Concepts

Over the last few days, I've been working on character concepts & an environment concept for Team Sprout. I feel like the environment concept that I've done doesn't convey a side scroller look at all. Also this is what the end of a level is most likely to look like. This is due to the level starting off quite dead and as the character progresses, the environment slowly comes back to live. This is due to the character planting seeds and restoring the environment.

For character designs, I started off by using simple shapes and chucking leaves on top (middle & bottom rows) These designs are pre boring.
I then came across this image & thought 'Why don't I add NZ native plants to the characters??'
I drew some Koru & Pohutukawa flowers onto characters. I like these concepts the best! They were fun to draw as well.

Reference
http://probertson.tumblr.com/post/125576347404/succulent-boys
http://www.studynewzealand.eu/archive/1354917493/New-Zealand-Christmas-Tree
http://gonewzealand.about.com/od/NewZealandTravel/tp/Cheap-New-Zealand-Tips-For-Cheap-Travel-In-New-Zealand.htm

Origins of Dreams and breaking them down.

I need to understand more about dreams before I dive into more ideas. This blog post contains research and text from Strephon Kaplan William's 'The DreamWork Manual' A step by step introduction to working with dreams.
So I now know a few things about nightmares, but I've missed the obvious questions.
What is a dream? Where do they originate? How do we understand them?

What is a dream?
-A dream is a manifestation of images & sometimes sounds which show common & uncommon interrelations.
-A dream is a mirror reflecting some aspect of life or the unconscious.
-A dream is a call to living more fully than can be lived just at the conscious level.
-A dream is the creation of night.
To start of with a dream, we have the remembered dream which is filtered by some ego process- 'Remembering Ego' which brings the dream into the waking state, but already begins to change → As dreams are unclear - the consciousness tries to piece it together to make sense of it, even in a way that wasn't dreamt. →→→→→Distorting the dream to the conscious ego's will. Partially when a dream is worked with, it will reveal things the ego does not particularly want to face.

"The outer world is no less perceived through assumptions than the inner world is perceived through assumptions". Objectifying unconscious assumptions through the process of consciousness.
It can be important to know what stimulates dreams. Whether it's through past experiences or what the dreamer hopes for the future.

For objectifying a dream (Breaking the dream down in it's concrete form).
-What are the major symbols & what are the relations between symbols?
-What issues, conflicts & unresolved situations are in the dream?
-What are the positive symbols etc in the dream?
-Does it relate to other dreams?
→ Objectifying a dream would also benefit to breaking down a nightmare.


Types of Dreams
-Nightmares/ Anxiety Dreams
-Great Dreams →Reflect on major experiences
-Ordinary Dreams →The every day kind of dream loaded with inner & outer life issues
-Skunk Dreams → Dream in which we do something bizarre that we do not do in public outer life.
-Confirming Dreams → Mirrors something significantly, a new step we have taken in our lives
-Predictive Dreams → Either future events or help cause them to happen
-Psychic Dreams → Involve spontaneous perceptions across time & space which could not be based on outer knowledge.
-Lucid Dreams → Describe the dream state in which the dream ego experiences itself as exerting will power & free choice
-Waking Dreams → Are outer life experiences which are viewed & worked with also as symbolic, or non-literal, experiences.

Group Work! SPROUTS

For the interactive paper, we formed groups to create a game for the remainder of the year. I formed a group with Taylor, Mikayla, Joanne & Tea & we are caller TEAM SPROUTS :D

Yesterday we brainstormed ideas and rather than having separate ideas, we choose the idea of sprouts right off the bat. This is because we found some sprout hair clips and they're pre cute & we wanted to make a cute game. From there we had loads of ideas regarding sprouts and the environment. 

We decided to make the game fully natural, with nothing man made. As the game must have a humanoid main character, our hero will be a humanoid type plant/ sprout kinda guy. We also want our character to be gender-less. Jo wrote down all our ideas and compiled them together. 

Our general idea is that a lil sprout dude needs to replant the forest to save his kind. He will collect seeds and water to help them grow and fight off pests such as snails and slugs. As we had a looooot of ideas, I'm not entirely sure with which idea we're going with just yet, but that's the jist of our game to be :)

After our brainstorm sesh, we each went off to make a moodboard, draw up a few character concepts and environment concepts. The moodboard I've created is more closely linked to the colours and style I imagine the game. The designs in this moodboard are simple,. but very beautiful. We want to make our game purely 2D, so we can focus on the story and making our game very appealing. 2D is also our strong point and we feel like it will be better portrayed in 2D rather than 3D.
I will most likely get the character and environment done in the weekend. I've started an environment in my book, but will most likely take it into paint tool sai to brush it up more :)

Our theme is fantasy, so we are able to change up the environment - with out of this world kind of designs. Ivan Laliashvili shows interesting fantasy environment concepts. The trees almost look like they have natural carvings on the bark. I think it'd be quite neat if we implemented this idea by having natural Maori carvings on the trees to better link it to being a NZ game.

