Art
Eleanor Davis
I like how fun and energetic the characters appear. This is because she positively exaggerates parts of the body, such as ears which create a sense of innocence and makes them seem goofy and entertaining. I also enjoy the colour choice. For example the cover of the book has nice bright bold colours to entice you in, then inside the book it has more simple colours to not distract you from reading but still allowing you to enjoy the illustrations. The pages seem calm and soothing once reading inside the book. This will influence me to exaggerate certain aspects to create a certain type of character. For example I might exaggerate someones nose and chin if they are evil or exaggerate someones ears or eyes if they are friendly.
Vanessa R Del Ray Redlands
This work/style of comic is very different to Eleanor Davis’ style of work. This is because “Redlands” by Vanessa R Del Ray has a higher aged target audience and therefore will try to appeal to that age and how realistic it can be. In Redlands the characters are realistic and have a lot more detail. I like this because it can show a larger range of emotions and make the story more realistic. This might influence me to create more toned and realistic characters, however, I am not sure as it will depend on my game.
Bilquis Evely
The style of this comic is more similar to Vanessa R Del Ray Red lands as the characters looked detailed and realistic. However the characters in this comic are fantasy due to them not looking fully human. They have feline features which create a cat like look to them. I really enjoy the colours and imagination used in this comic as it always seems to look nice and entertaining. The comic art looks as if it was drawn and then coloured in digitally to create a nice clean look. This style of work influences me when creating my character as I may think outside the box with hybrid creatures. I think my main influence is the clothes as I like the amount of detail in the green coat.
Mood Board
This is a mood board I created of some characters I thought inspired me and which I would like to base my character off. I really liked the jungle explorer look as well as the hooded thief which I might try and hybrid together as inspired by Bilquis Evely.
I did have more artwork, drawn creations however I am not able to access them as they are in college and due to quarantine I am not able to go in and collect them. I should have scanned them in earlier so I am partially at fault here.
Backstory
My character was born in a poor family that always had to struggle for food in the early middle ages. The character was a “peasant” that would get bossed around by the king in the kingdom. The character who’s name is “Ava Rolfe” always felt mistreated and hated how her and her family would get ridiculed and disregarded as people. Ava really disliked how the king would sit on top of his throne having loads of food and all he pleases whilst people suffer in his kingdom. Ava and her family would starve, so Ava used to go round the local market and steal loafs of bread and other food discretely which is when she got really good at it and learnt she had a skill in being discrete and sneaky. As Ava grew up she learnt how to steal more and sneak into places such as the kings castle, she would always go into the castle further and further each time until she knew the castle inside and out. Everything was fine until the kings found out about the stealing and banished her parents from the kingdom and let them starve. Ava would try and take the food from the castle and deliver it to her parents, however the travelling would take too long. So she decided to try and steal the kings crown so that she could sell it and use the money to build her and her family a life.
Developed Ideas
Final Design
Evaluation
For my final design I have created a character on my unit 12 project which is based on the theme “Space”. The character is created using a pencil which I did for my developed designs. To create the final design I decided to transfer it onto the computer and make it digitally using Photoshop. This way it would look cleaner and more professional. The outcome of my design links to the project theme “space”. This is because my character is a stealthy person that will outrun guards in a cave which may be small, tight and enclosed so she has to find little gaps that she may be able to fit through. These shapes my vary so she has to think about the space that is left and if she will be able to fit. My work is aimed for people aged around 12-18 as it is not insanely realistic but still a cool character that a range of ages could appreciate. I would like them to feel connected to the character due to the struggle the character has to go through/has gone through. I would want them to connect to the character so they feel engaged and understand the reasons behind the design of the character well. The characteristics of the audience would include a range of ages from teen to adult. I decided to use the green/dark green colours on my character due to her exploring the cave so would be wearing exploring clothes. I also made the character a cartoon character by looking at some of Eleanor Davis cartoon characters. I really like Eleanor Davis’ cartoon characters because the characters seem fun and energetic which shows life to them and therefore creates the comic to come to life. This is why I have chosen to use some of her art techniques in my work however making it more realistic to appeal to a older audience.
