week 7-8 work for production work

Over the last two weeks I've created a few concepts and so far testing ideas of  different title cards for the film project leading to a few ideas. Later requirements were added such as not hinting to the moves exact plot like butter itself and more aiming for a more illusive idea for the cards. These are the current concepts made at the moment

  this was a more cartoonish design for a first concept focusing on the idea of making it seem a bit childish or humorous to what was likely to been seen as well giving a misleading idea of a food fight occurring.

This was the second concept made and was before requirements were made. but was more of a idea of a waiter or some fancy set up in general to get the point of a romance skit

the four concept did away with drawing and was more focused on a more typographic approach to the idea referencing the font used in the previous idea and reusing it for a better purpose.

being the last current concept made it focused on letting out the idea of romance with a single rose and going for the ideas in real life title cards of the spotlight on an object.

in end of week 7 and currently through week 8 i worked on improving some concepts via personal and some outside input from the group members

based off the original first concept I wanted to work more on fixing the colors as it felt too bright or a eyesore to look to so this focused on lightening the main colors. 

the following two was to test upon fixing and adding ideas like color pallet and brightness in the second one added inner shadow to create a 3d effect to make the words look solid and for the rose made it have colored line art to gve a better blend to the spotlight

Week 5 gaming blog (late)

Are the “choice situations” in the game obvious or subtle? Do you know the outcomes of your choice prior to making a decision? -  Deus Ex (1999)

Choice situations in video games are getting much more common in the modern realm of video games. Larger maps, wider range of characters and bigger worlds to explore, all giving gamer's a bigger sense of freedom and with that a bigger option of choice is involved. Some games are littered with the more classical option of dialogue choice, like in the Fallout series or most Telltale Games. All giving the player choice to interact with NPCs (Non Playable Characters) in a more Black and white scenario where you can behave as good cop or bad cop. In other games you have another system like Infamous which has a karma system, as the more bad things you do the more evil your character becomes as well as the NPCs will view you as the villain. While doing the opposite will give your character a more hero impersonation to the people around him and himself. I believe Deus Ex (1999) is no exception to this, its choices allow the player to make a finite amount of ideas to how they chose to play.

The game is a roleplaying and first person shooter, giving players a huge amount of ideas to their own idea of how they play. As many options are given to every level which is something not very common for modern games these days to compare to, with such ideas to entering a level like run and gun, commando, sniper, negotiator, hacking and lock picking to being just all out stealth. With also weapon choice as you're given a option of non lethal to lethal weapons like laser guided rocket launcher or a nightstick. Deus Ex's character is allowed to have complete customization to the players choosing and empathizes players choices of violence or morality. As NPCs actually criticize you for how much force or violence you use and as well the same for interacting with them. Being rude will actually make it more harder for you to gain assistance compared to a more helpful and kinder attitude. In the beginning your also given a option to kill or not kill the two final bosses in the beginning of the game and will completely effect the outcomes from NPCs and the game itself.

Choice situations in this game seem so simple and subtle yet hold a more heavier and are more consequential to your own actions. From playing stealthy and peaceful, not killing anyone and trying to act as moral as possible. To being a gun welding maniac and forcing violence as your only path to victory. Every choice you choose to make is counted and made sure later on you know it, morals choice counts in this game.

In the reading "Perdue, 2011 - Ethical dilemmas and dominant moral strategies in games File", these points can be explained in further depth like in Dealing in Absolutes, Moral High Scores, The Virmire Problem and Only Consequences sections of the reading. All these sections follow whats previously said in much greater detail, an example being in Only Consequences. Which goes more into depth of the options a player has in the game Heavy Rain, where the main character has to make a critical decision of either killing a dealer or just walking away. If chosen the latter. your still have the opportunity to show mercy, but this shows the moral problem, are you willing to take one persons life to save another? This relates to Deus Ex as you have the choice to either kill or not with non or lethal force, a players choice had multiple factors and will have consequences to those choices and this is a thing that is very common. As nobody knows the full implications of their actions till the end or a major event occurring as we the player doesn't know till we're too far into and enveloped into our in game run to know the real effects our choices will have and thus Deus Ex may feel subtle in its mass array of choices but thats what makes this games choices so special and unique compared to other games

weekly update part one - filming

all of us listening to Robby's advice on speed and camera and what we could trying this scene

this week our group did the filming for live action sequences which was a long and time consuming process but we did all the necessary shots to the work. We had Jerwins friend Robby who was brought along, who had some filming experience and gave us all some awesome advice to the filming process with camera use, lighting positioning and impressive suggestions like reflecting the light off walls or paper to get the perfect light we needed for the film.

His advice lead to multiple improvements like timing as we soon got an idea of how fast we needed to be like the actress could be either faster or slower or giving more . this was very present in the intro as we soon got better action and all of us sharing ideas ideas of what the actress could do during that part.

use of bouncing the light to get better lighting effects

During filming Robby advised we took multiple shots on single scenes to ensure we had done everything right. Which we did and our actor also tried different emotions or tests to see so we could pick one of two or three tests as a group what went successfully as we did chose all our most powerful shots to be edited.

