Week 13 - Final Design

Oh the good old days of evaluating a design :P

Back in week one, I contemplated whether or not I would continue making journal/blog entries after the Design subject/unit ended, since this was created as a requirement for that subject. I believe I will continue with some kind of journal, since I do find value in it. However, I think I'll start afresh. While this journal certainly does reflect me in all respects, I feel it remains a subject/unit journal, and should end with that subject. So now, let me continue with this final weeks entry...

Subject/Unit Reflection. At the beginning of the semester, we were given reflective exercises. I did read through them. Although I didn't 'do' the exercises at that time, I still absorbed it and found it to be a useful guide. I'll just comment on one component of it.

Five Dimensions of Higher Learning (as reflection and evaluation):

• Declarative Learning 10% - I said from the very beginning that I don't tend to focus heavily on rote learning (except for essential or highly used material). So long as I know how to at least find the information, that's what matters most. Doing this design subject did not change that for me. This subject did provide many informational links that I have found valuable, and will make use of into the future. I may only direct 10% to declarative learning for this subject, but it needs to be quality 10%. I feel that it was.
• Procedural Learning 20% - There was a focus in lectures on the procedures that exist in design. The projects re-enforced this. Also, to a certain degree, the requirement to do this blog/journal is also part of procedural learning. I'm not sure that you can learn to be a good designer, but you can learn to be better than what you were. 20% feels right.
• Conditional Learning 15% - I always consider that learning-by-doing is the best way to learn. But 15% is all that I can give. I am counting mainly the group work in this, and a some of the journal. I didn't find the group work to be as effective for learning as it's meant to be. Everyone participated in the tutorials, since they were required to be there. However, outside tutorials was another matter. And being an older student, learning to work with others is not new to me. In terms of expectation, I would have given it a higher percentage at the beginning of the semester.
• Reflective Learning 35% - Considering the strong focus on reflection with the journals/blogs, it should be dominant. I considered this to be a good thing, especially with a subject like design. Reflection is like iteration. I also see it as being one of the birthplaces of new ideas. Design itself is born out of reflection, since one must ponder before one can create or improve-upon.
• Metacognitive Learning 20% - Did we learn how to learn - I'm uncertain. But we were certainly given the tools and opportunity to do so. As I said in declarative learning, we were given many useful links, as well as material discussing learning, and how to learn. It was up to each of us individually to make use of it all. I feel that I did. But having said that, I was kind of that way inclined in the first place.

Week 12 - Horsing around with Design

I saw on TV that there is a community of people who all are dedicated to 'My Little Pony'. Now you wouldn't catch me spending my time thinking about, or drawing, girly little ponies...  ahh... umm... well... :P

Watching SBS on TV, I saw a report about people who love 'My Little Pony'. Made me think about the game 'Angry Birds'. There were games long before Angry Birds that employed the exact same mechanic. The developers of Angry Birds just gave it cute graphics and released it on smartphones. Just goes to show, never under estimate the power of 'Cute' (and recognising a potential). Designing for the market. However, I'm sure that die hard fans of My Little Pony would say that I drew the above pony all wrong.


Evolving Design. The following is essentially a promotion for Diablo III on the Playstation 4. However,  during the video, they speak about various design elements. They talk about the differences of input between being controller based verses mouse based. Also, they mention the 'share' button on the controller, allowing you to share your play on the web. I just found it interesting looking at it from the point of view of evolving design, even if it is primarily marketing.

Believe Achieve Event. I went to a 'Believe Achieve' event last Thursday. It was partly an event to honour some students who have done well not just academically, but also who have contributed to the community. It was also an event where you had a chance to meet some potential employers. I talked to several of the people there who were from DataCom (http://www.datacom.com.au). It was interesting, as many things discussed did reinforce subject matter discussed in the Design lectures. For example, cases were given of the client not really knowing what they want, with the resultant need of having to tease it out of them before going to the designing process. In one case, a client had the right idea, but was ignoring what should have been an obvious area to develop, and was instead trying to apply solutions in an unfavourable area (Clients remained anonymous). Of course, being an older student, I had my own stories to tell too :) . I'll have to ensure I continue to go to such events.