I think that my character being sneaky and stealthy in their backstory has influenced my final character design due to me making them agile and seem physically fit. This is all due to her past experiences where she used to steal to survive and therefore learnt to be sneaky and not get caught doing such a thing. I chose to use pencil, water, ink, chalk and coloured pencils for my original designs where I was testing out different ideas and media. I then used pencil for further character designs. Then for the developed Designs I added colour on Photoshop after drawing with pencil on paper. For the final design I created it on Photoshop and coloured it in on Photoshop. Before my final outcome, I completed 10 initial sketches which included 10 different character designs. I then selected 5 of the characters that I liked and added colour to them to make them seem more detailed and real. From the 5 developed designs, I used different features from two of the the developed designs and combined them into a final piece.
One of the challenges I faced throughout my project would be my lack of multi-media and possibly my drawing skills not being up to scratch. So to overcome this I decided to use body templates that our instructor provided us with. I think my characters face mask was a good idea because it covers her identity and creates that anonymous unknown look to her which in turn gives off the idea that she may be stealthy or a spy of some sort. I also think the explorer clothes worked well as it gives a lot more detail and gives an idea of what she does. However if I had more time I would of thought some more about colour theory and tried to get the best colours for her positioning/scenario. For example maybe I should of made her clothes darker so she is more stealthy and better suited in a cave rather than in grass. I would also add more equipment/gadgets to her so she is better equipped for what she does. I developed my drawing skills and I would also say my planning skills as creating the backstory first really helped give an idea of what my character should be and look like.
Animation
12 Basic Principles of Animation
Squash and stretch
The squash and stretch principle in animation is used to emphasise the speed, momentum, weight and mass. To make sure it looks correct you must make sure when you stretch/squash the object it will have the same volume throughout.
I decided to recreate this at home with a bouncing ball. I used the graph editor to create acceleration. However the main effect that helped create a real look to this animation is the exaggerated squash and stretch of it
Anticipation
This is when a character prepares for an action which therefore lets the audience guess what will happen next as well as making the animation more realistic. You can even have an anticipation for an anticipation to even further build up the movement.
Staging
Staging is the presentation of any idea so that it is completely and unmistakably clear. An action is staged so that it is easily understood. for staging to work clearly, the audience’s eye must be led to exactly where it needs to be at the right moment.
Straight ahead & pose to pose
Straight ahead & pose to pose are two different techniques of animating. Straight ahead animating is animating as you go so creating each frame straight after each other. Whereas pose to pose animation is when you create the key poses of a movement (which means you have it planned out) and then fill in the in between frames after. Pose to pose animation is better for most actions as you have more control and will stay consistent, straight ahead animation is better for unpredictable animations such as fire,water particles and explosions.
Follow through & overlapping
Follow through and overlapping is the technique of animation where you have body parts and appendages drag behind the rest of the body which continue to move when the body stops. Doing this to an animation makes it more interesting and graceful. It is also useful to tell the mass of an object by how much it will overlap.
Slow in & slow out
This principle of animation refers to how movement starts slowly then builds up speed and then finishes slowly. Like in any car or car game you may hold down the accelerate button however, you will not instantly be at your full speed. You will start slower and then eventually will build speed. This also applies to when you hit the brakes on a car, as you will never stop immediately. Instead you will slow down and therefore finish slowly.
Arcs
This principle of animation is explains that mostly every living organism will move in an arc. Therefore adding an arc movement or effect in your animation will make it look a lot more real and will add character to the object or person that is being animated. In some cases by ignoring this principle it can make your animation shrink in size due to the animator not animating a rotation in an arc shape.
Secondary action
This principle of animation is when gestures are used to support the main action to add more dimension to the character animation. This is done a lot of the time to add character to the animation. For example if I were to animate someone eating, the primary action would be the biting into the food and the secondary action would be the facial expressions or if the character licked his fingers in despair to grab every last taste of the meal he can. This gives emotion to the animation and shows that the character likes what he is eating as he can’t get enough of it.
Timing
This principle suggests that the personality and nature of an animation is greatly affected by the number of frames inserted between each main action. Depending on how many drawings you have or in 3D maya animation how many key frames you have animated will depend on how fast it appears. For example if a car is moving from A to B and you have drawn/animated lots of in between movements then it will appear slow, however if you only have a few in between movements the movement will appear faster. However this is mainly for 2D drawn animation as 3D animation will fill in the spare animations with movements from those two separate points (A-B).
Exaggeration
This principle of animation is when you exaggerate a movement or action that will make it a lot clearer however less realistic to the audience. This doesn’t mean to distort the image but instead to make it more convincing.
