So far

So far my grouph have cropped the game trailer and started to edit the sounds we have collected. These include hurt, lift and walking sounds. There are a few lef tto edit and then we can get started on the main editing bit. which is importing the new audio files and puting them in the right place. Hopefully it will work out.

Editing my audio

To edit my audio I am using Adobe SoundBooth which at first glance is very good but when I needed to reverse an same audio track I could not find the effect or any button relating to it. I then turned to the internet and at forms. But with no luck. I found out later on that Soundbooth doesn't have that feature. This disapointed me a lot seeing as it is advertised as a profeshional piece of soft ware.

Portal

As you know the game I have picked to reseach and writ my essay about is poratl. Today I have been looking at Valve (developers of the game) and what they say about it.



I have also looked at there sound team. I have found 2 employes so far that work with sound or sound equitment. A Sound Designer & a Sound Engineer. Sound designer will deal with the recording and editing of sounds. The Sound Engineer will make sure the Sound Designer has all the equitment he needs and that they are working.

Minecraft audio editing- So far

This is the list of audio i am replacing and where I got it from:

Sounds
cave5 (7)- soundbible.com
fire (2)- soundbible.com
water (3)- soundbible.com
lava (3)- soundbible.com
splash (2)- soundbible.com
travel (9)- beemp3.com
trigger (4)- beemp3.com
click (1)- soundbible.com
door_close (1)- sound-effect.com
door_open (1)- sound-effect.com
explode (1)- sound-effect.com
fuse (2)- sound-effect.com
hurt (1)- recorded (brother)
cloth1 (1)
grass1 (1)
gravel1 (1)
sand1 (1)
snow1 (1)
stone1 (1)
wood1 (1)

Music - 8bit

hal1 Anamanaguchi - Another Winter
hal2 x-ray - Zizibum
hal3 Tsunami334 - Ghoastbusters 8 bit theme
hal4 Kris G - 8bit portal still alive
piano1
piano2
piano3

I am also getting some custome recordings to put in from class mates and people I know.

I have started unit 73: Sound in-game

For this unit I have to research a game which for me is Portal by Valve and write a 1500 words essay about sound in-game. This essay will have my research on the gamre and how they created the sounds for it. I will also use unit terminolgy and have my own look into how the audio effects thge game and player involvment.

I want to also go off the unit brief and swap the Minecraft Sounds for my own custome sounds. This will be an extra project for me to do. I havge already created the read me file and the folder plan. All I need to do now is record all the sounds ethier from members of the class or through foley and then edit them in Adobe Soundbooth. Then I will convert them to .ogg files and import them into the game.

I am excited about creating this custome sound folder and look forward to handing it in.

Completed 3 and nearly 4

I need to work on the 4 adding a light sourse and working on the text.

I belive I am on track which is great. Only 2 weeks to go.

After posting my last post I saw that I didn't have any lighting effects so i decided to add the moon in to show the time of day it is and to add anmosphere.

Page 2: COMPLETE

I have now finished page 2 of my graphic novel.

Page 1 : COMPLETE

I have now finished drawing and editing in photoshop of the title slide which also includes the begining of the story.

It took me a while to complete it because I had to get fonts and draw charcter and there assesories but now I can reuse them in other scene. Hoepfully after a few slides I will have enough objects to speed up the rate I finish each sence.

Tomorrow I will scan in my drawing of the second scene and finish editing it in photophop.

The Go Ahead

I have Been given the go ahead by Sean and have started to design my charcters.

Mafia hit man:

Poilce man

Whats been happening in unit 55 & 5

Last week on friday my class had a vist from the Producer & CEO of HATMAN Productions (Paul Grant). His task was to look at every ones ideas for the creative brief and decide weather or not it is good enough and sutible for 15 years of age and under.

Although he got through most of the class he didn't get to me so I am now in this void of not being able to do any creative work or even work on my planning.


Today I am hopefully going to sort it this out with either Sean giving the go ahead or I will send an email to the CEO of HATMAN Productions and hopefully get one back giving me the go ahead.

Unit 55 Creative Brief Graphic Narratives

Today I was given the creative brief. This docment outlines the product I will have to produce by the end of this unit and will help guide me to the best deliverable.

I am working for HATMAN Productions who has asked me to create a graphic narrative of a well known teenage too adult tv-show/movie with a twist. This concept must have the capability to be produced into a movie/tv-show/animation/graphic novel/web site/title sequences.

Tomorrow I have to show and discuse my ideas with the Creative Director & CEO of HATMAN Productions Paul Grant.

LAN Party Day

Today we setup a LAN party and played a 4 team tournament. To setup the LAN we had pre made diagrams showing how we should complete the task. This allowed us to work quickly and get down to the gaming.

