Tuesday 31 January 2012

Video Montage: Reccy

For our second group project, me and Hollie went out to gather some shots from around Leeds for our video project. We took a small HD Cam and aimed to capture the hustle and bustle of the city, along with unnoticed beauty if possible (flowers, architecture). We thought this theme would capture the idea of nature and beauty being overlooked as a result of busy chaotic city life. The natural lighting conditions were hard, we found, as they changed constantly. Elements such as varying light conditions in different buildings and even the sun disappearing into the clouds affected our shots. We constantly tried to adjust the focus and exposure, but still shooting proved difficult. We tried to achieve shaky point of view shots, emphasizing the chaos, but this often made it difficult to control the framing of our shots. Because of this, the clips may need more post. Here is an example of some of the shots we filmed within Leeds:

Storyboarding by Peter Jackson




This video offers a look in to the pre-production process Peter Jackson undergoes before shooting a film. For the first five minutes of the YouTube video, there is a focus on storyboarding, which relates to my role as storyboarder for our first group video. Peter Jackson draws up his own storyboards, and explains how in essence he is creating a cheap take of the movie. Through photographing the frames and creating an animatic, the storboard becomes a way of visually communicating the director's vision to the cast and crew. By the time the detailed storyboard is finished, shaded and animated, in essence the director has a visual representation of what the film could look like. Generally, his storyboards seem to show composition, and rough directions for the actors. For example, at 4:30 on the video we see directional arrows used to indicate movement.

Interestingly though, the interviewees in the video explain how Jackson does not fully commit to the storyboard, and allows change if he feels something will work better when filming. When we filmed our first project, some of the shots were difficult to achieve such as the POV shot of the book being held. Instead an over the shoulder shot was used when we were filming on location. Also, through the editing process clips may be dropped or scaled down, proving that the storyboard acts as a guide and not as a strict set of instructions.

In conclusion, it seems that the storyboarder's role is to take a vision and re-produce it on paper so that it can be passed around and understood by others. The storyboard is a rough sketch of the final vision, allowing people to begin to see the artistic direction of the film that is being produced.

Wall-E: Building Worlds From the Sound Up

I came across this great video where sound designer Ben Burtt explains how he  created the sounds for 'WALL-E'. I also think that the video gives great insight in to the role of the sound designer. Unfortunately, the embedding of this video has been disabled, so instead here is a link:

http://youtu.be/8A6z8QkVHk4

There are some very interesting points raised in this video, one being the importance of where the sound is placed. A sound designer must use audio clips to suggest what is happening within an environment. If few sounds are used, the scene will sound empty and unconvincing, but at the same time one must be careful not to confuse the audience with sound effects. Ambient sounds help add a sense of realism, suggesting that there are other things happening within the environment to give the scene depth. If a sound is only intended to be part of the background, the audience must know this and not look too deeply in to what the sound is trying to suggest. ambient sounds like wind or banging pipes would be good examples of this.

Probably one of the most interesting topics discussed in the video for me was the production of home-made 'instruments' in order to create realistic sounds. This saves time, and it is the sound designer's job to be innovative and find ways of creating sound, as oppose to heading out and trying to find them outside of the studio. We see classic examples of creating sounds such as wind and rain, using rotating mechanisms. I found one of the most fascinating examples to be the slinky being struck, whilst hanging from a ladder. Because the high frequencies generated reach the recording mic first to be later caught up by the low frequency sounds, a sci-fi sounding lazer effect is created. These blasting lazer sounds are based on fiction, showing that new weird and wonderful sounds can be generated by being creative with everyday objects.

When we think of high budget action films with breath-taking sound effects, and then realize that some of these sounds have come from a classic toy (Slinky), the idea of working in sound becomes very exciting. Sound is massively important in selling a film. Imagine a movie that contained only speech and basic generic sound effects. Even in moments of calm and solitude, ambient sounds can almost always be heard building up the atmosphere. It could be argued that sound is of equal importance as visuals.

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Video Montage

Our second video is going to be a video montage. The second poem we are looking at is titled 'Simplicity.' We have gathered that the poem is more about the modernized urban landscape and the society within that is so rushed, there is no time to take in the beauty of nature. We filmed the clips for our second video within Leeds, contrasting completely with the Moors location of our first film. I began a rough edit of the film, but Vay and Holly will be doing the majority of the editing.

We began researching some video montage and managed to find this amazing picture montage:


I believe the poem we are working with has a sort of dark quality to it, so this video really works in the sense of inspiration. The montage begins very tranquil, showing pleasant images of family and the innocence of childhood. The montage is labeled with various titles such as 'Love' 'Mother' and 'Home.' As the video progresses, the titles began to cross over and link to dark images of murder and oppression. We had the idea of flashing up lines from the poem to make our video sequence thought provoking and powerful. This montage shows how type and images can work together to create powerful results. I think it is the juxtapositoning that really hits hard with the video. We are also thinking about split screen shots of beauty contrasting with the busy urban environment, so perhaps we can achieve similar uneasy results.

I also had this piracy advertisement in mind when I  began editing our clips. The quick cuts and grainy footage help create a sense of unease, which is what we are hoping to achieve with our montage. Also the style of music is a great reference, as the techno emphasizes the dark style of the add. Similarly to the photo montage above, there is also a combination of type:

How to Play the Cowbell

I was meaning to post this a while back, as it is perhaps one of my favorite 'how to' videos:



Hopefully, you can see how this video inspired my 'how to open a door' short. What interests me with the cowbell instructional video is it's tongue-in-cheek approach. The Cowbell itself is a very basic percussion instrument that only really requires some sense of timing. The sounds one can produce with the instrument are very limited and alone, the Cowbell is very primitive and unimpressive. The video makes the task of holding and striking the cowbell seem very advanced, as if it requires practice to master. The voice over artist almost patronizes the audience by portraying the instrument as technical and hard to grasp. You have probably noticed the idea of creating a  'claw' with the hand, which I used in my video. The idea that the video has to explain how to basically grab hold of object, makes it seem ridiculous and highly comical. We see other bizarre suggestions, such as the Cowbell sounding better when facing 'due north.' I tried to draw form this idea of presenting ridiculous amounts of information for a simple task, by instructing the viewer to pass through the opening created when the door is opened in my video (as if that step isn't obvious enough).

Overall, I had the idea of creating a tongue-in-cheek 'how to' video form when the task was first set. The Cowbell video is a perfect example of what I was aiming to achieve, with it's patronizing and comical approach.