Tutorial

This week, I didn't go to the tutorial, mainly because I was unsure that there was one. But there is definitely no tutorial next week. This semester is winding down. I'll continue to spend my time slowly tidying my blog/journal up, and adding detail where I think it's necessary. Yet I'll add a new post next week, even if it's just short like this one.

Week 11 - Finding Design

Part B of the cartoon from week 1.

Since the lecturer was sick last week, last weeks lecture will be discussed this week. Although all group projects have now finished, I will still make some brief mention of this weeks tutorial session, since I still engaged with others.

This week's title picture follows on from the cartoon that I drew in week one. I knew back then that I would draw this picture for the final lecture. After all, designing isn't just about thinking of the present, it's about designing for the future too :D

Lecture 10

This is the last lecture for the "Introducing Design" unit/subject. Much of the lecture was revision, which there is no need to repeat, since this entire blog/journal serves as that, as well as being reflective. I did investigate a couple of links mentioned.

• Nigel Cross, Designerly Ways of Knowing (http://design.open.ac.uk/cross/documents/DesignerlyWaysofKnowing.pdf) - I have to say that I don't really agree that Design is a 'Third Culture' (The other two being, Science and Arts/Humanities). Back in week 7, the lecturer implied that Design was the over-arching profession. While I would be hesitant to claim that other than in the most general of ways, I have come to think of 'Art' as being a subset of 'Design'. Artists are designers within their medium, and designers can be artists. In another unit, I recently did an essay on "Games as Art", which I have submitted for assessment. In reflection, I feel that my arguments would have been strengthened by simply suggesting that games are designed, and designs can be art. Traditional art is just a subset, and we need to broaden our thinking. Art can simply be seen as ideal concepts made real; design without purpose, even though art usually does have some underlying purpose, even if personal. Yet designs of other kinds should be equally recognised in the same way, within whatever domain they fall into.
• Bill Gaver & Heather Martin, Alternatives (http://www.gold.ac.uk/media/23gaver-martin.alternatives.chi00.pdf) - These were many design examples that provide food for thought. Once again, when designers design for no other sake than the act of designing, we can see what at times can be art. The main point however, was that explorative design should be encouraged, as it may lead to the discovery of needs unconsidered that open up new areas for development.

Wicked Problems. In the auditory podcast of the lecture, another thing that stood out to me was 'Wicked Problems'. I had not really heard that term before, but it is one that I will remember. While it may represent the lack of clarity that can exist in design problems; the word 'wicked', with so much more meaning, forms mental images that already diverge thinking for problem solving.

Solution Based Design. I recall back when I was in Grade 12 at school, we were presented with an extremely difficult mathematical problem. I was the only one who solved it, since I was the only one who started with the provided end result, and worked backwards. Sometimes in order to start a confusing/difficult journey, you need to begin with the clear destination, if that destination is known.

The remainder of the lecture was just a little direction about our blogs/journals.

As I was writing this blog/journal, channel 2 had a program about the designing of the Denver airport in the USA. I found it quite interesting. They made the buildings look reminiscent of indian teepee's. Last week, the program series was looking at the designing of the Osaka Airport in Japan. I like the synergy writing a journal entry on design while watching programs on design.

Tutorial Session Week 11 - No More Group Projects

Without any more group work, this session was just about looking at our blogs/journals. The tutor mentioned that our blogs needed to have visual representations of the works of other groups. I think few, if any, of us did. It was suggested that the best way to do this was to ask other groups for pictures/images. So I asked other group members for email addresses for this purpose. Of course, this means that everyone is going to have the same images of other groups as each other. It may be a severe lack of diversity, but it meets the criteria.

