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Signal Project; Animation video

(Still currently being uploaded) (link will be up soon)

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Signal Project

Group Members:

- Anwell Siena

- Khai Gan

- Gohanne Turtal

- Ethan Lin

- Belshazzar Mallari

Blog posts

Day 01 https://as-bct.tumblr.com/post/185677842576/signal-day-1-groups

Day 02 https://as-bct.tumblr.com/post/185677940206/signal-day-2-unwell

Day 03 https://as-bct.tumblr.com/post/185678044906/signal-day-3-contextual-research

Day 04 https://as-bct.tumblr.com/post/185678281996/signal-day-4-where-we-at

Day 05 https://as-bct.tumblr.com/post/185678528561/signal-day-5-penforksoup

Day 06 https://as-bct.tumblr.com/post/185678607656/signal-day-6-concepts

Day 07 https://as-bct.tumblr.com/post/185678677831/signal-day-7-rpgmaker

Day 08 https://as-bct.tumblr.com/post/185678799216/signal-day-8-yeeting-the-baby

Day 09 https://as-bct.tumblr.com/post/185678918066/signal-day-9-prototypes-and-ideas

Day 10 https://as-bct.tumblr.com/post/185678991506/signal-day-10-jobs

Day 11 https://as-bct.tumblr.com/post/185679117281/signal-day-11-maze-idea

Day 12 https://as-bct.tumblr.com/post/185679184346/signal-day-12-rain-rain-go-away

Day 13 https://as-bct.tumblr.com/post/185679315486/signal-day-13-the-ressurection

Day 14 https://as-bct.tumblr.com/post/185679458726/signal-day-14-dream-loooooooop

Day 15 https://as-bct.tumblr.com/post/185679548151/signal-day-15-still-going-with-the-game

Day 16 https://as-bct.tumblr.com/post/185679680001/signal-day-16-open-day

Day 17 https://as-bct.tumblr.com/post/185679833536/signal-day-17-changed-gears

Day 18 https://as-bct.tumblr.com/post/185680016201/signal-day-18-time-to-edit

Day 19 https://as-bct.tumblr.com/post/185680088211/signal-day-19-the-last-push

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Signal Day 19; The Last Push

All I’ve been doing recently while waiting for my members to finish rotoscoping is updating my blog, been busy doing the written report, our group had to ask for an extension due to problems.

Once they’re finished I’ll be able to edit them and join them all up together to produce ONE continuous rotoscope animation film portraying a female teenager protagonist who goes through a series of predicaments which she faces within a “dream reality loop”. 

Each sequences’ solutions are as follows in chronological order: break your boundaries, use the environment, change your perspective, and face it head-on. This animation serves as entertainment and encouragement to those undergoing similar circumstances to ours and aligns with our intent of creating an experience that demonstrates simple solutions through unconventional means, which can be applied to almost all circumstances. This animation was born from the creative differences and the conflict it generated within our team, which is accurate to the principles of “Individual Capability, Team Performance, and Team Productivity”, and exists as a representation and product of the creativity it embodies.

The final Video will be up shortly.

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Signal Day 18; time to edit

So with the recorded videos of our model Patricia doing all the actions required for rotoscoping. I had to edit most of the videos to alter their size, manipulate their positions, make them spin so it looks like the person in the shot is doing a backflip or a front flip.

So the intention is that I create the movement of the object(person) related to what the rotoscopers (Khai, Gohanne, and Bel) envision. They will add additional stuff such as the drawing effects to make it look more animation like.

We had 4 locations visualize and portray;

Box, Cliff, Portal, Camera,

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Signal Day 17; CHANGED GEARS

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.... We decided to scratch the game idea that we relied on Regy to do. This is because we’ve been relying on him too much when he’s not putting much effort in any way. We also decided that there was no one he would complete it in time so we took it upon ourselves. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... Here’s our plan. Scratch the game concept. We’re heading towards animation rotoscoping concept. At least this is within our expertise. Many of us could draw, animate, I can edit video/ film. etc...

