Final Project

For my final video I brought in some of the people from my DnD group in order to do a parody of how certain situation play out. In the video, my friend Josh rolls a d20 for some sort of check, gets a 1, and in the end flips the table we're playing the game on out of frustration.

The lack of dialogue contributed to the success of the project in this case due to the fact that I'm hardly the best actor and that I was coming down with a cold around the time the video was filmed. I synched the video up with audio from Reign Supreme's "American Violence" intro, which samples the theme from 300, giving the roll an epic feel. I also slowed down Josh's lament and my sadistic laugh for extra comedic effect.

The shoot and editing process went smoothly, and my only complaint was that I would've shot more clips of the die rolling and reactions from Josh.

Storyboard

Here is a simple storyboard for the final video.

My video is going to be based around a game of dungeons and dragons where a player rolls a 1 and flips the board out of frustration. Dialogue will be limited as none of the people I'm planning on using are actors, and there will be a lot cutting back and forth between shots in a rapid succession to make it a bit more action oriented. I also plan on using slowed down clips of the die rolling to increase suspense.

Video 1 Stills

Here are three video stills from the 10 shots project. These are three of my personal favorites, with the opacity changes, color correction, and general framing of everything. The general concept of an assassination attempt in Travers was going to be fun to act out, and everything went smoothly. My only complaint was the lighting in the building and how it gave everything a yellowish tinge, which I'll correct in my final video.

Mid Term Reflection

In the end, I was pleased with the results of the project. The digital drawings came out well, and with better character art and backgrounds the game could succeed as a visual novel with its layout and art style. As I add more mechanics the look will change and new concepts will need to be done, but for a very basic planning phase it works well. If I could do the project again I would add more to the backgrounds of the dialogue screens as they look a little basic, and could use more details. In terms of chronicling a game's development from concept to inception, the screens work well as they show the development of different aspects that will be fundamental to it once it is programmed.

Visual Novel Concept Screens 2

The last three images in the presentation were done as mock dialogue screens. The top two are from conversations that may occur during the game, and the last is a monologue from the main character's perspective. The text box was created by combining lines for a box effect with a transparent gradient, giving it depth on screen. As the lines of dialogue change, the characters' expressions will change depending on their mood and their reaction to your choices. The backgrounds will stay consistent, with day and night versions of both. Monoluges will be a series of static images that will change depending on the line of text.

Visual Novel Character Concepts

Here are the annotated designs for the four main characters of the visual novel. After doing the game over and menu screen I drew them in order to ensure that I had a grasp of what the characters would look like when I did the mock dialogue screens. I was mainly aiming for a variety of outfits and to make the characters look distinct. The arrows on the pictures point out things that will change when the art for the actual game is done.

The sketches came out well. The anatomy is off in some places and I might change Ned's name and remove his facial hair in the final design, but as of now the designs are solid and I feel they will do well for the project.

Visual Novel Concept Screens 1

Here are the first two parts of the mid-term project: The menu screen and the game over screen.

The Crossing (Tentative title) is a horror visual novel/ choose your own adventure game inspired by the stories of H.P. Lovecraft, the horror anime Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, and to an extent the web series Marble Hornets. The main menu was mostly inspired by Higurashi's habit of doing close ups on the eyes of the characters which is used for a disturbing effect during a lot of the more unsettling scenes. The eye in the center combined with the splatters and red lighting in addition to do some dark edges on the side makes the composition look dark and unsettling, in the tradition of standard horror movie posters and covers.

The Game Over screen was more inspired by the Resident Evil games, whose death screens have a similar feel to them. Since this screen would only load in the event of the death of the player character, the splatters are much more prominent, and would make it the goriest screen in the game as due to the nature of the gameplay most of the violence would take place off screen and be implied in reactions and descriptive text.

Mid Term Project Proposal

For my midterm project I want to submit a series of concept art related to a visual novel project I plan on working on with several friends. The art will be done as examples of how the game will look, albeit with my art for the project rather than the art of my friends that I will actually use once the programming process of the actual game begins.

Here are the 6 Images I will be submitting for the class:

1. A rough draft of the menu
2. A rough draft of the game-over screen
3. 4 pictures of the characters hand drawn with elements explained via text in photoshop
4. A monologue screen from the main character's perpective
5-6. Two examples of in-game conversation

The target for the presentation would be people I plan on involving in the project, to give them an idea about how the game should look and how they should plan their parts of it. The idea behind the project is distinct since a lot of other people in the major are doing portfolios instead of wholly original work, and  the style is that of game screens instead of just compositions and concept art. All of the pieces are going to be made in photoshop, in some form or another. The main inspiration for the screens in question is the Phoenix Wright series, a similar form of game whose look inspired the aesthetics of the project. The art style is obviously anime influences as most of my drawings are.

Narrative Images

Here is the completed version of the narratives:

The three images are characters from the same story. The text on the top is a monologue from their perspective on the value that is most important to them, displayed in the large word at the bottom.

Malefic is a character whose life has been controlled and used for the benefit of countless people. Because of that, his main goal is to life by his own means and not be controlled by anyone. The pursuit of freedom and escaping his past are his two main motivations.

Judith is a strong willed character whose main motivation is help her people recover from the incidents that occur in the first part of the story. As a fair and just ruler, she embodies the virtue of honor.

As a monster hunter, Leon is a character who constantly puts himself in danger, and would be willing to give his life if necessary, to help protect other people. He embodies the virtue of sacrifice. 

The narrative itself is in a tryptic format using the three primary colors (Red, blue, and yellow) to tint each of the three characters. The colors fade to black and into the next color, representing the unity of the three despite their different outlooks. The repeated background texture enforces this. I could not think of a background that would unify the three very different texts, so I thought the texture would work better for the composition. It also puts more focus on the characters, who need to stand out instead of the text. Without a background image they are more of a centerpiece and less of a part of the background.

Overall I was happy with the composition. The lineart on Judith could've been done better (the leftmost hand trips me up a bit.), but the other two characters were drawn well.

Color Corrections

The first set of images done for the color correction was mostly done to make the bottom original image a bit more dramatic and less blown out. The picture was too light so I added more dark regions, creating a much more dramatic look.

The second set had a different issue. The darks on the bottom were overpowering the lights, so I changed the levels and tones to make more details stand out.

Art Showcase Response

While there were definitely odd pieces in the showcase (particularly the hanging balloons), the showcase had some very interesting pieces as well. The deer head that was linked to the televisions screens, showing the view of the animal was a great installation piece. The photo manipulations on display, especially the one with the sphere in the background were also neat. The aforementioned piece made great use of repeating certain elements of the original shot. and had a very strong composition. The carved boat must've taken an impressive amount of time to make, as the details present were staggering.

The food was also very good. I suppose that much goes without saying.

Compositions

These two compositions were drawn with a tablet in photoshop. The characters are all original ones from several stories I'm working on. The guides broke up the pictures into thirds on the horizontal and vertical planes.

15/30/60 Minute Drawings

Here are the three drawings done for the first week's assignment

The 15 minute was a simple spacescape drawing I did. There were no effects used aside from altering the layer opacities for the shadows and clouds.

The 30 minute drawing was a slightly more complicated landscape picture. The opacities were changed for some layers, and a special brush was used for the grass.

The 60 minute piece was the self-portrait. The text in the background is from the song "Without a Doubt," by the band Betrayal.

Abstract Photos

Here are the photos used in the Composites in the previous posts.

The first if looking down the barrel of a nerf gun. The flash provided a nice effect for the inside of the barrel. The second is of two plastic bottles and a container of dish soap lined up. The last is of the tops of sharpie markers in a container. The flash also provided some interesting lighting in the gaps.

Composites

These three photoshop edits were made using the selection brush and clone stamp, with color correction in some.

The first was the combination of two of my abstract photos: A shot looking down the barrel of a nerf gun, and the tops of several shapie markers. Clone stamp was used extensively here along with the dodge tool.

Next was a photomanipulation based loosely off of the popular web series "Marble Hornets." The figure of Slenderman was inserted into the background. The lighting in the scene was originally in the daytime, so burn tool made it look like night.

The final one combined two figures that have more in common than you'd originally think: Jesus Christ and Hatebreed singer Jamey Jasta. Given Jasta's often inspirational song lyrics, it seemed like a fitting choice. The color is a little off but otherwise it came out well.

About Me

I am a Freshmen, and I am an Interactive Multimedia student at TCNJ, interested in animation and video games. I do a lot of writing and like to listen to music, particularly Metal, Hardcore, and Metalcore. I am from Marlton NJ, a town where nothing happens except for budget cuts and bad local music.

I have a lot of experience in Photoshop and Adobe Premier, and some in Java/Processing and Final Cut Pro. I aim to become much better at a lot of those programs by the end of the year.