Multimedia Applications Development

JohnMc1

I got my Mature Student Supplemental Application Form today. Anyone else get theirs yet?

Bomshika

This post has been deleted.

JohnMc1

Bomshika wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Glad to hear it.

I got my Fee status form this morning. Hopefully that's a good sign.

CyberWaste

Looking forward to coming back to this course in september after taking a year out!

callaway92

CyberWaste wrote: »

Looking forward to coming back to this course in september after taking a year out!

Did you do first year in the 2010/2011 year??

CyberWaste

callaway92 wrote: »

Did you do first year in the 2010/2011 year??

yeah man, what about you?

callaway92

CyberWaste wrote: »

yeah man, what about you?

So did I, ha.

Prob know you.

ahhh haha.

Just checked your soundcloud there. Yes I know you haha

CyberWaste

callaway92 wrote: »

So did I, ha.

Prob know you.

ahhh haha.

Just checked your soundcloud there. Yes I know you haha

You going into 3rd year this september then?

and whats your name ? :pac:

callaway92

CyberWaste wrote: »

You going into 3rd year this september then?

and whats your name ? :pac:

Nah, didn't go back after first year!

David K

CyberWaste

callaway92 wrote: »

Nah, didn't go back after first year!

David K

Oh yeah, pretty sure I know who you are :pac:

pliauskiux

I've put down Multimedia applications development, I.T. and SSD for my level 6/7 choices on cao, I got my LC results the other day, have plenty of points to get into any of these 3 courses and since I didnt get any offers yet I need to make up my mind and need some help from the people that went through the same process.

I'm mainly focusing on web designing/development, 3d modelling, maybe game development (even though was told not to because I did ordinary level maths) and things like that.

I'm quite good at maths, it was my favourite subject throughout my life because it was just easy enough for me since I can memorise things quickly and think critically, got b2 in ordinary level, could have got more (was a lazy **** throughout the LC, never studied nor did any homework) if not the project maths part which I'm not great at since English isn't my first language and tends to slow me down on the writing part while I like the proper maths (2+2=3) part.

I haven't done art for like 6 years, didn't do it in JC nor in LC because I took over more important subjects. After all, I know and am well able to use photoshop, solidworks and autodesk 3ds max. I have designed number of websites myself, have learned everything by myself/watching online tuts. I dont have a great imagination and tend to struggle through designing part all the time, but at the end of the day, I still get what I'm going for.

I got into web development like 5 years ago and know html, css, some sort of php and know how to use mysql databases, a bit of jquery/javascript, tried learning c++ but wasn't into it too much.

I've about a week left and still don't know which course to be going for, I need some help as some people may direct me the proper way comparing to the skills I've outlined above.

Thanks in advance guys.

johnnykilo

pliauskiux wrote: »

I've put down Multimedia applications development, I.T. and SSD for my level 6/7 choices on cao, I got my LC results the other day, have plenty of points to get into any of these 3 courses and since I didnt get any offers yet I need to make up my mind and need some help from the people that went through the same process.

I'm mainly focusing on web designing/development, 3d modelling, maybe game development (even though was told not to because I did ordinary level maths) and things like that.

I'm quite good at maths, it was my favourite subject throughout my life because it was just easy enough for me since I can memorise things quickly and think critically, got b2 in ordinary level, could have got more (was a lazy **** throughout the LC, never studied nor did any homework) if not the project maths part which I'm not great at since English isn't my first language and tends to slow me down on the writing part while I like the proper maths (2+2=3) part.

I haven't done art for like 6 years, didn't do it in JC nor in LC because I took over more important subjects. After all, I know and am well able to use photoshop, solidworks and autodesk 3ds max. I have designed number of websites myself, have learned everything by myself/watching online tuts. I dont have a great imagination and tend to struggle through designing part all the time, but at the end of the day, I still get what I'm going for.

I got into web development like 5 years ago and know html, css, some sort of php and know how to use mysql databases, a bit of jquery/javascript, tried learning c++ but wasn't into it too much.

I've about a week left and still don't know which course to be going for, I need some help as some people may direct me the proper way comparing to the skills I've outlined above.

Thanks in advance guys.

