For the main Major project I worked with
three teams, one project was called Code
Name BAMBOoZEL, and my partner was Pooja Sharma, the other was called Trionfi and my partner was Lauren Scott.
Also I was helping Iain Cooling with character and background concept of an
Ipad game yet dew to me taking on so much I had to stop working on the Ipad
game early in its development.
Working
in a team.
I started off
with working with three groups. Thinking about it, was it a mistake? Yes
,because that meant I had taken on to much work. Then making a Gantt chart I
found out it was not feasible. It looked feasible at first when I stopped
working with Iain, but I had not taken in account of errors and issues of
things that may need redoing or unforeseen circumstances, like family troubles.
Luckily, I stopped working with Iain Cooling early in the production as there
wasn't any time to incorporate the Ipad game in to the schedule so I have to
stop work on it, but I believe it would have been better if I had also stopped
working with Pooja earlier when I knew she was falling behind on work; she had
some family matters which made her have to travel back and forth stopping her
from doing work which made us fall behind and then having us stop working on
the project all together. I knew that Pooja was having problems with completing
the work in on time but I thought she might be able to pull it off as I
couldn't start on any of the animation without the backgrounds she was making
for me to work with but when I was sure I wouldn’t be able to animate all those
shoots in time I asked to stop working with her and put my full concentration
in completion the animation for Trionfi.
Other issue was
not being able to meet up as sometimes I would only get to see Pooja and Lauren
when we had classes as meeting out of hours was mostly done by emails or
texting and dew to that not being able to talk about things in person meant we
got our wires crossed and misunderstood the other.
Looking back on
it I feel annoyed at taking on so much work as at first it looked like I had a
lot of time as I stated in semester b, yet in the end it became too much to
handle. Also I wished I had more time to learn new things and get a better
understanding of Maya and Fusion, the 3D programs. I am sad about the
cancelation of Code Name BAMBOoZEL yet happy with the completion and outcome of
Trionfi.
What was the
plan?
I started of
looking at resent products made in the animation industry then we also expanded
our flied to looking at games. I wanted a better understanding of the word
forefront so looking at thefreedictionary.com they gave the definition I
revised were:
fore•front
(fôrfrnt, fr-) n.
1. The foremost
part or area.
2. The position
of most importance, prominence, or responsibility; the vanguard: in the
forefront of the liberation movement. Also called foreground.
forefront [ˈfɔːˌfrʌnt]
n
1. the extreme
front
2. the position
of most prominence, responsibility, or action
I don't know
what's really happening in the industry so I emailed a few people to help me
understand better about how their companies have been working on to keep moving
animation to a new level.
 Fig.1 |
One company
member of Rockstar games told me that the main forefront which isn't technical
is the improvement of animation to give the viewer or gamer a "better
illusion of reality." Like the new game LA Noire, which used facial motion
capture technology for receiving better expression in animation to offer
players a new gaming experience but analyzing the face of the character to see
if they are lying or not.
I found a video of what they used
to make the game which was useful but I can’t use the technology they had so I
can’t work on a forefront project with mastering the forefront of the perfect
animation, but other idea was the forefront was of visual animation. So I
looked at Princess and the frog(Fig.1) a 2D animation which uses 3D backgrounds
and assets like a tram and cars. Also The Baconing(Fig.2) which is a game that
integrate a 3D 2D mix Where the backgrounds a 2D while the playable charters
are 3D. Looking at those I feel other forefront is the combined mix of both 2D
and 3D visuals in cartoon animations, yet not only for cartoons but also games.
 Fig.2 |
Other
inspirations
Inspirational
Artist: Shag (Josh Agle); his
work reflects the Polynesian Pop Art Movement of the 1950-60's, Bruce Timm; Is
known for his comic illustrations of DC, I analyzed his illustrations of spies,
Phil Noto; works on vintage spy girls with a classic approach which I was
hoping to establish into our spy and Kevin
Darts; illustrated Yuki7 the spy, the art has a retro style
to it which holds a beauty which always feels right with the stereotypical spy,
much like the works of Phil Noto but more stylistic.
Fig.3
|
Inspirational Games: Spy VS. Spy; which was
originally a black and white comic strip that debuted in Mad magazine and
published by EC Comics, then make into other medias as animated television
series, merchandise, trading cards and video games, the game is simple to play
with 2 characters who are trying to outsmart the other, Little Big Planet;
developed by Media Molecule is a puzzle\platform game, a style of game play
which may be best to incorporated in to our game as it doesn’t have a 3D camera
moment but a set view, which means it’s very flat on so the 2D animations
wouldn’t post to much of a problem such as animating a full 360 charter tune
around action cycle, Team Fortress 2; developed by Valve Corporation is a 3D
first person shooter game which has a very 2D feel and Professor Layton(Fig.3);
developed by Level-5 is a puzzle adventure game which is make mostly in 2D and
has many 2D animated shots in game.
Inspirational
Animations: Ghost In The Shell, one of the first animations to use 3D
backgrounds, assets and characters, James Bond Jr.; An animation made in 1991
about the nephew of master spy James Bond, the animation had a lot of gadgets
that were useful reference of our game and Karas, a Japanese animation made by
Tatsunoko Production which use’s combination of 2D and 3D characters.
The programs used where: Adobe Flash, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe AfterEffects,
Auto Desk Maya and Fusion. Other items were items like inks, pencils and paper.
These where used because they were the most reasonable programs to
use for what we were making, also I knew how to use Adobe Flash, Adobe Photoshop
and Adobe AfterEffects so it saved me time on leaning them but instead I worked
on improve my skills. I had to lean to animate around a 3D environments which
meant there was a lot of animation done a frame at a time, also had to learn
how to make quick 3D shadows which looked like they belonged in that 3D world.
The methodology used was Development projects methodology and
Artistic Practice as Research methodology. The development was the outcome of
the research was produced by identified a forefront by looking at many games
and animations that used 2D and 3D integration to help produce a product that
was the requirement. Then we took it in to the development and testing phase by
working on colour schemes, making a world that would fit both, the character
and background design, leaning new ways for better shadows on 2D aspects to fit
into the 3D world. The Artistic Practice as Research methodology was to create an
impressive product of the project and evaluative the conditions by making a
preproduction folder and a blog which held information of the making of this project
which showed an original outcome of ideas and products. I showed in my blog the
artist that I researched as well as the development processes. I commented on
what gave me the ideas for the colours and designs of what would have been the artefact.
My part of the project was the 2D fragments so I started off by
making many different character designs, using different styles, colours, even
different types of papers, tools and media to have a different feel to the
characters.
The forefront which I developed was:
•
The integration of 3D
backgrounds with 2D characters.
The relation to my practice was:
•
The understanding of 2D
movement in a 3D environment.
•
Learning new techniques.
Bring 2D into the 3D forefront. As in today’s society the dominant form at the
forefront of animation is 3D so I was looking at ways and techniques to bring
2D elements, styles, aesthetics and practices into the forefront of the
animation industry. To blend to methods that work well together as well as
apart, yet when mixed together they can show many different styles. Due to that
many more different forms of animations can be made so it will not get boring
and repetitive, which will make animation lose its audiences.
What did I learn about myself?
I leant that I should of kept
an eye on my pater and have asked to see visible proof of what that have been
done so I could have noticed that the woke could not be completed in time. So I
have to develop my social skills as I will them then in the future. I also wished
I had known about Bring
Your Own Animation earlier so I could have gotten more professional
information, as well as advice and general tips about the animation and gaming industry.
That way I could have also asked more professionals their option on what they believe
is the forefront of animation to enhanced my knowledge of my future industry.
What would I change?
I would have started work on
Triofi earlier, when I knew Pooja was have some problems and had fallen behind.
I would have had made my own backgrounds for Code Name BAMBOoZEL as backup just
in case even if they would not have been used in the end which would have not
made me have to stop working on it. I wish I spent time to lean to use Maya and
Fusion so I could have worked more on 3D animation, asset and environment.
Reference Websites
Josh Agle. (unknown). The art
of Shag. Available: http://www.shag.com/. Last accessed 14 Febuary 2011.
Kevin Dart. (12 April 2006).
The art of Kevin Dart. Available: http://kevindart.com/. Last accessed 14
Febuary 2011.
Samy Mandrake Fecih .
(Unknown). Bring Your Own Animation. Available:
http://www.bringyourownanimation.com/. Last accessed 15th August 2011.
theStockMasters. (27/01/2011).
Rockstar's L.A. Noire - How they Made It. Available:
http://thestockmasters.com/node/2749. Last accessed 27 January 2011.
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