References
http://tyvik.deviantart.com/art/Environment-Concept-349531184
http://domen-art.deviantart.com/art/Flora-and-Scene-Designes-545349113
http://domen-art.deviantart.com/art/Morpho-Goons-Environment-568620774
http://domen-art.deviantart.com/art/Underworld-sidescroller-concept-art-495617010
http://domen-art.deviantart.com/art/Concept-art-for-2D-sidescroller-495616936
http://pyroxene.deviantart.com/art/Sagramore-MMO-background-gfx-1-256612930|
http://fgfactory.deviantart.com/art/Environments-627483972
http://jurgitaart.deviantart.com/art/2D-environment-520575262

Ivan Laliashvili
http://ivanlaliashvili.deviantart.com/art/Loading-animation-1-399846010
http://ivanlaliashvili.deviantart.com/art/Magic-Kingdom-382158219

Dreams & Nightmares

Humans are unable to see thoughts, memories, dreams & perceptions.
I thought having a look into dreams/nightmares would be quite neat.

It's not much, but it's another step forward!
Just as I dove into psychology, a website called medicalnewstoday.com mentioned how we are unable to physically see mental processes such as thoughts, memories, dreams and perceptions. I instantly thought how neat it would be to look more into dreams and nightmares.

To me, dreaming is still a fuzzy thing. I barely have clear dreams that I can remember, but only fragments. When it comes to nightmares I remember them quite well. Recurring dreams also came into play. I had this one nightmare that would recur a few times, but small things about that nightmare would change. So it would still be scary each time as my unconscious mind wouldn't know what to expect with each change as it recurred.

Recurring dreams may be your mind’s way of telling you something. Do you have the same nightmare over and over again? Loewenberg suggests looking for underlying messages in recurring dreams so that you can rid yourself of them.

Recurring nightmares
-Repetition of an item
-Slight changes with each recurrence
-Links to experiences e.g. attack, accident, traumatic event
-Associates with fear, anxiety & distress.
-Nightmares occur more with children than adults

Notes
-Lucid Dreaming → Having control of a dream.
-Apon awakening our thoughts see our dreams as something bizarre
-First dream of the night = 5mins long. Last dream of the night = 45mins - 1hr

IDEA
A boy is at sea in a boat during the day searching for something. It changes to night time and there is a lighthouse. The lighthouse's light loops around which signifys the first nightmare. Each loop of the light represents the recurred nightmare. Something about the scene, be the lighthouse or environment would change.
The significance of this is that the little boy is scared of the dark- being the dark itself or what lurks in the dark like monsters 'monsters under the bed or in the closet'
I would take into consideration the length of dreams - the first dream is 5mins long and the last is nearly an hour long. Taking this into the animation and translating it into 1minute long, the dream part of the boy at sea in daylight would last 10secs, while the rest is a nightmare, being 50seconds. Yay for ratios.

This is just an idea, but I feel like it needs more properties of nightmares/ dreams within it. I've only just touched on nightmares, so I need to look deeper to better incorporate it into animation.

My tutor suggested looking at Carl Jung & Sir Sigmund Freud as well as surrealism to get a better understanding and hopefully more ideas!

references
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/nightmares-in-adults#1
http://www.clinicaladvisor.com/web-exclusives/determining-the-cause-of-recurring-nightmares/article/224569/
http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/9-things-about-dreams?page=3

Tome, Weapon & Steampunk Items Feedback

On Tuesday, I also got given feedback for the tome I created as well as the weapon and steampunk items.
Lena suggested showing the feather dagger to look more sharp and pointed as it is quite round at the tip. Also showing a texture on the feather would be helpful as it isn't obvious that is is tough or hard..looks more like something that will tickle someone to death rather than poison them.

For the steampunk item, Mikayla noticed the 2 magnifying parts of the goggles and said a neat idea regarding them. As the goggles see into the near future, the magnifiers can see further into the future, but the range of sight is smaller. I like this idea is it puts a use to this part of the goggles and isn't there for decoration.

Horror Environment Concepts + Feedback

I've been meaning to post this for the last few days!!
On Tuesday we were given the task to draw 4 horror game environment concepts. I drew my ideas up fast, so they aren't thought out very well. They had to include a sunflower and a baby flower rattle.

