Weekly Reflection

Week 1 

 

The first week was a time to get used to returning from the half-term break, during which I had generated ideas for the FMP. These ideas varied for the stories related to my characters that I had previously developed, such as revamping their designs and story arcs after their creation. Or something that was important for the characters to interact with each other. And I was familiar with the layout of the illustrated book, similar to some previous ones I had created for the characters. 

 

After considering the given theme, I thought of new ways to tell the characters' stories, how they unite for each other, which often provided the point of the story that I randomly thought of to fill the plot gaps. The theme was “What if...?” and I extended it to “What if all fictional characters I created came to life?”, which begs the question of how I am going with the story. 

 

I also started with the brief for the idea that I was thinking after the theme I got was “What if...?”, which had lots of possibilities for making up stories that I could proceed with the point, adding to managing lots of character sheets that were important for references for the angles of the characters and consistencies. And the important part that I was thinking about was the background for the illustration book, even though there are some photos I can photo bashed in the final result, I had to think about what the rest of the background needed for the illustration book. 

 

Mostly talked about how the characters manage to adapt to new places after they exist with magic, the people in the real world had to adapt the physics and magic from the fictional world brought into the real world, since some people had beliefs of a fantasy theme. 

 

Week 2 

 

Week 2, I was focused on sketching ideas for the characters that I had to redesign, some were quick, and some were slow because of the consistencies of the character design needed for the illustration book, adding with their colours that were needed for the characters. I had also focused on the finishing the brief within the document and writing the story on the different document for figure how the story either had an arc or just a simple one off appearances gather where characters that were doing things that weren't suppose to be logical in the real world. 

  

The first one was done for was about the brief and put it on the website, describe how the story will go and how the characters were adjusting their view ever since they were in between complex places and the blank screen of nothing when I run out of ideas for the progression of the story. I did also upload lots of researches from the characters and scenes I can based off and make into the illustrations, photo bash, colour, and overalls, which is make things a bit easier for the finishing 

  

At the same time in this week, I had Jam Week, taken notes here and there between professionals talk, trying memorise what they had said for the jobs that they had done, shifting between working on the character designs and story making was the purity for the week. 

  

Feels burn out during the weekend, but feels great when I finalise my ideas for the theme and the story for my book at the same time finishing some of the important for the things that were for projects, figuring that if I got the best information for how the charcaters were created at the same time changing story in small portions for the project brief which had complicating issue of how I am going to be presenting on the story itself. 

  

So I'm just focused on the character sheets a lot for the project, mainly on colours and overall that I can make over within an hour to four hours for each one of them, adding with the update for how I can done with them for the progressions on the website. I also took my time for thinking for how each theme was worked if one of theme were worked and including starting up with the story. 

 

Week 3 

 

In the third week, I focused on refining the story. I also considered how to improve it using the brief, especially for an actual client scenario. This required modifying the project brief while keeping the original theme and title, but I adjusted the client presentation to better support my idea. 

  

It includes many of the parts I had to rewrite and research for other ideas that can be similar to how fictional characters are connected in the real world, especially through brands and companies that portray their characters in the real world. Also, keeping some refreshing elements from the shows in the older parts of the show hosts, despite still having them from time to time, feels like something is missing when looking at the commercials with fictional characters existing in the real world. Then, I rewrite the entire story, and how it can be presented besides the illustration book, which is the game art and illustrations. It can contain a lot of the magic for promoting a teaser of an entire section of the game, with the credibility for the entire part of the story first. 

  

Then, I had my time for the character sheet, as it is usually done by the hour. However, I had most of the time allocated for editing the website to post production screenshots of what I had done in practice, as well as the game story layout for people to memorise. It is frustrating to say since it is over 20 characters at that time, and I had no idea how the characters were represented in one part of the story, not just show off in one screen. 

  

Overall, I felt that I could have done better than last week, but I was drained from what I could do with the story, and the story can go by the fourth week. Or adding some designing start by then since time is quite tight for me if I do the design 

 

Week 4 

 

During the fourth week, there were some managements on the project, like the brief and the story of the project, which is the final week where I need to put the final ideas for the project brief and had went along with the character and background designs for the game. It is a lot of stuck on how the game stretched from one point to another for how the characters moves with the writing I had. 

