Inspiration

Eboy:                                                                                                                                   26th Sep 2011


Eboy has defiantly brought pixel art into a current form such as Toys, Clothing, Books and many more. This is the link that has made me think about looking into Designer Toys and which again these are still forms of pixel art so i will be looking into creating a product based on this.

Pixel Art clothing

Eboy Isometric Pixel Art



Lego:                                                                                                                                     4th Oct 2011

I believe that lego is one of the best toys in the world i have always been fasinated with lego from a  very young age and know i can relate this to my Pixel art/Cube project. There are few points on which i believe makes Lego one of the best toys.
. It appeals to both Older and Younger audiences and part of this is due to combinding trends and popular culture with lego such as: Lego Star wars, Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Harry Potter, Lego Toy Story and many more.
. Encourages people to be creative not just by sticking to the instruuctions to make the next lego castle but being spontatious and creating their own characters from films and TV with the same pieces such as: Mario and sonic.
. It can also bring familys together such as when i was a lot younger i used to make things with my dad and grandad adn we both really enjoyed it. hopefully in the future ill be doign the same when i have kids...... not too soon tho!


                                                                 Lego Mario 2D and 3D

Cubeecraft:                                                                                                                          4th Oct 2011

I stumbled across the website and i think its amazing. these characters are based around a basic square pattern and are popular and well knowe into todays culture such as, Films, Music, Cartoons and Games. The most excting thing is that these are free.... Happy Days! These are very cute and can be turned into a series and this is exactly what i want to go into creating but in my own style. i preferbly want to look into a fluffy toy approach which has got a basic cube shape and has all the characteristics of the toy ive created eg: Top cat, Wolverine and many more.
. These have a cute look and something that grips you saying i want to make more and make a series out of them. ive always loved the idea of taking characters from pop culture and turning them into something new and unique and thats what i intend to do!


                                                        Cubbecraft pattern and famous characters 

Kidrobot:                                                                                                                               6th Oct 2011


These Art toys are a big inspiration to me i really love the way the characters are made of very simple shapes, The randomness which gives it that very mad and crazy image such as (Rabbits smoking, food with different facial expressions and many more) This website in particular gives me confidence to make something really wacky and exciting in my own style.

Simple shapes and designs based in a series  


Manchester Art Gallery:                                                                                                      9th Oct 2011


Soon as we walked in there was a lot of inspiration to what i was doing for my related subject, first i saw these isometric building drawings that had a cartoon feel and look to it, this wasn't even part of the exhibition it was on a notice board in withing the museum. These were some key buildings of Manchester like the football, and the Trafford Center. These straight away made me think of the Guild Rush Project for Preston and so these are the kind of drawings i could look into for the drawings for Preston's key buildings.


Isometric Key Buildings in Manchester

Manchester Art Gallery:

The next thing on route that caught was a set of keys and medals and i thought to myself of an idea of where you have lots of different badges and medals, from the war to a cowboy sheriff and these could possibly be made into a series of vinyl toys with faces and clothes on them.
Old Medals and Keys
Manchester Art Gallery:


As we went further round the gallery i cam across these old tiles with a painting on them and straight way this was relevant to Pixels and the thing that caught my attention the most was the fact that pixels are usually one colour but i wonder what it would be like to build a picture or part of a picture in each pixel, This could then take a whole other turn on creating pixels so this could be something to look into and develop.


Tile Work separated and as a whole image

Manchester Art Gallery:                                                                                           

In the upper galley there was mostly traditional paintings but one thing in particular drew my attention and that was to create a scene but in the evolution of pixels from the basics to the more complex, so kind of like a diorama which is 2D but the characters pop out.

Greek scene about the fighting and killing
Manchester Art Gallery:


Finally the last was a series of rectangles with faces on them and if you lift them up it has a few small models in  to show you what they were really like as a person. That's when more ideas rolled in so an idea to explore was, making characters of my own or characters that already exist and maybe you can open there chest or head to see memories or things that's close to them. Anyway just another idea that could be explored.


