The Mauritian Folkoric Stories Computer Science Essay

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Declaration

The materials in the report are original except for quotations, excerpts, summaries and references which have been duly acknowledged.

Abstract

The project being developed is short stories on the Mauritian folkoric stories.

Table of Contents

Declaration 1

Abstract 2

List of figures 3

List of tables 4

Chapter 1 - Introduction

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Problem Statement

1.3 Goal

1.4 Objective .

1.5 Target users

1.4 Project Timeline (Gantt Chart)

1.5 Report Organisation

Chapter 2 – Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Storyline definition

2.3 Theme

2.4 Conclusion .

Chapter 3 _ Analysis

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Requirement

3.2.1

3.2.1

3.2.1

3.3 Goal

3.4 Objective .

3.5 Target users

1.4 Project Timeline (Gantt Chart)

1.5 Report Organisation

Introduction

At the early stage of storytelling, it was done

However, the development of technology had driven the new era in story telling into what it is today. Since the invention of camera equipments and software which can transform a story into an animation, the (?) of storytelling has revolutionized.

Problem statement

In animation of a story, the most critical problem is to find the perfect spot to shoot, to check for the availability of the actors and shooting equipment. Those elements should be suitable to the storyline and can bring forward the message of the story. The weakness in the above mentioned elements is that the viewers can get confused, the story is not easily understandable and the message of the story will not reach the viewers.

Today, movies have become a popular replacement to storytelling. This happens due to the rapid changes in technology. While storytelling plays with the imagination of the child, opening a universe of wonder at his/her feet, movies/animation can picture the details and project the movie to the expectation of the viewers.

The limitations of action which can be done by human actor force the film director to request assistance of good software to manipulate the video and create an animation for certain characters in the movie.

In the rapid development of animation today, most of the animation today, most of the animation being created focuses on comedy, wars and happening stories. There are fewer animation stories which focus on the history or folkloric short stories of our country. Thus in developing this project, focus has been laid on the national heritage which is suitable to the targeted users.

Goal

The goal of this project is to create a website for kids with the essence of folkloric stories. The latter can be emotionally entertaining whilst educating people especially children. The entire story is brought to the audience at large through videos and images depicting the stories of Pari Talao and Murya Pahar.

Objective

In developing this project, there are some objectives that would like to be achieved.

It is hopeful that the list of objectives for this project helps to achieve the goals of this project.

The objectives of this project are as stated below:-

To develop an interesting visual story telling medium which may attract users especially children.

To entertain people watching the animation while promoting the knowledge of people about the folklore of our country especially children through videos/visual format of storytelling.

Target user

Generally the goal of the development of visual story telling is to attract user to watch and enjoy the story. However, to attract the user’s attention on the story being developed, story director should know the target user of the story. By knowing the target users, the relevant story can be developed to fulfill the goals of the project. The target user for this project is children as from 10years old. This is because children of this age are more likely to understand the level of English and the message behind the story. However, the story can certainly be watched by different ages.

1.6 project timeline

Report organization

This report contains 7 chapters. The first chapter is Introduction.

Introduction chapter describes the basic of animation development. Besides it touches on the goals and objectives of the project being developed and general information on the evolution of the story telling which is based on the weaknesses and problem faced during the recording of an animation. In this chapter, the target user is also being specified and the schedule for the project development plans are presented in the GANTT Chart.

The second chapter is the Literature review.

Literature review consists of the…

.

.

The third chapter of this report concerns the analysis of the hardware and software requirement which is used to develop these video animations. The explanation of the hardware and software used in both side of developer and end user is discussed briefly.

The fourth chapter in this report is design.

Design becomes the most important part in this animation project as it is the phase where animator tries their best to create an appropriate video animation (in form of sketches) and the website. In this chapter, the synopsis of the project is developed and the videos are presented. The overall storyboard of the project is also being elaborated in details.

The fifth chapter of this report is implementation; this is the critical phase in the project as animator begins to shoot the story- in real life to be converted in reel world soon. In this chapter the explanation of the modeling process, audio and video editing is elaborated in details. The explanation will be supported with some figures on how it is done.

While the sixth chapter is testing and evaluation. Testing and evaluation being done to examine the functionality of the overall website with the videos integrated. This is to make sure that the short stories being developed is in accord to the target user’s requirements. The testing and evaluation process is into 3 parts which is testing before development, testing during the development, and testing after the development of the project.

And the last chapter in this report is the conclusion. The chapter concentrates on summarizing all the chapters from the first to the end chapter. There are also some recommendations being suggested for the future development of short stories animation.

Chapter 3

Analysis

3. Introduction

The development of the project needs some requirements to make the latter perform better and achiever the designated goals. In the developing animation, the capabilities of computer and hardware play a big impact on the animation quality. The animator should determine the minimum and maximum requirement of the hardware and also software to be used to develop a good and attractive animation.

3.2 Requirements

To ensure that the project has been implemented effectively, some computer and software is required. There are multiple hardware and software on the market, though in this project, hardware that is used has a minimal rate of capabilities to create an animation. This is due to the restriction such as high cost is required to buy the hardware with maximum capabilities, In the developing animation, there are also some other software being used to edit graphics, sound and to make simple animation.

3.2.1 Hardware requirements

The hardware requirements used in the project are:-

I

Graphic Card

Memory Chip

Keyboard

USB Mouse

Speaker

Storage device( Thumb Drive) Silicon Power 2GB

While for the user, the hardware requirement, they will need to view this animation, is a set of desktop computer or laptop, which has capabilities such as:-

Intel Pentium

Integrated Slots

Monitor/ speaker

3.2.2 The list of software used in this project are:-

Cyberlink Director

Cyberlink Audio

Movie maker

Photoshop CS3

Dreamweaver CS6

Microsoft words 2010

Description of components

Chapter 4

Design

4.1 Introduction

As stated earlier, design is the most important part of an animation development. Sometimes it becomes critical to create a good design. A person always comes with a good idea. However, when it comes to design they fail to recreate their idea nicely and make the end product of their design attractive.

There are a few things that designer and animator needs to determine and consider before going to the next phases. For example, they must ensure that they have the appropriate equipment to do the shooting, that the actors can embody the character and play the role to perfection. The above mentioned few examples are important to make the animation under construction a success and that it fully meets the objective of the project being done.

4.2 Synopsis

The stories: Pari Talao and Murya Pahar are both edutainment stories which contain respectively very significant themes.

Pari Talao

History held many tales of the hardship of people who came over from India to work on land that promised a better future for them and their family. But never did they realise that these times of hardship was no less than slavery. Yet they drew strength of far tales of Lord Rama, in the stories that their cultures and beliefs foretold. And as time went by they hoped for a future and a world where peace and love prevailed, a world that they would create with their hard work and passion, a world they recreated to mirror their motherland with the traditions and pageantry of cultures. Though they upheld customs and traditions of their own land, they could not however go on pilgrimage to the sacred Ganges during Maha shivratree…

Jhumagheer,kidnapped at the age of 13 on the banks of the River Ganges and brought to work the fields in Mauritius, was haunted all his life by memories of the Ganges. He was never taken seriously by the villagers, considered as mad by most of them. One night however, he had dream, a wonderful dream of fairies and lakes. A dream that led him to hope, hope of finding a lake that would make their customs and beliefs live throughout generations.

When Jhumagheer however shared his dreams with his fellow villages, they thought he was mad- a madness though that was infectious, so infectious that him and three followers set out to search for the lake that would eventually be known as Grand Bassin.

The lake, as pure and peaceful as the first days now attracts thousands of people, Pari Talao became the refuge where people went annually during Maha Shivratree, years of exile was over as the fairy lake became the epitome of one of the most celebrated traditional pilgrimage of all times.

Murya Pahar

4.3 Flowchart

Structure flowchart will give a brief overview of the chronology of the animation that is being developed. The chronology of the stories is regrouped as the beginning of the story, the climax of the story and the end.

In this animation project, the structure flowchart is shown as

Explanation of the flowchart

Story: Pari Talao

Beginning

Introduction of main character

The plight of character- Jhummungheer

Middle

Meet fairy in dream

Knowledge of existing lake on the island

Go in search of lake

Find lake

End

Pour water into lake

Lead people to the lake

Story: Murya Pahar

Beginning

Introduction of character

Goes in the forest

Fall asleep

Middle

Meet fairy in the forest

Provoke friend-Suresh to come along and see the fairy

End

Shyantak turns into rock

Fairy shows her compassion by sparing Suresh

4.4 Storyline

4.4.1 Storyline

This project consisted of two stories namely Pari Talao and Murya Pahar.

We shall start with Pari Talao. The main characters are Jhummungeer and the Fairy. The stage being used is a river side and a mild dense forest. Overall of the story takes place in a jungle/ forest. In the explanation of the character design, we can have a better outlook on the characters. The Storyboard of Pari Talao is presented in 11 Scenes (Refer to Appendix B) and the explanation of each storyline is presented separately (refer to 4.4.2)

4.4.3 Character Design

Character:- Jhummungheer

Chapter 5

Implementation

5.1 Introduction

In the multimedia process development, implementation phase comes after the design phase. It is a critical part in the project as the shooting will start and after that, would come the video manipulation based on the characters and model which has already been sketched in the design phase. In the implementation process of this project, there involved 3 important phase that are pre production, production and post-production. Besides these 3 major phases, there are some small phases that are

Animation

Rendering

Audio and Video Editing

The three small phases mentioned above are the critical parts the animation would go through in the short stories animation development.

Thus in this chapter, animator will explain the sequence of steps being done ny the animator through all those phases.

5.1 Animation

5.2 Rendering

5.3 Audio and Video Editing

Chapter 6

Testing and evaluation

6.1 Introduction

Testing and evaluation is important in any application development. Testing being done is to ensure that the system (in this case the short story animation) created does actually behave like one would expect and meet user requirements. This is the basic role of evaluation should not be thought of as a single phase in the design process but it is the things that should be done in each phase of design process.

The goals of the evaluation in this project is to assess that the animation functionality fulfill the objective of the project, assess the target user’s experience of the animation and in the end to identify the specific problems with the animation being developed. There has been unfortunately no user feedback due to lack of time to test the animation with some audience.

Besides, testing is important to identify the problem and weaknesses of the animation being developed so that some action can be take to overcome the problems.

For this project, developer divides the testing process into three parts that is

Testing before the development of the project

Testing during the development of the project

Testing after the final output

6.2 Testing before the development of project