October 2016

The first assignment for this course/class was to work in a group to discuss a topic of our choices. My group choice to talk about Animation on YouTube. We had to talk about the different types of animation and how it’s used in the industry today. This  is the first slide of the presentation on Prezi. The layout is simple yet still eye catching. All the different sections are placed in their own groups this was done to help the audience understand what information goes with which topic. I had three sections to this powerpoint, Types of animation, types of software used and  how animation has helped gaming growth. First  I was working with Chris to make a powerpoint to show our skills on secondary research. I had chosen the idea to be different from our fellow classmates who were going to talk about video games. Animation is something that not only interests me but its also a part of our course.

This was the second slide on the Prezi. The main point of this was to demonstrate the information i had found using secondary sources. I had found that their was a large audience of viewers who had watched animations for Minecraft and fan made animations of their favourite YouTubers. I’ll link the videos show in this Prezi below.

This is the second topic for this Prezi. This slide mainly introduces the types of software that amateurs and professionals alike use to create their masterpieces.  Split up and explained in detail.  Such as Maya, Blender, 3DS Max and Photoshop CS6.

I will attach a link to a google document of all the sources used in this Prezi. I made this presentation using a site called prezi. I made the powerpoint and did all of the research. This was a group task but my partner didn’t do anything productive.  The following pictures show off the presentation. The main critique i got was to in future presentations to start using buzzwords to keep the audience interested in what you are talking about in the presentation. Our biggest let down in this presentation is my partner Chris announced that we had just to just “wing it” which didn’t sit well with our tutor, which wasn’t even true i had spent numerous hours on this prezi.

Photography and Primary research. Our assignment was to go out into the world and leave our google and computers behind but instead to pick up our camera devices and take pictures of various diferent items in different categories. The categories were, nature, mechanical, buildings and finally textures and closeups.

Pictures of Textures for Research  Class Texture of Snails found on walks, Rain on a bus window on a rainy day in manchester. Graffiti outside the college and the texture of the wristband from the pride event.

Close up photography of the common Snail.

I found this snail whilst taking the wilderness photo’s it had been quite a wet day so the snails and slugs came out to play. I got really close to this one and surprising the quality turned out pretty neat considering this was shot on the iPhone 6. I really loved the textures on this slimy creature. The top photo is of the whole snail. Bottom left is the snail realizing it was being photographed so it’s “smiling for the camera”. Middle is a close up of its skin texture as well as the last photograph being a close up of it’s shell.

I chose this snail as my close up object because it was different and the photos had great lighting and the quality was pretty neat. Overall just thought it would be a good idea to involve this in my research. Who knows maybe ill need a snail texture for a game or movie character.

This is my artwork of mechanical part.

1. Top piece is of  a train because i took the train to Scotland from Manchester during half term. I actually drew this whilst being on the train i had to bring my mac for entertainment so i created this on photoshop. Sadly i wasn’t on a virgin train but i saw many of them speeding past my train or at the various stops my little slow train made on it’s way to its final destination. I painted this because virgin trans always interested me by how fast they can travel.

2. Bottom Left is an art piece of an I phone. I use my i phone pretty much all day so i drew this in photoshop much like the virgin train. The mechanical behind this is amazing. Such a small device but it can do pretty much anything. Apple amazes me. That’s clearly an i phone 4-5-6 because it has the headphone jack unlike the new version i phone 7 which doesn’t. Thought it would be quite interesting to include into this project.

3. Bottom Right.  Saw some very unique cars when i was home visiting family in Scotland. I also just love to draw and digitally paint cars. i got into it by watching my friend from new jersey’s dad whom draws and sketches cars and their designs for a living. Overall saw a unique car and decided to draw it.

 

Not long after completing the task of creating the booklet of going outside and looking around at nature and buildings. It was time to do it all over again but this time look at the various different people we see on a day to day basis without even noticing. 

This is the very first pictures i took of people in various environments. As it’s easy to see where these pictures where taking on a bus, on my way to the college. The first picture was of two elderly man and woman just talk about how they apparently know each other and talking about their clubs that they attend.  Second image was taken as i looked out the window and saw a man cutting a woman’s hair.  Lastly of a man walking on the street.

All these pictures were taken by me at the manchester heroes parade for the olympians who won medals or even were in Rio!. Very cool large crowds turned out even though the weather was interesting to say the least. It was very wet. Got a few pictures of the happy crowd but mainly of the soaked olympians and their sparkling medals.

These are drawn from pictures. I’m not the best at drawing with pen and paper especially since starting the course which is mainly using the Wacom Tablet so i recreated these pictures but i’m sure ill  try and gain the confidence to actually go out and draw people going about their daily lives.  But however, those pictures are of me and my girlfriend singing using the Wacom Tablet and Photoshop CS6.

Secondary research is research that you haven’t done. You’ve stayed indoors and just used someone else’s research but you have sourced it because without that extra information it’s plagiarism. Always source your work because without doing so you can get into a lot of trouble with people.

Second part of the assignment is to look at how other artists had drawn people. Or had reflected people into their works.

For example one of my favorite people in the creative industry is Rebecca Sugar. She is the creator of Steven Universe. She is an artist, composer, and director who is known mostly for her work with Adventure Time, as well as her award-winning animated short “Singles” and her graphic novel Pug Davis.  Her creation of Steven Universe is one of the best animated tv series to date as it deals with many adult problems but simplified into a children’s tv show.  Cartoon Network green lit Steven Universe, making her the first solo female cartoon creator in the network’s twenty-one-year history. A lot of her characters in the show are based on real people she actually knows for example the all well known and incredibly loved characters Ruby and Sapphire’s relationship is mainly based around Rebecca and Ian’s relationship. During SDCC 2016, when asked why she included so many LGBT themes in the show, Rebecca Sugar came out, citing her experiences as a bisexual woman and her desire for LGBT youth to grow up where these themes are normalized. All the gems in her story are females and the have this thing called fusion. They dance together and join to become this “giant woman” as Steven would say in the tv series. The main character Steven is based on her little brother Steven because they have always been really close and as an avid viewer im thankful for her creation of Steven universe.

A second artist is the people who created the funniest show next to family guy, rick and Morty and the classic Simpsons which is Bob’s Burger. Created by  Loren Bouchard for Fox Broadcasting Company. The show is said to fill the void created by the cancellation of King of the Hill, which Jim Dauterive worked on for nearly its entire run. The creator during a Q& A type deal had discussed that bob’s family would be just a normal family. They wouldn’t go to space or do anything out of the ordinary like the much  well acclaimed Simpsons. Bob’s family is nothing out the ordinary with three children and his wife. All of the family characters are voiced by a male voice actor expect for the little sister who is always seen wearing pink bunny ears.

All the sources will be linked in a google docs folder in this learning log.

Sources:

New Assignment:  February 7th

Design a game for children aged 6-10.

My initial ideas for this type of task reminded me of my childhood favorite games which were Put Put and Pyjama Sam.

Both of these were created by the childhood game company  HUMONGOUS Entertainment.  Which created children games with a fun unique twist. For example Pyjamas Sam’s game Thunder & Lightning aren’t so frightening is about a little boy named Sam who goes into his loft to try and tell thunder and lightning to stop being loud and starts chaos when he presses the big  red button and ruins all the weather machines and now has to go clean up the mess by learning about the different types of weather whist finding the missing pieces for the weather machines. It’s just a cool creative way to get children to learn about the weather whilst making it a fun adventure with a good plot line and great animations.

Above images are concept arts and various pictures from the entertainment company.

Another educational game i remember playing as a child was the game aged 6-10 Magic School Bus based of the books and tv show. where a teacher named Mrs Frizzle would take these kids on crazy adventures whilst learning a lot of different and new facts.

I remember playing the one about learning about Dinosaurs it was very interactive with different tasks for the player to complete whilst still learning about the different types and sticking with the over all theme with the show.

Even the books the magic key even had an online learning game. Overall i’m showing my age but i know children these days would still play similar games i know however that children still play Pyjama Sam because it’s now a IOS game, which on it’s own is very cool still runs like it pc counterparts but just adjusted to fit the i phone. 

My Character Concepts:

First concept a simple design of a boy with inspiration from the books/ games of The magic key. Basically just a simple boy i wanted to try and create a simple character that kids could relate to,  in the game obviously  there would be a girl and boy choice as character to play in the game.

Another concept art for a possible character was inspired by Pyjama Sam. There seems to be a child theme in these child games, a lot of child characters for the children to interact as. In this concept  i basically updated sam character. i gave my character a snapback and spiked up hair. He’s basically all primary colors to teach kids about the primary colors. In his hands is a pencil in his left and a math problem in his right. I think a game with him would be a kids need to complete math problems to be able to customize or dress up their character or  complete a storyline.

This was my first concept of an actual character. He’s holding a pencil and piece of paper with a math problem like the character before but this time he’s more like the magic key character. More easy to understand what he’s representing in a child game also would be easier to animate or turn into a game. I suppose the question would be it make it a 2d game or a 3d game because he would look completely different 3D.

Once again with his body being primary and secondary color’s teaches the children their colors as well as teaching them math problems to fit a probably storyline.

Proposal:

I will create an adventure type game similar to pyjama sam and put put but have the characteristics of The Magic Key and The Magic School Bus with the idea of learning but not in a class room type of learning. A game where the player can interact with a storyline. To fix something or to find out something, unlocking items on the way to help with their quest.

The main idea of this game would be to hopefully follow a  plot line as I’ve noticed they are one of the most popular types of games aimed at children 6-10 I suppose this is because it keeps them focused as well as entertained.  Also those games usually have clear and easy to follow instructions making the game much more enjoyable for the player. Even though the main character would appear to already be pre made the player would be able to unlock new items as they go through the quest and solve all the learning problems thrown at them.

The colour scheme of the game and characters would be much like the ones used for the magic school but and the magic key, very simple but still stands out. Easy on the eye colours for the younger audience but still have details for the older audience of the 6-10 age group.

Case Study Questions

Questionnaire of lead game characters

1. What’s the name of the character?
2. What’s the target audience of this lead character?
3. What era is this character from?
4. What was this character for/ used in?
5. Who designed the game & lead character?
6. What’s the characteristics of the lead character?
7. Background of the character?
8. What is the style of the game/animation?
9. What are the characters hobbies?
10. What’s the character side kicks if they even have any?

Tuesday 7th 2017

Case Study One:

Case Study: Animation – Steven Universe

1. The main lead character of the cartoon network animated show is Steven; he is fourteen years old and is a son to Greg Universe and Rose Quartz. He is a “Crystal Gem”, they go on adventures to save the world from the other gems who don’t think the world is pure enough to exist and want to destroy it. Steven is unfortunately forced into all this chaos because his mother became him. She took the form of Steven. Steven has his mother’s gem and Rose Quartz was a very nice yet not every gem appreciated her work which is obvious since her beliefs caused a gem war.

2. The target audience of this show is mainly aimed at pre-teens and young adults but the show has become a family show even now reaching and capturing the hearts of older audiences. Making it a show for everyone.

3. Steven Universe is set in modern day. The character Steven has been created around 2013 and is actually based and inspired by the creator Rebecca Sugar’s very own little brother who’s actually named Steven.

4. Steven Universe has been created to show that being different isn’t as bad as society in the real world says it can be. The show itself has high levels of LGBT acceptance and deals with real life problems but in a way that children can understand.

5. The creator of the character Steven Universe is Rebecca Sugar whom was the first female to create a Cartoon Network series. She created the lead character Steven who is based on her younger brother Steven.

6. The characteristics of Steven is that he sees the best in everyone which does lead to him being naive or oblivious as to what’s happening around him. With that ability, he wins the heart of anyone he comes in contact with.  Steven though only 14 has a lot of stresses many of which he fears he won’t be as good as everyone wants him to be and he worries about protecting the ones he cares most about.  Steven is seen in many episodes to be wearing a pink shirt with a gold star in the middle, in little blue shorts and pink flip flops.  On his stomach is his mother’s gem, Rose Quartz gem and that’s how he gets her powers such as her shield and bubble.

7. The background of Steven Universe is he’s part human and part gem. He has his mother’s gem thus being able to use his mother’s gem powers such as the bubble. The show itself is an American animated cartoon Network show that was of course created by Rebecca Sugar whilst she was still a writer for Cartoon Network’s other popular show adventure time. It’s a the coming of age story of a young boy named Steven Universe who lives in the fictional town of Beach City with the “Crystal Gems. Steven, who is half-Gem, goes on adventures with his friends and helps the Gems protect the world from their own kind as they don’t see earth as “useful” planet and want it to be destroyed.  Steven Universe has received critical acclaim for its art design, music, voice acting, characterisation and has a broad and active fan base. It was nominated

8. The impact that Steven Universe has had on its target audience is mainly because on the surface of the show and even the character of Steven it’s easy to forget sometimes that he really is just a young boy even though he’s going through all this hardship of not having a mother figure and having to fight her battles where she left off, whereas other 14 years old would be out with friends playing the park. The show even has a sense of childhood and comedy but however the show and Steven Universe himself bring the show into a whole deeper aspect which impacts the new and old target audience by bringing up themes of family, grief and self-worth. Which is why Steven and Steven Universe as a show is so much more than just a family animated TV show on cartoon network, they have human feelings which then plays on the feelings of the viewers so you’re not just watching what is happening to Steven but you as the target audience feel like you are there with him going through his struggles together.

9. Steven Universe’s hobbies are mainly going on missions with the crystal gems it’s only really been since the second season that he’s been allowed to actually go on missions because Garnet who can see into the future thought he was ready to start. Other than hanging out and going on missions with the gems he’s also seen helping his dad out with his car washing business or listening to his father “Greg” “Mr Universe” play his guitar and sing songs about him and Rose. So, if he’s not with the gems or his dad you can usually find him with his best friend Connie who later in season 3 transform into Stevonnie which is a fusion of both the lead character Steven and his best friend Connie. They are sometimes seen going on their own little missions or dealing with their problems together.

10. Steven Universe’s “sidekicks” are of course the Crystal gems which make up of three different gems named Garnet, Pearl and Amethyst who all try and protect Steven whilst also continuing Rose Quartz work to continue to protect the earth. Garnet is a fusion of Sapphire and Ruby, they are the LGBT element to this show. Pearl used to be Rose Quartz Pearl and Amethyst was created on earth in a kindergarten.

Case Study Two: Ratchet & Clank

1. The lead character’s name is Ratchet and he’s a Lombax from the planet Fastoon and then taken to the planet Veldin at a young age and was taken in by a guy who worked at a space garage.

2. The target audience of Ratchet and Clank is around 14+ it currently has a much older target audience but however, a younger audience has now started growing due to in 2016 they realised a movie which was very child orientated.

3. The era of which Ratchet was created is back in 2007 which was originally a PlayStation 2 game. Which has now been created into a PS4 game following the release of their movie “Ratchet and Clank”.

4. Ratchet is used as the main character who is part of a world protection unit known as the Galactic Space Rangers. He and his team go and fight the many bad guys that come across his path in the games. Every level these enemies get harder to beat but the rewards are just as great.

5. Insomniac Games and Sony designed the game Ratchet and Clank.

6. The characteristics of the character Ratchet are that he’s yellow with little brown stripes with big jade green eyes. In each game his character’s design reguarding his outfit changes but this is so he meets and matches the games needs so the plot of the 00game makes sense into why Ratchet looks different in each game also graphics and development also play a big part into Ratchet’s characteristics. Ratchet also sees himself as a hero even before joining the Galactic rangers. He has a warm heart and will help anyone who’s in danger and this is clear from his missions in games.

7. Ratchets’s background is pretty bare but yet still holds into his story in his games. Ratchet was born on the Lombax home world of Planet Fastoon in the Polaris Galaxy but later sent to Planet Veldin in the Solana Galaxy by his father just minutes before his death. Ratchet’s father was  Kaden the guardian of Dimensionator but was killed by Percival Tachyon not long after Ratchet’s birth.  Ratchet ever since he could remember wanted to be a galactic ranger and it wasn’t until he saved his now side kick clank that he was given the chance by the previous leader of the ranger Captain Qwark.

8.  The style of Ratchet and Clank is Shooter Platformer Action-Adventure with a art style of  simple sketch art work.

9.  Ratchets’s hobbies are taking care of the galaxy with the help of the galactic rangers. Ratchet also gets up to hover boarding as well as also doing a lot of guard rails in the game.

10.  Ratchet’s main side kick is Clank. He’s a small very intellectual robot who becomes Ratchets companion in the most recent game it allows you to see how they come around to be friends and companions.

Clank was created in the Great Clock by his father, Orvus. While Clank’s serial number was B5429671, the name “Clank” emerged with Ratchet and just stuck. This became his nickname throughout his adventures with Ratchet, protecting the universe from numerous evil-doers and becoming legendary heroes who always have each other backs, metaphorical and literally speaking. He’s often seen on the back of Ratchet and often is used to jump to higher ledges.

Case Study Three:

Frosted Flakes – Tony The Tiger

1.  The cereal frosted flakes has a lead character that is so ingrained into our heads that the second you even think of frosted flakes you immediately picture a tiger like character telling kids that it’s Gr-reat!!

2. The main target audience of tony the tiger is  mainly younger children but it’s been known to also be an adult favourite cereal as well.

3. The era that Tony is from , he originated back in 1950’s with his first TV appearance in 1952 and has since then spread around the globe as a household name. Tony is aparently around 60 years old.

4. Tony The Tiger was used to get kids to ask their parents for that specific cereal. It was a fun character that would make cereal look fun especially with his slogan It’s G-R-REAT!. i In the 1970s, Tony was  given an Italian-American nationality and family. One of the few icons not frozen in time, Tony the Tiger reigned supreme until the 2000s when he officially retired and bequeathed his title to his brawny, sports-loving son Tony Jr. The legacy lies in the company’s loyalty to the simple catch phrase, “They’re Grrrrreat!” and its delivery, of course, which hasn’t changed since its inception.

5. Tony The Tiger was designed and created by  Sam Goldsmith.

6. Tony The Tiger has a few characteristics one of which is his genuine smile that’s what you think first when u hear of see the name Frosted Flakes. Also his body shape to match his sports loving personality. Tonys body Language in mostly all adverts are the picture below.

Finally the most commonly recognised characteristic is his voice when he says IT’S GR-R-REAT!. Thats how you know that your watching a Frosted or Frosties Advertisement/.

May 16th 2017

Presentation/Video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpGGeEDW0SE

How did it go?:

The presentation itself went a lot better than the presentation i had completed during the first task. I presented alone and it was all on a video as i was given permission to present my findings in a video format as i suffer from extreme social anxiety i can barely speak in front of the class for five minutes let alone ten to fifteen as required for this presentation. My topic originally was going to be 2D Animation but however most of my classmates had done that i felt as i was the second to last person that day to go i would spice up the conversation in the classroom and pick VFX and how it interacts with animation both  3d and hints of the classical 2D.

The feedback on this presentation  was clear but fair but also very constructive. Most of the comments were too much video but that’s because they weren’t told and are all un aware of my deathly fear of presenting in front of people. Most of my research for the presentation was secondary research. Secondary research is research i haven’t gone out and collected its research someone else has collected i’ve just worded it in my own words with the correct Harvard Referencing.

Looking at how i can improve in the future from more presentations is even though im allowed to make videos i should work on making them better in the sense of more interesting or eye catching so my audience stays interested. Also will need to learn how to balance speaking and using visuals so that i can keep clear of the feedback of that fact that i don’t have enough speaking but then also avoid the comment of too much talking not enough visuals i need to find a level playing field.

Even though i do find presentations to be scary and i have zero desire to present i did find this experience to be interesting so i could better improve my skills when i need to present in the 2nd year.