Video – Storyboard

For my video I have prepared a storyboard so that I could establish more ideas and so that I could also set in stone what I want to do for my video. My video will consist of a wide range of camera angles, complex use of after effects and also some really good soundtrack music as well as sound effects.

My Storyboard

Scene 1 – Someone from the class is playing The Sims game via a laptop/computer.

Shot – Over the shoulder view of the game shows a third of the person and the rest of the shot is the game and the classroom environment.

Scene 2 – As the student is playing The Sims a Sims Icon (Green Diamond) appears above his/her head.

Shot – Laptop taking up bottom third of the shot, students head is in the middle third and the icon is in the top third.

Scene 3 – A second student then decides to play Mario Kart.

Shot – Pans over from the student on the laptop towards the student playing on the Nintendo 64.

Scene 4 – As the Mario Kart race starts the noise gets louder and louder. The student looks around the classroom wondering why the game is making so much noise.

Shot – Front view of player.

Scene 5 – The chair then starts to move like a race car, the student is moving fast.

Shot – Side view of the chair moving across the room. The camera will pan along with the chair.

Scene 6 – With the student playing Mario Kart still zooming across the room someone bursts into the room shouting for help as there is a fight happening outside.

Shot – New shot from across the room (High camera angle). Student on chair still zooming in the corner.

Scene 7 – People running downstairs.

Shot – Side view or Front view (undecided).
Low camera angle.

Scene 8 – Two people fighting on the street in a very professional but brutal style.

Shot – Camera shot from first person view (so you can tell people are running).

Scene 9 – Everyone returns to classroom after an epic fight to find someone with a magical paint brush. They start destroying the room (reference to Epic Mickey).

Shot – Zoom from extreme close up to low angle.

Scene 10 – Everyone understands what is going on now so they decide to play a superhero game so that a superhero can save the day.

Shot – Slight close up to zoom out to make the strong pose of the hero stand out.

Scene 11 – The next day a student that was ill walks into the studio unaware of the events that happened the previous day. He then plays Fallout.

Shot – Side view.

Scene 12 – The class walk outside to find that Hull has been blown to shreds (similar to Fallout).

Shot – Green Screen, camera peering over students heads to reveal what is left of Hull.

3D Realisation – Topology

Topology is the way in which lines show the form of a shape. 3D Topology can be complex depending on the model and also depending on the amount of detail the 3D object contains. When using topology quad-polys and tri-polys are created by the lines which form around the object, a tri-poly is not used as much as a quad-poly because a computer can read quad-polys easier.

The website http://www.math.wayne.edu/~rrb/topology.html defines topology as such:

“Basically, topology is the modern version of geometry, the study of all different sorts of spaces.”

Below are some examples of Topology:

When making a topology model, there will be multiple layers. When you take away the character shape layers and keep the topology you should be able to see just the topology and you should be able to understand what this object/person is. From the above image you can only see topology and I can tell that it is Jane from the Disney film ‘Tarzan’.

Again an example from the Disney film ‘Tarzan’. The character on the left has no topology lines whereas the character on the right has the topology lines on top of the model. You can see that the smaller the poly the more detail is in that area; also the lines curve so you can understand the 3D model and so that the image doesn’t look as flat.

In this face you can see lots of different colours. The colours represent movement along the contour lines and the polygons are all different sizes as the smaller the polygon the more detail/movement.

This is from the Disney short film ‘Paperman’. The hair is made from very little polygons therefore the shape is more rough rather than being smooth (to smooth the object you would add more polygons).

Our brief requires us to create topology for a celebrity/cartoon bust, a world war aircraft and a sofa. Here is my celebrity bust, I chose Hercules as he has quite a strong figure. For my first attempt at Hercules it went ok but I will be practising a lot more to get the topology correct.

I found the Sofa topology easier to do, however, I still know that I have a lot of room to improve. I know where I went wrong as I spoke to my teacher about how I am struggling with topology. My goal is to improve my skills in topology.

I am proud of my World War Aircraft because you tell tell that is an aircraft just by looking at the topology.

Overall I am proud of my topology and I know where I need to improve. I am currently working on more topology work to improve my skills.

Glossary – Pareidolia

Pareidolia is a type of illusion in which we persuade our imagination to create an image out of certain shapes. As a basic example, a form of Pareidolia would be looking at the clouds and creating a shape out of them with your imagination. Most people can recognise more than others, as i suppose it depends on how your imagination works. Here as some examples of different perceptions of Paredolia.

