Storyboard Research

11/10/11 - Storyboard

Once a script is written for a film or animation, the next step is to create a storyboard, a storyboard visually tells the story of an animation panel by panel, very similar to a comic book. A Storyboard should involve what characters are in the frame and how they are moving, what the characters are saying to each other if anything, the main plot of the story with act one, two and three. 


There are many different ways to create a storyboard, some might be on full sheets of paper and others on note cards. Still other storyboards might be created on squares and attached to a felt board. Even Powerpoint slides or graphical software such as photoshop or paint can be used to create individual scenes.

No matter what method is used, there are two basic parts to a storyboard, the image and the description. The image can be a basic hand drawn sketch, photograph or graphically created image. It's primary purpose is to give a basic visual idea as to what is happening.

Short Story Ideas

11/10/11 - Animation Ideas
My first idea is a student that falls asleep in class - the main acts of the idea involve a dream scene.
The animation starts with the teacher at his desk typing, the viewer will then click the door to open it so the student walks in. The student then walks in and sits down, he is now in the safety of his class, bored, but then falls asleep and dreams that he is lost and alone in a dark, unknown place, he then tries to find an exit. The student is scared and doesn't know what to do, he stands up still until the viewer clicks in a certain place - a dark shadowy pair of eyes then appear. the figure then slowly reaches forwards to touch the boy but then awakes by the teacher.


Image Assets                            

• School Boy
• Teacher
• Dream Bubble
• Figure

Sound Assets

• Teacher talking in background
• Snoring
• Soundtrack that increases tension
• Gasp for when boy wakes up

Feedback

One Peer suggested that the idea is good, it's well structured with the main three acts - school boy bored at school (normal act 1) school boy starts to dream and conflict starts and finishes (act 2) everything returns to normal (act 3)

Another peer mentioned that although the idea is good - it involves a lot of different assets which could lead to not being finished in time.

Storyboard

Scene One - Medium shot of whole classroom, it's a normal day at school and the sounds of the classroom and teacher are playing in the background.

Scene Two - Close up shot of main character, he's bored in class and shows it by fiddling with his pen on the desk.

Scene Three - Close up shot of main character, he starts to yawn.

Scene Four - Close up shot of main character, sounds from the classroom start to fade as the boy slowly falls asleep and begins to dream, shown my a dream bubble.

Scene Five (dream scene) - Close up shot of main character, he starts to wake and finds himself in a dark place, alone. Sounds of faint animal noises in background to create dramatic tension.

Scene Six (dream scene) - Medium shot of main character, he slowly begins to stand up, he's scared, shown by facial expressions, a bright lightning flash then eyes appear behind him.

Scene Seven (dream scene) - Medium shot of behind the main character as he turns around, he is now facing the eyes, frozen still - growling sounds from the beast (eyes).

Scene Eight - Medium shot of main character back in class, he suddenly wakes up by the sound of the bell and classroom sounds slowly fade in.

Adobe Flash Techniques

04/10/11 - Adobe Flash Demo

Today we were given a demo on using Adobe Flash. We started off by creating a new file and selecting "Actionscript 3.0".

imported an image of a robot from google that our tutor gave us.

Started experimenting using the "Line Tool" to draw around the robot - selected the colour window then added a fill.

Selected a gradient and experimented using different shades and colours.

we then continued to draw around the robot, experimenting with snapping and gradient colours.

We then selected the outline of the robot and converted it to a symbol by right clicking it and selecting convert to symbol, naming it robot.

We then created a coloured light on the robot in a new layer using the "line Tool" to help experiment with using frames.



We then inserted a new frame after five seconds. To make the light flash on and off we inserted two frames inbewtween the five seconds with the light was not showing. 

Motion experiment

We created a new layer, made a shape (circle) using the "Shape Tool" then selected the circle, right clicked it and converted it to a symbol, naming it "ball".

The next step was to create motion of the ball, to do this; we moved the key frame head to 25 frames then moved the shape which brings up the motion path of the object (shown in the screenshot below).

We then did the same again but this time we morphed a square shape into an oval. The steps are very much the same apart from there must be another shape for the original to morph into, in this case we created an oval.

Text Experiment

We then experimented with text, to do this we created some text, highlighted and selected the window "Modify" then "Break Apart" we then repeated that again.

Once the text is broken apart it is free to transform by pulling the edges of the text.

We then created a another shape so that the text would morph into it, to do this we created the shape and the send of the frames then created a motion tween between the two.

Back to Robot

Here we created a new leg on a new layer using the "Line Tool" so that it could move separately.

