Page Designs

Main Character page

(incomplete)

For the main character page, i've decided to include more drawings, such as the Front, Side and Back views of the character's face and the main weapon he/she uses within the game. i noticed that my previous drawings were too static, so in my new design, ive included some more action images such as the top left and the right bottom u see in the above image. But yea...a lot to paint =.="

So in the character's page, there will be a paragraph describing the character, the weapon he/she uses within the game, pictures of the character in static and action mode, and also the in-game look of the character (pixellated). Also to this are the chracter's cartoonish look (right top).


Sub character page designs



Ive decided to keep the sub-character pages simple with a Digitally painted drawing and a paragraph that describes who the person is in the game. The big difference between the main character page and the sub character page is that sub characters wont have their pixellated looks and their main weapons displayed.


Content Page artwork.

(incomplete)

This is the digital paintin that i've been workin my ass off lately, still needs a lot of touchup, esp for the outlines and the 'wind' in the sky. If anyone know how to paint in wind, it'll be awesome if you can tip me a bit ;) Some of my friends think leaving out the outlines looks good, but i duno, this seems kinda soft....

Basically, this is an image of the four realms in the game, but as you can see, only two realms exist now cause i havent painted in the rest yet! :P lol~

Menu System

Since my inspiration is from Final Fantasy, i've remade a similar version of its menu system.

(incomplete)

Like the examples shown below, pixellated characters will appear under their names, and up to four chracters will be available for the user to choose from for battle; User may choose to reformat the formation of battles with the Formation Option (ex, for better speed, a SPEED FORMATION is available, or for defensive battles, a DEFENCE FORMATION is available). The Menu page consist of general character overviews and a list of options for the user to choose from - Item, Magic, Equip, Stats, Config, Save. For detailed information about specific characters, the user may choose the Stats option. If the user choose to equip its character, he/she may do so by choosing the Equip option. Saving option is available during non-battle sequences. Item option is available at any time within the game, user may choose to heal its characters with potions or with healing abilities from the Abilities option. Magic option is available for user to upgrade its character's magical abilities; like Final Fantasy, magical abilities goes by levels (ex, Fire > Fira > Firaga), depending on the character's level, he/she may be able to learn certain types of magics. Finally, the Config option is available for user to adjust game settings, such as brightness, music, and help. In addition to these options, the Menu screen provides the calculation of time the player has spent for this game and the amount of money (Gill) the player has earned*.


*Gill is the name to substitute money in the game. Gill is earned either through battling or through chest box that is scattered on the maps in the game. Gill can also be earned through selling items in shops.

Art Reference

Pixellated item picture for future reference in generating weapon, armour, items etc in the game.

Battling system

With the completion of the ARG project, im back to workin on my independent project from last semester. Since last semester's failure, ive been workin on improving my concept art project. So here are some of the screen shots as to what ive done lately.

(incomplete)

As you can see from the picture above, i've been workin on creating pixel art.
So ive decided to mix two medias together for the concept art book. Traditional digital painting for the looks & feel of the environment and characters in the book and pixel art for the in game's look & feel. Now that the looks & feel of the game has been drastically changed, the game will no longer be set for Xbox 360, rather, it'll be set for the old-school gaming consoles, such as Gameboy, NES, Playstation, or NDS.

The scene im creating above is one of the battle scenes within the game. The battling system which i had not mentioned in the previous work submission incorporates the Active Time Battle (ATB) system*; characters will have certain strengths and weakness depending on their types (ex, magicians will be prone to having better magical power than the New Generations, and the New Generations will be prone to have better speed than the Humans). Characters will fight in a Conditional Turn Based System (CTB)*, depending on their agility and the user will have to navigate through windows to command its character to 'Attack', 'Magic', 'Item', or 'Escape'*. In each battle, there can be up to 3 players for the user to control, these players can be switched in the Menu page, but up to 6 enemies can appear in one battle. When a battle finishes, if the player's side wins, the characters of the game will be rewarded with experience points, thus contributes to the leveling up of the characters, giving it a better strength, speed, and attacking skills. If unfortunately, the user loses in the game, a gameover scene comes up and the user will have to either restart the game or continue playing from last saved.

*CTB is a turn-based system which does not operate in rounds. That is, the order of the turns does not guarantee that each participant in a battle will have an equal number of turns. Characters with higher speed will be able to take more turns than slower characters, thus making speed much more important than in other turn-based battle systems.

*in certain situations, such as facing the boss, characters are not allowed to choose the Escape mode. Rather, in replacement, a Wait mode is available.

*"Active Time Battle (ATB) shares many attributes with the former system, but adds the dimension of timing-based strategy for commands. In it, an ATB gauge tracks when characters are going to act. When the gauge is full, they are able to perform an action. In later games and/or remakes, some actions then have an additional wait time, such as casting spells or using special abilities. After the action is executed, the ATB gauge is depleted and must recharge. The rate which the gauge recharges will typically correlate to the Speed stat of the character. " source


Art References:

The above picture was created through some of the old Final Fantasy series.

