The star, space and other interactive assets
star points continued
after the environmental game assets were created during the last assignment I instantly started to continue off with my stars seeing what i could work with and improve upon for the first week with the aid of my group. After a week we all had agreed to a more line-less style and I instantly was ready to begin fixes. Our team leader Oscar suggested to only continue with the green star as it was the only one that was more suited towards the game roll and improve on it further. Which I did in the end as by removing the outer line of the circle and thinning the inner lines to aid with keeping the designs consistent. This would overall be the final time being worked on a star as well as any future stars as development basically stopped here. The green star had several rolls that it was meant to take as firstly it was originally meant and designed to be a health point. This was changed to be a story node star where it was then to be telling the player at the beginning how to play then what to really do. This idea was later scrapped and the star was then left alone for the rest of the games development until the recent end as it has the potential to be a end point to the game that will activate the ending. This however was suggested and was being tested which may mean it might not make the ending cut.
This asset was also made during the second assignment. The blue star is probably the only star that was not changed during development and this is mainly that it was originally decided not to be used as it was thought to be unnecessary. This was made as a checkpoint where the player could respawn and continue off. But it wasn't needed due to original thoughts of that the game in the beginning was a lot more easier. But after play testing towards the end of the project it became apparently clear that it was needed but at least once. Which it ended up being used for. The design for the Blue star was to make it stand out and be recognizable to the player so they would know that this is a checkpoint and would be a safe object for them to interact. Personally to me this feels like it follows its roll strongly and was later agreed by the team leader when it was finally implemented in the near end of the games build. The idea was to make the two smaller stars bounce up an down to make it more stand out and noticeable so the star would be easily seen in its neutral state and after its been interacted with it will spin 90 degrees to form its active position to show its now an active checkpoint. I personally liked the design for its simplicity and stand out nature as a whole.
Concepts for interactive black holes or attacker stars. (never made it past concept stage)
These are concepts that never made the cut for the black holes and attacker stars which were made to be environmental hazards towards the players goal and would spring out suddenly but also would give the player a chance to escape if they were fast enough. My concepts stopped here as the objectives of making black holes was later moved towards another team member so I could finish other assets and speed up work on the cut-scenes. However the attacker star idea wouldn't be completely lost as it later lead up to the exploding star asset for the game. Another reason the concepts never made it to development was how complex it was it as this would require a lot more time needed and could be a waste of time to make when other assets are needed at the same time, and personally I thought this wasn't going to make the final cut at all so I easily quit on developing these, but leaving the idea on hold for later as it was a great idea that needed more thought placed into it.
The clouds concepts (also not making it past concepts)
Though originally the clouds were made by Raven I also tasked to do this I drew quick sketches of what i needed to do from the team leaders request to make two cloud types. the first being normal cloud platforms that the player could jump on and off of easily and take their time with. while making storm clouds that were to be environmental hazards and cause damage to the players. However quickly Raven had made her clouds and did a much better job over mine as she already had her clouds done before I really got started so my clouds never really did make it past their concepts as a whole.
Exploding star asset
This is the interactive trap star was created around 2-3 weeks prior to the deadline and was intended to be a trap to trick players into avoiding it at all costs as it was a instant death trap. it was a small star like this and would blend in very well with the space like background becoming on of the stars until the player triggers it and it would instantly collapse on itself and explode. Getting some help with design both from lecturers and teammates, allowed the star to be finished rather quickly and personally, look really amazing for what it was. This was based off the failed attacker star concept and it really made off what the concept failed to achieve. Looking great while being very simple at the same time allowing it to be easily animated and also super effective in what it was made for in the first place.
the glow was created in after effects to give its nice shine and make it brighter than other stars as well so players with a eagle eye could spot it after dying the first time to it.
Video works - the beginning cutscene.
simple animatic
first animatic (detailed version)
animatic 2
there were originally two animations for the starting cut scene a simple and detailed narrative versions. The simple was created to get directly to the point making a very short and sweet and brings the player right into the action. The second was a detailed narrative which was made to give a little more story to it with added scenes to show its point while giving a narrative driven theme to it that allows the player to understand the situation the characters in. After showing both animatics to the group they voted more towards the detailed narrative which became my primary focus, but Oscar recommended to fix mistakes and changed certain scenes in the first one before i moved onto full production. This lead to animatic two which fixed upon many issues first one had as well as change placement of scenes like the part where the character is looking up to the sky was moved earlier as a transition, Also as well it did help me fix issues of understanding after effects as a whole in how to rotate position and other key workings in understanding after effects.
first start of the series
the first attempt of the film was mainly to get things in sync and see what needed to be fixed upon it with the aid of the group behind me which gave me many important things to rework with. and this would lead to attempt two. However this did come with benefits as I did learn how to tinker with music to make it softly start and finish out.
Attempt 2
the second attempt was overall well more improved over its original in many aspects. this was primarily to the criticism Oscar gave me that allowed me to to make improvements to the cutscene which focused on the following: Make the characters smaller and extend the dance so its giving the feeling of space, Shortened the light so it doesn't linger too long and is more a flash and to replace the old backgrounds and clouds new background/clouds as a whole made by Oscar and Raven. Thus improving it majorly over its original in quality and timing. It was also the first to include Ravens intro to the short. However this didnt really solve all the issues and brought upon newer issues which were needed to be focused on and lead to attempt 3.
Attempt 3
Attempt 3 was made to improve upon the issues created in attempt 2. Which were to Slow first shot and pan it. Fix the ending animation and to fix fall timings which were quickly done in no time but the fall timings were still too fast with the background and thus needed to be worked on again for the last time. This also had the character facing the sky scene having its loop move much faster than before to help out speed consistency. Leading to attempt 4 or recognized as final 1 as this ended up being the first final and that solve all the problems. Though there was a editing error than caused the scene to end later than normal it still was good and fixed all its problems that it used to have.
Attempt 4/ final 1
Finalization
though attempt 4 was technically the final video an last minute adjustment was made for the games benefit in mind with just one difference to Attempt 4. The ending of this scene, as it was to now cut mid flight so when the game starts the players character was to land in game time. A very simple and easy adjustment and went very successfully overall.
Video works- The ending
Originally the ending was placed together with reused assets to help make the scene work and was created in less than a week with no animatic involved in the development of this. In fact this probably was its animatic, due to its quality and limited animation incorporated but was more the base to finish off the work as there was two bases involved with different assets involved. The only thing that would remain the same throughout the whole refining and editing would be Raven and Oscars backgrounds. I also made a new Ying and Yang symbol for the ending to make it look more clear and better than the one made in raven and Oscars backgrounds.
Base 1
Base 2
The first true attempt had a checklist behind it with Oscars help: Orange should already be there also scaled smaller Add idol from oscars and The ying and yang flash should be less white
certain modifications to it including idol animations and was the first step of improving the ending quickly to a better state as well as adding ravens credits this was more a stop gap area for the next attempt
Attempt 1 ending
The next two were based off Oscars suggestions which I took to fix the animations more which had included Fix transition and idol Still too much white (maybe turn it cream) and Fix ying and yang as it goes in the opposite direction (which was a mistake in editing). all these were done and came in two versions with a white glow and a cream glow added to it and also lowering its time seen. These solved most of the issues gained in attempt one and solved it to its core aspects.
ending attmept 2 with cream
ending attmept 2 with white
after these two being reviewed with Oscar, this lead to another refined version with a even shorter flash going on in the background and adding minor fixes including timing and speed and thus officially finishing the ending once and for all to allow it to be made for the videogames ending.
The full official ending
However at the last minute Oscar asked for a quick change that would need to be done. This was to cut a portion of the idol right at the beginning and make it go into the instant dance with the two characters thus making the scene slightly shorter but it would time out perfectly with the game overall and thus was done in a few moments, leading to finalization.
