Understanding Comics Review

Chapter II's idea seems fascinating to me. It is about what we notice in comic books, and how images communicate to us. He mentioned that the artist can embrace any particular way to make realistic,unrealistic or surreal cartoon images of people and objects andto express their emotions of the character or story. Additionally, the greater the personality a comic has, the more simplistic it is. What i found out is that normally we see a lot of icons around us in more simplistic terms, very straignt forward and right to the point, which makes it easy to notice. And this is exactly what comic book needsin order to catch the viewer's eyes. However, after I read The Arrival by Shaun Tan, I feel comic can be realistic, and it should be done in realistic way. If Shuan Tan drew the comic in a simplistic way, it would have lost lots of emotions and cinematic feelings to the story and wouldn't have a such strong connection to a lot of people.

I liked how Scoot Mccloud said about picture, when they are more abstracted from 'reality", they require greater levels of perception, more like words.When words are bolder, more direct, they require lower levels of perception and are received faster more like pictures.

However, I think it is impossible to decide what is faster because it depends on the artist. A good comic artist knows when is the right time to use the picture, and when is the right time to use a simple word.

Prince Valiant, Vol.3

The incredible artwork of Hal Foster makes Prince Valiant a true treasure to read.Being able to go through his adventures was fantastic experience. I have looked at Prince valiant Volume. 3 and i was fascinated by the high quality of the art and storytelling. I think perfection has been achieved in Prince Valiant. The art style is just mind blowing but i liked story telling more. I enjoyed how  Prince Valiants adventures is one cohesive story without any interruptions. I was fascinated by Valiant's obsessive search for his bride-to-be Aleta throughout Northern Africa, with stops in Jerusalem, the Arabic deserts, and, inevitably, a harem which Val must infiltrate. I enjoyed his adventures through the Mediterranean, the Near East, sub Saharan Africa and Europe and what i like the most it all feels believable. Which allows the reader to be totally emmerse in the adventurous world of Prince Valiant.In other words, it is fantastic artwork with great adventure story.

The Arrival by Shuan Tan

“The Arrival”, tells a story about the journey and reunion. The young father leaves his home to create a better life for his family in a new big city full of opportunities, eventually the entire family got together and the new city became the new home.I enjoyed the photorealistic human figures,that evoke the intimate feelings of my overseas experience. I am from Ukraine, and this is my senior year in the United States at Ringling College. I went back home twice a year during summer and winter, but the summer is really short while missing is very long. It wasextremely hard for me in the first year, I am like the young father in the comic book, I go to the new land alone, I have to speak the new language, and I have to meet the new people. Sometimes, it is really hard to talk with my family about what is happening to me or what is new in school, because of two different cultures. But, I am glad that I made the decision to come to Ringling. It enriched my knowledge and my experience,as well as, enlarged my vision.

Commercial for a level that i made for a battle combat game Shootout. The goal of the commercial was to use a combination of cinematic cameras and gameplay footage to create  an appealing commercial of the game level. The music was chosen using killertracks and voice over were done by me. Also, i had to do the simple logo for my level, which is the last part of the video, it shows the name of the game and level.

Rough plan for the game commercial. I am planning to start with the environment shots so that the player has a better understanding of the setting, and move on to the gameplay footage. I am thinking about dynamic music for the commercial, because i will have a lot of explosion and destruction in the commercial.

As the final assignment for my Programming class i have to do the boss fight for my adventure game that i did earlier. To start with i have to research and analyze the technical aspect of classic adventure game boss battle.

Visual reference of the World of Warcraft characters N'Zoth and Yogg-Saron.




The video that i found on the Youtube that i used to look at some boss mechanic that i am interested in.

Our boss fight will be a few phased boss fight, i am planning to do 3 stages.

The Horsehead boss mechanics where a player has to hit an run is what i want to do for my first stage, i am thinking about an objective where a player has to weaken the demonic creature by destroying it's tentacles, i am going to use the same mechanics as a Spiky block ( when a player comes close enough a tentacle will slash the grounds doing AOE damage in the area), i am also inspired by Illaio's Q ability from League of Legends by Riot Games.

The Barba gameplay  helped to figure our how i want to have a tentacle from the ground mechanics to work.

I liked The thunderbird mechanics where the projectiles are falling on the character in the random patters, i think is it a crucial boss fight mechanics that i should have. However, it should be horizontal not vertical. I am thinking implementing this mechanics when the characters achieves something, for example destroying a tentacle. Also, i am thinking about making a boss invulnerable when the projectiles are cast in the early stages, when the battle progresses more projectiles are spawn and more frequent.

Velkoz from League of Legends by Riot Games as a main reference for projectiles.

Star Guarding Syndra sin from league of Legends by Riot Games.

I like the idea how the character throws little creatures at enemies, and also when the character unleashes the barrage of orbs at the enemy. I want to have the stage of the boss fight where the boss will spawn enemies in the same manner, and also he will spawn orbs and if they are not destroyed by the player in the certain amount of time, they will attack the player, or if the number of spheres will get to 5 for example, the boss will launch the projectiles.

I am also thinking about implementing shield/health pick ups for the boss battle, in a way that when the boss used an ability or after he uses an ability that is beneficial for the player.

For one of my stages of the boss fight the player will be forced to enter the shadow realm ( one of the game mechanics that i have in my adventure game), where he will have to fight enemies and when the mission accomplished, the player can leave the shadow realm and continue fighting the boss.

Game play of the final version of my level for the Combat Vehicle game. This project was fun, but it had a lot of challenges that wasn't easy to overcome.
The USP of my level is the Dam that can be destroyed, which leads to water rise that opens a route to the island from where the bomb can be launched, with every launch more bombs are spawned.

Screenshots of the environment: