration I decided against this, as another student in my class had already took upon the idea, this then lead me to something more original and I wanted to then create a map which could be viewed in first person. 

these ideas gained leverage from the popular voting I had in the surveys I sent out to both students and pedestrians in plymouth,  then decided something first person or video like could be used as a potential application.

After the thought process I wanted to have a look at different types of app layouts and brainstorm how mine could appear. this lead me to look at things like the above, layouts of applications on phones, and whether or not mine could follow a similar example, however I did realize that these different designs were awfully similar so I needed to also do something somewhat similar and decided to create my own icons with consist of things of the following....

After much modification and editing these symbols became the final versions of what I put into my application, I decided I didn't want symbols I instead wanted colourful indications of what students could expect and the names of the locations. 

I also during this time period designed several presentations documenting what I intended to do, why I intended to do it, and how I was going to do it. 

In these presentations I had discussed with my peers what I intended to do, these presentational ideas consisted of the factor that students who come down to study in plymouth, normally don't know the city and are completely unaware of what is actually inside the city, so I wanted to provide something to those students to help them feel more comfortable with the city, not only that but during my original ideas generation I had thought to myself that not a single app provides first person images to a user that is capable of guiding them from A - B. this I thought was a wonderful idea as it was completely original and I found that the reception to this idea was fairly positive, not only in my presentation but in my surveys too. 

upon discussing why and what I was planning on doing, I then continued to explain how I was going to do it. I explained that I needed to take out a tripod and camera and take photos from A - B on each journey and that i'd need to modify the images to ensure they fit correctly without problems. 

Task 2

We've been tasked with doing some research and development and during my development process I designed a survey which I sent out to be class mates, which received the following feedback to help the developement of the type of application which I will be designing.

Feedback 1

Question Answer How Old are you? 17-20 Do you think you'd benefit from knowing the city better? Maybe would you invest in an app that could navigate you better? No Is it something you'd talk about to your friends? No would you prefer to use a tablet or a phone? Phone Would you prefer a direct step by step video guide, or reviews about points of interest? Reviews

Feedback 2

Question Answer How Old are you? 17-20 Do you think you'd benefit from knowing the city better? Maybe would you invest in an app that could navigate you better? Maybe Is it something you'd talk about to your friends? No would you prefer to use a tablet or a phone? Phone Would you prefer a direct step by step video guide, or reviews about points of interest? Reviews

Feedback 3

Question Answer How Old are you? 17-20 Do you think you'd benefit from knowing the city better? Yes would you invest in an app that could navigate you better? No Is it something you'd talk about to your friends? Maybe would you prefer to use a tablet or a phone? Phone Would you prefer a direct step by step video guide, or reviews about points of interest? Both

Feedback 4

Question Answer How Old are you? 17-20 Do you think you'd benefit from knowing the city better? No would you invest in an app that could navigate you better? No Is it something you'd talk about to your friends? No would you prefer to use a tablet or a phone? Phone Would you prefer a direct step by step video guide, or reviews about points of interest? Step by Step Video/Images

Feedback 5

Question Answer How Old are you? 17-20 Do you think you'd benefit from knowing the city better? No would you invest in an app that could navigate you better? No Is it something you'd talk about to your friends? No would you prefer to use a tablet or a phone? Phone Would you prefer a direct step by step video guide, or reviews about points of interest? Step by Step Video/Images

feedback 6

Question Answer How Old are you? 17-20 Do you think you'd benefit from knowing the city better? Yes would you invest in an app that could navigate you better? Maybe Is it something you'd talk about to your friends? No would you prefer to use a tablet or a phone? Phone Would you prefer a direct step by step video guide, or reviews about points of interest? Both

These surveys were taken from my classmates, but I thought I should do a little bit of research outside of college, so I sent the survey out to 5 others unrelated to PCA and only know that I'm creating an app. these were the results.

Feedback 1

Question	Answer
How Old are you?	21+
Do you think you'd benefit from knowing the city better?	Maybe
would you invest in an app that could navigate you better?	Yes
Is it something you'd talk about to your friends?	Yes
would you prefer to use a tablet or a phone?	Phone
Would you prefer a direct step by step video guide, or reviews about points of interest?	Step by Step Video/Images

Feedback 2 

Question Answer How Old are you? 21+ Do you think you'd benefit from knowing the city better? Yes would you invest in an app that could navigate you better? No Is it something you'd talk about to your friends? Maybe would you prefer to use a tablet or a phone? Phone Would you prefer a direct step by step video guide, or reviews about points of interest? Both

Feedback 3

Question Answer How Old are you? 21+ Do you think you'd benefit from knowing the city better? Yes would you invest in an app that could navigate you better? Yes Is it something you'd talk about to your friends? Maybe would you prefer to use a tablet or a phone? Phone Would you prefer a direct step by step video guide, or reviews about points of interest? Step by Step Video/Images

Feedback 4

Question Answer How Old are you? 17-20 Do you think you'd benefit from knowing the city better? Maybe would you invest in an app that could navigate you better? Yes Is it something you'd talk about to your friends? Maybe would you prefer to use a tablet or a phone? Phone Would you prefer a direct step by step video guide, or reviews about points of interest? Reviews

Feedback 5

Question Answer How Old are you? Under 12 17-20 Do you think you'd benefit from knowing the city better? Yes would you invest in an app that could navigate you better? Yes Is it something you'd talk about to your friends? Maybe would you prefer to use a tablet or a phone? Phone Would you prefer a direct step by step video guide, or reviews about points of interest? Both

Feedback 6

Question	Answer
How Old are you?	21+
Do you think you'd benefit from knowing the city better?	Yes
would you invest in an app that could navigate you better?	Yes
Is it something you'd talk about to your friends?	Yes
would you prefer to use a tablet or a phone?	Phone
Would you prefer a direct step by step video guide, or reviews about points of interest?	Step by Step Video/Images

Feedback 7

Question Answer How Old are you? 21+ Do you think you'd benefit from knowing the city better? Yes would you invest in an app that could navigate you better? Yes Is it something you'd talk about to your friends? Yes would you prefer to use a tablet or a phone? Tablet Would you prefer a direct step by step video guide, or reviews about points of interest? Both

Here are my tally's for the type of designs and methods.