I've done the MM course and I know a bit about the other 2 courses so I'll do my best to help. It's a bit of a tricky one to be honest, of the 3 courses you mentioned Multimedia would be the one most suited to getting into the area of web designing/development, 3d modelling, maybe game development. However with the skills that you listed that you already, I don't think you'd learn an awful lot in the MM course to be honest.

The SSD course is mostly all programming from what I understand and the IT course is a more general/theory overview of IT; i.e. you'd be jack of all trades master of none, a general IT worker in an organisation.

Did you look at the Entertainment Systems (Games Development Stream) course at all? With your skills and the area that you're looking to get into I think that would be much more suitable for you. It's a level 8 course however, that's the only thing and I guess it's too late to add it now.

I know sometime it was possible in WIT to register for one course and then change to another course after a week or two. Don't quote me on that though as things might well have changed. But from the information you have provided I think Entertainment Systems would be the one to go for.

pliauskiux

johnnykilo wrote: »

I've done the MM course and I know a bit about the other 2 courses so I'll do my best to help. It's a bit of a tricky one to be honest, of the 3 courses you mentioned Multimedia would be the one most suited to getting into the area of web designing/development, 3d modelling, maybe game development. However with the skills that you listed that you already, I don't think you'd learn an awful lot in the MM course to be honest.

The SSD course is mostly all programming from what I understand and the IT course is a more general/theory overview of IT; i.e. you'd be jack of all trades master of none, a general IT worker in an organisation.

Did you look at the Entertainment Systems (Games Development Stream) course at all? With your skills and the area that you're looking to get into I think that would be much more suitable for you. It's a level 8 course however, that's the only thing and I guess it's too late to add it now.

I know sometime it was possible in WIT to register for one course and then change to another course after a week or two. Don't quote me on that though as things might well have changed. But from the information you have provided I think Entertainment Systems would be the one to go for.

thanks for the response. i have listed entertainment systems in my level 8 courses as well but was told my maths is too low when i was asking about it on the open day. besides ive only 300 points in my lc, dont think that will be enough.

besides i dont really care about the skills i would be getting since i can get them online by myself, the thing i need is a degree in a career i like doing.

johnnykilo

pliauskiux wrote: »

thanks for the response. i have listed entertainment systems in my level 8 courses as well but was told my maths is too low when i was asking about it on the open day. besides ive only 300 points in my lc, dont think that will be enough.

besides i dont really care about the skills i would be getting since i can get them online by myself, the thing i need is a degree in a career i like doing.

These are the requirements for Entertainment Systems on the WIT website:

LEAVING CERT:
2 subjects: HC3 or better
4 subjects: OD3 or better
REQUIRED SUBJECTS:
English/Irish: OD3/HD3
Mathematics: OB3/HD3
PREVIOUS POINTS
2010 -280
2011 - 290

I was worried about my maths before going to do MM, as I had done Electronics before (which is all maths) and ended up dropping out so I was a bit wary about doing another technical/maths type of course again, but the maths in the computing classes are fine once you go into the class and as you said yourself you like maths so I'd say you'd be fine.

If all you want is a degree in an area you'd like then by all means go with the MM, but I think you may find it boring. I mean first year when I was doing it was basically Photoshop, basic HTML and beginners Java. Second year was Flash, more Java (but still pretty basic) although I believe they do Javascript and JQuery in Second year now instead. From what you've described it seems you know all these things already, whereas the Entertainment course is a lot more challenging with regards to programming and it has specific modules relating to games etc...

I'm not trying to put you off MM, but if I had my time again I'd do another course, there's a lot of wishy-washy design stuff which seemed to be more about using up hours than teaching you anything practical. I would much rather have been working on my programming skills instead of doing photography or basic music skills etc..

Best of luck with whatever you decide anyway.

pliauskiux

johnnykilo wrote: »

These are the requirements for Entertainment Systems on the WIT website:

LEAVING CERT:
2 subjects: HC3 or better
4 subjects: OD3 or better
REQUIRED SUBJECTS:
English/Irish: OD3/HD3
Mathematics: OB3/HD3
PREVIOUS POINTS
2010 -280
2011 - 290

I was worried about my maths before going to do MM, as I had done Electronics before (which is all maths) and ended up dropping out so I was a bit wary about doing another technical/maths type of course again, but the maths in the computing classes are fine once you go into the class and as you said yourself you like maths so I'd say you'd be fine.

