Creative Process

A journey utilizing new and old skills

This animation was made using Blender, Adobe After Effects, and Photoshop. While I have used these programs before, I found this project became an incredible learning experience. I came to learn and develop new skills and found a unique workflow that suited my style of creating.

Contents - click to navigate to specific sections

[Designing Mechanics]

[Designing Mechanics]

[Storyboard]

This was the storyboard I developed and used to showcase features that would be included in the game experience.

My intention was to utilize this opportunity to depict the atmosphere of what the experience would be like as well as showcase some of the features that will be included once the game is complete.

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[The Gardener]

The Gardener, named Petal, is a non player character and serves as the main interaction point - They take care of the garden / idly walk around & talk when the player interacts with them or occasionally to provide words of affirmation when suitable.

The Gardener went through several small design changes. I was quite satisfied with her overall design, here you can see many of the changes she went through overtime.

[Garden Sprites]

The sprites were developed as a compliment exercise based on professional psychiatric suggestions I received when talking about strategies to practice and include

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The exercise is simply to give a sincere compliment at least once a day.

Doing so not only leaves those around you feeling better, but it can also raise your own mood. As you start to reflect on what you appreciate from others it can help you to see what you appreciate about yourself more easily.

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Here are a few images that were a part of developing these sprites. I wanted them to appear simple, cute, and appealing. They are like the small mobs or npcs you typically come across in a game but would not pay much mind to or simply interact with them briefly. The player would ideally interact with these creatures once a day, but have the opportunity to do so more if they desired to. With those extra interactions, more dialog and responses would occur.

[The Flower]

The deep breathing exercise is reflected by the movement of the flower, opening and closing as the audience exhales and inhales.

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Like many people I was skeptical about how effective this practice could actually be to settle nerves. But I practiced it through my daily life. The visual of the flower was something I connected to personally and I found myself visualizing it as I focused on my breathing during times of distress.

[The Garden]

The island in which this world is set was designed to be small and simple. A cozy place of comfort to retreat to when feeling overwhelmed.

The player is the island to an extent, their breathing effects the movement of the flower which serves as the core of the island, keeping it afloat and providing energy to the life that lives atop it.

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