I am very proud of these works and happy to see it be done so well with high quality involved into the animations and cant wait to try making another set of cutscenes like these.
The animated idols and parts
first of noting that these aren't in order of appearance
the animations in this short film are all the parts animated for the two cutscenes over the course of the project. These animations were all hand drawn in Photoshop then sent into adobe animate to be animated into their respected scenes. for the first 14 seconds the standing animation was made by Oscar and added upon by me as when blues hovering for when they're hovering straight up 3 seconds while yellow hovers 5 was made was by Oscar after those few seconds the characters lean back lightly and begin a new hover cycle and this was done by me for the new dance in the beginning of the ending cut scene. From there on everything was my work. each animation was started as still drawing based on its respective animatic point and was taken between Animate and Photoshop to be animated into their scenes as the loop comprised of all hand drawn frames that were imported from Photoshop. infact the original dance was two still drawn images dude to the fact of it begin space there would be almost no movement coming from the two characters. This ended being a long and strenuous project but the end result for each of them was worth it in the end of it all.
order of animations seen in the example video are
1: Yellow and Blue idols (ending)
2: Separation between blue and yellow (beginning)
3: Standing fall/landing (beginning)
4: Drawn stills for the opening scene (beginning)
5: face the sky falling (beginning)
6: fall start and main (beginning)
7: yellow split (beginning)
Overall this project has been a very unique experience as a whole and a completely big and new challenges to overcome. But at the end of this all it was worth it and a great unique experience to take under my belt for the future.
star points continued
after the environmental game assets were created during the last assignment I instantly started to continue off with my stars seeing what i could work with and improve upon for the first week with the aid of my group. After a week we all had agreed to a more line-less style and I instantly was ready to begin fixes. Our team leader Oscar suggested to only continue with the green star as it was the only one that was more suited towards the game roll and improve on it further. Which I did in the end as by removing the outer line of the circle and thinning the inner lines to aid with keeping the designs consistent. This would overall be the final time being worked on a star as well as any future stars as development basically stopped here. The green star had several rolls that it was meant to take as firstly it was originally meant and designed to be a health point. This was changed to be a story node star where it was then to be telling the player at the beginning how to play then what to really do. This idea was later scrapped and the star was then left alone for the rest of the games development until the recent end as it has the potential to be a end point to the game that will activate the ending. This however was suggested and was being tested which may mean it might not make the ending cut.
This asset was also made during the second assignment. The blue star is probably the only star that was not changed during development and this is mainly that it was originally decided not to be used as it was thought to be unnecessary. This was made as a checkpoint where the player could respawn and continue off. But it wasn't needed due to original thoughts of that the game in the beginning was a lot more easier. But after play testing towards the end of the project it became apparently clear that it was needed but at least once. Which it ended up being used for. The design for the Blue star was to make it stand out and be recognizable to the player so they would know that this is a checkpoint and would be a safe object for them to interact. Personally to me this feels like it follows its roll strongly and was later agreed by the team leader when it was finally implemented in the near end of the games build. The idea was to make the two smaller stars bounce up an down to make it more stand out and noticeable so the star would be easily seen in its neutral state and after its been interacted with it will spin 90 degrees to form its active position to show its now an active checkpoint. I personally liked the design for its simplicity and stand out nature as a whole. Concepts for interactive black holes or attacker stars. (never made it past concept stage)
These are concepts that never made the cut for the black holes and attacker stars which were made to be environmental hazards towards the players goal and would spring out suddenly but also would give the player a chance to escape if they were fast enough. My concepts stopped here as the objectives of making black holes was later moved towards another team member so I could finish other assets and speed up work on the cut-scenes. However the attacker star idea wouldn't be completely lost as it later lead up to the exploding star asset for the game. Another reason the concepts never made it to development was how complex it was it as this would require a lot more time needed and could be a waste of time to make when other assets are needed at the same time, and personally I thought this wasn't going to make the final cut at all so I easily quit on developing these, but leaving the idea on hold for later as it was a great idea that needed more thought placed into it.
Though originally the clouds were made by Raven I also tasked to do this I drew quick sketches of what i needed to do from the team leaders request to make two cloud types. the first being normal cloud platforms that the player could jump on and off of easily and take their time with. while making storm clouds that were to be environmental hazards and cause damage to the players. However quickly Raven had made her clouds and did a much better job over mine as she already had her clouds done before I really got started so my clouds never really did make it past their concepts as a whole.Exploding star asset
the glow was created in after effects to give its nice shine and make it brighter than other stars as well so players with a eagle eye could spot it after dying the first time to it.
Space platform assets
The concept stage was a easy process after asking Oscar what i was to aim for. As on point he made was to keep it on a slight isometric angle to allow it to feel like the character was actually standing on a piece of environment rather than a object. From that point came a quick and easy pick of choices between me and Oscar which he picked the best few out. Which have a tick next to them, and then it came to draw them up in photoshop which wasn't really that much of a hassle since it was to be a two toned shade and thus came out much better than I originally anticipated. Though the color would be personally changed by Ocsar himself a bit later. He was happy with these platforms outcomes and then tasked me with more and new work to do. I did originally plan for the bottom three to have moving parts but due to time constraints with other assets and works I needed to cancel that plan but they do give a bit more variety to the platforms overall rather than just being a one piece platform and having 2 to 4 pieces respectively between them.
Asteroid assets
The asteroids were made in a very similar way the platforms begin hand picked by Oscar with a small amount by me personally and with the same intention being two toned like the platforms themselves. The difference was that these were inspired by Ravens original asteroid concepts with some tweaks and changes between mine and hers like shifting from 3D to 2D and removing the purple for darker shades of grey are examples. Being environmental hazards they're designed to be quick fast and hard to give the player something else to look out for. each asteroid can also spin on its own as a individual rather than a group allowing Oscar to create certain scenarios where the groups can preform a sweeping action if needed. This was one of the most easy to make and best looking assets I've made so far.
Video works - the beginning cutscene.
simple animatic
first animatic (detailed version)
animatic 2
there were originally two animations for the starting cut scene a simple and detailed narrative versions. The simple was created to get directly to the point making a very short and sweet and brings the player right into the action. The second was a detailed narrative which was made to give a little more story to it with added scenes to show its point while giving a narrative driven theme to it that allows the player to understand the situation the characters in. After showing both animatics to the group they voted more towards the detailed narrative which became my primary focus, but Oscar recommended to fix mistakes and changed certain scenes in the first one before i moved onto full production. This lead to animatic two which fixed upon many issues first one had as well as change placement of scenes like the part where the character is looking up to the sky was moved earlier as a transition, Also as well it did help me fix issues of understanding after effects as a whole in how to rotate position and other key workings in understanding after effects.
first start of the series
the first attempt of the film was mainly to get things in sync and see what needed to be fixed upon it with the aid of the group behind me which gave me many important things to rework with. and this would lead to attempt two. However this did come with benefits as I did learn how to tinker with music to make it softly start and finish out.
Attempt 2
the second attempt was overall well more improved over its original in many aspects. this was primarily to the criticism Oscar gave me that allowed me to to make improvements to the cutscene which focused on the following: Make the characters smaller and extend the dance so its giving the feeling of space, Shortened the light so it doesn't linger too long and is more a flash and to replace the old backgrounds and clouds new background/clouds as a whole made by Oscar and Raven. Thus improving it majorly over its original in quality and timing. It was also the first to include Ravens intro to the short. However this didnt really solve all the issues and brought upon newer issues which were needed to be focused on and lead to attempt 3.