I had focused on maintain the right story on track, there are a lot of the story plot holes that I must fixed, also get reviews of what things I need to change the story, characters' stuff (like appearances, motives, and interactions) in the story, battle system, foreshadowing, some of the stakes and purpose of the game story, and all was which was about to compact the characters with their general relationship that existing in a normal bases and story, other wise it feel it surrounding in one character alone, so I improvise the writing from only one character to multiple character interacting to each other, show their relationship when needed in some scenes to adding the depths of the story instead of the main protagonist from doing this or doing that, this is what a good writing feels like, from shows, movies, books, and games. 

  

Then, there is design, it mainly focused on the background first, especially the backgrounds that were in the important area, since I did not put the instructions on how it going to looked like, I'm just going with the thinking that is make sense for the area, like the real world, which is focused on the soft colours on the building first like how other buildings were built, then in the in-between village, it started to become weird for how the overall look, buildings look more cartoonish and weird look, including the sky view, the Fictional World is more on the end spectrum where everything make sense but never make sense for that. 

  

It was the endless thought of creating a full map of these areas. I also added the additional work for the assets for the background that can be reused on the side for the perspective of the map itself. Then I thought of some of the 3D perspective as a challenge, but I think of having a 3D model that is free to use on every device, so that I can make the overall and the skeleton of the characters, making it easy to draw on Procreate. Additionally, there are stories that need to focus on some minor adjustments on the documents where there are some plot holes to fill in with the character interactions, which can also affect how people are going to see how the characters go and act. 

  

As for the file management of the game art, I did mainly on Procreate, but if I am stuck with the rearranging things that were in one scene, I'll move the files to Photoshop for easier management. Overall, it had me thinking and focused on the story, animations, character sprite, and background assets for the whole game pitch, so that I can leave room for further development where people can pick up my pitch and help me develop the pitch into a full game with adjustments on things that are already in the whole point of the pitch. 

 

Week 5 

 

In Week 5, things had me constantly working on Procreate and the documents on, it mostly on character designs and background design, I chose my pacing and what to do first then what to do next, it is a multitasking for the project and projecting the important scenes. I also testing out have to blend in hand-paint and pixel art, so when I was doing the height measurement comparison on the characters and the on where they facing, I am also tested out two art style; one is the normal hand-painted characters, second is the pixel art, even thought pixel arts are complicating to do the whole game full of pixel art and the characters within, I can mixed between art style of pixel art and the hand paint from Axel Shuffler. It feels like a soft look, and feel low quality, but it feels like hand paint. 

   

This is quite an important part of the production is about background where there are some of the perspective to be made at the same time create the whole map with one painting with the limited storage and space, these was inspired from the 90s to 2000s computer games where there are limited small storage on the game corteges and the computer at the same time things won't run in a high resolutions by today, led the game development team to reuse assets, crunch up image to be the asset for characters and things around, or maybe times there will shrink the map into one place for storage management. I was figure to making the map as many explorable places as possible with the concept art that I can make and readjust the camera angle where characters can move in all directions even with the limitations on facing one way or two ways that were in the game also during development. 

  

It is at least fun for a couple of times where I had to manage a couple of the artwork that requires time and lots of references for the characters, colours, and assets. There were also take time for manage with the 3D object editing, making characters and assets based layer for references and easy manageable things on making artwork about them as the references when there is actual deal for making the game when I put it online. 

  

The week was great for me to getting through on tricky perspectives on the art and assets of the game design, there were lot more the production when after the small perspective of the game. 

 

Week 6 and 7 

 

It is weeks 6 and 7, these two weeks had gave me the time for focusing on the character sprites, their character sheets and information, background assets, and backgrounds for the game design, I also had time for testing the art style for the characters and background stuffs. All were designed on Procreate, then transferred all to the One Drive as Photoshop files. This was planned as the easier way to be edited parts into different layers for animating on Animate and After Effects when the easter break was over and gain access to the college. 

 

The best was the character sprites that I tested out the art style, which normally I focused on round and sketching looking on the characters, inspired by Axel Shuffler, then I had the idea for the pixel art, this is then develop into the full planned part of the 

  

I also started to making the character sprite sheet, this can only be fair where there are a couple of the editing in the overall with colours and the separations for the real world, they are quite bright in colour with the naturalised out with the rendering and the internet aesthetics. Then it came to the idea in me where I can make a sections where the player (or Grace) can open the "Magic Tablet" where it stored every fictional character's basic information and their overall for that, with the effects at the side and the characters as the side of the screen for slight movements. Then, the idea developed for the different characters with the sprites and the slight information about them, also adding with the variants on the poses for further animation references on the development. 

 

On the story wise, I had added or subtracted the story for the characters to have different purpose, directions, changes, and goal, it also adding their relationship between the side characters since there are some of the characters never known each other without some other connections between others, I also aware about the background characters and the side characters in the plot, so I adding more about the interactions for the whole point. 

 

I then uploaded all the progress as screenshots for the show as I done this and that, then I had to explain what I had done with the character sprites, what I had planned to in the future weeks, and some additional details I focused on the characters. The background design was the least dealing with since there are not much about to screenshots and the context out till the future weeks. 

 

As the animations of the character ideal sprite and walking sprite, I was intended after design the characters outside of college, other than that, I had to separate parts into layer first before uploaded as different files for future animating. 

 

Week 8 

 

Week 8 is me focusing on the character animations that I was intended to planned of, and it was the pixel art animations, I upload all of the main cast on Piskel for easier to be editing as the pixel art, I also fixing up on the background designs of the game, and thinking more small characters that can implement in the game I can designed into from sketches to the final cut of the game. 

  

I had talked to the tutor on some time, I might need to start to think more ways for designing the characters that were focused in the story, what their insole sketches and final silhouette for recognisable when making poses, adding that I need some fixing up on the character anatomy since some were a bit weird perorations like shorter legs or just the head a bit weird, sometimes I might exaggerates on some of the parts of the characters when I designed them. (or designed them based on what they were) 

  

As one point, I loss some progress of the project like the background designs and the character info sheet due to forgetting my password for the tablet, so I focus on what I had during the week, which was testing out the ideal animations for the character design on the Macbook, I separate the characters’ body and limbs in different parts when exporting different angles in layers, it is for easier to edited one by one of the time and no need for hassle when there are some parts were covered when editing the sprites on Piskel, it usually take an hour or two hours or more depends on the complexity of the character designs, but it was fun when making different character every chances I open Piskel. 

 

Thank god I got the backups on the Macbook so I recover most of the stuff on my tablet, I can resume to work as possible on Procreate, mostly on character designs and background design. 

 

Then, I revert back to the background design, I managed to got the artwork from the art file I got and had the time layout the map and places of the buildings, some were dull, some were vibrient, I did use copy and paste on some of the buildings for saving time, but I edited slightly for make more verity of the design. I thought, making some of the design is waste much time, so I search online for image resources, I am fully aware that AI images were a thing when searching the right images on the website. And I am fully against AI for the creative work of mine, I have to keep, so I depends on the illustrations and vector designs on the website and select as the base of the building, it is a bit quicker in progress, but I keep my own work as possible since I use to think a lot of design ideas that can detailed in the background later on when designing the game background. 

  

This week, I feel like I can make a bit more fixing on the character designs and the background design, uploading as much progress as possible on the website for any updates with the screenshots and the findings on the websites, taking some design recommendations from people, not all of them because there are some bad recommendations for that. 

 

Week 9 

 

At week 9, I deeply focus on the character and background design before and after the pitch of the project, mostly readjusting the art style and animations for the whole game design and aniamtion, I am still competing with the time that I had with the major project that I had, with the balance of the evlauations for the production that I had for the weeks. 

 

I also planning to be animating the sprites that readjust to have an isotope view for them, this was only a few frames, it usually takes 5 to 7 frames for the walk cycle with the key frames only for the characters move in the consistance rate, at first, I am dealing with the sprite first which takes at least three to four hours for finished them each on every input on the computer, up down left right or WASD input in familiar on the whole point 

 

At first, I do the most consistencies of the characters first for the sprite redo, which had me less then 3 hours, mostly adjusting the facing of the shoes, the finger facing, head, and the clothing, then I flip the sprite for another angle. The more complicating in detail needs more attention to detail on the clothing and the accessories, there are more ways to screw over when not notice when editing for every facing placement for them. When I got to flip the sprite, I had to either redraw the head accessories or flip he whole thing and readjust the whole thing. 

 

I then focus on the background, which have much more then that since there are some needed to be done by then, and which can reuse two more building designs from older projects for finish the work on the project, consider they can be coloured and then have them re-adjusted to the right spot to match the right part of the sheet. 

