Project Development

I will add updates to this post to document our progression.

Main responsibilities
Charlotte: Overall direction / research / general aesthetics / basic story / story development / animations / motion graphics / sound design
Mike: Style design / illustrations / character design / animation / story development / story writing / element making (characters etc)


Mike and I.

Sunday 20th January
We decided on the learning agreement, finding a brief we were both comfortable with which was ambitious enough to push our strengths and learn new things, but within our reach. We brainstormed many ideas, and have chosen to make an interactive digital children's story. We are both interested in illustration, animation, typography, fantasy, character design, aesthetics... and this brief gives us a chance to have fun with these elements.

Thurs 24th January
We finally decided on a story. We were torn between several poems by Terry Jones, traditional children's stories with strong morals (good educational aim), and a surreal short story by Dyan Sheldon which I found in the Walker book 'Terrific Tales'
We settled on the Dyan Sheldon story because it inspired us for character designs and interactive devices. I have rewritten the script in order to make it easier to animate - I'm a bit apprehensive about attempting to lip-sync and wish to avoid it. We have many other ideas for animating the story though.
I also found her website and am considering contacting her
http://www.dyansheldon.co.uk/aboutme.html
***EDIT*** I am no longer considering contacting her as we have re-written the story twice and it is so far from the original there seems to be no point.

Sunday 27th January
We reconsidered the details of the story. Mike suggested making it more 'fairy tale' with a princess as the main character, King and Queen for parents, a dragon who takes her up to the clouds.... I was concerned this is a little cliche, been done quite a lot before - Disney, Shreck....etc etc. I'm not sure the world needs another princess, or that ours could compete with the others. But we went with it for the time being, and began building up style ideas. We are both fond of and inspired by Tim Burton, and the themes in our story lend itself to this dark, mysterious, artistic, sketchy, slightly home-made style.
Characters from 'The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy' by Tim Burton

Wednesdsay 30th January
Mike re-cast the story and it works perfectly - it's about 'a girl'. Simple. In the original story she was called Nancy, but we didnt like this name. Also, in the original, her gran made her go sit in the clouds. We dont want to show adults (this idea relates to the way that 'Peanuts' has something special about it for not including adults - it makes it feel it's really focused on the children), and so we will have a storm and the wind blowing her up into the clouds. This makes much more sense... if any sense can be made in this fantasy.
I also painted a background for the cloud scene and had a play with the dar this afternoon. I animated a cloud drifting across the sky. It was awful - really jerky, difficult to time, and not much control over it. Before anything is made I need to talk to a tutor about the best program and methods to use.

I've also researched some online children's interactive stories
http://www.nickjr.com/playtime/cats/stories/all_stories/blue_goodnightbird.jhtml?=
http://www.nickjr.com/playtime/cats/stories/all_stories/blue_slippers.jhtml
http://teacher.scholastic.com/clifford1/flash/story_2.htm
The Nick Jr site is typically crammed with bright, bold, loud, American cartoons. I suppose this is what is expected to stimulate children. But I've always found them too overpowering, even when I was young. They seem to be quick, snappy, cheaply made, and lacking any depth. I prefer to produce something with more thought and a special quality to it. I think this has more long lasting entertainment value to it which children and parents would appreciate.

Thursday 7th February
Played with making the dot to dot star scene. Took a while to get my head round, but got it working just how I want it to. Yay!

Saturday 9th February
I borrowed a six year old little boy and let him play with my dot-to-dot. He loved it. What was interesting though was he attempted to draw the lines, rather than click on the next dot. But he completed it without any problems. The only part I need to change is the beginning because it didn't quite make sense. He is a fan of the CBeebies website, which I was also impressed by (though probably for different reasons!) He loved the idea of a story with digital activities, and suggested a jigsaw, a maze, spot the difference, colouring in... if this is what children enjoy most it would make sense to try to incorporate as much of it as possible, whilst keeping along the theme of the story and not overpowering or distracting from it too much.

Wednesday 13th February
Mike and I met again to exchange some ideas, illustrations, and story lines.

