Mushroom Panic!

Ah what a cheesy title! this is my mushroom scene in which the player finds themselves in mushroom land where you are greeted by a group of mushrooms! as the mushrooms are static images on the background it took alot of thought and effort (and help from Anna) to get this to work. basically, I made speech bubbles as buttons, in the up state they are not there, but once you rollover a mushroom (the hit area) the bubble will appear, and if you click down more text will appear, then the middle mushroom will give you a choice of helping them or not, you then get to choose yes or no.

I'm not saying what happens if you choose though, you'll have to play it to find out!

However after testing this scene on a number of people I have discovered from feedback that there needs to be some direction as to which mushroom you should click on first, for example if you were to click on the middle one first, you would be greeted with the question: "will you help us?" and you would be taken to a duplicate scene which then offers you a choice.

but if you had not clicked on the other mushrooms first you would not know where you were or why and what they wanted your help for!

so some direction prompting is needed, especially if children are playing it, so that the story flows better.

I was thinking of having a mushroom jumping up and down to entice you to click on that one first, and then then when you have released the mouse another will jump and so on so that they are pressed in the right order, however I don't know how I am going to do this unless i create the whole thing again from scratch as the mushrooms are part of the background.

then how would I do this? make them into jumping movie clips? but then how would i make them stop jumping in order for another to start? how would I tell flash to make the 2nd one jump after the first has stopped? I can't really get my head around it at the moment but I'd really like to do that.

another thought which although won't be as effective could also work is to have say a little fairy, fly in and hover above the mushroom I want the player to press for a number of seconds and then move to the next and so on, this could be done using tweens and timing, so could work but would not be as accurate as the other method.

I did the Grave-yard Scene!

I finally worked out a way to do my graveyard scene without Anna's help! (as I couldn't get hold of her) The idea is basically that a ghost pops up from each grave when you press the button, but when I started the project I didn't really know what I was doing so I just made the ghosts pop up using tweens, (which I did with the whole thing, wasting alot of time as it would then have to be re-done using actionscripts anyway!) I thought about making the graves buttons so that when you hit them the ghost pops up, another idea I had was to duplicate the scene 3 times and in each duplicate scene have an animation of the ghost popping up from each grave, then using action script on the original screen- make it so that when you release the button on the grave you are taken to the duplicate scene and you them see the animation for that scene, etc etc. at the end of watching the duplicate you are routed back to the original using scripting and then you can select all over again! this was a bit tricky, as when you were on one of the duplicate scenes the other buttons did not work, nor did the one you had just pressed! so I decided to put the script on all of the buttons on each duplicate scene so that from a duplicate screen you could also move to another duplicate scene, rarther than having to wait to return to the main scene, and it would have been odd not being able to press the buttons when a ghost was in action!

got all that?

anyway this caused the sound to be a bit messed up as i had it on each scene, and they were over-lapping, so i just left it on the main scene but it still had a weird overlapping sound, in the end i just put it on each scene with a start and a stop, so the music restarts each time you click a button but that sounds better than it did before.

also I created a "back" button so that players can return to the previous scene when they've had enough, but that only appears on the main graveyard scene after about 4 seconds, so the only issue i have with that is that you have to wait 4 seconds to return, or if you haven't clicked any of the graves in that 4 seconds- you may just clic back because it appeared and therefore miss out on some of the game! (I have tested this with a few people and they instantly went for the back button when it appeared) I would like to fix this but am not sure what to do? if i make it appear later that would give players more time to "explore" the scene, but then when they have finished they would have to not touch anything for a while for the back button to appear, (as touching a button would start the whole process again) so hopefully I will see Anna in time before the deadline to get some assistance with this as there was no-body free in the studio today! and Simon is teaching all day tomorrow so it all depends!

30 days of night Ben Templesmith

Just one more thing before I go, was looking through my blog and noticed some of the graphic novels I've been reading and noticed that I'd forgotten to mention the 30 days of night series by Ben Templesmith, (Illustrator) which In parts in excellent and suits the horror style perfectly, but at other times it grates on me as he will cut details in favor of half drawn sketchy child like sprawls during faster paced scenes, but his still shots, (pictured) are fantastico!

