Week 11b

Today in class we had in class work time to gather research on our Kickstarter campaign and the subject it's a part of. We also had some time to start the HTML PDFs. Here is my research so far:

From the kickstarter:

What is it?

Color spike is a lighting system for video or photo use that is easy to use and setup. The team that dreamt up color spike came up with the idea after realising the need for it in their own photography. As photographers they understand what people need and have come up with a product that uniquely fills those needs.

Features:

1. Able to dial in tons of interesting effects
2. Great for both video and stills, in-studio and on-location
3. App-controlled
4. Linkable to create multi point lighting system
5. Bright enough to be useful  

(copied from the web page)

What I’m imaging the Content being about:

I’m imaging these three subjects bellow being on a slide show feature area near the top of the page. Maybe an image example on the side with the content text beside it. OR it can be an image with the heading and when you click on it, it links you to the content text lower on the page.

Video use:

Color Spike can be used to simulate all sorts of practical lighting effects in film. From camera flashes to fires, by dialing in the settings you can choose from a multitude of color options and make the light pulse or strobe to create the effect you want. The light is also bright enough to be clearly visible in the footage, or if you want you can dial it down for a more subtle tone. Color spike can also easily be setup to create fantastic mood lighting.

Photo use:

Color spike isn’t only for video use. It can also easily be setup to create stunning mood and lighting effects in your photo shoots. Whether in a studio or on location Color Spike can be quickly set up and adjusted to fill your photography lighting needs. Color Spike’s portability and easy app control will help cut down on set up and allow you maximize your shoot time.

App Control:

Use the free color spike app to quickly and easily set up patterns and colors for you Color Spike.

Other Content items:

-a link to the kickstarter at the top of the page

-The hardware of the product

-About the creators

-Maybe set up info

-Maybe a how to section based off the other info I gathered.

Other Photo Lighting

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/LED-Light-Sources/ci/12248/N/3988592074

B&H:

-Most other LED lights are large panels and look hard to transport

-Most of these mention the LED count

-Doesn’t mention app control or how you dial in settings

-Can be daisy chained together (I’m pretty sure color spike daisy chains)

-A lot of these come with stands

Popular Photography

https://www.popphoto.com/gallery/top-10-photography-lighting-facts-you-should-know

10 lighting facts that will improve your photography

1. To create softer lighting effects use a broad light source. If a light source is wide it hits the subject from more angles causing less harsh shadows.
2. Use distance to create softer effects. If a light source is closer than it illuminates the subject more creating less shadows. If it is distant it’s becomes narrow and casts more shadows.
3. Covering a light source with a thin material creates softer light. When the light passes through the material it scatters it in many directions. This is called Diffusion.
4. Pointing a light at a wall and then “bouncing” it back to the subject can simulate diffusion.
5. Distant from the light source to the subject affects how light “falls off” the subject. I think falls off means how quickly shadows form on the unlit areas. Sort of like Tenebrism.
6. The fall off can be used to make a subject blend into the background or stand out. If a light is further away from the subject then the background will appear to be brighter.
7. Light from the front will hide texture, while light from the side will make it stand out
8. Use shadows to emphasize the volume of an object.
9. Lighting from behind can act as diffuse lighting. The light will bounce of the opposite wall back towards your subject.
10. All light has a color. Sometimes our eyes can’t register that color, but the digital sensors can. Therefore you must be prepared to color correct.

FStoppers

https://fstoppers.com/studio/how-read-light-photography-part-1-2544

Not super helpful for content but might help me in recreating pictures for the website. This article tells you how to figure out what lighting effects a photographer used when creating a picture. It goes over basics like direct and diffuse light sources, and it also has a guide to help you look at eye reflections to and determine lights.

Week 11a

   Today in class we talked about how to set up a grid system in CSS. This was super helpful for me because I attempted to do something like a grid system in my last page but it failed horribly and couldn't scale. The key command that I didn't know to do was the "float" command which allows div classes to go beside each other. After the lecture we were introduced to the last project. For the project we need to make a single web page for a Kickstarter campaign of our choosing. After the introduction we were let of to kick starter to start browsing campaigns. Here are some of the ones I looked at that I thought were worth considering:

-YOUnicorn: a book to help you discover your inner unicorn
-Rocket Science: a children's book that explains the fundamentals of space travel.
-Odd dog: an animated short about a cat that thinks its a dog.
-Root: a game of woodland might and right.
-Aurora: a practical effects retro time travel creature feature
-Advanced Death Saves: a comics anthology about player's table top RPG character's deaths
-Color Spike: a Portable LED for Film and Photo use.

   The projects that I'm currently thinking about doing the webpage for are Root, Rocket Science, and Color Spike, but really any from the list above would be good for me.

Week 11 out of class

KickStater websites

1. Roots: a game of woodland might and right, is a board game with a Robin Hood like twist to it. In a land of Forest creatures the evil Marque de cat has seized control of the woods and is attempting to harvest its resources. Players can control four factions that are vying for control of the woods, The Marque, The Eyrie, The Alliance, and The Vagabond. The game is strategy board game in the likes of Axis and Allies or the Game of Thrones board game, where you manage resources and try to take territories. I think the Game has great art style and I would definitely be interested in playing it.  I’m a bit worried that it might have to much of an established style for the project though.

Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2074786394/root-a-game-of-woodland-might-and-right?ref=discovery

2. Rocket Science is a children's book that explains the fundamentals of space travel.  I personally am very excited about space travel and I think it would be helpful if more people knew about it. If people understood it then they might be more willing to fund it, and I think a book like this could go a long way in raising interest. The book has illustrations, but not a super strong brand elsewhere so there would definitely be room to play with the website. They have a blueprint theme running through some of their illustrations and I can imaging that would be a fun way to organize content on the webpage.

Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1734237858/rocket-science?ref=discovery

3. Color Spike is a company that wants to make easy to use LED light strips for film and photography use. The products are mountable boxes about the size of a traditional industrial fluorescent bulb with a single row of LEDs in the center. The lights can be used to create mood in photography or as direct props themselves. What makes these stand out is that you don’t need to hand dial in the colors yourself. Instead there is an app that allows you to choose your color like you would in an Adobe program. While I don't really care about the product itself I can see a lot of fun possibilities in what the web page could look like. Since the product focuses on light and color that could leave a lot of room for fun color combinations and strong darks and lights. Link:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bitbangerlabs/colorspike-create-in-color?ref=discovery


  Additionally out side of class this week I read chapter 5 in Above the Fold, completed the PDFs, and did some more research. Here are the screen shots for my completed code and websites for the PDFs.

HTML:


CSS:


  For the rest of my research I focused on what content I would want on the site. I read through the kick starter and converted their sections in to content areas. I reworded a lot of what they said in a way to make it more appealing. Their writing was very matter a fact so I spiced it up a bit and cut it down to the essentials.

Here's my research so far:

What is it?

Color spike is a lighting system for video or photo use that is easy to use and setup. The team that dreamt up color spike came up with the idea after realising the need for it in their own photography. As photographers they understand what people need and have come up with a product that uniquely fills those needs.

Features:

1. Able to dial in tons of interesting effects
2. Great for both video and stills, in-studio and on-location
3. App-controlled
4. Linkable to create multi point lighting system
5. Bright enough to be useful  

(copied from the web page)

What I’m imaging the Content being about:

I’m imaging these three subjects bellow being on a slide show feature area near the top of the page. Maybe an image example on the side with the content text beside it. OR it can be an image with the heading and when you click on it, it links you to the content text lower on the page.

Video use:

Color Spike can be used to simulate all sorts of practical lighting effects in film. From camera flashes to fires, by dialing in the settings you can choose from a multitude of color options and make the light pulse or strobe to create the effect you want. The light is also bright enough to be clearly visible in the footage, or if you want you can dial it down for a more subtle tone. Color spike can also easily be setup to create fantastic mood lighting.

Photo use:

Color spike isn’t only for video use. It can also easily be setup to create stunning mood and lighting effects in your photo shoots. Whether in a studio or on location Color Spike can be quickly set up and adjusted to fill your photography lighting needs. Color Spike’s portability and easy app control will help cut down on set up and allow you maximize your shoot time.

App Control:

Use the free color spike app to quickly and easily set up patterns and colors for you Color Spike. Just pair your phone with one or more Color Spikes and used the intuitive mobile interface to easily program your lights. Colors can be changed with the color wheel and strobe patterns setup by changing the waveform. The app is already finished and fully functional so there will be no delay on having it ready by the end of the kickstarter campaign.  

Other Content items:

-a link to the kickstarter at the top of the page

-The hardware of the product

1. Rugged yet breathable anodized aluminum body
2. Dual side channels for easy mounting
3. Sized for handheld use
4. Flicker free LED capable of millions of colors
5. DC adapter
6. Internal battery (about 45 minutes of continuous light)
7. On board UI
8. Diffusion screen

-lots of photo examples

-maybe a pho professional shoot like the one they have.

