Narrative 1

Introduction

Introduce Visual Narrative Project

What I valued from the Visual Narrative Project in all my classes and how I improved as a storyteller and digital artist (visual and audio)

Story

Explain what the assignment was in English and what my inspiration was for my story

Introduce audio story production and how I produced it

What did I value from the writing to the audio version of my short story?

Lammie

The sun was bright that day. Light glistened atop thick patches of vibrant green grass as it rustled in the warm breeze, wildflowers peppering the ground. On one side of the grassland, massive trees climbed toward the sky as far as the eye could see. On the other, small stone houses dotted the horizon, sitting atop the flat apex of a large hill. The two sides sat parallel from one another, separated by a vast grassy meadow. Kauri squinted their eyes, straining to spot the hunters through the forest. Their long, fuzzy ears twitched as the men’s footsteps grew louder and louder, grass crunching under their feet. They were getting close now; Kauri could smell it. They tied their mask into place and squatted behind the brush, careful to remain out of sight. Dappled light shone through the trees, illuminating the angular form of a human face carved from deep brown wood, the eyes completely solid save for mere pinholes to conceal Kauri’s rectangular pupils. The mask boasted two large ram horns attached at the forehead that curved around Kauri’s ears in an elegant arc. 

Crunch. The hunters clumsily made their way deeper and deeper into the forest. Kauri’s breath quickened as the mask pressed up against their mouth, lifting it slightly to allow for fresh air to seep underneath. Closer, just a bit closer…

CRACK. The sound rang through the air as a hunter’s bow went flying, snapped in two. As he looked around in bewilderment, Kauri’s hooved foot swept under his leg, sending him flying backwards. The others hastily scanned their surroundings, looking down just in time to see their bows had been snatched from their hands before a whirlwind of quick and deliberate jabs to their necks sent them collapsing onto the ground one after another, unconscious.

Kauri took only a moment to breathe before grabbing the men by their shirt collars and hauling them out of the forest. Their chest heaved as they dragged the men across the ground, their light rosey-brown dress scraping along the rocks and sticks blanketing the forest floor. With one final shove, they cast the unconscious men back into the grassy valley, leaving them to return to their village empty-handed as all hunters that crossed Kauri’s home did. With their work finally over, Kauri hastily took off their mask, gasping for air. Their eyes slowly adjusted to the brightness outside, the sun shining like a beacon through the forest canopy. They’d have to take Eden out to enjoy this beautiful day.

“Did you win, Lammie?”

Kauri whirled around, locking their gaze on the small child that had crept up behind them. Eden had never learned Kauri’s real name. When they first found her wandering through the forest, Kauri’s half-lamb appearance had only startled the girl for a moment before she excitedly blurted out the name and flung herself into Kauri’s fuzzy arms. Lacking human vocal cords, they couldn’t correct her—not that they’d have the heart to, anyways.

Kauri gave her a stern look that said what are you doing here? Eden should have known better than to wander out by herself.

“I was hoping…I could help this time,” the little girl said sheepishly, “but I guess you already beat them.” Eden knew very well of Kauri’s hunter-sabotage efforts, not only from Kauri themself, but from the other villagers before she ran away. Tales of some wild creature attacking hunters in the forest ran rampant through the village, but few took the spooked men seriously. Still, hunters continued to return home bruised and empty-handed, with stories of encountering a masked attacker that they could’ve sworn had hooves…

Kauri shook their head. As Eden’s guardian, they had taught her how to thrive in the forest, but that did not include fighting the enemies that wandered inside. That was Kauri’s job, and Kauri’s job only.

“I know I’m too little, but I just thought…”

Snap.

Kauri’s body tensed. What was that?

Crunch.

Their eyes widened. Rushing to put on their mask, they flung out their arm, sharply pointing in the direction of their home as they stared at Eden with a desperate urgency. Run.

Turning toward the source of the noise, Kauri watched in horror as another hunter flung himself out of the darkness of the forest, holding a long, shiny weapon they had never seen before.

BANG!

It happened in an instant. A small hole, barely the size of a blueberry, appeared in the tree directly behind Kauri. Suddenly, they felt a burning sensation spread across their left thigh. Scanning the area around his target, the hunter’s expression quickly shifted to one of horror. He immediately turned his back and fled, flailing his limbs about as he tripped over himself running. Mystified, Kauri turned around to see what sight had driven the hunter away…

Wait.

