The Globe Development

Right, well after my session with Andy today on 3Dmax I now feel a little bit better about my development with 3Dmax. I have learnt how to make Glass and wood, I have placed the tree on a platform and a glass dome over the tree. It looks kind of pretty now, I just need to play around with the lighting now as I cant seem to get it right yet.

Feather Avatar

Another Idea I had was to use a feather that drifts and spins gently to the snow globe, I think this would be a nice, soft motion in keeping with the tone I want my work to have.

Butterfly Avatar

I could replace the Hummingbird with a butterfly avatar instead

First Avatar Idea

My very first Idea for an avatar was to have me sat down on the floor with the snow globe in my hands, I would then peer into the dome and the viewer would then be inside the dome and able to interact with the objects in there. I didn't pursue this as I was not as keen on this idea as I was the others, plus I think making a person would have been too difficult for me.

Hummingbird Avatar Designs

These are the initial Hummingbird sheets for my avatar, there is also a small storyboard on here for how I want it represented to the viewer.

Final Logo Design

I chose my three favourite Hummingbirds from the developed images (see earlier post). I have taken these designs and created them using photoshop for a higher quality image.

Although I found it difficult to choose which one I liked the most, I finally decided that the Green and Red version was my favourite. I wanted it to be the Blue version because it is really eye catching and I love the two blues together. Compared to the other two the Green and Light Green version seemed too plane to me. I chose the Green and Red one because I feel the colours work so much better, the Red makes it really eye catching and also represents a fiery / colourful character.

Even though I have chosen one colour scheme here, I think that I can use each of these in my cabinet as my logo has a distinctive shape so people will still be able to recognise it even if the colour of it changes.

Tree Development 1

I have had to start the tree modelling again from scratch as the original one didnt save properly :( but its ok because I have done it again and this time I think it looks even better. I have taken a quick screen shot of it for you to look at:

I have booked a surgery session with Andy next week as I dont know how to render the models that I make, I have a whole load of modelled things waiting to be rendered so hopefully I can get started on them after Andy shows me how to do it. I need to learn how to render glass also for my snow globe case. I think this will be challenging for me becuase I do struggle with 3Dmax at first, but hopefully I will improve with practice.

I am looking forwad to rendering all my obejects so far!

Gannt Chart

This is the Gannt chart that I made to help with my design process for this project. It will help me to make sure I get each of the parts of this Identities cabinet done on time.

Logo Taking Shape

Now I am starting to out both the shape of my logo and the colour schemes together. I have chosen my favourite five colour schemes and added them to my logo shape. I will create the final logo using Photoshop.

Logo Colour Tests

I have tested different colour scemes to put to my logo. Although I want my logo to have the colours found naturally on Hummingbirds I also want it to take on the colour scemes of my own as this logo is supposed to be an extension of me like my avatar.

Avatar Ideas

When I first thought about what I wanted my Avatar to be early on in the project I was quite fond of the idea of making a cartoon version of myself sat on the floor holding a snow globe that is to house my identity cabinet. Since than however I quite like the idea of using an animal to be my avatar. I cant say why I want an animal instead of an actual human, I think it is because I have another idea of introducing my identity cabinet to the user.

Instead of having the camera orbit the human holding the snow globe I want to create a Hummingbird or a butterfly that the camera will 'fly' with as it approaches my snow globe. Then it will flutter outside the globe as the camera orbits them both and then it will enter the globe and the interactive elements will start.

This flying animal will either be a hummingbird or a butterfly I am not sure which one yet. I will have to make them both in 3Dmax and see which one I like the most. Both of my 3Dmax creations will be included in my cabinet so it will not be a waste of time to make them both.

Reasons for choosing Hummingbirds and Butterflies:

I have always been fond of butterflies, when I was young I used to say "flutty by, butterfly" when I saw one. I love the way they flutter past people with their very vibrant colours. The fact that thay are very colourful portrays how I have a colourful personality.

