Introduction

The goal of the Narrative 1 Unit is to teach freestyle juniors how to communicate character and story arc through descriptive storytelling, narrative digital art, storyboards, films, and animations. After the Conceptual 1 unit, in which we began learning how to use the Adobe Creative Cloud and other tools to communicate our ideas, the Narrative 1 unit puts those new skills to good use. Students in all electives are given the task of using their recently acquired skillset to create original media that tells a story. To help us accomplish that task, my class was introduced to industry-standard technology and applications such as Wacom Digital Drawing Pads, lighting equipment, downshooters, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Animate, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Avid Pro Tools, Propellerhead Reason, HTML/CSS, DragonFrame, and Google Apps.

My personal journey in the Narrative was centered around the realization that I now had the tools to tell stories in a way I was proud of. Analyzing and writing short stories in English class gave me the foundation I needed to turn those ideas into videos or other visual media. It was amazing to be able to make something professional-looking that was completely original. The narrative unit showed me that it was possible for me to make things I had never been able to fully articulate before a reality, and be proud of the end result.

Story

Short Story Project

The Short Story project began in English class, where me and my peers were tasked with writing a (rather short) original narrative. We began by reading examples written by others, including both short stories and excerpts from longer books. After analyzing what makes a good character or plot, we began the process of brainstorming our own characters, story arcs, and settings. Using plot maps and character questionnaires to map out our thoughts, students began writing and revising rough drafts. During the final stages of our stories, my classmates and I used peer reviews to strengthen our stories and give each other feedback. Finally, we completed our final drafts and moved our focus from English to Digital Media. There, students would continue the project by transforming our narratives into audio recordings complete with music, sound effects, and a digitally illustrated “album” cover.

To produce the audio version of my short story, I began by recording myself reading it with my Task-Cam recorder. I recorded in my closet to reduce echoes or distortions and then uploaded the audio to my computer. The audio was far from perfect, so to edit it I used an application called Pro Tools. Essentially, Pro Tools allows you to edit, add music, or insert sound effects into audio. I added music and sound effects (that Freestyle Academy had previously purchased from Foley artists) and edited my voice to be clearer. Then, I exported the file as an MP4, and wah-lah!

After completing the audio, the final portion of the short story project was done in Adobe Illustrator (an application that can aid designers in making art that can then be put onto real-life objects). Students were meant to make an “album cover” for the audio of their short stories. Using Adobe Illustrator’s many tools, I created an image that I felt conveyed the emotion within my story. Finally, my art was posted to SoundCloud along with the audio I had edited. You can access all of the Short Stories for my class here:

https://soundcloud.com/freestyle-academy/sets/2024-stories

I valued this project because it taught me how to use sound effects to enhance audio. In fact, it showed me the value of sound effects in the first place. Especially in fields like animation, (which I am interested in) sound effects are crucial to making fictional worlds come to life. Clothing swishing, the sounds of distant traffic, birds chirping; everything that is often inherently present in live-action productions needs to be manufactured in animated ones. In short, working with sound effects made me really appreciate their role in production.

add screenshot of pro tools short story audio

add screenshot of illustrator album art file

Click the arrow to view the written version of my short story:

Frozen Morning

It’s funny, isn’t it. Day in, day out, no matter the weather, life goes on. The same bus comes around the corner, the same people in the same cars going to the same places, and the same kids in the same classrooms in the same schools arrive late to class.

Well, maybe not “same” in the traditional sense of the word. More… similar. Yeah, that’s it. Each day has similar elements, a similar feel as the last. They leave me feeling pressure to go go go, to do more and oh god you’re not doing enough, better try harder kid. But that has no relation to whether it rains or not, whether the bus is late, or whether that blonde kid walks in the classroom three minutes after the bell most days.

Grainy cement fills my vision as I walk down the sidewalk. I tilt my head up from under my hood, my eyes beginning to tear up while stray hair whips my forehead. Oh. I hadn’t realized but, It’s gonna rain today. The light flooding the streets was still tinted gold, not silver like overcast days usually are. Despite that, dark gray clouds hung heavy over the jagged silhouettes of the skyline, ominous and threatening.

I wonder where Bongo will hide this time. The stray was always harder to find after rain, it had taken me an anxious hour after the last thunderstorm to coax her out of the shed she had crawled into. The cat had given me grief when I tried to dry her off, but at least she had eaten the smoked salmon I set out. God knows she needed it, I can still feel her ribs under her matted tabby fur, even if I can’t see them anymore. Currently, it’s been around two days since I last saw her, and my chest is staying tight no matter how much I try to distract myself.

Risking another glance up into the cold air attempting to beat me backwards, I can see the green sign for Beckett Street coming up in about a hundred feet. Good, all I have to do is cross the intersection, and then the bus stop is right there. I tug my hood down over my nose, forging onwards, steps stuttering with a particularly strong shove from the wind.

Finally reaching the beginning of black street pavement, I adjusted my backpack, the weight of it already making my shoulders ache. I go to step into the road but then- a furry lump. With… red in it. Roadkill. But large—I swore under my breath—the shape of a cat. A tabby cat. Bongo.

I crashed to my knees in the road, uncaring of the rough scrapes through my sweats or any cars that could come roaring through. My hands shot out, but faltered before touching the dead animal. Its chest had been crushed in, its head too. Quickly tearing my gaze from the horrid mass of bones and flesh and fur, I searched frantically for something to identify the animal. It was a long-hair, tail striped black, like Bongo – Please don’t be Bongo. Then- there! The back left foot was black, from an inch above the foot to the toes. The air left my lungs in a hissing-whistling sound, like when you jump on a deflating air mattress. I was shaking, shivering with more than cold, eyes spilling over with searing too-warm tears. Bongo doesn’t have black on her left leg, she’s got tan. God. I gaze at the dead animal in front of me, quickly skimming over the torso area to avoid aggravating the nausea cramping my stomach. Not Bongo, it’s not her.

Then, sensations come rushing back in. My knees are bleeding into my pants, hands bitten red and pale by the chill, face dripping with tears. I stand like a newborn deer, my backpack almost pulling me back to the concrete. A few careful steps around the dead cat that is not Bongo, and I am across the street. My legs take me further down the path I walk each day, to the bus, to school, eventually to mom’s house after. And, the bus is here.

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” go the brakes, the beauty product add plastered on the bus’s side pulling up to my right. The side doors open with a hiss-clank. The metal groans and creaks, and I … I should go in. The doors are open. I do this everyday. Just a step forward…

I turn and bolt. Back across Beckett street, back three blocks, I’ll miss the bus, mom will get an email but- But I don’t care. I skid around a corner, briefly stumbling before taking off towards one of Bongo’s favorite hideouts. I can usually find her in the clump of bushes back behind the Johnson’s house in the mornings, she should be there now. I’m sprinting, my lungs are burning, my body sparks from the exertion. My mind races past the consequences of my actions same as my feet crash past the rotting fence around the Jhonson’s yard. But right now it doesn’t matter, because I can see her. She’s there laying in the sun, head intact, insides where they’re supposed to be, still breathing- still alive.

I slow to a stop a couple feet from her, panting. Great heaving breaths to shake the chill from my bones. A small “mrrrrp” sound lets me know that the feline has seen me as I collapse to the damp weeds below like a puppet with it strings cut. I… could have lost her.

A brush of tangled fur against my hand and a small wet nose nudging my cheek. I don’t ever want to lose this… Bongo continues to push at me with her little peach nose. I’ll get her salmon later, I’ll help her hide from the storm, but it’s not enough. The dead cat on the road could have easily been the one now sitting by my side. I wouldn’t have been able to stop it, I wouldn’t have helped, I… need to do more.

I need to escape, stop pretending like I don’t care.

I need to… I need to wake up.

Illustrations

For these projects, juniors used an application called Adobe Illustrator to create original designs. Illustrator uses mathematical equations for shapes and lines, ensuring that the artwork looks the same when resized. Unlike pixelated images, illustrator ones always remain crisp and clean. Pieces made in illustrator can be exported digitally, or printed, etched, or burned onto other materials. After learning how to use illustrator, students were able to export their original designs as digital artwork to share on the web. In addition, juniors had the ability to put their original designs on t-shirts, glassware, nightlights, candle shades, stickers, and more.

Short Story Album Art

This piece was created to be an “album cover” for the Short story audio recording in the story section of this page. I used adobe illustrator to outline general shapes (forming an eye) and then used built-in effects to alter them. Finally, I put the title of my story over a semi-transparent black rectangle to make it easier to read.

Illustrator Section Banners

The images you can see behind the section titles of this page (introduction, story, illustrations, music, animation) were actually made in Adobe illustrator. I was able to use Illustrator’s ability to duplicate and rotate objects to create some pretty cool shapes!

Exquisite Corpse Project

Equisite corpses are something artists have been making for a very long time. An exquisite corpse is a game/medium of entertainment that facilitates an exchange of different art styles and ideas. According to the MoMA (Museum of Modern art) surrealist artists started the practice of Equisite Corpses to help themselves brainstorm new pieces. The rules of the game are as follows:

1. Take a piece of paper and fold it into four equal parts.
   Draw or collage on the top section of the paper to create the head of an imaginary character. Use whatever materials you have around you.
   Fold your image back to conceal it. Extend the lines of your character’s neck over the edge of the fold so that your collaborator will know how to connect their image to yours.
2. Pass the paper on to a friend or family member. Keep your image hidden and have them add a body to your figure in the middle section of the page.
   Repeat!
3. Pass the paper to a third person, concealing the first two sections of the page, and have them add the legs.
4. Then hide that section and pass to a fourth person to add the feet. Remember to draw lines over the fold into each new section so the following person knows where to start.
5. Unfold the page and reveal your collaborative image.

