Evaluation of work over Halloween and Last Week.

Over Halloween, i designed three prototypes of potential ideas for what could be built in the Fort George site, i also began to fill out my write up, from the datapool. On my return to school last week, i wasnt pleased with the three prototypes i had completed, i decided that they wern't complete a all and i have spent a lot more time this week, improving them, and catching up. I also wrote about each prototype and described how each has met the criterion set in the Final Coursework Brief. I am now tryin to get my blog up to date.

How I intend managing my time to get this Coursework completed by Christmas.

Over the next 4 weeks i plan on managing my time, in order to complete this coursework, by, doing the work i am set, when it is set, not leaving it until the last minute and doing a half hearted attempt. I am goin to update my blog regularly and relevantly. And I am also going to continue spending as many of my free periods on ICT as possible whcih currently stands at around 10 of my 17 free periods.

Prototype Design No 3

Tourist Information Board and Museum.

With Derry’s tourism levels on the increase, we must begin to offer more for those visiting. Combining a tourist information board and a museum in the city is an excellent idea I believe, as the two really compliment each other. The tourist information board would provide detailed information on current activities and attractions, such as the City Sight-Seeing Bus, the town hall – The Guildhall, and the nightlife. The tourist information board would also run excursions to the surroundings areas around Derry, such as, the Giant’s Causeway and some of the towns of Donegal, e.g. Buncrana. The Museum then would offer an insight into the history of Derry/Londonderry. From the time of its settlement to the present. That is, from when St. Columba founded the settlement, to the Seige of Derry, to the famine, and most recently through the ‘Troubles’. Evidently, this prototype promotes local culture more than any of the prototypes. Employment would be provided for the local area through this. It would also increase the tourism levels, furthermore, due to the facilities and information made available to other tourists. The prototype is also economically stable, with charges for the visit to the museum put in place, however the use of the tourist information board would be free of charge. A tram link would also be put into use here.

Prototype Design No 2

Drive Thru’ Cinema

This is another leisure activity for the city. Derry has the second youngest population in Ireland, after Galway that is, and currently there is very little for people to do. This allows people, both drivers and pedestrians alike to go to watch a film in peace, without the disturbances of a regular cinema and its constraints. People can have a good time in the comfort of their own car. This proposal would be economically stable, due to entry fees, and concessionary income. The Drive Thru’ Cinema I believe would be very popular, and would attract visitors from a vast area, for the simple fact that, it is the only Drive Thru’ cinema in Northern Ireland. The whole concept is a very American idea, but with our city become more urbanised, an idea like this really enhances people’s opinion of our city. Local culture would be promoted through advertisements for local businesses. There is also a tram link here, to introduce a 21st century transportation link, into the city centre, for those pedestrians availing of the service. The prototype is also environmentally friendly. There is a pedestrian area, therefore, it is not only for cars, and a park and ride facility would be available from the city centre, so as to reduce congestion and queues in and around the area. In the pedestrian area, there is patio heaters, and lights are situated throughout the site. All of which are solar powered, they store light energy from during the day and begin to emit this energy at night. There is also an environmentally friendly atmosphere around the site due to the trees and plants scattered throughout.

Prototype Design No 1

Football Stadium for Derry City Football Club

I believe strongly that a new stadium is essential in Derry City our football team is to grow in anyway prosperous in the future. At the minute, the Derry City Football Club Stadium is situated in the Brandywell. This is a small residential area. The stadium is too small, and cannot accommodate the increasing fans. Another major problem regarding the current stadium is that there is no parking available, only the streets surrounding the stadium. Therefore congestion is a big issue. In this prototype, there is parking facilities available, due to the size of this 14 acre site, Therefore congestion would not be a problem anymore. The proposal is also economically stable, generating income from a number of sources. Firstly from ticket charges, from concessionary charges within the stadium, i.e. bar, shop, merchandise. Income could also be generated from the car parking mentioned above, people will have no problem paying for the parking due to it’s convenience. Income is also generated for the city as a whole due to the tourism attracted, from matches, with people travelling from far and wide, especially, for example, for UEFA matches. The stadium would also provide employment for local people. Another requirement of this proposal is that the prototype should promote local culture, which it obviously does do, due to the nature of it. It promotes the city’s local football team and the city in general. There is also a 21st century transportation link at the site with the introduction of a new light railway system, i.e. the tram. The prototype is also environmentally friendly, with solar panels attached to the roof of the stadium, in order to power the flood lights and other electronic devices. The tram link also encourages environmental friendliness by reducing the congestion in and around the Fort George site.

