Grey Toned Silhoutte Sheet 1

This first sheet is a combination of the more interesting shapes, where I have included grey tones to define more of the anatomy and shapes that were hidden. My next sheet will be a mix of silhoutte designs which I will also grey tone.

Dynamics 1 - Particles, Emitters and Forces - Particle Collision Metal Objects Sparks

Dynamics 1 - Particles, Emitters and Forces - Particle Collision Rain

Dynamics 1 - Particles, Emitters and Forces - Active Passive Rigid Bodies (Bowling Alley)

Notes from Joystick Nation: How videogames ate our quarters, won our hearts and rewired our minds by J.C.Herz

Herz J.C, (1995), Joystick Nation: How Video games ate our quarters won our hearts and rewired our minds First Edition, Canada, Little Brown and company limited


2. A Natural History of Video games

• 1966 - first experimental tv, computer interface sends two blips skidding across a screen
• 1967 - original main frame maze game
• 1977 - Space Invaders, original slide - and - shoot title and first video game to make it big in the U.S
• 1986 - Gauntlet - the first arcade role - playing game
• 1989 - Tetris
• 1990 - Street Fighter 2 - first mega hit fighting game
• 1992 - Sega
• 1996 - Nintendo 64, Sony Playstation

• The timeline above shows brief advancement over forty years and evolvement

3. The Madonna, Whore Complex of Consumer Electronics

• 1966 Ralph Baer worked on computer systems for the military and hooked a tv set to a computer to build a symbol generator to get two dots chasinbg each other
• he assigned two engineers and after a year it became shaped into video badminton
• began as variants of same game played on different grids
• 1980's  and 90's - revolution of handhelds bright colours and ran on batteries

8. Ditties of the Apocalypse

• in the mid 80's - it became decided that games needed a musical score
• back then video game music was purely a matter of computer programming
• small amount of memory, in which to create a remembrable tune

10. Videogame Porn

• "But unlike Windows 95 owners, kids have to attain a certain level of proficiency with Donkey Kong Country 2 before they can brag to their friends." (Herz, 1995: 123) - behavioural of competition playing to male gender
• price of video game periodicals/ magazines corresponds to the shrink wrap magazines on the other stand
• pictures inspired 'techno porn' where children spend hours imagining the fascinating places they might visit in a new game
• Nintendo Power Head quarters bring out games that have no violent fantasies or juvenile jokes to make it appeal to young target audience

11. Mario u ber alles

• Pac-man gave games a personality
• the female audience was attracted to this game type because of the cute style of image it adopted
• "Bascially kids will consume Nintendo characters in any wearable, playable or ediable form. With that in mind, Kahn views everything that kids wear, or eat as potiential Nintendo licensed product." (Herz , 1995: 136)
• Obession - brain washed into world to love graphic world created for them

13. Super Hero Sushi

• video games are a perfect metaphor of a hybrid of mixed Asian and American heritage
• characters are bicontinental cross breed of Japanese comic and animation as well as western comic and sci-fi
• companies began with baby-like qualities because this translated easier as they had fewer pixels
• also it is more more abstract and cartoony so that our expressions could be poured into them

14. Boys vs Girls

• more male driven
• "The problem is video game designers, being mostly male, can't seem to figure out what girls want in a video game." (Herz, 1995: 174)
• video games that draw from Japanese cartoons make women characters more proportionate and less threatening - a wide eyed cuteness that makes them more approachable
• games are mostly developed for male targets as they can be attracted to all sorts of characters and plot lines and are designed with this in mind

Notes from The Effects of Videogames on Children: The Myth Unmasked Barrie Gunter

Gunter Barrie, (1998), The Effects of Video Games on Children: The Myth unmasked, Sheffield, Sheffield Academic Press LTD

Preface

• 23rd November 1997 called for a ban on 'crimnal' video game Grand Theft Auto
• 'top' policeman was quoted arguing that this game could encourage young people to glorify the crimes portrayed in the game
• concerns because they are interactive
• "the implications of this degree of cognitive and emotive engagement, to common - sense observers, are that there are bound to follow a series of profound and lasting adverse behavioural effects, changing the young people who play these games for the worse." (Gunter, 1998: 8)

