MA 3D Computer Animation

Here is the link of the project brief:

Week 2: Collaborative Unit – Project Brief

Slowly reveal the story and setting by using flashbacks and interlacing to increase the sense of abruptness, weirdness and freshness to the audience.

This week I discussed with Kaiwen about our project. We’ll going to produce a horizontal exploration game. For the art presentation, we may try to do 3D or rendering 3D into 2D. Players may explore in different rooms which connected together. They can move to right or left to switch the rooms. Also, they can interact with the object in the scene. Samsara Room and This war of mine may be an example for us to reference.

Besides horizontal exploration, I think explore vertically will also be a good research area. It will be super cool if the character can go into a space vertically. But the camera switch may cause problems. So, we may discuss it further.

Story – How the story develop

First step

And for the story itself, Kaiwen and I discussed and revised many versions.

Initially, I create a background of the city Narokse (an imaginary city) with the story of a brother and his younger sister living outside the city. Narokse was covered in fog caused by the war with the deity in year 907 which is the same with the background now. But the difference is the elder brother went into the city before the war began. So, basically the girl lost the contact with her brother. So, in the game the girl’s aim is to find her brother.

And in the year 915, the girl received a blood-stained letter from her brother, who had gone Narokse to do business as he said before the war. It had an address in the city and a note scrawled, “One day you will know what happened, but the person who told you won’t be me.”

Then in year 917, the fog was lightened. In that case, the girl tried to cross the fog again before everyone else. She succeed.

So, in my original setting, brother will be a member of an outside organization who has been tasked to go into the city to investigate the strange/or himself is a senior member of the urban secret organization. He lived with his younger sister and he loved her a lot. And that love is the reason why his sister persisted in going into the city to find her brother.

Scenes:

1. The girl standing on a hill outside the city, holding the envelope and looking out over the misty city. [camera focus on the upper part of the body]
2. The girl standing outside the door of the house, a close up shot to the upper back of the girl with the doorplate. And the girl gently open the door. There may be light or darkness in the door.
3. Shots of missiles rising from the city into the sky. Implying that the city disappeared because of the war. “The stars are shining, turns the night into morning.”
4. Cutscene opening animation, girl walk step by step close to the door, hear the heart beat behind the door from weak to strong, she is breathing more and more heavy.
5. The final shot could be the girl fainting, possibly from inhaling too much “gas” in the air, and vaguely seeing something before collapsing (her brother coming to her rescue/or someone else/or just hallucinations).
6. There are messages about ‘weird’ in the records, which make people inhuman.

About the brother

• Brother may has a high-level identity, but was framed, so an accident happened to him. He didn’t dead, but may become inhuman of the “weird”.
• Record of brother “My calculations are accurate, but in this game I’m just a chess piece.”

Second step

While Kaiwen provide his thought about the story. He agreed the main character to be a girl, but the story he want to describe is about the girl and her parents. About love and beliefs, evil gods and the truth that was covered up. He talked about the religious elements he wanted to add (like Resident Evil 7) and the concept of phantasm.

So, we came up with the idea of the girl as main character lived in the city was trapped in the phantasm that made by the god mother believes in. In fact, everyone died or disappeared because of the war, and the girl’s mother prayed for the girl’s safety, so the god created an “ordinary” day for the girl which . The day repeats itself like a cycle.

As the powers of the gods fade, the girl gradually discovers something strange in the room (such as aging walls, or things that don’t exist).

Scene

• Wake up in her room, and find out there’s something strange around.
• Different levels of exploration or choices lead to different endings
  • True End: Waking up from the phantasm, standing in the rubble, and it was raining.
  • Bad End: The protagonist is unwilling to face reality, or fails to see the problem and continues to indulge in phantasm. But Someone knocks the door at the end of the shot.

This is the brief for the presentation during class.

Horizontal exploration game (with 3D interlude animation)

How the game will be presented?

The game is based on a horizontal view but the player is actually in a 3D scene with a camera focus on the character. The player can interact with the objects in the scene by using key items. The story will be driven through a combination of game interaction and interlude animations. Finally, by gathering all the clues together, player will uncover the truth.

What is the story talking about?

The little girl wake up in her bedroom, feeling something strange than usual. She calls her parents, but no one answers. She wants to know what happened. So, she begins to search in her home she most familiar. The game starts…

• (Following is the story that audience will get into during playing the game)

In 907, City Narokse launched a war against the deity. After the war, half the town vanished like being rubbed off by an eraser, and the rest was enveloped in an impenetrable fog. No one was heard from inside.

In 917, the remaining divine power of the deity gradually faded, causing the fog that enveloped the city to lighten. At the same time, the little girl in Narokse city also gradually woke up. Is it a dream, reality, or illusion? Will she discover the story of her father, the deity, and Narokse? What did the deity do to the little girl? Does everything have an end? Players will follow the perspective of the little girl to explore.

Reference:

Here is the link for more details:

Week 2: Collaborative unit – Detail description

I am willing to try stylize rendering in collaborative unit. Also I want to describe the story and animate it in the way of Lovecraftian horror. Basically, this kind of style highlight the fear of the unknown. And the story itself partly related with Cthulhu Mythos.

And for the project, I can do storytelling, 3D animation, rigging and weighting. Also, I can do simple modeling. But I’m not good at character modeling. So, if we want to do all the stuffs by ourselves, I definitely need a groupmate to take the part of character modeling.

Friday Updated.

I collaborate with Kaiwen Xiao. He also wants to do the stylize rendering stuff in the project. We are planning to make a game and we need to come up with a brief story in next week. Also, we may need invite someone in sound art to produce the music for us. Otherwise, we have to use license free music as back ground music in our game.

Remember we need to explore topics outside of MA 3D Computer Animation.

Initial plan

1. Animation + game

• reference game: this war of mine, beholder, Luigi’s Mansion
• Background use 3D model with 2D texture
• game mode: character was driven by the desire of finding something or seeking the truth, exploring the room then finally discover something
• Things to do: model, texture, game interface, interlude animation, character animation, music, the story
• Camera: close to the character, when the character go into the next room, the scene is slowly cut to a part of the next room near the door of the panorama.  

2. Animation + interactive options

3. Music Video