Minor Project: Compilation & Reflection

04.04.23 - 11.07.23 (Week 1 - Week 15)
Chai Yi Xuan / 0346645 / B' Creative Media
Minor Project / Entertainment Design
Compilation & Reflection

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INSTRUCTIONS

To-Do List:

• Select a client to work with and complete (multiple) output(s) according to the client's needs

Week 1 - 3

We have multiple projects to choose to work on for our minor project. That includes:

• Apothecary - Brandialogue
• Cool Daddy - Brandialogue
• Modern Feng Shui - Brandialogue
• STEM Education - Brandialogue
• Tenang App - Angsana Health
• Lily Doll - AIDA
• Safetify - WAO
• Rescue Device for the Elderly - West Bohemia University (Czech Republic)

I chose to work on Lily Doll since it's related to my specialisation, plus my interest in understanding and contributing to the autistic community. My group was formed in a day and we introduced ourselves to each other. Then, we started our secondary research on our competitors and target audience.

The research materials we gather were somewhat enlightening, but it definitely wasn't enough as a proper data to use and justify the designs we would make further in the week. Hence, we also started creating personas— to further define our target audience and understand their needs.

Week 4 - 7

We created our set of questions catered to our research and asked Mr Mike for feedback. The initial plan was to create a questionnaire so that it would be easier to blast it and gather answers from the public. However, it changed to interviews instead due to a few uncertain factors such as questionnaire answers may not be reliable or it is not applicable to a group of people. Therefore, our questions are updated to be more detailed and defining, since we will be asking in person.

The results we gather are insightful, and it helped us defined what features or practicality our doll should have.

• Portable size
• Mostly humanoid, but with some unique features
• Different texture (mainly on clothes)
• Squeezable head and flapping limbs
  

Week 8 - 9

As one of the entertainment design students in the group, me and Shofwa worked to draft the base doll, so we can have something to show to AIDA for our proposal. We went through various body type sketches before settling on one of them.

Figure 1.1: Doll body shape

We decided on two different skin colours, avoiding the colours blue and pink so it isn't "gendered" or implicitly catered towards a certain gender. Shofwa worked on the green colour palette while I worked on the beige colour palette.

I decided to play around with the base body instead and see if I can implement animal features onto it without deviating from the original body shape. I made three designs— a bird, a cat, and a jellyfish— and it was presented in our proposal.

Figure 1.2: Modified doll base draft

We have our proposal presentation on Week 9, where we met up with Ms Beatrice, the founder of AIDA and presented our research and ideas so far. We also did the presentation with our collaborators who are computer science students, as they explained the component that will implemented into our doll.

Figure 1.3: Proposal presentation for art direction of doll, graphics, and app

Week 10

After presentation and feedback from Ms Beatrice, I changed my design to reflect Shofwa's concept, which is to implement the animal features onto the costume itself. I recreate the cat and jellyfish design, but decide to change the bird idea to a dinosaur since it's a common design usage among children products.

Figure 1.4: Cat clothes design

Figure 1.5: Dinosaur clothes design

Figure 1.6: Jellyfish clothes design

Week 11 - 15

Since we didn't have the time to model all of the outfits, we decided to choose just one of them to model. We decided to model the dinosaur outfit after asking the number generator. I first blockout the 3D model in ZBrush, unsure if we needed to pose it.

Figure 1.7: 3D blockout

When we were told that we only needed an A-pose, I proceed to properly sculpt the model.

Figure 1.8: Base doll completed

Figure 1.9: 3D doll, full set

Once I was done, I sent the file over to Shofwa for her to paint and render. Since she was new to ZBrush, I taught a few basics so she can work on the model. I made the model low-poly, since I didn't want to overwhelm both of our laptops. It wasn't the wisest decision, unfortunately, since the quality came out to be a little pixelated.

Figure 1.10: Early render of 3D model

In the end, Shofwa had to convert the model to a higher polycount for the model to look smooth and not pixelated. It was quick work, though, and it was completed two weeks before presentation.

Since our model was done, I helped out in collecting information for the take action button in our app. I've split the category into "identifying squeezes" and "what to do". Aside from that, I helped out in organising and placing in the content into our final presentation slides.

Figure 1.11: Figma wireframe, What's Next button and pages

With everything completed by Week 15, we presented our outputs to Ms Beatrice and Mr Mike.

Figma wireframe: Link
Completed 2D doll design: Link
3D doll turnaround: Link

Final Presentation: Project Lily Doll

Figure 1.12: Presentation slides for Project Lily Doll

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FEEDBACK

All feedback is listed in our Project Tracking Document.

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REFLECTIONS

This module has given me a taste of what's it like to be working with people of different specialisations in making a product and marketing it. Our client, Ms Beatrice is one of the kinder clients in my opinion, which makes the project less stressful in general. However, I still did experience how we have to continuously change the design according to her vision and overall branding of her organisation. It's the basics of creating designs for clients, but it's nice to get some hands-on experience under the lecturer's guidance.

I felt like we hadn't interacted too much with the computer science students but it's probably due to the fact that we are both working on different parts of the project. Since it would be somewhat difficult for them implement their software into our dolls without any prototype, we don't meet up too often aside from consulting the size of their components.

The project allowed me to meet many different people, and I have learned how to collaborate and communicate in between my group members. It also helped me build my confidence in communicating and presenting, since this module has required me to interview and present multiple time. Overall, it has been a good experience for me that will be applied into my future.