1. Video games: what are the concerns?

• undesirable physical, psychological and social side effects of regular playing
• unhealthy level of pre - occupation with computer and games
• 'corrupting influence on youth today' acclaimed critics
• "Most games tend to feed into masculine fantasies of control, power and destruction (Secunda 1983) " (Gunter, 1998 : 15)
• early 1980's saw a ban in several cities/ towns in United States of access to video games
• 1992, Nintendo indicated approximately that 44% of all US house holds had video game systems
• market penetration allowed video games to go beyond simple one - one relationship with individual child to become part of child and adolescent culture in US
• effects take on different forms in different countries:

• Australia - tenosynovitis
• US - cataracts from radiation by VDU screens
• Scandinavia - facial rashes

• potential psychological effects are less tangible and leads to stress - related reactions - rapid heart beat, nausea and sweating
• "Generalised fears seem to concentrate upon the belief that new technology strips people of their freedom and privacy" (Gunter, 1998 : 17)
• "Elsewhere, excessive involvement with computer or video games has been discussed as a form of 'dependency' where by playing with such games may not be a major preoccupation, but does serve particular social and psychological functions in player's lives in an especially pronounced fashion" (Gunter, 1998 : 17)
• young people effected psychologically by violent themes because mass entertainment media passively display messages that they receive
• some games in 80's e.g Super Mario, Frogger and Donkey Kong was classed as positive - set to be challenging and aim to do good deeds within the games
• video games also viewed as source of learning - such as the activities that require eye - hand coordination or teaching specific skills in spatial visualisation or mathematics
• military modified the Atari game Battle zone for use in Military training
• "Players must figure out what different symbols and items on screen mean or represent and how they behave. In this way, video games encourage a style of thinking that resembles in many respects the kind of reasoning and deductions scientists have to make when investigating an issue.." (Gunter, 1998: 23)
• video games are more exciting through rapidly changing visual displays and more complex challenges compared to board games
• games allow children to concentrate on rules and expectations needed to master each level
• preoccupies a child's time that gives rise to anti social behavioural effects - undesirable physical, mental, social and economic

2. Tapping into Player's Habits and Preferences

• through extensive surveys - parents and children are less likely to believe in alleged negative influences
• one discriminating factor among children and adolescents in playing games is gender
• males play more at homes or arcades
• gender bias becomes distinctive in themes e.g flying fighter air crafts or car racing
• men are more expressive when comes to aggression and are more prone to competition
• more intense experiences
• violence and action games turn most females away because are more conditioned in emotional response
• players indicate regular use as tension release
• video games can generate mood changes in youngsters but can invoke a considerable degree of concentration and involvement

Research Framing Practise Lecture 4 Notes

Lecture Week 5 Writing the Proforma and Synopsis

Recap

• Area of interest - Research and Map Area - Identify specific focus - Formulate specific question

When you have a Question

• identify chapters and focusses
• give each chapter a title that reflects focus

• Get to this point before filling in Proforma

Then 

• research for each chapter in order:
• get out useful sources and identify authors, etc
• use proforma to aid synopsis and dissertation
• crictial angle/ bias, place of publication, analyse possible use and where  - how you intend to use them and where in dissertation

Synopsis - 2000 words

• should help you write a dissertation
• summary
• literature, view points, areas of discussion and taster of the analysis
• try not to be vague

Intro - 200 words

• question to be explored
• chapter breakdown, what should be covering and why
• how they respond to question
• brief overview of what each chapter covers, theotrical view points

Chapters - each at 533 words approx

• start para with outlined specific areas of discussion analyse
• flavour discussion/ analyse - introduce quote and small analysis
• no lists

Past Mistakes

• shouldn't be to - do list - what you have done without actually doing it
• shouldn't be just each beginning chapter as if writing the dissertation

Conclusion - 200 words

• refinements to focus if light in synopsis
• areas of further focus and expansion per chapter but must explain what specifically and why

Layout

• Title Page
• Contents Page
• Proforma
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 - Title
• Chapter 2 - Title
• Chapter 3 - Title
• Conclusion
• Illustration List
• Bibliography
• Appendix

UV Layout for Game Character Parts 1 - 4

I got up to the hands with laying out Uv's as I am having problems with the head tutorial but will update this post once other two videos are complete



