Trans-disciplinary Thinking 08

Week 22 - Day 4

I'm thinking of experimenting with Synesthesia, or more specifically, the type of synesthesia that falls under the auditory category, or even more specifically...ASMR, and combining it with cooking but in a way that throws off your perception of how certain food sounds like...

BUT, before that, let's rewind a bit. Synesthesia, in broad terms, is your mind taking a weird trip when certain sounds are introduced. A name could have a taste or a number could have a colour associated with it. It is a stimulation of your mind where certain "triggers" induce an automatic or completely involuntary reaction to your body.

On a similar route, ASMR, or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, is a type of low-grade sensation usually made up of positive feelings that invoke a relaxation of the body and a tingling on your skin. This feeling is usually experienced via what you hear.

I want to combine these two together with food, or more specifically, what we THINK of when it comes to food...

...

I'm off to talk to Dane now. I has half an hour before class starts so I'm going to vamoose now.

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And he's busy teaching a class. XD My bad...

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YAY!! Approval~ Now for more research...X'D

Trans-disciplinary Thinking 07

Week 22 - Day 1

ABSTRACTING! YAY! (not really...)

Okay, this is the kind of astract I can get behind. XD We're supposed to create a creature or character that reflects our chosen discipline...but all I can think of is digimon. Like, the digi-evolutions of...let's say, a kitchen hand to a chef to a sous chef until they hit their final digi-evolutions of THE HEAD CHEF. XD KSDJHFSKHFHDSHF

Like, the baby digi-evolution, then the in-training then the rookie stage, the champion stage, the ultimate stage and then THE MEGA STAGE...I reckon the baby stage will be easy enough but the in-training could be a little chef hand (like with Kids Masterchef) before going onto the rookie stage of a kitchen hand, maybe the station chef or the commis chef as the champion, the sous chef as the ultimate, before hitting the mega digi-evolution of head chef. I dunno. I like the idea of a lot of station chefs banding together to create the mega digi-evolution, or something, but would that be too Transformer-esque? WKJSDHFKJSDHF Whatever? The names are going to be funny, and completely unoriginal. XD I'm sure there's a...chef-type digimon out there already but I'm gonna have some fun with this...

Here's a super rough version of the digi-evolutions...

I'll finish off the rest at home because I can't draw on this tablet. DX Not properly, anyway...I might change the design on the ultimate and the mega because they're looking a bit too similar but I want one of the digi-evolutions to do a carrot cake attack because CUTE. The champion will throw dinner plates as their attack. XD

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AT HOME. THIS IS DO.

I like bunnies.

So, my line of thinking is this: you gotta be quick in the kitchen. You gotta be quick, you gotta be smart, you gotta work it. As you can see in this digimon here...they gots a big stirring spoon on their back and a wok on their head. The wok can act as a shield, albeit a small one. XD They've got a knife roll tucked right next to them so they can use their assortment of knives if poop hits the fan and they need an extra attack boost. WHOOP! They've got claws so they can slice and dice their foes, powerful feet to give drop-kicks and a cute fluffy tail that belies their utter strength at bashing a head in. BOOYAH. The wok can pack a serious wallop because it's made of CAST-IRON STEEEEELLLDFKJHSJDFHSKDJFHDS How does this digimon even work? HOW DOES ANY DIGIMON WORK? I have no idea. Leave it to the power of the IMAGINATION...

<3

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Also, I thought a little bit more on the whole trans-disciplinary assessment and I wondered, hey, what about the 12 principles of animation? I could combine that into cooking, right? I mean, a jelly is a whole squash and stretch principle all on its' own...XD

-sobs-

So many weeks have passed and I still have nothing to show for it...

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I started on the brief but there are some changes to be had still. I've more or less settled for this as a starter:

TRANSDISCIPLINARY FRAMEWORK:

Fusion Cuisine will be a live action/stop motion film mixed with 2D animation combining techniques from Steriogram’s “Walkie Talkie Man” (2004), Aardman’s “Wallace and Gromit” series and Buena Vista Pictures Distribution’s “Ratatouille” (2007). The animation will be split into three main parts.

According to Exquisite Taste, it is the: “blending of two or more culinary traditions from different areas to create innovative and often very interesting dishes.” It is the taking of different cooking disciplines (Asian VS Western, American VS Mexican, British VS Middle-Eastern) and combining it to create a new dish/condiment. While the art of combining flavors has been around for decades and even centuries, it is only in the 1970s that chefs and home cooks alike began to really play around with Fusion Cuisine and Gastronomy. It was in the late 1980s that “Molecular Gastronomy” took the culinary world by force, recreating old ideas with new techniques that make chefs like Heston Blumenthal a sensational rave by most food critics.

In the music video “Walkie Talkie Man”, a mixture of live action as well as stop motion was seen interspersed throughout the footage. On top of this, I will also be taking reference from the “Wallace and Gromit” series which was done almost entirely in stop-motion. In “Ratatouille”, the main part which I will be taking from are the moments when Remy is describing the scents, tastes and texture of cheese and seeing them in music and color in his mind’s eyes.

CREATIVE PROCESS:

This animation will have an amalgamation of techniques including live action, stop motion and 2D animation. I will explore the “creation” of Fusion Cuisine; the marriage of different flavors and the birth of a new sensation. This will be described, not through words or exposition, but entirely in a visual story with elements of a “rom-com” movie.

Development for this project will be achieved through a minimum of: ????

• 15 fusion cuisine food items
• 30 concept sketches
• 10 abstract visualisations and perceptions of “fusion cuisine”
• Storyboard and animatic

On top of these developments, videos of basic stop motion footage will be needed to display use of the technique and to show progress of the animation. Music will also be included in the concepts of visualizing fusion cuisine which will either need to be created new or sourced from royalty-free websites.

SCOPE AND OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT:

By the end of this project the film will be converted into a digital video and uploaded for submission. The length of the film, not including the opening and ending titles, will be determined through the rough storyboard and animatic and the eventual testing of the footage. I am hoping to achieve at least 30 seconds for the final submission.

Programs that will be used during the project will be Photoshop, After Effects, and Animate. Equipments that will be used will include a camera, borrowed with permission from the school, and various kitchen tools. As mentioned previously in the Creative Process, audio will most likely either be original or sources from a royalty-free website.

The final submission will include:

• Opening title and ending credits
• Live action footage
• Stop motion footage
• 2D animation
• Audio

PEER FEEDBACK:

Not many people understand the term “fusion cuisine” so peer feedback will be asked throughout the project to gauge reactions and to determine the clarity of the explanation through subtext. Feedback will also be asked on consistency of filmed footage, i.e. lighting, item placement and timing. Feedback on the smoothness and cleanliness of the 2D animation will also be sought.

REFERENCES:

Exquisite Tastes. (2013) Retrieved from: http://www.exquisite-taste-magazine.com/all-editions/may-july-2015/east-meet-west/the-history-of-fusion-cuisine.html

Wallace and Gromit. (2016) Retrieved from: http://www.wallaceandgromit.com/

Walkie Talkie Man. (2004) Retrieved from: https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/walkie-talkie-man-2004

Ratatouille. (2007) Retrieved from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382932/

Molecular Gastronomy. (2016) Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_gastronomy

Heston Blumenthal. (2016) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heston_Blumenthal

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HEAD HURTY.

Game Concepts 03

Week 21 - Day 7 (Weekend? What weekend?)

MY HEAD HURTY...

Ended up doing a lot of chores and cleaning. My room is slightly more organized now so yay~ Also, mushrooms and perspective. DX How do?

Anyway, we'll be having a team meeting today to discuss characters and styles and figure out how to draw a linear 2D map for our levels. Nothing has to be concrete or set in stone at this stage but it'll be good to have a general idea of which direction we're going before tomorrow's presentation. Yay for more presentations...-sobs-

Trans-disciplinary Thinking 06

Week 21 - Day 5

Trans-disciplinary thinking is hard. And today's lesson is even harder to digest. It was already hard and then this happened and now I'm like, kjhskjdhfskjhfksdhkhfksd???? (foaming at the mouth...)

We're supposed to try and draw the concept of time? And apply it with history...I'm pretty sure people have shown the progress of television history before...Also, I wanted to have a go at showing Pangea and the progression of the continents' formations...but I'm DEFINITELY SURE people have done that before. I mean, I think I saw an example of it somewhere in a museum. Maybe even in the Te Papa one.

Anyway...here's a gif of it...

I'm not sure why the quality is so bad but...it's good enough, I guess. X'D

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So, I was thinking a lot more on the assessment and...I don't know, man...it's so hard to combine the techniques of one discipline and apply it into another one. DX

I started thinking a little bit more on paintings and fine art and WHAT THEY WOULD TASTE LIKE. As in, what are the typical foods served during that time period? Like the Van Gogh painting of the Starry Night. It was supposedly created while Vincent stayed in an asylum and he craved being outside again (much sad) so that was how the Starry Night was made? I could be wrong. And I thought, what kind of food did he eat during that time? And can I replicate it using food as the medium? But then I remembered that he was a notorious drinker and didn't eat a whole heap and mostly neglected his own health. (Everything about him is very sad...)

Anyway, what about sculptures? Food is technically a sculpture but one you can EAT. It's very temporary. So I thought, what about The Thinker? What kind of food was eaten during that time period? And then I found out it was made in the 1902 and it's YOUNGER THAN THE STARRY NIGHT which was presumably created in 1889...

But then I thought, wait, what even is the basic principle of actual animation? Like, not just roughs, cleans and color but in terms of shots, scenes and sequences...I could possibly do something like that?

...More thought must be had with this idea...

Game Concepts 02

Week 21 - Day 4

Since we're trying for a 2D platformer kind of game I'm reminded of Maple Story, an MMORPG I used to play WAY back when. It was really cute and the designs were simple and unique; it was easily distinguishable amongst the other MMORPGs I previously played. I looked at their nature maps and I really liked the colour palette and the design of the trees, the ground, the sky; basically everything. For my first game referencing moodboard, Maple Story was the main focus but worry not! I will move onto other games for ideas later on~

I tried to aim for maps that had little to no "human interference" and tried to keep it as natural as possible. I really liked the mushrooms in some of the maps and they could make for some really cute house ideas. The natural elements in some of the props within the scene is also very visually appealing.

I also made an extended version of the previous moodboard and add more environmental scenes. This time my main focus was on the forest fire and the recovery it goes through. This is where the hero of the game might start off. The colour palettes start off in the blues and orange (much complimentary) and shift onto greens and browns. I want colour to tell the story as much as possible without adding exposition.

(I watched Pom Poko (Studio Ghibli) with Tea last night and it was really cute. The transformation moments were AMAZING and so fast but so well done. XD I'd like to see it done frame for frame because that would make such an interesting loop.)

Our main inspiration for this project came from these little sprout hairclips that Phoenix, Mikayla and Tea went to. It's a new fashion trend that started out in South Korea and, honestly? It's so cute. It makes me happy. =D

Anyway, we started talking about it just for a little bit of fun but then it kind of snowballed and the more we talked about it the more we really liked it. So our theme is about nature and fantasy. We had a team meeting to discuss it on Tuesday and I took down the minutes and wrote as much as I could from what we talked about. The main gist is that we're aiming for something artistic and stylistic to be played on a 2D platformer game. We haven't quite gotten very far in the whole story concept yet but we're drawing up characters and putting together moodboards and everything so once we've had another meeting to decide which idea we like best then we can move on from that.

I like farming/collection games but I honestly judge a game based on the pictures they display. If it ain't appealing then I ain't playing. Games like Hay Day or Tinker Island definitely get me. Both of these games were visually appealing despite the differences between them.

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I also took some reference from the 2013 movie called Epic which, by the way, is totally epic. It has similar themes with our game except instead of forest fire being the plot point the movie focused more on the poison that tried to overtake it...

Good movie. Will recommend...

As you can see, the main colour palette is hues of green, browns/orange and blues. Yay for consistency!!

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Here's another character concept with a little bit of character development!!

I dunno why but I really like the tubby body with the little arms and legs. XD

Game Concepts 01

Week 21 - Day 2

ANOTHER GROUP PROJECT HAS COME UPON US!! TAYLOR, PHOENIX, MIKAYLA, TEA AND MYSELF HAVE BEEN CALLED UPON TO TAKE UP ARMS!! OUR ENEMY IS THE DREADED ASSESSMENT, BRINGER OF STRESS AND WORRY, PANIC AND PAIN. BUT WORRY NOT, FOR WE ARE PREPARED TO WAGE WAR AND TO COME BACK FROM BATTLE VICTORIOUS!! WE WILL TRIUMPH OVER THIS AND WE SHALL REGAIN OUR FREEDOM!!! NOT JUST FOR OURSELVES, BUT ALSO FOR THE REST OF OUR BRETHREN. WE SHALL CONQUER THIS ASSESSMENT AND WE WILL WIN!!!

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Ahem. (adopts a Jersey Girl voice) So, anyway, us girls decided to make up a team and work together because why not? The project is totes gonna be fantastic and we've already got, like, SO MANY IDEAS that it's just ridiculous.

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Okay, BUT IN ALL SERIOUSNESS. We've already gotten a team meeting down to talk about the themes and even a team name. From this day henceforth, we shall be known as Team Sprout. We are elegant af...uh...(cough). I was in charge of taking the minutes down and I've already gotten most of it put up on a google document and shared with the rest of the team. We decided to finish off the meeting with everybody going away doing at least a couple of character concepts, a moodboard and an environmental concept. We'll reconvene tomorrow to share our ideas and see what the common traits are and see about going from there. Here are my contributions thus far...

We were aiming for something a bit on the genderless side and as you can see, I've kind of failed in that respect but succulents are dang cute, alright? They're bubble-licious and bodacious. The seedlings are cute and definitely genderless so at least I did something right.

I was mostly inspired by the Mediterranean Cistus Plant which, at right temperatures can spontaneously combust to get rid of competition with the other surrounding plant life so they can re-grow and take over some territory. If that isn't amazingly scary then I have no idea, man. It's a natural forest fire and I think using that as a gaming concept would make an interesting story idea. David Attenborough is a very good person to watch in regards to all manner of plant life. Honestly.

This is my mood board and I definitely mentioned all of these in the previous pictures except with the orchids. Or should I say, or-KIDS because, seriously. That's pretty close-sounding. Anyway, they remind me of the little spirits dancing around Howl and Sophie in the Studio Ghibli movie "Howl's Moving Castle" and I'm wondering if that's where the inspiration came from originally? Hard not to see why; they've got FACES ON THEM, and even a little wiener, which is funny...

Trans-disciplinary Thinking 05

Week 21 - Day 1

So, it's back to the drawing board. I had a good talk with Dane and Oscar about the assessment and it raised a lot of questions and a lot of panic. PANIC. And it became obvious that my ideas were too literal and not at all abstract enough but the thing about abstract is that it is VERY INDIVIDUAL. Personally, I thought my original idea was good in that sense because it explored a different medium and also a different discipline and it involved subtext and while it wasn't totally and completely abstract it wasn't outright obvious either but alas, I WAS WRONG. My outside the box was still painfully inside the box.

Yes...right. Back to the drawing board.

Fusion cuisine is basically the taking of two different cooking disciplines so it was already pretty trans-disciplinary on its own...adding another discipline on top of that is like...INCEPTION. SO MANY LAYERS. Like a layer cake. Or an onion. Or an onion layer cake. (Ew.)

Anyway, what is animation and what is cooking? What are the processes that go behind each of them? With animation, there's the roughs, then the cleaner roughs, add to that the cleaned up version and a splash of color. Cooking is a lot like that because there's a whole heap of preparations, sauces and marinades to be made in advance, the actual cooking process and then the plating up. BUT WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO IT? Can we add keyframes, breakdowns and inbetweens to that as well? In that sense an empty plate is the first keyframe where a completed dish is the last keyframe, right? The main components that go into the dish could be the breakdowns and the garnishes could be the inbetweens but IS IT REALLY? I have no idea...

ABSTRACT THINKING IS HARD. DX MY BRAIN HURTY. I spent the weekend thinking about this and it feels like I've gotten nowhere. I'm still waiting for that EUREKA moment but I'm worried I'm chasing for it too hard rather than just letting it stew to enhance and develop the flavor like a good red wine jus. EVERYTHING BE HARD. It's kind of like trying to make onion soup but you're too impatient to let it caramelize on its own and you end up stirring and stirring and NOTHING IS HAPPENING BECAUSE THE ONIONS HAVEN'T HAD ENOUGH CONTACT TIME WITH THE POT TO COOK PROPERLY. (True story, bro.)

-SIGH- Back to the drawing board...or chopping board...