Solid Drawings
This principle of animation is making sure the forms feel like they are in a three-dimensional space which consists of volume, weight and balance. when taking this all into consideration make sure to avoid twinning. Twinning is when the arms and legs and other paired features are doing the exact same thing which causes it to look unnatural and too perfect in a sense. By avoiding this you can give the character more life by giving it slanted or lopsided poses which really build the character.
Appeal
This principle of animation is about creating an appeal in your character so that the audience will find the character interesting to look at. You should try and make your characters have some kind of charismatic aspect that would appeal someone and make them like the character. This can be done by having a dynamic design. In which you should make sure to use different shapes for each character that will enhance the type of character they are.
Pocoyo
Pocoyo is an animated series narrated by Stephen fry which is about “the exploits of a fun-loving, curious little boy who loves to play and explore”. Instantly you can tell this is a show designed for kids/ a younger audience. They have done this by having nice bright enticing colours that will definitely grab the attention of a younger audience. They also have nice friendly characters that look fun and harmful (meaning no kid would get scared from it). For example they bring animals to life such as an elephant which are seen as friendly due to them being herbivores. The elephant is also a bright pink colour which instantly takes away any fear of the creature. The main character is a young boy which means the audience can relate to the adventures the boy is going on as if he is their friend. The boy is also given big kind eyes and a small nose which yet again creates that innocent and therefore trustworthy look. The animators make sure to create big exaggerated animations for the characters so that it is entertaining and constantly grabbing the attention from the young audience. By doing these exaggerated animations it also makes it less realistic and more like a magical adventure where all positive things are exaggerated and full on.
Despicable Me
Despicable Me is an animated movie that uses fun and over the top characters. From the image above you can tell the target audience for this animation is around 8-13 which can be watched by adults as well due to the realism in some of the characters. This is what creates the difference between Despicable me and Pocoyo because they have different target audience and therefore different character designs and details of said characters. It is a perfect mix of realism and having creative fantasy characters such as the “minions”. The minions are adorable and by having them not be able to speak English it makes them have to emphasize there movements and animations. Which then also creates a more fun and lively performance which will keep the attention span of the younger audience. To make sure the animation still appeals to a younger audience the characters will all have exaggerated body parts, such as Gru’s big hunch back/upper body and skinny legs. The kids will have bigger heads and large eyes to create a cuter younger look.
Perfect Posing – 1 – Listen to the character… and to physics
https://vimeo.com/channels/supinfocom/page:78
https://www.youtube.com/user/gobelins
The videos above are some other animations I researched whilst looking through different techniques and styles of animation. These were all great for giving me inspiration and similar ideas to do my animation with.
Animation sequence.
Scene Blocking and storyboards
Evaluation
The aim of my project was to create a fun and well produced animated short using an audio clip from the 11 seconds club. I think that my research was successful as I found out about different techniques used in animation (the 12 principles of animation) as well as finding how different movies use exaggerated movements for a younger audience and a more comedic effect. This reminded me to make try and always make sure that my character is live and moving a body part, even if its the smallest thing. My development throughout the project increased a lot more during the end of the project as I started to get the hang of the animating. It took me a while to find an audio I liked but then once I had found it I ideas started to come in. I started to plan out the scene in my head. I felt it needed to be a conversation between two people at a cafe of some sort. I didn’t really have any specific methods, I would animate the big movements before animating the smaller details/movements otherwise the big movements could effect the placements for the smaller ones this was one of the methods I had. My audience is anyone above the age of 8 years old as this is probably the age in which they will understand the animation. However my animation doesn’t really have a specific age category. Although due to the cartoon like characters the animation may appeal more to a younger audience.
In conclusion I would say that my animation was successful as I managed to animate the characters mouths to lip sync as well as having a decent amount of body movements which created life in the scene. I think I improved on mouth movements on the last scene when the camera change to a single cut of the female character. If I could improve on my work or I had more time I would possibly spend more time on the smoothness of the animation making the movements cleaner and smoother between characters. I would do this by going through the key frames and re positioning them to the correct timing.
Games Design
Using these cards we had to come up with a few game ideas (me and my friend/colleague Alfie)
These are some of the game ideas me and Alfie came up with.