UV Layout Part 1 - Shirt

UV Layout Part 2 - Trousers

UV Layout Part 3 - Shoes

UV Layout Part 4 - Hands

Notes from The Impact of Computer Games

Choi Charlie, Loo Alfred, (2002), The Impact of Computer Games, Bradford, Emerald Group Publishing LTD

Aspects of networking in Multiplayer Computer Games by Jouni Smed, Timo Kaukoranta and Harri Hakonen

• growth of gaming industry and expectations has escalated the multimedia adapting technologies for training, education and even medical image research

• 'The transportation axis indicates the level to which the participants leave behind their local space and the articality axis the level to which a space is computer generated' (Hakonen, Kaukaranta, Smed, 2002 : 87)

Applications of Computer Games in the Field of Education by R. Fayakanthan

• 'Computer games are gaining unprecedented access to thhe homes, minds and souls of people today.' (Fayakanthan, 2002 : 98)

• computer industry growing bigger and convincing people of all ages as a tool of knowledge and education

• films are even basing plots on popular videogames

• Slowly became part of everyday Youth Culture

• Online gaming is an entire subculture for a meeting place

• 'computer games raise the yard stick of immersion and interaction even higher as they "suck in" the player. As Friedman (1994) says in his essay on Making sense of Software: Computer Games and interactive Textuality.' (Fayakanthan, 2002 :99)

• specialised coporate learning games for business field developed real life situations, planing situations

• strategy games such as Sim City mutated into hundreds of different variants

• today, technology has become cutting egde and turnover for computer has surpassed Hollywood

• can enter new dimensions and frontiers and explore the areas where it can raise itself beyond the plateau as an entertainment industry now

Framing Research Direction

I have decided to base my assignment in the Computer Games but as of yet I am unsure what I will focus on in my analysis.

I have spoken to Chris Hunt and he suggested starting points:

Gender Stereotypes

Conventions of characters/ space

Behaviour derrived from them

Social and Pschological impacts

I have started to build a list of research materials and will look at some of topics first to gain a perspective of whats been written.

@ Alan - Temp Silhouettes together

All Character Silhouettes together so far, to see them all easier

Jack Frost Silhouette Page 3

These are more silhouettes with my ink blot shapes, I tried really changing body shapes and structures.

Jack Frost Silhouette Page 2

Another Silhouette Page, working with the photos I took this is creating more interesting results in terms of shape and the ideas that forming. I will take my Ink blots to create more silhouettes for my next set.

UPDATED

Numbered

Dynamics 1 - Particles, Emitters and Forces - Emit from Surface 2 Can Dissolve

Dynamics 1 - Particles, Emitters and Forces - Emit from Surface 1 Barrel

Dynamics 1 - Particles, Emitters and Forces - Emit from Particles Fireworks

"Judderman" - Video Inspiration for Jack Frost

This was a link that Phil suggested, I liked the transition from puppet to real people. Once the advert moves into the winter forest with the Jack Frost - like character there is an interesting dark/ twisted style but still uses the inspiration of nature so could be something to consider as I design my variation of Jack Frost.

Photos from the Woods

I took Alan's advice and went to a woods today and took a lot of photos which I will later use to block out shapes and construct silhouettes. Below are some examples of what I took.

Ink Blot Experiments

I have produced different ink shapes on paper to try and form silhouettes from them. I used different techniques to give me different shapes such as imprints from leaves and twigs, drawing with the end of a paint brush and sticks and dripping the ink onto the page.

Games Modelling - Body Part 1 and 2

Body Part 1

Body Part 2

Own Drawing Tasks 3

Some more tutorials from Drago.com

Jack Frost Silhouette Page 1

My direction is to work on  silhouettes and figure out what the Jack Frost character is going to be, I have started this using images of ice I gathered the other day. Below are some shapes that I blocked out which I later worked into and used the shapes to create the silhouettes below it. I intend to try this technique out with inks or paints and I intend to visit a woods at some point over the weekend where I will take my own pictures and use them to create more shape designs.

UPDATED

Eight More Designs and Numbered

Movie Review - Paprika

 Figure 1, (2007), The Carnival Dream bursting through all dream realities

Paprika looks at the non-linear world of dreams and how they can be attacked and influenced by other people's ideas that effects the dreamer. 'As in other sci-fi pics featuring technology that can record thoughts, such as Kathryn Bigelow's "Strange Days" or David Cronenberg's "eXistenZ," the borders between reality and imagination keep getting blurred, creating a narrative Chinese box dreams within dreams. Playful use is made of movie allusions and general cinematic imagery building up to a reasonably nightmarish climax where, natch, Tokyo is nearly destroyed.' (Felperin, 2007) Towards the start of the film it seems obvious to the viewer which is reality and dream but then reality twists to start mixing with the horrors of the carnival and the chairman bleeding through. The carnival is the idea/ the attack that slowly infects and creeps in to other occupant's dreams that symbolises how the mind is delicate and how it could be controlled by an external force. The film uses basic fears to make the dreamscapes even more disturbing by planting in strange laughing dolls and an army of toys that walk on a march as on an actual invasion converting anything in it's path. As the film progresses, the dream images such as the Chinese doll child and Tokita in robot form start to attack the real Tokyo to demonstrate what was one subconscious has become physical and out of control. The viewer visualises the morph of the two realities through the characters losing their identity and becoming part of the carnival and through the chairman driven mad to control it.

 Figure 2, (2010), Detective Kogawa's dream

The symbolism of dreams comes across clearly in the character of Detective Kogawa Toshimi, who continuously visualises himself in different film spoof scenarios and haunted by his past.‘That's the way it is with "Paprika," an R-rated anime film that takes full advantage of animation to explore the characters' dreamscapes and the segues between those scapes and the narrow escapes the characters have in "real life." '(Plath, 2007) Kogawa' dreams symbolise his work in the film industry and how he tried to escape from it. The cycle of dream images occur repeatedly in the film, that try and give clues to the viewer of why the character has always been put in the same scenario's that spoof other films such as Tarzan and Film Noir. Kogawa's story runs parallel with what happens in the dream terrorism sequences because at the end of the film the viewer discovers that Kogawa's jealousy for his director partner held back his confidence. This resulted in an incomplete film but the other man reveals that Kogawa is the central character of that film as has been living a life of fiction , which again questions the audience's belief of what was the real world and what was the dream.

Figure 3, (2011), Paprika spliting to show true form of Atsuko

The character Paprika is an alter ego of the research scientist Chiba Atsuko and appears as two completely different people so that as Paprika, she can be friendly and help patients to recover from their mind illnesses. 'Parika asks, "Who shall control our dreams?," which, given this film's take on the cinematic nature of the unconscious, is really asking, "Who shall control the movies?" (Denby, 2007) This relates to how in dream realities, the boundaries and limitations can be broken, to allow Dr Atsuko to become an entirely different personality and become part of various patients worlds that they have conjured in their minds as it is simply a place of fiction. The boundaries are tested further when Kei splits the butterfly form of Paprika to as she were a chrysalis to reveal the true pureness of Atsuko that has been hiding inside. Also in the Tokyo scene both personalities appear in the same realm and there still seems to be a connection between them as a person but Paprika takes command of herself as if she has become her own identity but then rejoins Atsuko to suck away the evil of the chair man. Atsuko learns that meddling with dreams brings it's own consequences.


Illustrations

Figure 1, (2007), The Carnival Dream bursting through all dream realities, @ http://cinepinion.bravehost.com/paprika.html, Accessed on: 2007

Figure 2, (2010), Detective Kogawa's dream, @ http://www.animecrazy.net/paprika-images/573/Image/3544, Accessed on: 16th January 2010

Figure 3, (2011), Paprika spliting to show true form of Atsuko, @ http://www.ferdyonfilms.com/?p=9304, Accessed on: 30th March 2011

Bibliography

Denby David, (2007), The New Yorker - Not Kid's Stuff - Paprika, @ http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2007/05/28/070528crci_cinema_denby?currentPage=2, Accessed on: 21st May 2007

Felperin Leslie, (2007), Variety Reviews - Paprika, @ http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117931477?refcatid=31, Accessed on: 25th May 2007

Plath James, (2007), Movie Metropolis - Paprika Review, @ http://moviemet.com/review/paprika-blu-ray-review, Accessed on: 8th December 2007

2.5/ 5

Depictions of Jack Frost through history

I have looked at range of examples from Folklore art to animations and film.

Folklore Art

Contemporary Art

TV/ Cartoon

  





Movies