Hummingbirds started to interest me when I spent three months in America living with a host family. They had a large tree outside their front door with flowers that my host told me attracted Hummingbirds. I had never seem a hummingbird before so was thrilled that this might be my chance to see one. I started researching what they looked like so I would know when one did show up. The whole three months I was there not one hummingbird came to the tree, I was gutted but I now, through the research I did, know what beautifully graceful birds they are with such organic shapes and like the butterflies they also have very appealing colouring to them.

Hummingbird Avatar Development

Here is my Hummingbird Avatar so far.

I'm so pround of this little lady!

Women Cant Sing!

Another project I have been involved with for the last few weeks is for Armin who is studying here at NTU for her Masters in Photography. She wanted to produce a piece that represented the woman in her country (Israel) where women are not allowed to sing. This piece involved Armin herself acting on a stage alone, she sings but there is no sound throughout the piece. Therefore I felt my role as camera operator was very important as the key to the success of the piece was in the camera shots. Again I was working with third year multimedia student Bindni, who was the director for this project. As there was only the three of us working on that day the production was very a fast process, Armin had managed to secure a location at the Lace Market theatre here in Nottingham which was staging a play at the time with a set that was perfect for her to use in her project - What luck!. And as there was only three of us I was able to give some creative input at various point on the shoot.

I had a lot of fun on this project and it really helped with my confidence in handling the camcorder, I learnt a lot. This project may also lead to another project with Armin as she want to do another film based on a dancer. I am looking forward to helping her further on this.

Street Play

Over the past few weeks I have been helping a third year Multimedia student produce a documentary for a lottery funded scheme 'Play works' based in Nottingham.



The documentary part of a scheme to promote street play, it follows play worker Alice as she organises a play rally with children and parents through a part of Nottingham to make people aware of important outside play is for children.



My involvement in this project has been to act as a sound operator, later on as a camera operator and then as a general assistant for the interview stages. This has been a fantastic learning experience for me. I now know how to use a variety of sound equiptment such as External microphones, wireless microphones and mixers.

My confidance with the Sony HD camcorder has greatly increased since the training session with Les a few weeks ago as I have used the camera a whole lot more and in more pressured circumstaces. The hardest day of filming was on the day of the play rally. A crew of 10 were involved on the day and I camerer operator 2. With a sound operator attached to my camera we were running up and down the streets to capture as many of the shots from the shot list as we could. It was a challenge but I had a lot of fun throughout day.



Another good learning opportunity came along when I was helping as a general assistant for the interview shoots. This time I was learning about three point lighting. We had to get the lighting just right to get rid of any of the shadows on the black backdrop behind the several people being interviewed.



I now know from being part of this project that a lot of planning is involved in the making of a film and that it is very important to have creative input from a viriety of different people. Its all about creative collaberation.

Here is the pilot for the documentary that was director Bindni produced for the AGM meeting at Playworks.

Idea Behind Moving Logo

The idea behind producing these moving logos is to try to explain visually where my Logo has originated from. My logo is a cross between an 'S' my first initial and a hummingbird which is a very organic bird that I love to see. These birds can be very illusive so they are a joy to watch, they have a great shape and also attractive colours. I noticed that the S shape and the hummingbird could be blended to create a nice, organic logo.

The final shape (logo image) is a very simple line drawing which is important with logos, if a logo is too complicated it isnt as eye catching or as liked as it becomes cluttered.

I will produce a final design for this logo and upload on here soon.

More Moving Logo

Logo 1 by ~xsamkirkx on deviantART


Logo 2 by ~xsamkirkx on deviantART


Logo 3 by ~xsamkirkx on deviantART


Logo 4 by ~xsamkirkx on deviantART


Logo 5 by ~xsamkirkx on deviantART

More Moving Logos

Here is another video I have been meaning to upload here for some time, it shows my experimentation with flash creating a moving logo. As fun and as appealing I think these are, I would prefer my main logo to be still. Perhaps I could use the final moving logo in the intro to my Identities Cabinet depending on the final outcome of that.