Thesis
Thesis Outline
Last modified on 2008-01-30 05:44:57 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Tomorrow in class I’m going to show the main inspiration for my thesis, The Book of Lulu, and two examples of my Flash animation: Jealousy and my Choose Your Own Adventure.
Here’s the thesis outline I will turn in:
Personal Statement
A writer and web designer by trade, I have recently fallen in love with animation. I discovered the medium during my current master’s studies at NYU.
I find animation to be a direct and literal way to communicate an idea or tell a story – with absolute freedom of both subject matter and style. With today’s powerful and straightforward animation technology, an artist can create a whole world before lunch.
First on paper, and more recently on the computer, I have always created whimsical worlds with a dark undercurrent. Now I am starting to liberate those static images from the page and express them in full motion and sound.
Context, Inspiration
From the moment I discovered I could create an animation for my thesis, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. But what kind of animation would really challenge me? Further, what kind of animation is interactive?
At first, I toyed with the idea of a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-type branching narrative. I gave the idea a whirl and was disappointed with the results. I learned from this experiment that I like telling a story from beginning to end.
Next, I thought I’d like to tell a children’s story using not only text, but sound, illustration, animation, and possibly gameplay. At first, I didn’t know how I would incorporate the other media into the text.
I read about The Book of Lulu in a book I read for class, Dust or Magic by Bob Hughes. Hughes spoke so glowingly of this work that I hunted it down and bought it.
The Book of Lulu is a CD-ROM published in 1995, at the heyday of the hypertext and CD-ROM era. The story, written by a Frenchman named Romain Victor-Pujebet, is about a lonely little princess who teaches a space-traveling robot to feel human warmth. It’s presented to us as an open book with text and interactive portions.
Neither the story – a knockoff of children’s classic The Little Prince – nor its presentation – an open book with interactive portions – was original. The Book of Lulu blows people out of the water because it integrates these narrative elements so effortlessly. It was the template for The Book of Lulu, not its content, that inspired me.
Specifically, this CD-ROM confines its interactivity to its images, the places that correspond to illustrations in a printed book. Every picture is different, and not every picture is responsive. Sometimes clicking changes the picture right on the page of the book; other times it launches a whole new window.
In one of the pictures, your cursor becomes a butterfly and clicking anywhere on the princess’s castle changes the season. In another, the cursor becomes a fly. When you land on the cat, he meows in protest, and when you click on the statue, a marble horse appears and rears up on hind legs.
Your cursor does not indicate hot spots, so you just have to click around until you discover all of the scene’s possibilities. Sometimes there are clues in the text or in the image itself.
I need to investigate whether The Book of Lulu was the first (or indeed only) title to approach interactivity this way.
Method
There’s a story I’d really like to tell. I wrote it down and lost it years ago. My first step will be to write down the story that will become the text portion of my interactive book.
I’ve animated in Flash before, but I don’t have the chops to create the work I’ve envisioned. I’ll have to sit down with a book or a Flash expert to find out how to go about creating my interactive book.
I want to create a working version of my piece early on so I can continue to refine and polish its presentation. To date, my animations have been more explanations than finished pieces. I want this one to be deliberate and finessed.
I also want to leave myself enough time to test my storybook with both children and adults, and change it accordingly.
Partial Bibliography
My bibliography currently includes:
- The Book of Lulu by Romain Victor-Pujebet
- American Girl CD-ROMs: Felicity, Samantha, Molly…
- Dust or Magic by Bob Hughes
- Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins
- “Reframing Research and Literacy Pedagogy Relating to CD Narratives: Addressing ‘Radical Change’ in Digital Age Literature for Children” by Len Usworth
- “Click and Turn the Page: An Exploration of Multiple Storybook Literacy” by Cynthia R. Smith
- “Don’t Press That Button” by Matthew J. Costello
- “Hypertext and the Changing Roles of Readers” by Nancy G. Patterson
- “Children’s Media Culture in the New Millenium: Mapping the Digital Landscape” by Kathryn C. Montgomery
Thesis Timeline
Last modified on 2008-02-19 05:00:08 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Right now, my thesis is nothing more than a bundle of hypothetical tasks.
When I’m feeling optimistic, I think of them as goals. When I realize I don’t even know how to approach a number of them, they feel more like problems.
