Assignment 2: Capstone Ideas

At this point, I have a pretty clear idea of what my capstone will contain. I have characters developed, story arch fleshed out, some environment designed, and working on the script and storyboards. Those should be finished soon, so after that I will use them to make a rough panel arrangement and a test run on the interactive clicking that will go on in the game.

The things that I still am unsure about, or that need some heavy work, are:

1) Some of the script ( I have a good idea of what I want to happen in the story and how I want it to end, but the smaller details and dialog that are killing me and getting from point A to point B)

2) Programming (I am definitely not a programmer)

3) Storyboards (They are numerous... every 1 page of script creates about 2-4 pages of storyboards, but fast and easy to make.)

4) Sounds, music soundtrack, voiceovers, etc (I know how to use Audition, but that's about it, and I have no connection yet with a band and voice actors. I can probably write the music, but I haven't done so yet...)

5) Alpha and Beta testing ( I find this to be an important step since I helped a few people on capstones before, and saw how bugs and glitches can undermine months or years of hard work. I don’t want this to happen to me)

6) Art things (I have character concept art done and storyboards, but I will need to complete the finished panels for the comic after I make sure the interface works. I will need to further develop environment and the cityscape. I will also need some small animations)

Sorry if this is getting wordy, but I feel it is important in understanding my place right now in the project and how to develop these 3 ideas.

One idea that immediately jumped to my mind is using 3D UDK or Maya to design my city. I sort of did this before in Mat’s UDK class, but I will need something more detailed this time and some interior shots of buildings. My plan is to make a fast easy model in Maya, maybe with simple lighting. Then arrange my camera to line up with my storyboard shot. Then use that render as a reference for my drawing or draw directly on top of it. This way, I can easy get the shots I need, but still have the tactile pleasure of drawing it, and my city shots will remain consistent.

The 3 other ideas I had were to bring in people to help particularly with the animation, music, and programming… that’s all I have right now. I am researching programs like After Effects and Flash to be a module for interface, but research is slow. I can have more direction with the animation and music, since I have a background in both.