Categories
GDD710 - Module 1

Version Control

Week 7.1 – 11th March. 2021

Rapid Ideation Session Two

Patricio and I decided to work together for the rapid ideation event, due to having similar interests for what we wanted to create, with an overall goal in mind to make a game. That being said, we had one of his old handmade animated asset’s, as a starting point for the game already.

Theme

We agreed on working with the theme – environment, looking more closely at how much pollution is around, especially in the ocean, and getting a better understanding of what it is doing to our planet overall.

Concept

Fishy game level 1
(Figure 1: Land 2021 Sea Creature eating plastic)

(the game play of our artefact is based upon the adventures of a sea creature fighting human contamination)

Our initial aim is to show a way of recycling, and clearing waste, after it had been dumped into the ocean.

fishy game level 2
(Figure 2: Land 2021 Sea Creature no plastic)

However, this may sound quite straight forward, but we have reservations about the sea creature and if it will display this with just swimming around, searching for food, only finding rubbish instead.

Background ideas

(Figure 3: Norton 2021 Ideas for rock texture/ Alien globe)

Above – looking more into the Style of illustration – shape within shape, whether the creature may have a globe over his head, or is just a normal fish…? The orange fish below, is what we went with…but we was thinking about an alien to begin with.

Blends for the rocks, or sand hills under the sea, something that may show texture.

Example below.

(Figure 4: Norton 2021 Ideas for colour and texture of sand)

This is the texture we liked the look of above, and by using one of my old cloud designs, I had made for one of my children’s books, this helped with the atmosphere of the game, to create a dark, unhappy life under the sea.

Week 7.2 – 12th March. 2021

We set up a Trello board straight away to keep track of our development.

Trello – This is the most useful product ever for organisation!

Screenshot 2021-03-13 at 17.49.11.png
(Figure 5: Trello Board 2021 Deb and Pat’s Rapid Ideation Development Process)

As I mentioned in my last post, when learning about retrospective,

I choose my Start item as;

  • Writing a weekly plan to help structure the work **

As for writing a weekly plan to organise the week ahead this has been working to, mostly because of Trello, one of the most useful things ever designed.
A board to write down all the things you need to do, what’s been done, and what your working on, whilst sharing with your team mates, choosing a perfect photo as a background, which helps to ground your focus to. Fantastic!!

Questions to address…

How do we clearly convey, with a sea creature searching for food, that we are looking to find ways of recycling to help the environment?

We wanted to look at the correct approach, and kept worrying about the sea creature which we had now chosen to be a Piranha, and how it would be able to show this through swimming in the ocean. I had an idea, of it changing different colours when it ate certain things.

We wanted to show how ill the Piranha was getting, from all the rubbish in the ocean.

Ideation start process for the Piranha – the change of different colours, on the approach, whilst eating, and afterwards

(Figure 6: Land/Norton 2021 Original Fish by Patricio/Colour Designs By Debbie)

Conclusion

From the above coloured fish versions…the Orange is the natural colour from Patricio’s original design, but I was determined to show the fish with a different colour, bright blend, as I was thinking along the lines of slime, and when things react to certain products in the sea.

I had an preconception that the fish may be glowing from when it approaches some kind of trash in the sea, and from that, its stomach is turning inside, and the way of showing that to the gamer without the fish being sick, would be through colour to show how its feeling.

From this small part of the process, we decided the bright slime green, in Patricio’s words…

Sick green, which I would be applying to all the fish that would;

  • a) approaching the trash – swimming
  • b) whilst eating – eating
  • c) spinning after eating – turning

Problem

When applying colour to the fish, first time around the process took ages, and Patricio did recommend we don’t use a blend, but I felt the sick green really worked, and was so invested at showing him this could be done quickly, and could still look just as effective as the first one I did.

Solution

With this in mind I began rechecking out ways on Photoshop, to get this look quickly and apply to all the fish versions, we had discussed.

First attempt – taking the fish, adding a layer, drawing over the top(tracking the fish), then selecting and colouring. this is what took forever.

Second attempt – Taking the fish, adding the layer, selecting the fish from the first layer, using quick selection tool, and then colouring.

Third and final attempt the best and quickest:

Taking the fish, creating a new layer, selecting fish from new layer, go back to new layer and fill shape selected with paint bucket, which then would allow you to fill on top with a blend.

I personal thought if we didn’t change the fish colour, the whole meaning behind the fish game would be pointless. From my perspective, if I was playing the game, all I would see would be the fish eating rubbish, and thats it!

You wouldn’t get to view, his colour, showing how sick he feels when just approaching trash, let alone eating it. For me the colour of this fish was vital for helping younger ones to understand, how poorly our sea creatures are getting from all the pollution that is constantly being dumped in our oceans.

Week 7.3 – 15th March. 2021

The underwater scene

Here is how the game art is looking so far, together with our newly named fish ‘Tincan’ and the trash in the ocean. When thinking up names, when Patricio was at work, I was relating the kind of fish with the teeth, the eyes, the moment, and his surroundings. Tincan seemed a perfect choice. The game now had a title, main character with two colours, base colour and sick colour, a back ground, and some trash items.

Below is my layered background, created in Adobe Illustrator.

(Figure 7: Norton 2021 Design for undersbackground)

I incorporated Tincan as the bright sick green, to get an idea if he would clash with the scenery. Patricio had recommended that we check first, some colour ideas against the backing, as the original character is orange, so I experimented with the bright green as that colour was one that I thought was crucial to show his sickness, on approach to food, after and whilst eating.

From this, we could see the sick green worked, but we did need one more colour version created, which yet I hadn’t done. Base colour mixed with sick green, this was how it looked.

(Figure 8: Land/Norton 2021 Original fish by Patricio/ Colour Designs By Debbie)

Further research required

I realised from our process so far, that we were stepping the right direction with our game concept, however we are not really aware of any facts a such. I started to take a much more in-depth look at Ocean pollution, and Ocean sea creatures.

Ocean Research

When speaking to our peers, about the aim of our project, and the kind of outcome we were focusing on, one of them recommended this; MarineBio Conservation. After watching and making very in-depth notes about the state our Ocean is in, and crying throughout. I have come up with some very interesting theories, of how we could implicate this terrible situation into out game.

Below is the video link to “A Plastic Ocean”.

https://marinebio.org/conservation/ocean-dumping/

How to make more people aware?

From the documentary, I have been thinking about numerous ways in which our game could benefit the younger generation, and generally make more people aware of all the different kinds of plastics that first start effecting everything from a tiny shrimp, collecting plankton, not realising that its actually ingesting micro plastics.

