bellafadiploma

[bellafadiploma]

Hello! If you’re reading this, you are probably doing my assessment.

HERE: (www.bellafadiploma.tumblr.com/tagged/fmp) is a link to everything in my fmp, in reverse chronological order

And here (www.bellafadiploma.tumblr.com/archive) is my archive if you want to go through it like that

Also here is my pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/isabellashm/-project-ideas-/

Enjoy!

[bellafadiploma]

final film + evaluation

I have very much enjoyed this project, and I believe that the piece is very successful in it’s portrayal of mental health. I do believe that I could have gone more dark with certain aspects, but actually, the slight hints of uneasiness are quite successful. I feel that it was actually rather cathartic for me to sort of disconnect from my own mental health and look at it, as if it were a tangible thing, something seperate from me that is haunting me. 

Upon reading my evaluation for my level 3 fmp, for which the piece was a lot more emotionless and design based, I agree with my own sentiment. I am much happier and fulfilled when I am making work that has a strongly human and emotional concept driving it.

Sadly this was not successful in being interactive, so I had to navigate this problem by making it look like someone else was playing it. However, this actually had a silver lining, which was that because I wasn’t attempting to teach myself to code, I had ample time to fully finish every scene and piece of dialogue I wanted to.

Overall, I maintain that the piece is very successful and I’m exceedingly proud of myself for being able to finish it in the amount of time I had, and to such a degree of finality (music and sound effects etc.) I think in the few weeks up to the exhibition, there is a possibility that I could try to make it interactive. Which would obviously be amazing, and although I will have handed everything in to be marked by that point, I may still chronicle that attempt on this blog

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making of film

 Finally, here is the making of my film which is now finished.

After my sketches, I continued to develop my background sketches. I hand painted them and edited them to have much more strongly saturated colours, as well as emphasised when certain things are glowing or lit up. I have done this by colouring white in the centre of the glowing object, white being the lightest possible colour. I then gave them a pseudo halo-effect by using a very soft brush and setting the blending mode to either soft light or hue.

The very blue sections are where I am planning to chromakey (greenscreen) actual footage into the scene. 

What I think is successful, especially when referencing my research points.

- Colours ended coming out very successfully. I like how warm especially the main room (bottom) appears, as I wanted it to seem both welcoming and childlike, but still quite busy and chaotic. 

- I like that the outer lines of each scene are not neat and remain very much hand-drawn. I didn’t want them to seem like actual real places, but a representation of one, so I’m happy that the perspectives of most of them are slightly skewed.

- I think the textures that are subtly added in are very effective, because they sprinkle in a tiny little bit of realism.

What I think I could have improved is more nuanced storytelling. A good example is scenes of Mima’s bedroom in Perfect Blue (1999).

Her room is so full with tiny little details that tell us about her. Pieces of art, posters, games consoles, soft toys, plants. None of these explicitly come into the plot, but they still tell us about Mima. That she is still young and quite innocent, and throughout the film as things become more chaotic and terrifying, these things slowly get destroyed.

So for example, I could have peppered in books with interesting titles, little mouse holes, dirty footprints etc. Just to make things seem more alive.

ANIMATING

Finally, I started to animate. I began with my storyboards (link here) and once I had done those I did the under/sketch layer to just summarise the general look of the movement. I also animated with a ratio body reference to the side, so I can make sure the character looks at least vaguely consistent.

I did all of these animating on twos (every other frame) at 24fps. I did this because it’s a lot less work just because you are literally drawing half the frames, and also because I personally feel that working on ones at 24fps looks much too smooth and modern, whereas I wanted to create something a much more 90s feeling.

Once I was happy with each of these, I started drawing the final layer. For the first two scenes, I was using the brush tool, which had no form of smoothing, and creates a very messy line. I actually really liked the way that this looked, as it took on every wobble my hand made, giving the entire animation a much more chaotic feeling. However, on my third scene, I changed to the art brush tool, which is vector based. This made everything a lot easier. It’s a much quicker tool, you can colour fill instantly, and if you draw a line wrong, instead of re-drawing it, you can just grab and move it. Due to these reasons, I made the decision to continue to animate the final layers in the art brush vector tool.

Here is a comparison of the line quality, the normal brush tool on top, and the art vector brush on the bottom.

