Project Description

After scrapping my initial project, which was deemed out of my league in terms of time and resources, I have fallen into my backup project plan.

Project Description

For more than ten years, I have avidly followed the genre of videogames known as music and rhythm games. Today, games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band are staples in American pop culture, but there are many important and pivotal games that preceded these. The one that I will be focusing on for this project is a personal choice as the one which really stood out to me; the first title to really grab me into the genre. It was released in America under the name of Bust A Groove (known in Japan as Bust A Move).

The premise of the game is to pick a character, and through rhythmic button presses and timing, get that character to dance against opponents to a variety of songs. There were “attacks” and “dodges” thrown in, but they were not substantial parts. At the end of the song, whichever player performed best was considered to have won that round and move on.

My project seeks to re-create this gaming experience using a live actor and digital environments. After a brief intro sequence, the video will transition straight into the “game” mode, where all on-screen graphics of the game should be pretty successfully represented.

This project aims to pay homage to the early console music and rhythm game genre as well as test my personal technical skills in 3D graphics rendering, video compositing, green screen keying, and 2D animation in Premiere. I have the tools at hand, and more-or-less, the know-how, but I’ve never done such a comprehensive project before. I am excited for it and hope I can complete it to my personal satisfaction.

There will be a full timeline posted soon. So far, I have a tentative timeline optimistically running up through Week 7:

Projected Timeline

Week 1
- Passed

Week 2
- Scrap over-ambitious project and begin planning on backup project
- Work on song selection
- Find out procedures for booking green screen rooms on campus
- Discuss song choice with dancer, send song to dancer, dancer begins choreography

Week 3
- Begin video graphics tests pre-shooting (test all premiere effects and make templates for later use)
- Book green screen room for week 4 (perhaps 5, depending on dancer’s availability and choreography completion)
- Write and Storyboard opening scene
- Contact friends to play roles for opening scene

Week 4
- Shoot opening scene
- Begin editing opening scene
- Possibly start shooting green screen dancer
- Continue video graphics tests/template making

Week 5
- Complete editing opening scene
- Complete shooting of green screen dancer
- Continue graphics templates and begin syncing them to music
- Begin 3D modeling for stage

Week 6
- Edit footage of dancer into project
- Continue 2D graphics
- Continue 3D modeling
- Run 3D test renders into Premiere

Week 7
- Complete 3D modeling and begin full rendering
- Begin compiling renders into premiere
- Continue 2D graphics syncing