Mikayla helping set up but also helping with lighting of the scene 

I assisted in filming the scenes and also helping with lighting whenever possible  as seen in the second last pictures and like everyone also giving ideas and imput

all these Photos were taken by Mikayla and Michelle C.

actor smiling to the camera while lighting for final shot is sorted

Jonathan checking the fridge for the butter scenes

week 7 gaming blog

Textual analysis questions

Of the key narrative elements discussed so far in the course (interactivity, level design/linearity, moral choice/non-linearity, character), which do you think is the most prominent, important or interesting in your chosen game?

Honestly if i was told what of these are the most important it would have to be level design , interactivity and choice . These three are important to any game as the freedom of choice allows a game to become very engaging , while interactivity allows the player to gain more options to use their choices of a meaningful way like as an example . Killing a person or not killing , if you kill them you gained a better weapon and more EXP and Level but it changes your character , makes the game harder , or you can not kill that NPC and actually end up maybe getting them as a companion or even may craft you a much better weapon in the end . Each choice and interaction of a player can change a outcome of a game . Even if it's a neutral evil or good route choices and interactions are extremely important for a game . Also Level designs is a crucial part of any game as the design allows theme of a game to play a role and helps character design and progression as a grungy steam punk era world will go strongly in the story of a steam punk themed character along side it and will build off features from that themes core aspect alone .

This can be related to last weeks readings in the last blogs reference to Bates into the woods with steps 4-6 which ill explain a bit later

One game that does this successfully is "Amnesia: The Dark Descent" a survival puzzle horror game a game that will most likely make you pee your pants in fear . You play as a character named Daniel who has lost his memory by his own doing and you go on a mission to stop what's happening and you slowly begin to learn what's happened as you progress and encounter horrors as you progress . Due to its successful level design it instills a horrendous sense of fear for the player even though you don't encounter enemies until around twenty minutes into the game . But the design of the levels with its creepy sounds put you on edge all through this horror adventure and keeps you always frightened or scared during the play through .Example of this being empathized is the water monster puzzles where you are in knees deep water with an invisible monster that will attack and chase you if you even touch the water . Later in the game you learn quickly that you're interactions do have consequences as in the game you almost have all free will and choice to mess with almost any object like books , limbs, barrels and boxes are examples . You end up learning you can't mess with these objects too much as the noise can attract monsters to attack you .

This gives players harder choices next to certain puzzles as you either can ignore trying to find resources and try managing them without too much risk to their health but increase risk of your sanity meter dropping or losing oil to your lamp. Or you can choose to find and stock up with items lessening the risk of sanity loss or supply issues but risking your own health to monsters as you make yourself a easier target to be attacked. Like the water monster or the Gathers which will hunt you till they lose sight with you . But this does show that interactivity , choice and level design can play crucial parts in a games overall elements and Amnesia can show this in the most horrifying way possible overall as the steps 4-6 of " into the woods " can show this. As were given a character we know almost nothing just like him and are forced into this situation with no way out. Which allows the player to begin to bond along side with him gaining empathy and determination to help this character and in a way we become the character with Daniel being an avatar for us to share our accomplishments and extreme fears with as we make our way to the end knowing this is a mission of redemption .

http://animation.onlearn.co.nz/pluginfile.php/2709/mod_resource/content/0/Bates%2C%202005%20-%20Into%20the%20woods.pdf

Week 6 interactive studio

How are characters developed in the game – is this similar to techniques used in non-interactive media - Fez

This week I've chosen Fez to play and it was a very interesting experience I have to say. Made by Polytron Corporation and created by Phil Fish it is a Indie developed 2D 3D made game You play as Gomez who receives a Fez and learns that in his 2D world. There is four 2D plains that creates a 3D world and its up to you to explore and explore these 2D views to use to solve many different puzzles and on your quest to collect cubes and cube fragments to restore order to the universe. During my first play-through I found this game very interesting and engaging. However I noticed there wasn't as much life in this character as I originally intended as I progressed forward he later felt very simple and repetitively posed over and over again. But I always kept forgetting or just not noticing or just not caring about this, as it was the puzzles and the exploration of these unique environments.

Which can be explained in steps 4-6 in Bates into the woods(2005_ and shows the right example of how Fez works its magic of adventure to the reading, as Gomez is forced into this adventure and is to do this enormous quest of finding all 64 cubes as first your show the heroes world,giving a in-site into what your probably gonna expect. Follow by the disruption of the hero world as now the calling to adventure is now happening for the hero to receive and finally into the mythical woods where you start this major adventure and head into it all to solve puzzles and more. With character development this defiantly worked in Fez's favor and also allows the player to become the character itself as you gain attachment and become more immersed into the game you are Gomez. You are the person who solved the puzzles to find the cubes to help restore balance to the universe, not Gomez as hes just your avatar to this world and this is always very different to movies. As generally movies being non interactive media, shows that here's a protagonist and watch them go about achieving their goals and missions. While games do the opposite and immerse you feel like you are that character and that's where the contrasts are really demonstrated.


http://animation.onlearn.co.nz/pluginfile.php/2709/mod_resource/content/0/Bates%2C%202005%20-%20Into%20the%20woods.pdf

Mood board for titles

 
 
  

some ideas for cards as inspriation