Month: December 2019

Tyler Rodriguez – Prototype 3/Elevator Pitch

For my third iteration of my prototype, I decided to make a character utilizing the techniques that I learned from watching Samurai Jack. I decided to create my version of the Japanese Monster Shuten Douji. While the design isn’t exactly what I want to do for my project, it is definitely a step in the right direction. I decided to still keep elements that you would find in the respective culture, such as giving the character samurai armor. However the design is entirely in my own style and heavily inspired by the lineless character designs that are utilized in Samurai Jack. The reception I received from this design was overall positive. People favored this style much more than my original drawing not only because it aesthetically looked better, but also because it was a style I would be interested in exploring. There were a couple of things that I would like to change. Most people were immediately able to pinpoint that I was inspired by Samurai Jack. While I was happy that the style I was experimenting with was able to portray where I got the inspiration from, I also took this as a sign that I need to refine my style even further so it becomes less of a copy and more of an original take inspired by the piece of media. I was also giving some tips on how I might want to animate the characters once they’re designed. The program I plan on using is Adobe Illustrator, but I was told that I could try playing around with puppet animation rather than frame by frame like a traditional animation would. Also this style of animation could help further differentiate my style from Samurai Jack.

Elevator Pitch: Mythology has been a part of world culture for centuries. There are many rich and fascinating stories that have been passed down through time. However, stories don’t need to simply be told through word of mouth or through texts. My project plan is to create an interactive exhibit that showcases mythological heroes and villains that have appeared throughout Greek, Japanese, Hindu and Norse mythologies. I plan to have motion graphic videos that detail each character’s respective stories along with 3D models that one could interact with. My goal is to have an interesting interactive experience while teaching the viewer about mythological characters and their stories in a fun way.

Tyler Rodriguez – Prototype 2

Unfortunately, I was unable to come to class and show off a prototype for the second portion, due to illness. While I didn’t have a physical prototype, I was able to do a bit more research on the stylistic approach I wanted to do for my project. A lot of my research mostly pertained to the mythology of the characters I wanted to portray rather than stylistic approaches. So I decided to research a bit more by watching different media and seeing how they stylize character. In particular, I decided to watch a lot of the show Samurai Jack. I really love how the characters use very limited outlining and how most of the characters are made from very simple shapes. Specifically the first scene of the first episode was very interesting. It was a montage of Jack growing up and learning fighting styles from cultures all over the world. Each culture had a unique approach and color scheme. This gave me the idea that I should differentiate the characters from each culture, but still develop a unifying style that is recognizable as my own.

Tyler Rodriguez -Prototype 1

For my first prototype, I decided I would attempt to create a design for a character I plan to use in my project. My initial idea was to replicate the art styles that were used in each culture in the past and put my own creative twists on it. I decided I would test out this plan by drawing out a greek mythology character while also trying my best to emulate greek pottery art. Just to try and challenge myself, I wanted to see how well I could create a character without sketching the idea out first. The results were admittedly less than stellar. To be quite honest, I wasn’t too happy with the result, but I figured that any prototype is better than no prototype. The feedback I received was pretty much what I would’ve expected. People weren’t too keen on the designs either, but they didn’t really think they were as bad as I thought. However, doing this, I did gain some more insight on how I can improve my design process. I feel as if my biggest flaw was that I was relying way too heavily on trying to emulate the culture’s art style that I neglected the aspect of adding my own flair to it as well. At the end of the day, this is going to be my project, so I need to add my own flair to it somehow. I received a lot of insight on how I should go forward with my designing process. Stylistically, the show Samurai Jack has an interesting art style that is quite interesting. A lot of my peers have told me that getting inspiration from this with my art may help me come to a design that I really like.

Prototype #3 – Elaine Ruiz

For my third prototype, I spent most of my time reworking my story and figuring out what ideas can stay or what must change now that I’ve been researching a new program to use. I will be sticking to Quill to create the paintings and animations I need to tell the story; Unity may be optional if I have time to program any extra features that Quill may be limited in. I know there’s a way to export the paintings I create in Quill, so it can be an option. I know what I want the environment to feel like and the kinds of moods I wish to depict based on different turning points in the script, so I’m hoping once I get into the Oculus (Rift/ Rift S/Quest, depending on what I can get hold of), it won’t take me long to start mapping out what I’m doing. I’ve been working on editing the script to be as short as it can to allow users the option to get the point of the story in about 10 minutes, and maybe others can search around the environment more to get more details of the story if they wish. I know with the way I can configure the audio in Quill, I can probably make extra storylines play if the user decides to walk off the typical path to hear more about each stage. I have a breakdown of an outline of what points need to be made within the storyline to represent the “typical” cycle of abuse. I’m reworking the story to make sure it focuses on that gray area people seem more concerned about where the user may not realize the events are considered abusive, just like the main character during the relationship. I’ve also looked at poems and even slam poetry to see how people tell stories like this in a short amount of time. I’m leaning towards letting the user explore as much as they want to find out more, like if someone wanted to explore more examples of subtle gaslighting, while also having a way to hear most of the important details and main points of the story in a short time. It would all depend on how interested the person is in the story and learning more about what it is like.