Tuesday 24 January 2012

Falling Pillars Revisited

I mentioned previously on my Blog that I was not fully happy with the sound I had produced for when Odin's throne room collapses. I combined some of the sounds that we had captured from the actual ilkley Moors location with some of the ideas I used for the original sound clip. Layering up the sounds collected from dropping smaller rocks on to a stone surface gave the sound of small rocks falling loose and clattering on the ground. Instead of slowing down the dragon sound clip form the BBC library, I slowed down a wind sound clip also from the BBC collection, as I wanted a deep rumble rather than a scraping sound. I also used the idea again of slowing down a gun shot sound to achieve crashing noises:





My aim when creating this particular sound was to make the audience feel that everything is collapsing around them, making them feel that they are standing in the throne room as it collapses. For this I needed to heavily pan the different layers to make it sound as if objects were falling from all angles. I came across a massive problem when I realized that the for some reason, the sound recordings of dropping rocks form the moors were all panned to the left and could not be altered. I spent ages trying to find a way to convert mono tracks into stereo so that I could have control over the balance of the sound. In the end, by chance I was attempting to work with imported raw data of the sound clips when I found a solution. Although I still do not fully understand why, once I got the raw data working it was panned in the opposite direction to the right, very similarly to the original problem. Basically, I combined the two mono tracks to create a stereo track which could be panned in both directions. Because the imported raw data did not go in to audacity in the correct speed, I had to adjust the imported clip to sync with the original, but in the end I had by stereo sound clip. 


I created three different versions of the collapsing throne room sound. I believe that on the first attempt, the small loose rocks are too constant and become repetitive and slightly annoying. With the second attempt, I tried to build up the sound more. I faded in the deep rumble, and began with a few small rocks coming loose. The small rock clattering then stops to make way for the loud crashes. I also tried a version without the small rocks as I was starting to think they did not quite fit with the deep sounds of the rumbling and crashing pillars. I am still undecided as to which is most most effective out of the second two clips. One could argue that the smaller loose rocks give the second clip more depth, but I'm still not sure whether they fit at all.

Saturday 21 January 2012

Tomb Raider: Ambient Sound Effects

I was originally searching for Tomb Raider sound effects as I was hoping to find some grinding stone sound clips. What I found instead was this great ambient temple sound. It fits our project perfectly, incorporating wind to give a chilling feel. I could imagine the sound in Odin's throne room as the wind sweeps through the pillars. What I really like about the sound is it's richness. It has that deep low end drone that eases in and out (an example at 1:36). I am already working on producing a deep drone for the falling pillars by slowing down wind sounds form the BBC library, but still need to construct the entire clip in soundtrack pro. If I could take this drone I am creating and overlay it with ambient wind sounds, it could be used for the eerie throne room of Odin:





Overall, The sound here is very rich and varied. My aim now is to try and make my sounds as full, thinking about layering up clips to achieve authentic results.

Icelanding folk verse.

For our 'Sulking Winds' film, we decided it would be fitting to try and produce an eerie Viking style chant to loop in the background as our character approaches the location of the throne room. One of our group members managed to find an Icelanding folk song with Lyrics that seem relevant to our project:





The lyrics translated mean:


'The raven slept in a rock-rift
On a cold winters night
There are many things that can hurt him
Many things that can hurt him
Before a beautiful day came
He pulls his frozen nose
From underneath a big rock
Underneath a big rock


Everything is frozen outside
You can't get anything at the beach
I'm so hungry
I'm so hungry
If I go to a house
The dog forbids me
To eat from the garbage
Eat from the garbage


The earth is covered in ice
I can't see the ground at all
Full-fledged birds can fly far.
Full-fledged birds can fly far.
But even though I look everywhere
There's just one color
What can a raven eat
What can a raven eat?


Dead, lying on it's side is
A fat mutton near a fence,
Who once was fast.
Once was fast.
'Caw, caw! Namesakes (Ravens), come here!
Caw, caw! cos' ready for us is,
a feast on cold ice.
a feast on cold ice.'

So began the process of creating two melodic chilling verses. We managed to gather three people for the makeshift Icelandic choir. We had a deep singer to lay down the bass, a mid ranged singer and a higher pitched singer. This created a full sound with the varying ranges. We created a click track in Audacity and started experimenting.

At first, we focused on just the one verse. We each did solo passes with a very droning monotone approach. The idea was, instead of copying the jolly style of the original, to have a darker approach. After this, we began recording ourselves as a group so that we could follow each other and be sure to get the phrasing in sync. We started with low passes. Eventually we began trying to harmonise to create the fuller sound we were after. Rhys (who is not a member of our group but kindly offered to help us) sang with a very deep voice, Luca followed Rhys but with a slightly more mid quality to his voice, and I attempted to sing in a slightly higher voice. At first we tried singing the first half of the verse monotone, and then kicked in with the higher parts. We also did takes were we tried to maintain the harmonies from start to finish. The video below documents the editing process afterwards:





After the recording session, as part of my role within the group I was responsible for arranging the sounds ready to be put in to the video. I really do not have much experience producing sound, but it is something that I find interesting. For this reason, the process was really just experimentation. I began by taking the pass that started mono then became high part way through. The low parts sounded really full when I multi-tracked them, but the higher parts sounded quiet strange . I felt as if It became ungrounded and needed to maintain the low bass feel throughout. I tried copying the first part of the verse and repeating it behind the high section. Although the lyrics clashed I thought it might add an uncomfortable sense of discord to the verse. After receiving feedback from some of the group members, it was decided the first take wasn't quite right, so it was back to editing.


I still felt the verse needed to be grounded, so I combined the low then high pass together with the full low pass of the first verse. This meant the lyrics were constantly the same, yet I was able to maintain the full low end when the higher parts kicked in. Unfortunately, despite being pitch bent to the same key, something still wasn't quite right and the phrasing of the words varied in the two takes.


I produced the next two samples simultaneously. Some members of the group felt that we should maintain the high pass throughout for a full harmony effect. I simply double tracked the higher take, added an echo to one track and boosted the bass on another, adding a subtle pan at the end. I repeated this process for the second verse as I was happy with the results. The second verse however seemed slightly more successful, so the first verse was pitch bent to match. The verses now work quite well together, and the phrasing of the verses seems fairly consistent.


The verses have been exported as singular sections, meaning for the looping effect they will have to be tiled together along the timeline on whichever video editing software Luca decides to use. I rather enjoyed this process, and believe that although none of us are singers as such, the results sound eerie and chilling. Reviewing the video where the final two passes are played simultaneously, I plan on going back and slightly adjusting the volumes to match, saving time during the editing process. 


At the minute, Hollie is planning to produce the rising pillar stop-motion sequence over the weekend. On Monday we are planning to film our second video in Leeds City centre based on Vay's storyboard. After the process of filming, I plan on using soundtrack pro (in College) to create the sound for the falling pillars later in the video. I have learned that Audacity is best used for sound recording, and only short edits. Soundtrack pro will hopefully give me more control as Audacity does not offer much freedom when editing. 

Wednesday 18 January 2012

'Little and Large': Throw Animation

This particular animation took me a while to get right. Perhaps it should not have taken as long as it did, but I am pleased with the results nevertheless:





I began the animation by having my Lego man drop his arms and throw the beach ball to the ground. I figured this would look nicer than trying to have my character throw the ball in the air, his arms being so tight to his body. Probably the hardest part was getting the right hang time at the top of each bounce as I keyed  each frame by hand. Looking back perhaps I could have utilized the graph editor for the balls motion, drawing the path inside the graph editor window instead of hand keying it along the timeline. I will try this when I animate the regular sized ball rolling in to the second shot. Perhaps the most tedius part of the animation was keying in the rotation of the ball. As I did not do this as I went along, I had to go back, rotate the ball, write down it's current coordinates , apply these coordinates to the next frame, rotate the ball some more, write down the new coordinates for the next frame and so on. The squash deformer was quiet nice to use. I had the ball squash each time it hit the ground, stretch out as it bound in the air and then rotate on release. I also had the arms swing after throwing the ball, keeping the follow through animation principle in mind.

First Sound Reel

As I am producing the sound for our first  'Sulking Winds' video, I have put together a short sound reel to document my progress so far:





The first sound clip was to be used for when the book is dropped and the pages are blown violently by the wind. To record this I plugged a vocal microphone in to a computer via a sound card. Then, using Audacity, I recorded myself flicking the pages with my thumb. I overlaid these sounds with a gusting wind from the BBC sound library our corse has access to. The sound is okay, but would be hard to synchronize exactly with unpredictable blowing pages.


For the rising pillars, I wanted to achieve the sound of two heavy stone surfaces grinding together. For this, I found a dragon sound from the BBC library, slowed it down and boosted the bass. This gave a really deep rumbling sound. There is also some relatively high end left, which emulates grinding stone. On top of this I added in a wind once once again from the BBC clips. I am quite happy with this sound and  believe it could be used for the stop motion segment of our video when the pillars rise from the book.


For the falling pillars, I was fairly limited in achieving the sound I wanted. I kept the rumbling dragon sound from the rising pillars, as I wanted the deep hum. The only real sound of crashing rocks comes from the slowed down gun shots, but still the sound as a whole does not effectively emulate falling stone pillars. This one will still need work.


Again, I am not fully happy with the runic chant. I found the phrasing for the rune equivalent of 'H', meaning 'hail'. I though this appropriate, as to me 'Hail' represents both worship (towards Odin) and also harsh weather conditions. The rune phrasing is 'haw-gaw-laws'. This part I am happy with, as the rune seems appropriate. To record the sound I again used the vocal mic to record myself speaking the Phrase. I tried to sound commanding, but do not believe my voice is powerful enough to represent this book, which really needs to have a strong presence in our film. I multi tracked the voice (in the end using only two, as the clip was beginning to sound busy) and added an echo effect to make it sound more intimidating. We have decided that Luca, who will be playing Odin, will be a more appropriate voice actor for this clip.


Overall, I believe some of the sounds are effective, yet some still need work. We managed to gather some sounds on location at the Ilkley Moors using a boom mic connected to an XD cam. I plan to work some of these sounds in to the sounds I have produced already to make them more fitting to the location.

Monday 16 January 2012

Opening Title Sequence: 'Pulp Fiction'

Expanding further on type in the context of film, we were given the task of analyzing an opening credit sequence of our choice. The opening sequence plays a crucial role in engaging the audience's attention. For this reason, the Typography must be captivating in order to communicate the style of the film. I chose to look at the classic Tarantino Gangster movie 'Pulp Fiction', as I believe the opening credits are stylish and memorable.



It appears to me that Slab serif typefaces have been chosen to hit the audience like a slap in the face. The first few lines that introduce 'Jersey Films' and 'Quinten Tarantio' as the director are displayed in a stylish uppercase font, emphasizing the slick and cool vibe of the movie. Against a black backdrop, intense orange egyptian type rises, occupying most of the black space once it becomes central. I imagine if you sat bellow the large screen in a cinema, the film title 'Pulp Fiction' would appear as if it were towering over you. I believe the purpose of this intense orange poster font is to generate a sense of intimidation. I can almost imagine Sammual L. Jackson's character looming over me with his side arm in hand as I see this font rise in to the frame. What is interesting then is the film title stubbornly remains in the shot as the rest of the titles appear. It does not rush to make way for the rest of the credits, It backs away slowly. As I watch it fade in to the distance, I get the sensation that the title is alive and it's eyes are fixed on me. It seems to impend in the distance, never breaking eye sight as if it is watching you closely. By the time the credits have reached 'Harvey Keitel', the orange and white briefly become awkward on the eyes, and the film title is slightly distorting the white type face. Again this shows the Orange title's refusal to leave the shot in a hurry, and it continues to loom throughout the duration of the main star's introductions.

After this, the co-stars are shown in smaller more subdued sand colour. What I like about this title sequence is that the type is never truly static, and the sequence maintains a sense of pace that keeps hold of the audiences attention. The looming title is soon broken up by a fast scrolling list. Even the stationary type such as 'co-staring' and 'casting by...' flash up abruptly and then jitter until they disappear again in another instant. This punchy deliverance of the type works together with the fast pace surf music to create a very forceful and commanding atmosphere. As the audience we feel we are under the control of the opening credits. This does not generate discomfort though, but a sense of excitement as we hope for a film that is as ruthless as the opening title sequence.

The way that some of the typography in this credit sequence develops its own authoritative personality, reminds me of a quote by Kyle Cooper we were shown in a recent context seminar. He said: "Type is like actors to me. It takes on characteristics of its own.' I believe that the opening sequence for 'Pulp Fiction' really has personality within the type. Like some of the characters in the film itself, this title sequence commands the audience and really communicates what is to come next: a look in to the criminal underworld.

In conclusion, in our area of study we are likely to be working with non static type. Type that must interact with moving media and that must communicate a theme or the language of a film, game or animation. This credit sequence does this. It gives us massive clues as to what we should expect in the movie itself, and is very stylistic and engaging.

A History of Type

Typography is a tool for both visual and verbal communication. It can by summarised by meta communication (the tone), paralinguistics (pitch, volume, fluency) and Kinesics (How it's delivered).
There are six main classifications of type. In our lecture on the 'History of type', we took a look at all of the classifications through time:


The Type movement really started with the 'Late Age of Print.' This began around 1450, with Gutenberg's printing press. In our language, All of the capital letters come from Roman script, famously found on 'Trajan's Collumn' dating back to 113AD. The lowercase letters derive from medieval script used by Monks.


