Conceptual

Introduction

The goal of the Conceptual unit is to explore more abstract forms of expression and creation, in order to convey important and unique ideas. The unit is centered around the theme of innovation and experimentation, and through it, students are able to share their stories through a vast array of mediums, including poetry, music, art, animations, experimental film and web production. This unit teaches the skills of communication through a technical lens, using useful equipment like DSLR Cameras, Tascam Audio Recorders, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Animate, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Audition, Avid Pro Tools, WordPress, and Google Apps.

During this first quarter at Freestyle, I was able to greatly expand my skillset, and the choices with which I can express my ideas. Through the lessons in English, I learned more about how I personally like to articulate my thoughts, and other alternative forms of writing to utilize. In Digital Media I learned how to take those thoughts and communicate them with various kinds of visual and audio media. This quarter taught me a lot about my communication style, and how I struggle with communicating anything but my honest opinion, and I was able to learn a ton of useful skills as well, that I will be able to integrate into other parts of my life, such as theatre and other clubs.

Art Reflection

In the first week of school, the students of Freestyle took a field trip to the SF MOMA, where we searched for specific works that inspired awe within us. The assignment that resulted from this trip was a reflection on the experience we had with the awe-inspiring artwork that we chose, and how it relates to our life and the way we create, as well as the lasting impact it had on us. We then took that reflection and made a video representation of it, created in Adobe Premiere Pro, and the learning curve that came with it.

The concept of awe was labeled as the quality of something to make you consider your place in the universe, and perspective expansion. I was struggling with this assignment because none of the pieces in the SF MOMA inspired awe in me in that respect. I don’t believe anything ever has, so I used this opportunity to share that opinion, as well as the insight that it gave me on the value of my work and my ideas, when comparing them to those of other people.

Parody Introduction

To create this parody, my group first had to come up with a concept for the theme and message of the song, and then write lyrics based on that message. We then recorded our new lyrics in a recording isolation booth, and arranged the singing along with the backing track. We were then free to edit and arrange the song individually, where we added reverb, panning, and other instruments, changing the song to make it more unique, and in this case, bad, since the goal is a humorous parody.

I created this parody song with Maile and Serenna. We used Audition to record and mix the song.

When we first got this assignment, we had the idea to write about the presidential election, but later decided it was too controversial of a topic. We then spent two hours on a call discussing what our replacement idea was going to be. The product of that call was a very long list of ideas that we liked, but that we were inspired by enough to write a full song about. Serenna then came up with the idea to combine them all into one song, about how we had no ideas for the project. It was ironic, because we had a ton of ideas, and simply didn’t know how to use them. The song “We Didn’t Start the Fire” was the perfect candidate for the backing track, since the original song was a list of people and events, just like our own. The entire premise of our song was the result of the struggle to think of a topic, as previously stated, but we also encountered another struggle with having the right syllable count for each line. I think that we were overly focused on fitting the words we wanted into the lines perfectly. After listening to a different classmate’s song however, we realized that ill fitting words were more charming than harmful, and that allowed us to finish the lyrics. If we were to redo it, I would make it shorter, since we included two more verses than necessary, and it made the song feel too repetitive. I would do so by cutting out the last two verses, and having Maile re-record one of Serenna’s verses to even out the singing more. I would also try to include more interesting singing to make it more enjoyable than the original song, which I already hate listening to.

With this project, I learned about the recording process, and how to mix a song, which was something I had never done before. I especially enjoyed learning how to pan a track to each ear, and how to pitch shift a voice. Learning the razor tool was especially useful, as it took a lot of clipping and reorganizing to get the final track. I also learned to accept that not everything is going to be perfect, which I think is a useful lesson that I need to keep in mind in the future, and in all my other classes.I am most proud of the lyrics in this track, because they were very laborious, and I am content with the end result. This project was also a good way to reflect on my own interests and inspirations, because the list of ideas was basically just a list of the things that I enjoy that make me who I am, and hearing those things back was a nice way to remember and reflect. I liked that this project allowed me to get to know my classmates better, and really appreciate their work.

