During the Narrative 2 unit in Digital Media we learned a plethora of new skills to help apply our storytelling skills learned in English into physical and digital portrayals of our work.

Funny Images

The first assignment we took on in Digital Media during this unit would be the Funny Images project, in which we got a taste of humorous compositions while also gaining the skills needed to create surreal and blended images in Photoshop. While on a surface level these seem just like silly pictures, they provided excellent training exercises for the skills needed to make more complicated projects later on.

My takeaway from being able to produce funny images as although on the surface it may seem like a “silly” skill, it’s highly important to know how to make an effective image that displays a certain tone and message in this day and age. I will apply my new Photoshop skills in other projects to elevate them to the next level.

Motion Graphics

Next we looked into the world of Motion Graphics. We learned about how to mix video and visuals to get across certain moods or messages. After various individual exercises, we were tasked to make our own Motion Graphics video. Mine can be found below.

For my Motion Graphics video, I decided to do a music visualizer of a music box version of one of my favorite songs, Beings by my favorite music artist, Madeon. One of the main takeaways I have from creating simple motion graphics is that even the smallest additions of visuals can help elevate a video and capture an audience. It shows that focusing on details is just as important as the big picture or bigger purpose as long as you know how to balance it effectively.

Multi-Layer Wood Art

Our final project during the Narrative 2 unit during Digital Media was also one of our most extensive. The Multi-Layer Wood Art assignment required us to display a key moment in our world building story and then create it 3-Dimensionally via laser cutting out woods parts and assembling them either to create a Lightbox, a stacked wood art display, or a ring wood art display. I chose to do a stacked wood art metaphorically showing the deceased remains of one of the key characters Lorelai in my group’s worldbuilding story Proxima.

For this wood art, I decided to blend the beautiful and the macabre to show how despite her passing, Lorelai had a huge impact on everyone on the ship and while it brought a whole lot of pain, she left a good mark on the world. I also used double-edged imagery and metaphors, such as utilizing flowers blooming as both a reference to how the members of the ship will bloom into new individuals because of her absence but also because it resembles human tissue or flesh especially with the red hue I chose for it in the colored version of my wood art. Overall, I am extremely proud of the final result.

For my Multi-Layered Art project, I chose to do the stacked wood art option. The reason I chose to pick this medium was because I wanted to practice working in 3D space and truly challenge myself when it came to figuring out how everything would stack in the end. I am very used to 2D mediums of creation, so I wanted to push my expertise so I could be able to do more with my work. I also believed doing a stacked wood art piece would better get across the vision I had for the project.

My art piece is titled “Our Dear Lorelai”, in reference to my group’s Worldbuilding project Proxima which features a psychologist character of the same name. In our story, Lorelai begins as the foundational glue of a group of galactic colonizers, and her death directly leads to various intense developments throughout the story. She both leads to various moments of growth and degradation in each of the protagonists and antagonists of our story. My piece doesn’t depict a specific moment, but it is meant to depict what remains of Lorelai after her passing. I thought picturing her skeletal self would help show how she was the foundation of our story both literally and metaphorically. I am incredibly proud about how the composition came out, as I elected to do extra work by adding more detail with various flowers, bones, hair pieces, and more.

My thoughts in general about producing a faux 3D analog art piece is that I found the experience incredibly valuable in learning how to bring my artwork to a new level. Additionally, I found a lot of value in learning how to move that 3D work into the digital realm because it allows me to work in both areas (traditional and digital) and not be limited to just one scope. I also think this will be a useful skill later on so I can visualize bigger ideas in my head easier. I grew artistically and technically with this project by practicing understanding 3D space and pushing myself to focus more on detail work. I found the hard work extremely rewarding and I would love to do something like this again.