Research

During my research I had to make a mind map of ideas on how I could make the sound toy easy to use and function for new users.

I researched some sound toys and games on how gun games work and came across an app that I was inspired by. The link is displayed here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELGIkP14-VA

After looking at certain sound toys online and some applications I decided to make my sound toy with influences from the gun app but make it 3D.

Interaction design is where the interface of a certain object or piece of software is specifically designed to compensate and account for human usability to make the device or piece of software more user friendly and a lot simpler to use. This allows the user to use the software or device with ease and makes it a lot more attractive and easier for a human to come aquatinted with it.

This can be anything from the layout of a webpage to the colour, this all allows the human to interact with it a lot better and this will enable them to like the webpage. If the layout is easy on the eyes and the text doesn't over complicate the brain it makes it a lot easier for the brain to read and understand. Generally the simpler a piece of software or device is to use the more attracted the users will be pick it up and use it and engage with it, we don't want over complicated pieces of software because it scrambles our brains and gets us confused with then wants us to turn it off.

One of the main things to think about when designing a web page is how we humans interact with the web page not only what it looks like but how we think. Especially within text we don't like large clumps of text in giant blocks and if we have to sit through and look at it we don't generally read we scan leaving large sums of the page untouched and sometimes not even looked at. But in some cases a simple designed web page is overlooked if it has good content, if a page provides users with high-quality content, they are willing to compromise the content with advertisements and the design of the site. Again we also have to think about how impatient we are when it comes to surfing the web, we demand instant gratification when on a webpage and we defiantly don't like waiting around waiting for something to happen.

Gun Prototype Animation

In my animation I show you how I want my interface to look.

I wish for my start screen to have a slight animation as when the player clicks the start button a Gunshot is heard and the glass title screen gets penetrated like your screen was just shot. I made the audio for the gun shot loud to scare the user as they are un expecting the shot with a delay. after various play throughs of the video you still jump due to the long delay.

After the title screen has been displayed the screen will fade black into the gun on screen with a simple hint in the left bottom corner telling the user to click certain parts of the gun. ( This will be the only clue to the games interface).

The video was animated by myself using a program called Adobe After Effects CS5.5.

In After Effects I used various effects and plugins such as "Optical Flares" and "Action Essentials" which I had to research to acuire these plugins and visuals.

To make the gun slide I had to take the gun into Photoshop and slice the top of the slide and use the cut and copy layer select to make a new layer. The reason for this being is that I will now know what part is what when it comes to animating in After Effects and the slide will now be editable.

The magazine of the gun was also taken into Photoshop and edited into another layer, before doing this I had to use the curve tool and exposure to match the contrast and tone of the gun itself.

When animating the gun you will notice you see a muzzle flash and environmental glow from the light casted by the light of the muzzle flash. If you look carefully you will even see smoke animated by me and even a bullet shell casing being ejected out of the gun. This was all hand animated and the bullet casing of the 9mm bullet was just a still stock footage.

When animating the bullet I had to make the bullet a 3D object and change the X, Y and Z axis and rotoscope how the bullet would behave if projected out of the gun.

Below is the the animation created in After Effects.


GUN ANIMATION - ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS CS5.5

Audio Presentation

While modelling my gun in Cinema 4D I had to record audio for my sound toy. I recorded my audio using my Snowball ICE microphone with a pop filter to get HD sound with no popping in the audio.

I used a free program called audacity  (Found on http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) I then used various effects to make my audio sound more crisp and professional sounding.

In the video below I show others how to use three effects on how to alter your audio and other effects you can use for either short films, commentaries or even presentations.


AUDIO PRESENTATION/ AUDACITY TUTORIAL

Initial Design

Below is a picture of my initial design of my gun and how it will operate in a picture diagram on what parts operate and how they function.

The parts circled are the mechanisms that move and have a function I.E light switch On/Off, Barrel slide and so forth.

Principles of Interface Design

Below is my Flow chart of how my gun interface will work if certain parts were to be pressed and how it will operate. The chart was created using a website called www.lucidchart.com

Below is a chart of what my gun design will have and what I expect to have in unity.

My Idea

My Idea of a sound toy is to design a 3D gun to demonstrate how a gun operates and what it sounds like if certain parts of the gun was to be pulled, touched and squeezed.

I did not want to put to much detail into how a gun fully operates as I do not wish to educate people to in depth on how a gun works to prevent disasters.

The design of the gun is a model of the Glock 17 and will be recorded with real sound effects. The gun will be 3D and 360 degrees for the user to rotate the gun in what ever angle they wish.

The idea is for users to see what it would be like looking down the gun, how it looks, what sounds it makes and a little in depth of knowledge about the gun its self.

The toy will not have any help options or any help interfaces for the user so it is totally up to them to find out for them selves how it functions to educate the user. (As said before I will not be to in depth with how it operates to prevent riots, gun men, rampages and well educated fire arm users).

The gun will be modeled in a program called Cinema 4D, and them imported in Unity for programming and operating development.

Below is a picture of what the gun looks like in Cinema 4D created by myself.