Interactive Narrative - Gameplay 02

Week 1 - Day 4

Okay, so, just at a first glance, Legend of Zelda is, currently, a lot like Metroid. I was kind of hoping that it'll at least start off with some kind of story to let me know what I'm actually supposed to be doing but alas. I guess maybe I have to go somewhere to unlock a cutscene? Anyway, here goes my first run of the game.

Like most RPG/adventure games, I get to pick my own name! But I'm going to stick with using Link because I'm unoriginal (and a stickler for being faithful to the character) and I have 3 hearts. I'm going to immediately assume that it's game over when I've run out of them. Hopefully, like with most Mario games, I have the option to regain them come a certain point.

The cave looked a bit ominous so I decided to go to the left, ONLY TO STUMBLE ACROSS A HEARD OF MONSTERS. NOOOOOOO!! It's a lot like with Metroid where you're not THUNKED into the beginning of the map with only one clear route; you have plenty of choices to pick from. The obvious way to go would be the cave but if you're a coward like me, you'd pick the path of the least resistance...

Which is OBVIOUSLY NOT THIS WAY. So I went back to the previous map and went down the cave and got me a sword from an old man. I don't even know how long that old man has been there for, waiting and waiting for somebody to come down those steps to find him...but then HE DISAPPEARED!! Is his only role in this game to arm me with a sword? Such a sad existence!! If you push the A button, you THROW the sword like a LASER. That's friggin' amazing (and also weird but we won't go into schematics here...)

Moving on...

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1 DEATH LATER

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Okay, so I got overly ambitious with trying to kill every monster in the map, but at least I know when to leave things well enough alone now; I know when I'm beat...

Let's try again...but BETTER...

(On another note, monsters do not respawn if you ever wanna backtrack to a previous map. Very nice.)

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ANOTHER DEATH LATER (where the music sounds suspiciously like the battle theme in pokemon...)

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Obviously, I didn't learn my previous lesson all that well...

The nice thing about this game is that you can continue after you die with the things in your inventory and the crystals you picked up without losing them. The downside of that is you'll go back to the very first map you appeared in. A bit annoying, but not bad considering the benefits!

It'll be handy if they provided a map so I knew WHERE TO GO, otherwise I'm kind of just...bumbling around hoping for the best. Although, if I go to the left of the map enough times to find another cave, I do get told to find an old man at the graveyard. Spooky...

I'm assuming that this game relies a lot of visual memory so you know where to go. I don't see the option of a map so unless you actually take note of where you're supposed to go, you'll most likely just end up going around in circles.

I feel like drawing myself a map to keep a track of where I am.

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DRAWING MAPS ARE SO HARD. I DIEEEEEEEEE. I ALWAYS DIEEEEE. I'M ALWAYS LOSTTT!!! Oh mah gaahhhhh...I always die before I can get very far into the game...this is so hard. DX Whyyyyyyyyy...

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Quick Q & A for Legend of Zelda. (Time for some more serious business.)

1. How would you describe the genre of the game? How is this evident in level design, storytelling and gameplay? 

Legend of Zelda is an adventure/role playing game. While the world itself is simply designed, the objectives within each map is clearly defined. It reminds me a lot of Pokemon where the moment you try to venture into the tall grass and vast outdoors, you are stopped and given a pokemon to help your journey along. In Legend of Zelda's case, you're free to go about as many maps as you want but you are weaponless and more likely to die than not. You're required to go into the cave, putting your faith in a shadowy place, in hopes it'll turn to your benefit which, indeed, it does. The storytelling is not immediately clear but the gameplay is easy enough to follow through - just keep going until you hit your next destination.

2. How does your chosen game(s) tell its story? Is it successful? 

Much like it was with Metroid, I'm not sure what the story for the Legend of Zelda is actually about. I know enough backstory passed from word of mouth from other players but, in my own personal experience with the game, I am utterly lost. This seems to be an ongoing theme but I'm hoping the next game I play will be more forthcoming with the story details. At the very least, enough to give us a basic idea of what we're doing.

3. Does your game encourage exploration? How does this affect the pace/meaning/structure of the narrative?

There are so many routes to pick from and, if you're able to keep yourself alive for long enough, you're more than able to explore through each map and defeat the monsters within them. Like with most RPG games, you are forced to explore the maps to get a general overview of what's to come. In the case of the Legend of Zelda, you're placed in a world full of monsters and your only way forward is to arm yourself and fight. How many fights or maps you have to go through (without a guide) is entirely up to the player. If the player so chooses, they can simply take their time with the maps, exploring every nook and cranny to their liking. It should not affect the storyline in any way as the amount of time you play the game is not counted by the second or the minute. You can spend as little or as long as you want and you'll still possibly get the same result in the end.

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Well, all in all, I actually like playing Legend of Zelda a lot more than Metroid...(sorry, Samus). I'll be trying to play Castlevania next time and, apparently, it's going to be hard...I'm not looking forward to that. XD

Interactive Narrative - Gameplay 01

Week 1 - Day 3

Gaming! I haven't played all that many games outside of my current obsession: Guild Wars 2 and Avengers Academy. Yes, this totally says a lot about me...But anyway, this week we have a choice of playing Metroid, Legend of Zelda, or Castlevania. I'm gonna be totally honest with you; I've only ever heard of the Legend of Zelda out of the three mentioned, and YES, I will also totally admit that I thought the guy plastered all over the front of the game covers was actually called Zelda. This is wrong...His name is Link...(Don't be a doof like me...)

Right, so we're gonna jump into playing Metroid first, just because it's on the top of the list. I have NO CLUE what the game is about so I'm going in completely blind. It's an adventure game that looks a lot like Mario and Pokemon and that sounds pretty awesome so I'm gonna go ahead and try for at least a couple of hours of actual game-play before moving on to rescuing Zelda.

Now, first impressions. THIS IS SO RETRO. Really reminds me of Mario and growing up in the mid 90's with these kind of games. I'm an 80's kid but I didn't actually get to start playing around with games until I moved to New Zealand when I was about...8ish years old. The music is also funky. I wike it.

So, 5 seconds into the game, I am lost. Yay...I couldn't quite figure out the keys of how to play it...I know the arrows work and enter but that's it! I actually thought I died when I hit the START button because everything stopped moving. Little did I know, I simply paused the game...

I changed the keys to the ASDW format and the A and B buttons to something else but, uh...I only confused myself a bit more and that wasn't cool. I'm gonna have to change it again because I JUST DIED...Far out, this brings back memories of frustration.

What does this password even do? Can I continue from where I last was? Is this like a save point? There's only one way to find out...BACK INTO THE FRAY.

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4 DEATHS LATER

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Okay, so I figured out how to DUCK! You push the down button twice...Yay...

I honestly couldn't figure it out and I didn't actually manage to get past that first couple of rooms without dying. Stupid monsters...

Also, the character reminds me a lot of Samus from those Mario battle games. (After a quick google, it turns out it IS ACTUALLY SAMUS. Wow, I suck.)

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Quick Q & A for Metroid. (Time for some serious business.)

1. How would you describe the genre of the game? How is this evident in level design, storytelling and gameplay? 

This is an action/adventure game where the goal is to go from one end of the dungeon to another until it is completed. Along the way, you can defeat monsters, pick up items, and open doors by shooting at them. The design is very simple and the world is very flat and 2-dimensional; typical of most games within this generation. Take Super Mario for example.

It's not overly complicated; the only way forward is...well, forward. There is only one route in which you can lead your character to the end of the room/dungeon and it's impossible to get lost. Winning the dungeon and completing it is an entirely different subject. Getting to the next part contributes to the storytelling and narrative, although it would certainly help if the game started off with some actual exposition. I'm not a big fan of exposition but going in blind is just very silly, and asking us to die a many violent death.

The game-play itself is easy enough - you have your arrow keys, you have your A and B buttons as well as your SELECT AND START buttons. Each key does it's own thing and it's easy enough to figure out which is which. Of course, making sure you shoot at the monster rather than jump towards them is another matter. The endgame is easy enough to figure out, but I still don't know how Samus' particular story actually starts. This is something that either the game within the website is missing, or it was left out either by accident or purposely. In any case, I'm a confused game player.

2. How does your chosen game(s) tell its story? Is it successful? 

Currently, I don't feel that it's very explanatory. As soon as I clicked ENTER, I was thrown into the game without any backstory. I'm in a cave and I don't know why or how I got there. I have a gun and there are monsters all around me and they are definitely not the friendly type like Yoshi is for Mario. Most of the games I've played will at least tell you a little bit of what's going on but for Metroid, I am completely blank as to what I'm supposed to do, where I'm supposed to go, and what my objective is for being where I am. In terms of exposition, the game mostly failed, although that would be either of our faults (maybe the game on the website didn't load properly and the starting story is missing or I rushed the STARTING MENU SCREEN too much).

With Mario, you KNOW WHY we're traversing the world, squashing mushrooms, kicking turtles back into their shells or throwing fireballs at man-eating flowers - it's all for the sake of rescuing Princess Peach! But with Metroid? I have absolutely no clue where I am or why I'm there. I simply...am.

3. Does your game encourage exploration? How does this affect the pace/meaning/structure of the narrative?

Yes, indeed it does. It wasn't evident at the beginning of my play-through, but after the first few attempts at trying to understand the mechanics behind the game, it became easier to stop thinking about which keys and buttons to push and more on the question of; what will happen if I go to the left instead of the right? The answer was that I found a sphere or perhaps a power-up on the left side of the first map I was thrown into. I'm not sure what it does for my character but it shows that exploring the map does help, in some way.

The fact that you don't immediately spawn at the beginning of the map says a lot; you need to think about exploring; you can't simply shoot and keep moving forward and hope for the best. Exploring opens up new possibilities (and items?) for your character to use and take advantage of as well as the use of strategy. It's not like with Mario where the only thing you can do is go from point A to Z.

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Thanks for tuning into my play-through of Metroid. Catch you all next time when we try to attempt Legend of Zelda!!

3D Character Animation 08

NAME: Joanne Teo (FAS00001OH)

PROJECT: Rigging & Animation Project (Summative)

DATE: 11/11/2015

CLASS: BAR06 3D Foundations

RATIONALE

Parodies are not a new invention but since the introduction of social media they have grown exponentially in popularity; there will hardly ever be a day without some mention of a meme that have become so integral in today’s pop culture conversations. That said, it’s easy to reimagine scenes from one medium to fit into the genre of another which is where Emelyn, a bright but struggling student trying to make ends meet by picking up the odd job here and there, comes in.

My development process included brainstorming different scenes to fit a genre shift and it wasn’t long before I settled for the iconic alien popping out of a person’s stomach and twisted it from a sci-fi horror into a dark comedy instead. I went through different ideas and peer consultations before settling on a girl jumping out of a cake prop, mostly due to the enthusiastic replies of my classmates.

I wasn’t aiming for realism when I designed Emelyn and was intent on using flat colours without any textures involved for a “doll” look but Keat suggested a texture for her clothes, skin, hair and even her bunny ears. UV texturing became a problem but the end result was rewarding although it did lend a bit of an uncanny feeling to the model which took a couple of days to warm up and get used to.

The coffin prop was a last minute addition as well as the cross on the wall, the former of which was a request from Keat. They added an extra appeal to the scene rather than the use of a flat 2D background. The coffin was originally roughly the same size as Emelyn but it kept disappearing behind the cake prop so I enlarged it until it was visible throughout the scene. It would be large enough to fit two Emelyn’s in there but in this case, artistic licensing was used to make the shots look nicer. I didn’t have enough time to include two flower pots so they were disregarded in the end for a higher priority.

I had originally planned to keep the animation as close to the storyboard as possible but consultations with Keat showed me a better way to go about animating certain scenes. I’d previously meant for the cake to shake before Emelyn jumps out of it but since the cake prop has a control for opening and closing, it looked better to make the lid rattle than to move the whole prop. This gave the scene a more appealing look and it allowed me to use the control on the cake to its full potential.

Her animation requires her to fling her arms out after she pops out of the cake and the original idea had her throw her arms upwards but I wanted her to spread her arms out horizontally in line to the cross on the wall behind her instead. I attempted this but the animation didn’t feel or look quite as appealing as what was drawn in the storyboard, and I also felt it might cross the line towards insensitive instead, considering that the setting is in a funeral home. This is the case where the original beats a different attempt. There was also a jump and settle of her body after she appears out of the cake which was a suggestion made by a peer. It gave her the look of stretching and bending her knees despite that the IK rigs on her legs were not used.

Lighting had its own difficulties to deal with but the inclusion of it made me reconsider the application of certain materials on the model. I changed the blinn texture meant to emulate silk and turned it into a lambert instead due to the plastic-look and unappealing way it shone under the spotlights. The matte appearance fitted better in the overall scene.

In regards to audio done in After Effects, I was only going to use the original audio from the chestburster scene but decided the silence leading up and after that felt too unnatural so I decided to use audio from freesounds.org to fill in the quiet parts with a murmur at the beginning followed the a rattle for the cake lid, the original audio mixed with a gasp and an outraged mumbling in the background. All in alI, I’m very happy with how the entire animation turned out in the end.

3D Character Animation 07

Week 8 - Day 4

I've done my editing! That is to say, I've added some audio to go with the video. It was pretty awkward at the beginning without any sound until we hit the chestburster audio but it was easily fixed with some crowd murmuring in the background mixed in with a gasp here and an outraged chatter there. Woohoo~ After Effects crashed every time I tried to render out a RAM version which sucked because I had to second-guess a lot of where the rattle had to go and I think I missed one little bit with the timing but the constant crashing kind of...got me frustrated. I fixed it as best as I could and on the whole, it's a pretty minor detail to pick up on unless you're like me and kind of pedantic and you know where to listen...Huehehehe...

My next post will include a rationale for this entire venture. My thanks to you for reading and keeping up with me on this 3D journey, and also my thanks to my classmates for their encouragements and their help, my thanks to freesound.org as well and also to Keat for putting up with my whining and complaining and my crying.

