C O L L I D E
Introduction to Collide
What is happiness ?
For the Collide project we have to demonstrate and develop integrated design methodologies so that we can work in a commercial environment and work professionally throughout the project.
Happiness is the feeling of pleasure and positivity. When someone feels good, satisfied, relieved or proud about something, that person is said to be “happy�. Feeling happy will most likely help people to relax and to smile.
The brief tells us to work in our intellectual skill points and a creative range, at the same as this we have to explore our own self progression that shows the abilities and how independent we can be. At the same time as exploring our own self progression we have to create design work that will target the technical requirements of design in a creative industry. Furthermore in this project we will be incorporate a wide range of professional requirements that will involve personal and project management and also detailed research, original ideas and creativity. In addition to this we need to have a high level of technical expertise and promotion of our portfolio. The main aim of this project is to have a physical and a digital outcome in response to at least two of the three themes which are Happiness, the internet and your future self.
What I took from this brief and my opinion on it What took from this brief is that we need to simply create a physical outcome and a digital outcome. We also have to explore many ideas and possibilities well producing work that relates to the three themes which are Happiness, the internet and my future self. Overall I feel that this will be a fun brief to create and design for because of the very wide themes we have to follow. Another aspect of this brief that I like is the fact that we have to produce a physical and a digital outcome because I feel that I can experiment with the world of 3D in a physical representation and still create a digital outcome.
Introduction To Collide Research
Happiness is usually thought of as the opposite of sadness. However, it is possible to feel both at once, often about different things, or in some cases even about the same thing. Many philosophers have said that people in the world go back and forth between times of happiness and sadness, but there is nobody who is always happy or always sad. Happiness sometimes makes people cry when they laugh because the emotion takes over and controls of them.
What happiness means to me? Happiness means many things to me on many different levels. If I was to narrow it down I would say that happiness is something that makes you smile and laugh with joy. I feel that when I’m around happy people it almost rubs off on me and make me forget about all my worries and sadness because it makes me happy seeing other people happy. The main thing for me that makes me happy is achieving my goals and progressing in life, an example of this would be me coming out of college with two distinction stars and a distinction, another one would be passing my first year of University.
Happiness Research
What is the internet? The Internet is the global system of interconnected mainframe, personal, and wireless computer networks that use the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link billions of devices worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries an extensive range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, Usenet newsgroups, telephony, and peer-to-peer networks for file sharing.
What does the internet mean to me? The internet means to me a way of communication across a global scale with ease in an instant. I feel that the internet is the most resourceful thing that exists on earth which the majority of us have the access to through computers, phones, tablet devises and TV’s. Another aspect of the internet is the social media side of it, I feel that this is probably the most important side to the internet because it lets people stay in contact and have at the same time.
Happiness In Design Mood board
The Internet Research
What is my future self ? I see my future self being a qualified graphic designer at the end of my graphic design course and have a stable part time job so I can earn money to fuel my business venture. I feel that I could achieve this by the end of my degree and I could have a fully fledge company with my two friends that will be my co-workers.fully After maybe five to ten years I would like to work for a firm in America called DICE that are really big in the games industry, I would like to be a part of their team and design concept art for the future games. Maybe somewhere in the mist of this I would like to have saved up enough money to go traveling around the world for six months to get a greater understating of the world we live in. I also feel in the next twenty years I would like to have family of my own and be settle down with a happy life, well that’s the plan.
The Internet In Design
Mood board
Future Self Research
Friends
Family Being with family usually make me feel happy because it gives me a sense of security because I feel that I can trust them and tell them anything.
Successful
I always feel happier when I’m with my friends because I am surrounded by people who like me for who I am and I can always count on them to pick me up when I’m down, that makes me happy.
Happy
Secure Achieving my goals
Design
I feel that this has to be one the most important things that makes me happy because I feel the feeling you get when you achieve a goal or reach a target is the best feeling in the world .
Progressing at anything makes me happy because I know that I am improving myself in any sense.
Sharing
Being around Happy people
Future Self In Design Mood board
Theme Mind Map
Future Self
Happiness
Progression
Concept art
I want be successful in many aspects in my life, for example; I want to have a well payed job in design, I want to make my parents proud and I want to be successful at university by achieving my goals and targets.
Video games I have a real passion for games and I find they are a good outlet to escape real world problems and worries so I enjoy the time I spend playing video games.
The internet is a great place for sharing ideas and work. I feel that the internet is really good for sharing content and having people give their opinion on them.
Social media Social media plays a big part in the internet by keeping people connected through various ways, for example; Facebook,
twitter, snapchat and WhatsApp.
Endless
I future distant future I would like to be still involved in graphic design and design in general. I also hope that I have a passion for design when I am older and I have completed my time at university.
For my close future self I want to have a part time job where I can earn money on the side of creating design and design for clients.
Information The internet is pact full of useful and we all have access to it I feel that the main aspect of the internet is the sheer amount of information the
internet has.