Mikes illustrations are great - pretty much as I imagined, which means we must be thinking along the same lines! I've asked him to concentrate on drawing all the elements for one scene so I can start putting it together. We got a script roughed out, but not set in stone. I'd like to bulk it out a bit. Mike is keen to keep it simple and to the point so as the child doesnt get bored. However, I think it would benefit from being maybe a bit more than A4 10pt length, to make it last, make it substantial, and make it worth someone purchasing for maybe £3.99 instead of a Ladybird book - that's how I see this work fitting into the market.
I'm really inspired by Mike's work, and would love to go a step further by making figures and a decent DVD case for it and a book insert.... maybe if I have time.

Monday 18th February
Began working on the actual flash project, putting it all together. It took me absolutely ages to get it working how I want it. I have a clear vision of how I want it to be, so luckily the design aspect is one less time consuming problem for me to think about, and I can concentrate on getting movements perfect. Scripting button actions caused a little frustration, but I worked it out and hopefully I should be able to work quicker now I understand different functions. I really enjoyed things like making the movement for the jack-in-the-box. I like how much control I have over the whole thing, and how easily I can edit it - something I imagine would be more tricky using stop-motion. (I'm glad I decided against that!)

Wednesday 20th February
Mike and I exchanged illustrations, ideas and developments again. It's all going well - I have worked out all the things I need to do in Flash, Mikes illustrations are coming together beautifully, and look awesome illustrated.
I visited a friend over the weekend. I showed her what I'm working on and she loved Mike's rocking horse so much she begged me to put it on a t-shirt for her. This could be a lovely merchandise product, along with my idea of making cloth dolls. So here it is! (click to view bigger)



Thursday 21st February
Taking to John Bowers this afternoon was interesting. It confirmed to me that I could justify this piece existing in the children's entertainment industry. I see this as 'a possible future' for children's entertainment, where my product may be chosen over an existing product such as the Classic Ladybird book - it's in the 'quick fix' buy bracket (I learned about this market whilst on work experience at Dorling Kindersley) - under £5, intended as a mini purchase / gift by a parent or relative. Can be read many times by a variety of ages, alone or accompanied by an adult or friend. As a series of stories, they could become collectable.
He also inspired me to further consider the format of the packaging design. I had already given this some though, but not to the extent that I could. I have since been considering how I can make my 'product' most appealing and different to what already exists. I am considering the format - CD or USB flash stick, and how I can package these in an unusual, interesting and appropriate way.

Friday 22nd February
Saw Mike again to exchange illustrations and updates. He's fond of the way I've used his illustrations to make the animation. Although he still seems unsettled about the script - there may be some re-wording to come, but that's not my strongest area, so am willing to take advice.

Saturday 23rd February
I sat with my little six (almost seven, he would like to point out!) year old friend and let him loose on the story so far. He responded very well to it. The interaction came naturally to him - he didn't question how to operate it or what he needed to do. He read aloud, and the break-down of the sentences worked well. He was entertained by the illustrations and characters - he said the main girl "looked funny" ... he meant it in a positive way and I think it's as good a response as we could hope for.
He skipped through the story - its far too short, but once all the activities are in it will slow the whole thing down and make it more substantial. Generally, he read it perfectly. However, there were a few words which were too advanced for him. Of course, it is always good to push the child a little bit to learn something new, but even after I'd helped him to read the word I don't think he fully understood the meaning. These were words such as 'dismal', 'entire', 'raging' - they give the story a lovely feel, but are just too advanced for children. After we had finished he asked me why she was happy at the end - I reminded him of a line in the story which explained this, but I'm still not sure he really understood. Maybe the whole story would be better suited for age 8+. I'm not really in the know about this area and through research is required to determine what is suitable. This aspect is not my focus area for the MA course, and so I am not expecting to be 100% accurate.
He badgered me for more activities like the dot to dot, and wanted me to put in a feature where the child is required to type their name in at the beginning.... maybe I'll keep that idea for another project.

