Craig Thomas' Blog

PRP Findings.

2010-05-20T21:49:00.002+01:00

PRP Artefact evaluation one.

My first artefact was a questionnaire on the awareness of aid on the web for visually impaired users, I will now evaluate my findings on the subject.

After receiving the feedback from the survey my findings where mainly mixed, the first two questions where about the users gender and age range, a total of sixty three percent of users where male and the remaining thirty three percent female, the main age range of users who took the survey fitted between the ages of twenty one and twenty five with users aged between twenty six and thirty and fifteen and twenty also taking part.

My third question was if the user was aware of what aid is available for users who suffer from visual disabilities, the findings where that 81.8% of user did not know about this, showing that more needs to be done to spread awareness of aid on the web for users who suffer from visual disabilities, the remaining 18.2% of users who took the survey had knowledge of available aid, these lead onto the next question on what aid users knew about being available, the answers where screen readers and alt text used within screen readers.

I then moved onto asking if they thought there was more that could be done to aid users in the future and 90% said yes, again showing that more can be done to spread awareness and also to further improve the aid of programs and software that can be used to improve the experience for visually impaired users.

The final two questions touched upon if users who took the survey knew anyone who was visually impaired and if they had access to the web, 54.5% knew someone who was visually impaired and 71.4% of these had access to the web, showing that the web is accessible for these users easily.

PRP Artefact Two.

Screen reading on mobile phones.

Now I know my project said my project was based on web based screen readers I couldn’t pass this opportunity up, whilst researching into how screen readers are coded into websites, I came across a website called codefactory.es, so I scanned through the website and came across a program called mobile speak, which is, as you can guess a screen reader installed into a mobile phone, which at the moment is only available for windows mobile and Symbian os.

The software offers Braille support which works when the phone is connected to a connected to a Braille device with a refreshable Braille display, supports more than 30 languages, advanced support for phone Web Browsers, Built-in User Dictionaries to customize pronunciation, Support for Instant Messaging applications to chat with friends and colleagues (Fring on Symbian, MSN Messenger and Skype on Windows Mobile) and more.

I decided to put this is in my research as it shows that screen readers are expanding onto other devices as well as the web which means that there are definitely advances in the software and maybe the mobile screen reader will be available on other mobile platforms in the near future.

PRP Artefact Three

After concluding my tests on artefact three I had some interesting results, some of which where expected and some which were not, the artefact was a page that contained three images that displayed the same thing but featured three different descriptions, all of which are longer than the one before it.

Image one was the most chosen one as it features a short and simple description and is straight to the point, it also reads well through a screen reader and is clearly pronounced, and it is also relevant to the image and describes the key elements.

The second image was said to be done well as it contained quite a bit of information and gives you more description about the image, it also doesn’t work as it takes quite a while to be read out through a screen reader, this isn’t a good result as the user wouldn’t want that much information within an image description, this was also the case with image three, this image contained more information than the second image and also contained information that isn’t really needed within a description, this image when read through a screen reader took longer than the previous two to describe, this isn’t a good result and this is why this image was he least popular amongst the three.

Upon reading my results I have come to the conclusion that to make an effective website that contains imagery that is also accessible to visually impaired users must contain short and simple descriptions to describe the images that are featured within the website, this is important as only the key points of the image should be included and other information should be further included within the other sections of the information that is on the site.

PRP Artefact Four

Artefact four was an invisible page that featured links that could be tabbed through and read within a screen reader, the alt text provided descriptions of the links which were placed in random parts of the page, the user was to first use the mouse to find the links and then to use the tab key to do the same, the test used two free screen readers which were Thunder and NVDA, the site contains three pages with links placed in different sections of each page.

Firstly the user used the mouse to hover around the page and find the links with the pop up alt text description, upon completing this the results where that the description appeared quickly when hovered over and was shown for a good amount of time to be able to read it and to select the link to navigate through the site if the link was the desired one.

When being tabbed through using screen reader one, Thunder, the results show that the links were reads out clearly and featured good use of alt text, the screen reader also defines that the object is a link which is useful, it then follows on to giving out the alt text description.

When using NVDA the results appeared to be very similar to Thunder although NVDA was said to be clearer than Thunder, again it reads out that the object is a link and also says if you have previously visited the links or not.

My conclusion is that implying alt text into links is very useful if done correctly, this artefact gave me a clear indication of how alt text is used within links correctly and effectively and also how screen readers output links.

PRP Artefact Five

Artefact five was a comparison test between two free screen readers used in the previous two artefacts, the screen readers mentioned are NVDA and Thunder, both are used in Windows, the comparisons were tested in Internet Explorer Eight and also in Mozilla Firefox, the tests where filmed and featured how the screen readers handled large amounts of texts, how they described links and also how images descriptions were outputted, the results were then compared against each to give an indication of which open source screen reader was more suited for effective browsing.

Firstly the user opened up Thunder and then navigated to a created page for the testing, the user was told to tab through each section of the page and listen to the descriptions of the links, information and imagery, they then wrote down what they thought was good and bad about how the screen reader performed the tasks, the results came out quite well with some pros and cons about the screen reader, the pros were that the screen reader read out links well and also worked well with the information but when it came imagery the screen reader read out the image source name instead of the images alt text description, this wasn’t expected but clearly shows that the screen reader contains faults which need to be addressed, this displays that the screen reader would not be of effect to use to a disabled user.

NVDA was now ran thorough the same test and the results were perfect across the board, it clearly read out each link, image and information description correctly and shows that this certain screen reader is effective and user friendly, this also leads to be that this screen reader would be the preferred choice of open source screen readers for Windows.

PRP Artefact Six

The final artefact was a two page site that contains imagery, information and links all with alt text descriptions that can be tabbed through, by using the results and conclusions form my previous artefacts I was looking to create the site to be of maximum effect when used alongside a screen reader, the screen reader in use for this artefact was NVDA which was chosen due to the results shown in Artefact Five.

The idea for the testing was for a user to navigate the site and also to simply write down their thoughts on the links, information and image descriptions and if they were helpful towards them using the site successfully.

The results came out quite well with some positive and negative things to be said, this was useful as it gave me more information on what to change in the future within alt text descriptions used within my websites, the positives were that my links and information worked well and were useful to the user, the descriptions were clear and worked well with the screen readers, the imagery was hit and miss as some had a little to much information which wasn’t needed, the main issue was the banners as they were not relevant to the content of the website.

The screen reader used was clear and worked well with the site which enabled easy use of the site and allowed the user to understand the sites purpose.

Over the course of my personal research project I have learnt a number of things on how to put good use of alt text into my websites, this will be helpful in the future when making my sites accessible for the visually impaired.

PRP.

2010-05-20T21:43:00.002+01:00

Colour changes to my client site

2010-03-18T20:30:00.001Z

Screens of my client project so far.

2010-03-10T11:31:00.004Z

Here is a screenshot of my home page on the web. (Firefox)

Here is a screenshot of my home page on the web. (IE8)

Here is my design in Dreamweaver design view.

This is my home page CSS.

This is the code that runs the home page.

Work for uni is progressing well..

2010-02-14T16:27:00.003Z

Well, the client project is, PRP not so well, I'm a little stuck on ideas for Artefact 3 but I have plenty of time to get one thought up, shall be adding some more touches to Artefact 2 tomorrow and hoping to be done by Tuesday.

Client Project Update...

2010-02-11T14:51:00.003Z

I have chosen my final design,but I am not revealing which one I have chosen until the project is finished, will keep updating the progress every two or three days.

