In this task, I was given instructions to make a GIF from any of my preferred movies. My choice fell on Spirited Away as it’s one movie that holds special place for me. To create the GIF, I employed Giphy.com and found the procedure quite simple and easy-going. The image selection came down to a character who has an identity tied with being silent and motionless not uttering words or shifting their gaze at all. For enjoyment, I have added a talking mouth and wild eyes to this. It is an entertaining method of demonstrating the character’s unusual actions, making them seem extremely animated and overdone.
The entire procedure was easy, but the concept behind it was enjoyable. It brought satisfaction to transform a sombre, controlled character by adding an unforeseen comical side. The outcome appeared as I thought an eccentric, overstated version of a usually serene and composed individual.
For my course character project, I picked an image from Drive since the film’s main character inspires my own. I was certain that something from Drive will be useful to me, though no specific picture initially came to mind. However, after some time spent on PisCart tweaking and adjusting different pictures, finally managed to tune it up right for how envision in the character creation.
At the beginning, I began with a color version. I moved towards green and blue shades to highlight the background. However, after adjusting settings for some time, I then chose to change it to black and white. The intense grey tones seemed suitable for portraying the mood that was intended my character gives an impression of fitting in a black-and-white movie; thus this modification felt more appropriate.
Editing was not difficult, but selecting the appropriate picture and mood took some more time. Eventually, in black and white shades, the backdrop appeared to be much dramatic – this brought about the depth I desired for in the image. To exhibit variation, I’ll show you original photo as well. Overall, the process was more about getting the right atmosphere than doing complex edits, and I’m happy with how it turned out.
I do not have a purse or a bag that I usually carry around (other than my book bag of course), so I decided to do a “What’s in my bag” for my course character, Veronica Malone. I go more in depth about her in my post, Meet Veronica Malone, but I will still give a quick rundown. She is a part of the hard-boiled detective archetype, who was raised in Boston, Massachusetts, and has a no-nonsense, quick-witted, fiery personality.
For the bag itself, I feel like she would treat herself to a high-quality, good looking bag, so I went with this black leather bag. Then, she would have a note pad and pen in case she needs to note anything that she sees when she is out and about, or maybe just to doodle in. Next, she would have a flip phone, as she believes she doesn’t need the new, updated technology as the flip phone functions just fine for her. Then, she would have all of her makeup products, in her favorite color red of course, in case she needs to touch it up throughout her hard work days. She would also have her sunglasses, which are a stylish, tiny pair, enough to keep the sun out of her eyes. Lastly, she loves gum, specifically the cinnamon flavored gum (which is very controversial I guess), so she always makes sure to have a pack with her.
This was probably my favorite assignment so far, as I was able to build on Veronica as a character, as well as get a bit creative with what she would like/carry with her at all times. I can’t wait to build on her character even more in future assignments.
This tattoo is something the character I created Jack Cross would selected because it signifies all about him, his double life, his firm mentality and the burden of his history. The wolf stands for his self-reliance and capacity to steer through life without any companion; always quiet but aware, similar to how he is. His profession as a driver which requires constant forward movement with no time to look back at what’s passed away can be seen in the imagery of the road disappearing towards infinity. This is to remind that his route isn’t ever fixed, and there’s always a possibility for escape. The minor cross which hangs from the wolf’s teeth acts as most intimate part of the design. It signifies necklace given by his father which he lets himself retain as only thing from past. He holds it, but it does not have power over him. Jack doesn’t share about himself, yet this tattoo represents him instead. It is a calm indication—he’s like a solitary wolf, an individual constantly on the go who respects his history but rejects being labelled by it.
To make this tattoo, I first found base images everything I thought would symbolize jack. Then I searched up an image of what they might look like all together. I then used that image as a goal. I am taking a course this semester that is teaching out to use photoshop, so I thought it might be a good time to try and put pictures together. The colors of each picture are used to show different types of moods. Red (angry) Blue(sad) black (mischievous) yellow (happy) pink(loving). This process of creating a tattoo was simple enough since I had a base image it really just came down to changing the background colors.
In this photoblitzer activity I tried to capture as many of the photo ideas listed below as I could in the timeframe of 20 minutes.
20:49 was my photoblitz code. The following 7 tasks were assigned to me.
Make an abstract or literal photo that expresses how you feel.
Take a photo in which a mirror is a major element
Make a photo that emphasises one color much more than any others in the shot
Make a photograph that features vertical lines today.
The theme is blue. Blue Monday? Blue bird? Or something else blue?
Giraffes are brilliant. Show us what it would be like if they lived in human society.
Gauges, meters, and turn signals are all indicators.
My first photo was a screenshot of my phone screen. In this photo I was capturing my starting time @ 8:48pm.
Now that my time has started, I immediately start scrambling around to search for photos and images around me that matched with each task.
