Because the character looked so flat in my last test with the box idea I decided to try and create a 3d that would hopefully look more natural and realistic when projected into the box.

I tried designing a quick gradiant character at first rather then going right in and making a fully 3d model.

This didn’t really work out and so I ended up creating a proper 3d character.

I created a character and animated a quick walk cycle using 3DsMax and the exported the animation as images with a transparent background so I could then rearrange them within flash so the animation was on a movieclips timeline. I then added a drop shadow and some slight blurring to the edges of the character so that it would blend nicely when it was projected into the box. I then projected the character.

Below is a video of it in action

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I was really pleased with the result from this. From certain angles it actually looked as though the character was walking within the box. The thing that I found really striking was how the character actually cast its own reflection within the platform below it, adding to the realism.

While looking at this I started to come up with loads of different ideas of how I could develop this further. I spoke with some of our tutors and showed them the videos that I had taken of this in action. They also seemed to like the idea, however they felt that it was a different project to my original plan and felt that I would be better off focusing all of my attention on one area. So I had to decide to either continue to develop the box idea or stick to my original plan with designing my project around the sketch book.
As I have come so far with the sketchbook idea I felt it would be wisest to continue with my original plan and perhaps develop this one further if I have time at the end of this project or after I have completed the EMP.