Screen Arts 29/8

1980's Films and Games

Toru Iwatani created Pac-Man in 1980. A version of this was the first arcade game to be ported to home console. Ma. Pac-Man became the best-selling arcade game of all time in 1982. The working title of Puck Man was changed so americans couldn't change the p to f on the cabinets.



On-Line Systems was co-founded in 1980 by Roberta Williams and her husband Ken. The first PC graphic game Mystery House was designed by Roberta. She went on to make the first animated 3D adventure game in 1984 called King's Quest. This series sold millions of copies and had 8 games in the series. Her 1995 game Phantasmagoria had a $4mill budget, took 2yrs to develop and sold over 1mill copies.



Donkey Kong by Shigeru Miyamoto was released in 1981. This introduced "Jump Man' which was an early version of Mario from Super Mario.



I remember this from my childhood! Endless fun.

Centipede was developed for Atari in 1981, and was a huge hit particularly with the female player base.(One of the first to achieve this) Dona Bailey programmed the game and Ed Logg designed it.



1982 was when the movie Tron was released by Disney as a way to tap the video game trend. The Last Starfighter(1984), Wargames(1983) and The Wizard(1989) also tried to get in on the trend. Balle Midway released an arcade game in 1982, based on scenes from the movie. Atari release E.T to tie in with the movie in 1982. The developer Howard Warshaw had 5.5 weeks to design and make the game so it was ready for christmas. It was most likely this reason that it is still cited as one of the worst video games ever. The worldwide video game industry had a huge slump in 1983, with consoles losing 90% of their value. The majority of the blame is placed on the E.T video game.



Nintendo released the Famicom(Family Computer Console) in 1983. By the end of the decade, 37% of Japanese homes had one. Nintendo had to wait 2yrs to release it in USA due to the crash. It was renamed Nintendo Entertainment System upon its US release. M.U.L.E by Dan Bunten was a big push for multiplayer games.

Tetris was created in 1984 by a russian mathematician called Alexey Pajitnov. 1989 saw many companies claiming the distribution and creation rights of the software. The Soviet government actually held the rights, and licensed them to Atari(Arcade) and Nintendo(Handheld/Console). These two companies sued each other back and forth for years. Nintendo developed the Game Boy in 1988 and got the rights to bundle Tetris with the Game Boy instead of Super Mario Bros. 1985 saw Nintendo revive the US video game industry with its NES. ¡https://tetris.com/play-tetris

I have spent many years playing tetris, the latest variation is Tetris Blitz which gives you 2mins to get as many points as possible using bonuses and line clears.



1986 saw educational software Reader Rabbit get introduced to the market. CD's in the 90's helped the market survive until the internet arrived and crashed it again. Andrew Bradfield from Dunedin developed  Laser Hawk for the Atari 800, Harvey Kong Tin designed the graphics and it came on 4 floppy disks.



Legend of Zelda, Dungeons and Dragons, and Leisure Suit Larry thrust Fantasy RPG into the mainstream in 1987. 1989 saw Joe Madden Football bring realism to computer games. 1989 was the year of the Game boy, helping to attract non-traditional gamers due to the fact that it came with Tetris. It was discontinued in 2003, after selling 118.69 million units worldwide. The Nintendo Power Glove was also released in 1989, enabling a hand gesture interaction to move their characters. Due to limitations and crappy resolution, this product failed commercially although Nintendo persevered and release the Wiimote in 2006. Dillon Markey is a stop-motion animator that rewired his glove to use bluetooth to communicate with the stop motion software, helping him animate more efficiently.



 The 1980s was when Hollywood introduced "High Concept" films. Designed for broad mass appeal they were stylish, stereotypical characters and highly promotional. They used prototypes from 1970's, Jaws, Alien and Star wars. Producer Don Simpson and his partner Jerry Bruckheimer are the ones credited with the high Concept Film creation. Many of the films were aimed at teenagers/pre-teens ie Revenge of the Nerds and Screw Balls.



John Hughes was responsible for a lot of "coming of age" films like Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club and Weird Science. The 1980's was also when the Sequel explosion occurred.



John Carpenters film Halloween(1978) was so successful that it caused a horror movie revival in the 80's.

Love the Die Hard series, Bruce Willis is great as the lead role.

I have watched all 5 of these throughout my childhood, they always seemed have a much longer runtime back then than they actually have.

I hadnt seen the original Tron until we watched it in class, but I enjoyed the re-make including the Jeff Bridges cameo in a different role.

I watched Dirty Dancing for the first time a few weeks ago, it was definitely not what I expected. Far less scandalous than I thought.

