Chantel\’s blog

Today was the fifteenth and final day of my placement with Online Learning Australia. I am so surprised that the three weeks are up already. It seems as though it was only a day ago that I began my placement with the organisation.

I began the day by going through the Learning Module from yesterday and implementing images into both the Module itself and the MLI’s contained within the Module. In doing so I managed to practice reading code within Dreamweaver in order to alter simple features such as size and position of the images within the Learning Module.

Following this however, I learned how to implement images into rollover, click and point activities and response oriented activities. I was surprised at how detailed and complicated this turned out be. I had to put much effort into sizing the images and cropping them because each different type of activity had a different sizing for its images. Most of the images were also in the form of .swf files which made the process even more complex.

However, I found it incredibly satisfying when my images worked and appeared in the Learning Module the way I had planned.

Following this, I went through the storyboard in search of other images I could input, and also checked the learning module to see if there were any aspects that did not sync up to the storyboard. This took quite a while as the storyboard had almost 70 pages in it, from what I recall.

I then did some stock photography searching for upcoming images I might implement into the module; which again, took quite some time as the images I was searching for were particularly specific in nature.
Then, very abruptly, the day was over. I saved all of my backups to their source file so that the multimedia developers there could access any of the images I had uploaded, if they needed to.

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement, and am so grateful for the opportunity that the ICT Achievers programme has given me in allowing me to gain insight into a possible future career path within the multimedia industry. I feel as though I have learned a lot in the short time spent at my placement, and will take away many fond memories.

This will be my last post in regards to my placement, however, perhaps I may post in the future, in regards to my vodcast I am hoping to produce to recount my placement. Until then, I wish all the other ICT Achievers all the best with their placements, and hope that they get out of it what I did.

Today I continued working on the cartoon mascot animation which I had begun yesterday. Again, I found that it was taking much longer than I expected. However, I was soon given another task. This task involved working on a different learning module, first, implementing images into the interface.

As simple as it may sound, it is actually a rather difficult process. There was a great deal of Photoshop use in order to crop images, give them appropriate boarders which fit correctly and contained layer masks, resize large images and select appropriate pictures according to the clients specifications. This also involved looking once again at the images collected in istock, and selecting the most usable ones for integration into the module. Although there were many images I had found to be appropriate, ultimately only four were chosen to be used. This really gave me an indication of how difficult it can be to please a client all of the time.

Following this, I was given the task of also implementing images into the MLI content of the learning module. This was one of the more challenging tasks of the day. It involved reading parts of Dreamweaver code to identify image identities, properties and locations. Although initially it mostly looked like gibberish to me, by the end of the day I felt confident in looking at the code and understanding important parts of it to get the general idea. I found this task particularly enjoyable because it was a challenge; and I also found it extremely rewarding when I managed to complete the process from start to finish with an image, completely on my own.

I also began to create a graphic displaying various logos of the company. This was again, to be used in the learning module, but not in an MLI. As I am still working on this graphic, I will have to upload it to the module tomorrow.

It is hard to believe that tomorrow will be my last day at Online Learning Australia. It feels as though the three weeks have gone by so fast. However, I am very grateful for all that I have learned during my placement, and am so very thankful for all of the members at my placement who sacrificed their time to assist me in broadening my understanding in the field of multimedia and design.

Today I continued working on resizing, framing and cropping the images left unfinished from yesterday. However, this task didn’t last me too long, so I was given a new task.

The new task entailed producing a front page module interface for a particular brand. This was to be done quite similarly to the interface I created for the Reject Shop. However, in this instance, I was given an example of a sample interface, which could not be used because of certain aspects disliked by the client.

I was to reproduce this front page module interface using fireworks, and had to incorporate a series of pictures as specified by the client, meanwhile following a strict set of colours, as also specified by the client.

I found this activity particularly useful as it assisted me in recapping some of the old skills I had learned in creating such interfaces in fireworks, and I appreciated the opportunity to refresh these skills.

Following the completion of this task, I was to edit, create and animate a series of “mascots” for the particular company. This was an extremely enjoyable task, although it was a challenging one in that I had to replicate in graphics, a photograph, along with a cartoon-like animation.

This activity was particularly lengthy, and as I still have not yet completed this animation, I will have to continue working on it tomorrow. I may also consider doing various variations of the animation, for more choice variety.

Today I began the day by quickly checking over my animations from yesterday. This did not take me too long and it was not long before I was introduced to my next task.

I was given the task of first, looking for stock photos of particular characters and items as requested by the storyboard for a particular learning module. This took me quite a while as I also had to make an extensive list of the graphics that were missing from the stock, and graphics which may perhaps have to be created.

Following this, I was introduced to an interesting website called istock photo. In this website I was required to look for specific stock images which we still did not have, so that they could be purchased and used for the module. I was extremely surprised at how many stock photos and graphics this website had, as it took me a very long time to find all of the specific photos I was looking for. It was in searching for these photos that I also realised that many clients can be quite specific when they request certain graphics for their learning modules. More than often, I could only find one photo out of the entire collection of relevant photographs which perfectly fit the client’s request.

Once I had selected the most appropriate photographs, they were sent off to be reviewed, and the final set of photographs to be purchased was obtained.

My task which followed this was to collect all of the photographs and edit them so that they could be implemented easily into the learning modules. I began the long process of resizing, framing and cropping and trial and error to slowly move across the relevant photographs to their section in the learning module.

I will be continuing this task tomorrow as it is one of the tasks which takes the most time to complete. However, following the completion of this task tomorrow, I will be looking forward to a new task.

Today I resumed my placement with Online Learning Australia. It was exciting to be back, and I was looking forward to learning more about the programs I had already been previously using.

To begin the day, I was given the task of observing a client’s sketch of a potential flash animated character for their particular learning module. There were three separate characters, all of which I had to interpret into computer graphics.

It took me from the beginning of the day, until the end, to effectively replicate the sketch into a graphical interpretation. I tried to use some more difficult animating techniques, in an effort to hopefully improve my skills in using flash.

I also used the gradient tool, which I only just began to become well acquainted with towards the end of the second week of my placement.

Ultimately I was pleased with my three animations. I think that I interpreted the client’s request quite well, while still putting my own interpretation of the characters into my creations.

I am looking forward to tomorrow as I know I will be working on a completely new project, this time, not concerning animation.

Today I continued on with the character animations from yesterday, as I was advised that the more characters produced, the more that would be used for the particular module I was makng them for.

As a result, I manage to produce many animations today for the particular character I was working on. Some of these animations include: the character rollerblading, gardening, wearing work gear/ safety gear, flying on a pair of angel wings and waving in a group.

However, I also managed to work on the brochure once more which we had been working on yesterday in order to get finished. Due to there being some minor adjustments due for the brochure, together, with the other ICT achiever (Lisa), we worked together to get it to a point where it would be completely finished and could be put in pdf form for online display.

I am quite pleased with the outcome, and will upload an image of it in this blog soon for viewing.

This will be the end of my blogging for now, untill I complete the last week of my placement in September. So far I have thoroughly enjoyed my placement, and am very much looking forward to continuing in September.

Today I continued animating the characters I had been animating from yesterday. However, today I made animations of the character engaging in a variety of activities, rather than just the few I had produced yesterday.

Today I also managed to refine a couple of my old animations such as an animation of a few characters dancing around in a circle and another animation of a character floating down on a balloon. I also created some new animations such as an animation of a singular character waving, and an animation of a character floating down to the ground on a love heart shaped balloon.

Following on from creating animations today, I was presented with the task of teaming up with the other ICT Achiever (Lisa) to refine a particular brochure on the topic of “eLearning for teacers”. This task was particularly important in my opinion as we would be acknowledged for our work on the brochure on the actual brochure itself, and also because it would be a representation of our work, (or type of work) completed during our placement with Online Learning Australia. It would also be representational of what we have learnt at Online Learning Australia so far in regards to design, using the various programs we have learnt about in the process (such as photoshop and macromedia fireworks)

It was an extensive task, and we encountered some difficulty here and there with matching tones in order to make text more legible for readers, yet also picking tones which would not distort the graphics in the background too much. However, the final designs were quite pleasing, and we did a few variations just incase some were deemed “not the right choice” for users.

Fortunately, we managed to finish the brochure just at the end of the day, so hopefully we should be able to start a new project tomorrow morning if all goes well with the brochure.

Today I continued on with the cadbury interface I had begun creating yesterday. In doing so, I created a few variations of the interface in order to provide some variety in my designs.

Following on from this, I began working on yet another cadbury project. Yet this one entailed creating some animated characters for the Learning Activities contained within the modules.

Within the story board for the module was a list of all of the suggested characters and the actions they may be performing in a module. For example: a character might be flipping through pages of a book (to sync to a page about reading) etc. I found this story board resource very helpful as it was a strict guideline for me to follow when working on the animations of these particular characters. I feel much more comfortable working with a story board structure because it is always much more definate in explaining what is required of a particular animation.

I managed to produce five animations concerning these characters today, however there are still many more to create and animate.

I am thoroughly enjoying my placement, and feel that I will really come to miss it once my placement has concluded.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to continue on with the project from today, and finish creating the animations contained within the list of animations featured in the story board.

Today I continued on with creating Style Guides for my Reject Shop interfaces, according to a document which explained all of the spacifics which needed to be included in a real Style Guide.

Following on from this, I began working on an interface for cadbury (as a practice) following their new “theme” of bright pastel colours and child-like illustrations. It was quite enjoyable, however quite an extensive task, so I will be sure to continue on with it tomorrow.

Today I began a new project/activity. This project entailed creating a more aesthetically pleasing and visually appealing interface displaying information in regards to Online Teacher Developmental Workshops in the feild of ICT.

In this interface, the graphics had to be worked on in order to make them representitive of the company hosting the Online Teacher Developmental Workshops (Online Learning Australia). As a result, the graphics had to adopt a somewhat sophisticated and professional style, in accordance to the image of the Online Learning Group.

It was very interesting to be given a project in which professionalism was particularly important, as previously, I had not been working on projects of such a sort.

I will be looking forward to tomorrow when I will be beginning yet another project/ activity for the Online Learning Group.