Star Wars Transmedia

Expanding on my essay around transmedia, I produced a piece of kinetic typography around the Star Wars franchise. Created using After Effect and Final Cut Pro, I decided to briefly explain what transmedia was from what I learnt by doing my essay and how Star Wars is a massive transmedia franchise. To make it more effective I tried to put the words to the beat of the music so it would be more 'punchier'.

Nicole Gustafsson

I came across this illustrator on Tumblr and was instantly drawn to her style and use of colour, as I began to research into Nicole Gustafsson's work more I began to realise that she had created a lot of pieces around trees and houses within them.

They stye and colours really compliment one another and makes it seem almost fairytale-like or something that is from a children's book. The way in which the trees have been made into homes is in a subtle way as the decor matches the tones and shape of the tree, she has tried to merge something man-made with something natural.

I haven't really thought much about textures at the minute, but seeing this has given me some ideas and possibilities to what I could maybe incorporate. To emphasize that these are trees, the added texture signifies this, the curved lines moving in form with the actual branches works really well. I could incorporate some pattern or a combination of colours on my mushrooms, not necessarily to emphasize that they are mushrooms as the shape pretty much gives that away anyway, but more of the fact that it is alien, that this world is not Earth. Not only can pattern change the texture, but also the type of brush I may use on Photoshop could affect this. Different brushes will give off different textures and this therefore can give off a different meaning. To have something that is more approachable soft, smooth lines would be better, sharp, blunt and bold could suggest you being wary of it. Then again however, clean cut lines could suggest a natural substance, in this case wood as in the image above.

A lot of experimenting will be needed before I come to a final decision and I think that the texturing stage will be the most time consuming of all. If I can manage to build my models in the next week or two I should have enough time to texture everything to the standard I want it to be.

Social Media and Communication

Media itself is a vast topic and it has now developed more specifically into new and old media. New media "media that works not trough persuasion or impressions but through engagement and involvement" - Sutherland, 2009. Old media is transmission, it transmits ideas to an audience whereas new, is cybernetic - it engages with the audience via new media e.g computer, internet.

You can say that new media is a shift from mass media to 'my' media. For example there is now a voluntary passing of viral ads, it is up to us if we want to pass something along to someone else. Things have become more personalised as we ourselves can create spoofs of things we see and post them on the internet. We have more of our own choice and are not forced to view things anymore in the way of printed adverts or the ones on TV.

Viral ads are becoming part of our daily conversations, everything is so accessible these days that they are constantly being passed around. Something that we see one day can be passed across the world within seconds via the internet - Twitter, Facebook, Youtube - Social media. Take the KONY 2012 Campaign, on the 5th of March the video was released, in 3 days it reached 26 million views, by the 5th day it had reached 63 million. "The most successful manipulation of our new media ecosystem to date." Naughton, 2012. 

Digital media convergences opens up opportunities for creatives, the internet can be a way of collaborating with many different people, combining many ideas into one big idea. That one idea could make your career. There is not struggle anymore to find resources or to connect with people. In a touch of a button you can send things across the world in an instant. 

No medium is really dying, they are just taking on different roles. Old media is becoming more of a narrative and new media is becoming a place of distribution and expansion. Prior to new media, old media was more of an announcement, yet now new media is more like a meddle layer, we are able to sample something in a virtual way before possibly purchasing it.

There has always been the question to whether or not 2D animation is a failing industry, as technology has progressed 3D has become more popular. In previous generations parents would trust Disney films to their children, however now they seem to be diverting more towards Pixar. 3D animation is a fast growing industry and compared to the 2D animation studios, there are just outnumbering them. 2D could be seen as an old media, yet I don't think that it will ever die out. All animation started with 2D so why get rid of the source, at the end of the day an idea will always start out with a drawing and that in itself is 2D. New media is a progression and is a good thing in the way of technology and distribution, there should be a middle ground found between the two. Because of new media, it allows easier access to things, animations, films, games are more accessible and are opened up to a wider audience due to the internet and distribution platforms. It's a really useful thing, not only to get your work out there but also to contact people with ease.

Concept Art

In the end I took an idea I briefly drew up and developed from there, a mushroom cluster based on a bonsai tree. I liked how I could incorporate many different stems that grew off the main root and this was quite similar to the properties of a bonsai tree.

