Interactive Architecture Reflection

Technical
In this assignment I used a lot of photo shop to edit my original picture of the cafeteria.  One new photo shop technique that I used was the lens flare filter under render.  I used this to make the lights look more realistic like they were actually lit up not just coloured panels.  I also used flash for this assignment to make the lights flash in a wave, and the tablets appear on the tables.  For this nothing in it was really new, it was just a lot of recall from previous times.  To animate the cafeteria I used motion tweens for each panel and table covering to make them fade in and out.

Idea or Concept
The idea that I eventually used for this piece was to have lights covering the walls that flashed with music to help keep up the energy level of students in the cafeteria.  I also used the idea of having tablets on the tables so students and teachers could use them to play games to relax and let off some stress from the day.  Surprisingly my idea stayed the same throughout this assignment since I followed through closely on my original idea.  

Influences
For this assignment I was influenced by the interactive pieces we looked at, at the beginning of the assignment, especially the Luminous Ceiling and Ocean Of Lights.  I found that these pieces influenced me the most because they connected the most to what I wanted to include in my piece.

Composition
In this assignment I tried to balance my colours symmetrically throughout the picture so that one side would not over power the other.  However since the other picture was balanced asymmetrically my final piece was as well.  I think that with the flashing of the lights in the background that really helps the viewer to look around the entire piece.  I also think that the tables fading in help with this since they are drawing the viewers eye down while the lights draw the viewers eye up and across.

Motivation
For this assignment I was motivated for the chance to be able to show how I would change one part of the school to make it more exciting for the staff and students.  I was really exciting to be able to put my own little twist on a part of the school in a way that would be beneficial to everyone.

Critical Assessment
I think that the lights flashing in a wave are the more successful part of my final piece.  I think this because they look very realistic due to the use of the lens flare and because since they are flashing it looks more exciting.  I think that how well the lights turned out was very surprising to me, with my extremely limited knowledge of flash and how my lights looked at the start, I was quite surprised and very happy with the way they turned out.  With additional time I definitely would have added music to my piece so that it could have fully shown my original plan to have the lights flashing to the beat of music.