Once there, I still felt crap and I asked Danny if I could perhaps do my presentation on Wednesday instead because I really didn't feel up to it. He said I could, but that it'd have to be in 1/13, a smaller room with crappier Macs. I didn't really want that. I wasn't even sure if my presentation would work on one of the older Macs.
John presented his A1 board first. It wasn't particularly good. I mean, he had designed a game cover, then used the design as a poster and then used the same design again for the overall logo. Basically, he had a copy of the design, three times for three different items he had to produce. Also, while he Cinema 4D work was good, it still relied heavily on him actually explaining what the game was and what you would supposedly do in the game. Personally, I don't even see how us explaining something that doesn't exist should have been part of this brief. I'd rather talk about the work I've designed than discussing the intricacies of game that doesn't exist because we all focused on designing the elements for it, not particularly the concepts behind the game itself.
Alex was next up and his was a little better, but still not impressive. Plus, he hadn't bothered to get a presentation together so he was just rambling for five minutes (instead of the ten minutes allocated).
While Alex was doing his presentation, I told Brian that I was feeling up to doing mine and that I'd need the projector on. People looked a little confused at me I think, as no one else had used the projector - it wasn't a requirement to do so, we just had to talk about our work on our A1 board for ten minutes but I wanted to do more than that.
Once the projector was on, Brian offered to be my professional button pusher and sit in front of my Mac while I stood up in front of the class and then said "Next frame" to Brian when I needed him to.
One of the things that I tried to do with my presentation was make it structured, informative and interesting to look at. In addition, each page of Flash presentation did not include every single piece of information that I needed to get across, but rather simple bulletpoints, while I explained in detail about each of them. Another thing I tried not to do is look at the screen a lot for cues, instead referring to my own keynotes I'd printed off a few minutes before.
Due to the fact that I wasn't feeling as well as I should be and the fact that anyone is bound to get nervous in front of people, I did stumble a few times along the way. It was noticable, but I managed to get through it.
After my presentation, Brian and Danny complimented me on the fact that it was excellent. They didn't really have any questions and asked everyone else if they had any. Tom asked for the names of my characters again and I told him that they were Latin.
Rob was a little confused about why I had not done my presentation using my A1 board, but I explained that it looked a lot better on screen for an audience than talking about a board for ten minutes. This way it's more entertaining to look at.
I think I stood up there for maybe 15-20 minutes. No bad comments. Danny did ask one or two questions about the gameplay but I just made an answer up on the spot and he took it.
After me, it was Abigail, whose board was terrible. It looked empty. She had used a quarter of the board just for the game's name because she didn't have much else to display. Her presentation lasted for just a few minutes and then she was stuck for words. Brian asked her if she was happy with it and she said no. He asked her out of ten, how good did she think it was. She said 6. She didn't really seem that bothered really, which is disappointing.
After Abigail, Brian then went on to talk about the quality of the work and how a lot of people hadn't done their best because there's so much messing about in class. He explained to Abigail and the class in general that this course is a breeze and there's hardly any criticism, whereas at University, they're really going to go after you. I think a lot of people are in for a shock - me included - at how different University is going to be.
Sean was up next. His board was a little empty, but it was ok. The game cover was good and he seemed to have a good understanding of his game.
After the presentations, I then finished off my evaluation for it in my lunch hour, before the afternoon was spent coming up with ideas for my final major project - A project that lasts six weeks and is externally marked. I work well under pressure so I'm looking forward to it.
Last night, my Mum text me saying that apparantly, Laura's looked at a house in another part of Kirkby and she thinks that she's going to take it. Since my Mum has told Laura to move out, Laura actualyl stayed true to her word about looking when she came back from holiday and has found a place. She's going to rent it with Tracy. God help Laura. Tracy is loud and I can just about stand her being in this house for a few hours listening to her annoying laugh.
If Laura does move out within say, the next month, that would be pretty cool. It means I'd get this house all to myself until I go to University. I doubt it'll happen though and if it does, Laura will get pissed off with Tracy and move back here. We shall see.
It's coming up to 7:15am now and thankfully, I feel up to going to college. I had a few hours sleep last night, even though I woke up at 2:30pm. I was still quite tired by 1:30am and found it easy to fall asleep. That's just weird.
My �110 graphics card doesn't work. I'm very disappointed. I tried to load up a game of Counter-Strike to check out how far I could push the graphics, only to find that it wouldn't load up at all. I was confused. I also tried to load up Cinema 4D and that didn't work either. I thought perhaps it was something wrong with the programs themselves so I spent an hour redownloading Counter-Strike and about six hours redownloading Cinema 4D. They still wouldn't work so I knew it was the graphics card. I installed updated drivers for it, but it still didn't work.
It'll have to be sent back, but I'm praying that they'll accept it, as it's been more than a week. I have to call them beforehand they'll give me a manufacturer's error code and then hopefully they'll send me another one. If not, it means that I've just lost �110. I should be ok though. As with any electrical purchase, I have 30 days to return it.
Tony said he would come round and finally install my motherboard for me yesterday. He didn't show up. I've given up on him and I'll just have to find another way of getting it installed. I've been waiting for him to come and install it now since the end of January. He claims to be really busy, but surely he could have spared just a few hours to come and help me out one night? I'm sick of seeing my new motherboard just sitting on my table, doing no good.
Anyone got a copy of Windows they'd like to send me?