Report - 3-D Transport Model

How i made my Google SketchUp 3-D tram. Firstly i decided to use Google SketchUp because it is a free application for 3-D modelling and can be simply downloaded from the Google web page. I also decided to use Google SketchUp becasue it is very user-friendly. It is basic, yet offers a large variety of tools. It is ideal for begineers, just starting 3-D modelling.
I began my 3-D tram, firstly by simply drawing a rectangle.

I then used the Push/Pull tool to make the image 3-D, making it now a cuboid. As shown below.









I then selected the front, bottom line, and moved in so as to have an inclined edge.

I drew an arc at the front then, using the "Arc" tool. First i had to select two points, this would be the linear line. Then i had to select another point that the arc would go through. I then pulled this arc upward so the it was the same height as the tram. I then wanted this 3-D arc to be transparent, i.e. a window. So i selected the Paint Bucket option and it opened the materials window, where i chose "Translucent" and the the Blue translucent fill effect.

I also smoothed the edges the whole object. I selected each line, using the pointer and holdin down shift. I then selected "Window" and "Soften Edges".

Another tool i used in Google SketchUp was the "Get Models" tools, whereby, you can access a library full of objects, which can be downloaded directly into your image, i downloaded the door of my tram, the people and the seats into my model. It is known as the 3-D Warehouse.

Composite Image

Internal Images of Goggle SketchUp Tram

External Images of Google SketchUp Tram

Compare and contrast the features available in these 3 graphics packages:

Microsoft Paint:

• Selection tools
• Eraser
• Fill
• Eye dropper
• Magnifying glass
• Pencil
• Paint Brush
• Airbrush
• Text
• Line
• Curve
• Rectangle
• Polygon
• Oval
• Rounded Rectangle
• Colour palette

Photoshop:

• Layer Effects
• Seamless Web Graphics Workflow
• Easy Consistent Design Tools
• History Palette
• Contact Sheets
• Art History Brush
• Precise Masking
• Animation
• Web Optimization
• Image Slicing
• Rollovers

GIMP:

Advanced Manipulation:

• Full alpha channel support
• Layers and channels
• Multiple Undo/Redo (limited only by diskspace)
• Editable text layers
• Transformation tools including rotate, scale, shear and flip
• Selection tools including rectangle, ellipse, free, fuzzy and intelligent
• Advanced path tool doing bezier and polygonal selections.
• Transformable paths, transformable selections.
• Quickmask to paint a selection.

Extensible

• A Procedural Database for calling internal GIMP functions from external programs as in Script-fu
• Advanced scripting capabilities (Scheme, Python, Perl)
• Plug-ins which allow for the easy addition of new file formats and new effect filters
• Over 100 plug-ins already available

Animation

• Load and save animations in a convenient frame-as-layer format
• MNG support
• Frame Navigator (in GAP, the GIMP Animation Package)
• Onion Skin (in GAP, the GIMP Animation Package)
• Bluebox (in GAP, the GIMP Animation Package)

File Handling

• File formats supported include bmp, gif, jpeg, mng, pcx, pdf, png, ps, psd, svg, tiff, tga, pm, and many others
• Load, display, convert, save to many file formats
• SVG path import/export Advanced Manipulation

