Narrative 1

Introduction

During this unit, we explored real world issues that we were interested in and created a presentation to further explore the topic. We deepened our understanding of Illustrator and Photoshop to create physical real world products. We also learned more about our society by reading a dystopian novel. This page is a shows all of the learning that happened during this unit from English, Digital Media, to Animation.

Short Story

In our English class, we were given a character questionnaire tp help us develop our main characters identity. We had to answer questions like “What do you wish other people to know about you?” For my story I wanted to portray a character who deepened his friendship with another. We used Protools to edit our story. We added audio, music, and sound effects to add more to our story. One of the things I valued most while making this project was finding out how to make a conflict that was much deeper than what was seen on the surface level. I wish I had spent more time deepening the conflict.

The Perfect Melody

He strummed quietly to the beat of his foot tapping on the ground in his dimly lit bedroom. The twingy sound of a guitar echoed throughout his room as he softly sang along. He shivered and pushed up the sleeves of his hoodie and scratched out some words on a notepad. A song meant for her. He grinned as he started to sing again, this time strumming harder and louder. As he finished, he looked at the paper, admiring his work. He looked again and his face contorted as he realized that it wasn’t good enough. He ran into the bathroom to wash his face. The baby blue walls were the same color as his eyes. He heard his mom yell his name and rushed downstairs grabbing his backpack off of the chair. He ran out excitedly and fist bumped Connor who was waiting outside. He had freckles and the goofiest smile he had ever seen. They grinned happily at each other as they started to walk towards school, the sound of their laughter trailing behind them. 

He walk into Ms. Vance’s Chem classroom the smell of metal filled his nose. There were beakers  and hot plates set up on the lab tables. The room was not very big and only fit about 20 students. His scarf brushing against the frame of the door. He sat down near the back. Suddenly he felt her cold arms wrapped around his chest. His face flushed as he looked away greeting her quietly. She sat next to him and took out her binder. Her hair fell lightly onto the desk when she grabbed her pencil. Ms. Vance rambled on and on but it was all background noise to him. Everything was background noise to him when she was around. Her hazel eyes and her flowing eyelashes were the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. She glanced at him and he quickly looked away, his heart racing. He couldn’t look at her again. 

The bell rang and he quickly said goodbye as he rushed out to meet Connor. Connor wrapped his arm around Otis’s neck and dragged him away talking about what he wanted for lunch. Otis sighed, he never felt so glad about Connor’s aggressive antics. Connor stopped and looked Otis dead in the eyes. “Wait did you send it to her it’s actually so good.” Otis shook his head he knew it wasn’t, it never would be.  “You really should it will work I swear” Connor told him excitedly. Otis snapped back, “No no it’s horrible and bad and I hate it, it’s not good enough.” Connor was taken aback, Otis had never snapped at him. “I was only trying to help he said.” Connor replied angrily as he walked away, “No you’re just making it worse.”  

Otis arrived at his house and ran to his bedroom. He grabbed his guitar and pulled out his notebook. He strummed the notes outlined in black ink. It sounded off. Nothing was good enough for her. He tweaked different words over and over again. ”Burning?, warm?, passionate?,” even the words started to seem wrong. He scribbled over his work and tore it into pieces, throwing it on the ground. He grabbed his head. 

It’s not good enough.

It needs to be perfect.

I’m not good enough.

He stood up to take a break, gently placing his guitar back into its stand. He quickly ran outside to take a walk and put his headphones in. He needed inspiration. His words weren’t carrying the feelings He wanted them to. He kept walking until he reached the cafe. He ordered a cheese croissant and took a deep breath. The smell of freshly baked bread soothed his senses. He sat down in the corner with his croissant. Suddenly, he realized how quiet the cafe was. Connor was always there talking to him, his non existent presence haunted him like a ghost. He realized that he had fucked up. Big time. He had been so obsessed with this girl he had forgotten who was important to him.

He knocked on the door. Connor opened it, saw him and shut the door. “No wait I need to talk to you, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have gotten mad at you. You were just trying to help.” Connor slowly reopened the door and looked down shifting his feet a little. “I’m sorry too, I was being kinda pushy.” They smiled at each other and high fived. 

“You should send it,” Connor told him. He nodded his head and stopped for a second, he wanted to make it messy, super messy. They ran into Connor’s bedroom took out his notebook and scribbled all over the page. They started singing whatever came to their mind and compiled it. He loved it, he had finally made something that he was proud of. He didn’t care anymore about what she would think about it, it was finally good enough for him.

Geometric Light Cover

In this project, we learned the basics of Illustrator and used them to create a light cover. We were given a template and were asked to alter and add a design to them. The designs were then taken and cut out of two different colors of dual plastic. I titles my piece “Frogs on Mushrooms” We made each piece a symbol so we could edit all of them at once.

Artist Statement

The title for my Geometric Light Cover is Frogs on Mushrooms. I came up with this idea because my friend drew me a picture that said “frogs for idiot rights.” I thought that was very cute so I used it as inspiration for one of the sides of my cover. I also turned it into a sticker which can be seen on my laptop. I used mushrooms for the other cover because I was feeling a little gloomy and I associate mushrooms with gloominess. I choose green and blue for my light cover because they represented my mood at that time. I valued learning how to use Illustrator the most when creating this project. I heard that design students mainly used Illustrator so I was pretty curious on how it worked. Many of Adobe’s software have complex features, and take years to learn. I was really inspired when I saw all of the examples of illustrations made on Illustrator, and I also learned that using Illustrator took much more work then Photoshop. I am very grateful for being given the opportunity to learn such professional equipment.

This was my first light cover design of an outlined frog. It was cut out on a green piece of plastic and had leaves for its attachments.
This was the second design for my light cover which was colored navy blue and mushroom based. I made the attachments have holes in them to replicate the design of a spotted mushroom.
This was the final product after I put all the plastic together.

Illustrator Design Patch

For this project we took the knowlege we learned making the Geometric Light Covers and used it to make an item of our choice. I chose to make a patch that I titles the “Vengeful Goose”.

Artist Statement

The message of my patch is based off of an inside joke between my friends and I. One of my friends told me she was scared of geese because one attacked her. After I thought about it for a while, I realized how fearless and angry geese tended to be. They were all very willing to attack humans and often chase after people. I created this goose patch to try and show the aggressive antics of a goose.

I valued the Illustrator Project because I got to make something physical that I could hold. All of our products are mostly made for a screen, so when we were given the choices to make physical objects like stickers, t-shirts, patches, and more, I was super excited. I also really appreciate the opportunity to use Illustrator for more projects. It’s a little harder to use compared to Photoshop, which makes the final product a little more worth it.

This is the patch design that I used Illustrator to make
We used a stitching software to program the sewing machine to make certain lines and fill in certain areas.
This was the final product of the patch progress

Mood Scene Set Pieces

For this project we were given a feeling we wanted to portray. We chose to portray the feeling of love with a set piece based off of Paris. We painted and cut out a background using foam. We spent the majority of our time painting the sunset in the background. I wish we had spent more time making a bridge and had made it flat instead so we could make our character walk across our bridge.

This is the final set piece with lights.

Mood Scene Animation

In this project we used the set piece and doll we made to create an animation that portrayed our emotion that we chose. We were also tasked to make a walk cycle animation. I made a new chicken character for my animation walk cycle instead of using my character. I accidentally messed up the animation so one leg teleports after each step. I used the lighting to give my animation a more eerie vibe.

Character Bio

For this project we were tasked to make any character we wanted. I decided to make a character based off of the main character of My Immortal named Ebony. The picture on the left were initial concept sketches of the character and the doll on the left was the final 3D version I made of her.

Visual Narrative Animation

In this project we were put in groups of 3 and were asked to make a 30 second to 1 minute long animation that showed a story. Our animation Daemonium was created to represent someone fighting against their fears. I was tasked with making all of the backgrounds for the animation.