Game Idea 5
Cave,escape,simulation,Can’t see very far and colours
Game Idea 5a
This game is a simulation which is set in a cave. The goal of the game is to escape (it is a maze) however you can only see 1-2 meters in front of you. This game is based on a explorer who was exploring a cave looking for rare minerals however his flashlight stopped working and he got lost. He is now only able to use his small head torch meaning he can only see a few meters in front of him. He is trying to escape from this cave before he goes hungry. His hunger can be replenished by finding food. He can also find batteries along the floor which means he can use his torch for 20 seconds before the batteries die again. If he finds any minerals then he can sell them once he escapes which means he will be able to buy upgrades. The upgrades will allow the batteries (the character finds along the floor) to last longer which will go up by two seconds each time. (20seconds-22seconds-24seconds…). Each time you complete a cave then next cave (level after) gets increasingly harder to complete. This means that the minerals/upgrades you can get are necessary for the later stages. There are also 4 different coloured flags that are around the maze, this is just to help you understand where you are and if you have been in that place before. The flags are yellow,red,blue and green.
Game Idea 5b
In this game you have just stolen the crown from a king and now are being chased by the kings guards. You end up running into a cave and need to try and escape through the exit of the cave. The objective is to escape the cave holding the complete crown with all of the jewels. The guards are a bit slower than you which allows time for deciding which way to turn, however if you take too long to make a decision in the cave the guards may catch up to you. If the guards get close behind you and you would like to delay them you can take jewels off of the crown and drop them. The guards will then go and pick them up which will give you time to get ahead again. If one jewel is dropped=3 seconds of delay on the guards. However, if you end up dropping some jewels from the crown whilst escaping from the guards your overall score will be reduced. To go onto the next level you need to have a score of 70% or over. If one jewel is dropped=takes off 10% of final score but this depends on the level. For example some harder levels the jewel may only take off 5% of the final score due to the level being harder.
Game Idea 6
At home,Survive,Action,can only go foward and music
In this game your family members in your house have been infected by zombies. You need to enter the front of the house making your way through the house making sure not to get attacked by them. you have to move slowly so when going past the rooms of the house you avoid the zombies vision\sound . You have to wait for them to turn away from your area and then you can sneak up on the zombie with a tranquilizer which cures them. Due to you not being able to go backwards, you will have to commit to any of the decisions you make so you will need to be patient and study the movement patterns of the zombie’s before sneaking up behind them. Otherwise if they turn whilst you are in their vision you will also be infected and lose the game. You will sometimes need to turn on radio’s to play music which will in turn distract the zombies, this will allow you to get behind them depending on where about you turn the music on.
Audience attention span
https://www.limelight.com/resources/white-paper/state-of-online-gaming-2018/
From this website above I found out that the average gamer plays roughly 6 hours per week.
Since my game will be a global game I should make the game easy to start and stop when you please. As most people will game for about 48 minutes a day. This means the game should be easy to access and play rather than making it a long campaign like game. This is why the game I am planning on creating is a game that has short levels that may last under a minute maximum and will save automatically after you have completed a level. This way no matter what scenario you are in you will be able to have time to play.
Temple Run
“Temple Run is a 3D endless running video game developed and published by Imangi Studios. The player controls an explorer who has obtained an ancient relic and is running from evil demon monkeys who are chasing him”. I was always fond of temple run as well as the way it creates a life like sensation of being chased. Each time you nearly crash or get stopped you will slow down and see the monkeys who are chasing him, this scares the player which creates him to get that real life fear. This is why in my game I am planning to add a similar feature but each time you do crash or get stopped you will drop the crowns jewels as well. However, in Temple Run there is no end, it will just get progressively faster and harder until you make the mistake and get caught. In the game I am creating I am going to have an end for each level which will only last around a minute, this way people can start the game without having to play until they get caught. This just means it is more accessible at all times.
Subway Surfers
Subway Surfers is very similar to temple run “Subway Surfers is an endless runner mobile game co-developed by Kiloo and SYBO Games, private companies based in Denmark. It is available on Android, iOS, Kindle, and Windows Phone platforms and uses the Unity game engine”. Subway Surfers however, looks a lot more vibrant as well as colourful which appeals more to a younger audience. On top of this they have also created a more cartoon like style to their characters which also will appeal more to the younger audience. After viewing both of these games I realised that I preferred to play subway surfers due to its more colourful game. This shows that it doesn’t just appeal for a younger audience but it instead just creates a more happy association with the game. For this reason I may keep my detail minimal whilst adding a bit more colour to my game which will hopefully make it more enjoyable.