Elevator Pitch:

“I am creating a Virtual Reality experience to show what being intimate partner violence can be like and how it can affect a person long-term. I want to bring awareness to the situation, how serious it is, and the effects it has on a person, even in a short amount of time. Any kind of intimate partner violence can affect a person for years, mentally, financially, academically, and in their careers. In the VR experience, the user will be exploring a forest environment that will change as they progress in the story and hear more about the main character’s life and what she went through. It is based on true events, so there are real stories behind this idea to show what going through intimate partner violence can be like.”

Prototype 2

for this prototype i decided to show off two of the character designs i was making for the game and some of the color design choices

The model is modeled after my father’s mom and how she would dress like a rich Russian lady

The brown and cream design is the base design while the other three are some extra choices and there will be more

Prototype 1

Currently I’ve been working on only one prototype since I am ordering a 3d camera for Christmas and will not have the portion involving unity or After Effects up to this week. So far I created a shortened version of my storyboard without the settings, where a baby grows up to be a toddler and a child and adult and so on. I will be basing the story line about my life and how I grew up to be an artist. I am unsure about continuing with AR as I may move into VR based on the materials I am using for my future thesis project next semester.

I have made a stop motion video as my main animation for the rendered video that will be uploaded as a mp4 file. Eventually I will place the video as a texture onto the object like a sphere and center the camera in the middle of the shape on Unity. I promise you this will all make sense in the end after I finish the details to my pre thesis piece. I will then render my animation video as a texture file and use a 360 degree camera to create my settings of the story.

Not everything has been set in stone but mostly everything that came to mind are thoughts and a bit of illustrations along the way.

Industry Event-NYC

Kerri Astorino

Professor Ault

IMM 498

November 2019

Industry Event

Before officially meeting with the two founders of an Augmented Reality site, Gimme360 in NYC, I interviewed Dan Bokun. We had been contacting via email and discussing where he started from the beginning and how he overcame some obstacles in the making. For a little bit of insite, he is in his early thirties and is already running his own business. When I actually got to meet up with him in person, I went with one of my friends from school and he brought along his co founder. We discussed the future and how things may change over time with technology. I couldn’t agree more. Children’s books, for example, are coming to life; no more paper back or hard cover books anymore. 

I asked him what the most common traits of a successful AR is and he answered with a list of five things: Persistence, User Experience, Value of the experience, Share-ability, and Scalability. He had prior knowledge coming in to this field of study by starting where I am today. By just studying new things and doing plenty of research. He mainly tested out other individual’s apps before creating something along the lines of AR sites. His research involved looking up apps and sites that involved AR like Pokemon Go. He believes it will be the next way people live, learn and communicate with the world. Being placed in the market industry at first, in the philanthropy world  – ultimately that has changed as businesses require a more visual manner of displaying information. Bokun had no physical targets specifically towards the young crowd and older generations, he wasn’t picky. His key objectives were to expand on this new wave of retaining information more effectively. Instead of looking at a budget point of view, he collected a ‘seed round of angel group of investors’. Lot of time and people were involved in the process.

Content is key. The tools he hired people to use in the making were Maya, Unity, C+ and C++ languages, and a whole lot of coffee. The 3d models were very important to this big project.

The launch schedule was soft as this is a new uncharted territory. There were certain deliverables that were set, but these were more fluid as to not to disrupt the natural flow of an entrepreneurial company’s growth. In the space he created particularly to present in front of an audience, with lighting, the required software, and the right context, it will be visually appealing. Over time what was will become mundane and what will be the new standard of detail. Bokun and his team at Gimme360, will be targeting their inventions through phones, ipads, and anything mobile; however, it is way easier for iphone users over android, as it was easier to deploy through apple products. The real-world will have a role in this experience of AR. Augmented reality heavily relies on the real-world, as it is the tie between the digital and physical.

Measuring success was a question I came up to while learning much more about the AR experience. They both mentioned that retention is key; the longer a person has it on their phone, the most likely they will use it again and or share their experience. Statistically 75% of individuals are visual learners. Being able to see something allows for a more effective and efficient manner of portraying information.

After interviewing Bokun and learning a bit from his friend, Josiah, he claimed to answer one simple question on how everything started. Bokun questioned, “how can we eliminate the distance between a person and getting to see the actual answer”. The team at first, started with research, questions, experience with other applications and users, meeting new people, and eventually it naturally came about. At the time they were studying VR, but it was not a social sharing experience for them, so they naturally gravitated towards something that was. AR was a lot more palatable for Fortune 500 companies. And now their company takes place in Canada called Gimme360, thanks to the help of Dungeon and Dragons, the Canadian version of Shark Tank.

GIMME360 started up in 2017 in Canada

started with 4 main founders and then went down to 2

Prototype 3 / elevator pitch – Chance Gayles

Chance Gayles

IMM 498

November 25, 2019

Prototype 3 Write Up / elevator pitch

For my third prototype, I decided to draft a streetwear design using hand-drawn graphics that takes elements from both design philosophies of Manga IP merchandise and streetwear. I created the graphic using photoshop, mocked it up using an online generator, then brought it back into photoshop to add finishing touches. The purpose of this exercise was to attempt to balance elements of the two styles in an attempt to breakdown the aesthetic differences between the two and create my own. I could have even gone as far as creating a physical version to demo but distance circumstances don’t allow that.  

Finished Prototype Mockup

Examples of IP merchandise (top) and Streetwear Merchandise (bottom) 

Elevator pitch 

“How do we bring freshness to a beloved storytelling medium while also having a hand in the fashion and streetwear scene?  My goal is to combine the two creative mediums and create a project that will utilize both in tandem to push a narrative. This will be done by running a digitally created manga publication that will run simultaneously with merchandise releases that will deliver the same high standard of design and concepts as well-established streetwear brands and online shops. Fans will be able to interact with story concepts like never before. I aim to solve the issue that Manga and Anime companies have with making their own items and apparel that can be deemed fashionable and be worn by the streetwear community. Combining the two mediums will create a new experience that while open more doors into other industries that other publishers have never had before.”  

Industry Event – Rachel Zook

No photo description available.
TPRFM’s seal, which features their official slogan “Hey ho, let’s go”

For my industry event I attended the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market (https://www.trentonprfm.com/). The Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market is a large collection of vintage clothing, art prints, comics, vinyls, vintage toys, live music, pins, food trucks, animal bones and strange things in jars, and other random objects based on which vendors sign up for the event. It’s hosted annually in the Roebling Wire Works building, a historic building from the industrial age of Trenton that had been left to rot until recently, when the city decided to convert into a space for community members to use (https://jerseydigs.com/trenton-real-estate-development-roebling-center-71-clark-street/). As such, the worn down interior of the building can only add to the “punk rock” experience. The entire flea market is run by Joseph Kuzemka, a Trenton native who began it in 2013 with the intention of making a safe space that could bring together the community. Joseph can also be seen walking around the flea market and hosts a “Blitzed History” show with members from the crowd that can be watched on TPRFM’s website. Overall, the sense of community is very strong, and as soon as you walk through the gates, you become part of that community too.

The turnout for TPRFM gets larger every year as more and more vendors sign up to occupy the space; this year, TPRFM hosted almost 200 vendors.

During my visit to the TPRFM I interacted with a lot of the artists and designers – people trying to sell their original art, whether that be on shirts, enamel pins, zines, or paper prints. One of the creators I interacted with was Heather Johnson of “Watch Me Craft”, a one-woman company that focuses on enamel pins and handmade necklaces which often feature watch parts. You can find more of her work on her Instagram page @heatherwildchild.

While Heather did have a wide array of her handmade necklaces – probably 20 to 30 of them, selling from $25 to $50 each – it seemed most of her sales were in enamel pins, which covered the front of her display table. When I asked her about it, she said the pins were a combination of her own original art and other media she had found online. So while you could get a pin of her art of an octopus, you could also get a pin of Garfield or the cast of Beetlejuice (which I did). She said the process for pin creation was very easy; all you had to do was find a reputable company who would make your pins, often in bulk purchases of 100 or more and for relatively cheap (she said she paid around $125 for a 100-set). The vendor she used was called the Sunday Co., a group who she said was the “only place to go” for pins (https://thesundayco.com/).

An example of some of Heather’s work, which often features organic animals atop geometric machinery in an upcycling steampunk aesthetic

However, she said the pins were more of a side hobby and her main focus was on her handmade necklaces, which she either made at home or in a Maker Space in New York of which she was a member. When I explained my senior thesis idea to her – the VR cryptid museum – she said that while she did not know much about 3D modeling, it was a solid and interesting idea. Who knows, maybe she’ll make her way to the Senior Showcase. She also emphasized the importance of community. In her own work, her time in the Maker Space was often a way of developing her own sense of community and getting feedback on her work. She said even though I was working alone, I could rely on my fellow students for help and that I should extend the same courtesy and help others where I could. In some ways it seemed that to Heather community feedback and support was just as important as individual workflow and creativity. Overall, I left the conversation with the intent of being less self-reliant and more open to my fellow student’s feedback or constructive criticism.

My time at the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market was insightful, if not for my own project then as a look into how other artists are able to get out into the real world and design, create, and sell their work. The flea market is a niche community that was able to expand into a facet of Trenton community and become a popular event outside its own bubble in everyday communities. In much the same way I hope to exhibit my museum for a niche few that will hopefully generate enough interest to get others into the cryptid scene.