Refined Final Project

I changed the music and modified the beginning sequence a bit in hope to set a better "stage" for the project. I also edited the animations of the characters and background a little bit to ease the "jumping" between images but it seems like it is still not perfect... lol

Final Project.. last day of class ever! YAY

Final project draft

Per our last critique, I have changed the entire storyboard of my final project. The idea of this final project is to resemble my childhood memories when I play and listen to one of Chopin's Nocturne...

Still need to work on timing and some frame jumping a little bit more.

Sketches

1

I decided to omit this frame. But I want to show the kind of color texture I am looking for... pastels on sketchbook paper..

2

Dialog: "I remember when I was a kid, I'd die for a cotton candy. There's only this one place in the mall, far far away, that can buy cotton candies...they're not cheap and I'd save up all the tiny-little-bit-money I have, just to eat them."



3




4

Dialog:"hmm fly fly away, so soft, so cuddley, not too sweet, I like it."

Dialog:"But then, there's one time, this kid ...ahhh! he destroyed my candy!!...I was so sad"

5




6

Dialog: My mom used to say, "Oh we don't have space to buy a piano... so why don't you just learn ballet!"

7




8

Dialog: "So when she and Joey found out I started to play piano, they both pretty much said "Oh! you'll probably only play it for a year or two, you'll be done with it, just like everybody else... what a waste of money!"

9




10




11

Bubble popping sound

12




13

Found my childhood dreams - not destroyed, still there hiding behind the bushes.

final project response

After today's critique, I am going to combine idea #1 (random thoughts when I play Chopin) with #2 (go into a dream world of myself.) I am going to use hand drawing like style to create this video similar to the "My First Crush" video we watched ...swifting colors and line weight to give a more rough/loose look.

The next step: I will need to figure out how exactly this video is going to flow and create storyboard based on that.

Final Proposal

1) Random thoughts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY4Epc2XSGc
I really like their idea to have some weird yet very interesting animation matching the voice over. I want to build a video similar to that but the theme will be on some of my random thoughts when I play/listen/talk about Chopin's music. Aesthetically, it'll be created with some strange and loose graphics and I also want to use a few different pieces of Chopin to represent the mood of my thoughts.

2) Gone into the dream world
http://www.pixelnitrate.com/movie.php?movie=papiroflexia

I watched the above video on origami... really like the aesthetics (textures and flat characters) and the flow of the video..
So I want to build a video of a female character in her bedroom, drinking coffee.. she looked down on the stream of the coffee and that brought her into the dream world of Chopin (music notes and maybe dance with him etc)


3) A flower's journey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S4hNMqDhoo
THis video is very well done. I like the similar black and white line drawing quality so maybe I'll create a video that shows the bloom of a flower via line drawing, matching the speed of one of Chopin's piece.

Assignment 4

I followed the instructions to create a list of words related to my research topic and then using those words to create some really odd sentences. I feel that these sentences are barriers because they are kind of strange. I chose the colors pink (romance), blue (night time and sky), etc to match the meaning of the sentences (if any) and tried to use the mini-animation to replicate them.

I think I am a bit stuck and didn't do very well for this assignment... I am a bit confused -- am I supposed to use images to do the animation or just text? Regardless I finished the assignments...

Assignment 4 b

Feeling Sad in the evening vanish into the melody
Curly children dance delicate reabsorbed into a broken pearl
Writer's passion missing the poet
Purple sound concretes the past
Lonely love evokes harmony unassured

Assignment 4

night
sad
purple
flower
blue
evening
classical
romantic
soft
technique
piano
pianissimo
petal
glass
concrete
music
Poland
mazuka
nocture
ballard
ppianist
sick ill
tuberculosis
warsaw
sonta
poloniass
artist
poet
prodigy
lizst
weak
admire
george
sand
writer
curly wavy
pleyel
dance
childhood
lonely
solitude
delicate
autumn
October
past
old time
traditional
flow
sound
hesitate
measures
unassured
harmony
evoke
feelings
soul
pearl
broken
pure beauty
innocent
inspirtation
passion
love
sad
missing
bears
children
dance
silent
hide and seek
vanish
melody
delight
ample
splendid
simple
reduction
black
feminine
sentimental
famous
negative
rabbit
cruel
reality
enjoyment

Assignment 3

I experiment different type effects and fonts in this assignment. I attempt to use different colors to deliver the same meaning as the words (yellow = happy, purple = seduction, etc.) I enjoyed using the text animator more than the path text effect since it gives me more control.

Brainstorm

I am considering to use a soft, cursive script fonts to describe Chopin's music because his music is soft and music is a very personal matter (hand writting font.) It'll be only black and white staying the same color scheme with the piano keys. I am going to pull out some of the critics and comments on his music from the books I borrowed from the library.

