For the narrative unit, we did work in English, digital media, and our elective, in my case animation. In English, we created a lyrical essay. In digital media, we created multi-layer art in Adobe Illustrator. Finally, in animation we worked on a group narrative piece.
Digital Media
For digital media, I created a multilayer art project in Illustrator. There was a variety of projects to choose from, and my partner and I chose ours to be a lightbox. We originally wanted to do an underwater scene, but ended up changing it to a desert scene.
We began by looking for inspiration online. I really like drawing bugs so I decided to incorporate a beetle. We gathered some reference images and began sketching. The finished piece actually looked very similar to the sketches, so there were not many iterations of this project. I guess we got lucky in that aspect, that everything worked out.
Animation
In animation we worked on a group project. My group chose to make a short animation about a baker. After figuring out the plot, we moved on to storyboarding, then moved into modeling characters and other assets. I modeled some pastries and breads for the bakery, as well as the main cake.
English
In English, we wrote lyrical essays, which are a type of unconventional essay. They may include elements of poetry and other types of literature. I chose plastic as my topic as I think it is quite relevant to all of us and I find it interesting.
Below is an excerpt from my essay.
“We are never more than a couple feet away from plastic of some kind. Hard plastic makes up our devices, our chairs, tables, nearly every object we use, and softer, more flexible plastics are used as bags, book covers, or even in our clothing. It has permeated every aspect of our lives, like some kind of insidious virus. Maybe plastic is the real pandemic.
It’s innocuous enough, and, of course, quite handy. There’s almost nothing plastic can’t be used for. It’s in everything, from containers we eat out of, to the car parts that transport us, to book covers. If you can think of something, it can be made from plastic. Sadly enough, there’s a 79% chance that any piece of plastic that passes through your hands is going to end up in the landfill or the ocean. Perhaps in the stomach of some poor unsuspecting animal, or maybe it’ll join the 269,000 tonnes of plastic floating on the surface of our oceans.
Weird, though, it’s returning from whence it came in a way.”