Wait.

No.

No.

NO.

Eden hadn’t run. Instead, she had stood where she felt safest. Right behind her Lammie.

Kauri laid the girl onto a soft patch of grass and desperately scanned her bloodied shoulder for the wound, straining their eyes to see through the dark brown haze.

RRRIP.

They tore off their mask, tossing it to the side before hastily pulling off strips of their dress to wrap tightly around the injury. Eden’s breathing steadied, and Kauri hoisted her into their arms before carrying her off deep into the forest. Deeper, and deeper, until no one would ever be able to find them again.

And so, the hunters returned in swaths, no longer hindered by the mysterious hooved creature they all so feared. As group after group returned home bursting with game, Kauri gradually became nothing more than a myth. But no matter how many came and went, none of them noticed the mask on the ground that had been left to rot.

Add screenshot of album art illustrator file + caption

Artist Statement

During this project, I feel that I vastly improved my ability to pair sound effects with audio, and strengthened by skills in using Pro Tools as an audio editing tool. By spending so much time searching for just the right sounds and carefully integrating them into my story, I have built a significant amount of confidence in my capabilities to use sound effects to strengthen my audio storytelling. Through this experience, I confirmed that I am an extremely detail-oriented person who will go to great lengths to achieve even a slightly higher level of quality in my work. I also learned that I struggle a lot with the tedious nature of audio editing.

I struggled a lot throughout this project with voice recording and adding sound effects to my story. Due to the fact that properly enunciating my words is a frequent challenge for me, the process of recording my audio for this project was extremely lengthy and frustrating. I would often have to re-record the same line at least three times to get a take in which I didn’t trip over my words or run out of breath. I tried my best to combat this by taking deep breaths, drinking plenty of water, and practicing lines slowly and carefully before hitting record. In addition, adding sound effects to my story was by far the most time-consuming and exhausting part of this project. I was determined to get each sound just right, and would painstakingly search through the sound effects catalogue for what I had in mind. To make this process a bit easier on myself, I would search for the sound effect I needed on YouTube (royalty-free, of course) to more directly find the type of sound I was looking for.

I would change the distribution of sound effects throughout the story, particularly around the middle. This is because I have plenty of sound effects at the beginning and end of my story, but they are far more sparse around the middle. I would add several sound effects around that middle section to make the overall distribution of sound effects more consistent.

I am most proud of my use of music to build the tone of my story, especially toward the end where the music cuts off at the most tense part, then resumes during the conclusion. I love the feeling that the end of the music leaves you with as the story concludes. I’m also very proud of the effort I put into the sound effects, and I love how they turned out.

I will use my newfound experience in sound effects layering to enhance any audio productions I create in the future. Whether it be a podcast, an audio project for another class, or even a video with a strong audio element, I will have confidence that I can strengthen the project and add a new layer of emphasis and immersion to my work through sound effects.

This project gave me an immense amount of appreciation for all complex audio productions. Now that I know just how time consuming it is to simply edit together audio tracks, not to mention add music and sound effects, I have a much more informed understanding of the level of work and dedication that goes into the audio productions of others. I highly value this craft and those who put so much effort into it.

Illustrations

Introduce custom illustrations (section banners and other graphics I may have created)

Introduce Illustrator Project

Add quote block with artist statement for illustrator project

Write 1-2 paragraph reflection about being creative specifically with Illustrator vs Photoshop or any other digital drawing application

Music

Introduce Experimental Music Project, provide background context

What was my process in producing my experimental music in Pro Tools?

Artist Statement

My inspiration for my song largely came from “God Race” by Metaroom. I really loved the sense of surrealness that song had, and found that I wanted to create my music in a similar fashion. My aim was to produce a dramatic, yet light and airy sound. I also took inspiration from how “God Race” focused on one melody, then added layers to that melody to give the song depth. This was my main motivation for structuring my song the way I did. I am most proud of the piano melodies I created; I feel that they go nicely together and produce pleasing transitions between each segment of the song. I also really like the layering of the Vacuum and Boom Drums in the second segment of the song (approximately bars 10-18). I really value learning how to use virtual instruments for music production because it opens so many doors for me to be able to dabble in this craft without having access to many instruments or a large studio at home. If I need to produce a song for any purpose, I can do so purely with the tools accessible on my computer, no matter where I am or what sound I need to create.