Preparing for Collaboration Presentation.

Process & Roles.

• Given the brief, and taken around Allied Bakeries. - Becci was drawing signs and instructions that were seen in the bakery, Hazel and Hannah to draw illustrations of some machines. Becci also did some machines later on as well. Board meeting with the client- who discussed his requirements further.
• As a group, we discussed the client requirements, and straight away decided to do some market research on 'Dumb Ways To Die' which is a type of animation the client favoured- we looked into why this was such a success and what we liked out of the clip. In addition to this we produced a mood board of images and researched into Allied Bakeries so we had some information about the client.
• We then as a group decided after making an initial mind map of first ideas to independently produce an idea each that we would then present to each other. (3 separate ideas) which we would then together decide on.
• After pitching our ideas to each other, we blended together two of our ideas after a thorough decision process. We favoured the message that went with the game idea and the game style, but we liked the idea of Hazel's egg character design, we used the character design to build more character sketches that Hazel was in charge of, using digital softwares such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to produce pixelated designs of the characters.
• Initially Hannah began drawing out storyboards which were then developed by us all, producing a range of storyboards and digital scenes of Photoshop.
• After having looked at the storyboards we'd all designed and the style that we were all going to adopt, we decided to split up and produce all the scenes, dedicating alternate scenes between us. 

Scene 1- 

Doughball Scene- Hazel

Doughball Close up- Hazel

Scene 2- 

Slipping Scene- Becky

Slipping Close up- Becky

Scene 3-
Razor Machines- Hannah

Razor Machines Close Up- Hannah

Scene 4- 
Trip & Fall- Hannah

Trip & Fall Close Up-Hannah

Scene 5- Bread Tray

Bread Tray Close Up

Scene 6- Back Break

Back Break Close Up

Scene 7- Truck Door

Truck Door Close Up

Scene 8- Hit By Truck

Hit by Truck Close Up

• After having completed most scenes, we decided Becci and Hazel would carry on completing their 3rd scene each, whilst Hannah did 2 scenes but then began animating all of them.
• After Becci had looked into the video games via her book and our individual research, we decided there were certain things that we'd need to include so people know it's a video game these include: bright or primary colours, platforms, pixelated characters and settings, aspect of lives etc.
• During the production of the storyboards we decided the character should adopt the characteristics and behaviours of a walking dough ball that would roll, squash and stretch etc. In addition to this we decided on a colour scheme of a pastel green for inside the bakery and a pastel blue to represent the outside elements.

Roles:

Becci- Drew out signs when visiting bakery, researched 80's games, with book "Classic Video Games, The Golden Age 1971-1984" Brian R Eddy, 

Hazel- Illustrated machines from the bakery, produced initial character designs

Hannah- Illustrated some machines, drew out storyboards, produced background scenes

Using Coding For Nostalgia.

After having had the group meeting with the tutors to discuss the aspects of how to link what we've been doing in context to our collaborative work, Jane highlighted the aspect of Nostalgia that our technique had produced- and after having looked further into this, I've decided that it has a lot of good concepts to explore on in order to present in connection to our work.

Nostalgia- 

'A sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past' 

For our collaborative task we have been evolving our idea of pixelated characters in a game type of setting to represent the importance of the baker's lives. In each of our 'levels' an incident will happen, costing the character (who is simply a pixelated dough ball and therefore anyone can relate to him) to lose a life. At the end of our animation we'd like a final thought provoking message that will highlight the whole theme of the game idea, and what it was supposed to present, the chosen message being: 

"You only have one life. Stop, Think, Go."

We feel as a team that this phrase perfectly sums up the purpose of us doing the game style and the fact that the lives of the bakers are in fact short and precious. In addition to this, we looked into and researched existing game styles and behaviours in order to ensure that the theme of retro 80's games was conveyed successfully.

In the production stages we have become more and more confident about the idea of the 80's pixelated arcade game style, as not only is it something every age range can generally relate to (due to the fact that the age range of the bakers when questioning the client is very wide) but it also brings in that theme of nostalgia.

Nostalgia is a key theme behind our design, and it very much links to the context that we've been learning in terms of Semiotics. We as 21st century students in 2015 are using our modern technology and softwares to try to replicate a past style of the 1980's. This therefore implicates the idea of coding and signs in the fact that we are purposely replicating such a style in order to take the audience on an emotional journey and to interact with the game aspect of the clip.

In further research of other methods of modern technology being used to create an emphasis of nostalgia, I have noted down some important matters that I feel could be explored further for the final presentation.

1. AkzoNobel using their technology to recreate and reconstruct a damaged Van Gogh painting "Field with Irises near Aries" the company also collaborate with the Van Gogh Art Museum to preserve and digitally restore his pieces by replicating his paint pigments and style using their modern technology. Sources: https://www.akzonobel.com/news_center/news/news_and_press_releases/2015/akzonobel_using_new_technology_to_recreate_old_masterpiece.aspx 
2. 3D printed 18th century Native Indian tools help develop further understanding on how they were used without damaging the instruments themselves.

