'Advent Calendar' Mark 2D

Learning from our previous mistakes, the writers and I started production on the second version of our ‘advent calendar’ idea. Making sure to fully plan our idea and to take further precautions, we have produced a 2D version of our original idea. However, this version has changed from our original idea as we had to accustom to our new 2D format. We have changed the aesthetic of our piece to allow for our games map to be within the centre, and the characters having arrows to where they are placed within it – therefore providing our audience a way to show where specific scripts are within the game/demo. By doing this, not only do we introduce more interaction from our audience, but we reinforce the idea of how closely all of our teams have worked in order to produce this game/demo.

When starting this side project again, we kept in mind our previous mistakes and have acquired all of the items and permissions needed before starting production. However, with some artist being absent, we didn’t manage to print off all of the finalised character designs – something that is a minor problem was easily fixed by planning/preparation (see paragraphs below). In order to ensure that we do not damage or deface college property whilst designing our project we were told that, to paint our project, we would either need to; paint outside in a designated zone, paint within the art classrooms or paint within our own company with protections in place. We chose to paint within our classroom as to prevent potential damage of our project through transportation.

Due to our preparations from our last attempt, we knew the sizes needed to maintain a professional look, however, we didn’t know how to produce our map. With it being circular, we would need a steady hand and a circular item to trace around. To solve this, we used an empty bin, with Jess (Another writer) volunteering to do the intricate work as I am less coordinated compared to her.

Once the circle was drawn, we produced a rough sketch of what the painted version would look like and placed the characters and their scripts where they would be in the final designs. We did this to also plan out where the unprinted characters would go – ensuring that all our characters were on the piece and therefore on show. To combat the issue of Lucas, Lio and Nova having no side character dialogue options, we placed them together in the top left-hand corner to symbolise that they are the main characters to our game.

With our final piece fully planned, we decided to move on to the production stages of painting the piece – making sure to place scrap paper around our piece to catch any potential spillage. We also planned to decorate the background of the piece, deciding that empty space looked unprofessional. However, we also decided not to paint the background as that would be time consuming and risk making a mess and therefore breaking our agreement by painting indoors. To solve this, we agreed to use non-staining ink to create a splat background – therefore if our paper precautions were to fail and we were to of got ink on the carpet/room it would be easy for us to wash off. As we planned to paint over our sketched map, we decided to cover it with masking tape; preventing us from having to paint over ink and therefore making our piece look unprofessional - through multi coloured blobs appearing within the painted dome. This masking tape would also provide a nice circle around our dome where the splats end, providing an aesthetically appealing look.

Once we finished using the ink, we then took off the masking tape and started to rub out the original sketch lines, therefore preventing a similar problem if we didn’t cover up the dome with masking tape; If there are colours/lines visible underneath the paint, the piece looks unprofessional. We then started to paint the circle a light hue of blue, representing both the water and the glass that surrounds the dome. After the light blue coats dried off, we then progressed onto painting the lines and details of the dome in a deeper shade of blue, to further reinforce the underwater theme whilst standing out from the background. However, due to various brush sizes and techniques, the details looked rather childish and unprofessional. To combat this, we painted the whole circle again but in the deeper shade, as painting over a darker colour with a lighter colour would further add to our problem. Despite derailing from the original plan this technique was rather pleasing as the two blues complemented each other and gave the edges a nice effect.

After this, we decided to stop attempting to paint on the details ourselves; it would look messy and unprofessional. We then decided to print off a plain A3 version of our map that the lead level designer made, therefore we would prevent any more problems with painting. This solution also allowed us to save time and progress to sticking all our pieces into place.

Now that the base of our ‘advent calendar’ was made and glued on, we decided to add additional artwork to the piece, character names on the ‘doors’. Though it was not originally planned, by having personalised font/colours to the character it represented, it would clearly convey the character’s personality and add to the interaction of our piece.

However, we realised that the glue needed to set before we could alter the advent calendar - meaning that we had to wait time that we simply didn't have, with the hair dryer trick not being an option this time. Due to this, we ran out of time to add the doors onto our advent calendar and therefore loose the element of interactivity that was originally planned. To combat this dilemma, we made the calendar interactive in another way. We decided to create bumps and ripples within the paper - allowing for our audience to still be able to engage through touching our piece. By adding these points of interest, the younger audiences will still be able to interact with our piece by feeling it - though not originally planned, the best solution we had at the time to combat this problem.

Overall, this attempt was a lot more successful than our last; learning from our past experiences and using them to avoid the same mistakes. The final product still meets the required points we originally wanted, despite being changed rather drastically. This piece still allows for an interactive distraction for younger audiences, whilst also proving to be fun and informative - despite it's lack of windows.