Sketch 1: Week 3

Initially, I had many ideas for directions I could go with adding interactivity to the map movement from last week. And as I would like to explore maps with some later exercises/projects, I imagine using some of these ideas in the future. Specific ideas include further navigation of the maps by the viewer, change of scale between maps, the ability to move and exchange various fills or other content within the map, and the inclusion of sound.

Since I didn't know the interactive capabilities when I designed the map, I decided to keep the interactivity straight forward and in line with my motion design of the map. Some more complicated attempts at interactivity failed with this particular design. But the interactivity I did use seemed to fit well with the motion from Week 2. Rather than my pre-determined stops after each travel/fluctuation of the map, the viewer can decide when to move on by clicking on the compass.

An unexpected side effect of these buttons was their persistence in the field. Though I initially tried to figure out how to disable them, I like their presence now. They act as hidden jumps to new parts of the map. And I would like to explore this idea further in the future by incorporating invisible paths to new locations within maps.

Sketch 1: Week 2

I first removed the sea monster and ship so that my main focus would be centered on the land forms.

I planned the movement so that it could represent physical travel as well as possible geological change over time. These changes include three locations I've traveled through and photographed, with distinct land forms and land fills. The first location, a group of islands, contains grassland from eastern South Dakota. The second location is a land mass which fills the entire frame--with no water--contains the Badlands from western South Dakota. The third image represents a coastline containing beach fill Hyannis, Massachusetts. Each fill and shape though is meant to be abstracted through my cropping and consequently more generally representational of various types of land.

I had difficulties with the bitmap fill; it would change position within the land forms whenever I exported. But it seems to work now after adjusting the fill positions multiple times within the file (making these changes within the symbol edit windows).

Sketch 1: Week 1

imaginary map filled with textures gathered from various images I've taken with my digital camera