While we connected all the cable my group filmed all the process so we could then edit a tutorial together. This will go with the rest of our LAN party doc's.

I would have my LAN Party Video Tutorial HERE but Blogger won't upload it.

I will try at home.

I found today an interesting and fun day. The reason for this is that I have learnt many things today mostly about the interaction of switches and routers. The fun part was gaming. Especially because my team won 4-3.

LAN PARTY Update

Today I have been working on my LAN party documents. These include the instructions for connecting xbox 360 consoles together and be able to play games together. This section also will include 2 diagrams and a video tutorial of how to connect.

I have also added the time and place to my poster and it is looking a lot more professional.

The only other item I need to finish off is my essay. Which won't take to long. I believe I need 200 more words and then I will work through it and correct any mistakes.

LAN PARTY Poster

I have finished a poster for the LAN PARTY that my class will be setting up and using. This poster will be used as advertising and has all the info you need on it. e.g. Date. But I still need to add the time and location of the LAN. I will try to put it at the bottom so people can just look at the bottom section and know everything they need to know.

Here it is:

Essay + Course So Far

This week I have carryed on writing my essay about hand-held consoles in the 2000's and i have finished my power point presentaion for my grouph.

The PPT explains and shows the history of hand-held consoles and then I go into more detail about the Nintendo 3DS and the new fetures and tech in the product. Along with the PPT i have writien a brief notes of what i have to say for each slide. This will help me if I forget valubale information or if i need to be reminded of where I am at.

First Week of Year 2

After the first week of the second year of Games Development. We have started unit 20 which looks at platforms and technologies. My group got given the 2000's to research and study and produce a 1000 word essay and a ppt for a presentation we will be showing.

I looked hand held consoles and how they developed from 2000-2010. I have made a time line of all the release in the 2000's. I then went and looked into the newest technologies for hand-held which turns out to be the Nintendo 3DS.

This product allowed me to talk about the new edge in technologie... 3D.

This has helped me by me now knowing the newest tech and how the industry is dealing with the sudden intrest of 3D.

26 May- Essay finished :)

Today I finished my LAN gaming essay. This is a greate relif to me. I am now starting to add to my design power point with more designs for the game. The designs will be t-shirts, a facebook game and a trailer.

25th May- LAN Party Essay

Today I carried on with my LAN party essay and got to 650/1000 words. I have been going over it the past 2 day rearanging sections and adding more details. I have also been quoting and adding the refrence information in to the bilgrography.

This has tought me to refrence all my work in the future. Although I find it some times a drag to link, name and date all of the copy and pasted work it will help me in the future. :)

19 May- game concept design

Today I consentrated on coming up with a concep[t for a facebook game. I looked into other games opnfacebook but most of them play the same.


I want the game to be 2d and look a bit arcady. So I looked at more classic games. Like Super Mario Worlds and R type.

I am thinking of having the design a bit pixelated to create the classic arcade effect. Hopefuylly the in-game screen shots that I am creating will look good remind people of games like R type and Super Mario Worlds.

17 May-Research

I have been finishing off on the game concept media by adding a cover for the game. Which I still need to edit it e.g. add a boarder for the back image and the logos on the box.

After doing that I went on to the research unit and filling out a booklet showing us how to research. This involved looking at other sources other than google and wiki. This has helkpoed me becasue now I know of other places to look foor infomation I need.

This will help me in the unit by allowing me to use info from newspapers, books and magazies. Which showes that I can propely research.

Game Development Prosses: Valve

Project Manager

Game Company process & Game Publisher

Game Development: Game Company process
Valve Project process

· Pre-Production
This is were the game developer creates the idea and then gets the green light to start the production but if the publisher is a separate company the game developer has make pitches to the publisher and they then have to decide if they want to back up the company’s idea.

· Production
This is when the project is full staffed with: Designers, Artists, programmers, 3d modellers, level designers, sound engineers and sound composers.

Ø Designers
They design the game play, conceiving and designing the rules and structure of the game. They are some times called the game inventor because of there main role in the early game development.

Ø Artistic
They are responsible for all visual aspects of a game. They will also develop concept art from the Designers ideas.

Ø Level designer
They create game levels, challenges and missions. They also can create enemy or non-player placement or scripted events and change and create codes for multiplayer content that will introduce rules or change rules.

Ø 3D modeller
They develop mathematical representation of a three-dimensional object by using 3d modelling software like: 3D s max, Maya and Blender.

Ø Programmer
They are software engineers who mostly specialise in different discipline of game programmers.

Ø Sound engineer
They deal with the recording and reproduction of sound through mechanical and electronic means. Sound engineers have to have a great knowledge of audio devices and the programmes used to edit audio.