On paper, an exquisite corpse might look like these examples:

However, my peers and I were instructed to make our exquisite corpse digitally using illustrator, rather than on paper. So, I partnered up with my classmates Nadine Sheridan and Kaylee Jumpayai to create an Equisite Corpse. After deciding where the sections would join, each person began work on their part of the project. Finally, we sent our finished pieces to our Digital Media teacher to combine.

This is the part that I made:

When combined with my group’s parts:

Top by Ash Dillon (Me)

Middle by Nadine Sheridan

Bottom by Kaylee Jumpayai

Illustrator Choice Project

The Illustrator choice project allowed juniors to make a design that they would later be able to put on a glass, nightlight, stickers, etc. (there were a LOT of choices). For my illustrator project, I chose to make designs for stickers. i had a ton of ideas, but I ended up basing two of the designs off my cat Tiki and the last off of an original character of mine.

These are some initial brainstorms of sticker designs:

After creating the designs in illustrator, I ended up with this:

The markings on the page are designed to help the printer know where to put down ink, and the lines were meant to help the laser cutter outline the stickers cleanly. The laser cutter part never ended up getting done, but the stickers came out well enough with some sisscors.

Below is a picture of the final product. I am satisfied with the designs I made and extremely grateful that I got the chance to make stickers that were uniquely my own. In fact, I wear them on my phone case, headphones, and computer with pride.

The final thing my peers and I had to do for this assignment was to write an artist’s statement. Essentially, an artist’s statement is a paragraph or two explaining the meaning or thought process behind an art work, and why the artist created it. Artist statements are a staple in many creative fields, and I will likely write many more in the future. In any case, here is the statement I wrote for my illustrator choice project:

Artist’s Statement:

For the Illustrator Choice Project, I chose to design some custom stickers based on my interests. My stickers ended up being inspired by my sassy cat, Tiki, and by an original character of mine. During this project, I learned just how valuable being proficient in Illustrator can be for me. I have a new appreciation for my Illustrator skills, and I intend to take full advantage of the tools available at Freestyle to create many more custom design projects. In particular, I look forward to being able to give my loved ones something completely unique. During the project, I struggled with more of the tech-heavy elements of the process, such as properly setting up my file and outlines so that the final sticker sheet would print properly. I overcame those challenges by asking for help from my teacher. I focused on the instructions he gave me, and eventually figured it out. When I was younger, it was difficult for me to ask for help because I disliked feeling incompetent, but I now understand that learning from those who are better than you at something is crucial to success. Sometimes, it is still a struggle for me to overcome my pride, but I am rapidly realizing that learning from others is miles better than trying to figure things out independently. If I were to change anything about how I navigated this project, I would have chosen a more ambitious undertaking, like making a design for clothing or glassware. Despite that, I am proud of how the stickers came out, particularly the colors. Finally, this project was valuable because it showcased the numerous talents of my fellow Freestyle Juniors. Because there were many different options, each student was able to play their final outcome to their strengths. I am grateful for the opportunity to observe my peer’s artwork and am looking forward to an amazing 2 years with them.

Music

In this unit, my class was introduced to Adobe audition, an audio editing software that helps users create anything from songs, podcasts, and many other sound productions. After learning to use Audition, the first things students did was create a mix of 5+ songs that they enjoyed. This is my Music-Mash up:

Parody Song Project

The Parody Project required Juniors to make a parody version of a song. That includes writing lyrics, recording yourself singing them, and editing the audio to fit with a karaoke version of your chosen song. Students were given the option to partner up, though I did not. The song I chose to make a parody of was Meet the Plastics, from the musical “Mean Girls.” Because I often see some “mean girl” traits in my cat, I decided to write the parody lyrics about her. I brainstormed lyrics on paper and then transferred them to a google doc, titling my parody “Meet the Fuzzballs.” After writing and recording my lyrics, audition helped me make the sound of my voice clearer and just volumes so that I could hear myself over the music. Below is a screenshot of my project in Adobe Audition:

Please click the play button to listen to my final parody song production:

Meet the Furballs, by Ash Dillon

Parody Song lyrics:

Woah, why does your cat have painted nails?
Don’t ask, just don’t.

