First thoughts:
When we were first given this brief on Tuesday, I had a lot of first thoughts. Firstly, this project would one way or another pose a definite challenge for me as my knowledge of musical theory and instruments is very basic. However I also realised the experimental nature of this project and the fun that could be had with it. We were shown a good few examples of the different approaches we could take. There were the obvious ones of building your own instruments and how the basics could help us build our own concept. Also there was using the environment your in to create music, something closer to Stomp perhaps. Also the visual elements (more towards the interactive media side) and how experimenting with this changed the music you were listening to. So I had to turn to my first concepts. I had figured that it was a better route to design something that was simple to build/create but could be put together to be something complex and interesting. There are a lot of solo artists and bands that do this now but the group im going to showcase are only two and they use a wide range of music in all their pieces.
This not only covers what I first came up with but it also looks into the next idea/concept. Someone remarked that certain members of the class would have a major advantage in this project because of their musical background. However upon looking at this I realised that if people who didn’t know how to play a musical instrument could play just one note at a time which should be easy enough. You could have a whole orchestra done by a single person. Although this would be something a little too far from what I could achieve within the time limit, something smaller such as just one tune would still be an interesting piece but also a challenge to make. The hardest part in all of this is justifying it to the brief and making sure what I’m doing is either creating a new UI (user interface) or a performance video. I may actually go back to look at my research from the Viral Video project as a lot of the idea’s that were coming out of the classroom originate from there. The example below shows a really nice way of doing music, and also the idea of sharing music with others (performance) and how their actions and who meets who moves what music is played (UI).
This next example is something that really interests me. The key thing to note is that there are no speakers involved, it is just the sound that the coils are producing. From the description I can see that is actually is something we could produce in the time frame. The more difficult part in doing a project like this would be the vast amounts of health and safety we would need (and in this case should) go through. But on the positive side, this idea would fit the brief very nicely, would be a real challenge to work on but ultimately produce something worthwhile.
Tomorrow we split into our groups and I may end up looking at either altering my idea or working on someone else’s. This isn’t too much of a problem as I’ve said before this is much more about experimentation and enjoying the project rather than attempting to create a good project (although this is obviously still important). I’ll update tomorrow as by then not only will I have a group but a good ground to begin work with.
Group start:
So I’ve now been worked into a group (or duo) and we have a bass idea to work from. Using music peripherals from the Guitar Hero series, we want to be able to control music in a less conventional sense. Our original idea is to have the theme from super Mario playing and the guitar from example changing how the music is played so its starts of as 8 bit style music but then changes to piano, or drums even vocals. This appeals to the brief and it also allows for a definitive split in the group. One side works on the programming on the instruments/music players whilst the other sets to work on creating the music to go on the system. If we pursue this idea, I will follow the route of music creation but may experiment with things such as Foley to create some of the backing tracks as well as looking into things like Blue Men Group. Mathematically it wouldn’t be too difficult to produce if each instrument played it in 4 different styles and there were 3 instruments that would be 12 reproductions of Super Mario. As long as I tried to make sure each set of 4 varied to some degree it certainly has the ability to be an interactive and fun piece. The only real issue I can see from moving with this idea, is that it may not cover the required 225 hours needed to justify the end result. The difficulty is that if I tried to do something more complex like actually composing the music myselfit could not work as I have nowhere near the necessary musical knowledge and experience to create something like that. That is not to say I will not explore this option, as I will experiment with music creation, it is more to point out the challenges we may face. We meet again on Monday to continue working on this project and it may be worth discussing the route this project is going and seeing if we might want to change our minds and follow a slightly different path. For example, we could stick with the Mario idea but go back to one of my previous examples with the tesla coils. As long as we could get a budget (and an engineer) to build the coils, it would not be a far stretch from an achievable goal. I will relate what happens on Monday and the next direction this project will take.
Concept change:
The discussions on Monday were interesting. Unfortunately my colleague was unable to attend due to illness so it mainly myself talking to our tutors. I related the possible new idea of a Tesla Coil system and they seemed positive but also a little reserved on the safety issues. However, I have studied what these entail and we should be able to do this project with minimal risk to all involved in the process. I’m having a long chat with my colleague tomorrow over the direction of the project at which we will have a definitive path we will follow. For the moment, I need to research the actual requirements in building a small one and see if it is still a viable option
Tesla research:
I have spent a while today looking at the process of building a coil and have unfortunately hit a small block. Whilst the actual skill necessary to build a tesla coil isn’t vast as it is only a reasonable knowledge of electrics, maths and construction it would be the materials where this project falls down on. The transformer alone required to power the coil even at the smallest level is around £200 and in addition to that there are certain key points in the build project where if due care is not taken you can fry the transformer thus requiring a new one. Even if we bought a cheap kit with everything in, it still comes to roughly £400 and it has to come from America which means shipping, waiting 4-5 weeks for it to arrive (the whole length of the project) and paying any customs charges it will most probably occur when it goes through the airport. This was one of my more favoured ideas for the project but with these issuesits almost completely unviable. I placed links below from certain sites all showing the build process as well as places that sell the kits necessary to build one (along with the costs!).
http://www.teslacoildesign.com/
http://www.amazing1.com/tesla.htm
http://www.easternvoltageresearch.com/
Group Discussion:
We finished having a discussion today about the progress of the project and the way we want to take it. We have obviously decided that as much as we want to do the tesla coil it is simply unachievable with the time and resources that we have. Therefore we have to look to a new way of doing this project. Going back to my previous mentioning we intend to look at multiple musical instruments playing at once but with only a few artists (for example, 15 instruments playing at the same time but with only 3 artists). This idea has a large amount of positives which are listed below.
-Simple to do quite a few videos in a short space of time
-Relatively easy to pull off but can look complex
-Good opportunities to experiment with different instruments
-Maintains a level of originality whilst building upon already solid idea
What we are doing at the moment is writing down a list of different instruments that we know we can get hold of, we know people who can play them (or we can play them ourselves) and work with the chosen music of the super Mario theme. In keeping with this and to further the project interactivity we have a plan. Half of the musicians so to speak will be wearing red to symbolise Mario and half will be wearing green to show Luigi. The video’s will then be split into these two categories, and the viewer (at the current design phase) choses one from each to play. This means they can play around with plenty of combinations to create some interesting sounds. We also have plans to see if we can do more than two videos being played, although this may need work to make sure they synch and also the controller being a peripheral from a music game such as Guitar Hero. Our group has already experimented with connecting such a controller to a computer to use as a UI and it works very well. Tomorrow we will be pitching our idea to our tutors so that we can get it green lit and we can begin producing. Even if we began filming and making next week, we would need to be doing roughly 3-4 video’s a week for the next 3 weeks to end up with plenty of musical snippets for someone to play with. Shown below are the combinations of already created concepts we wish to take elements of and in some ways combine. The channel 4 video, for its choosing of what words you want to see, and the B flat videos for their delivery system. The only issues we really need to worry about is synching in the videos. Whereas the Bflatvideos can be played at any time during the other video’s play through our Mario theme will all have to be started at the same time, an issue we will need to address at some point.
http://twist.channel4.com/words
Final reconstruction:
We have had another discussion today and have changed the direction of our project hopefully for the last time. When discussing it with our tutors there just wasn’t enough to fit to the brief for the guitar hero peripheral to work. There was enough interactivity but no originality. What we’ve now decided is to go back to RFID tags that was in the original concepts we had. Sticking to the Mario theme, we want to create something that not only is highly interactive but also adaptable as a piece of instillation. We’re not trying to create a musical instrument in the traditional sense but something closer to an interactive theatre production. A small stage will be built (around a metre long) to resemble a level from the super Mario game, and at varying intervals some of the props will contain RFID tag holders. A Mario figure will be taken through the stage and on the back of this model will be a RFID tag. As the model passes through the tags it triggers certain music, which in all likelihood will end up being the super Mario theme. We have yet to decide whether the different holders either trigger a different style of the super Mario theme such as a normal version, metal version, xylophone version etc. Or whether it triggers the music on or off or even raises or lowers the volume. Regardless of how this ends up, it is not part of MY development process. To help define both myself and Matt’s work separately we are clearly splitting the work evenly. I will be in charge of the physical work, ergo anything relating to the design or building of the theatre itself. This very much takes me out of my comfort zone and into a much more traditional design sense as I’ll have to draw up plans for the stage as well as thinking about transportation, cost and build time. I’ll plan to do the initial designs in Maya and then from there build up a scale. Once the scales achieved I can begin collecting materials and assembly. I can predict the hardest part of this project from my side will be the painting as I have never been the most skilled artist. However, I intend to get around this issue using two methods. Firstly I intend to make the scale of this quite reasonable, as this means a larger painting area and figures. Secondly I intend to stick to the original design of the level as much as possible. Because of limitations of graphics when the original was released the designs were relatively simple. Whilst this may appear slightly slack, I would prefer it to be seen as remaining faithful to the series. After painting it is the small process of designing and adding props to the stage so it looks like a 3D version of the game. I visualise that whilst most of this work will be relatively simple in practice some of it will be incredibly time consuming so I should have enough work to fit the brief. I’ll do some research posts next that look into this idea and offer some inspiration.
Research (Mario):
Below are 3 different examples of Mario levels that I’m going to use as inspiration in some of the design process. The first one is someone’s interpretation of the classic Mario game but at a 3D perception. The style and graphics remains much the same yet that extra level of detail adds a lot more immersion as people can see round the characters themselves. It also adds extra props and monsters at varying levels of the backdrop to further simulate a 3D environment. Whilst this is a nice addition, I would prefer to keep it closer to a single line of props that Mario would explore and traverse to keep it closer to the original concept. This also makes it easier to work with when using the RFID tags. However, any detail that could be lost by not putting in more 3D props I will balance out with slightly more detail in the backdrop of the production. One other thing that came out of this piece of research is how far do I want to replicate the Mario level. I’m certain I want to be faithful with things such as background, props and design but to what degree I should take it. Do we want the audience to think that this is a interactive stage from Mario, and that its close to playing the game or do we just want the atmosphere from the game and make the experience as much of our own as we can. The key example from this piece that I’m thinking of is the score board at the top of the photo. It may seem insignificant but it changes a lot of how our end product is portrayed if I put it in. At this stage I am preferable to leaving it out, and keeping the idea closer to a miniature theatre production. The second image is actually of a recent Mario game where it is possible to change the game into a 3D plane. This image is actually quite close to what I envision our end product to look similar to. As mentioned previously ours will most likely have a single line of props that Mario navigates to keep it simpler to perform with. I’m not sure whether or not to apply shadow in the final piece but it is certainly a possibility to consider. At this stage the main thing to focus on is what will be painted and what will be built. This is the main contributor to what will dictate the scale/size of the piece. It would be foolish to make it too small and then have trouble sources small enough parts to fit into it. On that note, to do with planning and constructing the props Im rather fortunate with the original material as a lot of the bricks, pipes and blocks can be sourced from a single outlet such as B&Q as they’ll have a wide base to work from. The last image is a diagram of the first level of Super Mario Brothers. This will be the platform for my design, and where I will get most of the design from. I don’t want a direct copy but as previously mentioned I want to remain faithful. Consequently I want to take the more recognisable elements of the level and franchise so that we get the biggest audience possible. The main elements that im seeing would make the greatest impact are; the blocks, the question mark brick, the Green pipe, the pyramid of bricks at the end of the stage and the flag to represent the end of the level. Im leaving out the enemies and creatures of the stage because as much as they make an impact to the real game I believe that when their either a prop or painted on their static nature will render them obsolete and possibly even tacky. The castle may be painted on at the end in front of the flag however it will depend on the rest of the painting process and whether I believe I will do the castle to a standard I am happy with and which will look good. Was I not working on my own I would also love to consider making an underground section that went through the pipe and also could involve more tags and the Mario underground theme (shown below as well). However I feel I must focus my time more on the main stage rather that produce something which doesn’t have the same finish. The only other thing that I may consider adding into the piece is the jumping sections/holes that Mario has to make. However this may make the build process exponentially more tricky for an extra bit of detail. The difficulty with the build process is that there is only room in the design process of the build before physical production begins, as experimentation whilst I’m building could result in huge delay if I decide something isn’t working and have to rebuild. Therefore I have to take extra care in the design process so that I’m happy to move onto production. The next post will be the final design of the piece, built in Maya. Hopefully I can then immediately start production and have a finished prototype as soon as possible.
Design Prototype:
Below is the prototype in Maya of the Mario stage I intend to build. It’s fairly simple but puts across the design I want to create. The amount of props within the model is what I intend for the final design as there’s enough to give detail but not too many to make it difficult to produce. The background is only for scale purposes, I’ll put a lot more detail into the final product. The scale of props isn’t spot on yet but it should be fairly proportional to what they’ll end up like. I quite like the design as it works exactly what we had originally envisioned provided I can replicate it in true form. I have a rough scale below provided that I can source the materials, its works out as a decent size as well and also allows for easy transportation.
Bottom and Back pane: 60x120cm
Side Panes: 60x60cm
I’ll now begin to build the prototype, which should take a couple of days. Hopefully there should be no problems there as I have the tools and plans to complete this design. I’ll document any problems with the build in my next post.
Build Process:
Shown below is a picture of the final prototype. It has the basecoat applied to it but no major detail added. The process was slow and a few issues arose. I struggled to cut the wood as I didn’t have the right tools for the job. Therefore there are a few issues with the finish around the edges. I should be able to sand them down slightly so as it doesn’t look horrible. I had originally intended to have the support columns outside the stage so as not to detract from the piece. However during the build it was apparent that the columns could not be put on the outside without having a small box on the inside to hold them. Even then it didn’t seem strong enough to keep itself together. I therefore decided to re-house the beams on the inside. The beams are small enough to not make much of a difference visually so it shouldn’t be too hard when painting them to make them as inconspicuous as possible. I’ll now begin to paint the prototype which will take a while to do. Again I’ll document how that goes and any issues that arise.
Painting Process:
Painting was an interesting challenge. The first major issue was that painting on top of the wood was difficult as the texture meant that several coats had to be applied. In addition the real issue I didn’t expect to encounter was timing. Painting was an incredible time consuming process. Each basic coat took on average an hour and a half, with more complex coats taking over 2 hours. The most difficult part of the painting was the brick pattern on the flow taking well over 6 hours. Whilst the pattern is a little off in certain areas the scale of the bricks is exactly what I was expecting. As I was doing the pattern on the bricks I experiment with outlines on the hills, which seemed to work well hence it was applied onto all of them. Despite a few rough edges on the end paint job I’m really pleased with the result. Now that this is done I’ll make sure that no more detail needs to be added to give it a professional look as possible. The last task I need to do is props of which the hardest part is acquisition. My next post will cover this.
Props and final dress:
As mentioned previously, it was difficult sourcing the parts. I ironically used the games design to get the parts as the pipe is from the plumbing section. I painted over it using a coat and then applied the right green to get it close to the pipe in the game, before adding highlights to make the pipe stand out. The next thing to do was the blocks. I decided that the 5 together would remain one block and I would paint it to make it look like several blocks. The pyramid scheme will all be single blocks and I will build and glue them together. From previous experience I know that painting would take some time so I made allowances for that. The final piece was the flag at the end, creating a base and pole was easy enough. I used an old method to make the flag closer to its in game counterpart but applied a washed down PVA coat and bent the flag. This gives it the effect of blowing in the wind, and adds that extra level of detail. I did however get the scale of the props a little off, and therefore their a little smaller than I expected. They’re not small enough for it to matter but it is a small mistake that I can rectify. Initially we had intended that the props would contain the RFID tag holders themselves but due to the small mistake of scaling them down a bit as well as the lack of holders to actually use, we will instead be placing the holders at the front of the stage for the user to play with. This slightly changes how we show our project at the end but it is still a very strong concept. Now instead of taking Mario through the stage as a user we are rethinking that we will take Mario through the stage and they will place the tags as he is going along. This brings us closer to something like an interactive theatre but it is still well within what the brief expects of us. I’m happy with the finish and will now begin writing up a conclusion of the project.
Conclusion:
This project has been an interesting development. We have had some interesting changes of plans through the design process which at the very least shows that we covered a wide range of bases and I believe thoroughly investigated each possibility. Our end result certainly fits to the brief and also gave me the opportunity to explore a new way of working as well as trying my hand at model making, set design and building.
The initial start was a little problematic as we weren’t sure which direction we wanted to take. Of our original ideas I know that none of them would have had the same amount of work in bar the tesla coil which was far too dangerous to build. The design process was fairly simple once we had decided upon our final idea and wanted a stage to be built it was a matter of applying the style to a template. I have tried to balance this project between designing something that I could definitely accomplish whilst at the same time creating a challenge and something I could experiment with. I believe I have achieved that goal as the end result contains plenty of variables that I altered and changed over the build. The reason I designed as I did was that any detail that couldn’t be built from the props such as the hills or clouds could be replicated into the backdrop instead and as long as enough detail was still on the stage then little would be lost. Apart from a few obstacles the build process was fairly problem free. The painting process was more time consuming than difficult but it interesting to be closer to the art side of our course and also allowed me to try my hand a set design. With the placement of the RFID tags and the music tie ins, the piece is now a finished project. We’re pleased in a certain way that it hasn’t turned out how we originally intended, but maintains enough of what we wanted that the experimentation adds to the final result.
Were we to make any changes to this project, it would have beneficial to have some extra help during some of the tasks. This is of no reflection to the diligence of my partner, it is a statement that had I an extra person to of helped with the menial tasks of the build it would have been done to a more refined finished. This makes no change to my view of the final piece, as im very pleased with what we have accomplished. Others opinions are also positive, and any changes that have been suggested we have taken aboard, looked at and implemented where we thought either necessary or useful. If we were to redo this project I would probably suggest that we try experimenting with either other games or possibly well known fables. As long as they were as recognisable as Mario then it would be a good route to try. The reason we choose Mario over others apart from his familiarity was that it brings back a sense of childhood which means that hopefully a wider range of people will get a similar experience.
Overall I’m fairly pleased with this project. We followed a structured a well thought out design process which allowed us to be diligent with our work as well as allowing for experimentation in our different fields of work. Our finished product shows off exactly what we wanted to achieve fits nicely to the brief. In addition we both worked hard to achieve each side of this project, Matt with his Mac-osp work and myself with the build. Hopefully this documentation is a good record of this and allows someone a deeper understanding of how our project has evolved over the past few weeks.
Leave a Comment
No comments yet.
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
