With the hand in fast approaching, We have decided to conclude work on this project. Whilst we could carry on improving aspects of the site, we are happy with the work we have already put in, and feel the core concept of the site has been explained to the best of our abilities.
Working on this project has given us a clear understanding of the amount of work that goes into projects like this, even just for a concept website. We have learned a lot about web design, product branding, and pitching an idea.
Overall it’s been a fun project and we both feel very happy with what we’ve produced.
I registered the domain name through Godaddy, and purchased three months of web hosting. It was difficult getting to grips with the file manager, as I have never attempted putting a site online, but overall I found the whole process relatively straightforward.
Me and Mike have also created the animation which has been covered in another update.
To push the project further, we both wanted to develop an animation to act as a ‘teaser trailer’ for the project.
The idea for this animation was that it would be uploaded to a YouTube channel and shared across the Planets of Change social media pages (e.g. Facebook and Twitter)
Animation Development
As the animation was only to be acting as a ‘teaser’ for the project, we wanted it to be kept short and sweet, detailing the main graphical elements of the project and displaying the projects name.
As Alex was busy working on the final details of the website, I set to work on the animation itself.
From pulling the assets used for the websites creation, I worked on the basic run through of the animation, keeping it within a 1 minute timeframe.
The following music was added to the animation:
The animation was tweaked slightly in order to fit with the music.
After this was done the exported animation was coded into the website to test it worked.
However…
We then realised that because the website was now live, we could not have the copyrighted music (which we do not own) within the live version of the website.
So from this we set to work searching for some copyright free music to fit with the animation.
After a long period of searching, the right soundtrack was found and was worked into the final animation.
The next stage of the project is to produce a ‘Teaser Trailer’ animation to detail what the project is about.
After the animation is completed I felt it would push the project further if a YouTube channel housed the said animation.
Working from certain assets found within the Facebook page mockup designs, these were used for the Planets of Change gmail account and YouTube channel.
After the completion of the YouTube channel, I set to work on the creation of a real Facebook page for the Planets of Change project.
I felt that an actual Facebook page would again, help create a more professional feel within the project.
Working from the Facebook Mockup design (see Social Media Mockup Blog Post), the actual Facebook page was created through the use of the same graphical assets.
The live website link was added to the Facebook page along with the YouTube video link (once the animation has been completed and uploaded to the YouTube account)
Since my last update I have created the Prompt page.
The purpose of this page was to provide a single prompt to the user before being taken to the planet design page. The prompt is supposed to inspire the user, so their planet reflects the messages that we’d like to see up on the site. We created a list of these prompts in photoshop, and transitioned them together in Premiere Pro. This is the first time the website has an embedded video integrated into it.
I have also created the planet design page.
Michael designed the prototype paint palette on the left. At the moment it is just an image, but in the final site the user will be able to design what they want which will then be displayed on a live view output on the right hand side. One of the hardest aspects of designing this page was the formatting of the tag section whenever the screen dimensions are adjusted. After some trial and error, I have been able to get it to work ok, although i’m sure the whole site could be formatted better if I had the knowledge.
Finally, I have created the Final display page.
This is the page the user is taken to when they click ‘submit’ on the planet design page. The rotating planet is a video element this time rather than a gif, as I found it is better quality and generally loads faster. The link at the bottom of this page redirects the user back to the main page.
The only thing left to work on now is the animation page and getting the website up online.