Week 10 - Experience by Design

Just my view on the learning process :D . But don't get me wrong, I see it as a necessary part of learning.

There was meant to be a lecture this week, but the lecturer was sick. I thought university lecturers were meant to be inhumane paragons. I'm disillusioned now :)  :P . I'll comment on the lecture material next week, since it should all be put online by then. Yet for this week, I will be commenting on the presentations of the "Future Echo's" projects.

Project 2 - Future Echo's (Week 4 of 4)

One of the images for our project made by the other drawer in our group.

This week was the final week for our group project. Just to recap, our objective was to produce a 4 minute video that makes a prediction of what things might be like 20 years in the future. Our group went with the idea of a post apocalypse polluted future, where everyone needs to wear gas masks.

One of my pictures for the project.

Final Work on Our Project. In the last tutorial session, I was happy that my group seemed to finally be working together as a complete team. This trend did continue in the final week. It wasn't just a case of any members being subservient; all of us contributed equally in our own individual ways, with our own creativity, to produce a final result. This is more what I had hoped for, for the first group project. At least it happened for the second project. Of course, that doesn't mean that I was totally happy with the video that we ended up with. As it was, the video lacked much that I would have liked to be there. If we had more technical skills, or had more time, then possibly we might of achieved something better. Yet it still had promise, and was not what I envisioned in a good way, since it was a true collaboration.

Dead Guards; not really visible in the project video.

Of the four members in our group, two of us worked on the drawings/pictures. While I would have liked the other artist to have lined her drawings in with pen, our images did otherwise compliment each other. One member who had not contributed much in the past, they not only provided the start of our video, but did much of the video sequencing using Flash (with what knowledge they had). I liked watching some of the development done by that group member using Flash. The final member finished off the video work, and supplied and added the music and sound effects utilising iMovie. Unfortunately, when merging the flash section with another video section using iMovie, the bottom part of the Flash section was cut off. This meant that you could hardly see the dead guards that I drew. So I've put that picture here on my blog. Also, the conversion made the Flash section less smooth in it's transitions/scrolling. Once again, if we had more technical knowledge, we might have been able to correct that.

In terms of iterative design, there where many little revisions made despite the very short production time. As I've said, I played around modifying photos to get the effect I wanted. My drawings changed at little bit, but not dramatically. The other artist in our group revised her drawings on seeing what I had produced, adding backgrounds to some and trying to add smog effects. Some of her modified images were not included in the final video, which might have been good since adding fog to pencil pictures would have just washed them out more. She just needs more experience. The beginning of the video was refined, replacing the stick figures that were originally there, and refining the text displayed. Also the video sequence went through a number of changes and additions. The music that I originally suggested was not used, with the team member being in charge of sound, finding something of similar tone, but better. Their voice acting was good too. I would have liked it if we had got stuck into things sooner so as to allow more production time, but there was still a development cycle, even if we were pushed for time. In some respects, it's a pity that this is the last project that we are working on together, since I think we would be more unified now. However, the fact that I say that means that an objective has already been achieved, and we can move on.

Our Groups Presentation - Group 29. One of the tutors said our video was like an art piece. Although I like to be humorous, as a group, we thought that a more sombre and stylised approach would better suit this grim future. Personally, I thought the tutors were generous with their reception of our video. However, as I've said, in terms of team collaboration, I thought we had done well. Unfortunately, some of the images did appear washed out when the video was projected in front of the class (ahem... no pen work). I was asked about the last section that was in first person, where I had individually altered every single frame. I did so, since I wanted to put the viewer themselves into gas mask world, in the appropriate style. I of course knew that there must exist software that would make that job easier, and the tutors indicated this. I'll have to make a point of asking them about it next time, since I was a bit too phased at the time. After all, I'm here to learn. If I had not spent so much time on the end section, I may have had time to improve other sections so as to be more to my liking. All in all, I can't complain if we got a reasonably good mark. I'm just always going to expect more of myself (and hence my group).

A picture I didn't include in our final video, since I thought the building in the foreground looked too nice.

Other Groups. Comments from earlier weeks are in red italics.

My own version of the idea of
group 26. Technology changes,
but things stay the same :P

• Group 26 - Profession Hats - essentially 'hats' that give you the skills of the professions encoded in them. Developmental steps have now be set out. The possibility of Hat Hackers have been included to create drama. The video consisted mainly of a few simply drawn pictures where the mouth of a character was made to move as a speech was being delivered. To be honest, I found this technique not to be the best, since it was lots of verbal information with little visual component. This group seemed to have no artists amongst them. They may have been better served by using collage (or live action footage) instead. They dropped the idea of 'hackers' from the final product, probably due to not having the time to incorporate it. It remained a good concept. It should be noted that this group had the fewest number of team members.
• Group 28 - Underground Religion - religion being outlawed and going underground (USSR style). Focus is more on hyper science society, with less moral regulation. For example, cloning is done without regard or conscience. Religious organisations are rebels. This idea was presented using live action video. I thought it was clever to have a character selecting news reports to convey their message. Obviously, they thought that a science focused future would be very boring, since that was the main message that they were trying to convey with a dry comic style. In a way, it was intentionally boring :P . While cloning was still there in the final product, it was not as strongly presented as previously indicated. It was well done. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PID9I9xrQiU&feature=player_embedded)

  

  The science logo in the video for group 28.

• Group 25 - One Currency - the world only has one united currency. A tutor said "like the Euro" :) . An implanted chip contains monetary info, and also affects status in society. The group seemed resistant to the tutors suggestions of expanding on the chip storing other info, or making the story more complex. This group had a very well made animated feature as their video. Their story remained unchanged. Luckily for them, they had a Flash expert on their team. It was stylised and very well done, making good use of dramatic scene changes and close ups. If anything, the brief live action segment in the middle of their animation seemed out of place. The story was simple but well executed, using most of the segments they had shown in previous tutorial sessions. The music complimented the comedic story. Fairly professional.
• Group 27 - Limited Resources - with increasing population and declining resources like oil, many options here. "Do you want cricket fries with your grubs?" (Although that's already the menu in some places). This group now presented several ideas. 1) One was scanning ID via fingerprints, with this process being a requirement to do almost anything. 2) Another was close to the original idea, with the rich hoarding whats left of limited resources, but end up worse off since they do not embrace renewable resources like those who had to. 3) An idea very similar to the animation 'Wall.E'. 4) I was confused about the forth idea. This group ended up going with a general financial collapse (GFC2) as their video theme. It was all live action footage. I thought it was good how they stepped through time in 5 year intervals, showing a gradual progression. I also liked how they showed newspaper reports to give some background, which was similar to what I had proposed to my group. However, their newspaper articles were shown to be on pages of newspaper covering a homeless  person, which I thought was great follow through. Their music, with it's changes to match events, was also interesting. Well done.
• Group 24 - Technology Trouble - I didn't comment on this group last time. They had three ideas of which I remember two. 1) Piracy (downloading) is out of control. The government cracks down harshly. 2) Google Glass is a vital fixture in society. Looks at life if you break your all important glasses - lose the ability to effectively communicate. This group used live action footage to convey their 'Piracy (illegal downloads) Severely Punished by Death' idea. Of particular interest was their voiceover of footage of Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and their incorporation of the "Piracy is a Crime" video that can be found on DVD's. It was kind of like watching something from the 'Chaser' group on channel 2. Funny and well done. Good camera work.

  

  Original storyboard for Group 24.

Final Thoughts. Personally, I didn't feel any of the videos (including my groups), where echo's of the future. But then you never know I guess :P . Also, why do most people seem to have such dire visions of the future? I'm going to remain optimistic. Anyway, this concludes the second (and last) group project for this subject - 'Introducing Design".