This concept is quite boring and doesn't have much going for it. My tutor Lena, suggested playing around with the lighting. E.g. light coming in from the window, which will cause the sunflower to simply be a black silhouette. Taylor said the sunflower can cast a creepy shadow. My own thoughts on it include, shifting the window over, so it's not in the center, more toys on the ground and perhaps a different angle of the view.

When I think of a baby rattle or toy, I begin to think of other related baby things, in this case a cot. Lena suggested making it more clear on which direction the attack on the cot is coming from. I said that I wasn't sure if someone attacked the cot or if it was the baby that wreaked the cot. So I understand that showing a clear indication of the direction of the attack would help the player better understand the image and what happened. Jerwin said that the sunflower on the wall makes it look creepy. Mikayla suggested having the image crooked on the wall or even on the ground, showing that it has fallen off. I really like this idea, but I reckon it can definitely go both ways. - A messy room with something untouched can add emphasis to each thing depending on the way you look at it. A fully messy room can shock the player.

I took the previous concept and changed it up more. I originally wanted the hands to be coming out of a big shadow, but didn't get around to drawing it in. I added shadow to add emphasis which looks a lot more interesting than the previous concept.

This concept isn't much of an environment concept, but I went with it. Tea suggested that the flower that the baby is holding would be dead, while the sunflower next to it would stay alive. This is a neat idea as it suggests that the baby is possessed or some sort of demon or not from this world.

Animating the taste of food

In class on Friday, we had to animate the 'taste' of food. Our tutor gave us lots of different options to choose from and I chose Green Tea Pocky. I found it difficult to animate as I was using a mouse with my right hand..and I'm a lefty D: I pictured it a bit differently, but this is what my right hand did...it has a brain of it's own D:
The pocky was calming and smooth like waves, Then the biscuit kind of interrupted that, being the weirdly shaped bouncy things I drew. The animation as a while sucks cos yeah, my right hand wasn't co-operating ...

Giving Feedback

Because I suck at working after effects xD Taylor had me look over the shots she's been working on to give feedback. I'm better with giving feedback to be honest ...Any who, here's a typed out version of what I wrote down for her.

Shot 2 -Lighting on Hamish is very bright once he's about halfway across the screen. The lighting needs to be dulled down. If the light was to be strong on Hamish then I feel like a shadow should be cast on the couch as he walks past.

Shot 3 - More orange -would contrast better with the blue. Perhaps face in of mirror world a bit later also. Hold the image of the real worlds door so the audience can take it in. Hold for about 1 and a half seconds.

Shot 5 - Lessen glow on Hamish (it's a tad too strong).

Shot 6 - Skin colour too light? Her lips shift over towards the end of the animation. Newspaper may need a blue tint (a little bit - bounce light of blue coloured environment). Again, the mirror world needs to be more orange.

Shot 7 - Lessen glow on Hamish as well as in the mirror world.

Shot 8 - Lighting on Hamish is really nice! Lessen glow just a tad.

Shot 9.1

Today, I worked on shot 9.1 where the actor drops his head down and Elizabeth looks sympathetic towards him.
There was a list of things to change that Taylor wrote up being:

-Background images of both the real world and mirror world to be updated.
-Update the animation of Elizabeth (As clean up is finished for this shot).
-Framing
-Add newspaper (plus overlays etc)
-Adjust bottom right corner of glow to mirror

I have completed all of these things, but will continue to play around with the newspaper overlays and colour. Taylor has been helping me as I'm pre bad on after effects. The glow on the actor is rather subtle, but even too clearly see it - don't want it to be too bright. The mirror might be a bit too white in terms of lighting. We are originally going for an orange kind of light emitting from the mirror. I'm not too sure on how to do this, but I'll give it my best.
The window light still needs to be played around with, it's way too dark. This would be done in Maya.

On to Compositing

I'm done with animating and will be moving on to helping Patrick and Taylor with the compositing. At the moment Taylor is sorting out the shots as EVERYTHING was compiled into one file which was around 80gbs :O She has written notes for each shot on what needs to be done to them. Once she's sorted out and compressed shot footage, she will hand me some shots to tidy up :) I'm not that great on after effects, but I will try my best!!!!

Clean Up

I finished the shot I was cleaning on Tuesday (internet wasn't working that day, so I'm posting this now). I've not very happy with it as there are lots of minor things that could be done. But as they are minor, I'm not going to fuss over them too much. I'll hand the shot over to Joseph and hopefully he can tweak it a bit - mainly the left hand.
I really should've noticed these things earlier...
- The elbows went from pointy to curved and back to pointy.
- The left hand and pointer finger are inconsistent in terms of shape as well as movement.
- Her eyes shift a bit, but isn't toooo noticeable. I did adjust the last few frames as the eyes were sliding down the face a bit.
- The eye lid crease moves a bit oddly as the lengths are all a tiny bit different.

