CT4011 Animated Prototype
My idea for this project is make a game similar a 2D space game similar to Barotrauma and Starbound.
I will try try to do a realistic art style like Barotrauma but alot more colourful, and with a a smaller and more realistic ship design.
The Animation will be similar to a trailer with game play footage overlayed with quick text explaining key features of the game, with exciting music.
Below are images of Barotrauma and Starbound.
I first created a ruff storyboard, I made it longer and added more shots than I thought. So I would be able to add more if I got time, or wasn't able to one of the shots due to time etc I could change to another one. I put dot in corner of the main shots I wanted done.
I decided that I should first create the assets that were going to be in every shot like the background and the main fighter ship, I created I good space background using this youtube Tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TIGIxHp9b8&t=543s
I then made a mood broad for the fighter design and did some simple silhouette designs until I had a shape I like and then expanded on the idea.
After coming up with a basic design, I start watching Battle star Galatia and was inspired by the viper fighter design and decided to modify my design to be closer to the viper but kept the 2D layout of my design
Drawing up the ship took quite a awhile as I wanted to build to the layers up slowly adding as much detail as I could to make it look real as this was going to be the center piece of the animation, I built up the layers properly naming and grouping all my layer so that I could edited them later if i wanted to. I used variety of different Self Made and downloaded brushes to add marks and details to the ship, and I think it one the best thing I have ever drawn.
Next I moved on to creating the character, I wanted to create a simple blocky character similar to the one below which made in a lecture. As thought it would fit with the 2D look and also be easy a animate and pose.
I want to have and characters design to be half way between modern and futurist pilots as I thought that would be the most realistic. And used a similar process to how i designed the ship.
After I had finished the pilot and the ship and him together, I then moved on to thinking about how make the engine effect. I tried to find a tutorial on you tube but they either didn't give the desire effect or were to time consuming and complicated. so I ask my tutor and he said to find a green screen clip on youtube of a engine effect and comp it out.
Once i had found a video with desire effect I recorded it OBS and put it in aftereffects and used a tutorial from one of our lectures to comp out the green.
As well as the engines effect I added in some flashing light to make it look more interesting and I thought it would be realistic as planes also have flashing lights.
Next I put together my first shot. My first version of the was 2D so the planets didn't look right as they were moving at the same speed as the background.
After seeing this my tutor said that I should do the shot in 3D and move the camera instead and this will make the background plant and ship all move at the right speeds.
I choose the yellow I thought it would stand out from the game draw the viewers attention but not look too out of place.
To create the planets I got some texture off https://www.textures.com/ and then used this tutorial off youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2FGr5uqyiY&t=113s.
When I made the shot in 3D I found that going right to left you were able to view the text properly as the text was statistic so I switch it. I was also going to have the original shot last 5 seconds but that was far to quick so a put it up to 8.
My Next shot was the ship going into light speed, which I wanted to add the HUD to
After Look at quite a few huds i decided to do some close to the cyberpunk 2077 as it one of my favorite huds and I thought it would fit the theme. I used the colours from it and a similar layout.
I struggled for a while to come up with way of creating the light speed as all the tutorials on youtube weren't in a 2D perceptive and wouldn't work with my backround. I asked my tutor and he suggested to just stretch the background and ship which gave the desired effect.
My next shot was of the ship mining an asteroid using a laser. which I made using the same exact method I used to do the engine.
I also created an asteroid just by cutting it out of a texture. I was going to make 4 different version of the asteroid but decided to squash and stretch this to make the different asteroids.
Although this shot isn't technically difficult but it took a long long time to animate all the asteroids and to get the dots on the mind map to match them. most difficult part was making the main asteroid look like it being mined as I had to redo it several times. I did it by animating a mask over it, got the idea from a fellow class mate.
My next shot was the upgrade menu, which I again base off the HUD of cyberpunk 2077.
I wanted to make 2 different upgrades for the ship which I wanted to make animatable, just to add some to the shot, so designed an extendable mining laser.
I want there be two upgrades in the shot so I just made extra for the bottom of the ship which i mainly did to save on designing another mining laser as the first one took awhile but after putting it in the animation it felt like a plausible and appropriate upgrade. The shot was very easy to as I had already used the same animating techniques in previous shots.
Next I made the loading shot that will be at the start, although not a necessary shot I thought it might make it feel more like a real game. I did a very simile design trying to make it look like a classic old computer loading screen but with futurist touch using the cyberpunk HUD colours, and made it buffer to add some realism.
Finally I made the ending titles which I made by modifying a tutorial I found on you tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvIvKyeSfk4. I played around with alot of different timings and found that 5 secs was the perfect amount of time for the reader to view the titles this did make the title 15 secs which takes up a lot of time but I felt any shorter and you cannot read realize the titles.
After I finished the title i import all of the shot in to a final project file and put them together and found a simple space music track on https://uppbeat.io/ that fit well will the video and put that over the top. I wanted to maybe add some sound effects but I didn't have time and I didn't think that it would fit with the music. I was also planning on adding some transitions between the shoot, but after watching it all together I felt like it didn't need it and that it would take away too much time from the shots.
The Final thing I did for the project was create I quick animated banner using preciously made assets and using the knowledge I had again the lecture about banners making it simile and asking the viewer a question.
Conclusion
But I am very happy with the visual look of the game as I think its one of the best looking animation I have ever made with some of the best drawings I have ever made. I am also happy with the fact that I have used a variety effect and techniques to create the desire look and effect of the video, which has made me very confident with using after effects and Photoshop.
