Professional Practice: Branding

Recently I have been working on branding. Through research of other peoples branding designs, it appears that they work with flat colours. I decided to do a various amounts of designs, the reason why most of them have no colour was that I had the idea of a black and white theme. But after a few attempts and reflecting the impression I got from these was they don’t reflect the type of work I produce. The reason for this is that these logos appear to me that they wouldn’t belong to a designer.

Websites visited

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/identity-branding-design-part-2/

http://graphicdesignjunction.com/2013/08/branding-visual-identity-logo-designs-25-creative-examples/

http://saad-studio.com/en/cases-branding-design/juliana-ota-pilates-design-id/

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/77408

http://youandsaturation.com/22-amazing-examples-of-branding-design/

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/roty-2014-graphic-design

 

Player Sprite (Animation)

Recently I have been making progress on the sprite for the player. I have made one animation which is for when the sprite is idol and another for when the sprite walks. The problem with animating the player was that there is no facial expressions, so to make the sprite look alive more focus was on how much the sprite actually animated. Below are the final sprite animations on the left is the sprite when it’s idol and the sprite on the right is what it looks like when walking.

Below are my attempts at trying to get the animation right. The problem I had with animating the idol sprite was that it was difficult to make it seem alive, without adding any details such as a face or clothing. To get around this I had to focus on the actual movement of the sprite. Things as simple as moving the torso up and down or enlarging and shrinking the torso, this gave the sprite the appearance that it was alive. The walking animation for the sprite was the most difficult of both the sprite animations. The reason was making the it appear that the sprite is actually walking and not just a static image. For the walking animation I looked into Eadweard Muybridge’s work, Muybridge worked with photography and he looked at how people walk.

Player Idle Animation

Recently I have been working on the animations of the player. What I mean by this is how the player will move when idle and the other is how the player looks when they walk. I have so far got the Idle animation complete, what I wanted for the animation was it to look like stop motion. Almost like the animation short animation Hedgehog in the Fog by Yuri Norstein.

Progress of Game

The layout of the research vessel is almost complete, there are just a few more rooms that need to be done and it should be completed. Apart from the layout of research vessel I have also been working on the technical side. I now have a movable character and also a camera that can follow the player. I have also created a basic layout of how the game will be played. I have put the progress of the research vessel below and also screenshots of the progress of the technical side of the game.

 

Below is a layout of the research vessel this is a type of guide to show were the player should go. The player can always deviate from this path, the game will enable the player to walk around freely. In brackets next to certain scenes, they will say either mini game or cut scene. If the word cut scene is next to the word there will be a cut scene here, if it says mini game there will be a mini game at this certain point.

1. Player Starts here.

2. The door is barricaded player needs crowbar to open door. (Cut Scene)

3. Crowbar is hidden here.

4. Once player acquires crowbar they will be able to enter through the door.

5. Body is dragged up into vent. (Cut Scene)

6. This is where the player first encounters the enemy. (Cut Scene)

7. Player discovers that the controls on the helicopter are broken. (Cut Scene)

8. Keys to unlock the next area are here.

9. Player needs code to access the communications.

10. The code to the communications is hidden here.

11. Once the player has acquired the code, the player will have to fix the radio tower.

12. Player needs to fix communications tower. (Mini Game)

13. Communications computer has been destroyed. (Cut Scene)

14. Player goes to captains quarters to find out what is going on. Player finds a recording that tells the player that the captain is hiding in the submarine.

15. Crane is broken and the player needs to fix it. (Mini Game)

16. Player finds the captain who is now infected. The player will need to hide. (Cut Scene)

17. Player goes to cafeteria to find more survivors.

18. light source is hidden here.

19. note is here saying that the flares are in a room .

20. Flares are here but they have been destroyed.

21. Player goes back to the captains quarters to find out any other information about how to reach help. The player finds a note telling them that the doctor has hidden the EPIRB and that this device is the only way of contacting help.

22. There is a note saying the doctor has gone to the cafeteria.

23. There is another note that says the doctor has gone to the bridge.

24. There is another note saying the doctor has gone to the lounge area.

25. There is another note saying the doctor has gone to the deck.

26. There is a final note saying the doctor has destroyed the EPIRB. (recorded Voice)

 

Player Movement

Lately I have been working on the game mechanics, so far I have got a moveable character which can also jump. I have been working in the program Unity. The first aspect I had to work on first was the camera, the camera was simple as the 2D perspective was an option within Unity. I had to create two objects, one for the player and another for the ground so the player has something to walk on. For the ground and player I’m starting off with using basic shapes, I will add more detailed characters and backgrounds after I have completed the mechanics of the game. Next was adding the light, this is so you can see the game. I will work on seeing if the lights can be turned off when the player enters a new area.

   

Screen Orientation

Recently I have been working on the orientation of the screen, for the player. I used examples of other side scrolling games to see how games within the same genre handle there screen orientation. I was originally going to have the player almost fill the screen. But after looking at examples of games like Limbo and Dark Matter, it seemed that the camera was rather far away from the player. I used a rough sketch of the character that the player will take control of, it was then inserted into screen shots of the games. I feel that doing this has helped me to understand how my character will be placed within the game.

Layout of Western Town

These are layouts of the town. With the first two rough sketches, none of the of buildings have been marked they are just based on an aesthetic look.

These first few layouts are from Ethan Douglas you can check out his blog here https://paldinchronicles.wordpress.com/

These layouts are by me.

This is the semi-final image for this sketch me and the rest of the team I was part of just wanted to get the main street area done.

Research Vessel Layout and Cutscenes

The two images below are layouts for the research vessel. The first one is the layout of the front of the ship, the second is a layout of the back. The player will be able to enter the back of the ship through certain doors. Some of the doors within the ship will be locked, they will have a colour indicting what type of key the player needs to acquire. One of the ideas I had for when the person opens the door is a first person view of the door.

 

The images below are storyboards for cut scenes that will be in the game. These are not all the cut scenes that will be in the game.

The image below is a layout of where each cut scene will appear within the game.

Life Drawing

I have recently been attending Life drawing classes and within these sessions, I have seen some improvements on my drawing technique. From my drawings I can see some improvements in some areas for example at first I would draw the people rather slim but as I progress through my drawings I can see that I have given the people a bit of width. Another aspect I have seen improvements on is shading, when I first started shading the drawings would looked flat but now my shading gives some depth to my drawings. I still need improvements in my drawing technique but from where I started from, I have seen some clear evidence that my drawings are improving.

The Unknown (Story Synopsis)

In this blog post I will be giving a short synopsis of the game. I do not have a name of the ship as of yet, I will bring an updated version of the story synopsis in the future with the name of the ship. One day a research vessel was digging up ice near Antarctica, while they were digging up the ice they found an alien like creature trapped within the ice. They brought this specimen aboard the research vessel to examine this creature, to see if they could gather information of the origins of this Phenomenon. While they were performing an autopsy on the creature they discovered something quite bizarre, it seems that this irregular creatures cells seem to have had attributes of both human and animal DNA. They left this thing alone for a while to process this information and report their findings, but when they returned it seemed that the creature had disappeared. For the first two days everything was quiet and there seemed to be no sign of the alien anywhere. On the third day one of the crew members had vanished without a trace, the next three days people started to disappear. Until one day they come across someone who was acting a little strange and hiding within their room, they investigated and find out that their once human crew mate had grown an extra head. A considerable portion of the crew had been killed or had joined these unknown creatures. Further away from this event a cruise ship had sunk and there was only one survivor. He was left on a raft in the middle of the ocean and had come across the research vessel and this is where the battle to survive began.