Character digitize process

Character Sketches progress

In previous idea, I sketched my character into human with evil and naughty outlook. I transform the character into more Japanese creature with some auspicious japan pattern. 

I have confirm the last sketch of character design and will digitize it in the next step.

Moodboards

I have created severals moodboard and seperate it into four components. 

Final Storyline & the interactivity

This is my final storyline and the interactivity part in the story. I choose Japanese night market and Bon Odori as introduce the Japanese culture. From that I create the dreams story and trying to create fun interactivity to user.

Narrative premise: 

1. Baku, a dream eater monster has abandoned in the forest.

2. He has adopted by a monk that passed by in the forest. The monk has raised him in a temple.

3. Baku and the monk have close relationship. The monk treated Baku like his own son, he does not care about Baku appearance. Baku treated the monk like his owner, they were inseparable.

4. However, the monk has become old and weak. Before the monk passed away he has told Baku of his real identity and his ability. The monk has told him that Baku has the responsibility of protecting people in the town by helping them to eat up their nightmare.

5. After Baku has lost the monk. He became lonely and depressed. He stays at the temple everyday because he doesn’t want to get bully by others kids.

6. One night, he has embraced his courageous of stepping out the temple and tried his ability. He has entered to other’s people dream and found out everyone has wonderful dream that he never had one.

7. Baku has felt jealous and started to sabotage people’s dream. He felt very happy of what he has done.

8. He wanted everyone same with him and revenged on people who have bullied him. Over time, he has becoming a monster, he has lost his kind- hearted and forgot of what his father aspiration.

9. Until one day, he has met a character that has the same situation as him in real life.

10. The character has nightmare of his father passed away. Although of that, the character has followed what his father aspiration as to stay in positive to survive.

11. Baku has felt sympathy about him. He started to observe and slowly got interested about this character.

12. This character has touched Baku heart and Baku realized that he was wrong. He should listen to his father by using his ability in a correct way.

13. From that, Baku has become a guardian of people in the town by protecting them from nightmare.

Interactivity:

Dream One

Location: Japanese culture night market

Story: A child has went to night market and wanted the free clay toy from the seller. Baku has entered this child’s dream and wanted to sabotage on his dream. There was two options user able to choose.

Option 1: When seller passes the clay toy to the child, user able to change the toy appearance into monster.

Option 2: Click next and make Baku angry. Baku will make a dog snatch the toy away to make the child cry.

Dream Two

Location: Bon odori performance

Story: A bunch of audience has watching Bon odori show. A pretty dancer that has falling in love with one of the handsome audience. While dancer was using a fan to cover her face, Baku was trying to sabotage the handsome’s dream. There was two options that user able to choose.

Option 1 : User able to remove all the dancer face feature to scare the handsome and all the audience

Option 2 : Baku change the dancer in to ghost.

Japan mythology creatures

Having this idea of dream thief. After severals consultation with Chuan Zui and Kelvin, Zui suggested my character from human into pet. Therefore from this point, I had further research on the character that is suitable for this story and meaningful. 

After gone through severals videos and research article. I finally found this Japanese mythology creature name Baku. Baku is refers to malayan tapir.

Image from : http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bd/Malayan_Tapir.JPG/330px-Malayan_Tapir.JPG

Malayan Tapir or Tapirus Indicus or Tapir is named after a beast from Chinese mythology. However in Japanese folklore, tapir are nightmare eater. In Japanese term, tapir as named "baku" has refers to both the traditional dream-devouring creature and to the zoological tapir. This mythology creatures that has dream-eating abilities and people believe that it is a mascot that they place it in their house to against nightmare.

Image from: http://hyakumonogatari.com/2012/10/20/baku-the-dream-eater/

Image from : http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/thumb/d/df/Butch_Cassidy_Drowzee.png/210px-Butch_Cassidy_Drowzee.png

In today, Baku commonly appear in Japanese cartoon, computer games and comic books, such as in Pokemon, Drowzee. Drowzee is able to put people to sleep and sense the person's dreams. Drowzee eats dreams and remembers every dream it has eaten. 