These are the final concepts for my game level, once I had it all laid out in Unity I had a better idea of perspective and scale so I was then able to produce this piece within Photoshop. The spaceship in the bottom right hand corner gives a rough idea of the scale of the whole piece and how big you would be as the player. When it comes to texturing the mushroom and the whole level I am going to try and stick by these colours, however I know there will probably need some alterations when it comes to the final thing. I may also change the colour of the mountains as this at the moment doesn't look too much like an alien planet, however it could work better when the lights and textures are in place. The scene itself is going to be around evening time in order to emphasize the glow of the mushroom, it will also add to the mood and atmosphere as to why there is a giant mushroom and if anyone or anything inhabits this place.

Originally I planned for my spaceship to have crash landed on a platform, however I found that this was too artificial and didn't fit in too well; like why would there conveniently be stepping stones leading towards the little island right where you have landed upon? To make it seem a bit more natural I thought it would be best to have the spaceship crash land in water, so the bottom concept art shows this.

Visual Communication

When it comes to visual communication there are two major things which you can look at to try and break down the image you see. The image can denote a certain number of things, and these are the very basics e.g the types of objects used within the image - denotation: 'literal', 'obvious', 'commonsense'. What the image conotes requires an understanding of the actual image in context.

Take political buildings for example, they include a lot of Greek architecture - Classicism, an expression of power. The Greeks were one of the first to bring in democracy so their style of buildings have been used throughout history within politics. Barrack Obama had a picture with a US government building in the background. To some people this could just be used to emphasise that he is the President of the United States - that is denotation, yet the connotation is to show politics, power, government and democracy.

The same symbols can be used multiple times over many different images, however their meaning can change through the use of culture, place or time. Cultural differences can change the meaning of the image,so if you know about that certain culture you will be able to work out the connotations of that image. The way in which we break down an image is to first denote and then if you know then connote. Symbols are constantly used which makes it easier to relate things to one another and find connections between them.

This is almost an extension of Communication Theory as a lot of it talks about semiotics and how we break down an image by using symbols to denote and connote. Using symbols within film, game and animation can be another way to convey ideas it can also be used within puzzle games as certain objects can lead to different things. It can be quite logical and if you know what the deeper meaning is you will be able to know the meaning of the whole image.

Communication Theory

Communication Theory has multiple theories and perspectives which shape the field of communication studies. It studies how we as humans process information and also the technical process of information. It can be broken down into seven different traditions:

Transmissional:

• Cybernetic or Information Theory - useful for researching how as a designer your work makes effective communication, however there are 3 different levels of problems that can occur. 
• Technical - Accuracy, may need specialist equipment or knowledge to work a certain item
• Semantic - Precision of language, what language to use and how much of the message can be lost without the entire meaning being lost.
• Effectiveness - Does the message itself affect behaviour in the way we want it to?

Constitutive:

• Semiotics 
  
• Semantics - Dictionaries are semantic reference books as it explains what words mean, what they stand for. Semantics addresses what a sign stands for.
• Syntactics - shows the relationship between different signs. Signs rarely stand along, they are mostly always a part of a larger sign system, this is reffered to as codes. Codes are specific rules that detail what different signs stand for.
• Pragmatics - studies practical use and effectiveness of signs.
• Using semiotics can be a way of breaking down an image and finding out the true meaning behind the way it has been set out. It can be broken down into:
• Linguistic - what language has been used?
• Linguistic sign/message - what message is being said using this language? (may only work in specific countries or the language that is used)
• Image - break down the meaning of each object and find a deeper meaning
• Composition - why have things been set out in they way that they are? 
• Colour - what do the colours used suggest? What feeling or emotion do they convey?
• Shape and orientation of image - if portrait for example, it can suggest person to person communication. 

• The Phenomenological Tradition - is the way in which humans come to understand the world. Face recognition for example is a way we as humans communication with one another using different expressions. Different expressions can convey an emotion you're feeling and want to express but it is something that we learn over time, it is a developed language. Also interpretation is central, how one person sees an expression may be different to another person and to the actual person communicating that expression. 
• 3 Schools of phenomenological tradition:
• Classical
• Perception - only know things through own own personal relationship to things
• Hermeneutic - interpretation of things e.g annotating a piece of text, what you think is the meaning behind a certain thing

• Rhetorical - the art of persuasion
• Synecdoche - using a part of something to signify the whole. Small things can represent the larger picture
• Hyperbole - heightens the situtation
• Irony - was developed as a rhetoric trope
• Rhetoric can change the way we read things, it can persuade us to see/read things differently. It's a way of using voice and making the audience listen. The repetition of something will make it more permanent in your mind. Another form of rhetoric is the understanding of metaphors. Metaphors are an easy way to grasp new concepts and ideas. It helps us to remember certain things by creating associations.

• Socio-psychological:
• Behavioural - how we understand/unpick things in terms of body language e.g. posture, head motion, facial expression, eye contact, gestures. These can all signify different things/emotions and convey different ideas across to another person.
• Cognitive - how the brain unpicks things - how it can process things at different times, visual aspects can travel across languages however, the specific language writing might not if you do not know it. 

• Socio-cultural - the understanding of where culture if coming from.

• Critical Theory - the media is always surrounding us, it can convince us to do things which relates back the rhetoric - the art of persuasion. Critical Theory makes you understand and unpick these things. 

Communication theory can be seen as a necessary thing in film, games and animation you should really be thinking of how people perceive things and the way objects are laid out can affect the message it gives across. As there are so many different types of communication theory it would be best to concentrate on a few e.g. semiotics would be easier to identify in a game as you could spend longer analysing certain parts. As a designer for a game or animation it probably isn't something that you think about in detail, it might not be top of your list as it would be more of the story and actual design of it. However you may make choices that you think is random but they could be subconscious. The one that stands out to me the most is Socio-psychological - this is how we understand and pick up body language, facial expressions and gestures. In film, game and animation this is critical as this is how you can connect with a character. Without this connection you are not able to understand what they are feeling or what they might want to convey. Certain gestures or facial expressions mean different things so you need to be spot on with these, especially within game and animation as you yourself have to create these and if they are not quite right, people will be able to pick up on this and it may confuse them.

Mock up of scene / Concept Art

As I had previously built a few test assets for my game level, I decided to do a quick mock-up of how it might look like. This mock-up looks different to my previous designs as I thought I would try out something a little different. Before I found that there was a lot of space to fill up within a 100mx100m playing field, so to break this up I thought I would try out having the main mushroom cluster on a separate island, with mountains surrounding it and your spaceship being across the water.

I think this design works much better, makes it more interesting than just having the one cluster being the main focus. Because I now have decided on this kind of layout I also think I will just stick to doing the outside of my environment. I know before I said I was going to do both, showing part of the inside where my alien race would live, however I think I would much rather concentrate on the outside more and get that looking really good rather than try and do both. Also I think it might be too much - too overwhelming if I did both. At the end of the day it's about quality not quantity so I would feel much better about spending more time on the outside than trying to split my time between both the exterior and interior.

Below is the mock up actually within Unity. I placed a skybox in of an moonlight sky and created a blue fog just to highlight that the mushroom will glow this sort of colour in the final thing. I also added in a fire particle which I created myself, adjusting specific values to get it how I wanted it to look and using two different particles to create the fire and smoke. When it comes to the final thing I will tighten it up and probably experiment with it a bit more for it to look more realistic, but for now it will do just to show whats going on around the ship.

Unity Web Player | test_2

« created with Unity »

Yipo Gao

As I am further developing my concept art for my game level, I came across this artist, Yipo Gao and was instantly drawn to his use of colour. The two pieces I chose both have a similar colour palette, however the scenes differ quite drastically. The one on the left seems to be an underwater scene whereas the one below is within a wood/swamp area. Depending on the types of foliage and the way it is lit, it can alter the perception of the image to a person. I've come to realise that a lot of underwater foliage and the creatures that dwell deep in the ocean can seem quite alien-like. They can hold an appearance to which we are not accustomed to so something that is not of the norm will seem almost as if it is from another planet.

Like a previous artist I have blogged about, Lianna Tai, Yipo Gao has also used pinks within his work and to me, in each of the artists pieces they seem to suggest that these plants or objects aren't natural, that the pinks make them glow, they seem to come alive with that colour. I created a colour sheet for my main mushroom and I did try out a combination of pinks, however when I asked people's opinion they seemed to be drawn to the blue/aqua colours more. Either way, both blue and pink - or any colour infact can suggest an alien lifeform or object, it is just depends on what the object is and what textures are actually put onto them to emphasise it more.

