Reflection on my gaming presentation

In our game design presentation I would have liked to go more in depth about how we were going to incorporate The television show but still keep our own elements in it. I wanted to explain that we did not want to make the video game exactly like the television show, as most video games based off television shows and movies are. In order to sell it and make it more appealing to consumers I believed that tying it to the show would ensure it turn a profit and introduce a whole new genre to the world of MMORPG.

I think one of our strong points was getting across that it was different than anyone else's idea because it was a zombie MMORPG game. There is not a mainstream MMORPG humans vs zombies game out so I think designing one was very beneficial to those who played WOW and other MMORPG games.

I think the mechanics of the game was the hardest for me to discuss because I am not very familiar with the video game world. Yeah there was one summer where I could beat any guy at UFC and Sol Calibur, unfortunately, that is about the extent of it. Also trying to explain to someone how to play an MMORPG is difficult because there is no guided perpection its more of a free for all you learn as you play the game. In my opinion, merely explaining how to play is harder than actually just picking up the controller and learning yourself.

Freak Factor

I found that number four really stood about to me for overcoming weaknesses, especially the ones I find myself having to face on a daily basis. I actually find it very counterproductive to fix a weakness. It takes a lot of soul searching and a great deal of patience. Even if you put forth the effort to try and fix everything wrong with you, which is impossible, just when you think you have completely broken yourself and gotten rid of that so called weakness, it creeps back up again and nuzzles its way back into your life. Why waste all that valuable time trying to fix your weaknesses when you could be focusing on your strengths and learning ways to improve those and actually make some significant progress. Besides if we didn’t have weaknesses then how would we know what our strengths are?
To go along with what i am saying number five fits perfectly we have to build on our strengths and not fret and agonize over our weaknesses. Focusing on the negative side of things all the time will only bring you down and if you only think about your weaknesses and stop developing and working on your strengths they just might become your new found weaknesses. 
Take me for example I am a HUGE procrastinator, I wait until the last minute to do everything, including these blog entries. I cannot even think about writing a paper until the next before it is due. Most people see this as a weakness, and think that I'm just lazy and I don't want to do my work. This might be somewhat true because I do have my lazy moments, but I do not see this as a weakness. Why you ask? Simple, I thrive under pressure! I believe this is one of my biggest strengths, when I know that I have a deadline and I HAVE to meet it, that is when I do my best work. I know that this will take me far in my career and give me an edge over many people. The media world of last minute decisions and deadline, and I know because of my so called "weakness" that I will be able to meet every single one of them.
The last one that i really want to try and relate to my creative life is number nine putting your quirks to work. I am going to place myself in situation that will utilize my strengths and avoid situations that showcase my flaws. I need to surround myself with people that can help build on my strengths and give me a chance to accommodate and recognize the "freak" in them.

Collapsus

Check out this pretty cool piece of media !

After watching Collapsus I was really surprised, especially being a media major, that I have never been exposed to anything like that before. I was very intrigued that it used all different forms of media to spread the awareness about peak oil. I think that if more campaigns used this type of interactive media to get their message across it would benefit them in a lot of ways. Not only would people be more aware of the issues but they would almost get a first hand experience of how people are affected by it. I think this type of media would open up a whole new world and more producers and media professionals will utilize it in the figure. However i felt that this particular trans media project that I watched dropped the ball on the whole interactive part of the whole project, it was not exactly fun and most of the time i had no idea what i was supposed to do. There was one "game" if you would even call it that, where I guess I was supposed to tip the chair over, but I could not for the life of my figure out how to do it. The other parts were almost too simple and too easy and did not really add anything special to the storyline. Do not get me wrong I don't want this small critique to take away from the overall project itself because I feel like it was very well made and by just fixing the interactive portion of it would make it tens time better.
Looking back at the work i have done over the quarter i would have never in a million years thought that I could have accomplished so much in such a small amount of time. Ten weeks may seem like a long time, but having to create five big media project on top of keeping up with this blog was a major challenge for me. Sitting here now I am proud that i was able to see it through to the end. I really felt that this whole process has helped me tap into who I am as a creative person.

