7. production reflection

1. Production Reflection
Josh Brownsword

2. Process
I worked on developing my character going
through multiple phases before creating
the run animation of it. I created the
stance first, this was quite a simple task as I
had a clear idea of what I wanted. I then
used this template to add colour to my
character. This went through multiple
stages as the first colour was a very boring
and unappealing green which had no
intrigue to it. I then moved onto designing
the character around a desperate private
detective, this is what I stuck with as the
brown jacket and blue jeans was much
more realistic and relatable it also mas
much more aesthetically pleasing. I then
created the walk movement this was
challenging but I did it over 8 frames, the
first 4 were with the front leg forward and
the last 4 were the same but with opposite
leg forward, doing it this way was much
easier to accomplish.

3. Process
I then worked on creating the background, the main ideas I had when going into making the background was that I wanted to use
one colour, this was for artistic reasons and to show that my character is different from everything else (in a world of his own). I
drew the road and lamps first, I drew the road and footpath using long blocks, dark grey for the road, light grey for the top of the
path and then a grey in between for the front side of the footpath. Then using the burn tool I drew in the cracks. I then moved onto
the layout of the building, for this I used a flat dark purple background and then used a thicker burn tool to draw the building
separations in, I then used the dodge tool to add the lighter areas to show where light hit, the window ledge was done the same
way just using a blue rather than a purple. Then I did the door and windows, first drawing the outlines using a light colour and then
a darker colour, I used primarily grey and purple, the silhouette of the person in the kitchen was done darker so it was clear he was
further back. I then filled the areas in with a really light pink. I then tested using the dodge and burn tool but found that drawing
around the outer areas with the burn tool was much more effective as it made the areas much more vibrant, where as the dodge
tool mostly just made the areas much whiter. Using the burn tool made the whole image much more detailed and neon which is
the effect I was going for.

4. Process
I created two different tracks for
my game along with three
separate sound effects. When
creating the two songs I needed
them to be different so that there
was enough variety but to both be
similar enough that they have the
same style. I was aiming to create
a disco sort of feel. I then worked
on a pickup sound effect and a
sound for taking out an item.
These were both very simple and
were both only two notes a low
not and high note, this was
effective as it was a clear
difference from my background
music so people would definitely
be able to hear the separation .

5. Process
I then started to develop the smaller objects in the
scene such as the knife, bottle, inventory and button
presses. The simplest of these were the buttons and
the bottle as they were very simple objects, for the
buttons I just used the pencil tool and for the bottle I
did the same however I used the burn tool to darken
the edges. After I created the assets I started to
animate the whole game, I started by creating a 90
frame tween where the background moves from left
to right, this would later be extended. I then added
the walk animation, this was simple as I didn’t have
to move the assets, instead I just cycled through all 8
move assets in order. I then added the bottle and
the buttons where it was necessary, I duplicated the
button twice and each time lowered the opacity of it
by 33% so that it fades out. When I wanted to go
into the inventory screen I added frames in where
the character would stop, and replaced the walk
frames in that place with a stood still asset, the
inventory was then added with a fade in and fade
out, I also had three layers separate to the main
inventor which were lights that showed up when the
player hovers over a certain inventory slot. I think
my use of the fade of object of images really helped
the games aesthetic as it no longer felt as clunky.

6. Process
Finally I added the intro scene which was simple to create, and
the music and sound effects. To create the intro scene I made
a flat purple background, which I then drew round the edge
with the burn tool to create outer shadow, to emphasise the
shadow I used the dodge tool to brighten the centre and
create contrast. The next thing I did was create a central disco
ball, I created the shape with a pencil brush with a high pixel
width to create a circle. To get the sparkle effect I used the
dodge tool on the top right edge of the circle and burn on the
bottom left edge. I then used the dodge tool to add horizontal,
diagonal and vertical lines that get increasing further apart to
show that it is a spherical object. I then added 5 stars in that I
made twinkle at different times around the background, I did
this by using the dodge tool and using different opacity’s, this
was done over 18 frames. I then added 18 different layers of
light streaks which change every single frame, this is effective
at showing light reflecting off of the disco ball. The last thing I
did was added simple titles and arrows which how a player
changing through the menu screen. I then added music to the
game by loading everything into adobe premier, the music was
simple to add. However, the sound effects I had to work on as
it was quite difficult to hear them over the music. To make it
so they could be heard I had to add a fade onto the songs
above, I would fade the music out slightly and then back out.
This proved effective as you could still hear the music but you
could also hear the sound effect.