creativehistories-ren

[creativehistories-ren]

THE EPIC CONCLUSION - Reflection and Final Thoughts

Overall, I'm still confused about how I'm still able to make it to this point of the whole project. As this was my very first time doing animation, I was surprised that it went beyond what I was expecting. Originally, I thought the whole process was going to take a long while. It was, but it wasn't as long as I thought it was going to be.

[creativehistories-ren]

AUDIO SWAPS - Change of Plans For The Sound

Well, some time went by.. and at this point, I realized that I am nowhere near finishing the melody. So that left me no choice but to find an audio that sticks to the videos aesthetic. But I'm not leaving the lyrics, however. Instead, I'm putting them into the subtitles. Using a typewriter like font at the bottom of the illustrations, maybe? Or speaking-wise, using a microphone with melancholic music playing in the background of the video.

[creativehistories-ren]

THE SCREENING - The Final Conclusion BEFORE The Final Conclusion!

I had the minute of frames down, and I was just missing the audio. Oh, who am I kidding? Almost everyone was.. Ended up getting some good feedback on a few things I only realized until then. Mostly, on how the hurt *the scribbles* was kind of resembling facial hair. I'll lower down the scribbles. Morris also suggested adding some textures to make it click, to match the hand drawn aesthetic a little more.

[creativehistories-ren]

CRANK THAT AUDIO! - Discussing The Sound

Audio-wise was the ultimate challenge, because I can't just choose any song at a whim because of licensing and all of that. So I thought of the most bonkers idea I would find myself doing in this course. *CONTEXT: I'm saying this course because I knew what i would be doing would be the last thing ANYBODY in this course would do (from my knowledge). Because for sure, we're not music people. We listen to it. Yes, absolutely. But, do we make it? Definitely, not. I had the idea of writing a song. Which I got a fair amount of feedback from Orla. Where she asked if it could be possible to fit the message into a one minute duration of a song. I had the lyrics noted, all I needed was a melody.

Here's what I got so far

Your point of view, your frame of mind

Evidence of the extraordinary eye

Unmatched, unlimited, one in a million light

You lived and seen enough, there you felt it

Ringing in the back your head, grabbing hold of you

Holding you back from so many waiting chances

You were standing at the edge of it all

At that point, you didn't know what to do

You grew, your hurt did as well

Bit back worse the more you tried to fight it

You knew from there, the only way out was to accept it

Wouldn't have been where you are now

If it weren't for what happened then

Your creativity, your hurt, a gift, a burden

[creativehistories-ren]

FINAL CUT! - The Change I Eventually Needed

So for my final treatment, I ended up making a few changes. Where I switched out the ending to something more realistic. Instead of crushing the hurt, I ended up accepting it. But not in a happy way, but rather a "there is no other way" kind of ending. Because if I did go with the last one, I knew for one thing that I would just be lying to myself. So, I switched the message as well. From a final girl statement to accepting your hurt.

FINAL TREATMENT:

Act 1 - Figures filled with colored scribble clouds as heads. All except one figure. The figure has a colored scribbled cloud, but one that's less colorful to the rest, specks and scribbles of monotone (black, grey & white - the hurt you might call. Hurting her.

Act 2 - She sees another silhouette blasting colors here and there, while the one figure tries, it strikes at her. Hurting her.

Act 3 - She gave up, she screamed. She drops on her knees onto the floor. An explosion of color appeared when the smoke cleared. It unveiled a ground full of color, she unfortunately made her peace.

Genre: Drama, Melancholic

Message: When your hurt is both a blessing and a burden.

Mood: Emotional

Characters: The Silhouette - The Hurt - Other Silhouettes

Visual Elements: Colored scribbled clouds as heads, mostly a hand-drawn aesthetic.

Music/Audio: Grungy melancholic feel with a lighter hopeful-esque melody. (Bishop Briggs or Labrinth aesthetica-like, maybe..)

Motion: Frame by frame

[creativehistories-ren]

A LITTLE SNEAK PEEK FROM PADLET - Comments From Padlet

Orla gave me a comment or two on how she thinks of the treatments so far, she prefers the second one. She found the vision to be much clearer than the first and the third treatments, said that the second treatment is much clearer in comparison.

[creativehistories-ren]

MOOD! - Moodboard Talk

When coming up with the animation's aesthetic, the main idea I was going for is something I can include aspects of physical mediums into. Whatever it is, graphite drawings, acrylic paint, oil pastels, I'd be alright with any physical mediums or anything digital that can hopefully resemble physical mediums.

(UPDATE: It was digitally done. It was pretty close to physical mediums, thank goodness.)

SO THAT'S WHY!!! - Remembering An Old Inspiration..

This was on my mind for some time.. Despite the moodboard I already made, I felt there was something missing. At the time, I couldn't remember what it was until the day I had a talk with my big brother when we were talking about the movie, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. It clicked: Miles' graffiti. Which was created by Patrick O'Keefe and Bob Persichetti. A graffiti piece that Miles made with his Uncle Aaron in the movie. In the movie, Miles was having a lot of pressure from his new school. When he met up with his uncle, he showed him a spot where he work on his art. A place where he could let it all out. Miles created the graffiti piece that was an aftermath from the pressure he got from his new school. The same issue I had growing up. You're stuck with the pressure, the proof is in what it is you create. You want it gone, but that led you to where you are now.The overall theme I was going for the motion picture.

But since Orla gave us the advice to not make an animation that resembles anything by Disney, Dreamworks or any other big-name animation studio. She said it'll take a lot of time. Which was very self-explainable knowing so. So for the motion picture. I decided to go for a rather simpler version while still holding the aspects of the graffiti's aesthetic.

[creativehistories-ren]

JOURNEY TO REALITY - The Process

It's a rough trip, especially when you're doing animation properly for the first time. Where I did each frame on Infinite Painter, then compiled it all on Splice. For sure, the process was tiring. But it was rather quick than I thought it was going to be, to be honest. The main trouble was figuring out which frame I was using to make which image and which frame was meant to be placed where. So overall, it was going great.. *swings arm* (John Mulaney reference!)

[creativehistories-ren]

TREATMENT TALK! - Second Session

It was a good session. We were divided into four groups, showing our treatments and storyboards.

Here's mine, so far:

Treatment 1:

- Synopsis -

Act 1 - Silhouettes filled with colored scribble clouds as heads. All except one figure. The silhouette has a colored scribbled cloud, but one that's less colorful to the rest, specks of monotone (black, grey & white - the hurt you might call. Wringing her head.

Act 2 - Other silhouettes have blasted colors here and there, while the one figure tries. But every time, it just blocks her. Wringing her out even more. And the more the hurt started to crowd her head. She ran to the rooftop.

Act 3 - The Hurt wrings her out even more. Until one moment, she snapped and scream into an explosion. When everything clears, the silhouette's color slowly started to brighten back more. She's kneeling on the floor. Colors were everywhere. She then found the Hurt trying to flee. The Hurt was is a snake-like scribble. The figure grabbed the Hurt, and crushed it to fade.

Genre: Drama, Dark Fantasy

Message: Final Girl Statement

Mood: Angsty, Edgy, Emotional

Characters: The Silhouette - The Hurt - Other Silhouettes

Visual Elements: Colored scribbled clouds as heads, mostly a hand-drawn aesthetic.

Music: Grungy melancholic feel with a lighter hopeful-esque melody. (Bishop Briggs or Labrinth aesthetica-like, maybe..) Something close to I'm Tired by Labrinth ft. Zendaya

Motion: Almost like a stop-motion, you might say. Frame by frame.

Treatment 2:

- Synopsis -

Act 1 - Sunflower figures aligned, structured & strict. They all follow the same pattern. Step after step. One fell out of line, the sun snapped at it.

Act 2 - All the sunflower figures closed as the sun sets. Until one sunflower earlier stepped out, despite it being midnight. She skipped a step after another, following the beat of a song. She started moving freely.

Act 3 - The moon noticed her. She got caught. The moon looked over to the side and made a signal, showing that he's keeping her secret. The little sunflower smiled back.

Genre: Fantasy

Message: Unleash your power

Mood: Cheerful, Mischievous, Light-hearted

Characters: The Sunflower - The Sun - The Moon

Visual Elements: Sunflower like silhouette figures, the sun & moon displayed as maestro.

Music: Subtly upbeat song, maybe a violin cover of Sunflower by Post Malone & Swae Lee

Motion: Stop motion / frame by frame, drawn (digital maybe..)

Treatment 3:

- Synopsis -

Act 1 - A young girl sketches a series of her imaginary friends. They come to life, they play together everyday. Until Reality pulled them apart. They're slowly starting to fade away.

Act 2 - Her imaginary friends seeked refuge in an alleyway, hiding from the world. They reach out to the light, reality snapped at them.

Act 3 - The young girl, a little older now. She caught a glimpse and towards them, to save them. She snapped, breaking free from the grasp of reality. To reunite with her friends once again.

Genre: Fantasy

Message: Keeping your madness alive

Mood: Whimsical, Cheerful, Mischievous

Characters: The Girl - Reality - The Wild Crew

Visual Elements: Oil Pastel-like Aesthetic

Music: Upbeat-ish, edgy, outcast anthem. Imagine Wild Things by Alessia Cara

Motion: Rough transitions, welcome. They don't have to be smooth. Thinking frame by frame.

Though the session felt a little rushed, but it was fun. Got some input on the story ideas. Tried out stop-motion, but we ended up learning that we've been pressing the tester-shot button instead of the actual camera when making it.. so, yeah. That's how THAT went. Not going to lie, there were some struggles with making the storyboards. The next task was to make an animatic. My goodness, did my inner musical fanatic self scream when I heard that. (Internally, that is..)

[creativehistories-ren]

OH! WHY, HELLO :) - First Session

It was our first session meeting with Orla and had a little groupwork discussing about story treatments and storyboards. Our tasks included creating storyboards based on the commercial Orla displayed and coming up with treatments describing a television series intro. My group got The X-Files (me and my inner Sci-Fi geek couldn't stop squealing, internally.. but I didn't want to ruin the whole scene when working with the group). Our objective is to make one and try to get the other groups to guess the intro, without us having to give it away immediately. Our next session is to come up with different storyboard sketches, moodboards, and treatments for our videos.

[creativehistories-ren]

Are You READY? - First Task

Before our first session, we were given a task to answer a series of questions. Not all of them, just as much as we can (minimum of four answers). Sketching out the answers and presenting them to our groups on the first session.

Here are my answers:

1. If your creativity/work was an animal, what would it be & why?

Mine would be a leopard. Symbolizing traits such as strength, resiliency and the need to follow your gut. Other traits include perception and authenticity.

2. List 10 things you need in order to create.

Music (Any Kind of Song that just clicks at the moment) - Warm White Lighting - Genuinely Good Or Fun Conversations - Mad Lad Energy Or Any Out-of-Context Moments (The kinds that unleash an immense amount of endorphins or moments that you feel "Yeah, this is where I'm supposed to be") - Hazelnut Coffee (I do. Yes, I drink Hazelnut Coffee. Does that answer your question, Mr. Chilli Cilliano??) - Any grudges, problems or itchy thoughts that are stuck running in your head.. - An Object That Is Currently Stuck In Mind (In this case, a red carnation. Thank you Hadestown & Ms. Anaïs Mitchell) - Any Place Where I Won't Come Across Any Obnoxious Tyrants - An Objective or A Statement You Want To Say In Your Work - Pisang Ambon / Pisang Susu Syrup (My drive and my kryptonite..)

3. List any 10 things that have been important to your creative journey.

Memory Box (or Memories, in general) - Music (more specifically, AJR + Labrinth + Fitz And The Tantrums + more..) - Stories That Stick (Whether it's a novel, a movie or a TV show, etc.) - The Itch In The Back Of My Hippocampus On Wanting To Say The Idea When No One Else Has Bothered To Say It - An Objective That Sticks To You & All Your Work, Mission (if that makes sense, like the main drive? I guess you can say.) - Networking (Clicking With Other Artists) - The Chance To Break For Once a.k.a. The Decision To Leave My Middle School To Go Into Art. - That Day I Screamed On That Rooftop - The Hurt I'm Still Stuck With (and what it is I'm healing) - The People I Know & Love

4. What challenges you, or gets in the way? & What do you enjoy, and what comes easily?

What challenges me has always been authority. By that I mean the one where majority of the rules or aspects of the system doesn't make any sense. (An example wearing white socks that are 5 cm above your ankle or else you'll get 5 demerits or having to give your teacher's coffee order or else you get 10 demerits or being told down for your opinions.) In other words, being restrained. What I do enjoy is getting to come across individuals who share the same kind of madness we work with. Whether it's interest-wise, or morality-wise. Mad Lad energy just got on a whole other level.

5. What is a good piece of advice or a quote (re. creativity) that you have been given?

I think a few of the greatest quotes I know is one by James Gunn: "One of the things that drives me in telling stories, is finding the beautiful in a big mass of ugly." Another by Salvador Dali: "A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others." Another few were from a dream like-sequence, I forgot where it was from specifically: "People may think we're crazy or off-the-wall for the madness we hold, but I know one thing. We have greater, much bigger things to do than caring about what they think." + "Let your madness thrive, because it's not meant to be running in your head for no reason." + You entered the game your way, you go through it the same."