Design Mock Ups. (Client)

2010-01-25T15:09:00.005Z

Here is my first mock up of my ideas for my client project, the disco ball and name underneath will be done in 3D if i decided on using this idea and the disco ball will slowly rotate and have little flicks of light reflection as it rotates, the dates in the calender will be lightly filled with two colours, one indicating what dates are available and the other indicating dates that are not, once clicked this will open a pop up window showing the venues that are being played at for that month.

Took a more simple route with this design but after looking at it I find it really dull and boring so will not be making any variations of this design.

This design was influenced by a site I saw earlier whilst I was scanning the web, I liked the idea of a minimal style and bright colours, I have used colours that compliment each other as not to distract the eye whilst viewing the design.

Layout ideas for client project.

2010-01-20T17:42:00.002Z

Sorry about the poor quality, took them on my phone, will upload better images when I get some batteries for my camera.

Client Project....

2010-01-19T13:11:00.003Z

Well the time is upon me to start my final uni project, which involves working with a real life client, my client is KC Telstar which is a mobile disco and karaoke company, I have been looking on the web for websites of mobile disco companies and so far they have been pretty poor standard and look like they have been done on freewebs, so there is a good chance that I can create something unique for my site that hasn't been done by any of other companies in this area.

I have started to sketch some initial layout ideas and marked down ideas on what pages to include on my cleints site, I will get photo's of these and upload them soon for some feedbakc on my layout ideas.

Well, here goes my first post of 2010!

2010-01-11T23:54:00.005Z

Firstly I would like to say Happy New Year to all, and now for my actually point of this post, and its to due with cinema, and 3D films, yes, I have entered the realm of 3D movies, all be it I have only seen two, but the differences are noticable to a very high standard, so we shall start with erm, the first one that I watched, The Final Destination 3D, and to be honest, its terrible, on a 3D level and film level, nothing short of, mm how to put it, ran out of ideas but lets face it will make money of the franchise name, and it did because my sister was stupid enough to buy them all, but thats beside the point, the 3D elements of the film are not done very well and hardly any of the 'Ahh, its coming towards me' parts of the film didn't make me think that they where flying out the screen and about to rip my head off, I just felt like they where blurred objects, but enough about that one, oh yeah, this was a DVD release but surely that shouldn't make any difference, anyhow, time to move onto.....

Avatar, which is simply amazing, in 2D and 3D I must add, this one I watched in the cinema with glasses that said 'Real D 3D', do they make any difference over the shitty plastic excuses the DVD gives you, maybe, I dont really wont to view Final Destination again to find out, oh sorry I'm rambling again, back to teh cinema, before Avatar started you get trailers, which where in 3D and actually stood out, so onto the film, for anyone whose seen it, you'll most probably agree with me that it is quite simply brilliant, graphically and storywise, I ahd all ready been to see the film in 2D and had been told that I would need to see it 3D, so I went back to the cinema and how I'm glad I did, once you get into the main part of the film on Pandora I was fascinated by how clear everything was and how good it looked, I actually felt like a child again inside due to the excitement inside, I loved every minute of it, I wont spoil it for the people who have not seen it but I fully recommend that you watch the film in 3D or 2D, but preferable 3D, anyhow what 3D adventure will I watch next, my sister has Coraline on dvd so I shall watch that, and I shall use the glasses I got from Avatar (I paid £9.50 to see the film so I took upon myself to keep them as they gave them to me when I paid for the ticket, so one assumed they where including in the price) instead of the crappy things that came with the dvd to see if it makes a difference.

Here is a Xmas treat for you all..

2009-12-22T21:14:00.006Z

Merry Xmas to Everyone!

Cliff Richard - Mistletoe & Wine (BVRS Xmas Bootleg Mix)

2 Marvel wallpapers I made

2009-12-20T23:25:00.004Z

Nice and simple desktop backgrounds.

Iron Man & War Machine

Captain America

Web Accessibility - through the "eyes" of a screen reader

2009-12-10T18:21:00.000Z

What happens when screen readers are not set up correctly.

2009-12-10T18:20:00.001Z

"Wocka Wocka Wocka"

2009-12-03T16:45:00.003Z

A desktop to the best muppet out there, and it's not Amy Winehouse, "Wocka Wocka Wocka"

Writing effective ALT text for images.

2009-12-03T15:42:00.004Z

Anyone who knows anything about web accessibility knows that images need alternative, or ALT, text assigned to them. This is because screen readers can't understand images, but rather read aloud the alternative text assigned to them. In Internet Explorer we can see this ALT text, simply by mousing over the image and looking at the yellow tooltip that appears. Other browsers (correctly) don't do this. The HTML for inserting ALT text is:

img src="filename.gif" alt="Alternative description goes here"

Improving usability for screen reader users

2009-12-03T15:28:00.002Z

http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-accessibility/screen-readers.shtml

What is a Screen Reader?

2009-12-03T15:27:00.001Z

http://www.nomensa.com/resources/articles/accessibility-articles/what-is-a-screen-reader.html

A screen reader is a software application that enables people with severe visual impairments to use a computer.
Screen readers work closely with the computer’s Operating System (OS) to provide information about icons, menus, dialogue boxes, files and folders.
A screen reader provides access to the entire OS that it works with, including many common applications.

Mininova removes links to copyrighted files

2009-11-26T21:27:00.002Z

Taken from http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/11/26/mininova-removes-torrents.html

Peer-to-peer file-sharing is migrating to a new, decentralized technology. Mininova, one of the biggest torrent file-sharing websites in the world, has removed links to all copyrighted content that it does not have official agreements for.

Thursday's move is a win for the entertainment industry as users of the site are now cut off from a major source of torrent files, which link to downloads of television shows, music, movies and other copyrighted content. The victory is likely to be short-lived, though, as peer-to-peer file sharers move on to other torrent sites and new technology.

Mininova, which was founded in 2005 in the Netherlands by five students, made the concession as the result of a court case brought forward by BREIN, a Dutch anti-piracy group. In June, a judge ruled that Mininova was not directly responsible for copyright infringement but ordered the website to remove links to such torrents within three months or face a fine of up to 5 million euros.

The site's founders are still considering appealing the ruling, but in the meantime are allowing only uploads from approved partners.

"It's very unfortunate that we're forced to take this action, but we saw no other option," co-founder Niek van der Maas told the TorrentFreak website.

Mininova has operated as a legitimate business and according to financial records filed in the Netherlands, it pulled in revenue of more than one million euros in 2007. The site's founders said much of that revenue came from advertising on the site, affiliate partnerships and some toolbar offerings, and that after taxes and expenses, it didn't account for much profit.

The website also made efforts to remove links to copyrighted material, unlike The Pirate Bay, another big torrent site, which has taunted entertainment companies by posting their takedown requests and mocking them.

The Pirate Bay itself recently removed its tracker links, replacing with them with a more decentralized kind of peer-to-peer network that will be harder for copyright holders to pin down. The Pirate Bay's founders were found guilty of promoting copyright infringement earlier this year by a Swedish court.

Peer-to-peer users are expected to migrate to the new technology, which uses magnet links to find files, and to other torrent sites that will inevitably spring up as the big ones gradually shut down

Final Design Idea For My Copyright Website

2009-11-10T15:07:00.002Z

Here is my final design for the copyright website I am working on for a simulated client project, I have added some more signs to the two that where there initially and have also dropped the logo that is on the mock ups below as I felt it didnt work with the design, I have sinced replaced it with sign that shows the copyright logo as I feel it works with the theme of the design that I have chosen, I will now be going into Dreamweaver to make the site and will post updates soon.

Sign Post Ideas Final

2009-11-10T15:05:00.005Z

This is my final design sheet for my sign posts for my copyright website.

Design Development

2009-11-04T15:55:00.003Z

Another Design Idea For The Sim. Client Project

2009-11-03T16:07:00.003Z

More cleaner design, I feel this design works better than the ones below as its more cleanly layout and does'nt have as much going in the background which is easier on the eye.

Designs So Far

2009-11-02T17:25:00.006Z

For my simulated client project.

News Report from December 2008

2009-11-02T17:20:00.004Z

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/illegal+downloads+still+rampant/2891777

Disney Copyright Video.

2009-10-22T11:39:00.002+01:00

Not viewed it properly yet as the sound isn't very good on the computer i'm posting on but it sounds well done.

Copyright: The Basics

2009-10-22T11:04:00.004+01:00

Everyone is knowledgeable on copyright to some extent, but what a lot of people don’t know is how bad the consequences of copyrighting and illegal downloading are.

Illegal downloading is a big issue on the Internet today due to the many ways and sources of obtaining movies, songs and games, these can be obtained using peer to peer sources such as limewire and soulseek and from torrent sites such as pirate bay and bit torrent.

The punishments if caught downloading illegally can range from fines to even prison sentences which begs the question is it worth risking illegally downloading music when it is available on numerous legal sites for as little as seventy pence per track.

Soundcloud Music Page

2009-09-08T16:18:00.002+01:00

Latest tracks by Craig Thomas Presents BVR

DEFQON 1 Images.

2009-09-04T18:08:00.002+01:00

Just decided to make some images today, used the DEFQON 1 Festival logo as a base and came up with these.

Some images I have done.

2009-08-31T23:45:00.002+01:00

Just some images I put together earlier as I was just playing in Photoshop to pass time.

Amazing Bit Of Stop Motion..

2009-08-25T22:46:00.001+01:00

Yes lego brick stop motions been done loads of times, but this one is one of the best ive ever seen, took a total of 1500 hours to make the video.

New Image.

2009-08-03T15:11:00.001+01:00

New Photoshop Work.

2009-07-18T02:14:00.002+01:00

Image I put together today.

Pixars Cars Goes Fast & Furious!

2009-05-18T14:44:00.003+01:00

Very good short movie from Pixar, there are more videos here, all are very well done and funny, if you liked Cars then this is for you http://www.youtube.com/user/disneycarstoons

Please Check Out Our Notts Media Blog.

2009-05-18T13:34:00.000+01:00

http://nottsmedia.blogspot.com/

Steven Bailey, Craig Thomas and James Scott are NTU Multimedia students, who are currently working on a project for Nottingham Media Academy, a community of educational institutions aimed at media enthusiasts.

A DJ Flash game I found..

2009-03-16T15:49:00.003Z

Pretty cool and very addictive.

http://www.dailyhaha.com/_flash/Coolio_DJ.htm

Flash Game Images So Far.

2009-03-15T13:40:00.002Z

Music Blog Updated...

2009-03-14T20:38:00.001Z

Check it..

http://craigthomaspresentsbvr.blogspot.com/

Coming to a TV near you soon!!

2009-03-11T16:03:00.000Z

Some images I took on my phone.

2009-03-11T14:15:00.009Z

Would'nt we all like one of these sat on our driveway?

2009-03-07T14:21:00.007Z

The Ferrari 599XX, just been scanning through the photos of the Geneva Motor Show 2008, on MSN.Com and wow!, this car is nice, paraded in the infanous Ferrari Red it's visually stunning, and quite expnesive at around the € 1.100.000 (£979.000)mark but unfortunatly its not intened for road use, but the 599 GTB Fiorano is and is slightly cheaper at around £850,00.

More on the Geneva Motor Show can be found here http://events.uk.msn.com/geneva-motor-show-2009/.

Noisecontrollers New Website

2009-03-05T18:46:00.002Z

http://www.noisecontrollers.nl/

Their sites been offline for a while and was in need of a makeover, it's come back online now and although they only have the front page up it looks better all ready, done in Flash and was made by Coen van Hal, will put more up when the site is fully running.

Image I made for my facebook music page.

2009-02-23T00:10:00.000Z

Football Agent Flash Game.

2009-02-18T16:09:00.002Z

Football Agent.

Football Agent is a game on Mousebreaker (http://www.mousebreaker.com/games/footballagent/playgame) , it consists of you having to buy & sell players to achieve your goal of buying forty million pound mansion.

It’s a point & click game but the more in depth features of the game are the math behind it for the your total amount of money and the way the players value goes up and down.

The games quite addictive as you want to make the 40 million to buy the house, but after a while it does get a bit boring.

Flash version of my Ocean Blue Website.

2009-02-13T12:58:00.000Z

Ocean Blue Website by ~Hardstyler01 on deviant ART

Final design for restaurant website

2009-02-13T12:49:00.002Z

Some more website designs

2009-02-12T18:18:00.002Z

Restaurant Website Designs.

2009-02-11T13:31:00.004Z

Lily Allen Remixes.

2009-02-10T14:23:00.002Z

Pretty cool if your into her stuff and/or into music production.

If you buy her new album you get access to remix parts for her songs, so I'll be having a go, check back in a few weeks to see how they turned out.

Two Transformers Posters I Made.

2009-02-08T12:45:00.002Z

Skull In Ice

2009-02-03T21:24:00.003Z

Just playing around in Photoshop and came up with this, looks like there's some sort of skull in there frozen over.

No 4. Wood Street Restaurant.

2009-02-03T20:30:00.007Z

No 4. Wood Street Restaurant.

http://www.4woodstreet.co.uk/home.html

At first glance I was thinking to myself that this site would be a bit hit & miss in terms of design and it is but only in some areas, and to prove my point the first part is on the home page, the use of comic sans on just takes the edge away from the rest of design, not to mention the spacing error between 2008 and the ampersand, a minor error I know but still, it looks unprofessional from a design point of view.

Going further into the site there are some good points to make, the ‘about’ page is designed nicely with images splitting up large portions of text to keep the eye relaxed, this is again shown on the ‘restaurant page’ but using slightly images as it’s main use is to give the user an insight of what the restaurant looks like.

The menu page is does what it says on the tin, but again some errors in grammar let’s the page down and then when you reach the bottom of the page the comic sans font returns and lets the design down, I also think that the menu could have been done over two pages as this would have suited the layout better.

The special events page is for me, terrible, the font size changes too many times and distracts the eye, plus again the misuse of spacing, I feel it could have been done a lot better.

Overall the site is good for information and I suppose that’s what the restaurant owners would be more focused on, but there are some flaws in the design that let the site down.

Fashion Restaurant.

2009-02-03T15:40:00.005Z

http://www.fashionrestaurant.com/fashion_aboutus_08_05.html

This website is done in posh kind of style to fit with the style of the restaurant, it looks professional and has a nice design and layout although I do feel the main part of the site could be a little bigger.

The information get's straight to the point and is relevant to what the site is about and is set out well, there are pictures at the side and top of the information to give the eye a rest from text, and again this works well.

Going further into the site there is more useful information about menus, what the bar has to offer and a link to there other restaurant site for the Sinatra, which keeps the same style layout as the Fashion site.

The online booking form on the site is a good addition and I feel the site should have been the same size as this part of the site as it means there is less empty space for your eyes to wonder into.

The menu page is a pop up window and uses the same style layout as the bookings page and shows their range of meals as well as a wine & cocktail list.

The site is nice, easy on the eye plus it works well, as stated above I do feel the main part could have been a little bigger but it’s not a big problem and doesn’t take anything away from the site.

The Maid Marian Restaurant Website Review.

2009-01-28T17:55:00.004Z

The Maid Marian Restaurant.

http://www.maidmarianrestaurant.co.uk/

The website is done quite nicely and looks very clean and professional, the layout is good and the information is easy to find, the navigation is set out well and the page is not cluttered with needless images or information.

The home page gets straight to the point with a description of the restaurant and a short description of how things are ran in the restaurant, I think this a good thing as it gives you an insight of what to expect when you are dining there.

Again the layout of the site stays the same when you navigate to other pages and uses a different image on each page in the header, the images are relevant to the page and it works well with the site.

As you’d expect from a restaurant website they do have a menu page, well two to be precise, which are both done well and keeps the main course meals and other dishes separate, they also have descriptions of how there stock is obtained and how it is cooked at the top and the meal descriptons have information about what they contain.

Other pages include special occasions, where to find us, information on the wine list and a contact page which all keep to the same layout and contain relevant information about the restaurant.

The right hand side of the page contains different information for example, the opening times, customer comment and special offers, there is also a little fault in the text box as the text overlaps the actual box.

The site all in all is very well done and contains lots of information about the restaurant, I can’t really see any negative things about the site except for the overlapping text on the right hand side menu which can be easily fixed.

Mcdonalds Website Review.

2009-01-28T16:23:00.005Z

McDonalds website.

http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/

The layout of the site is good, very clean and everything as its own place and is easy to see where the information you want is, the navigation is average but blends in with the background a little bit.

The layout of the site stays the same over the whole of the site which is good as the user doesn’t loose track of where the information is.

The site is Flash based and shows some good use of this in forms of image slides and surveys that take in the information on what you think about the food and ingredients of the food and it also used in the navigation which is one the downfalls of the site, when the navigation is clicked on a dropdown menu appears which then pushes the main information down the screen and if your using the bottom navigation at the same time the main information is covered up. The bottom menu automatically appears once the main navigation is clicked upon which gets annoying after a while as you have to keep closing it to see what information you are looking for.

Going further into the site there is a restaurant locater which again is Flash based, it doe’s work very well and as a filter which means you can narrow down your search depending on your needs and area.

There is good use of pictures to keep the balance between text and imagery and this is easy on the eye and keeps the user interested in the site, the images are also relevant to the content of the site.

All in all the site is good but could be improved in parts, the parts that could be improved are not major but the site would benefit from them.

Backfire at it's best..

2009-01-24T04:15:00.002Z

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/crblog/if-apple-made-a-games-console/

Basically, the comments suggest that I'm not alone in thinking what a load rubbish he has wrote.

Spending Time With Poster Boy

2009-01-22T16:37:00.006Z

Found this video on youtube on a guy known as Poster Boy, he uses nothing but a razor to cut up subway posters and adds them t other posters to create a different, I know it's classed as vandalism but it's very well done and it's original, more of his work can be found here, http://www.flickr.com/photos/26296445@N05/ and here is his youtube account http://www.youtube.com/user/PosterboyNYC

And heres what happens when I get hold of adverts with dancing in :P

2009-01-21T14:35:00.000Z

The New T-Mobile advert

2009-01-20T17:54:00.001Z

Its great.

Messing around in Photoshop with the custom shape tool.

2009-01-19T00:31:00.002Z

And some filters and came up with these two images.

A picture from London.

2009-01-13T16:14:00.003Z

Was attempting a picture of the London Eye but unfortunately it was to far away, but luckily this person decided to ride past at the same time and made my photo attempts worthwhile.

I like how the flash on my camera hit the reflective jacket and made the cyclist look like a lighting effect, I have seen work like this before but cant quite remember where.

Thought I'd put this on here just incase anyone likes trance.

2009-01-11T11:36:00.002Z

My 2008 trance year mix featuring my favourite tracks from last year.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/65xtmh

Craig Thomas Trance/Tech Trance Year Mix 2008

Andy Duguid Featuring Leah - Wasted
Arney S. - Sunday Morning Walk (Original Mix)
JOC - Marshmallow
Sia - The Girl You Lost To Cocaine (Sander van Doorn remix)
Marco V - A Journey Into Sound
Wippenberg - Chakalaka (Sphaera S Boom Chakalaka Remix)
Filterheadz - Day At The Beach
Heatbeat - Paradise Garage (Piano Mix)
Lange - Out of the Sky (Kyua & Albert mix)
Armin van Buuren & DJ Shah ft. Chris Jones - Going Wrong (Extended Mix)
Armin van Buuren - In And Out Of Love (The Blizzard Remix)
Sied van Riel & Claudia Cazacu - Contrasts
Dave Spoon & Pete Tong - Gas Face
Project FNP - Buzzed up
Jon Rundell - Dawn Raid (Sander Van Doorn Remix)
Ernesto vs Bastian - Super Jupiter (Ronald van Gelderen Remix)
Dave Walker - Mystify (Original Mix)
Splitscreen - Boomblasta (Leon Bolier vs. Joop Remix)
Orjan Nilsen - La Guitarra (Orjan Milsen Balaeric Mix)
4 Strings & DJ Shaine - The Way It Should Be (Original Mix)
Lost Witness vs. Sassot - Sin Mas (Original Mix)
Georgia - Ode to '99 (Original Mix)
Fire & Ice - Tour De Trance (Original Mix)
Ferrin and Low - Westworld (Main Mix)
Earth Inc - Strong (Karybde & Scylla Remix)
Above & Beyond Pres. Oceanlab - Miracle (Above & Beyond Club Mix)
Luke Terry & Kopi Luwak Feat. Tiff Lacey - Fall Into The Moon (Original Mix)
John O'callaghan ft Audrey Gallagher - Big Sky (Agnelli And Nelson Remix)
Graeme Harrison - Xanthe (Original Mix)
Ferrin & Low - Atlanta (Extended Mix)
Sean Tyas & Simon Patterson - Somethings Up
Ferry Corsten - Radio Crash (Original Extended)
Simon Patterson - Smack
Icicle and Patrick Horst pres. Oxygen Shadow - Strange Wave (Selo Remix)
Fabio Stein - Techtris
Joe E - Summer Lovin
BK & Garbo - Damage

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Craig-Thomas-Presents-BVR/14780456361#/pages/Craig-Thomas-Presents-BVR/14780456361

First post of 2009...

2009-01-11T11:28:00.004Z

Quick picture I did for a friends facebook group about getting Kayne West in the bible, it wont happen but it's all fun and games., anyway here's the picture and here's the group link if you also think he should be, http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=18226314958, I personally don't :D

Move over Second Life & V-Side, Playstation Home is here.

2008-12-14T13:31:00.010Z

I'll start with this quite obvious statement whilst I write the actual review, you cannot use Playstation Home unless you have a PS3, but if you have one, it's well worth checking out.

Playstation Home is Sony’s version of Second Life & V Side, you sign in with you Playstation Network ID and then you enter Home Square, here you can go to places such as the cinema, the bowling alley, shopping centre or your personal space in the harbour.

When online in the Playstation Home world you can partake in many activities such as playing Draughts or Chess against other users or watch game trailers in the cinema, there are also options to invite friends or other users to online games and arrange matches against them.

It works really well and its only in the first stages and its being updated quite regularly and I’m excited to see what more features will be added to it in the future.

Here is a quick run through of what can be done in each area

Home Square.

The main area of the Home world, mainly used a chill out place where users chat about various topics and arrange matches online, there are also Chess and Draughts boards where you can play against other users if you so wish.

Cinema.

As it says really, shows game trailers and film trailers, I Haven’t really explored this area much as there are video screens located in Home Square which shows the same stuff, hopefully it will have more appeal when the updates come.

Bowling Alley.

Usually where I spend most of my time, players can play bowling, pool and arcade games in this area, usually the most filled area and the only downside to this is it takes a while to get onto the games as they are always full.

Shopping Mall.

This is where you can buy new clothes for your avatar and also sells new apartments and furniture for them. Still in progress but as a good range of items so far.

Harbour Studio.

This is your personal space where you can personalise your avatar and also your space, again, not spent much time in here as its quite boring unless you invite people into your space.

So far it’s looking good for Playstation Home and I expect big things for it over the next year, I will update this post when new features are added and if they are beneficial or not.

Peer Reviews.

2008-12-10T18:49:00.002Z

I Think this went really well today and it was nice to get some good feedback on my work, I'm making some changes to my work with the comments that where brought up in the review.

I Feel we should do this again with future projects.

Ford Mustang site update.

2008-12-04T12:27:00.002Z

Started to put my site together in Dreamweaver today, I’m not particularly strong in Dreamweaver but so far it is going well and it is looking how I want it to, encountered a bit of problem with text as I can’t get it to overlay my background image but I’m looking at this problem now and figuring out how I can get around this.

More layout designs.

2008-12-03T12:16:00.000Z

Finished off my Photoshop mock ups for my layouts for the site.

Another loading page design.

2008-12-03T11:35:00.002Z

Speedial for a webiste project by ~Hardstyler01 on deviant ART

Which has got my vote on being the one that is going into my website, it has been animated in Flash so will look at getting the swf. file uploaded, still needs a little bit of work doing to it but I'm happy with the outcome so far.

Loading Page Designs.

2008-11-30T16:17:00.001Z

Two loading page designs I have done, only difference at the minute are the logos but I am experimenting with other designs at the minute, these designs will eventually be animated in Flash.

What creative work I do outside of uni.

2008-11-28T14:31:00.001Z

Outside of uni I would say my main creative element is through music as I produce my own tracks and mixes. This is good as it is a creative way to express feelings through certain sounds and styles. I also use music as a form of inspiration as it can help give ideas again through the sounds used and the style of the music.

Ford Mustang Uni Project Work.

2008-11-26T19:04:00.000Z

Layouts.

Banners.

Decibel Video I Made.

2008-11-25T15:00:00.000Z

Got bored one night so made this by chopping up videos of the Official Decibel Outdoor festival and then rearranging them and adding a music track over it.

Website project work.

2008-11-23T17:07:00.000Z

Although there doesn’t seem to much about my project on my blog I have lots of interesting ideas for how I can produce a good website on my chosen subject of Ford Mustangs, after looking through my designs and looking at other websites based on cars I have started experimenting with taking elements out of my sketched designs and mixing them up a bit, this has given me some good results as well has some results that maybe wont work, but the ideas are there even if they don’t, I also feel I have learnt a lesson in doing this as I usually jump straight in Photoshop and Flash and don’t do much work using the good old fashioned pen & paper method.

Car Websites.

2008-11-20T20:52:00.000Z

Seeing as I am doing my project based on cars I thought it would make sense to look at some more car websites to see if I could get any more ideas to add to the ones I have now, after looking at a few websites such as Auto Trader (http://www.autotrader.co.uk/) , Desperate Seller (http://www.desperateseller.co.uk/) and Old Classic Car (http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/) I have come to notice that they are all very untidy and not very nice to look at, Old Classic Car is probably the worst of the three as the text is very close to other parts of text that is a part of a different section, this is very confusing and makes you loose track of what you are reading.

The other two website are very similar in design and again the pages feel cluttered and have lots of adverts on the side, the adverts are relevant but I feel that they are too big and take up too much space on the page.

Again as I said in my post below it gives me a good opportunity to create a cleaner cut website that is easier on the eye and more user friendly then the sites I have looked at.

http://www.fordvehicles.com/cars/mustang/index.asp

2008-11-20T12:13:00.000Z

http://www.fordvehicles.com/cars/mustang/index.asp

This is the official website of Ford Mustang vehicles, the site contains information and pictures of the vehicles, this is good as it is relevant to the point of the website, however the site design itself is rather boring and could be a lot better in terms of layout.

The first point is that it is aligned to the left which is annoying as it would be more suitable and easier to view if it was centred, the whole website is done in Flash and it works well but some of the features are just there because they felt the need to include them for example the 360 car views, which are well done and look good but slightly pointless as your hardly going to spend time looking at the vehicles from various angles, then there’s the colour selector which again works well but it’s hardly going to be used.

The parts of the site that are useful i.e. specifications and price range are well designed but the layouts are quite cramped together, when you click on the vehicle range page there is no enlarge image button which is a shame as the images are quite small and look squashed which doesn’t give you a good view of the car.

Another thing I have noticed is that if you click on other vehicle range’s such as SUV’s the window fills more of the page, which leaves you wondering why the hell didn’t they do that with the whole site, it’s just a strange website from start to finish.

Hopefully I will be able to solve some of these problems in my designs and come up with a more functional layout.

Grocery Shop Boys Designs

2008-11-17T21:50:00.001Z

Here are my designs for the Grocery Shop Boys project.

Flash Halloween Banner

2008-11-01T14:06:00.000Z

File has been removed, I will look at uploading it to a more stable server.

A Flash Halloween Banner me and Scotty made, when on the page click the ghost to drag it around the banner

Website Proposal.

2008-10-30T01:41:00.000Z

I am planning to base my three page site on the Ford Mustang vehicle range, I have chose to design my site on this is that they are one of my favourite range of car and I have some interesting ideas on what I can design for this that have come from my inspirations post below.

It will also give me a good choice of layout and styles of the pages as I can develop my site in the style of how the design of the car has evolved over the years.

Research Task.

2008-10-30T01:12:00.000Z

For the research task we were told to look at an artist or a group of artists that have inspired us, I have chosen Neville Brody and Peter Saville, these artists were first bought to my attention during college when a tutor recommended I looked them up for a typography task.

Neville Brody.

Neville Brody is a British graphics designer and as done projects for clients such as Macromedia, The Times Newspaper and Computer Arts Magazine.

'Above; Computer Arts Magazine Cover Submission'

I like his designs as they stand out and are always cleanly layout, I am a fan of bold colours but they have to be used in the right way and well thought out as there are a lot of designs out there that have used bolder colours but look untidy and unpleasing on the eye, the design above shows good use of more vibrant colours well and it works well with the simple white background.

Peter Saville.

Peter Saville is well known for his work in typography, one of his most famous designs was the record sleeve for Blue Monday by New Order, below, this piece of work is very modernist and is very simple but works very well.

The way that he uses simple but effective designs is clever as it will stand out amongst other designs as it strikes your eye as it is so simple and isn’t jumping out you with lots of elements fighting for attraction.

http://www.wildridexm.com/

2008-10-28T00:16:00.000Z

http://www.wildridexm.com/

This site is about satellite radio for cars, although it doesn’t really make it clear what it’s about until you click one of the links in the bottom corner which then brings a window up that explains the site a little more.

The site lets you take control of a car with a hippo and a giraffe placed in and they just drive down a long stretch of road through places that shows you what type of music you will be able to listen to on satellite radio.

The design of the site is good but nothing more than that, it’s done in a sketch type of style using only black, white and a little bit of yellow, his makes it a bit boring to look at for long periods of time as there’s no variation in colour to give the user something more to look at.

The content is relevant as it is all music orientated with different samples of what styles you can pick up on the radio, and as there is not much more on the site I’d say that this is the best element of the site.

The content is clearly organised but the most important content is in the pop up windows which again isn’t good design as you would always think the main content would be one of the first things you would see on the site.

The interactivity of the site is mainly done by the arrow keys on the keyboard as you get to control the car using these, the arrow keys are also used to navigate the hippo in the help the hippo game, which is quite dull and looks exactly the same as the main site but from a birds eye view.

There is another game called flip the animals which sees you having to flip animals off a car bonnet into another car, again done in the same style as the main page.

There is also a video clip called ‘Heaven’ which features a dinosaur of some kind run across the road only to be struck down by lightning and sent to Heaven where he is given a car that features XM satellite radio, which then presents us with the slogan ‘In Heaven, all cars have XM’.

So, my final thought on the site is that it could have been much better in quite a lot of senses, it’s not pleasing on the eye and I was quickly looking away from the screen to give my eyes a rest from the same colours, the navigation is set out at the top of the page as well as on billboards that appear at the side of the road.

www.allstategarage.com

2008-10-27T23:35:00.000Z

This is a website about Motorcycle’s and has help on insurance quotes, route planning, safety tips and other useful information about motorcycling.

The site contains a lot of Flash elements including rollovers, moving images and videos, the links are pictures and are relevant to what your being linked to i.e. the plan your next ride page link is a road map on the garage wall, there are lots of links on the page but it is set out very clearly and it also has the links across the top of page so you can find a page without having to find the picture link in the garage view, I like how they have done this as it is easier and quicker to find what your looking for, another element of the links above the garage door is that when you hover over them, the relevant picture glows up in the garage view and vice-versa.

There is also a little game that allows you to build your own bike(which I spent a little time doing), you get a lot of choices on what colour, style and accessories you want on your motorcycle and also get to place it on one of four backgrounds then save it at the end, there is a little problem with this page, there are some black bike objects, which are placed on a black background, you can barely see that they are there, I feel they should have made the background lighter or maybe added a border around the bike objects to make them stand out from the background.

The plan a route page is just like Google Maps but focuses on good routes for touring across America, this is good addition for riders who are planning a cross country vacation and don’t know about the roads, there is also links to submit your own routes or check out the top ten routes.

The garage TV page features videos of advice from the people who work at the company, these videos are about road safety and how to prepare yourself for a safe journey, this is a good page as it shows you lots of safety videos on how to check you oil and other stuff on your bike to what clothing is suitable for riding and what hand signals to use to indicate to the riders behind when you want to stop or turn.

After going through the site and looking at numerous pages, it’s really hard to find faults in the site, yes, you might get confused by looking for links in the garage, but they have made sure you can navigate your way through the site easily by placing links at the top as well, the sites very well spaced out and nothing interferes with each other, the only bad thing is the game section with the clashing colour’s which could have been avoided by having a border around the image, but apart from that minor error, the website is spot on for design work and information.

Website Reviews.

2008-10-27T19:52:00.000Z

http://uk.playstation.com/home/

The Sony website contains lots of information on a wide range of products, I chose to look at there Playstation section, the site is cleanly set out and is easy to navigate around and the design of the site is basic and contains an element where the background colour changes with the information displayed in the slideshow.

The page features a slideshow at the top with news on forthcoming games and features and as separate pages for individual consoles such as the PS3 & the PSP, the information is relevant to the purpose of the site and is updated regularly with news about new features and games that are forthcoming on the Playstation platform.

The content of the page is set out neatly in tables containing information about the product as well as screenshots and videos plus information on the manufacturer and developer along the side of the main information boxes.

The interactivity of the site is easy to use and works relatively well within the interactive elements such as slideshow controls, video controls and within the navigational element of the page.

The only problem I have encountered is the colour changing background, I found it distracting whilst reading information on a page as I kept looking at the side of the page when the colours are fading in and out and loosing track of what I was reading.

Reviews, Dan Saffer & Joel Schafer

2008-10-27T19:19:00.000Z

Dan Saffer: 'Interaction design is an applied art'

After reading the interview I think that there is some good information that can be taken out of this and put into use in my studies, for instance he comments on knowing a little about other elements of design outside of your field, ‘Other design disciplines such as visual and industrial design are essential siblings. Knowing some programming/scripting is also important; it's like a sculptor knowing clay and stone. You have to understand the properties of the medium you work in.
Tons of other fields like filmmaking, art, psychology, anthropology, library science, physiology, and biology touch on the work we do and knowing even a little of them goes a long way.’

This is relevant as you don’t always know what is going to be set out in front of you in client projects so having a little knowledge in other areas might help you solve problems in the future.

Joel Schafer: 'I'm into minimalistic clean design'

A brief interview that contains useful information, for example not rushing into software but sitting down and noting things down and sketching ideas beforehand, also using other sites and pieces for inspiration are understandable but always use your own source materials.

The main point I think he is trying to explain is that less is more, having a page that contains lots of elements isn’t always the best way to set out pages but to use less and make better use of the space as it is easier to navigate and easier on the eye.

I also feel that the part where he describes mistakes that people who are new to the industry make, especially the first point about setting your sights on one thing and completely ignoring other things around it, this is useful as you wont necessarily get far in the design industry by doing this.

New Art Exchange Photos

2008-10-25T15:40:00.000+01:00

Find more photos like this on ONLINE ENVIRONMENTS 2008-9

Quick Photoshop picture I did earlier.

2008-10-25T02:14:00.000+01:00

Was just experimenting with different blur and brush effects, came up with a Firefly like creature.

Networking.

2008-10-24T14:44:00.000+01:00

The essential point of networking is human contact. Business has killed networking by making it something for the career orientated person.

My view on this statement is that it is correct and incorrect, whilst the idea of networking comes across to people as being business orientated, a majority of people don’t see that we are networking all the time without realising, this can be in forms of Facebook, Myspace and talking to people in the street.

More Music.

2008-10-22T12:10:00.000+01:00

Two laid back remixes I did over the summer, not the kind of style I'd usually make but thought I'd try something different.

Lightforce - Join Me (Craig Thomas Ambient Mix)

(Original written & produced by Andreas Dohmeyer and Matthias Wagner.
Remix and additional production by Craig Thomas)

Fort Minor - Where'd You Go (Craig Thomas Midnight Dub Mix)

(Producer, Mixed By, Engineer - Mike Shinoda
Remix and additional production by Craig Thomas)

Go Karting Simulator.

2008-10-22T00:32:00.000+01:00

Me being thrown about, mainly due to bad driving, on a karting simulator game in Skegness.

Very good fun and if they where available for home use, I'd buy one.

A little mix I have done.

2008-10-21T23:55:00.000+01:00

A 10 minute Hardstyle mix I did today.

Phase 3 & The Machine - Fine Day
Noisecontrollers - Venom
D-Block & S-Te-Fan - Kingdom
Frontliner - Spacer
Frontliner - Tuuduu (DJ Tool)
Rushtex - Exorcism Of Chucky

Ruud van Eijk.

2008-10-21T22:36:00.000+01:00

http://www.ruudvaneijk.com/

Ruud van Eijk is a Dutch media designer who has done a lot of work in the dutch dance music field as well as other projects for companies such as Red Bull and the music channel TMF.

From his work I particularly like his design for D-Block & S-Te-Fan’s website (http://www.dblock-stefan.com/), I have chosen this as I like the way it is cleanly set out and this makes user functionality easy when you are navigating around the site.

When you navigate through the pages the layout stays the same which enables you to find information quickly and also keeps the sites appeal to the user.

The interactivity is not done by Ruud, but by kik-it (http://www.kik-it.nl/), the interactive parts of the site all work well and a personal favourite of mine is the way the links light up when hovered over, this helps the user to know what page they are moving to as it brings the link to life and its more noticeable.

Other elements of his work include these Q-Bookings Artist Designs, http://www.ruudvaneijk.nl/pages/portfolio/overig_print/qbookings/ and this motion graphic video for Welcome To The Future Festival, http://www.ruudvaneijk.nl/pages/portfolio/motiongraphics/rve_wttf.mov

Ruud is an inspiration to me as his design style stands out as his own within the music industry and the way he incorporates music into his work by using things you’d use in the music industry, another reason I have chose him is because he works in the music industry which is what I would like to work in someday as music is a big part of my life, music can be an inspiration as you can pull ideas out of a style of music and incorporate it into your design, for example if your listening to a subtle piece you can use the delicate sounds in forms of colours that are warm and easy on the eye such as yellows and oranges, or if you were listening to grungier music where you would be hearing darker and more distorted sounds, it would suggest colours such as dark blues and greys.

Some drawings I have done recently.

2008-10-04T02:00:00.002+01:00

Stewie Griffin (Family Guy)

Autobots Logo (Transformers)

Soundwave (Transformers)

Pixar win special recognition award at the National Movie Awards.

2008-09-09T22:35:00.000+01:00

http://www.pixar.com/featurefilms/index.html

And in my honest opinion it’s very well deserved, and the reason why is what they have done for animated movies, starting with Toy Story all the way through to Wall-E, Pixar films have bought us some brilliant films, and some brilliant animation along the way, and with the look of things they can only get better.

The animation in the Pixar films is so good it just makes you go wow, especially in Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo, the parts that stand out are the water effects (Finding Nemo) and Sulley’s fur in Monsters Inc.

Mike's New Car (Short Film at the end of Monsters Inc.

Finding Nemo Trailer.

The water in Finding Nemo looks almost real, and then when you are taken into the Reef setting below it looks even better, everything moves in such a lifelike way, and then there’s the way Sulley’s fur moves in the short film Mike’s New Car when the blowers come on, it just shows how much computer animation is coming along.

These are just two small examples but there are hundreds of things across the Pixar animations that have been done that animation just wasn’t capable of 10 - 15 years ago when 3D animation was starting to appear in movies.

And yes, there are more animated movies out there such as A Shark’s Tale and Shrek both by DreamWorks Animation and Blue Sky Studios’ Ice Age and Robots, but for me, Pixar are a cut above the rest.

A friend of mines website.

2008-07-22T16:10:00.000+01:00

Well, its a freewebs website where David, who I currently work with uploads his pictures of birds, just been looking through them and he has took some really good pictures so I thought I'd share them.

http://www.freewebs.com/birdpix/index.htm

Some pictures off the site.

Little image I did whilst watching the Euro 08 tournament

2008-06-11T23:01:00.000+01:00

Firstly the logo and mascots are the official Euro designs, I added the football with all the countries flags that are participating in the tournament, I made this by using a picture of a football and then used a polygonal lasso to go around the edge of each patch and then pasted the flags inside them, I also added a filter and a blur so it gives a movement motion from the mascot's foot.

3 logo designs done in photoshop.

2008-04-27T20:27:00.001+01:00

I have done these three designs in Photoshop so far and I am working on one more from my sketches as I feel that they are my strongest designs for a logo.

The top one is a cartoon beaver (which is my nickname) with the word beaver being abbreviated to 'BVR', the middle design also features the same name, but with circle designs and the words placed in the middle.

The third design features my full name numerous time's in the background in various colours and I added a 'materialise' filter to these, I then added my name again in a bolder colour and place dit over the top of these.

www.djzany.nl

2008-04-22T15:04:00.000+01:00

This is the website for my favourite Hardstyle DJ, Zany, it is used to promote him and his music and also has information about him and a schedule of where he is playing.

The site is done in flash and has rollover elements on some of the links and features a music player in the top corner, other elements include moving imagery and text effects.

Firstly the website is cleanly layout, you can find the links to other pages easily and information is easy to read, when you click the links the page changes and stays in the same style and place as the previous page.

I think the way the layout stays the same and just has the information changing works well as you automatically know where to look for it, the picture also changes when you navigate through the pages, except on the discography page when more links are placed in the side menu so you can switch from his own releases to remixes and albums and cd’s mixed by him, again these are clearly set out to the right of the page.

The image behind the main part of the site is good but I feel it has no relevance to the actual site itself apart from the headphone cables, I think they could have maybe used a picture from a live set or a studio session that has relevance to him.

The music player is neatly spaced out from the rest of the information boxes and the interaction works well, I fell that the headphone image should be slightly smaller as it covers some of the button and text in the player.

This image of the bottom banner shows that the lit up picture is a link, the three to the right hand side do the same when they are hovered over.

The left hand side text is not a link, I feel that it would have been better as link as you can’t copy and paste the text, as a user if you wanted to use the address you would mainly always think that you can click the text and it would link you to the said page, this could cause confusion to the user as it is set out like a link.

Overall I think the website is good, but there is room for improvement, I would definitely make the bottom banner text a link to avoid confusion, the background image is ok as it is but maybe could be something with more relevance, but the site works well and the interaction is generally fine, the layout and text are neatly set out and clear to see the information you are looking for.

www.fivecentstand.com

2008-04-21T13:38:00.000+01:00

http://www.fivecentstand.com/

This is a website for the band Five Cent Stand, I found it using http://www.thebestdesigns.com/ which is a good resource for finding Flash websites.

The music is Pop/Folk style (as they describe it on the site), and the website works well with their style, I like the way that it is published like an old scrapbook and it is cleanly layout, the little image in the top corner of an apple tree with floating apples moves back and forth which also works well.

As for the interaction, it works well, with a mixture of images and texts being clickable links, the news feed section, (shown below), has three links to it, news, bio and journal, which come up in the main section when clicked, the little arrows in circles inside the news feed are used to scroll up & down, I feel these are quite dark and you can only just see the arrow, this may be an issue to some users and could have been made a little lighter.

The gallery which is in the bottom left corner also has three links above it, tour dates, store and gallery, again working within that specific section when clicked upon, the images are links and are bought up on the page in a window with a drag feature which allows you to move the image at your own leisure, which is a good thing seeing as that some of the images pop up in silly places like near the bottom of page meaning you have to scroll down the page to find the close button at the bottom of the image window to turn the image off.

The image below shows picture of the male singer, as you can see the close button is cut off at the bottom of the browser.

Other features include a music player, which you’d expect as it’s a website based on a band, and links to their Blog and Myspace.

I think as a whole, the website works well in places, there are a few things that could be better and the site would work better because of this, after looking at the design of the site and how it is spaced out and everything’s clear to see and find, it is a good strong website and achieves it 's goal of advertising the bands music.

Condemned 2: Bloodshot

2008-04-20T21:48:00.000+01:00

http://condemned2.sega-europe.com/en/index2.html
(Official Site)

Condemned 2: Bloodshot is a game available on PS3 & XBOX 360, I have recently purchased it as it looked quite a good game from reading the description and from what I've been told by friends about it.

So, firstly, whats it about, you play Ethan Thomas former Serial Crimes Unit investigator, who has been called back to duty to track down his missing partner, who you see running away from something/someone at the begining of the intro video, sounds like a normal kind of puzzle game does'nt it, you find clues and are helped by a team of other Serial Crimes Unit members, but no, it's nto normal, yes, you find clues and have to guess yourself from multiple choices either what happened in a certain place, or how someone died, but throw in a psychopathic town of weird folk in mask's that include pigs, gas masks and other strange stuff, also creatures that can appear out of oil slicks and stuff thats on the wall and my not so favourite creepy dolls that had me screaming like an 8 year old when they dont get what they want, oh, I should also mention that all of these people/things want to kill you, so theres the recipe for a nice bloodbath/gore fest.

