JK DESIGNS

WORK DONE!!

2010-07-03T18:01:00.000-07:00

After 2 months of nearly 24/7 nighters, the animation of Hundred Pacer is finally completed.
However, the movie clip will not be uploaded until the expo is finished on July 20th.
so for those who have been waiting, I'm gonna have to say sorry again...be paitent

Here is a few snapshots taken from the actual work,
imaging for yourself what the actual film will be like...

Hundred Pacer development---a teaser

2010-07-01T17:56:00.000-07:00

so, in order to recieve more feedbacks on the fandom group
at http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=186188194091&ref=ts

An animation teaser was uploaded earlier, available at:
http://hundredpacer.limewebs.com/explosion_scene_teaser.html

Animation Work-in-Progress Part3 (voice over, background music)

2010-06-20T12:44:00.000-07:00

lip-synching is another one difficult thing to accomplish. Fortunately, there's only a few characters in the story that need voice-over. I, of course, would lip-synch the father, and Muni, I had to ask a friend of mine to do me a favor. So what I did is to pre-write all the lines that Muni needs to speak, and have my friend (a woman) to reherse by herself over and over. This is definitely not an easy task, since the lip-synching process has to be fully emotion evolved.

Animation Work-in-Progress Part2 (where is mom?)

2010-06-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

For those who have read the storyboard patiently, you should be wondering what happen to Muni's mother now...well, the thing is, there's just too much work to illustrate every character in Flash, therefore, very unfortunately the mother is terminated in the animation version (she will not appear in the story)

Let's have a look at what it looks like in Flash:
The thing is, in actual animation everything is more delicate, and in color of course, thus taking more time. unfortunately for Muni's mom, she is not going show up in this film...

Animation Work-in-Progress

2010-06-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

So with the storyboard being finalized, my animation has gotton started immediately. However, to animate my story in sequences is a whole different story; it's a lot difficult to do since it requires movements illustrated frame by frame accordingly. Anyway, I started out with animating the main characters that appear in the story:

Muni: the protagonist before she is reborn into a superhuman figure. A very ordinary girl. Note her features have been made to match a Paiwanese look, i.e, dark skintoned, black straight hair.

Muni's father: Muni's father illustrated as a 50-up old guy:

storyboarding....

2010-03-17T16:37:00.001-07:00

ok, based on the beat-scripted screenplay on the last thread,
here is how it looks like in storyboard...

follow this link:
http://jkdesigns.limewebs.com/storyboard.html

Beat-scripting my screenplay for storyboard

2010-03-16T20:15:00.000-07:00

I had several conversations with Simon, my tutor, regarding how to write my screenplay,
so here is what he suggested: using beat-script method, which is scripting aid for short animation. The format is to create a list where all story actions described in a short sentence are listed accordingly from time to time.

So here is the beatscripting screenplay for my storyboard:

Hundred Pacer---Beatscript
1. driving rain hits the roof of a village hut;
2. inside Muni is having dinner with her family;
3. he is laughing from a joke that Muni has told;
4. Muni says “Happy Father’s Day” to an old man sitting across the table, her father;
5. suddenly a loud roar can be heard!
6. the sound thunders –shaking the house;
7. “Must be the some construction work going on again, said her father;”
8. Muni replies gently with smile: “I’ll just go check it out;”
9. Muni walks through the door and is just ready to step out;
10. Thud! Windows and wall blow apart;
11. a blast of wind pushes her from behind;
12. She turns around;
13. as if in slow motion;
14. She witnesses a shocking scene
15. She screams: “Dad!”
16. Tons of rolling mud coming from nowhere;
17. She sees her father being swept away in front of her eyes!
18. along with her family members;
19. who struggle against the torrent;
20. Muni runs back to house;
21. The ground shakes and suddenly cracks up;
22. The wall is cracked by mudslide that rolls away with half of the house;
23. Muni dodges the broken rooftops falling on her;
24. But Muni falls into a crack, and her leg is trapped;
25. she struggles against the force but doesn't have the strength;
26. Muni feels great pain in her legs;
27. a blast of dust covers her;
28. she coughs and chokes;
29. She tries to crawl out of the mud, but her hands are like paralyzed, not moving;
30. She tries to lift her legs up, but only realizes that her legs are gone;
31. amputated by the crushing pressure;
32. The rain continues incessantly -rinsing off her blood;
33. she loses consciousness and collapses;
34. Muni’s sub-consciousness brings her to the dark ,
35. Vaguely, a pair of enormous eyes shine in the dark, it is a giant snake;
36. The giant snake approaches Muni;
37. Muni is shocked;
38. The snake speaks to her: “Do you want a deal?”
39. Muni replies: “what’s going on, where am I?”
40. The snake says: “You are dead; the mudslide killed your family…”
41. Muni recalls the shocking scene where her parents are rolled away by the mudslide;
42. Muni screams: “Who did this, why?”
43. the snake grins and says: “That’s for you to find out… and I am giving you a chance to do so…”
44. Muni mumbles with tears: “I want my life back, I want my family!”
45. Muni replies: “I want vengeance…”
46. The snake says: “He he he, that’s the spirit, done”
47. The snake opens his giants mouth and swallows the Muni;
48. There is a voice in dark: “My name is Kamavanan, and I shall give you a new life, but in return, you live for me; for that I am your blood, I am your people, and I am your true god…the Hundred Pacer.”
49. Muni ‘s body lies prone on the ground;
50. Hundreds and thousands of little snakes gather together;
51. twisting and writhing onto each other over Muni's body;
52. the snakes overlap and begin to form a shape of a human;
53. as they writhe they begin to form recognisable facial features in Muni's likeness;
54. Muni is reborn in a serpentine form;
55. tattoos etch themselves into her hands (crawling up to her arms);
56. A Hundred Pacer snake-like mark rises on her forehead;
57. Her eyes open, sharp like a snake;
58. she has vengeance in her eyes;
59. she walks away;

Paiwan folktale

2010-03-11T19:54:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week on Facebook I ran into a friend of mine who is a scholar in contributing to indigenous Taiwanese culture academically ...so had a little chat with her, asking her if there's any ideas could help on my research ( had called her like million times but she hardly responded)...

so below is an ancient story regarding Paiwanese respect for Hundred Pacer snake in her own town:

The vengeance of Hundred Pacer:

Once upon a time, there is a woman whose husband has an important ceremony to attend. The woman wants to have his husband outstanding in the ceremony, so she intends to make him beautiful “Kulin” (a scarf that covers men’s chest). However, she feels lack of inspiration and could not come up with any ideas.

One day, the woman is on her way home from collecting herbs, she runs into a female Hundred Pacer snake with her baby snake, and she is amazed by the beautiful totem on the baby snake’s back. Therefore, she begs to the mother snake to borrow her baby snake home, so that she could follow that beautiful design on its back to weave the Kulin for her husband. The mother snake agrees to let the baby snake out for a week, so the woman takes little snake back and quickly follows the totem to make the Kulin. However, the Kulin based on the little Hundred Pacer’s totem amazes everyone in the village, so the baby snake is borrowed again by other villagers over and over. One week later, the mother snake comes to the woman’s village and wants her baby snake back, the woman lies to her that her Kukin is not complete yet and wants to keep her baby snake for one more week. However, in fact, the baby snake is already dead due to the endless torture of travelling between villagers’ houses.

Weeks and weeks pass by and every time the mother snake comes to claim her baby snake back, the woman makes up different excuses. Hence, one day, the mother snake found out about the death of her baby snake, and she is extremely wrathful. A few days later in a very early morning, millions and millions of Hundred Pacer snakes are sent to this village attack every villager including the woman, and only a few of them survive. The dead bodies are way too many to bury and begin to decay and stink, so the survivors have no choice but to move out of the tribe.

Ever since then, Paiwan people have realized that the Hundred Pacer snakes shall not be offended, and they are very vengeful. They say that whoever kills a Hundred Pacer snake he/she will leave the scent that other Hundred Pacer snakes can trace, and they will all come together to revenge for their companion.

Conclusion: Hundred Pacer snakes are vengeful...

Reflection---Dam trip, damn good

2010-03-09T12:07:00.001-08:00

I love cheese, so what caught my attention the most is always cheese...yeh cheesy

However, what really amazed me is the architectures are very neat and decorated in different unique styles,
something that we don't see in UK...

And more surprisingly, this city is just full of freedom, a city as liberal as Dam yet it is so much safer than probably the entire UK...

