Creative Commons License - Elephants Dream

I was doing some research on the internet today in regards to Creative Commons Licenses and found an interesting example of how the Creative Commons Licenses has been used.

As we know producing a 3D animation film for cinema is a very expensive process. You need specialized software such as 3D Max, Maya, Softimage etc which requires license fees. On top of this, if you were to use Windows XP as your computer operating system you would have to pay for the number of computers you are using etc. which adds more to the expense of production costs.

Blender is an Open Source 3D Modeling and Animation suite meaning it is free, no license fees. Linux is a computer operating system and it is also Open Source, and yes no license fees.

Well the Blender Foundation decided to make a short 3D animated film using only Open Source software(free). When the film was finished, the Blender Foundation have allowed and given permission to the artistic community to download all the production files (7 Gig). The files are covered by the Creative Commons License and you can remake, remixed and re-purposed the movie. The producers of the film have stated that the movie “Elephant Dreams” is the world’s first 3D animated “Open movie” . For further information and videos on how and why the film was made [Read More] Read more Entry>>

New Articles

Since the ISP server went down, I have been working furiously to get my website up to speed(done).

I wrote an article about a online animation program "If you can type you can make a movie" which was lost when the ISP server crashed. Luckily I had a copy of the article on my home computer. So I decided to do 2 things:

1). Write a tutorial on how to create a menu in a Joomla website as I update the website.
2). Ad the Animation article to the website in the process.

There isn't many tutorials on the internet explaining how to create a menu in Joomla. They are very short and basic. The tutorial I wrote is very detailed explaining the Joomla Menu System, the steps you need to take to create a menu and add an article. The result was 13 word document pages which was divided up into 7 pages on the website. One article written in a day, uploaded along with the Animation article.

Phew! What a day! Read more Entry>>

Server Crash

Server Crash
Server crash is one of the greatest fears of all webmasters. Yesterday while working on a website for a client, I noticed I couldn't access the backend administration of the website. I checked my website, since I use the same ISP (Internet Service Provider) and yes it was down too. I rang the ISP and suggested that their server may be down. Well guess what? Not only was it down, but it crashed big time. The ISP transfered the websites on the defunct server to a new, faster server. Ah my website is safe again. Nah!!!. They used a backup that was 3 months old. All those articles and updates to my website template were lost. Bugger!

The Moral of the Story?
Always backup your website and it's database just in case there is a server crash.

Oh well I wasn't too happy with the updates I made on the website and it could do with a facelife, but man, I hope I have a copy of the articles I wrote. When I was studying my Certificate III in Information Technology - Network Administration, our teacher who was Vietnamese drummed into us with an accent BACK UP! BACK UP! BACK UP! You'd think I would have heeded his advice. Lesson Learned!!!

How does this relate to Networked Media Productions?
As we are learning in our course particularly yesterday in relation to Web 2.0, the scene of the web is changing and we as media producers need to keep up with the technology. There will come a time when you want or reaize you need to have your own website, designed the way you want it and have all the functions, facilities, utilities and wiz bang bells and whistles you ever wanted. That's why I have my own website Fandangle.

It is a long learning curve understanding and taking advantage of HTML, CSS and PHP, Linux, Apache and MySQL. But it is well worth the effort. View it as an investment. Building and managing your own website gives you the power to explore and use new technologies. It also saves you heaps of money when it comes to website development, design and construction.

And remember pupils BACK UP YOUR WEBSITE AND ALL IT'S ARTICLES!!!

Bugger, now where did I put that spanner? Read more Entry>>

If you can type you can make movies

As the title suggests, 'if you can type you can make movies'. Xtranormal is a quirky online application that you can use to make your own animated movies. The application is in Beta mode, which means there is no limitations on what type of characters you use. They are all free while the application is still in Beta mode. Here is an example of what you can do. [Read this Article] Read more Entry>>

In Hindsight of Project A

Project A has been an interesting learning experience for me. On reflection, having organized two film festivals myself, I would use the curating an exhibition on a website differently. Now my suggestions relate to films since I am explaining what is involved in organizing a film festival.This can also be translated into the exhibition of music, photos, paintings, writing etc.

1. Search the internet for content you feel would be great for your exhibition (whether it is films, photos, music, paintings etc).

2. Subscribe to RSS feeds (that's where Yahoo Pipes is a useful tool) that relate to the content you would like to display in your online exhibition

3. Keep up to date with the RSS feeds on articles relating to competitions, exhibitions of the artists and the content you are looking for.

4. Keep a record of contact names, emails, websites etc mentioned in the RSS feeds.

5. Check the contacts website, get a feel of what they are into and saying with their art.

6. Contacting the producer/directors of the films (artist) and extend a personalized invitation to exhibit their work in your internet exhibition.

7. Get permission from the producer/director (artist) to show their films in your online film festival (exhibition).

8. Provide application forms on your blog or website, which includes copyright tick boxes confirming the producer/director (artist) has permission from copyright owners in regards to music, photos or any other media used in the film production (artistic content) and that the filmmaker (artist) gives permission for you to exhibit their work in your online film festival (exhibition).