“Make an abstract or literal photo that expresses how you feel”
I took a picture of a picture that I have up in my living room. This lady is standing in front of a beach inside a nice home and dressed in fabulous clothes. It may or may not be her home, but she looks unbothered and comfortable in her own right. Her posture with her arms crossed is what gave me this perception of her in this photo. You also can’t see her eyes or forehead you can only see her lips. Her lips are kind of pierced and sassy looking. This photo expresses how I feel today; Glamourous, sassy, and unbothered… and wishing I was at the beach!
“Take a photo in which a mirror is a major element”
I wasn’t sure what to do for this one. I actually completed this task last, and I was in a rush because I only had a few minutes left on the clock. I pulled out my body mirror and I took a selfie of myself with my forward camera facing the mirror with me halfway in and halfway out. The mirror was the major element here because you can see multiple perceptions of me only because of the mirror literally mirroring my face when I took the picture.
“Make a photo that emphasizes one color much more than any others in the shot”
I took a picture with my iPhone of another picture that I have hung up in my kitchen area. This was a picture of a flower, but you can’t see thw entire flower because I was extremely close and zoomed in to this particular spot on the flower. I did this to emphasize the darker purple color more than any other color on this flower.
“Make a photograph that features vertical lines today.”
I looked around in my apartment and at first, I couldn’t find anything that featured vertical lines. Of course, I could find things with horizontal lines everywhere. Then I looked over and I saw my balcony blinds hung up and those feature many vertical lines.
“The theme is blue. Blue Monday? Blue bird? Or something else blue?”
For this task I found so many blue items in my house. I will feature several photos of random blue themed items here. I was literally running around my house taking pictures of everything blue. This was my second favorite task. Once you see the task below this one you will understand why it’s my second favorite. But I will say, it was almost like my inner child came out while I was doing this. I was frantically running around my apartment and just going nuts, taking pictures of everything blue. I just kept thinking “OOP this is blue, oh look this is blue, wait omg I never noticed but this is even blue”, and I got the chance to let some of my impulsive behaviors here, so that was fun. Also, it was perfect because I was even wearing blue while doing this exercise.
“Giraffes are brilliant. Show us what it would be like if they lived in human society.”
Ladies and gentlemen, this was my favorite task!!! I looked up on google photos of giraffes and I found the one below, decided to print it out, and then place it in two different areas to show how this giraffe would live in this human society. The first pic, I put this pic in front of my resting Roku tv with the cyber color themed in the background. It has buildings and such and I placed the giraffe there and snapped a picture. Then I placed the giraffe on the couch and laid him on a pillow and gave covered him with a blanket to keep him warm. What a better way to say this giraffe would spend in a human society other than sitting on the couch watching the Roku!?
“Gauges, meters, and turn signals are all indicators.”
For my last task, I had to call my boyfriend and ask him what items in my apartment are gauges and/or meters. I took multiple pictures of my findings. One was of my thermostat, and the other of my hot water machine heater meter. I did my best on this one!
My last photo is a screen shot I took on my iPhone to capture my ending time. Which was at 9:08pm.
After going through multiple pages of visual assignments, I was struck with a bolt of inspiration when I saw the rainbow showcase assignment. I immediately thought of my favorite movie, The Corpse Bride, which is so important to me that I have a tattoo dedicated to it and paraphernalia of it can be found throughout my room at home and my dorm. Tim Burton has always been known for his stylistic and aesthetic choices and it rings true with The Corpse Bride especially as Victor and Emily go between the land of the living and the land of the dead. Burton has used color in this film to showcase levels of societal structure and independence and the feelings associated with it. There are three main settings throughout the movie: the land of the living, the land of the dead, and the land of the living when the dead rise and walk the earth. Each of these settings have their own unique color schemes that reflect the feelings and atmosphere with the characters.
The movie begins in the land of the living where everything is monochromatic desaturated blues and greys. This reflects the boring, mundane routine of daily life especially with the constraints of society on everyone. We see this repetition in the opening credits where there is the sound of a ticking clock and visuals of the townspeople engaging in their jobs. One person is just sweeping the ground back and forth in the same spot, another is just chopping off fish head after fish head, and so on. Everything is dull, emotionless, tedious and it must go “according to plan” as the Everglots and Van Dorts sing in the opening song about Victor and Victoria’s arranged marriage that is being held to fit with the standards of marrying for status rather than love which implies strict levels of rigidity and no freewill.
Assorted stills in the land of the living in Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride (2005)
After Victor meets Emily and they travel down to the land of the dead after the misunderstanding of their accidental marriage, the viewer is met with a shocking vibrancy. The land of the dead is incredibly saturated and colorful and everyone is doing their own thing and having fun. There’s no real rules, no structure, no routine, everyone is just “living life” and enjoying themselves out of the constraints of the land of the living. Everyone is joyful that Emily finally found a husband and they celebrate upon her arrival with Victor much to his immense confusion. Bright greens, blues, and purples dominate with other colors throughout. The transition from the land of the living to the land of the dead can be compared to the technicolor shift in The Wizard of Oz where everything in Kansas is greyscale, but Oz an explosion of color. In the case of The Corpse Bride, this is to showcase freedom from the monotony of life.
