Flower Pot Animation

In my media 351 class we're analyzing a "moving flower pot" and emulating overlapping movement by using parented layers.

The project description said to have a flower pot slide on screen, hit something and come to a stop. I decided to have my flower ghost-ride a whip on screen, crash into a rock (thus analyzing the flower's movement with wind, and identifying a danger in a pop-culture trend), and fall off a cliff coming to a stop.

Given more time i'd go back and cut out the wheels on the car to make them rotate, and probably make the "crash" into the rock look a little more realistic. Considering the focus of this assignment was for the flower though, I didn't want to focus too much on other assets.

Dark Souls Playthrough Week 3

Day 5

It's been a few days. The pain is going away a bit, which kinda scares me. Every time I die, it hurts a little less. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. After I rang the bell atop the Undead Parish, I continued beyond the ramparts and into the woods. Through some constructed caverns I discovered a Blacksmith, who was willing to repair and upgrade my equipment (for the proper price), but seemed unwilling to provide any further assistance.

I could finally wield the sword of the Black Knight I had vanquished days ago. The black sheen eerily reflecting every flicker from the torch-lights in the cavern. Descending the staircase I came upon a ruined entrance hall. Occupying the center was a large horned demon, with only one leg. Approaching it proved to be a learning experience, its hands, horn, and weapon began glowing yellow as a faint crackle began to fill the otherwise empty room. I barely managed to roll behind some old debris before the lightning had arced from the monster's hand to where I had been standing moments prior.

The fight killed me... literally. I had grown impatient and ran too close to the beast. A quick couple of swings from its trident reduced my body to a broken heap. Each swing seemed to crack a new spot of my rib-cage. After blacking out from the pain, I awoke next to the bonfire directly above the Blacksmith. This time around, I was ready for every trick the demon could throw at me. A final swing into the heart of the abomination yielded a satisfying spray of sanguine substance. Coating the obsidian colored steel, almost the same shade in the low light of the hall.

Venturing into the forest I began to realize a few things. Everything was feeling uncomfortably familiar. It was like i'd been through this path before, in a dream or another life. I knew what kinds of new horrors would stand in my way, and I knew I would die to them. Die I did, at least three more times, all to giant stone golems that were awoken from their slumber on accident. After passing the final golem I cam upon a bridge leading to an old tower that used to be part of the castle. Before I could cross the bridge entirely, the air shifted. I looked up to see a white barrier barring my entry to the tower. A chill shot down my spine as the moon reappeared from behind the clouds, casting a bright beam of light around me. Turning around I discover the source of this light is not the moon, but a Moonlight Butterfly, nearly 5 times my own size.

The butterfly made its decent upon me, spawning some sort of beams of light that did a lot more damage than initially expected. Fortunately the over-grown moth had to come down to recharge. After a few swings of my blade, the head was severed. The soul collected off this butterfly seemed different. I couldn't bring myself to absorbing the soul, no I think I might be able to use this later. I discovered a special ember in the tower and learned that The Blacksmith can utilize this new ember.

Time to trek the other accessible path within the forest. This one led down into the depths of a grand, open, cavern. At the bottom of this cavern I discovered another bonfire, praise the sun! I quickly refilled my estus flasks and set back off into the cavern. From atop the hill I could see the underground lake, beyond giant diamond-like creatures whom I doubt are friendly. My doubts were soon justified as one quickly dispatched of me, unphased by the swings from my sword.

Awaking with the vague memory of most of my bones breaking, I set out again. This time I managed to outwit the giant rockheads, only to be blown away by enormous jets of water. How they were hurled at me from 100 yards away, i wouldn't know until I got down to the lake. On my third death in this area I was face to face with what was hurling water at me: a giant seven headed hydra. After discovering gaps in its attack pattern, I quickly managed to remove each of the seven heads.

At this point, I decided to go utilize a key I had found that could get me into the lower portion of Undead Burg. I decided to take a more subtle approach, attempting to sneak around this more dimly-lit area of the city. My plan succeeded for about six seconds, quickly proving useless when undead thieves, much more agile than myself, lurked in every darkened doorway. Several snuck up behind and slit my throat. After feeling my own blood spill across the mud and grass several times, I had finally learned all their hiding spots.

After disposing of all these bandits and their ruthless dogs, I came across the familiar white barrier. Meant to keep things in as well as out, I decided to traverse the fog. Upon entering I only had about two seconds to understand that I was under attack. An ambush lying in wait for any unsuspecting victim. A demon with the head of a goat lunges forward and brings down both of its rusty swords, completely immobilizing me. A final blow leaves a huge hole in my back, quickly rendering me unconscious.

A man can only die to a demon so many times before he loses hope. I haven't given up yet, but losing count of how many times this demon has killed me is very tiresome. I will need to make a strategy before my next attempt tomorrow.

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"Write at least 250 words about the first four hours of playing your game. Emphasize the three act structure. Do you see events unfolding that seem to fit into the three act structure?

Also add anything new about characterization, or general interesting storytelling techniques."

I figure this time i'll add the prompt for those that may not understand my project goals.

At this point I mildly regret picking Dark Souls, because there's no direct plot. That makes it quite difficult to emphasize a three act structure, when one seemingly doesn't exist. At this point though, based on where my narrative is going and what my current game objectives are, I can see a three act structure coming into play.

Inciting Incident:
Escaping from the prison cell at the beginning of the game. It's the only action the character can take to make progress in the game and introduces the player to "tutorial island" as I like to call it.

Plot point #1:
This would be the ringing of the first Bell of Awakening, after defeating the terrifying Bell-Tower Demons.

First Culmination:
The first "boss-battle" aside from the Gargoyles would be the Moonlight Butterfly, showing how boss-fights would then appear in explorable places on the map and turning high rewards for those capable of defeating these bosses.

Midpoint:
I believe i'm currently working through the midpoint, a more conclusive analysis will be given once more progress is made

Plot point #2:
I can only imagine ringing the second Bell of Awakening is the second major plot point.

Climax:
Undoubtedly whatever follows the ringing of the second Bell. Another boss fight, some sort of cool item. Again, will revisit once progress is made.

Denouement:
I'm hoping a cinematic following the final boss-fight wraps up all the loose ends.

My next goal is to make my character a little less static when describing my narrative, I need a little more emotion. I love that the entire Dark Souls story line is based off of the world lore instead of the character interaction. It's like the story itself is how much I choose to explore the world.

Ball Bounce

For Media 351 we were asked to do two things for our first project. The assignment as a whole uses a simple bouncing ball animation to show the importance of spacing and timing in any form of animation.

For the first part I drew out my sketch of a bouncing ball, then scanned and outlined each frame as a separate layer in photoshop. After importing all of these layers into After Effects, I lined them up side-by-side to play like an old-school animation flip book.

The second part required me to have two different balls, showing different amounts of squash/stretch to create weight. This one had to be keyed entirely in After Effects. This one proved a little more difficult for me, simply because I do not grasp After Effects well enough to be able to get my animations to do exactly what I want. It was still a learning experience and i'm pleased with how it came out.

This project really made me focus on how to manipulate space and timing to create different effects on each object. Sometimes making an unrealistic arc can create a more smooth or realistic feel.

Dark Souls Playthrough Week 1

Day 1

So where am I? Some dark room. I just - I just woke up and I’m in - in a cell. There's the key. It feels like maybe it's just the first time I've been here, but perhaps I've been here for a week, three months. It's - it's kind of hard to say. I don't - I don't know. It's just an anonymous room.

My face has become something unfamiliar. As I use the key to escape the cell, I begin to explore the rest of the prison. What I found was just as horrifying as the decor of my former room suggested. Mindless rotting corpses were animated and hostile, lining the halls like potted plants, adding their own rank smell to the structure’s atmosphere. It wasn’t long before I discovered a dying knight that provided some insight. The knight asked me to do him a favor; apparently I have what’s called the Darksign, and it is said that an Undead marked as such must ring the Bell of Awakening. Looks like I’m going on pilgrimage to find this Bell, in his dying breath he asked me to promise I would for him.

Finding a weapon and quickly discovering how to fend for myself proved a useful tactic as the mobile decorations became more aggressive towards me. Upon entering the main wing of the Asylum, I encountered some sort of monster at least 15 times my own height, and filling out nearly the entire room. Every lumbering step seemed to destroy more of the already crumbling room. The monster quickly spotted me and landed a crushing blow that nearly killed me. Regaining my balance, instinct kicked in and a bright orange flame erupted from my hand, quickly tossed towards my foe. 

The monster was slain; otherwise I wouldn’t be here to write about it. Leaving the asylum and heading up to the peak, I was quickly abducted and flown off to this new world. The world of Lords, in this, the Age of Fire, it seems serene despite the amount of undead crawling around. Luckily the first “person” I’ve encountered has given me more information on the Bell of Awakening; it appears to be two bells, not just one.  The first one I decided to tackle was the one atop the mountain in the Undead Parish. Unfortunately the elevator is out, so I’ll have to hoof it.

Well that didn’t take long. Five minutes and a skeleton reanimated in front of me then shoved its scimitar right through my ribcage. I didn’t even have time to put my shield up. I don’t know how I am still alive; I just seemed to wake up at that bonfire back at the shrine with the helpful (yet creepy) guy. It might have something to do with that “Darksign” I have.

Trying another route, the zombies are a bit easier to defeat than the skeletons, but one ran me off a cliff. As I ascend the ramparts a second time, I made it all the way up to another bonfire when another who looked similar to me appeared. Washed in red, he attacked me, swinging his sword ruthlessly at me. I ran. There was nothing more I could do. I tried throwing a few fireballs at him, some bombs, a throwing knife. Nothing was even scratching this guy. Unfortunately as I was running back down the paths, I lost my footing and fell over the edge of the cliff.

Dying proved to lose my attacker. Though I wouldn’t recommend it every time, the pain still exists despite the whole “never dying” thing. It seems I end up waking up at the last bonfire where I rested. Continuing along my path I encountered a giant bull-demon thing. I don’t know how else to describe it. Similar to the large dragon in the asylum, its blows were crushing. What was worse was that there was limited space to dodge the tremendous attacks atop the rampart walls.

 

After dispatching this demon, I found myself at a bridge. Before traversing I stepped off to a balcony to see the view. Joining me was a Knight named Solaire. He requested I take one of his stones, in case I required his assistance in the future. Upon this meeting I disembarked across the bridge, already dreading the fight I could see looming ahead. Before making it halfway across, a screech split the sky, shaking the very foundation of this fortress I was traversing. Suddenly I was washed with fire; staggering to my feet, I managed to duck down a staircase underneath the bridge as I see the large red form of a dragon swoop over me and perch at the end of the bridge. 

Another wave of heat erupts from the stones above my head. Even below the bridge, it feels as though my face were near a furnace. I must press on. The dragon is now blocking the way, luckily it appears that there’s an alternative route under the bridge. Still a little burnt from the dragon’s attack, I decided to fire an arrow at its tail (which had been hanging off the edge of the bridge) to teach it a lesson. The dragon didn’t even notice! I continued my assault, eventually its tail fell off; A portion of it had, at least. It was quite study, so I decided to use it as a weapon.

Another bull demon (only this one slightly smaller) appeared to be intentionally blocking my route again. I quickly discovered its aversion to stairs and used it to my advantage. After suffering more stabs and claws I finally make it up to the Parish itself. I walk in the front door, to be greeted by three large ghouls with shields. All three quickly accept me into the center of their group and indoctrinate me into their club with a few stabs to my abdomen. Waking up again, I make my way back, being sure to take the side entrance this time.

Instead of being greeted by the same three gentlemen, I discovered a larger house-keeper, whom donned a shield as tall as himself, and swung a very large axe. After dodging two blows and luring him outside, he proved quick work with the Drake Sword I had discovered. Gazing up at my goal, the bell-tower, I could not believe the progress I had made just in one day (or how many times I had died within that same time-span).

After forcing my way past a wave of zombies and some sorcerer ghoul, I made my way up to the roof of the Parish. Close to the top, I discovered a strange white text emblazoned across the ground. The text was physically glowing, like nothing I had seen before. Upon touching it briefly, I felt a warm, comforting, wave shoot up my arm. The text itself began to glow brighter as the façade of Solaire slowly emerged from the ground.

Recognizing him as an ally, we stepped through the haze and onto the bell-tower roof. Not making it halfway across, one of the gargoyles atop the bell-tower let out a terrifying screech. The stone figure came to life and jumped down, throwing tile off either side of the roof. As soon as I get my shield up, the gargoyle is back in the air, swinging its tail at me (which has a giant axe on the end of it, mind you). After hurling a few fireballs and letting solaire distract it, the counterpart on the opposite end of the bell-tower becomes animate and joins in the fight! Luckily Solaire was skilled enough to distract both of them long enough for me to finish them. Allowing me to ascend the tower and ring the first Bell of Awakening. This marked my refuge for the night.
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                The game I chose to monitor is Dark Souls.  Dark Souls is a gothic style, open-world, action role-playing game. This game, developed by From Software is the successor to Demon’s Souls. The game begins by showing a short cinematic explaining the overall lore for this world that the game takes place in. There was once darkness covering the land, as well as dragons. When fire was discovered, dead souls used the fire and found Lords, who killed off the dragons. Now anyone that dies is taken to await the end of the world, and the Lords rule, despite the fact that the flames are fading to embers. That’s where the player comes in. An undead marked with the Darksign, the player’s character is destined to be a champion, if he/she can get past the terrifyingly difficulty of the levels. The game was designed to have a high-risk, high-reward system. This can actually detract from the plot at times, leaving players frustrated and uncaring to the details that only compliment the lore, who just want to defeat the next boss and get the next cool weapon. Because the plot is minimalistic in this sense, it gives the players the ability to create their own narrative that is the game. They are controlling and leveling up a character in an unforgiving environment, which will develop the character’s strengths and weaknesses, or failing that, provide a lot of frustration.

                I chose this PS3 title, because I wanted to write my own parallel narrative to my game experience. I had purchased this game last October, and fell in love with the scenery alone. The beautiful landscapes and intricate detail that goes into even the darkest of corners is simply astonishing.  That coupled with one of the deepest sets of lore and the most flexible character class system, makes this an auto-pick for me. Because of the game’s difficulty level, the game has minimum 60 hours of gameplay. Instead of basing my project off of supposed hours (because I don’t know how quickly/slowly certain sections will take) I have broken the levels/zones up into chunks that will allow me to better pace myself to beating the game within the quarter. I’m really excited to find out more about the game’s history now that I’m focusing on it directly to fuel my narrative.

http://changethis.com/manifesto/45.02.FreakFactor/pdf/45.02.FreakFactor.pdf

Focus: you can’t do both. This suggestion resonates quite well with me. Everyday I try to become a better student, dancer, fraternity member, guitar player, video game designer, friend, brother, etc. These are all things that I enjoy doing or being. The problem is I can’t focus on all of them at the same time. The suggestion makes the point that we have limited resources and energy to work on tasks. I’m currently exhausting all my resources just trying to balance school and fraternity matters. It’s pretty ridiculous how unbalanced my schedule got so quickly simply because I overloaded it. Now focusing on all those things I wanted to do would be completely counter-productive because none of them would get done in time. Attempting to fix my disorganized self can diminish my corresponding strength (creativity, according to the chart). So instead of trying to organize my entire schedule, maybe I should figure out how to turn some practices or activities into less time-consuming activities. It will take some creative thinking, but I’m sure I’ll come to a conclusion eventually. I thought it was extremely interesting to see this point illustrated in the retail industry. Both Target and Wal-Mart have strengths that they play to, but when another retail store such as K-Mart attempts to be well-rounded, there becomes no reason to go there. This is similar in any field. If an employee is too well-rounded they won’t excel at anything, and probably won’t get hired. An unfortunate paradox to what we’ve been taught almost our entire lives.

Forget it: Don’t try to fix your weakness. “You can’t put feathers on a dog and call it a chicken” is the inspirational quote at the beginning of this suggestion. I feel like I really need to pay attention to this suggestion in particular because I’m always beating myself up about how I need to change myself to eliminate my weaknesses. The truth is that’s only making me more stressed, frustrated, and miserable. Just as the manifesto mentions “It’s painful. We don’t enjoy working on our weaknesses”. It’s entirely true. I hate organizing and planning and trying to figure out what I’m going to do with myself. I’d much rather be playing video games or watching Doctor Who. These are activities I could be making a significant progress in and finding self-fulfillment (also addressed in the manifesto). If I become successful at realizing what I enjoy doing then it shouldn’t matter what I don’t enjoy doing, because I won’t have to do it. The process through actually addressing a weakness and trying to fix it is slow. Not only is it slow, but it is extremely cumbersome, as previously mentioned, we hate working on our weakness. At the end of the day, it doesn’t actually work. Even if we eliminate a weakness, it doesn’t become a valuable strength. All that time refining our problems becomes wasted and we simply become mediocre.

Foundation: Build on your strengths. It just makes sense. What do you like doing? We will hardly enjoy doing something that feels bad. We enjoy something because we’re passionate about it and proficient in it (or becoming proficient in it). Statistically speaking you also have the greatest potential to succeed in areas you’re already strong in. Because you’ve developed early interests and retained them, you’re more inclined to indulge those interests. As mentioned in the earlier suggestions: if your strengths are well defined they make up for your weaknesses. It can get to the point where your weaknesses become completely irrelevant. If you never excelled in math, then why would you want to become a math major? Instead of torturing oneself and trying to make something work, they should find what works and pursue that instead. I took 3 years of animation in high-school. Despite the fact that the tasks were time-consuming and tedious, they were tasks that I had fun with. Because I found enjoyment in my work the tasks became much easier at times and that much more rewarding at the end of the day. Not only was it rewarding, but I could see physical improvement in my skill-sets. The point is that you should definitely look into what you’re good at or what you enjoy doing and keep at it.

Brainwashed

http://changethis.com/manifesto/66.01.Brainwashed/pdf/66.01.Brainwashed.pdf

Acknowledging the lizard refers to the prehistoric part of the human brain that is resistant to criticism, punishment, or embarrassment. No one wants to be embarrassed or laughed at so we avoid situations in which we would expose ourselves to that sort of attention. Similarly we try to avoid anything that would lead to self-disappointment or punishment. We have become conditioned to be fearful and avoid things that might be risky, but beneficial to ourselves.

Failing is a key part of what we must learn to do to overcome our lizard portion of our brains. The ability to accept failure, take it gracefully, and try again, is not only a way to overcome fear, but also a way to learn. If you never try to become successful you will never learn what does and does not work. Everyone can be successful at something if they can recognize how they need to go about achieving their goals. Resources are a factor, but resources are being made more readily available every day.

Connecting is arguably the most important resource our generation has. The ability to converse easily with someone thousands of miles away to get advice, seek criticism, bounce ideas off of, even just be personable with, is simply astounding. We no longer have to spend an obscene amount of money to get a name out on the internet and available to billions of people. We can publish our personal arts to all these people and those who like it will share it with their friends.

I’m acknowledging my own lizard this year just by writing these blogs. These aren’t something I would’ve done on my own, but I see how helpful they can be in making me think differently, analyze more critically, etc. Not only has it provided an outlet for me to express my thoughts, but this blog will be connected with everyone else who has internet access. I have to think carefully about what I want to express because billions of people could be reading my entries as I type this. It’s interesting to know that this resource is something that could be what lands me an interview, or sparks a random conversation with someone I’ve never met, or never would have had the chance to meet. At the same time I know that a lot of what I type here is opinionated. Some of the billions of people (perhaps every single one of them) might completely disagree with what I have to say. This degree of failure does not appeal to the lizard-brain portion of my thought processes. Quite the opposite it’s telling me “don’t post that shit, it sounds dumb. You’re gonna get laughed at for saying that you moron”. On the other-hand I’m also being graded on some of these for a class I’m currently taking, so if I do not complete them I will get poor marks, which is another form of punishment that the lizard-brain does not want. I can already vouch for the fact that networking through online social tools can create connections with people you never would have expected to meet. I’ve talked to artists, game designers, code-monkeys, journalists, but most importantly: friends. Everyone I’ve connected with I consider a friend because I’ve adopted the “be generous” layer also described in the “Brainwashed” manifesto. I don’t mind collaborating and doing favors for other people I meet randomly online, because that not only gets me experience in something I’m interested in, but also builds and strengthens my connection with others, as well as gives me more things to put on a resume.

In regards to whether or not these exercises are effective or not, it all depends on what each individual takes out of them. I personally feel they’re helpful, but counterproductive to the “let’s kill the lizard-brain mentality”. They promote that we have to connect or we get punished, which will eventually become a faulty system and basis for thinking. We must encourage people to overcome these hindrances on their own; the problem lies in how we measure how well people do that. The educational system is entirely outdated, but what could possibly replace it? I will be curious to see what evolves from my current generation as we learn to break the mould and lizard-brain mentality.

Scene Deconstruction

This was an entry into the 2011 Ohio University 48-Hour Shootout. Each group had 48 hours to construct a film using a random genre, prop, and line.

The theme of this piece is centered heavily around relationships. Being able to get through the best and worst with a single person can be the most difficult thing to do. This is apparent through the heavy use of flash-backs that provide us a window into this couple's relationship. Another theme seems to be regretting; this is not apparent until the very end (unless you're watching the video a second time through). The end sequence shows the main character staring at what appears to be an engagement ring, and a woman asking if he's ready to go. The camera focuses on the woman in the background who is not the woman from his flashbacks. His expression becomes somber and the clip ends, this makes the title of the piece "My Intended" make a lot more sense. He intended on giving the ring to this other woman he remembers, but something happened and now all that's left are memories.

This short film used a surprisingly small amount of space to convey its message. The flashback scenes were all filmed with the characters being shot from the waist up. This made the scenes feel smaller and gave the illusion that the characters were that much closer together. Because the characters appeared to be closer it added to the tension and emotion they were portraying towards each other in each scene. The characters are also always facing each other in each shot up until the last scene where the main character is facing away from his assumed girlfriend. Interestingly the characters’ colors change to reflect the mood in each scene. For example in the scene where the main character is trying to comfort his upset significant other, he is wearing yellow, a warm and comforting color while she is wearing a pale, white sweatshirt, making her seem flat in the space. This becomes contrasted when he places his arms around her, making him appear larger and more protective in their embrace.

Movement was also very important in this piece. The camera transitions were marked with a slow swipe between each scene and the camera would take a second to adjust. This mimics not only the human eye, but also the human mind when processing and correlating its thoughts. This technique is very similar to Alfred Hitchcock’s style of directing. The camera would focus on important items, but continue to slowly focus around the room, taking in every forefront detail that the human eye would usually capture.