The narrative unit was fun, challenging, and allowed me to put my previously learned skills from the conceptual unit to the test. I also learned more about myself and my work ethic through this unit. There were projects due in every class that were pretty demanding, and it was up to me to put the time and effort, into what I produced: in class and outside of class. In English, we made a flash fiction story which is a short two page narrative including a main character, some kind of plot, a climax, and a resolution or call to action. This assignment was not that difficult for me as compared to the work assigned in design and digital media. In design, my skills in the application Adobe Illustrator were assessed when we were told to create a creature made up of multiple animals relating to the main character of our flash fiction. In digital media, we created this website and a voiceover of our flash fiction along with background music. We also utilized the music making applications, ProTools and Reason, when asked to create music pieces. This website displays and explains all the work that was produced by me throughout this narrative unit.

In the end, everything we did in each class tied together for the same project. The story we made in English was used in digital media as well as in design, and whatever we did in and out side of digital media was featured in this website. There were times during this unit when it was up to me to put work into my projects outside of class cause we had either moved on during class time or there simply wasn’t enough time in the period to work on something. Looking back at my work and work ethic this unit, I am proud of putting as much effort as I did into my projects, and I take pride in what I was able to create in each class and am happy to share it with whomever is reading.

This is a screenshot of my website in production in Adobe Dreamweaver.

This is a screenshot of my illustrations in production in Adobe Illustrator.

This is a screenshot of my music in production in Pro Tools.

NOISE

Laura walks down the illuminated path which should lead her to room 103. She strolls in solo, her sister lingering a few rooms behind her. Must have been waiting for their cousin. She listens to the pitch of gravel granules crumbling as her faded white Converse grind them up. An orchestra of crickets, ribbits, and strange croaks seep with intention to overflow her ears. Vast brown eyes gaze into the distance beyond God’s great stones to find lightning cracks. Laura awaits the boom!, but silence. So marvelous, yet delicate. Effulgent shocks light up the night sky. Blink and you’ll miss it.

A right turn and she is met with puddle infested steps. One foot after the other, she heads to the familial meeting destination: her grandparents balcony. All around her, the soaring vegetation keeps a watchful eye. The engulfing jungle 3 glows in the gleams of the moon. Vines contort around objects to create magnificent arches; hanging leaves and fruits bulge as if on steroids.

Laura could already hear the chitter chatter as she approached the lean wooden door. The sound of her aunt cackling, the melody of the fire hacking, and the voice of her Grandmother coughing. With the room keys in one hand and the other reaching for the door handle, she begins to catch on to the faint distinct sound of footsteps on gravel. She dismisses the noise assuming it’s just her slow-paced sibling.

Just as she was about to unlock the door, her wrist could not complete a full 90 degree turn holding onto the key. The metal didn’t budge any further. Thinking she turned it the wrong way, Laura then tried turning the keys in the lock towards the opposite direction. This did not work either. As this was not Laura’s first time struggling to unlock a door with keys, determined, she continued to try other methods. Twist to the right, push then pull; twist to the left, push then pull.

Growing increasingly frustrated, she aggressively jabs the key into the slim iron hole, resulting in the cementation of the jagged item and the lock. Taking a moment to realize the additional stress Laura caused for herself by virtue of her impatience, she notices an unfamiliar silence. Where did my family’s voices disappear to? All but the noise of now forceful footsteps and the no-longer-soothing sound of nature had somehow drifted off into the delusive night during Laura’s escapade with her resort room keys.

She formulates all the possible conclusions as to why she could no longer make out the words of her loved ones behind the grandiose door, and why the key wasn’t working. Her train of thought was interrupted by the unrecognizable and quickening steps formerly belonging to her sister. Laura believed she was now being followed by a stranger and her mind was soon barraged with a stream of questions: Why are they walking so fast? Where are they going? Could they be dangerous? Will they hurt me?

With an accelerated heartbeat, she briskly began attempting to wiggle the clearly jammed key out from its current state, and into one which provided clearance from the possible threat. As the footsteps grew louder, her grip around the key grew tighter and her jerks stronger. Eventually, Laura’s hand turning morphed into a fist used to knock on the door. When her knocks were met with no reply, she couldn’t help but consider that she was at the wrong room all along.

Seeking a safe haven from the impending danger, she disregarded the idea that this door may not open to reveal her family, yet instead another’s. Laura’s knocks were vociferous and accompanied by speechless answers and what seemed to be nothingness on the other side of the door. Where is everyone?!

As the unknown steps approached the outdoor staircase which she had been waiting atop, Laura closed her eyes and braced herself for the worst. “Why are you knocking so loudly?!”

She opened her eyes to the sight of her older brother. His slender figure was apparent in the moonlight and lunged forward to the door. With a free hand, he effortlessly removes the headstrong key and replaces it with another one held within his other hand. Laura scoffs. Her fear seamlessly fell into relief within his presence. She now thinks back to how she had grabbed the wrong set of keys on the way out of her room.

Leading the way onto the balcony, her brother makes way to reveal the rest of the family was nowhere to be found. Before she could ask any questions, he opens the double doors to the right into her grandparents actual room. Her eyes are are met with a feast of smiles and the pouring of hot drinks. The family had simply moved from the terrace into the room. Laura thought to herself, must’ve been the mosquitos.

This is a screenshot of the Flash Fiction grading rubric.

In Design, we were asked to create a hybrid animal and tell our Flash Fiction in the version of a comic. By using the characteristics of the main character, I created a snow leopard, butterfly, and dog. Adobe Illustrator allowed me to work with raster imagery to create this comic. This project helped me learn more about Illustrator and become more advanced with the pen tool. I learned that using lots of different layers is super important when creating illustrations. The different layers allow me to access different elements of the artwork quickly and in an organized fashion. This project also helped me improve my color selecting skills. Overall, the project taught me more about Illustrator and gave me the creative freedom to try out new tools and effects.

We were told to brainstorm what we wanted our narrative illustration hybrid animal character to look like. These sketches had to include attributes of the animals we chose which best alignmed with our flash fiction main character's personality. The designs also had to include the creature wearing some sort of costume related to our narrative stories. My character is wearing rain boots because in my story it is raining and they walk in puddles.

We took photos of people posing in a certain way for a design assignment. With others in these real life poses, it makes it easier to mimic their bodies and apply them to our creature designs. Also, it was better to take a picture of someone in the pose you envisioned your creature to be in rather than going online and attempting to find someone in that same pose with is less than likely.

My flash fiction story follows a girl as she is trying to make it back to her resort room at night. As she walks through the jungle-like retreat, she is met with an assortment of sounds. Some of which include cricket chirps, frog croaks, and footsteps. However, the lingering footstep sounds she initially dismisses begin to quickly approach her with force. They cause the girl to panic as she aggressively attempts to unlock the door to her grandparents room. It was not until the footsteps had reached her destination when she was able to realize it was her brother behind her the whole time.

My story’s main character was best described as curious, adventurous, fearful, and impatient. The animals I believed best embodied these traits included: cat, squirrel, owl, lemur, and rabbit. I would then attempt to make a creature consisting of individual traits from each of the animals I chose. It was not as difficult as I assumed it would be to create my hybrid creature in Adobe Illustrator, yet laying out my background was a different story. It was hard to first sketch my background because I was unsure about how to incorporate linear perspective in a resort scene. Luckily, my peers gave me helpful ideas which I implemented on my final piece of work. A problem I encountered while using Illustrator was filling objects in with color. This was difficult because my initial layout did not have completed objects with attached anchor points. I then re-traced all the objects I wanted to be a certain color and filled them with the pantone colors I chose. I am happy I was able to directly transfer the image of what I had wanted my narrative story to look like onto an artboard. However, there are still minute details I wished I had added. I would have included more plants with better details like leaves or petals for instance. Also I would have somehow incorporated the footsteps from the story into my drawing.

This is a screenshot of the beginning stages of my illustration.

In ProTools, we created different pieces of the background music. I have included some of the background music below through Soundcloud. The music element of this project was the hardest part for me. It really challenged me to think outside of the box and work in a media that I am inexperienced with. My sounds were inspired by the adventure that the main character faces. The music enhances the story because it keeps the audience interested on more than just the story itself. Audio book All of the different biking sound effects were crucial to putting the audience directly into my story. My main goal when creating this music was to create something that was appealing to listen to. I am not totally sure if I completed this goal. As someone who is inexperienced in music, I can only get better from here.

Below is a link to my digital media class's exquisite corpse EDM song. An exquisite corse is something consisting of different peices of work collectively assembled to form a single piece. We each made a track consisting of 8 bars and then Mr. Florendo put them together to form a complete 4 minute long song

This is a screenshot of my music production in Pro Tools.

This is a screenshot of my exquisite corpse music production in Reason 9.

This is my complete audio book with background music and the audio of my story.