This timeline is a chronological projection of my thesis-related problems — I mean goals.
| week | main activity | ongoing activity |
| 3 | ||
| 4 | final version of story | |
| 5 | animate pageturn | |
| 6 | choose layout — place text and plan animations | |
| 7 | work on cursors, buttons, and onpress/onmouseover actions | study Flash |
| 8 | animate | study Flash |
| 9 | animate | write paper |
| 10 | animate | write paper |
| 11 | test with adults | revisit |
| 12 | test with kids | revisit |
But I did make a pretty cute teaser: check it out.
I Wouldn’t Normally Do This…
Last modified on 2008-02-13 02:07:32 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
I wouldn’t normally do this, but in the interest of documentation, I’m posting my progress on the creative writing portion of my thesis. It’s not done, but I’m open to any feedback.
Travels with Marley / The Amazing Rigatoni
Tony and Marley are best friends, a man and his dog. They’re headed back to the circus after taking a relaxing vacation out west.
Tony can’t wait to get back to the routine they were doing just before Penny told him to take a vacation: The Amazing Rigatoni and his Dancing Blue Dog – a combination magic show and showcase of Marley’s dancing talents. He’s got some new ideas too.
Honestly, the blue thing was an accident. An incredible, inspirational accident. It was Marley’s blue color that inspired the act. And the act had been a resounding success.
(Tony is confident and serene, but he unknowingly bungles everything he touches. Marley does his best to pick up after him when he can – grabbing his wallet when he forgets it, etc.)
———————————————————————–
Hal is a truck driver headed east, cross-country. His job is stressful but he relishes the independence it gives him from his wife, Martha.
Martha would prefer if Hal stayed at home in Texas band opened a flower shop with her. He doesn’t want to – he feels the call of the open road, and besides, he has allergies. Hal has been holding her off by saying that he’s saving up money from trucking.
But he’s getting older. His eyes aren’t what they used to be. He’s tired of sleeping in a different motel every night. The stress of driving has been getting to him and he even thinks he has been seeing things. A week ago he thought he saw (whatever impossible thing) and it really shook him up.
Maybe he really will go home after this trip and open a flower shop. Ha – that will be the day.
———————————————————————
Penny runs the circus in Newtown. She has sent Tony on vacation after a disastrous first performance of his new act. After a long silence, the crowd just got up and left. No one had the heart to tell Tony his routine had been a total failure.
All the other circus folk are getting pissed off that he keeps getting second chances. They accuse Penny of favoring him, maybe even having a crush on him.
They cite his many mess-ups:
- He loaned the bearded lady his Nair when she asked for his face wash. Her beard came out in clumps and took months to grow back.
- There was the time he was put in charge of all the tightrope nets. But instead of setting them up, he fell asleep, woke up just before the show started, and ran out to try to stop it. It’s a good thing when Ilinka the acrobat fell she landed on him – she was fine.
- He’s gone from job to job, never managing to succeed at any of them. This most recent though, The Fabulous Rigatoni and his Dancing Blue Dog –this was really bad. Don’t most magicians have beautiful women as their assistants? Marley is a dog, and plus he smells.
- The Amazing Rigatoni – it’ll be amazing if he manages to find his way back here.
- Penny assures the other people at the circus that he’ll be away for a while. She sent him on vacation to give him time to think about things. Anyway, once he returns, she’s found a job she’s sure he’ll be a natural at.
- (Everyone groans.)
———————————————————————
Hal and Tony first cross paths on the highway headed toward Newtown. Tony starts falling asleep at the wheel (even though he’s on a motorcycle) and drifts into Hal’s lane. Not believing his eyes (a blue dog? a motorcyclist with his eyes closed?), Hal leans out his window, yells “you’re not there!” and narrowly avoids hitting them.
Tony wakes up at the crucial moment and swerves behind the truck. They pull over to get themselves together and Tony can’t figure out why someone would act that way.
————————————————————————–
Tony and Marley have been riding behind a pickup truck delivering gardening supplies. Every time it goes over a bump, dirt and plants fly off the truck and hit them in the face.
The second time they run into Hal, therefore, Tony and Marley are covered in flowers. This assures Hal that they are a figment of his anxiety. He pulls over to get himself together.
Tony realizes it’s the same guy who tried to run them off the road the other day and pulls over to give him a piece of his mind.
Hal has gotten out of the truck and is muttering to himself about flowers and blue dogs. Tony tries to talk to him but Hal says, “Shhh! You aren’t real!”
“Not real?” says Tony, deeply offended. “I’ll show you real.”
He jumps in the truck with Marley and steals it, leaving Hal alone and muttering on the side of the road.
————————————————————————-
In the dark, the conference is beginning. The speaker talks (apparently in metaphors) about how they are looked upon as vermin. They have to break out of their confines and finally see the light of day.
