Evaluation

Evaluation of my work.
Keeping to the brief I chose to do my flash animation about a wizard who loses his staff. To produce this animation we had to look at certain criteria such as "the three acts of a story in a game", flash software which included a demo using a robot character and ideas generation.
The first subject I looked at was the three acts of a game story, by doing this I wrote a summary of three games and explained the story in three acts (the beginning, the climax and the end). For each of these games first I either revisited the game to remember the story or simply remembered the story but still checked on official websites for conformation. For each game I believe that I covered each game fully by naming all characters to importance and explaining the meaning and story and also including sequels and secrets left in the game for people who had never played or heard of the game. I had peers look at my research who had also known the game to ensure that i hadn't missed something of serious importance and had them give me feedback on the research, most feedback included positive feedback and one negative feedback about the mix up between a character which I then resolved. This research helped towards me understanding what I must consider when doing my flash animation. I akso did was research on previous flash animation, I looked at a animation called "Dead on Arrival" this animation showed me what sort of interactive buttons and speech to include in my own animation and how I should present it.
Next subject I looked at was the flash demo's. These helped a huge amount, simply because I wasn't very good at flash before hand. The consisted of all of us tracing over a robot with the line and then animating it in flash and considering each important tween and action script needed for our own animation. I found the demo's interesting and in some ways difficult to grasp but after a while of trying it I got the hang of it and began to progress in flash. The things we learnt we things such as classic,motion and shape tweens which i took into account I though of ideas to use them in my animation, we also looked at stop,gotoandplay, roll-overs and other action scripts which where essential for each scene of my animation, and then we finally looked at buttons and importing sound, buttons where simple but I found the importing sound much more interesting because using another soft ware(adobe audition) to make our own sounds out if pre-made sounds from a website call sounddogs.com. These demo's where very helpful and educational and I ended up using each demo in my animation.
The next subject was my ideas generation for this i looked at wizards on Google and thought about what style I wanted for my animation. I knew I wanted a vector based cartoon so I had peers look at my sketches and see which one they liked the most and then chose that one, I found this a good way to narrow down my ideas to a final product. I found that my final characters where in some ways unable to animate e.g. my eagles wings where not separated from the rest of the body, so to animate them i had go back over with the line tool to separate them so it was able to animate, this drained up my time on my animation later on. After my ideas where finalised into one product I began my animation.
My animation at first was a slow process because I was still a bit unfriendly with flash but as I  made more and more scenes I became more confident. Each scene I gave full attention and tried to keep to my storyboard as much as I could without changing a few interactive features, buttons and sounds. I found scenes 3 and 5 quite difficult because I had trouble linking the staff and wizard actions together for a swinging motion but was given help by other and soon had it working and also learnt how to do it for future reference. I also had my sound all in sync with the movements and actions that happened in the scene. For next time I think I will try to work faster to get my characters created and also I will research more into sounds that could maybe increase the amount in each scene. Overall I think my animation went as I wanted it to following my story board correctly and including interactions and fun for the audience when watching it such as speech.




Beta Test
I had Jordan Dunstall beta test my flash animation and putting into account that it wasn't finished yet with only three scenes. this is the feedback I got.

smooth animation
good interactivity
good sounds and speech
needs to include a motion tween and shape tween.

I took this into account and improved my animation.

Beta Test - Jordan Dunstall's animation.
I found that his animation had great artistic vector based characters and good animation with the waves. he needs to include more action scripts such as gotoandplay and maybe a button for next scene. he also need to consider adding some speech or sound with talking.

Flash tweens and demo.

Classic tween
This tween is the most simple tween to use when making things move in straight lines or to make objects or part of someones arm.

To do this first i create a shape etc and then make a key frame on the first frame and then add another frame say on frame 10 on frame i move the shape to the side then right click in the middle if the two frames and right click on create classic tween.
Motion tween

Motion tweens are used for animations that have a curve or a loop of some sort this how to do it with a simple shape. What i do is create a shape and then make a keyframe on say frame 15 and then move my shape where I want and I be sure that I have moved my shape before I create the motion tween and once moved right click inside the frames and choose motion tween.


Creating a shape tween

Shape tweens are made to change a shape to another shape in a number of frames. To do this I create a shape, then make a key frame at say frame 15 and then at the key frame on frame 15 create a shape over the previously made shape and then right click between the frames and choose create shape tween..




How to create a button for next scene.
To create a button first create any shape you want and then change it into a button symbol by pressing F8.

Once that's done jump into your button and add a key frame on the frames you want hit is what happens when you hit it, down is when you hold down the button and over is when you hover over the button. I have made my over green and my down black.

Flash Animation.

ideas gen:

For my idea i was thinking of something to do with someone losing something then finding it, what i wanted to include was a wizard so i began to draw up a few wizard ideas and staffs then i began to do think of how the wizard can lose the staff and how he will find it, one of my peers suggested a bird snatching the staff off the wizard so i began to draw up some eagles. For the surrounding i thought the woods would be good because then i can have the wizard lose the staff which can look like a stick and get mixed up with sticks.

Sketches -include and annotate

image research include and annotate

I looked at different types of styles for my wizard and eagle and began looking at the wizard and if it would be a cartoon style or a realistic style these are the types i looked at.

From these pictures i took most my ideas from the third picture because i liked the beard and hair and his facial features i took the feet from the second one and the cloak from the second one. the first one i looked at but dint like much of the way it was drawn so i knew what i didn't want for my wizard.

Next i looked at images of eagles for this i wanted a line drawing of it so i can look at the way it was drawn and how the wings could be positioned these are pictures i looked at.

I took the first images wings and but not as detailed and the head the other i looked and the way they where positioned and how the wings where always high above the neck. i took this information to make something similar and make it my own image.

Story board-scene 1

 

In this scene the wizard is in the woods and an eagle will enter on a motion tween and take the wizard's staff and leave, the sound will consist of flapping wings,owl hooting or a cricket to show that its night time and a snap to emphasize the taking of the staff. I will add a next button to carry on the animation.

Scene 2

This scene will consist of the wizard looking for his stolen staff and mistaking the sticks on the floor for his real staff. i will have a walking sound and a classic tween system that will allow me to have my wizard come back and forth from the twigs and for him to go to a stick it will be controlled by the user to select the sticks (i will add rollover glows to encourage the user to click) on three of the sticks an cross will be above the wizards head to symbolize its the wrong one. One of the sticks will be correct and i will add a speech to the wizard with a next button to carry on to the next page.

Scene 3

In this scene the wizards picks a stick which he believes to be his staff but to make sure he tries to turn the tree into a puddle but instead explodes the tree. i will add a speech at the start to make the user understand what the wizard wants to do. I will add a rollover and a interactive button to the stick and when clicked the wizard will thrust his arm forward and flames will shoot out of the stick and explode the tree. this scene will have most sounds to make up for shortness with sounds like wind, explosions,fire crackling, trees snapping and a mystical sound.    

Scene4

In this scene the wizard enters the scene from the left and notices a glowing bush which and the wizard will cover his face with his hand which will add a shadow to his face. I will add a sound effect to relate to the glow and speech from the wizard. to add interactive i will add a roll over to the bush the light will appear and the shadow on the wizards face will appear.

Scene 5

In this last scene the wizard finds the staff and retrieves it but the eagle will fly down using a motion tween again and try to attack the wizard but using the same system as before with scene 3 magic will shoot out of the staff and turn the eagle into a leaf by using a shape tween. there will many sounds used such as,mystical effects,flapping wings,electric,bird squawks etc.

Flash animation story.Feedback.

My idea is a wizard has lost his staff in the woods at night and starts to pick up sticks instead of his staff and he tries spells with them and they go terribly wrong, then near the end he sees a glow and its his staff  and holds it and all amazing spells and colors come out of it. One peer said that he liked the idea and found it would be funny and suggested the idea of funny spells out of random sticks. The other peer also like the idea but thought the humor could be exaggerated more by maybe having the wizard try a spell with a stick and accidentally blow up a town or something around those lines.

Dead on arrival

This is an interactive comic from the classic film Noir in the 1940's at the start of this animation you can look through the the names of the characters and see what there position in this comic is (the victim,the detective, the friend etc), this is made by using the roll over button technique on flash and when clicked on it shows a full biography of the character this is a good idea because it gets you up to date on what the story is about and what the character are like.. It also has an intro that if you wish you can skip it. there is an effect of page turning by using your mouse to grab the corner of the page and has the effect of flicking the page across i think this is a great effect to use because it gives a look of its a comic, you have a choice to skip the chapter if you have already seen it and want to quickly move on which i think is a good idea for the impatient.Also it has a volume bar which is useful for loud moments.Throughout the whole animation there is background music and sound effects that help set the mood of the animation and the sound effects match well with the actions applied. This animation has helped to see what type of animation i want to do i think from this i will take the idea of different scenes and use a different type of next button each type to keep creativity.It also consists of camera zooms and pans with a camera by actually making the characters bigger or smaller to give the effect which i think i will use in my animation. The last thing i noticed was there was different paths in the animation sch as at the start you can click on the page at it will take you to the next chapter of the murder or you can carry on the story and flick the pages, i will not be able to include something that complex but it is a great feature for larger scale animation. The best feature i think is in this animation is the choice interface which allows you to choose who is the suspect and then starts a whole new animation devoted to the whatever suspect you choose.

Game Plots

Assassins Creed

  Act One-The story in Assassins creed starts of slow with you waking up in a small room with nothing but a bed and are talked to through a microphone by a woman called Lisa who becomes a bigger part of the story later on. The person you play is called Desmond and has no idea where he is and whats answers doesn't receive any. This part of the game is in modern time which was in this game 2012. Later Desmond meets a man and is told to relive his ancestors memory's  "Altair" and find out about the assassins and the legendary artifact named the Piece of Eden, Desmond finds out that his ancestor is an assassin and has to relive the work Altair has done, assassinate Templar's.

Act Two- Desmond is constantly made to use the machine called the Animus and keep going further into the memory of his ancestor and whilst in the animus he starts to find out the secrets of Altair s past. Outside the animus you start to find secrets about the abstergo (company you are in) and begin questioning Lucy. 

The story of Altair is basically that the Templar attack the assassins home and Altair is told by his master to do what he can to strike revenge at the Templar by assassinating the main nine leaders, as Altair starts to find a connection between the targets he has begun a war with the Templar's and confronts his next target Robert and know that the next target is a trap and inform Richard I of 

England that Robert is planning on betraying him and Richard believes him. 

Act Three-The main twist of the story is when Robert is near death he tells Altair there is not nine Templar leader but ten and that the tenth is Altairs master, Al Mualim. Al Mualim wanted to keep the piece of Eden for himself therefore making Altair kill the other nine Templars. Altair manages to defeat him in a duel. The piece of Eden show a map of the world showing the other scattered pieces of Eden, this is the information abstergo where looking for and do not need Desmond any more so they order Lucy to kill him, but what they don't realise is that Lucy is also a assassin undercover and asks the abstergo to keep Desmond alive till they have all the pieces buying him time. At the very end Desmond uses eagle vision inherited by the bleeding effect in the animus and sees the end of the world written in blood in many different languages this hints for a sequel. 

 

Batman Arkham Asylum 

Act one-Batman is vigilante who is greatly respected by the police as he may not have super powers he has great sources, knowledge and a build of a warrior.The story starts off with Batman driving The Joker to Arkham Asylum Batman is concerned because he thinks Joker gave in too easily so he walks in with him to make sure. they reach a stop where batman cannot go any further, which ends up in joker escaping the clutches of the guards and knocking them out, batman is unable to get and Harley Quinn controls the Arkham gateways and lets joker in to go hiding and play games with The Batman. The Batman starts his quest to hunt down the joker and find out what has happened to the other inmates.

Act 2-Batman he continuing he hunt for joker but on the way he meets his previous foes such as: Bane,Poison ivy,Killer Croc, Scarecrow etc. Batman starts to find evidence about the serum used on some inmates called titan (a serum that makes people huge and strong). Throughout the game Harley Quinn and The Joker talk to Batman and give him hints on where to go next as if they are luring him in to a trap, Batman knows but wants to carry on through and beat him.

Act 3_Near the end Batman finds where joker is after beating all of Jokers friends and then Joker uses the titan serum and turns super strong and tries to defeat Batman but does not succeed and suffer serious injury and is captured finally and arkham is restored and the remaining inmates are locked up again. the game is now finished and Batman continues to look after Gotham city and is hinted a sequel when a sighting of two face in Arkham city.

Fable 3

Act 1- Usually in fable games you start very young and build your character doing small sized mission, but in this one you start rich and powerful prince in his late teens with a girlfriend and royal clothing unlike the last two fables. You still learn how to use a sword bow and two handed hammer with your trusted friend and trainer "Walter", you also need to make decisions which will decide what you are a hero or evil. You begin your journey to recruit allies for battles to come and to protect your kingdom from your evil brother who is king of the Albion so you need to make a rebellion.

Act 2 - Now you start to recruit allies by making promises to bandits and other kingdoms so they will join your side and help you, this begins a huge journey to find allies and helping the kingdoms fight here foes. half way through this conquest you hit a dark cave and fight a evil presence which takes over you and your friend Walter and you both find it hard to resist the curse but are able to and fight back the demon inside the cave but with Walter disappeared, you have no choice but to carry on without him.

Act 3 - Now with all the men and women you need recruited you set of back to albion to find you brother off the throne. you begin your battle and reach the castle, you meet your brother and he stand down almost immediately and believes that you can't do a better job than him and that you will hurt someone's feelings and become hated,this is when you start to make or not make your promises to the people around you. Now you make the decisions on what happens and after that has happened you find out that an evil curse which you have seen before is going to attack. The people you have made your promise to and like you will fight for you. the curse enters the kingdom and fend of the curse and the monsters it gets very close to the castle and this is where you make your final stand. This is when the curse has a surprise for you, he now controls your best friend Walter, you have to fight him and kill him leaving your character depressed and angry and kills the curse once and for all and then you do what ever you want in your kingdom for the rest of the game.