Parody lyrics

Twilight sparkle, pringles can, netherlands muffin man
Bad Ninjago, world war 2, nickavacado
Sukuna x cinderella, avengers, arkansas
Chipoootle, springfield dog eaters, Potato salad

Geese, Monkeypox ewww, Looney tunes, Club penguin
TSA agents stealing bookmarks, love letters with kim jong un
Oceangate titanic, Rainbowdash the Emo horse
Taylor swift the childless cat lady, totoro, pretzels

We didn’t have ideas
We were spouting nonsense, for like 40 minutes
We didn’t have ideas
No, our brains are empty, so, we have no entry

Hobama, football yay, Shining armor, french poop river
Leonardo, Climate change, Flat earthers, Barbenheimer, raygun bleh, “Transgender surgeries on illegal aliens in prison,” no it’s me, sue sylvester, moo deng is so cute

Knuckle symphony, execute the babies, Nightmare moon, spoooooooooooons, 1000 bottles of baby oil, SNL, 784 DiB ledoo’s, Strawberry, seizures, family guy, amphibious component, booo

We didn’t have ideas
We were spouting nonsense, for like 50 minutes
We didn’t have ideas
No, our brains are empty, so, we have no entry

CIX, eggs galore, riddler, kirby’s watching you
ice monster makes me cry, bread, grapes, wall, circle
Birds love, paper hair, Pink pony club
The government kills everyone who tries to find a cure for cancer

rainbow loom, Penguins surfing, European mummy eaters,
chris columbus shagged a llama, whale shark eyeball teeth
bean baby water brain, polynomials make me cry
shrek

We didn’t have ideas
We were spouting nonsense, for like 60 minutes
We didn’t have ideas
No, our brains are empty, so, we have no entry
Hadestown, crime rates, confusing boring rallies
Monsters, preachers, natalie arbatman
Presbyterian window gobo, percy jackson musical

Vibes bad, four score, website broken, tis’ been a fortnight since we last spoke, the mazerunner
RFK – ran over a baby bear, 2 gallons each.

We didn’t have ideas
We were spouting nonsense, for like 80 minutes
We didn’t have ideas
No, our brains are empty, so, we have no entry
Nicholas cage, watery paint, count dracula, Bluey
spice addicts, disco ball, paper cranes, buffalo
anime scented candles, Korean convenience stores
Do you like triden or bump, harry potter and regina george
descendants, minecraft movie, jennifer coolidge
adderall, dodo bird, vogue, fish, ouija board

eating cotton balls to get into a mental asylum

jorts, jag, jate, jowl, I can’t take it anymore

We didn’t have ideas
We were spouting nonsense, for like 90 minutes
We didn’t have ideas
But we’re still not done
So we just go on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on
We didn’t have ideas
We were spouting nonsense, for like 90 minutes
We didn’t have ideas
No, our brains are empty, so we have no ending
We didn’t have ideas
We were spouting nonsense, for like 90 minutes
We didn’t have ideas
No, our brains are empty, so we have no ending
We didn’t have ideas
We were spouting nonsense, for like 90 minutes
We didn’t have ideas
No, our brains are empty, so we have no ending
We didn’t have ideas
We were spouting nonsense, for like 90

Animation

Throughout this quarter, this animation class has taught me to think about the way my choices will affect the way the audience will receive a story. We first learned about the history of animation, and then the 12 guiding principles of animation to build a good base knowledge of the art. We then experimented with creating our own art with various methods of animation, utilizing various technical programs such as Photoshop and Dragonframe to digitize each work. I was able to gain more experience with wacom tools and familiarize myself with digital art, as all previous experience I had was on Procreate, and I hadn’t really branched out before. This quarter made me a much more well rounded digital artist, as well as a more knowledgeable student. I value the time that is given to simply practice and improve my craft as an animator, and the opportunity to work with others that comes with the class.