Taps look like a face.

Drink looks like a Skull.

Bag has an unhappy face.

Leave has a scary skull like face.

Coffee resembles the shape of a frog.

Washing Machine pulling a funny face.

A hidden Mickey Mouse on the Moon.

Pareidolia can come from any shape or object, however, some people get confused between the difference between optical illusions  and Pareidolia. Pareidolia is usually something our brains naturally visualise without having to focus to hard whereas optical illusions are a trick of the mind to either trick your mind into believing that something is moving or to force you into seeing a certain image. Here are some examples.

Games Design – The Prisoner Dilemma

Video Source: https://youtu.be/t9Lo2fgxWHw

The Prisoner effect/dilemma is used in most games (especially games that are online). It is a choice related issue that can change the end result of a game depending on which each character chose.

The example we know shows us how the dilemma works in jail, basically stating that each person that got arrested has a choice of two options; to either stay silent or tell them it wasn’t you and blame it on your friend. If one of the prisoners accuses their friend and the other one stay silent, the one that stayed silent would get 3 years in jail and the other one would go free, whereas if they both stay silent they will both go to prison but only for 1 year. If both prisoners accuse each other they will go to prison for 2 years each. Below is an easier way of understanding.

Prisoner 1     Prisoner 2            Prisoner 1     Prisoner 2        Total

Choice                                                       Years in Jail

Accuse P2     Stay Silent              0 years           3 years        3 Years

Stay Silent    Accuse P1               3 years            0 years       3 Years

Stay Silent    Stay Silent             1 year               1 year         2 years

Accuse P2      Accuse P1               2 Years            2 Years      4 Years

As you can see the better option would be to both stay silent because the result ends up spending a year in prison each, however, if you know that the other person will stay silent you could accuse them and go free therefore making the other person deal with the consequence of having to spend 3 years in jail.

The reason we use this ‘Prisoner Dilemma’ is because we don’t know what our team members or the other team are thinking and this Dilemma comes into effect whilst playing games such as Grand Theft Auto 5, Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Elder Scrolls Online, Star Wars Battlefront, StarCraft etc.

I mainly understand ‘The Prisoner Dilemma’ in the game Grand Theft Auto 5 (when you play it online). When I have been online people have walked up to my character and tried to speak to me or contact me or invite me to a mission; the prisoner dilemma comes to play as I have the choice to either ignore him/join him and the other choice is to kill him, vice versa he has the same options. I choose to kill as you don’t want to risk it therefore they died and lost some of their money. Here are some examples of Grand Theft Auto Bounty Kills (Bounty Kills count as the prisoner dilemma as you have the choice to ignore the person or go after them to kill them).

Grand Theft Auto 5 Bounty Kills

Video Source: https://youtu.be/0Qvdy1iHbak

Overall I think that this effect can occur randomly and the end result will be unknown unless it is planned as a team. You have to go with your instinct and choose whether to silent and ignore everyone or kill your enemies. (Revenge is also a possibility).

Games Design – Casual vs Hardcore gaming

Games Design – Game Ideas

Our brief consists of us defining what Casual gaming is, developing thumbnail sketches of game concepts for specific age groups and finally creating a Project Proposal/High Concept Document which may also include a critical evaluation which can then be presented to the class.

Gaming Culture

Gaming has been around for years, and over the years it has developed incredibly. Everyone has their own opinion and some people prefer the old media whereas some people believe that new is better. In most cases we can agree that games can bring us together as a community, however some people think that gaming is bad for us. Everyone may have different opinion but we all know gaming exists and some of us don’t even realise we play games daily without even realising.

There are many different ways to game. Usually the way you game determines a gamer title for you. There are such gamers as:

• Casual Gamers
• Hardcore Gamers
• Applied/Serious Gamers
• Traditional Gamers

Casual Gaming

When someone is a casual gamer it can be interpreted in different ways depending on the person. Most people think a casual gamer is someone who has a little interest in gaming but is not too dedicated/willing to play a game every single day. Whereas some people get offended by that and think that a gamer should always be dedicated and put time and effort into games. Usually casual games are usually quite simple or a mobile app; whereas a hardcore/serious gamer know more about the games and the companies as well as knowing about a wider range of game styles. Casual Gamers play games such as Candy Crush, Farmville and 1010!