Yes, I was totally pathetic but the laughs I've had along the way have been pretty worth it. (I'm going to erase my breakdown in the middle of the classroom...banish it from my thoughts...FOREVER...)

<3

3D Character Animation 06

Week 8 - Day 2

IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOOOOWWWWNNNN!!!

So, I started doing some lighting yesterday...and total, I've got 5 light sources. 1x volume light and 4x spotlights. I originally only had 2 spot lights pointing at the cake but then I forgot about her popping out of said cake and this was what those two spotlights made her look like after rendering.

Can you hear it? MY HORROR. Like, what the actual eff.

This is better with the addition of twp extra spotlights but the blinn material I gave her looks horrible! SUCH HORRIBLE. Makes her look plasticky...

So I changed it into a lambert instead. Yay~

I almost changed the material on her eyes as well but the shine of it looks good - makes it look like she's on the verge of tears of ABSOLUTE DESPAIR AND EMBARRASSMENT AND SHAME. I like it.

Okay...moving onto...alpha channels. DX I AM THE ALPHA.

...

...

After talking with Keat I found out I don't really need to render out the scene into three separate pieces. PHEW! That's easier for me. I'm happy with the overall look of it and I wasn't even sure what I could do with them in After Effects anyway...

Now...to find me some free sound!! I'm thinking of a quiet murmuring for the background, people gasping, and the original audio from the movie file. This is gonna be cray.

3D Character Animation 06

Week 7 - Day 4

So...I managed to, more or less, get the animation to how I want it, which means...I get to move onto lighting, compositing and rendering for next week!! We're coming to the final round and I will WIN. I WILL BE THE CHAMPION!!!

(And cry while I'm at it, but whatever, I'll still win.)

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I've already made the necessary changes so if all goes well I could be finished as early as Tuesday and spend the last two days to refine it before the final submission on Thursday.

It's not actually due on Thursday but I like to give myself early deadlines (and unneeded stress) so if I ever come across a particular snag, I can fix it before it's due. Woohoo~

I'm not too fussed about the weirdness of her smile, mostly because I can't figure out which vertices is making her chin look like that and trust me when I say I've tried fixing it to the best of my abilities. This is as good as it'll get. It's very, very, extremely likely the chin is behaving that way because the two face geos are aligned one on top of the other and they're affecting each other in a bad way. Ain't good, man, but meh. I'll know what not to try doing next time and possibly either try a different method or just do it the hard way instead.

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P.S - I bought some ice cream. It's actually not ice cream? It's more like...crunchy shaved ice with pieces of red bean and mini mochi pieces. Uh...it's not good, man. I am not buying it again.

You know how you buy ice cream and you eat it within...let's say, 5 minutes because that's pretty much the optimal level of consumption but this cold treat...I've been eating it for over half an hour. It's that bad, and that unappetizing. Now, you might be asking, why don't you just throw it away? Good question. I don't know why. It just didn't occur to me. Maybe because I'm slow, or maybe because I'm not a fan of wasting food. Oh well.

P.P.S - (While looking away from the screen and keyboard...) jerwin is so weird, i don't evem know what's going om/ I could be typin g this all wrong.

3D Character Animation 05

Week 7 - Day 2

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Where has the last 4 weeks gone? I don't even know. I sure as heck ain't hiding it in my pockets, bro.

So, Keat gave me some more advice on camera movements, like how one shot had too long a pause and how the rattle of the cake lid should lead up to the POP rather than just abruptly stop. I mean, IN HINDSIGHT, this makes sense, but only in hindsight because I sure as heck didn't think about it. You can call me lazy but it's probably a combination of TOO MUCH STUFF ON MY PLATE and lack of foresight, sooooooo...

I edited my frowny eyebrows so they're a bit lower and more noticeable and less...hiding in the hairline. Why did I make her hair so big and poofy? I regret. Much regret. I'm also trying to figure out the blendshape to make her mouth bigger. I would show you an image but I didn't think about it and to be honest...it's pretty friggin' horrifying. X_X I mean, I won't subject you to that, man. I ain't cruel.

So, camera movements down. 1 change in blendshape done and another one to go. Plus!! I'll need to change the way Emelyn pops out of the cake to add a contrast of small to LARGE. Will probably get around to it tomorrow.

On a plus side, and totally irrelevant to 3D, I finished my comparative analysis essay! HUZZAH! I dread seeing how much of it I'll have to fix when I get the first draft back but ugh, needs must, and I wanna pass...

I WANNA PASS, DANG IT!

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Here's a preview of a later attempt at making Emelyn smile...

Such creepy. Much fearsome.

It's...horrible looking from a distance but less creepy, so that's okay...

I might...try and refine it tomorrow? It depends on how much torture I'm willing to put myself through...

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We shall see...

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P.S - When Captain America throws his mighty shield. All those who chose to oppose his shield must yield!!