Monthly Archives: November 2017

[4D] Interactive Narrative

Link to our proposal: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/nura0069/interactive-storytelling-proposal/

We got feedback from Ruyi on our proposal that there were too many things going on – the strict parents, the lesbian relationship, Sarah going missing (and eventually dying), and Denise having to find out.

We also did not really portray the romantic aspect of the relationship, with Ruyi commenting that it looked more like a friendship, which we definitely agreed with. We tried to make it more romantic in our final video with an implied kiss scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aKxPyMCPgs

We also got feedback that the two characters could be different in terms of personalities, Ruyi suggesting “Blue Is The Warmest Colour” as a reference. Hence, we redeveloped the story, paying more attention to the two characters’ distinct personalities.

Blue is The Warmest Colour explores the relationship between Adele and Emma – Emma is the more free-spirited, “Artist” type. Apart from using it for the cinematic reference, we also referenced the “I Knew You Were Trouble” music video for its portrayal of Taylor’s love interest as one who is crazy and wild, whilst Taylor is the ‘good girl’ who later becomes more wild as her relationship with her love interest progresses. As we had run into problems giving Sarah and Denise more character, I referenced this video to give both of the characters more distinct personalities.

Link for revised storyline: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p4tYlgWwel4eKrRgUK1LGwqIhEXutZfBoXm8eNuxb0A/edit?usp=sharing

I did a lot of the writing, including the quotes for the jar, blog and the development of Sarah’s and Denise’s personalities. I also did up the scenes for the storyboard. I took a lot of inspiration from poetry, specifically Lang Leav’s works. The storyboarding was also pretty fun because I rewatched some Korean dramas for some ideas.

Blog link: sarahslittlesecrett.tumblr.com Password: 123

I ran into some difficulties while making the blog. I had to find a theme which did not show the post date because I was posting all of these posts on the same day, which did not make sense for the story. This was a lot harder than I thought it would be, especially because I needed the blog to look like a teenage girl’s blog. Here are some other blog themes I tried out:

1) https://valdemartheme.tumblr.com/

2) https://yeolithm-34.tumblr.com/

3) http://shinrikizuki.tumblr.com/th/14a

4) http://iceteo.tumblr.com/sehun

I tried to have a mix of word posts, poetry and picture posts to simulate a tumblr blog, as well. I also tried to have a relatively large number of posts – 28, to be exact – to make the blog seem believable, as if she had been writing in it for a long time.

Reflection:

Acting as Denise was actually pretty hard for me because I could not stop laughing. While I had acted for theater plays previously, I found it super awkward being filmed, especially for the “intimate scenes”. Ying Hui made it a lot easier on me though, because we both found kindred spirits in each other’s awkwardness.

I also learnt a lot about character development, as I came to develop the characters more after the feedback on the proposal. The character profile really helped with that, especially with research into Character Archetypes.

In hindsight, we could’ve paid more attention to details – one common feedback was that it was confusing why my name was Denise when I’m so obviously Indian. Honestly, we had initially named our characters D and SO based off what we learnt in 3D class about Dominant (D), Subdominant (SD) and Subordinate (SO), and Denise was D because she’s the more dominant one and Sarah was SO because she’s the “subordinate”.

Azizah’s post on setting up and props: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/nura0069/interactive-storytelling-l1-201/

Ying Hui’s posts:

 

 

 

 

[2D] Ego – Final

Ideation

This whole collection was based off a birthday present my friends gave me for my 17th birthday. It was one of those educational posters you get for young children, but they Bala-fied it and basically pasted unflattering photos of me onto the different animals and made terrible puns with them.

It’s the most memorable gift I’ve gotten to date, and I knew I’d definitely want to have one of the panels be about my friends. Hence, I decided to have each of the panels be different animal alter egos of myself.

Overall aesthetic

I went with a childrens book illustration sort of aesthetic, as I’m really a kid at heart. It’s hard for me to take myself seriously, and I like to surround myself with cute and happy things all the time – Artbox stationery being a prime example.

Cold is not my thing.

I’m really sensitive to cold – as a very tropical person, I get cold even when the aircon is turned on. I always, always have a spare jacket in my locker in case I forget mine in a rush. It’s so bad that I’d say I have roughly 20 different hoodies and jackets, cause it’s the item of clothing I can’t live without. Hence, these panels aim to express my sensitivity to cold, with me as a hippo because they’re very tropical animals, like myself.

I’m really, really escapist.

I’m really perfectionist, so I tend to do things really slowly, and like to take my time with them. Here in ADM though, there are a lot of deadlines one right after another, which barely gives me enough time to work with them for as long as I’d like to. The result? I give in to my escapist tendencies a lot more, because I’d rather procrastinate then face reality. I find myself watching shows and reading books, my guilty pleasures, a lot more than I used to – the more I get stressed, the more I want to skateboard away from Earth. I used a tortoise here to symbolize me being slow.

I’m a totally different person around my friends.

It might be hard to believe, but I’m actually a very introverted person. My idea of a perfect afternoon would be me sleeping, reading, or watching Netflix on my bed. However, my friends being my friends, would probably crash my house and get me to go outside, and the afternoon would morph into another type of perfect afternoon. They get my hard exterior to come off, and loosen up and enjoy life.

The three animal friends represent my three best friends. The Dinosaur would be Cynthia, a beautiful soul I’ve known since Sec 1. She’s a dinosaur cause she gets really angry on my behalf when I’m mad about things. She almost called up my ex and lectured him, haha.

The dog is Yilin, cause she’s the most loyal person I know. She’s helped me out with so many things that I’ve lost count.

The rabbit is Ashish, a friend I made fairly recently in Year 5 in Junior College, but has become one of the most important people in my life. He’s a rabbit because he’s super jumpy and excitable. He’s just overall a really lively person.

Watermelon and sleep – they’re like my right and left eye.

I wish I could express my love for watermelon without sounding like a psycho. I really, really like watermelon. I can eat a whole watermelon at one go. Sleeping on a stomach full of watermelon would literally put me on cloud 9, especially because I haven’t done either in a pretty long time, with the really busy term.

[3D] Mnemosyne’s scent: Group

Here’s my pdf for the accessory project Zhenyu and I worked on together!: https://www.flipsnack.com/balast/mnemosyne-2.html

I had so much fun doing this project, especially the little photoshoot at the end of it. Thanks to Zhenyu for being such a great partner, and Cheryl for her valuable feedback! If you can’t view the pdf, you can download it here. Thanks for looking! (っ˘ω˘ς )

 

[3D] Mnemosyne’s scent: Individual

Here’s my planar exercise and scent model!: https://www.flipsnack.com/balast/mnemosyne-part-1.html

I took really long doing the revisions and making the pdf look nice so that it’s easier on Cheryl’s (really overworked and tired) eyes.

If you’re wondering how the set up for the scent model photoshoot looks like, I set it up in my hall’s lounge room like so! If the flipbook doesn’t work, you can also download the pdf here. Thanks for reading (≖ᴗ≖✿)

 

[2D] Ego – Process

Mindmap

I did some 10 cm x 10 cm drafts of all my panels, and tried different styles for the animals, too.

Layout for panda composition

Panda sketches

References for panda pose

Turtle layouts

References for turtle

Layout & colors for hippo composition

References for hippo:

References for iceberg:

Layout for hedgehog

I tried imitating Eric Carle’s style for the hedgehog’s spikes.

Hedgehog sketches

Hedgehog references

 

[2D] Ego Research

Liz Climo

 

I really like her outlined style and simple forms! She serves as my primary inspiration.

Alessandro Gottardo

I think his compositions are really unique in how they combine big and small elements. His use of color is also really bold.

Jon Klassen

I really like the clean background and use of watercolor and “speckles” – I could possibly imitate it with salt.

Amy Schimler

Geometric and organic forms – playing with transparencies

Brigette Barager

Her textured background is lovely, as well as the bright, happy colors.

Sam Falconer

Very strong color contrasts, which are frankly, a bit intimidating, but I will attempt it in some of my panels.

Sara Fanelli

I love her use of analogous colors and how they unify the whole composition. I also really like the use of different textures that I want to imitate.

Richard Smythe

Wet on dry technique on white background gives a really crisp feel. I really like the textures produced by the watercolor too – it was the main reason why I predominantly used watercolor for my panels.

Oliver Jeffers

I really like his use of mixed media, combining color pencils over watercolors. I will have to try that as a technique.