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Interactive Media of Note - Narnia.com

Sometimes you come across a piece of interactive media that you just wish you had been a part of producing. Narnia.com is one of my favourites.

What I love about this particular piece of interactive media is the richness of the experience it provides. You know the designers have been allowed to go to town, and they really have. For a start they really know how to set the scene and they use visuals (static and animated) along with sound to do it. You can hear the wind buffeting the attic room with the wardrobe, you feel cold as the icy wind of Lantern Wood blasts you and you feel warm as you wander through Aslan's Camp.

Beyond the ambience it is really nice to just explore the world they have created. You can look around by moving the mouse in any direction and click on objects. Selecting the Globe reveals a map allowing you to change your location. There are even games built in to test a level of wits.

I really appreciate the attention to detail. These designers have gone much further. At the beginning, instead of the standard loading bar, you see the door handle of the attic room turning. The same "alternative" approach to the loading bar has been taken throughout, as you watch emblems of the various factions from the story slowly appear instead. Details such as giving the lamp in the wood a flickering flame have not been missed.

Truly this is a feast for the senses, and a great example of what multimedia can be made to do if you have the imagination, and the client is willing to pay for the time.

Genius Photography

Yes, I have been delving deeper in to the BBC website and found their photography section just gets better. Looking for inspiration to drive a really striking image, or simply wanting to bone up on some of the famous names, this site is a great resource.

The genius of photography part of the BBC website has it all including:

• famous images


• supporting info from the TV programme


• and a full gallery of photography

Definately worth at least a snapshot.

Taking Better Photographs

As part of their "How we built Britain" website, the BBC include top tips from Tom Ang on getting the most from your digital camera...

Topics include composition, light, colour, people, landscape and others. It's one thing to have a digital camera, it's quite another to take a decent pic. While we don't all have formal photography training this tips are a great starting point.

Free Video in a Spin

Was going through some old software links and was disappointed to learn that Avid no longer offers their Avid Free DV video editing software. Hunting around quickly I could find no alternative on their site either. A few minutes later, happily and by accident, I stumbled on this little free software gem from Pinnacle (a division of Avid) - Video Spin.

I did download it but it seemed to take a long time to install. Even so it looks really easy to use, why not take a test run yourself and leave comments on your experience.

Design Student Emergency Software

It's one thing to have a load of freeware to help you out in an emergency, but what if you don't even have your own computer to run it on? That's where Portable Apps can help.

The whole idea of a portable app is that you don't need to install it to run it. In fact you can run it straight from a USB memory stick or even a CD ROM on practically any machine (so long as it has the right spec). This means you can put the software on your USB stick and run it on any computer in your college, university or library, get your work done and all with minimal hassle.

So handy are these portable apps that I have come to prefer The GIMP portable to the fully installed version on my own PC.

Portable apps that caught my eye in particular are, The GIMP (open source Photoshop Equivalent), NVU (open source Dreamweaver/Frontpage equivalent) and Audacity (sound recording and processing), but there are others, take a gander yourself >

How does Google Work?

Slightly off topic I admit, but in case you happened to be wondering what really happens behind the scenes of your Google search...

Believe it or not, Google is not powered by an army of low-paid clerical mice using minature filing cabinets - take a look >