Attempt 3
Attempt 3 was made to improve upon the issues created in attempt 2. Which were to Slow first shot and pan it. Fix the ending animation and to fix fall timings which were quickly done in no time but the fall timings were still too fast with the background and thus needed to be worked on again for the last time. This also had the character facing the sky scene having its loop move much faster than before to help out speed consistency. Leading to attempt 4 or recognized as final 1 as this ended up being the first final and that solve all the problems. Though there was a editing error than caused the scene to end later than normal it still was good and fixed all its problems that it used to have.
Attempt 4/ final 1
Finalization
though attempt 4 was technically the final video an last minute adjustment was made for the games benefit in mind with just one difference to Attempt 4. The ending of this scene, as it was to now cut mid flight so when the game starts the players character was to land in game time. A very simple and easy adjustment and went very successfully overall.
Video works- The ending
Originally the ending was placed together with reused assets to help make the scene work and was created in less than a week with no animatic involved in the development of this. In fact this probably was its animatic, due to its quality and limited animation incorporated but was more the base to finish off the work as there was two bases involved with different assets involved. The only thing that would remain the same throughout the whole refining and editing would be Raven and Oscars backgrounds. I also made a new Ying and Yang symbol for the ending to make it look more clear and better than the one made in raven and Oscars backgrounds.
Base 1
Base 2
The first true attempt had a checklist behind it with Oscars help: Orange should already be there also scaled smaller Add idol from oscars and The ying and yang flash should be less white
certain modifications to it including idol animations and was the first step of improving the ending quickly to a better state as well as adding ravens credits this was more a stop gap area for the next attempt
Attempt 1 ending
The next two were based off Oscars suggestions which I took to fix the animations more which had included Fix transition and idol Still too much white (maybe turn it cream) and Fix ying and yang as it goes in the opposite direction (which was a mistake in editing). all these were done and came in two versions with a white glow and a cream glow added to it and also lowering its time seen. These solved most of the issues gained in attempt one and solved it to its core aspects.
ending attmept 2 with cream
ending attmept 2 with white
after these two being reviewed with Oscar, this lead to another refined version with a even shorter flash going on in the background and adding minor fixes including timing and speed and thus officially finishing the ending once and for all to allow it to be made for the videogames ending.
The full official ending
However at the last minute Oscar asked for a quick change that would need to be done. This was to cut a portion of the idol right at the beginning and make it go into the instant dance with the two characters thus making the scene slightly shorter but it would time out perfectly with the game overall and thus was done in a few moments, leading to finalization.
I am very proud of these works and happy to see it be done so well with high quality involved into the animations and cant wait to try making another set of cutscenes like these.
The animated idols and parts
first of noting that these aren't in order of appearance
the animations in this short film are all the parts animated for the two cutscenes over the course of the project. These animations were all hand drawn in Photoshop then sent into adobe animate to be animated into their respected scenes. for the first 14 seconds the standing animation was made by Oscar and added upon by me as when blues hovering for when they're hovering straight up 3 seconds while yellow hovers 5 was made was by Oscar after those few seconds the characters lean back lightly and begin a new hover cycle and this was done by me for the new dance in the beginning of the ending cut scene. From there on everything was my work. each animation was started as still drawing based on its respective animatic point and was taken between Animate and Photoshop to be animated into their scenes as the loop comprised of all hand drawn frames that were imported from Photoshop. infact the original dance was two still drawn images dude to the fact of it begin space there would be almost no movement coming from the two characters. This ended being a long and strenuous project but the end result for each of them was worth it in the end of it all.
order of animations seen in the example video are
1: Yellow and Blue idols (ending)
2: Separation between blue and yellow (beginning)
3: Standing fall/landing (beginning)
4: Drawn stills for the opening scene (beginning)
5: face the sky falling (beginning)
6: fall start and main (beginning)
7: yellow split (beginning)
Overall this project has been a very unique experience as a whole and a completely big and new challenges to overcome. But at the end of this all it was worth it and a great unique experience to take under my belt for the future.
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