Studio 2 Week 1

Week 1 Studio Lab:

What do I do this semester for a studio project? Question asked. Answer? Play to my strengths, and create a monster of a product to go out with!

So, what are my strengths...?

During my time at Monash Uni, I've found that I have a profound hatred for programming. In fact, anything "technical". Why won't this work? That tiny line of code? Get out. Web Design or Flash Application ruled out. Instead, I love making pretty things with a purpose. I love to create a transportation for someone, to a faraway place where they can escape the world. Animated Short Story ruled in!

Which leaves me with a choice. 2D or 3D? I love both! How to resolve this...

Back to Plan A. Play to my strengths. My 3D modeling skills could get me over the line, but animation? Trip at the finish. I love to sketch, scan and Photoshop meddle. And I love Flash. And After Effects. 2D wins.

So, what am I actually going to create an animation of...?

Back to Plan A again. Pretty with a purpose. Purpose... People have a sense of purpose. In fact, two people with opposing purposes often end up in conflict. Good start for a scenario! But what are these people fighting over? Does it matter? Do we care?

War isn't the answer, as the saying goes. So how do these two opposing people resolve their differences? I cast my memory back to 2002, to the release of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Great game. Why? Well for many reasons, but the one for me was that it told a great story of people (many people, in fact) uniting in the face of a bigger, more terrible foe. This video gives you the basic gist of things:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f96hKqkY_Y

Great basis for a narrative! But it doesn't have an end... Being the happy and optimistic person I am, I'd like the new friends overcome their new foe. But then, what becomes of them? Do they resume their old conflict? Or is this the blossoming of a shiny new friendship. OK, I'm not quite THAT optimistic. People who have deep-running differences don't simply become friends, even under these dire circumstances. Perhaps a compromise then, between two grudging allies with newly-found respect for one another.

Narrative, check. But how to bring these characters to the screen...? That shiny cinematic was 3D, and hence the enemy of my existence... I want to go crazy with the character design, but animating a whole bunch of armour plates and a hundred other such details? How to achieve both, but remain within the 12 week time frame...

Casting my memory back again (possibly 2002 again), I remember another game: Homeworld. This game makes extensive use of pre-rendered cutscenes, all hand drawn and featuring a simple yet elegant form of animation. Peruse here:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrW4jkQdmjI
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPxLqlDmJ8c

Using this style, I draw in as much detail as I liked, whilst maintaining very simple animations and selectively animating only the important parts.

Time to go away and whip up some character concepts and storyboards...

Cheryl suggested a great animation package:

- http://www.toonboom.com/products/toonBoomStudio

Apparently this software is oriented more closely towards animation than Flash (more of an all-rounder). Good to know, when I come to some serious character animations later on. In addition, I=it is readily compatible with Flash. Win on all fronts.

Mo.