Quick Update

I haven't been able to make many blog posts since the last post. The internet keeps disconnecting at home and work was getting in the way a bit. On Tuesday, I started cleaning up a shot (inbetweening) Taylor had cleaned up the keys as well as filled out the rough inbetweens. It was easy to clean up as her roughs were pretty clean. I didn't realize how slow I am at clean up though -.- It's been a while since I last did a 2D animation. I have one more frame to clean up as well as a few faces to fill in as I'm very particular with faces for clean up. .I'll definitely have this done by the end of Monday then I'll hand it over to Joseph, Gabby or Raven to colour. Taylor and I are going to finish animating and move on to helping Patrick compositing for the final!! For people that are carrying on with clean up, I'll give them a hand if they need help and also check on them to see how they're going :)

Today at the meeting, I suggested that we make the newspaper a tiny bit transparent, or something along those lines as there's absolutely no light coming through it. Paper is generally see through (depends on the paper), and with the light coming through the mirror world, we'd need to see some coming through the newspaper. It'd also make it look a bit glowy as it falls from the vanity unit (with the light coming through the newspaper from the light within the vanity unit.

June 3rd Feedback

Group Feedback
- Show shaking when the earthquake occurs
-Silhouette of Elizabeth needs to be more clear
- Lights flickering/ things falling off the piano
- Slight zoom on the vanity unit when the earthquake occurs
- Show what he's sitting on. Establishing shot of vanity unit with chair in the shot.
- Depth of field for background - not in complete focus
- Tie the light in the mirror more into the real world (Shine on actor slightly)
- Need newspaper clipping and photo on the mirror
- Adjust position of actor in side on shoot -too low
- Put animation in animatic - adjust positioning correctly for shots with white background in animation just change to multiply so piano is visible.

I'm hoping we can still add the image of the sunset/sunrise. This will add depth to the story and the relationship

For the title, Taylor and I reckon it should just be simple text. We want the viewer to know what the title is straight away. perhaps we could just have simple text of 'AFTERSHOCK' on the screen. The door slams shut and the text shakes (like in an earthquake) Also rather than the title fading away, it could dissolve/ crumble away (Like rubble in an earthquake).

Animating Update!

On Monday, I forgot my usb and left it at home. I couldn't work on two shots that I had started, so instead I've been inbetweening a shot that Taylor has done. I don't have flash/ animate at home, so i could'nt do any work yesterday at home. Although saying this doing the inbetweens didn't take long. i finished the inbetweens today and started working on the flow of the shirt for that shot. I passed it on to Taylor so she can work on the shirt looking flowy.
Today I started on shot 9 which is Elizabeth showing sympathy towards her husband when he lowers his head. I've got the movement and facial expressions down. I may need to add more inbetweens though :)

Two ideas

I've been quite caught up this week with the formative game pitch presentations, but I did manage to start animating a shot on Monday.

The shot is of Elizabeth playing piano and turning towards her husband smiling and turning back to the piano.
I tried 2 different actions for this shot and showed my team mates. They liked the more exaggerated version, but our tutor recommended the more subtle movement as it suits the character better. I understood that, but wanted to show the character being more excited or happy to see her husband.

These are the ending shots for both versions that I tried. First one being the more exciting reaction and the second image being more subtle. I like the first one a lot, but I know that the second image suits the character and the feeling we want to show for the scene - being sad.
I will continue with the subtle version as it suits better :)

Animatic Feedback

Joseph updated the animatic this weekend. He put some background rendered shots of our environment to better tie in the scene as well as new footage. It's looking really good!
But there are a few picky things that I've pointed out. Sometimes it takes me a while to notice these things - I really should've looked at the animatic more as he's been working on it. I've been talking to him on FB about it and I'll share my points through this blog post.

Just small things include the audio 'No, not again!' wasn't synced to the video. Also adding the music in would be a good idea, as we now have our music. It wont need to be matched up perfectly, but as I said, we have the music. Might as well chuck it in.
Also playing with the lighting on the actor would be good, as it doesn't match up with the environment.

For the newspaper falling down, I recommended having like 2 shots of the newspaper falling (which can easily be done in photoshop) just to show the viewer that the newspaper is actually falling. Because at the moment it isn't showing that it's falling down or really even moved.

