16th August 2011
The first review meeting was basically about giving my panel an introduction to where the project has travelled and grown so far. Since it's something that has a bit of a background that I'm taking forward, they had to get to know the project a little bit and soak it all in, so this panel meeting was primarily about getting to know the project.
I showed them parts of the new and old books and laid out where I am, what needs to be done and who does what.
The feedback received from each panel member was very relevant.
A said that my focus should be on the story at this point because that's the ultimate hook for people.
I should look at creating a storyarc, my points of conflict, the strength of the characters
and also know my story so well that I can tell it in one sentence.
P spoke about getting to know the framework for my project. getting into the coding potentially, and being aware of the skeleton that's going to be used to create my story.
He then went on to say that perhaps instead of making all this effort to get this story out there, one should focus on first creating a platform or engine of stories that let others make stories for the ipad on it too.
He also then brought up how sometimes knowing too much about a project can make it too contrived.
V brought up some wonderful myths pertaining to the peacock character in particular, he said that apart from murugan, there's also a distinct link to Krishna because of his blue skin and peacock feathers. He told me of a few beautiful stories about Krishna, indira, rain and a mountain, all of which linked up very nicely to this particular character. It was followed by a discussion about how these characters don't have to mimic myths but understanding backgrounds could make my characters stronger. :)
The next meeting is yet to be decided.
in the meantime though, I've started work on my prototype!
REVIEW MEETING 2
September 22nd 2011
In this review Prayas was out of town and so It was me,Vijay and Anders.
A lot of time had passed since my first review and so there was a lot of progress to show particularly on the development front.
- I had a working first prototype,
a number of illustrations and some pretty detailed storyboards.
Most of the month of september was spend fixing on the developers and making files development ready,
also deciding on how much of Khoya was possible in the span of time that was available to us all.
I was also just about getting into Animation then too.
The Advice given by Anders and Vijay was particularly about the scope of the project.
Khoya is quite a mammoth of a project and so one of the biggest issues has always been making it work in the timeframe given. I had a long chat with them about how I was feeling dissatisfied with just doing book one as my diploma even though it made sense because the content wasn't as rich as the content in book 2.
The feedback from Anders was to-
1.Work on the characters a bit more.
2.Accept that book 1 is what it is and it can be beautiful in all its machines. work on making it beautiful and owning it (this advice became very important)
Vijay's feedback was that like a temple sculptor, one has to find one's moment of satisfaction when one thinks the work is complete. And It's better to do one book beautifully than more in a rush.
This meeting became a key point in how I took on the first book then onwards and created artwork that I loved. :)
REVIEW MEETING 3
October 21st 2011
By this meeting, I'd been to London and given a talk at Wired, animated most of my slides and gotten pretty much 3/4th the way with my project. This blog also documents all the work that's been done illustration wise.
I presented all my illustrations and animations to Vijay and Anders (we couldn't get in touch with prayas)
and we went through each piece and animation and looked at how we could make it better.
Anders still felt my characters needed to be more interesting, and that has been solved since.
Vijay was saying it might be interesting to see how Mudras from classical dances in india could help me in character design and the poise of the bodies I draw.
this was really interesting feedback because it brought in a sense of indianness and taking from the traditions in a very deep way.
the animations were turning out nicely they both said and were excited to see the new prototype.
One thing that was decided was that I'd be submitting a keynote prototype to Srishti,
and then presenting my actual prototype at my reviews.
this was agreed upon by everyone.
My type needs work.
this is pretty clear. So my next meeting with Anders is going to be about fixing all the type in my book.
It's all coming together.