Police Academy with Michael Winslow will always be a favourite comedy series. Its a shame they all havent been remastered yet.

Howard the Duck appeared as a Marvel comic character in 1977. Disney threatened to sue due to the resemblance to Donald Duck. Marvel circumvented this by giving him pants. 1986 saw Universal make a Howard the Duck film produced by George Lucas, it was considered one of the worst big-budget films ever made.



Tim Burton's Batman in 1989 opened the door for the current day superhero movie boom. This film was notable in that it followed the comic book character more than the earlier films. It had a budget of $35mill, the film made $411mill, and $750mill in merch.



1980s in NZ saw Goodbye Pork Pie(1981), Smash Palace(1982), Utu(1983), The Quiet Earth(1985) and Meet the Feebles(1989).

Gaming 29/8

HUD/UI

All maps must be square and in multiples of 1024 ie 1024, 2048 etc.

Keep the background image separate from the buttons and menu elements. 

Step 1 - insert canvas from Game object menu. this connects to the camera and moves with the camera over the full area of the game. The canvas is the base for the HUD overlay. 

Rect Transform component is the anchor for the item, where abouts on the screen that item will stay regardless of camera movement. Hold alt when changing the position of the anchor. Each new part of the overlay is an image under the UI menu.

When changing button colours, use the Button (script) box not the image box.

Add animator component to animate the button, make sure its not on text layer unless you want the text to have a different animation cycle. Be aware of animating in a 3D space, as buttons dont work from the back.

Use the sort order to control where each layer goes. The higher the number, the earlier it will be rendered.

2D Animation 28/8

Note to Self - drag the rig template onto the drawing box, not the node box to auto create layers. If i forget, i can connect the nodes to the master composite to create the drawing layers. 

2D Animation 26/8

Rigging



Create a new composite for each part of the hierarchy.


Make the composite pass through for each section.



Use ctrl + shift + p when nodes are selected to create a peg on each node. ctrl + p will create a single, grouped peg for the selected nodes.



When adding new components, make sure to parent them in the correct place ie cuffhand above cuff and hand but still below lower arm.



Add a colour coded backdrop for organisation. You can hit the yellow box to add important notes to the group.


Select keyframes, hold ctrl and drag to copy them to a new frame.

Use the ease in and ease out to smooth the motion.

Deformers

Two types of deformers, with the deformation chain showing

 Similar steps as before, create a new pass-through composite, connect the layers and ctrl + shift + p to get the pegs except re-center pivots before parenting the two nodes this time.



Select the drawing layer, click the rigging tool, make sure its on auto then click the point where u want "joints" and hit the transform tool to finalise.


This time once the drawing layer is selected, choose the curve deformer. To create the "joints" click and drag to make the movement handles, from top to middle, and bottom to middle. Hit transform to finalise then adjust the handles as you see fit to deform. This method is a lot bendier "rubber hose" style.

Research 26/8

Deliberately Creative

How Not to Leave Things to the Last Minute

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. It’s an important life lesson, but one that’s hard to stick by; especially when it comes to studying. There are so many other things to do instead: party, sleep, trek to Canon Park and have a light-saber fight using Pringles cans until you get kicked out of Tesco. Or was that just me? Ahem.

With all the pressures on your time, it’s understandably quite tempting to put your studies off… until you suddenly realise you have an essay to write, a group presentation to prepare, four articles to read, and it all needs to be done by noon tomorrow. Suddenly, there’s nothing for it but the all-nighter. Eeek!

As a fellow adrenaline junkie/serial procrastinator, I understand the thrill of the late night work session. Doing things last minute generates an adrenaline high, and research suggests that procrastinators might actually benefit from this sense of competing against the clock. That said, getting started earlier means you have more time to think deeply, check for errors and improve your drafts. The results are (usually) better.

So how do you get a grip on your time?

Write the ultimate to-do list
Sometimes the biggest obstacle is just getting started. It can seem overwhelming! Try writing a to-do list that captures everything, no matter how big or small, related both to your work and your personal life. Getting it all written down means your brain doesn’t need to exhaust itself trying to remember everything.

Identify your priorities
Not everything needs to be done right now. Review your list and note any deadlines. What are your priorities? It can be useful using Stephen Covey’s Urgent vs Important matrix to figure out what to focus on first.

Plan everything in advance
Now that you’ve worked out what to focus on, think about how long each task will take. A good rule of thumb is to then double that! It can be helpful to map out a schedule around your calendar. Colour-coding your classes, time with friends, sports events as well as your study time will allow you to visualise where your time is going.