I really like both images are they give off a kind of mysterious yet possibly dark atmosphere which is something I want to achieve in my concept art and game level. I will see what I can achieve concept art wise using photoshop, however I think I may be more successful giving off that kind of atmosphere in my final game level when I have all the textures light and any extra effects put in.

Mushroom Colours

Before I can do the background in which the mushroom cluster will sit within, I wanted to be sure of the colour of the mushroom, with this it would enable me to work out what colours would be best suited towards the surrounding scenery.

My original plan was to have glowing mushrooms, so I began with the first colour I had in mind - light blues/greens. I found it easier to start with the basic blues and change the layer filters to achiever this colour. From here I also created a colour sheet to test out other colours and different filters and combinations of the two. I think I will probably get other people's opinions first to see what the majority would like to see as what I may think is best may differ from an outside opinion.

Drawn: Trail of Shadows

I recently came across this game when originally searching for inspiration for the fairytale brief. There are 3 games within this series and are all adventure games with puzzle solving elements that will make you progress through the game itself. Drawn: The Painted Tower was first, then Drawn: Dark Flight and the third in the series was Drawn: Trail of Shadows. I downloaded a trial version of Trail of Shadows to see how the gameplay was but also to look at the aesthetic side of things. I had previously seen some screenshots of the game and it got my attention almost immediately (probably the main reason why I decided to look further into this game). It's a very beautiful game, very colourful and detailed. The hand-drawn element isn't something you see very often in many games, and they have managed to integrate it within the actual story. There are parts where the scene has been ripped apart and you have to find the missing pieces before you can progress further. It's like someones ripped the canvas in which the painting was on.

As my game is aimed at families, I could take inspiration from this game and create textures that seemed like they were hand painted. My initial idea was to create something that didn't look too realistic in order to appeal to my chosen audience, however I will have to experiment with different textures to see what would work best.

The gameplay itself makes you solve puzzles to advance further in the game. At the beginning you have a choice of two different difficulty levels which in my opinion is better than just being set to one. People have the opportunity to choose what they would feel comfortable with and if they complete the easy level, then they also have the choice of going back and completing it at the harder level. By doing this there shouldn't be the problem of some people saying it's too easy or some saying it's too hard, you get to open up the game to a wider audience.

From what I played during the trial version, I found really enjoyable, intriguing in terms of storyline and the puzzles really made me think and got me to work for them. I'm probably going to have to go buy this game now as it's something I want to continue with. I want to see the story progress and see how the artwork changes with it too as where I ended was where it was just getting to a 'darker' stage. Instead of bright, warm colours, it had drastically changed to very cool blues and darker tones of what originally had been shown. Music isn't the only thing that can influence the atmosphere during a game, the colours do too so depending on what I use can drastically change the meaning and atmosphere of my scene.

Spaceship Development

Carrying on from my quick photoshop colour of my spaceship I decided to mock it up in Maya as I find it easier to gauge depth using a 3D modelling software rather than trying to imagine it and draw it out. At the moment it is just in smooth view and I think it looks quite sleek and with textures on top it could look really futuristic. Obviously with making it smooth, it would increase the polys quite a bit so I will have to be aware of this as I would have the big mushroom cluster, and the inside of it to complete my scene. I will now go in and paint this on Photoshop and I now have a much clearer idea of what the spaceship looks like from different angles. I want to keep the design quite simple, nothing too elaborate as I want the attention to be on the surrounding area - the mushroom cluster rather than the spaceship itself.

Just using the perspective view as a basis, I painted over using different layers, first blocking out the main colour and tones. The top image is just the basic black and white colour and from here I added a texture and a colour tint. It still needs a lot of work and experimenting with different colours and possible textures before I can settle on a final idea. I'm not the best at using Photoshop so I'll just have to do the best I can and see what I can come up with. The black and white one is okay but the textured one needs a bit of work with the tones.

Mushroom Inspiration

To get some more inspiration for my mushroom forest concept I have looked into Zangarmarsh (a map from World of Warcraft) and Avatar. Zangarmarsh has a lovely concept for one of their maps where there is a swamp that is covered by this mushroom forest. The main reason to why I'm looking at this, isn't necessarily the idea of the mushroom forest but the way in which the mushrooms have been light and glow, and how there are platforms from these mushrooms which suggest people live there. As you can see, not all the mushrooms glow which could suggest that only certain types glow or that it depends on the time of day. My scene will be set at night so it is essential all the mushrooms glow as this is the main light source. I haven't decided on a colour palette as of yet but I want the glow to feel as if it's alien yet give off a sense of energy and power.

As my playable game space is only 100m x 100m I still need to think about my backdrop, a possibility is to have a flat 2D plane that would suggest more mushroom clusters in the distance, this would not only not add to my poly count but also would be less intensive on the processor. I said my original plan was to create treehouses of some sort and have bridges connecting between the many mushrooms, however after testing it I found that it wasn't aesthetically pleasing. Also it seems to be a quite common theme, as you can see in Zangarmarsh. By creating a cluster of mushrooms and having the inside carved out so that would be the 'house' I am creating something that is modified from what already has been done.

I have also looked at Avatar, mainly for the glowing organisms that inhabit Pandora. They blend in really well and don't look out of place, it's like they belong there, naturally occurring, luminescent lifeforms. My mushrooms need to glow in a way that makes them look like something from a different/alien planet, yet blend in with the surroundings as if it fits in. To do this, it will probably rely heavily on the way I texture the mushrooms e.g colour, bump mapping, patterns etc so I will need to do several tests to find out what combinations work best.

Environment Plans

Originally my plan was to have several different mushrooms forming a forest setting, with bridges connecting one to another, however I started just mocking this up really quickly in Maya and when I imported it into Unity I found that there was something that just didn't seem right. It seemed like there needed to be more of a uniformed layout for it to look correct and when I mocked up some stairs and a bridge it just didn't flow. I know with textures it may change the look and feel to it but I thought I better try another option to be on the safe side.

I had briefly touched upon the idea of having a cluster of mushrooms, possibly taking on the form of a bonsai tree in the way that it spreads out with many different branches. Straight away I found that this had a much better form and was more aesthetically pleasing. To gain access to the mushroom there would be ramps connecting the branches where you could walk upon. I know I wanted to steer away from the basic mushroom shape, however for this type of formation it's not really possible for the others I was thinking of as their stalks were too thick. I can enlarge it quite a bit so it would take up probably about 3/4 of my playing area which would in turn make it feel more alien as it towers over head and you could get a real sense of scale by being in-between the stems of the mushrooms.

Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great story

I've recently come across 'TED' - ideas worth spreading. Starting back in 1984 they are conferences that bring people together from 3 different disciplines (Technology, Entertainment and Design, but now with a much broader scope) and get posted online on their website. There are many different topics you can choose from and they can be short videos to longer 20 minute talks or you can even read up on some articles. The one I just watched is from Andrew Stanton and his clues to what creates a great story.

He gave a real insight to what he abides by when creating his stories, his tips and tricks which he has picked up along the way. With storytelling you want something that makes you care. Something that draws you in even if it's half way through the actual story. Each story should give you a promise and that it will lead you somewhere that is worth your time.

Storytelling is crucial to any media, without a good story what will drive that media? The characters may be engaging but at the end of the day it is the story which drives the character. All characters have their own certain goal that they strive for. Wall-e was to always find the beauty, whereas Marlin from Finding Nemo was to always prevent harm.

The video I found really useful and it makes me to want to strive even more to become an animator. Andrew Stanton started off as an animator and moved on to storytelling and now directing, he has all this knowledge and understanding under his belt and it's really inspiring to see how far he has come. When coming up with new stories for any animation, film or game I create I will refer back to the notes I made from this video and interpret them in my own way. These aren't rules, they are guidelines, storytelling doesn't have hard fast rules.

"The best stories infuse wonder...use what you know, draw from it."

Spaceship Design

The spaceship even though I haven't talked much about is so far, is actually a big part of my scene. The brief was to create a UFO crash site, so without the spaceship it won't be fulfilled. As it has crashed landed on an alien planet I want something that is really distinctive and futuristic to contrast against the organic forms of the mushrooms and also as it is set in the far future, only something futuristic would fit.

The moodboard shows some images/concepts I have found online. I have out off designing the ship until now as I really have no ideas what I am going to do or how to go about designing one. I want to keep it fairy simple as well as most of my polys will be used up creating the actual forest/environment.

Just some quick sketches of spaceship designs which I then took one idea further and created a simple silhouette of the top view and a 3/4 view then added some basic colour on top. I will get onto creating a proper scale drawing soon and develop more on the colours but for now this is the one I think I will go for.