-About the creators

Duncan and Steve have been friends for over twenty years and started Bitbanger Labs in 2012 to fulfill niche demands in technology. Being photographers they realized the need for specialized technology in the field, and started making the products that they would want.  In 2013 they designed the Pixelstick, a light wand that revolutionized painting in photography. Now they’re back to shake things up again with Color Spike, but they need you help to make it happen, check out the kickstarter Link.

-Maybe set up info

I’m thinking like an illustrated diagram here

-Maybe a how to section based off the other info I gathered.

Other Photo Lighting

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/LED-Light-Sources/ci/12248/N/3988592074

B&H:

-Most other LED lights are large panels and look hard to transport

-Most of these mention the LED count

-Doesn’t mention app control or how you dial in settings

-Can be daisy chained together (I’m pretty sure color spike daisy chains)

-A lot of these come with stands

Price: The color spike seems to be on the more expensive end so I wont want to emphasis price

Popular Photography

https://www.popphoto.com/gallery/top-10-photography-lighting-facts-you-should-know

10 lighting facts that will improve your photography

1. To create softer lighting effects use a broad light source. If a light source is wide it hits the subject from more angles causing less harsh shadows.
2. Use distance to create softer effects. If a light source is closer than it illuminates the subject more creating less shadows. If it is distant it’s becomes narrow and casts more shadows.
3. Covering a light source with a thin material creates softer light. When the light passes through the material it scatters it in many directions. This is called Diffusion.
4. Pointing a light at a wall and then “bouncing” it back to the subject can simulate diffusion.
5. Distant from the light source to the subject affects how light “falls off” the subject. I think falls off means how quickly shadows form on the unlit areas. Sort of like Tenebrism.
6. The fall off can be used to make a subject blend into the background or stand out. If a light is further away from the subject then the background will appear to be brighter.
7. Light from the front will hide texture, while light from the side will make it stand out
8. Use shadows to emphasize the volume of an object.
9. Lighting from behind can act as diffuse lighting. The light will bounce of the opposite wall back towards your subject.
10. All light has a color. Sometimes our eyes can’t register that color, but the digital sensors can. Therefore you must be prepared to color correct.

FStoppers

https://fstoppers.com/studio/how-read-light-photography-part-1-2544

Not super helpful for content but might help me in recreating pictures for the website. This article tells you how to figure out what lighting effects a photographer used when creating a picture. It goes over basics like direct and diffuse light sources, and it also has a guide to help you look at eye reflections to and determine lights.

Week 10 out of class

Out of class this week I had to finish applying CSS to my HTML page. For my color scheme I added colors that I picked from the google material design that I thought fitted Prague, and for my typefaces I choose Shrikhand and open sans from the google web fonts. To organize the content I placed the different items in white boxes on a grid for easy scanning. I didn’t know how to actually make a grid in CSS though, so I fudged it and it is no longer scalable. Also out of class this week I watched 5 and 6 in don't fear the internet, read several terms in the IID book, and read chapter three of Above the Fold.

week 10B

Today in class we introduced CSS. This was incredibly helpful for me because while i've copied and pasted css before, I've never really understood it. Now I feel like I have  a grasp for the basic concepts. After the lecture we had to start applying css to our HTML vacation page. I spent a lot of time just making boxes appear on the page to get a feeling for how it worked with margins and padding. Then I started to actually style it. I picked two fonts from the google web fonts Shirkand and Roboto, and then I picked a color scheme from the google color picker. I decided on teal and pink because they match Prague. So far I just managed to style the top of the page but next I'll work on the paragraphs and lists.
 


my HTML and CSS code at this point



what the webpage looks like currently

Week 10a

Today in Class we started off with a lecture that introduced us to HTML and talked about design constraints for the web. We also watched two videos from “Don't Fear the Internet”. Then we had the rest of class to make a basic HTML web page about our dream vacation. I was surprised with how much I remembered from Digital Theory and Skills with coding. Getting started on the page was fairly easy and I had no trouble doing headings, paragraphs, page breaks, and alignments. I did start to run into trouble with the lists and photos. Fortunately W3schools is always very handy in reminding me how to do something and I got the photos in no problem. One problem I couldn't fix was having the numbers in my order list being centered with the content. The content would center but the numbers would still hug the left of the page.

week 9 out of class

This week out of class we had to read chapter one of "Above the Fold". This chapter primarily dealt with talking with clients and doing planning for a website project.