Humanist:
This was the first typeface to emerge. The aim of the Humanist type movement was to produce a type that incorporated roman and gothic script, yet was legible for print. Humanist fonts are characterised by slated crossed 'e's, little contrast between strokes as you can see with the 'M' in the diagram bellow, and an even vertical height between the lowercase and then the capital letters.


Geoffroy Tory believed that the Alphabet should reflect the human form. He suggested the cross in the 'A' should be positioned where it would cover the 'man's organ of generation.' This is rather pretentious way to look at Type, showing however that some did see it already as a form of art.


Old style:
This typeface emerged in the period of the 'Enlightenment'. People were beginning to turn to science instead of religion, meaning writing became more rational and efficient. Louis Simonneau created type based on quasi-scientific lines, whereas John Baskerville created type with such contrast between thick and thin lines, some criticised he would 'blind' his readers. This contrasts with the idea of sense and efficiency. Overall, at this period type really became a distinct art form, moving away from emulating human handwriting. We see in the image bellow the gradual vertical straightening of the 'O' through the Old style and transitional movement:



Modern/ Didone:
This typeface is summarised by a high stroke contrast, a steep vertical axis, abrupt serifs, horizontal stress and a small aperture. This style of font is used often in fashion magazines, as it is seen as slick and elegant.


Slab serif/ Egyptian:
This style of type emerged in the 1800's. It was designed for loud posters with the aim of standing out amongst a dense crowed. Fat faced fonts echoed slab serif, but were used also in print. As well as this, there is also the type (typewriter) slab serif seen below:

Sans Serif:
Possible the most used typeface around today, Sans serif bears a modernist 'form over function' approach. A strong example of this would be 'Akzidenz Grotesk' which was released by the Berthold Type Foundry in 1986:


You can see clearly the simplicity of the font, looking to achieve order and rationality. Herbert bayer even tried to drop the uppercase by creating a font consisting of only lowercase letters with 'Bayer' in 2925. 'Gill sans' created by Eric Gill in 1926 has a similar simplistic approach and was so clear and legible, it was used by 'Penguin Books' as their printing typeface.

We also see a post modern approach within the sans serif movement. Times New Roman, created in 1932 is a post modern response to an old typeface. Similar is the gothic font by Johann Christian Bauer which was used by the Third Reich until 1941.

Helvetica (1957) is perhaps one of the most used typefaces to emerge form the movement, and has become a symbol of corporate capitalism. We see the font being used everyone from brand logos to street signs. Ariel was a font commissioned by Microsoft to mimic Helvetica, as they did not want to have to pay the licence fee to use the actual font on their machines.


Again Helvetica reflects simplicity and legibility. The font is clear and efficient, meaning it is ideal for road signs.

There are also some D.I.Y movements in type. We see grunge fonts that defy all of the conventional rules laid down in typegrophy. Designers combine various fonts and tear and scratch their work. There is the use on ransom notes consisting of cut out news paper letters, again completely going against the efficient and sensible sans serif movement. We even have the avant garde graphic designer Jonathan Barnbrook, who spoke out again pretension found in type by creating the 'Bastard' font. The font suggests anyone who uses it is a bastard.


In the context of our course 'DFGA', Type demonstrates a visual means for communication. Type, which I often overlook, can have a strong effect on an audience. Something as simple as the font used on our blogs can either win over or deter readers. I choose 'Verdana', as the spacing between the letters makes the text clear and legible, but I never really considered how strongly some may feel about the type face. I believe the strongest message I took from the lecture was that every choice must be considered. When we approach a piece of media, the typeface we choose is helping to communicate our message. If I were to write my blog posts in capitals, IT WOULD APPEAR AS IF I WERE TRYING TO SHOUT AT MY AUDIENCE. This links back to paralinguistic. In conclusion, type is an important tool for visual communication and must be considered carefully.


Saturday 14 January 2012

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind



Over the weekend, I decided to watch a film to review as part of my personal and professional practice module. As I'd had 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' recommended to me, I decided this would be the film to go for. The film is something of a love story, starting Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. Joel (Carrey) discovers that after a tough break-up, his Girlfriend Clementine (Winslet) has undergone a procedure to have him erased from her memory. In frustration, Joel decides he wants to have the same procedure performed on him and approaches Dr. Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) to enquire. In order for the procedure to work, Joel is told to go home to his appartment and take a pill to knock him out. Mierzwiak's team are then to enter the apartment and perform the procedure, resulting in joel waking up in his own bed as if nothing has happened, with no memory of his relationship with Clementine. As the procedures begins however, and Joel re-traces his memories of the relationship, he has second thoughts and begins to fight against the procedure.

The film begins with a relatively long opening sequence. We see Joel rise form his bed and head outside. When he gets to his car he notices a scratch across the left door. Assuming it has been created by the man parked next to him, he leaves a sarcastic thank you note in one of the windshield wipers. He then arrives at the train station to realising he is waiting at the wrong side of the platform, meaning he must run to barely catch his train. All of these small events are relevant, as we find out later in the movie. After arriving on a beach, Joel catches Clementine walking near the sea. He immediately falls for the stranger, and they end up talking on the train home. Things move quite swiftly between them, and they become very close. They share a moment gazing in to the stars on top of a frozen lake, and soon they are sleeping over in each others apartments. At the end of the opening sequence, Clementine heads in to her apartment to get her toothbrush as she plans to sleep over at Joel's. This is when Patrick (Elijah Wood) is introduced, approaching Joel who is sat outside waiting in his car. Patrick simply asks if there is a reason Joel is parked up. Confused, Joel explains he is unsure about what he is being asked, and then Patrick leaves the frame.

***SPOILER ALERT***

What is quite clever about the film is that although we believe we are seeing events unfold chronologically, we are actually seeing the film in a fragmented order. We are given signs of this throughout the movie. During the opening sequence, Clementine's hair is blue, her explanation being that she constantly changes her hair colour. When Joel enquires about the mind erasing procedure, he is asked to collect everything that reminds him of clementine. This creates a map of their relationship which the Doctor's machines can stick to and target the memories one at a time. When we see Joel living out these memories, Clementine's hair is a bright orange. At first I assumed this was because after their meeting in the opening sequence, Clementine likely changed her hair colour. What raised suspicion however, is that when Joel was rigged up and having his memories targeted, Patrick tried to woo Clementine. At this point in the film Clementine again has blue hair like at the start of the movie. Another clue that there was something peculiar happening with the plot, was that when Clementine came home drunk at a past time in her and Joel's relationship, she announced that she had damaged the car. When Joel angered her and then tried to pursue her in his car as she stormed out, the scratch he noticed in the opening sequence was visible. The final clue for me was when Joel relived his and Clementines first encounter. It did not match up with their meeting at the start of the movie. They met at a beach party, and Clementine tried to convince Joel to break in to a temporarily unoccupied beach house to share a romantic evening. Unfortunately, Joel  got nervous and simply walked away from the situation.