Finally, my way finding project, however probably seemed boring compared to this amazing city itself:

My wayfinding project was assigned to a residential area where nothing really happens, so it's rather difficult for us to conclude something other than "silence"... Hence, what we came up with is that instead of making a fancy presentation, might as well just tell the audience how this area is...
so, see for yourself in the clip above then...

Reflections on the prototype Hundred Pacer---Feedback

2010-02-26T03:20:00.000-08:00

After the presentation of my superhero prototype, I received the following feedback:

Very good
Really nice idea! but, yeah, you can make the superhero less "glamorous" and more realistic
Your flash works are really amazing, but I'm concerned she doesn't look Taiwanese, more western?
Yes, if you have story, you will know much cloth you're gonna put on her, it all depends on your narrative
Jong-to create a female superhero character is nice, but what this character looks like should think more, the face, the clothes, and maybe can create a questionnaire to ask people (Taiwanese and foreigners) what do they think of it?
Jong-think about your target audience and who you're talking to, well done
focused, strong research direction, why a female character? "I thought of disney's film and "buffy" during your presenation"
Jon-like your idea, to create a female superhero is good. And you have a very great research, but you must think the story. The story is an important part to introduce your hero.
Jong: my sympathy for the loss of your computer. The story of the sared snake, like every story in a cultural canon, represents an ideology: I would like to be able to tell what the ideology-social message is, by looking at your character, is your superhero a fashion statement or an ethical standard or a critique on culture?
Jong- like the tattoo effect, very cool cultural symbol, yes, make less revealing clothing---be aware of the Lara Craft look---is there a particular reason why you choose a woman character? just outta curiosity.
Outfit...think comfort and support, what about some protection? armor? if you need advice let me know. Sara--->"Thank you, I sure will"
Your drawing is great, so you need to pay attention to your work's contexts, carefully, please over the hobby.

and final feedback is especially suspicious:

To Jong: very nice!! how about your girl ("she isn't my girl tho I wish") looks more like local people? (western girls and Japanese girls look very different, think about your particular character?)

ok ok, from what i have received i could conclude two basic directions I need to work on:
1. Develop a deeper story that explains the character's origin myth, which has a message to my target audience chosen

2. make the character's facial features more local...

ok i understand that it is important to have a story, which is what I intend to do for the following term, and I will present a complete piece of animation that depicts her "origin myth"

but for the second point, make my character's look more local to distinguish from western girls (i assume from white?) I really don't understand especially the last note I got hinted I should make her more Japanese look?...bizarre as it is, I am not a Japanese at all, and neither is my character, why should I make her a japanese look? so, sorry, I ain't taking that advice, not i take it offensively, but simply it don't make sense... As for those who comment that on that character's look being more western, (I assume caucasian looking?) I have to say, please, I'm a Taiwanese, but of a native heritage, most of my people naturally have kinda look except for having a mocha color skin-tone, so I presented her (my superhero) in a brownish skin color as well~!!, and just look at me, I'm sure I have a very distinguishable look from your fellows' stereotypical "oriental looking" right (slanted eyes, flat-face, etc)? and the answer is, as I said, because I'm a NATIVE Taiwanese of Paiwanese ancestry...

Still, thanks a lot for all who commented on my piece of work, I really appreciate it!

Prototype development---the Hundred Pacer

2010-02-25T22:17:00.000-08:00

continued with last thread, I therefore have had a basic understanding of what sorta design elements I could add into this superhero cultural archetype...

based on the hand tattoo analysis, I animated the following:

"Power of Sun" symbol is enlarged and sorta modified from the traditional one, and I placed it the center of the back of hand, which is easier for audience to get a focus on the tattoo but without losing the trace to its cultural meaning, and the rest of tattoo pretty much stays the same way.

Additionally, based on my research on traditional dress, custom, I designed an outfit for my prototype as shown in my sketch:

and finally, the finalized prototype animated in Flash:

Interview---continued

2010-02-24T09:08:00.000-08:00

Continue with the interview, some critical points I found thru my conversation with vuvu Dremedraman are the meanings of tattoo, specifically hand tattoo, which is the key to metamorphoses my superhero figure to a real cultural archetype.

here is an analysis of the meanings on hand tattoo, (these hands are NOT of vuvu Dremedraman's, but a picture I found on google that is simply more clear to recognize than vuvu's vague hand tattoo...)

image source: http://yulunanabaicu.pixnet.net/blog/post/16768939/1#comment-31240083

the image was cropped from a modern Paiwanese lady who tried to simulate the elder tradition of hand tattoo, which is therefore easier to see.

P.S. the human shapes on her fingers represent "vuvu", which means "ancestors" in this case

Personal interview on Jan. 24. 2010--- An interview with a Paiwanese elder

2010-02-19T19:14:00.001-08:00

Goal of interview: to find out the essence of Paiwan's tattoo art
Interviewee: Chief Dremedraman
Location: Tribe Jiahsian, Ping-Tung County, Taiwan
Date: Jan. 24, 2010

In order to develop a cultural archetype based on native Taiwanese background, an interview was conducted with a Paiwan elder from the tribe Jiahsin, to further make sure this archetype will not lose her trace as a native Taiwanese too much. However, unfortunately due to a burglary happened 2 weeks ago much of the information was lost along with the missing computer where I stored all the data. FUCK! and...yeh, welcome to Nottingham! the city of Robin Hood...

anyway, I tried to refresh my head and piece all my left memory together...

Before the interview I have listed a few key questions I intended to ask as the following:

What are the meanings of the tattoo? Why?
Where do these tattoo appear? at what age?
Any gender difference for tattoo?
Is there a prerequisite before getting a tattoo?
Do the tattoo follow a certain form or they can be modified?

So here it goes, I set my trip to the tribe Jiahsin, along with a Paiwan language translater,
Luzeng Dulaulauzang, who was my co-worker

here was basically how the interview went that day ( Jan. 24. 2010)
It was a sunny morning, the interviewed vuvu named Dremedreman (meaning elder in Paiwan language)
was the cheif of that tribe.

Vuvu Dremedreman is said to be 93 who yet looks like 60, with very fair skin tone...
for some reason vuvu started out from her ancestry, she claimed that she is of mixed heritage
that results to her white skin-tone (Paiwan people are usually known for their mocha color).
She knew i'm of Bailang (indigenous term for non-native) and indigenous heritage mix as well, so then she carries on how her relatives also inter marry with other racial groups and so on...and
how in Japanese colonial era that some Japanese and Bailang kids were adopted to Paiwan, which explains why some Paiwan people are very fair today...bla bla bla, took forever to
get to my topic on tattoo art...

so interview finally cuts to the point:
what the meanings of tattoo?

Tattoo is "Butsik" in Paiwan language

Vuvu explains that butsik is a symbol for noble class people, as Paiwan had a caste system (the system no longer exists after Japanese era) not quite exactly similar to Indian's, Paiwan people are divided to 4 classes as "Cheif", "Noble Class", Warrior", "Peasants"...only the Chief and noble classes had the right tattoo themselves. Therefore, the tattoo symbolizes a person's status, and it also tells the lineage of the person's family as well...however, interestingly, the person's status can change through marrying a higher class, and his/her heir will inherit the same class....
she laughs when she brings this up: "Everyone Paiwan is a noble class nowadays, we have Muni everywhere..." (Muni is a common name for noble class woman)

So where do butsik appear normally:
as vuvu shows her hands with tattoo all over, she says that women have their butsik on the back of hands, while men have their on the chest, and sometimes on the butt, interestingly, cus no one will see it unless the man is naked...

When?
vuvu doesn't quite answer my question, but she replies that she got her butsik when she was around 16, which is the age that girls got married at that time ( 80 years ago?)...
but she does mention that only a innocent, clean woman gets a butsik (only for the higher class)

So my final question: is the tattoo modifiable?
Still, vuvu does not quite answer my question, or my translater doesn't do her job well
translating...
Vuvu Dremedraman says that each family of the chief and noble classes have different tattoo, the tattoo is given by the witches and elders in the village. When being tattooed, it brings great pain to the hands only second to giving birth to a baby. The process of making tattoo is using tree branches with charcoal power, along with a hammer to stick the power onto hand( i don't quite understand this part honestly)...

At the end of conversation, a very mussy feeling...
vuvu Dremedraman says: soon one day, she is going to leave with the butsik...

There's currently only 11 elders who still have the butsik, and they're all dying soon...
signifies the vanishment of a tradition...

vuvu's butsik:

the signature of a chief,
one of few pictures saved in a pendrive without being stolen...