For certain scenes, I changed the colours that I filled with to establish different lighting levels. For example, in the library, the lighting is a lot lower, and I added highlights to reference the reading lamp. In the basement, I specifically increased the yellow value of every colour to reference the low-level filament bulb in the basement.

EDITING

Now, having finished the animations, I needed to put everything together into one film, after realising that it was relatively impossible to make it actually interactive. So I decided to add it together and add a mouse moving around to make it look like someone else was playing it.

Essentially, this bit was rather simple, but just time consuming.

Here’s evidencing of me editing

Layering of loads of different videos, under a greenscreen. The videos I chose were a selection of film scenes (Blade Runner, Perfect Blue) and Music videos (Thomas Dolby, Elvis Costello etc). About halfway through the video, I edited in lots of horrific images of meat and bugs, as well as making the whole screen go more red in colour value by using lumetri colour editing. These are to represent how having OCD and anxiety disorders create these horrible dark images that my brain gets entirely hung up on. I think I was successful in that respect, as people who have viewed them have been visibly repulsed or upset, which was exactly my goal.

(evidence of chromakey and lumetri editing and the use of keyframing to slowly change a visual aspect)

Once each individual scene was edited, I added them all together in sequence, combined with the real life videos that I had taken to further add to the mixed media effect of my piece. The very first shot is of me dressed up as the character. This is because I wanted to incorporate some very mild performative aspects to the piece which I think has proven to be successful.

Finally, I added all the music and sound effects, all of which is royalty free music I have found across the internet. I considered which music would fit for each room, I wanted something upbeat and ‘funky’ for the main home screen for example. Then in the basement room, I used music that had some resemblance to pipes clanging and dirt being moved. (below is evidence of sound layering)

The very very final touch was adding the mouse cursor to make each scene look as though someone was clicking specifically on each door. Although I feel that it is a shame that I could not make the piece interactive in the time, I’m still very happy with this sort of ghostly playthrough that I simulated.

Whilst finishing the dialogue, I had to re-edit a bunch of the scenes in order to allow enough time for for you to read each subtitle. This has ended in some rather stilted looking sections, although according to viewers, they are almost impossible to notice and do not effect the overall appearance.

I will talk about this more in my final evaluation, but I am exceedingly proud of the amount of work I managed to produce in the time given, and when compared to my research reference points, I think that it has very much the same look as those games.

[bellafadiploma]

storyboards

frustratingly, because these were done in coloured pencil, they are nearly impossible to see. They’re very simple storyboards that outline the motion that I needed to convey and the dialogue. (I ended up slightly changing the dialogue as I went.)

Plus, here is me creating the cardboard house for the fleeting opening scene.

I started with wooden building blocks, which I then sketched (in my sketchbook). And when I was content with the shape, I started constructing it from cardboard. I am actually very happy with my cardboard house although I would like to have been able to paint it.

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tutorials update

These are both tutorial records that I neglected to upload. Unfortunately although I really liked the artists that were recommended to me, due to rather severe time constraints and the fact that my work was no longer interactive, I decided not to follow through on researching them.

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Point and click games

One of my biggest inspirations for my project is point and click games, specifically ones from the 90s. I have specifically used ones that I used to play as a child because I wanted to really draw on that nostalgia factor. I very much envisioned the colour schemes and layout of these games when creating my designs.

Firstly, we have a very old game called Max and the Haunted Castle (video below). Interestingly, upon rewatching this playthrough, the graphics are obviously a lot worse than I remember, however it still holds a special place in my memory. The backgrounds and characters are all rather naively hand painted in their style, very much reminiscent of a child’s drawings. The animations of each character is obviously a lot more stilted and limited than what my animations will be, but that’s what I quite like about it. This childlike style is very effective becuase it draws the player/viewer into the mind of a child, and the imaginings of one. We are seeing the castle through Max’s eyes. Its not that it is a particularly amazing or groundbreaking video game, but it has a charm to it that I want to bring into my work.

It doesn’t really have a narrative, it is much more about just exploring the space and the rooms. This is again, a huge inspiration to my work. I don’t want to create a huge adventure, just experiencing different feelings through rooms is enough. Furthermore, the music and atmosphere of this game, of both childlike exploration, but with slight danger and risk (posed by ghosts in this game) is something that I would like to attempt to put across in my piece. I would like to try playing around with musical scores and colour schemes and dialogue to get this across.

