Animation
Shortly before beginning this unit, everyone at Freestyle was summoned to the film room, to watch the senior Zenith projects. These were incredible inspiring capstone projects that the seniors had spent the majority of second semester working on. One particular animation project that inspired me was done by Rye and Sofia. It was an animated intro for some characters they had created and it was BEAUTIFUL. When they explained their process, it seemed so perfectly collaborative. When it was time for explorations, I grabbed my bestie Kajsa, and said: “We have to do that!”
Mr. Cho was a bit reluctant to let Juniors collaborate on the Explorations project, because there was no precedent. But after I argued that we had so little time to complete this (just over 2 weeks), two people could get the job done faster.
I am so glad we teamed up for this project, and I think we both learned a ton just from working with each other. I chose Collaboration and clean up as my topics to explore.
Character Designs
We started off with character designs, opting to create new characters so they would fit together. Operating on a grungy, modern day city aesthetic. The character on the left is Duncan(Donut), on the right is Victor. Duncan is a slacker college student and Victor works for the Mafia.
Story Board
We made these Story Boards together, talking through the story.
Composition
We chose the song: “Take a Walk” for the background.
One thing both me and Kajsa wanted to try out, was to create the illusion of camera movement, by having the background, middle ground, and foreground elements move separately. It was surprisingly easy to do, and created a cool affect.
Final Product
Reflection
What I learned in the areas I wanted to explore:
COLLABORATION: I learned to trust and depend on my teammate, and to be transparent (share stuff, check in)
Clean up: be more careful and DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME!! Rather than going back and cleaning up
Mistakes I wont make again:
X out of the photoshop file while it’s still saving on the desktop in the animation room :(((( A whole scene I made got deleted.
Digital Media (song)
For explorations in digital media we had to record a song and (again) I decided to team up with some friends to lighten the load. After much brainstorming, Ash, Stella and I decided to do a cover of Beggin’ by Maneskin.
First we divided up the lyrics between me and Ash, who were going to sing. Stella, practiced her guitar cover of the song.
After splicing the clips of Stella, Ash, and I on our various instruments; we had something that sounded pretty amazing.
Taking inspiration from the Maneskin “Chosen” album cover (chosen is the album Beggin’ appears in) I whipped up a quick album cover of our own. My teammates were very tolerant of me taking candid shots of them, and then mutilating them beyond recognition in Photoshop. Thanks guys! Also, I’m sorry.
Finished song: Cover of Beggin’ by Maneskin
Despite the fact that this project was so close to the end of the year, and we were all kinda ready for summer, I had a lot of fun. I sang Beggin’ by Maneskin with my friends Stella and Ash. I learned to play a snare drum in 2 minutes. I learned I can do a decent “punk rock Italian man” voice. I didn’t know much about this band before, and after listening to Beggin’ I listened to a few of their other songs, and learned that despite their Slavic name, they are an Italian band. I have been trying to learn Italian, so this discovery was very exciting because I now had a new way to practice! I really enjoy the way Maneskin’s music style harkens back to an older age, adding a modern flair. I love older music, so I hope to honor them Maneskin style in any future music projects.
English (Lyrical Essay)
I did my lyrical essay around the question: “what art movement are we in today”
