Digital Realities
This assignment involves a survey of websites that use different types of digital media and animation. The websites below are your starting point, and after looking at them, you can expand your research to include other sites.
After looking at these sites, and after finding other web material that you think is pertinent to these issues, write a 2 page essay answering one or more of the following questions:
1. How are these sites using visual conventions from other media? Think specifically about how and when they use visual conventions from cinema, televisison, painting, video art, or other art forms.
2. What types of visual genres are involved in these designs? For example, if a site uses film conventions, what types of films are referenced? What "plots" emerge?
3. How is sound used in these sites? How does the use of sound relate to what you know about cinematic sound? What types of sound genres are referenced in these sites?
4. What claims about the internet as a new visual medium do we see in these sites? How does the "media" approach to web design understand itself? How does it advertise itself?
This is an open-ended research and writing assignment, designed to allow you to think critically about how visual representation in digital and online media is influenced by, and in turn influences, cinematic conventions.
Click on the following links to visit these websites. Because Flash animation has to load before starting, you may have to wait a few minutes before you can see what this is all about. Have your computer speakers on. If you are in the library or computer lab, please remember to use headphones.
EYE4U Active Media Web Design is a a web design studio, located in Munich, Germany. Their address is http://www.eye4u.com/. Their background in television influences their approach to the web, and their website has a lot of demos and client information. Their site is a good introduction to using animation for web navigation and design. This is how they describe their approach:
"EYE4U creates entertaining web content using Shockwave Flash™
for streaming multimedia, animation and sound. Flash™ is a free plug-in from Macromedia; powerful, small and quickly downloaded and installed."
Make sure you look at their different menu items and navigation bars. Also, have your computer's sound features on, and think about how they use music and sound effects.
Start here:
1. Go to the home page.
Make sure you study the "Enter" button: it is a small journey through space.
Once you enter the main site, think about what type of cinematic, televisual or musical conventions you notice.
2. Go to the Showroom.
Here you can see their work. Make sure you look at the Ford Motor Company website and the Unimark site they designed. Also, look at the EYE4UFO and their other demos.
3. The Modular Websynth
This is their design for a Web synthesizer, using Shockwave Flash™ files. You can make your own music!
http://www.eye4u.com/showroom/websynth/websynth.htm
Here you can look at the media-rich web design of Balthaser Studios and B2, at http://www.balthaser.com/home.html
They describe what they do as "full screen full motion active content that rides the cutting edge of technology" and think of it as media production (very close to movie production). Their productions are sometimes referred to as mini-movies.
Make sure you look around at many parts of their site. Each menu item has its own movie. Make sure you check out the "Jobs" option.
Here is Searchbots, at http://www.searchbots.net/. This is a new version of the search engine. The software on this site allows you to customize a "bot" that will search internet sites for you.
First of all, you need to notice the movie that introduces the site. Then, try searching using these bots. Your bot can search by sector, keyword, your favorite color, or even by mood! Try the Temper Bot, and see what you get.
At this location (http://www.macromedia.com/showcase/) you can find more sites using animation techniques and Flash. Current links include the Charlie's Angels trailer and website, designed with Flash and Quicktime.
I would like your assignemnt to be e-mailed to me, so that I can look at the extra links you discovered, and if possible use them to update the website here with more information about media-rich web design. You can write your essay in a word processing program (Word for example) and then either send it to me as an attachment, or copy and paste it in the body of your e-mail. Make sure you keep a copy for yourself, both of the paper, and of the e-mail.
1. EYE4U
2.
Balthaser Studios and B2
3. Searchbots
4. The Macromedia Showcase
Submitting your assignment
Contact the instructor: dk2244@yahoo.com