Image obtained from http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/10/ghost-hunter-groups-proliferated-yet-we-are-still-no-closer-to-proving-ghosts-exist/ . Well, I used a picture of a gravestone for the end of the last project. So I had to show something to say that this second project has now given up the ghost :)

Week 9 - Adventuring in Design

Since this weeks guest lecturer mentioned Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), I thought that instead of drawing a cartoon like I usually do, I would post this picture of a miniature conversion I had made. It was made to resemble a "Yuan-ti Abomination" (snake man) from D&D. Starting with a headless torso and arms, all it takes is modelling putty and imagination.

Lecture 9

This week we had another guest lecturer, who is a game designer. They started off talking about how they played Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). Long ago, I had played D&D, although I was always the Dungeon Master. Part of the reason I never got drawn into playing World of Warcraft was the fact that there is no place for a Dungeon Master in that game. So in that respect, I could identify with what the lecturer was saying. My group used to be heroic adventurers. However, I did, on time, have a group that wanted to be all evil. I couldn't handle that group. I learnt long ago that not everyone wants to play a game the same way I do. I consider that one of the marks of a good game is that it can handle many different play styles effectively (and fairly). I used to also play various boardgames a lot, as well as computer games. I consider the best games to be the ones that enhance social interactions.

As an aside, I used to frequent the site http://boardgamegeek.com, as I do like board games. Although I mainly looked at that site to examine the rules of various games, since they could be discerned from various reviews. I always considered it interesting to see how simple rules could effectively simulate certain conditions/events, and what was it that made some games more popular. In some ways, early computer games had to be simple to fit within the limited resources available at that time. These days, the speed of downloadable data and networking is the primary limit. But even though vast complexity can now be afforded, simple approaches are still of great value, since you will always have your bottlenecks of one kind or another. I bought the board game 'Tsuro', since it's so simple, even my friend who seems to always be half drunk at diner parties can play it. Now that's a bottleneck :P :D

The guest lecturer also seemed to be someone focused on enhancing social interactions, with role play type games like Zombie Apocalypse (http://zombie-arg.com). Scoot (http://scootagency.com), which she also developed, is strongly focused on active real time location play. We were told that we should check out both Ingress (http://www.ingress.com) and Shadow Cities (http://www.shadowcities.com), since they are more 'tech current' games that follow a similar vein. From what I could see, these games are still both embryonic compared to how I would like things to eventually be. The smartphones should be able to be used as a looking glass into another world, utilising the camera with superimposed graphics. But I can't see that this is yet being done. When google glass becomes a fixture in the market, this needs to be rectified. I consider Google to be ahead of the game with their focus on virtual maps. After all, if you want to blend virtual elements into the real world, then the real world needs to be perfectly represented in the virtual world too. And as I've said repeatedly before, VR/AR is the developmental and designing area that I would like to be eventually apart of. I can see a world where there are no real world billboards, since they exist in the virtual world instead, and show material appropriate to each individual viewer. I can even see a world where graffiti is virtual. This is why I see little distinction between 'games' and 'interactive entertainment'. High level games will more become lifestyle choices (and I don't necessarily mean in the same way as those who are already fixated on MMO's).

I'll just going to sum up the rest of the lecture very briefly:

• More reinforcement about iteration of design.
• If you develop good code/systems/methods, re-use them, and build upon them.
• Always be aware of context. Examine all the factors that may impinge on a design.
• Keep awareness of new and developing technologies.

The  lecturer finished with a slide mentioning 'shifting boundaries', which I agree with. But the boundary between 'self' and 'character' were mentioned. I myself don't consider that to be a boundary that ever shifts. People are always themselves; it's only how others perceive them that is a 'character'.

Group Project 2 - Future Echo's (Week 3 of 4)

One of my preliminary drawings.

As mentioned last time, the story behind our group project is an apocalyptic future where tainted air requires the use of gas masks. There are very few buildings that filter air, making gas masks a constant necessity.

In this weeks tutorial session, I felt like my group actually were fully functioning as a team. Even the group member who I expected little from, they pulled out a working flash sample of gas mask world. It appears that in another subjects group, he has non-functioning team mates, and is doing the bulk of the work. While I still don't think that excuses him from not participating much in this group, at least there is some understanding now. I now think that the comments that they had made weeks earlier were born out of stress rather than real apathy. When working as a group, communication is key. Yet despite some turn around, I still don't feel that there is enough communication from everyone. However, we are meeting tomorrow (Monday).

Another preliminary drawing.

I spent a lot of time yesterday re-adjusting frames of a video, to make it look a little more 'drawn', and make it seem as though being viewed out of a gas mask. Even though it's only quite short, and the adjustments were simple, it was still 450 frames! But it is meant to be the ending of our short video, so I thought it was worthwhile doing so as to put the viewer into our created world for the climax (such that it is). There is still so much work to do. I need to have what drawings I want to use completed today. I'm relying on a couple of my other team mates to assemble all the material, so they need to have the time to do that. Also, we need at least a little time to make adjustments.

Even with a team member saying that they will do half the pictures, the number of pictures so far between us do not seem like enough, especially since there is little animation associated with them. Also, the other team member said that they had taken lots of pictures to act as background. As of yet, I've not been sent anything. I will do my best to complete the end section of the story that was given to me, but at this stage I'm not entirely confident about a unified end product.

Another team members drawings for gas mask world. Appreciated, but not 'finished' enough for my own liking. Some pen work over the pencil would make a huge difference.

Not wanting to spend precious time drawing backgrounds, I told the group to just take photos (or download pictures). I wanted to transform them so that they didn't look quite so photo-like. After all, they have to suit the drawn characters. At first I used a 'cartoon' effect, but that just didn't look so good. I tried various effects until I came to the 'gloom' effect, which did the job that I wanted. Also, considering the gloomy story for our project, it seemed doubly appropriate. For outdoor settings, I also added a 'fog' effect on top so as to further give the impression of unclean air. If others are not sending pictures to me to transform, then I hope they are doing it themselves.

Sample modified photo. It has been given the 'gloom' effect. Most pictures will be black & white

I didn't take too much notice of other groups in this weeks tutorial session, except for one that seemed to have done a great job and were half way through. Considering their presentation for the first project, I am not surprised. But I'll be reporting on all groups next week. I'll leave it at that for now.

Week 8 - Reaching new heights of Design

To illustrate my point, I could have equally used a photo of climbers, and then added a speech bubble. However, a drawing is guaranteed to look the way I want it.

Lecture 8

This week we had a guest lecturer; an industrial designer and founder of the design company - Ivoke (http://www.ivoke.com.au).

Openness. The lecture started with the word "Open". The intent being that we should always be open to anything (new ideas, new technologies, new methods, new experiences, and so forth). Sadly, the lecture was ended with "Takeaway", and I do prefer to dine in :P (well, that will make sense to some people). However, getting back to the initial point, I do believe that having a general attitude of acceptance (and adaptability) is always the way forward. Also, back in week 5, I already acknowledged the importance of experience (of any kind). Sources of inspiration can come from anywhere and anything. I feel that I am more creative now than in the past simply because I have lived and experienced more, and actively sought out having wide and varied experiences. In some specialized areas of life, I may have allowed myself to slip behind. But hey, that is why I'm at Uni doing this course; so as to correct that. Learning (and living) never stops.

Know your Niche. We were told that that we should know our speciality within design. I myself already know that I'm someone who prefers to generate ideas and turn them into something basic but tangible. I'm not really into refining, which is why even my cartoons tend not to have much detail beyond what I consider necessary to convey what I'm trying to depict. Yet I do have the capacity to refine, which is a good thing, since I'm more likely to end up being an indie developer.

Design for Others. In terms of product design, there was a lot of emphasis given to ensuring that you design for the customer. The 'customer' is primarily the person who is going to buy the product. However, there is of course the very important client who will be selling the product. Also, thought needs to be given to everyone who will be connected to the product in some way. The design should try to be inclusive of everyones needs. Some degree of market research is imperative to a design being able to meet it's purpose in the best possible way. This all acts as re-inforcement to what was stated in previous lectures.

Although I have to admit, even if all I'm doing is designing a birthday card for someone else, while I may be making it to specifically suit them, I am still doing it for me. I consider everything I make and do to be a reflection of myself, my experiences, my thoughts and my feelings. It is my own passions that drive me, and I will not pretend otherwise. Being part of a team would/does not lessen that. While giving due respect to the practiced design cycle, I can not see how good design can come about in any other way. So despite the focus on designing for others, I must acknowledge my own motives.

Application to My Own Sphere. The guest lecturer was an industrial designer. Of course, we must apply the same principles to our own sphere of Games and Interactive Entertainment. As stated in previous blog entires, I would like to potentially end up being involved in VR/AR development. In some respects, I want to be an industrial designer for a virtual world. Not to mention that industrial design is very broad, and easily applicable in many ways. I particularly found the lecture of value since long ago, I myself once made a brief start down the road to becoming an industrial designer. Sadly, life events stopped that journey before it really started. At the time I did those studies, none of the course lecturers/tutors at QUT had really worked as an industrial designer, and one was actually re-training in architecture. So it was inspirational just to see someone who is a successful designer.

Group Project 2 - Future Echo's (Week 2 of 4)

IDEA ONE. This week was an improvement over last week. As mentioned last time, I wanted to run with another group member idea, rather than one of my own. But after the last meeting, there was only one idea to run with, and it was not an idea that really appealed to me. But I created a little bit of a story board to lead into their own storyboard. Just to re-iterate, this idea is a post apocalypse world were the survivors have mostly turned to religion, and persecute the unreligious. The unreligious are essentially blamed for the sorry state that everyone now lives in. The presentation would then show life in that kind of world.

This is just a few storyboard frames I quickly drew that leeds into another members storyboard.

The other members storyboard for Idea One.

IDEA TWO. Luckily, the group member who didn't turn up at our last meeting, had actually created a storyboard. I was very happy, since it at least gave another alternative. Their idea was a post apocalypse world where the air was polluted, and gas masks became a necessity. While the air was non-fatal unless breathed in, it could apparently melt your face if you did breathe it in. So while this toxic agent remains undefined, it is obviously quite virulent. So in essence, the story is about life in a gas mask society, with no (or few) filtered buildings, so that gas masks need to be always worn (sleeping, eating, etc).

This is the storyboard created by different group member, and is the one that we are going to use.

The fourth and final member of our group still had nothing to offer. But given the comments that they had made last time, I didn't expect them to have anything.

I actually had another two ideas in addition to the ones I've already mentioned two weeks ago (just to amuse myself). The funniest one being global warming causing ice cream companies to turn into mega corporations :P . However, since I was opting my own ideas out, it became a choice between the above two.

PRESENTATION. We presented our ideas to the class. I presented my 'Lai of the Lizards' idea just so that people would know that I am participating, although I didn't really intend for it to be an alternative (except as a failsafe idea). Luckily the tutors liked the Gas Mask idea, and this cemented the choice for the group. Problem is, the person who put forward the gas mask idea, they had not put much thought into how we were going to execute this production, beyond doing lots of drawings. I thought that was a bad move given the time we had left. However, they insisted that they would do at least half the drawings. This was exactly what I hoping to hear - more effective participation than last project.