The speaker’s identity is mysterious and the only thing anyone knows about him is that he’s from China – as evidenced by his strange accent.
————————————————————————
Tony and Marley take a rest stop at a restaurant where they meet a lovely waitress named Lulu. When she comes over to help them, she reels at the smell. Tony says he’ll keep Marley under the table and no one will know he’s there. She says OK.
Tony explains the story of how Marley both turned blue and why he smells so terrible – Tony was making a batch of blue Jell-o (his favorite) when he accidentally closed the refrigerator door, trapping Marley inside. The dessert congealed around him and it wasn’t until he checked on his Jell-o an hour later that he realized what had happened. By that time Marley was blue, and he hates taking baths.
They order food and the restaurant is deserted so Lulu sits down with them. Tony tells her about how they almost got run off the road and they stole the offender’s truck.
“That’s some story,” says Lulu. She gets up and comes back with a bowl of blue Jell-o – on the house. She has been thinking: “What’s in the truck you stole?”
It never occurred to them until that moment. anything could be in there. They should probably find out. For goodness sake, it could be a new liver or kidneys for a poor suffering child in the hospital.
As they rush out to the parking lot, a new customer walks in and says, “Mister, your dog smells.”
———————————————————————-
The conference is rising to a fever pitch. Everyone is ready to riot. Just as their leader is talking about the light of day, something happens.
“What is that?”
“I think it’s light!”
“It’s daytime!”
“Let’s go!”
“We are finally flee!”
————————————————————————
Tony and Marley unlatch the back of the truck and push the garage-like door up. Inside the huge truck they discover… nothing a single, small cardboard box. Tony shakes it – there seems to be nothing at all inside. He opens it up to be sure — there’s definitely nothing inside.
What a puzzle. Why would someone deliver a sealed, empty box? There’s no doubt about it now, that truck driver was as batty as a loon.
————————————————————————
Tony and Marley drive the 10 more hours back to Newtown, itching the whole way. They through the first inkling of a radio station until it’s nothing but static. They cross state lines – You’re Now Entering Pennsylvania, Now Leaving Pennsylvania. And all the while they scratch.
Since Marley’s not keeping up his end of the conversation, mostly they talk about Penny. What a good friend Penny is – she believes in him, she makes him want to succeed. Even when, on rare occasions, he has made mistakes, Penny has forgiven him. That makes him want to try harder to be the person she’s always believed he was. Penny is a true friend.
They scratch.
————————————————————————
The truck pulls into the circus at Newtown and Penny runs up to meet it. Oh – she says – I thought you were the guy delivering the flea circus.
The what? Tony absently itches his ear.
“Flea circus! I was thinking we could use one around here. I mail-ordered those fleas, supposed to be extremely talented, you know, at flea stuff. One of those fleas came all the way from China. This is the truck, isn’t it? (what does the truck say on it?) Tony, where in the world is your motorcycle?”
Tony has nothing to offer but the truth: “I have no idea where my motorcycle is.”
————————————————————————
In fact, by now, Tony’s motorcycle has just arrived in Texas, with Hal on top of it. He has done a lot of thinking. The visions he’s been having, the disappearance of the truck, and then the mystery of the motorcycle… It’s time to quit trucking and settle down. A flower shop really does sound peaceful.
Show store with sign that says “Martha and Hal’s Flower Shop” – with the two of them happily selling flowers to customers.
From that day forward, Hal never imagined he saw any more blue dogs. And he never did see another blue dog.
————————————————————————
Penny spends the entire evening picking fleas off Tony and Marley with a pair of tweezers: “I can’t believe what a mess you’ve gotten yourselves into. Do you know how much it costs to get a flea shipped from China?”
While giving Marley a bath in flea powder, she gives them the disappointing news that the Dancing Blue Dog routine will be cancelled. It just wasn’t a crowd-pleaser. But she has an idea that she thinks Tony will enjoy.
————————————————————————
In the final scene, Tony and Marley are dressed up in clown costumes. Tony trips and makes mistakes but it doesn’t matter because that’s what clowns are supposed to do. The audience – with Penny in it — claps wildly.
A flea jumps across the words “The End.”
Research: Animated Storybooks
Last modified on 2008-02-20 18:12:21 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
I’ve been doing my research, and learning what I like and don’t like. Here’s what I’ve got to report on today’s animated storybooks.
- In most animated storybooks, you can choose between being read to, or being able to interact and play along. For my purposes, I always chose “play along.”
- Most have 10-15 background images (~800px x 600px), or pages, with text, characters, and animations laid over them.
