Narrative 1

Throughout this Narrative unit, I was able to learn and improve my communication skills in storytelling visually thanks to Freestyle Academy. Not only was I able to deepen this skill, but I had the opportunity to tell a story through my writing, audio, and visuals. We were presented with the question of…

“How well can you visually tell a structured story?”

During our English class, we focused on writing a short story with minimal dialogue to use literary devices such as imagery and symbolism with a moral lesson behind it. For the first week, we studied the work of various writers and understood the importance of literary tools to tell a great brief story. Soon we started to design our characters and plan the structure of our story, for my flash fiction, I was inspired by the puppets we made in animation.

My character, Beddo, is a creature who resembles a mushroom and loves exploring gardens. Similar to how he was made in my animation class, I wanted to portray the gullible and naive creature he is. Due to his love of traveling and being around others, he is blinded to his own capabilities which leads him to be so dependent on others. The setting takes place in a forest that Beddo is unfamiliar with, unlike his ‘friends’. I placed him in a state where he was more vulnerable, which is being in a forest where he would need help getting around, it makes Beddo rely more on others to the point where he can realize the impact. The conflict becomes more complicated when Beddo is forced to overcome a challenge on his own which is him trying to get out of a hole he tripped into. At the climax, Beddo’s friends find him but start to argue and mock him for his clumsy mistake. While his ‘friends’ continue to fight, he decides to crawl his way out, accepting that he has been too dependent, and decides to change that. Throughout the making of this short flash fiction story, the lesson I wanted to share is the importance of being independent since we will encounter many challenges through life that we must face alone.

<– The process of my initial story plot!

Beddo Finds Himself

After going along the same path of every neighbor’s garden for the 4957th time, Beddo decided to take a new path. This time, to the forest where his friends would be waiting. He began his journey through the towering green trees, making sure his bowtie was on right. With his pale hands, he grabbed his bright red bowtie, shook it a little, and gave it a tug. Satisfied, Beddo picked up his maroon-colored bag as it was right next to his stubby pale legs. His bag across his body now, he began to walk the curvy trail. 

At some point, the trail disappears, only giant bushy trees clustered around where it should have been. Crunchy leaves made such a sound every time Beddo took a step. He was no human, he had arms and legs like one, yet he was a creature who resembled a mushroom. With a height of about a foot tall, he was a bit on the chubby side. His reddish cap and gills are like a mushroom. After a long hour, Beddo was tired. He swiped the small drops of sweat off his forehead as he moved his head towards the sun. The sun, big and bright, was now right above him, a good thing he had his wide red hat to save him from the merciless heat. After catching his breath he began to look at each of the trees surrounding him, looking for a mark that would say he had arrived at his friends. Yet, no sign of the mark, no sign of a pair of beige-colored owls along the thin branches. No sign of a mole with black round glasses roaming underground waiting to pop out and no sign of a coyote with great big ears and a nose that could smell more than a mile away. Those were Beddo’s ‘friends’. A young coyote named Pete with dark black fur as black as coal. Pete was known for having a fierce personality, with a low strong raspy voice, many actually feared him but Beddo never understood why that was. The identical barn owl twins, one named Ti and the other named To are inseparable as they would always stay high above the ground through the crowded leaves. As for that, they were always lurking to find something to say, finishing each other’s sentences, never knowing when was the right time to hoot their opinions, Beddo had a hard time decoding what both Ti and To chatter. Mr.Skracz, the old mole, the oldest of Beddo’s friends, had such awful eyesight, he wore thick black rounded glasses everywhere, he had to! To think an animal living for quite a while could have great knowledge to give, yet he was a thief. Spending the majority of his life underground gave him such a large advantage to escape in times of doubt and chaos. 

With much disappointment and no clue where his friends must have been, he has always traveled and for the first time, he-Thunk! In a hole. Somehow he had missed the gaping void in the ground and stumbled his clumsy self right into it. He hugged his knees close to him, as he looked up the gap above, his eyes filled with tears. They kept rolling down his cheeks with every blink he took, attempting to say  “Peter?… Ti, To, where are you? Mr. Skrac-” his voice cracked, feeling the pain of his throat closing, he tries to continue “…can you hear me?” “ I really don’t like this, I… I tried to follow -” panic begins to rise inside of him. Would anyone find him? More tears streamed down his face as he buried his head in his knees. 

It felt like hours passed before he finally heard a noise. It sounded like…voices! The sight of relief he had on his face, using his both chubby-peached colored hands to swipe the tears off as he quickly tried to stand up. Screaming and shouting to watch out for the wide and camouflaged hole that had gotten him into this mess. Now he hears footsteps, the sound of the dry leaves, he smiles to see Pete at the edge. On the other hand, Pete’s face doesn’t light up like Beddo’s, instead, he grins. Poor Beddo, he didn’t understand that Pete was mocking the idea of such a mistake he had made, of such clumsiness of him. Opening his snout his raspy voice lets out, “Well…what did I expect” he sighs, not a worried or relieved one, more like a bothered one. Unexpectedly, he chuckles and raises his voice for everyone to hear, “So, I guess we can’t leave him here… can we?” Pete bursts out laughing, so does Ti, and then To, Beddo finds himself confused at what would happen if they left him there alone. Ti and To still laughing hysterically, Pete stops laughing looking at both of them to stop too. Once they notice, they start spitting out ideas of their own to pull Beddo back up. Pete shakes his head with disapproval, he has ideas of his own, walking towa- Bonk! Something had just hit the jaw of Pete, angry he looks down at who the culprit must have been, it was Mr. Skracz. Beddo still alone down the void, notices that Mr.S tries to talk down his own plans after his vague apology to Peter. 

Beddo sighed in exasperation as his friends, who were supposed to be helping him, argued somewhere above him about the best way to get him out. The clashing of his friends’ voices faded slowly to where it seemed like it was only him once again… He goes deep into his thoughts, remembering his past adventures as those were his only way to comfort himself. He goes back to the moments when he was with his friends and not stuck inside the terrifying hole. To the moment he once got stuck under a log, another when he almost drowned in a puddle full of dark brown mud, or when he couldn’t clim- …something clicks in the wide red head of his. Realization comes to his surprise, Beddo experiences a loss of words, pushing his heavy body away from the surface to stand up. As the ‘friends’ continue to share their opinions, voices get louder as one tries to shut the other up. Too distracted by their, ideas, and opinions, bathing themselves in their own egos to even notice whether Beddo was still ok. He felt a new feeling rise inside him, determined to get out of there since no one was going to do so, he turns his bag away to make room. Placing his right foot on a few unstable rocks sticking out from the rich brown soil, his leg starts waddling, he immediately grips onto another rock with his left hand this time. The left leg now leaving the surface, slowly pushing himself upwards as his right-hand stretch as far as it can to hold on to something, anything. Trying to take another step up, the poor body of his starts shaking to where his fingers start slipping through the texture of the rock he tried to hold on to. Thud! He falls, his back aching in pain, attempting to get up again he places his feet on the same rocks he did before. This time tightening his grip on the roots of the trees to lift himself up again. The grip loosens up and he feels the roots slipping his hands, with all his might he tries his best to hold on as though the roots rip through his skin. Finally, Beddo’s head pops out of the gap and slams his left hand out to push himself out. Clawing his nails deep through the rich soil, he slams his right hand doing the same. His upper body gaining strength to pull himself out, he adds momentum to swing his right leg off the dark void. Finally crawling his way out, he balances his heavy body to stand up as he slowly catches his breath. 

  In shame, he looks at them, still arguing and not even taking a single peek to see if Beddo was ok or not. As he was not far away from his ‘friends’ or what they used to be, he looks down at himself all dirty and covered with scratches smelling like fresh soil, his face determined to continue his way- alone…like he realized he could. “Such fools”, he whispered to himself as Beddo slowly vanished throughout the mesmerizing depths of the clustered trees. 

Exquisite Corpse Group Project

A new application we learned in this unit was Adobe Illustrator, it’s quite a great application to create vector graphics. For this particular project, I had the amazing opportunity to collaborate with three of my Freestyle peers who I met this year. I was able to make an exquisite corpse, which is an approach by which a collection of images is collectively arranged. Each collaborator adds their contributions either by following a set sequence or by following their own ideas. Each of us selected an artboard to design our illustration, even though we could have chosen to create random graphics, we chose a theme that would tie our illustrations together and hopefully make them flow more smoothly. Our theme was water, earth, air, and fire, which are the basic elements of nature.

Image of the Exquisite Corpse final form

Illustration Project Choice

Just like the title, for this project, everyone had the freedom to make an illustration of their choice using Adobe Illustrator and the equipment of their liking. There was a wide range of options such as Candle Shades, Personal Illustrations, Embroidery Patches, Clothing Art, Stickers, Night Lightz, and Glassware Art.

For this Illustration Project, I decided to make a lampshade because I thought it would be a perfect gift for my younger siblings. Being the oldest, it’s my job to be the best role model for my siblings, so sometimes I can be hard on them because I don’t want them to repeat my mistakes. Additionally, I’m aware that I can be very busy at times, so it may seem as though I am not interested in their interests. For this reason, I designed a candle shade with some things and characters they love. By doing this, I hope to show them that I am actually listening to what they enjoy. My brother has a huge obsession with dinosaurs and my sister is always drawing her favorite character, Sonic the Hedgehog. Both of their names are included along with a few small details that make this candle shade more personal. I enjoyed the whole process of creating something to share with my loved ones, and this was probably one of my favorite projects from Freestyle Academy.

Sketch of my first candle shade draft.

A digital form of my Moroccan candle shade

The process of my Moroccan Candle Shade in Adobe Photoshop!

A photo of my final Illustrator Project Choice

With the help of previous projects in Pro Tools, it was finally time to make a parody song with two of my closest friends at Freestyle Academy! We got together outside of class to write new lyrics to a famous song we all must know: “Last Friday Night” by Katy Perry herself. I’m most proud of getting the opportunity to work with people I have met and become comfortable with. I’m surprised that I made lasting memories of trying to put this fun parody song together with friends, which I’ll look back on fondly. The topic that we chose to write is based on an emotion all of us have experienced during school… stress.

~Listen to Parody Song~

Lyrics:

Verse 1: 

So I get up out of bed

There’s assignments in my head

Papers all over the room

And now I gotta get to school

Verse 2:

I smell like a locker room

If there’s a test today I’m screwed/doomed

Racing to the bathroom

This a pimple?- wait it’s 8:42

Verse 3: 

Looking on Quizlet for the answer- shit 

I’m screwed, oh, well

It’s a blacked-out blur, but I’m pretty sure it’s cool

Damn

Chorus: 

Last Monday night yea I 

Yea I broke some pencil tops 

And I wish the work would stop 

Think I passed out but I forgot 

Last Monday night 

Got kicked out of Starbucks 

spilled a drink Just my luck

So I went home and hit the books 

Last Monday night 

I went to study in the park

Staying up till after dark 

Then had a protein bar 

Last Monday night 

Yea I think I broke my back 

Wish I didn’t  carry that backpack o wooaooo 

Next Monday night do it all again 

And this Friday night I am sleeping in 

Learning how to edit, mix, and incorporate audio was such a cool experience because I had never taken a course like this before. What I enjoyed about this project was putting together this song using the knowledge we were given. It doesn’t compare to any previous classes, so I’m very appreciative of this project.

The process of editing the parody song in Pro Tools

In our animation class, we used a variety of materials to create our own puppets. Before doing some gluing and sewing, we designed our character, the color palette, and any accessories to make our creations more unique. Since I was obsessed with mushrooms at the time, especially the Amanita Muscaria, I was inspired to make my character best portray a bright red mushroom with white spots. I also wanted to make my puppet more unique by creating a back story and including accessories that best suit his personality. To my surprise, I used Beddo as the protagonist for my flash fiction in my English class. I ended up making a nice crossbody bag and a nice bowtie, both made out of red material since that was the color theme I was going for. Even though I had very little experience with sewing, thanks to some tips from my friends and family, I had an awesome time building this adorable puppet surrounded by other Animation students. It was a great time to connect more with others in the small Animation community.

Character Bio

My puppet, Beddo!

Walk Cycles

After creating our puppets, we were challenged to create a walking cycle using tools like our DSLR camera, Dragon Frame, Adobe Photoshop, and After Effects! This process had three main parts, the first part was done with our puppets, the second one was done in Photoshop, and the last one was a combination of both.

In the making of this animation, we used a large green paper for the green screen and used a table with screws to tighten our puppets in place. Using a tripod, we placed our DSLR Camera and captured every position of our characters while it transferred to Dragon Frame.

To create this digital animation, I used the timeline feature in Adobe Photoshop. Using the Wacom tablet to draw the different positions of my puppet for each frame. Soon I added some colors and other final touches to my character and I was able to export it.

This final animation took the longest since we combined our previous animations into one. What I loved about this is that we used After Effects where we were able to add a nice background and music to tie it all together. I decide to use an image of a forest as the background and a sweet song as I believe it best suit my puppet.

Lip Sync Animation

For this animation project, we were assigned to make a lip sync animation but we first had to create the basic mouth movements, the vowels: “A E I O U”. In Photoshop, I created a simple character from outer space because I thought it went better with the audio that I picked. I added a few things to the background like a nice table and items that best matched my character’s situation. Though it looks like a simple animation, the process in After Effects was very tideous since I had to add multiple mouth movements every three seconds. Overall, I was glad to do this animation because it was such an amazing way to familiarize myself with mouth movements that we would soon utilize in future projects.

Visual Narrative Animation

We were divided into teams for our final project and asked to create a collaborative animation. Despite the fact that we all had distinct initial ideas for our project, we eventually landed on the concept of four people in a train, each listening to music from their own world. Although I am not entirely satisfied with the final product, I am pleased that the majority of our team members were able to perform their allocated tasks. If I could get a chance to change something about this project, I would have preferred to connect our ideas better for a better flow.