As events unfold, we discover that one of Dr Mierzwiak's assistants Mary (Kirsten Dunst) had history with the doctor in the past. We find out that her attraction towards the doctor caused her to enquire about the memory procedure herself. After Joel's procedure is complete, he wakes just as he did in the opening sequence. He then goes through all of the events seen at the start of movie, again bumping into clementine on the quiet beach. At this point we are now aware that the first moments of the movie were actually taking place after both the couple had had their memories erased. This realization hit Joel and Clementine when they uncovered a tape left by Mary. Mary explained she was making things right by sharing these tapes recorded with patients before the memory procedure. Both Joel and Clementines tapes held recordings of the flaws they saw in their relationship and each other. Eventually they decided to put their worries aside about the future of their new relationship and the film ended.

I found the film as a whole to be very enjoyable. There were some very powerful moments where Joel would try to escape the procedure by grabbing Clementine and jumping to different memories throughout his life. With these personal memories came also some comical classic Jim Carrey moments. At points Carrey would portray himself as a child, through throwing tantrums and being bullied by children which he dwarfed in comparison. Carrey is well known for his comical impressions, but in this movie we saw him also take on a serious role which was nice to see. It really showed diversity in his acting. I also found Clementines ever changing hair colour interesting. I was considering the idea that this was done intentionally to link with symbolism linked to colour. For example, when they met at the start of the movie, to me the blue hair seemed to reflect innocence. The couple had in essence just met and no turmoil was present in their relationship. When Joel reflected back to memories of their failing relationship, Clementines hair was an intense burning orange, showing pent up anger and recklessness. In contrast, when their 'actual' first meeting was shown Clementine had green hair, which to me represents purity. At this point they had genuinely never met or experienced turmoil, so their relationship was in no way tainted. I think that because I was focusing on this throughout the movie, I became wise to the twist before it was intended to be revealed. This meant the ending lost its full impact. I do believe however, that if I had not been intending to review the film causing me to watch it so intensely, I would not have realized the ending before I was supposed to. For this reason, I still think the plot twist was very effective in the sense that Clementines hair is used as a signifier to hint at the audience events are not unfolding chronologically.

Overall, I would give the film a 7 out of 10. The plot was quite clever, and there were some humorous moments along side all of the serious dramatic ones. The way in which Carrey fought against the procedure was reminiscent of a lucid (aware) dream. He knew that what he was seeing was his subconscious memories, yet he could not achieve full control. This in my opinion was a powerful concept, as most of us have achieved awareness while dreaming, and can relate to the strange sensation.

'Little and Large': Beginning the Animation Process

Fitting with the title 'Little and Large', here is my storyboard:



In my animation, I plan for my character to be met by a small beach ball. The Lego man will then toss this out of the frame. After this, a small pull chain will drop and my character will curiously pull it. This will result in a giant beach ball falling on top of him. The 'Little and Large' concept comes with the slapstick nature of the small and then hugely oversized beach ball.

I initially had the idea of using a beach ball in my animation, as I enjoy working with the squash and stretch diformer. This is also an opportunity to demonstrate squash and stretch as an animation fundamental. The 'ease in ease out' fundamental will also be covered as the ball slows to a stop in the second shot. I believe I will also be able to show anticipation as my lego man lifts the smaller ball and prepares to throw it. However, after presenting the story board, the point was raised that it may be hard to achieve the motion of my character bending down, picking up the first beach ball and then throwing it. It was suggested that perhaps using a kicking motion could still be successful, yet easier to animate. In response to this I plan on producing two tests, one that keeps the original idea of throwing the ball, one using the kick.

After gaining feedback on my storyboard, it was time to begin the testing process. The first step was to produce the surface, which later will become part of the environment. I felt I needed this surface to keep everything grounded and on the same level. I sometimes find that using the grid on Maya can be less effective than a solid plane. I had the idea of producing a lego surface with the cylindrical connecters spread evenly over the plane. I thought however that this might be tedious to achieve the small cylinders, so instead I used UV and bump mapping. Here is the result:


The next stage was to produce the beach ball. Again I used UV mapping and a subtle bump map:


I managed to animate my Lego man bending down, taking hold and then lifting the beach ball. To achieve this, for the bending down motion I grouped all of the upper body down to the hips and crotch joint of my Lego man. I then moved the pivot point holding 'D' on the keyboard to the centre of the crotch joint. This enabled me to get a turning motion where realistically a Lego Man would bend. For the movement of the arms, I grouped the left and right arm together. Again, I then moved the pivot point to the centre of the shoulders. This meant the arms kept in position in relation to the upper body. Keeping the arms in position I then animated my Lego man to stand up. After this I simply moved the beach ball in to position, keeping it in time with the hands as best I could. Then with the upper body set back to the 0 position, I animated a final lifting rotation of the arms. Again I tried to mimic this movement with the ball. Here is a Playblast of the finished result:




It seems however that my maya timeline plays back too quickly. This is why the animation here is very slow and drawn out when Playblasted and also rendered. I could either re-animate this part or I could speed it up in post production. Nevertheless, hopefully this shows an effective picking up motion. I now need to animate my Lego man throwing the beach ball. Once this is complete I can create a kick animation and compare the two.

'Little and Large': Modelling my Lego man

For our brief within this module, we have been given the task of producing a 30-45 second 3D animation that demonstrates some of the fundamentals of animation. I began the process my searching for reference images online. Although I had my own Lego man on hand to look at closer in more detail, to get the basic scale I figured I would be able to find some decent scale references online. This is what I found:

With my image planes set, I now began modelling. My methods heavily involved dropping cubes and manipulating the vertexes. To achieve some of the more complex shapes such as the arms and hands, I worked in segments, extruding the faces and continuing to move the vertexes in place. Hopefully this image should demonstrate what I mean:


To achieve the shape of the legs, I had to get the smooth circular thighs. You can see this in the side on reference image. Here, I placed a cylinder and rotated it onto its side. I then grabbed the relevant vertexes and extended them down, creating the legs. I added the feet on last as separate polygon shapes. This image should highlight the process:


To create the head I also used extruded faces, this time with a cylinder shape. I carefully went around the vertexes and tidied them up to create a smoothed out look. I believe I could have done this much easier and faster by instead of manipulating the individual vertexes on the extruded face, using the scale tool keeping the vertexes synchronised. Here is the head:


It was now time to add colour to my character. I wanted to go for simplistic classic lego man look, as I didn't wan't to overcrowd the model with too much detail. In the Hypershade menu, I created bold 'Blinn' materials for the legs and upper body. I chose the primary colours red and blue to maintain this idea of simplicity, and used the Blinn option to give a shiny plastic look. The hands were given the classic yellow skin colour we see in almost all Lego men, and the head was created using UV mapping. I opted for a simple smiling face, to keep a very purist approach. Here is my Lego man in full colour:


I am quiet satisfied with the results of this character model, although I do believe some of my methods were perhaps amateurish. Ideally, I would have liked the legs to be one solid shape, but the way in which I achieved the circular thighs meant I could not extrude out the feet. Also, the arms were created from extruded cubes, and I was not able to achieve the circular shape where the hands slot in on a Lego man. Instead the arms look quite square near the wrists. I do believe however, that the modelling process of this character was a great learning curve with Maya. I look forward to developing my methods and hopefully overcoming some of the limitations that compromised my character model.

