Acoustic Visions
Copyright 2004 Acoustic Visions Entertainment

· Theo Giovanopoulos:

o Audio / Graphic Design / Web Development

· John Harper:

o Action scripting / Graphic Design / Animation

Screen shot mockup

I. Artist Statement

The project that we want to create is an interactive Flash exposé where the user, through manipulating the key pad, creates a piece of artwork on the screen. Due to the vast amount of combinations that will be present, the end result will never be the same thing twice. It will be visually and audibly stimulating and will allow the user to have complete control over the outcome and entertain them at the same time.

II. Predecessor or previous games/ distinctive factors in this genre

· Rez <-appeals to player with visually intense on-screen images

· Fantasia <-conducting a visual orchestra

· Rainbow Trip <-a smaller predecessor without the addition of music

· Blue Man Group <-on-stage performing of music and creation of art

· The Sonification of Protein Data <-taking date input and turning it into music

o Mary Anne Clark (biologist)

o John Dunn (musician)

III. Target Audience

· Music composers

o Beethoven

· Abstract artists

· People curious to explore a self created visual environment

IV. Introduction & Story

What the project will look like physically is just a blank Flash animation that takes up the entire screen of your computer. By manipulating keys on the keyboard, different objects start to appear. These objects can range from basic shapes such as circles and squares to much more advanced organic or mechanical shapes. A lot of the objects that will pop up will be weather related animations. The objects that appear will also be related to the key that is pressed for the most part. For Instance the letter “c” makes clouds appear, the letter “m” makes the moon appear, the letter “s” makes stars appear.

When the objects appear they can be still or they could be moving. Most objects will produce a sound or multiple sounds and some objects will produce none. Pressing a key twice in a row will cause a different change in that object whether it stops moving, changes colors, disappear, and so on.

Most of the objects that appear will be interactive. Manipulating the mouse will cause changes in the objects. Some objects might move towards the mouse and some might move away. Clicking the mouse on an object might cause an object to change in any of the aforementioned ways. Rolling your mouse over an object can also produce an effect. Sounds can also be brought about by manipulation of the mouse.

V. Projected socio/cultural project impact and Results

· A player will create his or her own song through a new medium

· Simultaneously the player will effortlessly create an abstract visual masterpiece.

· After or during creation of this piece, the user may explore it.

o Create with keyboard

o Explore with mouse

VI. Delivery System & Requirements

The project will require a computer screen capable of displaying a large number of colors. Macromedia flash and internet access is also necessary to run the game.

VII. Interface

Physical keyboard and mouse manipulation constitutes the interface, leading to on-screen results. No interface is incorporated into the program besides the ability to click on objects created with the keyboard.

VIII. User Interaction

· Keyboard: main source of user input

o Keys produce a different effect, both visually and audibly.

o Keyboard is played similarly to that of a piano

· Mouse: secondary source of user input

o Mouse manipulates on screen animations.

There are many ways a user could interact with this program. They could simply type their name and see how it appears on the screen. A more complex idea would be to write out a favorite poem or quote. An even more complex idea would be to type out a short story or a paper and see what the result is. The other option is just randomly pressing keys. It is hoped that the more somebody uses this program, the better they become and they could make something that is more visually and audibly pleasing then by just randomly keys, although that in itself should be entertaining.

IX. Suggestions for Gameplay

· See the visual/audio results of typing:

o Your name

o A poem

o A story

o Randomly selected keys

· Experiment with:

o Speed of typing

o The visual environment you create

X. Level Design

There will only be one level at this point in time. In future versions there would be different themed visualization and audio schemes that could be considered levels.

XI. Visualization- Sample Animation Screenshots

XII. Music/ Sound Design

· A basic looping beat is played constantly

· Sound scheme is set to keys

· Each key plays a different sound.

o Example: Rock Sound Scheme

§ Keys A, S, D, F, G produce slightly different electric guitar riffs.

§ Keys Q, W, E, R, T produce various electric base riffs.

XIII. Rules and Gameplay A. Setup, B. Gameplay, C. Scoring

A. Start with a blank canvas to begin creation

B. Game play is achieved through manipulating the keyboard and mouse

C. No score is kept

XIV. Program Structure

An interactive type, point, and click soundscape and virtual landscape.

XV. Technical Specs: Size

There can be no definite size to this. The way the project will end up is however we feel it looks best so we can’t just attribute a certain object to a certain key at this point. We will just need to play around with every key until we feel the project is complete. The coding that goes into it will be very intricate since each object will be unique. We hope to learn a lot more about Flash doing this and hopefully implement whatever new methods we learn into my project. We have a good idea about where this project will go but we are very sure it will change dramatically as we continue to work on it.

XVI. Production Timeframe

· 3/18: Gather sounds for interactive elements

· 3/25: Ten more interactive elements added

· 4/01: Ten more interactive elements added

· 4/08: #,F keys assigned sounds added

· 4/15: Completion of project and website