Game Project - Team Sprout 07

Week 31 - Day 4

This week has been quite relaxing. Phew! A nice change of pace from the couple of weeks previously that have been nothing but HECTIC. Anyway, I drew up some more concepts for additional NPCs but I don't think we'll be needing them since Taylor's done a bang-up job of putting the game together and the backgrounds Taylor, Mikayla and Phoenix have done look awesome, too. I'm worried about over-cluttering it so I'm just gonna put these here and leave it as is...

Concepts for a Lily character living on the "water section" of the map. Glow-worms and scared bunny included on the page.

Stick insect concepts...

Huhu grubs, snails, praying mantises and more lily pad concepts.

Refined version of a praying mantis, veined slug and MOREPORK!!

Extra snail concepts, soldier bugs and another MOREPORK!

 In terms of concept work I think I've done quite a good amount. In terms of actual game development, maybe not so much. I'm very happy with the sprite PNGs that I was able to do with the non-playable characters as well as our own sprout character designs and animations but the rest is...eh...

Anyway, this is it from me for now. Adios amigos.

Cooking Montage 09

Week 31 - Day 2

I don't like recording sounds. I don't know why but the sound quality for some of them are super clear and CRISP while others are weirdly muted and...faded in the background. I talked to Dane about it and he pointed out that the mike was a...one-directional mike? And the way I recorded some of the sounds was that I ended up either recording some of the audio from the back or from the side. YAY. Anyway, they're not too bad because there's still a good chunk of recordings I could use (about 40+) as opposed to the ones I couldn't (about 10+) but at least I still got my original target of 20 sounds as mentioned in my schedule so that's awesome.

Also, I don't like the background white noise in the background of a lot of them. I'm assuming it's because of the lack of padding in the sound room and too much echo going around that the mike is just picking up. It's muy bien...

I've added some filler noise for a few of the quiet parts, such as when we're moving from one shot to another and there's a gap of audio between one action to the next. I threw in a really subtle noise from one of our recordings I wasn't planning to originally use just because we could barely pick anything up but heck, looks like it'll be put to good use after all! Huzzah!

As a little nice extra, I added a nice track at the end during the end credit scene that I'm pretty happy about. I'm excited to show it next week. Out of the entire "movie" the end credit is my favourite part. XD

This is it for now...I shouldn't need too much more on the audio section. I think I just need to go through the audio files a few more times to polish it a bit more. I'll probably ask a couple of people to have a watch and listen before I convert it into something viewable for the final submission. I'm aiming for a nice 1920 by 1080. Whee!!

Chur...

Game Project - Team Sprout 06

Week 30 - Day 3

I decided to add a transition forward for the character to go from sprout form into flower form!! Here's what they look like going forward.

There won't be a transition backwards because...they don't work like that. XD Their final form will stay as their new idle loop~

Now that's all nice and done I'll be working on extra assets. I'm thinking of doing some huhu grubs, snails, lilypads, praying mantis and stick insects? We'll see. With the exception of the huhu grubs which will remain static, everything else will have a small movement to them so that they don't end up taking away too much of the attention. I'm still unsure about whether to have them as an interactive asset or leave them on an idle loop animation. I guess depending on the movement it can go either way. Like I said...WE SHALL SEE...

Cooking Montage 08

Week 29 - Day 4

Oh, mah, gah, the forum layout on moodle is so weird. HOW DO I CHANGE THIS?!? ALL THIS WASTED SPACE!! SOMEONE HELP ME!

Anyway, I recolored shot 01 and shot 05 for the spring onions because the minty colour was just...not what I wanted for it so I made it look nicer. Also, I collected about...40 sound files with the help of Phoenix, Mikayla and Tea and I may or may not record a couple more. I think I'll try and for for a bottle opening just for the cracking sound of it being twisted open, water being poured into a cup and some popping candy noise. I forgot to record an audio file of me going "ew" or thereabouts for the last shot so I need to remember to do that long with the other recordings.

