Developing the Final 3D Artefact

Now that I have decided to make a board game for the 3D artefact, I am ready to began digitalising my ideas ready to be added to the books. So I took my sketched ideas and I went into Photoshop to do the finished version and this is how it turned out:

Hexagons are more difficult to account for in scale and position than a usual rectangular or square board game tile. So I had to make sure it would all fit whilst at the same time allowing for three players at a time. The idea of this board game is each player has to get from the bottom to the top of the board first. I am also thinking about making some of the tiles question tiles about bees and what the reader will have learned in the book. The right answer allows the player to moved another space. Moving to the next space will be achieved by rolling a die which is colour coded to each player. A matching colour equals a step forward. 

This is where the 3D aspect comes into play because the die is made from a simple net that is cut out of the book. This is easy to construct with instruction I will include in the book. It requires a small amount of materials too that are usually readily available. Here is a photo of a mock up die I made to test out if the weight of paper was enough to have a fair die:

Peer Assessment Feedback

Yesterday I attended the peer assessment for this module and it was really useful to see how everyone else is tackling this brief and to get much needed feedback on what I have done so far. I feel like I am on track with everyone else now even though I thought I didn't know exactly how to take my brief to the next level. However, after the feedback and viewing of other work I was much more comfortable with where I am going with my work.

Here are scans of the feedback I got:

Final Book design Prototypes

Here are my final ideas for the inside of the children's book. It is loosely based around 'Finding Nemo' hence the character being found is called 'Beemo' and will have similar characteristics to 'Nemo' with one wing smaller than the other. Whilst looking for the bee, reader will learn the most popular habitats for bees and why. Here are images of the prototype in it's first phase:


*Click to enlarge*

I decided to go for a combination of hand drawn work and digitalised work because I like the personality and uniqueness it gives with imperfections and it also relates more to how children draw. I tried to use vibrant colours but not too vibrant as to be sickly to the eye (since this is the feedback I got from previous work of the book cover). I do however think I could have added a bit more variation in colours. I might redraw the shed as it is a bit messy. The type is a little hard to read with no backdrop and it might be too fancy for the child to read too. In later designs I will include an ending with the lost bee, 'Beemo'.

Final Prototypes: Development

Here are drawings which I will later scan into Photoshop to use in the final book prototype designs.

I have decided on which 3D artefact I want to add in the book, a board game of some type. However to get more of an idea of the layout, size, shape, material needed and rules I need to do a bit of research. I know that I want to go for a hexagonal layout with each hexagon being a space the player can move. However that is really as far as I know I want it so far. Here are some images of various board game I could find as appropriate:

I really like the idea of the last image of a board game. It is a snail race where a dice are rolled and the corresponding colour gets to move forward. I used to play this game as a child myself. In fact it was so fun I played it with myself!

Sketches and Initial Designs: Reverse Book Cover

I did some more sketches and designs for the reverse side of the book cover. I Started to settle on having a cartoon style for the bee designs and decided this is how I will approach the art from now on. The designs here are varied but they gave me some good ideas. Here are some photos:


*Click to enlarge*

Student Feedback

In this past lesson, we looked at each other's work and gave our feedback as to which areas we need to improve and which areas were good in our initial designs for the brief. We also chose which designs stood out from the rest. This was a good exercise and really helped me understand the brief a lot better. I also learned a lot about my work and what needs to be improved. Here is a scan of the things the other students wrote about my work:

*Click to enlarge*

The feedback was overall quite positive but the were areas to improve such as more research (primary and secondary), how to improve the book cover in previous blog post, ideas for the 3D artefact. This was a very helpful session and seeing everyone else's work with some being really good motivated me to get stuck into my work more.