1. Creating the Illusion Mark Green School of Creative Media

2. Introduction  Now that we have some idea of what new media is about, how do we create a good illusion?  What is the process we can follow to create a good illusion?  What do we know about the design of new media?

3. What is Good New Media?  Depends on individual taste and the type of piece we are producing, but there are some general ideas  If a viewer spends a lot of time with our piece it is probably good: Viewer finds it entertaining Viewer finds it entertaining Can accomplish his or her task Can accomplish his or her task Is learning something Is learning something

4. What is Good New Media?  One suggested criteria is visual realism  There has been a major push over the past few decades to produce realistic graphics  Consumer video cards can now produce quite realistic graphics in real-time  But how helpful is this? Or, does it just get in the way?

5. Visual Realism  There are many applications where this can be a major factor  Flight simulators need visual realism to increase training effectiveness  It assists in immersing the viewer in entertainment and game experiences  So it can be an important factor in some applications

6. Visual Realism  But, its not always necessary  There are applications that visual realism might hurt  Observation: its easier to recognize a person from a cartoon than from a picture  Cartoon concentrates on the important features for recognition, picture has too much detail

7. Visual Realism  All the details might not be necessary all of the time, might want a higher level representation  Concentrate on the important points and ignore the details  Training: highlight the important points, have the viewer focus on them, not the details of irrelevant parts

8. Visual Realism  Example: I worked on a medical visualization, operation of a virus within a cancer cell  The more realistic the graphics were, the harder for people to use it, in fact many got sick from looking at it  More schematic representation worked much better

9. March of Technology  New technology is seductive, can give better media, but need to deal with the learning curve  New graphics processors every 6 months to a year, each one introduces new features  Significant advances at the consumer level over the past 2 years, this will continue for another few years

10. March of Technology  New ways of doing graphics that produce much better images  Many designers would like to use this technology, but the rapid evolution is a problem  The software used for these new graphics cards is also changing rapidly, some say too rapidly to use

11. March of Technology  Current version of DirectX is 9 (the main software for PC games), but most games on the market use version 7  Recently developed games are using versions 8 and 8.1, programmers just learning how to use this software  Now they need to learn a new version for the latest hardware

12. March of Technology  Advances in hardware are always nice, but if we can’t learn it there are problems  Programmers and designers don’t have time to explore the technology before the next one comes along  They don’t have time to be creative, make the best use of the technology, since they are always learning something new

13. March of Technology  Even worse, they will start to ignore it  If the technology changes too fast, people will burn out and give up on it  They will just work with what they know  This will eventually stop the innovation, which isn’t good either  Need to pace the development of technology

14. Technology  There is a tendency for some designers to concentrate too much on the technology  This is easy to do, there is a lot of hype surrounding the technology, lots of marketing and companies pushing their technologies  Not near as much hype about quality design, much harder to sell

15. Technology  In some cases technology can make or break a piece, but it usually isn’t the most important factor  If the content isn’t there, the technology won’t help  Need to think of the technology as something that makes the content possible, it plays a supporting role

16. Interactivity  This is certainly part of good new media  The user needs to have some control over the piece, needs to feel that they are contributing to the experience  The ability to immerse the viewer in the experience, convince them they are part of the virtual world we are creating

17. Interactivity  Interactivity can really help a piece, but it isn’t the only factor  Surface interactivity can make a piece worse, it needs to be an integral part of the experience  Needs to fit in with the experience, not just something that was added on later

18. Content  Without content you don’t have much of a piece, it is one of the most important components  Good content is important, and too often not enough time is spent on developing it  There are always time pressures to start production, to see some product being developed

19. Content  Too often content development is viewed as non-productive work, this is one of the most common reasons for pieces failing  There are a number of things to think about in content development  First, does the content fit the medium? Will it make for a good story in the medium that we are using?

20. Content  Many companies think they can easily re- use content from other media  For example making games from movies, this usually doesn’t produce a very good game  Going from games to movies hasn’t been very successful either

21. Content  If content was developed for a non- interactive media it quite often doesn’t transfer to interactive media  There have been successful transfers of board games to computer games, but both are basically interactive media  Often better off starting from scratch

22. Content  Content can be motivated by other media, the ideas could come from a book or movie, but it needs to be developed for interactive presentation  Good content development takes time, for larger pieces it’s a good idea to spend a considerable amount of time on content development

23. Content  Example: if I see a two year project that is only spending a month on content development I feel concerned  If they plan to have follow-ups I’m even more concerned  Content development can overlap production, but there should be a non- production period at the beginning

24. Summary  So we need to have at least the following things: good content targeted to our media good content targeted to our media interactivity interactivity media (graphics, sound, etc) that immerses the viewer in our virtual world media (graphics, sound, etc) that immerses the viewer in our virtual world appropriate use of technology appropriate use of technology  this will get us a long way towards a successful piece

25. The Production Process  To get a better feel for design we need to look at the production process  only a high level view, the subject of a complete course next semester  the process starts with the idea for a piece and ends with the final product, usually in the form of a CD

26. The Production Process  Start with the basic idea, may be as short as a few sentences  usually need a very short description so you can pitch your project whenever you get a chance  new media is becoming big business, you are unlikely to have the funds to do it yourself

27. The Production Process  The early stages of a project center around raising funds so you can actually start production  budgets in the $5 - $10 million (US) range are not unusual now, this is similar to producing a movie or TV series  need to have something that will convince someone to invest

28. The Production Process  Start with a short document, maybe 10 pages long that outlines the project: the short description of the project the short description of the project 2 or 3 page description of the product 2 or 3 page description of the product market survey, will it sell market survey, will it sell production schedule production schedule budget budget your team, can you actually deliver your team, can you actually deliver

29. The Production Process  Where do you get funding? Publisher, the company that will eventually distribute the product Publisher, the company that will eventually distribute the product internal funding, only if you work for a very large company or have a small project internal funding, only if you work for a very large company or have a small project customer, if developing a special purpose project customer, if developing a special purpose project restaurant somewhere in Hong Kong (this is a true story) restaurant somewhere in Hong Kong (this is a true story)

30. The Production Process  Approximately 10% of projects get funded  once you have funding time to start working on project  by this time you may have a 40 page or so long document describing the design in more detail, along with sources of motivation, background reading, etc  this forms the basis of the design

31. The Production Process  At this point you need to consider the following things: back story and background back story and background general layout of the piece, a rough sketch of the design general layout of the piece, a rough sketch of the design artistic style and models, general feel for appearance artistic style and models, general feel for appearance basic interaction with the viewer basic interaction with the viewer

32. The Production Process  Once you have a basic design can start planning the production process, this is far more important that it might seem: detailed design detailed design identification of main assets (video, sound, computer models, animation, etc) identification of main assets (video, sound, computer models, animation, etc) production schedule for individual components production schedule for individual components testing strategy testing strategy

33. The Production Process  The detailed design usually overlaps part of the production process  outlines the design of each component of the project  asset identification is one of the most important steps, from a production point of view  overlooking it could lead to disaster

34. The Production Process  Need to identify the main objects that will be used in the piece, where most of the production work will be centered  in general you will need to build most of the assets, but not always  do some of the assets already exist from another project, or can they be purchased?  What is the best way to produce them?

35. The Production Process  One of the main considerations is re-use  can the same asset by used in more than one place? If so plan to re-use it  with large projects there is a tendency to redo a lot of work that could be avoided with proper asset management  put assets in general form, catalogue them and store them properly!

36. The Production Process  If everything has been done right up to this point the main production of the piece should be easy (well sort of)  can easily divide process into pieces and assign to individual groups, may be quite independent  can even subcontract some of the work, China is popular right now

37. The Production Process  Testing is the next important step  for commercial success your product has to be bug free  remember you are building an experience, if anything happens to break that experience the viewer will be very unhappy  even simple bugs or things that aren’t quite accurate can be major problems

38. The Production Process  Most companies have a separate testing department, usually called QA  usually start testing as soon as there is something to test  for each version produce a list of bugs, project manager responsible for checking that each of the bugs is fixed

39. The Production Process  Near the end of the project most of the work is in testing and fixing bugs  producing the very final version that is to go to the publisher is called “going gold”  because most of the CD-R were gold in colour and that’s how it was sent to the publisher  time for a big party!

40. The Production Process  There are two other departments that are involved in the production process: R&D: develop special techniques and effects required for the project, also investigate hardware and software that will be used in future projects R&D: develop special techniques and effects required for the project, also investigate hardware and software that will be used in future projects Tools: develop special purpose software tools for use in the company, some are very project specific Tools: develop special purpose software tools for use in the company, some are very project specific

41. The Design Process  As you can see design occurs on many levels throughout the design process  it starts at a high level in the early stages with only a few pages for the entire project  it then works through at least 2 more levels with each level producing at least 10 times more information

42. The Design Process  Design is usually a continuous process  as the project progresses smaller and smaller design decisions are made  the big decisions are made early in the project, they are hard to change once the project gets going  need to think carefully in the beginning

43. The Design Process  How do we do design?  Obviously we work from high level to low level, but there is more to it than that  most good designers start by studying the work of others, the main source of motivation  should be aware of most art forms, film, theatre, literature, visual art, etc

44. The Design Process  Good for motivation, also good for communications, most people know common styles, so its easy to tell people  be aware of what other people have done in your medium and in your genre  previous works have tackled similar design problems, be aware of what works and what doesn’t work

45. The Design Process  Be aware of other works in your genre  are the standards in your genre? Will viewers expect you to stick to these standards?  Where must you stick to the rules of your genre and where can you depart?  What is it that will make your piece different from the other in your genre?