So our aim today was to get most of the filming done and Khai had prepared a storyline for our brief relating the dream loop idea.

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Signal Day 16; Open Day

Just before the open day began, our group styled out our area to have this ‘bedroom’ aesthetic vibe. This is because we want the people to come around our table and feel like they're at home. This relates to our idea and concept as we're doing something that relates dream loops and escaping it through a creative process.

Since our “game” hadn’t been done to a point where it’s playable enough, the individual scenes captured within the game were just played through a slideshow instead. I personally felt that this was a clever way to convey our vision with the project without making unneeded compromises such as not having the visual aid to back up our explanations.

DURING THE OPEN DAY> MY EXPERIENCE I had a couple of people who have been intrigued by what was going on in our corner. We had a ring toss, a maze and an animation slide happening on the tv. So Id explains our current project and how it’s not finalized. Then I’d show them our past prototypes and ideas and how those lead to these recent ones. It’s quite nerve-wrecking talking to people who you completely don’t know and yet is curious about your creativity.

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Signal Day 15; still going with the game

Khai and Regy got going with the game and inputting all our story in the game. Bel and Ethan were asked to further the cause of the ringtoss and perhaps also make it look better. I came to check and help out. 

We were also preparing our space for the upcoming open day, Gohanne and Khai did a few sketches so that we may possibly show something on the open day. Although it wasn't completed our idea stands.

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Signal Day 14; dream loooooooop.

Our objective today was to come up with a storyline for our game which Regy would be making.  Bel came up with a very interesting idea of an infinite dream loop  cycle where the character wakes up in different timelines. I found this interesting because I read an article about  how dreaming meticulously depicts a person's emotional concern in life. SImply how dreams are affected by our emotion concerns OR cognitive and social development in life. - So most of us were really keen on this one.

The idea was to have the main character experience the same day but with the different events occurring throughout the day according to the emotions . Each of us had different emotions to do a story on. Mine was about Fear and my story was about how the protagonist became very jelousy of money and so she dreams of being rich. However she didnt know that danger of what its like being in a rich state, there are many who kills for money. The other members had Anger, Greed, Acceptance, Sad as their chosen emotions.

Tomorrow, we will all join it together.

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Signal Day 13; The Ressurection

With the ringtoss being completed not knowing that the idea behind it was just “taking the easy way out” I thought it was a brilliant piece.

However today, It was decided that since Regy is pretty much always home, we might as well send him homework to do. We utilized his skillset in scratch to produce a game revolving decisions. 

Since Regy promised us that he’ll be able to create a simple scratch low-fidelity game about our brief. We relied on him to keep his words and actually create something because time is running out.

I was asked to create a storyboard among with Gohanne and Ethan while Khai and Bel help Regy.

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Signal Day 12; rain rain go away

Due to the hard rain, I was unable to travel. However, the team in the studio decided to create a ringtoss which was Ethan's Idea with a twist. They all worked in it together, making plywood and sticks to stick into the plywood. and the remaining strings we got from look sharp.

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Signal Day 11; Maze idea.

At the very start, I decided to step back from our given jobs because I came up with an idea that I thought my group would like to get a thought into. With my idea being  “ To create a task that enables experiences to diverge from instructions conventional status quo format for them to complete it.”

I had created an impossible maze game where the exit was blocked off, but if you were to turn the page around you would see an alternative straight route directly to the end. Essentially games that are difficult with an easy alternative way to solve it, should they seek it out and find it.

I showed this prototype to my group mates, I even gave Khai a try at first when I haven't told about the secret back page entrance yet. They thought my idea was cool and very interesting, and they thought of wanting to fuse it with our current idea or leave it as an alternative.

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Signal Day 10; jobs

Firstly, we all couldn’t decide what to do. Half wanted to go for a video game concept and the other half something to do with an object interaction. After a wholesome discussion, we decided to split into 2 groups. 

Khai, Ethan, and Gohanne decided to focus on creating a video game which presents options to the player in the form of doors, therefore making the player have visual/physical options to choose from. There will only be one ending, where the player has failed the task described in the game.

