Activity book research

Generators
http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/WordSearchSetupForm.asp?campaign=flyout_teachers_puzzle_wordcross

http://www.discoveryeducation.com/free-puzzlemaker/index.cfm?campaign=footer_teacher_puzzle


https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/sites/default/files/the_new_zealand_art_activity_book_new_edition_page_sample.pdf

http://www.picturedots.com/

Board Game Research

My game pieces should be like this 3D printed then stickered. Maybe more unique to the character? Double sided and to scale.



https://techcrunch.com/gallery/10-great-family-board-games-to-get-the-kids-and-you-off-of-the-ipad/

https://www.ranker.com/list/best-board-games-for-kids-7-12/dad-of-the-year?var=8&utm_expid=16418821-388.8yjUEguUSkGHvlaagyulMg.2&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.co.nz%2F

https://www.fractuslearning.com/2015/04/14/best-board-games-for-kids/

Polished Exhibition 2 Idea

On the window will be finished 360 turnarounds of the characters.

Playing on the TV will be the turnarounds, visual novel rough, and animatic.

Board game, colouring pages, and activity books on the table. (hopefully no one will colour on the board game??)

Pitch bible on the TV stand (hopefully no one will colour that in!!)

Visual Novel Layout

Here are my experiments with layout options:

I like this layout, it's nice and simple and uses the same colours as the Monarch Park logo. 

I'm not sure if I should have my logo on there all the time maybe?

Later I will need to do the menu layout, but that's not needed at the moment.

Critique 1

Answering the questions

I'm not sure if I call this Q&A wall a success exactly. I suppose it wasn't a fail because some questions were valid and made me think. It was unfortunate my family (19 year old brother) kind of immediately ruined it by asking me stupid questions...

I'll be answering the relevant questions in depth here:

Why the name Monarch Park?
~ It's a reference to Queens Park here in Invercargill. Incorporating a real insect, a Monarch Butterfly. Though I know Monarchs aren't native, I thought at the time it was a neat play on words. None of the characters have butterfly wings however, those are based off other insects with more see-through wings. 

Will you age them?
~ My younger sister did make me think with this question, I honestly don't know yet. Cartoons can be funny things where the characters are timeless, kind of stuck in the same age while the world around them becomes more futuristic (the Simpsons, bobs burgers). But I do envision that after this first series in the holidays, the next one is them back at school and they would celebrate birthdays. It'd depend on how long the whole show goes on for.

Will they have voices?
~ Yes all the characters will eventually have voice actors playing them. I'm not sure who exactly yet but I do need to think about it and get onto it.

Do the characters aim to reinforce or work into any specific stereotypes?
~ So the point of a character arc is for the character to grow and learn over time or through a journey. I am only concentrating on the first episode so not much character growth will occur during this 11mins. But over the whole series there will be a change in their initial characters and stereotypes. Honestly I'm not sure if I've focused many or any major stereotypes on them anyway. I suppose the boy character Fletcher is into jokes and being humourous in sometimes an inappropriate way, but he'll learn how to notice social cues eventually. Hilda may appear girly and shy but she will be able to overcome that through her friends helping her try new things and feel more confident in herself. Maybe you see some stereotypes? Let me know cos I can't think of them.

Why is this scale important?
~ The characters are this small to be able to get up close to New Zealand's native flora and fauna in detail. Their buildings and items are also that small so they can live in them and use them. At the end of the day however, this is fantasy and it could be any scale it wants to be, that shouldn't matter when watching the content.

Transmedia Plan

I need to create some kind of schedule for the transmedia aspects of my project.

This is my next exhibition idea:

Set up in RAW gallery in the right corner by the window. It'll be like a Monarch Park room with a table and chairs with a board game and colouring in pages and activity books. A TV will be playing whatever I have finished, 360 turnarounds of the characters, animatic, and visual novel rough playthrough videos. On the wall I'll hang up a tshirt prototype that's been printed and a page of other merch concepts. I could also possibly frame an image and hang that up as well. I think I also want a nicely printed pitchbible hard cover book and maybe a deck of cards.

I chatted with Chris and Rachel about what stuff could be printed at SIT printery. They dont do tshirts but there are these transfer sheets for 100% cotton white shirts. They need a long time to dry.

The activity books can definitely be printed at SIT with a shiny cover and rough paper inside.

The pitchbible hard cover is made through Blurb in Indesign.

For my board game characters, Rachel had a good idea to use the sticky paper to stick the characters on a 3D printed piece of plastic that's of the exact shape and able to be connected.

I want the board game to represent the first episode or maybe Monarch Park the city itself, like a map. I need to look at my old Bratz game for inspiration as I dont know the ins and out of making board games. Instead of all the cards I could 3D print objects to collect as rewards etc.

I also need to look into how I'd print this out nicely, Unless I just make it up? put in on cardboard or even 3D printed plastic, then it could be any shape I want. Then make a box for it as well. Researching into what I could do with a 3D printer would be good. Also into board game design and goals. Could be as simple as snakes and ladders but Monarch Park version? I was also thinking about a pack of playing cards also but that might be a bit too much, not sure how that'd be printed.

The activity book can be pretty simple too, look for some generators for crosswords and word searches and dot to dots. There must be some for free online.

Narrow down what I actually want done. What's most important?

Plan of attack:

• research activity books, board games, 3D printers, pitch bibles, tshirt merch
• draw mock ups and multiple versions of each
• Use Maya to sculpt the board game assets needed
• converting images into outlines for colouring pages
• put together the pitch bible
• choose the tshirt design
• be doing the animatic
• do a rough visual novel in storyboard pro
• get a nice table and chairs
• frame an image (put in the riverton exhibition?)
• turnarounds of characters
• TV book
• Get everything printed
• maybe some window art stickers
• mat on the ground?

Visual Novels

I read this visual novel the other week https://pliantpress.itch.io/darley01

 
 It was a great story and I love the style a lot!

It's a fair comment to want the names to appear where the character is when they talk.
I want to read the other one by the same person to see what's different.

Other styles of visual novels from this website:

 This one has a very game-8bit style

 very anime girl. transparent text box

 interesting text layout, but it is just a photo bash background
 super cute but kinda busy
 cool style
 sooo cute and different take on layout
 cool textured background but kinda busy with characters
 interesting the character head is at the side when they're talking. I think it might be unnecessary.

Skullgirls Game story mode:
 

Inspiration

Just found a cool image off the Traditional animation Facebook page



The frame is really cool to consider when making my own interiors.

Also lots of turnaround reference:

sweet artist https://luigil.deviantart.com/gallery/

Proposal

Macro Lens Experiment

To show scale, I hired out a camera with a macro lens to take photos in Queens Park.

I first cut out my characters to scale which is about 6-7cm in height:

This was to put these characters in the real environment to truly see their scale.

I could also make a board game with them now maybe!

Unfortunately the weather was not very nice so I couldn't take as many as I would have liked. But I like the ones I took:

The macro lens certainly blurs the background more than I expected. When I have time I think it'll re work some of my backgrounds and make new ones from these images. This has certainly given myself some perspective of how small the fairies really are, I hope it does for the audience as well.

I also took a lot of photos of the birds. The macro lens is fun for sure but can be difficult to get the right focus. I also don't know anything about how to use the camera properly. All these images are untouched.