If all you want is a degree in an area you'd like then by all means go with the MM, but I think you may find it boring. I mean first year when I was doing it was basically Photoshop, basic HTML and beginners Java. Second year was Flash, more Java (but still pretty basic) although I believe they do Javascript and JQuery in Second year now instead. From what you've described it seems you know all these things already, whereas the Entertainment course is a lot more challenging with regards to programming and it has specific modules relating to games etc...

I'm not trying to put you off MM, but if I had my time again I'd do another course, there's a lot of wishy-washy design stuff which seemed to be more about using up hours than teaching you anything practical. I would much rather have been working on my programming skills instead of doing photography or basic music skills etc..

Best of luck with whatever you decide anyway.

I've all the requirements, but the points, I've 300, if they raise them once again over 300 there's nothing I could do about entertainment systems. Besides if the first year would be quite boring for me in mm, I would have chance of building up my portfolio.

As on the open day in WIT I was asking about both of these courses, I was told to take multimedia even though I wanted to go to gaming development course, he said my maths level was too low for ES. Won't my maths level be too low? I'm sure they use like all higher level maths in ES, don't they?

Few more days to be offered a place in the college, will see which suits me best then.

johnnykilo

pliauskiux wrote: »

I've all the requirements, but the points, I've 300, if they raise them once again over 300 there's nothing I could do about entertainment systems. Besides if the first year would be quite boring for me in mm, I would have chance of building up my portfolio.

As on the open day in WIT I was asking about both of these courses, I was told to take multimedia even though I wanted to go to gaming development course, he said my maths level was too low for ES. Won't my maths level be too low? I'm sure they use like all higher level maths in ES, don't they?

Few more days to be offered a place in the college, will see which suits me best then.

All the subjects in WIT are thought from scratch i.e. no prior knowledge is needed (although obviously it would be better if you had done Honours maths), as long as you go into the Maths classes and do the work I don't think you will have a problem.

solarith

I'm a 4th year EntSys, a guy in my class who dropped out of secondary school after his Junior Cert in 1980 passed the maths subjects. Absolutely no exaggeration. The maths can be difficult if you don't push yourself, but if you attend every lecture and do every assignment you'll fly it. Same goes for all programming, attend everything!

Media999

5.5k views! Popular course.

Hope you all got good news from CAO. Good luck.

pliauskiux

Chose the multimedia course, let's just hope it will suit me

solarith

pliauskiux wrote: »

Chose the multimedia course, let's just hope it will suit me

I know a few doing it, good course too! A tip to anyone doing these courses - EntSys, Multimedia, Applied Computing, you'll learn the most and the coolest things when your lecturers give you a programming assignment and says there's 30% for adding that bit extra which is not on the course, just a bit of your own flavour. Add something cool!

Media999

solarith wrote: »

I know a few doing it, good course too! A tip to anyone doing these courses - EntSys, Multimedia, Applied Computing, you'll learn the most and the coolest things when your lecturers give you a programming assignment and says there's 30% for adding that bit extra which is not on the course, just a bit of your own flavour. Add something cool!

Example of a bit extra?

solarith

Media999 wrote: »

Example of a bit extra?

In second year EntSys, we had an assignment where we made a music player. It was relatively simple, done in Java. Our lecturer provided us with the media codec, we had to create a list based on the filenames with their path which played the music. For my 30%, I skinned it entirely on iTunes, it took damn hours but it was pretty much pixel perfect! Another guy used a last.fm Java API and it retrieved track information and displayed it when you clicked the name.

If you're doing a HTML & Javascript, try and add some nice CSS3 and some jQuery!

Media999

solarith wrote: »

In second year EntSys, we had an assignment where we made a music player. It was relatively simple, done in Java. Our lecturer provided us with the media codec, we had to create a list based on the filenames with their path which played the music. For my 30%, I skinned it entirely on iTunes, it took damn hours but it was pretty much pixel perfect! Another guy used a last.fm Java API and it retrieved track information and displayed it when you clicked the name.

If you're doing a HTML & Javascript, try and add some nice CSS3 and some jQuery!

Sounds straight forward enough.

And that was in second year yeah.

Am i right in saying you would slide through first year easily if you had a good knowledge of html css etc.. before going in? Whats likely to be your weak point after that?

solarith

Media999 wrote: »

Sounds straight forward enough.

And that was in second year yeah.

Am i right in saying you would slide through first year easily if you had a good knowledge of html css etc.. before going in? Whats likely to be your weak point after that?

I'm not sure, you'll be doing much more than HTML/CSS but in those classes you will fly it and possibly be better than your lecturer!

From a quick look at prospectus, I think the ones students have most issues with are Mathematics for Graphics as well as Databases. Not sure what the server side scripting is but probably PHP.

Media999

What kind of maths are involved? Probably Matrices and Algebra etc..

Would be handy to take a look over them before the year starts.

solarith

There'll definitely be algebra, matrices and probably a lot of vectors if it's for graphics!

Howlin1

solarith wrote: »

Not sure what the server side scripting is but probably PHP.

Yes it is PHP. All you will be taught* to do is to create a database, connect to the database and insert, select, update and delete rows from the database, a register and login section (with a session). Then the end of the year project will be a combination of the above.

When I say taught, you will be basically given the code and then told to change it a bit to work and if you have any problems with anything lol good luck getting help with it.

solarith wrote: »

There'll definitely be algebra, matrices and probably a lot of vectors if it's for graphics!

And statistics

Media999

What else is there? Its hard to get any info on the IT courses in WIT. Ive even emailed the tutors and keep on being politely fobbed off.

Id just like more info like you gave. Also how many hours a week is it? People keep saying it changes but i wouldnt say the amount of hours change dramatically maybe the times do. Any chance of telling us what your 1st year timetable was like or if theres any 2nd years reading this to tell us how many hours they had in 1st year.

I have nothing but time on my hands now and still i dont know what to really look over to get a headstart.

Ill look over what you mentioned there now anyway with maths and PHP. familiar enough with them already so thats good anyway.

callaway92

Media999 wrote: »

What else is there? Its hard to get any info on the IT courses in WIT. Ive even emailed the tutors and keep on being politely fobbed off.

Id just like more info like you gave. Also how many hours a week is it? People keep saying it changes but i wouldnt say the amount of hours change dramatically maybe the times do. Any chance of telling us what your 1st year timetable was like or if theres any 2nd years reading this to tell us how many hours they had in 1st year.

I have nothing but time on my hands now and still i dont know what to really look over to get a headstart.

Ill look over what you mentioned there now anyway with maths and PHP. familiar enough with them already so thats good anyway.

First Year was 25 hours a week. In the first semester it was a half day Friday, mixed hours the other days. In the second semester we had Fridays off!!

Most days were 9:15 starts.

solarith

Howlin1 wrote: »

Yes it is PHP. All you will be taught* to do is to create a database, connect to the database and insert, select, update and delete rows from the database, a register and login section (with a session). Then the end of the year project will be a combination of the above.

When I say taught, you will be basically given the code and then told to change it a bit to work and if you have any problems with anything lol good luck getting help with it.

Yeah but it's easy, and you have the Internet!.. see:

[PHP]<?php

$con = mysql_connect("host_name","user","pass");
if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
mysql_select_db("db_name", $con);

// Error checking
if(!$conn) {
die('Could not connect ' . mysql_error());
}

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table_name");

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
echo $row;
echo "<br />";
}

mysql_close($conn);
?>[/PHP]



Also PHP is awesome, if you host this on a server (or even on a local server, see: XAMPP) with a call to that script from any language you can access external databases! We didn't do enough of that in college. Loads of people complain about the 'see if you can get it to work', but that's the only way to learn programming - it's to program.

What are the alternatives? Knowing everything before you try and do it? Impossible. You're going to be learning to program new things on your own for the rest of your life, especially in things like multimedia which is constantly evolving. 3 years ago how was CSS3 support? 6 years ago smartphones didn't exist as we know it! By the time your finished any programming course there will be a new trend which you will need to learn all on your own, and then 10 years after you finish - what do you think it's going to be like!