Mobile Networking

Interactive Media Report

Mobile Networking

As part of the interactive media we were doing I was given the task of testing and finding out different stuff about mobile networking and the different ways it works and how networking is used, discussing the pros and cons of it. Not only will I be writing my report I will also be adding a short report on my other team members and what did, which was websites and dvd menus.

After testing out the Common phone or in this case the IPhone 4 I found that I still love the apple IPhone despite the things wrong with it like the Icloud security issues and the battery percentage which is just annoying how it says its on 18% but then will die is very annoying. Even after having other phones like Samsung, Nokia, LG, and Black Berry but the IPhone has by far the best user interface which I like very much as it’s a very detailed and the graphics make everything better.

A lot of the apps and games are very easy to download and play which is a really good thing, as you don’t want to be waiting ages to play a game. Not only are the games apps great for playing but you can also talk to other people and interact with numerous people from around the world all ready to talk to from just the reach of your fingertips. When wanting to play different games on the phones the category ranges from strategy, 8 bit pixels and adventure. So not only are they great for gaming but can also help with challenging the mind and can also help people become smarter.

After I was finished with testing the Mobile Networks I listed down below the results of my fellow team mates and their findings of other forms of interactive media like websites and DVD menus like the title screen and the many features.

Tristan’s Report

Tristan who was in charge of websites like YouTube and went on to say they’re easy to access and is very easy to search for different things like videos of any sort, blogs and music videos to even gaming. He also went on and explained about how its great for different age ratings just depending on what there into. After talking about different parts of websites he went on to explain about different features the internet has, like how there is a side bar with options like my channel, my subscriptions, history, watch later, playlists and tags that take you straight to your most favourite or preferred pages.

Chloe’s Report

As for Chloe who was the third member in our group she was in charge of DVD menus, which she choose to do her evaluation based on the Gladiator film and the user interface behind it. She basically went on to talk about testing dvd menus/title, observing text that was used, music, images, sound effects, selection of scenes, what kind of special effects that were used just in the title, does the text or images light up when selecting it. She then went on to talk about how it has short clips and a quick look from the movie put together as it leads into the title screen. The music on the title screen sounded like an orchestra playing and lasts for 34 seconds before repeating, sounding like it had been cut out from a longer song with the same roman theme as the movie. She went to describe the both pages of the title has a background with brown/discolouring filter over a still cropped image, the first one being the outside of an arena, the second being mountains and ruins. Though the free space around the arena image has a moving image of real clouds with a sped up effect so it catches the viewers eye and how its better than leaving it blank which makes it look better and it provides a more greater piece.

Unit 4 personal project

Project Title
Games Magazine Cover

Influences, Research, Sources and Ideas

For my project I will be doing a games magazine cover where I got the idea from both reading my favouite magazine and from my passion of games. My influences for my project are from popular game magazines like Xbox 360, PlayStation and Pc Gamer. These magazines tend to explore new and up coming games, going into detail and often talking about their consoles either the latest model or the next generation. These different types of magazines are great because they go into detail about a numerous of different things that can help with problems, or just informs you about up coming games that you may not know about. I started searching and researching into different magazines and designs, looking for different layouts weather small and simple or large and compacted with loads of details and a numerous of different things happening like a main image as the back ground and several smaller images over lapping the larger one wether its of the same game or showing different images from other games either gaining peoples attention or just to make it look more appealing and interesting. For my idea and design I'm wanting to go for a simple but effective design cover with my brands or companies name at the top with a slogan like "The nations Greatest gaming magazine." For the magazine title Im thinking plox as its a mixture of Pc,Xbox and Playstaiton making it a all round readable magazine that all types of gamers can read as it doesnt just have to be for one group of people now its for the majority of the gamers. looking into different magazines I started getting some ideas to develop my own piece. I started looking into title designs, images, colours used and the layout of it all. I was also interested in the way the images worked together, how they would be displayed next to each other and the way the colours and shades blended together to get the professional design and feel.

Techniques And Processes

This image just shows off me making it using photoshop and tools like  crop,transform , magic wand,text tool, eyedropper, paint bucket,eraser,brush, bevel and emboss.

Description

This is just the background with a dark and mysterious theme to it with a lightening storm going on bringing it colour and brightness making it less boring and kind of setting the tone for it, also making you want to read on so you know why its there and what its about. For the main character drawing I took a photo, changed and painted over it. This is also a great way I thought on how to show off the main character and kind of give you a good idea on what he's about and what he does. A good way of doing this was with his weapons which was a bow and arrows. When you look at it you get a feel for him and you can carry on to understand him more. This is also a good way of letting the viewers know if its something that there into, if their into games with bows and arrows then they might be more inclined to read it but if your not a fan and don't like using them weapons then you know just by looking at it that its not for you. My main character looks like this because I wanted to give him a dark and mysterious look/ feel to him. I didn't make it all black as that could be boring so instead in added different colours like purple and blue with depth and tone. Seen as how his weapon of chose is a bow it tells you hat he likes to use it from a distance, hiding away in the back ground, unseen and un detected. He's also got great skin tone that both shows him off so you have a idea what he looks like but also theres shadows on his face.

Final Outcome

This is a screen shot of my overall piece with all the titles, images, text and colours added. To round it all of I added a simple border just to smoothen it off kind off making it more complete.

Game Magazine Idea

As my main concept for my game idea I was thinking about something like the black and oranges monster from green lantern as the bad guy and his smoke travels through out the land infecting and possessing people to fight and kill. The main lead is blessed with some god powers or charms that kept him from changing and he sets out to kill the monster. A lot of his ora was damaged from protecting him from the smoke but doesn't regenerate fully making him weaker.

As for the cover maybe have a high view over looking the city with the monster far away over looking everything and rising over the city with the hero close to the camera ready to fight with his ora showing and weapons out with red bodies.

My original idea that I was going to do has been changed, now for my final piece I kept with the game magazine cover but just changed the context. It has changed to having a dark and purple back ground with a bright white and purple lightening storm. I've also added a close up drawing of my character Nighthawk which I got inspiration from the Hawkeye character. After getting my background and main character finished I added a border and some headings with a couple of titles.

This is a close up of my game covers title. I choose to have it red as it matches up with another red image that I've used but also because I think that with a dark background it stands out well and with also making it 3d it brings out the boldness to it, grabbing your eye sight so that you can tell its the title making sure that it doesn't fade into the other images. Also adding a black border to it, it brings out the edges and making it stand out more.

Looking at popular game magazines there tends to be a lot of advertising and shows to a little of what is in side, whether its by images or just by listing some of the titles. Thinking about this I choose to making a little subs box at the bottom of the page listing of the other games that would be in the cover, making you want to read on. To make it look better and give it a kind of flow, I also added the barcode and a short web page url to it making it both compact and spacious.

This is just the background with a dark and mysterious theme to it with a lightening storm going on bringing it colour and brightness making it less boring and kind of setting the tone for it, also making you want to read on so you know why its there and what its about. For the main character drawing I took a photo, changed and painted over it. This is also a great way I thought on how to show off the main character and kind of give you a good idea on what he's about and what he does. A good way of doing this was with his weapons which was a bow and arrows. When you look at it you get a feel for him and you can carry on to understand him more. This is also a good way of letting the viewers know if its something that there into, if their into games with bows and arrows then they might be more inclined to read it but if your not a fan and don't like using them weapons then you know just by looking at it that its not for you. My main character looks like this because I wanted to give him a dark and mysterious look/ feel to him. I didn't make it all black as that could be boring so instead in added different colours like purple and blue with depth and tone. Seen as how his weapon of chose is a bow it tells you hat he likes to use it from a distance, hiding away in the back ground, unseen and un detected. He's also got great skin tone that both shows him off so you have a idea what he looks like but also theres shadows on his face.

This is a screen shot of my overall piece with all the titles, images, text and colours added. To round it all of I added a simple border just to smoothen it off kind off making it more complete.

This image just shows off me making it using photoshop and tools like  crop,transform , magic wand,text tool, eyedropper, paint bucket,eraser,brush, bevel and emboss. 

This is just simply showing of how I got my different colours and trying to find the right combinations for each image to work well together.

As I was making my second cover I thought about having a logo for my character. All that I did to make this design was have a smaller hawk bird on top of a larger one with different colours. If I was going to use this as a logo I wanted to keep the colours the same or as close to my cover as possible. I eventually didn't like it as it wouldn't fit and look right with every thing else so I choose not to add it. 

This is just me researching into other game covers, getting some ideas to develop my own piece. I started looking into title designs, images, colours used and the layout of it all. I was also interested in the way the images worked together, how they would be displayed next to each other and the way the colours and shades blended together to get the professional design and feel.