Evaluation of my documentary

In my documentary i was trying to communicate a basic overview of the sci-fi genre and to communicate why i think it is such a great part of media. I tried to convey this through my vocal commentary which i recorded though a microphone and also through images e.g. pictures of lasers and book covers.

My character is myself.

My documentary was mostly fact though some of it could be subjective, for example i included a definition of Sci-fi but there are hundreds of different definitions and many ideas of what Sci-fi is or should be.

The audio of my project was intended to be a commentary on the subject i was debating, it was the core of my presentation - the images and animation were there to aid this presentation. I didn't include a soundtrack to my documentary because i felt it would distract the reader from the information i was giving. Furthermore when making this piece i was intending to imitate the style of an animator who doesn't use soundtrack in his documentary sequences:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DyRxlvM9VM

(Example of said animator)

I felt this made the documentary more effective but i included some music in the end credits to make up for the lack of sound.

In comparing to my researched example i feel my project is similar to their work but that it doesn't have the same quality of animation or writing. However this is because extra credits (the youtube channel shown above) have been polishing their animation and writing style for many years. Furthermore they have an entire team working full time in order to make these videos, to write them and animate them etc.

This audio will communicate it's meaning to the audience through the presence of fact and information. It will be immediately clear that the audio is a commentary which while informal, is communicating academic concepts. As a result of this my intent it should communicate this meaning from the first second of the video with the words "sci-fi" and the corresponding fact.

Before recording the audio for my project i went to a quiet room in order to minimise the background audio, this is a technique. Another technique i used was to sync up the dialogue in my project with the animation in order to make it seem as though my character was speaking.

I think that if i was to improve this piece i would add a soundtrack, sound effects, improve the dialogue and maybe even add a few visual effects.

Copyright and royalty free assets

Without copyright the work of artists and musicians wouldn't be protected, but some generous people give their work to the general public and remove the copyright protection instated on it. By doing this they make their work royalty free, meaning they give their work away without asking for payment (royalty) although most prefer if the user could reference their work in some way.

I often use these assets for my collage work, so for example if were making a short film we might include royalty free sound effects or music to increase the quality of the project. Another thing to note is that even royalty free sites sometimes have a price associated with using the work, for example certain sound effects might require money to be used.

In professional work plagiarism is heavily punished but collage work is not and this is why many of my projects include work with youtube video audio.

My finished project

Boardgame analysis and reasearch

Analysis of the brief

How do you feel about the task, requirements and parameters?
I feel they are fair and understandable, they limit my options but this means that i will have to think less about the vast possibilities of what i could do. i appreciate being able to rework an original board game because it allows for a lot of creativity and while keeping a base foundation, this seems more interesting to me than creating an original piece because the possibilities and complications for an original board game are so broad and diverse. i will make good on the brief by following the rules and making a safe board game. i'm looking forward to making a strong identity for my product and i have some basic ideas, i want it to be darker than the usual board games. I intend to work individually for the duration of the project.


Research

What research are you going to carry out and why?
i will research good and bad board games finding what makes them good, i think a key component for  a good children's board game is simplicity combined with fun, deep but understandable mechanics. games intended for older audiences can be more complex but must still be compelling and fun.

Do you have an idea already?
i have an idea of theme and some board games I've seen before that look interesting. I probably know who i will be aiming my work at - young adult. i will probably rework an older board game because making an original one is too complex.

What are your research questions?
Why are certain board games more popular than others and what constitutes a good board game?

How can i rework an old title like Cludo or Snakes and ladders into something different - fresh but still packed with nostalgia.

I will do a snakes and ladders rework for an older audience in a horror themed style with more complex rules and concepts, maybe a Cuthulu style game?

ideas for pieces: swords, boats?,

research evidence:

Character draft

I'm not very good at drawing, that should probably be apparent. But i am relatively happy with the stuff I've made so far. I've decided to call the little blue blob Kite, i drew him first because he's going to be the character i animate. I'm not that pleased with the design so I'll definitely change it to make him cuter and more detailed. The face i drew on the right was just a little project to show that i can draw complex characters too, but i wouldn't ever be able to animate this because the form is too complex. I wouldn't be able to replicate it multiple times at different angles, plus the character doesn't have much variety in emotion - bit of an emo.

