app

 

 

Above are some screen shots of my progress today designing an app. The name at the moment is SolarFarm. I'm still developing the idea and think I will design a different game tomorrow instead. Today I designed SolarFarm in illustrator, animated it in After Effects and made a website for the app describing it, linking to the charity SolarAid (where your money eventually goes) and to the app store. This homepage also links to another page where you can watch a demo of the game, as I have created in AE. It's quite rough at the moment so I'll sleep on it, work more, and post more of an explanation and my developments tomorrow.

App

The two ideas I am currently working on regarding the website/app task is to make a game for an app.

ONE

The first idea is roughly sketched above, I am working on the visuals in Photoshop. The app will cost the user about £5 to buy and is for ipads and iphones. There are 50 levels and in each the task is the protect the crops/grass from acid rain (purple clouds) and move the clouds out the way so that as much sunlight as possible reaches the ground. The grass will have to grow to a certain point, say, 20cm (left) and a certain level of light must be absorbed (right panel) before passing to the next level.

I'm thinking the user is growing crops for a farmer so when they pass a level, they get 10p back, as if they were being paid for good work. This 10p will go towards a charity such as Solar Aid http://www.solar-aid.org/

The incentive will be that the player wants all their £5 to reach the charity so will aim to pass all levels.

TWO

A similar idea involving moving clouds and pollution out the way would show solar panels on a house. The purpose of this game too is to allow as much sun as possible to get through to the solar panels on the house. Things could fall from the sky like some kind of bomb and the user has to drag them away before they destroy the panels. (Panels work in a circuit so it would be game over if one was smashed). The pricing system would be the same as above.

This reminds me of the Sims which I love playing when I was younger. I looked into if there were any eco features of Sims houses today and found they now to solar panels and electric cars.

More plans/visuals to follow soon.

Big bang

Another area I have been studying is the law of conservation of energy. This starts with the explanation that the big bang starts nuclear reactions. These nuclear reactions in the heart of the sun lead to light energy which allows plants to make molecules with metabolic energy stored in them. The plants are then eaten as food etc. Again, although informative, I'm not sure this specific area will keep the viewer interested.

Interactive

This week's project is to make a website or app about your energy. Next Thursday we are asked to present the user experience to the class by creating a mock up of an interactive design. My first thoughts were to continue looking at transfers, how the sun's energy is transferred to other energies such as heat, kinetic, potential or sound etc.

I thought about making a website that acts as a digital flow chart. The sun acting as a 'homepage' and the user clicks on the different ways the sun's energy can be transferred. Perhaps videos or animations to elaborate each energy in action. I drew the diagram above as more of an example of how humans transfer energy but I could also make other options. For example the heat energy from the heat energy from the sun creates wind energy by warming air particles causing them to rise and cool air sink. Also perhaps when a plant dies, the chemical energy it has made using light energy from the sun becomes potential energy when it turns into biomass.

After more consideration I'm not convinced that this idea is much use in keeping the audience interested and seems rather patronising. I'm working through my next idea and will post asap.

Transfer

This is a one minute video about solar energy. The idea of this film is that the sun powers everything. Life is a product of the sun and the energy on our planet remains at a constant equilibrium. Energy isn't something we use, it's something we redirect to transfer it into different sorts of energies such as heat, sound, kinetic and potential etc.

Turn up your volume.
To see this film in HD: https://vimeo.com/41372059

An image from my film on solar power. Full video coming soon.

Miniture

Last week we were asked to produce a video to show in class tomorrow. My general idea through researching solar energy is to look at the sun as a global power. It powers life.

I thought about creating a miniature world, a house that powers itself. I'd film it as a stop motion or moving image. Make a film of the construction of the house and another showing how it works. The panels on the roof light the bulbs inside, which would be fairy lights to fit with the size of the model. I'd somehow also heat a bath of water to the solar panels. For the sake of filming this, I would have added ready made hot water for effect. Everything would be made from a recycled material. I'd also make a garden of cress showing how the sun makes food, as well as light and heat.

Despite planning how I'd make the house (and growing the cress!), I decided against building and filming it and to look more at the idea of solar energy creating other energies. I will post the film of this after showing it tomorrow.