Another childhood favourite of mine was a game named Das Mitternachtspiel, or the Midnight Game. Produced by Tivola, it is a completely nonsensical point and click game. It has been made by taking sections of art by Children’s illustrator Kveta Pacovska and animating them to create strange little scenes and characters. Similar to Max and the Haunted Castle, it doesn’t have a narrative that is readable at all, it is simply an interactive piece of art and exploration. I really like the music used in this game and it is of particular influence to the music that I have been choosing from for my game (post here). It feels very east European in style, both in the art and the music. That sort of waltzing ‘oohmpah’ music that has a lot of relation to circus and clown culture is very effective and playful, as well as having sort of jazzy elements. As a child the game really scared me because I just genuinely had no idea what was going on, and that sort of otherwordly feel is absolutely what I am trying to achieve. I am going to achieve this hopefully by combining my visuals which I have specifically made to be dreamlike and strange, and music, so it is a multi-sensory experience.

Toonstruck (1996) is another game that is a huge inspiration to me. This is a nineties point and click adventure game that follows a direct narrative. However, like my work, the scenery and setting is one of the most vital ways of storytelling. Everything seems to be alive in this world. The art style is clearly very inspired by traditional cartoon style, very much reminiscent of Looney Toons, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and the like. The colours are insanely garish and the lines that make up the shape and form of the settings are always curved and exagerrated, making everything feel off kilter and dream-like. This is something that I really appreciate about this piece, and is something I want to consider within my own work. It is interesting to me how much of a difference something like line and form can make in animation. If the lines were all very rigid and realistic in this game, I have a feeling it would not be near as effective.

[bellafadiploma]

primary research n textures :0

Before starting the editing of my final designs, I took lots of photos of interesting and somewhat gross textures. I did this both in order to look at colours texture, but also because I would like to try and use them in my final room paintings, as inspired by Amanita Design. I will attempt to edit them digitally in, in order to create that strange amalgamation of painting and photo-texture. This will hopefully create this certain level of uncanny that makes you question what you’re looking at.

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lauren child

In my work, I am very fascinated by mixed media, particularly in an animation setting as I feel that it isn’t seen all that often.

One of the artists that I felt is a big influence in this respect is children’s book illustrator and author Lauren Child. Her style of illustration is (to reiterate my point that I made in my point and click games research), very naive and childlike, which I think further push her style and decision to tell stories from children’s perpectives. I like that she uses different real life textures in a strangely dada-esque way, along with her own hand drawn illustrations. The way she composes her book illustrations is particularly compelling to me. As a child, I would particularly love when she would simulate someone else reading the book, the facade of a squished pea between the pages, some spilt milk. That sort of eye for detail and immersion is extremely effective. Within my own style, particularly within this project, I can see her influence. I have very much embraced combining real life textures and practical materials and digital media together, to create this sort of hodge-podge of things. It creates this childlike, vibrant work that feels like you’re looking at something real (because of the real textures) yet so impossible.

Recently I particularly enjoyed reading her adaptation of The Princess and The Pea. She stepped out of her usual 2D work, and actually made each character a paper doll, interacting with miniature mattresses (upon mattress, upon mattress...). It’s simply stunning and is the next step in her use of mixed media, now mixed dimension.

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general visual/artistic inspiration

Rotten Ralph by Jack Gantos

points I like

-colours are carefully considered and not at all realistic, green and purple for example, are not colours one would usually paint an entire room. So, here, it creates a feeling of being in a very dreamlike state. A universe we simply do not exist in.

- attention to detail and how it effects the storytelling. Gantos’ work has an incredible amount of detail that tell us about the word we are experiencing.For example, in the second image, we can see the cereal box is labelled ‘gritty cereal’. This tells us that maybe the characters are strugglung in some way or another, and their ‘gritty cereal’ and ‘not chocolate’ are simply metaphors for how things are going. Over on the left of the same image, there are a host of tiny animals. not for any reason, but just because they live in the house too, and have their own lives and stories.

- The line quality is very wobbly and imperfect. I really like this because it simply reinforces that indistinct, hazy feeling of being in a dream or being lost in your imagination. If these images could move, I would certainly imagine every line to be ‘boiling’ which is a style of animation in which the lines are constantly changing. (Will discuss more in upcoming process posts)

Maisy Mouse by Lucy Cousins

Points I like

- Similarly to Jack Gantos’ work, the lines in Cousin’s work also appear to be ‘boiling’. The imperfectness and constantly changing thickness of each line gives the illustrations vivacity and joy. Again, appearing very childlike because of how inconsistent they are.

- The perspective is interesting. Not necesarilly something I would utilise in my own project this time round, but I like how rigid the 2D format Cousins uses here is. It very much creates this feeling of paper cut out (and again, sorry to mention it again, but it really does give a childish energy, as children are not likely to understand perspective and draw everything very 2D).

- The colours are bright and garish and clashing. However they are so lovely and warm. They appear so inviting because of how joyful they are. There is no attempt to change colours to imply different times of day, or lightings, keeping things very simple. It again creates this strange sensation, in which it is always daytime for Maisy Mouse, which is almost slightly unnerving.

Victoria Vewn

A very modern artist, younger than myself, is Vewn. She animates using flash like me, whilst using hand painted backgrounds. 

points I like

- Colour. Her use of colour is just astounding. She manages to pick very strange skintones, ranging from all sides of the colour spectrum, yet somehow it always just works. She cleverly pairs colours together to create a scheme to suggest different settings and lighting situations, in complete contrast to Lucy Cousin’s work above. Utilising purple and orange/yellow at night cleverly hints at that strange neon orange of streetlamps at night. I think I will certainly try to use this style of colouring to suggest different lighting conditions through my piece.

- Form/Shape. She uses very interesting and abstract shapes to create humanoids, for example, in the image above, the man in the middle’s head is basically non existant, let alone having eyes, suggesting that either the character is either very unimportant, or possibly implying that the character is stupid. Examples of this can be seen throughout her work, stretching limbs in impossible ways, impossibly shaped faces.

- AGAIN, ‘boiling’ lines. Vewn genuinely utilises ‘boiling’ in her work. It adds to the naive style of her art, creating this very chaotic and fast paced feeling throughout her films. Everything is constantly moving, constantly bustling past each other. I adore this and think it is incredibly effective in her work.

From looking at these artists, there is recurrent qualities throughout all of them. Very bright warm colours, ‘boiling’ lines, and interesting use of perspective. These are all qualities that I want to bring into my work.

[bellafadiploma]

HELLO! if you are reading this you’re probably doing my midterm assessment

HERE: (www.bellafadiploma.tumblr.com/tagged/fmp) is a link to everything in my fmp, in reverse chronological order

And here (www.bellafadiploma.tumblr.com/archive) is my archive if you want to go through it like that

Also here is my pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/isabellashm/-project-ideas-/

[bellafadiploma]

(NOT FINISHED, WILL EVALUATE SOON)

https://youtu.be/B4jlgJGmBxw

I created these samples as a test to see if I could learn to use chroma key on premiere. I also tracked the movement of the cube to see if it’s possible to have a moving green screen that has the same thing cast on it. It was very successful, but as I am actually writing this retro-actively, my project Idea has changed a lot since then. This was when I was planning to film a live actor and animate things to greenscreen onto their head. However, obviously things have changed a lot, although this experience was still very valuable as I learn how to use chroma-key screening effectively.

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More secondary research (Amanita design)

For this project, Amanita Design is possibly one of the main inspirations. I think that their work is just amazing and I will delve further into why I believe this.

FIrst of all, there is undeniably a nostalgia quality to why I like them so much I think. I used to play their games consistently for years and years, so I think that is partly why I am so attatched to them.

However, this is not the only reason I think their games are amazing and deserve recognition, not to mention being a huge inspiration for this project.

Firstly, the storytelling. None of Amanita Design’s games have spoken dialogue. Any conversations and exposition is told through thought bubbles or body movement and language. As seen below, in Machinarium (2009), the main character (central) is being told the backstory of one of the other characters through an animated sequence held in a thought bubble. Other examples in the same game include the robot shaking his head when something you’ve done is wrong. I think this way of storytelling is super effective, because immediately, the stroy becomes universal as we are not seperated by any language barriers. Anyone can understand what a shake of the head means for example. I also think it is an interesting an effective storytelling technique becuause it fully relies on the animator and character design to be able to tell you about the character. For example, the main character here again, is smaller than all the other robots and often bits of him break off. This tells you that maybe he is a bit down on his luck and maybe viewed as an outsider. Also, if the player is absent for an amount of time, he looks very bored and impatient, simply by tapping his foot or crossing his arms. These nuanced expressions and movements are so minute yet so effective and tell us what we need to know. I would love to take this into my project, which is why I have chosen to go forwards with the cube head idea, because it makes me force myself to rely only of body language to convey character.

The art style of Amanita Design’s games is also incredibly beautiful. I actually emailed them about how they create their background art (yet to recieve a reply). From simply looking at it, it appears to be a mix of 2D traditional (watercolours) and real life photography used as texture overlays. I think this is so incredibly effective as it creates such a surreal scene. Initially, it tricks your brain. You see real life images, wood bark, dirt, grime, and your brain immediately processes it as a photograph; a real scene. However, you soon notice strange creatures digging up from the undergrowth or a human faced squirrel staring at you through a hole in a tree. This dichotomy is so interesting and is like nothing else I can think of, art style-wise. I would love to try using this in my backgrounds, as my house sure has a lot of interesting textures that would be very effective in my piece.

Continuing on about the art style, what else I like about it is how slightly unnerving it is. These are not horror games by any means, but something about the dark ochre colours, covered in soot and grime is so creepy to me.There is no real threat, just the percieved threat caused by the uneasy feeling created, particularly in Samorost 2 (2005) (below). There’s just something about this clearly hand dug out underground room, containing only a single lightbulb, a fridge and a drain, that makes me creeped out. The fact that you can’t see what is in the next room only adds to this, the darkness surrounding you makes you feel very isolated. I would like to carry this through into my project. I don’t want it to be ‘scary’ per say, but i want to maybe have this slightly ‘off’ feeling. The feeling of being home alone, of turning off the light downstairs and running up to the light. You know there’s nothing there, but just to be safe. It’s a very nostalgic and childish but still fearful energy.

[bellafadiploma]

Planning for this week and last.

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sketches and progression

after my initial crit with Mark, I did some secondary character sketches. I’m really attatched to the cube head, firstly because it is a shortcut, and with such an extensive animation in mind, a shortcut is good. It means I don’t have to spend time on drawing facial expressions or lip syncing dialogue. The Cube also allows the character to be anonymous, no specific face and is thus not particularly anyone, no gender, no face, no one person. I know Mark thinks that it is not a good enough design to challenge my animation skills, but I think I need to keep it for my concept.

However, I did agree that the form’s body did look too much like me. I did some research into representations and artistic depictions of the human soul. They are often presented as light or smoke or some other wispy form. I decided to have my character able to shape shift, using the cube as a ‘base’. I am going to attempt to do a short sequence to illustrate further what I mean, as it is quite hard to explain without the visual. However, you can see what I mean in some way in the sketches. 

Also included in the sketch above is a very vague storyboard, which I will develop once my backgrounds are done. I don’t really want to have a linear narrative, ideally I would like it to be interactive so the viewer can explore at their leisure. The piece is about exploration and about the space and the rooms themselves, rather than having an actual plotline. So, the viewer will see a live action film of an actor with a white cube on their head, on the cube, there will be what resmbles a house (made of cardboard). We will zoom on the cardboard house and the front doors will open. Suddenly, we are in a 2D animation, however there will still be live action sections, like videos of eyes or mouths, completely seperated from everything else, maybe at the windows. I am doing this because I would like it to be slightly unnerving and strange, reminiscent of Tony Oursler’s work. Then the character will suggest that the viewer click on one of 6 or 7 doors, which will then take you to a room. In here the character will describe what the room is and what it does, then interact with something in the room. E.G pick up the moldy tea cup and turn it upside down to see if it has gone solid, or something similar.

The sketches above are finalisations of 5 of the rooms, from right to left, they are the following, time/circadian room, limbic system/sad room, motor room, mirror/self-image room and the decision making room which also contains the library of information. Most of these ones have not really changed from my initial drawings at all. However, the decision making-library has had a big developement. Initially, it was rather small and did not contain enough books or enough things of interest. I developed it to be a huge, vintage-inspired library. An owl and a crow (one good one bad perhaps?) are there to aid in the decision making process. These are insipred by Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, The Raven. The Raven in that poem is a physical representation of the narrator’s fear, doubt and grief. To reiterate, this is why I chose to have the crow or raven in this room, as it could maybe be responsible for the bad or mean decisions that are made. I chose a barn owl or maybe a great owl as they have what I percieve to be quite gentle and kind faces, so they could be responsible for maybe the good decisions. The others have not really changed at all, so there is not much point in further elaborating on my initial post about them.

