Last Project Documentation – Demi Mishiev

Design:

When I originally came up with an idea, I intended to make the word in more video game style. My original design looked like this –

I proceeded to add interactive element to the page, and the first successful interaction was in a form of tree starting to shake  on hover. 

However, at the time, I faced a problem. Html and CSS would allow to use .gif or .ani as cursors.  This made me change the concept of project. Now I intended to make a game similar to “FlappyBird”, however instead of bird dodging pipes, the character ( gif on canvas, position of which is controlled by arrowKeys through java script  )., is changed depending on wh

ich randomly selected background you are, and dodging appropriate object for that terrain.

Due to plagiarism reasons, I couldn’t use the images I found online, so I had to create them, most of them.  I started with producing backgrounds. As an inspiration tool, I used google images, to look up the landscapes, so I can base my drawing of them, in a way.

Image from google.My Image.

I tried to stay consistent with the drawing style so the transitions between slides seemed less sharp.

I created 6  1000px/500px backgrounds, some of which are animated. 

At this time, I found a solution for the cursor problem, so I shifted back to the original idea. 

Now I needed .gifs for my characters. I tried to create the characters on my own, however after realising that I didn’t have enough time to produce 6 different “.gif”  I stopped after producing the first one, jellyfish.  I used “giphy” to find the gifs that matched the style of my drawing, more or less. 

After finding five more gifs, I edited out all the backgrounds, broke down the layers to individual png files. 

Some of the terrains in this project had audio background. I used “FreeSound” for some of the slides,  opening theme song to Jurassic Park and song that gave me inspiration for this project, Right Here Right Now by Fatboy Slim. 

Process: 

 I have described the process of design creation, in this section I will talk about the process of coding this project.

My first successful part of the code that I used in final project was this:

which allowed the tree to hover .

Next, I started working on animating the cursor. 

Inspiration came when I was working with the backgrounds and layers. I was using the opt+} shortcut to change between layer in photoshop, and while most of the element stayed in tact, some started moving in a very gif like motion.  It gave me an idea to fake the gif effect in javascript. 

I exported all of the layers in png and then converted it into .cur format, setting its sizes from 70×70 up to 200×200 px, depending on the pictures. In javascript I created multiple arrays for each animation I wanted to create, and then made a function change the cursor image every .50 ms. and so on. 

Then I added the rest on my interactions and added hover functions for them and set audios to play depending on which area  you are hovering on. 

Future: 

I feel like this project felt slightly empty and I am responsible for that, as I didn’t use my time wisely and couldn’t solve the problem sooner. To my surprise I received more positive comments that I expected. I intend to work on this project during the summer, and finish it in a way I originally intended( 2 dimensional and much more bigger ) . However, this time I will probably use assistance from brother, who’s into graphic design, in order to produce all the characters, interactions ourselves, and possibly the audios as well. 

Final Project Proposal – Demi Mishiev

Concept

Even though some people do not believe in evolution, I find myself a believer. About 3.5 Billion years ago the first life on earth has appeared. We still don’t know how life came to existence, however the theory of evolution helps us understand how life on earth diversified into so many different species and how some creatures still undergo changes in order to adapt to modern era. I was always fascinated by this theory, it made me think, what if and what’s next. With this project I intend to take user on an adventure through time. From the first recorded life to modern society and possibly, the nearby future.

Sources

Inspiration for the project comes from three sources.

Super Mario Bros., game known and loved by millions around the world. Everyone played  mario at least once. Arcade game where you have to run through the Mushroom Kingdom and save a princess.  It took me many a hour to beat this game and after I am done I start a new one. Simplicity of the world design attracted me time after time. In this project I will attempt to capture the world in all its states using simple graphic style.  To understand more about the way Super Mario utilizes the design of the game to help people understand what they are supposed to do I advise to read a post by Medium. Which breaks down the style of the legendary video game.

If the Moon were only 1 Pixel is one of my favourite web projects ever. Due to its simplicity, informativeness and light humor. Easy controls, where user only need to scroll the page and is able to change the length measuring unit. This project will approach storytelling in the similar manner, while the If the Moon were only 1 Pixel  is one dimensional ( user can only scroll sideways ), I hopefully intend to make the storyboard two dimensional.

Right Here Right Now by FatBoy Slim. Song is hated and loved by millions, however official music video is often overlooked. Music Video shows the evolution process from a simple one cell organism to a human being. My project attempts to accomplish the same, however the timeline is going to be user navigated. Video focuses on one organism, first life, evolving to a human, in my project I intend to make 3 layers where you can follow the subject, underwater, on land and in the sky. All of the layers will feature different cursor, which story you can follow.

Production

One page website controllable by arrow keys and a mouse. From the first life on the planet to known space. While the arrow keys are used for the control of timeline, user can interact with the surroundings through use of custom animated cursors.

First I’ll need to create the entire story timeline as one long picture. I plan to accomplish that by using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects. Upon completion of the storyboard, intend to separate website to div containers, hovering upon which with a mouse will trigger the change in cursor to appropriate era. Depending on the amount of time left, parts of the background are going to be animated or could be triggered by clicking.

Response to Webwork – Demi Mishiev

It is interesting to see, how the internet evolved. The freedom internet once had is almost gone. One thing I am happy about is NAME.SPACE initiative.  Having domain names such as  swissbit.ch  is the epitome of freedom. 

Personally, I didn’t have much access to internet when I was younger, but people who did, keep on repeating me, that my generation ruined the internet for them. That nowadays it is filled with trash, and useless information.  Reading more about the origin of internet, then about internet art, it is clear to me, that we never ruined the internet. People before us had less instruments to express themselves, yet more freedom. 

Everything we do online, leaves a our virtual trace. One day, maybe hundreds and hundreds years in the future, more advanced society would discover our post, sites, images and other information.  Either they would be very confused or maybe, just maybe, will understand what was wrong with us.

Web art – Demi Mishiev

  1. https://sagmeisterwalsh.com/news/ 

Really cool design of the web page.

2) https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html

Cool website I found couple of years ago, where you can scroll through cosmos

3) http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/ 

Million pixels for adds, $1 per pixel. Sold out