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.

Timeline Task- Context

We were given the task of producing a timeline by Jane, to reflect a decade that she had selected for each of us at random. This decade would then be put in a timeline and presented to the Context group. My decade:

1980-1989

I first of all looked at the relevant historic moments in this decade to do with animation and Motion Design, but then I further established other cultural and political influences that there would have been within the timeline. Such politics included the ruling of Margaret Thatcher and the miner strikes that were the most poignant event of the era.

Dismaland

Just before we started again at Uni for our second year, a group of us independently decided to travel down to Weston-Super-Mare to visit Banksy's 'Dismaland' Bemusement Park. Focused in Weston-Super-Mare, a place Banksy visited as a young child, he hired out a courtyard where a variety of artist's works were shown, all with a deep political meaning.
There was a mixture of animators, photographers, and artists who contributed to Dismaland and overall I found it an inspirational and effective collaboration. All the pieces had their own political or social agenda, such issues as the Horsemeat Scandal were introduced and shown within the work and add a more sinister edge to the original escapism sense that the real theme park Disneyland possesses.
 The actual setting of the park itself is dismal, with the old concrete and overgrown surroundings, the many signs for queueing etc. All of which contributed to the impact the park had on the visitors.
Alongside such installations and Banksy's own graffiti pieces that as per usual also celebrate political values and sinister morals, there were certain pieces that really appealed to me, the aspect of the 'Riot' piece in particular as this was a small scale set that was so intricate and shocking, trying to mock up the idea of a police riot with tiny figurines.

'Burton on Burton' - Summer Reading

Over the Summer I made sure to allow some time for some sort of reading in connection with my degree. I chose the autobiography of 'one of the great modern-day visionaries of cinema' Tim Burton. I have always been a fan of Tim Burton's directed films and sketches, and thought this would be a nice insight into his own history and background and how such things would effect his own work.

Important points are explored throughout the film, such as the explorations of Tim Burton's failures and how he overcame bad feedback and critics slandering his work, such failures included the pressures that were put upon him to produce the Batman films as he wanted to establish a whole new perspective of the darker side of all the characters. Throughout the book I found Burton's personality interesting, how he spoke about the fact that he personally can connect more the the villains than the heroes, he finds they're more complex and misunderstood characters that inherit more interest than the mediocre hero protagonist.
This book also reminded me of the colour palette project we had in first year, as Burton speaks about his important use of dull tones and colours to enhance a particular mood. This includes his use of colour in 'The Corpse Bride' a film he directed and animated amongst others, with the land of the dead being represented as the most colourful whilst the living dull and lifeless looking, an ironic twist to the theme.

Summer Project.

I have been given the brief over Summer which is to try or do things we've never attempted or done before, and to document them in unique ways which relate to the thing we'd tried. The brief applies the only rules are that it can be simple or complex, but must be something we'd never tried before.

The aspect of the project I found quite exciting, however struggled at first to think of ideas of things to try. Here are a few things I thought of in first reaction to the project brief:

• Trying a completely new food and documenting it in a new way (Going on holiday to France so there will be an abundance of unique cuisine to try and possibly document) 
• Trying to learn an instrument - Drums or piano (Instruments I have access to) Maybe for the drums it could be a mixture of vocal and instrumental voice recordings edited together for its own drumbeat. (Voice telling me how to play the drums recorded and edited into a drumbeat itself)
• Learn how to ride a bike without stabilisers. Although I tried riding a bike as a child and could do it with stabilisers, I never learnt to properly ride a bike, so this could be a good one to attempt for the more complex thing to try.

Idea 1 - First time watching a Foreign Film with Subtitles.

Production of the ideas may have been slow, but I decided whilst looking through films on Netflix, that watching a foreign film with subtitles was something I'd never done before and a nice simple start to the project that could be easily elaborated on. I chose the film 'Amelie' a French 'fanciful comedy' with English subtitles. Watching the film itself was really good, even with the metaphors throughout the film and the symbols shown within it. Although a basic idea, I felt that this project could elaborate on documenting the process in a good way.
To show and develop and document the fact that my only way of truly understanding the plot to Amelie and what the characters were saying, I wanted to replicate the visual metaphors shown as well as the written element that helped me throughout the film.
In a sketchbook I have listed some of the things I thought were important about the film, in hope to replicate the props or have my own interpretations into 3d sculptures and props to display to the group.