Which is the start of the food chain in the ocean, leading to all the other fish, swallowing smaller fish and so on, which allows the toxins of the plastics, to circulate into the blood stream, there by all the marine life, has a shorter lifespan. Then it increases to get worse, through the seabirds, feeding its young, to people eating the fish, especially in parts of; Sri Lanka, and Manilla in the Philippines.

How to incorporate the research into our game?

  • Shrimp could be the main source of food – that Tincan is always looking for?
  • We could make Tincan – score points for every Shrimp he finds.
  • A real life fact could pop up – to make the younger generation more aware of recycling.

These were a few ideas, that I preposed to Patricio, while t he was working on the mechanic of making Tincan move from on side of the ocean, to the other. But making sure he focused on Tincan direction, that he would almost go between the some rocks and trash items.

Game Feel

I wanted to look more into the Game Feel, this youtube channel was recommended, and it certainly does help you get a better perspective of the importance of creating the right feel for your game, and helps you to understand how small objects, actions, gestures etc, can make a big difference to the gamer, and the players experience.

He looks at the notion of;

‘If you were to strip out all the elements in the game altogether, and are literally left with just the character moving, does it still feel fun..?’

Do you still want to engage with the character?

In Mario 64, the feeling of the game would still be engaging, because of all the new moves he can do, you would still have fun just with the character alone.

So if we tested this theory out …would our character be fun?

First Demo of our Game – Tincan – Out in the Ocean

This is a demo that shows the movement so far, what the fish looks like in his surroundings, you can move with left and right arrows for use with an Apple Imac keyboard, and A (to go left) and D (to go right) for Windows.

http://www.patricioland.com/Unity/Tincanweb_V1/index.html

Analysis of Demo

From the demo you can clearly see how the fish, goes straight in between the rocks and trash items, you also can view the added effects of the bubble, rising from the bean can for example, and the plastic bottle floating on top of the surface, a bubble of air, that has created a slight wave in the sea, and the constant motion of Tincan when not in use facing the front with his mouth opening and closing to breath.

While this was being created in Unity, we did have reservations about using this application.

But as the demo shows the development, all the elements we have used in it, and where we currently are, we can now start adding the extra content, and start working to focus on other ares of interest, such as creating more trash items, and working on the mechanics of Tincan eating the trash.

Week 7.4 – 17th March. 2021

Version Control – Why is it needed?

My understanding of version control, is ideally for coding, and for any kind of software development. By having original files safely stored, is one thing, however being able to update them within a click of button, is another. By creating a repository, you are able to upload your files, and make sure they stay up to date, which is just what you need when coding as its quite easy to make typos.

I cannot say I have experience in coding, but when talking to my peers I now have a clearer idea, of what a relief it is to have a repository. Its like a safety net, all the files you need, are backed up.

The only experience I had of creating c sharp script, in Unity was very difficult, and from that small experience, I can’t imagine what it would be like to loose pages of script, let alone an amount of just a single paragraph.

The solution that is used most often is Git.

Version Control – systems

Git is the version control system that allows us to keep many versions of the same project.

There are a few other Git Version Control systems such as; GitKraken, TortoiseGit, and GitHub Desktop.

Below are the Git system details, that I am about to put into practice, this is another new experience for me

Git System details

  • Set up a repository – the collection of files of your project that will be tracked by the system. In set-up, it is created online and ready to be populated.
  • Clone a repository – copy all the files in the repository to a location in your machine. From now on, changes to the files in your machine will be tracked by the Git client.
  • Commit changes to branch – to finalise any change onto your local repository and to give it a summary describing those changes.
  • Push and pull changes – once a commit has been made, it is possible to ‘push’ it onto the online repository, making it available to everyone with access to it, which will now be able to ‘pull’ your commit.
  • Create and merge branches – creating a branch makes an entirely different and independent copy of the project in the repository that can be worked on. This is useful to experiment on or even just implement a feature that has a risk of breaking the whole project. It is also good practice, in case of teams with multiple members, to never work on the same branch as other team members, in order to minimise conflicts. Once work on a branch is complete, the Git client can be used to merge it with other branches or with the master branch; the software does its best to help you manage conflicts.
  • Revert to commit – once the inevitable project-breaking mistake is made, reverting to previous working commits is as easy as a click in your Git client.

There are many Git version control services – GitHub is the most commonly used one.

These platforms, while easily accessible online, can also be used through Git client software.

GitHub – We have been recommended GitHub, because of the features. It guides you about different tools, platforms and pipelines.

Version Control Repository

First experience – Patricio has already set up our repository to share our rapid ideation artefact progress, however I am keen to set one up, to have a better understanding of the process.

I am creating one, for the game art. (I am literally only putting a few thing in there to check it works).

https://github.com/dknindiegamedev/hello-world

please also see the link I followed below:

https://guides.github.com/activities/hello-world/

References

A Plastic Ocean (2016).Available at: https://marinebio.org/conservation/ocean-dumping/ [accessed 16 March 2021]

Game Juice (2015). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=216_5nu4aVQ [accessed 15 March 2021]

Git Version Control (2021). Available at: https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/911/pages/week-7-git-version-control?module_item_id=49187 [accessed 16 March 2021]

SWINK, Steve. 2009. Game Feel ; Game Designer’s Guide to Virtual Sensation. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.

Full List of figures

Figure 1: Patricio Land 2021 Sea Creature eating plastic

Figure 2: Patricio Land 2021 Sea Creature no plastic

Figure 3: Norton 2021 Ideas for rock texture/ Alien globe

Figure 4: Norton 2021 Ideas for colour and texture of sand

Figure 5: Trello Board 2021 Deb and Pat’s Rapid Ideation Development Process

Figure 6: Land/Norton 2021 Original Fish by Patricio/Colour Designs By Debbie

Figure 7: Norton 2021 Design for under the sea

Figure 8: Land/Norton 2021 Original fish by Patricio/ Colour Designs By Debbie

Categories
GDD710 - Module 1

The Big Reading Week.

Week 6.1 – 10th March. 2021

The Retrospective

After looking at the article heartbeat retrospective, and closely at the common pitfalls, I understand this to be a workshop of reflection, structured with the steps as shown below;

  • Regular meetings with your team to simply debrief.
  • Everyone should feel comfortable to speak, just highlight a few areas, speak the facts only.
  • Discuss the relevant areas that are currently affecting the iteration process.
  • Have a couple solutions to work with, to keep simple.

Their are three main areas, that are considered throughout the retrospective;

  • What should be started?
  • What should be stopped?
  • What should be continued?

My Start item will be: (marked with two stars **)

  • Reading one journal article a week to inform your practice
  • Writing a progress summary in your journal before you attend the webinar
  • Writing a weekly plan to help structure the work **

My Stop item will be:(marked with two stars**)

  • Burning the candle at both ends **
  • Working in a silo and not seeking advice and support from peers
  • Leaving it until the last minute to write in the journal

My Continue item will be: (marked with two stars**)

  • Posting in the forums on a regular basis
  • Follow tutorials as part of the self-directed practice**
  • Attending the webinars

Both the start and stop items are used automatically when my SMART goals were noted, as they seem to follow through what I have put in place.

Retrospective is key to reflect on what happened, any iterative processes put in place which didn’t work, analyse why and devise a plan to avoid happening next time around. But keep simple.

Session 1 Rapid Ideation – Reflection

Looking back on the development of rapid ideation session one, I know for sure that there was room for improvement. I wish I had, had my SMART goals in place, and only learnt a little about 2D animation for example, and not to of tried using so many new applications, which just holted my progress altogether, and made me question, if I was even capable of learning a new technical skill this quickly.

Pages and Posts

That doesn’t even include, the fact of which I was struggling with writing a post on here, and realising I had my entries as pages, not posts. This was a big turning point for me, after working this out, I was able to add tags, and categories, to make my site more accessible. This is where I started to understand the need for an organised, well structured website.

Week 6.2 – 11th March. 2021

SMART – Ready – SET – GO !!

To reiterate, in this coming webinar, when we get out next rapid ideation tool to experiment with, I am going to do things differently.

I have my goals in place to help with organising my time:

  • To do an equal amount of research; including reading, writing, watching, linkedIn learning, and practical.
  • Make sure to stick with my idea, not to get distracted by all other possibilities.
  • To learn new technical skills for an hour at a time, break, and try out what I have just learnt, rather than jumping to far ahead!

Since making my self SMART goals, I have started to continue reading ‘Level up’, to understand more about the process of creating a game from scratch. This is where I put my organised schedule into action.


In Chapter 4 ( level 4 ) titled; ‘You Can Design a Game, but Can You Do the Paperwork?’
Scott Rogers states;

“It’s no crime to be a perfectionist, but many design issues can be thought out and designed on paper first before a single pixel is rendered or a line of code typed.”

(S, Rogers. 2014. p90)


This immediately grabbed my attention, my determination of trying to create something that will look amazing on screen, and helping to engineer a game/ app or animation that you just can’t leave alone, is all I seem to focus on!

This is exactly what I have done with with my personal development, and because of trying to add code, and bring Ralphy to life in only a few frames, it was impossible to get a decent animated character.


I think it might be worth going back to basics, sticking with drawing and scanning my work, ideas and laying out concepts on paper, before even thinking of bringing my illustrations to life.

After all this is what Briggs would do when he originally created ‘The Snowman‘, and he is one of the illustrators, who pays very close attention to adding emotion and movement behind all of his sketches, before even laying them out onto a storyboard.


Week 6.3 – 14th March. 2021

Points to remember

Rogers also discusses in his book ‘Level Up‘, how important it is to be mindful of your peers, as we all have our own limitations.

We first discussed this in week one, talking about Scrum agile framework …It’s vital we have someone in charge, ideally that can make sure that each person, (when in a team) is doing their part, and has been assigned the correct area, that matches their skill.
Other wise, this could dramatically hold everyone up, especially when that person doesn’t quite understand what is expected of them. 

Throughout this course, I feel like I am on the biggest learning curve ever, with excitement leading the way, I pinch myself just to check that what I am creating is real…and can be improved or developed in one way or another.

Kanban

I am now starting, very slowly, but surely to understand the nature of reflection. 
I have started to read another book, which my partner has actually recommended;

The Toyota Way : 14 Management Principles; from the Worlds Greatest Manufacturer.

This actually links onto the Kanban Method that I have been practicing.

The book reveals the methods and approaches, used in production;

Jidoka – Originated from an invention from Toyoda, a carpenter who made wooden spinning machines, and in 1894 the manual looms he started experimenting with, were low in cost, but worked better than his existing looms.

“designing operations and equipment so your workers are not tied to machines and are free to perform value added work.”

J K, Liker. 2004 P16

This step would lead to the creation of a much broader System!!

Toyoda; Unhappy with seeing his mother, grandmother and friends working so hard, this sent him down his next path, and took production to next level.

“He wanted to find a way to relieve them of this punishing labor, so he set out to develop power-driven looms.”

(J K, Liker. 2004 p16)

This intention was crucial, and helped to build TPS (Toyota Production System).

  • Jidoka (automation without human touch)
  • JIT ( Just In Time) – to order what parts you are running out of, just before you do runout.
  • Continuous Flow (focusing on today, and tomorrow)
  • Kaizen (change for the better)

This is what brings us to Taiichi Ohno – the founder of the TPS, (Toyota Production System), which has a strong focus on Jidoka, Toyoda’s sons approach JIT, (Just In Time) and his own discovery Continuous Flow. He also talks about Kanban and Kaizen.

He compares Kanban to a gas gauge that is built into the car – when it signals – you know you need to fill up. As for Kaizen, making tiny improvements is just as important when achieving a lean goal, which eliminates all waste, that adds cost without adding to value.

References

Heartbeat Retrospective (2020). Available at: https://bit.ly/3b17dtO [accessed 10 March 2021]

ROGERS, Scott. 2014. Level Up ; The Guide To Great Video Game Design. 2nd edn. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

LIKER, Jeffrey K. 2004. The Toyota Way ; 14 Management Principles from the Worlds Greatest Manufacturer. McGraw-Hill.

Categories
GDD710 - Module 1

Rapid Ideation Session 1 – Continued

Week 5.1 – 24th February. 2021

Research

I have been researching Olaf Storm – with his photoshop tutorials, his method uses video layers, which is what I am now using. He looks at frame rates, characters on 2’s and the other small movements like feet and and hand movements on 1’s.

He showed the smooth transition when using an onion skin, which I believe to be like a sketch over your original character, for you to redraw over, each time slightly adjusting your angle, to where you want your character to move.
I haven’t used the onion skin yet…but it is next on my list.
The effect you get afterwards is amazing, and makes the object or character movement a lot more fluid, but takes a lot more time. 

Method Olaf uses;

  • Draw very rough to begin with
  • Then draws more detail
  • More detail – until character or objects have shape and definition
  • Finally he adds a colour layer 

This process takes a lot of time, which I don’t have for this rapid ideation session. 

My Process

  • Draw my background with enough detail to set the scene – convert to regular layer.
  • Draw my character with detail from the start -Focusing on my 6 points, I had specified from the last part of the rapid ideation brainstorm session.(Artboard 4)
  • Then copy the original character layer, and place above
  • Select and manipulate, the arms, tail and head in the first few frames, then start moving the wings and mouth, for the frames remaining.
  • As you are doing so, you only need to draw in occasional areas of colour, on that next layer you are working on. (shadow maybe left from last movement, this will need to be erased.)
  • Add music – researched humorous theme tunes for animations, or a start of a game.