Stick to the plan!
The important (and difficult) bit is then sticking to the plan. Personally, I find it easier to stick to my study schedule if I have also scheduled in time with friends or time to just flop and do nothing. It’s impossible to be productive 24 hours a day, unless you have a Time-Turner. It might be that you need to adjust your plan – there’s no point planning to revise at 9am if you work better late at night, and alternatively if you find you just want to go to relax in the evening, then maybe think about how you could work in some study time during the day.

Study buddy
It can be hard to motivate yourself when studying alone. Why not try working with friends? On the other hand, if your friends are likely to distract you while you work, plan a night out as a post-study reward.

Minimising Distractions

Phone

• When you’re busy turn your phones onto silent.
• Use voice-mail wisely and set aside times to return missed calls.
• Schedule times in the day when you will receive calls – let others know your schedule.
• Have a personal mobile phone do not give the number to your boss or colleagues.  Friends and family can then still reach you in an emergency.
• When making or receiving a call: be polite, listen and clarify but try to avoid excessive small talk keeping calls as brief as possible. See our pages Listening Skills and Clarifying for more information.
• Take calls standing up, research shows people who stand while on the phone keep their conversations brief.
• If you agree to take on tasks as part of the phone conversation act on them immediately – even if this means adding them to your ‘to-do’ list.
• Store numbers that you dial frequently in your phone or keep a list readily available near the phone.

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Email

• Only check your emails a couple of times a day.  Close your email client when it is not being used.  New emails flashing up on your computer screen can be a huge distraction and time waster.
• Set up folders and rules in your email client helping to automatically filter and file email messages.
• Schedule a block of time each day for sending and responding to emails.  Don’t let emails build up to unmanageable levels.
• Delete all spam emails immediately.
• Delete all irrelevant emails immediately.  This includes ‘general’ emails that don’t specifically involve you.  People in organisations often use the ‘Reply to All’ function in their email client.  Although such emails may be relevant to certain people or departments if you are not one of them then delete.
• Forward emails to somebody who can provide a better response if appropriate.
• Try to handle each relevant email only once, read and respond immediately within your scheduled time.  Once done file the email away.
• Be wary of emails marked urgent or high priority… they may well not be.

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Mail

• Open your mail near a waste-paper basket and bin what you can immediately.
• Deal with mail immediately if possible, read, process and reply or action.  Aim to handle each piece of mail only once.

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Computers

• Turn off any instant messaging applications.
• Close programs and documents when you have finished using them – file your documents in a logical way.  This not only removes distractions but also means your computer has more resources for doing the next job.
• Close web-pages after you have finished reading them.  This is especially important for news or social networking sites where information is updated constantly.
• If you are tempted to distract yourself with a computer game then either ration the amount of time you play or uninstall it from your computer.
• Make sure your computer is protected from viruses and malware.  Backup your work; use a USB pen drive to carry important documents and files but don’t forget to password protect it.
• Work within your means whenever possible.  Trying to learn new IT Skills when you are pressed for time can be a disaster, ask somebody for help or find a simpler way of achieving your goal.  Schedule time in the future to learn specific IT Skills.

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Arranged Meetings

• Only attend meetings that are relevant to you.  Is the meeting necessary and does it have a specific purpose?
• Aim to arrive on time for meetings, neither early nor late.
• Know the purpose of the meeting and get a copy of the agenda in advance.  Arrange to leave the meeting early if it is only partially relevant.
• Agree in advance how long meetings will run for.  Start and end the meeting on time.
• Use a timed agenda, especially for longer meetings or where the chairperson is less effective.

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Family Commitments

• Use a calendar for which each member of the family is responsible for recording their commitments and activities.  Include clubs and societies, social events, days off, doctor and dentist appointments, planned events such as holidays and car services, hairdresser appointments, visits from friends and extended family – as much information as possible so that each day can be managed effectively.
• Use a tray or box for keeping important paperwork together near the calendar.  Include appointment reminders, phone messages and other relevant documents.  Throw away documents as soon as they expire.

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Stress

• When we’re busy we are more likely to have a shorter temper than when we are more relaxed.  Little things are more likely to irritate us and we’re more likely to feel stressed or angry.  Stress and anger will both potentially waste more time – and you run the risk of damaging your health and the feelings of others.  Always try to stay as calm as possible, let others know that you are busy and that you need time to complete your tasks.  People are usually understanding and may even offer to help!

Summer Holidays

References

The Study Blog. (Nov 3, 2016). 24-hour Library: How not to leave things to the last minute. Retrieved from https://studyblog.warwick.ac.uk/2016/11/03/24-hour-library-how-not-to-leave-things-to-the-last-minute/

Minimising distractions and time wasters. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/minimise-distractions.html

lollibeepop. (May 13, 2017). Summer Holidays. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/BT_i1_jDHjD/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Screen Arts 22/8

Animation 1980's

Heavy Metal (1981)
Created by Gerald Potterton, it is an animated adaptation of an adult comic book with heavy rotoscoping. Sex, violence, rock n roll. This film was the product of several studios and directors.


80's rock music will never be out of fashion.

Rock and Rule(1983)
Nelvana Studio, very similar to Heavy Metal, post apocalyptic animal world.



Paul Grimault partnered with Andre Sarrut to produce many animated shorts. They started a film in 1948 called The Shepherdess and the Chimneysweep. They had a falling out when Sarrut screened an unfinished version in 1952. Grimault won the rights in 1967 and finished it in 1980 with the new name The King and the Mockingbird.



Pink Floyd's The Wall was created by Gerald Scarfe in 1982. The animated sequences were inspired by Geralds childhood memories of England being bombed in WWII by the Germans.


*Skipped over this slide in class, big sad =(( I wanted to watch the music video lol*


The Wind in the Willows in 1983 was created by Cosgrove Hall productions using stop-motion. There was a second film A Tale of Two Toads in 1989, and a 52 episode tv series created off the popularity of this film.



John Halas created Dilemma(1981), with the claim that is its the first fully digitized CG film. Tron(1982) and Autoban(1979) also made the claim. No-one knows how much is actually Cel animation made to look like CG.


Loved how this one showed different cultures so vividly that you knew what they were without being told.

Crac!(1981) was created by Frederic Back. Early example of the 80's pastel shaded look.

Dianne Jackson created The Snowman in 1982 which was nominated for the 1983 Academy Award for best animated short film.



Richard Condie created The Big Snit in 1985 using simple drawings and wobbly lines.

The music video for A-Ha's Take On Me was directed by Steve Baron, and animated by Michael Patterson using Rotoscoping for the lead singer. Baron also directed Money For Nothing by Dire Straits(a landmark in CGI and one of the first computer animated videos)



Iconic Good Night Kiwi was animated by Sam Harvey. Euan Frizzell worked on Heavy Metal, worked for Halas & Batchelor and launched Gnome Productions in Wellington. He is a founding member of the Games Animation Visual Effects Trust. Kids all over NZ knew it was bedtime when this came on.



Nina Shorina created the stop motion Door in 1986. The film is about peoples lives in an apartment building with the door boarded up, and their refusal to change habits once the door is opened.

When the Wind Blows is a 1986 adaptation of a graphic novel by Raymond Briggs. The backgrounds were photos of model sets. Directed by Jimmy Murakami.

Brothers Quay create nightmare stop-motion worlds best known for Street of Crocodiles in 1986. Jan Svankmajer was a major influence alongside eastern european surrealism and animation.

The song Sledgehammer was responsible for Peter Gabriel's career. The video was made by Aardman Animation and the Brothers Quay. Directed by Stephen R. Johnson, it was considered one of the best videos ever made.



Girls Night Out was Joanna Quinn's debt film. This short film follows a womans night out at a male strip club.



Family Dog's debut episode was part of Stephen Spielburg's tv Amazing Stories. The high production standards were standout at the time and it is credited with being part of the revival of quality animations like Who Framed Roger Rabbit(1988), The Little Mermaid(1989), The Simpsons(1990) and Ren & Stimpy(1991).



Yoshiaki Kawajiri directed Wicked City in 1987, a dark gothic sci-fi.



Akira(1988) is a japanese manga adaptation released by the artist Katsuhiro Otomo. The film brought anime to a new audience due to its success. It was reported to be the first japanese film to use western sound recording techniques( recording sound beforehand instead of dubbing).



Bruce Bickford is a stop motion animator whos specialty is stream of consciousness worlds. He created Prometheus Garden in 1988, based loosely on the greek myth.

Breakfast on the Grass(1987) is a multi award winning short film created by Priit Barn. His style has influence many Ukranian animators, including Rugrats.

Max Headroom was marketed as "The Worlds First Computer Generated TV Host". He first appeared in Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the future in 1985. He wasnt actually computer generated, but a human in prosthetics, a solid molded fibreglass suit, cel-animated backgrounds, editing and voice pitching.

I thought I recognised this guy, turns out he was the actor that played Pestilence in season 5(2009-2010) of Supernatural.



The Hill Farm(1988) was made by Mark Baker and is completely dialogue free. It took him 3 years working alone, and his trademark hilly terrain later featured in Peppa pig(2005) by Mark Baker and Neville Astley.