It’s finished. Our final year project has been completed and sent to our Supervisor. On Monday, we had a meeting with Javad to make any last minute adjustments and finishing touches to our animations and video. Our video covers every aspect of the project. It introduces the basic concept and where it would be located. I designed a logo with the title of the project, ‘iMap’, to be used in the introduction. I narrowed it down to two options and we all agreed the below was the most suitable. It is simplistic in design yet bright and colourful, similar to the map itself.
On Monday we also browsed ‘Bensounds’ for a royalty free song we could use over the video. We settled on one called ‘Dreams’. It is upbeat without a fast tempo giving it an overall happy/chill feeling. This was perfect to use as it wouldn’t distract viewers from the content of the video outlining our project. We wrote out a list of people involved in the project and appropriately worded the credits for the end.
I also worked on the animation to represent what the map would display when no body was interacting with it. Lucy, Niamh & I spent a lot of time thinking about what would ideally be displayed. Initially, we thought facts about the University was the route to take, however, after some research we realised there wouldn’t be enough content here. Also, if we were to just portray facts, users may mistake the iMap for merely a display in the Library. We wanted to invite users to step up and interact with the map. Therefore, we decided to keep it simple yet effective.
By highlighting buildings with a glow effect and displaying a ‘Touch Here’ feature, the map is inviting users to interact instantly. The accompanying phrases like ‘Lost?’ or ‘Looking for a bite to eat?’ inform users that the map can provide help and that it is indeed a campus map that can display directions! The glow effect used in a few of the animations for our video enhances the idea that the colours are being projected onto the surface.
This afternoon Javad, Lucy, Niamh & I met over Teams and finalised our video. Step by step, we brought together each animation and added some subtitles to describe what was happening in each scene. The video is 4 minutes long, and I think this is an ideal video length to present our project. The viewer’s attention shouldn’t start to shift as, in my biased opinion, the content is most definitely exciting enough to keep someone interested for a mere four minutes.
On Monday evening, an exhibition of all the final year Media student projects will be held. Of course, we all thought this would be held in the Library, surrounded by friends and family over drinks and nibbles. However, due to obvious circumstances, this exhibition will be a virtual one held over zoom. Hopefully everyone will still raise a glass to the achievements we have all made not just on these projects but over the course of the three years we spent in Maynooth. I am hugely looking forward to the evening myself and seeing all my peers’ projects. It has been a hectic past few weeks, and yes I am feeling a big sense of relief as I submit this project, but also a sense of pride at the work I have done through these particularly strange times. But this wasn’t a one woman show, I will miss my amazing team mates and appreciate all the support we have shown each other during this final year.
Emer's Interactive Project Blog 