Month: November 2017

yushano_Project 12

Final Project Proposal

What I plan to do for my final project is an animation and games combined. I will try to imitate a Christmas scene with a start page and then the scene will change to a moving Ferris wheel in the center with background music. There will be random Christmas stuff that falls from the sky. If the user press them, there will be sound and also the stuff will disappear. You may get points added or off depending on the objects that you press. Also, the speed of the game will accelerate at some point.

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^Jay van Cleef – A Minimal Love Story

For the first project, I looked at a student’s project which was a very simple concept of combining minimal graphic concepts with different visual attributes and noises to give a short minute long story that represents every romantic movie, story, tale, poem, etc. In the story he has a male and a female figure represented by coloured squares, a barrier that comes in between them as a literal barrier that stops them from meeting each other and the process that the ‘male square’ goes through to break that barrier, with the final outcome being the squares reuniting.

I found this really interesting because he conveyed every emotion that these ‘graphics’ would be feeling through the use of the correctly placed sound, and I would really like to look into something like this for my work.

^Carlo Vega – An Expansion

Going on the same line of looking at artists and motion designers that combine simple graphics with sounds to bring about a different emotion and create a compelling animation, I came across the work of Carlo Vega, a motion designer. He takes a much more experienced are artistic approach to this entire concept of combining coding and sounds to bring about beautiful animations that I would love to use as an inspiration for my project 12 work.

yoonyouk-LookingOutwards-12

I used one of the advertisements of Apple’s commercials as one of my Looking Outwards examples since there are a lot of relevant elements with this video and what I want to create with this final project. The simple movement of the shapes accompanied the sound so well despite the total simplicity. I like how this example considered not just new shapes appearing on the screen, but also how some shapes blend into new ones. Also, the video primarily utilizes circles to create the shapes and motion and yet is still able to convey so much movement and meaning.

My second example for this week’s LookingOutwards is Jono Brandel’s patapap video. Another example of motion graphics accompanying music. What I liked about this video was the incorporation of color, creating enough contrast between the foreground shapes and the background. When creating my project I think it is important to consider that the shapes must be distinct from each other and should all be noticeable.

abradbur – Looking Outwards – 12

For this Looking Outwards post I specifically wanted to find projects that integrated writing or storytelling, since I already knew that that was the direction I wanted to take my project. The first work I found is actually a simple point and click style game which you can download for free at the the artist’s web page here .

Since an extremely simple(as in far more simple than Desert Fox’s work) point and click game struck me as something I could conceivably accomplish for my final project, I admired the developer’s simplistic art style and their way of conveying the mood of the scene. In the “Bad Dream” series by Desert Fox, published in its early stages back in December of 2013, the player walks through a morbid dreamscape and attempts to wake up. One of the challenges of a point and click is to make the story interesting even though for the most part images are stagnant and pacing is entirely dependent on the player’s ability to solve a puzzle. For this purpose, intriguing backgrounds, good writing, and interesting puzzles are necessary. Desert Fox accomplishes most of these things, but though I enjoy their simple art style, it can become a little bland to look at after a while, even with gory details. As a result I would like the visuals in my final project to be just a little more dynamic.

The second work I found is “Fabulous/Fabuleux” by Heather Kelley. It debuted in 2008.

Here is Heather Kelley’s web page.

This project uses interactive software to tell a story according to the movements of the people who participate. I admire the use of sound, motion, and simple game mechanics to communicate the story, as well as the enchanting visual effect of creating a constellation that forms key objects in that story. However, if I were to change the project, not necessarily for improvement but to be more suited to my tastes, I would make the system of interaction itself relevant to the story, so that if you just replaced the story they used with a different one, it wouldn’t work as well. For this project the story itself doesn’t matter as much as the technology behind it, and I would like the writing in my project to have more of an impact.

 

NatalieKS-Project12-Proposal

A quick sketch of what my final project would look like.

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For my project, I want to create a sound-based game. The premise of the game is that you’re creating a piece by pressing the keys for three judges, who will then judge you based off your creation. Kind of almost like a DJ version of American idol! After your piece is over, the three judges will randomly display an expression – impressed/wowed, ambivalent, or disappointed, and will say something about your piece depending on what that expression is. It will be similar to Patatap in that you can press keys to produce sounds, but they will all be more music-related (but not just simple notes) rather than a mix of all kinds of sounds. In addition, each sound will have its own little symbol, and move across a music staff so it looks like you’re generating music as you play. The ending of your piece will be determined by time; you’ll have about 15 or 30 seconds to play your piece, and then it’ll end. (This is subject to change; if I can’t make this work, then it’ll be based off of 15 or 30 key presses). The judges will have a thinking expression until the very end, so it looks like they’re reacting in real-time.

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Proposal Followup: the “judging” will most likely be random, i.e. after the song is over, they will randomly display one of maybe 3 or 5 expressions to “judge”

hannajan-project12-proposal

For my final project, I would like to create a virtual pet game. One of my fondest memories growing up was taking care of virtual pets such as Nintendogs, Neopets, or Tamagotchi. I’m not completely sure which animal I would like to feature as of yet, but I am currently leaning towards making a cat.

         Using mouse interaction and commands, the pet owner can feed the cat, play music to the cat, put the cat to sleep, or play with the cat. This will lead to the cat experiencing an increase in energy or happiness levels, and give feedback to the pet owner on how well they are taking care of their pet. I am also thinking of making the animal move in some way that relates to the mouse. For example, have the eyes follow the mouse and have the cat react when the mouse clicks on the cat. When the owner wants the pet to eat, play, sleep, or listen to music, the cat will move in a way that shows that it is following these commands. 

Basic Sketch of layout

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For my final project, I want to make an interactive game so for my Looking Outwards, I researched the top games on market for inspiration.

For the first project of my Looking Outwards report, I researched the game Rider. I think Rider is a great source of inspiration for my project because the obstacle changes every round, every level, and as the car moves throughout the track. The player has to face new challenges each frame. I really admire this game’s interaction with the human because it creates a frustrating, but ultimately entertaining experience. This game was released by the company, Ketchapp, in July of 2017.

      

Caption: Above are some screenshots from the game, Rider.

The second project I chose for my Looking Outwards is Monument Valley. Monument Valley runs a player, princess Ida, through mazes of optical illusions and “sacred geometry”, which refers to impossible objects. The player goes through the mazes and finds hidden passages  while in pursuit of the map’s exit. The player must overcome moving platforms, pillars, or spontaneous bridges. Monument Valley was developed by Ustwo, a digital design firm, and was officially released in 2014. Again, I think game is an excellent source of inspiration because the landscape changes continuously and gives the user a surprise edge to face. In addition, I really admire this project’s design and visual graphics. In fact, it was awarded as the Apple Game of the Year and Design Award in 2014.

    

Caption: Above are screenshots from different levels in Monument Valley.

 

yushano_Looking Outwards 12

 

http://www.creativeapplications.net/js/norman-webvr-tool-to-create-frame-by-frame-animations-in-3d/

Created by James Paterson, Norman is an open-source WebVR tool to create frame-by-frame animations in 3D. Drawing inspiration and building on the work from Rhonda (2004/05), James turned to WebVR to build the tool in Javascript that runs in a web browser and lets him animate naturally in 3D using VR controllers.

http://www.creativeapplications.net/c/block-bills-64-banknotes-generated-from-the-bitcoin-blockchain/

Created by Matthias Dörfelt, ‘Block Bills’ is a series of 64 banknotes generated from the Bitcoin Blockchain. Each banknote represents one block in the chain and the whole series consist of 64 consecutive blocks starting at block

I was attracted by these two work at the first sight. For the first one, I like it because I think using coding to do animation is very interesting and it is something that I have wanted to do for a long time. The animation is interactive for audience because it is not static. Also, the storyline also attracts the audience. It even uses VR to interact with the audience, which makes it more interactive. For the second work, the quality of the design impressed me. I like the design for just a bill using coding. I like how the author uses simple coding to generate or compose a such abstract design of a bill.  This work is very aesthetic, but I think it can be more interactive. I know it is a design for bill, which is static, but it will be fun if it is an animation.

 

jiheek1 (Section D)–LookingOutwards-12-Project Priors and Precursors

I imagine combining Victor Doval’s concept of translating data visually (project 1) and the more game-related aspects and graphical elements of Monument Valley (project 2) in my project.

project 1:

Howler Monkey by Meier & Erdmann from Víctor Doval on Vimeo.

This project is a music video for an electronic music “Howler Monkey” by a German duo called Meier & Erdmann. The author of the project is Victor Doval, a visual artist. He created the music video in 2017 with an algorithm that converts frequencies into visual elements like peaks and flowers that ultimately generate a landscape! During the span of the music, the landscape progresses from day to night. Data from the source song is converted to different shapes and textures. I intend to use the concept of creating  dynamic depictions of data in the background of my project(which is a game). I wish for my canvas to respond/react to certain data(such as points) and show that in a visually enticing way.

For more information: an article that covers project  &  official project page

Project 2:

Monument Valley – Behind the Scenes from ustwo on Vimeo.

Monument Valley 2 by ustwo Games (2014) is a game about the exploration of a mother and a daughter through an impossible world from which the players could experience ever-changing landscapes and the relationship between a parent and a child. What I admire about this project and could possibly integrate into my project are aspects such as the ever-changing landscape with an element of surprise (similar to the project above), the use of the game as a storyteller, and the visual graphics. I especially admire the visual graphics of this project and would like to refer to them when creating my project.

captures of the ever-changing landscape of the game

For more information:
official project page

 

gyueunp – Looking Outwards 12

Propagaciones (2009)

Leonardo Solaas‘s Propagaciones (2009) is a series of generative drawings that were made on commission for a book cover. Not a lot of description is provided for this work, but I find it appealing due to its visual qualities, such as the ethereal effect that the abstract forms create. The sense of randomness as well as the “imperfections” attract me to this piece. Another interesting work created by Solaas is Affine Swarms, “a generative system based on fields of drawing particles that follow the same random trajectory, but are scaled or rotated depending on their initial position.” Randomness and rotations are factors I may use in my final project.

Digital Grotesque II (2017) video by Video by Kaufmann & Gehring

Created by Michael Hansmeyer and Benjamin Dillenburger, Digital Grotesque II (2017) is a full-scale 3D printed grotto that was entirely designed by algorithm and materialized out of 7 tons of printed sandstone. I am interested in this work’s rich details as well as the spatial depth that its multi-layered structures create. Ultimately, its highly ornamental quality is what I find extremely beautiful in this work.

Its design development animation can be found here.

The two works both meet my interest in that they are composed of intricate designs that are simultaneously unspecific and decorative. An obvious difference between the two is that Digital Grotesque II as the final product is in a 3-dimensional form, while Propagaciones is not. The latter contains a sense of randomness, while the former does not.

These two artworks are relevant to my final project, as both random and systematic factors will be utilised in mine. The visual aspects of my project will resemble them in its intricacy and ornate details. However, mine will be interactive and in motion, unlike the two projects I have discussed.