Game Genres
Action games-
Action games is a video game genre which primarily focuses on physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. Within this genre of video game, you can have many sub genres such as fighting games and shooter games etc. In an action game, you (the player) typically controls a character. Most of the time you will navigate some sort of level which may have objects,obstacles and enemies which you will have to overcome using your own skill set or weapons you have obtained.
The target audience for action games can vary depending on the seriousness and detail of the game. For example if a game is very detailed and looks realistic then the action in it may be more disturbing in it for younger audiences such as assassins creed. Where as a game like lego star wars is a lot more suited for a younger person as the characters aren’t realistic and when they “die” they break into lego parts rather than showing any blood. So in conclusion I would say that the target audience for a action game is anywhere between 8-18
Role playing games-
A role playing game is a game where players will assume roles of characters in a fictional setting. Using a narrative or literal acting players will act out their character. An arranger/ referee of the game known as the “game master” will most likely decide on the rules and setting of the game.
The target audience for role playing games is most likely between 12-19 due to this being an age of exploring and becoming creative/imaginative. I feel this makes the most sense as in a role playing game you are becoming a character and have to imagine the scenario you and your friends/team are in. So if you are not imaginative then it may be hard to do so.
Adventure games
An adventure game is a game where the player will assume the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle solving. Adventure games are mostly designed for single player. However, in more recent adventure games they may add a second character so that it is the same concept but you can play the adventure with your friend.
The target audience for adventure games can vary a lot depending on the style of game. Very similar to action games how this type of game can be very versatile with detail and age ranges. Just like action games they can have an adventure game for a younger person which will most likely have no blood or scary type of visuals. Although, They can also have an adventure game that has blood and more scary type of visuals. I would say adventure games have the widest range of audience out of the other two types of games. So could be anywhere between 7-35
Character designs
This is my final character design which I created in my art class, which you see earlier on my blog. When I was creating my character for my art class I thought what if I use the character for my game since it was a perfect fit for my character. This character is the character the players will play as from a first person perspective. So you will not see the character in the actual game unfortunately.
These characters are the kings guards that are chasing you. as of right now I do not plan on being able to see them in game as I will not have enough time. However, this would be the idea of these characters.
Creating the game
I started by creating a few sketch ideas of what I wanted my level to look like. The first image is what the entrance would look like from a first person perspective view. The second image is a birds eye view of map/cave which shows the route you will have to take to escape.
I then decided to add a green arrow to show where the entrance is and a red arrow to show the exit.
I then went onto maya and created a square plane. After creating the square plane I then added sub divisions. Once the sub divisions had been made I extruded certain squares up to create the walls. I then put another flat plane on top of the maze to create a roof. I then gave a bit of a light purple colour to the walls as I wanted to keep it plane and simple.
Game demo
I decided to create a bar to show how much jewellery you had on you (the bar on the right hand side) as well as a little title on top of the screen to show what game it is. The reasoning for the bar on the right hand side is so that people can know how much jewellery they managed to keep or managed to drop.
Games Design Document:
Evaluation
The aim of my project was to create a fun and enjoyable game where the player has to run away from some prison guards through a maze. I think my research was successful as I was inspired by some of the games I researched as well as weighing out their negatives and positives. This then helped me find out what would work well. After researching some of the games I found that I liked the idea of being chased in a game, it gave a some what real feeling. I also wanted to create a game that felt fast pace and accessible. For example I didn’t want someone to start the game knowing they might have to play for an hour or 30 minutes, but instead for them to start playing knowing that they can play an hour or even just 3 minutes without being half way through the game. So I had the idea to make the game have levels, so after completing one level which will only last around 30-60 seconds you will go up to the next one. My audience is aimed at 8-20 as it may scare some younger players but if you are above 7 years old you should be able to play and enjoy the chase of it.
In conclusion I think my game is somewhat successful as you can see the demo and understand that you are running through a maze trying to find your way out, however I think it lacks more detail as well as me only creating one level. The idea of the game is for it to have multiple levels but I only managed to create one in time so therefore it slightly loses its purpose in that sense. If I had more time or if I had the choice to improve on my work I would create a lot more levels as well as a more detailed and well lit up maze. I would do this by taking some photos of materials and then import them into Maya which I would then use to create a texture for the inside of the maze. I would also add multiple light sources on maya in different areas around the maze to light it up.
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