Interactive Space Rationale

For the interactive space module I already knew a little about html and CSS but I'd not used things like hotspots before. I spent a little bit of time looking into the code of these before attending the seminar and found a couple of similar things to what I'd already found out. I spent a bit of time drawing little plans and coming up with ideas for my interactive space because I couldn't use my camera as it was on the fritz. Instead of having photos that I used in my interactive space I decided to model all my scenes on 3ds max just for a little practice on that. I tried to employ a little bit of a mystery element by making people use one side of the site to get to the end of the other side. With an extended space it could be made into a kind of game where one has to find out stuff like combinations etc to get to a certain point of the story. Of course people could just read the html code and find out everything straight away =].. either way, I wasn't really that interested in this section of the module and tried to make it interesting by doing the 3d stuff to keep my attention on it.


-MZH-

One Shot Rationale

In the one shot project we were put into groups to create a short one-shot film in where there is only one camera movement (if any) yet the footage still tells a story. Firstly we were all shown a few one-shot scenes, often these take hours to choreograph and take several takes, however these are also often quite long so by having shorter footage we don’t need to spend quite as much time as mainstream Hollywood. Our first test shooting for the one-shot involved us having a stationary camera and a scene taking place where two people in shot are mourning over someone ‘buried’ but off shot we have another member of our group talking in a muffled tone creating the illusion that the person buried isn’t dead, as the scene comes to an end the camera pans up to show just the sky as the voices die out. We tried to incorporate some kind of techniques used in film to make shots look better, the first few seconds is just the setting where the rule of thirds points out the key areas of the scene. When it came to planning our final one shot we used some of the things we’d learnt while practicing using different lighting, we attempted to have a scene that showed 3 news stories which we could then edit to remove the sound from our footage and adding a voiceover from the news talking about the stories we were trying to ‘mime’. Overall this wasn’t my favourite project however if we were to do this again I’d spend more time trying to plan a scene however I think that maybe each member of the group should’ve had separate ideas and then we film them all helping with each separate shot, giving us all individual footage to edit for our own portfolio.


-MZH-

Animation Rationale

When I started the animation project I had the idea of a simple concept in creating a television ident, I did a little research into some different examples of currently used and previously used idents for BBC, Channel 4 etc. The earlier ones were very simple and just had a very basic theme that was just memorable enough to be used for a channel’s identity, some of the more modern idents show more intricate and sometimes subtle showing of a channel’s identity. I started off by replicating the first thing we were told to produce in order to get used to the tools of 3DS Max. After this I began drawing up designs of my first Ident idea, it was quite a short and simple design that simply featured the channel’s name and a small bit of dynamic lighting on an object in the background to make it more interesting, I then created a short piece of music to play as the ident’s theme and after layering them together on Premiere I took some time to go back and watch other idents again and noticed how short mine was by comparison. Rather than simply over-rework my first ident I decided to start again using a character that I developed to be the channel’s image. After animating this I added a number of lighting effects to make the piece more interesting then by rendering my ident from different angles and sequencing them together in Premiere I was able to create a much more interesting and active piece of animation. I then made another music track that was longer this time and added it to the ident with a couple of sound effects to create my finished product. If I was to repeat this project I may take more time to add more detail to the character and make the actions smoother.

-MZH-

I'm not italian but..

Been working on some 3d design work, spent a couple of hours (at least) modelling a Benelli M3, trying to get the hang of turning something from 2d to 3d and then modifying it as necessary. Started this by setting a 2d image of the design in the 'left' viewport then laying the necessary shapes over each other and creating the necessary depths and fiddly bits to turn it from a 2d image to 3d, after this I spent a little time adding a couple of extra bits and then attempting to add a little more texture to the image.

-MZH-

Final Ident

After going over my ident I decided to recreate it with a little more personal flair, so I added a character and reworked the music track I'd made for my 10 second ident, it now lasts longer and is slightly more interesting ^_^, I likes the character.. may need to come up with a name and making him moreeee badass, but there'll be plenty of time for that.







-MZH-

One shot

Here is our groups one shot film with added audio.





After this we went and did individual edits, I've added a few titles to represent headlines over the implied stories. The audio was added before to actually give context to the video, if you imagine it without any sound it makes hardly any sense at all.



-MZH-

Everybody knows TC is back!

Been checking out one of my favourite online flash series recently.. thinking that at some point during my animation stuff I'd like to do at least a segment of one of the Madness: flash series from Krinkels, probably from either 5.5 or 6.5 because I love Sanford and Diemos ^o^.. anyway check out some of them at least, they get exponentially better!


http://www.krinkels.net/index_animations.html


-ZH-

One shot... all a marksman needs.