Type of Guide

Reviews - 2/13
Both - 5/13
Step by step video/Images - 5/13

Would they Investment

No - 5/13
Yes/maybe - 8/13

then I believe the information on beneficial mapping, was equal in Yes and No answers.


It is then that from the above information that more people would invest in a application that's capable of guiding people thoroughly through a city, and that equal numbers would prefer both or either Video/Images guides rather than just reviews.

From this my application more than likely will consist of video/image guiding through the city and to popular places to see and go.

Task 1 Outline Ideas

Applications in research

History

Apps were not what we consider them today, and their history is a long one, and much longer than what people actually expected them to be. people consider apps as something that had only existed in the previous years, the thin lines between apple Iphones and Android where most think apps would of first appeared. but this is not the case.

Apps were considered back in the day when " snake " first arrived, a game that was built into a mobile telecommunications device, most people would of thought them as games on phones, but were actually considered " applications ". Snake followed by other applications such as " tic tac toe " " Tetris " and " pong."

Soon this changed the perception of mobile phones, and as generations continued, reception area's grew, prices dropped, batteries improved and more and more people started carrying these devices and they became more than just a novelty. 

as the crave for handsets increased people wanted more from their handsets but the problem was that manufacturers did not have the supplies or the resources required to satisfy public demand and then the internet was born. it was from this point developers managed to create 1G which was a wide area protocol which had less restraints than standard internet access. it was from this point that developers were capable of developing WAP and managed to get it from where it was, to where it is today.

Apps come in a variety of forms, but back then only came in the forms of games, now there is a significant difference in apps and games in mobile technology between then and now. which comes down to processing speed and internet speed, which have significant power, compared to its past counterparts.

Development of Applications

Animation - Animation for applications mainly consisted of developing menu's, button's, and game mechanic design, apart from development of Menu's and buttons, animation also plays a core part in animating characters and icons, providing the app in question has characters or cartoons to animate. mainly the entire structure of an app revolves around animation, and normally requires fair amounts of work.

3D Modelling - The modelling part of applications, requires probably minimal work, as characters developed into applications are normally drawn by the texturing artist. you do however get applications with 3D elements, whether it be scenes or characters or animations, the 3D modeller would have a significant input in these cases. 

Concept Artist - The concept artist has a major role in all developments of any application or game in question, they develop all of the pre development pieces to the application, including characters, maps, items, surroundings, and can have different elements in the application, with different concepts, which is the purpose of the concept artist, allowing the development team, to choose from different concepts to which they can choose from.

Leading companies in application development

one of the biggest companies leading app development, is probably Apple Inc. a company founded in 1976 they originally started out as computer developers, but then changed their name from Apple Computers, to Apple Inc, to match their market in entertainment devices. after a series of successful launches through the Ipod, Ipad, and the Iphone, they had also focussed heavily on the app market. 

Tools and techniques used

For animation and development of projects in history it was a struggle for animators to create their projects, because at the time they had no way of creating them in a process which would be swift and efficient, fortunately they discovered a great way to " animate " which was to draw images on paper and then draw another image on a following piece of paper say a notebook, but move it only slightly, creating a animation by flicking pages through speed. now this was a very time consuming process but provided great entertainment for a 10 minute episode of a cartoon. 

now there are new ways of creating animations such as using flash animator or using a program called renderman, which is capable of producing high quality images for animation. naturally people will draw for concept art to develop characters, maybe even to aid in the animation parts of the projects, and their are still some small time companies who like to utilise the method of doing notepad animation for different appearances and preferences, but most people will use their own programs, or maybe even flash animator. 

Skills required

The abilities to animate and draw are skills that could be both learnt and acquired through the job process and/or through the education system. but a great deal of work and ability is needed to acquire the skills to build on development in 3D and animation. One needs to have the knowledge of animation programs like for example flash and to model the knowledge of 3DS max, not to mention they need to be effective and efficient with the ability to be focussed on the tasks at hand. 3DS max and flash, and other programs need a great deal of concentration and precise work to be able to create good pieces of work.

Theme

Theme's will consist of mature and animated approaches to each section of the application, each section of the mapping system will have its own theme, clubs for clubs, outdoors for outdoors etc etc. The themes will not be unrelated to the mapping topic at hand. it will be colour orientated, and will not have any black and white themes, will use great emphasis on colour and design. 

Influences

my influences consist of the general idea that I think people need a interactive map to aid them get used to their environments, creating an interactive map for students could really help for people to feel comfortable, and for people to travel to points of interest for their own reasons. creating this application would create incredible amounts of easy access. this would enable people to enjoy a new environment much quicker than what they would if they did not have some sort of interactive travel guide. .