This document summarizes the process of creating an animation replicating the opening and gameplay of Dark Souls. It describes 5 key stages: 1) A home screen with the Dark Souls logo and start button; 2) A menu screen with options like New Game; 3) A character select screen showing character details; 4) An iconic Dark Souls loading screen with a bonfire; 5) The in-game environment with a character that can receive damage and die, as indicated by a YOU DIED message. The creator aimed to faithfully replicate the look and feel of Dark Souls through careful attention to visual details and shading at each stage.

1. Production Reflection
Your Name

2. Process
This is the start of the animation, a very simple home screen for the game, it has the iconic logo
of Dark Souls and a button that tells you to press start, I made the press start button flash to
make it look like the player was hovering over it, I then used a fade out effect to make it look
more smooth as it moved to the actual game menu, the actual background of the whole
animation is black, which is why there is a black background in this slide, I really like how the
logo looks in this as it looks professional and not too pixelated.

3. Process
This is the menu screen, it includes buttons such as ‘New Game’, ‘Load Game’ and ‘quit’,
notice this also features the Dark Souls logo, as this is what it’s like in the game. I also used a
flashing effect on the buttons, so it would look like the player is cycling through the options he
has, it then fades once more to the character load screen, although these parts of the
animation are relatively simple, this is what the game is like when opening it up, and the
whole point of my product was to replicate Dark Souls 1 and the feel it gives.

4. Process
Here we have the character select or save load screen, it’s again relatively simple, it has 3
other unused boxes for where other characters would go, you can see the character is
called ‘Sebrom’ and is ‘Level 13’ along with this you can see which part of the game the
character is in ‘Undead Burg’, there is also a small portrait of the character to the left of this
which allows you to definitely know which character you were selecting if you didn’t
already know, this part of the animation lacks fade effects which makes it a bit worse than
the other parts, for all this I used the simple Pencil tool.

5. Process
Here is the classic and iconic loading screen of Dark Souls, as you can see it is again dark but
has the Bonfire which is featured regularly throughout the Dark Souls series, it also says ‘Dark
Souls’ beneath the bonfire like it does in the games, in the animation the Bonfire actually
moves slightly making the effect that the flames are moving, I like this but I should have added
more frames to make it look a bit smoother and better overall.

6. Process
Finally we get to the game, you can see I spent a good bit of time making the environment, making some bits of the sun pass through the
dark and grey sky which lurks over the land of Lordran, for this I used the pencil tool but I lowered the opacity when putting the lighter
colours on it to create the effect that the light was behind clouds or just wasn’t too bright, I also made a floor for the characters to stand
on, I tried to make this look ruined and old so there are weeds growing through cracks, I used a few different shades of grey for this floor
which I think added a well needed touch, then there is the small building in the background, it isn’t magnificent but it adds to the
environment as a whole and I thought it needed it as Undead Burg is a city, so if it didn’t have buildings it would look strange.
Next we will move onto the characters, these are probably the best part of these frames, I took a while getting the shading correct to make
it all fit together with the sun above, I really like the characters because they actually look similar to the characters in Dark Souls and so I’m
glad it fits in with everything else, I also made a Health and Stamina bar over head to give it the final touches of a game and to make it look
more like a game as a whole, although it’s simple it works and that’s why I like it.

7. Process
Here we can see it’s the same background as before but some things have obviously
changed, the player has died, the health bar has dropped and he has an arrow in his head
with blood spilling from it, he is also on his knees, along with this the YOU DIED screen has
come over the whole thing in a lowered opacity to give the desired for a Dark Souls death.