Assessment: Game Summary

The game I created for my assessment is called 'Derp and Cheese'. Derp is the main character in the game and the story begins when Derps is hungry for cheese. The game opens at a splash screen where you click start to begin the game.

The game is based on a story where Derp is hungry and goes to eat cheese only to find a mouse stealing his cheese. Derp really wanted his cheese and thought of the idea of chasing the mouse to get his cheese back. The game objective is to chase the mouse around the house for the cheese. Once you reach 25 points you'll be able to click the 'EAT!' button and then you would have finished the game.

Scratch: Keeping Score

The Keeping Score technique is great with making a game because it allows you to keep scores on your game depending on what you decide your game is about. An example includes the game Pacman where you get points every time pacman eats something.

What I wanted to do was score 1 point everytime the warrior's sword touches one of the shadows, in other words the bad guy in my trial game. In order to do that I had to first create a the score box which shows you your current score.

To control how you get the a point and when you get the point I had to line up the following blocks...

In doing this, I have made it so that the actual gameplay begins when the z key is pressed. This sets the score the 0 and changed the warrior costume to 'charge' which is it's attacking stance. It also shows that when the warrior sprite is touching the shadow sprite, the score will change by 1 adding to your score.



Scratch: Changing Costumes

First I use an original image of the sprite and duplicate it many times according to how many different costumes i plan to create. The original image of the sprite being this simple cartoon warrior.


By clicking the copy button, you will duplicate the given sprite. I copied this sprite so I had four of the same image. To change the different costumes you click the edit button and a small paint-like application will pop up so you can manually edit your sprite costume.


What makes this difficult is the process of manually editing the costumes. Before creating more costumes however you should take care to edit the original so that the background is transparent, making it easier for you to customize your other costumes.


I finished by making four different costumes where the warrior is taunting, speaking with heroics, withdrawing his sword and drawing out his sword. The different stances that the warrior took were manually done, using the paintbrush, the paint picker tool, the filler tool and the eraser.

COMPUTER ALGORITHMS

1.       Algorithms a programmed procedure to carry out a process followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations. they are made up of three things, sewuence, selection and repitition.

2.       Pseudocode a notation resembling a simplified programming language, used in program design.

3.       Machine Language a programming language designed for use on a specific class of computers.

4.       High Level Computer Language an advanced computing language that are instructions in simple terms in a particular structure. (syntax) It is easily understood by both the computer and people.

5.       Flowchart is a diagram of the sequence of operations in a computer program or an accounting system. Uses set symbols to describe an algorithm.

6.       Sequence is the order in which the steps have to be carried out. it is important because

7.       Selection where you make a choice between available options. A selection is present usually when the word 'if' is used. Most algorithms have selection included.

8.       Repetition is very useful in an algorithm to repeat a steps in a sequence until a condition is satisfied.

1 - opening a door and entering a room. face door and approach door until your a a foot away. stretch out your arm closest to door knob and grasp handle tightly. then twist door knob until you hear a click and push the door open.

2. negotiating traffic lights as you drive down a street.  there are three different colours that light up in a traffic light. when the green is lit you go, when the red is lit you stop and when the yellow is lit, you are encouraged to stop for the lights are soon to change to red. when driving and the light is green, drive through at your present speed. when driving and the light is red you stop. when driving and the light is yellow you slow down and stop. if you approach the lights when the light turns yellow, drive throught at present speed.

Assignment Research: Handheld Devices

Define the term, what do we use it for?
A handheld device is a pocket-sized electronic device, typically having a screen using touch input, mini-keyboards, or buttons. Handheld devices can be used for communication, work and entertainment. Cellular phones and smart phones are examples of handheld devices used for communication, a PDA is an example of a handheld device that you can use for work, and Nintendo DS', PlayStation Portabes and iPods are examples of handheld devices used for entertainment purposes.