From this article, it noted that the elephant-like Baku 獏 (also written 貘) is an imaginary and composite creature from Chinese mythology thought to prevent or devour nightmares. It has the trunk and tusks of an elephant, the eyes of a rhinoceros, the tail of a cow, and the paws of a tiger.It is the eater of bad dreams, and helps to ensure that one’s first dream (Hatsu Yume 初夢) during the New-Year holiday is favorable and auspicious. Children are encouraged to stay up late and welcome in the New Year. Children are told to place a picture of Baku under their pillows on the evening between Jan 1 and Jan 2. Local custom said if they have a good dream that night, they will be lucky for the whole year and the chances of having a good dream are reportedly enhanced by calling upon Baku. This beliefs has continue in to modern times. 

In the 17th-century Japanese illustrated document Sankai Ibutsu 山海異物 (Mythical Creatures of the Mountains and Seas) said: “In the mountains of the south, there lives a beast. It has an elephant's trunk, the eyes of a rhinoceros, an ox's tail, and a tiger's paws. Its body is yellow and black, and is called the Mò 貘 [in China]. By sleeping on its pelt one can ward off pestilence. A man should make a sketch of the Mò in order to be protected from evil. It eats copper and iron but nothing else.”

References:

Bulbapedia, (n.d.). Drowzee (Pokémon). [image] Available at: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Drowzee_(Pok%C3%A9mon) [Accessed 21 Jul. 2014].

Davisson, Z. (2012). Baku - The Dream Eater. [online] 百物語怪談会 Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai. Available at: http://hyakumonogatari.com/2012/10/20/baku-the-dream-eater/ [Accessed 21 Jul. 2014].

Davisson, Z. (2012). Baku – The Dream Eater. [image] Available at: http://hyakumonogatari.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/baku_mizuki_shigeru3.png?w=300&h=231 [Accessed 21 Jul. 2014].

Onmarkproductions.com, (n.d.). Baku = Mythological Creature Who Eats Nightmares, Protects Against Evil. [online] Available at: http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/baku.html [Accessed 21 Jul. 2014].

Wikipedia.com, (n.d.). Malayan tapir. [image] Available at: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bd/Malayan_Tapir.JPG/330px-Malayan_Tapir.JPG [Accessed 21 Jul. 2014].

Forth Consultation

A forth consultation with Kelvin and Chuan Zui.

Showing them my refined storyline and some of the storyboard sketches.

Storyline:

1. Vance has abandoned in the forest and adopted by a wizard.

2. The relationship of the wizard and Vance are close. They are like the father and son. However, when Vance growing up, the wizard became old and weak.

3. Wizard knows the true identity of Vance once he adopted. However before wizard passed away, he told Vance his ability of able to enter other people's dream and helping people eat up their bad dream in order to survive. 

4. After Vance has lost the wizard. He become lonely and depressed. He stay at home everyday and having nightmare everynight.

5. One day he has try to use his ability. He entered in other people's dream and found out everyone is having wonderful dream that he never had one.

6. Vance felt jealous and started to destroy/sabotage people's dream from sweet dream to nightmare. He felts happy of what he was doing and wanted everyone same with him.

7.More and more he becoming a monster and forgot what his father aspiration.

8.Until one day, he met a character who having same situation as him in real life.

9.This character has nightmare.He dreamt about his father passed away and he is not afraid. (Reminds Vance memory of he with his father)

10.Although the character's father has passed away but this character has lived in a positive attitude which is part of the father's aspiration.

11. Vance felt sympathy about this character. He started to observe him and gain interest about this character.

12. Slowly, Vance has realize that he was wrong. He should listen to his father using his ability into the right way.

13. In the end, Vance has become a guardian of the people in the town that helping them to eat up their nightmare and protect the villagers.

Storyboard:

The story will start with character sabotage the people's dream.

As a feedback from the supervisor. The story is better than the previous however Zui suggested me to change the character into puppy and using some Japanese element such as the woodblock prints Ukigo to create more visual identity and attract user.

I found this is an interesting point from Chuan Zui, as I will change my graphic visual from western into Japanese elements and inside story I will introduce some of the Japanese culture. I will look further for the Japanese identity such as the textures and their culture such as bon odori and so on in the following post. I will create a final storyline and refine the storyboard and sketch out my character design as soon as possible.

