“Dreams” is an artefact that I created as my final year project, and is an interactive animation reminiscent of old “pick your own path” books. It explores the relationship between dreams and experiences while awake by presenting users with the opportunity to live three days (and two dreams) in the life of a character named Josh.
Josh is studying Multimedia at University and has four problems to deal with during the three days, and they are:
Josh is studying Multimedia at University and has four problems to deal with during the three days, and they are:
As users make decisions their progress in solving each problem changes. For example, if Violet is calling the user can answer the call and build up Josh’s relationship with her or can ignore the call which means that Josh will study instead, making him more prepared for his exam. This replicates the balance that we try to find in real life since we often face dilemmas, with varying degrees of importance.
By the end of the first two days the current state of each problem (in regards to how solved it is) is shown in Josh’s dreams, so if Josh answers Miles’ calls on the first day when he sees Miles in the first dream then Miles will respond when Josh talks to him. If Josh ignores Miles' phone calls then Miles ignores Josh in the first dream.
By the end of the first two days the current state of each problem (in regards to how solved it is) is shown in Josh’s dreams, so if Josh answers Miles’ calls on the first day when he sees Miles in the first dream then Miles will respond when Josh talks to him. If Josh ignores Miles' phone calls then Miles ignores Josh in the first dream.
Much of the artefact is based on primary research (in the form of a questionnaire) and secondary research (in the form of a few books on psychology), for example, if Josh ignores Violet on the first day in his dream he dreams of her saying “Can’t we be together”. This is taken from my research that showed that people often dream of things that they want to happen.
A question from my questionnaire with the responses to it, which helped to decide on the problems featured in the artefact.
The relationship between reality and dreams is also presented visually and through sound. In the dreams the colour violet is used in scenes that relate to Violet and in the first dream words spoken by Josh’s mother in the first day are used to help the user understand how they’re doing with regards to that problem.
The objective of the artefact is to inspire people to look into and research their own dreams since although dreaming is popular in media (such as films like Inception and The Wizard of Oz), they rarely communicate their research on dreams within the actual films.
THE ARTEFACT
The artefact itself takes the form of a swf that loads the 79 individual movie-clips based on the decisions that you make through the use of ActionScript, with the code written by friend and talented flash developer Nicolas Meriot. It only works for the first day and dream due to my limited ActionScript skills, but all movie-clips were completed.
I have created two videos that each show a different path that one can take through the entire three days. The first presents a scenario where Josh studies but doesn’t socialise and last 6 minutes. The second presents the opposite, where Josh socialises at every opportunity but doesn’t study and lasts 14 minutes, showing just how varied the paths can be.
I have created two videos that each show a different path that one can take through the entire three days. The first presents a scenario where Josh studies but doesn’t socialise and last 6 minutes. The second presents the opposite, where Josh socialises at every opportunity but doesn’t study and lasts 14 minutes, showing just how varied the paths can be.
VISUAL DEVELOPMENT
I first created a basic version of the story and then developed into one with more detail. Following this I began listing the movie-clips that would need to be created and upon completion structured them into flow-charts that span the three days and two dreams.
From early on I was considering how the characters should look, since making them look too basic may be seen as childish and misrepresent the tone of the artefact yet a very detailed look would make animating all the scenes take a long time. Using myself as a base (since I have short hair and a simple look) I created various styles and eventually settled on a style slightly inspired by Aeon Flux that I felt wasn’t too simple or complex, but was detailed enough to ensure the artefact is taken seriously.
I drew the characters on paper originally and then used Illustrator to clean them up for use in the artefact. To make sure I was accurate when drawing certain arm poses (such as when holding a phone or toothbrush) I took pictures of my own arm in these poses as a guide for me to go over in Illustrator.
Lip-syncing also had to be taken into account and after looking at mouth positions for particular syllables I created male and female versions to match.
Some arm and hand positions were unusual for me to draw so to aid me I took pictures ofmyself in those positions and used them as guides.
