M Shield

3rd Year Major Project Idea 2

Monday, August 9th, 2010 Posted in BAIMP, University

Hello all!

Ok, I have had some valuable feedback from people in regards to my first idea for my major project (linky here). The majority of the idea is based in the Unity 3D gaming engine. Now I am lucky to have an expert in Unity3D as a course demonstrator (Will Goldstone – author of Unity Game Development Essentials) who spent a couple of minutes of his time giving me valuable feedback on what I should think about when creating a game. He also suggested that I plan out a few more ideas as I may find an idea that is better.

Well, I didn’t think I would have a better idea than that one but it did get me thinking. It just so happens that one night I was laying in bed, unable to get to sleep, one of these “possibly better” ideas came to me. I begun to think about the amazing videos from freddie wong (youtube linky) and his work that he has also done with Corridor-Digital (linky to a great short film). His work has given me inspiration and has re-kindled my love for video (I used to shoot lots of little things as a kid). Along with my current work placement that heavily involves video work, I wanted to create a short film (30 – 40 minutes or so) in a similar style as it involves action, guns and lots of fun in after effects. However, I was wondering how I could turn it into an interactive project.

Then it hit me. I thought about my attempts at doing something similar during my first year for the narratives project that featured different timelines based on a series of events. I then realised that I could turn the movie into an interactive film. Throughout the film there will be points where the user can choose paths or do a series of challenges and a different video will play depending on their actions.

For example: A spec ops team are planning to break into a complex. Do they:
A. Go in by the roof
or
B. Go in through the ground floor doors

Lets say the viewer picks video A, and so a video will play showing the spec ops team reaching a downstairs door. They realise that the door is locked and so they use a snake cam to look under the door. Seeing it is an empty room they turn their attention to the key code lock. One member pulls out a gadget, hooks it into the lock and starts a hacking attempt. Time will stop or slow, then the viewer is presented with an interactive digram of the lock circuitry (most probably will require a custom made flash player to handle interactivity). Depending on whether they pick the lock successfully or not will either show a video of them entering in the building undetected, or set off all the alarms.

So… This idea put simply is a interactive short film with multiple timelines and paths. I will create a website that is built specially for the movie that will host blogs and twitter feeds, behind the scenes footage, how-to videos, effect composites (show the original footage and the edited version side by side), downloads and more.

My mind wouldn’t go to sleep so I wrote down all the ideas and got them out of my head. Other possibilities could include multi camera environments that allowed the viewer to jump from person to person and inventory style pickups along the way (say people find ammo mags on the floor that determine later on whether someone can kill using a gun or knife etc.)

I also noted down some advantages and disadvantages to this idea:

Advantages:

- Video is more an area that I enjoy and would like to continue (might have better use in the work environment)
- It would be more within my technical abilities (I am better with video editing than coding for Unity) – It involves collaboration with other people (script writers tv prod. crew etc)
- Unlike unity, there are a huge amount of tutorials and materials available to assist with the production
- Greater chance of having better looks / aesthetics
- Uses a larger number of skills (flash coding, website creation, editing, filming, producing, scriptwriting etc)
- Could use a shorter video (or a teaser) for the Minor Project

Disadvantages:

- It is a large amount of work (rivalling the unity idea)
- 30 minutes of film might require 1hr+ of extra material for all the other paths in the timeline
- It requires a huge amount of planning (I like “just getting on with it”)
- Runs the risk of becoming too much like a group project (I am unsure of the guidelines so I will have to check this before I continue)
- Could end up costing a fair amount (filming costs money – for props, actors expenses and the like)
- Filming can be very time consuming

So there you have it… My second idea for the major project… All comments are welcome, as are tips and ideas. Constructive criticism is also welcomed, and I would appreciate two minutes of your time if you can spare a thought.

Tags: BAIMP, composite, flash, idea, ideas, IMP, job, placement, project, unit, unity 3d, University, website

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