Conceptual

This project challenges students to think outside the box; to use their skills and creativity to create a piece of media. Students begin creating their own pieces by learning various professional equipment and software, and using their newly acquired knowledge to let their creativity run wild.

For me, this is pretty much a summary of my experience in the first-quarter of freestyle. I learned how to use professional equipment to create projects such as the Parody Song and Art Reflection video. Not only can the equipment Freestyle provide can be a great way to learn how to create art, it could also be beneficial in the long term. Some companies are seeking those who have knowledge of professional equipment, so it is also beneficial for careers.

aRT rEFLECTION

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9BcHJzGT7o

This is a painting called “Seascape with Star” by Forrest Bess. My interpretation of the painting was a person on Mars watching a star from the void. The quote from the video comes from one of my written interpretations of the painting.

Parody Song

This is my parody song, it took roughly around a week to finish it. Firstly, I picked my song of choice, which was “My Iron Lung” by Radiohead. I picked this song in particular for various reasons, but mostly because it was a slower song that would be easy to make a parody version of. I recorded my lyrics by playing the actual song through my headphones and singing my verse to the same melody. It wasn’t conventional, but it worked. Lastly, I combined my recorded verse and a Karaoke version of the actual song.

Parody Lyrics

(I want my baby back ribs)
Chili’s, your driving me insane,
My desire is to blame,
You don’t know it,
Its hard to dwell,

My intestine’s in a twisted state,
A rib-shaped ache,
Can’t you see it?
I need those ribs

My parody song was a combination of “My Iron Lung” by Radiohead and the Chili’s Baby Back ribs jingle. My Iron song was a symbolism of confinement and alienation, so I decided to make a silly depiction of a person being confined to his desire of wanting a baby back rib from Chili’s. My inspiration came from Neil Cicirega’s song “Ribs,” which is a mashup of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears, “The Beautiful People” by Marilyn Manson, and the Chili’s Baby Back Ribs jingle. The song is a parody, being a twist on a somber melody. I chose “My Iron Lung” as my parody song because I thought it would be entertaining to satirize a song about the soullessness of modern commercialism and in the context of the desperation of cravings. Overall, I’m happy with how my parody song turned out and felt it was good as is.

This project was a good opportunity for me to learn programs like Adobe Audition and help me refresh my skills after years away from it. It served as a great introduction to using these tools to edit audio in a professional context, allowing to use these programs in a more productive and efficient way (Even if the project wasn’t trying to be serious whatsoever). One key I developed through this project was the ability to manage audio issues such as quiet vocals and clipping. I didn’t have too many issues in my piece during the production, but the project did help me identify problems like the two stated above. Overall, the project was a good refresher course and gave me the skills to create decent audio.

Overall, I am very happy with how my parody song came out. Some may say that my piece came across as too serious or I was a bit ambitious, I do understand why some may have that perspective. I used this project to test out my writing and singing skills; I was curious what I could make using the resources I was given. The song does parody Radiohead’s somber tone with something more light-hearted, so I aimed to capture their descriptive storytelling and I’m proud of what I accomplished. This project did teach me that the process of editing is not as easy as it looks, there are so many things that go into a piece. It also showed me not to be intimidated by the editing process. Once you grasp how an editing program operates and piecing something together, (whether if its a 2D or 3D animation, video, music, or audio) it becomes much more manageable. Yes, it is a time-consuming process, but you can turn out pieces more efficiently with practice and understanding how the program works.

Animation

My experience in Animation so far has been quite enjoyable. I do art as a hobby and animation was something I haven’t tried before I joined freestyle. After a few months of having animation I can say it is one of my favorite electives ever. While it takes time to finish a project, it is rewarding to create a piece of art you made. Not only did I learn a new skill, it was also a good way to practice my artist skills as students given the opportunity to strengthen them.

History of Animation

Mason Serna- 1 Page History of Animation & 12 Principles Download

For one of our first projects, students we’re tasked to write about the history of animation. Through mechanisms like the thaumatropes to 3D animation. I focused on the history of cartoon animation, since it is a widely recognizable art form and it’s one of my favorites.

Phenakistoscope Wheel

A phenakistoscope wheel is a circular paper that creates the illusion of movement when spun around. My design for the wheel was an octopus moving their tentacles, since it would look like whole image with the individual frames and be able to look like the tentacles have a motion.

(Behind the scenes on how I made the animated version of my phenakistoscope wheel)

Flipbooks

First flipbook I ever made. It took around a week and a half of work to complete 90 frames, the duration of the flipbook is around 7 seconds. I used individual images of the objects to trace over the frames whenever I wanted to move the objects in the animation itself, it kept the art-style consistent.

This is the second flipbook I made, and my second favorite piece of animation I’ve made. For the second flipbook, students we’re given two shapes to transition throughout the animation. I was given a square to start with and a kite shape to end with, so I decided to make a square-headed person flying a kite. One moment I enjoy the most in this piece is when the character blurts out “Woah dude!”, it was fun lip-syncing and it turned out pretty well! Overall, my second flipbook was enjoyable to make and I’m fairly proud of it.

pAPER Cutout stop motion

After hours of painstakingly cutting the individual pieces until they we’re just right, I give you my paper cutout stop motion animation. This piece was heavily inspired by the tv show “South Park”. I choose South Park as my theme because the art-style of that show is quite literally cutout stop motion, so I thought it would be fitting to use the show to make my animation. The making of the Eric Cartman (one of the main characters from the show) cutout was a bit tricky, most of the different layers are different pieces glued together. The background was from the show as well. There was originally more to be planned in the animation, with more characters showing up, but ran out of time to do so since the making of Eric and the backdrop took a considerable amount of time.

Object stopmotion

My object stop motion animation was a huge pain in the butt to make, and I’m happy with how it turned out all things considered. (and others seemed to be happy with it too because the video gained a sizable amount of views???) Some of the frames looked stiff or unnatural, so I had to go back and reshoot some of the frames. The camera I was using for this piece died on me right before I finished, and it caused a fair bit of problems. After reconfiguring and reattaching the camera, I had to make the shot look exactly like the shot before my camera died, it wasn’t perfect as the sudden change is noticeable around the end. Speaking of the ending, it is rough, to say the least. I had to rush the last 10 frames in order to meet the deadline, my camera dying of me took some time away from finishing it. Even after me being dramatic on the treacherous making of this piece, it was still a blast to make and I hope to do a project like this again!

BONUS

The design and description of my puppet, made using Photoshop.

Mason Serna