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animation tests

this was my first animation test of this project. It is just a very simple walk cycle. I turned the line smoothing way down, so that is why the figure has a very scratchy line quality. I actually intended for it to look like this (will be explained in my further research post). I actually am very content with this walk cycle, it is animated on two’s, but I don’t think it looks too clunky. The way all the lines sort of ‘boil’ is reminiscent of older cartoons and video games, such as Rhubarb and Custard and nostalgic PC games such as Max and The Haunted Castle. This is really the energy I want to convey, whether or not I am able to make it interactive. I am definitely going to refine it further, such as changing where the t-shirt sleeves change length and adding colour and stripes.

This is a test, after talking to Mark about possibly changing the character’s physical form. I decided, maybe it would be interesting to have the character change from a more corporeal form, to something very inhuman. The motivation behind this is that I was doing some research into depictions of the soul. In classical contexts, they are shown as beams of light, or smokey spirits. I figured this would work as a representation of the ‘inner voice’. As far as personal criticisms, I think maybe the smoke looks too solid and separated, I would like to work on it looking more smoky. For reference, I was using this scene from Ferngully. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVzYS3Ga_j8

I really love how the mixture of the viscous oil and the light smoke really demonstrates the animators’ ability to convey different weights and physics.

This is the final test I have so far, I suddenly had the thought of combining both the more corporeal form and the wispy form together, having the cube be like the host form. I think this could allow for some really fun movements that will hopefully present as somewhat surreal and strange. I utilised squash and stretch in this short gif a lot, whilst the cube is bouncing, it is utilised to make it appear lively and bouncy. And finally, when the human form comes out, I squashed the box to display the force of the body forming and then stretched it as the body slips out. I think this displays more ‘realism’ to the way the creature works, as obviously the box would need to stretch to accomodate the shoulders. Overall it is quite messy as this was a very quick movement practice. In the future, I would like to improve on the colours, as often on older animations that were hand painted, the colour white is hardly ever stark white. I think by changing this, it will convey the nostalgic quality I want it to.

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First crit and subsequent thinking

Whilst there is not much written on here there is quite a lot to think about verbally. 

- First to address is the 35mm film, I was watching a documentary about Len Lye in which he animated by painting and marking directly onto 35mm. Mark discussed finding a way for me to possibly do this.

- Recording ideas verbally was another thing we discussed, aboout how I felt that typing and having a blog wasn’t working for me. I think, upon reflection that it actually is fine, I was just being lazy beforehand.

- Yesterday, I continued talking to Mark. He was saying to me about how the piece really either needs to be very autobiographical and literally me, or completely dissociated from me as I’m currently sort of floating in the middle. I am a bit thrown by this, as I really don’t want the piece or the character to be like clearly me and too self indulgent. But I also want it to contain my story and the emotional stuff I wanna get out so I don’t want it to be fully dissociated from me. I’m feeling a bit lost. I think in order to remedy this I maybe need to work further on my character design and make it appear more ambiguous in both gender and humanity. I really don’t know what to do.

- The other thing we discussed was how I was contemplating making my piece interactive and that Mark will look into finding someone who could help me learn interactivity.

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Sketches

Here are some of my initial character and set sketches. 

The character is based on me to some degree as it is my own artwork and some vague self representation of my head. However, I gave it a cube head and quite an ambiguously shaped body as I want it to be not so obvious, so that other people could possibly relate to it. I’m actually very happy with the character design, I think it is very appealing because it is super simple, and I always like black and white stripes (probably influenced by tim burton). It is supposed to look vaguely humanoid but maybe I would like to consider doing something else interesting and have certain limbs and body parts become, like impossibly long or stretchy, in order to capture the incredible way the brain has no order or sense to it.

The cube is very important to the design because I want the character to be anonymous. It will not have a voice, speaking instead through subtitles, and has no specific gender defining features.

I also have here some of my initial room sketches and ideas.