Stills from the land of the dead in Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride (2005)
After Victor and Emily hatch a plan to bring the dead to the land of the living for them to actually wed, they all crash Victoria and Lord Barkis’s wedding and chaos ensues; the living meets the dead, social constraint meets independent freewill. The results in the colors of the land of the dead to leech into the land of the living to showcase a clash of the two worlds. However, towards the end when Barkis’s plan is uncovered and subsequently foiled, peace is achieved. The color reverts to a palette similar to the beginning in the land of the living, however, the colors are a bit more saturated to showcase an acceptance and an embrace of life rather than an apathy towards it.
Top 3: Stills from when the inhabitants of the land of the dead rising to the land of the living (Burton, 2005). Bottom 3: Stills of the end of the movie when balance is restored (Burton, 2005).
I had so much fun with this assignment. This movie means the world to me and I love to talk about it and analyze it. I’ve been wanting to sit down and do a color analysis for a while now, and this gave me the perfect excuse to do it and write all my thoughts down. It’s really fascinating to see the impact that color has on our views and the message that is being relayed and this movie in particular uses color palette so well. I used the description of the assignment loosely as the original description was to just pick examples of colors in the film or show of my choosing and explain why those examples were chosen, but I felt like a color analysis was more appropriate as color is used for a reason not just for viewing pleasure.
I chose to do a design assignment for my character Krissy Ryan. I don’t know why, but I always pictured Krissy as a movie character and less of a video game character. However, I thought the prompt of making a video game home screen was really cool, and I have been inspired by other people doing this prompt so I wanted to take a swing at it. This prompt was challenging for me because I don’t play a lot of video games, and the ones I do don’t have that classic “Game Over, Play Again” screen, so I needed to look for inspiration. My goal for this assignment was to get a very basic sense of Krissy’s story (to really boil it down, she has a very dramatic change in scnery) from the home screen, while still keeping the video game look.
*****Flash Warning*****
I used Canva to create the screen, and I was messing around with the different elements they offered. I love Canva, but I often forget that you don’t have the most freedom when it comes to designing your image. If I had the skills, I would use Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, but I don’t so I have to settle for Canva and whatever it has. Like I said, my goal was to show the general sense of the story from the home page, so I did a split screen of Krissy in front of her normal life and Krissy in front of the future. The image I used for the Cyberpunk future was inspired by one of the readings we did from the first week where it says the vision for Cyberpunk is “Tokyo on a bad day.” I added some glitch effects to add to the cyberpunk theme. Other than coming up with an initial concept for my home screen, the hardest part was the play button. I wanted the A to be in the symbol of a triangle, but the spacing was really hard to get just right.
I like how my home screen came out and although I still picture Krissy as a movie character, maybe this can be a video game made to market the movie. I’m not a video game fan, other than the classic Dress to Impress, but I think I would play this game!
In the assignment Tattoos that Describe you, I did a tattoo that my character Evelyn Calico would have.
The top right corner tattoo is what Evelyn would have and its a straight spine tattoo. Evelyn is a classy gal and whilst she is a writer she also loves to read books (her favorite are Agatha Christie novels). The roses are her favorite touch to this piece because roses mean so many things. She loves how dainty they are but that they can be thorny and prickly. The sword was added to the design last minute because while she was waiting to get the final design she was looking at the drafts and realized that she wanted something that not only can be straight on her spine but also strong and can show her independence, so she asked for a sword to be integrated into the design. She also wanted a pop of color so she made only the flowers be colored in.
To make this assignment I scrolled through Pinterest and looked for “writer tattoo ideas” and found this one. I then imported it into Procreate for Apple and decided that I wanted to color some part of this design so I decided on coloring the roses and thorns. The assignment also stated to “make multiple copies of that, and add different color effects to each copy. Each Color is unique, and can depict different mood.” So I made multiple layers of the finished product and put them into a grid. I “alpha locked” every layer so that when I made a edit to a layer it would only affect the one selected. I added a transparent color to each layer except the top right corner to make them different colors without hindering the roses. I then played around with canvas textures and hues, each square a different adjustment type. Once I was happy with how each layer looked I had the finished product!
This assignment is the Color Changer. I chose this assignment because I think its really cool to alter photos with different hues and finding out how that changes the scene and the mood of the photo.
This is a photo of Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida during Christmas time. I knew that I wanted a photo of Disney but I wasn’t sure what I would do with it. As I was browsing different events that Disney has I remembered the classic “Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party” that they host every halloween where patrons are able to dress in costume for one night and trick or treat around the park. The idea is that I would like Disney during Christmastime and adjust the hues to make it look more halloween themed and name it “Mickey’s Not So Scary Christmas Party”!
I used Procreate for Apple for this assignment. I imported the original photo into procreate and only used the canvas editing tools (no coloring!). I started with the hues and made it more green and kinda ugly and make the saturation higher. I gave the canvas more noise and used the “Chromatic Aberration” adjustment and gave it a mild screen print look which made it more grainy. After 10 more minutes of messing with the hues and saturation I settled on this look that was bright so it gave the Disney aesthetic, but had completely different colors than the photo before! See below!