When I read graphic novels I can't imagine reading a standard book again, (although I read plenty of text only books) I just love the way they flow through your brain like little pulses of electricity, each snapshot being burned into your mind. (sorry the creative writing elective hasn't worn off yet!)

I also want to be a graphic novelist every time I read one, but I can't draw, well, no I can't actually, not in perspective at least.

however when I'm not reading a graphic novel I want to be a web designer, not that I find web pages particularly  interesting, I think it's my logical side telling me that's where the jobs are.

I'm starting to really like flash and can see myself creating interactive content using it for web pages, mobile phones etc. But my dream job would be making Title sequences for movies, I don't even know what it is about it that has always drawn me in, (that's what made me want to do Digital Media in the first place) I just think I have a natural talent for putting things together, sound with images, making image and text dance to the music as such etc etc. but of course I've never done anything advanced in this area, it's just a feeling I have based on my experimental stuff and what I've been told by my peers.

I will be looking into Title sequencing a bit more after speaking to Mike today about it, I never even realized there was much of a job-base for it in the UK, I will be looking into that a bit more at some point soon.

right it's almost midnight and I still have to watch the X files so night night!

Feedback for assignments!

Just thought I'd have a big moan about not getting feedback for our projects yet, I'm amazed that people don't seem that bothered about it? maybe that's why they are relaxed about it in the first place? most people still haven't collected their video project feedback, maybe it's because I come from access and am just used to getting my feedback and marks within weeks of completing a module, maybe I am just a little too anal about certain things, but it just keeps me going knowing that I did well on a project and that all my hard work has been acknowledged! 

on the other hand it's good that we all look at each others work at the end of a module, although embarrassing, it gives you a chance to gain feedback from other students and gage their reaction to it as to it being good or shite! It's a shame however, that mine and Ashley's video projects were never shown (they were in late as we started the course late), which ok saves that embarrassing thing that happens but then you think well who have I done all that work for if no-ones going to see it? and I can't even get feedback on it?

I have to say I'm not getting at the tutors on this one, I think Annabeth does a brilliant job helping us when she has the time to! I hate bugging her about my feedback forms actually, but someone has to I guess? (and that someone always has to be me...) it doesn't help that I am extremely obsessive, all of my coursework for the last 3 years is organized in cabinets in folders in order of date in my house! and it gets at me that there are gaps waiting to be filled for my feedback and grades! (yes i am so sad i even have little homes waiting for them) when I got the feedback for the video module I was in such a good mood for weeks! feeling such a sense of self-accomplishment and self-worth! It soon wore off though as I handed in more and more briefs, constantly giving all my worth but getting nothing back in return....sob...sob....

I hope we get them before the end of the year! what if we don't? how will I sleep over the holidays? I WANT TO KNOW IF I HAVE GOT MERITS OR DISTINCTIONS! I neglect almost every other area of my life to get this work done to the best of my ability so the least I want is to know if it was worth it! 

sigh.

It's no ones fault, I'm not blaming anyone personally, i just wanted to have a huge moan about it! and if anyone wants to support the feedback moan feel free! on the other hand if you think i'm nuts please don't say anything! hahahaha

I think i'm too tired now best be off to bed! (am I hell, I can't go to bed without watching an episode of the x files! it's my routine now, if i brake it I can't sleep right! told you i'm strange, hence the reason I live in my own bubble) 

night night all.

Tachikoma from ghost in the shell stand alone complex

As we are animating simple objects in Maya and giving them expression and emotion without the use of complex facial expressions, environmental props etc I thought I'd reference the Tachikoma from ghost in the shell.

Although they are essentially fighting machines, they convey personality through their voices and gestures, but even without the voices and no facial expression whatsoever you can still detect some form of emotion from these machines, (they do appear to have "souls" or some kind of personality in the series) simply by the way they move, despite their bulky appearance they are very adept at moving around, cat like if you will, and have pet-like mannerisms, in fact although I watch mecha, I never really "feel" anything for the machines, (except a little in eva when I realized the eva's were part biological) but in this i felt annoyed by the tachikoma, then even more annoyed and then I started to like them and even sympathies with them! 