Nostalgia in Music

Contemporary artist and DJ Calvin Harris produced a song 'Acceptable in the 80's' which was a song about the era of his birth, and it was cleverly produced to mimic the style of generic 1980's videos. In the video, there are various block colour bright screens with 1980's inspired outfits and big hair, the stuffed otter in the video is recurring throughout as well as separate job roles, a chef, a hairdresser and a Doctor. These roles all link back to the title 'Acceptable in the 80's' as the song itself is referring to the fact that using animal parts in the functionality of all those careers were accepted at that time.The video uses the elements of actual 80's era's music videos which includes:

• Bright block coloured backgrounds
• Big styled hair
• 1980's style clothes

References to the era's laws- the example being in Calvin Harris' music video, a stuffed toy otter is used as a prop to be tested on- linking back to the aspect that Animal Testing for cosmetics was still legal in the UK.I intend to play a short clip of this music video during the presentation we make to the rest of the courses and tutors, however to ensure that the video properly loads I shall have a downloaded version of the video on a USB stick as back up and some screenshots to help the viewers visualise what is happening. I think the screenshots will also show the colour palettes that are being explored throughout the video. Reading through dialogue of Calvin Harris being interviewed, he describes the video as 'bright and garish' (http://www.caughtinthecrossfire.com/music/interviews-2/calvin-harris-interview/) 

When looking at 1980's videos to compare the style components from genuine 80's style tracks the Harris' I found this quite similar coloured and brightened music video: 'Information Society- What's On Your Mind' As well as being colourful, the video also inherits the aspect of using negative space around the person in shot, sending the eye to the character as well as having the brightness of the colour behind them. 

Alike to Calvin Harris' video, the video uses a lot of props and the people featured within the video then use such props to dance with and join them in the shots. The overall colour scheme of such shots are oranges, yellows, blues and greens.

Pixelated Animation Tests

We have all in our groups been allocated different scenes, luckily due to our similar pixelated style, the animation storyboards could easily get split between us rather than just being allocated to one person. This has allowed us to produce more of the scenes for when we finally get to animate them.

Each scene has been allocated to each person and a close up shot:

1. Scene 1- Doughball machine scene. - Hazel - close up Hazel
2. Scene 2- Slip. Becky- close up Becky
3. Scene 3- Razor machines - Hannah- close up Hannah
4. Scene 4- Trip & Fall - Hazel- close up Hazel 
5. Scene 5- Bread Tray. Hannah- close up Hannah. 
6. Scene 6- Back Break- Becky - close up Becky.
7. Scene 7- Truck door - Hazel - close up Hazel.
8. Scene 8 - Hit by truck- Becky - close up Becky.

Producing the scenes beforehand in alternate layers had helped us to develop a better idea of what will happen in each scene as well as helping us develop the animation in collaboration.

First Exploratory Animation- Scene 6- Bread tray.

This is the first experimentation of the movement of the pixelated character, the character would be jerky in movement, so we decided the best settings would be 10fps. In addition to this, they have a 200x113 pixels in resolution.
The first test helped us develop what is the most effective speed for the character to move at etc. Whilst I have been experimenting with the scene where the character gets struck by bread (Scene 6) My fellow members of the group have been completing additional scenes that they will also animate. Despite working independently we are constantly updating each other of our progress and infiltrating the whole group's opinions. This I feel is important in the collaboration process so that everyone is confident with the outcome as well as it fulfilling the client requirements that we have been given by Allied Bakeries.

Producing a wide shot and close up animation separately allowed us to make alterations as we went, such as the appropriate speed and behaviour that we wanted the characters to reflect. One thing we did notice when producing the animations is the fact that there were some continuity errors such as the fact that the tray that squashed the character in the wide shot had then disappeared on the close up.

Creating Pixelated Characters

Wednesday 30th September 2015
In order to accomplish a recognisable game style, we're exploring the idea of producing our characters in a pixelated format, ensuring that they are still going to be able to symbolise the points of safety we'd like to present.
On Photoshop, we hope to produce a pixelated character selection and platforms the character would travel through. We have had to look into the forms of animation and photoshop and therefore require some research into what is the best technique for the clip. The Animation Workshop we attended helped us develop an insight into alternative techniques of animation.

Useful online tutorials are helping us to develop our skills and recognise what is the most effective method to produce the characters and ultimately animate them. We decided that online tutorials are a great resource for this as they act as a visual aid into what we need to produce, and also allows us to experiment with the technique from home.

Music Meeting

Tuesday 29th September 2015

We have just met with some friends who are Musicians from outside of University that we have decided to pitch our idea to - ideally we'd like them to produce a lighthearted and fun tune, that is catchy and memorable. When meeting them we discussed what the business were after and how we could successfully establish this through the song tune and lyrics. Our storyboard shows the following incidents that need to be narrated to with a song:

1. Hand trapped in conveyer belt - hand is torn off and taken around the conveyer belt.
2. Slipping in a puddle.
3. Falling from a height.
4. Head taken off by machine.
5. Broken back trying to lift something wrongly.
6. Run over by moving vehicle.
7. Trapping himself in truck door.
8. Crushed by bread tray.

Certain points were made throughout the discussion about the song and what we'd like it to involve, and when trying to come up with such a song there were certain unanswered questioned we'd need to answer in production of the song.

• Are the lyrics going to be narrating exactly what's going on- or are they going to simply make comments on the incidents?
• Do we want a repetitive chorus and melody?
• Should the song be fast paced with lyrics, or simply a game like tune?

When experimenting with Jonny and Max the musicians, certain jingles were made on the guitar that we liked and have asked to progress further, we made a rough recording of the tune at the start of the clip. We have asked them to contribute the lyrics, but defined what we'd like them to include, the humour and the quirky aspects that the client has requested.

Collaboration Game Style Research

Wednesday 23rd September 2015
With a game idea we have produced through a collection of thoughts and ideas, we have decided we'd better analyse certain behavioural aspects of existing Arcade pixelated style games and define why they are effective. In accordance to this, we will then be able to distinguish what would be the best behaviour for our characters and the story.
We have found some examples of arcade style games such as the Super Mario games and their behaviours.