Based on your brainstorm, what area will your project focus on? 

Here are some directions specifically for Animation:

• Short Character Animation: Create a short animation (1-2 minutes) featuring original characters in a simple storyline. Focus on character movement and expression.

• Stop Motion Animation: Use everyday objects or clay to create a stop motion animation. A short story or a series of funny scenes can be engaging.

• Explainer Video: Create an animated explainer video on a topic of interest, such as how something works or a summary of a favorite book or movie.

• Motion Graphics Music Video: Design a music video using motion graphics and animation to visualize the lyrics or mood of a song.

• Educational Animation: Develop an educational animation on a subject you're passionate about, like science concepts, historical events, or language learning.

• Digital Comic Strip: Turn a short comic strip into an animated sequence, adding movement and effects to enhance the storytelling.

• Game Animation: Create animated characters or assets for a simple game prototype, showcasing their movements and interactions.

• Logo Animation: Design a dynamic animation for a brand logo, incorporating visual effects and transitions.

• Character Rigging and Animation: Learn about character rigging and animate a character performing various actions like walking, running, and jumping.

• Environmental Animation: Focus on creating animated landscapes or environments, adding elements like weather effects or day-night cycles.

Animation Process

Finished Animation Examples

It is important to know and understand Whanaungatanga, Manaakitanga and Kaitiakitanga. You will need to understand and implement these principles throughout your project. 

~ Examples of Bad Practice ~

~ Examples of Good Practice ~

Research Relevant Conventions for Animation

Context, Need or Opportunity - the circumstances that form the setting for the idea.

The context, need or opportunity is the background information. It's the situation that forms the setting for your idea. You should be able to copy and paste the context from your inquiry and depending on where your inquiry lead, you may need to adjust. Remember this can be a story, a sentence, a paragraph, a statement.

EXAMPLES

• "I love gaming."

• "Since I was little I have always loved drawing and would really like to take my drawings further."

Problem and/or Issue

What problem/issue have you identified through your research. Use the below bullet points to help you write it:

• Describe the problem/issue, giving the basic facts about it.

• Explain what has gone wrong.

• Specify the causes or the origin of the problem

• Describe the significance of the problem/issue (short term & long term)

• Give the appropriate data and state the sources.

• Specify who is involved and in what capacity.

• Discuss who initiated action on the problem, or what caused you to look at this.

EXAMPLES

• "the market is flooded with games so how do I make my game successful."

• "I don't have the skill level yet and will need to factor learning the skills in."

• "Mental health is a huge area."

Scope - involves determining and documenting a list of specific project goals, deliverables, tasks, costs and deadlines.

The scope is the work performed to be able to deliver the outcome with its specified features and functions. The scope involves determining and documenting a list of specific project goals, deliverables, tasks, costs and deadlines. 

It should keep you (and the team) on task. A scope statement is the document listing these boundaries, and articulates project details, provides a project roadmap, helps focus you (and your team members), and prevents projects from expanding. 

The better a project has been “scoped” at the beginning, the better you can manage change as well as complete the project effectively. 

EXAMPLE

The goal is to create a game that would teach numeracy in a fun and challenging way. Visually and functionally the game should look and perform as described in the specifications and designs. The design for the game is to be completed by [date]. I need to have my game functioning as intended to get tested and feedback by [date] allowing time to refine and improve the outcome. In terms of cost it is just my time and how long it takes me to make. The Deadline for the game to be completed is xxxxxxx. 

Purpose - the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists. 

What is the reason you are proposing to create this digital outcome? There needs to be a reason why your end users/target audience needs your outcome. 

EXAMPLES

• Based on my research there is a gap in the market with fun games that teach this topic.

• High school students need my game to teach them the importance of not getting distracted on their phones and prevent injuries.

• People with movement deficiencies like the elderly or those with physical disabilities need my trash robot to take their rubbish to the curbside when they can not.

Requirements - a thing that is needed or wanted and can be described by either its physical or functional nature.

What must the outcome contain to be considered successful. What are the goals in broad terms. There should be at least 3 key requirements. 

For example for a horror game use bullets points like:

• Must be a scary First Person Shooter game

• Must be easy to control

• Must have simple game mechanics

• Must have AI enemies who attack the player

Specifications - these are technical aspects that must be included in the outcome and be measurable.

This is a list of technical and measurable things that the game “will have” or “will be” in order to achieve the requirements. Note that there should be several specifications for every requirement. 

Eg. for a game with a requirement of being scary, specs might include:

• The game will have dark lighting

• The game will have creepy ambient sounds including distant screaming

• The game will be single player only

• The game will be set in a mental asylum

• The game will have zombies

There should be at least one of two specifications explaining how each requirement will be met so there will be more specifications that are requirements. Some specifications may be valid for multiple requirements. In this example "The game will have zombies" may be valid for "Must be a scary First Person Shooter game" and "Must have AI enemies who attack the player"

End Users - the person or people that an outcome is designed for.

Who is going to use or benefit from the digital outcome? Who are you aiming at developing your product for? Try to aim it at someone in a group you have access to and be specific, don't say “everyone”. When you are developing a target group for your product it can be very useful to pick a group that you have ready access to that you can engage with during the development process.

EXAMPLE

The game would be aimed at year 7 and 8 students who come to the school for extra tuition. 

Resources - are materials, energy, services, people, knowledge, skills, time equipment, hardware, software and expertise

What do you have access to in order make your product:

• Who is part of your team?

• What skills do they have?

• How much time do you have to make it?

• What software are you going to use?

• What hardware do you have access to? 

These resources could be things that you have access to at home, school, local libraries, club facilities, or anywhere else.

This helps you to judge if a game is in scope, is it do-able with the given resources.

Feedback

It's always beneficial to check in with people and get some feedback on your project idea. Talk to a range of people like:

• Friends & Family

• Classmates

• Teachers (who also have expertise in certain areas)

• Industry Experts

They should be able to understand what you are aiming to create. Listen carefully to the questions they ask you. Is there something you haven't thought about? What direction are they looking at it from? Have you missed something in your Project Brief and you need to have a look at before you move into design OR is it something you need to look into further when you design OR is it not relevant for your project (but you should be able to say why its not).

You need to understand how this feedback affects the direction you are now going to take when you starting designing.

Justification

You may need to justify why your product is a good idea. Some possible ideas you can use to justify why it is could be:

• What feedback did you get

• Expert Opinion

• Market Analysis

• Academic Research

• Similar Products

• How it relates to the requirements

FOR EXAMPLE:

"I am going to make a science fiction top down shooter game because ..."

• The people that I asked for feedback thought the idea of playing a giant space squid was a cool and original idea.

• Extra Credits said that top down shooters are one of the easiest genres to make.

• Games like Nuclear Throne and Helldivers are very popular games with millions of copies sold

"I am going to make a science fiction top down shooter game but ..."

• I need to consider imagery and how I intend to portray violence

"I am going to make a science fiction top down shooter game so ..."

• I need to consider the legal aspect of ratings and who my target audience is