Monday 29 March 2010
Game Concept Portfolio
I have been thinking of displaying all my work as a shelf of jars, sweets, pictures in frames and other stuff. I could possibly make it become made of colour at the bottom, definitely have it vertically scrolling (tall) and I could make it interactive... this would be nice but its the most difficult option, but it would be best to showcase the videos. Here are some images of shelves, I even found a website about shelving used in old style sweet shops, http://www.oldtimeconfections.com/Displays/furnish.htm and a dolls house furnishings shop http://cynthiahoweminiatures.com/shop/ just by searching for shelves!
Thursday 25 March 2010
Update - Easter break
So at the moment I am at home working on my portfolio document to hand in and I have completed my PDP to date with updated CV, and built myself an up to date portfolio website. I have been taking a little break from working on my sweet land game, but I have not stopped thinking about it whilst working on my other areas to hand in. Before we broke up for Easter I played with Adobe After Effects for a while and I thought about the advice Sharon had given me. I am now planning to finish drawing the paper pieces I need for an animation (the old man body parts, the jars, the shop set, possibly some cut out buildings to make a street scene) and photograph it, then move to After Effects to animate them. I aim to finish this by hand in date May 26th.
In the meantime, whilst at home for Easter I am working on my document as I have said, and also aiming to film some paint/marbling inks in a transparent container to see how liquids behave and then possibly animate over the top when I return to Norwich.
Overall I am on schedule and can afford myself a rest these few weeks of Easter, whilst still working mainly on my blog and documents for submission.
In the meantime, whilst at home for Easter I am working on my document as I have said, and also aiming to film some paint/marbling inks in a transparent container to see how liquids behave and then possibly animate over the top when I return to Norwich.
Overall I am on schedule and can afford myself a rest these few weeks of Easter, whilst still working mainly on my blog and documents for submission.
Feedback
I have received some feedback from posting images from my game concept on my personal blog, and on here. I have found some of it very insightful and I think it would be in good practice to record it as part of this blog and as primary research with people who are unbiased towards me.
"I love the sheep, and the colours, and the floppiness of the boy. Also the wooden flooring of the floor plan is beautiful!" (images of the levels, character concept and isometric views)
"Falling through culture." (images of the levels)
This has been the most specific feedback I have received as most of it has been general, positive or negative. From my personal blog and from talking to people in real life (especially Sharon) I have been surprised to find just how many people can accurately connect with the themes in my images, without any detailed explanations alongside them (without my submission documents). More people than not have recognised the sheep in the field of the Rosy Apple level, and have more importantly expressed an interest towards the idea behind the embedded illustrations, and an interest to play the game.
"I love the sheep, and the colours, and the floppiness of the boy. Also the wooden flooring of the floor plan is beautiful!" (images of the levels, character concept and isometric views)
"Falling through culture." (images of the levels)
This has been the most specific feedback I have received as most of it has been general, positive or negative. From my personal blog and from talking to people in real life (especially Sharon) I have been surprised to find just how many people can accurately connect with the themes in my images, without any detailed explanations alongside them (without my submission documents). More people than not have recognised the sheep in the field of the Rosy Apple level, and have more importantly expressed an interest towards the idea behind the embedded illustrations, and an interest to play the game.
Tutorial with Sharon
I recently met with Sharon for a tutorial predominantly on the narrative of my game. This was an excellent experience and a huge help to me in developing a more stable narrative, especially when it comes to animating cut scenes or explanatory scenes at least. Sharon and I discussed all areas of the narrative and of the gameplay and I was extremely pleased to see how much she understood of it without my added explanation. We exchanged so many ideas in such a short space of time that I will summarise here what we concluded from it, aided especially by her follow up letter, all of which I am very greatful for. This has probably been the most useful single thing that I have done so far in the development of the game.
Firstly we talked about the 'real world' part of the game, and how so far I have represented the starkness and deprivation of this world in the absence of colour, and the colours used also hint at it being a passed era. Sharon suggested, having seen my most recent experiments with paper, that I may wish to leave the 'real world' as blank, white paper. This would be an even more exaggerated, literal representation of starkness and that the paper texture would evoke two very prominent but almost subliminal meanings; the idea of 'making do' and an almost quaint crudeness that would not be inappropriate when trying to represent wartime Britain, that many people would pick up on and understand without having to be explained to them. The other would be that the paper texture would be a reminder of real, physical materials when contrasted with the digital paint effects of the 'sweet land' and that each would compliment each other. I love both of these ideas and after reviewing my experiments in post production colour of the paper cut outs I am beginning to think leaving them blank is a very nice idea...
