THANK GOODNESS!!!!

Last week we came in for an extra session in our Easter Break to get the majority of the Opus complete. Mandy kindly came in for the session to give us a hand. We got four tasks done and were really pleased with our progress although we know it is not the best as me and Kathy are not technically minded!!!!!
We both met up on Saturday to do an extra task and touch up the work. Due to work commitments we could not totally complete and put onto a disc.
Monday morning is here and gone and Kathy done an extra task for our programme as I had to work early. As soon as possible I have come in and got back on task with Kath and have done the disc and cover for the programme. We are now putting it onto a cd and have had to do it twice as we did not publish it properly.
Finally it is complete and I feel a huge weight off my shoulder!!! I think our programme will be benifical to children and is fun and also informal learning. I have found this assignment quite difficult and time consuming but nevertheless interested in using Opus.

I hope you enjoy our programme!!!

Thank you and see you at graduation!!!!!

Session 3 ICT

Today we played around with our voices in class!!! We used microphones to record our voice and then editied to change the pitch, tempo etc. To then adapt it to our Opus programme, Kathy and I recorded words and the title to our programme. I recorded the title and we put an autonarrate so the words change colour as the computer speaks. It looks abit like a kareoke!! We then used Kathys voice to go over the buttons. When applying the voice to each button we had to apply it to every button on every page. We also had to make sure that the voice stopped when the mouse left the button. I found this very time-consuming and have really concentrated hard not to make any mistakes!!!! We have also been planning what activites we are going to do in the programme. We have been told we need at least 6!!!!!!!

OOF!! Off to rest my tired head!!!!!

CU NX WK!!!!

Session 2

Hello!!

Today we played around and experimented with the Opus programme and made a small wordsearch. It is not yet in our programme but it was interesting to try and use. Me and Kathy could not fiind the work we done last week so started a fresh today!!!!! We are finding it a little difficult as not very technical but we enjoy a challenge so are willing to give it our best shot!!!!

CU SWN!

OPUS LESSON 1

So, the end of one assignment with Suzi and our D and T project and the start of the Opus project with Mandy. Kathy is my new partner for this challenge and today we had the opportunity to start playing with the Opus programme. It is slightly confusing to use but we have actually managed to get a theme and a few pictures in. We have decided on the topic 'Healthy Living' and have made four buttons, food, excersize, lifestlye and why to keep healthy. We are hoping our programme will encourage youngsters to become and stay healthy. We will toch on the consequences that will happen if you dont keep healthy too. Today we uploaded photos of real foods ready for a game that we will work on next week. This first lesson was to get us use to the programme and to get some ideas rolling and we have!!! CU NX WK!! X!

The End! - Stop, Start Animation

So today was the day we presented our short stop animation film to the class. I really enjoyed watching what the rest of the class had produced and we all had a good laugh!! Everyone had different messages to send through thier animation and I believe our film had a related issue to young people like ourselves. We had good feedback and everyone enjoyed.

If we had to go this presentation again, we would firstly make a front cover to introduce our film. We had trouble adding this feature on at a later date so would do it immediately. Also the way we filmed our animation was not the easieset. There is better way to record the animation by using a button on the programme. Louise and I used the actual camera and then had to shorten each scene which proved time consuming.

Overall I am really happy with the way our animation turned out. We had fun making, filming, editing and presenting our animation and believe the message got across to our audience as we recieved positive feedback! Of course I would like to make improvements but am very happy with the final result.

Finishing Touches......

So today, me and Louise just touched up our storyboard. We added sound effects to our motion and a few speacial effects, for instance a disco ball to give the theme in the disco and some flames for when the car crashes. We have struggles with the sounds a bit because we couldn't change the music totally when the scene changed to the outdoors. This hasnt really affected the overall film and we did manage to put some explosion sounds on.
We are very happy with our production and might change our career to animation design film makers!!!!

BYE 4 NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!"!

So, Louise and I have come in last week on our reading week (04/02/2010) to get our film started!! We prepared out scences and got the camera in place. We then had to set our 'doll' dancing through different stages. We made sure we had plenty of clips to play around with. We also added in some extra moves, such as drinking cans and throwing them and her falling a being sick!! It really gives a good impression of a night out! The girl, who we have named - Britney, then goes out to her car and climbs through the window, again she spews! As she drives off she hits a tree and before filming our final scene we had to go over the film as we needed to cause some damage to the car and tree in the scene itself. We have added in small fonts to get the message across but are going to expand on this next week and add some background sounds!!

MAKING A SHORT STOP MOTION FILM

So today, the 10th of Decemeber Louise and I got started on our film. We have changed our idea last minute from recycling to drink driving. Drink driving will be easier to fil and make with less scences. So we started by making a girl whos out partying as we put a cute dress on her!! She is going to be drinking in a party then she is going to get in her car and drive....then crash!!! Me and Louise have worked really hard today...we made our girl and our two backgrounds. We already have a car made from our first year. W ehave done a lot of creative thinking today trying to make a mini disco....making a dancefloor and a groovy background, then making an outdoor scence with a road and a tree.
Overall, really really happy with our progress today as we are ready to film in the new year!!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! AND SEE YOU IN 2010!!!! XX

Back to Mandy!

Today we come back to Mandy's lecture. We found out what our assignment is going to be here and we have to make an Opus programme. Obviously we didn't have a clue what she was talking about until she gave us programmes of what other students have done previous with the programme. Myself and Kathy looked and compared two different Opus programmes. One was teaching the time and the other on St. Fagons. We found one more profgessional than the other but the other was slightly more user-friendly. We have emailed our evaulations to Mandy regarding our thoughts! It seems quite scary that we have to do one of these ourselves for our project......time to get our thinking caps on and start thinking what we are going to do our Opus on!!!!!!!

Catch ya next week!!!

FRESH START

HELLO!

It's been a while! but I am back in my final year of uni!!! Horray!!! I lasted this long!!! Am really looking forward to graduating!!!!

So now I am using my blog for my I.T and D and T sessions as this ois going to be part of my final assesment for this module. I will update regualarly about how my assignment is going and any new information......

We have been asked to make a stop and start amination about an issue we feel strongly about. My partner Louise and I have decided to look at the environment and recycling. We want our animation to stress the importance of global warming and how to reduce our carbon footprint.

Today we have gathered our ideas on how to reduce pollution such as switching lights out, using less cars etc and have made a short little storyboard of how we think our animation is going to go......one step at a time!!! We will gradullay get there......Time to suss out these video cameras now........

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hello 2008!!! New year fresh start!!! Am planning to get fitter and healthier for the new year!! Hope it stick to these resolutions, I'll let you know how long I last!! Am going away to Tenerife on the 25th Jan so its a nice start to the year, i suggest everyone plan a holiday for January because it really does beat the January blues!! I;m looking forward to a fun-filled year!!!

Make up by Helen

I love make up!!!

I could not live without my bronzer and lip gloss!!! My new favourite lip-gloss is the new L’Oreal 6 hour glam shine. I saw it advertised on TV and then saw it while I saw shopping in Tesco, I was quite curious to see if it did last 6 hours so thought I’d buy it to try it out! It doesn’t last a full 6 hours but it is still better than your average lip gloss.

http://www.lorealparis.co.uk/minisites/maquillage/
This website includes videos on how to apply make up correctly and to get the best affects. It seems very professional and gives the impression of a glamorous life

I like to buy most of my make up from Boots because this way I can save points to buy more make up! What an amazing idea!!! Here’s a link for the Boots website;
http://www.boots.com/onlineexperience/