  In the second part of our carousel we've been put into groups of about 4 people to produce a short 'One-Shot' film, this has been limited to include just one camera movement over a space of about 60-90 seconds and yet still tell at least a part of a story if not a more in depth narrative (for it's length). So far we've just done a quick practice piece in which we had a short (supposedly comedic) filming of two people who are hard of hearing going to visit a recently deceased friend, the twist being that he's still alive and they've buried him like that, his voice can be heard from 'beneath the ground' making an attempt to tell them he's not dead... yep, made up on the spot :P


Anyway here it is and below is a short edit I've done using just the original footage.






-ZH-

ZTV Ident and Design Process ideas.

Okay so given our first brief for DP1 animation was to create an Ident that would feature between programmes if our lives were televised.. or something like that, anyway I had a few ideas and came up with a few thumbnails to outline how I wanted to animate the idea I'd chosen.

I had a few thoughts on the design process while making this piece. I think that the implication of a final piece is actually the smallest part of it's conception (obviously it's the biggest part of it's purpose) but I think the most important stages get exponentially less critical as the design process continues, and the time spent on each section should correlate to how much work is needed for each part of the design process.

Brainstorm - 

 Unless you already have a good idea for what you want to do this stage is critical, it's a good idea if you're working in a team to ALL have input as someone might have thought of something that wouldn't have occurred to you. So the actual idea should come from the brainstorm if you don't already have one. Depending on the size of this project this stage could last a while if each idea has subsections explaining their implication.

Thumbnails and blueprints -

 So now that you should have an actual idea from either the brainstorm or you're own brainwave you should be sketching how you're going to implicate this, so if you're creating a moving image through film or animation you should draw out a few thumbnail keyframes of how you want it to go. (In a hyperbolic example of this the graphic novel series 'Lone Wolf & Cub' has been converted into a film, the direction of this has been implicated so that almost every shot from the books is filmed in the same style, almost as if the books are full length thumbnails for the film's production.) Again depending on the size of the project this stage could range in size from a few sketches to a book of images and written content. This stage is critical and without it the final design implication can be fraught with issues due to poor/no planning, spending time on this stage is worth it even if you create ideas that you don't use.

Full scale implications -

 After the basic work has been done on the initial ideas for the project then the final product development should commence in whatever medium has been designated for the project. If you look back at my thesis on 'Dimensional Design' this should be regarded as the 3D stage, just as the brainstorm would be 1D and the sketching and planning would be 2D. In terms of how long this stage should take I often see it in sections, during the creation of my Ident for example the longest part of the creation process was simply making the props and shapes used for the final piece, in contrast to this the final animation process was very quick by comparison. Similarly I've always had this thought with other projects I've worked on, Flash for example. I've spent a good few hours or so drawing sprites and different images over various layers only to spend a short while throwing all the pieces together in a quick animation. I guess this may change when you alter the ratio of detail to length.

After these stages of course all that's left to do is present your finished part to whoever requested it.. see this part is tiny and barely critical to design. Of course if there are changes requested then this stage my alter it slightly, with proper planning it's unlikely that the production of this project will need a total remodel.

Anyway enough talk, here's my Ident ^_^

-ZH@ZTV-

Let's go to the MOON!

Today in 3DS I tried a little bit more tweaking in a little more detail to try and get a little more used to working on more than just a square or a jelly face. Here's a couple screenies of what I've made today and a little bit of animation..

 Hooray, I'm getting better..

-ZH-

Beep

Was experimenting in 3DS and made this weird spider... that is all.

-ZH-

Spikey Bouncy Jelly Chomper..

Spent a bit of time on 3DS today, trying a little creativity with what I've learnt so far from the past couple of Tuesday afternoons in the screenful room. Messed around a little, made a slightly scarier jelly man hehe, more just trying to work from memory so that I get used to the tools I've used.. tried a few more morph target poses and checked out some of the modifiers.

Starting to think a bit more 3D laterally, getting good ideas from little passing thoughts that I might be able to use in something either for a course project or just for fun sometime when I pick up a few more skills in the third dimension.. anyway, here's a little screeny of Bitey.

Reversible Research.. We have what you want, almost.

So we've been discussing a few of the methods that people get ideas for new products. Out of the four I'm looking in detail at Market Research and Reverse Engineering and how they might be used together to get a more accurate product for what people want and so be more effective as such.

Market Research:


This is basically what it says on the tin, checking the market by either running surveys or asking individual people what they believe is needed in a product in a specific field and if an idea is repeated from a number of different people and there isn't anything else that covers it already then there is a gap in the market for it. Another method is to simply think of what isn't in the market so far and then make it for yourself and let other people decide whether or not it's necessary.


