Mega Mecha poster development process (P4,P5)

 Final poster image (PNG):
http://adf.ly/1K4yEb


This image is to be a poster for advertising my game, "Mega Mecha Throwdown". I had to keep in mind that it would be presented to children, so the poster could not have any adult themes, the same as my marquee and logo. with this in mind I began working on an image. I took some of the parts of a previously made poster for my game, making the pigeon the background. I also used an 8 bit font (which matched the theme of my game, as it was being used for an arcade machine). The first design is shown below.

 While this design was okay, upon review by some of my peers we agreed that it could use more colour to make it visually appealing. It was also suggested that I change the way the text looked to make it seem more interesting. With that feedback in mind I amended the design to create this:

After creating this design, I realised that it doesn't make much sense to have the pigeon on the poster, as the game is about robots. I replaced the background image and adjusted the text to make it seem a little less jarring, and then got some peer feedback on my image. One of my peers said:

 After this peer review and advice, I amended the design, and created my final image, which is this:

Fareham byte T-shirt design process

Research:
to begin understanding what kind of technologies I would be using to create my shirt, I researched into the methods and technologies I could utilise in the design and creation of the shirt. In this process, I experiment with both the designs of the shirt, and also the images and text placed on them.

Firstly I researched on the types of printing that I could utilise during the process. The first was named "Screen printing". It includes pressing a multiple single coloured screens onto cloth to create the image. This is a good method for quality, but can be potentially messy and is better for mass bulk designing.

The other (and more common) method for placing images onto the shirt would be "Heat pressing", which includes inks being placed onto paper, which is then heated up and pressed to the shirt to place the image onto the shirt. This is quicker than screening printing due to only one image having to be placed onto the shirt. The main con of this method however, is that it is less effective on darker shirts, so the cloth I would use for the Fareham byte shirt would most likely have to be white, or a light grey for the most effective use of this printing method.


Brainstorm:
Considering the shirt is for Fareham byte (which is on the topic of video gaming/computing) I was thinking about including mainstream gaming themes, as well as potentially including the logo for the Fareham byte convention (a pink mans head with blonde hair and sunglasses). I would include bright colours and interesting arcade type text, as I feel like this would suit the theme of the convention.

For images included, I would likely go with the gaming themes and potentially include images of pacman, Mario, and other well known gaming icons. This would work well as the convention is going to be attended by a younger audience, who may not understand some of the more niche references into gaming culture. I may also include well known memes, such as nyan cat or flappy bird, as these will be instantly recognisable

If the shirt were to be printed, I would most likely go for a white shirt using the heat pressing method, as I feel like this would be the most effective way of printing the shirt with the designs I have in mind.

Initial ideas:

Evaluation of initial ideas:
These initial ideas were colourful and interesting, but I found that my peers thought that there may be some copyright concerns. I justified my usage of the themes by mentioning that it would be allowed under the fair dealings law (educational exemption).

Developed ideas:

Evaluation of developed ideas:
After taking in the thoughts of my peers, I created a few variations of the most popular design. It was a common opinion that the shirt did not encompass both the themes of "Mega Mecha" and "Fareham Byte". This was important because the entire reason the shirt is being created is for the advertisement of these.

as can be seen, I experimented with different colour text, as well as the placement of the Mega Mecha head. My peers (as well as myself) preferred these designs to the others, due to the obvious nature of the shirt, as well as having an interesting colour scheme. I decided to stick with the "Nyan" styled background, as I felt this would help recognition in the younger audience (as Fareham Byte will be attended by predominantly secondary school children.

With that in mind, my final design is shown below. It mentions both of the themes that the shirt is created for (in text) as well as having Mega Mechas head in the middle of the shirt. I've taken inspiration from band tee's, with the text and logo on the front, but leaving the back of the shirt blank (apart from the background, of course).

Final Idea:

Evaluation of process:
I found using a development process useful in this project for a few reasons. firstly, when I created a design, I could have my peers give me feedback on it. This is useful because I'm not always able to see the design from a perspective other than my own, so external input and opinion can be extremely useful. An example of that was when my peers mentioned that there could be potential copyright issues, which I had not fully considered the extent of. I was thusly able to change the design to be more suitable.

Chess piece ideas

Brief, brainstorm and research:
I have been working on the "Rook" for a chess set. I designed some ideas for the piece, using themes that the rest of my group and I had decided on. With influences from "Shadow of the colossus" and Ragnarok from "World of Warcraft", we decided on themes of earth and stone, going for a more natural/fantasy look to our pieces. With that in mind, I drafted the below ideas:

(Top) left: This design takes the base from the original rook piece, but adds spider type legs and a floating eye atop. This gives it a menacing fantasy look. The piece is also weathered, with parts of the bod being broken off (the top of the rook).

(Top) second along from left: The draft takes most of the body of the rook, but changing it to look like the rook is wearing a plate Armour robe. The top of the rook is also damaged, giving it the impression of being naturally worn. There are also vines around both the rook and the shield he is carrying. This drawing is a defensive look for the rook.

(Top) third along from left: Going for a more traditional design, this drawing takes the main base of the rook, but adds a castle-like staircase sprawling around it. This design is also a personified version of a castle, with the face being a small outpost. He is also wielding a weapon, giving the impression that this design is more of an offense rook than the previous.

(Top) right: Using a the silhouette technique to create this design, it is a monster of the vines, having spider legs (much asimilar to the first image) and wielding a small dagger. This is (in my opinion) the most menacing of the designs, and also my favorite.

(Bottom) left: This design brings in the themes of trees and trents. It is a defensive looking piece, with the creature being made of planks and wood. He's wearing a mask to hide his face, further giving the impression of a defensive piece.

(Bottom) right: Using the rook design as the head of the kaiju, this design is a humanoid type, with a hand that has a sword directly attached to it. It is missing an arm, giving the impression of having been alive for a fair while. It is also in a hunched position, hinting at it potentially being conjured by magic that wasn't entirely successful.

Further designs: After some peer feedback, I created a new design that included some colour and shading(green). This is shown below.

This was my second (and final) further designed idea. I really enjoyed the first design of the rook, and decided that I wanted to improve and further stylise it. I removed one of his arms to give him a more worn look, and added further colour and shading. The design is shown below:

Below is an image of the sword that the rook will be holding, facing downwards (left and right side):

Piece ideas (PNG):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzkcEokJmqAoZ1RvVTA3MmxXTWM/edit?usp=sharing


Evaluation:
During this all I learnt a few things. Firstly, I began to understand how having different stages of  creation could aid in the process of making a good design. I learnt that by evaluating my designs at each stage of the process, I was able to see both the positives and the negatives of my ideas, allowing my to change them for the better at an earlier point, rather than having to back once completed and make amends.

I also improved my silhouette drawing skills, making deep colour sketches which I then highlighted with lighter colours. I am going to continue to attempt to improve these skills.

Mega Mecha Marquee development process (P4,P5)

Final design (PNG):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzkcEokJmqAoaEFfblFUNWlnaHc/edit?usp=sharing
Final design (JPEG):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzkcEokJmqAoOEd4cmNMSDJZdTA/edit?usp=sharing
Development report (PDF):
 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzkcEokJmqAoN1oyX1hsaDlHbWs/edit?usp=sharing

This image is to be placed on the marquee area of the arcade machine. To begin with, I looked for a font that would suit the style of the game, as well as the marquee. I found a font that I had previously installed, named "8 Bit wonder". This font gives off retro vibes, and feels suitable for being on an arcade machine.

Font used for the image

I then used the image from one of my previously made posters to create the background of my image.

Poster image

I resized the image so that it would fit the area of the marquee (which was 74x23CM, width and height respectively.) Then adding text and effects to make it seem like the text was in a blast. I referenced other arcade marquees from older retro fighting games to help create the text and image style. My first design can be seen below.

First design

After I had reached this design, I decided to get some peer review. I did this by communicating with one of my study colleges (name removed for privacy), asking his opinion on my first design, his response was as such:

Peer feedback

I agreed with his viewpoint, and thusly made some modifications to the image, darkening the corners, as well as slightly moving the text position to make it more centered. The modified image is shown below:

Second design

despite making the modifications to the image, I still did not believe it to be striking enough. Although arcade machines predominantly feature blue colour scheme marquees, I did find some interesting red marquees, (such as the one shown, an early Nintendo machine) so I felt that I would be able to pull it off, and thusly decided to experiment with changing the colour of the background to a deep red.

Machine with red colour scheme

I found this (the design shown below) the most aesthetically pleasing version, and have decided to use this as the marquee for the arcade machine. This is mainly because the contrast in colour between the text and image creates a striking definition, as well as the red having battle and anger connotations.

Final design

Copyright report (P6)

Copyright:

This is type of “Intellectual property” (An idea or plan). Copyright a concept that holds importance in legal terms, giving rights to the author of any creative works. It allows them the ability to decide how the work is copied, used or distributed, and who is allowed to work with it. Copyright is extremely important for the creators of work, as it gives them ownership of that work, and defends them from people using their work for gain without their permission. Without copyright, someone could simply take someone’s creative work and sell it for profit, with the creator of that work receiving no payment from it. When work is used by others under copyright, it is usually a requirement to reference that the work is created by the author.

Copyright in global terms:

Most countries recognise some form of copyright, though there are differences, and example would be that in the USA, education is a complete exemption from copyright (as long as the work is not used for commercial purposes), whereas in the UK, there are more rules about how the work is used for educational purposes. Copyright will last for the lifetime of the creator, and then seventy years after their death. Once this period has expired, however, the work loses copyright and can be used freely. Another difference between countries is that in the UK, copyright is non-transferable, whereas in the USA, it is. There is no international copyright law, though there is a treaty signed by over 160 countries that defines the minimum levels of copyright law allowed in the country. The centre for copyright clearance mentions some of the standards that are set by the treaty:

“The right to be identified as the author of a work, the right of integrity (that is, the right to forbid alteration, mutilation or distortion of the work), and the right of first divulgation (that is, making public) of the work.”

 Copyright permissions:

To be able to use copyrighted material (if what you wish to do with the work does not fall under and relevant copyright exemptions), permission must be gained from the author. Firstly, it will be necessary to find and contact the creator of the work, and this is usually quite easy, as most copyrighted works will have a link to the author’s details on the work, and if that is not there, usually searching the web for the name of the creative work will bring up details of the author. To actually ask for permission, there are a few different ways to create a license for using that work. This can be done verbally, electronically, or by written agreement, though the first option is not always advisable due to the fact that there is likely to be no objective recording of the agreement, so it would be hard to prove there was an agreement should the matter go to court. Some creative works are “Copyright free”, though this does not free in the traditional sense. This means that either the copyright has expired, or the author has decided to remove their own entitlement to enforce the copyright.

 Copyright exemptions:

This legal concept does have exemptions for certain usages and circumstances. One of these would be if the work is understood to be involved in “Current events”. A couple of simple examples of this would be a part of a movie being shown by a news program, or a piece of art that is of importance at the time being shown. This also ties in with critique and review, which is another exemption to copyright. This means that the work can be shown and used if it is being reviewed or critiqued (which is generally accepted to mean that they are showing the work to explain their opinion of it). This exemption does have limitations however, and an example of this would be that streaming a whole movie on YouTube for “The purposes of review” would not be considered a valid defence.

Parody is also another well-known defence. It means that if you are making a work that is meant to be based on or mock the other work for humour, they cannot claim you are breaching their copyright. This does not cover works that are so similar from the original that they cannot be differentiated, however. An issue with parody copyright however, is that it is subjective and affected by culture, so parody laws can vary greatly from country to country, or dependant on what religion or social norms are in the area.

As mentioned previously, education is one of the exemptions from copyright, though how much defence it will give can differ from country to country, however it’s not often in a business’s best interests to be chasing educational facilities for non-profit usages of their copyright, although colleges will often clamp down hard on those who use copyrighted material without referencing the author correctly, as this can be seen as plagiarism.
A useful exception to the copyright law is that it is legal to create altered versions for those less able to sense the creative work without the owners express permission. This means that braille or larger versions for those with vision difficulties can be created without a long legal process, meaning more people can have access to creative works.

Copyright limitations and prohibitions:

There are limits to copyright usages, however. They will not cover concepts and base technologies, as that is covered by patent law and the law for items such as the recognisable designs of cars are dictated by registered design. As previously mentioned, in the UK copyright cannot be bought, so it can be a limitation for businesses that would like to own intellectual property, instead having to buy rights or licenses to use that work, which can be problematic should there be issues with the author of the work.

Copyright permissions e-mail:

I found an image that I wished to use for my game media from a designer named “Sam Stringer”. In line with appropriate copyright laws (and because I was not able to exclude myself under any reasonable exemptions), I e-mailed him to gain permission to use his creative work. The E-mail I sent is shown below.

As can be seen, I sent a polite and professional e-mail to ask for permission, but unfortunately received the reply seen below, which declined my enquiry about permission to use the image. Under copyright law, I am now unable to use the image.

Bibliography:

http://www.copyright.com/content/cc3/en/toolbar/education/get-the-facts/global_copyright.html

Mega Mecha logo development process (P4,P5)

Logo development process (PDF):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzkcEokJmqAoZ3MydndENzlvSVE/edit?usp=sharing

Final "Mega Mecha" logo (JPEG):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzkcEokJmqAob2w5TVFjWER2UFk/edit?usp=sharing

The development process document is posted below also:

Logo development

“Mega Mecha Throwdown”

The game that I am creating includes a robot, which fights a large kaiju in a busy city, so I wanted my first logo ideas to reflect this. With that in mind, I designed this set of logos in Adobe Illustrator:

Initial logo ideas

As can be seen, the first set mentions the name of the robot, “Mega Mecha”, in different colour schemes. The next three are the head of the robot, and the final three are different aspects of the game (head, fist and building) with the name of the robot inside of the items. I then received feedback from my peers on these first logo ideas, as shown below:

Peer feedback

One of my peers (Marcus H) explained what the audience was likely to feel, which helped me choose the logo type I was going to take further in the production process. I thusly chose the robot face logo type to take forward.

To get further information on exactly what opinions were on my logo, I designed a questionnaire relating to my logos in “Google forms”, and then posted it for my peers to fill out. The form I designed is partially shown below:

As can be seen, questions to work out whether the response was from the target audience (as specified in the game design brief) such as age and gender were placed at the start of the document, then going on to questions to gauge the opinions of the respondent. These questions included asking about how visually appealing the logo was, their thoughts about the colour scheme, and which logo they preferred from the set.

After receiving enough responses, I created an info-graphic to present my findings. I used a mix of writing and visual representation to show the percentage distribution of the responses. This is shown below:

Infographic

The info-graphic helps present some interesting findings, although points out the problem with receiving anonymous forms, in that the responses can sometimes be falsified (It is not possible that anyone replying to the form was 70+, let alone 29% of the responses). 

The responses I received from the form helped me choose the final logo that I will be using for my game, which is the coloured robot face.  This is partially because around 57% preferred that logo to the black and white one, though using the coloured one does mean that the logo could have more issues with scalability. I also decided to stick with this logo because 86% thought that the logo gave away that the game was about robots, which is what I was going for. The final logo I have chosen is shown below.

Final logo

Mecha mecha logo feedback form and results infographic (P5)

Form for logo feedback:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1JkStTnuSbIFAgUVbA_gVAo-wrRnsgdt050NDgPiszOk/viewform


Mega mecha feedback response infographic:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzkcEokJmqAoRk44RnlvMUF0UHc/edit?usp=sharing