While Bel and I decided to work on the weighing scale that Bel thought of. Sacrifice weight scale, the idea that I proposed. The interactive aspect to this is that the person would sacrifice a personal belonging on to a ‘libra-esque scale’ mechanism and when the sacrificial side of the weight is heavier than the other it’ll rise up and on it is a prize/gift.

Eventually, planning was done today and prototype making will be executed tomorrow. 

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Signal Day 9; prototypes and ideas

Khai made a simple/fun/enjoyable board game relating all the ideas from yesterday. Although I could not seem to find its relation to our brief. For me it was just a game of snakes and ladders, chasing opponents and battling them to reach the winning spot.  Bel came up with an interesting idea;  the Libra scales. His brief was “To present a prize they obtain through a sacrifice.” I find this interesting because I'm curious about what people would choose to sacrifice to obtain something.

I continued thinking for more possible ideas which I could contribute to the team. An idea which we ALL could relate and be focused on rather than mixed ideas from everywhere and not having to meet in the middle.

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Signal Day  8; Yeeting the baby

As expected, creating a low-fidelity game model in the RPGMaker was too complicated and too time-consuming for us. We were kinda stuck and sought Charles for his advice. Obviously, at times like this, its when we had to kill the baby to let more and perhaps better ideas flow in.

We picked ideas from sticky notes, something we are interested in doing. Gohanne wanted animation, Khai went for a physical game, Ethan wanted to continue some form of a video game, Bel chose to do an interactive object. I was stuck between the interactive object and animation. This is because they are within my capabilities. 

Charles then came back 20 minutes later and we proposed our rough ideas and prototypes to them. He immediately told us that almost all of our ideas didn’t match the brief we had written. He told us to either change the brief or scratch the ideas that didn’t match this. We did both. Our brief had “…realistic situations…” which I believed hindered our iterative process since we were thinking outside of that scope anyway so we changed it. Khai decided to mix all our ideas, although the video game concept is a bit shaky and quite too impossible as none of us have that expertise.

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Signal Day 7; RPGMaker

Khai, Ethan, and Bel had asked from 2nd and 3rd years about RPGMaker. It sounds too complex and too time-consuming for us to even have a look at it. While RPGMaker could be a good alternative, but as is it would take too long to convey the wrong message we are trying to communicate/ convey.

I believe there are more other ways we could convey our ideas to. 

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Signal Day 6; Concepts

Our objective is to figure out a concept to do a prototype on. Our choices were;  a low fidelity game, 360 videos, as well as a game object.  At the moment it seems that each of us is interested in all of it and could not decide equally.   

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Signal Day 5; Pen/Fork/Soup

Knowing the circumstances or Regy being away most days OR leaving an hour early. Our group decided to look for alternative ideas just because we're relying on Regy to lead us into the mental illness idea however his commitment at the moment is being shaky.

I had an Idea about sensory manipulation which I shared with the team; its simply the lack of application and meaning to objects. This idea is to give a participant an objective to do something and giving them the most useless and meaningless choices to complete such the task. 

An example of this which I gave was the SOUP, FORK, PEN. A person is given a soup to finish and they are given either a pen or a fork to finish the soup. 

The group seemed to be interested in this idea as they all seemed to be revolved around it. 

Ethan brought found a game that somewhat relates to my idea. he shared it to the group and showed us a game “when the darkness comes”. We all had a brief look and watch of the game. Within the game, you are given choices but ultimately throughout the game, the choices you make, have little to no effect. The game explores the hardships of depression and anxiety. The feeling of helplessness as the game escalates more and more as you just go along for the ride, whilst you try to prevent it with the choices given to you, which do nothing.  

At the end of the day, we came up with our purpose from these two new concept/ideas. Our purpose was “To convey to the viewer an experience that presents futile choices and meaningless objects in a way that is ( stimulating to the senses ) in order to emphasize the message that meaning does not need to apply to everything.”  [ Alternatively, conditions in said environment can be manipulated in order to invoke a certain reaction or response from the viewer]