An example of this is an idea brought to the popular TV show 'Dragon's Den' back in 2007. An inventor of a device that plates metal objects with gold had brought his idea to the 'den' and requested an investment in exchange for a stake in the potential business (as the show dictates). This particular request to invest culminated in an offer from one of the business tycoons 'James Caan' investing £60,000. Since then the business has sky rocketed and is one of the biggest gold plating suppliers in the UK. I believe this is a good example of good risk assessment in the field of using market research and determining what isn't already available and making it available.

Caan and Roomes, a new business deal.

Reverse Engineering:

 This is the method through which a final product that is similar to a target product is taken and de-constructed in order to figure out how it works and what methods can be used to remake the same product with the new aspects to make the new final product. Although this is a fairly simple concept, this method of construction and design development is illegal in many places, especially in the USA. In an example taken from the Defcon 9 computer safety conference in Las Vegas, a developer of ebook security from Russia named Sklyarov was arrested by the FBI just after explaining his research as it included references to the use of reverse engineering to make one of his own designs more workable due to the addition of something from Adobe. After a long legal battle between the American DMCA and Elcomsoft (Sklyarov's company), the Russian company was exonerated on a technicality due to not actually using the accused portions of software.

 The DMCA approach to reverse engineering is that it supports the use of material that would compromise copyright laws and hence make reverse engineering illegal.

Connecting The Dots:

 Given reverse engineering is not illegal in some countries due to it's usefulness despite copyright issues, it could be used alongside market research to create products that consumers already have that are missing aspects that the original manufacturer won't add to it. This creates a viable gap in the market that someone combining Market Research with Reverse Engineering can exploit, given that their country doesn't consider it as copyright breach or any other kind of illegal mumbo-jumbo.

-ZH-

Dimensional Design, is it just a metaphor?

Okay so in response to a comment by Jools I understand some people (if any of you read) won't understand the principle of this 'Dimensional Design' process. I personally see it as more than a metaphor and it helps me consider how to go from idea to final product, whereas it can also be used to simply describe and explain any method of design.

This is what I mean by advancing from One-Dimension to Three-Dimension in terms of a design process..

Here we have a brainstorm to come up with an idea of what to use as the basis for a product, in this case I'm using my animation project to make things easier for me to explain. So in the brainstorm there are lots of individual 'points' or 'ideas', I consider these the One-Dimensional part of the process. So below is circled one of these 1-D ideas, the 'Jelly' from the BBC Three advert.

Next we have a slightly more in depth study of this single idea, at this point we have a base knowledge of the idea that's being developed, not a complete study of the idea but at least a concept of the final product, like a flat picture or the 2-D part of my adaptation stages.

At this point the idea has taken on an actual form that may be used in the final product, apart from the fact that this is a 3-D image, I also consider it the 3-D part of the design process because it can be approached and changed from all angles, whether it be a complete remodel or just a touch up of a certain area. As this is using the final program to create the final product it makes the point that this is where the idea can be seen as more than just a flat design.

I hope this answers or makes more sense to any queries about my idea from before.

And hooray for Jellies, we like them, they go BOIOIOIOIOINGGGGGG. ¬_¬

-ZH-

Mm indeed, quite the jellident..

First practice for my Animation ident, was just messing around with the lighting so ignore that bit, I think with a bit of a moving camera and some more smooth animating (better movement) and a couple of scenes it could work really nicely

-ZH-

Design, yes that too.. but what of 3D?

The design process is the method through which end products are defined through the means of their creative development, simply put this means how a final idea comes together from the first few sparks of imagination. Coming across an original idea is probably best done through a brainstorm where the objectives of the specific design are portrayed and approached by the individual or team assigned to the project. Once an idea is chosen to be put through the design process it is approached from a number of critical pointers to determine whether or not it is suitable as it is for a final product and if not how it can be modified to fulfil project parameters. Following this the idea is then put through a number of tests to reflect the changes made by any critical and aesthetic changes important to the final product. If at any point along the design process an idea is not feasible to work with then it can be scrapped and the design process resumed from the brain storming from before or right from the beginning to re-assess whether or not the approach being used for the project is the correct.

A concept for the design process that I have thought through and tried to make understandable is the 'Dimensional Approach' an idea the came to me while considering how to complete the process of designing around a project that required 3D development. It starts with the brainstorming session in which a 'One-Dimensional' idea is considered for development, one-dimensional being just a single point with no assessable detail. From here it can be expanded to a 'Two-Dimensional' idea through which the single point is expanded and approached from the front and has a basic overview of something but no real detail on any of the functionality or inner workings of the idea. Once the '2D' model has been assessed of its merit and prospect towards the projects final design it can then be engineered into a 'Three-Dimensional' end idea in which every angle of the idea can be approached and the inner workings can be perceived and modified if necessary to make this final concept of an idea completely accessible to any critique or requested modifications for it's final implication.


