Amazing photography: Zena Holloway

gorgeous

Aquarium Multitouch App

aquarium multitouch application. beautiful

Inspiration: Esteban Diácono

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

Inspiration: Mark Mawson

jaw dropped.

see more

Inspiration: Celeste Potter

As I am spending most of my time reading, here are some beautiful inspirational videos that I found by an Australian illustrator Celeste Potter:

Click on this link (I am having trouble embedding).

and this one:

Click here for this video.

Short piece on Global Warming

I really appreciate the style and message of this piece.

3650 from Ubik on Vimeo.

Beautiful Aquarium

This video is pretty amazing. It is of the world's largest aquarium. I love watching the movement of the various fish and sharks in the water. Some are like- birds of the sea. That might be a Jessica Simpson reference..oh wait, no she questioned if tuna fish was chicken because the label said chicken of the sea.

Kuroshio Sea - 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world - (song is Please don't go by Barcelona) from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.

Research

I had a really productive day today. I took a visit to the library and have picked myself up some great reads for the next week. I started reading Blue Gold and am already really inspired and into it. Reading all of these statistics about water, I am completely amazed that this topic is not discussed more frequently in terms of environmental action and politics. For starters, the fact that less than 1% of all the water in the world is actually consumable is not at all what I expected to find. I know that I am really naive about this subject matter, but I when you look at a map and see all of the blue covering the world, and then think to yourself that this is not potable water that people in poor countries who are starving and DYING from their need of water canaccess, you begin to feel a little hopeless. But I don't think that this subject matter is hopeless. I am going to continue reading about this as well as the privatization of water which also is a much more complex and widespread concern than I ever realized. I feel like after today I am seeing the world around me with new eyes.

I also see that there is a Blue Gold movie available on amazon. I am going to try to purchase that this weekend as well. I am excited.

Shifting... and returning

As I mentioned earlier, I am taking steps to completely reconsider my domains of interest. After doing some soul searching and real zoolander like questioning, I have focused my research on water. Why water? Well for starters, it is something that I am passionate about, growing up in a surfing community, water is something that I came in touch with in a very real way. Water is something that has heightened my relationships with my neighbors and distanced me from others. However, water is something that plays a role in everyone's life. It is a necessity. Water is also one of the most deeply problematic environmental and political issues of our time.

In The Post American World, Fareed Zakaria wrote about this issue. He said,

"... our ability to manage and conserve water is not growing nearly as fast as our consumption of it. World population tripled in the twentieth century, but water consumption increased sixfold. Americans use more than four hundred liters of water a day to drink, cook, and clean themselves. People in poorer countries today are lucky to get forty, but as they get richer, their rising demands will cause greater stress. Violent clashes over water have already broken out in Africa and the Middle East. Historically, populations have moved to find water; if water sources dry up in the future, tens of millions of people will be forced to start moving." Zakaria, Fareed. The Post American World, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2008),30.

And so I am pushing forward. I am returning in essence to a lot of the core issues of my initial game concept, however with the intent of creating more of a heartfelt narrative- like my later prototypes.

Assymetrical vs Symmetrical Relationships

Doing some research on one of the central themes of my thesis project, that is the kind of relationships that are produced in the social networking world- I came across some interesting new terms:

Relationship (or Follow) Symmetry
Relationship (or Follow) Asymmetry

I initially came across the terms on this post that theorizes that Facebook will eventually turn to an asymmetrical relationship structure. But I will get back to that. A symmetrical relationship is a mutual relationship where both parties benefit and enjoy the perks of friendship in full agreement. Facebook currently has this structure, where you need to accept a friend request in order for both of the users to become friends. An Asymmetrical relationship, however has no requisite mutuality. This is the relationship structure that Twitter uses.

Why is this interesting? Well to be completely honest, this is interesting because it increasingly allows for a non-mutual relationship. What is that? A non-mutual relationship is not a true relationship in my opinion. It is more about one party disemintating information about themselves, almost as a form of P.R. However, the relationship that is then forged when someone enters into this relationship is not reciprocal. As the post that I referenced earlier states, the internet world of social networking is moving towards asymmetrical follow. How will this affect the kinds of relationships that are created on these sites? Are relationships on these sites becoming less authentic?