Wednesday 27th February
A comment John Bowers made last week has been continually bugging me, until now. He was 'amused' by my t-shirt, but after some discussion about how my product fits into the market, he blurted out;
"So actually, your t-shirt might not be such a joke after all". I was quite shocked he saw it as a 'joke'. I was quite serious about the idea. I did some research into this area, and if this product were to be taken seriously, the idea of a t-shirt is very far form a joke, along with dolls, stationary, bags, gifts, kitchen sinks.... Look at how Charlie and Lola have exploded onto this scene -
And there's heaps more merchandise products at
http://www.pinkmilk.co.uk/store/cart.php?target=category&category_id=84
No joke - just cashing in on what kids want and what people will buy! I even got a Charlie and Lola birthday card this year, and I'm 23, so the whole 'cult' thing is a huge market (even if they only make kiddy size t-shirts!)

I've been putting a lot of thought into the packaging of the actual story, as I mentioned before, and have made a model of my idea

This is Jack having his head glued together - he will stay like that for the night. Tomorrow he will be beautiful. The doll is built round a flash stick, and the USB end pokes out the bottom. For a kid to go home with a pretty object makes a shopping trip rewarding, and a mini purchase worthwhile to the adult. However, I can think of a few problems with this idea:
* Some USB ports are hard to access - PCs in particular, where they have USB ports on the back, or very close together, or a multi USB port hub, which sits on a surface - the various features of the doll will obstruct access. It's fine on a lap top, as long as PC USB ports are the same way up as a Mac book ports, he will poke out the side of the lap top looking up. These problems can be solved by making the doll smaller - within the dimensions of average pen drives.
* H&S - is there a danger this could overheat with all the extra fabric round it? I dont know enough about pen drives to know if they heat up much.
* Cost - I have made this out of fabric, and 11 separate parts. This would most likely be too high cost to produce within the intended RRP, so it may need to be simplified, made out of fewer pieces, or simply a moulded lump of painted plastic. Not as beautiful or as tactile, but same intention.

Wednesday 5th March
I've been working flat out trying to get as much of the story done as possible. I'm totally engrossed in it. I'm even wearing black and white stripes. Mike has worked up the color illustrations, which are stunning and are going to lift the whole thing.
We havn't been meeting as much recently. Our rolls for this part are separate - Mike knows what he needs to draw and needs time to get them looking how he wants them to, and I am taking a painstakingly long time over putting it together in flash. I'm a lot quicker than when I started, but realise I've put an awful lot of detail and events into it, which is what is taking the time. I'm really pleased with it so far though - it's just how I wanted it to look. I'm apprehensive about completing all my goals in time for the assessment... however some of my aims are quite unnecessary, such as another t-shirt I want to make, which was inspired by another of Mike's illustrations. I'm obsessed!

Friday 7th March
Mike gave me the last of the illustrations, so now I have everything I need to finish the story. Full steam ahead to complete it in time, along with the other things I'd like to accompany it, such as a mini book... and also a title for the story would be good! We had a brainstorm over these ideas, trying to keep it simple, relevant yet creative and not obvious. Mike will type set and illustrate a title to use as a logo/ branding, making it consistent with his illustration style.

Monday 10th March
Mike and I met up for the last time. We finally decided on a title, and design for the opening. The last thing we designed is the first thing you see.

Tuesday 11th March
Final tweaks to the project to get it working exactly how I want it. Tried to amend everything I dislike as I went along. I showed it to my housemate. She struggled to locate the continue button. This is because the button is only active where the movie clip is placed, but as the movie clip moves it confuses the viewer. It still works, but only part of it. I attempted to fix this by making a bigger hotspot, but when I tested it the button stopped working all together. With the pressing deadline of a primary school appointment, I was worried about messing it up and not having a working piece. So I have left it for now, and hope to address it soon.

Wednesday 12th March
Testing in invaluable. I took the story to a primary school and showed it to children aged 6-10, in groups of two. They loved it. They responded well to the illustrations, the story and the activities well. There was still some discrepancy over the language used - I think it was still slightly advanced. We also put it on a large projector and the whole class read it together. This got a fantastic response, even though I had not designed it for this use. See my project analysis for more detailed evaluation.


Thursday 13th March
I also began making another t-shirt, this time with the deer. It's almost finished, but didnt hand it in because I want to put some extra stars on it.