Third Consultation

Storyline (Updated):

1. Vance has abandoned by his parents into the forest. 

2. His parents believed that Vance has been cursed due to his monster appearance.

3. By floating with the river , Vance has reached to an abandoned house. 

4. There was a wizard lived in the house, he started to adopt this baby.

5. Because Vance has abandoned by his parents, he felt lonely, fears and having nightmare all the time. 

6. The wizard has saw Vance struggling and started to deal with him of taking off his nightmare and giving him the ability to enter people's dream and helping the wizard to steal their happiness so that the wizard swoop into the people and control over them.

7. Vance has promised the wizard.

8. He has sleep and tried to enter to the world with full of bubble dreams. 

9. He felt jealous and envy on other people who are having sweet dreams, he wanted other people have the same nightmare as him. 

10. Every time he destroy, he feels happy. 

11. Until a day, he met a character that having same situation as him but he has the positive attitude that change Vance mind.

Feedbacks from supervisors.

Narrative:

Kelvin

1.Story need to be more refine and solid.

2.Might consider to find existing story and modified.

3.If it is a multistory line, the interactivity should reach the same standard with the industry.

4.Need to be more thinking on the stealing dream part which it is the main part of the storyline. 

Suggestion:

-Alter some of the story? For example enter people imagination when contact with them rather than giving a bunch of dreams.

-Tie back the interactivity to the story, consider the time execution.

Question:

-Why is the baby has abandoned by the parent? 

-Might consider the overall story flow, might tie back to some of the myth or existing story.

Chuan Zui

1. Beginning story might seems too long.

2. Should start with the interactive straight forward as a fishing to the user.

Suggestion:

-Moving the main part of the storyline to the beginning, let user start interact and immerse themselves into the story. 

-Story might start with the dream thief having negative attitude and personality, he is having nightmare all the time, he then has the temporary ability given from the wizard to enter to other people's dream. He starting to sabotage the dreams and realize that no matter how he wants to cause some trouble, but the dreams undestroy.

-He tries to destroy fews dream until he met a character who has similar background with him. However, the character having positive attitude and mind that has change the main character.

Interactivity:

Kelvin:

1. Look for target audience, each category of target audience having different interactivity.

2. For example, if this story is targeted on teenager, the interactive part should be more gimmick and rewarding to the user. If this story is targeted on kids, the interactive part might be simple fun and entertainment and having moral value.

3. May refer to the references: Sword & Sworcery, Paper Fox and Magic school bus

Suggestion:

-Instead of swipe the rock to knock the door, but how about clicking the baby to cry so to acknowledge the wizard in the house that there is a baby outside the house.

Target Audience

The purpose of the storytelling is to encourage people to have a positive mind when they are in the worse situation and develop self-confidence for the user. Besides, this story to give a moral value of understanding the fearful and knowing how to handle difficulties with positive mind. 

Therefore, this project is to targeted on teenager with the age range of 12 - 17 who having depression and with negative mind. From the research in CBN.com noted that a recent national survey reported that many teens experience feelings of depression and sadness that often go untreated. There have four types of depression such as Reactive Depression , Bipolar Disorder, Dysthymic Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder. However in this case, Reactive Depression is least serious however it will involving serious case such as loss of a parent or as relatively inconsequential as a rejection or slight from a good friend. 

As teenage is a stage of growing process from child into adult, adolescent mind will seems to have changes especially on an orphan that abandoned by their parents. I have found out the symptoms of what abandoned child that has faced in Wikipedia. 

Link : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abandoned_child_syndrome

Some other research that I found in Buzzle. There are 5 visible types of symptoms that abandoned child facing.

Sickness: Due to the mental stress of being abandoned, the child is more likely to fall sick very often. He would refuse to participate in general activities because of his mental state and inability to deal with rejection and ignorance.

Lack of Concentration: The child will find it very difficult to concentrate on school activities and studies. His mind would be so distracted towards the chaos in his personal (family) life, that he may not even feel like doing anything else. This will result in low grades and poor performance in school.

