The Visual Narrative Project was mainly focused on our understanding of telling stories with the help of technology to improve the experience for the audience. Students like me are introduced to Adobe Illustrator and will use other applications such as Pro Tools to make a story achieve its fullest potential. We recorded our telling of the story and added sound effects to make it more interesting. We also created a digital thumbnail that helps the audience visualized our story.
I valued the Visual Narrative Project because it improved my storytelling and my digital artistry. The English class helped me understand what makes a story effective. Many techniques and artistic choices are in mind when creating these stories and the emotions they bring. I mainly focused on emotions and details for the characters. I would include small details and descriptive details for the setting so the audience would have a better angle for what they are suppose to feel. I definitely improved as a digital artist because I learned and gained experience for creating what I want with the help of Adobe Illustrator and Pro Tools. I eagerly put way too much time into these assignments. Pro Tools helped give auditory visualization of my story. Adobe Illustrator helped give the audience a one-image introduction to what my story will be about.
This is my Protagonist-based Plot Map. This was to help give us a thorough character story for our protagonist. This really helped me out because it gave me a better plan for my story. In the end, I did change most of the things because of many factors such as the dark tone I tried to present.
The main inspiration for my story is the popular video game The Last of Us 2. When I first played this game, I was really intrigued into the story and found it really emotional and effective. This was the case because they have two characters that have a strong relationship, but one of them dies. This is emotional for the other character and it is what makes the story interesting is because of the story for this character. I tried to implement certain aspects of this story into mine like show not tell, character details, etc.
I produced the audio version of my story using pro tools and the studio at FreeStyle Academy. After recording my voice recording at the FreeStyle Studio, I put my audio file into a pro tools session. After that, I added in some sound affects to make the story more emotionally effective.
I valued the whole process of writing my story to creating the audio version of it. I mostly focused on creating my story and how to make emotional moments the most effective as possible. I also enjoyed using the right sound affects for key moments, even if it is just small movement.
A young woman sits by her table. She is drawing a colorless man smiling while holding coffee in a mug. The character surrounded by the whiteness of the paper. She plays with her straight black hair as she draws. She takes out her mp3 player to change the song. Her music was as precious as a baby to her. She would bring them everywhere on any kind of occasion. She chooses another song. A soft melodic guitar plays. After a while, a man sings to the beat. The woman inhales and exhales. She looks outside her window. She rests her elbows on the table and relaxes. The dark night with the white moon being the only source of light to the meadow surrounding her house. She continues to stare at the beauty of the scenery. She is suddenly interrupted when she feels a tap on her shoulder. The young woman takes off her headphones and turns around in annoyance to look at the sudden interruption. It is a man in his 40s. His medium sized blond beard covering his used to be clean face. Alistair notices that his hair has gotten longer. She also notices that more wrinkles are appearing on his forehead.
“Hey there Alistair” starts the man.
“Hey Lucas” Alistair responds while standing up and resting against the table.
“I tried knocking on the door” Lucas said calmly.
“Sorry, I was doing something” Alistair says tiredly.
“Isn’t it a little late to be drawing?” questions Lucas.
“Im 18 Lucas, I’m fine” Alistair answers sarcastically.
“Ok… Just checking” Lucas says.
“I just came here to tell you bout how folk is grateful for your help… They look forward to working with you.” Lucas continues while slowly walking to Alistair’s bookshelf and awkwardly observing her lava lamp.
“That sounds great” Alistair says, wondering why he is acting strange. Lucas slowly walks to Alistair and notices her drawing.
“Oh… that’s a drawing of me” Lucas says proudly.
“Yep… I realized I never drew you after everything we’ve been through.” Alistair says. She is happy Lucas noticed it.
“Yep, when you travel across the world to escape war. I think it’s difficult to have the time to draw.” Lucas sarcastically explains. Alistair looks down and chuckles.
Lucas stands there while playing with his hands. They both stand there awkwardly.
“I bought you a little gift” Lucas says, breaking the silence. He puts his hand in his pocket and takes out a small box covered in wrapping paper. Alistair glances at Lucas and smiles.
“You didn’t have to do this” Alistair excitedly said. Lucas gives Alistair his hand holding the box. Alistair continues to glance at Lucas.
“Take it, I know you’ll like it” Lucas proclaims. Alistair accepts the gift and takes the box gently from Lucas’s hands. Alistair rips the wrapping paper while Lucas waits for Alistair’s reaction. Alistair gives one final glance at Lucas.
“Go ahead” Lucas bestows. Alistair chuckles and opens the small box. She glances inside.
“Oh my god” Alistair exclaims. She takes out a silver watch with leather straps and puts the box down on her table.
“I promised you I’ll get you that watch” Lucas says, happy Alistair enjoys the gift.
“I can’t believe you still remember. That was 2 years ago” Alistair says, surprised.
“I remember you said that your father had this fancy watch he wears everyday.”—
“And I lost the damn thing when we were leaving my country” Alistar interrupting sadly. There is a pause.
“You said you’ll buy another one to honor him. So here you go.” Lucas ends. Alistair looks at her watch and puts it on. The soft leathery strap comforts her right wrist while the metallic part gives a coldness. Alistair looks at Lucas. Lucas smiles.
“Thank you so much, this really means a lot to me” Alistair says, walking to Lucas giving him a hug. Lucas enlarges his eyes and slightly opens his mouth. Lucas did not expect this appreciation from Alistair. Alistair ends the hug and walks backward to her table. They both smile at each other.
“Well, I should go… Don’t wanna keep on bothering you too much.” He walks slowly to the door to exit. He opens the door and just as he is about to leave, Alistair asks a question.
“There is this movie I’ve been thinking of watching and it’s one of those oldies you keep on talking about” Alistair starts. Lucas listens.
“Do you wanna come over and watch it?” asks Alistair.
Lucas smiles and relaxes against the door frame.
“Sure, I’ll bring popcorn.” Lucas says.
“Get a good night rest kiddo” Lucas ends. He leaves and closes the door. The room is quiet.
Alistair looks at her new watch and smiles.
5 Years Later
Alistair sits on a quick chair in front of a headstone. The crows caws on the dead trees. It is cloudy. Alistair continues to stare at the headstone with her mp3 player in her hand. She is playing back a song over and over as she stares. Her laid back position as she sits on her chair makes her back ache. She didn’t notice this, until that sudden pain occurred. She stands up, straightening her back. Alistair takes out a cigarette. She lights it and puts the end of it in her mouth. She inhales and exhales. She always remembered every chance Lucas would take to have a good smoke. Alistair puts away her mp3 player. She takes the quick chair and folds it. She proceeds to leave the headstone. She stops. She looks at the headstone one more time before she has to leave. She exhales once more and continues to leave the cemetery. She checks her watch at the entrance of the cemetery. It is time for her to go home. She takes the cigarette out of her mouth and drops it to the ground. She steps on it. She loosens the watch and tightens it. She leaves the cemetery and walks back home.
Illustrations are images created by people for the purpose of conveying the purpose visually. My banners and some other images on this page are illustrations created by me.
Mr. Florendo told the class excitedly of this group project. He asked us to get into groups of 3 and create an art piece called an exquisite art. This assignment made us create different art boards and create art on them individually without showing our group members what we are doing. After that, we would put these mysterious pieces together to create one final piece.
We were instructed to create an illustration of our chose. We had total control of we get to create based on what we have learned from previous assignments. I present to you my illustration.
Artist Statement
My biggest inspiration for my personal illustration project was music. I consider music to be a big part of my life not only because it sounds really good, but because I have a personal connection to it and it has helped me throughout my life. I did my top 4 during the making of the illustration which was Tyler the Creator, Baby Keem, Kenderick Lamar, and Ben Reilly. I made many drafts when I first started the project, but I kept on redoing it because I felt it wasn’t good enough. In the end, I feel comfortable with what I have now. Some of my struggles were making my project unique compared to my classmates. One way of making my project stand out was creating four smaller images for this one image. I felt this would make my product more worth it. If I were to change my project, I would probably add more to the backgrounds. I chose to make it simplistic because it fit the mood of the character design, but adding details to the background would make the image more pleasing to look at. I am most proud of the overall vibe from this project. When I observe my final product, I would think about the music produced by these individuals. I also like the simplistic design of my product because it is a unique perspective to the original album covers. I will use the experience I gained from this project to create more artworks similar to this and who knows, I might have a client that requests me to create something similar for them. This project changes the way other people would see other’s art because they would change their perspective of the visual design. Changing from my simple design to a more comic design, or a kid’s drawing, etc. At the end of the day, I value my experience I gained and thank Mr. Florendo for giving the class the opportunity to do this project. I am very happy with the final product and can’t wait to do more in the future.
The parody project is a junior assignment to create a parody. We were allowed to use any instrumental (school appropriate, duh) and work with anyone. I decided to create a diss track targeted to my good friend Tai. I also wanted to include my other friend Isaac to help me diss Tai. The instrumental I used is the Go Go Go, by Kid Laroi because Tai looks very similar to the artist and I wanted to make fun of him for it. Another important choice I made was to create a hip-hop/rap song because this genre is what I like the best for its creativity, skill, and sound. I was excited for this project because Mr. Florendo allowed the class to use the studio filled with professional equipment to record our takes. I wrote the whole lyrics in 2 hours and shared them with Isaac. On the day of recording, to my surprise, half of the class actually joined Isaac and I to listen. This made me a little nervous, but boosted my confidence because of the support I was getting. During the session, it was my first time doing something like this so Isaac and I gave it our all. After the session, Isaac and I hurried back to class to mix the song and it was one of the most memorable days of my year. In the end, we are proud of our production. Even though I am proud for my first song, there were many mistakes I noticed and will take those into account for my future projects.
Verse 1 I'm really saying without thinking Not rapping, ain't singing Dont care bout your feelings Not even going all in, what's the dealing Don’t care bout the competition or who's winning We both in freestyle, but the difference is that I can freestyle while you lackin the hairstyle What's in the bagging Worked too hard last night eyes bagging Movie was trash i prefer annie Ain’t got no one, bet you call your mom a baddie I'm a big dog, why don’t you call me daddy Im sorry but not sorry Bet you the type of person to claim you got hotties Then why did you pull with none to the party Man would take anything to feel like a zombie Made a new song, really thought is was gossip Bet you the type of dude to say “oh my gosh” Chorus Okay, Tai Tai Tai When was the last time you ever tried to climb to shine Always look like that you about to ahead and cry cry cry I guess you still believe you ain’t flyin this time Ain’t ride or die, you decide Verse 2 Riding in the city and I know you in your feelings Yeah, the whole squad packing, but lil boy confessing sins If you got a girl, I already know you lackin, say bye to your kids Chasing diamonds boy, all you gon get is the plastic fins Back so curly Yeah, Hunchback of Notre Dame Only friend is Yhali He wants to find another dog Back to apologizing With a different song Ain't no love in the streets You better hope you could pray to god Chorus Okay, Tai Tai Tai When was the last time you ever tried to climb to shine Always look like that you about to ahead and cry cry cry I guess you still believe you ain’t flyin this time Ain’t ride or die, you decide Verse 3 This is chess, not checkers Mans really out here begging to be lovers Mans aint done, he gon try and get her Don’t know where you heading, its December Seems like god claiming another angel how shameful I bet you think you just made a banger Think you can rap, your not able I'm about to make you famous Don't care about the danger I just read your sister a fable I bet you got parents that still love you How about you understand there ain’t love on the streets, you won’t make a day so don’t start pretending Cus when them bullets start flyin, it don’t matter what's your level Cus in the end, we gon all face the devil Chorus Okay, Tai Tai Tai When was the last time you ever tried to climb to shine Always look like that you about to ahead and cry cry cry I guess you still believe you ain’t flyin this time Ain’t ride or die, you decide Verse 4 Opened your door and said hello Went inside your home, sat on your couch, pass me the remote Got my nasty feet up Do this every season Now give me another soda Tell your mom to come over Now go to your corner Just stand there till it's over Ima come back tomorrow Gave you a folder with paperwork You looked inside and it was my homework Do it for me or you gon need to lay low Ima big dog just cus I said so Also I used up all the paper roll I wiped her tears with my sweatshirt I’m about to blow up San Francisco I’m about to get record deals from all these labels Chorus Okay, Tai Tai Tai When was the last time you ever tried to climb to shine Always look like that you about to ahead and cry cry cry I guess you still believe you ain’t flyin this time Ain’t ride or die, you decide
In Film, we are challenged to create short films based on actual film techniques with the help of our camera, our tripod, premiere pro, and most importantly, Mr. Taylor’s help. The production process throughout all of our projects include real work that we have to plan ourselves with other people. I valued the teamwork that the group and I have to bring to make the film the best it can be. I also value the experience I gain from planning, filming, and editing. These skills are important not only as a filmmaker, but for having the determination for other projects. One major project we worked on that made me improve the most was the Junior Narrative 1 Project. It took us months to fully create what me and my partner envisioned. There were many struggles throughout the process such as actors schedules, timing, and editing. We managed to overcome them, but it is definitely a lesson to learn and improve in the future.
What is the next is my initial synopsis for my junior narrative project. This is important because it is the beginning for a huge project my partner and I are beginning to work on. We did change some things because of many factors but overall, looking at this synopsis after months is jaw-dropping.
After doing the synopsis and planning, we were instructed by Mr. Taylor to create a storyboard for our film. Here are some of the cards out of about hundreds. This took us a while because we kept on changing things and creating new ideas throughout this process. According to Mr. Taylor, this is the longest process when creating a film
