Here is a demo of what the screen in use would look like:
Regular readers will know by now that I must apologise if this video looks a little low quality. Thats because it is, due to my incredibly rubbish internet speeds. The final is rendered in full HD.
It is insane how tedious it was to create this! I did it in Adobe After Effects and in total used 233 layers (containing one light). Each light flicker had to be animated separately to get a realistic view of what it would look like.
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| Seating Plan |
Here is a recap of the seating plan. The dimmer lights would represent taps from people sitting in any of the white seats. Although they do not create the letters, they are equally as important as it creates the surrounding image, and sets the mood for the scene.
The brighter lights are representations of taps from those in the red seats (which obviously spells out the word). When these lights turn even brighter and linger for a while longer, this person has tapped their pad in sync with another person in a red seat of the same letter. This rewards the audience for tapping in sync, and makes the words seem clearer.
I really like how it would look on screen, and I know that it would look spectacular to create it in reality, and would be immense fun to play with. Shame about that whole budget thing....
Well, after completing this, all I need to do now is create a 10 slide pdf to present to the tutors to finish things off. But after sitting at this Mac for 7 and a half hours, I think I need to lay down in a dark room for a while. I'll do the pdf tomorrow...
I have completed the Instruction Sheet which would be placed on the seats involved in this event, so that the audience are aware of the workings of the pads and how they can be involved.
Here it is below:
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| Instructional Sheet |
I am pleased with how this looks and I am happy that the audience would be well informed of the pads and how to use them.
This sheet also gave me the chance to brush up on my Adobe Illustrator skills, its been a while!
Now to create the demo of the screen in use!
On Friday, I went and showed my video so far to my tutors, and the response was awful. Really. In fact, I don't think a single positive comment was made about the video itself. :(
So what came out of that meeting was to scrap this video and start on a new final. A few ideas were given, so I need to do some thinking about which direction to choose.
One suggestion was to use a simple sheet of instructions to be laid on the seats of the participating seats. A bit boring for an animation student I must admit, but it makes sense. So this is something I am leaning towards doing. But It isn't going to be a sheet of text, I don't do things that way. Its going to have to look good.
The one thing I wouldn't want to happen would be the audience to arrive at their seat to find a sheet of paper sat there and for them to think its a programme or advertisement and to pick it up and place it under their seat to be ignored. We have all done it before, so it can happen if the sheet doesn't attract attention.
The other good suggestion, which was actually part of my intentions for my video anyway, was to create a full working representation of the screen in operation. Similar to the letter 'A' video which I posted previously in my development, but with the whole letter set for Alight. However, the difference is I am going to add features which will reward the audience for participating in sync. For example, if two people sat next to each other tap at the same time, the light could linger for a little longer. They could even join into one bigger, longer flash. Or it could fade in to a brighter set of lights. There are many options which I could incorporate, all of which need to be thought about and then played around with.
Well, deadline is Friday, so I better get cracking on with it. Fingers crossed all will be well!
Just thought I'd post how things were going. I'd not posted in a good few days, didn't want you to think I was slacking!
I have been getting on with creating the instructional video for the pressure pads. So far, I have run into zero problems, so fingers crossed the rest will go smoothly!
I am roughly about half way through it so far, so I thought I'd post it to show what it's looking like.
Due to my insanely rubbish internet speeds, it is set to half quality, so some bits do look a bit pixelated. Thanks Sky!
I am happy with it so far. I like the way the simple movements and shapes make it look a bit like an old 50's instructional video. I wasn't going for that at first, but just stuck with it for laughs, and I quite like it!
I must also add that the last scene here isn't finished just yet!
Going to get cracking with the last few sections of it, so hopefully it will be finished early next week with a bit of time spare! Wish me luck!
I have created a storyboard in photoshop showing step by step how my instructional video would play out. Here it is:
I intend to fade the text based screens into one another.
Well, I suppose I should get started on the video then!
