nsedanjones-blog

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Evaluation

Negotiated study has been an intense module, full of new and exciting elements. There has been many curve balls thrown our way as a team and as an individual worker. Be it these curve ball were self inflicted, they were for the better. For this project i worked along side Oli Niblett and Liam Roberts, in order to create something bigger and better than ever before. We decided to set the bar high, pushing our capabilities and enticing improved time management. Another large factor of this project was it coincided with the same time slot as our impending dissertation submission. Be it the tasks we set were so vast, and the lust to do well in out dissertations, we started this project swimming up stream.

Having chosen to do three projects, projects being a dental waiting room video for Wicked Dental, a VR/360 ui interface for Mubi and finally but no means least Aquila, a virtual reality space learning experience. Two of these projects I was to work in a team and one, being my live brief, bing the only brief i execute myself. This was initially a huge risk, as previously within separate projects, I've not done very well working in a team. Shortly this risk became nothing more than a worry understanding of past event, as the lads produced some great work of the bat, reassuring my thoughts. It was clear at this very point at the beginning of the project that working with Oli and Liam was going to be greatly enjoyable and beneficial for all.

Having associated myself with a trustworthy and extremely capable group, I started to expand on what I alone could originally produce. It was clear that working together on this project would make nothing short of a colossal final piece.  

Working along side Oli and Liam, our ideations could become reality, as we set forth into the project, being stricter with time in the effort to produce more work than we've ever managed before. Especially with the pure size of the projects we aimed to produce, we had to take into render times and professional deadlines which would allow us to move on the next artwork needed.

Through out this project its been vital that we as a group step up our skill level to be able to reach our intended goal. We aimed to create environments in which the user can truly immerse themselves and interact with the artwork designed. We also placed a lot of focus on creating instances that would prompt learning in an engaging and fun way. Im really happy with the shared views and approaches we all have taken on working together to produce our final pieces. Myself and the team have really push ourselves in every way, preparing us for future project, providing that next level appearance and the ability to produce design work thats ready for the real word. Im really happy with how all the final pieced came out, and I'm as extremely happy with how well we as a team worked together.

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At the end of this link is my youtube channel. This is where you will find every video posted on this blog. All my final pieces reside here, and this is where you can preview all my videos in the glorious 4k/8k 360 VR. Thank you! 

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Operation Aquila (The Big Final Piece)

Finally, we are here. The finishing line, and the show piece of a tremendous group effort. I can't express how happy I am with this final piece. Ive spent such a vast amount of time learning, practicing, designing, figuring out and executing work up until now... the grand reveal. 

“Aquila has turned into something thats more than just a video it is a whole brand that encapsulates every aspect of a monster project. Every element that we’ve all worked on has made our initial idea a reality.

The project has been on a whole different scale, and the workload made it seem like our idea might not be doable, but we’ve finally finished it.” Oli Niblett 

All three of us (Myself, Liam and Oli) took a huge risk even trying to mock up the sheer scale of this project, but even that we have exceeded. We've achieved something we once though wasn't possible, but true hard work prevails. 

Thank you Liam and Oli, may our work live on, god speed! 

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MUBI, Live Great Cinema

This is the final VR UI Environment, for Mubi a classic film streamer. With lots of work, design, prep and maths we've managed to achieve exactly what we wanted, a VR UI. 

Better said by Oli,

“Mine and Edan’s final Mubi VR interface. So Edan implemented my designs in the 360 environment, and here is the output of our collaboration. The interface combined with the virtual world works amazingly, Mubi VR could potentially be a great accessory for the brand and also users of it. The brief for Mubi was to reinvent it, something that I feel has been accomplished within Mubi VR. The idea of bringing the cinematic to experience to a user through the use of just a virtual headset and a phone, could revolutionise how we stream films from services such as Mubi.

This collaboration has been a tricky one because of the virtual environment but it is one that has defined new skills for both, me and Edan.”

We've worked really hard on this, and I feel this final piece really demonstrates the design diversity we both can supply. All round great work if I say so myself. 

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More Maths To Consider (enhancing the experience by checking the mathematics) 

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Aquila Editing Process (Screen Grabs)

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The lads pulling out the stops, collating Aquila artwork and laying it out into an amazing editorial. This looks fresh, slick and perfectly suited to stand along side all the other amazing work we've done. 

Aquila Editorial

Since the last update on the editorial me and Oli worked through it to finish it off. Adding thinner grids and darker backgrounds we got a real space atmosphere and with Oli creating an awesome front cover the style and feel of the editorial really compliments each other.

I think because we all enjoyed the project so much I may print this off afterwards, I would have liked to do it sooner but it wasn’t a priority as much as the web but I would really want one of the posters and this leaflet to be printed high quality.

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Oil and Liam did a great job getting the HUD designs illustrated and animated for me to implement into the final video. These add the subtle but necessary information to the video along side being great visual eye candy fitting in with the style of the video. We are really pulling out the stops for this project! 

Final HUD designs for the inner rim planets, Earth, Venus, Mercury and Mars. When designing the HUD I wanted to make it as realistic as possible, I also tried to keep the design within the brands style. The HUD will add a huge sense of realism in the video as it will deliver an immersive experience of each planet. 

These HUDs will now be added to video along with some motion that Liam will add, and now that the environments have been rendered this will be the final touch in order to complete the video.

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High Quality Environment Render Test 

This is the first render to incorporate the final two space environments, and the project just keeps getting more exciting. The lads have previewed this in their VR head sets and gave the go ahead to instal these environments into the final Aquila VR Production. The project is really ramping up now. It won't be long till the final video is ready for its first showcase, I'm really excited to relieve what I've spent the last 4 months working towards. 

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Wickam Dental Modular Production (Screen Grabs) 

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Along with Liam testing the VR videos with his flat, I've been asking my partner and family to all have a go. This was there first time watching 360 video/VR, and they were amazed with our final outcomes. Their reaction was better than i could of hoped for and they kept the videos on repeat, watching them over and over again. I was expecting some bad feedback, but was surprised to find truly full positivity. Of course I, Oli and Liam would tweak bits and bob here and their but... our audience (in which we tested the videos on) loved it, which must mean we've done something right. 

Beta Testing

Last post of the blog, forgot to add it before. Before we went ahead with the main test we did multiple beta tests on our peers and partners and family. The trailer and mock up of first environment were shown to many people in the headset and we made sure to ask questions about view point and what they thought about it. 

This ensured when we created the final thing it was something everyone liked and got a different experience with. The final thing has been viewed by my entire flat and they are really impressed with it. My girlfriend has also been a massive guinea pig for me in this project, I constantly have told her to try our videos out and its worked really well.

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Making A Truly Immersive Experience

So whats the point… if any point at all of having a experience that lacks or total misses immersion. We as a group are striving to produce a truly immersive learning experience, which doesn't just appeal to the audience, it teaches and informs.  

“So, what is immersive experience? You can think of it as a highly visual — and often social — web environment on a brand's website. Think big picture (literally) — sites with immersive web designs usually have an image or video as the entire background, completely absorbing your attention. Once the site loads, you're immediately submerged in the subject matter, hence the term immersive."

quoted from Matt Petronzio found here: http://mashable.com/2013/04/25/immersive-experience/#WU6oiF24Ekqu

Referring to what Matt says above “usually have an image or video as the entire background," we as a team are creating a multi medium learning environment, using parallax storytelling with introduced virtual reality video, to maximise and create the most consumable and believable content (the wide screen, you can only see what we put before you, and only this). We aim to produce a meaningful immersive experience, and therefor, within our designs, engage the audience in only the best way.

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This is very true. The addition of meeting your friends online to watch your favourite cult movie stuck with us. 

As a 21 year old i feel like i cherish the moments i went to the cinema with my friends as a kid. What if we could bring the enclosed authentic feeling experience to your bed room, and you don't even need a tv. Having a virtual cinema ticket would drive people to interact move, removing some of the negative stigma that comes with the so called head set recluse. Mobil is all about people that love great films and love the medium that provides this to them, so let them share this experiences with others, be it sat in bed, in the back of the car, on a plain or even on the loo. 

The Theatre Experience by Mubi VR.

Something that both Me and Edan wanted to introduce to this project was a theatre experience that allowed users to connect with friends by joining a virtual cinema. While in this experience users could socialise when watching the film, and as Mubi is for the film lovers we thought this would be a great accessory for this platform.

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Mubi’s Vision

Below is what Mubi project as there own vision. From there starting points to the pride they have in the quality of what they provide today. I feel its necessary to dissect what already exists, in order to represent them in the best way, whilst also adding creativity and instances that for fill the brief. This article below wasn't writes by me. This article below can be found at: https://mubi.com/vision

Five things that were on our minds when we first dreamt up MUBI:

Why can’t you watch In the Mood for Love in a café in Tokyo on your iPad? Why is it so hard to meet people who share the same love for Antonioni? Wouldn’t it be great to instantly send Tati’s Playtime to a friend if you think they needed it? (There’s nothing like film therapy!) Why do films on the Internet just look awful? Why are we talking as if we were John Cusack in High Fidelity?

And that was that. We simply couldn’t resist the idea of everyone having their own film library… Your own little cinema, anytime, anywhere.

After all, not everyone can make it to the Cannes Film Festival – especially if you are a school teacher or you live in Winnipeg (or both) – but that doesn’t mean you can’t recite all of Kubrick’s films in reverse chronological order, or that you are not desperate to watch the latest Kitano film that’s definitely not going to be released in your local multiplex.

And that’s our point: Popular doesn’t always mean good.

Our film library is brimming with visionary films that wouldn’t fill a single cinema in Belgium for a week – not even a day. But if you searched the world (all of it), you might just find an audience of a thousand for these rare cinematic treats. And we don’t think a thousand people should be ignored just because they happen to live in different time zones or far away from Belgian cinemas. If someone needed to make such a precise film, it means that someone, somewhere needs to watch it. More importantly, that someone might be you. Or Martin Scorsese (he happens to be a member too.) You’ll also find Hollywood favourites, from Annie Hall to The Royal Tenenbaums. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter where films come from, as long as they come from someone’s mind.

MUBI is not just about discovering wonderful new cinema or classic masterpieces. It’s also about discussing and sharing these discoveries, which makes us like a small coffee shop… a place where you can gather and talk about alternative endings, directors’ cuts, and whatever those frogs in Magnolia meant. Heated debates and passionate arguments are welcome.

Are you in the mood for cinema? Welcome to MUBI. P.S. By the way, we’ve worked hard on the quality of the streaming and we are very proud of it… just wanted to let you know…

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History of viewing films

History Technological difficulties within the streaming of media

The article below was a key find. Reading throw the history of the capabilities of streaming film in the broadcast era has opened my eyes. Its key that, even if we have solid structures in place, the possibility for better, faster and higher quality viewing is out there. The development from Flash to HTML5 being key in the creative development of web design and video production and projection. Be it code, software or new hardware its possible that there is a great way of consuming out content. We are a at technological point where “streaming video quality might finally outpace the slow-moving broadcast standards.” What if its time to outpace and review conventional streaming, with the addition of new technologies, that soon/are becoming way more accessible. Maybe the excitement of what once was the block buster movie night, or the Netflix night in, is dead. Maybe its time for a revamp, a new exiting way to interact with created content. Its time to close the gap between us and creations.

I did not write this article below… All credit for this article below goes to Alex Zambelli of ‘I stream planet’ , with this article being accessible at: https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/mar/01/history-streaming-future-connected-tv

On 5 September 1995, ESPN SportsZone streamed a live radio broadcast of a baseball game between the Seattle Mariners and the New York Yankees to thousands of its subscribers worldwide using cutting-edge technology developed by a Seattle-based startup company named Progressive Networks. It was the world's first livestreaming event. A few years later the company would change its name to RealNetworks and before long it would find itself embroiled in a bitter technological and legal war with Microsoft for domination of a brand new technology market – streaming media.Though the prospect of streaming media over the internet had always excited technology nerds and CEOs alike, streaming media's childhood years were primarily marred by pragmatic problems such as how to successfully stream watchable video over 56k modem lines. Microsoft emerged from the war with RealNetworks as a winner (thanks to its Windows Media technologies), but soon found itself unable to capitalise on the victory. While the Redmond-based US company frittered away its advantage, Macromedia (later acquired by Adobe Systems) slowly but surely eroded Windows Media's market share in the mid-2000s in favour of its increasingly popular Flash Player. Flash shook up the streaming media industry by seamlessly marrying interactivity, Web 2.0 and streaming media for the first time. A new era in streaming media had arrived, but the old problems still remained – bandwidth, scalability and reach.

By the mid-2000s the vast majority of the Internet traffic was HTTP-based and content delivery networks (CDNs) were increasingly being used to ensure delivery of popular content to large audiences. Streaming media, with its hodgepodge of proprietary protocols – all mostly based on the far less popular UDP – suddenly found itself struggling to keep up with demand. In 2007 a company named Move Networks introduced a technology and service that once again would change the industry: HTTP-based adaptive streaming.

Instead of relying on proprietary streaming protocols and leaving users at the mercy of the internet bandwidth gods, Move Networks used the dominant HTTP protocol to deliver media in small file chunks while utilising the player application to monitor download speeds and request chunks of varying quality (size) in response to changing network conditions. The technology had a huge impact because it allowed streaming media to be distributed far and wide using CDNs (over standard HTTP) and cached for efficiency, while at the same time eliminating annoying buffering and connectivity issues for customers. Other HTTP-based adaptive streaming solutions soon followed: Microsoft launched its Smooth Streaming technology in 2008, the same year Netflix developed its own technology to power its pioneering Watch Instantly streaming service. Apple followed suit in 2009 with HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) designed for delivery to iOS devices, and Adobe joined the party in 2010 with HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS). HTTP-based adaptive streaming quickly became the weapon of choice for high-profile live streaming events (Vancouver and London Olympics, Wimbledon, Roland Garros, Felix Baumgartner's Stratos jump, etc.) and premium on-demand services (Netflix, LoveFilm, Amazon Instant Video, etc.). It was a time of adolescence for streaming media – bursting with potential, but also confusing and a bit awkward.

It was evident early on that another clash of proprietary streaming technologies would do more damage than good to an industry that was on the verge of maturing into mainstream, so in 2009 efforts began in 3GPP to establish an industry standard for adaptive streaming. Early 3GPP standardisation work shifted to ISO/IEC MPEG working groups in 2010, where it moved quickly from proposals to draft status to ratification in less than two years. More than 50 companies were involved – Microsoft, Netflix and Apple included – and the effort was co-ordinated with other industry organisations such as 3GPP, DECE, OIPF and W3C. By April 2012 a new standard was born – Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP, colloquially known as MPEG-DASH.

Many companies were quick to announce MPEG-DASH support in their products as early as 2011, but as it often happens with standards the adoption process didn't immediately begin at ratification. MPEG-DASH in its original specification tried to be everything to everyone and consequently suffered from excessive ambiguity (a story surely familiar to anyone acquainted with HTML5 Video). The bulk of the companies involved in MPEG-DASH quickly formed a DASH Industry Forum with the goal of promoting DASH adoption and establishing a well-defined set of interoperability constraints. Earlier this year the DASH-IF published a draft (version 0.9) of its DASH264 Implementation Guidelines and opened them up for community review (feedback is due on 15 March 15 2013). As the name suggests, the DASH264 guidelines provide important interoperability requirements such as support for the H.264 video codec which has been an industry standard for the better part of the past decade. DASH264 defines other essential interoperability requirements such as support for HE-AAC v2 audio codec, ISO base media file format, SMPTE-TT subtitle format, and MPEG Common Encryption for content protection (DRM). The Common Encryption element is particularly interesting because it enables competing DRM technologies such as Microsoft PlayReady, Adobe Access and Widevine to be used inclusively without locking customers into a particular digital store. DASH264 provides the details desperately needed by the industry to adopt MPEG-DASH and is expected to gain significant traction over the next one to two years.

Besides interoperability the other major hurdle facing streaming media and over-the-top (OTT) delivery is the quality gap. In just a handful of years streaming media technology has leapfrogged from less-than-standard definition video to rather solid 720p HD video, but the quality of even the best video-on-demand OTT services still falls short of broadcast television and Blu-ray audio-video quality. While most HD video delivered over satellite (DVB-S2), for example, is 1080i video H.264-compressed at 17-37 Mbps, most HD streamed video is only 720p encoded at a meager 3-4 Mbps. Broadcast television is always delivered at 50Hz in Europe, whereas streaming video is nearly always delivered at half the frame rate – 25Hz in Europe, 30Hz in North America. Finally, broadcast audio is typically mixed and delivered in 5.1 surround these days, whereas streaming audio is still largely a stereo affair (or even mono on occasion).

That is a significant quality gap that needs to be overcome before OTT can truly challenge traditional media delivery, but fortunately there is hope on the horizon. As digital media quality is primarily dependent on bandwidth, there are two certain ways to increase the quality: by either increasing the bandwidth or by improving the compression efficiency at existing bit rates. The former can only accelerate as fast as general Internet bandwidth can, but the latter can be improved with new codec technologies. Such a codec technology is H.265 – the latest evolution of the highly successful joint collaboration between ISO/IEC MPEG and ITU that brought us H.264 a decade ago. Earlier this year the ITU announced the ratification of H.265 which promises to bring 40-45% increase in compression efficiency (or bandwidth reduction) compared to existing H.264 technology. Such a boost could effectively help streaming media providers deliver 1080p (Full HD) video at the same 3-4 Mbps currently used for 720p video delivery, or increase the frame rate to 50/60Hz without requiring a proportional increase in bandwidth. In fact, many have hailed the news of H.265 as the beginning of the 4K video era where streaming video quality might finally outpace the slow-moving broadcast standards. It certainly doesn't hurt to dream big.

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More great mock up work from Oli, really helps me visualise the final outcome. 

Another run through, this time of the content screen. Again panning to the right.