Book Mock Up Sketches

During class, we've finished the mock up for the first scene of the book.

Feedbacks that we received from Mr.Mike were; 

• Try changing it to portrait, as it is more user-friendly for the preschoolers
• Keep an eye on the position of the characters 
• Try doing the next mock up on screen 

Angie. 

Prototype & Children Book Examples

During the weekends, we've decided to do a prototype for the first scene, which is the garbage monster scene. We've divided the work between the three of us.

Voon Ann is doing the background of the setting, Cam is finishing up her garbage monster animation, and I'm in charge of the marker and page layout. I was also supposed to compile everything up in Metaio but for some reasons, I couldn't upload a video onto my Metaio. Even after changing the file format, I still couldn't do it. Maybe because I'm using Window 8, because when I passed the files to Voon Ann, her laptop worked.

Nevertheless, this is one of the page that I've done for the first scene.

And here's the animation that Cam has done. 

We showed it to Mr.Mike, and he said we should change several things;

• The reading format for the dialogues might be difficult for children of 4-6 to understand. He showed us examples from Dibo the Gift Dragon, Winnie the Pooh, Pocoyo, which they normally only have one text in every scene. And usually it comes with a narrator. 
• The outlines of the characters should be outstanding compared to the background. He suggested us to use a slightly darker colour of the character as the outline, instead of using black. And the background should be dimmed down to bring out the characters. 
• The garbage monster should look more like a 'Blob', distorting the forms of the rubbish on his body, making them as a texture and not popping out of the body of the 'Blob'. 
• Put the texts as lower 3rd, so that it is easier for the children to read.
• Look for more examples of preschooler storybooks and see how they normally place their text. 

Coincidentally, we were at Pyramid after class, so we went to Popular to check out some books that we can refer to. 

-Pictures taken by Cam, books held by me- 

:D

Angie. 

Rubbish Monster and Updated Storyline

We've finally managed to confirm our storyline (after several discussions with Mr.Mike). And here it is!

Title : Owl, Fox and Dog goes on a picnic!

-------- Scene 1 ---------
Owl, Fox and Dog decided to go on a picnic in the field.
They met up in their neighbourhood, and left for the field.
On their way, they saw rubbish pile on the streets.
Owl : What should we do with rubbish pile?
Fox : We should just leave them!
Dog : No we shouldn't! We should pick all the rubbish up and throw it in the dustbin!
Fox : It's just rubbish. How bad can it be?
[   Fox   ]
Rubbish pile with start gathering itself and turns into a garbage monster and tries to eat them

[   Dog   ]
Rubbish bin spills rainbow to the ground (with sound effect).
(might consider putting a reward system: gold/stars to be counted at the end of the story)
*Did You Know: Rubbish that are left exposed will cause a terrible smell*


-------- Scene 2 ---------
After awhile, they felt a little thirsty.
So they decided to stop by the vending machines to get some soda.
After drinking the soda, Owl is staring at her empty can.
Owl : What should we do with the empty cans?
Fox : We should throw them on the floor!
Dog : No we shouldn't! We should recycle them in the recycle bin!
Fox : It's just a can. How bad can it be?
[   Fox   ]
Vending machine throws a tantrum on the floor (coz there's no more new cans), fox is
depressed because there's no more soda

[   Dog   ]
Vending machine spills rainbow and gives them extra cans of soda

*Did You Know: There are not enough materials in the world to make new cans*


-------- Scene 3 ---------
Soon, they passed by a school yard.
There, they saw a baby panda drawing on papers.
Then, the school bell rang, and he left the papers behind.
Owl : What should we do with the papers?
Fox : We should make paper aeroplanes!
Dog : No we shouldn't! We should pick them up and recycle them!
Fox : It's just paper. How bad can it be?
[   Fox   ]
Tress are being cut down to produce more paper, including Owl's treehouse. *Owl
crying, Dog and Fox are helpless*
[   Dog   ]
Birds form rainbow as they build their new homes on the trees.
*Did you know: Papers are made of trees*





-------- Scene 4 ---------
On their way to the field, they crossed the river.
There, they saw plastic wrappers on the river bank.
Owl : What should we do with the plastic wrappers?
Fox : We should throw them into the river!
Dog : No we shouldn't! We should gather and put it in the recycle bin!
Fox : It's just plastic. How bad can it be?
[   Fox   ]
River turns black and it shows Uncle Turtle is stuck because he couldn't swim properly.
[   Dog   ]
Fishes jump out of the water forming rainbow and Uncle Turtle is waving happily with them

*Did You Know: Turtles likes to eat jellyfish. They die from eating plastics because it looks like jellyfish*



-------- Scene 5 ---------
They have finally reach the field.
There, they saw all the food wrappers scattered on the field.
Owl : What should we do with the food wrappers?
Fox : We should just leave them and begin our picnic!
Dog : No we shouldn't! We should clean them up before we eat!
Fox : It's just food wrappers. How bad can it be?
[   Fox   ]
A strong wind blows the food wrappers  and they all fell sick the next day.

[   Dog   ]
Sunflowers bloom, rainbows form and the other minor character joins them for a picnic.

*Did You Know: Eating in a dirty environment could make you sick!* 

Then, Cam decided to try out the garbage monster from Scene 1 and here's her outcome;

Angie. 

Character Tryouts

We've manage to look up for illustrations for our character designs and here's what we have so far.

Fox

 Owl

Raccoon

We've decided on the characteristics for our trios;

Owl as the curious one, where she'll be the one asking questions.

Fox as the sly one, where he'll be the less considerate one. 

Raccoon as the responsible one, where he'll be one providing solutions. 

When we first showed Mr.Mike our sketches, he questioned why did we choose a raccoon as the responsible character, because raccoon has the impression of a bandit (mainly due to stereotypical perceptions and the way it looks). Instead of using raccoon, he suggested us to use a dog instead. 

Dog

-Sketches by Cam- 

Angie. 

Know-Your-Environment Storybook

We've confirmed our storybook with Mr.Mike today, and he suggested us to do some research on;

• Looking at stories for preschoolers (4 - 6 years old) and find out what they like to see
• Come up with suitable learning objectives and outcomes
• Create a trio characters as the main characters 

From there, we've listed down the possible learning objectives that we hope to cover. 

1. To enable kids to understand the consequences of their actions

2. To enable kids to understand the importance of taking care Mother Nature

3. To differentiate right from wrong

4. To encourage kids to participate in preserving the Earth

5. To enable kids to visualize the impact of their actions

6. To make kids learn new words

Then, we tried to decide on the characters for our trios. Instead of using humanoid characters, we've decided to go with animals as they would appeal to the preschoolers more than humanoid characters. 

We've decided to go with; a fox, an owl and a raccoon. 

As for our art direction, we've listed down the examples that we could refer to. 

1. Dr.Seuss

2. Peter and Jane

3. Berenstain Bears

4. Mo Willems 

5. Harold and the Purple Crayon

6. Mog the Cat

7. Splat the Cat 

We've also manage to cover up abit on the storyline, but it has yet to be confirmed. But we've managed to narrow down the whole story to be focused onto 'Recycling' as the main theme of the book. 

Angie. 

5 Innovative AR Product

All three of us have 2 different ideas for the AR products, so we've decided to compile everything up and presented it to Mr.Mike.

1. AR Board Game. 

Similarly to Monopoly, Voon Ann wanted to make the character totems have their own characteristics in AR to add more realism into board games. 

2. Make Your Photos Come to Life

Inspired by Harry Potter's moving pictures, Voon Ann wanted to create an app that allows users to take a picture with a video behind it. When it is scanned, the pictures would be moving like the one taken in the video.

3. Star Mapping

I wanted to create an app that would help users to map the stars. How it works is that users would have to scan the stars in the sky, and the app would help them map the stars and show the constellations in the sky. 

4. Know-Your-Environment Storybook

Aimed for the preschoolers, I wanted to come up with an interactive AR storybook that would educate the children in keeping the environment safe. Children would be given different situations and they would have to scan their answers to see the outcome of their choices.

5. Winged Shirts

Cam came up with an idea to create T-shirts that has a flat image of wings. Similarly to Chestbusters, the T-shirts acts as a marker that once it is scanned, the wings would spread open. 

6. Sticker Tattoos

Cam wanted to make a non-permanent tattoos that also acts as a marker, that would show a short animation according to what the tattoo is. If there are two similar tattoos, it would react to each other. 

After presenting and getting feedback from Mr.Mike, three of us decided to go with the Know-Your-Environment storybook. We've narrowed down the topics that we are going to cover and we have a backup plan to include a board game in the storybook as well. 

Angie. 

5 Augmented Reality Products

Mr.Mike asked us to divide the class into groups of three today, and that we will be in that group throughout the remaining 13 weeks. Because there are 4 people in my group of friends, and he said that it has to be an odd number, we've decided to split among ourselves into groups of two, and look for another to meet the required number. Right now, my group members are Cam (Komal) and Voon Ann. 

Then, he asked us to look for 5 Augmented Reality (AR) products that are already out in the market, with all its pros and cons, along with the software they used, method of use and its purpose. 

And here are the products that we've managed to find.

1. Thundercats Product Packaging. 

They use the back of their product as the marker for the scanner to scan, which will enable the users to see how the figurine looks like in 3D. 

2. Chestbusters T-Shirts

The images printed on their T-Shirts is the marker in which when the users scan it, the 3D model of their alien character would pop out, looking as if 'an alien is busting out of your chest'. 

3. Heinz Tomato Ketchup Recipe Book

When the users scans on the bottle, an interactive recipe book would appear on the screen, with all the recipes that could be done with using their ketchup. 

4. Wrangler Jeans Product Hang Tag

Users who scans the hang tag with the app are able to see how the jeans would look like on an actual model, who would be posing in the video that appears on the screen. 

5. Nivea Face Cream Tin

Nivea launched a limited edition face cream tin that has the AR function where when the users scan the top lid, the screen will show a video of Rihanna singing her hit song at that time, 'California King Bed'. 

At the end of the day, Mr.Mike asked us to come up with 5 innovative AR product for next week's consultation. All three of us have decided to think of two ideas each, so we can compile it together at the end of the day. 

Angie.