Monday 18 February 2013

Adaptation: Back in the game

So I'm finally back to full health after a week of misfortune, and it's time to get back on track. After my last tutorial, it was suggested to me that I take a moment to stop and think about what it is that I am creating, and whether I am truly adapting my source. As it is, I have overlooked one very important piece of information about the piece of music that I have chosen, and that is its title, "Childhood Dream"

So far I have simply been listening to the piece of music and trying to envision what kind of place this is representing, and this has left me lacking a key context which I can structure my design work around. As the title of this piece suggests, this music is somehow related to a childhood dream, but who is the child and what are they dreaming about, and why are they dreaming this. Is it a suppressed emotion which lingers in their subconscious only approachable in a dream like state, or is this place generated as an escape from the child's real life where they can be free and safe.

In order to understand this idea, I have to think about who this child is and what situation are they in that can force them to dream about this place which I am trying to design, to do this I have come up with a possible short background for this child.

A young girl lives in an orphanage where she is bullied  by the other children and mistreated by the staff, and not knowing her parents or having any friends means she has no one to confide in. This leaves her longing for a place where she can escape from the miserable reality she lives, and so, at night she dreams of a better place, a word where she can be free and needs not to worry about anything as this place is a peaceful refuge, one which only she can visit.

In a dream, nothing is ever quite realistic, this dream like universe offers up many interesting design aspects which I could use as it allows me to play with the physics of the world. One idea which I have had was inspired by the fact that we never fully remember a dream, once we wake up, there are parts of the dream that we cant remember and this leaves a broken up series of events in our minds. This gave me the idea to have the environment fractured, as if certain areas of the dream have been forgotten. I thought that this would be a very interesting concept for my design work, but as I am creating a digital set for gaming, I thought that in terms of the game, this could also be a interesting game mechanic. I tried to sketch out the idea so that I could get a feel as to whether this would be possible as a design idea.






1 comment:

  1. Hey Anthony,

    You weren't at Monday's briefing re. the Live Commission project in which the CGAA community is participating: see link!

    http://ucarochester-cgartsandanimation.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/actcgaa-live-project-brief-synesthetic.html

    You need to send me an email so I can set up a Dropbox invite - in light of your own 'synesthetic-inspired' adaptation project, I'd really like to see you get involved with some gusto!

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