375 words.... F*** ^_^


-ZH-

Best Friends Forever..

So since I started my multimedia course I've been trying to look at my games from a different angle, I thought that a really good point that I'd like to approach in a little more detail is the physics behind the building design of Red Faction:Guerilla. More specifically the game design based around the architecture of the buildings and their 'logic' towards damage and decay.

I was really interested in the way that they've used real architectural stimulus in regards to the collapse of a building, in another video on this by the crew they actually talk about bringing in real architects to design the buildings because all of the programming around the materials that make up a building actually correspond near enough to real world materials, as such if the materials don't support a particular building design then once it's inserted into the game it'll fall down because of it's own lack of physics. In a context like this it would be really important to actually be careful when creating something that depends on a certain realism to actually persist in game, and of course.. the more realistic a game is the more believable it is, and this leads to a much better playing experience.


One of the things I want to work towards is designing things for games, as such I want to use this maxim that everything has to have a certain realism towards the physics given by the constraints of the game, even if the constraints are 'unrealistic', an object should still abide by the rules given by the physics of a game.


And with the title of this post, it's the achievement given for killing 100 guys with the sledgehammer.. In case you were wondering <3..


-ZH-

Making Jelly..

In our multimedia seminar today on Animation we were given a tutorial on some basic animation for the word 'Jelly'. We ran through the method of creating an actual visible piece of text on top of a flat plane (for the floor) and then used modifiers and movement over a number of key frames to develop a moving piece of text that acted in a style to jelly using the idea that everything that moves uses anticipation before execution, as such it moves before it makes an action in direct correlation to preparing for that action.

This was a good way to start as it covered all the small pieces of devices that can be used to develop a living and breathing piece of animation eventually, given enough time and effort.. but of course I know I'll be doing this next year so I'm glad to have got started as early as this. 

After I'd had a go at the original tutorial for the piece I decided to experiment with 'lighting'. I set up a targeted light and centered it at the centre of the plane and created a sphere in the centre, I then animated 4 frames of the light source so that I could watch the effect on the default texture applied to the plane and sphere as it moved around the edge of my perspective.

After a little experimentation I had some small success but nothing huge, s'good to be creating stuff in 3d though, even it is just a ball and some jelly..

A touch of the mesmer..

Okay so it's a normal Sunday, I'm plugging away at my computer with whatever and I feel like making a scene and mirroring a character design from one of my games.


The Guild Wars Mesmer, a creature of trickery and deception. Always masked and dangerous...


I'll be honest though, I just felt like taking a picture of something..

And then there's me..

Hooray <3

If anything its a brief insight to what I want to be doing at some point, character design and such.. Guild Wars is a prime source of inspiration for me on various points of what I hope to be my future career of 3d design and animation. Got to get ideas from somewhere.. Anyway, something about playing around with masks..

Other stuff later today >>

That's all for now.. more to come soon I'm sure x

-ZH-

Through the Pin-Hole

So today we were making pin-hole cameras to take pictures using just a 500ml can, gaffer tape, black card, a sheet of photo-sensitive paper and.... well, a pin. After construction mine looks a littttleeee... like this, (and yes I was the one who removed the top with my teeth rather than the tin opener, still neat eh?)

Anyway, following the construction of our 'Can'eras... (Couldn't resist) we went out to snap a shot or two. My first one I messed up as I got the exposure times wrong between minutes and seconds....

.. so that one came out all black, so I tried again and got my next one which turned out much better. Just a touch blurry around the sides because I was holding it, apparently not steady enough.

Anyway here is the actual photo, the negative (right way round) and an edit I've done to the negative one..

So a little blurry.. and if you didn't guess then it's the big cross at the cemetery gates opposite Waverly.

Had a lot of fun doing this, was impressed with the results. It was like understanding how the process works but not quite thinking it'll do it till you see it, and being the first time I'd developed any kind of picture I definitely enjoyed the process.

-ZH- 

So after today's introduction and stuff we did some work on whiteboard animation for a bit of insight into the kind of things that we'll be working on in their most basic forms, following this I decided to do a similar thing from home using Macromedia Flash and a graphics tablet and drew each frame as before and finishing at 120 frames at 12 FPS :) 10 seconds of low grade animation <3

..So during the 'intro process'

While people were getting passwords and stuff sorted out I decided to do a little pixel house on Paint ^_^

- ZH