I did my final project with Maya (the Tree Mural project). We decided to do our project together while doing the last mural, as we worked side by side and both really enjoyed the project. We originally had the idea to do a forest for a mural, but then realized that a) that would be overwhelmingly difficult, and b) there was not enough space or time to create a sequential forest. We still were keen on the idea of doing something with trees, and thus decided to sequential depict a tree growing, but in a unique way.
We decided to approach the tree's growth from two angles, I would depict the tree growing geometrically, using sharp angles and straight lines, while Maya would depict the tree's growth through a more organic, curved approach. We decided that we would each start on opposite sides of the final tree, working our way through the respective stages of the tree's growth, meeting in the middle with the final tree split in two, geometric on one side and organic on the other half. When we finished with the stages of the tree's growth, we realized that the mural itself was dark and very hard to see. To fix this, we tried to high light the trunks of the trees with lighter brown and white, but the mural still did not "pop". We decided that we needed a lighter background to contrast the dark colors of the trees, so we bought light blue spray paint and tried to create a representational "sky" around the trees.
Overall, this project was challenging in that we had to troubleshoot many things, not to mention the heat outside and the steep slope we were painting on. Although it was a challenging project, I had a great time doing it, and really enjoyed collaborating with Maya.
For my final project, I made a sort of graphic novel, entitled “Twenty/Twenty.” The idea started with a specific medium I wanted to try out: transparencies. I like the idea of drawing on something clear, using black and white so that when you place the image over different surfaces and backgrounds, the image itself transforms. By drawing on clear sheets, I was able to view the drawing as a separate image, but also as part of the layer which it was placed upon. I thought that clear sheets might be particularly interesting to use with narrative/sequential art because by placing a clear sheet over another picture, you can alter the original image and use those changes to motivate a storyline. When the book is opened, there is a color image on left-hand page and the right-hand page is transparent with black line drawing on it. The right-hand page is laid on top of a black sheet, so that you can’t see what image the transparent sheet contains. Then, when the reader flips the transparent sheet over the adjacent color page, the black and white image lines up with the color image, changing it entirely. So essentially, each image is read twice: once in fuzzy pastel and again with sharper line-work and some changes.
In the end, this specific format inspired my story. In my physiology class, we had been learning about vision and the way different species’ eyes have evolved, so I thought it would be interesting to make a story in which all of the initial color images are out of focus, and then the black lines on the transparencies bring the fuzzy image into greater detail. The story itself is about a man who has very poor vision, but doesn’t realize it. The first panels are just in low-resolution pastel, depicting a typical day in his city, through his eyes. Everything is sort of frothy and dreamlike, with most of the details, text, and faces absent. However, in a crosswalk, he is almost struck by a car, and the irate driver sends him to a doctor to correct his poor vision. When he puts on his glasses, suddenly all of the images from his typical day are thrown into harsh resolution, revealing details that he previously had missed. The details aren’t alarming, they’re just unpleasant. His fuzzy, ethereal view of reality changes into a world that acknowledges the existence of cracks in the floorboards, sweat on a runner’s brow, and cigarette smoke in a nearby park. In the end, he smashes the glasses, in favor the blurred and hazy version of the world.
The biggest challenge with this project was working with the transparencies because they are slippery and don’t allow for much detail when drawing. But I adopted a sketchier style for this project, so in the end, I think the materials worked reasonably well. I’m pleased with the overall impact of flipping the transparency onto the color sheet.
For this project I wanted to do several unrelated scenes that i could but together to make a story line. What i did as brought this character into the story from a bouncing ball. This character is involved in many of the scenes because he is the main character of the story. My video doesn't really tie into any story plot, but it is fun to watch the story evolve and the characters expand in different ways.
For this project, I thought that drawing mural, which represents my nationality and my interest in fashion would be a great idea. For this reason, I decided to paint a woman wearing Hanbok, a Korean traditional clothes.
Hanbok is all about a unifying harmony of different colors of fabrics. When I was drawing the mural, therefore, I did my best to make various colors that match well with one another and place those colors that would go well with the flow of the fabric. Since we only had limited color for the paints, I used my acrylic paints and mixed them with the white paint to make a pastel colors.
I outlined the entire character and drew some details with black paint to make the mural stands out better. I also focused on the detail of the clothes and the composition as well to make the mural visually attracting.