I should be able to start compositing everything by next week and hopefully get at least halfway through the animation by the end of next week. I should be able to do the title and end credit scene in After Effects without too much trouble, too, but we'll see...

All in all, a pretty productive week. I've been falling asleep on the bus ride back home and, a couple of times I woke up just as the bus was driving past my house because I didn't wake up in time to hit the button. XD I don't usually get tired enough to just doze off but man, I have been so tired recently and my energy levels are just low. I can't wait for this entire project to be over so I can take a breather. At least I know where my limits are when it comes to self-directed projects and I'll probably cut back 15% of the workload just so I'm not so overwhelmed. If this was the ONLY THING I'm doing for the entire term then it would've been just fine, but as it is it's just too much on my small, tiny plate.

Anyway, I'll give another proper update on moodle once I've more or less got some scene with the sounds thrown on top of it. See y'all next time!

Game Project - Team Sprout 05

Week 29 - Day 2

I am very tired. It's been a struggle trying to keep up with so many assessments going on at the same time. I hope this isn't a reflection of real life because if it is then it sucks. Anyway, I've been working on our characters but I've yet to animate the part where the little sprout transitions into our character sprites. I'll work on that this week, hopefully...

So, apart from our character sprites I think we could be with another few sprites of insects, a lilypad, maybe a still of a birds' nest, maybe a leaf fluttering on the stalk still attached to a tree branch...? I don't want too many assets, that might be overkill especially if they're all moving in the background. I could make the leaves an interactive bit of background; it doesn't have to be moving until it's clicked on.

Before I forget, here's a snapshot of our characters in-game. I've yet to sort out the timing of the animation and make their proper transitions but we'll get there...I have a few more weeks to work on this so...I could take it easy for a while...

I need to sort out my assets' folder. I'll work on it later...

Cooking Montage 07

Week 28 - Day 4

I GOT ALL MY SHOTS DONE!! SHOT, SHOT, SHOT, SHOT!! With the exception of shot 06, everything is done and dusted. Well, not completely 100% done yet because I still need to colour them in but I've already fixed the timing for them and they're looking a little bit choppy (haha) but it's a deliberate move. I'm not looking for super smooth, super refined animation. It's a rotoscope and for me, most rotoscope pieces have that slightly stilted look to them. I'm drawing (haha again) a lot of inspiration from the Take On Me music video which has a really rough but pleasantly rustic look to it.

Anyway, I'm pretty confident that I can get all of my shots coloured by the end of the week. I'm putting a little bit more focus on the gaming project because it's been neglected and put on the back-burner for the last couple of weeks...I can finally afford to dedicate some more time onto it which is great. Although, in saying that, it's been really hard to juggle more than 2 projects at a time. I dread the moment when I have to start doing clean-ups for Thaw's animation. It shouldn't be too bad, I don't think. At the very least, not as difficult as the animation we did for Foster Hope.

SO! Agenda for this week, since my schedule is kaput and out the window: COLORING! And then converting them all into SWF files so I can start to composite them for sound editing. I'm not sure if my laptop can handle After Effects since the last time I opened it the whole thing kind of froze and stuttered and crashed on me so there's a good chance I'll be doing most of my editing at school.

Right on. This is me signing off.

PEACE!

Game Project - Team Sprout 04

Week 28 - Day 3

I got distracted by Dane's assessment that I kind of forgot about the group project. Opps. DX But, I was able to catch up with making up some more sprites so in addition to the fire animation and the bunny animation I've also got 4 pieces of ember animation, spiderweb animation, glowworms, fireflies and swaying sprout and a scared bunny animation.

I'm also doing our character designs which I will be drawing up this week and also a lilypad and frog to put somewhere in the level. I'm still a little unsure on how to animate our characters but I think a simple swaying of their flower dresses will be nice to try. I think I'll have them pop out of the ground in a shower of the flower petals they represent.

That's my update for now~ I'll add more later.

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I has a cute frog! My initial sketches were more towards realism but I changed my mind and did a cartoony version instead. It looks good. It fits much nicer with the overall look of the game, I feel. The head moves from side to side. Look at it so happy~