~Doing Time~

So yup, as promised I started drawing or rather 'picturing' how my character should look like.
Here was the outcome:




However, I still wasn't satisfied as it wasn't stylized enough I guess.
Will be drawing more in order to have more choices.

At the mean time, doing my learning contract too.

Signing Off,
Vivien

Thumbnail Storyboard

Before showing Mr. Ronald my storyboards, I was kind of worried whether would it be approved as first of my sketches were way too sketchy. Luckily, accompanied with my explanation Mr. Ronald approved my storyboard and in fact, corrected one shot for me.

I am glad that he was able to understand them.
So here is my very extremely rough yet thumbnail storyboards:





Will be working on character sheet tomorrow hopefully~
Signing off,
Vivien

Finally It's TIME

Whoopie~ Finally my idea is approved.

But sad to say Shaun Tan didn't reply my email though. Luckily, I edited the situation previously which saved much of my time.

So this is what I had changed:

A young girl awakes to find monsters approaching her from all directions, slowly engulfing her with darkness. She moved and slipped from her bed, falling onto a grass patch. While sensing the same dark forces gathering on her, she forces herself to sprint across the field. Suddenly her surroundings turned into a swirl and found herself inside a well. Frogs began to fall from above adding on to her burden when she tried to climb out. The obstacle of frogs disappeared one by one along with the well. She’s caught in a place with adults crowding around her, making her feel small and tiny with pressuring eyes on her. An adult grabs her hand and pulled her to a wooden platform. The whole place turned bright immediately with paparazzi spamming photographs of her. Knowing that she’s on a stage, her mind turned blank and pushes her way out as she turns back. Just as all hope seems lost, the girl returns to her bedroom and broke down into tears. Her tears sparkled with brightness that filled the whole room. Warmness starts embracing her.

But before this, the ending was different. As she cried, her tears formed into a sunflower. I told this to Alan and he suggested to change the ending as it was some what similar to the original story of Shaun Tan where a red tree is grown.

Thus, the ending was changed.

Also, Alan was preparing me for the worst when he said "You do know that it is very tough having to animate many frogs."
Wow.. When I heard that statement, I was "Oh Holy Crap... What have I done into.." "Sigh"

Oh. He also suggested that I should not animate all in flash but rather animate it to symbols and transfer to After Effects and start animating from there.

[Hopefully you get what I am trying to say]

Yupie.. he demonstrated to me a small session of how to import the swf file to AE.
Thanks a million. I will heed his advice but first I have to make myself very familiar to After Effects.

Thanks Mr. Alan and Mr. Ronald for your help.
Now I just have to do my character design, thumbnail storyboards, animatics, schedule, background and finish up my learning contact.

Tata,
Vivien

A Day to Ponder

After much thought, it is finally decided that I will be adopting the story "The Red Tree".
Here how it goes:

At the beginning she awakes to find blackened leaves falling from her bedroom ceiling, threatening to quietly overwhelm her. She wanders down a street, overshadowed by a huge fish that floats above her. She imagines herself trapped in a bottle washed up on a forgotten shore, or lost in a strange landscape. She's caught in a tiny boat between towering ships about to collide, then suddenly she's on stage before a mysterious audience, not knowing what to do. Just as all hope seems lost, the girl returns to her bedroom and finds a tiny red seedling growing in the middle of the floor. It quickly grows into a vivid red tree that fills her room with warm light. Each image remains open to various interpretations in the absence of any accompanying description. What minimal 'story' there is seeks to remind us that just as bad feelings are inevitable, they are always tempered by hope.

This was exactly what I was experiencing during a few months back. I just felt that everything was taken away from me; things from all aspect- love life, school life, work life. In fact, during that time I did have suicidal thoughts but I always believe that when there is a will, there is a way.

So, with hope and determination I am still alive and kicking. WOOT~!

[Note] Just sent an email to Shawn Tan seeking permission to adopt his story.
Hopefully he will reply; I got a backup plan too- to change the scenarios.

Alan mentioned that as long the situation is different I am able to use the story even without his permission.

Hope all things work out good

Cheers
Vivien

Stress MODE

Today was in particular a rather stress day for me.

I was searching high and low for a story; a story that was of meaning and relates to me in my daily life.
Hours have passed, but the stories I found just could not 'link' to me.

Thanks to Hanis for taking some precious time in searching for a story for me; she introduced :
http://www.rogerknapp.com/inspire/take_the_son.htm

That was when I was reminded of the anime "Paprika". This anime is AWESTRUCK if there is such a word. It is simply awesome with its extraordinary visuals and out of the box storyline.

After watching Paprika, I flipped through a book "" which I had borrowed. It was there and then did a story "The red Tree" caught my attention and in fact, relates to me in my life such as now.

I did research on it and also on the person who came up with the fantastic story idea:

Shaun Tan was born in 1974 and grew up in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. In school he became known as the 'good drawer' which partly compensated for always being the shortest kid in every class. He graduated from the University of WA in 1995 with joint honours in Fine Arts and English Literature, and currently works full time as a freelance artist and author in Melbourne.

Now, I just have to tell Mr. Ronald about "The Red Tree".

Signing out,
Vivien

~ 2nd Consultation ~

I was delighted as the new morning began.

With high hopes, I shared to some of my friends about my new story:

A strawberry girl skipping happily in the land of fruits, where she suddenly saw a dying seed and felt sad. She cried on it and her tears brought it to life- An orange friend was born.

But it all became a disappointment when they prefered my original story- the moon story. My heart literally sank deep down to the bottom of the ocean.

This time round I consulted both Mr. Elfie and Mr. Ronald and a little from Mr. Alan. I shared with them my problem. Mr. Elfie mentioned that my mind was too fixed on the moon. He suggested that I should scrape out the moon idea and maybe find more folklores or even doing an animation from the heart. He also mentioned that I could list out what expressions I want my character to have and take note of interesting scenes.

Alan mentioned that my idea was interesting, just that with this one idea alone it may not sustain the audience to wanting to watch the full animation. He also suggested that I may adapt a story.

Upon hearing this, I was indeed saddened/stressed out but at the same time panicking.
I searched on interesting animation and this caught my attention:

http://www.aniboom.com/animation-video/289751/Fore/

Guess I will be adapting a story if my head is truly idea-less

Signing off,
Vivien

~Mini Consultation~

Somehow when the day started, I was still feeling anxious deep inside. I have been thinking of developing my story overnight but it was just too tough; I believe I was brain block.

So even before my mini consultation began, I shared my story to Tri. She showed me a short clip which was rather similar to my 'fat' story. It shows a fat man who is madly in love with a thin lady, but as he is afraid that she will not love him because he is fat; he went to exercise till he became thin. But as he saw her, she actually like a fat man. The message seen in here was very similar to what I wanted to portray that is to be contented for who you are and that size doesn't matters. It is the heart that counts.

With this, Tri mentioned that why not as the boy was looking out of the window; the moon is alone and all the stars are away from him. This was where it actually made me sparked an idea. I was thinking that as the boy sees the moon alone, with his child conscious he pushed the moon towards the stars. The moon was shocked as to why it is moving. As it moves towards the stars, they all scream and said go away. I was thinking towards this line.

But still having difficulties having to develop it further.
AHHHH!! I really need God's help.

Thanks Tri for your suggestion ya. :)

When I went back home, I found some good references:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/508301
http://www.aniboom.com/animation-video/22827/Beyond-the-Window/

When will I have an idea?

Signing Off,
Vivien

~First Consultation~

My time has finally arrived to consult Mr. Ronald for my FYP idea.

Even before the consultation, I had feedbacks from friends that my story should have a morale behind it.

So this was the original story which I shared with him:

3) Tell me why (not yet confirm)
At night, as the boy was about to sleep. He pointed to the window and asked his mum ' How come the moon shape can change into a crescent?' the mum replied 'Don't think about it. Go and sleep' as soon the light is turned off, zooms quickly to the moon showing him exercising to be fit. When he was admiring his crescent figure at the river below, the Milky Way appeared behind him where he was tempted and ate the whole chocolate; making him a full moon (fat) again. The other stars around him see how fat he was, they laughed at him. Being hurt, he went back to exercise again so that the stars would not laugh at his fats.