I really like the way the woman I drew grab the tentacle of the octopus. I think they really go well together. I also really liked the idea of a ring girl transform into the Korean traditional woman.
It would have been even greater if we had more time and safer place to paint a mural so that we could really have a solid and detailed transition that makes the mural more unifying and stand out.:--)
My final project was about a high school girl who fell into sleep during the Korean History class. She had a very relaxing, yet queer dream, and when the school bell rings, she woke up from her sleep. Since the project mainly dealt with her day dream, most of the scenes portrayed the hypnotic images of Korean traditional house, woman, and sequence of random images, representing the randomness of a typical day-dream. I put contemporary Korean traditional music, which gives very warm and relaxing feeling to the entire project.
I used photo shop to draw the scenes. For making realistic images, scenes with the roof of the Korean house and the one with the Korean traditional woman, I googled the pictures and put them as the background layers of the photo-shop, traced them, and re-touched them by using tablet and photo-shop effects; for the one with the traditional woman, I deleted the background layer with the original picture after the drawing and retouching process; I really like this scene since it really gives a dream-like feeling. Besides those two images, and the classroom scene, I used tablet ad various photo-shop effects to draw other scenes.
For the scenes with transformations, I used the method that I used for the previous power point project. As I was altering the images by using liquefying effect and tablet, I saved the image as a new file often so that I could get a flowing change from scene to scene.
Although this project took a lot of time, I was happy after I finished this project since I was really satisfied with the outcome; I love all the scenes and the music I put into it! :--)
Idea: I had a sketch of this monkey, inspired by Curious George. Instead of animating it in real speed, I wanted to slow it down. So every picture I drew, it has a trace of his previous movement. I used photoshop, so I can layer up all the frames. This movie consists 65 pictures in total.
Story: The first few second, he is just scratching his head. Then he gets attracted by a smell, so he decides to follow it. And it turns out that the smell is from FRIED CHICKEN! He loves fried chicken, so as soon as he sees it, his eyes turn in to hearts. But then he looks up and finds out that the chicken is from a super ugly female monkey who apparently likes him. Now he is in a dilemma. He doesn't want to leave fried chicken, but he does want to stay away from the ugly monkey. He thinks for a while, and figures out an idea. He pretends that he likes the female monkey by sending her flowers. The female monkey gets really excited. She drops the chicken and closes her eyes, expecting him to kiss her. But, instead of kissing her, he picks up the fried chicken on the ground and takes it away! Yay!
Idea: For my final project I knew I wanted to animate something with Flash. The last time I really animated anything was 2 years ago, because I haven't had the time or the correct software to do so. However, I decided this would be a good opportunity to get back into it.
Inspiration: Over winter break I wrote a song that had a very spacy out of this world feeling, and so I decided that it would be cool to animate a story to the song. I definitely tried to let the music flow with the story I was writing. I made many of the new scenes arrive on beat, and I think that helped add drama and excitement to the movie.
Story: The original song I wrote/am in the process of writing has words. I'm a Christian, and the song is about how Christians are supposed to understand that this world isn't really our home or all that their is. Our home is heaven, and we are only here temporarily. Sadly, in this temporary state bad things do happen, and many people won't like us because of what we stand for. However, it's alright. I guess my movie is an allegory for that.
The space man is a traveler from another world. He's gets to the new planet and makes a friend. The friend symbolizes a person who knows a Christian is a little different but isn't angry, dismissive, or confrontational in reaction to what they stand for. This person simply wants to know more.
So the spaceman and the alien begin to hang out. However, as they walk along, I show that the people who live on the planet are shocked by the space man. This is a metaphor for those who don't like Christians and the fact that Christians bring up the idea that this life (their planet) isn't all that exists.
Instead of getting to know the spaceman or hearing all that he could tell them about life beyond their planet, they decide to kill him.
I guess it is "A Sad End" because the movie shows that people, who could have been helped by what the spacemen told them or showed them, decided to hurt him instead.
Technique: Besides the song, which was made in Garage Band, I used Adobe Flash and a Pen Tablet to create this movie. I used motion and shape tweening for a lot of the movements.
When I first got into making the movie, I was disheartened by the number of walk cycles I would need to create to illustrate the story. However, once I got into it, it wasn't so bad. This was a fun experience. It has been a while since I've seen characters come to life, and I look forward to making more cartoons this summer.
