introduction

For our Visual Narrative project, we learned to communicate stories and develop three dimensional characters both visually and through writing. In English, we analyzed several short stories before developing our own character and writing our own story. In Digital Media, we recorded and edited an audio version of our finished story, and learned to use Illustrator to create thumbnail art for it. Finally in Animation, we worked in small groups to write, storyboard, animate, and edit a short narrative animation.

I really value the storytelling skills I gained through this project! I gained a lot of writing skills and also got better at communicating stories visually. I learned to better use Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, and Pro tools throughout this project, which will also be very helpful in the future.

story

Before writing our story for English, we did a lot of planning surrounding our characters and plot to make sure they felt realistic. We answered a character starter questionnaire that helped us plan out lots of details about our character’s background, personality, living situation, etc. that may not make it in the story but still help it feel more real. We also completed a protagonist-based plot map, where we planned out the want/need of our character, and how they would achieve (or not achieve) those things.

I had a few different sources of inspiration for my story. I wanted to make it queer, since I am queer and I want to create more queer representation. I had a lot of fun playing around with how to make writing clear while using multiple pronouns for a person. I also wanted my character (Dorian) to struggle with social anxiety. Social anxiety is something I and a lot of the people I love struggle with, and it’s something I wanted to explore and express through writing. Since this story was a flash fiction, it had to be short, and so I also chose to have Dorian write poems that were shown between sections of the story. This was one way that I was able to communicate more with fewer words.

To produce the audio version of my story, I first had to record it. This was probably the biggest struggle for me, since (as I said before) I have social anxiety. Recording myself is quite nerve-wracking, but I did somewhat enjoy it once I was able to get a little more comfortable with it. I recorded several takes of each section in my closet for less background noise/echo, and then transferred the audio to Pro Tools. I took the best parts of each take and put it together, then adding music and sound effects throughout to make it feel more immersive.

Producing the audio was definitely the most stressful part since I had to record it, but I think it was really good practice for me, and I did get a lot better with audio editing throughout it! My favorite part of this project was definitely the writing. I learned so much about storytelling, and definitely became more conscious of the structure. I learned a lot from the peer review and feedback I got from Mr. Greco as well! Revising it was definitely when I learned the most, I really value that process. And now, here is the final story below!

bookstore girl

a soft laugh, lighting up the room
curled up in the window seat,
under the glow of the sleepy sun
piles of stories, patiently waiting
for home.

     Dorian yawned, sitting at her desk, re-reading the scrap of paper as he waited for his shift to end. It felt a little silly, writing a poem about a girl he had never even talked to. And a customer, at that. She supposed it was something about the atmosphere of the place—the shelves of books, the scent of paper and ink, and the crackling of the fireplace—that had compelled him to write about her. She had looked so at home in this little bookstore, this little safe-haven that had become his workplace. It was like she didn't have a care in the world. That was a sort of thing one didn't see much anymore.

✽

she's always alone,
bookstore girl—
yet always so comfortable,
confident,
curled up in that same spot
eyes lighting up as pages turn,
making this place whole.

     It was late now, the last glimpses of sun quickly fleeting as Dorian stuck the little scrap of paper into her notebook with the previous one. She looked down at them, side by side, lost in thought. The girl had come to the store almost every day now, always picking up new books, craving a new story. He wanted so badly to ask what she was reading, to bond over the stories she was sure that he had loved as well. Or even to simply compliment her chunky sweaters and button ups and long, flowy skirts. She sighed, leaning back in the creaky desk chair and closing his eyes. Realistically, there was really nothing stopping her… so why?

✽

bookstore girl,
words stuck in my throat.
pretty smile,
water filling my lungs.
face flushed,
heart racing,
faster, faster,
until all i can do is run.

     He leaned against the step-stool, re-reading the words on another small paper he clutched. She sighed. The little thing felt heavy in her clammy hands, as if the words were weighing it down. Calm and confident bookstore girl, pretty and charming and socially adept… 
     Dorian sighed again, standing up straight. She smacked her cheeks, shaking out his short ivory hair and turning to the paper again with a definitive look. It was just a little insignificant scrap of a whole. But it was lighter, now. 