A great achievement if you ask me for an animator to make the audience connect with his/her characters as it is, but expressionless machines? well I guess just about everything to do with GITS must just be pure awesome then.

Meet The Mushroom Queen!

Newer flash designs

Here are some newer re-vamped designs! however they have been converted to raster graphics to be displayed so still have a rough edge, the original vector images are neat and clear.

Woodsprite or Treesprite Old design

Old photoshop design for my Treesprite, it has since been neatened up on Flash as I prefer to draw on flash than Illustrator. these are awful! I'm so glad I re-drew them! thank god working with symbols and movie clips is so simple on Flash! because you only have to edit the symbol and it will change everywhere on the timeline! so no messing about altering every single keyframe you have the graphic in!

CATAPILLARS FOR MY FLASH INTERACTIVE TALE

SELF-PORTRAIT

some more maya storyboards

Everyone else is prob animating by now and I still can't come up with some characters.

Maya storyboards

Some ideas for Maya, however as I am the worst person in the world at using maya, I doubt I will use any of these, I will never be able to create any of these characters in 3D, I might just settle for the ball meets the square, if I can even do that.

The Cow thing and the giant Cigerette.

Distinction!

Yipeee! I got a distinction for my Elective, which was creative writing! only one other in the class got one so that means I'm sort of special! It's made me feel better after getting such a disgraceful mark for my Critical studies presentation, I've done critical studies at this college for over 2 years now and I have always been a high achiever, always getting top marks so to get a pathetic 47 points out of 100 is sickening.

I don't even know if that constitutes a mere pass? It has really dampened my spirits as I'd set myself on getting at least merits for all my subjects, but now that I am failing in Maya too i'm on a real downer, if i fail that too I feel like quitting! after all my goal was to do the BA digital media, if i can't get onto that what's the point? I don't want to leave with a foundation.

Anyway enough of that, I finally got a distinction! after being told I was just a few marks off a distinction for my video project I was absolutely gutted! JUST A FEW MARKS! if only I had planned it out a little better...

My main problem with that was Matt in the AV suite, what a tosser! sorry but he was, I don't know how anyone can work with him or why is he still employed by the college, he speaks to us like we are all thick shmucks who are beneath him! "If your clever, and you know how to read, you'll notice a sign on the door...." was his reply to me when asking what time they re-opened! I was asking because after going in there to edit my video at lunch time I was told I'd have to come back after lunch cause there closed, however the same guy who was in there working then was still there when I came back at one! (hmmmm and they seemed a bit friendly, could it be that he favors fellow saggers?)

Well getting this mark has proved that I can write, despite my critical studies teacher stating that "for the most part my word summery was well-written" the most part?

I wonder if I can do the whole thing again to get a better mark? ok so I didn't discuss the paper but my result was still the same as the others who did subliminal seduction, I still touched on the same details, did some additional research and probably found out more than I needed to, but because I told him I didn't really read the paper, (like an IDIOT) that lost me the marks! If i hadn't said anything, would he have even noticed?

anyway I got a DISTINCTION for creative writing and just wanted to tell the whole world of blog. so there.

Sword of the stranger

Excellent film I've just watched having missed it at the leeds film festival 2008, fab animation, the fight scenes are also spot on and it actually has a very good solid plotline! at times i forgot i was watching a cartoon as it plays out like an epical samurai flick. I highly recommend this to any anime or samurai movie fan, it's very good and yes i'm very tired so my vocab is also asleep, i can't think of the right words to describe the film, but I thought I'd stick it up on the good old blog as everything watch is usually where i get my inspiration from, i rarely look at the real world!