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey

I just finished watching this documentary Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey, about the man behind Elmo - Kevin Clash. He never stopped chasing his dream and always would work towards it, taking the initiative and pushing forward with his own creations to learn the art of a puppeteer. If you want to become something, if you have a love for something, you shouldn't give up. You need to work hard to succeed in what you do.

It's really quite fascinating how sucked in and involved you can become with something like Elmo, Sesame Street or The Muppets. These people, these puppeteers are taking a static object and literally bringing it to life. They are bringing them to life in a way that children are transfixed by them, learn from them, look up to them. They are in essence animators. Seeing how involved Kevin Clash is, and how much knowledge he has isn't something that has happened overnight, he has spent his whole life trying to perfect his art and is passing his knowledge on to others.

Something that was mentioned in the documentary and which I found really useful was that every character needs their own specific hook, take Miss Piggy for example, she is a truck driver wanting to be a woman. It's these specific hooks which make the character unique from one another and it gives them their own personality. It makes them become more life-like, more believable. This hook pulls the viewer in and can grab their imagination, you want to create something that people can laugh with, connect with, sympathise with. This can easily be transferred across into animation when creating a character but also with films and games too.

There are tips that Kevin gave to other puppeteers such as no matter what, you should always keep your puppet moving (even if its just small body movements like the head tilting) or else it just becomes static and the believability of life disappears. This is something I will keep in mind when I come to animate a real character, it needs that movement to keep the audience engaged and to keep that connection alive. This is definitely something to watch if you're wanting to be a puppeteer or animator, or anyone who loves puppetry. It really gives an insight to what goes on behind the scenes and how much work one man has put into his dream for it to become a reality.

Testing Ideas

I wasn't sure whether to have stairs or some sort of ramp leading up to the mushrooms so I decided to test it out using Maya and then placing it into Unity to test it properly. I built a really rough shape for a mushroom and exported it out into Unity, here I then scaled it to how tall I wanted it and first started placing steps. With the steps, they look really nice however it may be a bit tedious jumping up each one as they are spaced apart, I could try placing them closer together so this would reduce that factor, however the more steps I have, the more polys I will gather. This also goes for the ramp I created, as there are going to be a quite a few mushrooms within the playing area, and you are able to walk between each one, I'm worried that with the ramp it may use up too many of my polys. To try and get around this I also tried using the terrain tool within Unity. This doesn't use up any polys, so that's a good thing. However the problem I found with this was that it's not very attractive and it takes away the shape of the mushroom, as it acts like a hill/mountain the mushroom becomes hidden. I could possibly try texturing it to make it look better, however if each mushroom is linked together, the terrain tool may be too overwhelming and you might feel too cluttered.

I think I will have to model the main sections first - mushrooms, spaceship, the inside of the mushrooms before I can really decide on what I am going to have. After modelling I will be able to see how many polys I will have left and can then go from here to try and create a low poly version of either the steps or the ramp.

The first image shows it in first person, and this is the scale in which I would like everything to be, big enough to make the person feel like they are in another world yet not too big where it feels too overwhelming and you are not even able to see the tops of the mushrooms.

Battle for Terra

I recently watched Battle for Terra, an animated film about an alien race who have to fight for the possession of their world. I was more interested in the design of this animation, where these aliens live are within extremely tall trees, which in fact resemble mushrooms. Originally I had planned to create tree houses in which my aliens would inhabit, however carving into the trees/mushrooms could be another possibility. These trees are actually made up of several of different branches, all intertwining with one another to reach the top. In comparison to the aliens themselves, the trees are absolutely huge. The circumference around just one of the branches can accommodate a whole alien family on the one level. It's a really lovely concept as you get a real feeling for the size of the place and how many aliens actually inhabit this area.

I decided to draw up some quick ideas of having my aliens houses carved into the mushrooms and have come it realise it is a much more interesting idea. The only worry I have is the poly-count we have been assigned. My original plan was to do both the interior and exterior of my environment, however I may have to adjust this - this would have been the case even if I went with the treehouse idea too. I will try and keep my design neat and simple and only have one room accessible within the mushrooms, however I still want to be able to have the person walk around their village/part of their village.

This is just a colour alteration I produced using the layer filters to change up the colours. Obviously I will do the final thing a lot more refined, but at the minute the colours I'm leaning towards are the blues in the middle image. The idea for my scene is to be in the evening so the mushrooms will be glowing, so this is quite a nice colour to start off with. I will have to see other possibilities and what I am able to achieve when texturing.