Animation Reflection

1. Production Reflection
Alice Leeman

2. Process
On this day, I started to create the home
screen for my game, and I also started to
design the background and platforms for the
game itself. For the home screen I made a
large play button to make it clear for the
player to go onto the game. I used some
images of trees from the internet which I
edited over to create my own pixelated trees
for the background.
After this, I wanted to move onto creating the
platforms, and come back to creating the
background another time. I designed a small
section of a platform, using different shades
of brown and green for the ground/grass, and
then duplicated this section of the platform
so I could add in the platforms in different
parts of the game.
The platforms took quite a long time to
create as I had to design each sections of
shading thoroughly, without the platform
looking messy or plain. This is why I used a
mixture of light, medium and dark brown.

3. Process
On this day, I started to design the challenges the player has to
face when crossing the platforms. For example, I designed the
pits of fire and water which the player will have to make their
character cross, and also I designed the wall which will help the
player reach the platform above once they use the ladder (which
I am going to add in later). To make the water and fire look more
detailed I shaded the areas inside the fire, using different shades
of orange for the fire and different shades of blue for the water. I
was able to duplicate these layers into another platform so I
didn’t have to design them again.
I then started to create some more items that I am including in
my game. For example I scattered some golden leaves around
the platforms for the player to collect throughout the level they
are on. I also created a treasure chest which will be on the final
platform to show the player they have completed the level.
Lastly, I created the ‘jungle monster’ which us supposed to look
like an evil spider which took me about 10 minutes to create.
Again, I made sure I used colours that wasn’t going to make the
spider difficult to see from the background or the platforms.
Having the same colour for all my objects would make the visuals
boring or not visually pleasing so I wanted to use as much colour
as I could for the different objects/ challenges.

4. Process On this day I added some last bit of visuals for
my game, such as the selection of tools at the
top of the game. I created these tools by
editing over existing images however I went
over it with my own colours and edited in my
own small details. I made sure that the
colours I used to fill in the objects/tools could
be seen clearly compared to the background
(dark green). I used a blue colour to fill in the
section of the axe where you hold, and
orange for the bow and arrow. I didn’t want to
make everything a brown colour as this had
been used a lot for other objects.
Designing the axe and the bow and arrow
took longer than designing the wood and the
ladder as the axe and bow and arrow have
more complex details.
I also created the character for my game and
started my timeline animation. I tried to make
my character look like a typical adventurer or
explorer as my game is jungle themed (e.g.
the green jacket).
For my character, I moved one leg up on one
frame and then the other leg up on another
to make it look like the character is taking
steps.

5. Process
On this day I continued on my animation on
moving my character and getting past challenges.
The character would have started to face
challenges now so this means I will need to add
in smaller weapons that the player selected for
the character to use. I designed the bridge, the
ladders, bow and arrow and axe for the character
to use. I designed these weapons from scratch,
trying to make them look as similar to the ones
shown on the options panel at the top of the
game screen. When the character is passing
challenges I had to move each tool frame by
frame to make it work, for example the arrow
had to shoot out of the bow to hit the ‘spider
monster’ that the player had to pass. I also made
each step of the ladders appear frame by frame
to add the effect of the ladder being built. I did
this same technique with the bridge being built
After this day I managed to nearly be at the end
of my animation however I still need to make
sure the character can pass a couple more
challenges before I complete the game which
shouldn’t take long.

6. Process
On this day, I made sure that on the main menu
of the game there were options of a ‘settings’
and ‘credits’ button. I also added the title at the
top of the menu which I called ‘Jungle Escape’. I
used the font called ‘Agent Orange’ which I
downloaded from the website ‘DaFont’ for all the
text I used.
At the end of my game I added a banner which
says ‘LEVEL COMPLETE’ which is similar to the
banner I used on the main menu which says
‘PLAY’.
I managed to complete all steps of my
animation, so that the character reaches the end
and the level is complete at the end. I had to go
over the game a few times and do a few
rearrangements which I spent quite a lot of time
on because I wanted to make sure that there
wasn’t anything out of line on a certain frame,
etc. There were a few complications throughout
the process of making sure layers, objects, etc
were in place but I tried my best to make sure I
was happy with the way it turned out.

7. Process
On this day, I was able to now export my final
product so I could then add in my own music and
sound effects.
Firstly, I made sure that my video game
animation was exported in a HD image view for
better quality. Once I had exported my video I
opened up Premiere Pro so I could start editing. I
had previously made the background music in
some spare time I had so I added this into
Premiere Pro as well.
I went onto the website ‘BeepBox’ and started to
make some sound effects for when the character
jumps, and I also created a sound effect for when
the character collects the leaf objects, which is
one of the aims of the game. Once I had created
these sound effects I was then able to download
them and add them into Premiere Pro.
Once I had added everything into Premiere Pro I
was able to put them all together to create a
video game with music and sound effects.
This is a screenshot of what
adjustments I made to the settings
in BeepBox so I could create the
kind of sound effect I wanted for my
video game. (This was the sound
effect for collecting the leaves). For
example the transition which is
‘Seamless’ makes the sound effect
kind of fade in and out so the sound
isn’t so sudden.
This shows the layout of where the music and
sound effects are placed. When adding in the
music, I had to add it in twice as the music only
looped for a certain amount of time. However as
the music loops I didn’t have to worry about it
being obvious that I added the music in twice.