Casual

VS

Hardcore

Hardcore Gaming

A hardcore gamer is someone who is dedicated in playing games and has a very large interest in a large variety of games. Hardcore gamers usually spend most of their money on games or the merchandise from that game, visit shops and game conventions to make friends as well as buy game related items and also I believe that hardcore gamers try to relate games to real life. Games that hardcore gamers play usually consist of a game series such as Halo, Bioshock, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto etc.

Applied/Serious Gaming

Applied or Serious Games are not well recognised; most people don’t even realise that they are playing one of these types of games. This style of game is generally a game that educates as well as entertain. These games come in a wide variety as some won’t even feel like games as they become boring and are seen as more of a task. I would say Brain Training games and Simulators would categorise as Serious Games because they educate and prepare you for things you may encounter in the real world.

Traditional Gaming

From board games to the classic arcade games; what would you class as traditional? In my opinion I think that both of these type of games are traditional, I also believe that it depends on your age. As an example of the age theory I believe in you need to think about what games you played as a child compared to your grandparents. My grandparents enjoyed Chess, Jenga and as they got older they enjoyed the classic games such as Pacman and Mario whereas I see traditional games as PlayStation 1 games or GameCube etc.

What do you think to gaming cultures? And what type of gamer are you? Feel free to comment below this blog post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary – Parallax

A Parallax is used in a lot of games and most times you won’t even notice until you focus. Parallax Scrolling is used to create a certain atmosphere within a game; the use of this aesthetic style can increase the rate of movement of the character and also enhance game play. I really like games that feature Parallax Scrolling as it makes the game unique and also some games use the parallax scrolling towards their advantage as enemies can be included in one of the layers/backgrounds and also some games give the chance for the player to take the character into the background; therefore making parallax scrolling go from a game aesthetic to a game mechanic as the character is interacting with the background.

Games that feature parallax scrolling include Abes Oddysee, Hercules, Little Big Planet, Stick Hero, Mickey and the Castle of Illusion, Mario and Sonic etc.

Games Design – 3D Realisation – Sculptures

In our 3D Realisation lesson I had the option to choose a certain topic of interest. The options included Character Design, Prop and Object or Environment; I chose character design as I really want to improve my skills as I feel I am not as confident as I should be with character design as I am with the other options. Initially I was going to get my idea from a film/game/book but I then I randomly created a shape and my creation took place there. I felt more confident after this lesson as I discovered you can create characters easier when using shapes.

Above: The front view of my sculpture.

Above: The side of my sculpture.

Above: A view of the top of my sculpture.

Above: Another side view of my sculpture.

I think overall I definitely have room to improve but I am quite proud of what I have created. The main concept I would like to learn next would be how to get rid of any of the cracks and also smooth out more of the sculpture and maybe also add a bit of texture.

Sculptures are a great use of a design concept. From a sculpture you can see all of the textures, the width, height and length of the chosen subject and with the technology with have now, we can transfer our created sculptures onto a computer program and further improve the creation as well as add colour and put the image in a scene/environment/background. Sculptures are sometimes put into computers so that they can be animated, however, I like this animation created by sculptures with no use of computers at all.

My favourite sculptures include the ones from the Pixar Studios in Burbank California, Emeryville. I am interested in the works of Kent Melton and Greg Dykstra as they have created so many memorable characters over the years that we still know and love today. Greg Dykstra is mainly known for the sculptures of Remy from Ratatouille, whereas Kent Melton is known for The Incredibles characters and even characters from The Lion King. I really like their work because they look so realistic and they must put a lot of effort into each piece. Also they create more than one version of each character to show different poses, positions, facial expressions and my favourite of all is when a character ages seeing the difference using sculptures. Here are some examples of their work.

Greg Dykstra

Above: Dykstra creating one of the many Ratatouille characters as you can see the characters on a shelf behind him.

Above: One of Dykstras Sculptures being put into a computer and being manipulated.

Above: One of my favourite sets of sculptures. Carl Fredrickson from the film ‘Up’ being shown as a child, a young adult and elderly.

Kent Melton

Above: Melton holding a sculpture of Simba he created.

Above: The Genie from Aladdin created by Kent Melton.

Above: One of my many favourite Disney Pixar characters. Violet from The Incredibles.

Above: Tarzan from the film Tarzan

As you can see their artwork differs and varies. Melton creates Disney as well as Pixar and when Dykstra creates his artwork he creates a series of sculptures for one set film e.g. Ratatouille. Overall I really like their styles and would love to create work like they do.