We then selected the leg and converted it into a symbol naming it "Leg 2".

We then cloned the leg by copy and paste and made both legs move in opposing directions.

We then scaled the finished robot down to size and placed it to the right of the stage, we then created a key frame at around frame 50 with the robot on the other side of the stage then created a "Classic Tween" in-between the frames.

This is the animation being played as a movie (Cntrl + Enter)

For the next part of the demo, we imported this image of a wall from the web,

Using the "Distort" tool we shaped the wall so that it was right for the demo and what we wanted to achieve,

We then created a button using the "Rectangle" shape tool, we made the button stay on the stage for the whole movie by selecting the button layer then pressing F5 to create a key-frame at the point of where the animation stops.

We added a speech-bubble using the "Oval" shape tool, then filled it in white, using the "Line Tool" we then transformed the bubble by dragging the edge of it out so that it looked like it was coming from the robot.

The final step to add was sound - to do this, we went to a website called http://sounddogs.com/ then downloaded the sound of a bird tweeting,

We then edited the sound in Adobe Audition by making it shorter so that it focused on the bird tweeting part and not the background noises before and after.

Importing the sound file was the last step of creating our own animation, it was very easy and similar to importing an image,

Overall, this was a very intresting demo, although it was fustrating at points, problems and errors were made easy to fix as it shows your error in Flash and you can then click it to find out where and what has gone wrong. But at the same this demo was very enjoyable as we were learning something different and it gave me a good idea of what creating animations will be like for the future.

04/10/11 - Task One


Summary Of A Three Act Narrative Structure
A Three Act Narrative is split up into three sections, a beginning, a middle and an end. This is what many movies, books, stories, poems and games use for there basic structure.

Story
A story is a common term for a recounting of a sequence of events known as the plot.

The Narrative
A narrative is all the descriptive elements that give the story meaning.

Act One

The Beginning, (also known as the set-up or exposition) which introduces:

The setting (place and time)

Several or all of the main characters/assets

The general conflict that the story focuses on

The tone of the narrative (humorous, suspenseful etc.)

This section is considered as a 'normal' stage where nothing is going wrong.

Act One Continued

Once the first scene is set and settled in, some form of conflict needs to be added to drive the action forwards towards Act Two - introduce a plot point, also called an inciting incident/catalyst.

Act Two

The middle part of the story which is driven forward by conflict or some form of complication.

The conflict arises from the plot point and forces the main character to solve this conflict, to do this he must come out of the 'normal' state.

When the main character solves this conflict or complication it should lead to another set of complications which keeps driving the story forward until it reaches the climax.

Act Two Continued

Each rise and action involved in the story is followed by a levelling off or falling off in the action.

Conflict can be physical, spiritual, emotional, cultural, social, internal, psychological etc.

Act Two is usually wrapped up by a plot point that resolves the overarching conflict that has been driving the main character forward.

Act Three

This act is sometimes referred too as the resolution or denouement. In this section the meaning/mystery of the story is revealed. This section usually happens quicker than others as it is a scene of unloading the build ups. In this act a summary of the lessons learnt/moral of the story is unfolded, the main character returns to ''normal'', loose ends are tied up as quickly as possible and the story twist or a suggestion of a sequel can be introduced by the use of a cliffhanger.


Look at the plots for 3 games you are familiar with. Make notes of the main plot 
points and how the action rises towards climax and resolution. Document this in 
your blog.

04/10/11
Game Plot Summary


Metal Gear Solid
Act One
MGS starts off with the main character secret agent Solid Snake who is yanked out of a well-earned retirement and sent to a remote island in Alaska, where a military black-ops team has gone rogue and seized a nuclear weapon. (although the first act of this plot is very brief, it fits in perfectly to theme of the game and helps convey the excitement and action that the rest of the sequel brings to the table.)

 Act Two
Act two is were the conflict starts, after being sent to this remote island, the main character "Snake" soon learns that that he's part of a government cloning project, and that his clone "brother" wants to kill him using a giant, walking, nuclear-armed tank called Metal Gear. (this is the conflict that forces the main character to come out of "normal" in order to solve the problem. This problem also creates a sub-story in the plot, the more the character learns about this island the more he discovers about the people which consequently leads himself into danger of his allies betraying him.)

Act Three
Act three quickly sweeps up all the action into one short section of the game - the main character "Snake" overcomes impossible odds, he ultimately saves the day (and the girl, if your lucky) by accidentally infecting his brother with a lethal virus for which he was made an unwitting carrier. Snake is unaffected by the virus - but for how long? (the last act in this game is very coordinated and smooth, and the great thing about it is that you can decide weather to save another character which changes the game. After the main conclusion, secrets are revealed and all is returned to normal which ties up all the loose ends and questions you may be thinking about. Another great thing about this plot is that it finishes on a cliffhanger - how long will "snake" be unaffected for? which is an introduction for the next game in the sequel.)