Firstly, we have the ‘yellow room’ or the limbic system I suppose. I see it as the main room in the brain. I see it as this yellow, decaying room, that is filthy and covered in mouldy cups of tea. There would be several TVs that could either reference how myself and others use TV and YouTube to drown out our brains, or they TVs could represent different rapid cycling emotions and images that the brain conjures up. The physicalities of it also to some degree represent my own house. We have proper filament lightbulbs which are insanely yellow, and my bedroom is always filled with cups of tea because I don’t get out of bed to take them downstairs, ever. I am actually very happy with this room but I may consult my peers about maybe some other features, like what do they have all over their room? clothes, bugs, paint on the walls and floor? I also think yellow is a good overall theme for this room as it can have wildly different connotations depending on the surrounding features. I think, given the mouldy cups and old tvs and boxes, the yellow will hopefully seem pallid and sickly, not happy.

Decision making room. My friend concurs with me on this one. A room full of scrolls and books, filled with every decision you’ve ever made, and one that lays open, half empty, waiting for your next decision. You can look back on them anytime you need to, and cringe. I also liked the idea of having an Edgar Allen Poe style murder of crows that judge your decisions, like whether they are good or bad or correct. Either way they don’t help. A big aesthetic inspiration for me is the english level in Amanita Design’s game Questionaut (2008). I like the design of this room that I have done, however I feel like it could be bigger, I don’t feel like every decision one has ever made could fit into the room I designed. Maybe it would need to be more like a library. The general colours I would like to use are very neutral colours, dark polished wood and deep greens and reds. I think that is influenced by old libraries that I have visited.

Mirror Room - again somewhat like my own house, which used to be filled with mirrors. This room I think would represent understanding of ones sense of self and identity through dressing up and doing different makeup etc. I really like the idea of the rounded alcove in the ceiling, and would definitely like to use that. However, in order to improve on this sketch, I think I would like to maybe have makeup and such laying around in order to further present that idea of self. As the character moves around I think it would be cool for them to be wearing different outfits in each mirror, this idea representing how I feel as though, when I’m wearing different clothes I’m almost embodying different characters. Despite these being just initial idea sketches, I’m actually very happy with the quality of line that I have used. I think the pencil has a rough quality to it that is difficult to replicate on photoshop, hence why I think I will end up doing all of my backgrounds with traditional methods and not digitally.

Cogs and pipes room. Represents motor function and general body functions, I want it to be pretty vague what it does so it’ll just have a bunch of cogs and wires and pipes and buttons and lights. It would be cool if it were maybe run by a robot, representing the fact that most bodily functions are subconcious and not really emotionally driven at all. I would maybe like to have parts of it like break down and smoke to represent the body being unfit or lazy, and the robot just haphazardly shoves it back into place, representing my own very lazy approach to self improvement. As far as visual qualities go, I think I need to consider the shape of the room itself, I picture this room as being under the ‘house’ a basement possibly. I think it could be really interesting to maybe make this room more like a carved out round room, like it was dug by hand. I will elaborate on this in my later research.

My last room for right now is the time/circadian rhythm room. This is literally just a room full of clocks and other time keeping devices, such as incense clocks, sundials and lunar charts. I did some research on the internet about different time keeping devices, however I would like to go to the library and have a look if there is any books on the subject. I actually love the design of this room personally. I took a lot of inspiration from Howl’s bedroom in Howl’s Moving Castle (2004). I really enjoy how busy everything appears, all these little moving bits and pieces, covered in dust, evidently not having been touched for years. I think in order to improve this room, I need to maybe think about it being a different shape, possibly more round like a conservatory or something along those lines. This is because the box shape possibly feels too regular for such a chaotic room, and having it be round could possibly make reference to how the nature of time is that is is round, forever cycling. The reason I think I would like it to be chaotic is because for me personally, time never seems very regular. I either get too much sleep or not enough, waking up at completely random points in the day and being constantly tired. For others, time is a regular, endless march forwards, but from my perspective it is anything but. 

 This idea however, also depends on the diorama I end up with, as making a cardboard box round would be fairly difficult. I would like the texture of this room to appear incredibly busy, tiny bits of grime and bugs, kind of like everywhere in the ‘house’, the walls fully covered. This is because as previously stated, I see time as overly busy and uncontrollable, not at all calm and orderly.