Games Design – Video

The Brief

The brief requires me to create a 3 minute film to be filmed by me and edited using the skills I have learnt in my video lessons. The brief is open meaning I have the choice to create a film based on anything, however, if I cannot think of any ideas I have the option to pick out an idea from the hat. The marking criteria states that I will be marked on my attendance to lessons as well as my attitude to learning, also I will be marked on how well I absorbed the skills within lessons and the theme/creativity of my final product. I intend to also fill out all forms of paperwork that prepare me for when I need to create a real video for a client.

Idea 1 – My first thoughts related to the use of advertisements. One of my main interests is Disney so I thought about creating a Disneybound advertisement. Disneybound is a type of casual dress as well as cosplay, using subtle hints with clothing items to represent something or someone Disney. Currently only the main Disney fans use Disneybound, however, I think creating an advertisement towards Disneybound would inform more Disney fans on inspirational outfits as well as making the cost for outfits cheaper and more creative for parents looking to dress their Disney obsessed children; rather than having to buy a really expensive cosplay dress/costume.

I would use a green screen for a Disney background so it would look like I’m advertising in the actual park at Walt Disney World. Using lots of different camera angles to show off all of the types of clothing I would focus on making the product look affordable and fun for all. The problems I would come across would be providing the clothing and finding a model. Camera angles and green screen would be no problem but finding the right clothes to fit people would be quite difficult.

Examples of Disneybound:

Idea 2 – Moving on from the idea of Disneybound I thought I could maybe challenge myself a bit more by advertising Disney itself. Again using the green screen I would want to show people how amazing Disney World is. It would be good to advertise Disney and I was going to do this by bringing my little 8 year old cousin into University so that I could place her near the green screen and have different Disney backgrounds behind her. She would act happy, excited, mainly all the emotions a child would have at a magical place such as Walt Disney World.

The problems that may occur whilst filming this would include not being able to get my little cousin to come into University and act. However it is still a possibility that I can create this video just with an adult instead.

Idea 3 – I really like the idea of filming myself painting/drawing from different angles. Including music in the background and speeding up the video or slowing it down you can create a really nice video to evidence your artwork.

Here is where I got my inspiration from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgOSMdsFVJg

I think that you have the ability to use many camera angles during this video and a wide variety of music you can choose from which would fit the video.

Idea 4 – Swaying away from the Disney ideas I decided to go to my next interest which is DC Universe. I really like DC comics and I have two friends that would be perfect actors in my video. One of my friends has a Batman costume and one has a Joker costume; using these costumes I would create a fight against the duo as Batman and Joker are always fighting. Problems may occur such as finding a time both friends can film, also if I used green screen I might only have a limited space for a fight scene so I might need to take the film outside as well using all of the popular architecture around Hull.

Idea 5 – One idea that I would really like to try is re-creating videogames using my classmates as the characters. I think that it would be fun to do and I can use different methods of filming as well as camera angles. My only worry with this idea is copyright; providing the videos for the green screen and also music and sound effects may be copyright depending on where I get them from. I really like this idea as I have a wide range of games to choose from. So far I am thinking about using Fallout 4, The Sims, Epic Mickey and more.

 

Games Design – Learning Textures

Learning how to texture via photoshop was quite difficult at first but the more and more examples you create, the easier it gets. At first the numbers confused me but then once I started to learn the Power of 2 it got a bit more simple. Here is my step by step guide on how to texture.

Step 1 – Take a photograph of the type of texture you would like. Make sure the image is suitable, that it is clear and that there are no shadows (unless you want shadows).

Step 2 – Open the photograph in Photoshop.

Step 3 – Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool (Second from the top, on the toolbar to the left) and click on ‘style’ at the top. Set that setting to ‘Fixed Size’.

Step 4 – This size should be square and also include the numbers that are seen in the power of 2 chart. I chose 1024 however it depends on what you want to use this texture for.

Step 5 – Copy your selected area (Make sure the selected area is clear and clean).

Step 6 – Open a new Photoshop document, the new page should be set to the same size as your selected area. Then paste your image across.

Step 7 – Using either the healing brush tools or the clone stamp, edit out any imperfections that stand out too much and once you are happy with that click on Filter > Other > Offset.

Step 8 – A box should appear, half your power of two number and enter it into the two boxes, then press enter. You should now see your texture in four different sections.

Step 9 – The last step is too blend the lines so that the images look like one big image. Again use the clone stamp or any of the healing tools.