01) Opening Title: Some viewers noticed and enjoyed that the shape of the key-head was cat-shaped.
I did not put a start button, so this animation just loops from the end to restart because I showed an action page using the gamepad as an eye-catcher so that viewers, especially children could be interested in this animation.
02-0) Blinking Icon and Mouse over Icon of “Cat Town” on the Map
If the map appeares, most viewers did not know what they do next and some of them clicked another site.
However, this interactive animation has story and the first scene is “Cat Town” that is a blinking button.
I have to amend the blinking colour so that it become more remarkable.
On the other hand, although I have the trouble that “Cat Town”, “Flower Road”, and “Go Back Home” buttons overlap, I thought I had to manage to create the clickable map because it is easy to understand the operation.
02-1) Cat Town Animation
This animation has the scene that the kitten comes out from the double doors and bells of the clock tower rings 6am. I created the illustration, but I omitted the scene because of time.
03-0) Blinking Icon and Mouse over Icon of “Flower Road” on the Map
A few viewers noticed that kitten’s paw prints appear on its route.
I changed the paw prints from black to brown and smaller for design of map printing.
However, for animation, I realised that the black and bigger paw prints are better for the recognition.
03-1) Flower Road Action Animation using gamepad
Most pepole tended to press the buttons of gamepad quickly without stopping, so I had to amend the time of starting next action 3 times to shorten it and to interact quickly.
04-0) Blinking Icon and Mouse over Icon of “Laboratory” on the Map
I wrote ‘Click a blinking site’ on the navigation sheet, so some viewers clicked the blinking sun and other blinking items. I have to change the blinking colour that I want viewers to click into garish colour.
04-1) Laboratory Exterior
This is just 4 seconds for explanation of the current site.
When the kitten looks up at the building, it rises to the sky.
04-2) Dr. Meow puts a helmet on the kitten
Some of viewers laughed the scene.
The white subscript was hard to read on the white back, so I changed into black subscript.
04-3) Selection of Owl-shaped Aircraft or Dolphin-shaped Submarine
The dolphin-shaped submarine was more popular than owl-shaped aircraft among viewers.
However, since I would like viewers to see both scenes, I added “first” to the selection and I changed it so that viewers can see both scenes in order.
Some viewers did not notice that they had to click the owl or dolphin to select next scene without the navigation sheet, I would put the blinking word “Click” on the both owl and dolphin.
05-1) Owl Aircraft finds a Star in the Space
Some viewers said, “Beautiful” about this scene.
However, the space scene could receive less reactions of them than the sea scene.
Probably because the movement is only owl’s flapping and kitten’s winking while getting bigger and closer from bottom left corner of the space.
I already prepared several handles of different directions and owl’s feet opening and closing to get the star, but I could not edit because of time.
I will need to add the movements that the kitten controls the aircraft and gets the star.
Also, I was going to create mouse moving action in the stage.
An alien chases the kitten by using mouse pointer position and changing the mouse pointer image.
However, I had no time to create the action as well.
06-1) Dolphin Submarine finds a Seashell in the Sea
The kitten controlling the submarine made viewers laugh.
Although I already prepared the image that the dolphin opens its mouse and gets the seashell, I haven’t edited.
If I edit the scene, the story will became easy to understand.
In addition, same as the space scene, I was going to create mouse moving action in the stage.
A shark chases the kitten.
However, I had no time to create the action.
09-0) Blinking Icon and Mouse over Icon of “Autumn Field”
When I created the blinking icon and mouse over icon of “Autumn Field”, if I changed the colour of the letters, I could not read them, so I did not change it.
As a result, although the autumn field was blinking, a few viewers did not notice where was blinking.
I had better change the colour of the letters of the blinking icon and mouse over icon.
09-1) Kitten finds foxtails on Autumn Field
Although I would like to show the last scene “Go Back Home” the most, some viewers went away in this scene.
Probably one reason is because viewers do not know the animation has the twist in the tale and they would think such animation continues still more as this scene is very heavy bolume and slow.
Another reason is because the animation of this scene has no action, so some viewers who was waiting action scane still holding the gamepad seemed to lose interest.
I was thinking of actions for 1, 2, 3, 4 and arrow keys in this stage on my rough storyboard, but I omitted them owing to no time.
10-0) Blinking Icon and Mouse over Icon of “Winter Forest”
I realised that the scenes of blinking spot on the map which just show the place where the kitten is do not need to be clicked by viewers because these scenes have no selection, action and subscript to be read.
I may have to amend those so that the place where the kitten is at moment is clicked automatically though it is difficult to decide how long the map should be showed.
When I created the video of the explanaton of the story in our colloquium, I used the way of going ahead automatically by the pace that the paw prints appeared along the tempo and route of the kitten twice.
10-1) Dark “Winter Forest”
Although I created the illustration and the test animation of the scene first, I edited the scene last because of the location on the map after completeing the map, so I could not show the scene in our assessment.
A viewer loved the scene and said, “Psychedelic”.
However, I think I need to amend the scene because the backgroung itself is nice, but when it was combined with the trees, the effects of layers of the translucent skies, clouds and moon disappeared.
Also, I prepared actions of selection of the scene by 1, 2, 3, 4 and arrow keys of gamepad in this scene on my rough storyboard as well.
11-0) Blinking Icon and Mouse over Icon of “Go Back Home” on the Map
It seemed to be easy to recognise the blinking area of “Go back Home” because it is wide including the way back and Cat Town.
However, the icons of “Cat Town”, “Flower Road”, and “Go Back Home” overlap, so I could not create the clickable map.
I was thinking that I would make the paw prints of the way back the icon of “Go Back Home”, but the icon was hard to click.
For “Go Back Home”, I would need to create the icon of the area of the way back paw prints and just the kitten’s house.
For “Cat Town”, I would need to create the icon of other cat houses.
So those 3 would not overlap.
11-1) Crying Mom & Dad and Police
I had no time to create a cat-face-shaped table and chairs with cabriole legs in this scene, but the scene was not unnatural.
Also, the scene made viewers laugh the most.
11-2) Mom & Dad run up to apologizing Kitten
The parents running up to the winking kitten appealed to viewers’ emotions and many viewers said, “Ohh”.
I intended that the kitten would open its knapsack and show the treasures it found, but I omitted it.
After I saw the viewers’ reactions to this scene, I thought the treasures the kitten found were not so important, but if the kitten show the treasures, it would become easy to understand the mom’s lines, “Oh, my stupid child. You are my precious treasure!”.
11-3) You are My Precious Treasure!
I clipped and divided the images into the heads, bodys, and arms and prepared the winking eyes in order for them to press their cheeks against their child’s and for the kitten to wink, but I had no time to edit them.
However, despite no movement and having just story in this scene, this illustration enjoyed a good reputation.
12-1) Ending Credit and Treasure box Close
Some viewers went away in this scene started, so I shortened the time of the credit.
I prepared the credit, “Additional sounds www.freesound.org“, but I had no time to use the additional sounds.
In the opening, the treasure box is unlocked and opened while in the ending, it is closed and locked.
Project Log on MA Digital Arts 