I was first introduced to badminton in 1990. The first time I played, 
I was amazed by the speed of the shuttlecock. Most people have the 
misconception that badminton is a slow paced game played in the 
backyard with a couple cheap rackets. However, in countries 
such as Asia, Europe, and Australia, badminton is the number one 
racket game. Just search for badminton on the internet and there 
will be plenty of information about it.

Unlike garden badminton, professional badminton is fast and short.
If you are watching a badminton tournament and
the game is longer than usual, it can become exhilarating and 
breath-taking to follow each shot since they increase in intensity 
as the game continues.  From this source of inspiration, I decided to
make a screensaver with non-stop action.

After some research, I found a website on the internet 
that displayed copies of real movies for badminton 
screensavers. I decided that out there on the web, 
no one had ever attempted to animate a continuous badminton game. 
I believed people would be interested in a non-stop "rally" and 
screen saver as a badminton screensaver promotion package.

The Badminton screensaver has taken me approximately 
6 months to make. My first version for this screen saver is a 
single player game.  This is because it is easier to create 
and animate one character and mirror it across the opposite side. 
Coordinating two players,a shuttlecock, and a 360 degree rotating 
camera can be a nightmare (but one that I might attempt if the 
demand is high). The two most difficult tasks I encountered
were to animate convincing characters in continuous  
rotation, and to link different clips to form a smooth 
continuous playback. I've been asked a couple times why I didn't 
just use live action clips or a technology called motion capture.  
My reasoning was that I didn't want to use live action footage 
because there was no way a competitive badminton game could 
be played seriously for an unlimited amount of time.  
Using motion capture to mimic badminton players was also out 
of the question since the technology is expensive
and always needs to be refined by an animator.  
Considering all these factors, I decided I'd animate this 
screensaver from scratch. 

After long hours of work, I have decided 
to offer this screensaver on the internet and sell it at low price.  
Hopefully this will help me for my next projects. 
If the response is satisfying, I might plan for a double 
or mixed double game. Who knows? It may even evolve into an 
interactive game and screen saver.
Feel free to send feedback anytime!!              

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