 

Week 10 

 

At week 10, I start to focus on the centre around the idea to make a teaser of the game design and animations, which contained a lot of finished animations from last week I created and uploaded on One Drive for further editing and change during college, I was have the time for think that if I can do all the procreate during the commute around places with internet and have the time for editing with the Adobe software since both of them are industry standards nowadays for media and production industry, and I will put the AI tool away for approach more human creativity for the market, since artificial intelligence is an interference for my brain for critical and creative thinking and growth even though it help me for research, but I had to know if this is right down on multiple sources. (I have a certain bias on AI stuff for humanity) 

  

At this week, I focus on the backgrounds first, where it need a lot of working to be done with the small details on the things that I could had done for that, adding layers of different elements into the enviroment, using images to stick on something that is more interesting and appeal to visually also not too much to handle in one go for the visual effect. I was planned to make the prolouge sequences pages amoung pages for something lore relevant that “what if all ficional characters are real?” also includes other creators, artists, and animators had thought, so I created a small character that looks like a generic creator in home clothing, mologe clothing, simplistic face, nothing special about them but as a placeholder for the prologue scenes of the game, before the main cast even existed. 

 

I make the background of The Voids of Clouds, making multiple clouds with blues and purples, it feels empty and nothing, I added the fact that it is a reference to the digital save of Cloud that people usually have during the internet ages of 2010s to presents, also poking fun that it is an open sources and can be accessed from other places with the internet connections, beside the physical saves that people hold on for future needs for somewhere on other devices. Adding there is some of the small assets that I got from Vecteezy and FreePik, it is free image with the licences attached that I can legally use it as free as possible. 

 

Then, there is one part that is a port, it is part of the In-Between Village; I thought if there is a back track point from the certain point of the game since there is only walking and resting places for the characters, which had adding some where of transportations besides cars, taxis, or buses, but I thought of local boat sealers, it is fun to having some the transportations on the river canal. 

 

These two backgrounds were essential for display on how the characters was going to be placed either stand point or just being them for different locations that is in the placements. 

 

The character designs are the tricky ones, since I am stuck with the loop of using the same casts for years, and I had the idea to have them completely redesigned since some were not redesigned since years actually, it is possible for that, either that or have them adapt new art style that I had mixed into. 

 

I also though of adding more of side character despite there are mostly side characters I can reuse for some of the situations in an out of the places that I can for the whole project itself, I then think about the BGM of the game, which I had never thought of much before, but I can do it myself without the actual music from other artist, then I research online and found a website that have lots of samples instruments for me to tested out for making background music for the teaser and the prolouge. 

 

There were lots of samples that were used from character sprites that I already done from the start which later be edited into different pieces of official artwork, prolouge, and animations. I was planning to make the scenes by next week since there are limited in the time I had for making animations on Adobe software only in Nottingham College library. 

 

Week 11 

During week 11, I focus more on character animations and sprites, finalised all the background designs, and the small assets and UI that put into some scenes of the Game testing (even thought it is an animations that mimics the video game vibe, still wanted to tested into the teaser once all the scenes were done) 

 

There are focus on animations in After Effect back in college when I am out of the timetable, it is a niche environment when doing something that is out of lesson and need to be done the things that I can capable to access for, mostly are walk cycle put into the backgrounds on After Effects and making it move frame by frame, it worth a lot of time for managing one animations in half a day. 

 

Till the lesson time with one tutor, he show me about the method that loops the walk cycle animations in After Effects, So I use the exact method; first put GIF animation exported from Photoshop into After Effects, then add loop expression like “LoopOut ()” at the repeating animations like walk cycles. It is effective for the workflow and easier to work as fast as I can with the right animations. 

 

Back to outside of college, I did mostly character sprites from sketches I had placed aside and designed them into the NPCs that people regularly sees in game, mainly serve as part of the story of either an obligations or just a side character that provides most of the poses and stuff in the character sprite sheet, with separated layers for easier to animated in After Effects, which they are important for the whole purpose of being the NPC.  

 

I am thinking about the background assets which was later done on Procreate later in next week, also with some extra side character designs when needed to be done by then. 

 

Week 12 

 

There are some new thoughts about how I think about the character sprite development from sketches to the final part of the