Latest build of the iOS game I am working on, mainly working on art and a sprite system, and it working as a Universal App, running on old iPhones, Retina Displays and iPad.

My submission with Sarah for Loop De Loop.

The plan is to produce a single screen, single level, small scale, but polished game I am looking at games like Flight Control or Fruit Ninja, when they were first released, they were only single levels and simple to pick-up game-play, but after being successful they expanded out.

I am aiming to make a really fun and polished small scale project as something that I could actually achieve, but open to be expanded later, rather then making something overwhelming that would not get finished.

This project spawned from my Graphite Flash game, where the user could draw and place trampolines on the stage, which you could then jump across. These trampolines had no physics, simply an upward push, and the user was controlling both sides of the game, as both the character, and using a pencil to draw on the environment.

The aim is to make a really good five seconds of game-play that engages and produces feelings of confidence, panic then relief, then starts again.

The technique started with filming a turntable spinning at various speeds and with a few framerates and shutter speeds. I had marked points on the platter with pieces of tape, and could count the frames it took to rotate. After a bit of trial and error, I figured out the technicalities. Filming a 33 frame sequence at 25 fps, with a fast shutter speed (to stop motion blur), and a lot of light would make the frames align and animate. The process works much like a classic Zoetrope, where slits in the paper would act as a shutter, except now I was using an actual camera shutter to freeze the movement.

From here, I created a project in After Effects, where a 33 frame composition would be rotated around inside another composition, then each frame of that would be overlapped, giving me a single frame long sequence to render. This let me use a computer to do the animation, and see how it looked immediately, and giving me files to print.

Once the turntables were printed, I then roughened them up, slowed down the turntable speeds, tore up the printouts, and tried to do whatever I could to make the process look real. The biggest issue I found with this technique was that it almost looked like it was digitally placed into the shots, and there is something lost when you watch the video of it working, instead of it coming to life as a tactile thing.

A test made by placing a print out of a 33 frame animation sequence on a turntable, then recording at 25 fps.

The sequence was created in after effects, then printed and placed onto the turntable. Filmed using a Canon 7D and a cheap extendable bellows to give the macro focus.

With a very fast shutter speed and the frames on the turntable positioned correctly, they can seem to freeze and produce animation live in-camera.

A test made by placing a print out of a 33 frame animation sequence on a turntable, then recording at 25 fps.

The sequence was created in after effects, then printed and placed onto the turntable. Filmed using a Canon 7D and a cheap extendable bellows to give the macro focus.

With a very fast shutter speed and the frames on the turntable positioned correctly, they can seem to freeze and produce animation live in-camera.