Final update on self brief

In the end, i've decided to stick with the "growth" idea for the motion graphic. ive made 5 student samples for it to add a bit of character to the idea instead of the original where one represents all. The students samples were Me, Twinsen, Venus, Helen and Julianne.

Heres the growth process of mine.

In the beginning everyone starts off the same, but eventually, people will get their own characteristics, learn different things and have different strengths and weaknesses. But in the end, we all experience the same sorta stuffs, that is falling down, facing failure, standing back up, and never wanting to give up.




Since the discussion with Troy, ive decided to take out the imacs from the projection area, and moved it into the 3D model instead. That way, there wont be a lot going on at the same time in one area.

Heres the new floor plan and 3d model





Some photos i took while building my model.







unfortunately, i forgot to take a final photo of the finished model =.=""""" so i cant show where the imac is located now....but basically its located within the 3D letters. The reason being is because this way, it'll give a bit more privacy to viewers who are viewin individual students work, and the viewer wont be disturbed by everything else thats going on in the exhibition space.

DIYs i found!!

Basically, for my idea, its pretty much the same as the instructable below, except for his DIY, the lights are changed manually by him, while i wanted mine to change automatically according to the sound playing at the back. But i guess im gona need an electrical engineer to do that part.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Interactive-Ambient-Light/



Ive asked around, and my friends tell me that im goan need to setup some hardware stuff on the comp for it, and for them its gona take abt a month........yikes.
They mentioned that the programs used are LabView and Matlab (Matlab is a program where you can write scripts to do maths or control parts of your computer). They recommended me to look for Science or engineering students since these students mustve used these programs before. WEll...if we ever go through with my idea, i'll look into finding helpers from differnet faculty.

Anyway, for the walls in the exhibition, i wanted a glass/transparant rectangular LED lite wall right? yeh...well, ive found an instructable that is sorta doing what i was looking for...except her work was done using cardbox.



http://www.instructables.com/id/RGB_LED_Mood_lighting/


If the pricing is too expensive for the first idea, then maybe we can try this one instead. Still works the same, but a little less light for the environment.



http://www.instructables.com/id/Light-Bar-Ambient-Lighting/



And as for the platforms that students will used to display their work, im thinkin of using large blocks of clear acrylics cut into different shapes. Then we'll place lighted LED at the bottom to shine through it.







But yea, i still haev yet to find out how a color changing lamp works.



I wanted to use an idea similar to this for some parts of the wall or for the floor. FOr hte walls, i wanted to place color changeable lgihts (circular) so that when people touch it, it'll change color, creating interactivity in the environment. As for hte floor, i want the colors of the light to change hwen someone steps on it...i guess that has sth to do with pressure sensing. The difference between the video and my idea is that the lamp in the video changes colors itself aswell once it is turned on. I dont want that....i want the lights of the installation to change only when it is touched.

LED lighting

Some companies i found online that offers LED Lighting. Still need to figure out how to incorporate LED lighting to go with the music in the background...some sort of sound sensor i suppose. Also the thing about wanting to have the light change color when someone applies force on its surface.....still need to look into it.

http://www.ledlighting.com.au/
unfortunately, that company is in NSW.
http://www.smartlite.com.au/
and that one is in goldcoast =.="

http://www.glowproductions.com/
I think thats more for fun stuff....

The only one in VIC is this one : http://www.coolon.com.au

Ive looked into their product catalog, depending on the price, i might switch the fluorescent idea to using LED flexible neon instead.

Acme Thin & Light Pack - Portable DMX LED Lighting System


If we have money, itll be cool to do this too


ps: found this reli cool LED RGB color controller setup
http://www.instructables.com/id/RGB-Color-Controllable-High-Power-LED-Room-%2b-Spot-/

Brief 3 - Concept

For this brief, i've come up with the idea of using LED lights to create a light installation. My idea is to have rows of vertically laid out fluorescent light along the walls of the entrance corridor, LED in rectangular/square shaped glass/transparent plastic on the 3 walls inside the exhibition, leaving one absolutely blank for projection of students work (loops), and circular LED shapes on the floor playing abstract patterns.



LED in glass facade building


That is sorta like my idea of having glass or transparent plastic on the walls inside the exhibition, but the problem with this is the cost for the installment. I reckon it might be a bit out of our budget, but we'll see.


LED Floor



For this, i was thinkin of creating something that allows interactivity between the user and the interface. Ex, for this, i was hoping to achieve something like when the user steps ontop of one of these LED circular shapes on the floor, the color of the whole abstract pattern changes. But i think for this i'll need to lookup for some kind of sensor (weight or heat sensoring i guess).

LED corridor option 1 (circular shapes)



LED corridor option 2 (horizontal light tubes)



For the entrance corridor, i am hoping to create something that sorta lures or invites the guest into the room, so the lights will gradually change going "towards" the inside of the corridor, leading into the room.
There are two options, either one will work, but i reckon its best to use the fluorescent lights, so that it makes a variety.


Other light installations ive looked upon







For sound of this project, im thinkin of something minimal. I dont want anything too loud, cause not everyone lieks loud music, but atleast i know people wont be upset about ambient, or minimalistic sounds.