Interactive Narrative Project: Design

After looking at my researsch and different interactive narratives i started spitballing some ideas on what kind of narratives i could produce.

here are my notes on the ideas i came up with:

I like alot of the ideas on the page but some of them require alot of time and extensive flash knowledge to create so i have decided that i am going to run with the zombie idea.

One of the main reasons that i came up with the zombie idea was because i hade recently watched zombieland and that when encountering zombies there are rules to follow to surevive. This quality made me think that creating a zombie themed flash I.N.would have both a great narrative and interesting interactivity.

Looking back at some of my research i noticed one video that inspired me, the "HIT ME" video. i thought i could have the same interactive experience for the zombie encounter, but adding my creative touch to it.

Now that i have my final idea i have to decide what medium i should use to build my creative vision.

Here are my ideas:

I know there are only a few ideas here but these are all the techniques i can produce in the three week timeframe.

I think to stice to one medium would be abit boring so im going to Use 3D photos,Photo's, Movies from a camera phone. Hopefully these mediums will increae the interest of my interactive narrative.

The next step is to create my zombie based narrative and see if it works. 

Here is my sketch book results:

Now from what i can see it works but i think the only way out is to build it and see what happens.

Now in this design tree i have noticed there i a key interactive section which i need to test first. When it's finished it will be so much easier to add in the narrative sections.



The only way to test the interactive section is to build it, so im going to create a flash based demo of the interactive section.

Here is a list which i created and a mini design tree to help me produce the demo:

  

Interactive Narrative Project: Research

Well if I want to create a really interesting interactive narrative I have to find existing and find out what makes it tick!

Looking on the web and playing videogames I found some good examples of interactive narrative that I think will benefit my final outcome:
Magnolia: www.magnoliathemovie.com/#

I think this is a really interesting interactive narrative because of the way it plays as if it’s a trailer, the song at the start of the flash video really fits the piece once you realise the story of each characters, which is activated by hovering over each character. Thankfully the video loops because I didn’t realise how to interact with the video at first which is a bit stupid. I think that it should have been a bit more obvious but still a nice feature. The text on the bio is the wrong colour because it makes it really hard to read in some cases. I think the video clips were chosen wisely because once you read each bio you realize the intricacies of each character and how they are all connected which means the story has a good non-linear narrative. The genera for this narrative I think would be a dram because of how each character is facing an internal conflict as well as being a protagonist and a antagonist. I think creating an interactive narrative like this would be easy but still classy.

Mass Effect:
This is another really interesting way of creating an interactive narrative but using a different medium other than video. This game really explores a whole new idea of storytelling by giving the player complete control of the main character, I mean you control not only his body but the way you want the other characters in the game to react to you and you get given options on what to say if a character asks you a question. The great thing about it is that it pushes the way a story is told by letting you create it your way, letting you have the ultimate creative game experience on the market. To get this experience right you have to have a deep and interesting narrative which thankfully this has in bucket loads. Due to the fact that this interactive narrative is a game, this increases the special awareness element because it give you the creative freedom to view any situation from any angle which in films and animations sometimes can be limited to a set viewpoint. In conclusion it’s a really compelling game that has set the bar for creative interactive narratives in the gaming industry.

Here is a video showing you the features of the game:



HIT ME :
This is a great little interactive narrative by Ben Smallman... well its not really a narrative but its interactive qualitys are intreaguing and it has deffinatly given me some ideaz on interactive techniques that i could produce in my interactive narrative. I think its a great way to fuse still pictures with moving images which is probably something i should consider doing that in my project. Over all a very clever little flash game.

Here is the site if you wish to see it: http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/hitme

Interactive Narrative Project: Introduction

The whole Multimedia group has been split into 3 smaller groups, G1,G2,G3, where we have been given different projects to do throughtout the first term and possibly second. My group (G3) have been told to produce an interactive narrative for are first project.

The first Seminar Basically introduced the concept of a interactive narrative. First of all we had to find out what exactly is a narrative, and from what i can tell it is a number of small scenes which when connected allow the end user to see the whole creative view, giving them a better understanding of the story.
All narratives have a basic structure. They have to have charachters, conflict and plot for them to work. Plot is sometimes confused with narrative but plot is actully the little segments that happen in the entire story. In a story You always have main charachter(s) where the plot revolves around them. The two main type of charachters are the "PROTAGONIST" who has to always face conflict mainly known as the "good guy". Then you have the "ANTAGONIST" who is ditermand to create hardship for the protagonist which he then has to face.
Now the conflicts that the main characters have to face can be anything but the main two types are "Internal" and "External". 
For example: People against some distructive element (Day After Tomorrow), People against People (Black Hawk Down), People against the undead (28 Weeks Later)and many more. Then you have "Internal" conflict, so the character(s) have to face a struggle within there mind, so against multiple personalites of trying to see what is real or not.

Here is Freytag’s Pyramid which shows the elements of plot and how they are ushaly layed out but sometimes this is not the case...

    

(Image From http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/freytag.html)

Defining a Narative:
Well i know how a narrative works and how its structured but how do i define it, well i found that "wilkens et al" (2004) had a perfect deffinition for a narrative
"A chain of events related by cause and effect occuring in space and time and involving some "Agency" or intentioality"
Bassicaly the "Agency" is usally filled in by a charachter or narrater whos purpose is to progress the chain of events along along, which means that the cause/ effect and the agency combine to form a working narrative.
Now the events that form a narrative can occure in two ways. Linear and non-linear.
So linear would be having the events unfold sequential manner. So the classic hollywood story structure. e.g. Hudson hawk is a good example of this type of narrative structure. 
Then you have non-linear which means the events ufold in a non sequential manner. A great example of this is in Tarantino's "SIN CITY", where differnt stories unfold in different time lines but when all watched you realise that they are all interlinked.  

We then got are brief where we have to create our own "Interactive Narative" in flash using Action Script 3.0.

Before i even start trying to create my Interactive narative i have to find some examples so it will help me further my design.

Women of Colour

Here is an image i created just for the fun in photoshop. It was inspired by the work of "abduzeedo.com" but mainly by listning to the works of John Murphy (Sunshine OST). you can here some of his work that i posted earlyer.


I like the design but i think it needs something more ??? let me know if you have any ideas!

VideoCopilot.net

Is is an amazing website that I found to teach people "After Effects" for free. It has amazing tutorials, free resources and a really helpful online community if you’re ever stuck. I’m really inspired by films and I’d love to be able to-do 3d max based designs alongside with special effects in movies, so this has been a really influential sit for me.



It has a fantastic library of free tutorials which look amazing and they are industry standard but I think the best looking special effects trailer that they do is "METEOR", just because it’s really easy to-do and looks fantastic.


Here are two video's that i think are amazing and the web address to the webpage:



Here is another fantastic example of  "videocopilots" amazing title sequences and special effects:

Inspiring Music

When I’m working I find music quite helpful, whether I’m doing it for a client or not I always use music. I find that I have a very broad taste in music from rock to even classical. When I work I have to find a piece of music that fits the mood I’m in at the time and it has to fit the art work I’m producing, but I often seem to listen to soundtracks. So here are some YouTube videos that I listen to when I’m working:



"I’m not a hero" by Hans Zimmer is a fantastic piece of music, it’s quite helpful when I’m trying to produce Mono tone imagery. I love the way Hans breaks the old fashion mould of music by creating interesting ways to achieve new sounds, just like the way i like to work, by finding new ways to create imagery that speaks to people in a different, creative way and shows them a new direction to achieve there goal.



This is a fantastic film and another fantastic sound track brought to you by the creative genius, John Murphy.I listen to Sunshine Soundtrack Kanada's Death, Pt. 2 (Adagio in D Minor) when I’m creating space-type images, movies in "AfterEffects". I chose this song because it’s got that feeling for survival in it with the heart beat style drums, but then it switch’s to a more calm, string sound which is relaxing. SO basically it messes with your feelings which helps me create out of the ordinary space themed multimedia.



"Wars" by "HURT" is a really inspiring rock song for me, when i listen to it helps me create war like multimedia from explosive title screens to photoshop imagery. I like the heavy rock tune mixed with a bit Prince of Persia background theme. 

I like and use many more songs and here is a small recent list that i use:

- Green Onions
- Money
- Blues Brothers OST
- Last Samurai OST
- Aimee Mann's version of "One"
- 28 Weeks Later Theme

Design Inspirations :

It’s hard to find just one person that inspires me because I’m interested in so many things like 3D animation, Special Effects, Web design, album art, poster design, music and much more. If I had narrow it down I think I would have to say that PIXAR, HANS ZIMMER, TIM BURTON are my all time muses.