Painting

• Full suite of painting tools including Brush, Pencil, Airbrush, Clone, etc.
• Sub-pixel sampling for all paint tools for high quality anti-aliasing
• Extremely powerful gradient editor and blend tool
• Supports custom brushes and patterns

5) What are the characteristics of the following graphics file formats:

Bitmap?
A representation, consisting of rows and columns of dots, of a graphics image in computer memory. The value of each dot (whether it is filled in or not) is stored in one or more bits of data. The resolution of bitmap images, such as digital photographs, depends on both the display device and the inherent resolution of the bitmap image.
http://webopedia.internet.com/TERM/B/bit_map.html

GIF?
Known as Graphic Interchange Format. The majority of images on the Web are now in GIF format, and virtually all Web browsers that support graphics can display GIF files. GIF files incorporate a compression scheme to keep file sizes at a minimum, and they are limited to 8-bit (256 or fewer colors) color palettes.
http://webstyleguide.com/graphics/gifs.html

PNG?
A format for graphics that is useful primarily on the World Wide Web. PNG graphics can contain millions of colors and can be transparent, and are compressed without degradation of the image. However, many Web browsers can not display them. It supports alpha channels and has a and 48 bit true color (as compared to GIF's 8 bit color).
www.caddpower.com/cms/glossary

JPEG?
Joint Photographic Experts Group is also used to minimise graphics size, using compression, it is a file format used for good quality photographic reproduction on the Web. JPEG graphics are capable of reproducing a full range of color while still remaining small enough for Web use. Most of the photographs you see on the Web are JPEG format.
www.sorrentomesa.com/education/glossary.html

XCF?
A GIMP image file format that is unsupported by web browsers. It can save layer information and other information that you may want to use again, e.g. text layer.

PSD?
The suffix or extension used to by Adobe for files created using Adobe Photoshop software. Applications other than Photoshop may also be able to save or open files in this file format.
www.caddpower.com/cms/glossary

SVG?
An XML markup language for describing two-dimensional vector graphics, both static and animated. Can be used both by Web browsers and desktop publishing to produce vector graphics which are very fast and easily transmittable files.

4) What is an alpha channel? How can this be useful in your coursework project?

Designed for creating depth in computer graphics, an alpha channel works like a key, choosing the opacity of all pixels in the image.
Alpha channels will be uselful in our multimedia coursework, especially in our first team work project, where we create composite images, where we have to superimpose images of a certain form of transpot, such as a train or tram or subway into an actual picture of Derry, by making certain parts of the image transparent so that only what i want appears in the source image.
www.ic.sunysb.edu/clubs/sbutv/glossary.htm

3) What does “RGB” have to do with graphic files?

RGB stands for Red Green Blue. Computer monitors use RGB to define the colours that appear on screen. Each color in the RGB combination is measured from 0 - 255. It is the color language of computers. Computers´ monitors and digital cameras use these colors to create all the colors seen on the monitor and saved in files.

www.photographyreview.com/digitalglossarycrx.aspx

2) What is the difference between VECTOR and BITMAP graphics? Explain both terms.

A bitmap graphic is composed of a grid of pixels. Each pixel contains data that describes the colour of the pixel, whether it be black or white or a level of gray or a colour. Bitmap images are edited by manipulating groups of pixels. The resolution of the graphic also can become poorer if the graphic is enlarged, or zoomed in to.

A vector graphic is a graphic which is not affected by resolution. A graphic composed of a grid of small squares known as pixels. Each pixel contains data that describes whether it is black, white, or a level of gray or color. Bitmap images are edited by manipulating groups of pixels, and are resolution-dependent.

www.wikipedia.org

1) What is a pixel?

A pixel is the smallest part of a digital image. The word pixel is derived from the words picture and element. Also used in measuring image size and resolution, ie, 640 x 480 is the pixel resolution of most VGA Monitors.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGIE,GGIE:2007-38,GGIE:en&q=define%3a+pixel