NEW DEVICE : PSP2 estimate of $399 - $499
OLD DEVICE : DS lite $100 - $175

HARDWARE PSP2 : The Playstation Portable 2 is thought of as being as powerful as the Playstation 3 because it's introducing a new quad-core GPU and cut down CELL processor. It is using the same CPU combo that powers the iPad 2 and the upcoming iPhone 5.
List  of the PSP2's specs;

- Screen: 5″ OLED multi-touch screen
- Control: A Multi-touch trackpad (rumored to be on the rear of the unit), four face buttons, two shoulder-  buttons, two analog sticks, directional pad
- Resolution: 960 x 544
- CPU: Quad-core ARM Cortex A9
- GPU: PowerVR SGX 543 MP4+
- RAM: 1GB LPDDR2 in the Debug unit, with 512 MB possible in the retail unit
- Storage: 16GB flash internal (like the PSP Go) and an SD slot
- Connectivity: Wi-fi, 3G, and Bluetooth

Assignment Planning

Today I plan to research about the four topics that I have chosen for the multimedia ebook project. I chose Handheld Devices, Social Networking, Seconday Storage and WiFi. I decided that I want to work alone on this project because it doesn't really make much of a difference if you're doing it with a partner or a group. The only benefit from working in a group is that all the topics you do are together in presentation. It would be difficult however because not everyone in the group may edit the presentation at the same time depending on what form of presentation they plan to use.

I have created the format that I wanted my powerpoint show to be in, and all I need to do is get the actual content, and plan on how I want it to be presented.

Phone Advice

1.       “My daughter insists that her phone be Wifi capable? What does this mean? Why does she need it?”

Having a phone that is Wifi capable means to have a phone that can use the internet in Wifi Hotspots. Wifi is free internet and she can only use it on a Wifi capable phone. I would expect that she wants to go online in places outside of the house so she can access things like her email and facebook.

2.       The mother says “She wants the camera in the phone to be at least 5 Meg thingys, what does this mean? Does she need it?”
I take it that you're talking about megapixels? Well, having a phone camera at least 5 megapixels basically means she wants a good quality camera that would come out with good images and video recordings graphic-wise. I don't believe that it's completely necessary however being a young teenager I'm sure she'd want to take a lot of pictures of herself with friends.

3.       “My daughter wants a phone with a capacitive touch screen. They seem more expensive, what advantages do they offer over other types of touch screens?”
A capacitive touch screen doesn't require a stylus and you must use your finger to use the screen. With a capacaitive screen you can lightly swipe your finger around the screen whereas other touch screens need more 'force' from your finger to move things around the screen.

4.       “Are all phone as smart as one another? What is the smartest phone at the moment and why?”
No not all phones are as smart as one another, the smartest phone of the moment ever since late March is the Samsung Galaxy S II because it's an extremely successful line. The physical image of the mobile alone will make you want it and it's using the latest technology of touch screens, 8 megapixel camera, integrated memory, WiFi capable, bluetooth and more.

5.       “She wants to take lots of video and photos. How do I know which phone can store the most videos and photos?”
There are two things you want to look for in a phone if your daughter wants to take photos and videos. First of all, look for the quality of the camera because you'd think that she wants good quality images correct? Then you look for the memory size of the phone and if it can use a micro SD card. This way, you can take a lot of photos and keep them in your phone memory.

6.       “She says she wants to be able to buys apps. What are apps? What sort of useful apps could she access? What types of phones can buy and use apps?”
Apps is the short term for applications and useful examples for your daughter would include the train timetables, facebook, and games. Phones that you can buy and use apps include the iPhone, smartphones and androids.

The CPU

1.       What is the function of the CPU?  A Central Processing Unit is the component of the computer that carries out the instructions from a program, and is the primary element of carrying out the functions of the computer or other processing device.

2.       What was the name of the first CPU? The first CPU created was called 'Intel 4004' however it was not very powerful and could only add and subtract information. However the first CPU that was used in a home computer was called the 'Intel 8080'.

3.       Referring to the graph on page 2 of the article, describe how the speed of CPU’s has changed. The speed of CPU's change is expanential. This means it varies throughout the years, but it's always rising.

4.       What does MIPS measure? MPS stands for "millions of instructions per second" and is a rough measure of the performance of a CPU. Modern CPUs can do so many different things that MIPS ratings lose a lot of their meaning, but you can get a general sense of the relative power of the CPUs from this column.                                                                                                                                   

5.       Research (Google it) what is a dual core processor, what is multitasking and how do the two work together. Dual core processors have two separate cores on the same physical machine. This means they can do two tasks at the same time without interfering one with the other or using up the others memory or processing speed. These can be located on the same mother board or separate mother boards.  These types of processors are used when several different tasks or operations need to be done simultaneously. Multitasking is when the two chips in the dual core are working on different things.

