Multi-Technique Animation: the Variant

So after doing some brainstorming, and after having a talk with one of my capstone classmates, I have a variation to my capstone idea. This is how I described it in my intent in the Pool:

I will still be using many different animation techniques. But instead of it being a linear narrative incorporating all the techniques into one piece, I was thinking about using a very short narrative (maybe 30 seconds long), and animating it using each of the techniques (so that there would be a 30-second long 3D computer animation, a 30-second long 1920s-era cartoon, etc.). The narratives would be synchronized with each other, so that the action was happening at the same time in each animation.

After all the animation is over, I would assemble them all together (in Flash, MaxMSP, or something) so that only one of the techniques will be playing at a time. The viewer can then push a button and effectively switch the style of the animation from one technique into another instantly, during playback of the piece (and since the action is synchronized, the switch wouldn't disrupt the narrative much). This gives the viewer near complete control over the visual style of the animation.

The narrative itself is something I am yet to work out, though. It would be very short, though, so that I would still have time to animate all the different techniques. I also haven't decided if I was going to use a normal narrative, or one that loops. Either one would work for this variant.

This might be more work for me in the long run, but it would prove to be a more interesting (and more interactive) piece.

Gazira Babeli: Second Life Hacker

The other link Jon sent me was about Italian "Second Life" coder Gazira Babeli. Her avatar for "Second Life" has been hacked so that she is able to summon swarms of Super Mario armies, punctuation marks, tornadoes, and "grey goo". It seems she would attack rude users who engage in improper netiquette with these maneuvers, forcing the users to think twice before speaking rudely again.

I've never played "Second Life" myself, but from what I've heard it is essentially a virtual world for players to create an avatar and enjoy a life outside their own. There doesn't seem to be any real objectives beyond just socializing and enjoying oneself. Very much like Anarchy MUD, actually. This gets me thinking about how flexible I should allow Anarchy MUD to be; the more flexibility I allow, the better chance another Gazira Babeli joins the game and hacks it to her favor. But at the same time, if the game is easily hackable, it might be very possible that the hackers would disallow any other players from ever joining the game. How flexible is "too flexible"?

BumpList

During our discussion last week (I was presenting my media proposal and simulation for Anarchy MUD), Jon sent me two links to websites that might help me flesh out that idea more. If I end up switching over to the animation, these links wouldn't matter too much, but I'll post about them anyways. The first one is for BumpList.

BumpList is, as the website describes it, "an email community for the determined". It is essentially an open forum that anyone can join and post to, as long as they have a valid email address, but there's a catch: BumpList can only hold six subscriptions (Or is it five? The website gave both numbers. Perhaps it changed to allow one or two more after a while). What this means is that when a new person subscribes to the forum, the oldest subscription is removed so that the list only has six people. If that person who was bumped wants to post again, he/she would need to resubscribe.

Unfortunately, the forum seems to be down until they find a new server, and the last date mentioned on the website was in 2004, so I don't think it will come back, but the idea behind the website fits one of the principles behind Anarchy MUD, and so is something to take note of.

Multi-Technique Animation

So I came up with a new capstone idea. It's currently up for reviews and suggestions in the Pool. Hopefully it's not torn apart too much, because I really want to get working on it soon (capstone presentations are at the end of February, which is not even four months away! Why are the presentations so much earlier this year than in previous years?!). This is how I described my intent in the Pool:

I intend on creating a short animated story that incorporates many different types of animation techniques and styles into one piece. Some of these include, but are not limited to: 3D computer animation, 1920s-era black-and-white silent cartoons, Golden Age cartoons (eg. Looney Tunes), claymation, Japanese-style, vector, etc.

The story goes roughly as follows: the main character, originally 3D-computer animated, soon finds himself lost in a 1920s-style cartoon, and it becomes his objective to try to get back home to the medium which he belongs.

This piece will allow me to experiment with a vast number of styles, and play around with interesting transitions between two different styles. It also gives me the opportunity to be creative and try to devise new and innovative styles.

Computer-Free is the Way to Be

This week, Jon gave the class the challenge to reimagine our current capstone ideas so that they do not use any "typical" new media (ie., no computers, Internet, videos, etc.).


Envisioning "Anarchy MUD" without typical new media would probably result in a complex, Nomic-style board game. In fact, the game itself would not be too far off from Nomic; basically, instead of focusing on changing the rules of the game itself, it focuses on changing the game itself: adding , editing, and removing rooms, items, monsters, and other players. And unlike Nomic, voting won't occur--during each person's turn, he/she would either add something to the board, or edit/delete something already on the board (or another player). At the end of each person's turn, everyone else would either approve or disapprove of that player's action (or do neither, if he/she chooses). For each approved vote, that player gains one point, and for each disapprove, that players loses a point. Some actions would require the player to have a certain number of points before he/she is able to perform it, such as possibly needing ten points before removing another person from the game, or perhaps needing a certain amount of points before being able to add/modify/remove more than one thing per turn. Some actions would have penalties, such as losing many points after removing a player. Players who have been removed from the game may come back as a new player, with no points; likewise, anyone else can join the game at any time with no points as well. As my current plans with "Anarchy MUD" don't actually have a way for a player to win, the same would apply for this game. The players can devise their own way to "win", if they so choose, or they can just play until everyone is bored (or angry with each other).

I think the computer-free version of Anarchy MUD would be almost as effective as the normal version, and perhaps even more so for some aspects of the game. Some issues would need to be addressed in regards to items/rooms/monsters that players create, and what kind of game impact each would have, but not being confined by computer code opens up the possibilities for what these things can do. For example, someone might decide to make a Wand of Player Deletion, which would allow him to remove other players on his turn at will if he uses it--everyone might disapprove of it, causing the player a lot of point loss, but likewise the next player might consider destroying the new item to prevent it from being used in play, so there's a self-balancing aspect to some things. Rooms and monsters would be harder to implement, but with a little thought they might play a role in this game. But come to think about it, they play a miniscule role in the online version as well. Huh. Looks like I would have a bit more to conceptualize.

Anarchy MUD Simulation

Last night, I created a rough simulation demonstrating basic game play and interaction for Anarchy MUD. The simulation (made in Flash) can be found here. Likewise, in theory it really should also be found in the media proposal site I posted earlier, but it seems the First Class web publishing server has problems with me updating my site. In other words, the "Simulation" link still points to a blank page, and not to my updated page featuring the simulation.

Meh. I can't complain, as it's free.