Finished Product

Strengths
Visual Style. I feel one of my products strengths is the visual style, I am very pleased with how the images all turned out and I think they look effective. All the images fit in with the diary theme, I made sure that all the images looked hand-drawn, and if not (for example, the photographs) I made them have the effect of being 'stuck' in the diary with tape. I really like the use of minimal colour in my piece too, I think it fits in with the theme, with colour finally being shown at the end, in the form of a rainbow, to symbolise hope.

Interactivity. Another strength I feel my product has is the use of interactivity, I made sure that most pages had interactive elements to keep audience interest and excitement. I particularly like the click-away page with the birds and the painting page where the paintbrush follows the users mouse, I feel these pages are appealing and fun for the user.

Consistency. I am particularly happy with the consistency of my piece. I made sure that all pages and images followed the same theme and fit together correctly. I also feel that the colour scheme is consistent on every page, I used the same blue colour (#1D74C2) throughout.

Weaknesses
Story. One weakness of my piece I feel is the over-all story line, I had to cut down some of the slides due to time constraints which meant my story needed to be condensed. I do feel that the end of the story is slightly rushed and could have been developed a lot more. If i had more time I would have definitely added more diary entries to develop the story further.

Sound. Another weakness of my piece I feel is the sound. As I added the sound at the end, again I found I rushed it slightly. If I had more time I would add more ambient sound and mix them together to make it sound more natural. I would also add sound to every frame instead of just a selective few.

If I had more time...
Scrollable Frames. If I had more time I would have added a diary entry where the user could scroll through animations / various frames using their mouse. This is something I looked into yet found that due to limited time it was not possible as the coding and learning was quite extensive.

Allow the user to draw. This is something else I would have liked to add yet found very difficult to do, I followed various tutorials yet with no luck. If I had more time I would definitely look into this and try and find a tutorial that would allow the user to draw on the frames themselves, an interactive sketchpad.

What i've learnt…
Overall I've learnt a lot during this assignment, I've learnt a number of tips and techniques which will benefit me in future projects. I used a number of sources (see here) to help me with my learning and I feel I have created a product that I am not only proud of but which also demonstrates my new learning.

Improvements

Following my last tutorial I have made some improvements to my piece.

1. I changed the homepage button from a 'location' symbol to an ink splatter. I feel a ink splatter is more appropriate and fits in with my diary theme more than the location symbol did.

2. After the comments I received from my tutorial I also decided to get rid of the arrow images I had in my piece. I felt that the arrows looked very computerised and didn't fit in with the hand-drawn / style I was going for.

3. I also made my piece look more consistent by changing some of the frames. As you can see from the images below I tried to make the frames look more 'scrapbook' and less computerised, I did this by re-arranging some of the photographs and adding 'lines' to make the text look as if it was handwritten.

4. I made sure all the font was the same colour and style, I went through my piece correcting any different style font to make my piece consistant.

Tutorial / Code Sources

1. YouTube, (2014). Flash Tutorial - Mouse Drag and Drop. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-A3RKyg4Cg [Accessed 3rd Apr. 2014].
The first tutorial I used was for the drag and drop objects on the diary homepage and also on numerous other pages. I used this walk-through YouTube video to help me understand and code my objects.

2. Flashkit.com, (2014). Tutorials >> Actionscripting >> Basic: Making a MC follow the mouse - Flash Kit. [online] Available at: http://www.flashkit.com/tutorials/Actionscripting/Basic/Making_a-Alexande-735/index.php [Accessed 10th Apr. 2014].
This online tutorial helped me to code a movie clip so that it followed the users mouse. I used this piece of code a number of times within my narrative piece.

3. Florio, C. (2009). Actionscript 3.0 for Adobe Flash CS4 professional. 1st ed. Berkeley, Calif.: Adobe Press.
This book helped me a lot when completing my project, I found it useful to quickly look at when coding my project and it reminded me how to do certain things in Flash, such as create roll-over buttons and quickly editing images within Flash itself.

4. ActiveDen, (2014). MovieClip Visibility Show/Hide OnClick! | ActiveDen Community Forums. [online] Available at: http://activeden.net/forums/thread/movieclip-visibility-showhide-onclick/2632 [Accessed 4th Apr. 2014].
I found this forum that provided me with code and help on how to create click and hide images in Flash. I used this technique on the 20th March diary entry with the birds.

5. Dummies.com, (2014). How to Animate along a Path in Adobe Flash CS6 - For Dummies. [online] Available at: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-animate-along-a-path-in-adobe-flash-cs6.html [Accessed 20th Apr. 2014].
I used this tutorial to help me to animate using a path, I used this within my butterfly diary entry. I found this way of animating looked a lot smoother and I was pleased with how it turned out.

6. Help.adobe.com, (2014). Adobe Flash Professional * Sound and ActionScript. [online] Available at: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/flash/cs/using/WSd60f23110762d6b883b18f10cb1fe1af6-7cdfa.html [Accessed 19th Apr. 2014].
I found this above website very useful when it came to adding sound. I found lots of helpful code and tips on the official Adobe help site on how to stop and start sounds.

7. photoshopbuzz.com, (2010). How to change a photo into a pencil line drawing in Photoshop. [online] Available at: http://www.photoshopbuzz.com/change-photo-to-line-drawing/ [Accessed 3rd Apr. 2014].
I used this step-by-step guide to edit photographs in photoshop. I used this technique to turn photographs into line drawings to give them the effect of being hand-drawn.

8. Jenkins, S. (2010). Smashing Photoshop CS5. 1st ed. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.: Wiley.
I looked at this book for help on how to edit images in Photoshop, I found lots of useful tutorials and tips in this book on how to edit images in certain styles.

Tutorial Notes

Most Thursdays either via email or in person I had a tutorial with my project supervisor to help me with my project. Below I have written up some notes about the information I wanted to find out / information and guidance I received during these tutorials.

4th March
My first tutorial. Ran through the idea of the diary and character with my tutor. Feedback received was that more development needed to be made to my character Joy. I then went about creating a detailed character profile to help me visualise my character and narrative.

13th March
This tutorial we looked at visual style. My tutor recommended that I look at graphic novels, particularly ones involving teenagers. After this tutorial I went to the library and found three books with different visual styles I then analysed them and this helped me come up with a visual style for my piece.

20th March
This tutorial was done over email. I showed my tutor my blog and comments recieved were too develop graphics and my visual style in Photoshop, I was also told to map out my story on paper and put on my blog.

27th March
Today I showed my visual style work and my the story mapping I had done so far to my tutor. Feedback recieved was possitive and I was told to start contentrating on the actual making of my piece in Flash.

3rd April
Today we talked about use of colour and I was told to look at an illustrator called Isabelle Arsenault. This helped me to develop a clear idea of the colours I wanted to include in my piece. In this tutorial we also talked about sound. I then set myself a to-do list for my project to complete over the Easter break.

24th April
My last tutorial. I showed my tutor the work I had completed so far, comments received were that my piece wasn't consistent enough, some of the colours and images didn't match together. I also received some more ideas as what to do for my final three pages. After this tutorial all criticisms and ideas were noted and implemented.

Research: Isabelle Arsenault

Virginia Wolf

Jane, Fox and Me

Isabella Arsenault is a illustrator from Montreal, Canada. Her visual style is very striking, she particularly works with colour, many of her illustrations are simple black and white drawings with a hint of colour. For Example, her 'Jane, Fox and Me' illustrations are black and white when the character is in her normal life, however when she dreams the illustrations are in colour, with the prominent colour of orange coming through the most. 

I found Arsenault's illustrations very influential as I want to create a narrative piece which focuses on colour, the colour I want to use is blue. I will have mostly black and white images to symbolise my characters battle with her real life, however I will also have the colour blue present throughout to symbolise hope and freedom. 

Visual Style

Colour
I want my narrative piece to mainly be black and white, this is to symbolise the dark themes within my story. I do however want to include the colour light blue, I want this colour to represent freedom and happiness within the narrative and I also want to use it to highlight and/or emphasise certain points within the story. I have chosen the colour blue because it is my character Joy's favourite colour, it reminds her of the sky.

Example Images

Font: I am going to use a font I downloaded on the website Dafont.com for my story. I have chosen the font 'Miss Brooks' because it looks handwritten, this makes it fit in nicely with the themes and visual style of my piece.

I use a lot of silhouettes in my piece. Above I have edited a few photographs in Photoshop. To create these images I firstly cropped away the background, I then changed the brightness and saturation of the image to turn it into a silhouette, I really like the way this image turned out. The use of silhouetted images is to add mystery and darkness to my piece.

Above is another image I used Photoshop to edit, as you can see I took a photograph and transformed it into a line drawing, to give it the effect that it had been hand-drawn.

Above is the image I have chosen as the homepage button, I chose an ink splatter as I feel it fit in well with my theme.

Target Audience

The target audience for my project is teenagers, as my narrative is based upon a teenaged girl and the troubles she faces I feel that teenagers will be able to connect most with my character and my piece as a whole.

Chloe Maxwell, 16, Newcastle

Chloe is an example of my target audience. 

Profile

Chloe is in her first year of sixth form at Dane Court grammar school, she studies English, Geography, Business and Art and is predicted ABBC. She listens to pop music, her favourite artist being Ellie Goulding. Chloe enjoys reading and contemporary art, she loves visiting the galleries in London. When she grows up she wants to be an English teacher. Chloe's favourite colour is orange and she enjoys watching thriller films, her favourite being Shutter Island. 

I feel that Chloe would enjoy my narrative piece as she is the same age as my character Joy, Chloe has probably experienced similar situations and experiences to Joy which means she can emphasise with the character and storyline.