Greek/Roman Gods
Manchester Town Hall:                                                                                                        9th Oct 2011


When I entered the Town Hall i noticed the floors where made of mosaic tiles and i saw one of a bee and a style that i really liked and i thought to myself what would it be like to use them and go over the template with  3D blocks and this would be Pixel work crossed with 3D mosaics and these could again be made into a figures and even use the Pop Culture (Fan Art) to make memorable icons out of them.


Mosaics used as flooring


Manchester Street Art:                                                                                                        9th Oct 2011

On our way out we saw a random tile on the pavement and it was made into a mosaic with rainbow colours and i just loved the way for a split second it made what we were, so mywalking on look amazing and the fact we can make anything into art and that made me think of combining photography and pixel art and maybe look at creating pixel cars next to normal ones or a odd house in the street which is made out of cubes, this again is something else that i could look into.

Mosiac in bedded into the pavement
 Manchester People Museum:                                                                                        9th Oct 2011


In here one thing i saw was lots of old fashion coins laid out on a table and i thought of a perfect range of figures with simple shapes and that was using today's money, old money and other countries and make them into little coins with legs and faces with bits relating to that countries currency such as coin from France which has there hat on with the mustache and the black and blue top on etc.

Old Coins


Francisco Govea, Creator of Munny                                                                                 11th Oct 2011


Govea was a great inspiration to listen to, i listened to one of his interviews on how he created Munny and there was a few interesting facts on how he did it and how i could use his techniques or similar ones and put that in my work. the first one was to keep on researching to make your design stand out and have the characteristics stand out to the target audience, How he actually made it for instance, boiling the face to the clay to stick it together and the process and the process of sculpting, the biggest thing for me was the deisgn process and the way your design needs personality for the audience to make it likable.



Customizable Munny!




Boom Blox:                                                                                                                           1st Nov 2011


For my paper Toy template i got a lot of ideas from boom blox for the Wii and the characters were based as basic block shapes so again still keeping that Pixel feel but in a new form, i used this idea for creating my own IP.


Block characters but still have that cute look about them.
                                                                                                                  
Max & The Magic Marker:                                                                                               1st Nov 2011


I really love the idea of this where the player draws the obstacles, to avoid enemies and to get to progress further in the level either to get higher or to bounce or to collect an item this is the perfect idea of using the drawing as a mechanic within a game.

Using the mechanic to draw to avoid Hazards


                                                
Derrick the Deathfin:                                                                                                          1st Nov 2011

This is relevant to what I'm doing as this is the first game I'm aware of, where the entire game is made of paper toys and this is a scenario what i could go down trying while trying to find the full potential for my Design and idea. 

                                                   
                                                  Paper Toy characters within a Video game.

Wings of War:                                                                                                                  2nd Dec 2011

Wings of war is a board game that is based around Waorld War 2 planes and bombers. to cut the long story short their was a few mechancis within in this game that could help me produce my own possibly. such as movement cards where there is an arrow head on the base and you would place the cards in the direction you want to go. the other one was to have a range indicator, which will be measured from the base of the character and if hit they will lose life.


Wings of War board Game
SEMESTER 2
Box Knight:                                                                                                                         24th Jan 2012

One of the Big inspirations for the character design is a game called 'Box Knight' where the character is really basic nothing to complex but its the actual way its been painted and it has that likable factor about it. It also reminds me of having these little thing as collectors items. so it my eyes this is a great starting point for my new concept.


Box Knight Screen shot

Board Game Templates:                                                                                                    24th Jan 2012

I love the idea of creating my own board games that are printable and on the board itself will be basic mechanics such as a track, a start & finish, grids and many more. so here is a couple of examples of board game templates that i could possibly use within my ideas.


I could possibly use this track for a game but involve the spaces with themed things games or questions so this could be turned into an educational game and still be fun again just another thought. 


Lego: Creating Board Games                                                                                            24th Jan 2012

When  i stumbled across this it got my full attention straight away and again... i know more lego but this time with a twist. This was a new way of looking at the giant franchise. These games consist of the player creating the actual board, then the dice and eventually the characters. Once set up its time to play, so this has the brilliance of creating and playing and this has had a big impact on my creations and ideas and hopefully i want to follow a path similar to this within my own work.


Lego Creations


String augmented reality:                                                                                                   29th Jan 2012

This is one of the most amazing and bizarre things I've seen so far and the fact there is so much potential behind it. The first thing when seeing this was straight away, I could use this for "Pixel Me"  a brief run down of what it does, basically it recognizes framed images and understands where they are in 3D space. so it lets you see 3D graphics on top of a camera view and see them as if they are real. From this I could use the pixel me board game idea and have it like little animations jumping point to point on a virtual board and even holding a virtual dice would be so cool so with this at the moment is on the sidelines but would love this to be created into a real game idea that people can play. 

This is a Demo how it works and how light works with it.


Fun on the farm:                                                                                                                  29th Jan 2012

This is another board game that was brought to my attention the main objective on the game is to round all the animals up but its the mechanics behind it that a very creative such as; First of all the board is like a track so jumping space to space but instead of using a numbered dice, the use a colour coded one. so for your turn you have to land on the next blue space if your roll that. I also love the idea of having a mechanic instead of time limit you move the sun along the space for when it rises and when it sets. this is defiantly something i would love to include in my own project.

The full board game paper characters and track


Lugi's Mansion:                                                                                                                  30th Jan 2012

After some of the board game ideas I discussed, one in particular has such as zombies in an old house with downloadable, printable tiles and the characters go through different rooms avoiding the infected. any way top and bottom is this is more about the look and feel, even tho you would be drawing your own rooms and characters i really love the quirky cartoon corridors from "Lugi's Mansion". as development goes on i will probably try and start with this art style again just another idea.

The Freaky Corridors, Chunky look and feel

Rory's Story Cubes:                                                                                                           12th Feb 2012

This was my biggest inspiration for creating and developing "Squiggle Me" I first saw this in the airport and it was a travel game that you can buy that is aimed at a young target audience. First off all the game dice is replaced with pictures/images instead of numbers and i thought this was a brilliant yet different mechanic and what the player has to do is role 9 dice and the images that come up have to be used within a story and i thought this was such a clever idea and has lots of potential, again its very simple gameplay and mechanics. so from here i wanted to create a game using shapes and the player will create there ideas and images through drawing and colouring. once the cards have been drawn they would then be shuffled and  you would tell stories through the drawings. There are other possible ideas such as using dice, who's got the scariest character etc. 


Story cubes simple drawings and designs

Scribble Press:                                                                                                                   2nd Apr 2012

This was a big inspiration when I first saw it I thought it sounded great where the user has there own virtual art desk with all the colours and tools you could think of. The idea is that the the user creates there own story while drawing them and they can either save them or get them published. This sounded great until I actually had a go and it turned out not be as good as i would of thought. the movement patterns were really hard to draw with there was no set structures to the page layout this is where they could use comic books or biography so adding little bits in. overall it proves there is market in drawing and telling stories but this in particular had been badly designed and doesn't exceed the potential it could have. 


the drawing layout of scribble press

CBBC:                                                                                                                             14th April 2012

after having a look at several websites I decided to look into the the most basic thing but one of the hardest things that is the layout of my whole concept so even tho its free I still want to try and have a layout where it is able to sell and has that look that makes people think i want to buy that. So from here I'm going to have a look at some point into branding each card, changing the font, logo, copyright etc and this is why its a good idea to look at printable things from make and do websites for kids.


Paper trading cards but these are in colour

SEMESTER 3


Kinect Effect:                                                                                                                  24th May 2012


This was a great area of interest and has a huge impact on my current project. After having a look into the pros and cons of the Kinect I decided to question the advantages and how the Kinect can help apart from a gaming aspect. This has helped kids with autism and got them to interact with the skeletal tracking system and this has helped by using the technology has proven to help the kids answer questions, problem solve and the use of verbal language, motivation and coordination. one of the big things is that they all get along and constantly learning new skills.
Another area was rehabilitation therapy from people who might be mentally unstable, had a stroke or have possibly been in an accident and again this was very inspiring to see another side of the Kinect and how this can benefit these people with positive outcomes on getting better. A lot of testing started out to see what works quite fluently for patients and what can become quite challenging, again here is one of the main aspects, which is to enjoy the therapy as well as getting that sense of achievement that your getting better. The best area to look at on the Kinect is to see whether people are getting better which will be based on the scores either going up and down and this can be determined to know if peoples balance and arm strength are improving which will then show the patients becoming more independent. which means they could possibly be released from hospital early and even increase their life expectancy.
Finally hospitals are starting to use the Kinect for the Motion sensor so they can use their hands to navigate through scans quickly.
Overall this really helps me in the sense of testing out helping people and bring a community together this is all shown in my previous presentations and design work, again this just shows that games can be used to enhance peoples moods, motivation, illness and much more and this is more research to strengthen my design projects.

   

Kids with autism playing kinect

The Wii Udraw:                                                                                                               25th May 2012

The Udraw is one of the latest drawing technologies on the market today and has been very popular in addition to drawing, creating and having that social family value. Plenty of people believe that this is heading in the next direction of combining drawing and gaming together. First of all the Udraw seems to be more popular with kids and with a vast range of colours, brushes and pencils this has inspired children to be enthusiastic and take part in creative activities and has shown to be a new alternative way of gaming entertainment. The game comes with Pictionary and really encourages interaction with family and friends and most of all its fun drawing experience. The other great things are that it offers tutorials for beginners who haven't really drawn before this could also improve peoples ability to sketch, generate ideas and is great for socializing with one another such as party's and family nights.

Udraw

Paper games in education:                                                                                             29th May 2012

I came across this article and found this very inspiring in get children motivated and getting them to learn in a whole new way and this via paper based games and what they can do for you instead of video games and the example given here is Dungeons and Dragons, First of all this can improve reading because the book is quite huge and full of diagrams and texts. The player may not read all of it but will keep reading the bits that are interesting and what they want to understand more when playing to become a better player. secondly mathematics can be taken into consideration due to adding points, bonuses, and modifiers while playing with a 20 sided die so again if these sort of mechanics could be incorporated into a module within schools this could help towards learning. Another is creating characters and writing stories, bios and powers this also brings in that creative flare. Overall through my own research and using this article to help both children and adults will make the effort and learn things if it something that matters to them and lots of fun. Sometimes more enjoyment may come if they can become quite competitive and challenging. So through playing, learning is defiantly there and just like my games, improvements of drawing, imagination, creativity, literacy, confidence and presentation skills can work through paper based games and could well possibly be the future in education and learning. 


Paper dungeons and dragons



Pen and paper games:                                                                                                     31st May 2012


This is a great book I found on paper based games and how they can be incorporated into training for adults and groups. First of all pictures, graphics, writing and drawing is a key area of communicating with one another, generating ideas, thought process and learning. A few good examples of pen and paper games that involve fun and being productive are competitions, conundrums, drawing cartoons and clip-art. Lucy Seifert is involved massively with games and activities and states that pen and paper are a valuable tool for learning. Looking at gaining knowledge from a different point of view can challenge both sides of the brain and can bring out that person as a whole and develop individual skills such as; visualization, intelligence and their personality like being talkative, motivated, shy, loud, quiet, moody etc. Showing the audience this can be really beneficial to co-operation, simplifying ideas, theories, skills and teamwork within large groups. Engaging with different people can create a vast amount of ideas, solve problems, give feedback, develop their skills and gain a wider knowledge. The thing that really has grabbed my attention is the fact that the author has tested these games in group training sessions, one on one coaching, customer care and public speaking. Most of her games cover things like problem solving, emotion and complex issues. The most important thing is that her games are easy to set up, play, understand and the beauty is there is no technology needed apart from pen, paper, rubbers and occasionally prizes. overall this has really hit it on the head because it defiantly has put the fun into learning, it is very affordable, can be taken anywhere and has gone through all the stages of play testing. I must be heading in the right direction after the games I have been creating and how they are fun, cool, improve skills and testing for what works. This just proves I am doing the right thing in terms of bringing something new into a popular affordable market of today.


Paper based activities to help learn and be used for team building exercises.

Videogames and technology:                                                                                          31st May 2012

The introduction from this book gave me more of an insight on creating games in the industry and again the lack of creativity and imagination within games of today. First of all back when computer games were first going there were all these really cool ideas and art work but the technology wasn't good enough to produce those type of games. Eventually games started to get better technologies such as Maya, 3DS Max, Photoshop and the unreal engine. yes we do have brilliant games to date with fantastic graphics, game play and mass multiplayer but the real problem is these companies aren't coming up with anything new and are just staying to what they know and so there is less room to express creativity freedom within games because again companies just want to make money so they go with the simpler option and create trilogies or a new game in that series every year. Now companies are trying out things like 3D, the Eye Toy and the Kinect. It is a breakthrough in terms of having great piece of motion capture in homes but is it really enhancing creativity and this book shows that its the same old for instance, most games are all active and to keep you moving where you might be using your hands and legs for fighting games or using other parts for sport related games but if you take away the body you just have exact same game if you were using a controller. So overall yes its cool to be using the body but it isn't showing the full potential for what this kind of equipment can do so I believe creativity is an essential part of the games industry and generating new thoughts, ideas, designs and processes is the future of creating new unique franchises and games.


Technology and creativity




Creative Therapy:                                                                                                             1st June 2012



I found this journal article from 1983 and briefly discusses creativity story telling and how that can help through therapy and the first thing that came to mind was how my previous game "Squiggle Me" has the same sort of impact and the testing that I had done strengthens the idea even more. This paper in particular focuses on one patient and shows a small example of what his work means in terms of whats on the patients mind and how this method can help him in future life. First of all the test is to aid the young lad to find healthy and positive ways of dealing with conflicts and problems within home life, socially and at school. The therapeutic process shows stories illustrating growth within negative and positive aspects of the patient this will help acknowledge his own anger and express it without fear of annihilation, so he can use his strength in coping with these emotions when getting out there in the big wide world. I believe that using creative games in this case story telling is very important and a new fun method of helping people cope, and to express themselves with thoughts, emotions and body language. Using this can really start to help people with mental illness, awareness courses, helping people with addictions, possibly people with dementia and people who have been in brain accidents.

Playful learning and creativity:                                                                                        3rd June 2012


This article is about bringing out the creativity in children and how that skill should be nurtured. First of all the quick point to get across is that, this is about knowledge within society and how people use it with themselves and others. The author believes that there isn't enough success for individuals in today's world and the ability to be creative and original  will be the future. He also believes that with the advancement of technologies it is slowing down creativity but not killing it but we need this in out lives for sense of the achievements, being cultivated, bringing new ideas and learning methods to the world. Our children are our future and fun creative ways of learning needs to be made more aware. This in the long run would inspire children and really get them to be imaginative while they play, explore and experiment. This is defiantly the key for children to develop ideas while thinking of the world around them.  On top of all that some schools in the USA are stopping play time and trying to get them to work during those periods and the bad thing about that is children may start to become stressed, fed up and even a change in mood an emotion and so creativity needs to be pushed to children to really show their potential and try involve learning with as much hands on things as possible. core subjects are defiantly needed but creativity, making and doing, imagination and ideas need to be taught and give children the opportunity make and create.

                             Dissertation

Teaching, thinking and creativity:                                                                                   16th July 2012

I found this website which gives quick, brief understatndings of creativity and what is most important about educatuion and its students. employers and companies are wanting people that will be able to adapt solve problems and work well with others. doing this can help people enrich their lives and help to contribute to society. Creativity is not just about the artistic side of things, its also about judgment, ideas, input, out put sand evaluating thoughts and process. There are certain games that really benefit in connecting as a group and to get learning. The most common forms of games are drawing, stories and looking at objects in  different ways on how they can be used and how they can applied.
This is a great way of expressing creativity and sums up quite a lot of issues and how this can encourage children and just to back up my pixel me product, stories, drawing and squiggles are common forms of getting children to express themselves and use their imagination.

Using the Kinect in education:                                                                                         19th July 2012


I discovered a brilliant video and website that was really showed the full potential of what the kinect can do through learning and how the interaction of the system really gets people involved and the most valuable areas of learning while having fun really does give people focus, encouragement and motivation. The kinect has shown to aid subjects such as: Theater arts where the user can create their own puppets and tell their stories, through making and doing. Virtual music instruments like the piano and the guitar which can help students learn. This also can be related to the upcoming Rocksmith game that is coming out where instead of using plastic instruments with buttons your actually plugin a real guitar which will defiantly help improve playing guitar and help beginners that want to learn how to play.


The Kinect also had other fun educational methods such as learning sign language, manipulating drawings, help transform 3D models, presentation tools and vocabulary techniques which can assist with English language and literacy. One of the most inspiring was navigating through locations and the human body. This really is cool and fun how you can see every part of muscle tissue and how blood cells work. This engages so well as a class audience and a lot better than just watching a video and being asked question at the ends. The other type of learning that can help children learn is visual bright and colorful cartoons such as the magic school bus where the class is learning while being taken on a huge adventure into different subjects per episode.



Kids using the kinect in schools

In car games on journeys:                                                                                                20th July 2012


This was a brilliant journal on the effects of car game journey and what things can be considered when doing them. the main focus is a game they are creating but the effects sum up the consequences and challenges of others. First of all the author discusses how boring and dull car journeys can be especially if it is a long one. there fore these sort of games try and get everybody involved in the car including the driver. The paper discusses briefly on how in games can be effected through certain conditions such as: countries, night and day, the weather, traffic jams and the length of the journey. Their study found that passengers passed more time doing something on their own rather than communicating with one another. Car games are designed to entertain children on long car journeys, using road objects, car plates, word games, question time and many others. no technologies are needed and the benefits are to involve communication, imagination, creativeness and verbal skills bearing in mind the safety issues which will depend on the conditions the driver is in.


Toys and the imagination:                                                                                                20th July 2012


I came across a very inspiring website on how Toys promote creativeness within a group and individuals. The website mentions how using creative toys such as painting, making and doing, colouring and using clay etc. really encourages children to develop their ideas and thought process. the other is how using current toys such as army men, mighty max and power rangers are used in a child's imagination and scenario and how all toys can be mixed up and be played all at the same time this enhances the imagination of the individual and also using the scenarios and be see as telling stories and expressing themselves and so can be made into stories which can then possibly be promoted into schools as using English skills to help with literature and English language.


children  making and creating

Knowledge and creativity:                                                                                                  1st Aug 2012 

This was a great website on how knowledge is applied within creativity, from doing everyday chorus and routines, were always being creative in some sort of way from opening a tin to driving to work. so doing the same job but there are plenty of ways to succeed at it. This can then lead to doing a job faster, better quality, experimenting and even the opposite such failure but learning to pick yourself up. This can be a great way to get young children involved into having creative freedom while learning from their mistakes and discovering what works for them and what doesn't.


learning

Sesame Street:                                                                                                                   2nd Aug 2012

This is one of the biggest inspirations to get children to learn through puppetry, song and dance even tho the level of learning is a very young age such as number, letters and colours I believe that they can take this further and try and branch out the making older versions, or even a whole new concept. The main aspect is the fact that it does get children to learn and how they can put that into practice with their everyday lives. so this is a great example of how you can enhance creativity and learning while being fun and entertaining. 


sesame street