The document describes experiments conducted by the author to help develop their skills for a final game product. They created an animated basketball walk cycle to practice sports animation. They also designed several app logos and tested them with classmates to get feedback. Finally, they designed a pixelated game case cover for a basketball game to learn cover design skills. The author reflected that completing these experiments provided valuable experience with animation, logo design, and game cover design that will benefit their final product.

1. Experiments
Your Name

2. Process 1
Firstly for my experiment I decided I
would make a basketball animation, as
it could be similar to my animation but
not the same. To start this I created the
character first, in order to do this I used
the paint tool and designed the
character from scratch, in this design I
only made a rough character as the
animation was more of the focus of this
experiment. This was made very quickly
as I wanted to concentrate on the
animation so some parts of the design
of the character were very sloppy, this
mostly being the shape of everything,
such as the head and arms. As well as
the character I designed I also designed
the basketball, using shape tools and
the pencil tool to make the lines and
marks on the ball.

3. Process 1
From there I then designed the
background of the game, this was just
the basketball hoop as i once again just
concentrated on the animation more
than the design of any aspects. To make
this I used the shape tool and pencil
tools, as well as distorting certain parts
of the shapes to make the basketball
hoop and stand look 3D and more
realistic.

4. Process 1
I then used the timeline on Photoshop
in order to create the walk cycle, I did
this through duplicating layers and
changing the designs on each layer to
make it look like the character is
moving into a shot. This was a quick
design with a walk cycle to get used to
designing movement within a sport, as
that is what the main focus of my game
will be.

5. Reflection 1
• What elements of your experiments will you include in your
final product?
– The walk cycle designs that I used in the experiment will be
similar to what I use in my final product, as they will be made in
a similar way, just in a different sport. As well as this the speed
of the movements was done well and I think I will use similar
timings in my final product.
– Also the style of the animation and the design of the character
may be slightly similar, the character in this was made very
quickly, but in my main product I may make a similar character,
just in a lot more detail.
– I think that this will be very beneficial to my final product as it
gives me experience in making a sport-based walk cycle and
animation, which is what my game will be focussing on during
the football matches in the gameplay.

6. Process 2

7. Process 2
• In these experiments I am creating an app logo as I will do this for my final game.
• The first is a simplistic design, of a game called Break, where the logo itself is breaking, which plays
on the name of the game, from there I expanded this logo and made it more colourful with another
gradient added in the other part of the background. After that I decided to make the background
look like a little town, with the third design I used this in a night time setting and made the
buildings also look like they were crashing into the hole that the E of BREAK was falling into. The
next design, the 4th one, is the same as the previous one, but I changed the font to be a brighter
colour as the dark red made it a little harder to read. From there I decided to change the
background to being in the day rather than at night, so that the font can be easier to read and
everything looks brighter and has a better mood around it. The next one was similar to this but has
a different font, this is the same with the next one, as the font for this seemed better than the
others, I also changed to bottom half to a gradient here, but then in the last one I changed it back
to the grey colour, as I thought the gradient clashed with the colour of the sky.
• I put them all in a vote to my class and each person got to vote for the two they liked best, the first
received one vote, second received two votes, the third received no votes, the fourth received six
votes, the fifth received seven votes, the sixth received no votes, the seventh received eleven
votes, and the eighth received five votes, this will also be used in my final product as it gives the
audience a say on what my product is, making them connect more with the product.

8. Reflection 2
• What elements of your experiments will you
include in your final product?
– I will use the same design techniques from this
experiment in my real product, I think the way the
logo’s look is good, the way the logo is split in two I
think looks good also.
– I will also design a few logo’s when it comes to my
final design, and put them to a vote again, this means
I will get a lot of opinions other than my own, and this
will also mean I will give my audience a say on my
product, making them feel more towards the product
as they have had a say on the final design aspects of
the product.

9. Process 3
• For my third experiment I designed a
games case cover, I used the NBA game
that I animated for my first experiment.
• To do this I first found a template for the
cover online, then I put that into
Photoshop and took images from a real
basketball game of the crowd behind the
hoop, I then blurred this image and used it
as a background for the cover, to blur it I
used the Gaussian blur effect. From there I
used a pixelated text, as it fits the nature
of the game, to write the title “NBA
Takeover”. I then got a pixelated basketball
player, which also is similar to the game
itself, and used him on the front cover of
the case. I then designed the back of the
case, I did this with just text, a little blurb
on the back about the game, with a few
lines of large text showing what the game
is all about.

10. Reflection 3
• What elements of your experiments will you
include in your final product?
– I will use the same kind of design work with the pixel
art that is on this cover of my experiment as I will if I
design a cover for my final product, I believe this was
done well as the pixel art of the basketball player fit in
well with the rest of the cover and therefore if I design
a cover for my final game I will use the same kind of
spacing and designs that were used in this one, as
they all fit very well together and with each other,
such as the text and the pixel art character that is on
the front, and they also fit very well with the
background.

11. All Experiments Reflection
I think completing all of these experiments was very
beneficial to me and will be beneficial to my final
product. Firstly the animation experiment was good as it
gave me experience in animating a sports game, this is
good as it shows me how to design and how to make a
walk cycle for a sports style game. Next I designed some
app logos, this was beneficial as I have no prior
experience in this and I will need to make one for my final
game. Finally I made a games case cover, which I also
have no experience in making, and therefore this is
beneficial in making me know how to design this kind of
product, using all the spacings and specific templates.