FINAL PRESENTAION

This project has come a long way. There has been some great number of changes and moments where a lot of ideas were discarded because of its unoriginality. That being said, I really enjoyed the process of pushing myself constantly over and over again, in the hope of getting something better than what i had before.

At times I was very frustrated, annoyed and even thought about dropping my concept to make something easier, something non abstract. But then again at those moments my professor has really encouraged me to make sure I keep with the direction I had. He helped a lot in looking beyond the obstacle and looking at the bigger picture. With this in mind I have been able to complete the preproduction to my liking. I feel confident in going and animating this concept in the spring semester.

That being said, I would still like to further develop it over the summer, just to prepare myself for a whole year filled with animation.

Here is the final pitch which I presented. I had a lot better of a welcome from my professors when i pitched this concept, and i hope that this concept will be approved and that i would be able to execute it next year.

ANIMATIC AND FINAL STORYBOARD

With the sound figured out, I was both working on refining the storyboard as well making my animatic as perfect as possible. This included making a lot more frames than what I had in the storyboard. If I only include the frames from the storyboard the animatic would just look like a slide show. I want to be able to show the animation and the transitions in the animation.

Here is the animatic with the sound and some new frames form the storyboard.



For the storyboard, I included some more new frames, and here are those frames.

And this is the new storyboard.

SOUND DESIGN

Even though I was suposed to work on the animatics, I really wanted to have good audio for the animatic. I enjoy visuals with good audio. I used ProTools for the creation of the sound. I recorded the voice over using my friend Adin. Then I added about 7 tracks to complete the audio track.

Here is the audio track.

Here is a screenshot of how the track looks like in ProTools.

STORYBOARDS

Although I did not have more time to refine the style frames, since I knew the exact look I was going for, i was more concerned about refining the story and the storyboard. These are the first storyboards I created.

I wanted to created super smooth animation while the scenes transitioned form one scene to another so i focused a lot on the transitioning elements too.  The overall story is supported by the script which is going to be narrated as a voice over. So this will help tell the story a lot more easier.

I got soem feedback about the storyboard, the main problem was the problem of having too many swirling motions in the last frames. I will be thinking about how to fix these without changing the overall animation and transitions. 

Here is some of the process work: (sketches)

STYLE FRAMES

Now that I have the script figured out I am working out the style and the mood of the animation. When the animation starts, it will start off as being a dark and scary environment. But as the character progresses through the story the mood will change from the dark scary environment to a more pleasant, action driven environment.

Here are some of the style ideas which i have, created:

REFINED SCRIPT

I have been rethinking my idea and script for  a while now. Rather than trying to convey the message through the abstract illustration which i pitched before, I am thinking more in terms of iconic, symbolic illustrations to get the message across.


I did like the old script which i had before but to jstify it to the iconic and symbolism which I am going for with the new illustraion of the concept I  would like to focus on someone who is failing over and over again because of the way he thinks. So my script will some what describes where he stands and how thinking about the unknown in a positive way will lead him to success. (full potential)


Heres flow (of words which i have for it):

Failure, 

Paralyzed, 

Ignorance, - is bliss, and the reality - Ignorance is paralysis.Lack of confidence, Doubt, Fear, -being trapped in this emotions almost as if prisoned. Unknown, - fear of the unknown, unable to surpass the fearCourage, Curiosity, Inspiration, - A choice for him to move on, Questions, - not understand the reality he is in right nowExcitement, Desire, Action, Adventure, - Playing and experiencing the world.
Experiences, Learning, Knowledge,

Practice, Improvement, leading him to reach the full potential and break free of who he was before Full potential.

So basically the unknown can be looked at in two ways, positively or negatively. The person whom i am addressing the message has been looking at it in a negative way and that is why we start from the negative side of the spectrum and help him move to the positive using the script.


I was trying a lot of different combinations and finally came up with this one with the help of one of my friends who is Studying corporate Psychology.


Knock, knock – the Unknown is here

Will you open?
/No. Ignorance is bliss./
Ignorance is paralysis
Soiled by fear and doubt, there is no way out 

This cramped confinement you are in
Imprisoned
Open the door
A question will lure you in
Back to a world of action
I promise, curiosity stirred the inspiration of many
the world is a playground for your adventure, sow your invention into its depth
and in time, full potential you will reapS
Success

Here is some of the process work for the script:

BELIEVING IN THE CONCEPT

Even though some of my professors did not see my concept as having a good potential for development, I did not give up on what i believed in. I was very confident with my concept statement and I see a great thesis animation using the concept. So I decided to not change the concept, but to try and find other ways of portraying the concept. Such as seeing the possibilities of illustrating it a different way. 

Before any of this could happen i wanted to try and fix my script for the concept. Since the script was a going back and forth. There were places where the script was carrying the action forward and then because of the choice of the words i had it sometimes went backwards. This process of figuring out the perfect flow of the script was one of the hardest things for me since I am not a great writer and I personally hate writing. 

This did not stop me from coming up with a better script, I tried getting help from my professors and also friends I had. They all were very supportive in helping me with the script.

This is what i have so far form the previous script which I wrote. 

We all have a fear
Fear creates a doubt
Doubt generates a fall
Fall gives raise to success
Success brings experience
Experience results in learning

Learning triggers a question 
Question leads to an adventure 

Adventure evokes excitement 
Excitement triggers curiosity
Curiosity provokes an action
Action fuels potential
Potential within.


This is sort of my visual representation of how potential and ignorance work. I developed this model with my professor Ed Cheetham:

THE OUTCOME

The illustration of my concept being very abstract, I wasn't expecting everyone to get it since I was in the middle of it. Personally i dont like when someone judges me in the middle of an uncompleted project. Because it is very hard to understand something so abstract in the middle of the process.

When I got the results of what the instructors thought of my concept I got an overall "No" for the grade. This didn't mean that I should not continue working on the concept, but rather that it needs a lot of refinement inorder to be accepted as a senior thesis. While some instructors actually took the time to go through the concept and constructively criticize it, couple of them just judged the piece on what they saw the first time. Which is understandable. Just like anyone else who is viewing the video for the first time, the insight from the professors were really helpful. At the same time, it was frustrating too since I was not done with refining the execution of the concept and the abstract elements needed much work before anyone could make any sense of it.

Basically I have a lot of refining to do. Especially because the whole piece is based on juxtaposing extreme sports motions/action on to an abstract environment which follows a narration of someone going from being ordinary to extraordinary.

PRESENTING TO THE FACULTY

We had our final presentation on Tuesday, where we presented to the whole faculty. The presentation included, the storyboards, concept statement, animatic and style frames. The presentation went really well. I thought I did a pretty good job in presenting a very abstract concept, which is very hard to communicate.

Here is the PDF of the presentation.

And here is the animatic.

A COMBINED CONCEPT

When both of the very unrelated concepts/ ideas are combined i got some very abstract and unexpected results. Results which I would have never been able to come up with before. It very abstract and sometimes even very difficult to understand. But I believe that this uncertainty in the images which I show to the audience would be my key to make something uniques and different. I can still achieve my end result of having people to feel what it is like to being in the middle of a multiple extreme sports triggering their emotion and potential.

Here is the storyboard and the animatic i made for it.

 And here is the story boards.

BEATBOARDS

This is what I presented for my first beat-board. (A beat-board is similar to a storyboard but not as detailed as a storyboard. It doesn't necessarily show all the camera movements like a storyboard would. The beat-board shows the key moments in a story.)


I got some interesting feedback on my beat-boards. The number one thing was that most of the imagery i used for the beat-board was a little too cliche. It was things which we already have seen. And it had a character in it. By having a character i am already moving the viewer away form the experience. Therefore I had to rethink the whole story. First thing I decided was to remove the character and make it look like it was form the point of view of the viewer. 


So I decided to remove the abstract ideas such as falling, excitement and success from the initial beat-board. This allows me to think of movements which have these qualities in it. Here is the beat-board with the movements in it:

beat-board with movements

I created another beat-board which shows abstract symbols that represent ideas of the abstract terms I had. I am then going to mix the both of these together to create a new look for the animation. Here is the beat-board with the abstraction in it:

abstracted beat-board

THE SCRIPT

After doing the free writing and the more brainstorming I identified some key areas within my free writing article which I could potentially use for a Nike style commercial. I came up with the script below:


We all have fears
Fears create doubts
Doubts generates failing
Failing give raise to success
Success comes from learning
Learning happens through experience
Experiences is the result of adventure
Adventure bring about excitement
Excitement triggers curiosity
Curiosity leads to questions
Questions provoke actions
Actions fuels potential
Potential we all have.


My professor looked at it and told me that i was heading in the right direction, but I still have to fix the script a little more. Such as some issues with the narrative of the script. Below is the script, but with the changes made to it:


We all have a fear
Fear create a doubt
Doubt generates a fall
Fall gives raise to success
Success brings experience  
Experience results in learning
Learning triggers a question
Question lead to an adventure
Adventure evokes excitement
Excitement triggers curiosity
Curiosity provokes an action
Action fuels potential
Potential within.

USIGN METAPHORE

Metaphor for our concepts.
A very powerful way to join ideas together is to make a Metaphor.  One can create this "wonderful Harmony" simply by recognizing similarities between unrelated phenomena.


Dont throw away your potential to make a difference is like:
walking the extra mile
doing what is right
helping someone cross a road
saying no to drugs
choosing between life an death
walking while you can take a cab
starving while you can feast
fighting while you can ignore
saving instead of killing
fighting a war

CRITIQUE

After the critique form my professors, I realized that I have a lot of work to do inorder get my chosen concept to a level to be executed as a senior thesis project. It is only through critiques that one can see their mistakes. I believe that I have a good overall direction for my chosen concept. "Dont throw away your potential for making a difference"

The illustration i had for that particular concept is not developed enough. I have been talking to my professor and brainstorming a lot to come up with a better illustration for the concept. Taking inspiration from Nike commercials, (since they do a good job in communicating abstract ideas such as strength and inspiration) I am thinking of making a script which might go along with such a commercial.

I have also been doing a lot of free writing, trying to come up with a good illustration of what the concept might look like if it was visually presented. Here are some of the writings I did. I highlighted some of the interesting parts of the text which I might extract and make a refinement to my concept.

Potential
I personally think that ones potential lies in a number of different areas. From leadership to to artistic potential, one have it all in themselves. This does not meant one necessarily use it or even know how to access these capabilities of extra ordinary actions. It might be within oneself, but how much of it does one use?

I believe that everyone of us has great potential in us. But we fail to acknowledge we do. May be it is because of ones surroundings that we don't realize what our abilities might be. Many times it is the surrounding which tells us what we can do and what we cant. This is the case for a lot of people. But i believe that the true happiness comes from our ability to do exactly what we want and not what others might say we should.

Struggles and hardships are part of life and these constantly questions us of who we are. Many of the times these struggles helps us understand who we are and what we are capable of.

We usually don't use our potential to full extent or even try to do so. The reason being our societies flourish a simple life which is entirely based on doing the bare minimum. And this is the main reason why we are not truly happy about our actions.

For example, I personally feel really disappointed in myself when i turn in a project knowing that i can do a lot better than what i turned in. Therefore the bare minimum does not fly with me. I am not proud of what i did. I don't feel like i accomplished something.

On the other hand, doing more than what is required and pushing towards my full potential always makes me happy. It is the idea of being challenged which drives my passion. And a challenge brings out the real capabilities in me. The most amazing thing is that when i put my full potential the things which i can come up with are great, it inspires others to become better than who they are.


Don't let other people tell you what you can do.
People say society shapes the person who we are. Even though what all of us strive for is an individual identity which is unique to ourselves. How do we differ from each other in today’s world? How do we make sure that we are not a portrayal of someone elses vision? How do we make sure we do the things which we love and live the way which makes us happy? More importantly how do we break out of the habit of others telling us who we are supposed to be.

Lets first ask the question why we let others tell us what we are supposed to be. Why do we listen to people who says that we can only do certain things and we should avoid doing other things? How do we break away from other limiting our potential to be who we really are. We are so much more than who we think we are. We have so much more potential then we think we do. All it takes is some guts to express your full potential.

Many of the times i feel people are afraid of their potential They are doubtful of what they can do. And it only takes one act of courage to prove themselves wrong. To prove others wrong.

The only thing you need is just one act of bravery and you will be able to fully practice your abilities. We all have a responsibility in doing the most we can. We should not limit ourselves to the views and sayings of others. We should do what makes us happy and many of the times, true happiness only comes from the ability to give the full amount to everything we do. It is only through this dedication that we can move forward with our-lives.



Hiding in the dark:
What do you possibly think to gain by being behind a mask? And how is it that we are so used to being under a mask which hides what we can really do? Would you not consider this as living in slavery? How different are we from a slave? Aren't we slaves of the society and how other people want us to be?

Why do we consider ourselves as ordinary people? And never realize that we can do what ever we want if we had the will? We have all the power we need to bring about change to the way we live, to the place we live and also to the people around us. We have the potential to be better that who we are. And this is one of the facts about life that never changes. There is always a need and a hunger for us to be better than who we are. We will always have a little less than what we potentially can be. It is that constant struggle to do better and that struggle to push the limits that makes us better than what we are now.

That is what makes us different from being a slave of the society. By pushing yourself to do more than what everyone tells you that you are capable of.

THE FIRST PITCH

Yesterday we presented our thesis ideas to our faculty. They found my visuals to be really interesting but, they didn't necessarily like all of my concepts. They thought that the second concept which i presented which is about encouraging people to use their potential to the ful extend was very interesting. But they did not necessarily like the illustration of the robots i had for the style frame. So I will have to come up with another illustration of the same idea. 

Other than that i think i did very well. I made sure i did not repeat the same mistakes i made in the practice presentations. So i think i did good overall. I will be posting updates on how i am coming up with the ideas for the next illustration. I might actually change it from a short story to some other form of communication such as may be a PSA or even a commercial.

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PRACTICE PITCH

Last Tuesday we pitched our ideas to our client - Our professor as a practice pitch before our final pitch this friday. I thought I did fine, but now that i saw the vide footage of me presenting, i think i have a lot to improve. It is hard to evaluate yourself without seeing how you are doing while presenting. So the video footage of my presentation really helped me realize what i need to improve.

 I noticed that I said a lot of "umms". So that is one thing which I will try and avoid as much as possible next time. Another observation was that i had a little difficulty answering some of the questions which they asked me. But these question were mainly about the story, which i obviously have not fully developed. So for Friday i believe that i will be able to answer all of them a lot better because i have my stories developed for Friday.

 I thought i did a good job in having all my style frames together and also having a nice looking presentation. I will post the PDF and the images for the presentation. Having the style frames helped everyone see what exactly i was talking about a little easier.

The slides for the presentation are given below.

Slide 1

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Slide 3 

Slide 4

Slide 5

Slide 6

Slide 7

Slide 8

Slide 9

Slide 10

REFINED CONCEPT STATEMENTS

We have been working with our initial themes for a little bit, and now we started to refine it into concept statements. I am still working on these, as I think it might still need more work. The themes from my last blog post are now narrowed down to what i want to say in my animation. The concepts are given below.

New ideas comes from new perspectives.
We will always come up with the same solutions, unless we challenge ourselves to look at the problems in a different way. From a different perspective. And that is what generates new ideas.

Don't throw away your potential for making a difference.
We have a tendency of forgetting we have the power to fix, change and solve the problems which we face.

We get caught up in the routine and start looking at things the same way. We see the limitations of other people as ours. But we have to break out of the routine and stop looking at other peoples limitations as something which limits our potential. It is only then we could make a change in our lives.

Be careful of what you do, because it is significant.
In an age where anonymity is at the heart of the most frequent form of communication, people forget everything we say has an implication.

We express our ideas and say what ever we want on the Internet. Because we think that no one monitors it or no one knows about what you say on it. It only takes one time of getting in to trouble for us to learn lesson.

Challenge people to be better than who they are now.

THEMES THAT SPEAKS TO ME

We are slowly starting to explore themes which we think are important to us. Sometimes identifying something important to us might be a little difficult than we think it is. But if we actually look into ourselves by asking question such as those on the first blogpost, we can identify some of the things that matters to us.

Communication, taking initiative and curiosity are some themes which interests me a lot. Therefore i have started making little statements out of these, which i will make concept statements out of. Here are some of them.

The lines below the main statements are other ways of saying the same statement. The reason for these statements are that, if you could rephrase your theme in a different way, you could possibly see other interesting variations/concepts which might have a lot more potential then our first statement.

Clear communication is crucial

Clear communication is the most important

Clear communication is essential

Clear communication is vital

Simple communication is mandotory

A straight forward message is the key

Explicit conveyance is necessary

Plain communication is indispensable

Direct communication is invaluable

Honest communication is critical

Clear communication is decisive

Every action has a reaction

Reaction is the result of a previous action

Action results in consequence

Action causes results

Action evokes change

Every actions has an impact

Input equals output

Every action has a feedback

Every action has a response

Every action has an outcome

Change happens through actions

Curiosity takes you places

Curiosity leads to new answers

Intense desire to know leads to adventure

Interest will lead you to adventure

Questioning is adventurous

Spirit of inquiry takes you to new places

Curiosity directs you to new places

Curiosity guides you to new ideas

Curiosity sparks adventure

Taking risks will lead to adventure

Curiosity evokes new experiences

I CAN IMAGINE

Last Friday during our class we went to the Architectural Salvage of Sarasota. The Architectural Salvage is a place where objects from the past are stored. Old furniture, books, photos, electronics, etc. Our mission was to find objects that speaks to us. Something that captures our imagination and brings back some memories. We were given some statements which we are supposed to further develop. These were: 

• I can imagine that this object was found...
• I can imagine that the original owner of this item...
• I can imagine when this item became obsolete...
• I can imagine that when making this object...

 I found many objects which I thought had a story behind it. I am going to share three of them in this blog post.

1. The fountain.


I can imagine that the fountain was found in a previous residence of a Sultan. His garden to be specific. He was fascinated by nature and in his residence would be a beautiful garden in which the fountain was placed. The fountain would have been surrounded by a pon of goldfish which was a gift form the Japanese Emperor of that time. 


Every evening the Sultan would let people come into his garden and enjoy the beauty of it. Many people would bring their kids along with them to this magical place. The kids were fascinated by the goldfish in the pond and they would spend hours watching and feeding them. Many also would take photographs of themselves with the sultan with the fountain in the background of the photograph. 


When the Sultan first wanted the fountain made, he called would have called upon the most talented sculptors in the land to make the whole sculptor in metal. But late he would realize that the metal did not go along with the beauty surrounding the fountain, hence he would ask his sculptors to to put a thick layer of plaster over the metal. The faded orange which we can see now on the sculptor is due to the metal at core of the sculptor being rusted away. 


Soon after the death of the Sultan, there would have been a major change in the political system of the country. The age of the sultans would come to and end and the age of democracy would have been born. With that, the fountain, the Sultans residence and the garden went in to the history. All that remains is the fountain and thousands od photographs from that era when people were taking photographs with the fountain in the background. 

2. The suitcase


I can imagine that this suitcase was found in the basement of a three storey mansion which belonged to a business man who loved traveling. There would have been several different suitcases in the basement but this particular one was his favorite. He must have taken it to all his adventures around the world as a business man marketing incandescent light bulbs. He would never separate the suitcase from himself except for the duration of the flight. Reason for which it being that the security would not let him carry light bulbs as a carryon item. 


The business man would have pasted stickers and labels of light bulbs from all over the world on this very special suitcase of his. He would only carry this favorite shirt, jeans and the prototype of the bulb in the suitcase. He never puts anything else in to it. Only those three items. 


Even though he knows (from experience) that he would not be able to take the suitcase asa carryon item he would always try, and hope that he would be able to take it with him on one of his flights. But he would have never been managed to, and yet he would not have given up on trying. 


I can imagine how he made partitions inside the suitcase. He would half the inside of the suitcase with black styrofoam of 11mm. The bulbs would go on the very top left corner of it with the safety bubble-wrap around it. Right below the bulbs will be his favorite pink shirt pressed and folded neatly in a japanese fold. And his favorite black jeans would cover the other half of the suitcase, neatly pressed and folded with the pockets facing upwards. He made sure he always arranged it in this order. 


I can imagine the introduction of LED's which probably would have been the primary cause for the business man to lose his job in the incandescent light bulb industry. With that probably ended his journeys with his suitcase too. 

3. The Buoy


I can imagine that this buoy was found under a bed in a small fisherman's hut which used to be owned by an old man. The buoy was probably stored under the bed, with his other marine gear such as ropes, poles, roars and anchors. All very old and rusted. The buoy and then anchors probably were the only gear which was out in the open under the bed. The others would be stored in a wooden box which he inherited from his father. 


I can imagine that the original owner of the buoy being someone who was an owner of a big boat. Probably in the range of 150 to 200 foot. The size of the buoy helps me to understand that this was not used by a small boat. The vessel probably must have been primarily used for  Yellow Fin Tuna fishing. 


The old man must have come to own the buoy only after seeing it float in the open water on several occasions after being hesitated to take it for several times. The buoy must have been too big for his 15 foot boat so he used it as a place marker for his bait cage which he would anchor at the edge of the reef. 


The big dent on the buoy must have been from a significant accident the old man must have had. Probably while in the harbor with the buoy, a bigger vessel must have had collided with it. The buoy probably saved the old mans life that day. 


I can imagine the old man taking the buoy home every evening and storing it under his bed. It was probably his old age that would make him leave the buoy at home after several years of using it. Due to his stubborn personality he never had a wife or kids who would have inherited his belonging after he died.