Negativity: As the child is facing ignorance and rejection, he will develop negative emotions and thoughts. He may get angry over petite issues and become very frustrated. 

Disorders: The child may not eat properly or even starve himself due to depression. He may also suffer from sleep disorders like insomnia.

Behavior: A child who feels abandoned, often regresses to habits like crying, daydreaming, bed-wetting, thumb sucking, clinging to a certain toy, blanket or pillow, throwing tantrums, etc. If he has been abandoned by one parent, he fears being abandoned by the other parent too. He also tends to develop a fear of darkness.

Other than that, in the research of  Personalityresearch.org, abandon child who having negatively personality that could also facing the cognitive theory of depression. Where according to this theory, negative thinking that greatly affected the likelihood of developing a depression and maintaining it during stressful events in a person's life. They are more vulnerable, perceive themselves in a negative and depressive context. 

However, to helps a person to recover from abandonment and pulling them out of depression, one of the therapy that I found out is Cognitive Behavior Therapy. This treatment might help me to develop and refine my storyline.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy has involving three steps:

1. Identifying your negative thoughts. With anxiety disorders, situations are perceived as more dangerous than they really are. To someone with a germ phobia, for example, shaking another person’s hand can seem life threatening. Although you may easily see that this is an irrational fear, identifying your own irrational, scary thoughts can be very difficult. One strategy is to ask yourself what you were thinking when you started feeling anxious. Your therapist will help you with this step. 
2. Challenging your negative thoughts. In the second step, your therapist will teach you how to evaluate your anxiety-provoking thoughts. This involves questioning the evidence for your frightening thoughts, analyzing unhelpful beliefs, and testing out the reality of negative predictions. Strategies for challenging negative thoughts include conducting experiments, weighing the pros and cons of worrying or avoiding the thing you fear, and determining the realistic chances that what you’re anxious about will actually happen.
3. Replacing negative thoughts with realistic thoughts. Once you’ve identified the irrational predictions and negative distortions in your anxious thoughts, you can replace them with new thoughts that are more accurate and positive. Your therapist may also help you come up with realistic, calming statements you can say to yourself when you’re facing or anticipating a situation that normally sends your anxiety levels soaring.

Link: http://www.helpguide.org/mental/anxiety_therapy.htm

User behaviour

This project will targeted on teenager who likes to surf internet. From the chart and statics in this website :http://www.fastcompany.com/1536758/pew-survey-teens-love-facebook-hate-blogging-are-always-online-and-dont-use-twitter

It shows that teenagers from the age of 12 - 17 are being active in participants online. 

From the research article in http://www.acma.gov.au/theACMA/engage-blogs/engage-blogs/Research-snapshots/Aussie-teens-online 

Ten out of nine teenagers that usually access to internet with devices such as smartphone, computer and tablet. Therefore, teenager use computer more than other device.  

However, majority of the teenager that went online for entertainment activities. 

Second Consultation

Having consultation with Zui. 

We have discussed my final project topic and storyline. 

The feedbacks from Chuan Zui :

- The overall idea is okay. Some of the storyline need to clear and refine.

-Why is the character that has the ability to enter people's dream ? Must create a structure of logic at the beginning to make audience to belief that the character has the power.

-Interactivity, how does it user input? What activities that user can do?

-How well is your technical that can promote your brand your website so that in the future, people from industry will hire you.

-Is this a linear or non- linear story? What makes people want to play on my artefact?(The user experience)

-Duration that must be less than 3 minutes.

Some other suggestion that he has gave me. How to attract user to have a solid user in my artefact.

1. Story

2. Adaptation (the backbones, the famous story such as Transformer)

3. Have a good approach / interesting

4. Interesting interactivity / unique user experience

5. Process of interactivity , not only point and click but use the knowledge that I have learn in html 5

6. Interactive should be link with story. 

Therefore, the next step that I will execute is :

-Refine the storyline

-Sketch out the storyboard

-While sketching I need to plan the interactivity to give unique user experiences for the audience. 

Before that , I will research on the topic of "dreams" to strengthen my story and points in the next post.