✽

     Bells jingled as Dorian stepped a shaky foot through the doorway. He hadn't gotten anything done all day, practically jittering her way through his classes and making a complete fool of herself on several occasions. Mind still racing, she sunk into her spot behind the desk, closing her eyes. Deciding to talk to bookstore girl today was definitely a mistake. In an attempt to calm the rising panic, she took a deep breath, letting the smell of books and warmth of the fireplace soothe him. It worked. Kind of.
     The next few hours of the afternoon were relatively quiet. It had begun to rain, and there were few customers so he allowed herself the comfort of daydreaming. He was quietly organizing some of the new books when the bells above the door jingled again. She jolted up to see dripping dark hair, a soggy dress with an even soggier white button up underneath, frantic eyes and a dark brown coat held over her head like a shield. Bookstore girl. 
     "Ah- are you alright? Should I grab a towel for you? Or, uh-" Shoot. Damn my impulsivity. She has no idea who I am, she'll think-
     "O-oh, thank you so much!" The girl had turned toward him, a look of relief flooding her face. "I had just run all the way from the train station, I forgot my umbrella but I just had to get the next book of- oh I'm so sorry, I'm rambling, aren't I?" Dorian blinked, then let out a small laugh.

heart rate steady, 
cheeks still red.
nervous smile,
lots of deep breaths.
unsteady words,
but words nonetheless.

illustrations

A big part of this project was learning to use Illustrator! Throughout the project, we created several illustrations. We first made an exquisite corpse with a few classmates, then made an album cover for our short story, then completed a personal Illustrator project, and finally created the banners for this webpage! To make the illustrations on the banners the stay the same size while allowing the width of the whole banner to change, I set the banner images as border images in CSS, and used “border-image-slice” to separate the illustrations on the edge from the blank color in the middle.

exquisite corpse

This was my group’s exquisite corpse illustration! We each created an illustration that started and ended in the same place on the side of the canvas, and stuck them together at the end. It was a fun surprise to see what we had all created together. I created the snake head on the left, Dragos P. created the middle piece, and Aditi B. created the right piece.

short story album art

To make the short story album art, we had to create a readable image that represented our story. I ended up just drawing the main character, Dorian. This isn’t exactly what she looks like, but I was still getting used to Illustrator so it was hard to get right. The colors were especially hard, since even with live paint you have to pick individual colors and it took a lot of trial and error. I think I learned a lot from this process though!

illustrator project

This Illustrator project was inspired by the game “Night in the Woods”. It’s one of my favorite games, and I especially love the relationship between Mae and Bea. I based this illustration and tumbler on a specific scene where they talk about the role of proximity in their relationship, and how if they hadn’t grown up together they wouldn’t have been friends. I love this scene a lot because it feels very real, and it also reminds me of my own friends. I have friends who I used to see all the time but now barely see, and so we’ve drifted apart, but I also have friends who I’ve maintained close relationships with even when we couldn’t see each other often. I wanted to make this project as a physical reminder of my friends. 

While creating this illustration, I struggled a lot with the colors. The first time I colored it, everything looked a bit off and very flat, and I didn’t know how to fix it so I just turned it in. However, I ended up re-submitting it, because I wasn’t happy with it. I ended up using gradients to make the backgrounds feel less flat, and added glow effects around the stars and the word “proximity” so that they would pop out a little more. I’m very happy with how it turned out the second time, and I think my Illustrator skills definitely improved through this project!

music

Part of the narrative project included telling story through music! The assignment was to create a parody song. I chose to work with my friends on this assignment, since I thought it would be more fun.

To create the parody song, we brainstormed a list of themes and a list of songs, and picked out a theme and song with a feel that matched. This ended up being a theme of conservatives complaining about stupid stuff, and the song “Bicycle Race” by Queen. We then started brainstorming lyrics, counting syllables to make sure what we were writing fit with the original music. We went with a combination of lyrics sung by Karen and her husband, the self-proclaimed alpha male.

To actually start recording the music, we had to remove vocals from the original song so we could sing over it. To do this, we reversed the wave form and shifted it slightly. This mostly eliminated the vocals, but it eliminated a lot of other stuff too. To help solve this, we added back some of the bass where there weren’t any vocals. In the end, some of the vocals that varied too much remained, but we were able to eliminate most of it.

Finally, we booked a recording studio session at Freestyle and Mr. Flo helped us record the vocals over the instrumentals! Here is the finished product!

lyrics:

Chorus sung by all: 
pick-up truck, pick-up truck, pick-up truck
I want to drive my pick-up truck, pick-up truck, pick-up truck
I want to drive my pick-up truck 
I want to drive my truck
I want to drive my pick-up truck
I want to drive it how I like

Verse 1 sung by Aditi: 
You say blue, I say red
You say wine, I say beer
You say rights, I say hey man
Feminism ain't my scene
But I do love guns

Verse 2 sung by Sofia: 
You Say Gay, I say Hell
You say choice, give me God!
You say science, I say Lord
I don't believe in the vaccine
Thick sunscreen or Halloween
Now you listen to me

Chorus sung by all:
manager, manager, manager
I want to talk to manager, manager, manager
I want to talk to manager
I want to talk to boss
I want to talk to manager
I want to talk to - the police forces are coming your way

Verse 3 sung by Rye: 
So forget all your rights but mine
Strong alpha males, they'll be lifting today
So look out for those hotties, like me
Karen babe? uh oh, no… !

*Cut Music* 
Spoken Outro: 
Karen: "Hello??? Hi Hello?? is anyone there????! We need to speak to an employee!!!!"
Employee: "Ma'am, we closed an hour ago…"

animation

For Animation, we had a fewer long projects to complete! The first thing was our character bio and stop-motion character walk cycle. After that, we worked together in small groups to create a short narrative animation. These projects were all a lot of work and very time consuming, but I learned a lot and had a lot of fun getting to be so creative with everything!

character bio and puppet

The first part of this assignment was to create our characters! I chose to use the same character I made for my short story. We drew a front and side profile to get down the design and proportions, and then wrote a short bio!

After we made the character bio, we had to create a physical puppet. We did this by twisting wire to make an armature and covering it in a combination of tape, tinfoil, air-dry clay, and heat-moldable plastic. I sculpted and painted the head of my puppet and used needle felted wool to make hair. I also sewed and crocheted the clothes! It was a lot of fun to create a little puppet like this, and it’s definitely something I would want to try again on my own time.

stop-motion walk cycle, digital walk-cycle, and final composition of both

After making the puppet, we used stop-motion animation to create an animated walk cycle! We recorded this using tripods and our DSLR cameras, and used the software Dragonframe. It was difficult to make the movements of the puppet look smooth and natural. I think it looks a little awkward but I’m still happy with it!

We then began learning digital animation! We created a walk cycle digitally of the same character (or a different one if we chose). I had a lot of trouble figuring out how to simplify my art for this but I definitely improved at it by the end.

Finally, we took both walk cycles and put them together in After Effects. We had to remove the background from the puppet walk cycle using a linear color key on the green-screen background. We then looped the puppet and digital walk cycles so they crossed paths, and put a background behind! We also created shadows by mirroring the walk cycles, changing the colors and lowering the opacity.

lip sync animation

To continue learning digital animation, we made a lip sync animation to any audio of our choice! I chose to animate Marceline from Adventure Time, singing part of the song “Everything Stays”. To make the lip sync animation, we created mouth shapes on separate layers and exported them as pngs. There were different mouth shapes for every group of sounds that look similar. Once we had everything exported, we layered it in After Effects and timed the mouth shapes to the music!

narrative animation

Finally, we got to create a full narrative animation! We got into small groups within our class (mine was a group of 3 with Sofia D. and Star S.) and designed characters, settings, and plot. After storyboarding, we did backgrounds first, then sketching and coloring characters. In the end we all worked together to compile everything into After Effects with music and sound effects. This project was a ton of work but also so much fun! I definitely learned a lot about both animation and storytelling, and I’m very proud of how it turned out. Our story is about a bunny and a dragon, and how they find what they needed in each other. Enjoy :]