Assignment 3: Theme: U C what I C

Objectives:
• Understanding and overcoming constrains/problems of representation
• Using various representation techniques to communicate your ideas effectively

Assignment 3
For this activity, I have to come up with a storyline first and there must be a twist to it. Initially, I thought of using inanimate objects as my character in the photos. However after a few attempts of taking the photos of the inanimate objects, I realized it is hard to get what I want as the expression and body of the objects are fixed. All the following are not presented as it is just my own testing on what I can use for my photos. Therefore, I decided to use people as the characters in my photos.

Inanimate Objects












For the background, I thought of using four different places to take the photos. From the reading on photography, I gathered that it is better to have a simple background than a cluttered background. Therefore, I keep in mind to have the background to be as simple and plain as possible so as to not fight for attention for the main object.
Due to influence from Valentine Day, I came up with a love story. The story is about a group of close friends. There are two girls and two guys. The two girls fall for the same guy. However that guy like the other guy.

Initial Planning Sketches: Please refer to sketch book

First I tried and see how many photos I will need to take to get the story across.

1st photo: Convey feeling of closeness and enjoyment of the friends. Reason: I thought to let the actors chat and eat at the same time to show the feeling of closeness.I planned the background to be outdoors.


2nd:and 3rd photo : The girls give him the presents.


4th photo: The guy who received the letters will look troubled and the letters have to be shown.

5th photo: For this photo, I have problem as to how to convey that the guy has a present. In the beginning of the planning, I thought of snapping two photos of him going into a shop and then him walking out of the shop holding a shopping bag to convey that he bought a present. Problem is shopping malls don’t allow people to take photos. Then I thought perhaps can take the photo in the shop instead but then I will still need a photo of him going into the shop.
Thus, I tried and think of another way. Finally an idea struck me. Instead of him going to the shopping mall or shop, I can have him wrapping the present in the house. This way I can save one photo.

6th and 7th photo: These two photos will be showing the guy returning the letters to the girl.


8th photo: I planned for the male actor to be walking with present in his hands. After considering, I don’t think it is really necessary. Thus I take this scene off.

9th photo: The male actor giving the present to the other male character. This is supposed to be the twist.

In the process of taking the photos, I changed the background from my initial planning. Somehow when I was planning I think the different backgrounds are fine. But when I look at the location, I feel that there is no linkage if I took my photos at too many different locations. Thus, I decided to take my photos all indoors.

Sketches of photo layout: Please refer to sketch book

I tried and take into consideration the rule of the third when doing the layout of the photos. I drew a grid to guide me on how the position of the people should be like when I am taking the photos. When I was planning the layout for which of the photos, I also keep in mind not to let any one object at the center of the photos. Instead I tried to keep the object off center.

Process:

1st photo:
The background is supposed to be outdoors.However, after looking at the location, I felt that the background is too cluttered. Thus I tried looking for a simple background. So in the end, I switched to taking the photo at indoors where I can have a simple background. It was during this change that I realize I have too many different backgrounds for my photos. As there are only 10 photos, I should not be having so much background change in my photos as it might be confusing ad have no unity. Thus, I decided to have most of my pictures taken indoors.

2nd and 3rd photo:
As stated in the sketchbook, I want to take the photo outdoors but as I have changed the background of the first photo, I want to have unity therefore I did the photo shot indoors.

4th photo:
At first I thought of the actor holding the letters in his hands. But I can’t get a clear snap of them and the letters together. Thus I decided that he will placed the letter on the table and photo will be taken from the top front view to get the scene.

5th photo:
There is no change for this when taking this photo.

6th and 7th photo:
Due to the 2nd and 3rd photo being taken indoors, I decided to have these photos taken indoors because these 4 photos are supposed to be in pair (2nd and 6th photos together and 3rd and 7th photo together)

8th photo: This is actually the 9th photo of the planning.


The photos I presented during the tutorial:

Photos:



















Comments:
-The first photo conveys the feeling of enjoyment well.
-I took the all the photos at the same location which is unlikely to happen in real life.
-Show that the letters on picture are love letters

Editing:

As mentioned above, for comment two, after considering, I felt that it is more important that there is linkage between the photos than taking it at different locations. As there are only 10 photos so I must get the meaning across through the 10 photos. I think that by taking it at different locations will confuse the audience. In addition, the characters in the story could be living together. This way it makes sense that the photos are all taking place in the same location.

For comment three, I put in a heart shape for the letters so to show that it is a love letter.

Edited photos:

Assignment 2: Theme: Needful Things

Objectives:
Understanding and overcoming constrains/ problems of representation
Developing skills in controlling visual message

I chose to write a list of the objects/activities that I think I can use to do the assignment and from the list I chose one of the items to do it.
Question is how to do it in such a way to get the form such that people can recognize it and at the same time still retain the meaning of the activity/object. So I thought perhaps the most important of that activity/object should be persevered throughout the whole abstraction progress.

I chose an activity, reading, to do instead of an object. First I draw a picture of a male reading a story book. Gradually I took away the body, face outline and in the end only the eyes and book outline is left as I felt that it is the most important part of the activity.


During the tutorial, I realize that my understanding of the meaning of iconic and symbol is incorrect. It doesn’t necessary mean abstracting the objects or activities but one can also add in things to achieve what you want. In addition, generic form is when the object/activity loses it specific meaning and become general.





Comments during the presentation:
-From stage 3 to stage 4 is just deletion of the body part which should not be the case.
-From stage 4 to stage 5 does not have much variation.
-The picture form is not abstract enough. For example, the book can be further simplified.
-The picture still has the specific form of the activity. At the fifth form of the picture the specific activity can still be seen which is the person is reading.

According to the comments given, I edited to the following:

Assignment 1: Theme: Me Myself and I

Assignment 1: Theme: Me Myself and I


To me, there are several elements I think I should keep in mind. One of the elements is that since we need to incorporate what we like into the font, then perhaps the most striking and easily recognized element of the object should be in the font. Another
element is the shape of the font.

Stage 1

Firstly, I came up with a list of items of the things that I like and dislike. From there, I wrote down the most important element for each item. Example, for flower I think that the shape of the flower in the simplify form is the most important. The font should match the item chosen and look well together. For the thing I like, I make the font round as I think round shape makes things look more friendly and lovable. For the thing I dislike, I decided to use stronger color and maybe the reason why I disliked it. The font shape will be straight and direct.

For what I like I used rainbow, flowers, books and rain for the first 4 concepts.

For what I dislike I chose the sun.

Sketches: Please refer to sketch book in the portfolio

Stage 2

After conceptualizing all of the objects, I chose the flowers and rainbow for presentation.
For the flowers, I felt that the shape of the petal is the most prominent feature of the flowers. Therefore, I tried and incorporate the shape into the font.
Comments for flowers were:
-Too simple
-Not creative
-(need to edit)

For the rainbow, I felt that colors and curve of the rainbow is what defines a rainbow.
Comments for rainbow:
-Not obvious what it is: color or rainbow
-(need to edit)

After taking into consideration of their comments, I chose to edit the rainbow for the next presentation session. In addition, I thought it will be interesting to do the “dislike”, therefore I did a design on the sun for the next presentation.

First computer draft:






Stage 3
For the presentation, I presented the sun and rainbow designs..(Please refer to portfolio for the hardcopies)

The comments for the rainbow were that the colors are weird. This is a problem I didn’t foresee when I was rendering on the graphics application. Apparently, there are different channels of colors available on the graphics software. For printing, one should work in the CMYK mode as this is the mode that most printers will use. Although, I like the colors that I see on the computer, I have to correct the color of the rainbows to make it looks the same when it is printed. After learning about unity,I decided to change the rainbow picture. For the rainbow picture, I changed the font as my main picture has the characteristics of roundness so the whole picture has the unity of roundness. I decided not to add in the pot of gold as I think the curve and colors will be sufficient to convey the meaning of rainbow.

Edited version:




For the sun, there is the problem of the shadow. I have not been able to get the angle of the shadow right. In addition, there was suggestion that I should make the color stronger to show the feeling of dislike. During the process of editing the sun design, I thought that straight line is not portraying the dislike feeling, thus I distorted the outline of the letters.. In the end, I decided to keep the straight line as I think it looks better.

A common problem for both is that I didn’t take into consideration of the paper I used to print the design. An art paper will give a bright and smooth finish which will be in line with both of design.

After editing: