Friday 21 December 2012

Yuki's Memoirs Evaluation (Charlie)

Yuki's Memoirs Evaluation (Charlie)
 
Evaluating Eillisha’s Storyboard
Wow! Immediately after looking at Eillisha’s first part to her storyboard, I was very interested in her style of drawing and art work. It’s a very classical, yet unique approach to a comic strip- like appetence, so the unique factor of her work and her style really comes across as professional, and I am very impressed. Even though it doesn’t have much colour, her style makes up for it, but yet I think that her decision to not include colour was very wise as I think it would of made things look a bit messy and confusing. So overall, her art work and interpretation is very well executed, and I would say it’s professional.
The storyboard itself follows a story that Eillisha created a while back, so I already had a bit of background knowledge of what was going on, which benefited me a little bit while reading her storyboard, as it’s a very complex story with many different words which sound familiar, but I already knew what was going on. The particular part of the story you chose to include in your storyboard was very easy to grasp. It wasn’t a very hard plot to understand, simple and an enjoyable read. However I did have some confusion at first because some of the sentences didn’t link up correctly and sounded wrong. But then I realised you had to read it Right>Left which is another nice unique touch you decide to add, however for a few minutes I found myself a bit confused until I realised it was designed in this specific way. But overall, I love the design of the art work, the simplicity, the close up shots you did of some of the wolves, your use of dialog in the storyboard helped me interpret it a lot, so yes- another successful work you should be proud of! Well done!
Feedback received by:
Charlie Cammack


Yuki's Memoirs Evaluation (Me)

Yuki's Memoirs Evaluation (Me)
 
Before I started Confetti I had already drawn a story board for when I had the time to animate Elemental Wolves and that’s how I would usually oragnise my boards. However I didn’t realise I had to structure my storyboard by the comic strip template which I had chosen a manga style as beforehand I’ve tried crating my own manga. So instead I focused it more or a manga book than I did a storyboard to be honest. It leads onto the second mock scene where the reader will come across Yuki’s past and his parent’s death.
I didn’t have a lot of time to do this storyboard because a few other assignments had taken a lot of time, as well as the two mock scenes because I wanted to be perfect. However I did finally enjoy drawing my characters in a proper situation that’s going to happen in the story at some point and letting loose my imaginations go. The first page I felt particularly proud of when introducing Shay as before I found it difficult to draw an older wolf compared to a cub, plus I felt when drawing their bodies they seemed ok and looked right. Personally I felt everything seemed to be ok when I was sketching this out but sometimes I don’t take a break from pieces and try to finish them, which results in me ruining my work.


Pages 1 and 4 seemed to be my best in my opinion.

Inking over the sketch lines was annoying and depressing at some points because they were rushed, I didn’t want to pour a lot on the background because, it might take the view away from the main characters as well as being time consuming. In few parts I had made errors with the ink resulting in prominent thick lines and even after inking the bodies or facial expressions it didn’t look right either.
 
 
 
This is page 3 and to me it’s the worst, the bodies of the wolves and Hiro don’t look great because I started to get annoyed at this point with my inking.



Yuki's Memoirs (Elemental Wolves) Manga Strip

Yuki's Memoirs (Elemental Wolves) Manga Strip
 
This was again for the Improving Productivity assignment as we had to create a storyboard in the style of our chosen comic template. I decided to do a manga style so this leads up to my second mock scene.
 
Remember folks you read manga right to left and these pieces are copyright protected
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Mock Scene Evaluations (Charlie)

Mock Scene Evaluations (Charlie)
 



Evaluating Eillisha Mock scene
Immediately, my response to Eillisha’s mock scene was that it was a very impressive piece of artwork. The colours blend into each other very nicely, especially in the background. Her choice of colours brings out certain parts of the image, for example- The light blue background makes the fire on one of the horses look more intense, which makes it very good. The images she chose to use in the foreground have a cartoonist design which suits the background well, and the contrast of colours works nicely. My favourite thing about Ellisha’s mock scene is the background. The reason behind this is because I am drawn to the blending of the white and light blue which looks really professional.
My one criticism of the work is the horses (to the right) feet. One of its feet looks out of place, it looks as if its missing a hoof, and it just looks unprofessional. Despite this, an amazing piece of work you should be really proud of!
Feedback by:
Charlie Cammack



 
 
Evaluating Eillisha’s mock scene
From this artwork, I have realised that Eillisha can produce an amazing piece of art work, quite easily. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen Eillisha produce a stunning work of art, but in this case it’s my favourite. Despite the fact I’m not a fan of blood, in this picture I find myself drawn to the pile of blood underneath the wolf corpse and on his neck. I think you got the colour tone just right for the blood, and I love the contrast of red grey and black you have in the blood. It makes it look very realistic and suits the picture’s style as whole really well. The blurred background adds to the intensity of the corpse and makes us focus on the more important parts of the picture, as sometimes we can get distracted by the background, but not in this case. It makes us focus on the facial expression of the animal towards the top of the picture. The expression on this face is very evocative and emotive, especially in their eyes. So you have done this very well, and paid attention to detail. I can’t see anything to fault in this art work, it’s amazing! I am very impressed and it was a pleasure reviewing your mock scene!
Feedback received by Charlie Cammack
 
 

Mock Scene Evaluation (Me)


Mock Scene Evaluation (Me)
 


I based my first mock scene around Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess as it’s currently what I’m playing now and enjoying, as well as Darksiders which I hope to one day play; plus it’s supposed to be a darker version of Zelda franchise.

War and Ruin from Darksiders are the main protagonists and in this scene are going against Link and Epona who’re also main protagonists. In my current story Elemental Wolves I plan for the protagonist Faith to ride Yangxin during some courses of the game, resulting in her having to do combat with swords or the art of Yabusame when riding against the antagonist forces; hence why in this picture both protagonists are riding on their mounts with weapons.

When designing this picture it took a long time to complete for several reasons. One of them being my laptop would sometimes freeze Photoshop and forces it to close down, so because there’s no auto save I would sometimes have to start again.  War had taken me two days because I was trying to perfect the shadows and the light tones on the armour which was very time consuming, then Ruin’s fire was another challenge in itself. Basically I had to keep on layering different tones of orange, red and yellows using the opacity without making it seem to dark or not ‘flowing’ like fire should and to not become too dependent on premade brushes.

Link and Epona on the other hand was a nightmare itself. I changed their pose twice because the first one Link’s anatomy didn’t seem correct and neither did his riding pose. Plus he looked more like an anorexic twig than a teenage boy. Epona’s anatomy wasn’t correct either, I found the front of her was correct with maybe her front two legs being a little too long, whilst her back end was very short and she had a massive lump for muscle. Plus the saddle straps weren’t in the correct place either.

When I finally got the characters completed my main idea for the backdrop was a volcanic place where larva and fire was erupting from different places. I quickly decided against this I thought it would distract the public’s eye away from the protagonists and Ruin’s fire wouldn’t be exaggerated to a certain extent, which I chose a darker backdrop.

What I did I like about this piece is the initial idea of the poses and the colouring of the art, despite it being a pain. In my opinion I also feel this is what I’ve improved on the most because I despise colouring my images in and it’s what I’ve been working on to improve. Before I started taking the shadowing and light tones seriously with the colouring my idea would be to put simple blocks of colour on an image keeping the opacity level at 100% and smudging the colours together. Finally I started messing around with opacity levels when designing horses for Deviant Art competitions and it seemed to look a lot better.
 
 
 
 
These pictures are my recent entries on Deviant Art. The green and white Arabian horse was an art trade I made someone and the left was a horse for my imaginary equestrian centre on Deviant Art known as Spirited Wings EC
I must admit I do prefer to draw night or late afternoons for backdrops.
Other than that there’s still quite a bit to improve on my cutting away at the shadows more delicately.
 
 
 

 

Mock Scenes

 
Mock Scenes
 
During our Improving Productivity Assignment,  had to create two mock scenes which will resemble something in our game. The idea at first was to use other characters from different games so a lot of people completed this using photomanipulation, however I wanted to push it further and draw my favourite characters.
 
In the first mock scene I drew War riding Ruin from Darksiders against Link riding Epona from the Legend Of Zelda. This mock scene resembles mounted combat in my game.




For my second mock scene I asked my teacher if I was allowed to use my own characters from Elemental Wolves, she agreed to this so I decided to draw a scene involving Yuki's past and the death of his parents Shay and Kida.

My Evaluations for Charlie

My Evaluations for Charlie
 
At Confetti we were given a number that will pair us up with our evaluation partners for life. My evaluation partner is Charlie Cammack who has recetly been assessing my work throughout our Improving Productivity Assignment.
 
I did evaluate his comic strip however that publication is on college's computer so in this post I'll be posting my evaluations on his mock scene and storyboard.
 
 
Mock Scene
At first I thought Charlie was having a joke by saying this was his because it looks amazing and completely real, something you would find to advertise a James Bond movie. Charlie really out done himself on this piece especially for photo manipulation processes as they’re really hard to contain multiple images from different pieces, onto one image and make them all look as though they belong there.
Ok with each image I can see it’s been cut out quite neatly from its original picture using the softer brush to make the image look as though it blends into the background- job well done! What I would suggest is maybe make sure you don’t go over the edges and into the actual image, if it helps use the magic wand tool.
Your shadowing is truly amazing and fits the image brilliantly and doesn’t look messy which is what you need and by the looks of it, you created the mist on a separate layer to shroud the city which is completely brilliant! However on the parachute instead of it being all black let a bit of the sides have some colour because the light would slightly get to that.
The typography in the corner is good and fits well with the theme being a secret mission/ war game. It doesn’t take away any focus from the main imaes but sets the mood for the audience- hence why I thought this was a real picture used to advertise a James Bond movie.
In my opinon I think you’ve done an amazing job Charlie, and you should be very proud of this piece as it looks perfectly real.
Evaluated by Eillisha Buccheri GS12-1
 
 
Storyboard
Charlie’s imagination shone through this piece as well as his effective Photoshop skills of blending colours and using different brush tools for the grass and fire. For the backdrop colours you can see he’s used the tone tool for this picking colours that will peacefully blend together to make a night or day backdrop without using too many colours. Another good thing is he seems to have a steady hand when using Bamboo Tablet software which is essential for digital art.
However the fires could be a little more effective by using different tones of oranges, reds and yellows and changing the opacity levels, or by easily using cloud brushes if you don’t feel comfortable with opacity. For keeping the line art on show so it’s possibly easier to colour the images in, draw the line art on one layer and place the entire colour on a layer underneath.
 
From the looks of this it seems to be an interesting story and I can slightly grasp what’s happening, however I think if more time was spent on it and some speech was added readers would be able to understand fully what’s going on.
Evaluated by Eillisha Buccheri (GS12-1)



Improving Productivity Using IT Assignment

Improving Productivity Using IT Assignment
 
 
Task 1
The creative industry includes various subject in which many people enjoy working in whilst public spectators love to indulge in. However in some aspects such as gaming, animation, film and music it can be difficult to generate a good amount of productivity without the use of technology, meaning it’s more time consuming and stressful which is the main factor companies and studios try effortlessly to avoid.
High-tech soft wares are commonly used in these industries who share similar reasons as to using those programs. For example Adobe Photoshop is used to create realistic digitalised images using different style brushes, effects, tools for maybe initial designs for characters, storyboards, backdrops in gaming and animation. It can also be used for photography where people can photo manipulate images, render them, spot deflect and mix images together once again in Photoshop. For the fashion industry people (like the game developers and artists) use this amazing program to draw their ideas of clothes in a realistic fashion so they get a wider perspective on how their clothes will look in real life, this then makes it easier for machinists when they come to produce the clothes.
 Having something like Adobe Photoshop, it saves people on continuously using paper to supply their ideas (economically brilliant), allows people to save the work done so it doesn’t get lost, can get sent to where it needs to go via email (quicker than the post, saving money) If one was to accidentally ruin their work unwillingly the damage can be reverted with Ctrl+ Alt +Z allowing people to reproduce the image to the best they possibly can. Even though this program is expensive it’s cheaper in the long run and less time-consuming, because having to supply each worker with correct art supplies is a fortune in itself and people are bound to make mistakes on drawing their ideas, thus adding more pressure, stress and time on making the product perfect.
“If you have never seen Photoshop, you’ve missed one of those glorious rare moments when software approaches perfection. Adobe is humble about Photoshop, calling it a ‘photo design and production tool,’ but no one who’s used Photoshop is so reserved.”
 – Quoted from Kevin Conner, Byte Magazine
 
 
Maya and 3D Max is well known for their 3D modelling features for game and animation industries. It means that realistic models can be made on these soft wares making it easier for those who work in this part of the industry. Imagine making a model out of clay or cardboard and somehow it gets ruined by fellow worker, in the post or even by you. Like Photoshop your work can be saved and transported around the internet freely and even free of charge.
 
“From Autodesk: Maya software is a powerful integrated 3D modeling, animation, effects, and rendering solution. Maya also adds to the quality and realism of 2D graphics. That's why film and video artists, game developers, visualization professionals, Web and print designers turn to Maya to realize their creative vision”
-          Quoted from Unknown Author On CNET Download (Maya Reviews)

Now in the filming industry they need software that permits those to edit clips, render them with special effects like ‘lightning flare/lens’ , transitions, credits/titles/subtitles and the use of bring in music without it being abrupt to the viewers during the film- Sony Vegas Pro is a great example of this.

“Sony Creative Software’s Vegas Pro 9 is an innovative, Windows-only non-linear edit system (NLE) that has really exploded in recent years on the market. Fully featured, the system also includes excellent built-in tools for audio editing, graphics and titling, DVD and Blu-ray authoring, and more. Along with ease-of-use and an affordable price, Vegas Pro 9 moves up to earn the TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award on our list of video production software reviews.”
-          Quoted from Unknown Author on Top 10 Reviews (Sony Vegas Pro 9)
However secretaries and assistant managers, producers ect will need a program like Excel and Word to keep track of the company’s finances, schedules, deadlines and meetings. Word and Excel offer again save and redo modes same as every other program, yet it offers a feature called: Spell Check which corrects grammatical errors in people’s offering them a digital dictionary/ thesaurus with the right-click of a mouse.
By knocking back the visual mechanics of its spreadsheet, Microsoft has made it far easier to concentrate on your work area, which now has far greater prominence. Even the sheet tabs, which are coloured with a subtle bevel, feel more functional rather than being ugly blocks on the bottom of your pages. Excel 2013 makes it very easy to integrate data thanks to support for a broad range of data types, including XML and MySQL, the latter of which can be drawn from live database tables. If you need to import data from a website -- perhaps where it's been published in a table -- you can draw it in directly by clicking the relevant data within Office's integrated browser.
This was a little hit and miss in my tests and it was always easier to select more than I wanted, but at least you can then go on to strip out what you don't want. Grabbing less than you needed would have been more problematic. Novice users will welcome the ease with which you can now find your way around Excel and manipulate your data. The improved ribbon gives direct access to all of the application's common formulae. By breaking them down into colour-coded lists, it's made them easier to find too.
The real boon though is the appearance of the smart analysis tool, which pops up when you select a range of data on the active sheet. This presents relevant formatting options for the selected data in a floating panel.
Dragging your mouse across the various options, which include heat maps, data bars and sparklines, lets you preview in an instant how the results can be presented in a graphical manner, without committing to any one of them. If you need to go further and render them as a full-blown chart, clicking to the Charts tab gives live previews of each chart style in a floating bubble. The value of this tool alone in making data analysis more approachable and less complex can't be overstated"
-          Quoted from Nik Rawlinson on CNET
 
 
With all these different programs to aid us and our work in the creative industry sector, it allows people to actually enjoy their work rather than feel as though it’s a chore. Having this on board it gets people motivated to bring imaginations and dreams to life- thus increasing productivity and better enjoyment from the public spectre. Quotes above indicate how one program can ebb away the extra hours, stress and even health problems, regarding some of the creative subjects, because technology has advanced so much so little time.
Pre-production is where people design/ create and think about all the aspects of what to do, which will lead to the development of the final product for companies. In the gaming world and other subjects initial concepts (characters), storyboards, story drafts, financial work, the style of art used, script writers and much more; all of this is then sent to the developers (in games) who put everything into place with a given brief.
“Every game begins with a story. Often story ideas come from game designers themselves or are pitched by outsiders, but increasingly they are based on other forms of entertainment like popular movies. Other common sources are sequels or spin offs of existing games and simulations of real-world events.
Once the basic game concept is decided upon, writers and artists work together on a storyboard. A storyboard consists of rough sketches and technical instructions sequentially organized to depict each scene of the game. It is a visual representation of the story and a reference for the writers, artists and designers just as it would be for a film. But while a film has a single storyline, a video game can have thousands of outcomes. Therefore various levels, or "worlds," of the game must be sketched out.”
-          Quoted from The Video Game Revolution
Mentioned above it tells us about how games start off as a story eventually developing into something more with the concept of using pre-production methods. It proves that everything is always planned first before any action is taken into producing a product for a certain target audience- this also does touch upon morals and ethics when designing a game.
 
In the first section of ‘Task 1’ I noted a few of the programs game production teams use, during the course of game development from start to finish. I mentioned:
Ø  Adobe Photoshop- used a lot for initial concepts, 2D graphics and maybe some 2D animation. SAI Paint Tool, Paint. Net and Art Range are also good examples of this and share similar traits to Photoshop. Another good animation program which might be used is Adobe Flash- this concentrates purely and simply on animation giving the creators every chance to make their motion picture move fluently during the course of 25 frames per second.
Ø  Maya – creates 3D polygonal objects that can be animated or rendered to suit a realistic gaming and art style. Other examples of similar programs are 3D Max, City Engine and Electric Image Animation System.
Ø  Sony Vegas- this may not be used in the production of games but in other places it might be used to piece together animations, adding music, transitions and effects just like Windows Movie Maker.
To make sure that the production of a game is at its best, workers must be skilled in a number of things to help their company succeed in publishing the merchandise. These skills could be:
ü   Good imagination
ü  Sociable and team players
ü  Able to meet deadlines
ü  Work quickly
ü  Happy to do extra hours
ü  Artistic skills
ü  Take criticism
Task 2
Imagine that you’ve spent hours, weeks, months and even years crafting a piece of artwork like a model using clay , cardboard or wire when out of the blue one of your colleagues accidently ruins your model by knocking it over- then what? At least if you were to model on software like Maya there would be no problem in continuously saving your work, meaning if any harm came to your project either by yourself, someone else or computer, the original file can easily be brought back up and saved on the web, email, memory stick or black CDs.
Having the option of saving work on various places as back up creates a security for people, so that they know their work is safe from harm, being lost or stolen (if copyright is set up) rather than using traditional methods like pen and paper to jot down the ideas needed during pre-production. Another good thing about using IT is allowing people’s imaginations to come to life in the gaming industry because technology has advanced in recent year’s software such as Photoshop and Maya, again, permit workers to engage in this theory creating an accurate perspective of what their dream game or world looks like to the open public- gaining furthermore credit, glory and riches to suit the company’s benefit.
Finally another perspective of using IT for pre-production is it’s slightly more eco-friendly because not as many trees will be chopped down in order to supply numerous types of paper and card across the globe. Sustaining the thought, the use of chemicals and transport to first bleach the paper (making it white) and then transporting it around the world using fossil fuel for gas and oil will also decrease in turn, reducing air and water pollution which damages the ozone layer and in some places creating a harmful compound known as Sulphur Dioxide that creates acid rain. So the use of a computer can ‘throw all this out the window’ and have the use of electricity rather than all the pollution cause by paper and its transportation.
Before any action is taken a brief must be made about what the game is going to be about and include. This could cover character’s descriptions and roles as well, meaning that legal and regulatory issues should be taken into consideration before any designing or production starts.
Regulatory Issues
Different rating groups protect different game companies. Some are known as PEGI and others are ESRB. The main purpose of these companies is to ensure the games are correctly rated so that the public know what they’re going to witness during game play and what to buy for children or even adults by looking at the rating. In ESRB their rating system is:
-          EC (Early Childhood)
-          E (Everyone) 6 years+
-          E 10+ (Everyone 10 years+)
-          T (Teenagers) 13 years+
-          M (Mature) 17 years+
-          AO (Adults Only) 18 years +
-          RP (Rating Pending)
-          K-A (Kids To Adults) 6 years+
Having systems similar to these help the public and also guide game makers on what should be included in their game. For example, if the target audience for a certain game was to be kept at an ‘E’ rating, there shouldn’t be any drug use, gambling or sexual content whereas that would appear in ratings such as :M, AO and maybe RP.
PEGI also uses ratings identical to these but they also show images about why the rating is what it is. There are:
-          Fear (7,12,16,18 years)
-          Violence(7,12,16,18 years)
-          Bad Language (12,16,18 years)
-          Sex (12,16,18 years)
-          Drugs(16 and 18 years)
-          Gambling(12,16,18 years)
-          Discrimination(18 years)
-          Online (3,7,12,16,18 years)
Without thinking about these properly and wrongly classifying the age restrictions it could lead to suing not only a company like PEGI but the actual game company as well, sending them bankrupt and maybe banning them from ever making games again.
 
Ethics and Morales
Ethics and morals also play a big part when thinking about games because being careless about this situation could cause harm towards certain ethnic groups, causing danger for the gaming company in general leading to various lawsuits that can easily be avoided. However some games have been known to be ethically ‘dodgy’ in how they are creating/displaying the game.
For example in Resident Evil 5 the first trailer shown game footage of an American protagonist killing off African zombies which doesn’t seem that bad until you realise there’s no white African zombies at all, raising racist allegations from people across the globe who point out it’s not right that it’s just this colour that’s diseased by the virus and getting killed by a big muscle white American.
"There was a lot of imagery in that trailer that dovetailed with classic racist imagery”
-Quoted N’Gai Coral from Newsweek Editor
Eventually Capcom released another trailer showing a less racist side and also the protagonist’s assistant, Sheva. However this did not put the controversy to rest as more people found the game hadn’t been altered much still showing the hero killing just black zombies. Capcom argued back that the gaming team is diverse and that they can’t make everyone happy and they’re in the entertainment business - not to promote something political to the public. A lot of people agreed with statement saying it’s not racist and is in fact a good game.
Yet in a cut scene it’s shown a white woman being dragged by a black man who’s infected into his house, Eurogamer criticized it wasn’t ethically right because of black men being stereo typed as ‘rapists who come after girls’ during the time when America was going through Civil Rights. Japan isn’t educated much in this topic as they see nothing wrong with game nor thought about any ‘racist issues’ during the development which is, from their point of view understandable because they had nothing to do with the Civil Rights yet it doesn’t give them a clean slate either because they should researched any problems before development began so this controversy didn’t arise.
In my personal opinion after having watched two trailers and various game play that’s been recorded on Youtube I feel as though there is not an issue. Roles reversed if Chris Redfield was a different ‘coloured guy’ and he shot white zombies, only, there may be wouldn’t be as much as a big issue. On the other hand I’m not disputing that people who feel it is racist is wrong because it’s all personal opinions at the end of the day, those who see it’s not racist may not look or feel as though it is compared to those who feel it is.
Another ethically dodgy game is the newest Tomb Raider that will be released next year. It focuses on Lara Croft’s past events and how she’s developed to the person she is now. Having watched the trailer it shows Lara to be dependent on someone else coming to rescue her because clips show her nearly getting raped and having a slight mental breakdown, which antagonizes with her initial concept of being an independable  and indestructible (in a way) female heroine, that many female gamers empathize with and in some ways wish to be. Having seen these clips it makes some people feel as though Lara needs to depend on a man which is what the director said he wanted to do, so it can entice more male gamers to in a way to ‘protect’ Lara from danger yet annoying female gamers because to them it feels as though people are trying to say women couldn’t last or survive on their own, without something bad happening to them in past like rape or without a husband/ male protector. Therefore other females who think this way will no doubt not buy the game meaning that the Tomb Raider’s sale of the new game will not surpass older Tomb Raiders, thus turning the female target audience against future franchise.
“There's been a lot of negative reaction - people have been saying that she doesn't need be the survivor of an attempted rape, that using a male threat to make a female character There's been a lot of negative reaction - people have been saying that she doesn't need be the survivor of an attempted rape, that using a male threat to make a female character seem 'vulnerable' is highly sexist and that it's an exploitative tactic and what not.”
Quoted from ‘Macabre Magpie’s’ forum on Deadlock Truth
 
In conclusion I agree with what many other girl gamers believe and see from Tomb Raider: Reboot trailer and feel it is sexist and that it depicts women as a weaker species compared to the male rival. I think Square Einx, like Capcom, should alter the trailer and take out the possible rape scene during the capture of Lara Croft. If they do this I would feel happier about buying the game and playing instead of having a grudge against the producers for they think is acceptable.
 
Copyright Infringement and Plagiarism
Finally when designing the game it’s important to understand that the initial thoughts on when creating the brief for the designers is that it’s original and not a copy of someone else’s work, this stands for everything from brief to the producing of the game. Copyright protects people’s work from others who dares to commit plagiarism, meaning that there are people who try to steal the original work of someone else because they haven’t given credit to the original owner, or proclaim the work is theirs when it isn’t.
A recent example of this is the plot behind Assassin’s Creed III which is supposed to be released in North America on 30th October 2012 under the PS3 and Xbox 360, later being released on 18th of November as a Wii-U platform and the same for Europe but on the 30th of November. John L.Beiswenger, who’s a research engineer and sci-fi author, claims his book ‘Link’ shares various similarities as the game- insisting Ubisoft are ‘allegedly ripping off his novel’ . 
The book ‘Link’ explores an idea of memories recorded by an ancestor that eventually get brought to life only by using a special device known as: ‘Bio-synchronizer’. Another reason for the claim, made by plaintiff, is the book talks about assassins and assassinations which at one point in the novel, someone is trying to fit the pieces of the past together. Finally spiritual and biblical tones with references of Jesus, God, the Garden of Eden, forbidden fruit and a reliance on historical moments portrayed through ancestor’s memories all lead identical occurrences in Assassin’s Creed series.
"Ubisoft have directly copied, and directly and contributorily infringed on the whole of Plaintiff's copyrighted work" with the release of games, guides, comic book series and trailers”
Quoted from John L. Beiswenger
 
In addition to this Beiswenger is currently suing Ubisoft for nothing less than $1.05 million with an increasing sum to $5.25 million depending on the judge’s decision. Also he hopes to prevent the release of Assassin’s Creed III and all related franchise. If this works in his favour it will not only disappoint millions of fans across the world, but it will leave Ubisoft possibly bankrupt if one of their best-selling games were to crumble right before their eyes due to copyright infringement issues.
An additional case would be EA’s copy right infringement lawsuit against Zynga not so long ago. ‘The Ville’ created by Zynga allegedly shares identical reactions with EA’s ‘Sim Social’ game. Normally copyright issues are exceptionally rare because it could cost a gaming company everything they’ve worked for, sending them bankrupt and making the opposition richer and seem more ‘innocent’ to the public eye.
‘The [games] industry has developed a dysfunctional culture of copycattery’
Quoted by Prof. James Grimmelmann
Prof. James is correct in a way because the technology and the stories have developed that much in such a short space of time, people are running out of original ideas and are turning to features they’ve experienced in a game and enjoyed or just simply taking a lot of things from an older version of the game and tweaking a few bits. An example of this would be Pokemon (not Ranger, Link, Dash, Pokepark or Mystery Dungeon versions). From personal experience I’ve noticed each game starts the same, contains the same plot with the same goals and it became ominous as I grew up. The only things that change in that game is the character names and designs, regions and the extra 150 new Pokemon that appear every 2-3 years, leading me to go off the new versions and play ‘old-school’
However going back to the original topic this is way some people and wander unknowingly down the path of copyright. Under copyright law everyone if free to possibly copy a basic game concept as long as some details are altered during the development stage which is what Zynga did during the development of ‘The Ville’. However the EA complains that Zynga didn’t do enough to change some of the detail, and evidence has been shown of this, even though it’s minor identical details which don’t create a very strong complaint for EA.
However their plan is to create aggressive arguments about copyright law to fit legal beliefs to its facts. In the end it will either seek protection for its game concept-losing proposition under copyright law or if EA does make progress on that, the new legal precedent would undermine the current industry-standard practices about imitation. EA is no doubt going to argue that Zynga needed to change its execution further if they wanted to avoid infringement issues, on the other hand it will also mean EA have to work in more development when they want to imitate someone else’s game meaning the cost of development for them and Zynga will rise.
It is known however Zynga has built its business on imitating other people’s games meaning if EA did win this lawsuit; it will harm Zynga’s business significantly as well as eroding EA’s profits because they’re threatening to destabilize the current industry’s rules on imitation. In my eyes and other people’s it’s a battle Zynga can’t afford to lose and EA can’t afford to win.
In the end it’s believed that neither company will win with the case being settled on the outcome of Zynga making some low-cost changes and keeping their basic implementation, giving EA a certain victory, even though some believe when looking at the bigger picture about legitimacy and the boundaries of game imitation are not going to be resolved during this case.
Thus, the big-picture legal questions about the legitimacy and boundaries of game imitation are almost certainly not going to be resolved here.
 

Coloured comic pages mainly Marvel so serious and based around supernatural heroes in America.




               

-TMNT comic of the original turtles based in black and white, similar to marvel where 4 super heroes fight in NY for survival and pizza.

Garfield


 

-Garfield and others like Wallace and Gromit are found in newspapers and involve comedy pieces, so they’re not serious, more colourful and less shading than Marvel comics.



-Manga features black and white colouring, with big speech bubbles and different ways to show effects and lighting. The characters themselves also adopt a style as well being drawn in a similar way. Manga can be portrayed in two ways, normal and chibi. This features a page from Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) who rightly belongs to Yana Toboso

-A chibi styled manga (slightly chibi)


Improving Productivity Using IT Bibliography
 

Discalimer: I do not own any of the below and I agree that I’ve credited the pieces used in my assignment, giving the website address and the date/time of accessing this information.

Task 1

A


(Accessed: 29/09/12 at 17:20 for Adobe quote)


(Accessed: 29/09/12 at 18:14 for Maya quote)


(Accessed: 29/02/12 at 18:26 for Sony Vegas quote)


(Accessed: 29/09/12 at 19:46 for Office Excel quote)

B


(Accessed: 29/09/12 at 21:07 for pre-production quote)


(Accessed 29/09/12 at 21:50 for gaming soft wares)

 

Task 2

B

7.        


(Accessed 30/09/12) at 22:10pm for ESRB rating system)

 


(Accessed 30/09/12 at 22:51pm for PEGI guidelines)


(Accessed 03/10/12 at 20:17 for racist quote on Resident Evil 5)


(Accessed 03/10/12 at 20:34 for information on the controversy of Resident Evil 5)


(Accessed 03/10/12 at 21:29 for sexist quote on Tomb Raider: Reboot)


(Accessed on 04/10/12 at 10:33 for Assassin’s Creed release date)


(Accessed on 04/10/12 at 10:54 for Assassin’s Creed copyright infringement issues)


(Accessed on 04/10/12 at 11:36 for EA copyright claim on Zynga and Prof. John quote)

 

C

15.   http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=comic+pages&um=1&hl=en&biw=1920&bih=957&tbm=isch&tbnid=1PJ6577vckpjsM:&imgrefurl=http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/09/11/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-172/&docid=x4cB-uY5pm6HKM&imgurl=http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/991026-5.jpg&w=550&h=409&ei=R85lUK2XNafO0QWWk4DQBg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=449&vpy=149&dur=150&hovh=194&hovw=260&tx=206&ty=104&sig=116359102878740546683&page=1&tbnh=137&tbnw=180&start=0&ndsp=65&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0,i:74

(Accessed 04/10/12 at 12:04 for comic page)


(Accessed 04/10/12 at 12:05 for TMNT comic page)


(Accessed 04/10/12 at 12:06 for Garfield comic page)


(Accessed at 04/10/12 at 12:07 for Wallace and Gromit comic page)


(Accessed at 04/10/12 at 12:07 for Kuroshitsuji manga page)


(Accessed at 04/10/12 at 12:08 for chibi manga page)