Defining Audiences

PDF Research Documents and update

I've been working on several research documents for Mel, one on Saltaire and the other on types of Research both of which I will upload shortly (Scribd website can be used to get PDF for blog posts - check email for password etc) I will also be starting a second blog in the coming week, something a little more creative - keep an eye on that. I am currently working on another research document with Chris for video games through history and consoles etc. Which I will upload when it is done.

photoshop logo choice

With everyone decided with what logos they were going to take into photoshop - we all set about producing a logo in photoshop. My design is below:

Then the group got together to vote on each others logos to decide whos would be the groups final logo / name (which means it would have to be further developed, edited, worked on etc) In the end the group chose mine (some said it was proffesional, others just liked the name) and so I will start editing it / remaking it to make it more proffesional (i.e. smoothen it up, make the text better etc). Ivo (team captain) said I can work on it (although if i get busy or whatever I can get help from alex or rob for their various skills and styles in photoshop).

An introduction to Sound

On tuesday we had an introduction to the college sound studio - and chris gave us some rules and taught us somethings about the sound room.

So 1st some ground rules:
- No food or drink
- Dont listen to sound or music too loud
- using heavy equipment, bend knees and lift
- lots of cables will be being used, gaffa tape down to floor to avoid trip hazards and tidy them up accordingly.

We learnt and started to use a mixing deck - below are the dials / buttons / levers... contained in a "channel" all the other channels use the same set of dials and they are as follows:

- Gain
- High
- Mid
- Low
- Mon
- Digital Effects
- pan

I look forward to learning more in the sound room and using the equipment.

Year 2 - Starting project, logos and a name

Heya folks - i'm back, and straight back on the work load starting with getting into organised groups and then within those groups coming up with a name and a logo. Each individual came up with several ideas and then drew some ideas as to what each logo would look like. Below are photos of some of my logos and annotations. (I will link the final photoshop version in a different post - these PCs dont have photoshop so i cant get those images on the blog).

My 1st idea for a company name was "Arcaic Fleet" which I think indicates something old and powerful (arcaic) and then unity and on-going (fleet).

The first few ideas involved around using a mystic style font and just having the name wraped around itself or just underneath itself, my ideas then moved onto something more visual - using the "fleet" and putting a ship into the logo - 2 of which were basically snowglobes and seemed a little too complex for a logo. But my favourite (and groups favourite) was my circular logo that encompasses the ship, arcaic lettering and looks like a logo; it basically contains the entirity of my design philosophy.

The 2nd name was "Navigation" which I believe - like a navigator - would show that a company is leading you somewhere, taking you on a journey. Where this design fell short however was in the logo. I had a couple of ideas, one a map with the name scralled accross it - the other a compass with the words at the bottom of the compass. Whilst both are relatively simpel designs and given the right font and colours for the name could be made into good logos, i simple dont think it would be as striking as many of the game developers I see today - it would either seem too big and clutered or too simple; which works for some companies with just a name and a small symbol for their logo (such as Bluehole studios or Eidos).

Below is my main design for the Arcaic Fleet name (information higher just).

My two original designs for navigation

This is the final name and set of logos - Red Hawk Studios - this one was the most popular with the rest of the group, and out of the 3 had the most common with many modern logos - it was relatively simple (in terms of design and colour - and still being able to stand out). Its name (an animal + a colour) is another simple idea that has worked for various companies and businesses (e.g. Dark Horse Comics).

So after people chose this one i got some feedback - Most saying I should try and incororate the name into the hawk itself - in my next post (about this topic) I will show off the logo designed in photoshop.

3-D Pinball animation and evaluation

Below is my animation, now it will seem very simple, because it is, I will go into the reasons below but enjoy.

First off I will just evaluate the animation above, before explaining why I changed my idea and what went wrong the 1st time.

So for the pinball animation, besides the constant changing in speed, I still think it looks fairly believable and for a "first" attempt at animation I dont think its too bad, the environment reacts to the ball and at the right speed. However it is a little janky and in areas it just looks daft, like at the beginning how the ball auto curves.

There isnt really much moreI can say about other than how it is completely outclassed by the rest of the class, but there is a reason for that. To begin with I was creating an animation, where my 3-D ship model would fly around do a few tricks before crashing through a building using the reactor engine in 3-D max. However all was going smoothly after around 7 hours of animating the ship and getting reactor ready, there was only one thing left to do before It was finished and that was give my ship mass; however what I did not know is that this had to be done much eariler on, maybe even during the ships creation, therefore since the ship had no mass it couldnt break the wall. It was basically 7 hours of wasted work and in my frustration I just deleted it.

Now in hindsite, this was a really bad idea, even if it didnt work it still could have been marked and given me a basic grade for the ships animation alone, but I then had to start again, re-planning and re-working with little time left, hence the brief animation above.

The biggest thing I learnt here is that I needed to focus from the start, manage my time better, and improve on my mistakes and not just throw them away.

Looking at the proffessional example below, it looks like I have a long way to go. (Video from Might and Magic heros VI) enjoy.

Finish Storyboard and Evaluation

So after weeks of work, drawing and recolouring and sat twiddling tumbs in in-decisiveness; I've finally put together a storyboard, weither or not its to a quality I would like I will go into below the image, enjoy.

 The Image shows a short story made by me for a character called "muraim" a tiger laguz (tigerperson basically) from the Fire emblem game series. In this series he is a very pasifist-like character, rarely chosing to fight; however in this story I have given him reason too go a little more wild. His best friend Tormod (same series) is fatally ill unless Muraim can get back the medicine that was taken from the city, he crosses the desert to find said medicine and tear down those responsible."


 Overall I'd say I am on track with the target audience, and there is nothing that would place it otherwise ( fantasy violence fits). Im also happy with the overall look and aesthetic of the storyboard, and the themes I have created through various methods in photoshop (which I will get onto further down).

Now lets look more into my actual images and my layout. 
As you can probably tell by the image saying "I must find them" I didn't draw all of these images (2 of them to be precise, although I did attempt a trace of the one in question). However due to my time constraints I just stuck to my plans recolour and adding more clothing to the character so it shows that I am not only changing his personality but his looks. (At the end of the game he is in, he becomes an offical but doesnt get any kind of official uniform so I thought I'd add one). That aside lets look into it:

The backgrounds, some of these images from the game, others just found images, and a few are photos I took myself (mainly of my shed) I used various tools in photoshop to blend them together in an attempt to make them all intergrate seemlessly and look a part of the same image - these tools include: the smudge tool - allowed me to mix up the sand, and move it around builds and characters, the dodge and burn tool - this tool was essential for both backgrounds and characters, it darkens or lightens the area it is used on, for example the windows on the shed were first painted black as to hide its real life contends, I then smudged in some sand and used the brush tool (altered its settings: oppacity and flow, to create a sandstorm effect over areas) which left the windows looking a bit of out place so I burnt the colours a little before dodging the middle of the windows so it looks like they are actual windows not black blocks. I used similar effects on the other backgrounds using the same tools to mix images.

 Characters:
The image below will show how I edited the actual character. (mine left, acutal right)

As you can see on these I have added the cloak and changed some colours and shadows, again with the burn tool and going into the "image" menu in photoshop and changing the pictures hue and colour.


Besides these you can see the Image I drew myself of the character, although I didnt spend as much time on some of them as I would like and the one I took a lot of time on turned out better than I expected but it isn't perfect I've got a lot more to learn about drawing and colouring in photoshop. Image Below:

Through this project I learnt to use more tools in photoshop and gained more experience in drawing, however looking back and if I had chance to do it again there are alot of improvements i would make. First I would make sure that my time is spent more wisely, i.e. less time spent worrying about how drawings are going to look and draw them, especially when they are to be kept simple. Whilst I did learn alot in photoshop there is plenty more to learn and I could have spent more time at home practicing and improving my work. I would also try alot harder to draw all the images myself and the backgrounds rather than finding roundabout ways to do it, however I think I'm a big way off drawing decent environments, so maybe a simpler background next time?
Overall I am quite happy with some of my storyboard. There are certainly parts which need more improving than others and some that I could even then do more for, however for a first go I am quite happy with the ending look.

An example of another professional example of a storyboard (different from those used in my planning would be the image below: one of the Manga comics done by Blizzard Entertainment.