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Giving the Xbox Kinect a Second Chance

A year back from now, I received the new Xbox Kinect as a Christmas gift with one game: 'Kinect Adventures'. Essentially this was about four or five mini games that involved small movements of the body to complete obstacles. I must admit it is very impressive how the Kinect camera is programmed to detect the player's skeletal frame and apply it to their online avatar, but the novelty of the activities on the disk soon wore off. So up until now I never really developed an interest in the Kinect technology, and saw it as a bit of a novelty to show off to relatives at family get togethers. As a format for gaming I couldn't help but pin it down as a bit of a flash in the pan trying to compete with the Nintendo Wii with its immersive controller. Nevertheless, a year down the line I thought it would be a good idea to see how the technology has come along, putting a Kinect game of any description down on my Christmas list for 2011.


What I received was a game called 'The Gunstringer.' This is a western genre game where you play the role of a puppet master, controlling a skeleton outlaw on a revenge spree to take down the people who put him underground. The idea of the game is that the events are being performed to an audience in a pantomime style production, complete with an omniscient narrator and thick red curtains. The video shows the gameplay:





Firstly, I like the idea of you playing the manipulator holding the Gunstringer's control bars (The wooden blocks that the puppet's strings hang from) as appose to the Gunstringer himself. When you take out the physical controller you find in all other consoles, in my opinion you can sometimes loose the solid feel that makes gaming so engaging. When you push an analogue stick or a press a button, you are commanding your character to perform an action. If you are required to use your whole body to control the in game character,  this physical hands on connection we have grown so accustom to is removed entirely. In the case of 'The Gunstringer', the players left hand becomes the physical controller of the character's movement. This is clever in the sense that the jump made from controller based platforms to the Kinect is not too large and unfamiliar. This barrier still exists between the player and the character, yet the player is still able to perform actions with the body to achieve actions in the game. Your left hand is used for all movement in the game such as weaving through obstacles, and jumping, by quickly raising the hand. There are also parts within each level where the Gunstringer hides behind objects, and the left hand is used to hang out of or stay in cover. Hanging out of cover enables the player to be able to shoot enemies, while staying in cover means they are safe from bullet fire. The directional movement of the left hand determines which side of the cover the Gunstringer will hang out of.


The right hand is used mainly to aim and shoot the Gunstringer's firearm. To achieve this the motion is very straight forward. You simply adjust your arm until the crosshair on the screen is dragged over an enemy. The game uses a lock on system, where the player picks out and marks his targets. Once the right hand is pulled back in a quick jolt representing the recoil of a revolver being fired, the enemies are killed in rapid succession. The player can also use this ability to intercept: flying bullets, thrown dynamite and attacking wildlife. When the Gunstringer puts away his weapon, you are required to swing your right arm to perform bare knuckle attacks. This command does often result in the Gunstringer performing fancy kicks and spins, which sometimes take away from the physical action of throwing a punch. There are also moments where the player will control two guns, one with each hand. While dual wielding, the firearms shoot rapidly and you must navigate the left and right crosshairs to takedown large waves of approaching enemies.


A few complaints: Although using the left hand as a contoller is very effective in creating this familiar gaming experience of commanding a character, having one arm suspended outwards for long periods can cause the arm to ache. Perhaps the gameplay could vary more often, moving sequences perhaps being broken up by static fist fights or other game types that could involve heavier use of the right arm. And another point, in the excitement of the gameplay, it is easy to slightly wonder from the central point of the Kinect camera, causing the player to loose sync with the character in game. There are very frustrating moments where what is at points solid control over the Gunstringer, becomes very unresponsive causing you to perform erratic movements in frustration and loose large amounts of health.


One large problem I believe the Kinect could face, is linear restrictions. Because really the player can only perform horizontal movement with their left hand in 'The Gunstringer', the character must move along a set path over the course of each level. I find it difficult to imagine how a more open map kinnect game could really be achieved, though I could be wrong. Even the more linear First person shooter platforms for the Xbox 360 allow a certain level of freedom. Perhaps the way forward for truly immersive gaming with the Kinect, is to incorporate it in games that require the use of a controller. Bioware are doing this already with 'Mass effect 3', where the player can use the voice recognition abilities of the camera to command their squad. Perhaps with the gesture recognisant abilities, players could use hand signals to command their teammates in more tactical military shooter platforms. In conclusion, there are some great capabilities with the Kinect, but I can see it as a tool to be combined with bigger platforms to add to the interactive gaming experience. When we have huge open map epics like 'Skyrim' and 'Red Dead Redemption,' it is hard to truly be engaged by arcade style linear shooters.

Tuesday 10 January 2012

Old Field Recording Equipment

For our group project, I have been thinking about field recording to achieve some of the sounds such as the book thudding on the ground or the constant wind in the backdrop. Whilst researching methods, I discovered this video which I found amusing. It shows some of the old field equipment used in the 1940s. The machine used to etch into old records looks extremely heavy and awkward to deploy. Hopefully I will be able to get hold of something a little bit more light weight. Still, it is fascinating to see how much sound recording technology has improved over the decades:

Spielberg on Storyboarding


Whilst researching further in to the process of storyboarding, I found this video where Spielberg discusses how he approaches the task. He explains how he sketches the storyboard and then passes his ideas on to an artist. What I found interesting about this clip is how Spielberg describes the level of detail he puts in to his storyboards. He considers composition depth and also colour. He goes in to such detail with lighting that he shows the direction of the light and even how the lights blend together with other light sources. Although my storyboarding does not show such detail as we are working mainly with natural light, what this video shows is the importance of the storyboard. Spielberg even explains how if new ideas emerge, he will go back and alter the original storyboard. This means that it is important he has every shot intricately planned out before shooting. For this reason I must ensure the composition of each frame on my storyboard works well so that the director can have a clear visual representation of the finished product. The process I underwent while producing our storyboard was similar to how I would imagine Spielberg's staff illustrator's to be. I must continue to adapt my ideas if needed, based on the feedback gained from the rest of the group. I imagine Spielberg's illustrator would have had to do the same in order to meet the director's original vision.

Monday 9 January 2012

High Culture Vs. Low Culture

Much of this lecture involved the 'avant-garde'. This phrase is used often in popular culture to describe the innovative pioneer. Consider Marcel Duchamp and his famous urinal exhibition piece. He was seen as innovative because he made people ask the question: What makes a piece of art? Does one simply have to display an object in a gallery for it to become art work. Also the fauvism movement consisted of self taught loose painters, who challenged conventional painting techniques with loud abstract colours and heavy brush strokes. When this idea of the avant-garde emerges, what often happens is artists begin to experiment for the sake of it. Art Critic Clement Greenberg noted this as 'Art for art's sake'. It almost becomes fashionable for artists to be radical and unpredictable. Some begin to believe that they possess a hidden creative genius that is being deprived of appreciation from a narrow minded society. This idea is known as 'Elitism'. Eventually an attitude is developed that everything must be original and groundbreaking.


Traditional art was never about expressive style. It often had the function of recording a landscape or a portrait, the job cameras are used for today. It would more than likely be people of the High Culture who would be able to afford lessons in painting. They would then be commission by the wealthy to paint them a portrait. The Low Culture refers to the 'popular culture.' This is where the avant-garde begins to emerge. There are two main approaches within the Low Culture towards art. Some believe that their work can change the world, others prefer to move away from politics. Clive Bell was against narrative and politics in his work, instead focusing on significant form. This is the idea of combining lines and colours to 'move someone aesthetically.' Another strong example of this would be the highly expressive style of Jackson Pollock. His work was built up of various markings and strange colour combinations to convey certain emotions in his work, or so some might say. Here is an example of his work titled 'Lavender Mist':



You can see there is no recognisable form within the painting, it is simply a combination of shapes and colours. An extreme example in the other political direction, would be the protest performance by Chris Burden, where he had himself shot in the arm in an art gallery to make a statement against war:


With these very expressive and conceptual approaches, comes the rejection of what is known as Kitsch. Kitsch is mass produced art work, an example being prints of famous pieces of art being sold on mugs or plates. Thomas Kinkade produces detailed paintings to be printed and sold on mugs, making a living from creating Kitsch. But where is the line drawn between Kitch and true art? Take Damian Hirst's shark instalment 'The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living.' In this case the artist had no physical input towards the piece, the shark had to be shipped in by a team of people. Smilarly to some of the work of Roy Liechtenstein where he has his understudies re-print a frame from a comic book large to be displayed, I believe some of Hirst's work is almost mocking the art world. People begin painting large fortunes for pieces that are intended as a dig at the snobbery circling around art. When Tracy Emin created her 'My Bed' instalment, two men sabotaged the gallery piece by jumping inside the bed and having a pillow fight. By doing this they themselves in essence became the avant-garde, speaking out against the emerging 'Art for art's sake' approach.


Similarly, the K foundation 'worst artist of the year' award presented a cash prize of £40,000 to Rachel Whiteread in 1993. This prize exceeded the £20,000 tuner prize, undermining the established art award.

In the context of our course, we see this High and Low class divide in many medias. We have Hollywood budget action movies with the simple function of entertaining a large general audience, and then in contrast we have abstract films like 'Eraser Head' by David Lynch which are very thought provoking and surreal, taking on a more Low Culture approach. In games we almost have Kitsch arcade formats which are re-produced time and time again. Arcade games often re-emerge with the very basic function of engaging the player. There is often a simple scoring system and the player aims to climb the leaderboard and achieve a high score. In contrast with this we have very abstract games like 'LSD' created from the artist's dream journal. In this game there is no real objective or scoring system, the player just wonders around this surreal and disturbing world. Like art found in Low culture, this video game challenges the conventions of the media. It seems that in all medias, there are these clashing approaches. We often have the mass produced High culture content, challenged by the avant-garde. It could be argued whether this is a good thing however. Experimental approaches can sometimes disstort the artist's original intentions and can often alienate an audience. 

Sunday 8 January 2012

Assassin's Creed: Revelations (Review)





Having played all of the previous games in the Assassin's Creed series, I was keen to complete the final installment of Ezio's story and get up to date with the epic saga. Despite my interest in the plot and the characters 'Ezio' and 'Altair' I must admit that after over hearing some bad reviews, I was a little bit apprehensive whether I would enjoy 'Revelations', or whether the game would be just another repeat of all the previous episodes.

The game opens in 'Animus Island' a purpose built landscape used to test the Animus (the machine used to recall the memories of the Desmond's Assassin ancestors). Desmond Miles, the present day protagonist, is struggling with the 'bleeding effect' where it becomes hard for a person who has been inside the animus to distinguish the past from the present. To restore his sanity, subject sixteen (the insane subject mentioned in previous games) who's mind is still living inside the animus, explains that Desmond must recall all the memories of his ancestors until all the loose ends are tied together.

Desmond's first memory begins with an engaging action sequence very reminiscent of the Indiana Jones moment, where Harrison Ford is dragged across the floor on the back of an enemy tank. As Ezio, you pursue a Templar leader who only moments ago tried to have you executed in Masyaf (the city where the Assassins were based in the first game). You soon find yourself being dragged at the back of the Templar's horse and carrige, whilst trying to avoid harsh pieces of terrain along the path. Whilst in Masyaf, Ezio also finds the entrance to Altair's library (the protagonist in the first instalment). The Library is sealed by five keys, one of which has been uncovered by the templars, the rest hidden in the City of Constantinople (Istanbul) in Turkey. Here you can begin to explore some of the new features found in the game:

The Hookblade:

One of the first new features revealed is the Hookblade. This allows you to grab ledges from greater distances, perform 'long jumps', and use zip lines to swing from rooftop to rooftop. The Hookblade is particularly fun when used to perform zip line assassinations. On your approach down a zip line, if you find a guard bellow you, at the tap of a button you can drop from the rope overhead and land on the guard with your hidden blade drawn. In one slick motion you have taken down a guard before he has even realized your presence. The only floor in my view is that the Hookblade is rather large and ugly. When performing a ledge assassination, it appears as if Ezio is pulling the guard over the edge with a shoehorn placed up his sleeve. Compared to the hidden blade which is very stealthy and inconspicuous, The hook blade sticks out like a sore thumb. Perhaps keeping in-fitting with the rest of Ezio's tools (throwing knives, hidden gun) The hook blade could have been made to appear more hidden.

