Animation 1 Part 2 - Proposal

1.0 Introduction

The game of Jungle Nori is very similar to the traditional Korean board game, Yut Nori, albeit with a few more challenges. The original game, Yut Nori, is arguably a very popular board game in Korea and is known to be a tradition among Koreans every New Year (Yi, 2001). To accompany the board game that has been created for this project, an animation tutorial is created that runs about 5 minutes, detailing a little bit about the game’s origins and how to play the game itself.

1.1 Problem Statement

            While Jungle Nori is similar to Yut Nori, the game still needs to be given an easy-to-understand walkthrough. This is so that viewers can understand how the game generally works before playing the game.

1.2 Objective

            The objective is to show the audience how the game of Jungle Nori is played, how the rules work, and what is needed to play the game in an engaging, interesting way.

            The second objective is to let the audience know of the game’s origins, and what changes have been made from the original game, such as additions or changes to the rules.

           

1.3 Target audience

            The intended target audience for this animation is children aged 7-12 years old. This game intends to briefly introduce them to the culture of another country which they might not have known of, as well as introduce them to the concept of negative integers up to -5 through the usage of ‘penalty points’ that is mentioned in the animation.

1.4 Method

1.4.1 Videos

            Through the making of the animation, research was done beforehand through watching a few videos on how to play the original game, Yut Nori. These videos are from Youtube, and through these tutorials information about the game can also be found. One of the videos are by Youtube user Steve Miller, and he details about the original game in detail.

Another video tutorial that is used for reference is a Korean video that also details about the original game. The video is closer to the animation that was intended to be created, and is used as a starting reference for the animation.

1.4.2 Reading

            There are several reading materials that are used in researching the original game for ideas on creating the animation. The main reference for this project is Yi I-Hwa’s “Korea’s Pastimes and Customs: A Social History”. Here it has a brief, but comprehensive, detailing of what Yut Nori is and its history, and is used as the main reference for this project and for developing ideas.

1.5 Animation process

1.5.1 Story

            The animation does not have a set story as it is a tutorial of how to play Jungle Nori. One character (Character A) narrates the entire animation, informing the audience on where the game originates from, and how to play the game as well as how the rules work. Two more characters will assist Character A in showing how the game mechanics and rules in the game work.

1.5.2 Idea development

            The ideas for the characters are gleaned from the original Yut Nori game. According to Yi, the tokens and moves in the games are a reference to agricultural livestock that is most important to Korean culture back then; for example, the movement of ‘mo’, which grants players the ability to move five steps ahead in Yut Nori, the most steps a player can make, is a reference to the horse (Yi, 2001).

To further develop these ideas, an actual Yut Nori game set is bought as a reference, and also to confirm the allusions to livestock used in the game.

Figure 3: the shape of the yut stick

Figure 4: the Yut Nori board mat

1.5.3 Character design

            After getting ideas based on 1.5.2, a few character designs are created. The characters are sketched first before scanned and traced into Adobe Illustrator CS4.

Figure 5: Sketches of the character design

   

 

Figure 6: Character designs created in Adobe Illustrator

1.5.4 Story board

The story board is a bit informal seeing as there was little time to complete the animation, but a simple storyline is created so there is a general understanding of how the animation should go.

Figure 7: First page of the storyline

Figure 8: Second page of the storyline

1.5.5 Animation process

The animation is created using Adobe After Effects CS4. At first the initial duration is set to 2 minutes and 30 seconds, but is gradually increased so that more information can be inserted into the animation.

Figure 9: A screenshot of the animation process

Figure 10: A screenshot of the animation process

1.5.6 Animation schedule

No formal animation schedule is done. The animation process takes at most three days to complete.

1.6. References

Yi, I.-H., 2001. Korea's Pastimes and Customs: A Social History. 1st ed. Paramus, NJ, United States of America: Homa and Sekey Books.

Steve Miller. (2013). How To Play Yut Nori (Korean Game). [Online Video]. 11 February. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G90o0ai57EM. [Accessed: 30 October 2013].

kcultureportal. (2012). Yut Nori, a Traditional Korean Board Game. [Online Video]. 26 November. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stTl8sRYGaw. [Accessed: 30 October 2013].