Another aspect of the internet is how it can connect people on a global scale through messages and emails etc. I feel that this is one of the most important aspects of the internet because I feel that without internet we wouldn’t be able to communicate so easily.
Online games The gaming industry is massive and with the internet it is even bigger, many games these days are connected to the internet by connecting players across the world so that they can play together and have hours of fun.
III Studios
Job
Discovery
The Internet Communication
For my future self I want to be secure in what I do for a living and financially.
Love In the future I want to be still in love with my girlfriend and be in a happy relationship.
For my future self I would like to have a shared design company with my two best freinds and it will be called III studios and stand out from the crowd of independent design companies.
Business I would like to own a successful business.
Ideas 1 • My Pixel Life Timeline
Idea 3 • People And The Internet
For this idea I could show how people have been I would like to create an animation what would go influenced by the internet and social media. I could through my life in a retro gaming style to get across highlight the benefactors of having access to the my passion for video game and how I want to go into internet and how people have change in different the gaming industry. aspects of their life. I would like to have an animation that would start from when I wanted go down the graphic design path and that is in secondary school where I found my passion for graphic design. I want to have the character as me progressing through life from high school through to college then university and then my future self.
I would also like to increase the pixel density of my characters as I progress in life in this animation show I am evolving. Another aspect I want in my animation is to emphasize the experience I gain throughout my education and key parts of my life.
Idea 5
Idea 7
Chosen Ideas
• Showing Happiness Through Type
• Every Ten Years
• My Pixel Life Timeline
The idea behind this concept is to create images of what I would look like for every ten years and have an animation to show it. For my first image I would have me sat at my computer working on some design stuff like I am right now and my next would be maybe working at a business on an even bigger desk etc.
I chose this idea because I feel this would be a great idea to develop because it is related to future self and happiness the two themes I wanted my project to be based on and I feel that I could also create something physical out of this idea.
For this idea I wanted it to be based around typography and happiness because I feel that happiness could be portrayed through type easily and affectively. I could write the word happiness in different fonts and styles to show how the font of the word happiness could express For example I would show how a person goes through happiness even more than just the word. life and uses the internet to go about their day to day life by using Facebook, sending emails, booking I feel that this would be a good idea to create because a takeaway from Just Eat and talking to family and I could experiment with many different fonts and I can friends on skype. I would show this with most likely get a good understanding on how you read the word happiness in different layouts. I would show this idea animation and photography. through a magazine showcasing all the different way of showing happiness.
I would like to make this an animation by fading these ten years one by one after each other to show the timeline of my future life. Furthermore I would like these images to be slightly animated to give some life to the animation.
I also feel that this idea relates to me the most and I could see this concept becoming something really good to design and develop.
• Every Ten Years This idea is one of the ideas that I would like to create an experiment with because I feel that it could be an amazing design project me because will get to experiment with many different mediums. Another aspect of this idea that I like is the fact I get to show my possible life out come through a simplistic animation that has a lot of potential to be a great project.
Idea 2
Idea 4
Idea 6
Idea 8
• What Makes Me Happy
• Simply Happiness
• What Makes Me Happy
• Now and After
• The Internet and me
I could create a piece that would show me at this current stage in how I look and have another version of myself on how would look when I’m older. I could have the image split down the middle and have half of me looking like I do now and the other half of me looking older.
This idea will be focused around me relationship with the internet and how use it. I would like to show things like how I use the internet to play games with my friends across the world and easy it is to do.
I feel that this idea is a great opportunity to experiment with typography and word clouds which is one of the main reasons why I chose this idea.
I could create a range of posters that could relate to For this idea I would like to create a range of posters all things in the world that makes me happy in life and that would represent what makes me happy and what show them through simple illustrations. would make me happy in the future. I would do this by creating word clouds that would build up myself as a Would use a bright colour palette to represent the character and have all the words being something that illustrations and to emphasise that they make me makes me happy. happy. For the physical side of this project I could create my illustrations In different mediums in 3D to For the future self-side of this project I could have present at the end of year term. another poster that would show the things that might make me happy in the future for example starting a family or having my own business.
Idea Generation Ideas
I would show this by creating an animation that will have me using the internet in different ways in a stop I could show this by creating life sized me abstract motion style because I feel this would be an interesting image made up of all the things I like now and all the style and technique to explore and experiment with. things I would like in the future.
I would like to design something based around typography because I have never really design a project based around type which is one the aspect of graphic design I am passionate about.
Idea Choices Ideas
Why did I choose these images
Experimentation thoughts
I decided to get some research before I start experimenting with my pixel timeline idea because I wanted to gain a greater understanding of what types of pixel based graphics exists today. I first looked at images that would inspire my pixel art for example the four super heroes made out of basic pixels look really appealing because I feel that they looked detailed enough so that they are still recognisable due to the different shades of basic colours to highlight key parts of the characters.
Here are the experimentations I did for the eight-bit pixel style, I wanted to create eight-bit characters on illustrator to find how easy it would be and how it would look when completed. I decided to use existing pixel art and games that are in an eight-bit style to use as a reference to go off when I was creating these characters so that I would get the pixel placements as accurate as possible.
I then wanted to look into where it all began and that’s why there is an eight-bit pixel image of Mario, I felt that I could experiment with very simple pixel graphics to see what effect it would create and see if I could also somehow increase the pixel density to make an evolutionary graphic by having the graphic become more detailed. I also would look at different angles of how pixel art can be shown through their design for example in the image of master chief from HALO I really like how he is looking at an angle and how it creates more depth to the image. After experimenting with 2D pixel graphics I would like to experiment with 3D pixel graphic by creating something physical by hand and then creating something using cinema 4D to get a good understanding of how a 3D pixel graphic would look.
For my first experiments I wanted to really dive into the early retro eight-bit games and create them myself on illustrator to get a good idea of how to create these pixel designs. I created the following characters; Mario, Ghost, Link, Yoshi and Megaman. I felt that these are the classic characters form the eight-bit game era, so I wanted to experiment with them.
Mario
Idea Research
Link (Legend of Zelda)
Yoshi
Megaman
Eight-Bit Game Characters
After creating the classic game characters, I wanted to see what other people have created in this style so I can get a better understanding of this style and how other people have used it. So I decided to create the characters from my favourite cartoon, which is Invader Zim. I also created some of the characters from the Star Wars franchise because I felt that they would be really fun to experiment with because you don’t usually see them as an eight-bit style graphic. Overall I like the way these experiments have turned out and I really enjoyed creating these characters in this style.
GIR (Robot Form)
Eight-Bit Pixel Style Idea Experimentation
ZIM
GIR (Dog Form)
Invader Zim
Chewbacca
My Pixel Life Timeline
Ghost (Pac Man)
Boba Fett
Yoda
Star Wars
Ewok
Scout Trooper
Experimentation thoughts
Experimentation thoughts
Here are the experimentations I did for a more detailed pixel style, I created these detailed pixel characters on illustrator because I felt it would be the most efficient way to create these illustrations. I decided to use existing detailed pixel art as a reference when I was creating these characters because I felt that I could get a better understanding of the different ways of creating different styles of detailed pixel art.
Here are some quick experiments I created of C4D. I wanted to create some pixel based images but in a 3D form to see what it would be like to have 3D renditions of simple pixel characters.
I decided to first to pick a range different types of pixel characters that are in different styles, I then decided to explore superhero pixel art and recreate them in illustrator. I first created the “Batman” and “Captain America” characters, I felt these illustrations had a good effect because they highlighted the shadows and details a little more than just simple eight-bit. I then created the “Hulk” and I felt that the simplistic black outline with a complicated mix of colours to make the pixel style looks good but it’s not my taste. After them experiments I went on and tried the simpler characters that showed of how a 3D shading through pixels being darker around the edges of them.
The first experiment I did is an invader from the classic retro game “space invaders” I felt that It would be a good idea to create a 3D version of this classic game because I felt it was something so simple and would look really cool as a 3D image. I then went on created the classic Mario in the same style because I was a little more complicated.
BATMAN
CAPTAIN AMERICA
THE HULK
SPIDERMAN
HELLBOY
I finally created a ghost from “Pacman” in a more 3D object style with a lot more detail, I did this because I felt that my other pixel experiments just looked like embossed versions of themselves, so I created a much more 3D pixel based character.
Super Hero Characters
My favourite pixel characters have to be the game characters due the fact they look so much like their real game characters buts still look like a pixel based style with a semi-simplistic feel. I feel that I could make a simpler version of myself inspired from these styles and have it be easy to animate.
Big Daddy (BIOSHOCK)
Detailed Pixel Style Idea Experimentation
Marcus (Gears of War)
Game Characters
Master chief (HALO)
3D Pixel Style Idea Experimentation
How these images will affect my idea experiments ? For this research page on the “Every Ten Years” idea I wanted to experiment with every ten years of my life in a minimalist style. The images show the different layout of images for every ten years for example the first one is supposed to be me at my desk work on some graphics work which is what I would be doing in the present. I will be experimenting with these different stages of my life by using different styles and medias. For my experiments for my “every ten years” project which starts in the present day one is to create a minimalist style inspired graphic because I feel a minimalist graphic would work really well for the overall look of the animation so that it will simple get the message across without being too complicated. I will also like to experiment with different types of simplistic imagery through my layouts.
Experiment thoughts This my first experiment based on my “Every Ten Years” idea which is based on illustrations of me at every ten years of my life starting from the present. This experiment is based on the present day which is me currently working on graphics work at my desk at home. I wanted to create minimalist style for this idea because I felt that it would show my idea through simplistic imagery and shapes. I feel that I could have made this image more simplistic but I wanted to see I could create a lot of the objects in my desk work area because I wanted to see what it would look like.
First image:
is me at my desk working on some graphics work for university.
Second image:
is me part of a company what me and two other friends will own and run.
Third image:
me at an important job interview for my dream job (working at EA/DICE).
Fourth image:
me working at my dream job.
Fifth image:
Retired me and my wife.
Every Ten Years Idea Research
Working At My Desk Idea Experimentation
Experiment thoughts
Experiment thoughts
In my second experiment for my “Every Ten Years” idea I wanted to almost predict the future by creating an even more simplistic image that would show me working at my shared company with my best friend to the left and my girlfriend to the right.
Here is my final experiment for my “Every Ten Years” idea which is based around my dream job. I felt that I wanted to try and make this experiment as minimalist as possible without losing the message I’m trying to get across.
I really hope that this comes a reality and I hope that three studios go far in the graphic design company. The three lines in the middle represent the company and is an early logo design.
I feel that this experiment has gone well but I feel that it lacks a good colour range due to the fact it looks really bland.
Working At My Own Company
In My Dream Job Interview
Idea Experimentation
Idea Experimentation
How will I experiment with this idea ?
Experiment thoughts
I felt for this research page on “What Makes Me Happy” will look at different types of word clouds and how they can be made to look like various shapes through different type placement to create a visually appealing graphic image.
I felt that I needed to experiment with existing word cloud generators to get a basic understanding of word clouds and how they work in different colours and layouts.
I will also look into creating these word clouds through different techniques such as: • Using Photoshop and warp text to create a shape.
I chose the website “Wordle” to create these word clouds because I felt that this was the best word cloud generator out there. I like the colour schemes of these experiments because I feel that they really make these word clouds “pop” and look visually appealing.
• Using illustrator to make one manually. • Creating an interesting animation using after effects. • Using word cloud generators on the internet. • Creating a hand drawn image that would make up an image with words. • Possibly creating a 3D word cloud on cinema 4D.
What Makes Me Happy
Idea Research
Word Cloud Generator Idea Experimentation
Experiment thoughts
Experiment thoughts
Here is my second experiment with my word cloud inspired idea which is created using Photoshop and warping text around features on my face. I first chose an image of myself that I can manipulate text around easily and have certain features of my face highlighted with warped words.
For my last experimentation with third idea I felt that it would be fun to see what I could create in C4D by making my words in 3D.
After creating the word cloud of my face with the words that make me happy in life I went and started to add colour to the word cloud by eye dropping the tones of my face and making each letter a different colour that corresponded with the colours of my face. I then used luminosity on the second to last image to see how it would look without just block colours. I then went on and tried clone stamping my face into the word cloud itself to see what kind of effect it would produce. I feel that I looks good because it shows my face more accurately but on the other hand I feel that with the more detailed word cloud image doesn’t show the words as clear as the other ones.
I first experimented with making basic word clouds manually and giving them colour, I then went on and tried different fonts in a 3D format and I wanted to see what they would look like at different angles and perspectives. After that I went on and imported the illustrator file with my original word cloud of me in it and made it 3D to see what it would look like in C4D. I also added the colours back in when I was in C4D because it looked really bland in black. I felt that I could take this experiment even further and create and animation with it. So I decided to bring certain words forward and move words to make perspective based animation. I then went on and set a camera that would rotate around the word cloud showing the different words then lining up again to make my face. I feel that this experiment was worth the time because It really shows the many possibilities of design I could create with this idea.
Photoshop Warp Word Cloud Idea Experimentation
C4D Word Cloud Idea Experimentation
Why I chose this idea
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
After experimenting with my three different ideas (My Pixel Life Timeline, Every Ten Years and What Makes Me Happy) I gained a big insight on what idea I should choose and gained a lot of knowledge with each style and technique I tried out with each idea.
Experimenting:
Story:
Designing Assests:
Final touches and physical object:
• Possible things to include
• Creating environments
• Adding sound
After deciding on my story and where I want to take this animation I will start dealing my assets for my animation. I will start with the environments of each scene which will most likely stills and little effects like clouds moving.
After animating my animation in after effects I will then implement music and sound effects to bring my animation to life.
• Creating animated assets
• final tweaks
I then will start creating the animated assets which will take the longest due to the amount of moving parts I want to this pixel animation. I want to also make like loading screens with animated pixel art text and possible little dialog boxes to express emotions through little simplest and possibly emoji’s.
I felt that because my animation is the main part of my project I definitely would like to make some tweaks to improve in anyway after I have finished it, for example trying different sound effects or animation techniques.
I felt that my favourite idea out of the three has to be My Pixel Life Timeline because I feel that it has a greater narrative compared to the other three ideas and I feel it relates to me the most. I also feel that this idea has the most potential to be something great and has can be developed even further through more experimentation. I decided to choose this idea because I felt that it would be the most fun to create and would could be easily implemented into a physical object for the brief. I also felt that that I can create still graphics and the main animation with this idea due to the all the assets will have to be created as stills at first. Overall am glad I have chosen this idea and I can’t wait to start creating my animation for this idea, the next step is to plan out what I need to complete before animating and completing this idea.
Chosen Idea Main Idea
My Life
• Pixel styles
I would like to experiment with different types of pixel For the story behind my animation I want to show my styles to get a better understanding of the different life and highlight certain parts of my life which I feel is important. I first will be creating a mind map with all the styles of pixel art can be created. different possible things that has happened in my life I feel that I would choose like three different types of and what could happen in my life. pixel art and experiment with them and then choose one that I feel is the best one out of them.
• Animation styles
I then will choose certain things to bring forward into a story board to see how it would flow as an animation and a story.
• Rough storyboards
I will be experimenting with my chosen pixel art style by trying different animation style for example really simple and basic movements like the first eight-bit After deciding on what types of events and achievements games which had revert little movement and collected from my life I want in the animation, I will be creating maybe two or three different story boards and choose animation. I one.
could also have experimented with complicated animation and have all the individual pixels move with • Final storyboard each movement. After choosing my rough story board I will then have • Animating my assets: a finalised story board with better illustrations in them • Character Design with explanations underneath the images to explain the After creating the animated assets, I will be then going After choosing the style of pixel art and animation style story with text on imagery. into adobe after effects and merge all my animation I want I will be experimenting with my character design elements and the environments to create my pixel by creating various pixel styled characters of me. I will based animations. also be experimenting with different outfits for each possible scene.
Idea Plan Planning
I will also have to make sure that I am using copyright music, but I feel that it will be quite easy to get copyright music because there is a lot of non-copyrighted retro game sounds and music.
• Experiment with physical outcomes After completing my animation, I will have to then focus on my physical object side of my project which could be anything from t-shirts to create your own pixel character interac
Views on style
Views on style
For my first experiment with different pixel styles I wanted to first try creating some characters that would be in a simplistic style to see what they would look like in a simplistic style as a pixel art characters.
After experimenting with a very simple pixel style I wanted to try to have more detail in these experiments to see how easy it would be to create them and see what they would look like with different shades of pixels.
I feel that the simplistic look works really well and Is great because I could easily create characters in this simple format because it doesn’t take long to create these characters at all.
I really like the slight shade difference in the characters I made in illustrator because I feel they add more depth to these pixel characters.
On the other hand, I feel that it would look really good if I made my characters with thin legs and a little more shades of colours to highlight different details in my characters.
Simple Pixel Style Experimentation
I feel when create my own characters I would prefer to combine the first simple styles of character designs with a little bit of detail to add more of a 3D aspect to this 2D animation.
More Detailed Pixel Style Experimentation
Views on style
Views on style
For this experiment with pixel style I wanted to see what real images would look like in a pixel form by manipulating the colour levels in the images and lowering the resolution by making the images smaller and duplicating the images and making them bigger.
My chosen style for my pixel animation is a mixture between simple pixel style like what firstly experimented with and the second style by having slight shades in the characters and the environments to define little details in the imagery.
I tried to experiment with different types of amounts of pixels by manipulating the pixel density of the different images to see what they would look like at different levels of detail.
I also feel I might use images for the environments of my animation by making them pixelated so they will go with the theme of my animation.
I really like how these experiments have turned out because I really like the look of the more detailed pixel images but I feel it would be too hard to animate and I feel that it doesn’t really resemble the kind of retro pixel game based animation I want.
Realistic Pixel Style Experimentation
I also feel that this style will be quite easy to animate due to the simplicity of it. I also feel that the type I will use in the title sequence, the main animation and the credits will be easy to get because it will be a simplistic pixel font to complement the animation style.
Chosen Pixel Style Chosen Style
Opinion on animation style For these experiments I decided to create two different animation based on a smooth animation style in a pixel graphic.
Opinion on animation style Smooth Bobbing Up And Down
I wanted to experiment with smooth animation to see how it would look with a pixel based animation which is usually created in a simple retro like animation. I also wanted to see how long It would take me to create such flued animation with a simple pixel character.
In this experiment stage I wanted to create two animation sprites in a simple 8-bit retro style with little detailed movement, I felt that this style would look really good with the pixel based animation I want to create because most retro pixel based games have simple animations like these.
I feel that my first animation experiment has turned out really well considering its my first time creating a pixel based animation. I feel that the fluid motion of my character bobbing looks really good because it’s a smooth looped animation. For the second animation experiment I decided to create a walking animation that would have a basic environment that would loop as a gif. I feel that this sprite works well, but I feel the animation of the legs don’t look the best and I feel there are some important frames missing that would make the sprite smoother in motion.
