Devils Tramping Ground [IDD 250]

I went over and looked at some of the interactivity that is on Devils Tramping Ground and how Ed Bain tied it in to his story.

The first one on the list is probably the most interactive in his story. It is a tour of Tramping Ground and it shows you the area. An unfortunate side effect of the movie is that it has a disclaimer letting people know it is interactive and that they need to use their mouse to interact with it. It isn't an assumed interaction with the movie. This is most likely due to the overwhelming number of movies that aren't interactive.

In the interview that was in the Pause & Effect that Meadows had with Bain he says, "I didn't want people to linger particularly long." This meant he had to keep the transition between things relatively short and the story line linear. In fact, Bain says, "It's pretty linear because the interaction is part of the story." This is due to the medium that Bain chose to use for his story.

The internet is a fast paced medium and if something doesn't change relatively quickly, people will lose interest. Most of the movies or animations designed for the internet as the medium are short with most of them being less than 3 minutes.

Analysis of 'Corporate Puppet' [IDD 301]

Corporate Puppet is Tony Bailey's perception of what the 'daily grind' in the corporate world can do to you.

The story is about the everyday person who gets a job with a large corporate company in the city. He has a house like everyone else and goes to work the same way everyday. At his first day on the job he meets his secretary who greets him and then he goes to his office. Upon arrival the boss comes in an yells at him. He follows him back to his office and kisses his boss' ass (literally) for 30 years. Finally he gets sick of this and climbs to the top of the huge office building and jumps off, ending his life.

The style for this is to resemble old light puppets that are held up by sticks to move around. The flickering light in the background resembles a light seen on a film projector. The color palette for this is all yellow and grays. The color palette changes at the end to grayscale after he jumps, to full color with the lifting of the screen that the puppets are projected on to. When the screen lifts behind it is a drawing of a bloody man who is laying on the ground with the large business building in the background.

The animation attempts to simulate a puppet show with the way everything in the animation moves. It is a simple and effective.

Interactive Design Portal/Homepage [IDD250]

Here is the homepage for all of the past webpages I have made.

Interactive Design Home

Pardon my grammar on this home/portal page, I'll fix that.

Analysis of Xiao Xiao 3 (Stick Figure) [IDD 301]

I'm sure some of you might remember this animation. It is called Xiao Xiao No. 3. The story line in this is plain and simple and setup in an old video game type of way. Our hero (the black stick figure) is in a building trying to fight his way through all the hooligans to get to the final boss. He goes through the three levels in the building defeating them using various weapons that the boss' hitmen drop. Then when he finally makes it to the boss he fights him and wins.

The scenery in this is plain and simple with very little detail and just black lines. A 'stick' background shall we say. The characters, however, have nice fluid movements to them which draws our attention in. Not to mention the plethora of ninja-like moves that this stick figure accurately demonstrates. When our hero uses weapons they all leave a slight motion trail adding to the effect and drawing our attention to them.

There are a couple of shots where the characters also leave motion trails in a slow-motion type of effect. With the camera zoomed in on these characters we feel a sense that in this 2D world they are having 3D movements.

Finally, in the very last scene it uses the famous Matrix style slow motion camera rotation while our hero is up in the air for his final kick. This is where we get a true sense of this three-dimensional world in this easily 2D one.

Saccadic Eye Movement [IDD 250]

I made a webpage briefly discussing Saccadic Eye Movement with two web examples.

Saccadic Eye Movement & Web Sites

Analysis of 'Auld Sage' [IDD 301]

This week's analysis has me looking at Adam Phillips' - "Auld Sage" short animation. This was inspired by an untitled bonus track on Coldplay's - Parachutes album.

The color palette for this animation is very good, consisting of mainly dark blues and greens to give it a night time feel.

The animation starts off with a naked big foot creature walking out into the open from behind a bush with the moon casting his shadow. As he walks he is singing the song that is playing along. All the animations for the walking (including the shadow) and lighting on his body while he is walking are movie clips.

One of the key things that makes this animation a good one is Adam's close attention to detail. An example of this would be his facial expressions while he is singing and the body movement while he is walking. His arms are moving and his head is turning to add emotion and expression.

Another interesting effect that Adam did while paying attention to detail was to capture the way the moonlight looked as he walked across it and blocking off part of the light. (I'm not sure how this was achieved, but I'd like to know.) It is definitely the little things in this animation that make it stand out.

Perspective & Games [IDD 250]

Perspective & Games. Don't forget the MUDs!

Analysis of Strong Bad's Email [IDD 301]

I'm sure I won't be the only one who chose to analyze one of the ever popular animations from the Homestar Runner series. I chose to take a look at the latest Strong Bad's Email - Time Capsule episode.

The episode starts with an email to the character Strong Bad asking him a question. In this case, the fan was asking Strong Bad what he's going to do for when he dies because the fan that emailed him looks at him as a popular person. Strong Bad says he's going to make a time capsule and fill it with cool stuff. While he's answering the email Homestar Runner comes by and asks if he can put his old and disgusting wig in the time capsule. Strong Bad tells him no because its old, disgusting, and not cool. Strong Bad then has visions of what the future might be when they find the time capsule. He finishes his email waiting for the groupies to appear after he put his #1 singles cassette tape in the time capsule.

The majority of the animation shows Strong Bad in front of the computer screen typing his email. There are keyboard typing sound effects and a voice over of him narrating what he's typing. He has slight head movements while typing to show that he's talking. If you watch closely you'll see the movements repeat themselves. His reflection in the monitor is also visible and is mimicking the movements seen in the foreground. The text on Strong Bad's monitor appears to be coming up as it is typed. When Homestar Runner appears, the first thing you notice is that he has no hands or arms. Everything he holds is just floating in space and moves with the suggestion that he has arms and hands. This technique would definitely speed up the animation process.

The scene of the future has more animation in it, but nothing overly complex since it is a short scene. The animator did have to draw two more characters for this scene, but they are similar looking to Strong Bad and Homestar Runner.

The email then ends and has a button to all of Strong Bad's emails. By the looks of things these types of animations don't take too much time for the author to complete since there is a great number of these animations compared to everything else.

Scared & Confused [IDD 301]

Well, I have finally completed my first animation for this class. If there is anyone out there that is on a slow connection (dial-up), let me know how the preloader works. It's only 45kb so it should still download quickly. I had fun making this and seeing the progress of it. I have a few techniques that I haven't quite figured out how to get to work, such as zooming in & out with multiple groups and symbols on the stage. I shall soon figure that out. Anyway, take a look and let me know what you think. Make sure the volume is on, there is minimal sound :-)

Scared & Confused

Elections as an Interactive Narrative [IDD 250]

This week's web page I created talks about the election process as real live interactive narrative.

You can see it by clicking here.