PIXAR:

I chose Pixar because it’s been such an influential company throughout my entire life, I mean the way they create there 3D characters from start to finish is fascinating, some people hate watching the processes but I love it. I’m a big fan of animation but I do prefer the 3D side to it; it’s just the way that they render there models and create such fantastic, ornate scenes and characters. I’ll never forget the first time I saw TOY STORY, it was just ingenious because of the way that the characters resembled there voice actors, the way each character had its own individual movement and the one of the most important things of all in film, the way it captivates both children and adults into the simple story by using combinations of slapstick comedy and jokes that both adults and children can laugh too. Every year PIXAR seem to be getting even better at creating fantastic characters, fantastic story’s and jaw dropping environments for example the look and physics of sully’s fur in MONSTERS INC. I hope to one day be able to create 3D characters worthy of PIXAR!!!

White Board Animations

The lecture started off with each student being put into a group. The task was to create an animation where we had to move a box from one side of a house to the other, I know this sounds plain and simple but plain and simple is great in my book because it allows you to create weird and wonderful solutions to a situation and be as creative as you want. While coming up with ideas we were told that we had to make this animation 10 seconds long, and have 12 frames in 1 second so 120 images. I at first thought it was going to be easy but it gets very hard when you have so many complicated ideas floating around, especially when everyone in your group wants to get there idea put on the board. Luckily my group was very talented and we all seemed to work well together which made the spit ball process so much easier. We very quickly came up with a creative idea to move the box and we started straight away, unfortunately we realised that sections of are idea were flawed as they were too complicated to draw frame per frame in the time given to us so we adapted are idea which by the end I thought look really amazing. When we finished and looked back at our images we realized that we had left some drawings unchanged for loads of frames e.g. we drew some birds which seem to hover for about 20 frames. Since this is our first ever animation I think these are the sought of little mistakes which happen but overall it still looked really good. I can’t wait to try again and perfect this kind of animation.



This is the video that was shown to us as an example of whiteboard animation and how it works on film. I love how this really low tech method of animation is so popular in the TV industry for example the "CARPHONE WAREHOUSE" TV adverts!!!! I would really like to create one in the same style but using paper or something???



My groups video should be up soon-ish !!!!!!!!!!!

Pin Hole Camera:

In the first Multimedia session, we as a group were required to create pinhole camera's using beer cans, card and electrical tape. After a committed drinking session the night before to make sure that I could bring enough cans into the lesson, I started cutting the tops off my cans. I then used some sand paper to smooth the sharp edges left by the can opener so I don’t cut myself when I put the photosensitive paper into the can. To make the can able to take picture I created a pin hole in the centre of the can which acts as a lens, letting in light from the chosen object, through the pin hole onto the photo paper. To make sure no unwanted light gets into the can I had to create a lid and hole cover using tape and card. When I finished creating this blue peter style camera I had to insert the photosensitive paper, so I went into the dark room where I received a sheet of paper, we were told to make sure that the papers photosensitive layer was facing the pinhole to allow the image to be projected upon it. After finding a tomb stone to photograph I exposed the paper for 8 seconds, due to the lighting conditions (cloudy). The next step is to extract the paper from the can and develop my image, which we had to do in a dark room for obvious reasons. Now the developing process hasn’t changed from when I did my A-Level PHOTOGRAPHY, which is good because it’s given me enough trial and error experience to figure out roughly what times I need to put my paper into each solution. The fist solution is the developer and I kept the paper in there until I was happy with the quality of my image. Next is stopped the image developing by putting it in a stopping solution, which basically takes the developer off the paper. Now the image is still photosensitive so if I expose it to lots of light it will turn black, so to stop this from happening I put my paper into a solution called fix which “fixes” the image to the paper, which I left in there for about 1-2 minutes. Next all I did was wash the image for 2-4 minutes in every day H2O!!!


To finish off is caned it into the computer and edited it in photoshop.


The results that you get form this experimental photographic method are amazing, the resolution/ detail is fantastic and you get this panoramic/fish eye look which is really interesting, I think this effect is created due to the way the paper is curled round the inside of the can and the way the light hits it. This will no doubt be a key bit of research when I come to do moving images project!!!


Here is my image: