Unit 74 Creative Writing, Narrative structures

There are dozens if not possibly hundreds of different narrative styles to consider when writing a story, do you want it to be the view of a single character, is that character going to be in the story at all or just a disembodied voice narrating the whole story, is the story going be told from the views of multiple characters ect. The list below details and explains some of the different forms of narrative structure and some examples.

Single Strand
- A Single Strand story is one which follows a single set storyline/plot throughout the medium
There are many different examples of a single strand narrative, in fact most films are of this form in a basic degree, as an example however i shall use Olympus Has Fallen a 2013 film which revolves around an attack on the white house and president of the united states and how the main character army ranger Mike Banning resolves the situation by killing all of the terrorists that attacked the white house and saving the president.

Multi-Strand
- A Multi-Strand story is a story that follows the view points of more than one characters in the story, they can switch between the 2 (or more) characters and these different view points can intertwine or intersect during the story.
An example of this would be True Blood which often has several if not all of the characters running off on some form of quest/investigation/drama, which is either directly tied to the main plot or indirectly tied to an integral character in said plot. These characters often have limited contact with each other or when they do don't bother to mention the events that they are involved in which could ultimately improve their chances of success, this often leads to situations where a character is in trouble (often in mortal danger) only to then be saved by a character whose relatively meaningless quest or plot point for revenge (which no member of the audience has been remotely interested in up until this point!) become useful and integrally helpful in the success of the story and by coincidence alone said said main character.

Closed
- A closed narrative structure is a story which at the end is resolved or at least most of the main plot point, questions or issues set up during the story have been resolved.
An example of this narrative structure would be any of the stand alone episodes of the Star Trek series, for this example I'll use the Deep Space Nine episode Destiny. This stand alone episode involves the main cast having to work with a trio of Cardassian scientists on the first joint science venture between the Bajorans and the Cardassians since the end of the occupation, during the beginning of the the episode one character tells another of an ancient Bajoran prophecy about how 3 serpents (then interpreted to be the Cardassian scientists) will cause the wormhole (a central piece of the Bajorans religion) to be destroyed. Several other issues are brought up during the episode including, an attraction between one of the scientists and a married member of the main cast, the issues of mixing personal beliefs with the duties of being a soldier and the mistrust between the Bajoran cast and their former Cardassian oppressors. By the end of the episode it is discovered that the prophecy actually meant that the Cardassians would help save the wormhole from destruction and warned instead of another threat, the issues of mixing personal beliefs and duty are resolved between a member of the crew and the main character whom is her CO and an unwilling head of her religion, and the attraction of the scientist and the crew member is also resolved, this is a good example of a closed narrative.

Open
- An open story narrative is most apparent in TV shows, specifically soap operas as they have no apparent begging or end the story, have a wide variety of characters that number in the dozens and often several plots running at ones concurrently with each other.

A good example of this would be Coronation Street, which has been running since December 1960 and since that time going through hundreds of both stories and characters, a common plot of the show is to bring a much loved character whom may have left the show years or in some cases decades ago back for either a short story, cameo or as a permanent member of the cast.

Linear
- A linear story is one that is told from one point of the story to the other (usually the beginning to end) in chronological order. This is the most common form of narrative structure, a good example of this would be Little Red Riding Hood which progresses in a linear format from the point that the central character Red Riding Hood sets off to her grandmothers cottage in the woods, to the moment the Woodcutter cuts open the wolf to save the aforementioned grandmother.

Non-Linear
- A None-Linear narrative is the exact opposite of a linear narrative, it is a story that progresses from point A to B but without necessarily following the plot in chronological order, or it could be a story that jumps from several different point without being in any particular order at all. A good example of this would be any episode of Doctor Who, more specifically of the 2005 revived series and even then episodes that feature the Doctor and River Song, the doctors wife. Her story is told backwards as the first time the doctor meets her is the last time she sees him, as she dies however she then meets him getting progressively closer and closer to the day that she first met him as the story goes on, this allows her to come back several times and be featured in many episodes that deal with paradoxes and does not take away from the emotional impact of her death in her first appearance. This is one of the only examples of this kind of story being successfully pulled off.

Enigma
- An Enigma narrative is a story which has an underlying question to the plot, a question that may or may not be answered at the end of the story.
An example of this would be, V for Vendetta. this film asks many questions throughout the film by the characters but the biggest enigma is the titular character himself, V. nothing is really known of the character other than he despises the current government and what they did to him and thousands of others. The main questions about him are, why was he imprisoned at Larkhill, and of course who he was. One of the other questions the film asks is how could a nation known for its multi-cultured heritage become a totalitarian nation akin to 20th century Nazi Germany.

Climax
- A Climax is the culminating point of the whole story, the point where everything that has happened previously in the plot has come into play and the the highest point of tension, simply put it's where the action starts.
An example would be in the film The Immortals, where the main character has been trying to stop Hyperion from releasing the Titans and stopping a new war among the gods. Throughout the film the Olympians have spent the whole time talking about how interfering with the humans as a god is expressly forbidden and punishable by death, but as soon as Hyperion releases the titans Zeus and the remaining gods travel to earth and fight and mostly massacre the titans, ending with Zeus burying a large number of the Titans them under the rubble of Mt Tartarus.

Anti-Climax
- An Anti-Climax is the exact opposite of a climax, it is essentially the build-up to the finale of the story which after everything the solution or ending is something trivial.
A good example of this is War of the Worlds, where after the inhabitants of earth have spent the entire film fighting for their lives and whole armies have been destroyed trying to fight back with our mightiest and advanced weapons, the Martian invaders are killed by the simplest of organisms... bacteria (is some depictions they are killed by the common cold)

Setting Up A Xbox360 Console

How to setup a console

Setting up a console is a relatively easy process, however some people can still get the basics wrong.
So this blog post will hopefully serve to help you set up your Xbox 360 console.



Unboxing!

When unboxing the console it is always best to have the box on a flat surface with the front of the box (the side featuring an image of the console and the title in large letters) to be facing upwards, this is to prevent the console falling on the floor and smashing when you open it.

The flap of the box that opens is on the top of the box it will be stuck down with a sticker that is easy to tear (if not a pair of scissors should help!)

Once open you will see a bunch of leaflets and instruction manuals that detail technical specifics, promotions general information and disclaimers. Below this, if the main prize the Xbox 360 console, below this is all the wiring cables and a controller as well as any other adapters or parts that are needed. The general list of included components are; Xbox 360 console, AV cable*, Power supply, AC power cable, Wireless controller, 2x AA batteries, User manual & a wired headset*

"*" Item or number of items may vary by console package.

The first step should be to remove all of the contents of the box to ensure all peripherals are present and in the condition they are meant to be, e.g. not faulty or clearly damaged.

Plug Me In!

Once this is done you can then decide on a place to position your new console, it is recommended that you do not place the Xbox 360 in a confined space or next to a heat source and that is should be placed on a flat surface with plenty of circulation to the system. Once positioned remove any and all protective tape from the console and any of the wires, these are placed there only to prevent scratches on delicate or glossy surfaces as well as providing a barrier from dust keeping the machine clean.

The next step is to connect the power cable (the one with the conversion box attached) and plug it into the console, then plug in the AC power cable to the adapter and AC plug socket, as there will be a live current ensure hands are dry to avoid shock.

Getting Connected

Most consoles will come with a composite AV (audio/video) cable and a SCART adapter to connect it to a display, this can be either a TV or monitor. however this cable does not support HDTV output. Firstly you connect the AV cables, 3 of the 6 on the cable if your using the original AV cable. 3 of these are for standard TV output (Yellow,White,Red) and 3 of these are for HD/AV output (Yellow,Green, Red) there is a switch on the cable which allows you to switch between AV and HD output, for standard UK TV's a SCART cable or adapter is required, fortunately one is included in all UK Xbox 360 bundles, all you have to do is connect the AV cables into the ports in thge adapter with the corresponding colours , flick the switch to AV and plug the SCART into the SCART port into the TV.  alternatively if you have a HDMI cable you can plug it into the back of the Xbox in the HDMI port and a similar port on the HDTV and view in a resolution of 480p or higher. Then turn

on the TV and console, the Xbox dashboard should show up on screen.

Give Me Control!

Connecting a controller is a simple process all you have to do is get your controller, put in the batteries, battery pack or connection cable. and turn it on pressing and holding the 360 button in the centre of the controller until it turns on.

On the console press the connect button this will cause the 4 lights around the power button to flash, this is to show that the console is searching for an active controller, then within 20 seconds do the same on the controller. Once the console has found and connected to the controller the lights will stop flashing and one of the lights will remain on signalling that there is an active controller connected, there is a capacity of up to 4 controllers, the same number of lights this light is reflective as the position or player the controller is assigned to, there are corresponding lights on the controllers that do the same thing.

Setup

The first time you turn on the console you will be prompted to setup the console, this involves setting the default language, creating a profile and connecting to a network (which isn't required) as well as subscribing to Xbox live for online gaming, you will need either an Ethernet cable or wireless adapter (in the case of the old consoles, the newer models come with a built in wireless receiver) to connect to the internet.

These have simple onscreen instructions you need to follow in order to finish the setup, once complete you are can begin gaming, just insert a disk and be on your way!

Unit 68 - Reflection On My 3D Render

Unit 68 Final Major Project Review & Assessment

Professional example

This is a professional (high university level) Show-reel presenting a students work, this is the kind of detail i was wanting to achieve in the models that made up my environment. realistically i new this level of detail was impossible or at least impractical for me to achieve but it gave me something to aim towards and allowed me to better focus my search for helpful tutorials to aid me.

This video shows off several different kinds of models (mainly environments and buildings). one of the first things you notice when comparing the 2 videos especially the apartment building in the professional example and the buildings in my animation is the quality of the texturing and lighting, the professional show-reel gives of a convincing degree of depth and realism however in my video it looks kind of dull and flat, this is more than likely because he is at a higher level of skill than me when it comes to 3D modelling but also because those were the areas i rushed. When it comes to the textures the maker of the professional example (Scott Homer)  spent a lot of time creating and adding them to his model which is evident as all the textures are perfectly aligned which gives them a further degree of realism, when texturing he also included sever different forms of textures including; Diffuse,Specular, Normal and Alpha Texture. Scott also put a lot of thought into his lighting positioning as well as probably including multiple different lights.

Given more practice with the software and texturing i could probably reach the same level of professionalism as Scott Homer but for the moment i barely compare.

Final Version

Multi-Story Water: Red Route - Baildon Bridge Environment

This is the final version of my 2nd year final project render, the environment it's self is set in the Baildon bridge area in Shipley. i wanted an environment that would allow me to create a wide variety of models and assets including street objects (traffic lights, Railings and walls) as well as buildings and even water (the river Aire). This environment allowed me to do that.

The original plan was to model an environment including a load of the surrounding buildings and the weir on the river, which was the main focus in the stories set in my environment, however because i was still learning how to model in an efficient and effective way i fell behind as i kept discovering new ways of modelling in 3DS Max, up until this point i had been content with box modelling and created about one third of my environment this way but when i learnt how to polygon model i decided that it would allow me to produce better models for my environment. So i decided to restart my entire environment (in hindsight this was a bad decision as it extended the time it took to create each model as well as me having to recreate all the model,s i had already done).

Because of my inefficient us of time management by the time most people were finishing their texturing phase of production and entering their animation phase i was still modelling which meant i had to rush allot of my work and make several decisions to cut certain models from my environment, and all though i had to make these sacrifices and struggled to make the deadline i am happy with my final product as it did allow me to modell sever different kinds of models and do some texturing. it also allowed me to discover and practice new forms of modelling that i may not have otherwise considered or done.

I think if i had a chance to re plan and create my model i would have better stuck to my plan and spent more time texturing and getting more models into my environment, but as i previously stated everything i have done during this project has helped me to become a better modeler by teaching me new techniques. it's also taught me to better plan and focus on one task at a time, as well as helping me to understand that not everything that you originally intent on including in a project will necessarily make it into the final piece and certain choices need to be made to sacrifice parts to better secure or improve others.

I have become more confident with implementing different models and techniques into one final piece and a high amount of confidence in texturing which was the main part of modeling that i hated because i couldn't wrap my head around. Overall the main problem in all of my final project was poor time management so in future this would be the area that i need to focus on more predominantly.

The highlight of my entire environment i think is the traffic island in the center of my road i really put in quite a lot of my time and effort into texturing that, i went through several different textures before i found the one that i thought best suited it and tried to align the textures up to give a better degree of realism (an example is below).

For the sound aspect of the unit of our final major project we had to plan, storyboard, create, edit, and implement the sound we were going to use in our final animation.

The first step to doing this was finishing or at least having an overall idea of what the final animation was going to look like so that we could then overlay the sound onto the parts of the video they were going to be played. As well as this will had to take note of any foley and non-foley sounds we were going include, such as birds, wind, cars, water ect.

I was originally going to create foley sounds for some environmental assets in my animation, name for the ricer, trees and cars. Then add a music track to the background to add atmosphere, this music would have been something fairly simple like a simple melody played on the keyboard/piano with some added stings (violin, cello ect.) if it needs improvement.

After our Digital showcase we were given feedback from several sources, most important of all of them were Steven Bottoms our client for our live brief and Kaye Elling the head of games design at bradford university, their reviews are below.

Kaye Elling – Bradford University

Lecturer in Computer Games:BA Graphics for Games

BSc Interactive Systems & Video Game Design

"I’ve been looking at the projects on YouTube and there is some great stuff there. Good to see Waqar on one of the video introductions too, I remember him from the applicant visit day. 

 I thought the Robot Lama group had some very nice concept art. There is a colour drawing of one of the buildings which was particularly well observed. Please pass on my compliments to the team, they had some successful art direction in the videos. The lighting is especially good and the misty environment was very atmospheric.

 Pixelarity showed some very nice texturing on Salts mill, and the use of water worked well too. The modelling on the tower was well detailed and the buildings looked like the scale had been meticulously planned. The web interface they used was very slick as well, great design there.

 The Cyberchondriacs’ art direction using the sepia tone worked really well in the cricket pavilion and the band stand was fantastically atmospheric, with a lovely render quality. Robert’s Park Lodge was well realised with the trees and worked very well as a full scene. The boathouse also showed excellent texturing and looked great in the render.

 I’ve checked my calendar and can’t make it tomorrow I’m afraid, as I’m doing more taster workshops. But all the best for the show and please pass on my congratulations to the teams on such well realised projects!”

MALE

Client – Stephen Bottoms  -
Here, Pixelarity's Red Route trailer goes for the expansive, Hollywood feel... in tune with the epic scale of some of their buildings, such as Victoria Mills and Salts Mill itself.
Baildon Bridge is a key site on our Red Route tour, and it's great to see it being given careful, detailed treatment here despite its relatively modest architecture.

Group T-shirt Designs for Unit 4

Professional examples of t-shirt designs that promote a product or team

My Designs/Concepts

My original intention was to come up with 2 or 3 designs of a t-shirt but when I was on the t-shirt website I saw they did polo shirts and decided to also come up with a polo shirt design. Below are the 2 I came up with.

Design 1 (Polo Shirt)

The polo shirt is a simple black shirt lined with red trimmings and logo and name on the back & front, with it being larger on the back and the size of a name tag on the front above the left breast.

Design 2 (T-shirt)

The t-shirt design is just a simple (but effective) black t-shirt with our logo on the back and our name on the front, both relatively equal size.

Quick Test Render

Unit 73 Planning an Audio Production

Brief Introduction
This blog post will detail all the information on my the audio work i will be including for my part of the 3D environment, including the equipment i will use, any scripts i will need, people (both actors and musicians), professional examples of audio production, sound effects and my audio storyboard. (This post will be constantly updated with new information and updates/changes to my planning).

Audio Storyboard

the audio storyboard is a version of a storyboard that mainly or entirely pertains to the planning, structure and implementation of the audio in a media production, i will be including 2 separate audio storyboards in this post. the first storyboard and the one i will be including in this section is to do with the planning of all audio in my 3D environment, the second is of the production of all audio included in my interactive story, so shall be included in that section.

There are several ways that an audio storyboard can be created however i will be creating it in an Excel document (as shown in the example below).

I will also apply a key to the interactive story's storyboard so i can easily recognize where sounds/music will play during the animation.

Interactive Story

As my section of the environment is the location of one of the interactive stories, I will be attempting to create a script based on the news article.

Flood Story links:
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/archive/2000/11/02/Bradford+District+Archive/8049752.Woman_s_life_saved_by_quick_thinking/
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/archive/2000/11/04/Bradford+District+Archive/8049657.JCB_rescue_heros__should_get_award_/
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/archive/2002/09/14/Bradford+District+Archive/8023559.Flood_rescuers_in_line_up_for_award/

This script will be read out by one of the actors from the MSW tour, this readout will then be placed over/into an animation of the story (created in flash) possibly based of the art style of Roy Lichtenstein an American pop artist. Which will be drawn and animated by me.

For the audio portion of the interactive story i plan on using the recording studio to record the actor(s) reading the script.

Equipment

SHURE SM57 & 58-LCE Microphones

Elisis Oxygen M audio-25

Sound cards

Software (Cubase, Audacity, Reason)

Instruments (Keyboard, Percusion)

Portable Recorder

Condensors

Professional Examples of Audio Production

Here i am going to add some videos showing professionals and amateurs creating effects, music and recordings for various forms of media.

Water Test Render

Because i am creating an encirclement that has a river in it i have been watching several tutorials aimeing at creating bodies of water in 3DS Max.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLssOlTv9bA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed6jeOm-zNk
http://www.cgrats.com/realistic-water-in-3ds-max.html

I plan on using techniques that i have learned from all of these tutorials to make the water for my environment.

Below are a few of the screenshots and a final render i took whilst following the tutorials: