3D sound research – frogs

Just a simple infographic I made to present my research on frogs (:

Foundation 2D II: Que Sera Sera

Hey everyone! As Project 1 of Foundation 2D II is coming to a close, here are my thoughts and process as well as my final outcomes.

The name I have chosen to use in all 4 compositions is “BRDGL”. It is basically a short form of my name “Bridgel” without the vowels. I chose to use Brdgl because it has a special meaning to me, it is my nickname with my best friends and they will call me that when we are texting.

Job 1: Meth Cook

This was the job which I was most excited to try out! Those of you who have watched Breaking Bad will be familiar, a meth cook is someone who makes meth (a drug).

Breaking Bad is one of my favourite shows of all time and it is about a chemistry teacher who turns into a meth cook because he has cancer and wants to be able to provide for his family. His partner-in-crime is one of his ex students and ever since watching the show I have always secretly hoped that one day a teacher from my JC will approach me out of the blue and invite me to be a part of their new shady “business operation”.

Here is the final composition! “My name is Bridgel and I am a Meth Cook”. It is 2 elements of the scientific Periodic table which have been printed and cut out, then suspended in blue candy which I have made myself. This is because the drug meth is blue in colour when it is created at a high percentage of purity (scionce 101). There is also an injection syringe in the shot to further push the idea of drugs in the composition and the crystal candy has been cracked to show that this is a wayward and dangerous profession.

Even though it would a bit tough to get the technique down and find the ingredients, I still decided to use blue candy which was self made. My initial plan was to use blue ice but then I realised it would get wet and soggy very fast. My other plan was to use blue jelly and encase the elements inside but I realised it would also get soggy and I wouldn’t be able to get the cracked effect that was shown in the picture.

This is the tutorial I used to create the candy!

Here are some pictures of my process! Cooking the sugar solution, leaving it to cool in the pan with the elements inside, and finally shattering it with a hammer for the cracked effect.

Job 2: Gardener

This is a job that I have taken up recently as my hall has recently started a new Edible Gardening club and I was asked to be the chairperson! As a new gardener I feel like I have an immense passion for plants and gardening and I would like to show that through my 2D work hence I picked gardener as one of my jobs. Although it was not a calling I chose but was thrown upon me, I still embrace gardening with every atom of my body.

This is my final composition! I tried out an illustration for this piece. I have used different elements of gardening such as tools and scarecrow to make my name and it was done on photoshop. This illustration was actually based on a previous illustration I did for my gardening club:

Feel free to join if you are a Hall 10 resident LOL

Job 3: Crossword Champion

Over the December holidays I represented my hall in the inter hall Boggle competition as a team member and even though we came in first (from the back), it has ignited a passion for words in me and I would definitely take part again next year! After joining the Boggle competition I have taken an interest in crosswords and word search as well and would like to be a champion in word games, hence this design.

To create this composition I used a grid and filled in the squares with the paint tool that I wanted to be black, which make out my name. Then I printed it and wrote the letters in with pen, circling the word “champion” to show that I want to be a champion. Then I scanned it and adjusted the brightness and contrast before re-printing again.

Job 4: Hacker

When I was in JC for a period of time my best friend and I wanted to become hackers because we thought that hackers were like those cool people that you see on the Matrix LOL.

This composition was created by making a 3D font on photoshop and overlaying a Matrix effect over it. If you look closely, the Matrix actually says “BRDGL” repeatedly as well.

4D II Project 1 – Alter Ego

Storyline:

This video takes a satirical look into some of my personal traits, namely self-absorbedness, self pity and insecurities about what others think. The video begins with a scene of the actress strutting down hallways, pausing dramatically to admire herself in the reflection on the glass. It also features the actress displaying her insecurity over her self image through a monologue where she states that she wears big coats because she wants to hide her “fat arms and ass” from the world. The video ends with several sequences of her crying and lamenting that people would “do this to me” when she had “slept so little last night”, providing a strong cathartic ending to an otherwise funny and lighthearted video.

Concept:

Being that there was a 1 minute video, I decided to make it lighthearted and funny rather than make it too in depth as I feared there would not be enough time to explore many deeper emotions. The character I wanted to emulate was Kim Kardashian, who is a public figure notorious for being “famous for doing nothing” apart from using social media and engaging in frivolous activities.

As I wanted to use this chance to experience being behind the camera, I decided to make use of an actress rather than act the alter ego out personally. I wanted to use an actress who I knew shared my personality traits and would understand the tone of the video that I was going for, hence I approached my best friend Shirley who kindly agreed to be my actress.

As we are avid viewers of the reality TV show “Kepping Up with the Kardashians”, Shirley and I knew how to portray Kim and I’s similar traits well. To give ourselves inspiration and aid in the filming process, we spent some time reviewing clips of Kim Kardashian from interviews or past episodes of the reality show. Certain scenes of my video were actually re-enactments of videos of Kim, with our own twist attached. The crying scene, for example, is something that is also iconic to Kim as she is famous for having an “ugly cry” which I have too which is why I don’t cry in public :)))))

To me, the choice of music in the video was extremely important to setting the mood. I actually decided on the music before deciding on the character I would use! The song used was “Me Too” by Meghan Trainor and I remember hearing it for the first time and having imagined this video in my mind. To add to the bubblegum pop style of the video, I sped up the tempo of the song to make it more catchy and lighthearted.

Process

To aid in our concept development, Ms Lei gave us some tasks which would help us in choosing a character. The first was to list out 5 fictional characters, my choices being:

Katniss Everdeen

Moana

BoJack Horseman

Eric Cartman

Daria

The second was to list out 5 public figures:

Kim Kardashian

Ellen Degeneres

Donald Trump

Malala Yousafzai

Kanye West

The third task, list out 5 characters that I knew personally:

Shirley Wang (best friend)

Cindy Chiang (mother)

Jacob Sze (Brother)

Joel Sim (best friend)

Shi Nai Xin (friend)

I then had to pick 1 character from each category based on their traits that I myself possess.

Bojack Horseman: Jaded, seeking excitement in life

Kim Kardashian: Self absorbed, insecure about self image

Jacob Sze: Funny, brave, a lot of self conviction

To me it was important to pick a character that was recognisable to others, so that they would be able to understand why I shared the particular traits of the character.

This film was my first time shooting a video on my own with a digital camera, as well as editing it, and this did cause me some degree of anxiety. However, I was able to make use of my existing knowledge of cameras as well as what I learned in the previous semester (and also some help from google) to shoot and edit successfully.