Yu-Ting Chou, S0033755


THE INTERNET

The interconnection of two or more networks


Throughout the 1970s, a United States government organization called the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) funded several projects to explore network technology, one result of these efforts was ARPANET, a wide-area network that eventually was commercialized and became known as the Internet. The Internet is a network of networks. The term Internet comes form the WAN concept of internetworking, connecting many smaller heterogeneous networks together.


However, as Internet is defined as the interconnection of two or more networks, and the network is about two or more computers connected together for data exchanging. Therefore, this animation was designed to deliver the ideas of Internet through simple to complex messages, in order to make audiences understand the concept of the Internet step-by-step and easy to follow. However, in the first frame, there is a symbol (blue square plus a black line), which was designed to symbolize the "computer". The blue square represents the monitor, and the black colour line under the monitor represents the keyboard. To avoid confusing, the text "computer " in bright blue was used to emphasize that the symbol (blue square and the line) stands for computer.


In the second frame, two narrow lines are added to express that the connection of a network is establishing between tow computers. Similarly, in the frame 3, the two straight lines in bright blue express two computers are connected together. And in the frame 4, the dash lines express the connection between computers is active, and it is in the process of data exchanging. In addition, in the following two frames (5&6), there was a "zoom in " animation effect applied, and two blue circles replaced the two blue squares (computer symbols) to symbolize the computer. However, the "zoom in" effect is aimed to link the frame 5 and frame 6 together in a more interesting visual effect. And the blue circle is to simplify the symbol of computer (blue square and line), as a result of avoiding a mess mood but create a neat and clear presentation.


However, the sixth frame is aimed to represent the concept of a network. The blue circles represent the computers, and the line states that two computer are connected together (a network is established). Right after that, four blue circles have been added in frame 7. And then in frame 8, two blue circles in the middle are joined together with a line, and the other two blue circles (one at left hand side, one at right) are also joined together with two lines. This is to express that two networks have been established. After that, the key concept of the Internet is shown in frame 9 and 10. All blue circles are joined together with lines and looks like a net at the end; it is to express the interconnection of networks. (Two or more computers are connected together) And then, in the last few frames, the text "INTERNET" is designed for explaining the theme of this animation, in case if audiences could not understand the animation, this text would help them to know what the animation is about. Furthermore, the text was designed in a big size font in bold; it is aimed to emphasis the text itself. And the text was designed in dark blue; it is for making the text stands out on the blue gradient background, in order to enhance the text's readability. And, the visual effect (fade and a gradient background) was applied to enhance the visual languages accessibility and to create an interesting mood at the end of the animation.


In addition, according to the Allan Pipes (2001) indicates, orange is associated with the communication and the yellow is associated with the activity. Therefore, the orange and yellow colors should be applied in this animation to express the communicative and active features, which Internet have. But however, the original design of this animation is developed in orange and yellow, but it looks too "active" and "busy", which users would feel uncomfortable to see on screen. Therefore, instead of the orange and yellow, the different tones of blue are used in this animation, due to blues are the relaxing, clam and refresh color, which users would feel comfortable to see on screen (Allan Pipes 2001), and its freshness and cleanliness features would also be able to create a active mood that expresses the activity of the networks.


Furthermore, according to the principles of web page design (Gantastic Designs), web site should be easy to read, and a dark color stands out on the light colour. Therefore, the colours of text and sings should be darker than the background colour, in order to make the web site easy to read for user. Therefore, the background colour is designed in light blue, and the symbols and text are designed in the darker colours (Bright blue, dark blue and black) to make the animation and web page be easy to read. Besides, in the animation, all the connection lines are in bright blue that is to emphasis the lines themself and represent the activity of the networks.


Moreover, the display time of each frame has been arranged, in order to make users easy to follow and understand the animation. The displays times of the frames are form 0.35 seconds to 0.70 seconds, which resulted a total display time in 6.20 seconds. And the file size is 20.90 KBytes, which required 8.18 seconds at 28.8 Kbps and 4.16 seconds at 56.6 Kbps download speed.


The performance tasks in this assignment are based on 10 steps, which are: 1:Choosing the theme (Internet) form Reading 1. 2:Doing the researches on websites and read references books to have a better understanding on design principles and the concept of Internet. 3:Constructing the ideas for the theme (draft and plan). 4:Using Jasc Paint Shop Pro to draw the design for animation. (Designs the symbols and signs and choose colors). 5:Using animation Shop to develop the animation (Arrange the pictures in order and applying the effects). 6:.Reviewing the design and making the improvements (Review the works in details). 7:Testing the animation and making improvements (Get feedback form people). 8:Writing the essay. 9:Designing the web page. 10:Uploading the web page.


The time I have spent to completed this assignments is approximately 32 hours, which includes 8 hours for the researching, 10 hours for the animation developing and reviewing, 10 hours for the Essay writing and the 4 hours for the Web page developing.


Basically, this assignment is fun and not hard to finish. However, the biggest difficulty I have experience in this assignment was, I had spent lots time on changing the designs to meet the file size requirement. The concept of the theme and the pictures are not hard to develop, but to make an animation in size less 20K, the designs cannot be too big or fancy. Therefore, I have spent lots time on changing my drawings and the visual effects in the animation. For example, at the begining, I was trying to draw a world map to express that the networks span the entire globe. But because of the space are limited, 468 pixels wide and 60 pixels high, which is bit too small to put a world map drawing, because of it would cause the animation not easy to read, looks mess and also causes a large file size. Therefore, I decided to use the simple shapes and lines in the designs, rather than the detailed pictures (world map) or images.


Similarly, I have applied the visual effects to make the animation looks more interesting, but it caused a big size file. Therefore, I have spent time on reducing the number of the frames in the animation and working on the visual effects carefully, in order to make the file size in 20 K. However, six people, who are form 18 to 23 years old, have viewed the final design of this animation. And most of the people responded that this animation is easy to follow and understandable.


In conclusion, this assignment is fun and practical, and it is also complementary to the studies of Textuality in course MMST11001-intruduction to multimedia. Thought this assignment, I have practiced and enhanced the skills I have learnt form constructing cyberspace classes, such as the skills of mastering the Jasc paint shop pro 7 and animation shop 3 programs, also the skills on constructing a web page in HTML computer language. Besides, I also gained a further understating on the ways which signs or text are represented effect its visual language accessibilities, and experienced how to deliver messages though signs, colour, text and image. However, I think this assignment is practical and joyful, and it is also a useful learning exercise for the beginners of multimedia studies.






REFERENCES:


  • CQU MMST11002 Course site

  • www.textuality.com

  • Gantastic Designs

  • Bride M. Whelan, 1994, Colour Harmony, Rockport Publishers, Inc.United states of America, Massachusetts.

  • Lisa graham, 2002, Basic of design: layout &typography for beginners.Delmar, a division of Thomson learning. Inc, New York.

  • Paul Farrington, 2002,, "Interactive The Internet for Graphic Designers",,RotoVision SA,Switzerland.

  • David A. Stamper, 1999, Business Data Communications , Addison Wesley Longman, Lnc. NYC.

  • Elizabeth Eisner Reding, Sasha Vodnik (edits), 2001,," HTML Second Edition-Illustrated Complete, Second Edition", Course Technology, Massachusetts.

  • Robert Knox), 2000," Writing for the World Wide Web", Eastern House, Croydon.