Motion tween - cars racing

Shape tween - animate

My finished Lovecraftian board game

Rules:

Snake and ladders phase
you roll a dice and the number it lands on you move, if you hit a tentacle you have to move down. When you land on a tentacle roll a die, if you score above 3 you pass over it without damage, however after 2 misses you have to score above a 4, and after another 1 miss you have to score at least 5

Battle phase

Choose a position.

Acts
You take turns and you can do specific acts, you can fire weapons at Cuthulu or heal your crew and patch up the ship. When you do one of these acts, roll a dice, if you score over 3 the act is successful, if you score under 3 the act fails, if you score 1 the act backfires and you take damage. However unlike the previous stage you can die at this point, if you die you are out and that’s it, you have to wait for your friends to finish him.

HP
Cuthulu has 24 health and the ships each have 6

Attack of Cthulhu!
When Cthulhu attacks - he does this every turn - flip a coin, heads he misses, tails he hits and both boats take 2 damage.

Supporting parts

Logo

Player pieces 

The rationale + evaluation for my Lovecraftian board game and my peer assessment of another game

Rationale
My board game fulfils the brief criteria because:

i have the finished product - shown above. It is clearly a board game because it takes one of the oldest board games in existence (snakes and ladders) and reworks it. Furthermore i've taken a popular character from media and used it in a game so this demonstrates a clear product identity (a Lovecraftian identity).  

I brought in the new identity because i thought the conventional snakes and ladders format would be too childish for my target audience, this is why i introduced the darker theme - since it should grab the attention of an older age group more easily.

The supporting objects: The ship figurines, the logo for the game, and the rules for the game.

This means that the game is in it’s complete form and can be played by anyone.

As stated in my research this game is aimed at teenagers and i think it fulfils this through it’s design features and it’s overall theme.

Peer assessment - max’s game

I thought this game was well made but not because of it’s design - that was relatively simple. It was it’s rules and gameplay that made it very approachable and compelling.

The game revolves around player interaction and deception, it has a huge amount of depth because you can play it in innumerable different ways. The competitive nature of the game makes it so enjoyable and interesting and it can be approached by a very broad audience.

I think it will fit with the brief as long as my friend can show that he has included supporting parts like a logo or rule set.

Evaluation

In conclusion i am pleased with my finished product.

I think it more than accomplishes the requirements of the brief and might even exceed it. I did it solo too which meant i had none of the help others in the course did, i feel this further shows the merit of my effort.

It started as a series of outlines at the beginning of the project and slowly evolved into a full piece of work. I used lovecraftian pictures as a reference to draw cthulhu and artwork of waves as inspiration to make them seem realistic as well.

I think the greatest strength of my game is it’s rule set and artwork, i feel the art looks perfect and hits the theme and target audience, and i feel the rules are complex enough to be interesting for my audience without bogging them down in numbers and figures.

I don't think either of these factors are perfect, far from it, the artwork is far from professional and i realise that the rules can be confusing after testing the game. I am less happy about my logo, i feel it doesn't fit with my target audience, it’s cute design clashes with the actual product and i don't actually like the artwork itself either, it looks unfinished and crude.

But overall i feel my product was well done. I had a lot of fun making it too. I think that if i had more time then first i would fix the logo and then i would’ve i would’ve made the artwork more detailed - more shading - and i might’ve streamlined the rules.

Symbols in animate

Symbols are images that you can use as tools in photoshop. To make one you create an image like the penguin i drew above, you then convert it into a symbol. This puts it on the animate library and so you can drag and drop the symbol onto the page as demonstrated by the flock of penguins shown above.