Oh I forgot to say what it's about! well i don't want to give too much away but basically it's about a little boy and his dog who have been sent away by a monk to seek refuge in a temple in another city as his home village was burnt to the ground by imperialist soldiers. It turns out the entire army is after the boy believing he is the key to immortality. the boy meets a lone samurai warrior and they team up, (well the boy hires him to get him to the temple in one piece after his dog has taken a liking to the stranger) the characters are all very solid and well-rounded out and the plot elements fall in line with the ming dynasty and the intrusion of the white man and their weapons vs the honour of the samurai. I'm too tired to say anymore i can't think straight! 

Ponyo on the cliff: Myasaki

I recently watched hayo Myasaki's latest film : "Ponyo on the cliff" which I really enjoyed and was thankful for the return to Myasaki's vivid childlike methods of story-telling, following the last effort from studio ghibli "Tales from earthsea" which wasn't necessarily a bad movie, but it lacked the magic and imagination behind the rest of the ghibli films. (Earthsea was made with Hayo's son at the helm, Goro, as his farther was working on the fantastic "Howl's moving castle" and therefore left earthsea to his son, it was also his first attempt at directing one of the studio's feature length animated movies).

Back to Ponyo on the cliff! I wasn't sure if I would like it or not as from the screen shots I had seen of the film I thought it looked too basic, and would like detail, but thankfully I was wrong and it has all of the spirit of any other ghibli movie, it especially reminds me of "My neighbour tottoro" as the focus is on a 5yr old boy who meets a magical friend, (as in tottoro except gender reversals etc) however whilst Tottoro was laid back in it's execution, Ponyo has a bit more action, to begin with the pacing is slow but not too slow and not to the point in which you would lose interest as there are far too many rich visuals to take in and of course the attention to detail also grabs your attention and refuses to let you go.

The basic plotline revolves around a 5yr old boy, (who is adorable and despite being a cartoon has all the qualities and convictions of a real 5yr old) who lives with his mother and father, (although he address's them by their first names so I presume that he is perhaps adopted?) they live on a rocky slope at the side of the sea and each day his mother- who he refers to as Rita drives down the hill, (like a maniac) to work which is a local nursing home and which handily has the nursery next door for the boy to go to.

One morning before they leave, the boy is playing around at the sea, (which is a few feet from the house) and he finds Ponyo, a goldfish girl that longs to be human!

he rescues Ponyo from a jar that she is stook in and takes her home where he proceeds to put her in his green bucket with some water.

He discovers that she likes ham amongst other things, and that she is a magic fish as when he found her he cut his finger which the fish licked and healed. Because of this (Ponyo tasting the boys blood) she starts to become human, (at which point I found her a bit annoying) The tsunami comes because of this disruption to the sea and her mother and father, (her mother is known as the sea goddess) have to decide what to do.

There is alot of destruction caused by the tsunami, which has hauntingly been captured to great effect, but there is also the raw basic innocence of a loving friendship between 2 children caught up in the midst of all that, and how people pull together, and can survive during these disasters with nothing more than kindness and consideration.

I stopped watching the film after about 45 mins so I can't really say anything else in terms of plot, the reason for this is that I got a copy of it from Malaysia and although decent, it dampened my viewing pleasures a little, as I like to watch my films in high quality-color, framing, sound etc and all of this started to grate at me after a while so I switched it off! but I will be looking out for the U.K release sometime this year! I recommend this film highly to any Ghibli fan or even if your not- it's a great magical film that you can sit back and enjoy as your 5yr old self again!

Dead Space: Best Alien invasion game EVER!

