Donna Massam

Here are my designs for the jewelry box i want to be creating in 3D Studio Max.

Also as i have stated in the drawing i will not be including objects in all of the different compartments, they will be placed in different boxes and the user would have to search for the objects by clicking on the drawers, lid and objects.

I am thinking of using a oak wood texture for the box, to portray a strong willed and dtetermined character as oak wood is strong.

I asked my boyfriend Dave to do a mind map on me and this is what he came up with.

I left him to it and he had wrote down my like, dislikes/intrests and what personality traits i have. I asked him to do this to help me come up with some ideas for the different objects i could include within my showcase box. After reading through it i came up with a few ideas for objects i could use.

Dave noted that i am a private person so i thought i could expand on this:

• Padlock - You cant interact with this object until you have viewed the other objects in my box. Interactivity - Once the user has viewed the other objects and click on the padlock a key will appear, the user has to drag the key onto the padlock and the lock will open, once the padlock is open then a secret about me will be told.

The above idea tells the user that i am a private person, you have to get to know me properly in order to become close to me.

That is the most solid idea i have so far but i have other subjects that i want to expand on for example ambitious, i though of a set of ladders because i am now in my 5 year of education as i missed my GCSE's through family troubles (this on its own says i am determined to achieve what i want) the education will allow me to achieve my goal which is doing what i love 'designing'. My only problem with this idea at the minuite is how to make it interactive.

Other ideas are my passion for Phsycology, astrology, music and my humour (what kind of sense of humour i have).

For the past couple of weeks i have been bouncing around ideas in my head as to what sort of box i want to be producing for project 2 as well as the objects i want to be including in my showcase. I came up with 3 different ideas for this, the first one was sort of random was a tresure chest, this idea wasnt too strong because it doesn't portray anything to do with my personality i just thoought of it because they are very effective and creative looking. The second was a glass cabinet which you usually find in art galleries this portray different aspects of my personality such as my interest in interior design and furniture deign but i felt that this, as it would be like a wooden frame with glass as the side this portrayed me as being quite an open person and im the complete opposite. I did have a go at modeling it in 3D Studio Max (below).


My Last idea jewelry box i thought of this as i really like my jewelry and own quite a lot like earrings, necklaces and rings. I feel like this is my strongest idea as it is a closted box and has to be opened in order to view the objects, this sounded more like myself.

I have now started to build my 3D cat in 3D Studio Max. To begin with i was struggling because when it comes to big programs i tend to panic too much and end up with a not very good result becuse i panic too much. Anyways i went to last weeks surgery with andy and he gave me some adviced me, he guided me and taught me how to produce the head from a sphere, after he helped me with this i gained more confidence, also after yesterdays seminar where we were taught how to make legs walk, i felt i could creat the cat with more confidence and below is what i have so far. There are a few things that i need to straighten out on the cat for example the paws, at the minute they only have one side, i also i to create the tail which i will be creating with the cylinder and the last thing which im a big clueless on is creating the eyes, im not sure whether to procue the eyes through 3D Studio Max or whether its best to include the eyes onto the texture. The texture will be photographed cat fur, which will be placed onto my model using the Material Editor.

I managed today to actually have a conversation with somebody, he needed my help so i helped him. He was doing a quest and needed Geraniums so i gave him some. Anyway we started chatting i found out that he was male, his online character is called Calleme, he also told me that he was 19, Chinese but lived in America, California. i noticed that he couldn't talk very good english so it was a bit hard for me to understand what he was saying, he asked me if i had a boyfriend and if i used msn, i told him i didnt as im not too big on people i dont know having my information. Anyways he added me as a friend. I was really impressed because it has took me a long time for someone to have a decent chat on Seal.



I actually found Careme through trying to find books of prophecy which is for a quest i am trying to complete for an MPC called the Jester. There are 11 to find and i have currently found 5 by looking around Elim, but i decided to try warping to another place to see if i could find some, i haven't yet but i found someone to talk to.

The screenshot above shows me talking to him, i was acting a bit dumb at first hah becuase im still a bit new to how it works. H e wanted geranium and i thought i only had large geranium, but i found out it was pretty easy to give them him all i had to do was drop them.