9. That the producer/director (artist) gives permission for you to edit or alter segments of the production (work/content) for promotional purposes to promote the film festival (exhibition).

This will provide a means to over come copyright issues and gather content for your exhibition with permission from the artist.

From experience it will take 1-3 months to receive permission to display and finally exhibit the content you wish to display/screen in your online exhibition.

Creative people be they filmmakers, musicians, writers, painters etc are procrastinators. I am saying this from experience. You can't push them, but you can prompt them with a deadline. One thing you must take into account is to allow deadline of up to 3 months to allow the artists to wake up, smell the coffee and realize 'Oh.. Um.. that exhibition.. Better do it now'. They always leave it to the last minute. I know this because I am an artist and I have the same problem.

I hope this has been helpful for your future online exhibitions and that you can use these suggestions in developing your style or method of social networking.

Read more Entry>>

Daryl's Project A - Machinima Filmmaking

Hi all, if you subscribed to my blog you will get this update on my Project A called Machinima Filmmaking

Technical Desicions
When I first started creating the website, I choose Blogger as my canvas to curate the exhibition on machinima. But Blogger is limited when it comes to having one article on the first page and links to other pages. I know you can alter the HTML and CSS, which I tried and my blog had difficulties coping. So I moved to Google Sites. Google sites is a simple website using simple tools which was great as I was typing in the text. Next step add the videos?? Oh no! It only allows Google videos or Youtube videos. Which means I am limited in the videos I can show. Bugger I wanted to include videos from www.machinima.com Okay reassessment time. So I checked Youtube to see if the machinima.com channel had the videos I wanted. No! Okay is there an official channel of the producers whose videos I want to exhibit on Youtube? Yes but no! Not all the ones I want. My advise, when you do a project for your course start doing it on week 1. I know it's easy to say that when we didn't have a clue at the start what networked media production had to do with filmmaking.

Anyway, Google Sites works okay. Except when I want to display thumbnails of the Youtube videos I want to exhibit. Now here is an interesting thing, I have a website www.fandangle.com.au which I administer using Joomla CMS (Content Management System). The Joomla gurus say don't use tables if you want your website to be SEO (Search Engine Optimization) especially if you want to use Google Adsense ads on your website to generate a little money. Well guess what Google Sites uses tables. What the??? Anyway I had a problem with the tables. The online editing system put some of the HTML coding in the wrong place. I had to go in the HTML editor and clean it up and move it around. But I am getting there.

Creative Content
I would say that 1% of the worlds filmmakers get an invite to be a member of the Hollywood club. Most filmmakers have to struggle to dig up funding for their first feature film. It is because of this that I have considered machinima. I have been scouring the internet looking for examples of machinima films. Do a Google search for machinima films and you will get loads of listings of machinima films. But most of them are recordings of game play, with no narrative what so ever. But there are a select few machinimators who make really great films using video games and the tools available to achieve this. Finding a website that shows true machinima, telling an interesting and entertaining story is hard to find. That is why I decided to curate this exhibition.

My thoughts on this course
At first and I'm sure all my fellow class mates will resound the same sentiments. What does Networked Media Productions have to do with filmmaking? It didn't make sense at first but now it makes a lot of sense. Computer technology is moving at a very fast pace and so too is the internet and the technologies available for social networking. Everything is changing in the 21st century. For instance the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd just announced that the government will roll out high speed internet which will be 100 times faster than what we have at present. 100 Mega bits per second which will be unbelievable.The television stations are getting worried because they know as new technologies emerg jobs are lost in the process. Television will be on the internet. No more TV stations. Just like television killed the drive in industry. So yes there is a future for us as Networked Media Producers who can create content to be distributed and screened on the internet. I believe that this assignment is nurturing our minds to develop innovative methods of constructing deeper and meaningful social networking systems and applications.
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References
Machinima Filmmaking: http://sites.google.com/site/machinimafilmmaking
Google Videos: http://video.google.com
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com
Machinima.com: http://www.machinima.com
Google Sites: http://sites.google.com
Fandangle: http://www.fandangle.com.au
Joomla: http://www.joomla.org
Google Adsense: https://www.google.com/adsense
Google Search: http://www.google.com
Australia High Speed internet: http://www.pm.gov.au/media/Release/2009/media_release_0903.cfm
Drive in theaters: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive-in_theater
Read more Entry>>

NMP Tutorial Class Blog

Here we go another blog. I'm in the Thursday 4.30pm NMP tutorial class at University of Canberra. Here are links to blogs that my class mates have created. Just thought I would give them a plug for their hard work.

Shaun Cahill
Lauren Carroll
Luke Allred
Oliver Martinoski
Justin Donnelly
Shane Jensen
Matthew Ruth
Andrew Kominek
Jessica Wiedermann
Angela Crilley
James Willey
Dante Lusso
Geraldine Perrine
Shane Wintour
Ally Hunt
Elle Jasprizza-Quinn
Anna Clemson

Oops and of course you are looking at my blog Machinima Madness administered by Daryl Williams. That's me.