Assassin's Dens:

I was also pleased to see that 'Revelations' kept and improved on the management system established in 'Brootherhood', where Ezio can recruit assassins and build a small army. Similarly to the Borgia towers in 'Brootherhood', by capturing and setting alight a Templar den, parts of the city are unlocked. Once the templar influence has been massively reduced, Ezio can restore shops and Buildings to increase the income in to the city vault. Now you can also begin recruiting assassins in the area. There are various challenges to unlock them, examples being a race through part of the city, or by aiding them in a fight against city guards. You can level up assassins in your brotherhood by sending them on assignments in other cities or by calling them to help fight against enemies. Once an assassin reaches the master status, he can assigned to run a den (Templar den now run by the assassins). The Assassins dens you establish however, are under constant threat of being re-claimed by the templars. This gives you the opportunity to watch over your assassins as they defend the den, and use tactics such as buying shooters with morale and positioning them along the rooftops. Morale is earned by fighting off the enemy, appearing in waves. You can also place blockades and call in cannon fire to hinder the enemies attack. The more Morale you collect form your successes, the more assassins you can call in to aid in the battle.


Bomb Crafting:


Another great feature in 'Revelations' is the ability to craft bombs. Various shells and Gunpowders can be found around the city which can be customized in to unique explosives. Ezio at first has three pouches, each of which can hold three bombs. As the game progresses however, you can upgrade the pouches to carry more explosives. Bombs can be used to kill, confuse or distract guards and can also be used to create diversions by engaging the crowds. There are three elements required to craft a bomb: The shell, the gun powder and the effect. You can construct shells containing shrapnel, bombs that stick to surfaces, smoke bombs and even trip wires. The type of gunpowder used also influences the radius of the explosion, so there really is a great amount of customization. Once you have selected the elements to construct a bomb you can test the explosive's effect before crafting, in an Animus style simulation. I believe that bomb crafting is one of the strong and unique elements within game.


***SPOILER ALERT***


Since the end of the second game, the introduction of what seems to be an advanced all-knowing alien race has given the Assassin's Creed series an even stronger science fiction theme along with the ancestral memories of Desmond. The clues given at the end of revelations are very hard to piece together, and seemed to raise more questions than answers. Throughout the story, each Masyaf key uncovered unlocks a memory stored by Altair. The keys themselves seem to be created form alien technology, again keeping this strong science fiction twist. These memories all take place in Masyaf, at different decades throughout Altair's life. He is cast out from the creed to finally return as an ageing mentor, kill Abbas who originally cast him out, and be hailed leader of the assassins. As Altair, you eliminate Abbas using the hidden gun technology used by Ezio, showing that Altair has been granted knowledge to tools more advanced than the time he was living in. Through possessing one of the apples of Eden taken from Al Mualim in the first Assassin's creed game, Altair seems to be a bearer of greater knowlege stored by the advanced alien race. After unlocking Altair's library and realising there a no books containing all the answers, but just a final memory key held by Altair's skeleton body, Ezio uncovers Altair's 'apple' and somehow addresses present day Desmond. Desmond is then met by 'Jupiter' from the 'First Civilization.' He explains how they researched ways of saving the earth from destruction in the past and stored the research in vaults, but where too late as our planet was destroyed by a solar flare. When Desmond awakes from the Animus, he claims to know what has to be done.


The ending definitely gave a lot to think about. It would seem that this Alien race we see ocassionally emerging were once destroyed many years ago, and then had to re-build our planet from the ashes left by the solar flare. I have heared strange theories of aliens shaping our existence. Theories like these often tie in strongly with religeon, claiming that many religious experiences and contact with 'God' and angels are the result of alien contact many centuries ago. This kind of approach would fit with the theme of templars and their constant search for knowledge and greater understanding. With the knowledge of the vaults, I imagine in future games Desmond will tract down the information required to change the fate of the earth. With a fifth Assassin's Creed game already due to be out some time in 2012, it will be interesting to see if Ubisoft choose a new era to focus on with Desmond's ancestral memories, or whether the game will be set purely in present day, Desmond utilising his skills gained from the bleeding effect to fight modern day templars.


******


Multiplayer:


After completing the single player campaign, I was keen to sample the multiplayer game types. I briefly played online on 'Brotherhood', but this time I planned on spending more time online in order to give a thorough all around review of the entire game. Similarly to 'Brotherhood', online you play as a Templar inside an animus as part of a large Astergo plot. The information you are first given is very sparse, but the online game mode runs like a campaign and as you level up, cut scenes are introduced that explain more about the Templar's intentions. Before each game you select an assassin to play as and are spawned in to a map. You navigate amongst AI characters as well as other online players, meaning that you can try to blend and hide from pursuers. Sometimes you can even blend with AI sharing your appearance, causing your pursuer to sometimes kill a civilian and loose their contract. Their are various game types, but the general basis of most is that you have a contract to find and kill an assassin, but at the same time someone is contracted to kill you. There are variations where you are given very little on your display, making it more challenging to identify your target. There is a game type where you must track your target using very little aid on your display, and then once you believe you have a identified them correctly, allocate them yourself as a target. On top of this there is a game type were extra points are awarded for the style in which you eliminate your target. In one game type, If your pursuer fails to be stealthy on their approach, a chase is triggered where you must loose their line of sight and hide to become anonymous.


There is also a team objective mode. Some of the extra game types include recovering artefacts, which is basically capture the flag where you must return the enemies' artefact to your base. There is a game type where you must work as a team to secure a chest, and finally a mode where you work to protect an assigned VIP within your team. In all game types, you can attempt to cancel out an enemies' attack by 'stunning' them. This is not always fully successful, but you are rewarded points for an honourable death if killed. In the VIP game type, when your team is being pursued you can use this stun to hinder the enemies attack on your team leader. A stun is achieved by punching an enemy to temporarily disorientate them.


There is also some degree of customization Online. With each character you can unlock different clothes and emblems which can be bought with Astergo credits earned by playing online. You can also customize your own classes, with perks and abilities that aid you in pursuing contracts and also avoiding the players contracted to kill you. One of my favourite abilities enables you to transform and momentarily gain a different appearance, confusing your enemy.


What I find very effective about the Online mode with 'Revelations' is the ability to blend with similar AI bots. It creates a sense of paranoia, causing the player to scan around the crowed knowing that amongst the wave of AI, another online player is stalking them ready to perform an assassination. I am often more captivated by a good campaign, and was merely testing the online mode in order to complete my full review of the game. I found however that I was captivated by some of the game types and will definitely be returning to level up and uncover more about the Templar plot.


In conclusion, along with the Desmond's memories (extra puzzle sequences which can be accessed from Animus Island, unlocked by collecting animus fragments as Ezio) and the online mode accompanied by another side plot, 'Assassin's Creed: Revelations' is one of those games that's lifespan expands well past the main quest. Even without the online game types, you can re-visit the city as Ezio and eliminate the templar dens in order to expand the Assassin's control and reclaim the city. You can continue to level up your assassins and assign them to captured dens, sending them on assignments in order to subdue the Templar's influence in other cities. Although I was slightly sceptical about the game, I thoroughly enjoyed the campaign and will no doubt continue to be enthralled by the online mode.


Rating: 8 out of 10.