One more game I just HAVE to blog about is "Dead Space" what a F*****G scarey game! I love horror survival games, I have all the resident evil games that were ported over to the gamecube, all the silent hill games, plus the odd other here and there, such as the forbidden siren series, project zero, haunting ground, etc. but none of them truly scared me like this, and I don't scare easily! Condemned was pretty jump in parts but this thing scares the hell out of me! I've had it since it's release date, I got it with fable 2- (which I think is a bit lame but still play it now and then just cause I bought it!) and only played it for about 10 mins cause I kept freaking out and hitting pause! lol (instead I just watch other people playing it- I know I'm such a wuss i need to just get it over with and play it!) anyway the game basically is about you and your crew arriving at the Ishimuru (I think it's called that) space ship following a distress call from one of the crew, (you should watch the anime movie dead space that was made in connection with the game it tells you the back story and is pretty awesome! one of the best animes I've watched in the past few months) and basically all the crew are dead and you have to investigate, their bodies have been used as shells for the "deadly horrible aliens" to take over, they look gross, with all their contorted limbs sticking out of the humans flesh, whilst the once human limbs hang limp at their sides, also their jaws are usually missing or hanging off whilst the rest of the face is stretched out and twisted- they look freakin sick! yeah so that's creepy, no not creepy I mean shit scarey when they're coming at you in packs! the est bit about the game and what makes it is the sound, the sound is awesome. you should play it in the dark, on a big tv with surround sound. who's the wuss now? (chuckle) this is what happens to me over and over, I'm in a room, (on the game) walking cautiously around, making sure not to step on the gross slimy chunks of flesh that are all over the place, I can hear the air outside in the back of my living room and all my footsteps echoing all around the room, then suddenly you hear scarpering nasty alien monster feet in the background, that's when I start to really freak out, then BOOM! the F***ers are behind you and that's probably where I scream and start shooting like a maniac... ahem anyway enough said, go out now and buy this game! I DARE YOU! mhah ha ha har...

Mirrors Edge

Just thought I'd write about one of the games I have played recently, which is as the title suggest! Mirrors Edge! It's made by EA games and I have it for the X box 360.

I'm not too familiar with EA games as I'm pretty sure they usually stick to sports games? (which I hate!) I usually go for Capcom titles but anyway, I really enjoyed this game, I haven't been playing first person games for long, I didn't like them at first, being used to 3rd person mode, ie: resident evil, silent hill etc for the playstation 2, at first I would walk into walls, constantly have the camera at the floor or sky etc etc, but after getting used to it I much prefer it now, finding my older games a little "awkward" .

I love the bright colors in the game, it makes a change from the muted colors usually seen in games, especially horror-survival which are also dark, so this games brightness and color was refreshingly erm fresh.

Yes anyway, the stunts you have to perform are pretty cool, you get to see her legs when your sliding down ropes, or if you jump into a roll you'll see the camera roll around and parts of her legs as though you were seeing through her eyes, (which is the point i know but i just like the way it is executed in this) the pacing is very fast at times, and gets you panicking! you have to outrun the mafia or who-ever they are and you don't really use weapons, it's more about speed and skills to dodge them or kick the weapons out of their hands and move on! as your running from them you have to quickly jump over obstacles, slide under things, vault walls etc etc it's very fun to play, my only qualm with it is that some of the stunts are a bit tedious and tricky, and the gameplay may feel a little repetitive after a while, but I've only played for about 4 hours so I still have alot more to see!

Tank Girl!

Another series of Graphic novels that I just bought, having heard the name for quite a while here and there, (Tank girl has been around since the 80's) I decided to look it up one day! and I found that the strips had all been converted into full length graphic novels, (3 of them) and then there are 2 follow ups, odyssey and apocalypse, and in 2008 there has also been a new wave of Tank girl series written again by Alan Martin and Ashley wood.

It's funny how in some cases the illustrator takes most (or all) of the credit for a book, as in the case of Jamie Hewlett with Tank girl, ie: his name is the most commonly associated with the book, or there's Alan moore, writer of the watchmen, V for vendetta, swamp thing etc, who always takes the full credit for his novels, even though he does not illustrate them, which is fair enough, i just find it interesting how sometimes it is the artist that is most spoken about and sometimes it is the illustrator! (my previous post discusses the graphic novel "girls" written by and illustrated by Joshua Luna- which I find rather amazing! but of course there are also films that have been done single-handedly such as the Makoto Shinkai movies) 

Anyway Here is a picture of "Tank Girl" illustrated by Hewlett, (who then went on to create the band: "Gorillaz" with some other dude) anyone who knows of it will know it's absolutely mental, she's basically a beer swilling, bad-mouthed, kangaroo-shagging, (Is set in the out-back of Australia) tank driving maniac who with her half-man-kangaroo boyfriend "booga" go on an assortment of various missions- what I don't know as I've not got around to reading them yet! so my description of Tank girl may not be wholly accurate! but basically I thought it looked like a fun read, I liked the punky-vivien westwood- british pop culture type feel it had and just the total bizarreness! plus there are the elements of violence, anarchy and metafiction that just add to it's appeal and make for a very interesting and inspiring read! (I hope!) 