In my thesis I hope to touch upon how these kinds of imbalanced relationships can alter ones perception of their own friendships.

Having a Moment

I haven't posted in a while and I feel that it's because I am a little stuck. I don't even know if I should write this here because I feel somewhat annoyed at myself. I know that I always do this, where I get started on a project and then start doubting myself and rethinking the project and then I have a ton of false starts before I can get anywhere.

I am thinking of totally re- thinking my story and making it more conceptual. I would reduce the number of characters and I would like to eliminate all dialogue. I know this sounds good but I don't know how to get from where I am to there. I am basically dealing with the same theme, but instead of having humans, I am thinking of having more of an animal or creature.

On top of all of this meandering in my mind, I was mugged on the subway yesterday and my phone was stolen. I feel all disgruntled now. ugh.

Character Design- Getting Closer

I actually did these about a week ago but I forgot to scan them! I know, I feel like I have been holding out. Okay, so I am feeling happy about the first image below (which is actually a diptych with the second image). The other boy images below were progression sketches until I got to the top two. The last image below is my first attempt at the mom- having a general idea in mind for Mica.

This week I started my storyboarding. Man... storyboarding. Half the battle for me seems to be getting over the mental hurdle of dealing with the actual animation of my idea. But, I did storyboard the first 2 scenes and am feeling good about it. I will post when I am a little further along on that project.

Gaming and my animation

In my story, Mica (the boy) is going to initially be seen playing an interactive game in his room. I have been thinking about everyones great feedback on this blog, but particularly about the fact that my story might give the impression that my thesis point is about computers and technology being evil. Obviously this is not the case (otherwise I will be getting this master's degree as an act of masachism). However, I was thinking that one thing that might be good to do was to integrate his skills that he gains from technology (for example choice making and navigation) to help him through the garden in the later part of the story. I could possibly have a "game vision" sequence where the scene looks like a video game from Mica's perspective.

Thoughts? I think this might help shorten my story as well because I could take out other parts that aren't as necessary- maybe the part when Mica learns to garden (although I personally love it) because Mica will have a similar sensory experience when he touches the pond water.

Character/Concept Art

Since I have been mainly focusing on the story and script for the past 2 weeks, the drawings that I have done are mostly sketches on the subway. I did a few with color. I do feel that I am getting somewhere with the protagonist- boy character. Here are some sketches that I did. They are mostly the boy and the mother. They are from my sketchbook so the paper is a bit see- through.

Movement Study 1

Progress Report

Update on summer * deliverables:

• story
  
• script
  
• storyboard
• character sheets
• paper

I am happy with it, but it is DEFINITELY too long!
I'm getting there though. Baby steps.

* Summer just means that all of these are first drafts

Garden/ Outdoors inspiration and research- Part II

Garden/ Outdoors inspiration and research

Progress

Yesterday I finally sat down with pen to paper and wrote the story. I don't know why it was taking me so long to get what was in my head out. But, I will say this- it really does feel better. It's certainly not perfect and I have a hunch it's too long. If anyone feels like they have some free time, please let me know so that I can send you a copy. It would be awesome to have a reader. I know I am posting a lot of things here, but I feel funny putting up my entire document online.

The basic idea is this:

Mica and his mother live in their digitally enhanced "pod" life. They are hooked in, logged on, socially networking and computing- so much to the extent that they are barely communicating with each other in the physical realm. One day Mica notices that his mother's eye is frantically twitching and slowly before his eyes-his mother begins to morph into a robotic form. In a state of panic Mica runs to his computer and searches for a remedy to the situation- but nothing came up. He runs all over his house and despite the fact that his long lost father's room is forbidden, he goes in. His father's room is a relic from time's past. There are books and smelling salts and things that Mica had never seen. Mica rummaged through various books trying to find something that could help his mother- with not much luck. Just as he is about to leave the room, he lifts up a small book which in turn breaks open a bookcase to reveal a tunnel leading to a secret garden. Mica and his mother enter the tunnel. In the garden they need to find a seed to plant in order give the mother juice from the nectar of its fruit. This leads them on a quest to find the seed and in turn themselves.

As you might have noted- I also changed the gender of the protagonist. This decision was made for a few reasons, including the fact that I have now made contact with a young boy who is going to model for me and help me out along the way. (I am actually really very EXCITED about this fact)

Deliverables Progress:

• story- draft 1 complete
• script
• storyboard
• character sheets
• paper

And now for something completely different

well sort of different.

Style comparison

Okay- here are basically the two styles that I am considering using the same sketch.

a) vector- based off of drawing but not committed to it.
b) hand drawn, scanned and inked.

a)
b)

Another vector girl

This is a more vector version of one of my sketches (see earlier entry). Any thoughts as to if this works better as a vector image? I guess I should probably try coloring her in digitally so we can have a good comparison. I'll get on that. pronto.

You spin me right round....

Today I did a ton of sketches which I will scan in tomorrow am. But the quick and dirty vector version of what I am dealing with is below. Basically I am practicing drawing frontal, 3/4, side and all the hot mess of in betweens. I also quickly colored one of my sketches- it's a colored-in version of a low res crappy scan, but I wanted to get an idea to see if I should pursue this girl any further. Any thoughts?

Character Design_ Day 2

Today I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to experiment, but I did a version of a girl completely vectorized. I am not sure what I think in terms of style- one over the other etc. but this one definitely looks "cleaner."



and... here is a version with a tad more shading:

Character Design

I have been slowly revising my concept for my thesis. Long story short - I want to do an animation that deals with the issue of losing touch with authentic experiences due to the digital world. I am coming up with a concept for a story but it's not quite clear in my head yet. I do have a character evolving in my head and I did many sketches today trying to figure out where I am taking it. I also tried digitally inking one of them. This is the first time that I did that- it could use a lot more finessing and I think that the issue I had with this one is how I scanned it in, but other than that I am optimistic about this technique. The line quality was greatly compromised here- and I can go on and on about what went wrong with the inking process, but it's definitely a "first attempt".

First go

Here is my first go at a "look and feel" prototype. Some penguin action. Not sure about shapes, but I do like the palette.

Rio's Great Wall

Article from Wall Street Journal on a wall created in Dona Marta to protect trees.

Meeting with Ethan Silverman

Today I met with one of my professors- Ethan Silverman to talk about my thesis. The meeting was helpful because after running my idea by him he made the point that the action of my interaction is exactly what I am trying to help to avoid in reality. This is a somewhat obvious point, however it made me consider a few alternatives to my game concept. One thought is to have the game utilizes alternate worlds- or realities- so while we are doing something that happens in the rainforest (for example) we could see how it is directly effecting the life of a city inhabitant. (this would help me to localize the content maybe?) Another thought is to come up with a scenario where there are portals into the past present and future so that any time you can see how current actions effect the lives of humans, animals, flora and fauna in the different times. This is a little complicated but I am going to try to write this out and make the index card prototype.

Some resources that Ethan suggested I check out include:

• Rube Goldberg's illustrations
• The Sims
• Spore
• The Boston Science Museum
• The Manhatta project at the Museum of the City of NY
• Eco- tourism in Costa Rica
  

Going to the Library

I am in the process of making a reading list but since the overall topic of land preservation is HUGE- I am going to try to break it down to what I need to research in order to have a good enough understanding of the subject to build the narrative.

LAND PRESERVATION : specific details about the kinds of issues involved in preserving land so i can work them into the narrative
- what are the real threats?
-what kinds of environments are being threatened?
- is modernization an issue?
- is housing an issue?
- what kind of development is really happening?
- how are animals effected?


CURRICULUM: what are 8th graders learning on the topic?
- what is the current didactic materials being offered?
- what kind of in-class discussions are taking place?

REAL LIFE CASES: what is really happening?
- case studies?
- American case studies?
- statistics about virgin land in America?/ world?

PRECEDENTS: what has been done on the subject?
- animation
-psa's
- games
-literature
-art
- other

Cave of Time

I finished reading Cave of Time a few weeks ago and didn't get around to posting about it until just now. I think that I wasn't jumping to post this because I felt what Simon Cowell would call underwhelmed by the book. The book is a "choose your own adventure," "tree book", "game book" and/or "interactive narrative". The story was written in Each story is written in second person and so the reader became part of the story by dictating the choices and actions that the protagonist would make throughout the narrative. This was achieved by simple directives that followed at the bottom of a page where the character was at a crossroads- for example- if you choose to go into the cave go to page 5, if you decide to go on a horse ride to a castle go to page 11. In theory I thought that the concept was fun - but I felt that the resulting story was a little bit boring and sort of like clicking link after link in your browser following a whim. The plot lines were weak and I think the novelty of having say in the future of your reading is what added to the success of these books. I would also add that each reading of the book took 20 minutes maximum. Maybe this is what also appealed to its readers.

Although I am speakingly negatively about my experience, I do think that these are all things that are important to consider in regards to my potential audience. I need to remember that it is a game and that it needs to be fairly quick paced and to- the- point in order to be successful.
So, I do need to keep in mind:

• TIME: keep each portion of the narrative short and decision making limited
• PLOT: the plot doesn't need to be wildly complicated to be interesting/fun
• INTERACTION: a choice can be as simple as deciding to go left or right
• FUN: the novelty of the game playing interaction or core mechanic will provide a certain element of fun- not to be overlooked.
• AUDIENCE: keep the game appropriate to the age of your reader/player

I did read that some of the other books in the series dealt with more historical fiction and/ or political type topics. I am going to try to get my hands on one of these books, however I do feel that these books are like a one liner joke in that you get what they are about within 5 minutes.

Into the Wild Green Yonder

I recently watched a video that was made directly for DVD release called Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder. The movie was great not just because it provided the typical humor and creativity that one can expect in the regular Futurama programs, but also because it dealt with the serious topic of land preservation vs development. In the animation, this was achieved by an elaborate plot dealing with the father of one of the regular Futurama character's (Amy). He is plotting to rebuild Mars Vegas into an interplanetary "mini" golf course which finishes on a rare "virgin land" planet that has some of the rarest animals and plants in the galaxy. Although I am simplifying here, the story becomes a quest of sorts for the characters to save the planet from development. What is worth noting here is that in this treatment of the subject, in order to identify the need to preserve the natural land and associated wild life- they needed to also identify the "trouble maker" or direct cause of that problem being developers. While in this particular scenario the developers were creating a needless and somewhat questionable theme park, in reality the problem is more complicated. Sometimes land clearing/ loss etc. is done to make way for more prosperous development opportunities - for example housing, eco- tourism, park or recreational land.

I think that it is important to say that this issue is not monolithic and that is why I am leaning towards making a game- not an animation- to show that there are sides to every issue. Maybe the solution to recognizing this issue is to not make a linear "narrative" with a correct course of action but maybe having different endings that would allow players to come into a potential in- class discussion with different views that would assist a dialogue.

Greens, greens nothing but greens

After doing some online research, I think that it is really important for me to state my interest in land preservation not conservation. While I do feel that both are very important and I am not opposed to either, I am interested in preservation because it addresses unique issues in human interaction with the environment. Preservation is focused on setting aside land, while conservation deals with creating a balance between industrialization and maintaining a harmony with the natural environment.

I learned that environmentalists are divided into three groups: dark greens, light greens and bright greens- which seems to basically distinguish levels of intensity in terms of activism.

Science, Art and Me

So it's been a few days since my last post and I feel good about the fact that I am not totally walking away from an idea. I don't care that it is not 100 % finalized, but I do like the fact that I have a concept: I want to create a narrative game based on Rube Goldberg mechanics that is built to raise awareness of a social issue. More and more I am liking the idea of virgin land. Today I read a great article in the Times about the man who re-creates human life forms - he is a paleo artist. He does all of the work for the Museum of Natural History. I am not sure if this relates at all to my thesis other than the fact that the work he creates is truly the intersection of what art can do for science. I want my project to be able to communicate an emerging scientific issue, show how human interaction created this problem, and show the results of the problem. I don't think that I want the problem to be solved in a game scenario because in reality- this is a problem that doesn't have a solution. What I can provide however, is a new awareness about this issue through game play. Audience? I need to research that.

On a sidenote I just started working at Sesame Workshop. The environment is truly amazing. I am working in the international division and am specifically focused on creating interactive and sometimes mobile educational material and content for english language programs in Asia. I could not be more excited. So far I just designed a teachers resource packet and collateral material (including an Elmo paper puppet that you put together with popsicle sticks!). The team that I am working with is very into making quick and dirty prototypes of things which I think is really good for me to see. It is comforting to know that you can just get an idea out there sometimes without being really judged. BUT... at the same time I do feel like when I create a dirty prototype in a work environment, and even to an extent at school people are judging the look of the product. I don't really know what to say about that other than I think it's a comfort thing that I just need to get over.

Loads of inspiration

Miguel Tanco



Andrey Gordeev

Sam Weber


Jillian Tamaki


Dave Prosser

Flying Pizza Kitty

Crappy Cat


Mark Verhaagen

Kyle Reed


and.... the most beautiful animation

The Little Ninja

I have been a fan of Ninjai: The Little Ninja for a long time. I think that the beautiful graphics add to the storybook feel of the series.

Technical Stuff

I found this great little article on making indie games for those with less technical know how.

In an equally cool find, this chart on the wild web of gaming from Wired is pretty interesting. I like how there appear to be "gateway" games that lead you into totally different realms of thought. Sort of like how Lost has lead me to several other dorky sci fi adventures.

An Inspiring Game: Blueberry Garden

I recently discovered the game Blueberry Garden. The game is really beautiful and whimsical. It is an artful game that has a hand drawn style that I truly appreciate.

In terms of how this relates to my project- I think that I am interested in the kind of navigation that it employs as well as style. Conceptually, I don't want my game to something of pure whimsy, I want it to have a true social message.

Concept for thesis

I am in the initial stages of coming up with a concept for my thesis.
Domains: games, informal education, illustration, animation,and the environment
Design Questions: - How can I create a simple interactive experience to explore the topic of maintaining virgin lands?
- How can I use a fictional narrative to investigate the issues of land preservation?
- How can I incorporate a "choose your own adventure" theme into a simple narrative?

Concept: My current concept is to create a flash point and click game in which the user is asked to help a character navigate through a fictional world using Rube Goldberg type logic. Initially the world is full of lush lands filled with an assortment of creatures, however as the player navigates through the world, based on their choices it becomes increasingly more industrialized and so the story becomes a quest to save the virgin land from extinction. The industrialized world boxes the player in and ultimately gives them less choices to make in terms of using the natural resources and the land.

Questions:
1. How do I create a complex multi-leveled narrative?
2. How do I make this game dynamic?
3. Should I try to make this multi-player?
4. Should I try to incorporate real time data?
5. Do I stick to creating a multi-tiered narrative?
6. I don't even want to think about the action scripting involved.

Precedents:
- The Polyphonic Spree: Quest for the Rest

- Myst

- Interactive Fiction

- Tree Fiction (choose your own adventure)
-Dystopia: 1984, Farenheit 451, Brave New World
- Memento
- Zirk I



Resources to Investigate:

-Complexity in Narrative (Stephen Johnson)
-Cave of Time (Edward Packard)
-The Throne of Zeus
-The 39 Clues
-House of Leaves
-Rashoman
-The Game
-Paris, Je T'aime

Dance Test

For the final-- just imagine these guys being rabbi's ... with toupee's.


Dance Pencil Test from Jess Klein on Vimeo.

Inside the Wolf

Inside the Wolf from Jess Klein on Vimeo.

From the first day of shooting on the set of Little Red.

This is the scene when Red and the Grandma are eaten up by the wolf.