Result

Here is the background for Ickle, I created it in Photoshop, paying close attention to the detail, and transferring one of the themes from the headline: colours are very important, so everything must be vibrant.

Combining SpongeBobs character; bright, fun, and friendly.

Plus the theme of loosing a friend; that is where the main character Ickle, will have to find fairy’s/ elf like creatures, in order to grant him his original wish. He is hoping to be small again.

He will need help from all; to find out where the creature is, from all those years ago.

Figure 1: Norton 2021 Background for Ickle

The story behind Ickle;

When Ickle was born, it was neither Little or Insy, but was rather Ickle.

One day, on his 3rd birthday, Ickle made a wish, that he could be a ‘tinsy, winsy bit bigger ‘

From that day, he has been searching for the fairy/elf creature, what ever it was to revisit that wish, and undo it.

Please see below, my first animation ever…

Ickle Waking Up

Week 5.2 – 1st March. 2021

Holistic Reflection –  The Five Key Skill Domains

This week are asked to look into the five domains, which are important, when writing reflectively.

  1. Dispositional Domain – time management/ motivation/ general behaviour/ discipline
  2. Affective Domain – experiences/ feelings/ emotions
  3. Interpersonal Domain – communication/ listening/ problem solving/ decision making
  4. Cognitive Domain – strengths/ weaknesses/ approach to new skills/ how to excel
  5. Procedural Domain – assessing current skills/ how to improve

Below is the points of how I presume I write, learn, and develop my ideas.

  • My focus always starts with dispositional domain; motivation to learn something new, begin a brainstorm and see where it leads.
  • Next, after the initial concept, would be the procedural domain; assess what skills I would need, or I have, and how to put them into action and look at what I need to improve.
  • Which leads to the cognitive domain; if I need to learn something new, I go straight to LinkedIn Learning, and start immediately, and making notes.
  • As for the next part of my process, to put what I had learnt to the test. However the affective domain takes over; with excitement leading the path to a new creation, because of a recent skill I just learnt, the Interpersonal domain; assertiveness in particular is pushed to the side.

Results of how I have used the Five Domain’s so far;

After looking through my posts, these are the results for each domain;

  • Dispositonal     – 5
  • Affective           –  5
  • Interpersonal   –  4
  • Cognitive          –  3
  • Procedural        –  6

I have generally tried to always include the Disposition domain; especially my motivation behind an idea, but not necessarily time management.

I always include Affective domain; how I feel, and any experience I have or want the gamer to have. I think this is very important, it helps tell the story behind, what you are trying to achieve, or why you want to look into that particular area.

As for the Interpersonal domain; This is slightly lower, I think its due to me making a decision, getting excited about it, but then thinking about alternative pathways, which then halts my progress.

Cognitive domain; this is the lowest , and I know why because when I am learning a new skill, like 2D Animation Principles, I sit and do all the learning at once, even if its hours on end…and write continuous notes, thinking I am going to take it all in. . .but its not possible.

Finally for the Procedural domain; This is what I am trying to do consistently, though too much at once.

Nature of Reflection

Throughout the start of this course, I have tried to reflect in a way that allows the viewer to see from all angles, how I feel about the start of a project, the initial concept, what my development process is, and the end result. However, I personally feel some areas are out of my control, to be clear, its when we receive a new assignment. I focus too much on how amazing the artefact/ project could be in the end, rather than focusing on one area at a time.

This hinders my progress, and now after looking further into SMART goals, I feel more at ease and in control.

S M A R T  (goals)

  • S – Specific – the 5 W’s  (what, where, when, why, who)  think about How?
  • M – Measurable – 
  • A – Achievable – Push yourself, but not so much that it is unachievable.- Think about – can you achieve it within the set time? have you got the money? or have you got the skill, or will learning a new skill set you back from putting your concept into action? 
  • R – Relevant – Are you the best person on the team to do what is required, or is there some one else, who has more skill that particular area?
  • T – Time – bound, specify length of time to do course, how many hours you will commit to train each week? 

From this analysis of the five domains used throughout my critical reflective journal, it has automatically helped me to create my SMART goals, as I can see my flaws very clearly,.

1) Dispositional domain: time management, I need to do an equal amount of each: Reading, Writing, LinkedIn learning, Practicing, Creating, this is achievable if I do an hour of each, every day.

2) Interpersonal domain; Must make a decision and stick with it, work out initial plan, that I can do whilst at home, in a day by myself, to help towards the current project that I am working on.

3) Cognitive domain; Must study an hour at time, when learning a new skill. Must have a break, and practice what I have learnt first, before jumping to the next stage. Once the new skill is in practice, I can get a better Idea of the length of time to complete this task.

The three SMART goals are just what I need to speed up my rapid ideation processes, to keep focused, but relaxed, knowing I am hitting my targets, and have time to spare, if I need it.

If I was in a creative role now, I know these would already be in place.

References

STORM, Olof. 2020. ‘2D Animated Walking Cycle’. Available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDCEvJvAX0w [accessed 25 Feb 2021]

PARKER, Alcwyn. 2021. ‘Holistic Reflection: The Five Key Skill Domains’. Available at : https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/911/pages/week-5-the-five-reflective-domains?module_item_id=49171 [accessed 1 March 2021]

Fulll List of Figures

Figure 1: Norton 2021 Background for Ickle

sleepy-ickle_1-1Download
Categories
GDD710 - Module 1

Rapid Ideation – Session 1

Week 4.1 – 17th February. 2021

Part 1 : Setting the Theme

The Dixit card picked at random – From here we are to interpret however we want, and experiment with the artefact in anyway we please. 

Part 2 : Choosing a Headline

We are asked to pick a headline from a news website, newspaper, or magazine of choice.

(Figure 1: The Dixit card 2021 The Theme)

Ideation process – Brainstorm

I have began with a rather detailed brainstorm, I chose to base around 4 areas of the artefact, but then realised there is another 2 areas, they were staring me in the face the whole time. Very obvious, they were the wings, and a tail.

After the initial brainstorm was put into action, I felt excited and a little overwhelmed with how many opposites arose, and would need to be narrowed down. To get a crisp conclusion, I would now approach the second art board, using a different technique.

Please see Brainstorm below.

(Figure 2: Norton 2021 Dixit Brainstorm)

Simple Method

I wanted to reduce the words, but not just from my own choice. I used the simple technique, as explained below.

