Rotoscope

Rotoscope.
Rotoscoping is used to make cartoonised versions of film.











Today we learnt about rotoscoping which is basically taking a video and editing over it with paint or effects etc. I did an experimentation using the trailer of far cry 3 taking only 3 seconds worth of footage and painted over it.

Construct 2

Why we are using this software

This is a much simpler software made for primarily non-programmers to use because it allows us to make animations ourselves and then the software creates the script itself so all we have to do is click a couple of buttons which will create a simple 2D game in a drag a drop fashion. This allows people to concentrate more on animations for the game and to make better looking graphics.

Other software

Flash

Flash has an animation and programming feature to it allowing people to work in just one software at all times when making a 2d game. It can be hard at times to use if you are not fully comfortable with the software but many games have been made with this, such as the well famous "Super Meat Boy". 



Game Test

Event sheet

The event is used to make everything work, this is a simplified way of scripting by which you simply add events to characters and objects with actions attached to them to activate the event, such as an event keyboard "On left button Pressed" and the add the action to the player with set mirrored which will tell the character to be mirrored (or look right) and then invert it for right button.


Animation

The animation process is very easy you simply go to edit animation on a sprite and then import images in frames which will then loop depending on if you have toggled it and then the animations will need to be put into the event sheet. As shown above.












Behaviours


Behaviours are what give the sprite a way to enter the event sheet with say the blocks need to have a solid behaviour to allow them to be solid and able to walk on. The main behaviour used is platform which is used to make it a physical object to be able to add event such as platform is jumping.

Test Game

This was the game made from the demo testing out most of the mechanics and events you can use.

My Game

In this game i used most of the event sheet from the demo but did some slight experimentation.


My character.

For this character I looked a lot at the game braid for inspiration, looking at the environment and character design.






For my character I wanted to keep close to the idea of my 2D animation with him looking slightly rugged and wearing a vest and long hair.

My environment

This again was focused to look similar to braid but also keep to the idea of a forest/fields.

The event sheet and game.

I added a sine behaviour to my enemy so the enemy will move horizontally randomly so i wont know how it will move.

The game worked fine and the enemy implemented in was challenging and fun to play against and the solid sprite allowed there to be a bit more of an objective to the level. Overall I may not be happy with all the game play features but I focused more on my graphics and animations. The event I found to be very easy once you learnt the basics but honestly most of the other behaviours and actions I couldn't find use for in my game but hope to find some use another time.

Stop motion

Research
This is a very smooth stop motion from a video called "Her morning elegance" . It's a series of actions from a birds eye video to make it look like the girl is walking it's very well done and must of taken hundreds of photos. This was good inspiration to give us an idea of how to make action look flowing when taking the photos.

Our Stop motion
This was made using an apple and a toy from the group we went for mimicking a scene from the T.V show "Family Guy". This was luckily easy to sync with the sound because of the amount of pictures we took with the point and shoot camera on a mini tri-pod. This was a simple process of slowly moving the objects after each picture taken and then import into a free software called monkey jam which allows you to bulk import pictures to a frame by frame grid by chronological order.

This is our finished stop motion.

Game Trailer Idea

Mind Map
I branched out my ideas but didn't want to give my self too many options to make it harder for me to choose one so I came up with two ideas and thought about what could happen and how it would happen in the trailer.

Game Title
My Game titles need to relate to a hunter. this is a list of some I came up with.

Shush
Stealth
Track and kill
Hunt and survive
Survive the woods


Genre,Platform and age rating of my game
My game I would say is a survival game, such as games like DayZ and Minecraft etc. This would be a multi platform game but mainly designed for PC. The age rating would be a 12+ because it would contain slight violence and blood but not so much to be any higher and nothing that would be considered mature content.

Brief story of the game
The games main antagonist will be a simple man surviving in the woods stranded from anyone, there really isn't any back story of the person because the person is meant to be yourself . You keep yourself alive and hunt animals. The deeper into the woods and areas you go the stronger the animals get and the more mythical they can become.

Character
So my character is going to look rugged and rough with dirty muddy clothing and ripped trousers whilst wielding a bow with a quiver. I started to take look at some inspiration.

Tomb Raider
This is great inspiration for my character as it really close to my idea except mine would be male the idea of scratches and bruises really puts emphasis on the fact of being alone and stranded.


Hunger Games Katniss
This is another great inspiration especially this picture as it's labeled the main features of the concept this i would say is a more modern day look but still gives me some ideas.



Sketches

Front and Back and Sitting

So in my drawings ive attempted to put my inspirations into my character. The vest allows me to show more skin getting scratched and bruised and the physical strength of the character. In the final coloured version the trousers and vest will have mud and rips to emphasize. The hair growth is a main factor for me because in the game there would be hair growth over time to show duration of playtime.

Sound ideas.
Arrow hitting flesh
http://www.sounddogs.com/previews/25/mp3/307791_SOUNDDOGS__go.mp3

Draw of arrow, arrow fired cut out hitting the target replace with sound above.
http://www.sounddogs.com/previews/32/mp3/762555_SOUNDDOGS__ar.mp3

Wolf howl
http://www.sounddogs.com/previews/25/mp3/331481_SOUNDDOGS__an.mp3

Wolf growl
http://www.sounddogs.com/previews/2185/mp3/101245_SOUNDDOGS__an.mp3

Background noise.
http://www.sounddogs.com/previews/25/mp3/309971_SOUNDDOGS__ba.mp3

Music
http://www.sounddogs.com/previews/3668/mp3/990626_SOUNDDOGS__we.mp3 or..

http://www.sounddogs.com/previews/3692/mp3/745071_SOUNDDOGS__bu.mp3

Final trailer

Evaluation

I'm pleased with the out come of this trailer as it was rushed to move on to the game itself but feel as if it was well enough to tease an audience for an upcoming game. I'm pleased with the graphics and backgrounds but feel that i could of worked a bit more on trying to sync the sounds. Next time i wish to work more on fluid movements as this was hard to do in thirty seconds.

Research

2D Game Trailers.

Shank

At the start of the trailer it tells us what company made the game and the age rating for the game which is 17+.This game trailer mainly shows of the characters in the game, the villains and the main protagonist. This is done by presented cut scenes from the cinematics in the game and then when a new character the viewers hasn't seen before it would freeze camera and change colour labelling the character. The animation itself is fairly simple using jumps and attacks but the main feature is the camera angles giving it suspense and making it intriguing. The graphics are outlined with a thick black line this in a way would help to make an animation easier but it mainly defines the style of the game with a kind of paper cut out look to it. After showing the main characters it begins to introduce gameplay but still changing to cinematics within the game to keep the camera moving and keep the audience entertained. It shows many features of the game and the game mechanics but never annotates what the features are because it would change the way the trailer presents the game so far. 

Guild Wars 2 "Norn" This game trailer is showing the one of the races from the game by telling the background story of the race. The rating is given a "Teen" rating, the trailer using many 3d layers in possibly after effects with a brilliant art style. A narrative approach was given to the trailer and as the narrator says something the animation changes to represent what she is saying. The art is a mixture of colours along with visually astonishing paintings which really pulls you into the trailer. You can tell that a lot of effort has been put into this trailer, at the end it shows the name of the game and the website you can go to to find out more. Don't Starve
This trailer starts off showing the game company behind the game, then begins by showing some text indicating what you do in the game by saying don't followed by something that happens in the game such as "don't go in the dark" then it shows game play in the dark which i think is a great way to link the title name into the trailer and also present the game well. At the end it finally says don't starve and then cuts to the character eating which i though was clever. The trailer is very short but that adds to the simplicity of the game and how user friendly the game actually is.

Animation test

Animation practice

We had a quick go at some flash animation to prepare a little.

Basically throughout these screenshots ive shown my step by step animation. First i made a quick bridge graphic using the line and fill tool.

Next ive adding a background edited with some filters in Photoshop for a better blend.

Now for the characte i just found a nice cartoon fat person and stuck him in, i did add any animation to the legs as i wanted to keep in quick and simple

The main animation is of the bridge breaking, so i made a classic tween for the character and then many little key frames for a shaking animations. Then in the end the bride would break slowly till he fell straight through this was done by slowly deleting parts of the bridge frame by frame.