· Millstones
Most game companies have millstones during their project because it helps them keep up to date on there work. The millstone also works as a point at were the publisher can see what stage the project is on. If it is not on the right stage then they can with hold payments.
The period before the millstone is called the ‘crunch mode’ this is the game company will work over time to complete work that has slipped and to fix problems.

· Near completion
This is in the last few weeks until the deadline. Most works will work unpaid overtime. This is the time were most of the stress will occur in the game company.

· Testing
This is the main testing staff are needed most because of all the content that is added. The testers also are required to go though the game after content is added to make sure the original content still works.

At this stage the alpha testers are introduced and later on beta testers. Alpha testers come from out side the company. They go through the game and then file reports on any glitches in-game. The company then fixes the problems and send the new update back. This process is repeated until the game company feel s the game is ready for a more beta testers. These are the last group of testers until the game’s release. The difference between alpha and beta testers is that alpha testers see the game at a more basic stage. They also help fix most of the big bugs that affect the game play or even stop the game. The beta testers see the game when it is very near the end product. They help fix glitches such as floating trees, falling through the floor and invisible walls.

· Completion
This is the game is published and released. The employees normally have holiday in this period because of there tight hours when they are creating the game.

· Maintenance
Game developers can now create update or patches for there games to fix problems that occur. This has become more common because of online-enabled consoles. They used to mail floppy discs with the patch on to clients.

Game Development: Game Publisher

Steam

‘Steam is a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation. It is used to distribute a large number of games and related media entirely over the internet, from small independent efforts to larger, more popular games. Steam is set apart from similar services primarily by its community features, completely automated game update process, and its use of in-game functionality.
There are over 1,000 games available on Steam, and in January 2010 Valve announced that it had surpassed 25 million active user accounts.[3] It regularly services in excess of two million concurrent users.[4] Although Valve never releases sales figures, Steam is considered by its competitors and clients to be the market leader, controlling an estimated 70% of the digital distribution market.[5]
Many major publishers have catalogues on Steam, including Electronic Arts, Activision, 2K Games, Ubisoft, THQ, Sega, Codemasters, LucasArts, Capcom, and Bethesda Softworks.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(content_delivery)
Steam is not a publisher but it links in with the Valve games because it is the main distributor of the games made by Valve seeing as Valve made Steam.
Steam helps publishers to digitally sell there content.
Valve uses Electronic Arts to produce there games on CD and then shipped to shops. This means that Valve attacks the consumers on both sides. Online digital downloads and Gaming shops with CD’s. The CD way covers Xbox 360, PS3 and a very small amount of PC formatted discs. The digital way covers most PC gamers.

Finished Animation With Audio

Animatic

Client Proposal

Airport Madness
Made by Felix slinger-Thompson

This animation is about airport security in the future when the nation has become so feared about terrorists getting though that it makes all passenger go through a horrible ordeal just to get on to the plane.

Abstract
This proposal is about the ever growing airport security and an insight at what it could amount to in the future.

The idea came while watching the news after the terrorist threat to the US from the UK. After this incidence the US demanded more security in airports all around the world. Now the all UK airports are fitting more high-tech scanners. There is now an argument going on about the privacy that people have from the scanners.

Since this incident there have been a lot more news about airport security and the treat to the UK. I have been following these to get a better insight into the issue.
I have been looking at the internet and the TV for research. I have also looked at manga and anime. This is because I like the style they use in the Studio Ghibli films. I looked at the manga because of it normal being black and white line drawings which are what I want my animation to look like.

I have also looked at the best way to make it. To make it look realistic I want to rotor scope footage. This also means that when I shoot the footage I can get the costume that I want the character to wear. Although this way will take along time it will look better than motion tweaking or drawing from my imagination.

My animation will be black & white line drawing rotor scoped from video that I will film.

Target audience
The target audience for airport madness is 15+ because to get my animation you need to have some knowledge of the situation which is being reported by the news.
Unique selling points
you could sell this to any news company so they could upload it to there website or show it on the news linking in with the terrorism story.

Story

General idea
The animation follows a man who is going on a plane but before he can get on he has to go through the airport security, which has become incessantly more paranoid about a terrorist attack. This man goes through the full body scanner, strip search, shoe scan, bag scan, passport control with a facial picture. Then he gets on the plane which its destination is the next city.
When he gets off he sees a sign saying arrives this way to Full Security Search.
He sighs.

In-depth idea
Moving camera will follow a man’s feet and lower legs, be hide him tails a suit case. Melt legs and feet flash past the camera. A lady says “This way sir”. Camera switches to a body shot of the man facing a full body scanner, his suit case moves through some plastic netting as he walks through. After he goes through he spreads his legs and puts his arms out as a man walks up to his with a flat metal scanner. He feels the out side and then they move into a room that has on it
Search room.

When he appears at the exit he is clenching his bottom will waddling forward. His collects his suit case from the side of the wall.

Then the camera will switch to him in a queue near the front. When it becomes his turn the camera switches to a side view of them. Man signals him to take off his shoes and puts them through a small scanner. He then moves on.

The camera is facing his side. He moves put to a high desk with a neatly dressed lady who says “Passport please and luggage in the bay “. He hands over his passport and places his bag into a small container which zooms away as he watches it. The camera changes to his view as the lady says “Look straight at the camera”. He turns just to see her smile and then the camera flash blinds him. The camera then changes to a side view of him rubbing his eyes. Lady then says “There you go, have a good trip Mr Miyazaki”. In her hand are his passport and his ticket, which he takes while still rubbing one of his eyes. Then he moves out of the cameras view.

The next scene is him in a queue entering Gate 5. The camera is facing his back. There is a window on the wall with trees in the distance.

Then the people disappear and the window changes top show building. Around the corner in side the gate the man comes into view walking directly at the camera. More people appear be hide him. The camera then changes to face the opposite. There is now a sign saying welcome to Tokyo and be-hide it there’s another sign saying “arrival’s this way to security search”. The man stops at the side of the screen looking at the sign. We can only see his back. You hear a sigh.

Visual style
My animation will be black & white line drawings. It will be created from my own video and then rotor scoped in Flash 8. The back grounds will be stationary apart from the first one which is when the main character is walking.

Audio style
Most of the animation has no speech so there will be a lot ambience noise going on. I want the ambience to be people talking, clattering of objects, one or two phones going off. Between scenes the ambience will fade in and out.

Bibliography
BBC News TV
BBC News Website
Google Images
Studio Ghibli
Deathnote (book)
Animations:
Youtube
Aniboom

Animation Stroyboard

This ins my storyboard for my animation.

Adobe After Effects Tutorials

Here are all the tutorials I have done so far. Some of them are just me messing around in AE to get the hang of the software:

Treatment

Subject/Idea

It will be about airport security and how it is slowly increasing because of terrorist threats. It will be set in the year 2017, at this time the war is still going to. The main focus in this animation is a man going though all the many security features. An example of the security is full-body x-ray. Full body scan, item x-ray machines, dogs, strip search, luggage search and face recognition. Then he will final get on a plane and fly for 30mins before getting off and then there will be a sign saying security check this way. Meaning he will have to do it all over again just to get on to the streets.

Structure/form

Moving camera will follow a man’s feet and lower legs, be hide him tails a suit case. Melt legs and feet flash past the camera. A lady says “This way sir”. Camera switches to a body shot of the man facing a full body scanner, his suit case moves through some plastic netting as he walks through. After he goes through he spreads his legs and puts his arms out as a man walks up to his with a flat metal scanner. He feels the out side and then they move into a room that has on it Search room.
When he appears at the exit he is clenching his bottom will waddling forward. His collects his suit case from the side of the wall.
Then the camera will switch to him in a queue near the front. When it becomes his turn the camera switches to a side view of them. Man signals him to take off his shoes and puts them through a small scanner. He then moves on.
The camera is facing his side. He moves put to a high desk with a neatly dressed lady who says “Passport please and luggage in the bay “. He hands over his passport and places his bag into a small container which zooms away as he watches it. The camera changes to his view as the lady says “Look straight at the camera”. He turns just to see her smile and then the camera flash blinds him. The camera then changes to a side view of him rubbing his eyes. Lady then says “There you go, have a good trip Mr Miyazaki”. In her hand are his passport and his ticket, which he takes while still rubbing one of his eyes. Then he moves out of the cameras view.
The next scene is him in a queue entering Gate 5. The camera is facing his back. There is a window on the wall with trees in the distance.
Then the people disappear and the window changes top show building. Around the corner in side the gate the man comes into view walking directly at the camera. More people appear be hide him. The camera then changes to face the opposite. There is now a sign saying welcome to Tokyo and be-hide it there’s another sign saying “arrival’s this way to security search”. The man stops at the side of the screen looking at the sign. We can only see his back. You hear a sigh.

Visuals

The style is going to be anime because then I can make the backgrounds mostly be blank and it will be black and White. I want to do it this way because I have been looking at a lot of anime and I really like the style especially the amazing stories.

Sound

In most of the scenes there will be a noisy room sound with people talking and phones going off. There will also be some speech.
Technique
I want to use Adobe Flash to create my animation because know how to use it.

Audience

The audience I will be focusing on is 12+ because of the animation is linked into the new at this point in time so it could be confusing for younger people. All the commutation will be mostly visual. I want to make it this way because most of the animations I like are the ones that tell the story with there3 body’s and movement.

This idea came about when I was watching the news about the atempted terrorism attack. After this atempted was made the US derclarerd they wanted more security in all airports. This is when I though about what would happen if airport security kept on getting more and more paranoid.