Sharon was also hugely interested in the development of the boy, as the projection of the player and as a character himself. She thought I needed the boy to gain something at the end of each level, not necessarily a physical thing but maybe a new technique or piece of knowledge and we struggled for ages thinking of a way to make it more rewarding for the player but without changing the game too much. In her letter I was blown away at the thought that the boy and the old man could be the same character, the boy his younger self - more able to complete the task he wishes he could do, ie finding his wife. This would provide motivation for the boy, as it would technically be his wife also, as opposed to a favour to the old man, and makes the relationships between characters in the game more romanticised and less scope for them to be interpreted as creepy. From this idea the boy can develop, into the old man! This allows your character to move differently and he will grow in size subtly, not changing gameplay too much, but also solving the tricky situation I had at the end of the game to get the old man to the sweet land. Now he will already be there and the boy will also be accounted for.
Sharon reminded me that the lack of sugar in wartime was a huge thing, and that it was something of dreams, I am already exploring this as a major theme in my game but she helped me understand that with stories such as this it needs to be clarified with the viewer and then it becomes more satisfying for them to have understood.
Firstly we talked about the 'real world' part of the game, and how so far I have represented the starkness and deprivation of this world in the absence of colour, and the colours used also hint at it being a passed era. Sharon suggested, having seen my most recent experiments with paper, that I may wish to leave the 'real world' as blank, white paper. This would be an even more exaggerated, literal representation of starkness and that the paper texture would evoke two very prominent but almost subliminal meanings; the idea of 'making do' and an almost quaint crudeness that would not be inappropriate when trying to represent wartime Britain, that many people would pick up on and understand without having to be explained to them. The other would be that the paper texture would be a reminder of real, physical materials when contrasted with the digital paint effects of the 'sweet land' and that each would compliment each other. I love both of these ideas and after reviewing my experiments in post production colour of the paper cut outs I am beginning to think leaving them blank is a very nice idea...
Sharon was also hugely interested in the development of the boy, as the projection of the player and as a character himself. She thought I needed the boy to gain something at the end of each level, not necessarily a physical thing but maybe a new technique or piece of knowledge and we struggled for ages thinking of a way to make it more rewarding for the player but without changing the game too much. In her letter I was blown away at the thought that the boy and the old man could be the same character, the boy his younger self - more able to complete the task he wishes he could do, ie finding his wife. This would provide motivation for the boy, as it would technically be his wife also, as opposed to a favour to the old man, and makes the relationships between characters in the game more romanticised and less scope for them to be interpreted as creepy. From this idea the boy can develop, into the old man! This allows your character to move differently and he will grow in size subtly, not changing gameplay too much, but also solving the tricky situation I had at the end of the game to get the old man to the sweet land. Now he will already be there and the boy will also be accounted for.
Sharon reminded me that the lack of sugar in wartime was a huge thing, and that it was something of dreams, I am already exploring this as a major theme in my game but she helped me understand that with stories such as this it needs to be clarified with the viewer and then it becomes more satisfying for them to have understood.
Friday 12 March 2010
Paper Cut-Outs
First try at making a paper cut-out set today, went well and I hope to continue this set in a cardboard box and make an animation from it. So far I have taken some photos and also digitally coloured some...
Kara Walker
A contemporary female artist who also works in silhouettes and paper cut-outs is Kara Walker, here are some examples of her work:
Walker's work seems to pay homage to traditional silhouette art like Reiniger's, but with a larger concern for topics such as identity, race and sexuality.
Walker's work seems to pay homage to traditional silhouette art like Reiniger's, but with a larger concern for topics such as identity, race and sexuality.
Thursday 11 March 2010
Photos from around Norwich and London
Here are some photos I have taken recently when I saw something relevant around Norwich...
Tuesday 9 March 2010
Lotte Reiniger
Reiniger was a female animator in the 1950s, she worked with paper cut-outs in a different way to the artists I have looked at so far and worked with silhouettes. This is similar to the way my boy will appear in the sweet land levels, but the way they move and the actual animation process may be more helpful to look at for my real world animation experiments... here is an example of her work:
Her later work had some coloured backgrounds, but still mainly silhouettes...
Her later work had some coloured backgrounds, but still mainly silhouettes...
Update - FGA6 Week 1
I have handed in my document of concept images and can now focus on FGA6 in which I will be mostly experimenting with paper cut out animation and digital animation techniques. Flash tutorials this week (week 2) have been extremely helpful for more basic understanding of the programme. I have started animating a sweet land scene in Flash. Discussion with Britta has introduced me to animator Lotte Reiniger and I will be doing another post on her silhouette work, something that I hope will help my real world cut-out animation and my sweet land boy animation. I will also be looking at representation of the elderly in games and possibly other media, something I will mostly be doing in critical studies but that will help my course work. I will no doubt blog about it here too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)