Introduction
The Senior Narrative unit was not merely a repetition of our junior narrative unit. With a research essay in English, a full length 3D narrative in Animation, and photoshop + After Effects in Digital Media, we had a lot to do and explore. I really enjoyed the chance to create and play, while drawing on important references in the real world. It allows us to appreciate the world the way it is, and imagine the way it could be.
Digital Media
Funny Images
In digital media, we worked on our photoshop skills by combining images into funny compositions. For this project I chose to use images of my brother, since they are intrinsically funny.
Here you can see how I blended a photo of my brother into the background image in photoshop.
Image # 1 see if you can spot all the easter eggs 🙂
Image #2 Feat. Cliffy (my aunt’s dog)
Motion Graphics
For this project we worked in After Affects to make a video using effects we had learned. We leaned how to animate lines. I used this video as an opportunity to put together photos I had taken in the car, while very bored during the 6 hour drive to LA.
Oh boy… It took many layers and keyframes to animate all the wavy lines in this video. Hope you enjoy the final result!
Multi-Layered Art Project
Our Multi Layered art project was designed in Illustrator and printed on Mr. Flo’s laser printer. We could make stacked wood art, a ring or a light box. The design of this layered art, was to be inspired by our world-building project in english.
I chose to make a light box depicting my character, Ruby overlooking our futuristic city. I sketched out vaguely what I wanted on each layer.
Afterward, I put my sketches into illustrator and begun to trace over them.
Once the design was complete, I sent the file to Mr. Flo and he cut it out with his laser printer!
Then I put it all together, and added the lights to the back.
English
Reaserch Essay
Surreal Composition: Highway Falls
For this project, we had to once again put our photobashing skills to use, but this time with a more serious goal in mind. We were instructed to create a “surreal composition” inspired by the work of painters like Salvador Dali, and to tie in themes from our research essay.
I am currently doing my world-building reaserch essay about construction of infrastructure. I am arguing that faster construction approval is good, despite the dangers of district segregation during such projects like during FDR‘s “new deal“. I plan to emphasis the importance of maintaining public infrastructure like roads by creating a world where cities are crumbling. A world where construction is primarily handled by private companies, therefore only serving the wealthy. I demonstrated that through this composition with a crumbling highway bridge, with a waterfall pole.
Animation
For the narrative unit in animation we continued our way down the 3D animation pipeline, finishing up our characters and beginning to animate them. Once our characters were complete, we split into groups and invented stories for all of our characters to act out together. This was our Senior Narrative animation, and it forced us to be creative through limits.
Table
Prop
Character Bio
Now that our characters were modeled and sculpted, we added layers of color on top (called textures, which is not confusing at all) then we rigged the characters with a software generated skeleton, so that they could move in a human-like way.
Animated Walk/Run
Once our characters were rigged, we learned how to animate!
Senior Narrative Animation
Our senior narrative was a series of compromises. We could not easily create new characters, and we had to choose fairly simple objects for our background and props. Therefore we settled on a story that takes place in a grassy field, where a kind potato is delivering flowers…