Video Comic update (part 4)

Another interesting aspect to the process of putting together this video comic is the small bits of frame-by-frame animation I'm doing. I am doing it sparingly, in only a few parts, but it does really add to things and the movement creates an interesting hybrid of the typical JRPG character stills + text and a somewhat stop-motion cartoon-like feel. One situation I've run into a few times is when I have an animation going and I need to change things in the environment (or with the characters) at a different rate than the animation. There are several ways I could do this, and I've experimented with both. In the brief animated section of the combat scene, for instance, at one point I have the stuttered muzzle-flash of a semi-automatic firearm going, at a rate of about 1 or 2 frames alternating between “on” and “off,” so the flashes look intermittent in order to synchronize with the fast rate of the gunfire in the audio track. Yet a few of the characters are moving around at a slower rate—if they moved as fast as the gunfire, they'd be just as stuttered and it wouldn't look as natural for their movement. So, I ended up creating a small “zone” in the graphical frame that I'm using, where I keep all art out of that zone so the gunfire can happen at a separate speed. Then, in my movie editing program, I overlay the gunfire on top of that area, with the rest of that “slide” completely erased and clear so that the character slide underneath shows through. That way, I can advance things at two separate speeds, keeping the fast gunfire and the slower movements of the characters at the same time.

Video Comic update (part 3)

Although I don't have animated, talking mouths, I do have expressions change for talking versus shouting, for instance. One of the more time-consuming aspects to all this is the process of making each frame, because if one character is talking and then stops, I have to have just the mouth change. This requires me to paste over the previous image with a new one, but I have to size it perfectly so that the only thing that moves between frames is the mouth itself. Once in a while there's a little jitter because I didn't get the resize perfectly, but for the most part, I'd say I got around 99% of them. Another difficulty involves a couple characters that have non-symmetrical features. The reason this is a problem is because sometimes I flip the image to face the opposite direction, and a left facial tattoo ends up mirrored on the right side—it looks like, even though the character is still facing you, the tattoo flipped from one side of the face to the other. I recently caught this and am doing a bunch of frames over. The main character, Zack, has an earbud com unit that is kind of like a cyber-eye as well. I've allowed this to happen on both sides when he talks, but for other characters, I'm trying to have some symmetry. Altogether, this makes for an arduous process when constructing each frame.

Video Comic update (part 2)

I also had to prepare each thug with a calm look and an angry/aggressive look. A couple of them also needed surprised looks. So, in photoshop, I created layers and made different mouths and eyebrows. This is what John has been doing for me with the main characters, who needed a range of expressions for the different situations and dialogue circumstances. It's not a huge range—very simple, in fact—but it adds to the overall comic-style feel of the video. With the thugs, I also needed them to have their guns held casually and also aimed, so John created two different arm levels for me to turn on and off with the photoshop layers. All this saves a lot of time and makes it easier to put together the images like I want them for each scene. 

Video Comic update

So I'm on scene 17, the battle-scene, and it's taking me a while. The reason is because of all the time I'm having to spend on artwork. I needed 5 human thugs plus the Reln leader of the gang, and they all have to look different from my main characters. Artist John Fell did an art commission for me of a “gang thug” design, and I'm re-using the thug body for all the bad-guys. They're in a gang, so I figure it's ok that they dress alike. I just don't have the budget to get more art done than that for this project. I'm using John's human thug art, but I needed 4 other distinct variations, so I mixed things up with the humans and went with a few different ethnic groups, one guy has green hair, a couple are bald, and one has a facial tattoo. I've also spent a lot of time modifying the head of the Reln character to make my villain-version of the Reln, and I have to say, he looks rather wicked. I added in some facial tattoos for him, too, so I'm hoping he looks intimidating. Even more went into each design, though...

 

Balticon advertising

I'm going to be attending Balticon in May as a guest speaker on Game Design and also to run Solar Echoes demo's all weekend. I've been thinking about placing an ad in the Balticon hand-out, and am considering the ad below. Currently, I'm getting a consensus from people on whether the ad is good as-is, or if I should further indicate something about the game being sci-fi, either by mentioning it in the wording, or by showing it with an additional picture of the alien characters underneath the black and white ad. I'll see what everyone says and possibly update the ad itself...

 

Going Off-Grid (part 5)

I could go on for weeks citing examples of how we are seeing too much overreach and privacy invasion from companies like Google. It's only going to get worse. What can you do to start protecting yourself? A friend of mine (who works in cybersecurity) has begun the process of becoming Google-free, and it's possible to go to Google's site and request that they delete all the information they have archived on you while you remove your presence from the net. Use this link to begin the process:

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/legal-removal-request?complaint_type=rtbf&visit_id=1-636570731739230342-2974695629&hl=en&rd=1&pli=1

Another option for this process can be found at: https://forget.me/

If you don't intend to go off-grid entirely, maybe because you use the internet for business like I do, there are a few other things you can do. The script-blocker I use is highly recommended, called “No Script,” and you can find it at www.NoScript.net. It's a little frustrating at times, because sometimes webpages won't load and you'll see 30 different scripts trying to run—you won't know what to allow and what to deny. Another recommendation I have is a web-browser that does not track you, found at www.DuckDuckGo.com. DuckDuckGo is not as powerful of a browser as Google of course, but honestly, I'm tired of Big Google watching, not to mention my concern about them as a company when considering the current lawsuits against them by employees for free speech violations and racial discrimination. Google scripts trying to run in places on the internet they don't belong (like the webpage for my online bank account) has set me on the path to minimizing my “digital footprint.”

Going Off-Grid (part 4)

I use a program that monitors all the scripts that try to run in my browser (Firefox. Don't get me started on Microsoft! ;) It automatically blocks all scripts unless I give permission for them to run, which can be sent as a permanent or temporary permission. Recently, I've had some minor health concerns, and I had blood work done. The lab gave me information to set up a private account into their portal so I could see the results of my bloodwork and the doctors who have viewed it, including their notes to me. The first thing you want to look for when logging into a site that involves private information (medical or financial, for instance) is whether the web address begins with http or https. Https:// is what you want to see preceding the www address that you type. The “s” stands for secure, which means that your data is being encrypted by Transport Layer Security. It's not hacker-proof, but it's a layer of security that should be there. Imagine my surprise, as I was loading up my personal medical information on the https website, when my script blocker notified me that google analytics was trying to run! Why should Google be anywhere near my private medical data? I don't know what kind of information google analytics was set to analyze on that site, but in my opinion, that's possibly a HIPAA violation.

Going Off-Grid (part 3)

One of the ways we are monitored online is through little programs that are constantly running in the background of our internet experience. You may be familiar with some of them, called “cookies,” which are little programs that remember your preferences and your passwords. Some of these programs will ask for your permission to store your data—others do not. One program that is running on almost every webpage you visit is called “google analytics.” The name says it all: it is a script Google uses to track your activities on the internet. Google describes this tool as something that “helps you analyze visitor traffic and paint a complete picture of your audience and their needs, wherever they are along the path to purchase.” It is the most popular web-analytics tool in use, installed on over 10 million websites. It sounds harmless enough—after all, it's just to help people with marketing. When I run banner ads on websites, I take advantage of scripts like this that tell me how many times the ad was displayed and how many clicks I got. This is helpful, because I can figure out better which ads are appealing to people and which ads need replacing with something more intriguing. How can it be a bad thing, then?...

Going Off-Grid (part 2)

Google owns the internet. Does it really? In a sense, that statement does have some truth to it if you pull back the curtain a little to see what is going on behind the scenes. Just about everything you do online is tracked and archived, analyzed by programs and then shared. When I say shared, I mean that in addition to the giant that is Google, your information is also available to other companies and researchers that want to know your habits. How long did you stay on that webpage? What part of the webpage did you linger on? What did you click, where did you scroll, and what did you type? Of course, many realize that this is the price of using the internet, and many don't even care—what is privacy, anymore? It is being eroded as a concept, something that is viewed an archaic notion that only our set-in-their-ways elders are being stubborn about. My own daughter thinks my precautions are over the top, and maybe they are. I don't know about you, though, but I don't like the idea that Google is constantly trying to know more about me than it should.

Going Off-Grid (part 1)

Have you ever thought about it? Living off the grid usually refers to surviving without any dependence on society, the government, or the public, without relying on infrastructure and money. However, I'm referring to going off-grid in a technological sense. With powerful presences like Google, Amazon, and Facebook monitoring us and integrating themselves into more and more aspects of our lives, we really have only two options: fight back or resign to it. Acceptance is what most of us have tacitly done, and it's understandable—everything has been happening over many years, slowly building. It may still seem innocuous, and perhaps it still is in some ways, but unless these monopolizing giants are stopped and broken up by the government (and I'm referring to government in a non-partisan sense, because both sides have utilized these technologies to their benefit), we may be acquiescing to a soft tyranny. This week, I'm going to talk about some things these companies are doing and some simple ways we can resist...at least a little.

Writing Intriguing Sci-fi Premises (part 5)

It always helps to expose yourself to other stories, and you'll find them in good books, TV series, movies, and even story-driven video games. When you come across a story you like, ask yourself why you liked it, and analyze it to see if you can discern what it was that intrigued you. You can learn a lot about story construction just by studying how others do it. Of course, you should never copy someone else's ideas, but by exposing yourself to their ideas, it will set your own creative imagination in motion and you'll devise your own plots. There's sometimes a fine line between being too derivative and being inspired, so you'll have to find that measure for yourself, but if you focus on the concept and not the specifics, you may find yourself generating an intriguing idea for a story. “The 100” inspired me to think again about taking human responses to an extreme because the situation calls for it. The leaders of an overpopulated space station have to make “cuts” and decide who has to die in order for others to live, so they become merciless and exacting with their laws, punishing the disobedient with death. It works because it's believable there are people who would do that in a dire situation like that. What kind of situation can you put your characters into, and what will they do?

Writing Intriguing Sci-fi Premises (part 4)

Start writing your setting with based on something basic, and then ask yourself, “What if this instead?” Even a seemingly small change in a detail can have huge rippling effects upon the story, so if you remember that your setting can be the antagonist that drives everyone, all you have left to do is consider the array of character reactions. One easy thing to remember is the old, “fight or flight” response. This encompasses most of the possible reactions, when things are distilled down to the simplest elements. Consider personalities and how even two brothers who grew up in the same environment might have entirely different responses to a situation. Add agenda and motivation on top of the basic fight or flight response, and you'll have an even deeper layer to work with when developing your characters. Also consider whether the character is more emotionally driven or logically driven. Apply either of these to the fight or flight, fuel it all with personal motivation, and you have the ingredients for an exciting story recipe.

Writing Intriguing Sci-fi Premises (part 3)

Does your setting have to be as seemingly unique as the overcrowded space station setting in “The 100?” No, but you'll find that it can always help to try to put a unique twist on a setting to set it apart from others of its kind. For instance, the setting I proposed yesterday involving a small world occupied by a powerful foe that imposes their ideology—that setting is based on events in the history of several nations. You can always start from a place of familiarity and it often helps to do so, because it will be something people will more readily identify with. It's more difficult for an audience to try to relate to something totally obscure, so keep some familiar themes present. The next step is to take that familiar setting and add something different. What if the oppressed world needed to hide a devastating secret from the occupying foe? Or what if the people of the oppressed world—painted to be the victims at first—turned out to be preparing to conquer and oppress other worlds, and their plans were foiled by the occupying force? There are a number of possible twists on expectations that can turn the initial premise into a pressure cooker to catalyze the reactions of your characters.

Writing Intriguing Sci-fi Premises (part 2)

When writing out your ideas for an interesting story, I think it's important to consider your setting as a possible antagonist. People react differently to situations, and that's where the meat of your story is going to be found—your characters' reactions—but you'll need a catalyst for their reactions. The setting of The 100--a crowded, over-populated space station with thin resources available—is a perfect antagonist that will drive people to extremes, both in their response to the antagonist and in their response to each other. Not everyone is going to respond to a problem the same way, and often the response to a problem can become an even bigger problem itself. Try some writing exercises: write out a few ideas for different settings that could become a driving force for your characters. For instance, imagine a small world occupied by a powerful foe that imposes their ideology and seeks to eradicate the former culture entirely. Or imagine characters sailing on a boat in the middle of the ocean when it loses all power and is adrift in the sea for weeks on end. The setting can be an entire world or something as small as a tiny boat; it doesn't matter. What your characters do to deal with the problems imposed by the setting is where the real intrigue will be found.

Writing Intriguing Sci-fi Premises (part 1)

This weekend my wife and I decided to try a new TV series we found on Netflix called “The 100.” (small spoilers...) The premise intrigued us both, especially once we got into the first episode. Earth was devastated by nuclear war, and some fled to a giant orbiting space station. Years later, the teenage delinquents that were in prison on this station are sent down to earth to determine if it is liveable again. The thing that I found really interesting, though, was the situation on the space station. The population was too large and the ruling officials knew that the only way they could survive was to reduce the population, hence sending the 100 teenagers down to the surface. Even that only bought them 1 more month. What was really intriguing, though, was the excessively legalistic standards that had developed on the station: even the slightest infraction was punished severely, quickly landing teenagers in jail while adults were “floated” from the airlock into space. I hadn't bought into the premise at the beginning when the mother wanted her teenage daughter to be among those sent down to earth, but when it soon became clear that the tyrannical society that existed on the space station was likely to end lives over law-breaking just to buy more time for everyone else, it was easy to understand why a mother would want her child to get out of there, even if it meant heading down to a dangerous unknown on a radiation-soaked earth. All this got me thinking about the method of writing an intriguing premise for sci-fi stories...

Preserving IP (part 5)

I don't like being the one to shut down anyone's creativity, but in a few instances I've had to ask someone to redesign something because it didn't follow with already established Solar Echoes material. For instance, there is a very powerful race of villains in Solar Echoes (specific information about this race is only available to GM's in the Mission Controller's Guide (MCG), since players shouldn't know this information outright.) One mission writer wanted to use these villains in his mission, but when I read his work, he had them making deals with and cooperating with some of the character races. In the MCG, it describes this race as believing themselves to be so superior to all other life that they seek only to conquer other beings--they would never deign to even speak with another alien race. I had to ask the author to rewrite some of his mission based on this. Thankfully, he agreed to rewrite those parts, and he was still very happy with how his mission turned out in the end. In that instance, I imagine he was frustrated with me and felt like his creativity was being hindered, but some things that are already established in the Solar Echoes universe are integral to its overall identity and storyline. If there aren't any standards to follow and parameters to keep in mind when developing creatively for an IP, the overall vision may very well suffer as a result. If you have a vision for something, hold to it, and if others are working with you on it, make sure that you can all agree on that vision. Don't be afraid to protect your IP, because your vision will be preserved and a clear identity will be established.

Preserving IP (part 4)

As an example, what if George Lucas had not so aggressively protected the Star Wars IP? You might think that his universe would have grown in positive ways, but overall, it would end up completely losing its identity. Everyone has different ideas about what they like, so Star Wars could have taken a turn and become a gritty, dystopian scifi involving a cyberpunk setting, powerful corporations, and magic. Many of you know that such a thing already exists—I've just described the Shadowrun IP, and it has a very separate, specific identity, just like Star Wars does. When people don't align with the same vision, though, identity can be totally lost, and the very thing that makes an idea unique will become so saturated and disparate with incongruity that people will go find something more specific to their tastes. Imagine if someone wanted to bring psionics or magic into Solar Echoes when there was none there before? It would change the dynamic of the game, require different rules, and possibly even lose the interest of some that like Solar Echoes because these things were absent. George Lucas had a clear vision for the Star Wars universe, and people become very upset when movie directors violate something that the fans consider canon at this point.

Preserving IP (part 3)

I'm fine with people playing Solar Echoes however they want to, and the game is designed to encourage that, with rules to cover just about anything you can think of if you want to have a “crunchy,” rules-heavy game experience, or if you just want to use the basic rules and not worry about things like the material hardness of a steel door. Play-style is also open-ended in that players can choose to bring religion, politics, and even R-rated material into it if that's what their GM and gaming group want to do. But when it comes to advertising and product design, I do have to be more particular. In the past, I have had interest from some that wanted to write missions for Solar Echoes. I always welcome mission-writers, but they do have to sign a contract and in that contract it's of course stated that I have the right to edit or even outright reject submissions. If the content doesn't fit with the vision I have for the Solar Echoes game, then I'll talk with the author and see if we can come to an agreement and make adjustments. I'm not trying to be a “control freak,” but I am trying to protect the Solar Echoes IP, and to maintain the basic standards I've set for it.

Preserving IP (part 2)

One thing that I have as a standard for Solar Echoes is that it stays out of religion and politics. I want Solar Echoes to be a game where all kinds of people with different views feel that they can put their views aside, sit down together, and have fun playing a game in an imaginary universe. I also want Solar Echoes to be the kind of game that most parents are comfortable with their kids playing. I designed the game for all ages, and it's incredible to see 8-year old kids, college aged, the middle-aged, and the elderly all sitting around a table together playing their characters and having a great time together. I've witnessed this very thing many times at numerous conventions. I keep profanity out of all Solar Echoes products and advertising, and I don't push any social agendas through the game. I want parents to be comfortable with their kids playing Solar Echoes--so as long as they are ok with a game that involves guns, they have little to worry about. The game is even set up so as not to award killing (no experience points are given for killing), but to award players for accomplishing specific mission goals. Not to mention that players are on the side of the law as Union Guard agents, trying to preserve the peace and stop criminals. Considering all this, I sometimes run into situations with people that have a different vision for what they want to do with Solar Echoes.

Preserving IP (part 1)

Rather than discuss lawsuits that could be filed against someone copying ideas, I wanted to talk this week about preserving IP. IP stands for “Intellectual Property,” which is defined as a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect, and primarily encompasses copyrights, patents, and trademarks. Solar Echoes is trademarked, and Corefun Studios LLC owns the IP, which means that all the alien characters, the story, the game mechanics, etc., are protected material. Yet this can get complicated when working with other people that are collaborating on projects involving the IP. As an example for clarity, George Lucas aggressively protected his Star Wars IP, making sure that anyone that did anything using the Star Wars universe had to clear it with him first, often through licensing and other legal agreements. So what happens when a fledgling company like Corefun Studios wants to see Solar Echoes grow through fan involvement and ideas, but still keep things to a Solar Echoes “standard?”

Update on Solar Echoes Video Comic (part 5)

As for the action scenes, I'm angling towards a more comic-book feel than having actual animation. I plan to use a few close-up shots, a few shots of characters layered at different depths with different expressions, and maybe even a few separate close-up shots of just the weapons. All of this will be coupled with sound effects, including shouts, brief exclamations during battle, and a few hearty battle cries all layered with weapon effects. I have a few ideas for making the scene exciting and, hopefully, a little bit funny. Pacing is key, though, so I'll be playing with that as I put all this together—there are a few moments during the battle scene where I plan to cut away to different characters as they coordinate their efforts. Hopefully, it will all be easy to follow and will turn out to be a fun video for everyone. The voice actors have all done such a tremendous job that, even if I just put together an audio-only file, it would be entertaining and fun on its own. I just hope that I can get the visuals, brief animations, edits, and pacing to a level where it enhances and does justice to the talents of the voice actors! 

 

Update on Solar Echoes Video Comic (part 4)

Another thing that I've done with the backgrounds is I've used some effects from Photoshop to make them look more like art than like photos. At first, I went for the photo-realistic look, adding the anime-style character art over the top of it. After sharing this with a number of people for their opinions, they liked my altered backgrounds better than the photo-realistic versions, because everyone felt that it made the characters “pop” more and at the same time felt there wasn't as much of an artistic contrast. As a result, I've been taking my photorealistic backgrounds and shading them into a more painted look, which has honestly helped me a lot because I don't have to go into every little detail now to blend it and make it look realistic—the effect washes that out a little. I've been able to layer different photos and my own artwork better by bringing everything into a more digitally-painted, rougher look. The scenes have been turning out great, and I'm very excited to start putting the audio and character art on top of the backgrounds, synchronizing it all to tell this fun little action story.