Designing my Logo

Equiptment List

A list of all the programs/hardware I will need to produce my final advertisements can be found below, I intend to use all of these when working on my final piece.

Software - 

• Graphics Gale 
• Adobe Flash CS4
• Sony Vegas 8 
• Game Maker 8 Lite 
• Adobe Photoshop CS5.1
• Safari 

Hardware - 

• Apple Macintosh Desktop
• Wacom Bamboo Graphics Tablet
• Keyboard
• Mouse 
• Windows Vista Laptop 

Websites - 

• Blogger
• Survey Monkey
• Prezi
• Slideshare
• Freeplaymusic

If I was producing this outside of school (not using the school equipment and programs) these adverts would have come to a considerable cost, which would need to be calculated up along with the viewing costs to find how much profit I would make from game sales themselves. 

Game Cover - Flat Plans

Working from the Cover Style Models, Cover Analysis and Game Conventions Research I designed three potential video game covers for my game. All three of these covers stick heavily to the conventions I had observed and feature the two characters I had designed for my game, the protagonist Wren and the helper ZED900.

This cover features my protagonist and helped in equal proportions to each other on the screen, both are shown at the front of the cover, connotating that they are equal and drawing interest to both of them. The Gear is shown on the bottom left hand side of the page, underneath the ESRB content rating.

Screenshots are shown on the back cover in following with video game cover conventions.

This second cover features ZED900 the Bat AI at the front of the cover art, this draws most of the attention to him, due to him being the largest thing on the cover. Wren the protagonist is shown star gazing from his home (as shown in the storyboards of my advert) and the Gear is shown falling from the sky. 

Screenshots are once again shown on the back cover.

Finally, my third flat plan shows Wren as the main figure, drawing the most interest to him, He is leaning on one hand and on his knee with the gear in his hand. ZED900 is shown in the distance, mysteriously looking out at the night sky. 

Screenshots are a convention I followed once again in this design.

I personally really like all of the cover designs, I think I will design similar flat plan pieces for my poster before creating a survey monkey aimed at my target audience. By choosing to design the Poster and Cover with the most votes, this should help to directly appeal to my target audience and in turn this should help attract the people I want, to my game. 

Game Poster - Flat Plans

I created three flat plan idea's for my video game poster/magazine advertisement also. This time referencing my poster analysis and Gaming conventions research. I made sure that I followed these conventions, in order to appeal to my desired target audience but also to help me gain footing in the video game market. 

This cover, similar to one of the game covers I flat planned, features my protagonist Wren in the foreground of the poster, the gear is again, shown on the bottom left hand side of the screen. This poster contains two screenshots, overlayed on top of Wren, ZED900 is shown to the left of Wren and it features the typical ESRB rating, PC logo and other iconography commonly found on video game advertisements.  Text can be placed down both sides of Wren, with spaces for a small amount of text underneath the screenshot also. 

On this cover I placed gears falling down the right hand side of my poster. This advertisement featured ZED900, my games 'helper' character, in the foreground, with Wrens house in the background. The logo for my game is featured at the very top of the advert and text can be placed over the background of the ad. Screenshots have been placed down the front of ZED and typical video game iconography has been placed in the bottom left hand corner of this. 

Finally, my third poster, a lot like the cover of a similar nature features Wren sat down on some grass, holding the gear. A screenshot is found above him and to the side of him and ZED900 is featured in the background (Introducing the characters to the viewer). There is lots of space for text in between the two characters and iconography is used along the bottom, to inform the viewer of what ESRB rating it is as well as what platform it is available on.

TV Advertisement 2 Synopsis

I particularly like the idea of having my second TV advertisement mostly based on Ratings (similarly to the Portal2 TV spot)

This advertisement starts off with the convention of a 'ERSB Ratings agency' logo showing the E for everyone iconography. The shot begins with a panning establishing shot of the starry night sky, this quickly stops and you see a gear fall out of the sky. A jump cut will be used to switch to a scene with the gear falling from the sky and landing. Text would be shown, giving a rating from an indie game review company, next it would switch to a shot of Wren looking through a telescope (this serves as somewhat of a reaction shot)

A jump cut switches to a long shot, showing the gear on the ground, a rift opens, gradually growing in size before eventually enveloping the screen (except the gear) in black and white.
Once again, this would switch to another black screen with white text, showing a quote from a PC game company.
Another reaction shot is show, with Wren, mouth open in awe at the gear, this quickly jumps to gameplay, showing Wren running between some spikes protruding from the ground. Another quote is shown, once again, giving the game a rating from an outside company. Finally, this is ended with some more gameplay before finally showing an ending scene with Wren holding a gear which envelops him in light and then fades out to as black screen showing the common convention of the game's title, website and some iconography connotating to the audience what platform the game is available on.

Finally, I end this advert with "Coming Autumn 2012" another convention.

Storyboarding TV Advert 2

My final Storyboard for TV advertisement 2 (click to enlarge) 

Useful Book - The Complete Digital Animation Course

One useful book I have found that I feel will help me greatly with my pre production, Production and Post production is "The Complete Digital Animation Course" by Andy Wyatt. I discovered this book whilst looking for potential programs to use in my production and it has proven very useful for the storyboarding of my first TV Advertisement and the designs of characters.

Now I have this book, I will be further using it in the production of my final TV spots. The book itself I have found very useful, it is layed out in an easy to use format and therefore I can find any information I need without much hassle. It also contains small amounts of information into the Program Adobe Flash, my animation software of choice. 

The most useful thing about this book is the information about post production, the tips within it about Compositing my animation should be very, very helpful with my final production.