This screenshot shows him added to my friends list.

After talking i decided to go and level Lioni up to level 17 as i have a quest that requires me to reach level 20. also i want more points to add to my intelligence and wisdom attributes because it makes lioni a stronger character. I am now level 17 though. I went back to Elim to do this, looking for the rabbits and the moo moo's because they are more stronger to fight which means my leveling bar goes up faster.

Yesterday we had a guest visitor from Encounters take our lecture. I was very intrigued by the type of work that the company does. The lady (i cant remember her name) explained to us that the company is all about collecting, they create artwork using items that have been lost and found, such as something that has been found on the streets in Sharrow and then display the things they have found in shops, displaying the objects in a range of different ways like placing the item in a plastic bag and displaying it on the wall, also putting a tag with the item discribing that items history, where it was found etc.. One thing that stuck out to me was how they cornered off a little section in Sharrow and collected all the little things found in this area, they then displayed these items, and shown a video of the footage (of them collecting these items) in one of their shops. Basically the projects are all about place and i think brings the community together. I had an idea which i thought people in that community who participate in the shaops activitys would be interested in was (using the video footage idea) if one day in that shop was recordered, the footage of everyone coming and going and taking part in the activities, then for this video to be played in one of the shops. This gives the community a connection, expressing some part of their identity as well as the shops identity.

I have given an in depth description to the design and style of my avatars head in this document.
My reasons for using particular styles, colours, possible ways to create the avatar in 3DS Max. I have also broken the cat down into a simple shape. This information will make my project a lot easier to create as i have reasearched it.

After researching i have a solid idea for my avatar. On the whole it will be a cat, the head will be an egyptian style head, with colours, designs and characteristics from egyptian sculptures and artwork. What i have noticed from these scultures etc is that the cats are always sat up on all four paws. I want my avatar to be laid down to incorporate the domesticated cat or the sphinx. I will be using fur for the textures as i want to include more characteristics from the domesticated cat. Obviously the cat will be 3D as i am producing it in 3D Studio Max.

The environment will be a typical egypt environment. I will be including pyramids, sand for the floor, The main background will be 2D but i will also be including 3D pyramids around my avatar. The scale of my cat will be slightly bigger than the pyramids because i feel that cats are an important subject to myself.

I have composed a moodboard incorporating the different ideas and style i want to be including into my avatar and its enviroment. The cats are for my avatar and the psyramids are for my environment, i have also gathered textures which could be use for my pyramds of a sand texture, one example is below.

The term Happiness Machines could also be termed in another way, 'peoples desires'. Machines refers to the people, people who where gradually brainwashed (machines) into a particular way of thinking, this was channeled through what they desired rather than what they needed. having what they desired made people feel good about themselves, i think in a sense it made them feel like they were better people, sexy and independent, this is where the happiness comes into it, if you have what you want your a more satisfied and happy person.

Ive now enter Elim Town and can not go back to Newbies Town. The first thing i noticed in this town was that there's lots more you can do,the first thing i did was head to the west side of the map to meet up with Hayley (Kiya) and we became friends.

When i was first transported into Elim, i noticed that there was lots of people selling on the markets.

Next i went to the association of Mages to learn magic spells, there was two main spell groups, fire and ice, i learned spells from both, but only the ones i was skilled enough to learn. I later learned off Leanne (Hayleys sister) that it is a better idea to just specialise in one, either fire or ice, because im making leoni too balanced which will make her weak. Also i will eventually i will have the choice of only mastering in one type of magic.

After i completed the quest, i visited the Weapon Shop to see what weapons i could buy, unfortunatly i wasn't able to use any of the weapons on leoni because her intelligence attribute was lower than the weapon required, the weapon i wanted required 30 intelligence points and i had 27 so i set out to level up to level 16 which i succeeded in, this gave me the 3 points that i need to buy and use the staff i wanted.

I was looking through of my pics and found quite a recent pic of me and my boyfriend, the pic was taken with a webcam, but i think that it works really well for colour and light, although its mainly light as the red/pink shades are very similar, but there is blue and black used, this would be seen as negative space, i wanted to still post it because i really like how the picture turned out.

First of all Leoni was heart broken, her new found boyfriend broke up with her :(. I had an instant message when i entered seal telling me that Kobra had broken up with her and to search for a new love. She soon got over it though!
(at the bottom on the talk screen)

Next i decided to do a few quests for a number of reasons, one i gain experience points, two in order to level up and three to just collect items to sell for cegals.

This lass tells you to take the quest which is most suitable for my level, my level is 11 so i chose the quest for the highest level which was 9. This quest was to collect 10 rabbit furs from the rabbits with meat cleavers that i have spoken about in a previos post. I complete this quest 3 times. when i gave her the furs it was really funky because Leoni had yellow bubbles with glows around her, this was her experience leveling up.

I also thought it was pretty ace because i kicked 2 rabbits butts at the same time, i don't know why but this really intrigued me. These rabbits are quite freaky, they look really cute stood there with a big smile on their face and cute ears but when you fight them they have a real creepy grin on their face and an expressio n that makes me think their constipated.

Ohh i also swapped my girly looking 'magic gloves' for some real meaty looking claws, this impressed me because i only found out i could wear them by accident.

I managed to level up 3 levels, i was levle 11 last time i update and im now level 14, nearly level 15. I also sold a lot of my items to one of the guys in town because next time i go onto seal i plan to go to Elim town and explore more, because im still in the beginners town, although i have been doing this purposly so im in a good position for the other different towns because i gather its going to become more challenging, anyway, i had 8 rabbit cleavers and the sold for 1100 cegal each, before i sold anything i had around 2000 cegals and after i finished i had 14.404 cegal so it was all good.

Ohh and one last thing im getting really frustrated with other people who play because i have tried talking to lots of people and only one person spoke to me, and after that all she said was that she was doing a quest and collecting dyes and thats pretty much it. But i do plan on meeting up on seal with a few other uni students who are using it, maybe it will get a slight bit easier once i get used to the party chats.

How cats populated in Ancient Egypt

Vermin such as rats, mice and snakes were becoming an abomination in Egypt, bringing diseases into households. This attracted cats as the vermin was their food supply. The Egyptians started to notice that the cats were starting to kill off the rats, mice etc and were becoming less scared of approaching the human settlement, they started seeing this as a sign from Mafdet - The Goddess of Justice and Execution because she had the head of a lioness which depicted a cat. Mafdet was also viewed as the protector goddess of Lower Egypt and the Pharaoh's Protector. Seeing the resemblence between the goddess and the cat they started to believe that she wasn't just the Goddess of Justice and Execution and began changing her appearence, giving her a more mothering look because Egyptians saw cats as mothering objects. The cat goddess Bast, eventually replaced the cult of mafdet and through time completely changed her image and identity, completly transforming her from Mafdet the Goddess of Justice and Execution into Bast the Goddess of Protection, Fertility and Motherhood.
Cats were eventually domesticated and used as household pets for the purpose of killing off the vermin, this is where the idea of owning household cats originated.

Transformed:

You can see how the appearence of the two have altered, bast has a softer looking image, also having the body of a woman to symbolise motherhood, whereas Mafdet has a more fierce look although i do think that she has rather sad looking eyes.

First of all (before i created my mind map) i had decided to produce a 3D microphone as my avatar set on a stage, reasons being is because i enjoy singing and i also like music. But after a discussion with Roma, i had a lot of problems with this idea when asking my self questions about why i have chosen this object and why the environment is relevent to me. I found that i wasn't able to actually answer some of these questions so i figured that this idea was a bad one.

Concept drawings for my microphone idea:

My idea here was to have a microphone (which i would design in 3D Studio Max) which would be my avatar then this would then be placed in a stage environment. After having the discussion with Roma i decided that this idea is quite weak. For one the microphone being placed inside the stage is sort of cliche, its supposed to be in this type of environment, the microphone and the stage have relevence but myself and the environment dont have any relevence, in fact i have a high form of stage fright. Also i want something more creative and aesthetically pleasing than a microphone to represent myself.

Now though through refering to my mind map, i have decided to concerntraite on two of the subjects i have mentioned. Egypt and cats, my reasons for this is i have a love for both cats and egypt and these subjects are linked together through history. So far i have produce one concept drawing, but before i carry on i want to research into the two ideas in order to broaden my knowledge on them and gain more ideas for the aesthetics of my avatar and environment.

Avatars - After last Thursdays seminar i have learned that there are a lot more issues to take into consideration whilst creating both my avatar and environment. Roma presented a slideshow and within it included a lot of work create by the artist Rene Magritte. I was quite intrigued by a quote from Magritte which was included too, 'Objects have energy, their own story to tell'. This explains a lot as to where an avatar is concerned, the object used for our avatar is to represent ourselfs, this avatar has to express an energy of ourself, something that tells a story about us and whhat sort of person we are.

I also atarted to question what characteristics of myself i have kept for my online avatar, Leoni. One is my interest in magic, i think magic is outstanding and has always been something that interests, this interest was intrigued by the TV show Charmed. This is why i chose to be a mage, because i love the thought of magic and how cool it would be if we could really use magic (like the sort of magic used in Charmed), so what a better way than to be a mage, i can use magic with my online avatar. Also, although my hair isn't naturally dark brown, its like brown i have always like the fact of being a brunette simply because i think it suits me, i have given my avatar brown hair as this is one of my characteristics. Clothing which i put on my avatar are completly different to my usual style because the style i have used for my avatar suits my avatars position in her virtual world.

My 3D Avatars environment - What to take into concideration?
Questions to ask myself during the production of my project.

Environment - What environment would both reflect the object in question and myself?
Space - Why have i placed my avatar in this environment?
Scale - What scale will my object be set to inside my environment? What does this represent?, For example, the size of the object could represent how much interst i have in the object in question.

3D Studio Max - Whats the best approach to take when producing my objects in 3D Studio Max, Break the object down to it simple for and create using the tools available such as the sphere, box and the spline. Think about what shapes are used to make build this object up.
Mixing 2D and 3D, for example place a 2D background around the 3D objects.
Things to remember: Modeling, texture, lighting, camera? and rendering.

I commented on Will Thomas's Photograph for the task 'Image Screaming Colour and Light'.

Wills Photograph

My comment was "Hey.. Thats a pretty cool pic, i like how youve taken a different approach to all of the other images i have seen, using your own objects to complete the photograph, i also like how you haw the light coming in from the left side. It really works well".

The reason why i chose to comment on Wills was because it was the only photograph which i looked at throughout the blogs that really stood out for me, although as we discussed in tutorial it could be improved through composition, i think that his attemp looks like it was good and shows that he had quite a good understanding of the task, also it is different to any of the other images i have seen because it is obvious that he has build this image up his self purposly for this task and i really like how he built it up through the use of different objecs.

Robotic Legs
Ref: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12497049/

As the reference website above states, the Japanese have produced robotic legs in which the legs are capable of sensing movement and walking, obviously the whole concept on how they actually work hasn't been released because of blue print issues, my thoughts on how they work is through calculations working out the area in which they are, these legs are even capable of walking down sets of stairs. Robotic legs are said to replace wheelchairs in the future. My prediction of this technology is that they will also be capable of replasing prosthetic arms and legs, allowing humans who have lost limbs to walk with robotic legs or use robotics arms, similar to terminator from the Terminator films without the skin covering the technology but then one day maybe this could also happenwhich could lead to human looking robots. These robots could then be used for military operations or maybe even wwar, in order to protect and save so many peoples lives.


You have to tilt your head slightly!

I managed to get Seal Online working again now thankfully and i can now show off my new outfit. Although i wasnt alowed to wear the top of my mages outfit because my inteligence attribute didnt obtain enough points, in order for me to gain poins i had to level Leoni up, this would then allow me 3 points to add to which attributes i please.

Circled in the image aboves shows the mage top that i have brought in my items and also shows what attributes are needed to wear the top and also Leoni's attributes. In order for me to wear the top i had to level to 11 and i did :)

(Leoni in her new outfit)

After leveling up Leoni, i decided to go around and have a bit of fun. First of all i went to see who was hanging around. I spoke to a male called Kobra99 and Leoni asked him if he would go out with her and we ended up sitting on a bench together and 'in love'.Ohh and i also went fishing, unfortunatly i didn't catch anythin gbut it was still cool being able to go, she has a little fishing rod and the lot.

After analysing our images in tutorial yesterday, we decided that there was too much negative space included in my image, the grey gravel floor for exampl and there was too much happening in the picture, jules commented on how i should have just concerntraited on one particular section of the image and also that we were allowed to edit the image in Photoshop, so ive took the image into Photoshop and cropped out a section which i thought would portray light better and then adjusted the contrast and brightness.

My analysis of 'Being Connected' :

Being connected as i see it (hyperthetically speaking) is like being in the middle of a crowd, with lots of people around you who are in the same position as you, whether it be business ideas etc.. and your all connected together in some way, i think it is a bit like networking, the more connections (interstitial nodes) you have the easier it is to get your ideas noticed.

'Cultural codes rather than individual voices'

This quote is basically saying, modern (cultural codes) rather than post modern (individual voices). I believe that the cultural codes option is easy, everything is in order, everything has a place and nothing is too out of the ordinary making it hard for an individual's mind to make sense of the order, because everything they already know just comes to them. Whereas individuals included within the individual voices region (post moderism) i believe holds a more creative personality, not being afraid to step out of the box and experimenting as to create new and logical ideas. It not always interesting as you would in a way say to follow a straight and narrow path, looking deeper and in a more creative way can work to be very effective.

The idea in which i found to be most interesting was by 'Armin Medosch' :

According to Armin Medosch, in an interconnected environment, individuality or expression are neither important. What's important are the new forms of sharing, spreading and planning the digital work. With collective actions this cultural domain progresses in its entirety, because sharing and collaborating mean learning from each other.

I completely agree with the last section, 'sharing and collaborating mean learing from each other' because whether we realise it or not we are all inspired by one thing or another, which then inspires us to go on and create something which incorporates these ideas or concepts and include our own ideas and concepts, Combining the two creates a whole new idea. I dont exactly agree with the first section of the phrase though 'individuality or expression are neither important' as i think these two elements make an object/item unique which make the prospects of the object/item in question higher.

I personally like the idea of combining the two points together, modernism and post modernism, keeping some sort of order but im not so keen on the 'having a fit way and not seeing the outside of that idea', i think that combining the idea of having the order (making things more problematic and managable) and include a bit of outragious ideas in there, just as an experimentation and see the result.

I have managed to now level Lioni to level 10!! so i am no longer a beginner, also through leveling up, i have gained point for my attributes such as wisdom and inteligence this has allowed me to buy and wear a funky new outfit for mage's, unfortunatly seal online has crashed on me and its not the first time, the first time it happened i decided to just uninstall it and then reinstall it but its now telling me i have a currupt fimle in my maps folder. Im goin to try reinstalling it again and if this doent work, ill have to try it on my bf's computer :)

What is an avatar?
An avatar is a way a person can represent him or herself in a computer environment. Using a game, online virtual world an image or an animated image to create a character which holds an individuals characteristics, looks, ways of living, what they wear etc. In some cases such as articles i have read on second life, people tend to actually use online virtual worlds to escape from their real life.

What is Self Identity?
Self-identity is a person’s knowledge and understanding of his or herself, as individual’s attributes such as their attitudes, habits, beliefs and ideas. An individual gradually learns self-identity as they grow, developing through the different this that they experience. Also as I believe, I don’t think that you actually know a person unless you have a close bond with them, also depending on the amount of time spent with them, for example i think that if i asked a number of people to create a moodboard in which they would include things on that would represent myself, including friends, family and my boyfriend, the people that would succeed most in getting the moodboard most accurate to me would be my brother and sisters, my mum and my boyfriend because these are the people that know me and what sort of person i am, my like and dislikes for example, what I like to wear, how I have my hair even what food I like and don’t like. These different attributes all contribute to who a person is. Although individuals will perceive themselves in a different way to how others would perceive them because when it comes down to it an individual is the only person that knows themselves inside and out. Describing your self identity is a way of interpreting and portraying your inner world where no one can see what is going on, the world where only you really know who you are.