Smooth(ish) Walking Sprite
Smooth Animation Style Experimentation
Simple Animation Style Experimentation
Opinion on animation styles
Why I chose this style
For my second animation I wanted to have a more complicated scene but with the same simple sprite motion as the first one. In this animation I used the same character and made the sprite walk up some stairs have it go through a door.
After experimenting with two styles of animation for my pixel animation I decided to go with a simpler style of animation because I felt that it complemented the theme of a pixel based animation.
I feel that this animation turned out really well because it looks good as a simple animation and suits the theme of a pixel based design. I also feel this animation could be in my final animation because it goes with first scene I want to create for the animation.
Simple Animation Style Experimentation
I feel for a pixel animation should stick to the original minimalist moving elements and retro block like transitioning between scenes. Another reason for choosing this animation style is that it takes far too long to animate a smooth moving pixel animation due to the complexity of the pixels. I feel that the simple pixel animations are much easier to create and I feel they look better in my opinion.
8-bit animation style Chosen animation style
My opinion on these designs
Development opinions
For my character design I wanted to explore a range of different styles of pixel based character styles. I first experimented with a simple basic block style character and had the black line around some of the features of the character, I like this character design but I feel the black line work around the character over complicates it and makes it look to much like an 8-bit game sprite.
These are some character developments I created from the original character design I created. The first thing I did was removing the black outline on around the character design. I feel the design looks a lot better without the black outline and I feel it complements the simplistic look I am going for.in this pixel based animation.
For my second design I wanted to try a smaller but more complicated version of the first character because I wanted see what I would look like in this classic retro Mario like style but still keep my originality. I feel this look really good bur I feel that I want to keep my character tall like myself.
I then made a little design change by making the teeth actually white because I felt that it defined the mouth much more than the skin colour.
For my final design style, I wanted to experiment with a 3D style of a pixel character where the character would be created an angle so it appears 3D. I decided to create my own 3D looking pixel character and I feel it turned out really well. On the other hand, I feel that it would start to get complicated well animating a 3D Based character.
I then made a younger one for the early stages in my animation in a school uniform and removed the beard. I really like the way this design turned out and I feel that I will used this design in my final animation. I finally created a design for the future which is based on me in the future wearing a III Studios T-shirt. Overall I feel these designs have turned out really well and I feel that they can be easily change to suit the certain scene for the final animation.
Overall I feel I want to develop my first design and simplify it by removing the blackout line around it.
Character Design Experimenting
Character Development Development
Adaptive character design This is my final character design style which can be easily change to suit each scene and will work as a simplistic sprite animation.
Hamster Castle Creating my hamster castle in graphic design class and building it for the first time out of cardboard.
Searching On Google Coming across some concept art on google images well looking at game in lesson.
Teacher Speaking with my soon to be graphic design tutor, what got me enthusiastic about graphic design.
GCSE’s Choosing my choices for my GCSE’s.
Graphic Design Room Walking into the graphic design room for the first time in school.
Scene 1: High School
Final Character Design Final Design
Family
Exam Attending my Graphic Design GCSE exam and being happy when leaving the exam hall.
Pizza Box Designing my pizza bow for a project in my graphic design class and making the actual tube based pizza box.
Staying Behind
Graduating First Day First day at college and meeting everyone on my course
Graduating from university and throwing my hat up in the air in a smooth motion.
Letter
Presenting
Waiting for my college acceptance letter near my front door at home in my school uniform.
Staying behind to work on my projects and improve them further out of school time with fellow graphic design pupils.
Laptop Cover
Trip
Using Cameras
Going on a trip to a university and visiting the graphic design department.
Scene 2: High School
Working at home and starting a family with my girlfriend and generally having a good time with life.
Creating my first wok for my first project at college which was a laptop case cover.
Using professional cameras for the first time and learning about how they work.
Scene 3: College
Fresher’s End of year Showing of my final work for college at the end of year exhibition.
Logo Design Winning a competition for a logo design which will be used as a real useable logo.
Scene 4: College
Possible scenes to include Story
Going out on fresher’s and having a good time well meeting new people at university.
Moving In Moving into my new flat close to my university campus where I will be spending the first year at.
Scene 5: University
Presenting my work at my final year presentation to my tutors and talking about the work I produced.
Dissertation Writing up my 40,000 dissertation and being stressed about completing it in time for the submission date.
Hard At Work Working at my desk in my room on some work for my project.
Scene 6: University
Free-lance Creating free-lance work at my house for a verity of clients.
III Studios Working at III studios and thinking about the future of where I’ll be in ten years which will hopefully working DICE.
Placement At placement working at a games company what I would like to work at in the future creating concept art for games.
Scene 7: Future
III Studios Still owning my own business producing work for various big clients with my coworkers who own the company.
Company At a professional graphic design company doing what I love.
Working At DICE Working in LA or Sweden at a games company called DICE creating concept art for various games I have a passion for.
Scene 8: Future
Why I chose these scenes for my animation
Scene 1: High School
These are my final scene choices and I feel that these where the best from the ideas I came up with for each of the parts of my life that went in every scene. I chose these scenes because I felt they represent each part of my life in the best and an easy to understand way.
Choosing my choices for my GCSE’s.
For my first scene I decided to go with me choosing my GCSEs because this was the main starting point of when I came interested in graphic design because I was given a lot of information on the Course and they thought I would do well in this GCSE course. For my second Scene I wanted to highlight one the most fun part about studying graphic design at high school, I did this by making this scene show me making my hamster castle in graphics and showing it off. For my third scene I wanted to highlight a very exciting part of my life, which was receiving me college acceptance letter through the post and opening it because I knew at that point I would want graphic design to be my main focus in life. I then wanted to show some of my college time of by showing me and my work of in the end of year exhibition which shows my work in a pixel form. I then wanted to show me moving in to university for my 5th scene because I felt it was an iconic part of my life. After that in the next I wanted to show me graduating from university and throwing up the classic hat in animated pixel form. In the next scene I wanted to show me working at My own company called III Studios because I want this to happen in the future and I feel like it will most likely happen with the team I have got. For my final scene I want to have me working at a game company called DICE and would working at my desk on some concept art for a new game. Overall I feel that all my scenes are a good representation of my happiness and my future self.
GCSE’s
Scene 2: High School Hamster Castle Creating my hamster castle in graphic design class and building it for the first time out of cardboard.
Scene 3: College
Scene 4: College
Letter
End of year
Waiting for my college acceptance letter near my front door at home in my school uniform.
Showing of my final work for college at the end of year exhibition.
Scene 5: University
Scene 6: University
Moving In
Graduating
Moving into my new flat close to my university campus where I will be spending the first year at.
Graduating from university and throwing my hat up in the air in a smooth motion.
Scene 7: Future
Scene 8: Future
III Studios
Working At DICE
Working at III studios and thinking about the future of where I’ll be in ten years which will hopefully working DICE.
Working in LA or Sweden at a games company called DICE creating concept art for various games I have a passion for.
Final Scenes For Animation Final story
Story board thoughts This is my first rough story board experiment based on the scenes I chose to be in my animation, this story board is just possibility and I would like to try other ways of showing my scenes in my animation. I feel that scene one is a good way of showing me choosing my GCSE’s but I feel that I would like to show of my character design in this idea because it’s me in my uniform. I feel that scene two is cool but I feel that It might not be understandable as a part of my life due to it being a hamster. In scene three I feel it doesn’t really match the scene description what I planned for it. In scene four I feel that I should actually show of my final exhibition for college instead of just the doors not animated. In scene five I think that it would be a better to show me literarily moving into my new flat. For scene six I decided to show one of the tutors giving me my certificate for graduating university, I feel that maybe I should show me throwing my hat in the air. For scene seven I wanted to show me working at III studios but I decided to see what it would look like walking towards our actual office. For the last scene I showed me walking to the DICE office to wok there, I feel that this scene needs a lot of work.
Rough Story Board Final story
Story board thoughts
Story board thoughts
This is my second rough story board experiment based on the scenes I chose to be in my animation, this story board is just possibility and I would like to try other ways of showing my scenes in my animation.
This is my third rough story board experiment based on the scenes I chose to be in my animation, I feel that this story board is the best one so far and I feel that I will creates these scenes based on this story board.
I feel that scene one is a bad way of showing me choosing my GCSE’s because I feel that I would like to show more of my character design in this idea because it’s me in my uniform.
I feel that this scene is definitely my favourite one out of all the first scene experiments. I feel that scene two works really because I can show me and I can show the hamster castle being built up.
I feel that scene two doesn’t really show what I want it to. In scene three I feel it could be merged with another story board. In scene four I feel that I should show me showing of my work.
In scene three I feel that this is definitely a big improvement compared to the other story boards. In scene four I feel that this works better than the other one.
In scene five I think that it would be a better to show me moving into my new flat. For scene six I feel that maybe I should show me throwing my hat in the air. For scene seven I wanted to show me and my coworkers at III studios. For the last scene I showed me on an employee photo at the DICE office.
In scene five I think that this is what I exactly wanted for this stage in my life in a scene. For scene six I feel that I will have the hats being thrown in the back ground and have me throwing my hat.
Rough Story Board Final story
For scene seven I wanted to show where I want to be in the future. For the last scene I showed me working at my desk at DICE and I feel that this is a perfect way to finish the animation.
Rough Story Board Final story
Final story board thoughts
Creating enviroments for scenes
I really like the way my final story board has turned out because I can use as a great guide for when I start my animation and I feel that this is great representation of what I want to be in my animation. I also feel that the simplicity of it will help get each scene’s story across easily.
After creating my final storyboard, I went on and created each environment for every scene in my animation. For the first scene I created my GCSE choices in a simple form by using three doors which would direct you to each of the choices. I also added the “GCSE Choices” at the top of the scene to emphasise that it was my GCSE choices.
Overall I feel every scene will describe each part of my life in a good way through animation in a pixel form.
For my second scene I wanted to create my old graphics class room in school with a table for my hamster castle to be animated. For the third scene I created my house and front door for the letter arrival from college. In the fourth scene I created my college exhibition which shows four of the pieces I created for the exhibition in pixel form. In scene five I am shown in pixel animation form moving into my first student halls of residence for the start year at university, Within the scene it shows the Huddersfield university building in the distance. In scene six here I created myself celebrating the end of university at graduation underneath the graduation banner.
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Within scene seven I created a sort of business room for the workings of III Studios with some retro posters in the background and my pc. In the final scene it shows an office in Dice with two posters representing future games that I intend to work on.
Final Story Board Story Board
Scenes 1-4 Creating animation enviroments
Opinions on animatable objects After designing all my environment’s for each of my scenes in my animation I started to animate the elements within the environment for example a door. For my first scene I animated the door opening for my character to go through it and the text to emphasise it was an important chapter of my life. In the second scene I animated the hamster castle by erecting it from the table and the typography to appear on the whiteboard. For my third scene I had a lot to animate these were the letter coming out of the letter box, me picking up and reading the letter. I also animated the text in the letter to emphasise my acceptance into college. For the fifth scene I only animated the door for this one I feel that the animated turned out well.
Scene 5
Scene 6
Scene 7
Scene 8
Scenes 5-8 Creating animation enviroments
Within the seventh scene I animated thought bubbles coming from my head thinking about my future working at dice. For the final scene I only animated the outro to my animation which is a transition to white. Overall I feel that the animated objects within the scenes look really good.
Scenes 1-4 Creating animatable objects
Thoughts behind loading screen I felt my animation was missing a transition between each scene so I decided to create a loading screen transition because I felt it gave my animation more consistency through the use of colour and animation. I have decided to use a rainbow block loading screen because I felt it matched the simplistic pixel style animation.
Scenes 5-8 Creating animatable objects
Loading Screen Creating animatable objects
Opinions on the final characters
Creating the animation
These are my final character designs from every part of my life I feel that I have achieved a good evolutionary style due to my outfit, build and beard length. Overall I feel that they have turned out really well and they are a good representation of what I would look like in a pixel form.
First I created the intro for my animation, I did this by fading in the name of my animation “my life” and the simply fading it out which will cut to a loading screen with a grey square emerging out of it to set the aspect ratio for the rest of the animation. After that I then cut down my first animation to five seconds and did this for the rest of them with the loading screens in between them. I then faded a white box over the animation so it would go to the outro which is “to be continued”.
Scene 1-3
School Uniform
Final Characters Character designs
Scene 4
College outfit
Scene 5
University outfit
Scene 6 Graduation
Scene 7 III Studios
Scene 8
Working at DICE
Animating The Final Animation final animation
Final animation opinion
Simple T shirt designs
This is the link to the final “My life” animation I created. I like how my pixel animation has turned out because I feel it looks original with my own twist to a retro style animation.
These are my simple t-shirt designs for my physical piece which will be show cased in the collide event. I decided to choose three characters from my animation to show past, present and future. I feel that the simplicity of these t shirt designs create a good physical piece to promote my digital work which is my animation.
I have enjoyed creating this animated pixel style video because it was something new to work with and experiment within styles. I feel that the music I chose really makes the animation because in my opinion it brings the character to life with the movement. Overall my opinion of this digital piece is that I really like it. If I was to do this animation again I don’t think that I would actually change anything in it because I enjoyed everything I have done for this project idea and I am very pleased with the final outcome.
The Final Animation Final animation
MY LIFE
T-shirt Designs Physical Piece
Final printed t-shirt design
Project review
I After designing my basic t-shirt designs on Photoshop I went to get them printed so that they can be hung up in the collide exhibition to promote my animation.
Throughout this project I have explored many ideas revolving around the three themes Happiness, the internet and future self. I experimented with many of my ideas in different mediums to get across the message for each of these ideas.
I feel that the t-shirt printing was a success and I feel that the decision to create t-shirts for my physical was a good idea because I could also wear my project.
After exploring these different mediums and ideas I decided to focus my idea on future self and happiness. For my idea I decided to create a pixel animation of my life past, present and future including all of the most important educated aspects within graphic design and my life. I then experimented with this idea and explored different animation techniques while trying different pixel styles. To follow I then started creating each scene from the ground up out of pixels for the whole animation which I put together in after effects once I had finished it. After completing each scene, I then imported them in to after effects and added sound. Once I completed the digital animation I then focused on my physical piece which was three t-shirt designs based on the past, present and future then got them printed. Overall I feel that I have answered the brief in a way such as my own and I enjoyed myself along the process.
Final T-shirts Final physical piece
Evaluation Evaluation of this project