Artist Essay

I think I am going to write my essay on Katsumi Asaba mainly because he is asian and did some work on Chinese characters. Also I have seen his advertising work on Seibu and not to mention I am a big fan of Nissan's food!

Assignment 2 v 2

I added some more music notes in the begining per suggestions and changed the design of the gear a little bit in attempt to make the mechanical machinework better. Also edited the way Chopin animates... he kind of dance like Michale Jackson now.. lol.

Assignment 3

I liked to use the expression in AfterEffects, definitely interested to learn more about this. It saved me a lot of time and much easier for editing as far as some looping goes.

But how can I stop the loop at a certain timeframe after using the loop_Out expressions?

In general, I am quite happy how the illustration turns out...except needs to work on the animation of the character more. I think if I could to add some sound effects it could be better.

assignment 2 write up

In this assignment, I further experiment the possibility of using different transitions such as blending in through the colors, size and shapes, to create a more blend-in effect between each scene. I was hoping I could make the scenes blends better for a seamless effect but now I feel like I am ready to start on another project instead of editing this one.

I have drawn a mechanical character of Chopin instead of finding bitmap and collage one because I find illustrations much more interesting. I decided not to use color because most piano keys nowadays are black and white. Chopin, from the books and photos that I have seen is slim and tall (sick all the time), so I decided to mimic that and put a metronome for his body.

Artist

http://theaphroditeproject.tv/
http://www.milmoe.com/collaborations.htm

Assignment 1 Write Up

In this assignment, I decided to use the photos and images from last week as a experiment of my research project. Focusing only on the right hand melody and beats of Chopin's Nocturne No. 9 Op1, I rotated and adjusted the opacity of the photos in attempt to represent this piece in a visual way. I chose to use photos of glass, vase, lace and petals to represent his fragile and delicacy. In addition, I have also used candle light to represent the loneliness in his music. At then end of the movie, I used photo of water bubbles and concrete in contrast to his delicacy in art and his masculine nature.

This assignment is directly related to my research project as I created this as a test to see if my idea would actually work as a final, more developed, stay-alone piece.

"The Kid Stays in the Picture"

I enjoyed watching the documentary. I love the way how they utilize stills photos and animate it on the screen to make it looks like its video footages. Among all the scenes I watched, I think I like the"newspaper articles" where they overlay the texts and cut out the people... it was quite a refreshing idea for me.

I was impressed on how much work they've put into this documentary (as far as editing goes) just to keep the audiences' eyes entertained. Also was surprised how much credit the director gave to the After Effect "editor" (unlike the common director assholes stereotype). There's a transition that I particularly like in the movie -- where the camera goes through this beautiful house, from the living room then fireplace, at last it reaches outdoor pool. The camera looks down and focuses on the special effects and lighting on water and then another raining scene slowly fades in. It was very seamless and really nicely done.

Proposal

Music is one of the most primary forms of art. As humans we were introduced to rhythm by listening to heartbeats back when we were in our mothers' womb. Music travels through time and beyond the boundaries of languages and places. It is one of the fine arts that does not require formal training in order to appreciate and participate in.

I am going to use the Nocturnes, by Fredric Chopin, as inspiration for my research project. The compositions of Chopin's Nocturnes appear simple and typically do not require advanced skills to perform. Even the simplest notes of his Nocturnes could strike a chord with my deepest emotions.

My plan is to use the music notes from Chopin's pieces as a motion guide, calculating distances between the notes from each measures, as well as using different colors/shapes/objects to represent each key. By using these representational images, I will create abstract animations that match fingers' movement throughout the piece. I plan on using video clips or bitmap images such as glass, marbles, concrete, water waves, etc. that can best represent his music from my own interpretation without actually playing the music in the background.

Approach

Chopin is by far my favorite composer; my favorite of his works would be his Nocturne series. I'd like dedicate my research assignments to Chopin... using imagery and text to represent his music in a personal way...my own interpretation.

Of all the Nocturnes that Chopin wrote, my favorite piece perhaps, would be his Nocturne C Sharp Minor Pos. No. 2 -- one of the nocturnes that was published after his death. Every notes of this piece reaches my soul. It seems that he is so fragile, delicate, hesitate, and yet in the middle of the piece remains he remains hope, child-like and sign of happiness...

Glass -- the fragile, colorful, transparent, requires delicately handled material. I feel that by using imagery of glass or some sort of purple/blue mosaic tiles would be best to represent his music visually.

Books and articles

1. Chopin - The Man and His Music by James Huneker
   Published 1972 - Scholarly Press, Inc. New York.
   "... Whereas most of our life is passed far from blood, cries and swords, and the tears of men have become silent, invisible and almost spirtiual." "His outward state was not niggardly of incident thought his inner life was richer, nourished as it was in the silence and the profound every intrusion." "Chopin left Warsaw with a light heart, with a mind full of ideas, perhaps full of dreams and fame and happiness." ...
   "Chopin's purity of character was marked; he shrank from coarseness of all sorts, and the Fates only know what he must have suffered at times from George Sand and her gallant band of retainers." "Chopin needed an outlet for his sentimentalism. His piano was but a sieve for some, and we are rather amused than otherwise on reading the romantic nonsense of his boyish letters." "... Chopin's native indecision, his inability to make up his mind...Like many other men of genius he suffered all his life from folie de doute, indeed his was what specialists call 'a beauitful case.' This halting and irresolution was a stumbling block in his career and is faithfully mirrored in his art."
   "A thousand times he thought of renouncing his artistic ambitions and rushing to poland to fight for his country. He never did, and his indecision - it was not cowardice - is our gain. He put his patriotism .. his heroism into his Polonaises.... Chopin was psychically brave; let us not cavil at the almost miraculous delicacy of his organization"
   "My poor father! My dearest ones! perhaps they hunger?... Mother, poor suffering mother, is it for this you outlived your daughter?.... And I here unoccupied! And I am here with empty hands! Sometimes I groan, suffer and despair at the piano...."
   "A romantic by temperament he unquestionably was. Bu then his music, all color, nuance, and brilliancy, was not genuinely romantic in its themes"... "Forces its way to my soul".. "It pricks the nerves, it please the sense of the gigantic, the strange, the formless, but there is something uncanny about it all, like some huge prehistoric bird, horrid snout and scream."
   "Chopin is the narrative of an evening in the Chaussee d'Antin.."
   
   
   
2. Notes on Chopin by Andre Gide
   Philosophical Library. New York
   "His sole conern, it seems is to narrow limits, to reduce the means of expression to what is indispensable...." "Chopin proposes, supposes, insinuates, seduces, persuades; he almost never asserts" "... beyond his sadness he nevertheless attains joy; it is because the joy in him is dominant; a joy which has nothing of somewhat hasty and vulgar gaiety of Schumann; a felicity which joins hands with that of Mozart, but more human, participating in nature, and also incoroporated in the landscape that may be found in the ineffable smile of the scene at the water's edge in Beethoven's Pastorale."..."Chopin like a perfect artist, starts with notes; but, more than Valery, he at once allows a quite human emotion to invade this very simple situation, which he enlarges so that it becomes magnificent."...No Redundancy..."The way he is usually played, the way all the virtuosi play him, hardly anything remains but the effect. All the rest is imperceptible, which indeed, signifies above all: the very scret of a work in which no note is negligible... in which no rhetoric enters, no redundancy, where nothing is simple padding, as happens so often in the music of so many other composers, and I speak even of the greatest."
   
   
   
3. Designing and Making Mosaics
   Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
   
   
4. Flameworking - Glassmaking for the Craftsman
   Chilton Book Company. New York.
   The role of the artist-teacher is an interesting one. The expression he gives his ideas will be valuable to his students, but less important than a clear, forcible awakening in them of the adventurous artistic spirit. The teacher should remember as he progresses in h is own work that glass is still essentially unexplored. The material itself has depths of which we have only intimations: methods of display, lighting, the combination of glass with other materials in sculpture are questions which have scarcely been touched upon. So the student must be encouraged to go in his own direction. Everything depends on the student's own discovery of the inherent qualities of glass through his own experimentation. The teacher must at times remain as noncommittal as a Zen master; while at other times he must act decisively to discourage facile or imitative work. It is impossible to predict which students will continue to work in glass - to succeed as glass artists... The most brilliantly promising sometimes simply disappear or quit without any apparent reason or explanation. The teacher's primary obligation is to reveal for each student the full, unhindered range of creative possibilities available in glass. Once the student has adopted some discernible direction, the teacher can advise him of the implications and potentials of his course, illustrate techniques which might enhance his growth, and discuss the pertinent technology with him....,..... But because the most valuable techniques and processes employed before industrialization have been discovered anew and refined in the last ninety years, he probably will profit more by concentrating his historical attention on the great artists of the modern tradition... These men sought new kinds of beauty and new methods of achieving it. THe differed from their predecessors and are more pertinent to our own period because they were trained artists who became involved with glass out of fascination with its possibilities rather than as an extension of family involvement, or out of local tradition. ...
   The search for new materials and techniques is not only a part of the scene but may even be one of the driving forces.. The adventurous spirit of artists today has led them to tackle and master techniques heretofore throught to be solely within the province of industry, techniques such as electroformning... etc.
   
   "Art is a factor in the education of the whole man. The crafts and arts now mingle freely in the school, college, and university curriculum.... but the emphasis is now on the significance of the artist's search for a truly modern harmony of men and materials. The insistence on the value of individual creativity, the convicationo that the artist-crafsmen must freely explore his material and himself without restraints or imposed pressures, must remain the indispensible precondition to the development of the artist in general - and the glass artist in particular... THe glass artist needs to have an intimate feeling for the possibilties for the growth of form while he is working; he needs to be able to understand what he has done retrospectively, when the object has cooled, the artist has cooled, and the form can be studied... If the artist does not know what he's going to do until he does it, then he never can anticipate his technical requiremetns, he can satisfy them only when the need arises. His work determines everything. He is exploring not only a material, but himself as well!
   "Glass is often described as a supercooled liquid solution of inorganic materials with an amorphous structure. It is brittle, smooth, and hard, but also visous, flowing, endlessly ductile and responsive. It is brilliant or dull, opaque or transparent, intensely colored or colorless. The words used to describe glass are contradictory that anyone must wonder that any sense can be made of them. Yet, it is these very contradictions that mean so much to the artist. It is the change from the flowing viscous liquid that sticks and burns to the hard cold glass that beaks and cuts which endlessly fascinating to the artist. It is also th ekey to perceiving his own direction. BEcause glasss really has no shape, form, or definite substance, the artist is free to impose upon it his own sense of structure or form statement.
   
5. Mosaics by Angelica Garnett
   Oxford Paperbacks.UK, Oxford
   
   
6. Glassblowing - A Search for Form
   Van Nostrand Reinhold Company. New York.
   
   
7. Chopin's Bio
   http://pianosociety.com/cms/index.php?section=123
   " Rhythm: The left hand should act like an orchestra conductor...It is the clock...Rhythm must not be violated. "Rubato is for the right hand and should be restricted to a single bar or a melody figure but for where the rubato resides within the marked dynamics. The Mazurkas are the exceptions. "
   
   
   
8. The Nocturnes
   http://www.chopinsociety.org/chopin/nocturnes
   "A composer brought me a nocturne of so restless a description that it threatened to disturb my nocturnal rest." these pieces are 'too sweet,' or not very 'relevant' to our cheerless age, they are still expressive of another, happier age, and therefore entitled to bring pleasure to us poor deprived humans."
   "a pastiche of his nocturne style, with passages from his F minor Concerto. Friskin describes it as "a poverty-stricken nocturne."
   
   
9. Kaleidoscope Wiki
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaleidoscope
   "the tumbling of the coloured objects presents the viewer with varying colours and patterns."
   "Any arbitrary pattern of objects shows up as a beautiful symmetric pattern because of the reflections in the mirrors."
   
   
10. Color meaning
    http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html
    "Light purple evokes romantic and nostalgic feelings.
    Dark purple evokes gloom and sad feelings. It can cause frustration."
    "Light blue is associated with health, healing, tranquility, understanding, and softness.
    Dark blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness."
    
    

Opposite Images

1. Ice
2. Drum
3. Concrete
4. Bright Day Light
5. Spring Time
6. Disco
7. Stone
8. Buildings, City
9. Colorful flowers
10. Jeans
11. Metal Bars
    
12. The Sun
13. Plastics
14. Bricks
15. Clean Linen/bed sheets
16. Clear and bright blue sky
17. Children laughing faces
18. keyboard
19. night club
20. A bottle filled with water
    

Image

1. Water Drop
2. Petals
3. Fingers
4. Water wave
5. Color palete changes
6. Ballet
7. Moving Stars
   
8. Lines of Waves
9. Writing Circles
10. Evening Sky
11. Broken Glass
12. Blowing Glass
13. mosaic glass?
14. Rainny Days
15. Silk
16. Piano
17. Red Wine splits on white cloth
18. Stormy clouds
19. Black and White photos
    
20. Slow dance
    

Opposite

1. Strong
2. Bold
3. Manly
4. Yellow
5. Heavy Metal
6. Rock Band
7. The New Age
8. Thunder Storm
9. Healthy
10. Realistic
11. Green
12. Tough
13. Long-Lasting
14. Sociable
15. Crowded
16. Sit Around
17. Rough Surface
18. Noisy
19. Noon
20. Break Dance
    

20 ideas

1. Music
2. Nocturne
3. Mazuka
4. Slow beat
   
5. Chopin
6. Polland
7. Illness
8. Weak
   
9. Solitude
10. Fragile
11. Delicate
12. Water
13. Dance
14. Delicious
15. Romantic
16. Night
17. Purple
18. Blue
19. Pigments
20. Starry