Weekly Report 11

Alicia and I met Friday and Monday. We worked on some final touches for level 2, things we realized we needed to change, as well as level 3. A lot of the level 3 work was filling in buttons, images, videos, etc. It was time consuming and somewhat challenging, making sure that we got everything just right. We also discussed some future design ideas for layouts, as well as plans for how we will conduct the summer semester.

Weekly Report 10

This week Alicia and I met on Friday for approximately 3 hours, and we are planning to meet again Monday for the same amount of time. We went over research, how it’s going and what we still need to do. We briefly discussed the critique, but the majority of our time was spent working on level 2. We looked over the latest draft, discussing issues like legends, behind the scenes and journals, etc. Among other things we decided that midway through the main 3 sections there should be a prompt, asking students whether they want a second example, or if they want to proceed on to the next phase of the section. We also briefly discussed binder assembly and level 3.
Monday we’re going to examine the revised level 2, hopefully for the last time, create a template for our level 3, and begin filling out level 3s for our slides. Hopefully we will have a few example level 3s to show Dr. Abed Tuesday.

Weekly Report 9

This week Alicia and I worked on revising the design plan, writing our critique, and adding audio to the animation logo. Friday we met in person to look these things over and make decisions about what revisions, if necessary were necessary, and in the case of the animation logo, which version to choose as our final version.
The design plan occupied the majority of our meeting time. We revised sections based on Dr. Abed’s comments, balancing and blending his ideas with our own, and updated other sections as necessary to ensure that the document as a whole was consistent.
At the end of the meeting we decided that we were both tired and not at our best, so we decided to read over the latest incarnations of the design plan and critique over the weekend, to make sure that we did not notice anything with fresh eyes that we missed today. The animation logo is done, if Dr. Abed approves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKGlYGSIOaA

Weekly Report 8

This week Alicia researched the three laws while I worked on our animation logo. Sunday we met online and discussed the current drafts of the logo and decided on a version. Then I told Alicia what I was still going to add/change about the logo animation. After that we reviewed what we still need to do for EDT 521 and discussed how we will segment and assign components in the summer.

Weekly Report 7

This week Alicia and I met for a three hour session on Friday. We worked on our Design Plan, revising Media Strategies, and creating CBI, Treatment and Interface sections. In the process we also revised our overall outline and plan for the project. When we were done we both felt very good about our outline and our project. I think we feel far more comfortable with the project as a whole, and our ability to complete it, because now we have outlines and blueprints that we feel confident about.
We also once again confirmed we can work together, and achieve very good results. As with any team, we bounce ideas off each other, take turns playing the role of brainstormer and critique, but there is also a natural back and forth between our natures. Alicia is an educator, while I am more of an entertainer. I think that contrast creates a very strong balance between the two purposes.
We’ve settled on having at least two characters, using a museum interface, and having a series of buttons and diagrams along the bottom of most pages, offering navigation and a general outline of where the audience is within a section. We also regularly stumbled upon random jokes and funny mistakes, which were hilarious.

Weekly Report 6

This week Alicia and I divvied up sections of the design plan and worked on our sections. Sunday we met on Aim and used Google Docs to combine and revise the sections we had written. We also discussed possible company titles and logo animations. We have decided to go with Harvest Productions, and create a logo of leaves falling from a tree to spell the company name. I’ve since started creating still pieces for the animation; a tree trunk, branches, bunches of leaves to go on the branches.
On Tuesday I’m going to give her a copy of the example Design Plan I have, and she is going to let me know what pages in the curriculum materials she loaned me are relevant to our project.

Weekly Report 5

This week Alicia and I met online again to discuss and develop our ideas. We discussed the Design Plan, how we will segment it so that we can each work on our own sections separately and then read over each other’s work and incorporate them. She is working on the audience analysis, which makes sense because she is around the target audience more and has access to more information as an employee of the school. We initially considered starting to work on the other sections but decided to hold off until Tuesday’s class. It’s an interesting back and forth between Alicia and myself. My natural instinct is to start working on something ahead of schedule, and stay ahead, so that there’s a buffer if something becomes delayed. Alicia’s natural style is to wait and make sure we have all the information we need, so that we don’t end up doing the same work twice.
We discussed the logo animation quite a bit. We both put ideas on the table, and we both rejected most of them; some because they were not feasible with our current skill levels, and some because they did not have a strong connection with computer software and/or instruction/education. I’m going to actually create the animation, but we’re both going to be involved in deciding what it is. I think the logo will be one of the most challenging elements.
While we were discussing ideas for the animation I felt very frustrated that I don’t know more. I have some programs of my own that would be very helpful in this task, but I haven’t had time to learn them yet.