Your key to survival is to use anything, yes anything, ranging from your fists to metal pipes to even toilet seats to basically batter your opponents to death, and theres also a neat little finisher move which allows you to throw them through windows or break there arms (which is quite funny if you break both because they hop around trying to headbutt you, they basically look like an angry version of flipper), this is where the review starts.

Yes, so far I like the game, although I'm sticking to playing it in the day because of the moving inanimate objects that scare the living shit out of me (The reason for that is watching Childs Play at a young age because me & a friend thought it would be cool, it wasn't), but there are some parts of the game, mainly the interaction that sometimes lets it down, so, your walking through a hotel room when a pole wielding maniac runs at you and hits you to the ground, you land next to an electrical cord thats hanging out the wall, so you try to grab it and then all of sudden the option to pick it up disappears, meaning you have to quickly look around again waiting for it to come back up and the by the time it has your all ready lying in a pool of your own blood, so i get furthur into the game and im now in a room where someone's been crucified, I get a call of HQ to do an evidence search (Shown Below.).

(Image from Videogamer.com)

So I start my quest for evidence, and yet again, the interactivity isn't much of a help, infact neither are the team, who just tell you obvious things to do like photograph the scene, when you eventually find what your looking for, your given muliple choices on what it could be or what happened, your judged on this and you get a score at the end ranging Poor(1) to Perfect(5), after pretending to be Columbo for a while its back into the insane world of gang violence, where again, your allowed to use weapons to bash people's face's in, where your then told that there are side missions to do as well as the main mission, these can be anything from destroy Oro machinery which are little machines that sound out a whistling sound which is what is sending people crazy and making them kill each other for fun to smashing up drug labs, they add to the games plot and gives you something else to do, but usually take a while to find unless you use your cool sound detector toy which is useless as it leads you somewhere then change's it's mind meaning you have to turn back around and go where you just came from.

So as im only around halfway into the game it wouldn't be fair to say its rubbish because of these minor things, infact it's fun (if your into that kind of thing), and its creepy as hell in parts which adds to the gameplay as it has you thinking what that noise was that usually turns out to be nothing, or it turns out to be a metre high walking doll thats trying to kill you, graphics wise, its good, the environments are things you see in everyday life like streets and warehouses, and an odd hotel every now and again, but they have all been turned into twisted and creepy places, which are usually only lit up by your torch.

So far it's the interaction part thats letting it down, I shall conclude the review when I have finished the game and let you know if there's anything else that could have been better, but for now, here's some screens of the game.

Bit of Photoshop Work.

2008-04-20T21:24:00.000+01:00

Just whipped this up today using two images I took, the wall is from a photo I took whilst in Bury and the buildings are from my trip to Birmingham, I have used filters on the images, these include ripple and neon glow for the sky, and posterisation on the buildings and wall, I also used desaturation on them.

I added my name on the wall as i have uploaded to my Myspace page for my music production.

Halloween 3..A Review..

2008-04-06T19:07:00.000+01:00

Firstly, this review is my humble opinion of a film series I’m a big fan of, now it’s not my favorite and by no means is it the best, having nothing in relation to Halloween 1 or 2 it shouldn't really be classed as an Halloween film.

So, my first point is why have a film titled Halloween 3 if it has no follow on to the previous two, it makes no sense, so seeing as I’m a fan I bought the whole series, having the seen the one’s featuring Michael Myers, AKA ‘The Shape’ numerous times and only having seen this one once and it was many years ago, my knowledge to the storyline was quite vague, so, being bored upon one afternoon I started to go through the movies in order.

The time had come to watch Halloween III: Season of the Witch, the film starts with shop owner Harry Grimbridge trying to escape two men from ‘The Silver Shamrock’ company the company are making Halloween masks which seems normal as it’s a week from Halloween, after being caught and then escaping again, he then ends up at a gas station where he collapses and is then took to the hospital, this is where we meet our main character, Dr. Daniel Challis, a divorced father of two. Whilst in the hospital Grimbridge is approached by a man similar to the ones that were chasing him in the first scene, this is where we have our first death scene, it seems this man has rather strong fingers and crushes Grimbridges nose, instantly killing him, the man then gets into his car and sets himself alight, blowing him and the car into pieces and the in comes our second main character, Grimbridge’s daughter, Ellie.

So, we have a mysterious death on our hands and Ellie, after doing some research into her fathers schedule and where he had been prior his death she then asks Challis for help, he agrees to help and this then leads us to Santa Mira, California, which is a small town and also the home of Silver Shamrocks factory, the film then introduces more important characters such as Conal Cochran, owner of Silver Shamrock and shop owners Marge Guttman and the Kupfer family: Buddy, Betty and their son "Little" Buddy.

After two more death’s, Marge Guttman is killed by a misfiring micro chip that has dropped off the back of a Silver Shamrock mask, and some homeless guy is killed by two more of the men similar to the man who killed Grimbridge, we get to the Silver Shamrock factory, where owner Conal Cochran gives the remaining characters a guided tour of the mask making facilities, Challis then see’s more of the suspicious men guarding a car, which Ellie says is her fathers and tries to run to but is stopped by the men, this is where the film gets a little better, Ellie is kidnapped and took back to the Factory which then leads Challis back there on an heroic rescue mission, but he is also caught and then took to Cochran, we then find out that the men are androids but are functioned to act and look lifelike, he then shows Challis his plan by killing off the Kupfer’s, in some fashion, little Buddy is killed by the mask, which operate when the chip’s respond to an advertisement of Silver Shamrock masks, and the parents are killed by the snakes and bugs that crawl out of little Buddy’s head after his death, Cochran then tries to do the same to Challis but he escapes and rescues Ellie, they then kill Cochran and his workers by throwing a big box full of the chips off a platform into a room where a rock from Stonehenge (which is supposed to have some magical power) then makes them react and triggers an electrical current of some short to energy rays, Challis and Ellie escape but Ellie’s dead and has been replaced by one of Cochran’s androids, she then tries to kill Challis but he kills her by decapitating her, this then builds up to the end scene which is set at the gas station where Grimbridge escaped to, Challis rings the TV companies and tells them to stop the Silver Shamrock adverts, two of them are stopped but the third channel is still broadcasting it, the film then ends. (Shown Below)

So there’s the plot to the film, in fairness, it’s not a great plot, but it works, it’s different to most horror film plots out there, so what lets the film down, apart from the obvious of having nothing in relation to any of the others, nothing, the general eeriness is there, and the soundtrack does add to this very well, the death scenes, well the Family death scene is very graphic and does make you feel sick (well me especially as I have a snake phobia so thinking about one crawl out of some kids mouth just makes me cringe, never mind seeing it happen from a close up camera angle.) (below)

The ending is also good as you don’t actually know of he stops the advertisement or not.

So, although I do think this shouldn’t be classed as a Halloween film, I can respect parts of the movie and the graphic details of some of the deaths are pretty gruesome, there’s just something missing that would have made the film better, maybe a reason to why Cochran is planning on killing all the children, well I say a reason, I mean a better reason than just telling Challis the true meaning of Halloween and thinking that it's alright to go around murdering innocent children with silly Halloween masks because of it.

All in all, it’s worth a watch for some of the death scenes, and for a laugh at some of the rubbish acting (mainly in the last scene shown further up the page), but it’s not by any means a bad film, I mean I’ve seen a lot worse in my time of movie watching.