Tank girl was also made into a diabolically crap movie that the authors still to this day state: "killed tank girl" and that she will never be the same again because of... well we can always bypass the film, (as I am) and read through the comics that were written when I was probably about 8! so it's strangely nostalgic reading them now even though I never heard of them when I was younger but because I know it's from the years I was growing up as a child so it has alot of familiar 80's elements in it.

GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS!

Just thought I'd write about a recent Graphic novel I bought called "Girls" by Joshua Luna, One of the Luna brothers, (obviously!) They were both born in California and have been drawing sinse they were 5, they both went to the Savannah College of Art and Design and graduated with BFA's in sequential art.

The hard back edition of Girls that I have is roughly A4 size and collects the entire series in 624 pages! It cost me around £50 but in my opinion it was worth every penny! from the supreme glossy finish, the incredible artwork, and the deluxe hardback casing and slip-case.

What I find remarkable is that Joshua single handedly wrote the entire series AND did the accompanying artwork! The story is amazing, It's about an alien attack on a small town, but the aliens all happen to be girls! however it is not as it sounds, the main focus here is the plot, the story line is tight and it works, it keeps you reading and reels you in, in fact the whole thing feels as though you are watching a movie, this could easily be adapted into a feature film and although there are plenty of alien invasion films this one does it differently, choosing to home in on human relationships, the way we interact with one another and how being in a crisis changes that, the characters have layers and inner conflicts, they are not simply "cardboard", and their actions are what shock you as the reader the most, the aliens are merely a side dish to the underlying themes that are explored.

I won't say anymore as I have more books and stuff to write about! plus I don't want to droan on too much as no one reads these posts as it is! 

well as my computer, (that I paid well over a grand for in september) has bloody had it! (I can't upload a dam thing! it's really pissing me off, we are meant to blog frequently but I can't flippin upload nothing!-oh well it's just let me upload that one! typical, still won't let me upload my other stuff though! grrrr) anyway here is a link to read the first issue of "Girls" for free!!

http://www.imagecomics.com/iconline.php?title=girls_001&page=cover

Just some Sketches/ideas for interactive brief

Just a few sketches I drew for the interactive brief, I am totally lost now, I don't want to do Hansel and Gretel anymore, I've gotten bored of it! I think I'd much rather make up my own story, (may as well get some of the creative writing skills i've ben developing every wed night in there!) I had a dream that I was in the X files and this man who gave me some free tattoos was trying to summon a demon by making me eat this little creature, but I didn't want to eat it so Mulder and Scully came in and we all tried to save it, it was this weird little thing that I have tried to draw, (I've called it a woodsprite) and it inspired me use it as a character in my interactive story, well I just need to find out if we can use another story or not, I don't see others sticking to the briefs, so why should I? well unless I'll loose marks of course! 

Anyway that's that, I just wanted to post the sketches! (right been trying to upload for an hour now I'm sick to death of this shoddy internet connection! It should not be this slow! it's like I am stuck in some time warp and have a connection from the 90's! It won't F*****g upload a dam thing!)

finally got them uploaded at college! really! I pay over a grand for my laptop and can't even upload from it! 

Hansel and Gretel character designs

some ideas for my interactive tale about how i want it to look, i've been thinking of using black and white photography with hand-drawn illustration over it like so!

I can't draw though so I might just search books and the web for images I can use, which I'm sure will be fine as this isn't a drawing brief! these are not my images either, I copied them from a book, but if I could draw I would like my characters to look similar to this.

I don't know why my writing is underlined? there is no option to turn it off, it happens whenever I upload an image first and then attempt to type after it?

Pictures of inspiration for "tales" interactive brief