Gears of War 3
Act One 
GoW 3 starts right in the middle of the action, the war is still alive and the "Gears" (soldiers) are still trying to find a way to end it. You, (the main character, Marcus Phoenix) are told that Chairman Prescott is returning after mysteriously abandoning the CoG gears two years ago, who then presents Marcus Phoenix with a data disc that shows his father, scientist Adam Phoenix, is still alive. The sovereign then becomes under attack and the gears lose the ship, Chairman Prescott is wounded but amongst his last words he provides Marcus with an encrypted key with the location of a secret base known as Azura where Adam is being held. Marcus and his team then set out to find his father is search of an answer to end the war.

Act Two
Marcus and his team are forced to travel across enemy controlled bases in order to find Azura and save his father, they head off to Anvil Gate to help Defend against a locust onslaught, afterwards, they review the encrypted key to find the location of Azura but discover it is protected by a man-made Maelstorm, preventing arrival by air or on sea. They decide to travel by submarine in the ruins of Char, a nearby city, but they will need fuel. Dom Suggests travelling to Mercy, where a filling location is located, but also the home of his dead wife Maria which leads to an emotional scene of Dom missing her, he then sacrifices himself in order to save the others by driving a truck into the gas station, blowing up the enemies. Dom was Marcus's best friend which upsets him a great deal yet helps to keep him persistent on finding a way to end the war once and for all.  

Act Three
Marcus and his team ride the submarine and eventually arrive at Azura, discovering that it is a huge hotel resort/hideout that Chairman Prescott had built before the war began meaning that he had knowledge of this happening. Marcus and the team contact Marcus's father through the security cameras, he explains that he has a cure to stop the lambent but first to follow his instructions to shutting down the maelstorm so that they can provide air and land support. After shutting it down and a brief reunion with his father, Marcus's father, Adam Phoenix explains that the emulsion is a living organism and that he can destroy it using the maelstorm machine to send out waves of energy. After fighting a boss and waves of enemies the machine works and ends the war, although, Adam then reveals that he is close to death but tells Marcus and his team to live their lives to their fullest.

Fable 

Act One

Fable is an role playing game and certainly my favourite game of all time, it begins with the Hero as a child, his village, Oakvale, is raided and destroyed by bandits on his sister's birthday; along with her and his mother being kidnapped and his father killed. An old hero named Maze soon arrives on the scene, rescues the Hero, and convinces him to join the Heroes' Guild to be trained to become a champion; Maze sees great potential in the boy. The Hero then embarks on his journey to rescue his mother and sister and to take out revenge on who killed his father.

Act Two

After some time, and after honing his skills, Maze informs the hero of a blind seeress living among bandits near his home town, and advises the Hero to infiltrate the bandit camp. After gaining entry to the camp by stealing a bandit outfit he soon finds out that his sister is being held captive there by the bandits leader Twinblade, a former Hero and present Bandit King. After a showdown with Twinblade the Hero rescues his sister.

Later on in the Hero's life he is invited to fight in the Arena, where he meets the legendary Hero named Jack of Blades, who is running the arena battles and, as a final show, issues a challenge against the Hero and his rival/friend Whisper. When the Hero defeats her, he is given the choice to kill her or spare her life. It eventually becomes clear that it was Jack of Blades himself who destroyed Oakvale during the Hero's childhood. Aided by Theresa his sister, the Hero makes it his mission to defeat Jack of Blades one way or another, either through good or evil. The Hero tracks down his mother, and rescues her from Bargate Prison, where Jack has kept her since the day of the Oakvale raid.

 When he finally escapes with his mother, the Hero attempts to track down Jack. Maze, however, is revealed to be a traitor and working with Jack but the Hero soon defeats Maze, and before he goes, Maze tells the Hero that he is strong enough to defeat Jack and tells him where he can be found.

Act Three

The Hero is led into a final confrontation with Jack where his mother is killed. Jack reveals that The Sword of Aeons can only be wielded if it receives the blood of Archon. Upon the death of their mother, the Hero and Theresa are the only two remaining descendants of Archon, and if Jack destroys them both the sword will be even more powerful. After defeating Jack, the Hero must choose whether to keep the Sword of Aeons by killing his sister and gaining ultimate power, or cast it away forever into a portal created by Jack of Blades' death.