cbdigitalpractice-blog

[cbdigitalpractice-blog]

The task was to plan and create a short game using Flowlab, the game didn’t have to be too complex and only had to contain one level.

Flowlab.io was created by someone under the username grazer in May of 2013. He is still active on the site and lends a hand if people email him with questions about their games. The site was created to give people the opportunity to make their own games and experiment with different ideas.

There are many different game examples on the site. One in particular called Morton the monkey, created by grazer himself, attributed to my creative influence a lot. I looked at the game and decided to make one similer, using the code in the game to help me code my own game. The aim of his game was to catch objects that fell from the top of the screen and if you dropped an object you would loose a life.

I chose to make my game like this because, as complex as his was, it could be made quite simple but still fun to play. Flowlab can get quite complex if you know what you are diong, and are comfortable with the way that the coding works. I feel that with more experience I could be able to make a more complex game, but with the limited knowlege that I have, a simple game was the best for me.

The main creative decision for me was to make the game enjoyable to play, and to have a story behind what the game was about. In my game you control a camper called Peter who is collecting wood for a fire. I had some trouble with the scoring system and some other small glitches, but with the help of online tutorials and my peers, I managed to overcome these troubles and make the game work properly.

The feedback that I recieved confirmed that I could have added more, as most players felt thet there was something missing in the game. If I were to make the game again, I would try to add more objects that fell from the top of the screen. I would add a life option, where if you lost too many lives then you would lose the game. Overall, I think that my game could have been better but in the end it wasn’t too bad and, for the most part, it worked fairly well.

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This is my Animaker video. Our task was to make an explanatory video using Animaker. We had to choose a topic and make the video using animation with sound explaining how to do it. I chose the subject of making a cake.

Animation has been around forever… One of the earliest examples is a 5,200 year-old pottery bowl, which had images around the rim that showed phases of a goat leaping up to reach a tree. It’s come a long way since then.

In 1976 the film Futureworld (The sequel to the 1973 film Westworld) featured the first 3D computer-animated hand and face. Since then, computer animation has only advanced and now high-tech equipment is used to make detailed video games and films/TV shows.

I chose to make a video about how to make a cake because I felt that it is a simple idea, that can also be very useful. Animaker is quite a basic program, so there are limited choices on what can be used, in terms of objects and characters. I found it quite difficult to get all the objects that I needed as I had some troubles with uploading my own images. In the end I managed to collect all the images and finish my animation.

My main creative decision was to make a video that was both entertaining and educational. I think I achieved this by adding music to the animation and making the scenes colourful. The recipe I used to make the cake is one that I found online, so my video could be used by people who are looking to make a vanilla cake.

If I were to do this again, I would make sure that I had access to all the images that I needed in order to complete the video and that I chose images that looked like they fitted together in the same art style. I might also choose a different recipe of cake that was more complex than a plain vanilla cake. Overall, given that I had no prior knowledge on how to use Animaker, I think that I made a decent video that could educate others and entertain them at the same time. Also, when I asked people their opinions on the animation, they found it entertaining and informative too.

[cbdigitalpractice-blog]

Above is a Prezi presentation describing an ARG that I worked on, alongside Carew Vaile and Chris Craig. We each chose a part of the plan to work on, we were however still working as a team.

ARGs (Alternate Reality Games) tell stories through narrative elements that are distributed across many different platforms. These could be through social media, communication channels, websites or live events. ARGs date back through recent history, one early example would be the web game Dreadnot which was an ARG produced and published on sfgate.com in 1996 by the San Francisco Chronicle.

A more recent ARG in 2007 was made for the latest Batman film, The Dark Night. This was very in-depth and had players starting 15 months before the premiere of the film. It began very simply, by using $1 bills vandalised by the Joker to lead San Diego Comic-con visitors to the website www.whysoserious.com. And it only got crazier from there.

My part in the group was to make the Prezi, using the information and plans that we all made. I had the task to put it all together into a presentation that would be easily shown to pitch our idea. We chose to make an ARG for the sequal to the film District 9. We named it District 10. In the time that the ARG will run, the players will perform tasks and will have to use their brains to figure out the clues to the next part of the game.

The original film District 9 already had an ARG made for it, so we used similar parts and continued the original to make a sequal. Players who complete our ARG would be given the chance to see the official trailer for the film before anyone else.

The main creative vision for this ARG was to create something that would encourage people who enjoyed the first film, to get involved in discovering the secrets of the sequel. It was made to be fun and challenging for the players and to give them a sense of achievement when they completed the final task.

I had some trouble coming up with ideas for the different tasks the players would have to accomplish, but with the help of the rest of the group, we came up with a plan that we were all happy with.

If I were to do it again, I think that I would go into more detail of the tasks that there were, and I would create more tasks for them to carry out. I feel that there should be more depth to the challenges that the players face and they should be required to use their brains to complete the tasks instead of just delivering messages to the contacts.

Overall I think that I contributed well to the team and that the work I provided was to that standard that was expected. I think that the ARG would be fun to try in real life and would link in nicely with the original that was made for the first film.

[cbdigitalpractice-blog]

Above is my adaptation of the Dobell logo, using Gestalts Principals. I designed the logo on paper to begin with, and then moved to Adobe Illustrator to make the final product.

Using logos to brand a product goes back to the 1800s, where they were nothing more than a mark, symbol or a literal brand to mark who the maker of the product was. These products rose up above all other non-branded companies because they were more recognised by consumers.

In modern times, logos are used by almost all companies and brands to show their products and are almost always simple and adaptable to any kind of media. Illustrator is used most commonly to make these logos, because it is a vector based software that makes it easy to size-up any images and not lose their quality.

Gestalt’s theory to making logos shows the different techniques that are used in making logos to make them more appealing and interesting to the consumers. It talks about proximity and how the spacing of objects can make the eye see things that may not be there. For example, giving the illusion of columns instead of rows (See below)

My main creative decision was to make a logo that followed with the Gestalt principals and I think I managed this well. The decision to use the letters to make the bowtie was to give the logo a hint of what the company did, so that customers would recognise it as a formalwear product. The feedback that I received was encouraging and people agreed that it fitted with what the company did.

Above is the original Dobell logo.

I chose to remake this logo because I felt that I could make it more interesting. Dobell is a men’s formalwear company that makes suits and other formal attire. I used the ‘dob’ of the word to make a bowtie which, I think, fits well with the companies themes and products. I found it quite difficult to use the Illustrator program because I wasn’t familiar with how it worked, but I think that it came out how I wanted it to.

I had trouble making the shapes of the bowtie, but with some research I used different tools to achieve what I wanted. As I develop my skills in Illustrator I think that I could get better at it, and if I were to do this logo again I feel that I could use other techniques to make the lines smoother and to get the exact shape that I wanted.

If I were to do the piece again I would make the bowtie more detailed, while still fitting in with the simplicity of the logo as a whole. I feel that this would give it a more professional look that would fit in with the formality of the company’s products. When I asked people their opinions on my design, they liked the simplicity and the fact that there wasn’t too much going on.They also admired the use of the bowtie in the letters.

[cbdigitalpractice-blog]

This is the first black and white image that I have added colour to using Photoshop. 

Adding colour to black and white photos is a way of bringing photos to life, it was popular in the late 19th century before the development of colour photographs. People would hand-paint the photographs to add colour to them which would take a lot of their time. The image below is an example of an early hand-coloured photograph.

In modern times people use computers to add colour to old black and white photos, using different programmes such as Photoshop to bring the photos back to life. Using a computer over hand-painting the photographs allows them to come out in more detail and possibly more realistic because the level of accuracy is higher and any mistakes that are made can be undone with the click of a button.

I chose to recolour the photograph of the child (below) because it seemed quite simple and the photo, to me, represented a child’s wonder and imagination, which fitted the topic of giving old photos new life quite well. There weren’t many parts of the image that I struggled with, which was good seeing as I had only learned the technique a few days prior.

My main creative decision was to achieve photo realism, which I feel I accomplished well. I decided to make the child’s eyes stand out from the rest of the photo to bring people’s attention to them and to portray how curious children can be. I chose a bright blue colour to stand out from the pale skin and I feel that the portrayal went well and that it looks good with the overall photograph. I believe this because I received feedback from people who seemed to think the same thing.

I had trouble finding a good skin colour for the image, and I still feel that the colour isn’t right, but this is a challenge that I could overcome in the future as I develop my skills in Photoshop, and have a better understanding of how the recolourisation of photos works. This challenge was confirmed as, in my feedback; people agreed that the skin colour was not as good as it could have been.

If I were to do the piece again, I would try to find a better skin colour match to make the photo more realistic. Other than that, I'm happy with how the photograph turned out and I think that it went how I wanted it to.