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What is Digital Voices?

 

Digital Voices is a course created by our teacher Mr. Leduc, which involves both project management and our futures in digital media courses combined into one huge course. The course brings students, who want to work on a media project, together. Through this, we learn how a project is both created and completed within an industry. In addition to this, we also learn from people with experience in the industry. People from different media backgrounds such as animation, photography, film, game design, and sound design, visit us at Sisler High School to talk to us about their experience within in the industry and share some of their trade tips. If they cannot fly here or must present for multiple people, we can have digital conferences as well. In conclusion, the course brings students together to teach them about their futures in a position relating to digital media, how to interact with others in the industry, and how to carry your own weight within such a project by using your knowledge in a specific area to complement the interest of your group's project.

 

Project Analysis/Reflection

 

      Our project, Bound Odyssey, was created for the simple purpose of making an awesome story that people could feel immersed in and remember. In the beginning, we had the idea of our main character running from the fire, which was a metaphor finalfor a world wiped clean multiple times by an ever consuming inferno.Death, and even have another monster incorporated within the story. Over time, we decided to scrap those ideas with the help of our peers and their opinions on our over-ambitious project, We decided to focus mainly on on the  journey between Phe and Hope, making the story more Player vs Self and Player vs Environment rather than incorporating Player vs Player.  The animation highlights the aspects of hope, loss, loneliness, and strife within the struggle that is Phe’s end game, the mountain. Every challenge she faces is a simple stepping stone to her final destination, yet these stepping stones could hurt an individual’s mental state greatly. Such is the fate of a survivor


    Bound Odyssey is definitely a very ambitious project created by 10 students with a very limited amount of time. The project itself is extremely large, a 7 minute video consisting of full traditional animation with no sound effects and only the score is our plan. As we continue throughout the beginning of our project to our current standing in January of 2017, we still believed that if our animators put enough time, while also using this time efficiently, we could complete a project that would be able to satisfy our creative minds. Our group will work until we can truly say that this 7 min, ambitious, and rich animation is complete.

 

 

Phase 1: Discussion

Finally, we decided that our company name would be known as Updog Production, which is a reference to a joke that is Still Alright., which illustrated a similar tone and theme, but contained a different plot entirely. In terms of our sound design, we decided that our animation would feature no sound aside from a score, which we concluded to be Pg.lost’s The Longest Road . The beginning phase of our project. During this period, our group formed up and discussed each of the group member's preferences when it came to creating a drawing or an animation. Through all of this discussion, we came to the conclusion that all of us liked fantasy, action, and the occasional grimdark theme. As a result, we created the story of Phe and her endless journey of survival. We also compiled references of drawings, art styles, and animations that fit the tone of our story. We took the most emphasis on the animation used  frequently. Fun fact: the dog used in logo is actually our group leader's beagle!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phase 2: Discovery

               The discovery phase of our project mainly consists of the development of our story’s characters and settings, explanation behind our story, and the goals that we have set to complete our project. A project pitch and statement of purpose were developed, granting readers an explanation to what our project focuses on and who our main audience is. Concept art for our characters was developed, along with a minor explanation of why we chose the way they looked and a bit of backstory as to who they were. Finally, a storyboard was created to illustrate the flow of our story and the various positions we want our camera to be in. Our group leader also developed an animatic, which synchronizes our score with the flow of our storyboard, allowing our group to get a feel for how they should be animating the scenes and what camera angles work the best with various scenes.

 

Phase 3: Design

 

               During this phase, we compile our concept art and start to work on our final pieces. Our animators begin to work on the various scenes in our storyboard and bring them to completion. Background designers begin to draw complete backgrounds, which will be used within our animation during key points within our story. We also began to create a website and bring our Behance page to fruition, which you are seeing as of now. Once complete we move to the final phase of our project.

Phase 4: Development

 

A poster will be created as well, followed by a trailer and behind the scenes releases. When we are ready, we will display our animation towards our classmates  piers. The final phase of our project. During this phase, we began to compile all of our points within our animation and put them into a movie making program, which will be glorious. Demo reels and reflections will be uploaded by all of our members as the final topping on our animation, concluding the work they did throughout their digital voice career this semester, as well as the reflection on the animation we have completed.and

 

Phase 5: Delivery

 

                The final phase of our project. This phase is identical to phase 4, so little explanation is required. We compile all scenes of the animation and put into video format, we display it to the general audience, we acquire feedback before our final project can be announced final. Posters and trailers are also completed and displayed to public eyes. Some of our members will be unable to make it to the big reveal, which is a shame, but will be there in spirit. Finally, we end off with a period where questions are asked about both the cast of people working on the animation and the animation as a whole.

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