Its been hectic over Christmas but we've tried to keep our group project in mind, and are constantly keeping our eyes peeled for inspiration as well as researching and putting together our script which is due the 3 of February!
I have been researching our narrative and trying to fine tune it, researching Karl Jung more in depth, creating and finalising characters to give depth to our story. With particular emphasis on symbolism, what each one of our characters represents, with regards our story, the tying together of the narrative and also what the user is going to get from interacting with these characters and symbols, which is after all the most important thing!
I have been researching the character of the shadow, who is representing the dark side, or subconscious part of our user and indeed the forest. I have been researching what the subconscious means, what our shadow represents and reasons behind why our character must overcome this character to progress in our interactive piece.I feel like the shadow in our peice is a strong symbol that we can wokrk with as we are trying to bring out the light playful side in our user as well as visually in our animation, we must first concur the darker side of ourselves, that everyone faces.Beneath the social mask we wear every day, we have a hidden shadow side: an impulsive, wounded, sad, or isolated part that we generally try to ignore.Bringing Shadow material into consciousness drains its dark power, and can even recover valuable resources from it. The greatest power, however, comes from having accepted your shadow parts and integrated them as components of your Self."
WHAT WE DO NOT DARE LOOK AT, WITHIN OURSELVES, WE TEND TO PROJECT OUT ONTO OTHERS. In our instnce the shadow creature. By Facing it we start on a path to enlightening replay forest and hopefully the user.
This is just a snippet of the character research i have been doing into our narrative, along with this, we have been looking at animations, with Fodhla researching different styles and methods of animation, from shadows, stop motion, flash etc.
Alanagh has been tirelessly working on graphics and character development nd the look of the characters as well as working with fodhla to identify a strong motif to our project to really make us stand out. Pictures and drawings to come in next update!
Annie has been working away on interactions thinking and researching new and exciting ways of making unusual tangible interactions, right now she has been working with textiles and researching buttons that will tie into our project, as well as keeping our tweets updated, you can tweet us @rePLAYforest
so guys that was just a quick update on our progress and where we're at right now, more frequent updates to follow with regular updates frfom all the team on the blog and twitter!!
Siobhán