Holidays' over...some inspiration from video game playing---Street Fighter IV

2010-01-14T15:33:00.000-08:00

I haven't done much worth to contribute to my project during the past few weeks of winter break, and Street Fighter IV somehow caught my eye during my lackluster holidays...
However, what drew me into playing it real hard for the entire winter break isn't its fancy fighting scenes, but its calligraphic visual effects through the fights.

See the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZUIFSeLbiI

Unlike most other modern fighting games with strong 3D simulating reality scenes, ST IV adopts non-photorealistic rendering, a visual effect similar to what we photoshopers ofter refer to as cel-shading, or toon-shading, which is to simulate live-art, graphic style by computer. See the comparison between Photorealistic style and cel-shading below:

Photorealitic: image cropped from Tekken fighting scene. Rendered as delicate 3D polygons models.

Cel-shading: Street Fighter 4's simulation to hand-drawn effect.

End od Phase 1: Reflection on PGC

2009-12-18T08:03:00.000-08:00

so finally, I've got a head started on my Superhero thingy and after 3 months panic and struggle I got over my PGC, for now...

very unlike others who share the moments of "time flies" "it feels like just yersterday..."feelings, I got none...

Frankly speaking, this project means so much to me that I don't view it as just an one year MA thing. Instead, it is more like a start of my career to contribute back to my country (no jokking, I'm being serious...but ok go on laughing)

Anyway, for the past 3 months I have acquired definitely a lot of useful tips in contributing to the development of the superhero character. Gotta thank Simon, my tutor a lot. One of his idea was to create evolution process for the superhero, meaning that thru the plots go on the character will evolve to gain different powers, which is indeed very inspiring and I've intended to include it in my storyline of the final animation piece.

Most importantly, after 3 months' self-brainstorming, I have narrowed down the image of my character to become more precisely. As I was inspired by my fellow feminist classmates, I've decided to make the superhero a "she!"

However, a strong one tho, so what's this superwoman gonna be like with the ability to evolve her strength?...we'll find out soon

PGC Presentation on 7/12/09: The Creation of a Comic Superhero Character Indigenous to Taiwan

2009-12-17T09:57:00.001-08:00

As Title states: my PGC presentation was to explain my idea of my MA Project Proposal---
The Creation of a Comic Superhero Character Indigenous Taiwan.

This whole thing of creating a supehero character actually starts out from a question to ask myself:
What exactly am I, who am I...

The I concluded that, I am a Paiwan aboriginal Taiwanese person who happens to be a designer-wanna-be. I read a lot of comics, so as I had grown older I have felt the need to invent my own story of a comic character...I then asked myself: Why not create a superhero character with a Taiwanese setting?

However, to convince myself as well as my audience I need a strong motive, a strong background to support my proposal, so I summarized my rational here:

The whole concept began with having the feeling that Taiwanese have been looking down on themselves for a long time due to the ongoing international oppression from as well as political pressure mainly from China. Under such circumstances, Taiwanese have long missed a mutual memory that is able to once again arouse a resonant passion towards their country---Taiwan. Hence, it is urgent for Taiwanese to have a national symbol to create that coexisting memory ...

So in a situation like this, we will need a hero, a hero as our symbol to create imaginary memory. Frankly speaking, an embedded marketing strategy. The superhero character is merely a disguise of the product I'm trying to sell, and what I'm really selling is my idea, my ideology of patriotism and nationalism.

Famous examples as the followed:
Captain America:
Captain America wears a American Flag motif-like outfit to lead his fellows against the "evil" axis powers during WWII. This character was intentionally created for the purpose of encouraging patriotism and American Egoism at the time, and as I said, an embedded marketing strategy.

Now with my rational explained, my research leads to my
Research Question:

What are the key features of cultural archetypes and how can these features be controlled to create a superhero that has specific cultural resonance within a Taiwanese setting?

so to answer this question in the latter phase of PGD, I will employ a series of methodologies including: creative practice, audience interviews and surveys, and Action Research(Newman, 2009 cited in Schon, 1978)

Here is a chart of how Action Research takes place:

so why need interviews and surveys?
well, basically interviews and surveys are optional but to ensure the creditability of my superhero character, and to ensure that the character preserves a strong identity rooted to Taiwan rather than just out of my ideology, surveys and interviews could provide a stronger objective perspective.

In addition, I have also created a fandom group online (facebook) as suggested during my tutorial, and the link is as the below:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=186188194091&ref=mf

or you can search for key words on facebook:
The Creation of a Superhero Indigenous to Taiwan

Evolution: (Reflection of Tutorial, 23rd Nov.)

2009-11-24T11:40:00.000-08:00

Image:http://www.buildamovement.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/evolution.jpg

Evolution is what brought us to Homosapien stage nowadays, so namely, evolution is a mean to progress human beings.

Evolution can not be stopped, but it takes more than millions years to evolve...at least to regular mortals like us.

So what about superheroes with super-human strength, perhaps they evolve quicker?

The tutorial on monday (Nov. 23) went really good. Simon, my tutor, was very charmed and inspired by the evolution progress of that tiny pussy-like creature, who can "evolve" to an ugly-ass tetrapod... and I was suggested to have my superhero character evolving through confrontations with his/her enemies.
Image:http://nooknetwork-media.s3.amazonaws.com/gamernook/boxpics/2008/09/29/Pokemon_Yellow.jpg

Image:http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m27/latios2007/season11.jpg

Still, a very good thought to take into consideration. It is true that instead of having different scenes, plots, storyline of the same superhero character could still be lackluster, so if the superhero could adapt different powers and evolve from time to time, the audience won't get tired out easily...

One thing for sure is, I definitely don't want my character with a gayish outfit like this one...who's that homo on the ground by the ways?

Image: http://www.geekstir.com/pokeman-your-childhood-is-now-ruined#disqus_thread

V For Vendetta (graphic novel): Task for Thurs 20 Nov – The ‘Backwards Brief’

2009-11-17T16:14:00.000-08:00

Funny, just as I was going to carry on my review on the "V", this task came in just on time...

Alan Moore is a genius who wrote the plot of V for Vendetta, and David Lloyd visualized it with illustration.

Background:

V for Vendetta graphic novel could be found in many comic shops as well as bookstores, and despite the graphic skills at the time were still immature, V has been a classic bestseller till today. In 2006 a film adaption of was released, which is a proof of the classic popularity among readers.

V for Vendetta is a reflection of Thatcher England at around 1980s, when the main character calls himself V and acts as a anarchist revolutionary who takes terrorist-like approaches to fight for his belief of freedom against the conservative politics at the time. Frankly speaking, the whole comic series are a reflection of the author's left-wing thinking which yet is cleverly disguised in an action comic story. It is not hard to see that the story is heavily influenced by the political climate at the time when the Thatcher-led government was responsible for economical depression and great unemployment rate, and there was a chance that the Fascists would take over the regime under such circumstances.

Audience and context:

V for Vendetta 's audience is supposedly the educated readers since its scripts are extremely literate and unconventionally intelligent in using many metaphors that emulate the status-quo of society at the time. Despite the fact that the verbal language used in this graphic novel is somewhat deep and recondite sometimes, the context yet clearly sends the message of individualism to the audience. As one of my favorte quote from V: "Ideas are bulletproof."

Executional guideline:

To be honest, considering this is a nearly 30 year old piece of work, its viusal techniques shall not be viewed by today's standard. Yet, the whole dark and conspiratorial atmosphere is successfully constructed through mainly grey, black, blue and other alike dark colors, which reflects the tension in UK at that time. However, Alan's heroic character "V" is a very astonishing creation in that he is basically eveything a hero was not meant to be like. V is symbol of anti-traditions, dressed up in a weird, ksycho-like Guy Fawkes mask, and throws big words in his pundit talk all the time, and moreover, he kills a lot! Such a character is more than enough to sell the story despite the "so so" illustration skills dated back to 1980s

How would I design this work?

To study the historical background in 1980s---fascism, nationalism, and especially the Margaret Thatcher led conservative government.

To look for previous examples similar to the major characters I would like to have in this comic series, which could be used as inspirations for costumes, appearance, characteristics design as well as story developing.

To find sources for publication, and before doing so I would first try to distribute a simple draft onto daily used multimedia tools such as Facebook to testify the possibility of publication in the future, and from the feedback received I would know how to improve where next to go.

Art Direction Seminar: Signs and Symbols of Ads

2009-11-16T13:46:00.000-08:00

If I wasn't so talented in the aesthetic field today... I might've become a politician, a freedom fighter... a human rights activist... These posters I've chosen for "symbols and sighs" presentation all somewhat reflect my political ideologies..

.
The Cuban cigar and cigarette are two of the country's most recognisable images. Oftentimes we see the upper class as well as the Cuban made-men smoking cigar pundit talk over national, big diplomatic matters. Such as Che Guevara, the Marxist revolutionary and most famous being Fidel Castro, current president of Cuba. That being said, cigar symbolizes the status of a person, which in Cuba oftentimes represent the Totalitarian government authorities or those who are associated within. Official record estimated there are approximately over 300 innocent people imprisoned in Cuba, most of whom are political prisoners, journalists, and reporters who try to depict the reality of Cuba. In Cuba, speaking freely can be fatal...

Poster source: http://www.ishr.org/?id=839

Poster Source:http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/olympic-rings-absent-beijing-2402.html

FREE TIBET!!
so we know China is another communist country who abuses human rights in a regular routine...

The visual language of this poster is strong enough to address more honestly...so I won't bother to explain here...

ya...bullets in your head, that's how China plays their games...

V for Vendetta (film adaption): inspirations for project proposal

2009-11-10T09:45:00.000-08:00

Tagline:
"Remember, remember the 5th of November..."

The background is set to be sometime around 2030s in UK, where the totalitarian government has full control over its nationals. V is a revolutionary who dedicates his life to overthrow the Fascist government in the movie he plans on blowing up the parliament on the 5th of November to begin his revolution.

In this movie there is a strong sense of freedom fighting against the Fascist government who takes control of the nation by enforcing fear and suppression on to people. V takes extreme and radical approaches and kills those who stand in the way, bombs the symbolic buildings of the UK, yet his ideology leads to
a great impact on people to support his faith.

Image:http://www.impawards.com/2006/v_for_vendetta_ver2.html

This is definitely a must-see movie of all time! as a matter of fact, despite that this movie is permeated with Anarchism against Fascism while neither of them could fuel me in creating my proposed superhero character, what is really eye-catchy isn't just the fancy actions in the movie, but how a political idea could be dressed in disguise of a movie, and further convincing the audience the ideology the V is selling! So OK! I am bought and I admit, charmed by the big words V throws in the movie...

V: "Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this
mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof."

Very true, ideas are bulletproof and can long live forever... but the point is, creating a superhero isn't a breadking news no more, so how do I sell an image to the audience? few inspirations from the movie V for Vendetta are: 1. A clear idea through out the whole plot, in V's case, freedom 2. The characters must be extremely eye-catchy, look wise, characteristics wise, etc. 3. A very strong visual language that corresponds the idea, which in V's case, is the massive explosions and fancy martial tricks.

Image:http://vforvendetta.warnerbros.com/cmp/poster_0_large.html

Image: http://epenvein.com/art/vforvendetta/

Last but not the least: V for Vendetta Graphic Novel, even better! I'll carry on in the later posts

Project Proposal: Initial Concept (Part 1)

2009-11-06T07:38:00.000-08:00

This post is sorta overdue, yet will probably the most significant one...

My final thesis is to create a fictional superhero figure and animate it by the end of my MA study, and the reason I am doing this is that I wanna to create a symbol that triggers my fellow Taiwanese counterparts to love their country again...

So basically I need to conduct a series of researches on my own cultural elements, the ones that represent Taiwanese values, and from where to form a comic figure that embraces all such traits to reach a sympathetic reaction of Taiwanese...

Somehow I came across my mind that this figure could be a woman, well, of course, a native Taiwanese chick is what I'm picturing...Believe it or not, I have always been a feminist...

Rough sketches of initial concepts.
Hundred Pacer is my traditional symbol, which could eventually go into this superhero figure I'm creating...

Recently I've been looking into the story of Mona Rudao, who is a legendary chief to lead his people to fight back the Japanese colonists. Some traditional dress back at that time could be an inspiration as well.

Rethinking of Manga/ Reflection on Motion Graphic Seminar

2009-11-03T12:49:00.000-08:00

The techniques of camera movement are usually the crucial factors to determine the quality of a movie, and today's seminar inspired me a lot in applying some camera shooting skills onto comics or even animation in the future.

The reason I brought this up and made a great deal about it is that I've discovered that Japanese Manga has to credit a lot to the application of movie-simulated camera shooting skills into their storyboarding. Notice that Japanese Manga differs a lot from the traditional DC and Marvel and their kinds in not just the richful storylines Manga have, but also the lens techniques adopted to simulate a real film making. Frankly speaking, Manga has reached an astonishing visual effect that those superhero kind of comics cannot compare.

Gattaca, the example talked earlier during the seminar, during which has provided many great ideas in terms of camera shooting skills, such as blurring the rest of screen while strengthening the focus on a certain object and so on.

The shot is focused on the cleaner tube thing and the screen get gradually blurred from the center of that focus.

belowing is a snapshot of the famous Manga---Naruto (Excerpted from Chapter 233):
Notice that its slow-motion simulated effect is commonly used in Japanese Manga, which yet is rarely seen in western comics.

However sometimes, reading Manga takes more patience since its shots could be "melodramatic" in the sense that its transitional frames are often way too numberous to read thru...

anyway, back to my point. Japanese Manga has become so successful today due to the adoption of camera movement technique of film making, which is what we lack in traditional western comics. The fact is, even the birthplace of superman, America, has gradually been taken over by Manga nowadays, which tells that a strong visual effect conquers the culture differences and occupy the market...

HARRY POTTER GONE WILD: (Design Process Assignment)

2009-11-01T06:57:00.000-08:00

WHY READ? WHAT'S FUN IN READING?

Image: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Qbn7dwKryC0/Sw8uK_QqV4I/AAAAAAAAAF0/0Tbja-6E3Hs/s1600/kim_kardashian_playboy.jpg

WHAT'S FUN IN READING is a question I have to ask myself for this assignment...

Brief: so basically I had to create a 15 sec based storyboard that explains the importance of reading, and it could further recruit more costumers to Waterstone's....very capitalistic...

As usual, I started out with a mind map, which asks myself why I would want to read? since personally I'm not so much of a book person either, it is very ironic for me to choose this topic to work on...

MIND MAP:

Yet, just when I was struggling to convince myself...Harry Potter just came across my mind, YES! HARRY POTTER the book series, which are so much better than its retarted counterpart the movie version...

So as I was inspired, my concept was to make a comparison between the Harry Potter books and the movies. The idea was to show that thru reading one's mind goes free in imagination, and Harry Potter could be brad-pitt like handsome, while in movies Harry is just dumb retard kind of look teenager...

e.g:
The imaginary Harry Potter

The movie version Harry Potter

So a rough idea was formed, then the following step would be to compose the storyboard...in which I picture a girl reading the Harry Potter book, then her imagination is suddenly unleashed, leading her to her own fantasy version of Harry Potter...

Draft storyboard:

Finalized work:
The final out was digitalized and flash animated at this link: http://jkdesigns.limewebs.com/harry_potter_gone_wild.swf

Reflection: TASK 2 - Design Process Project

2009-10-18T08:13:00.000-07:00

• What have you learnt from this session - to improve your idea development for this brief?
Discussion with Peter was very inspiring to me. Initially I was still confused about where to get a proper passage, but Peter pointed out that it'd be better to stick with Harry Potter, which is what I chose to visualize as a storyboard. In addition, I have a better idea of how I should construct the storyboard in details---thx to Pete

• What have you learnt from this session – to apply to your MA research project?
I haven't done so much of drawing since I stepped into the CG field, so this storyboard making sort of brings me back to my fine art background before.

Reflection on Oct 9th's workshop

2009-10-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

What have you learnt from this session - to improve your idea development for this brief?

It was definitely a nice experience to see how people with different backgrounds have different methodologies in developing ideas. Some have inspired me in developing my storyboard as a matter of fact.

What have you learnt from this session – to apply to your MA research project?

Instead of learning something, what matters more is that I've seen the skills that I lack of during the group discussions as well as the feedback time at the end of the rough storyboard making. There are some CG skills that I intend to learn from my classmates to apply to my MA project eventually.

Is the design process discussed this morning different / similar to your previous experience, and if so, how?

Storybord wise is pretty much the same in all industries to my knowledge. The difference is that I am usually a quick thinker who skips the development of methodology, which I have learnt quite a lot from this workshop.

2009-10-06T07:36:00.000-07:00

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