Hero/Villain Critiques

YUXI LI

Yuxi's hero design was one of my favorites in the class. I especially liked the overall concept and narrative behind her character. I believe this helped give it some sort of purpose and demonstrated a better understanding of why she designed the character the way she did. Her design was very unique and captured the heavenly essence that she was wanted to portray. Her character had very delicate movements and moved at a slow and steady pace. In her animation she used parallel movements with both the characters arms, and also her hair, which moves as her character moves, almost as if there is wind going through it. In contrast, the villain used a squash and stretch movement through the frame. The affinity of both characters is that they both use intricate lines to illustrate their overall visual elements. Looking at Yuxi's character, I really think she did an excellent job of utilizing the concept of visual rhythm. Her characters moves with such grace and elegance, you really get a mother nature feel when you see the animation. The cloths and fabrics she chose to drape around her also added even more visual elements to the character. This ensures that your eyes move from her face all the way to her feet and down to where her dress flows, giving you and overall idea of what this character represents. Looking at this character subjectively, my personal representation of it, is she is some type of goddess, who symbolizes pure qualities and depicts the idea of heaven and the idea of an all powerful being.

MIKE RHOA


I thought Mike's character design was pretty hilarious. I enjoyed the story behind both the hero and the villain. I especially like it because I have had class with both of the professors they based the characters off of. It was really funny to see them in superhero and villain form. The character based on Dr. Cooper had a very good use of shadows around his face to symbolize that he was the darker, and more evil one. Compared to Eric Williams who's face is very bright and cheerful. The shape of the hero is very round, just as the example used in class, the Sultan from the Disney movie Aladdin. The shape of the villain is triangular, just as Jafar was, going off the same example. This illustrates an obvious contrast between each character. Mike also did a good job of drawing a shadow under Eric Williams, this depicts that he is a lot bigger and more powerful than his counterpart.

MATT TOLEDO



Matt's character, like Yuxi's, was also very intricate. I really liked his character as well, and thought he did a really good job of showing contrast and affinity between characters. Matt's hero used a split complementary color schemes which I think worked very well with the colors in the background. He used yellow and blue hues to represent the character visually. In contrast, Ryan used a monochromatic color scheme of brown hues for his character. I think this worked really well because it gave you a clear interpretation that he was the villain. Ryan giving the character a background was a very good idea because it added to the evil and sinister elements of the villain himself. The background being dark and dreary gives it an evil look. I feel that the subtext Ryan's drawing portrays that the villain has taken over the city and made it this way. Matt's superhero had a lot more brightness which also added to the illustration of his character being represented as the all mighty hero.

Animation & Character Design

These are the characters Justin and I came up with for the animation/character project. I created Captain Inferno and Justin created Dr. Bone Chiller. 

My ideal superhero

check out the “First Act” of the This American Life episode about Superpowers here

teleportation
go anywhere i wanted at a moments notice
travel anywhere in the world
never be late for anything
never have to worry about missing friends or family
visit them all the time
visit my best friend in utah
get more sleep
teleport to class in a second, literally
if i forgot something i could have it within seconds
when i get older i worry that i wont be able to see my family for months or even years at a time, i worry about missing out on important events in the lives of the people i love, with teleportation i would never again have to worry about that

when i was little i used to pretend i could teleport i would stand in the corner of the room and then run downstairs as fast as a could and stand in the exact corner of the room below thus teleporting myself through the floor

Superhero with Teleportation powers
RAVEN- TEEN TITANS
has the ability to teleport amoung other things
I am drawm to her because not only can she do the one thing i have always wanted to be able to do even when i was a kid, but she also is an empath and has the ability to share feelings (such as happiness or sadnesss) that are being experienced by that of another being

Video Joke Reflection

For the video joke assignment, my group chose the joke about the little boy playing with a train and cursing, and his mother’s reaction to it. We decided to do two completely different styles for each video. Since we could not have any synchronized sound we decided to do a throwback to the silent film era. We used a sepia tone to give it an old fashioned feel and to add to the visual rhythm we sped up the clips to make it look like a genuine silent film. We also used lines to showcase the different visual elements. When the mother is in the kitchen we used actual lines by placing me behind the counter tops so your eyes first start on the little boy, who falls into the rule of thirds, and then your eyes are led to me cooking in the kitchen.
In contrast to the second film which was done in normal sleep, and normal colors. Taking the same joke and applying it to another film that had a completely different look was a bit challenging. We decided to go with a little girl instead of a boy, and have her toys have voiceovers and have the little girl act as the mother figure. In this film we used virtual lines through the eyes of the little girl to depict which toy she was talking to. Similarly, we used CU shots when showing each of the toys and their individual voice overs; this ensured that you knew who was talking at what time. In the second film there was a scene where the little girl was waiting for her Barbie to get out of time out, to a five year old five minutes can feel like five hours. Therefore, when editing this clip I showed numerous pictures of the clock and used the ticking to illustrate time passing very slowly. This editing technique added tension to the scene and then when the little girl delivers her line and decided Barbie’s timeout is over the tension is released.