OTHER GROUPS. Just to give a brief run down on the development of other groups. Red italics shows what I said two weeks ago:

• Group 26 - Profession Hats - essentially 'hats' that give you the skills of the professions encoded in them. Developmental steps have now be set out. The possibility of Hat Hackers have been included to create drama.
• Group 28 - Underground Religion - religion being outlawed and going underground (USSR style). Focus is more on hyper science society, with less moral regulation. For example, cloning is done without regard or conscience. Religious organisations are rebels. 
• Group 25 - One Currency - the world only has one united currency. A tutor said "like the Euro" :) . An implanted chip contains monetary info, and also affects status in society. The group seemed resistant to the tutors suggestions of expanding on the chip storing other info, or making the story more complex.
• Group 27 - Limited Resources - with increasing population and declining resources like oil, many options here. "Do you want cricket fries with your grubs?" (Although that's already the menu in some places). This group now presented several ideas. 1) One was scanning ID via fingerprints, with this process being a requirement to do almost anything. 2) Another was close to the original idea, with the rich hoarding whats left of limited resources, but end up worse off since they do not embrace renewable resources like those who had to. 3) An idea very similar to the animation 'Wall.E'. 4) I was confused about the forth idea.
• Group 24 - Technology Trouble - I didn't comment on this group last time. They had three ideas of which I remember two. 1) Piracy (downloading) is out of control. The government cracks down harshly. 2) Google Glass is a vital fixture in society. Looks at life if you break your all important glasses - lose the ability to effectively communicate.

ADDITIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
Since the last tutorial session, I've made a few suggestions to the group.

• I suggested that to cut down on drawing, a history be given for the gas mask society through news paper clippings on a wall. This way, those who can not draw can create clippings, stick them on a wall, and film them as though being inspected by a person in that world.
• I said that we do not need to really talk much, as the story can be driven by other means. I also suggested that we incorporate music to set the mood. For example - http://www.last.fm/music/Le+Mépris/_/hikkikomori. I could see nothing in the project description that precludes the addition of legally downloaded music and/or sound effects, provided we give proper accreditation.
• I also suggested that we could use a form of rotoscoping (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping), like used in older animations, to help speed up the development process.

We will see how it all goes.

Week 7.5 - The Toll (Troll) of Design

When drawing this, I pondered that in some ways, there isn't much difference between tolls and trolls :P

There where no lectures or tutorials for this week. However, my group did meet up this week for the group project. This was a very awful week for me in general. While I always feel creative, external forces can rob me of some of my motivation.

Group Project 2 - Future Echo's (Week 1.5 of 4)

We meet up on Monday, with one member not turning up, although they sent an email on Wednesday giving some individual thoughts. These where the suggestions of the other team members:

• One suggested a post apocalypse scenario, where the survivors have dramatically turned to religion, and persecute those that aren't religious. I must say I was not a fan of this idea. Last week, I said that a post apocalypse idea was my last choice.
• Another suggested a post apocalypse scenario (obviously my group has a rosy view of the future :P). There was no particular development of the idea beyond that.
• The last member had no ideas to put forward at all. They had no interest in any particular idea, didn't care what we did, and said that only creating a good presentation was what mattered. This view particularly annoyed me, especially since this was the person who seemed to have a good idea in the group brainstorming session.

I must say that from my own standpoint, every part of design matters. Creating something that looks spiffy, but that lacks substance and value, that is the kind of thing that plagues the industry. One of the main reason I aim towards becoming a indie developer is because I know that I can not accept being part of a project that I don't believe in. I would like to be part of a team (especially for VR development), but only if they are on the same page as myself, and share similar goals and standards.

Although the few ideas so far presented by the others are not my favourite, I'll back them 100%. We don't always get to do the things that we like.

This week I was also hit by a heavy blow at my work. So all in all, I felt very unmotivated this week. While I still drove myself to do some drawings for the above title picture, and for some birthday cards, I felt empty for this project. Sometimes events do take their toll. But I'll pick myself up and have something for the next project tutorial session.