Octopus Attributes

With our power animal project, we're coming at a stage where we will be taking many... many photos for our flip-book animation. This means we're going to be moving about, wearing our masks, looking really REALLY odd to anyone not involved. It's going to be brilliant! :D

While wearing our masks we must almost... 'become' our animal and begin adopting their way of movements. So a few clips of what an Octopus can do should help me understand them as well as ideas on how I could take these many... many photos.


This is more of an attribute than a movement, but it gives me a few ideas (which I don't think are possible unless I had more time and lots and lots of spare paint). If I had quite a bit of paint to use though, then I thought I could slowly colour my mask in to match it's environment. So my mask is originally green which would match a normal bush, but then as I move to something like a tree (which would be brown) I could paint brown over it as it goes over the trees. All of which can only be made possibly through the magic of "Anniiimaaatiiiooonnn" :D


This is actually called a vampire 'squid' by the way. Anyways, what you see it doing is apparently a self-defense technique where it will try to hide within itself, trying to resemble something else. I found the movements in this technique really smooth and interesting, but to utilise such a movement with my slightly stiff mask would be quite hard. So what Mark suggested was to move the camera in such a way to mimic this movement rather than moving the mask itself (I think).


Lastly, here's a little clip I stumbled upon a while back which I found fascinating.

It'll be fun if any people pass by us as we're taking our photos though, watching their faces crinkle up with confusion ^^. Hopefully it'll be a strange and productive day.

Hotel 626

Hotel 626 Opening Hours

This is slightly old (about a year old), but for some cruel and twisted reason I have only JUST heard about it. Hotel 626 is an interestingly innovative game, created to promote Doritos snacks (somehow), in which you check in to a nightmarish hotel, a decision to be later regretted.

Right from the start the innovation begins as you may only check in to Hotel 626 from 6pm to 6am, making sure that you play it at night (which you should!). After filling out the form with all your details you begin your cautious and creepy journey throughout the hotel comprised of ten levels, each of which consists of tasks or puzzles accompanied by an eerie atmosphere.

But the real reason I am far too excited about this game is 'how' it has you play it. As you are filling out the form to check in, it asks you to enable your microphone and webcam. Apparently you can still play without these though, but you REALLY are missing out if you do. During your stay at the hotel you will have to use these devices in order to make it through the night by doing things such as singing a demonic baby to sleep with a lullaby. Oh, and THEY CALL YOU! On your actual phone, giving you instructions on how to get out from a "friend". How CREEPY would that be in the middle of the night all on your own? I say 'would' because this feature is only for people in the US :(

The innovation, creepy atmosphere, and true interactivity (something quite rare in itself) are all qualities that I believe made this one of the best short games I've ever played online. Also, the visuals and audio are really well-produced which only add to the horror and immersion of Hotel 626 (the audio in particular makes you pay for your mistakes). Don't feel sad (which would be surprising as all I felt was unspeakable fear) after it's all over though as there's another project being concocted by the evil EVIL minds behind Hotel 626 called Asylum 626.

Anyways, hope you enjoy your stay :)

The Greatest Story Ever Told

This is just something I stumbled upon which deserves to be seen by the eyes of a thousand faces and melted into the minds of many thousand faces due to it's pure awesomeness.


Greatest Story Ever Told - Watch more Funny Videos

The Design Process

I've always found the dissection of a finished piece interesting. It can allow you to see the different techniques they use to create their work and what processes they go through to get to each step, from that bubble in your head called an idea, all the way to the end-product.

I'll not babble on too much here as there is a little bit of reading in these links and they speak for themselves, but I think these are 'really' worth the read simply because their development process is similar to our own for our projects. Researching, sketching, developing, creating (May have missed one)

ANYWAYS here they are:

The Creative Process of Maxime's Quolin Final Year Project

Project Study: Doritos Package

Step by Step Creation of an INCREDIBLY Detailed Illustration