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User Experience 06: After Effects Tutorials 04

The progress that I have made this week seems small when viewing the exported product, but I have become much more acquainted with After Effects (AE). I spent a lot of time practicing using masks and pick whips to get smooth animations rather than jolted changes between poses.  I decided to use the robot illustration going forward as I believe that it a mascot better suited to CDM. I had originally created several different versions of eyes and mouths in different positions to animate motions such as head turns and blinking. However using masking methods and linking body parts together, I was able to get smooth results using the bare minimum of vector graphics. This made the animation process much more concise and responsive. If I move the position of the body, all other features move with it. The facial features move with the head, and so on, getting more refined as the details get smaller. I created an idle hover pose to use when the character is stationary, to always have some mov
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User Experience 05: After Effects Tutorials 3

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Last week I wrote that I may change the proposed mascot character in the animated explainer video to cut out the need for a walk animation. I was unsure whether I would be able to create a walk cycle animation that would be suitable for use in the timeframe given. After some more research, I may have figured out a way of creating a walking animation that does not take up too much time, and produces a good result. Duik Bassel is a character animator rig that can be used in conjunction with After Effects (AE). Using this tool, I can create a skeleton rig that syncs with my vector graphics. Once the program knows what each joint is to control, the skeleton can be moved around from any point, and the rest of the body is responsive. There is a basic walk cycle animation feature that creates a simple loop using an algorithm based on the skeletal position of the joints. This gives a good starting point to tailoring the walk cycle to my own needs. Duik Bassel in action. Following this tu
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Reading 5

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Accurate Representation of the requirements for writing Source:  WikiMedia This week I aimed to get my headings and a paragraph done for at least one topic. As I have the most research done on Internal Economy, I started by trying to determine the similarities between the papers I had read. I tried not to overthink it, and just see what each of them, or most of them had in common. The headings I decided on are: Economy Mechanics   Player Motivation   Player Choices   Effect on Gameplay   Emergence   Progression   These may change, but for now I think it is a  good start. These are based on the five papers I have currently entered into my Matrix on this topic. Adding any more at this moment in time will stall my progress. While I am aware that I will need to add more content and research to my Matrix, I think I need to progress to the next stage to understand what I need to look for in my future research. Writing the paragraphs is proving challenging. I have
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Reading 4

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This week's task proved to be the toughest one yet. In fact, I'm afraid I didn't even begin what was originally scheduled for this week. However, I didn't do nothing! The Research Matrix has proven to be more time consuming than I originally thought. Last week, I had one source entered into my Matrix, and at the end of this week I have six. I was aiming for twenty; five on one subtopic and one on the other. So, what happened? Firstly, I am finding it hard to find suitable texts. I am trying to scan through texts to see is there relevant information to my research questions, or even the subtopic. If the abstract doesn't wholly convince me, I use Cmd F to look for some of my keywords. I download several pdfs at a time using this method. When I have a few promising papers, I begin looking a bit more thoroughly at them to enter some information into the Matrix. I believe this is where my time is getting lost. First look at Keanu Reeves in The Matrix 4 Most
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User Experience 04: After Effects Tutorials 2

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This week, I created an interim mascot to learn how to animate characters using puppet tools and layers.  This is Aran, a character I created in Adobe Illustrator. First of all, I had to design and create a character using vectors in Illustrator. I based my design off of a children's nursery rhyme YouTube channel that uses similarly styled characters. As it is a temporary mascot for practice, I am aware that the resemblance is very obvious. I tried to make the design as three dimensional as possible, using highlighting, shading and textures to make the character stand out. Due to his wooly, fabric like textures, I decided to give him the name Aran - like the Irish knitted jumpers. I placed each limb and section on it's own layer to allow for more specific and intricate movements in After Effects (AE). Once the vector graphic was ready to go, I imported the character into AE. I followed several tutorials on YouTube to get some dynamic movements from the character a
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User Experience 02 - Introduction and Research

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What makes a good user experience? Source:  WikiMedia After a discussion about the progress of the www.cdmonline.ie website, it was agreed upon that I would undertake some UX tasks to help make the site streamlined and user friendly, and make it so that information could be easily absorbed. The criteria for the updated site would include: An animated video or infographic explaining the process of the weekly tasks on the website, from checking the semester calendar to undertake the current week's task, to completing the declaration, and all that comes in between. Refining the information currently on the website into user friendly chunks of information. The presentation may use the 'cards' feature that is currently in use on the website, and adapt it to the new presentation. Creating a brand identity for the website using the current domain name as the brand name. As this is the least useful to the websites users (although still an important part), it will be left
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Reading 3

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Annoying paywalls emergence - exploiting game mechanics to achieve an unintended result. Researching has proved exhausting. I am attempting to expend my energy efficiently by skimming titles and abstracts to determine whether a paper may be useful to my research, but even so, my brain is finding it tough to process information. I feel like I have made good progress, regardless of mental fatigue. Not only did I find some good publications from credited and cited authors, I have found textbooks that are highly regarded, cited and commended. Ernest Adams has several books on Game Design and Game Development. There are several chapters that not only relate to my topic, but have valuable information regarding my research question. I was able to find a pdf of one chapter from Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design, but the other books have escaped me so far. I have been in contact with the authors requesting digital copies of the books for research purposes. Game Mechanics: Advance
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