My name is Athena Driesen. I have 2 dogs, named Sierra and George. I love to draw, paint, read, and sew. I like learning and my favorite subject aside from any art class is math. I’ve been taking art classes since I was 6. I do tech for the theater at this school, where I design sets, but I also contribute to costumes, and hair and makeup. I designed the sets for High School Musical and Delay, but I’m hoping to do more individual set design projects this year, as well as some more interesting designs for the shows we put on this year. I led costumes for the past 2 student-run musicals at this school as well. I have also designed some tee-shirts and sweatshirts for clubs that I’m in, and I hope to do more of that in the future. I’ve been doing portrait commissions too. My favorite movies are Your name, Avatar, and the Aristocats. My favorite TV shows are Midnight Gospel, Haikyuu, and Rick and Morty. My favorite video game is Hades. I usually tend to watch shows and movies for the art style, so that is my favorite thing about all of these. I also read a lot of webcomics. I am trying to build a portfolio for college applications right now, so I’m giving myself as many opportunities to create art as I can, which is why I signed up for Freestyle. I also want to learn more about animation of course.

History of Animation and the 12 Principles of Animation

This essay contains a summary of the various methods of animation that were created and used throughout history, such as the Zoetrope, Flipbooks, Cell animation, etc. The latter part of the essay contains an analysis of the first episode of the animated show Helluva Boss, and the ways in which the 12 principles of animation are used in the show. The essay explains the principles used and how they influence the audience’s perspective.

Praxinoscope Zoetrope

This assignment was to create a short, repeating animation using a strip of paper with 13 frames on it, and a device called a Praxinoscope, where the paper is spun in a circle and a mirror reflects the image to the viewer’s eye. The Praxinoscope was one of the earlier forms of animation, and for this assignment the goal was to learn how this method works. We were allowed to use existing characters for this project, so my animation shows the character Rick, from the TV show Rick and Morty.

Phenakistoscope Wheel

This assignment was to create a Phenakistoscope Wheel where the turning image would repeat itself and loop to create a continuous visual. Part of the requirement was to fill the entire wheel, so I had to create an animation where the hand moved from the center all the way to the edge. This was a bit of a struggle since there wasn’t a good way to check if the animation was flowing correctly while still in the sketching process, so a lot of it was trial and error.

Flipbooks

This quarter, I created two flip books. One depicting a martial artist performing a couple different flips, and another showing rockstars performing. The second flip book is meant to connect with flip books made by my peers in the class where the first and last frames of my book align with the first or last frame on their book. The flip books were made with card stock, the first being about 75 frames and the second being about 100. I tried to focus on movement for the first book, and making the proportions stay consistent, although I can’t say I completely succeeded. The second flip book was an opportunity for me to play around with perspective and changing camera angles within my animation, and I think this was more thoroughly achieved.

After creating the physical flip books, I then digitized them by taking photos of each individual frame, making sure to keep the cards in the same place throughout, and then combined them to make a video.

Stop Motion Paper Cutout Animation

This project consisted of making paper puppets and making a stop motion animation with them, moving the different parts of the puppet between photos to create smooth and fluid movement. I used characters from the children’s show My Little Pony. My animation shows Princess Celestia attacking Discord, both of which are entirely too complicated of characters to recreate with paper. As a result, I had a lot of trouble getting the small, intricate pieces of paper to stay in place between takes, and my project took a lot longer than it should have because of it.

Using the application Dragonframe, I took photos of each tiny movement of the paper to create a continuous image. The application has useful features like test shots and onion skin, which allows you to see the previous frame as well as the current one to ensure that the pieces align.

Stop Motion Object Animation

Again using Dragonframe, I created a stop motion animation with objects found in the animation classroom. I wanted to represent the idea of magic with the blue clay, and show visually interesting motion with the materials given. It was a bit of a struggle because hand wasn’t able to balance with too much clay on it, but I got it to work as best I could.

Similarly to the Paper Animation, the main struggle with this project was to keep the object consistent throughout. Using onion skin, I was mostly able to achieve that.