Mastering Basic Shot Types

I chose to make a video explaining the basic shot types used within the film industry. I encountered a few problems whilst doing this, such as the camera not focussing in certain shots and the tripod being hard to place where we were filming (long grass). However, despite this, I feel it conducts a fair portrayal of some of the shots used and will be useful to refer back to in the future.

I used imovie to edit this, placing some information on the different shot types into this.

Logo's and Fonts within the Gaming Industry

Logos are a very important part of branding and creating a product, this is no different within the gaming industry. Logos allow players to recognise a game or the company creating a game which will help when it comes to advertising and packaging a product.

Below I have selected 6 logos created to advertise games, some of these are games I have written about on my blog before. All these logos use iconography, viewers will recognise these, such as the Minecraft logo being made out of blocks from the game, the Donkey Kong logo having the stars in the middle of the 'O's and the Terraria logo having a tree from the game. 

All of these logos bare some relevance to the game itself and most gamers would recognise these. Most only use one or two colours, with the exception of Mario which uses four and all are very simple.

Below are three game developer logos, all of these are indie developers (like I will be when creating my game) As you can see from all of them, they are very simple and therefore easy to recognise. When designing both the logo for Gear Rift and the logo for my 'games company' I will need to take into account these real life examples to appeal to the industry I am working in and also to appeal to my target audience

Software Research

I will be discussing a variety of programs on the market for each stage of my production.

The stages of my production I will be looking at are

·         Spriting

·         Drawing and Editing

·         Animating

·         Game Making

·         Editing (Post Production)

I will be talking about each of these stages and explaining what programs are available on the market for this stage, talking about some features of these programs, before finally choosing which program I want to use.

My first production stage would be spriting, creating sprites for the ‘gameplay’ part of my TV advertisements. Although my final output would not be an actual game, but more the promotional package, creating these sprites in the best way possible is very relevant to my production.

After researching, I have found two potential software packages for this stage. The first one being a program by the name of Cosmigo, this program is used by professionals such as EA, UBISOFT, Leap Frog and WayForward and features aspects such as the onion skin for animating and grids for more specific pixeling  and tools for creating fonts. This program costs £50 but has a 30 day free trial for experimenting and trying out this software.

The second spriting program I have found is Graphics Gale, this program is free with limited features, this program, very similar to Cosmigo, has similar features such as onion skin for animation, grids for precise pixel work and many other different and useful tools. Even with limited features, this program is very easy to use and can produce professional outcomes with no cost at all.

In terms of drawing, I have identified three possible programs I could use for this.

Easy Paint tool SAI is a relatively new Japanese program, designed to be an easy way to draw professional looking drawings without a complex interface. A 30 day trial is available on it’s website, including an English language patch for overseas users. After trying out this program for a few weeks, I found it is a very effective way to work. Allowing me to produce pieces like (show artwork) and (show artwork). I really like this program and think it will definitely be one I will be using in my production.

The second drawing program I researched was one by the name of Gimp. This freeware program has many similarities to photoshop, can be used to edit photographs and also to illustrate and draw freehand. This program, being free is very useful for production, however, after using it to draw for a little bit, I don’t think the interface is simple enough to draw effectively, and it lacks the smoothing and marker tools that SAI has.

Finally, Paint.NET is the third one I researched. This program is again free, and more designed for drawing than Gimp. The interface is a lot more complex than that of paint tool SAI, but this gives you many tools to experiment with, one of the plus sides to the software. I do like this program but believe it would take quite a long time to figure out how to get a professional feel to things drawn in it; therefore it would probably be best to work using SAI due to it’s professional finish and easy interface.

When it comes to animating software, I identified 5 programs that I could use.

The first program was a freeware program by the name of Synfig studio, this program is very good for animating lip synchs during animations. The program takes quite a while to get used to at first, so would require me to watch quite a few tutorials to begin with. Unfortunately this program isn’t used very often in a professional context.

Flash, the second piece of software I found, is increasingly being used outside of colleges and universities and is being used in a much more professional context. My Little Pony, friendship is magic is a very good example of this, a professionally produced TV show being produced in Flash. After playing around with this program for a little bit, I really liked the interface and how easy to user and beginner friendly it was, the only downsides to flash is the export quality in some instances, but this was the only downside I found.