Have you subscribed to my blog rss feed yest?

I suggest you do it, especially if you are doing the NMP course and set up a feedburner account so you can check the stats on your blog. The stats part is a requirement of our course.

Dazza Read more Entry>>

* Important Message * Have you subscribed to my blog RSS feed?

Have you subscribed to my blog RSS feed?

If you have please unsubscribe and the subscribe again.

Why you may ask?
Because my feed goes through Feedburner. If you have a blog I would suggest you also sign up for a Feedburner account for your RSS feed.

Feedburner gathers statistics on:
* how many subscribers you have
* how many times your rss feed subscribers read your articles
* what articles they have read
* and much much more

If you are doing the 'Networked Media Productions' course, it is advisable that you sign up to Feedburner for your blog and your 'Project A' so you can provide statistics on how much traffic you were able to attract to your project and blog.

So please unsubscribe to my RSS feed and re-subscribe. Read more Entry>>

Music Mashups

I came across this website called Mashuptown. They source the internet for songs that are mashed up from different bands. It's a different angle to mashup on the internet.

Here's an example of Ozzy Osbourne singing together with the Industrial Metalheads Pain

Black Sabbath I remember them well. Lets get Paranoid

It might be a good idea to turn the volume down PARANOIYAH! Read more Entry>>

Mashups and API's What Are They

The internet is an unfathomable resource with a wealth of information at your finger tips. Now a new technology is emerging. It is call Mashups. A mashup is a web application that combines information from various web sources and combine them into one. This is achieved by the use of API's (Application Programming Interface).

In fact you you can create your own mashups.

As an example here is a mashup using New York Times API and Amazon.com API. There is a list of books on Amazon.com and reviews of those books from the New York Times combined together into a website.

Here is an extensive list of API's you can play with.

Yahoo Pipes is a mashup tool where you can gather information from RSS feeds and combine them with other feeds creating one RSS feed. You can also select what articles you want to see in your pipe by using a filter using a word or tag.

To research Mashups and API's go to http://www.programmableweb.com/mashups

Read more Entry>>

How To Use HTML and CSS

My University studies require that we understand and can use HTML and CSS. Now we have all surfed the internet and it is second nature when it comes to search for a website or information on things that we are interested in. But have you ever wondered how the web pages are made?

Website Spying
As the subtitle says we can spy on websites using our web browser. Here is a neat trick that will show you the HTML code and other information that makes up the webpage you are looking at on your web browser.

View Web page Coding
Mozilla go to the top left hand corner next to file click View → Page Source

Internet Explorer go to the top left hand corner next to file click View → Source

A page will open with all the html code and references to CSS and Java scripts etc. I do this offen when I see an interesting method of displaying content on a web page. After a while you will be familiar with the html code and where to look for things such as movies, pictures or links to other sites.

To help you bet familiar with HTML and CSS I have provied a list of articles that will help you get started.

HTML Tutorials and Information

HTML 4.01 Quick List
List of HTML tags and their use

Overview of all HTML tags
A listing of html tags

Starting with HTML and CSS
HTML and CSS for Beginners. This article explains how to create a HTML web page and it using CSS. It is easy to understand. Just copy and paste the code in a text editor. Give the web page a .html extension and you can create your first web page.

HTML Document Tags - HTML Code Tutorial
Tutorials explaining how to use and create html documents that can be viewed in web browsers

HTML Tutorial
w3schools explains the use of html tags to create an html document

HTML element - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A list of tag elements used and HTML5. This is very informative list of elements that no longer exist and tags you may never had hear of. It is an excellent reference of html tags and their programmatic use.

HTML Character Entities Table
Ever wanted to display a symbol such as the copyright symbol or any other character/s that are not part of the alphabet in a html document. Here is a table of character entities and their & values that can be added to and displayed in a html document

CSS Tutorials

CSS Decorative Gallery
How to create a decorative gallery for your images. The article has a variety of options that are available to you and will inspire your creative energies.

Floatutorial: Step by step CSS float tutorial
This article explains how to use the float command in CSS. You can create 2, 3 column layouts and image galleries.

CSS Tutorial - Table of contents
This article explains how to use CSS. It is explained in simple terms and takes you through a lot of useful CSS tags that will set you on your way to CSS

CSS Tutorial - Introduction to CSS
Learn how to code CSS, easy to learn and understand tutorials. Taking you step by step, explaining the advantages and how to use CSS for you website/pages.

The Complete CSS tutorial
Tutorials explaining the use of css (cascade style sheets) to set the style of a html documents content

CSS Tutorial
w3schools explains the use of css to style the content of an html document

Cascading Style Sheets - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Description of CSS and its use

CSS-Tricks
Website design articles, tutorials and video tutorials. Excellent resource for learning how to design web pages using css

Introduction To CSS
A simple tutorial on how to use css such as controlling what information will be printed out when a internet visitor want to print your main content/article

Read more Entry>>