Digital Practice Bath Spa University

https://benb17.itch.io/2099 (link to 2099 Bitsy game) 

Using Bitsy an online game maker created by Adam Le Doux, my main idea was to have a simple game set in 2099 New Year’s Eve (far off in the future). You play as Talus 8 a robot that has access to the company Robo systems. You are free to explore the building as all the humans are out of celebrating the start of the 22nd century. My major decision was to include e-books/ electronic articles as items that the player can pick up through each room. The e-books have information about what is happening in the world at the time. It’s mostly negative, such as the effects of climate change and the rising sea levels, the extinction of different animals, deforestation and more. It shows that we know about all these issues today, but my story shows how although the world has evolved in a technical term, human’s lack of empathy and common sense has destroyed the world in the future. You can also interact with other robots (sprites). I was inspired by the blade runner films as it has that bleak dystopian  feel to the world with future technologies.

 Bitsy is fairly simple to use, so animating the avatar, sprites and items was easy once you know the basics. The main challenge was to make it a short game but a compelling one at the same time, which I think i have mostly achieved as the subject matter is relevant in today’s world. I also changed the colour of the levels to try and emulate futuristic neon settings, and the robot aesthetic.

Pros: The compelling view point of the story and its setting makes the game more engaging.

Kinetic typography is the art of animating text which is used in tv adverts, music videos and fan created work on YouTube. Text is presented over time in different formats rather than just being static, which is very useful as it is a strong way of expressing the text and the message in an engaging format. 

Video above: From a clip in the film Lock stock and two smoking barrels. The most compelling feature of this fan created work is the subtly that the video provides e.g. the blood splatter every time he says “I’ll kill you”. Or the words bending in tandem with the “bend the truth line”. 

My main idea for my kinetic typography video is that I wanted to take the Nowhere to run song by Boga that was featured in the film trailer for Baby driver. I wanted to animate the lines as they had imagery to express, which was my main challenge because the 2 lines are quite fast. Inspired by the films concept art I had multiple doors  suggesting there is nowhere to run and a similar font. I also used Photoshop to add a pink background to the wall to make it vibrantly stand out in line with the films aesthetic. The “nowhere to run to baby” line looks like it is zooming off and the “nowhere to hide” line slowly disappears as the words are animated in Adobe after effects using animation text pre-sets and motion blur. Furthermore, the corridor darkened the mood to emphasize the line. Hopefully with the animation it does come to life in a strong way. 

Pros: The video has good timing to the beat of the music, there is also a constant colour scheme throughout the short video and the imagery is well conveyed. 

Stop motion animation was first developed in the 1800′s. The very first documented stop motion animated film was created by J.Stuart Blackton and Albert E.Smith in 1898. It is used in film and tv productions to bring a different perspective to create compelling pieces. 

This gone fishing clip by YouTube channel Guldies, uses great animation techniques, and its most compelling feature is the brilliant use of all of the props to create a very engaging and fun video. 

I have created a 6 second stop motion animation, based on Christopher Booker’s first rule, which is overcoming the monster. A hero learns of a great evil overshadowing the land, he or she prepares themselves by grabbing weapons, and heads out to defeat the evil enemy therefore freeing the land from their reign. In my adaptation the Lego character is the hero and the blue and yellow monsters are the evil force. My creative decisions were to use props such as creating a flame background as it has connotations to an evil force. I also used the Lego figure as it is easy to animate creating a fun hero. I also hand made the monsters to be able to bring them to life a bit more. The key skills I used were basic video editing techniques on We video and trying to capture one frame at a time. My main challenge was to get the video to be 6 seconds long (cutting other content out). Yet at the same time have enough content in the video to convey the first rule. 

Pros: The vibrant colours that are used in the video reflect the engaging side of the characters. 

Selective colourisation is a technique where you take a black and white image and add colour to the image or certain parts to create a photorealistic or abstract feel. It is used in the arts and photography industry as artists use their imagination using this technique.  

This picture demonstrates the technique, by making the mural stand out with very vibrant colours that draws the eye. The most compelling feature is that although the colours are very bright and vibrant it makes the image in a way subtle as the composition hasn’t been overwhelmed which makes this piece very effective.  

My main idea was to take this bar image and my major creative decision was to add vibrant colours to the signs to make it photorealistic. I decided not to do the whole picture as I wanted to focus on the signs attracting people just as it would back in the time period bringing people into the bar, which I think is the most compelling feature.The key skills I used on Photoshop was adding multiple layers, to then individually choose the colour and adjust the hue and saturation of the signs, which was a challenge I overcame to create a more realistic feel to the image and bring the bar to life. 

Pros: People liked the selective colouring of the images, and the colours that were used to make it appealing.