Pencil, a freeware program similar to flash but designed for Macs was another one I tried out, although this was a very simple and hassle free program to work with, the only downside to this program I have found is that it is not great for colouring your animations, as the name suggests, much better for just sketching and getting a feel of the movement in frames.

Toon Boom studio is a newer animation software that has only surfaced in the last few years, it is more complex than flash, usage wise, but it is now becoming widely used by aspiring animators worldwide, some productions have already been made, using this program. It does look like a very nice program to work with, however the interface is somewhat more complex than I am looking for as a beginner. 

Available Programs for my Production

I researched different programs available for each stage of my production progress, finding a small list for each of these as shown below, I will be researching the Pro's and Cons of each software, before deciding on one from each section to work with on my final piece.

Spriting Programs –

Graphics Gale - http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/

Cosmigo - http://www.cosmigo.com/promotion/index.php

Drawing and Editing Programs –

Easy Paint Tool Sai - http://sai.detstwo.com/sai/

Gimp - http://www.gimp.org/

Paint.NET - http://www.getpaint.net/

Animating Software -

Synfig Studio - http://www.synfig.org/cms/

Adobe Flash - http://www.adobe.com/products/flash.html

Pencil - http://www.pencil-animation.org/

Toon Boom - http://beta.toonboom.com/

TV Paint - http://www.tvpaint.com/v2/content/article/home/

Game Making Software –

Adventure Game Studio - http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/

Game Maker - http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/windows

RPG maker XP/VX - http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/product/rpg-maker-xp
Stencyl - http://www.stencyl.com/

Video Editing programs –

Windows Movie Maker -http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=34

Sony Vegas - http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/trials/vegaspro

Final Cut - http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/top-features/

After Effects - http://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects.html

iMovie - http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/

Software Research Proposal

The Software I use during my production will be an important factor of creating my final products, so finding the right software to make these in will be something I will have to research.

As far as my final production goes, I will be making the box (packaging) for a new game (For PC, as decided by my survey monkey) along with two trailers (One showing game play and reactions, the other showing an animation and a small amount of game play, much like the Okami-den trailer) and a magazine advertisement for this game.

To do this I will need to use various programs, to get the most professional looking final product possible. When creating these pieces, I will need to find a game making software (To show footage, during one of my TV advertisements, sticking to conventions), a Video editing program will be needed to piece together both of my TV Advertisements and a type of image editing program, such as photoshop for the editing together of these pieces. I will also need a spriting program, to create sprited characters for my game.

Over the next few weeks, I will be researching various Game Making, Animation and Spriting programs, to determine which I think is most suitable for my final piece. Photoshop and Final Cut Pro will be used for the creation of my packaging and advertisement as I have used these programs previously  in AS and have experience with both of them.  

Useful Articles - Piracy in the video game industry

Illegal video game downloads 'Up nearly 20%'

PCGA 'PC game piracy is in decline'

Illegally downloading games is up 20% in five years

I found three more articles relevant to the industry I will be producing for, these, showing conflicting views on the market in terms of piracy.

The first article, found on DigitalSpy, compares the two below articles which argue whether PC game piracy is in decline or on the rise.

The BBC, reporting on the rise of piracy and the PCGA reporting that game piracy is infact in decline. The issue of PC game piracy is a big one in the industry, but I believe that with Digital Distribution and the ability to download 'demo's' of games, dominating the market at current, it will definitely fall in the future.

I think with the current economical climate, and with the 'at home', games and dvd's market doing so well, keeping an eye on the gaming industry and the introduction of new articles like this would be very useful thing for me to do and would greatly help both my understanding of the industry and may help influence my production.

Useful Article - New Technology

Download Distribution opening new doors for independent game developers

Whilst researching for my pre production, I stumbled across this article on Statesman.com, confirming my beliefs that Digital Distribution and handheld apps in the gaming industry are helping open doors for Independent game developers. 

The thing I found particularly interesting about this article is the statistics included in it, such as "11.2 million digital downloads of PC games were purchased online, according to technology research firm NPD Group. That's compared with 8.2 million "physical units purchased at retail" and this quote on the abundance of physical games "I think (packaged products) will always exist, until every last person is connected to the Internet," 

I think this article enforces my idea of having my game as a packaged, indie game, as well as advertising it to be offered through digital distribution.