The story with the morale added:
At night, as the boy was about to sleep. He pointed to the window and asks his mum ' how come the moon shape can change into a crescent?' the mum says 'don't think about it. Go and sleep' as soon the light is turned off, zooms quickly to the moon showing him exercising to be fit. When he was admiring his crescent figure at the river below, he noticed a lost girl crying. She was lost in the woods. Being a kind soul, the moon tried shining his light for the girl to see her way but as he was thinner there wasn't enough light. So the moon actually had a choice to choose. To sacrifice his size in order to help her find her way. So he ate so much that he became round (fat) and with all his might shone the brightest light, and the girl manages to find her way back home.

When I shared with Mr. Ronald both my ideas, he said that the second story was rather confusing and maybe make abit no sense. This I have to agree. Due to the fact that it doesn't depend on the shape of the moon to giving off the amount of light.

As for the first story, he said the idea was interesting but I have to further develop it. He also suggested that he finds my P3 story to have the potential and should develop it. But one thing which I was afraid of would be the originiality.

"Oh man.." was the first thing that came to my mind when Mr. Ronald told me to develop my story further. Though I was happy that the fact that he mentioned the idea was interesting but now I am having a headache just developing it to make it as a whole package.

I also showed him some sketches of my moon:





Now, squeezing my brain juice to develop my story further.

Cheers,
Vivien

~Start of the 1st lesson~

The first official lesson has begun.

As I waited for my turn(consultation) to arrive; it never did happen as I will be sharing with Mr. Ronald my ideas tomorrow instead.

So just to share three of my four very extremely vague stories I suppose.

1)Life of a Teddy bear (to be verified)
A young girl holding her beloved teddy bear alongside with her mum walking in the park where her teddy bear accidentally drops into the pond. The journey begins when the bear faces obstacles e.g. being grabbed by a bird , but manages to be safe. Viewers can see the sadness on the bear's face but as it lands back to the owner with one of its button eyes popped out, it gave a huge smile; showing that what goes around comes around and also showing the ups and downs in life, that every obstacles comes together for good.

[But the only problem faced in this story would be deciding the obstacles and bearing in mind that the obstacles too has to be interesting so that it will capture the audiences attention.Not forgetting, animating the bear in water would be freaking tedious.]

2) The Surprise (not yet confirm)
A strawberry girl saw missing signs of her fellow fruit friends which eventually led her to a special door. She opened the door and entered the world of the humans. One of the humans put her into a basket full of nuts. Panicked is she, she stacked all the nuts and managed to come out of the basket to find out that her fruit friends has actually gang up with the humans just to celebrate her birthday.

[I think the problem to this story would be, it is really vague.]

4) Life is shit
A man in his spaceship has been in search for living form for the past ten days but couldn't find any. As he looked at his container, he suddenly felt the urge to shit so he went to the toilet. As the shit comes out, it is being wrapped by a Styrofoam and being shot into space.
Hours have passed. He passed by mars and saw some living creatures. So he landed on mars. As he tried taking the living thing, it went to its home (a hole) and the man puts his hands in only to take the Styrofoam that was wrapped around his shit. The life form was indeed his shit.

[Maybe the shit joke is too shitty?]

Feel Free to give suggestions ya.

Will be sharing the final idea to Mr. Ronald tomorrow.
Hopefully the consultation will turn out well.

Signing off,
Vivien

~Briefing Day~

Yesterday was the day where we finally headed back to school...

I really missed my fellow classmates after not seeing and being with them for the past 3 months. As we set foot into Here After, Mr. Alan briefed us about our FYP requirements and such;

1)Schedule
2)Assessment
3)Approach
4)Failure

Indeed, pointing out the four pointers is essential for our knowledge and especially the 'failure' part which scares me the most but yet is encouraging at the same time.

Why is it encouraging? Because I had experience my trial run FYP and was reminded not to repeat its HISTORY.

Something I will bear in my heart.

And yes... Both Mr. Alan and Mr. Ronald have finalised who belongs to which class.

So, hopefully tomorrow I will get the time to share my 'insecure' idea to Mr. Ronald.

Cheers,
Vivien






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