I closed my eyes, to keep the process quick – counted to 11, moved my finger over each section clockwise, then stopped. After doing this 6x, and counting to numerous numbers, changing the position to anticlockwise, then in different shapes…these are what arose from the simple technique.

  1. Tired
  2. Soft and Glowing
  3. Bright
  4. Fluffy
  5. Cord
  6. Uncomfortable in clothes

Please see Ideation Part 2 below.

(Figure 3: Norton 2021 Ideation Part 2)

Please see Ideation part 3 below.  

(Figure 4: Norton 2021 Ideation Part 3)

Evaluating Development

The 3rd art board – Shows me evaluating the 6 results, which I could have left at this point, but I decided to brainstorm the main areas one more time. This has led me to the final art board, revealing a general feel for my final interpretation of the essential points taken from the artefact, which will be combined with my headline. 

(Figure 5: Norton 2021 Ideation Part 4)

Result below

Having done my brainstorms, focusing on the key elements of the artefact, being; 

  1. Character expression
  2. Position
  3. Wings
  4. Tail
  5. Prop
  6. Colour of character

For me this is enough detail to remediate the original artefact and develop, alongside my headline. 

Week 4.2 – 17th February. 2021

Part 2 : The Headline;

I did what was required, not thought too deeply about the meaning of the headline. Just wanted to do a general search on animation magazines, and this is the headline I chose.

Animation Magazine: “Snail of a Tale: Tim Hill Gives Us the Scoop on ‘The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run”

The word’s ‘snail, tale, scoop and sponge’, is what immediately captured my attention at first glance, and the more I delved deeper into the story that was behind the headline, I realised I could relate it to a new game creation, whether a new background, character, creative narrative script, sound, or audio atmosphere, the possibilities were endless.

Next to work with an alternative method for the headline.

New Method Storyboarding:

 After researching, I have decided to use the storyboard technique, due to it being a visual way of developing ideation skills, and one that you can easily amend.

At the moment, I feel like I am working backwards to go forwards. I would usually explore an image, by laying it out on paper, or digitally on Adobe Illustrator, and simply draw what comes into my mind. 

Instead I have brainstormed the artefact, and the outcome is a lot more clarified, then it would have been with me sketching numerous times.

Prototyping Tool

I have downloaded one tool that was noted for prototyping, called Toon boom, software for storyboarding and animation production. 

After watching the youtube videos, on Toon Boom’s Storyboard Pro, and Harmony 20. I found when making notes on how to use, yet another new tool that Storyboard Pro, seemed a little less in depth.

I could be wrong, however this is my next starting point.

Week 4.3 – 17th February. 2021

Storyboard Pro – First experience:

My aim was to create a character, and a new background for the start of a game or animation.I had a brief specification to start me off for my character development, following on from the start of the rapid ideation session.

I found the brushes on here easy to use. It is a straight forward process to adjust the size and shape, which is good for when you are working to a set time.

Brushes; what I used to create the look below; 

  1. Textured Wash – size 250 2) Pipe Cleaner – size 130 3) Pastle 2 – Size’s between 120-170

Character below : Ickle

(Figure 6: Norton 2021 Ickle)

Problem

However, after I had realised my character was on a solid white back ground…I thought I could easily change it in Storyboard Pro, like I do in Photoshop, select the eraser and take out the white, to create a translucent background.
Though this was not possible, which set me back a little, I then realised I would have to export it as a PSD or PNG, which I could then amend in Photoshop.

Solution

After having a brief discussion with Patricio, he recommended some of the other tools I could use to create animation. Luckily one of them was Photoshop.

I started following a step guide – on how to create a frame animation, in photoshop itself.
I worked with one background, as a normal layer. I only created 3 frames on top of my other layers to see how the character moved.

Below is all the frames I used to put together a Photoshop frame animation.

(Figure 7: Norton 2021 Ickle character poses)

Problem

I was pleased with this outcome, although it wasn’t that smooth, and after watching the 2d animation tutorial on LinkedIn, with Dermot, I wanted to look at adding a couple tweens, as he showed how they could help when transitioning one movement to the next.
Though when I added 5 tweens, to my frame animation… It didn’t look much different, even if I changed the opacity, position, or size. 

Conclusion

In my opinion, this was not working unless you wanted a very basic, almost ‘flip book’ style animation. This being my first proper animation experience, was quite quick to achieve, but I wanted it to be better.

After further research, I changed the option to video layers, because I have looked into Olaf Storm, who uses Photoshop, to create his animations using Video layers.

References

ZAHED, Ramin. 2020. Animation Magazine. Snail of a Tale: Tim Hill Gives Us the Scoop on ‘The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run’ [online] Available at: https://www.animationmagazine.net/features/snail-of-a-tale-tim-hill-gives-us-the-scoop-on-the-spongebob-movie-sponge-on-the-run/ [accessed 17/02/21]

Toon Boom Learn Portal. 2021 Storyboard Pro 20. Available at: https://store.toonboom.com/downloads/try/647 [accesed 17/02/21]

Full List of Figures

Figure 1: Dixit 2021 The Theme

Figure 2: Norton 2021 Dixit Brainstorm Adobe Photoshop

Figure 3: Norton 2021 Ideation Part 2 Adobe Photoshop

Figure 4: Norton 2021 Ideation Part 3 Adobe Photoshop

Figure 5: Norton 2021 Ideation Part 4 Adobe Photoshop

Figure 6: Norton 2021 Ickle created in Storyboard Pro

Figure 7: Norton 2021 Ickle character poses created in Photoshop

Categories
GDD710 - Module 1

What is Rapid Ideation?

Week 3.1– 8th February. 2021

When I think of how games are made, I now understand why ‘rapid ideation‘ is vital. 

The amount of time it takes to test and implement new ideas and check off what works or not, what key features are going to be included and why, what emotion, or atmosphere you are trying to create for your audience, and knowing who your audience is aimed at.

The development process, could take a lot longer if this approach was not put into action. However when working on a prototype, you follow a loose theme, which I understand to be, any part of a game, eg. a particular level, where you take part in game jam’s, where you only have a limited time to get your ideas noted down, tested and re-tested in different ways.

The aim is to fail, and to do so fast! By keeping this in mind, everything you create should be a rough prototype that can be developed continuously in numerous amount of ways.

Brain storms, and body storms is what I already do. But now I am experimenting with new things and its getting really exciting! 

Some of my peers recently used ; White boxing. I am temped to give it a trial run, but I am trying to keep my direction focused with the Kanban method, I must apply my steps of development in order to learn any other prototype techniques later on. But this is not important for now.

Week 3.2 – 10th February. 2021

Challenge activity

  • Choose one or two different methods of prototyping
  • Identify any interesting characteristics you like about it

Legend of Zelda; Breath of the Wild

by Nintendo.

The methods I have experimented with are; Game Prototyping – Photoshop Sketch Prototping – Photoshop 

I knew we needed to be quick with this rapid ideation process, thats why I used photoshop, due to still learning how to use Blender.

I wanted to work on one of the scenic backgrounds, with a concept in mind about creating a new level.

Although this game has got beautiful scenery throughout, I wanted to experiment with effects and decided on this scenic view below. 

Concept

With this in mind – The aim is to take the image apart, by transforming it into tiles, or jigsaw pieces. Then as you entered the new level you would have to piece the picture together before you could even start. 

Problem

The reason why it took so long was due to a plugin called Comic kit, (originally was going to be used on my third picture below) I thought it would help with the speediness needed for this approach, however the download took a long time and would not open in photoshop.

Solution

I therefore had to do the rest by hand, but in doing so… I crafted something more unusual than planned.

I am very pleased with it, and wish I had not hesitated to draw by hand from the beginning.

First part of process

  •  Add gradient map to the original art work – clicked reverse 

This gave me more shadow definition – then converted it to a smart object – toggled with a few different effects, (once again I have never use these before.)

But the one I chose is called crystallize – cell size 20 – this was the closest thing I could get with an outcome similar to a tile effect.

Second part of process

I played around with another filter called noise – dust and scratches – adjusted the radius and threshold many times until I chose to stick with radius 18 and threshold 28.

This time around, the effect was more fluffy and light, and then I started to imagine Zelda entering this level, as though he was dreaming.

**Comic kit Plugin; As I mentioned earlier, the idea was to make the level into a jigsaw – Thats why I was downloading the comic kit plugin, to add to my 3rd picture of the development process, it should have gave me access to line patterns / shapes, and then selected each one, within a cartoon style. This was going to be a quick way of making a puzzle, by extracting the highlighted shapes from it.

Final part of process

Next as the cartoon effect was not an option, I traced over every line I could see, concentrating on the jigsaw idea. From here I discovered that by tracing all the lines, I had traced the shadows to, which then altered my original notion of creating a new level which you can only enter, when you have completed the jigsaw, but not just a normal jigsaw piece, but the shape of the shadows to, as you can see…it would be quick difficult. 

I personal would like to try this, and I know it would keep me engaged…knowing you can’t start the level until the whole jigsaw is complete.

(Figure 1: Reddit Inc. 2020 Satori Mountain at sunset)

Testing

To test this jigsaw out, I would have liked to place it onto Blender or Unity, and picked the pieces off individually, by timing myself to see how long it would take to put back together, and find out if their were any issues.

Plus to develop even further, you could make the levels start with numerous jigsaws throughout, and to complete each one, by using different textured puzzles.

 

References

RUBINO, Giovanni. 2021. Rapid Ideation. Available at : https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/911/pages/week-3-what-is-rapid-ideation?module_item_id=49152 [accessed 8 Feb 2021]

Reddit Inc. 2020. ‘Satori Mountain at sunset’ Available at : https://www.reddit.com/r/AstralObservatory/comments/dp17iw/satori_mountain_at_sunset/ [accessed 10 Feb 2021]

Full List of Figures

Figure 1: Reddit Inc. 2020 Satori Mountain at sunset

Categories
GDD710 - Module 1

What is Creative Activity?

Week 2.1– 2nd February. 2021

This week we are encouraged to look at what makes us creative, does it come from Inspiration, are you only creative when you feel in a certain mood, or is it drawn out of you when you listen to certain sounds, or are you just born with it?

I have always had a big imagination, and always thought of myself as more of a creative individual. But after reading the responses from some of my peers on here, I am reconsidering?

In the book, Oxford Companion to the Mind, the section on creativity, actually reveals that the unconscious brain, is far more creative, than when it is conscious.  

“There are many instances of such ‘unconscious’ work, one of the more dramatic being that of the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke.”

( R, L, Gregory 1987: 171)

This statement continues to explain how the poet, in 1912, whilst trying to write a long poem, ran out of inspiration, and in doing so he got so frustrated, which led him to go into a state of depression.

However, in 1922, after the First World War, he started to write again, and from this he wrote a series of small poems, the Sonnets to Orpheus. At this point in time, he had no intention of writing anything in particular, but 18 days later, he produced the most beautiful poetry ever.

This was just one example that I came across, that delves into creativity, and looks at how and when the brain is at its highest peak to creative innovation.

Past Experience

I can say that this is relatable to me, due to times when I push my self to get another book title out, and to think of the next story for a children’s book, nothing happens!

Though when I simply have a break, get out into garden, listen to birds, watch the mouse running through the stone walls, or finding a baby woodpecker, anything that happens, in the garden, is my place of inspiration.

When I dream and go into a deep sleep, as my dad would say ‘meditate‘ on the idea…the next morning I can easily write what I dreamed about down, as it stays with me. I have always said, “I can see it so clearly, that I’ll paint it for you“. Which is what I end up doing, only using digital tools instead.

The correct name for this faze is the Incubation state, which is looked at in more detail through out the ICEDIP method below.

What is the ICEDIP method and can I relate this technique to my practice?

Tanya Krzywinska explains ICEDIP (otherwise know as the Iterative Method) is made up of a numerous amount of fazes.

  • INSPIRATION – Random, mad, intense, dreamy ideas that arise.
  • CLARIFICATION – Define the ideas, look at what you want to achieve.
  • EVALUATION – Evaluate the purpose of the idea.
  • DISTILLATION – Decide what should be kept from the initial concept, and what should be removed.
  • PERSPIRATION – Finally put the idea into action!
  • INCUBATION – After everything is in action…you must let it be. Sleep on it, and refresh the next day.

Personally I feel that I only use half of the process that is required of the ICEDIP method, with anything I create. For me inspiration comes from everywhere! Although that is from a children’s book illustrator perspective, as I have never had the design or creative career as of yet.

But as I mentioned earlier, the incubation stage for me, is probably the most important. Even if I have been inspired, clarified my new story and my illustrations are laid out, I know the purpose of the book, and have removed any line of text that is not important, and the whole book is ready to submit to the publisher…I still want to go to sleep with something else on my mind, so then in the morning, I can sit and read it all the way through…and double check on everything.

Creativity

When researching further into creativity, I tried to look for practitioners artists, poets etc, to get a different perspective. One of which was Joanna Dickhut and her research paper, that takes a close look into different personalities, and also different kinds of creativity.

Creativity in its simplest form

She discusses simple examples, one being: “if someone runs out of fuel on the highway, the person must think of a way to get to his/her destination, and this requires creativity even if it is in its simplest form.”

I was so surprised to read that something so straightforward, that the majority of people that have a car, would naturally look for a garage, or would have topped up beforehand, or the car would automatically come up with a warning that you are low on petrol/diesel.

It has made me question, if creativity is something this simple, which requires from my perspective, hardly any creative thinking, then what does it mean when you can craft something from scratch, you’ve drawn it, you’ve animated it, you’ve made it into a movie, or an application.

  • Surely this must be the peak of creativity, compared to an everyday scenario?

“Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found.”

(Dickhut 2003: 1)

Dickhut starts off with this quote from James Russell Lowell;

The “finding of the thing” directly relates to my first step in creation for a new story book, but in context with how to animate characters etc, this will be a completely new process.(Steps mentioned earlier through using the Kanban method). 

There is no “finding of the thing”, because until I learn the stages of how to put an animation together, I cannot start the development process.

I am eager to learn all the animation techniques under the sun, however I know if I try and cram everything together, I won’t get anything! I have to be patient and learn animation timing and practice with simple objects first, and find some beginners tutorials.

Dickhut compares different personality’s, and explores the relationship between creativity, psychoticism, and openness to experience, and looks into the function of Artificial Intelligence. she concludes the process is not precisely known, but there are thoughtful speculations which remove the mystery from creativity and the stigma that it is only being possessed by geniuses.

(Dickhut 2003: 1)

  • Could artificial intelligence be the next stage to creative innovation?
  • Could systems really be designed to create unpredictable decisions?

Garden Inspiration

Below is a simple garden concept, I sketched up on an app, I took a photo of the area, we wanted to change, and simply drew on the flowers, trees, shrubs, and grasses that I thought would highlight our standing stone.

(Figure 1: Norton 2019 Original concept for garden design)
(Figure 2: Norton 2019 Garden Design Result)

This design above, was simply working out the colours I wanted, and placement. This was just from being inspired in the garden, and being in the moment.

It was designed – put into action – the outcome was very similar to what I first sketched. 

  • I cant help but wonder, if an artificial intelligence system could people, start to loose there current work roles?

The whole notion of systems reacting robotically, and being predictable I can just about grasp, but unpredictable, honestly makes me feel uncomfortable, yes it would be very impressive, but if they where unpredictable, would this be for a set time, could you press a button and command the system to go into “a creative mode,” or could it do anything it wanted, any time?

Hand drawn Illustration

Illustrator Raymond Briggs, discusses his illustrative concept, when working on his animation, “The Snowman” from his interview back in March 2nd 2017, for BBC News night.

“I don’t think about what children want. You just get an idea and you just do it.”

(Briggs, 2017)

I chose to look up more information about the The Snowman, as this was one of my first inspirations for animation with no text, and links directly to my current practice for Indie Game Development. If I can create something that is moving like, ‘The Snowman’, I will be very proud.

Week 2.2 – 5th February. 2021

How Do I Foster My Creativity?

I channel into my surroundings, usually write down the name of a new book title first, then jot the ideas down, in order how the book begins, the middle and possible different endings.

But when I start to type the story up, and lay out the text, it is only then, that I suppose you could say, the waterfall method is put into action.

  • Faze 1) Plan – What typeface to use, size, colour, and place.
  • Faze 2) Define – Amount of text to go on each page.
  • Faze 3) Design – What illustration to put on each page, checking it goes with story.
  • Faze 4) Build – Start illustrating
  • Faze 5) Test – Re – read and check against illustration
  • Faze 6) Deploy – Send off to publishers
  • Faze 7)Maintain – This only applies in one way to my process. I still must maintain contact with them, to send anything else they require usually, Blurb, Retail description, Author about page. This holds up production if not sent ASAP.

Reflection is not mentioned due to you can not reflect on the overall book, until it arrives in the post. However I still like to reflect, when the whole book has been completed, before it is sent to the publishers, just to do a final check, with a clear mind.

Computational Creativity

Simon Colton discusses software and its amazing abilities and how its produced. He explains that a lot of people are misunderstood, in regards to their knowledge, of what software is and can do, how important it is, and how creative it is. Artificial Intelligence is one of those important systems, even if it does make me feel a little uncomfortable.

One of the many theories he discusses, is that ‘creativity is an opinion’.

After researching and seeing through the eyes of Dickhut and her analysis on reviewing creativity, and looking closely at different personalities and the simplest forms of creativity, with her example: “if someone runs out of fuel on the highway, the person must think of a way to get to his/her destination, and this requires creativity even if it is in its simplest form,” thinking that creativity is just an opinion is not hard to understand.

From my perspective the above example is not at all creative, I understand it to be a normal everyday scenario, that doesn’t happen very often, but if it does we just deal with it, and what is required is just some planning before a journey.

Week 2.3 – 7th February. 2021 

Challenge Activity 

First reaction was where to start? Anyhow as I am developing my knowledge of games, I thought I would begin with… 

Little Nightmares: Puzzle Platformer Horror Adventure Game

Developed by Tarsier Studios

  • Must choose an existing artefact that is the output of someone’s creativity.
  • Modify the artefact in some way using the techniques you selected.

I initially thought I would use the mind mapping technique. But, I chose to stick with Brainstorming. Here is my process…

(Figure 3: Norton 2021 Little Nightmares Brainstorm)

(Figure 4: МХК46 2019 Little Nightmares )

(Figure 5/6: Norton 2021 Little Nightmares Character Development )

Experience of game

When I first played this game I was on edge! It did give me ‘little Nightmares’, being so dark.

I started off with an initial concept in mind, and asked myself the question;

  • Would it be possible to make everything really colourful, but still keep an eerie feel?

To clarify, make the entire background really colourful, with psychedelic colours, but keep everything else such as; the characters, objects, furniture music sound dark.

Anyhow after researching about the nomes a little more, I discovered they are hypnotised. This means …we need to save them!

Nomes

With this new concept in mind, it drew my focus towards the nomes feelings, that they may light up with more colour, as happiness increases. Each time another nome is saved, the music creates a nicer atmosphere, other instruments could start playing, and maybe this could be done in a slight humorous way to show their individual characteristics and personalities. After all they were once children.

Once I started with the brainstorm technique, I felt like I was on a wave, and realised without consciously thinking, I automatically had floods of concepts for the rest of the game layout. They could be modified many ways, to create a new artefact. 

Experience of activity

I found this exercise challenging at first, because of the amount of different ideas I had for each area, which then just halted my progress altogether! However a decision was made on the name of the game I would brainstorm with, and from there I allowed myself to be immersed in this dark story. I was really pleased with the outcome.

References

BRIGGS, Raymond. 2017. ‘Raymond Briggs on The Snowman, Fungus the Bogeyman and More.’ [online]. Available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9hRSDDYroE [accessed 9 Feb 2021]

DICKHUT, Joanna E. 2003. ‘A Brief Review of Creativity’ [online]. Available at : http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/dickhut.html [accessed 5 Feb 2021]

GREGORY, Richard L. 1987. ‘The Oxford Companion to the Mind’. Oxford University Press.

KRZYWINSKA, Tanya. 2006. ‘Creativity & Innovation: Games and App Development.’ [online]. Available at : https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/911/pages/week-2-what-is-creativity?module_item_id=49143 [accessed 2 Feb 2021]

The Gaming Beaver. 2017. ‘Nomes are the children!? – Little nightmares + The Hideaway Explained’. [online]. Available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcGttS6za8E [accessed 7 Feb 2021]

Full List of Figures

Figure 1: Norton 2019 Original concept for garden design

Figure 2: Norton 2019 Garden Design Result

Figure 3: Norton 2021 Little Nightmares Brainstorm

Figure 4:  МХК46 ‘Little Nightmares Wiki 2019 https://littlenightmares.fandom.com/wiki/Nomes

Figure 5/6: Norton 2021 Little Nightmares Character Development

Categories
GDD710 - Module 1

Dkn Indie Game Blog

First Digital Illustration...
Figure 1: Norton 2016 First Digital Illustration

CRITICAL REFLECTIVE JOURNAL 

Week 1.1 – 22nd January. 2021

Time Management and Agile Development

We are first introduced to the two System Development Life Cycle methodologies, to allow us to understand time management and how to apply it through the Masters part time course, when working individually or collaborating with our teams on projects, otherwise know as Jams.

Waterfall Method

  • Plan – Define – Design – Build – Test – Deploy – Maintain

Although the Waterfall method is continuous, one key step that is missing is reflection. Without reflecting on your work, how will you ever know if there is something you could of improved on, or if you intended on making another version eg. a game, you would need to make a note of what worked and what didn’t and more importantly why certain elements was a success and what should be removed. 

Scrum Agile Framework

This method has 12 points to it, which is more fluid, especially having more customer engagement, communication and reflection.

I cannot apply either of these methods to any of the jobs that I have had in the past, however I can say that I would prefer working with the Scrum structure put in place. 

Gathering together to make a plan in a group, then each assigned individual tasks from a backlog of work to be completed within a set time, would be more straight forward if businesses put this method in place. 

Tasks would be more simple, communication would be improved, and everything in general would be much more productive. Working as one is much more enjoyable to, as it creates a great positive environment. 

Working together as one can create something more powerful. Listening to each other is the key to great creations. 

“We must be both open – minded and practical – good ideas can come from anywhere, but they are only good for us if they help us create better experiences.”

(Schell 2020: 15)

Schell, allows us to understand how to connect with one another psychologically. Listening deeply is part of the design process, not just to others, but to yourself. By doing so, you can evaluate your own experiences, and you can use that information to make your own judgement.

As Fook would say, analysing these experiences is how we, “learn directly from professional practice experience”, which allows us to develop our process with far more clarity, and know what direction to start with.

(Fook and Gardner 2007: 51)

Alternative Methods

We had been asked to research into other ways of working, with different techniques that are being put in place, and if we could relate them to our individual practices. For me, after looking into the Waterfall method and Scrum Agile Framework, I couldn’t see any any link between them.

However I have found one method that I can identify with, by how I am working currently to put my research of animation into action, with a successful outcome.

Kanban – This is not considered as an agile method, but the underlying issue is that you must; focus on what you are stuck on, and don’t try and learn something brand new until the first thing has been accomplished.

“The motto is: work on your problems first before going on to new work.”

(Leopold 2015: 20)

The Kanban method focuses on workflow, if any problems arise during production, it is brought to their attention straight away, and is dealt with.

To keep there clients happy, they only make a commitment to a goal that will be achieved, in order to build trust with them. But if for any reason they cannot reach the goal, they re look at their approach with the Kanban system over all.

Using this approach, my goal is to animate my book character Ralphy, I think this is an achievable goal, and I am looking forward to developing my knowledge of character animation.

If I am to start putting this new method into action, I will continue from what I have learnt so far from my personal development – see below.

  1. Watched a Linkedin Learning course; How to make a 2d character move; 2D animation principles, with Dermot O‘ Conner.
  2. Watched and practiced with Unity – completed an in-depth tutorial on Youtube with Jason Weimann – How to Make a Game – Unity Beginner Tutorial, and put into practice. (For more details please go to my home page).

Week 1.2 – 23rd January. 2021

Creative Activity – Custom Avatar

  •  The Puzzle – A jigsaw puzzle I started with my mum, and discovered the artist was an Illustrator. I did have an image in my head that illustrators, just did pen and ink, black and white drawings. But that is not the case. I looked up illustration courses took my first Children’s Book Illustration course from there.
  • Small Wacom Tablet – The first thing I bought to start my Digital Illustration course still studying with London Art College at this point. This kept me going, whilst writing and Illustrating my Children’s books. 
  • iPad and Playstation control – Placed side by side, to show they are equal, and that I do just as much gaming on Playstation, as I do my iPad. 
  • Mug of Tea and Bueno – With out these two, whilst drawing, or studying…I can’t focus! 
  • Gloves – Rested on top of my mug to show the Huion pen computer is what I currently use. It really is amazing and through the whole journey when illustrating my Children’s books, was my dogs. 
  • Storm and Sky – My little friends, very supportive of my work.
Figure 2: Norton 2021 Custom Avatar

I have to say this activity was so much fun to take part in, especially for a gradual introduction to each other, and understanding what we each enjoy. I thought this was a great way to speak to each other for the first time.

References

FOOK, Jan and Fiona GARDNER. 2007. Practising Critical Reflection : A Resource Handbook. Maidenhead : McGraw-Hill Education

LEOPOLD, Klaus and Siegfried KALTENCKER. 2015. Kanban Change Leadership : Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.

O’ CONNER, Dermot. 2014. ‘Linkedin Learning’ Learning 2D Animation Principles. Available at : https://www.linkedin.com/learning/learning-2d-animation-principles?u=56738929 [accessed 18/02/21].

SCHELL, Jesse. 2020. The Art of Game Design; A Book of Lenses. 3rd edn. Tailor & Francis Group.

WEIMANN, Jason. 2020. How to Make a Game – Unity Beginner Tutorial. Available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR0e-1UBEOU [accessed 10/12/20]

Full List of Figures

Figure 1 : Norton 2016 First Digital Illustration

Figure 2: Norton 2021 Custom Avatar