Regarding the shots, there are two shots that aren't quite right to me.
-In shot 2, the actor is running his fingers through his hair and this action doesn't seem in character to me. I mean if I was depressed about losing my partner, I couldn't care less about my hair.

-And shot 4, he's looking at the paper in his hands the whole time, not paying any attention to Elizabeth. Like why would he pay more attention to the paper than his deceased wife? He's pretty lucky to be able to see her when she's not physically there. Priorities man. So I suggested having him 'look at Elizabeth' until he sits down then he can glance at the papers then back to his wife. I mean putting myself in his shoes, I wouldn't pay any attention to work, food... anything! I'd focus on the wife. He was her world, it makes sense.

Reshooting these would be a good idea :)

(BTW Hamish, your doing a great job! I'm just nit picking),

Rough Animating

FINALLY, we've started rough animating. I started shot 6 where Elizabeth is playing the piano and she turns to her husband and turns back to the piano. It's really rough and is only construction. It looks... not nice, BUT our main focus at the moment is to get the movement across then go back to the hair and clothes. I'm not too sure about the second key/image, maybe it's because there's no face as it looks a bit creepy. The tilt might be a bit too much.
There are only 2 keys so far for this shot, but I don't think we really need anymore..

Animation Planning

Taylor and I went over the animation plans. We only have 6 shots of animation which isn't much at all. We don't even have much action, but we will focus on the main movement of Elizabeth first, then go over the hair and clothes after. Some shots don't have much action, so we have made a system where we show the easy, medium and a bit more difficult shots to animate. This way the people in our team can say what shots they're most comfortable animating.
At the moment Taylor is drawing up some frames of Elizabeth's construction to work off as guide being side on and 3/4. This way the rough animators in our group wont go astray where she'd keep moving slightly around the screen. (Hopefully this DOES help!!)

Music

Unfortunately Holly cannot compose a score for us, as she is a very busy. BUT this is ok as we have found an alternative. Only Joseph and Gabby have heard it and they really like it. The others need to listen to it soon.

I like the constant flow of the first minute where there are no up or down parts to it. Although between around 1.25-2.30 there are some nice changes to the flow. These will work well with the 'up' parts of the scene (I hope this makes sense, I'm sure there's a word what I'm trying to explain...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YRICEt7XiY

Title & Credits Ideas

So like our group totally forgot about the title sequence and end credits D: Our producer, Joseph said that he'd do that credits and I had a pre neat idea.
We can have a shot of the vanity unit to the left of the screen with the credits rolling up the wall next to the mirror. Our actor Hamish would be walking around the room (reflected in the mirror) , but it would be blurred as we don't want the focus on the contents of the mirror but on the credits. It would be quite boring if the credits were rolling on a still frame. Having the lighting change slightly throughout the credits rolling would be quite nice too. For example going from blue light to a pale orange. Even the credits slowly changing colour from blue to orange (might be a bit weird though as credits are generally one colour).

Our tutor suggested having the credits show up in a newspaper article which would be quite nice too. Rather than rolling they can flash (obviously softly).

BTW we have a gnarly as title for our story. Patrick came up with it. our story is called 'AFTERSHOCK' I really like this name as it refers to the aftershock of the earthquake, what and who it has effected as well as the aftershock of the male characters life - being without his wife.

Regarding the title card, we have a few ideas. I tend to find it quite neat when text is embedded into the scene rather than floating on the screen. One idea was to have the word AFTERSHOCK be carved into the corner of the vanity unit table. A truck would drive past causing the vanity unit to slightly shake, showing 'aftershock' physically.
Another idea that Patrick and I collaborated on is the word AFTERSHOCK to show in the shadows on the floor and it will disappear when the door is closed when the husband arrives. With this idea the door could slam shut causing the apartment to shake slightly and the word AFTERSHOCK will be shaken also and disappear slowly after. I'm not sure if the title for this idea would be shown as darker than the shadow or lighter as a sort of light source. I will try both ideas anyway.
Taylor suggested having a newspaper article having the title of AFTERSHOCK also which would be nice in comparison to the newspaper clipping in the scene.

IDEA FOR ENDING CREDITS (come back to near end ish of term)
In terms of a light source during the rolling credits, having a soft candle light flickering on the wall would be super nice.
In the mirror we would show our actor (blurry) walk out of screen and we would hear him light a match. Then a soft candle light would come on, flickering on the wall as the credits roll.
Obviously the light from the match would also shine on the wall, so it could shine on the wall when the title AFTERSHOCK appears as it would be a brighter and a harsher light. Then when the candle is lit, the credits continue.