You should call me a monster
I kill small animals
I like to destroy your couches
And knock things off of your tables

I come alive each night
At 2 am the time is nigh
I’ll meow and scratch and run around
But you’ll never know why

My cat is a little weirdo
She always chases squirrels
She never ever catches them
I swear she steals my hair ties
And eats bugs.

My name is Tiki Mc Squeaky
And I am a petty brat
See me, see you
Sit and stare at you
While you’re… on the toilet

Animation

Animation is the elective I chose to pursue at Freestyle. For this unit, we focused a little more on character design/animation and our visual narrative project. The goal was to develop both our storytelling and collaborative skills by working together on a short film. I really appreciated the visual narrative project because it showed me how valuable working with others can be, both in terms of social benefits and in getting work done faster. Professional animators almost always work in teams, and I think it is extremely valuable that I am learning that skill here at Freestyle. Finally, This unit also began introducing 2-Dimensional Digital Animation to us. We learned more skills that proffesional animators use and began practicing them.

Ball Bounce

One of the first things we did with 2D animation was a ball bounce. making a ball bounce is a simple exercise meant to help animators learn to emulate and distort the laws of physics to better give the illusion of movement. Here is my first ever ball bounce:

Character Walk Cycle Project

For this project, students were required to make a walk cycle for both a stop motion puppet and a digital version of the same character. A walk cycle is essentially a loop of a character walking. Broken down, the poses of a walk cycle look like this:

First, students designed our characters, including a small background story for them. The character I designed for this project was an immortal trickster with a penchant for pranking travelers. After designing our characters, my peers and I set to work making an armature (a wire frame in a humanoid shape) for our puppets. We then added materials to enhance the puppet’s appearance, such as hand-sewn clothes or accessories. Then, when the characters were finished, we had a photoshoot with them. You can see one of my photoshoot pictures in my character bio page, which can be viewed below:

Then, it was time to create a Walk Cycle using my puppet. I began using a stop-motion app called Dragonframe to take a picture of my character in each pose of a walk. Using a green screen as a background allowed me to later edit the footage so that only my character remained. I used Adobe After Effects to remove the green from each of my frames, which made it possible to add a different background into the project. I ended up using a forest background I got off of the internet, because it matched what I imagine are this character’s haunting grounds.

Stop Motion Walk Cycle:

After completing the puppet walk cycle and background, I made another walk cycle for the character. however, this one was digital. I drew each of the frames in Adobe Photoshop and removed the green background once more. Now, I could combine the digital and stop-motion walk cycles in after effects.

Digital Walk Cycle:

Each clip only had the character take one step, so I duplicated and moved the clips to make sure the character would be able to make it all the way across the screen. To give the walking character a shadow, I duplicated my walk cycle clips and flipped them upside down. I then turned the clips black and blurred the edges to make it look similar to a real shadow. The final step was to add some music, and then my Walk Cycle project was complete!

Composite Walk Cycle:

Lip Sync Animation Project

The lip sync animation project was also made using photoshop and adobe after effects. Students were challenged to animate a person talking the same way professional animators do. In the animation industry, hundreds of mouth shapes can be drawn for each animated character. When attempting to make a character talk, animators string together short clips of different mouth shapes to imitate talking. below are some of the mouth shapes I drew for an original character of mine:

I chose to make a lip-sync to the song “For the Record” from the musical podcast “36 Questions.” You can view my project below:

Visual Narrative Group Project

The Visual Narrative project was the biggest from I have done so far. In animation, students partnered with two other people to create a short animated film together. I was partnered with Kajsa Hoffer and Lillian Husky, both of which are amazing artists and people. The first stage of this huge project was planning: we needed to decide what our story/plot/setting would look like. We began by brainstorming genres or character types we like, and ended up focusing more on fantasy. Then, we created a plot and characters together, and fleshed out how we would animate our story. We decided to divide the animation work into six parts, with each of us getting two parts to work on. Lillian got parts 1 & 3, I got parts 2 & 5, and Kasja got parts 4 & 6. Backgrounds, character designs, and color palettes were spread out into as-needed work. Here are some examples:

after finishing our character designs, each group member began storyboarding for each of their parts. Storyboarding is essentially sketching out a rough plan (either in the form of an animatic or comic strip) of what your animation is going to look like. Below are the storyboards for each of my parts in the film:

Then, each group member animated our parts using our storyboards and the character/color designs as references. Below is my first part (part 2 out of 6):

After finishing each of our parts individually, we put them all together in Adobe After Effects. I find it a little funny that our film, originally meant to be a minute or so long, ended up being over 2 minutes long in the end. Poor planning on our part, but it turned out great in the end. You can watch our final film here:

Finally, I just want to give a huge thank you to Kajsa, Lillian, and all of the other students in my animation class for making this year an incredibly fun one. Please go check out the other animated films that were made on this website: