Major Project – Outcome Review

10/09/2003 - 2001-2003 Masters in Interactive Production (p/t), All - no comments

The Talking Walls – Review and Evaluation
Review

The project, now called The Talking Walls, has benefited greatly from the MAiP course. Even more so having been held over two years parttime, than if it had been completed in one-year full time. It was necessary to cover this in two years due to the level of work within the company, which did become a serious problem at one stage and a definite case of fighting for time to work on the MA.

The initial concept of The Talking Walls has grown considerably, not only in size but in extensibility due to the help and guidance of the lecturers. This would have been very difficult to achieve without being able to bounce ideas with other people and / or receive the necessary encouragement to pursue or relinquish ideas.

Several problems have been encountered during the major project, several of which have been overcome, others will need further work and maybe revisiting and reworking. The skill level in certain software such as Cinema 4D has increased quite considerably. Other skills are brand new and although not considered perfect, are certainly far more than originally started with and now competent enough to create simple multimedia content.

The idea of the Matrix, one of the most exciting areas of the product, developed whilst wondering how to explain the concept of stepping back in time in a particular space. Designing the idea was relatively simple compared to the code that makes it function. Due to the high level of coding, I realised that although I might understand the code as it was being explained, it didn’t necessarily mean that I would be able to recreate it when left on my own. Having expert help in this area was invaluable.

The 3D modelling skills have really improved, looking back on the earlier work, it was really surprising to see the difference on the work being produced for the final project against that produced for the second semester. This area is where I wanted to develop the most out of existing skills, due mostly to work and the requirement to be specialised in what the company can offer. There is still a fair way to go to be considered advanced. The most important element is the increase in confidence in using the software.

The new skills cover sound and video editing using Adobe Premiere, Sound Forge and Cool Edit Pro. These were on the proposal as areas I hoped to cover and learn, or at the very least have help with. As it stands, the knowledge gained in the third semester creating the ground floor tours helped considerably in creating the major tour.

Flash was another piece of software I wanted to cover in more detail to create quiz games, unfortunately this has not developed a great deal more only due to lack of time to create more Flash games.

The only other area I planned to cover in more detail is Director. In creating The Talking Walls’ interface, experience in this software has increased a great deal, although help was still required for more complicated areas such as scripting. Hopefully, as the company develops more multimedia CD-ROM’/DVD’s, my knowledge will increase enough to develop interactive content by using script rather than just behaviours.

With regards to time, I have not had as much time as I had hoped due to work commitments. The bulk of the project has been completed in the months since the beginning of July and only snippets of time prior to this. This is unfortunate and caused some concern in trying to catch up rather than being able to follow the time management chart drawn out for the proposal. This is not an ideal way to work and errors can and did occur, creating more work to revisit and correct.

With regards to the proposal, most elements have been covered and completed. This has only been possible by paring back the amount of work that would be produced for each section. My hopes to complete at least 8 elements in the Matrix for each timeslice and the jump-ups dwindled to concentrating on the 1150 / 1266 and 1750 / now timeslices. This dwindled further to producing a functioning Matrix with material for the Inner Hall and Outer Hall only for these eras. Other material has been created and / or sourced and filed accordingly, but not included within the working model of the Matrix.

In summary, the work achieved and completed and the skills gained weigh favourably against the proposal, therefore the project and the MA I consider being successful.