- The words highlight, a word or a phrase at a time, as they’re read to you out loud.
- There’s some way for you to go from page to page, some methods more obvious than others.
- Animation happens at different times in the process:
- While the text is being read
- After the text has been read
- Triggered by you when you click on items around the screen
- Triggered when you click the “next” button, before exiting the current page (I’ll call these user-triggered or user-activated animations; they’re the ones that interest me most.)
- Between pages as the next background image loads
- In many of these, if simply left alone, the image animates slightly and may have some background music or ambient sound.
- The cursor is usually a specific item: a bee in Winnie the Pooh, a leaf in Pocahontas, a dog pawprint in 101 Dalmatians.
Disney Animated Storybooks
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree
- The interactions are cute, but not always integral to the story – for instance, when you click on the teapot on the shelf, it dances and plays a whistling tune.
- Animations don’t follow the laws of physics: for example, when you click on a closed cabinet, it opens up, honey jars tumble out, and inexplicably roll away to the left. If you click the cabinet doors again, the animation repeats.
- Mini-games you discover along the way take you further away from the story. The way out of the game and back to the story is not obvious.
- The result is a very disjointed narrative.
- I like: the framed pictures that reveal five or six other pictures in succession when you click them.
Mulan
- More of a computer game than an animated storybook – you’ve got a central map, and you’re completing tasks in along a path toward the end. The story is an organizing principle for a bundle of mini-games.
- The authors assume that you’ve seen the movie. It refers to plot points but does not explain them.
- There are long voice stretches you can’t skip, even if you’ve heard them before.
- This story feels extremely disjointed.
101 Dalmatians
- Three of the dogs in the story take turns narrating. The dog’s face appears next to the text, and it’s read in his/her voice. I like that the text is separate from the background image.
- Clever navigation: each background image has some kind of door on the left of the screen, and one on the right. You move through this story like reading a book, from left to right.
- You also discover musical items that take you to music video type sequences.
- You discover games throughout the story and can exit the narrative to play them.
- There’s also an in-story game where you can help move the action forward by putting soot on the puppies to disguise them.
- Some of the pages are 2-3 screens wide, so you have to scroll to the right to find the door.
- The user-activated animations tend to stay pretty close to the story, so they’re not too distracting even if you click on all of them.
Pocahontas
- The most fully realized animated storybook of the bunch.
- The user-triggered animation is relevant to the story; it gives cultural information or reiterates what has happened in the scene.
- The automatic animations are elegant and lend this story the feel of an animated movie.
- Some of these pages are also two or three screens wide – not sure this would be obvious to kids, but it certainly makes the world seem more expansive and authentic.
- The icon controls at the bottom of the screen are not easy to figure out; little fingers would have a tough time clicking on the very thin back and forward arrows.
- Repeated images: birds flying in the distance, leaves twirling through the air
- Themes that don’t knock you over the head: both the Indians and the English keep calling the other side savages, and both beat drums as a call to war.
Living Books
Arthur’s Reading Race
- Some of the animations are a bit distracting, but the story is coherent. Maybe because it’s a very simple story.
- I liked: that there’s a cat hiding somewhere in each picture, and its role is to annoy Arthur’s dog.
Green Eggs and Ham
- It bothers me that, when you click on characters, they deliver extra dialogue not originally in the book. It reiterates or expounds on what has already been read.
- Sometimes a hotspot covers two characters – and the resulting animation involves them both. It’s confusing when you click on one character and the other starts moving or talking.
- I liked: when the animation interacts with the text – the mouse grabs a “u” from the story and uses it to collect rainwater.
The Cat in the Hat
- Some lines are read, and some are sung.
- Actors read each character’s dialogue; the narrator’s voice is a young child, usually saying stuff like, “…said the cat.”
- There are only about 10 pages – that is, background images, but the text might switch 4 times before the page does.
- I liked: the micro-games that happen inside the page. For instance, in one scene there’s a wastebasket and a ball that you can pick up. If you happen to drop the ball in the wastebasket, it triggers cheers.
- In Living Books, some of the words change to images after they’ve been read. You can click on the image to see and hear the word again.
Stellaluna
- This CD-ROM breaks out of the typical frame — each page is set up a little differently.
- Most pages are automatically animated and just a few contain user-triggered animation.
- User-activated animations are novel: one device is the cameo-type illustration that comes alive to show you what’s going on with a different character in a different place.
- I liked: Stellaluna has some thematic animations that are different every time. For instance, you learn that when you click a flower bud, it will bloom. But the way it blooms always surprises you.
Other
Kiyeko and the Lost Night
- Would not play on my machine; I’ll have to find a very old computer.
American Girl: Julie Saves the Eagles
- This is more of a Myst or Sims style game, where you unlock tasks by talking to people and gathering items and clues.
- The animation is very cute
- Frustration ensues when you can’t figure out what to do next.
Pageturn
Last modified on 2008-02-20 18:07:34 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Pageflip is a plug-and-play Flash movie that helps you create a multi-page book. Perfect for my thesis project!
I downloaded it and checked out the .fla — and it’s completely, intimidatingly mystifying. I will master it, though, since I’m pretty sure this will be the backbone of my thesis’s layout.
You can play with it here.
Thesis Story Draft
Last modified on 2008-02-21 01:53:01 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
I’m working toward developing my outline into final text for my story. This is (or is pretty close to) the final copy, divided up into pages, along with some preliminary thoughts on the animations.
Midterm Presentation: Talking Points
Last modified on 2008-03-05 13:54:14 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Elevator Pitch
I’m creating an animated storybook for older kids and adults. It’s about a circus performer, his dog, and the coincidental encounters they have on their way back to the circus.
Sample Page
Hal the truck driver was crossing the country, from Texas all the way to the East Coast. “All I need is my truck and the open road,” he said to the air freshener dangling from his rear-view mirror.
But he didn’t know if he believed that anymore. The stress of the job was starting to get to him. He was getting older, and his eyes weren’t what they used to be. A week ago, he thought he saw – no, he didn’t even want to think about that again. Could he be going nuts out here, all alone on the open road?
But driving a truck was the only thing Hal knew how to do. His only alternative was to go home to Martha and finally help her open that flower shop she’d always wanted. He had been telling her for years, “one last trip across the country and I’ll have enough saved up. Then you can have your flower shop.”
Maybe he really would retire after this trip and help Martha sell her flowers. Ha – that would be the day.
[Animation: What Hal thought he saw a week ago
- Hal in his truck, thinking about Hal in his truck
- A car passes him with 2 people in bathing suits, waterskiing off the back. Hal rubs his eyes.
- A huge, car-size frog with a ribbon in its mouth jumps across the road and says “ribbons.” Hal’s mouth is agape.
- The Mystery Mobile from Scooby Doo, a headless ghost driving]
Page Turn Mechanism
Free software called Pageflip: http://itp.nyu.edu/~ms1980/pageflip.swf.
Character Sketches
Influences
- the story: Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
- the format: The Book of Lulu by Romain Victor-Pujebet
Here’s a short segment of The Book of Lulu, as I experienced it.
Layout/ Wireframe
Last modified on 2008-03-13 03:59:33 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
I found another version of the page-flip application that is simpler to edit. I used it to lay out my text and space for animations here. It was an easy step, but it makes the goal seem a lot more feasible!
The wireframe gives me a better idea of how big the animations will be, so I can continue to draw my assets accordingly.
List of Animations
Last modified on 2008-03-13 03:55:31 GMT. 11 comments. Top.
I tinkered with the wireframe and added a couple of two-page, centerfold-style animations. At first I thought these might interrupt the flow of the story, but I decided that the text looked too dense without them.
Two-page animations create a special problem because each page is a separate Flash file. It’ll be a challenge to make them work as one seamless scene.
I’ve worked out that I’ll need 18 animations — so I’d better get cracking. Here’s a list of all the animations I will create.
1. Page 3: full page: Tony remembers the performance
- Tony and Marley on the bike, thinking about Tony and Marley at the circus
- Signs say “Newtown Circus” and ” The Amazing Rigatoni and his Dancing Blue Dog”
- Tony: pulls a rabbit out of a hat, turns it into a lion, makes the lion jump through a flaming hoop
- Marley: spins and dances
- Audience: cheers and throws roses
2. Page 5: 2/3 page: What Hal thought he saw a week ago
- Hal in his truck, thinking about Hal in his truck
- A car passes him with 2 people in bathing suits, waterskiing off the back. Hal rubs his eyes.
- A huge, car-size frog with a ribbon in its mouth jumps across the road and says “ribbons.” Hal’s mouth is agape.
- The Mystery Mobile from Scooby Doo, a headless ghost driving
3. Page 7: full page: Penny remember’s Tony’s performance
- Penny at circus thinking about Tony’s performance – her recollection is the same scene from Tony’s recollection
- Tony: drops a rabbit into a hat, waves his wand, pulls it out, then it hops away and is eaten by the lion
- Marley: attempts a pirouette but falls
- The Bearded Lady and Sword Swallower fume in the background
- Click on the crowd: a kid’s voice says, “Mom, can we go home now?”
4. Page 9: very small animation
- Conjoined triplets hurrying offscreen toward right
5. Page 10 & 11: two-page: Penny and the circus folk
- Outdoor scene shows faraway tent, an elephant chewing hay, trailers, etc. – everyone’s assembled around Penny
- Conjoined triplets in purple dress scurry into scene from left
- Sword Swallower: sneaks a bite of a sword, then swallows the whole thing
- Bearded Lady: gently strokes her beard
- Penny: sighs and produces thought bubble of Tony and Marley on bike
- Tattooed Man, acrobats, lion tamer, a lady dog, a midget… are all there.
6. Page 13: ½ page: Tony vs. Hal part 1
- The moment at which Tony and Marley are about to get hit
- Bike: drifts toward truck and back
- Tony: snores, Rock-a-Bye Baby plays
- Marley: barks urgently
- Hal: watches motorcycle in fear, says “it can’t be! when clicked
- Hal’s horn: honkable
7. Page 15: 1/3 page: the flower truck
- Truck drives offscreen to the right, spewing dirt and flowers on road
8. Pages 16 & 17: two-page: Tony vs. Hal part 2
- Tony and Marley confront Hal, the motorcycle up ahead and the truck behind them
- Hal: rubs his eyes and says “not real, not real, they’re not real”
- Tony: puts hands on hips and says, “that’s no way to treat people.”
- Marley: barks and runs around Tony in a circle
- Truck: makes idling engine noise
- Motorcycle: flowers fall off
9. Page 20: 2/3 page: the speech in the dark
- The whole screen is pitch black except for the whites of eyes – you can make out a speaker on stage and a crowd
- Crowd: jumps up and down and shouts, “freedom, freedom, freedom!”
- Speaker: “Join with me: fleedom, fleedom, fleedom!”
10. Page 23: 2/3 page: the restaurant
- Tony and Lulu are seated at the table with Marley beneath it
- Lulu: smiles, taps her pencil on the table
- Tony: smiles, takes a bite of his Jell-o or sips his coffee
- Marley: licks Tony’s hand
- Door: a customer walks in and says, “Mister, your dog smells terrible!”
- Salt and pepper: Tony knocks them over
11. Page 25: ½ page: the protest
- Crowd sound in background
- Eyes in the darkness jump up and down
- Placards with writing on them: when you click them, they get yelled out loud
12. Page 27: full page: the cardboard box
- Tony and Marley standing in front of the open truck door and the box
- Tony: picks up the box and shakes it
- Marley: sniffs the box
- Box: jumps or tips a little when clicked
13. Page 29: ½ page: the last leg
- View through the windshield from Tony and Marley’s POV – scenery going by
- Radio: plays a short clip of music – or a few
- Air freshener: goes “sniff sniff aaaaah.”
- Tony: scratches
- Marley: scratches
14. Page 31: full page: the fleas’ new life
- TK
15. Pages 34 & 35: Tony and Penny reunited
- Tony and Penny on the circus grounds, the truck cab open, Marley sitting in the driver’s seat
- Tony: hugs Penny
- Penny: laughs and smiles
- Marley: jumps out, sits next to Tony and scratches
- Truck: honks?
16. Page 37: ¾ page: Martha and Hal’s flower shop
- Hal: hands someone a bouquet, sneezes, smiles
- Martha: holds Hal’s hand
- Door: opens and a bell jingles
- Open sign: turns to closed and sky outside gets dark
17. Page 39: flea removal
- Tony and Penny sitting on the floor of the bathroom, Marley in the bath w/ bubbles on his head
- Tony: touches Penny’s hand
- Penny: adds a little more water
- Marley: pants happily, shakes off bubbles
18. Pages 40 & 41: two-page: ending
- We’re inside a circus tent. Tony and Marley are dressed up in clown costumes. Tony trips and makes mistakes but it doesn’t matter because that’s what clowns are supposed to do. The audience – with Penny in it — claps wildly.
- A flea jumps across the words “The End.”
Illustrations to Animations
Last modified on 2008-03-19 04:06:49 GMT. 6 comments. Top.
With this week off school (although I’m still putting in 3 days a week at work), I’ve really been digging in to my thesis project.
I’m working from my animations list, going through page by page to make the basic illustration for each one. Once that’s done, I will go back in and add animations.
This approach is good for my mental health — I need to know that my bases are covered, and that I have illustrations for each slot — before moving on. It’s a way of insuring that the artwork is consistent throughout and doesn’t look sloppy toward the end. And I hope it’ll let me revisit each illustration a second time with a fresh eye.
I’m happy with the way the illustrations are coming out. They look a little weird here but that’s because they’re all different sizes for different places in the text.
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(click thumbs to view full size)
First Draft: Thesis Paper
Last modified on 2008-03-19 18:57:34 GMT. 14 comments. Top.
It’s only 1400 words, and it’s not complete, but neither is my project. I can dash off a few more pages later on in the semester.
Illustrated Storybook
Last modified on 2008-03-29 21:44:33 GMT. 4 comments. Top.
I finished all the background illustrations, and just for fun, put them into the pageflip template. Now I’m completely done with the illustration phase and ready to add animations and sound. Check out the static version here.
Animation Progress
Last modified on 2008-04-19 03:43:56 GMT. 8 comments. Top.
My thesis paper is now at 1500 words. Sharleen suggested I add the required 500 more by talking about my intended audience and my choice to present the work online instead of on a CD-ROM. Getting close!
I wanted to put in a solid couple of days on animation and sound this weekend, but I was sick on Saturday and Sunday.
Below is a record of what I’ve completed in each animation, and what I have left to do. I’m in OK shape to finish everything I’ve listed, but if I had more time, I could really refine it.
1. Page 3: Tony and Marley on the bike. Tony remembers the fateful performance.
Mouseover: the scene and the motorcycle move as if they were drivingClick: dream sequence shows Tony’s memory of the performanceMouseover: Tony pulls a rabbit out of a hat, but it hops away(Needs work. Change to click?)Mouseover: Marley spins and dances- Mouseover: audience cheers and throws roses
2. Page 5: Hal drives and daydreams in his truck, thinks about what he saw a week ago.
Mouseover: truck begins moving (Move image down in frame: white space showing.)
Click: dream sequence switches scene to “a week ago”Mouseover: a car with a person waterskiing off the back(She could wave or laugh.)
Mouseover: a huge frog with a ribbon in its mouth jumps across the road and says “ribbons”(Needs sound)Mouseover: the Mystery Mobile from Scooby Doo, a headless ghost driving
3. Page 7: Penny at the circus, remembering Tony’s performance.
Click: Penny remembers Tony and Marley in same scene from Tony’s recollection- Mouseover: Tony drops a rabbit into a hat, waves his wand, pulls it out, then it hops away and is eaten by the lion
- Mouseover: Marley attempts a pirouette but falls
- Click: a kid’s voice in the crowd says, “Mom, can we go home now?”
4. Page 9: conjoined triplets
Click: they turn around and hurry offscreen
5. Page 10 & 11: Penny and the circus folk. Outdoor scene shows faraway circus tent, trailers.
Click: Conjoined triplets scurry into sceneMouseover: Sword Swallower sneaks a bite of a sword(Could use sound.)- Mouseover: Bearded Lady gently strokes her beard
- Mouseover: Penny sighs and produces thought bubble of Tony and Marley on bike
- Mouseover: Tattooed Man flexes
- Mouseover: Acrobat guy clears throat
Mouseover: Acrobat gal stretches(Animated but not working.)Mouseover: Elephant moves trunk- Mouseover: someone comes out of the trailer — fat lady? Midget?
- Click: circus music comes from tent
6. Page 13: Tony vs. Hal part 1. Tony and Marley are about to get hit by the truck.
Mouseover: bike drifts toward truck(Should this stop or keep looping? Change to click.)- Mouseover: road is moving, Tony snores, Rock-a-Bye Baby plays
- Click: Marley barks urgently
- Click: Hal honks horn
7. Page 15: A pickup truck spews flowers onto the bike.
Mouseover: entire scene animates, with truck, bike, and background movingClick: truck dumps flowers on bike(It’s animated but not working.)
8. Pages 16 & 17: Pulled over by the side of the road, Tony and Marley confront Hal.
Mouseover: Hal rubs his eyesand says “not real, not real, they’re not real”Mouseover: Tony drops his helmet(Could go faster, he could look down at it.)Click: Marley barksand runs around Tony in a circle- Mouseover: truck makes idling engine noise
Mouseover: flowers fall off the motorcycle
9. Page 20: The speech in the dark. The whole screen is black, but you can make out eyes. There’s a crowd assembled around a speaker, who stands elevated.
Mouseover: crowd jumps up and downand shouts, “freedom, freedom, freedom!”- Mouseover: speaker says: “Join with me: fleedom, fleedom, fleedom!”
10. Page 23: The restaurant. Tony is seated at a table with Marley underneath it. Lulu is standing, ready to take their order.
Mouseover: Lulu scratches her head with a pencil
Mouseover: Tony knocks over the salt and pepper- Mouseover: Marley barks
Mouseover: a customer walks in and says, “Mister, your dog smells terrible!”(Needs sound)
11. Page 25: The protest. It’s the same scene, but more crowded, and now there are placards.
Mouseover: eyes jump up and down,crowd sounds- Mouseover: each placard is yelled out loud
- Mouseover: the speaker leads the crowd in a call-and-response: “What do we want?” Fleedom! “When do we want it?” Now!
12. Page 27: Tony and Marley investigate the cardboard box.
Tony: picks up the box and shakes itMouseover: Marley wags his tail and sniffs(Needs sound.)Mouseover: box jumps a little
13. Page 29: The last leg of the trip. View through the truck’s windshield from Tony and Marley’s POV.
Mouseover: the road animates- Mouseover: radio plays a short clip of music or some static
Mouseover: air freshener spinsand goes “sniff sniff aaaaah” (Needs sound.)Mouseover: Tony scratchesMouseover: Marley scratchesMouseover: little dial spins around
14. Page 31: The fleas’ new life.
Mouseover: each of 7 fleas displays some brief activity
15. Pages 34 & 35: Tony and Penny are reunited. Tony and Penny stand together on the circus grounds, the truck cab open, Marley sitting in the driver’s seat.
Mouseover: Tony hugs PennyMouseover: Penny laughs and smilesClick: Marley jumps out, sits next to Tony, and scratches- Click: truck honks
16. Page 37: Martha and Hal’s flower shop.
Mouseover: Hal pulls out a bouquet, sneezes, smiles (No sound.)- Mouseover: Martha holds Hal’s hand
Mouseover: door opensand a bell jinglesMouseover: open sign turns to closed and sky gets dark
17. Page 39: Flea removal. Tony and Penny sit in the bathroom, Marley is in the bath with bubbles on his head.
Mouseover: Tony reaches out to touch Penny’s hand(Should be faster.)Mouseover: Penny scrubsand giggles- Mouseover: Marley pants happily, shakes off bubbles
18. Pages 40 & 41: The grand finale. Tony and Marley are dressed up in clown costumes. They give a successful performance.
- Mouseover: Tony trips and the crowd laughs
- Mouseover: Marley chases his tail and the crowd laughs
- Mouseover: Penny smiles and claps
- Click: The words “The End” fill the screen and a flea jumps across them.
Problems at the 10th Hour
Last modified on 2008-04-20 16:27:39 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
At least it’s not the eleventh hour.
I just uploaded a new version of Rigatoni, with animations. Not because the animations are done, but because I wanted to see how a final version would look. I ran into a couple of problems:
- I couldn’t figure out how to make pages that combine animations and text. For now, those pages just have text.
- Mouseover animations work, but clicks don’t: FlashPageFlip treats on-page clicks as attempts to turn the page. I’ll have to either get into the guts of FlashPageFlip, or make all my animations mouseovers.
- On the two-page illustrations, no single animation can span the centerfold. I’ll have to rework at least one animation from each of those instances.
- All the animations are sped up: FlashPageFlip must control the framerate.
In the next week, and quite possibly down to the deadline, I’ll be working on these issues and also adding sound.
10 Days and Counting
Last modified on 2008-04-27 20:18:55 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
My thesis presentation is in 10 days. I’m done with everything else I need to do for my classes, and now I’m just tying up loose ends on my thesis. I’m still adding a few animation sequences, and I have more sound to incorporate.
Changing the framerates on my animations didn’t work. FlashPageFlip seems to dictate a framerate, not multiply the framerate of each swf. So I had to go into each of my animations and sub-animations and add more frames into each movement. This was a big and mind-numbingly stupid job, but I had to do it. Pacing is very important.
I succesfully transferred all my click-animations into mouseover animations. That was another big job!
My in-class thesis presentation went OK, but left lots of room for improvement. Nancy and David suggested that, instead of summarizing the plot and then showing some of the storybook, I talk about the plot while guiding the viewers through the storybook. And my classmates insisted that I not give away the identity of the characters who stay secret for most of the story.
Sharleen stressed the importance of fluidity. When I go from my PowerPoint presentation to the web, I should either include a link from the PPT, or Alt-Tab to another program. The last thing the audience needs to see is my desktop background, or me mistyping a URL.