APD Week11 Play and Stillness

Theme

Play and Stillness

Context

This week we discussed the stillness. It is a calm, quiet, motionless state. We through games, films and interactives that vary between motion and stillness, and mentioned including some slow games and Zen games and more. In these examples, stillness is interpreted as a slow state as opposed to a fast one. Chris Solarski mentioned in his work Morf(2011) that the character's surroundings are an important part of the dynamic composition, as the environment usually takes up most of the view. In such a balance, players tend to focus only on what's around them, that is, on the big picture, rather than on themselves. I was also struck by the game Journey (2012), which uses very simple shapes to design characters and environments, giving a sense of tranquillity. So I came up with the idea of presenting the dynamic scene in a kind of animation. It might end up looking like a dynamic desktop, presenting a dynamic environment.

Methods

In my work this week, I designed a short animation similar to the dynamic desktop, that is, when the camera is fixed, all things in the environment make small movements, such as the wind blowing grass, floating clouds, flying geese and birds, etc. All of this work was done in Blender, with time spent on cartoon renderings and lighting materials. The Ghibli effect makes the environment feel more serene.

Reflection

Generally speaking, I combine nature. Through the fixed lens, random fluttering grass, drifting clouds and parallel flying geese, one can get a moment of peace in his heart. The results exceeded expectations. Rather than exploring continuous animation, I was more interested in exploring the transition between slow movement and stillness. A slow game perspective inspired me to switch between stillness and motion, reversing playback.
The animation was created in Blender, using white clouds, grass and sunshade as a contrast to determine the layout. The blue sky and parasols symbolize static objects, while the grass and clouds can be used to show their slow dynamics by increasing the number of moves and layouts. For the overall effect, maybe add more static objects, and add some widgets like trees, the sun and moon, etc. You can also find a way to change the environment, such as the alternation of day and night. Stillness is a form of presentation that actively focuses the player's attention.

Reference

IAmSp00n, Journey - Gameplay / Playthrough, Youtube, 2012, viewed on Oct 10th
Solarski C., The Aesthetics of Game Art and Game Design, Game developer, 2013, viewed on Oct 10th.

Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/RL2_IwigmzU