Broadband Research (new)

1.      What is broadband? Broadband is a high-data rate connection to the internet. Broadband technologies supply more than the 60kbit/s rate dial-up connections are limited to.


2.      Outline the methods of delivery of broadband (wireless, cable, ADSL and fibre)? Identify the speed of each method. The speed from wireless broadband internet changes depending on the distance between your device and the router itself. Speeds are faster when you are closer because the signal is stronger, and there is no interference from other wireless networks. Cable broadband Internet connects a device (normally your home computer) to the internet using the cable television infrastructure and bit rates can be as much as  400 Mbit/s. ADSL is a family of technologies that provides digital data transmission over the wires of a local telephone network. ASDL services normally range from 25kbit/s to 20 Mbit/s downstream depending on line conditions and service level. Fiber Optic Cable lines are connected directly to buldings and will deliver broadband internet upto 100 Mbit/s.

3.      Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each method. Advantages with wireless broadband is that you don't have to be connected to your internet source, meaning there are no cables required. Instead, as long as your device can use Wi-Fi you can go online with your hand held devices from around 20 metres from your home router. If the wireless is connected to a Yagi antenna then up to kms. Disadvantages with wireless broadband is that the signal can get disrupted by other devices or other wireless signals around the area. Advantages for Cable Broadband is that it's faster and unlike wireless, the internet connection is less likely to be disrupted. Disadvantages for Cable Broadband include the fact that there are wires to be connected and it is normally available for one device. Advantages for Fibre Optic Cable Lines include that they are powerful and help spread the internet to large amounts of devices (such as work offices in a building) at a fast rate.

4.      Give examples of broadband providers and identify the costs.
      Optus Broadband, BigPond Broadband, and Virgin Mobile Broadband. Optus costs $79 for 120GB ADSL2+, Bigpond costs $98 for 100GB with a bonus 75GB, Virgin Mobile Broadband costs $39 for 10GB. All of these rates are per month.


5.      The Federal Government is thinking of rolling out a national broadband network (The NBN). Research the NBN and find out:

a.       what method of delivery it will use The Federal Government plan to lay fiber optic cables to 93% of Australian homes

b.      the expected speed It will provide boradband speeds of upto 100MB/s

c.       the expected costs  NBN will be provided and installed by NBN Co. NBN Co’s Corporate Plan assumes no cost for the connection of this equipment within an end user’s home. A charge may apply for non standard installations.

6.      Do you think Australians should invest in The NBN? Justify your answer. I believe that Australians SHOULD invest in the NBN because it benefits households, businesses, healthand aged care, the environment, the telework, government services and regional Australia. This service isalso cheap so I believe that Australians should take advantage of this. The internet is used by many and having a service such as this will prove fruitful in school work, where students shouldn't have an excuse about not being able to hand in their work, and businesses can research more and be more successful.

The World of Multimedia

1.   Where do you commonly use multimedia in your daily life, list as many examples as you can.Multimedia technology is used in different ways, in different places. Wi-Fi can be used at home, or at Wi-Fi Hotspots such as McDonalds and Gloria Jeans.

2.      What multimedia device or service would you find it hardest to be without? Discuss                        I personally believe that it would be gaming consoles (example Playstation Portable and Nintendo 3DS) because I play games a lot and it's something I treasure... However for most people it would be their mobile phone. This is because with a mobile phone they can reach people immediately by calling them or sending them a text message inside or outside of your home. You can also access the internet on your phone with special phone plans and Wi-Fi hotspots.

3.      The video on future directions (third video) has already to some extent come true. What multimedia technologies displayed in this video are already commonly used?
Some technology in the video include smart phones, smart watches, iPad, GPS and the TV screen.

4.      Do you see any advantages/disadvantages to the use of such multimedia technology?
Advantages that I see in this video is that the new technology is smart and advanced making it easier to move around in the day. An example is the television where he can use it like a computer to email his working assistant by voice. The man therefore is able to get dressed and respond to his assitant at the same time. Disadvantages however is when people forget about the different things they have in the video (example the smart phone and smart watch). People are relying so much on technology that they would not be able to do many things without technology by their side. If the man forgot his while he was jogging, he wouldn't have known about the change in meeting time, if the man's television blacked out he wouldn't have been able to contact his assistant either. Being too reliant on technology isn't a good thing.

Data Compression

What is data compression? It is the process of process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation would use.

What is a data compression ratio? Data Compression ratio is also known as a compression power, it is a computer science  term used to quantify the reduction in data-representation size produced by a data compression algorithm.

Why is data compression an important technique for the online world? Data compression is important online because when someone is trying to upload an image, file or video a website normally has a size limit which is when data copmpression comes in handy. Data compression allows us to make the image or video smaller to fit the data size the website allows.

What is the difference between Lossy and Lossless data compression? Lossy data compression is a encoding method which compresses data by losing some of the original data. Lossless data allows the exact original data to be reconstructed by the compressed data. Lossy data only allows an approximation of the original data to be reconstructed, in exchange for better compression rates.

Which method offers the greatest compression ratio? The method that offers the greatest compression ratio is lossy compression. The compression ratio of lossy video codecs are generally better than audio and still-image.
The video can be compressed at a 100:1 ratio 
Audio can often be compressed at a 10:1 
Still images are also often compressed at a 10:1 ratio.
The compression rate of lossy compression is about 5-6% while the rate of lossless compression ranges from 50 60%.

Comparing the results to the Original Synopsis (a summary of what happened)

Our group created a reality show that was run buy a group called 'EFECTZ' and in the video we were to feature RANDOM DARES. Efectz would be sent letters from anonymous viewers to perform random dares. These dares are not dangerous and they are performed only to entertain the show's audience and make them laugh and smile. Giving the 'SMILE EFECTZ'.


2 dares were performed, one by Emily and one by myself. My dare was written by Therese and Emily's dare was written by Camillus. Each dare would first start off with the person reading their dares then there would be a cut to the scene of the dare. These are the dares;


Emily (by Camillus) - Emily walked into a year 9 Visual Art classroom in her PJ's with bed hair acting as if she was part of the class, doing random things.


Me (by Therese) - Walk into Dobson Green during lunchtime and dance the macarena and giving out random hugs.


After the dares we asked for feedback about our dares from the audience and thanked the viewers.


*All the people seen in videos that were not in our group [example people in the Visual Arts Classroom and people who recieved random hugs] were asked permission prior to being filmed in the video.


DIFFERENCES


- Camillus' and Therese's dare were not filmed
- Our dares had small changes.


These differences did not make dramatic problems in our video project.

It wasn't the original plan...

Looking at the group's synsopsis you could see that we planned to have 4 different dares done, and that all four group members would be featured in the video. Because of the time we had and the absence of a certain member we were not able to video all four dares, and instead we filmed only two dares. The only disadvantage that I find from this is that we didn't stick with the original plan. The advantage about this decision however was that we can now easily get our video to be around the 100mb range so we can upload it to student net because the video is shorter than planned.


Another problem we faced was that Therese was sick a lot, so she missed out on a lot of IST lessons that we used to work on the video. Because she was away we had to change the plans and we had to take off her dare, and Camillus' dare. The advantage to this decision was that it's now easier to change the video and editing it to be 100mb.

An issue during the filming of the video includes the lack of time we had together as a group and the video cameras that we were using either not being available, or out of battery. Because of these issues we had to delay some filming of different scenes of our video (including the introducing scene). However this problem was easily solved because we were able to film all the parts of our video.

Another problem faced was that we weren't sure how we were going to end up editing the video. Our original plan for editing was for Camillus to be able to do it at home. The problem that came up was that Camillus wasn't able to use movie maker at home due to technical difficulties with her home computer and everyone else in the group didn't have movie maker or wasn't sure how to edit the video. This problem was fixed with the extension that was given to finish the assessment and Camillus is still editing the video, but using movie maker in class during our 3 extra IST lessons.

No other big problems came up and I think that the assessment went well. If anything, we could have finished the in class tasks earlier, instead of doing it the way we are working on it right now.

STORY BOARD BY CAMILLUS SAVEA (PART TWO)

STORY BOARD BY CAMILLUS SAVEA (PART ONE)

29/06/2011

Today is the day of the Japanese excursion and Camillus isn't here. Camillus is in charge of editing the video to put on to student net. We cannot view the current progress of the video because it's on her USB. Instead, we shall use this lesson we have today to update our blogs, fix up our blogs, and post more on our blogs! I still have to work on my evaluation, problems faced, and some activities that we were supposed to do as a class. I'm using today's lesson to do those.

UPDATE: 28/06/11

We have been given a small extension for our video project. Our group has planned to take advantage of this time to polish the video and to create more posts related to the video. Examples of other posts include images of who's included in the video (the 'cast' of EFECTZ), a post explaining other problems that were faced during the making of the video and other problems encountered in preparation of the video (including the creation of story boards etc.) another post comparing the synopsis which was our original plan to what actually happened and a final evalutation on how I believe we went as a group and what could have been done better. I will also complete other class activities and edit previous posts.

New Terms Relating to Audio Files

Stereo- Sound that is directed through two or more speakers so that it seems to surround the listener and to come from more than one source; stereophonic sound.

Channel- A "channel" in audio is just one separate stream of audio information.  Mono audio sources have one channel.

Track- Audio tracks contain digitally sampled sounds.

Frequency- Abbreviated as AF, audio frequency represent the range of signals that are audible to the human ear. The range of audio frequencies is usually considered to be in the region between 20 and 20,000 hertz.

Hertz- Hertz is what frequency is measured in.

Decibel-  the amplitude of a signal compared with the maximum which a device can handle before clipping occurs.

Wav, Mp3, Aiff- These are different types of audio file formats. The one used the most out of the three is MP3 which is used on most portable media players (example iPods)

Broadband and Bandwidth

1. What is Broadband?
Broadband refers to the telecommunications signal of greater bandwidth. The term is usually connected with internet connections.
2. What units are used to measure Bandwidth?
Bandwidth is measured in bits per second. (bits/s)

3. How much faster is broadband than dial up?

According to Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia Broadband is roughly double the dial-up rate and that is achieved through multilinking technology.

4. What are the speeds that broadband operates at compared to dial up?

Dail-up modems are limited to a bitrate of aroung 56 kbit/s (56 kilobits per second) or less whereas Broadband internet's bitrate ranges from 64 kbit/s to 4.0 mbit/s and has data transfer rates at 256 kbit/s.

5. What are some of the advantages of using a broadband connection to download something like a video compared to dial up?
A great advantage is that the video will load faster. This is because a video loads through some data coming to your computer at a time. Broadband has greater bandwidth and therefore more data will be downloaded at once than a dial up connection.

6. Create an image in paint that illustrates how a high bandwidth connection can move more data compared to a dial up connection at a given time.

Synopsis for IST Video Assignment

Basically, our video will be about Random Dares. It will be like a small television program where our group Effects are sent letters from people to perform their random dares. These dares are not dangerous however, they're funny and made to let the audience laugh.


For this 'episode' we plan to give our selves our own dares in a system that works like this.


I --dare--> Camillus
Camillus --dares--> Emily
Emily --dares--> Therese
Therese --dares--> Me


The episode will open with a special theme song and then we'll Begin the show.


To make it appear that we received this episode's dares from viewers we plan to start off by reading letters that have our dares. We'll read it to the camera and then we'll have cut scenes to the different dares. The dares will be recorded in this order; Emily will perform her dare, then me, followed by Camillus and Therese.


Emily's Dare - Is to walk into the Visual Arts Classroom wearing PJ's and act as if she is part of the class (With teacher's permission of course) and somewhat distract the class. This will be a year 9 V.A class.


My Dare - Is to walk into the middle of Dobson Green during lunchtime and music will randomly start playing. When the music starts I have to dance the macarena for around 1 minute wearing a mask.


Camillus' Dare - is to dress up like a chicken and play in the playground of Parramatta Park for a few minutes. She'll play on the swings and slide down the slide acting as one of the young children.


Therese's Dare - Is to make toilet paper accessories and put it in her hair walking around in class with those accessories equipped.


At then end of each dare we're going to give feedback to the viewers and talk a little bit about the dare as if the person who was dared was getting interviewed.


At the very end of the episode we'll thank the viewers and take more requests for dares and have credits. At the end of the credits we'll include some bloopers that occurred when recording the video.

Ideas for our IST assignment

The people in my group are; Camillus Savea, Emily Jones, Teresa Jankovic and me
We agreed that the video either be a parody or a remake of some sort and that we would be in the video.
Our first idea was to make a Newscast of Planking, the new 'fad' where someone lies face-down on the ground with their arms by their side in random places. However we were not allowed to film this broadcast because it was thought of as inappropriate if we were with it OR against it.
Our next idea was to make a video of random dares. This would happen in school and one of our example random dares would be walking into a classroom and a Santa suit, shout HOHOHO and just sit and learn with the class for a while.
Seeing as our first was no good, we decided on doing our RANDOM DARES idea.
To go out with this idea we'd first have to write 4 random dares ourselves and share it with the group so we could discuss the props that are necessary.

Making a Ringtone

The original version of this song is called Lucifer by SHINee a Korean Pop group.
I edited the song so I could make a Chipmunk Version by going to the tools and changing the speed.

How To Organise Your Project

1 - Create a folder for your project
2 - Place resources in folder > video files
                                           > music/soundtracks
                                           > still images
3 - Make sure you have a folder in your S Drive AND your USB
4 - When the file is on your USB make sure that you have another file somewhere else!
5 - Open Movie Maker and import  resources
   - Note that you cannot import resources from your S DRIVE
6 - When saving you can save it as a project or a movie file.
   - PROJECT: remembers last location of resources while you are working on the video. It is a "WORK IN PRGRESS"
  - MOVIE: all resources are embedded and cannot be lost because it is saved as ONE file. It is "COMPLETED WORK".
7 - Synchronise your S DRIVE with USB at end of each lesson to not lose information.

Intro to Audacity 3/5/11

Today we were introduced to a music editing software called Audacity. Here we can open up original tracks and change them so that they can be faster, slower, louder, higher, lower, played backwards and you can also take off the vocals to make an instrumental version. (These are all made in the effects tab)

There are many tools on Audacity such as;

These tools in order from left to right are; the selection tool, the envelope tool, the draw tool, the zoom tool, the time shift tool and the multi-tool mode button.

SELECTION TOOL- allows you to select and highlight areas of the sound clip you want to edit

ENVELOPE TOOL- when the envelope tool is selected two blue lines will appear and you drag the blue lines in and out of the track to change the volume.

ZOOM TOOL- click on the track with the magnifying glass icon until you are zoomed in as close as you want to be. This allows you to view the sound waves so you can see the music.

DRAWING TOOL- To use the drawing tool you must zoom in until you can finally see the samples (small blue points should appear on the sound wave) and you can move the different points.

TIMESHIFT TOOL- This tool is used when you have more than one track open and you can move the different track where you want it to play.

Digital Media

Five different types of digital media surrounding us in the world include;
- Mobile Phones
- eBooks
- Video games
- Internet
- Computers
What number system is digital data based on? What two digits are used to code all digital data?
Digital data is based on the Binary number system and the decimal Binary system. The 2 digits that are used to code all digital data are______
What is a bit? What is a byte?
A bit stands for binary digit which is 0 or 1, it is the smallest possible unit of information.
A byte is a sequence of binary digits which are operated as a unit to represent a character. it is usually made of 8 bits.
What is sampling rate? Find an image that explains how sampling works.
A sampling rate defines the number of samples per unit of time taken from a continous signal to make a discrete signal.

How does colour depth or bit depth effect the appearance of an image? Find images to illustrate the effect.

The Colour Depth affects an image because it determines how many colours the image will have and how realistic the image will appear. An example of different colour depths include Monochrome which can be black and white which is the lowest storage requirement and 32 bit colour which can be sometimes described as 'true colour' and allows each pixel to be 1 of 256 values.

Explain why sampling rate only affects video and not Still Media and why colour depth affects both still media and videos;

Sampling rate has no effect on Still Media because it is a STILL media and therefore has no sampling rate. The sampling rate for a video is better defined as the frame rate. The unit of time of how fast and/or slow the different frames of a video changes. The colour depth affects still media because it's a single image that can be altered to make the image look more realistic. The colour depth also affects videos because a video is made up of many frames and each frame can be altered the same way still media is edited and changed.



Making A Pacman Ghost on Inkscape

As a class we went to http://howto.nicubunu.ro/inkscape_pacman_baddies/
This was an example that we made so we would be able to use Inkscape for our Assignment.
This is the Process we followed;
Draw a circle using the ellipse tool (keep the Ctrl key pressed while dragging to get a circle) and then convert the circle to path (Path > Object to Path).
Convert to the node editor and add (by double-clicking) two nodes near the extreme left and right nodes of the circle.


Select the two newly created nodes (with Shift) and drag them to the bottom (keep the Ctrl key pressed while dragging to restrict the movement to the vertical).


Select the newly created left node and the bottom node and press twice the insert new node button. Select the right and bottom nodes and repeat the operation (two insert nodes). Each segment will be split with 3 new nodes. You may now delete the left and right segmenting nodes to simplify the shape.


Select (with Shift) the two nodes left and right nearest to the original bottom node and move them up a bit (with Ctrl key pressed, to restrict the movement to the vertical).
This is the "ghost" shape.


The hard part has ended, we have the basic ghost shape, we can add the eyes (a white and a black circle, duplicate) and we have a simple Pac-Man baddie.


But we will do something fancier, duplicate the ghost shape and make the duplicate black. Change the black color with a radial gradient going from completely transparent black at the center to partly transparent black at the margins. Move the center of the gradient up and left to have a light source.


For the eye create a white circle, duplicate it and fill the duplicate with the same radial gradient. Add a smaller black circle. Group them, duplicate the group to get the second eye.


Add a highlight: create an white ellipse, move it in the upper-left, rotate a bit apply some blur and reduce the opacity.
 
Optionally, create a second highlight in the same way.
 
For increased realism, add a shadow: a black ellipse at the bottom, move it below the rest of the graphic and fill with a radial gradient going from solid black at the center to partly transparent black at the margins.
 
Add a bit of blur to the shadow and we are done.

*Instructions from the given website

Assesment ; Creating an Animation

.

Describe what software you used and why you chose it:

In the actual process of creating each frame I used Inkscape because it was simple and had all the tools I required on the side bar instead of me having to search for them. I tried using shapes on Microsoft Office Word to make some shapes but I found it easier to use Inkscape. To create the actual animation I used Windows Live Movie Maker and used 91 frames.

Describe the creation process you followed:

I first copied an image of Manaphy (Blue Pokemon) as a PNG file and pasted it onto Inkscape. Using the Circle tool I created a circle for its head, body and 2 ovals for it's arms. To shape the head and the body I clicked 'Object to Path' and stretched the cirlce to shape it is now. to create it's ears I used the Bezier tool and smoothed the object path. To make the eyes I made 4 different circles. One yellow for the outer eye, One blue for the eye colour, one black for the pupil and one white for the eye moving it on top of each other to make it look like an eye. To make the stars I used shapes and filled them blue, to make the swirls of water I used the Calligraphic Brush Stroke tool, the Letters I used the Font tool and the bubbles I used the Circle tool. To create the flashing effect I changed the background colour to black and white for different frames. After each frame I exported the Vector image as a PNG file to use on Windows Live Movie Maker. I adjusted each frames time period so some were 0.03 seconds, 0.2 seconds, 0.11 seconds and others 0.15 seconds. When the frames were together I saved it as a movie and FINISHED :)

What image format were you saving your work in during the development of the frames/ What image format did you save your frames as?

While creating the frames I saved them as a Vector Image, then exported the all to PNG files so I would be able to use them on Windoes Live Movie Maker. When the animation was finished I saved it as a WMV file.

What frame rate were you aiming for?

I was aiming to be able to have around 10 frames per second. At times I made that goes and at other times I had it more than 10  frames a second, this was when I had the bubbles coming into the image saying M E R C E D E S.

What difficulties did you encounter and how did you overcome them?

Difficulties I had included not having Windows Live Movie Maker on my home computer and the fact that Inkscape always stopped working while I was in the middle of my frames making me delete those frames and start again. I ended up just making the frames at hom and doing the animation work at school and to overcome the problem with inkscape I saved the file each time i made a frame.

Assessment Planning ;

For my assessment I have had many ideas for my animation supporting Mercedes House.
At the moment I'm thinking of using either;

- Phione and Manaphy from Pokemon
- Sasuke from Naruto
- Suicune from Pokemon
- Articuno from Pokemon
- Dragonair from Pokemon
- Lucario and Riolu from Pokemon

All of my characters are from animes (japanese cartoons) and that's because I have an interest in it. :)

(images in character order ; suicune, sasuke, articuno, dragonair, manaphy and phione, lucario and riolu)