Dublin Dash
I created this poster for a Society im in called RAG. I was given the task to develop and make a poster to promote one of the upcoming events i only had a day to make it so its a bit plain and simple there is a lot of things i would change if i had more time to make it. Well here is the first draft i did for the promotion.

Mlob Interractive Narrative

This is my first draft of my interactive narrative.


Interractive Narrative by ~Thurlow on deviantART

Game Design
I chose to look at one of the most influential and inspiring companies in game design. This is Rockstar; a brand known for giving the gamer the freedom to roam and do anything with a realistic feel to it. You can either follow the route to fulfil your mission, or make your own path and do as you please. The company thrives on having multiple storylines, mixed with drama and action to give the gamer a feel of motivation to complete the narrative and a sense of freedom whilst doing so. A few examples of Rockstar games are Max Payne, Red Dead Revolver, and GTA (Grand Theft Auto). My favourite out of all the collection is by far GTA. This particular game has had numerous sequels, with better graphics, features and realism each time.

The second game corporation I chose to look at is a considerably larger brand, creating hundreds of games on many different platforms over the years; this is Ubisoft. The game I found most interesting and a key inspiration was Assassins creed. This game had elements of Rockstar design, for example, the freedom to roam the map of the game. The map consists of many cities, all with there own individual theme and design. An example of this would be a traditional English knight with castles, or a Jerusalem palace with temples and domes, all are linked by detailed countryside and little villages. Assassins Creed is a third person action/adventure game released worldwide in 2007. Patrice Desilet is a French Game designer, best known for his work as creative director on Ubisofts Assassins Creed. His most recent work is the sequel: Assassins Creed 2.

Here’s a little bit about the story:
The narrative is in third person and takes place in September 2012, following the life of Desmond Miles a bartender kidnapped by scientists who are conducting research into genetic memory. This is just the beginning; he later finds he is the descendent of Altar, a member of the Assassins Clan in 1191. This leads on to reveal a hidden secret and the real purpose of the tests and experiments which are all encoded in Miles’ memory. The storyline, I think, is amazing, because it twists and turns. The graphics are so unbelievable, the characters come to life and you can’t help but feel as if you are a part of the game.

Animation - Animation vs. Animator

Animation vs. Animator was a video I found on YouTube. I found it after being shown different examples on the whiteboard animation.

It was a very complex video but I found it amazing. The narrative was intricate which contrasted the simple plot. The clip begins with a stick man character fighting his creator, and rebelling in everyway possible. In order to stop him, his creator draws guns and other obstacles which inevitably fail as the stick man turns these weapons on the artist. The storyline is action packed and climaxes when the character of the stick man manages to duplicate himself, almost like forming an army against his creator.

Alon Becker was the designer of this animation, using Adobe Flash. Although I haven’t looked at any of his previous work before now, this animation stood out to me and I found it completely amazing. This is because the simplicity of the idea was humorous while still having that wow factor about it.

Interactive webpage

When choosing an interactive website to use as an example, I immediately thought back to the Derek Hess website, which I used previously in Graphic Design. This website is used as an online portfolio off all Hess’ work, which ranges from sculpture to advertisement. The interactive side of it is pretty simple and straight forward, using links on a main menu. Each link is seen in a black rustic texture, which is surrounded by an image of his work. This menu is like this on every page and never changes, unlike the sub menu, which changes to whatever page is being viewed. For example, when you click on a heading in the main menu, it brings up a sub menu which leads you to different areas of Hess’ work.

I found this website very useful and easy to use, it really is user friendly. The design was straight forward and managed to draw your attention to the fine art the surrounded the main menu. Derek Hess’ website is a great and simple example of an interactive webpage.

Film – 300 the movie

The movie 300 is one of my favourite films. It has an action packed, yet historical genre, which a strong storyline. The battles, action and scenery are all made possible with the use of special effects and CGI.

The effects were originally filmed with the actors in front of on large green screens. Then the shots were taken and the background and scenery was then added. The majority of the film consists of computer generated effects and it is clear to the audience that this worked well.


There is a great difference between the original stills with the green background and the finished scene. The CGI effects can create anything, and in one of these examples, creates a beautiful landscape in the light of the falling sun, dimmed slightly by the clouds. This is one of my favourite films because it has it all, strong storyline, action and incredible special effects. 300 is one of the best examples of it’s time for CGI and special effects. These effects make the film fit the genre and more realistic, and it does it extremely well.

Recently I went and watched the movie Fantastic MR Fox. It had a unique style of motion graphics and animation which worked practically well. It did this managing to fit in with the genre and work well on many levels capturing a large audience ranging from adults to young children. The animation was almost as it was real similar to Wallace and Grommet, with a different characteristic to it, with the animator/ designers own personal style. This style also helped bring life to the characters and humour. The director of animation was Mark Gustafson.Below is the trailer of the movie.

One shot movie.
This was my first design practice out of the three. It began with a tutorial into one shot movies and introduction. We watched a series of one shot movies and discussed the approaches and narratives of the movies that different directors took in creating them. All the movies had their own story to tell and a meaning full purpose behind it.
I found the most popular and original movies to be mainly adverts and commercials.

Over a period of three seminars, we produced the one shot movie as a group. We did this in the four specific phases of the design process. It started with the discovering. This involved Sitting down as a group mind mapping ideas and generally just talking between each other inspiring ideas. After this we began researching the past and present one shot movie narratives. This lead to understand and picking what audience we would appeal to tailoring our one shot movie to fit the correct criteria. Once having an idea on paper we began developing selecting ideas and creating one. We had a range of different genre and types for the movies narrative. We decide that the most appropriate and affective would be to film the movie as a point of view, in the genre of horror. We developed the script making different variations to film and then pick the best take for the final product. We choose the daunting task of filming the thrilling one shot movie at the Galleries of Justice setting it as a court trail. This gave us one chance to refine the film so we took as many takes on the set as we could on the day of filming as we only had a specific amount of time due to the fact it was a tourist attraction and the museum would be open to the public. Next we began defining. This involved refining the moving by capturing the best take and editing it to smooth it out and make the sound work better. We intend to add sound effects, such as footsteps at the beginning, and muffle parts of the audio to make the audience feel as if they are the character. Other further developments we intend to add will be opening titles and credits at the end to give the movie the finishing touches. The final process was delivering the finished product and to post the final video on You tube. This process involved completion. After completing filming we captured the product and edited the final clip. I believe the movie has a different impact on different viewers. Given them entertainment, whilst at the same time telling them a story through the eyes of a criminal.

We have not yet finished the movie and still have too edited and manipulate the sound and add the finishing touches with the credits to bring the movie together. Hopefully it will look good when all done.

I did extra work towards the product such as a written risk assessment, script/ screenplay, plan and authorisation form for filming at the galleries of justice (the location of the one shot film). Overall I believe this task was fun and enjoyable can’t wait to try the other two design practices.

Another more commerical animation company is Jitesh Patel. It uses strong bold illustrations with motion and effects to make them stand out and work well. This work and other companies work are presented in a portfolio on the website BA reps. This website has lots of inspirational material in all the different fields.