Collaborative Module Project: Self-Titled
COLLAB MODULE: SELF TITLED EXPLORATION PROJECT
27/11/2023 - 05/01/2024 : Week 11 - Week 14
Tristan Vaughan Sleep - 0365120
Digital Photography & Imaging, Illustrations & Visual Narrative, Digital Typography/ Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Collab. Project: Self-Titled
MODULE INSTRUCTION:
“AUG - DEC 2023: DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET”
“AUG - DEC 2023: DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET”
“AUG - DEC 2023: ILLUSTRATIONS. & V. NARRATIVE MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET”
MODULE COLLABORATION PROJECT: Self-Titled (Week 11 - 14)
Self Titled: In this final upcoming exploration, students of the cohort will need to bring together all the knowledge & skills they’ve acquired from their three different Modules: Typography, Illustration & Visual Narrative, and Digital Imaging & Photography. The students’ Goal is to create a poster which showcases which demonstrates their abilities in each area of Study. Students should use their custom Fonts they’ve created during their time in Typography, Creatively implement their self-portrait they captured in Photography & develop an interesting motive through font & imagery for Illustrations. Ultimately, this should result in a visually compelling & conceptually Rich Poster.
COLLAB. PROJECT: Self-Titled (Week 11 - 14)
WEEK 11: Introduction into Project - Self Titled
In order for the cohort to begin developing our final major Project for the semester, all our core lecturers, Ms. Hsin Yin Low, Mr. Hafiz Zamri & Mr. Fauzi Yusoff; would introduce this new module-collaborative project: “Self-Titled.” In essence, students would need to take all the skills & techniques they’ve learned from their separate Modules and find a way to implement them in one large-scale project - centring somewhat around the student’s perception of their identity. For the introductory stage, each lecturer would go through the assignment and stress the importance of their section & what are their expectations for this assignment.
“Resources used by the lecturers to explain the Assignment”
Typography: Expectations & Desires (Mark 20%)
The expectations for this module were outlined by its Lecturer, Ms. Hsin Yin Low and was supported by Mr. Zamri. For Typography, students would need to further develop & use their previously developed, custom typeface in the final submission - it must be the dominant text however, it can be supported by other typefaces within reason (relating to its style etc.) Additionally, students will also need to consider the placement of their text throughout the piece; a large part about Typography is the presentation of text in relevance to the large piece it’s tied to.
In order for students to get the best results possible, students may have to adapt their typeface and add additional characters to create a more compelling message. Continuing, students will also need to consider the placement, sizing & alignment of text + its typeface early on in the development phase of the assignment.
Illustrations & V. Narratives: Expectations & Desires (Mark 40%)
The expectations for this module were outlined by its Lecturer, Mr. Hafiz Zamri who would mainly supply information for the assignment. For Illustrations & Visual Narratives, students would need to implement creatively-developed elements & designs into the final submission - requiring students fully utilise their skills & techniques previously obtained. Like most aspects of creative arts, there is no set way a student can achieve a great grade; instead, students will need to consider how their created elements add to the imagery of the assignment & should create a visually compelling & conceptually Rich Poster.
In order for students to get the best results possible, students need to consider all the tools they have at their disposal and consider interesting ways to utilise them. Furthermore, students should also consider how these newly created elements impact the piece as a whole; being aware of how correctly balance & populate their final piece.
Digit. Photography & Imaging: Expectations & Desires (Mark 30%)
The expectations for this module were outlined by its Lecturer, Mr. Fauzi Yusoff who would mainly supply structure to the assignment. For Digital Photography & Imaging, students will need to take a creative approach when both capturing, editing & developing elements for their final submission. For this, it is expected that students will be able to creatively replicate their previous techniques found in other assignments and apply them for their ‘Self-Titled’ piece. Additionally, students will need to consider more practical skills such as correct lighting & framing for their photographs as well as using digital editing software to enhance their authorial intent without losing readability.
In order for students to get the best results possible, students will need to consider the practical elements of Photography & editing. They will need to fully document their processes & justify the changes they may have made in the editing process.
WEEK 12: Developing Sketches & Experimenting - Self Titled
For this week of our collaborative assignment, I and a majority of student’s within the cohort thought it would be effective to get a majority of the work for this assignment completed early. In this case, I decided to begin working on the development section of the Assignment - creating some practice sketches, completing a module exclusive questionnaire & rationale and working to gather any additional resources I may need for my production.
Development: Self Titled Questionnaire - (Photography & Illustration Oriented)
Before I would be able to begin working on the assignment, my lecturers stressed the importance of creating a short rationale - acting as a written guide & metric to which I could compare my work to. In essence, it was characterised as a shorter Biography write-up which could be used to determine my desired effect of my piece & what message I wanted to convey:
INTRODUCTION: I am Tristan Sleep; at nineteen years of age, I currently study abroad at the Taylor’s University found in KL. When I was still young, my family and I migrated from our hometown of Johannesburg, South Africa in pursuit of a better life where we could be offered essential education & international recognition. Following the instructions provided by the assignment, this work should be some form a representation of who I am as a person - expressing ideas on concepts such as our dreams, ambitions or what we enjoy. In essence, it seems to be phrased as the “catch-all” concept of ourselves - who are you in one poster.
Paragraph I: Considering I moved around the world quite often, I cannot truly say that I have an idea of home - the closest idea of it would be my residents in Irian Jaya, Indonesia where my parents worked in a large-scale Mining operation (Grasberg.) From this opportunity, I’ve grown to love the concept of travelling - being able to meet new people who have a culture or perspective which is different to my own. For this assignment, I mainly wanted to centre the concept of my design around some of my interests and ideas I’ve had in recent.
Paragraph II: When reflecting on my past-time, I would most often be using it to play through a series of video-games (often with friends or family) as well as using the time to improve on my creative skills. For myself, video-games have been something that remains very important to me as it was something capable of entertaining the masses for hours while being able to present them with creative narratives or opportunities to meet with new communities. In essence, this is something I’m truly passionate about and would like to try and integrate into my career. For this assignment, the main message I want people to understand is that it's normal for individuals to have a negative outlook from time-to-time while also expressing some of my interests - making them more relatable or understandable. Furthermore, I also wanted it to feel like a process ongoing: self-exploration is something that one cannot fully comprehend at one time and is subject to change as we grow older in life.
Summary: I am nineteen years-old, born in South Africa, often moved around the world due to family, has a passion for travel due to culture & locale, Passionate about the creative process behind developing video-games. The most likely quote I may end up using: “That’s just life, move on & make peace with it”
Development: Self Titled sketches & References (All Modules)
With the completion of the written Biography & planning, I believed I would now be able to begin working some concept sketches for the final piece. As recommended by a majority of my lecturers, it would be in our best interests to begin looking online for pieces similar to our idea - allowing us to build a mood board with a more coherent structure. With this in mind, these were the three leading ideas I had for this Assignment:
“Mood board Collection I: Poster Idea I”
Mood Board Design I: The first idea I had for this piece was to build ideas surrounding a head-on shot photograph of myself. As similarly seen with the “BRICK” and “[R]EMAKE” examples, I would want the main subject of the piece to be void of colour while experimenting with the background having a more vibrant look. Together, they could create a ‘contrasting viewpoint’ effect - relating back to my biography and my desire to achieve so much but being negative when trying to.
“Mood board Collection II: Poster Idea I”
Mood Board Design II: Taking a more ‘Illustrations & V. Narrative approach,’ I instead wanted to experiment with editing of side-profile photography and rendering it with low Poly Shapes. This could allow for a more surrealist effect if I desired as it would allow me to break apart the figure with creative ease. Additionally, these examples had also expressed the importance of having an effective hierarchy-layering-system in a piece - something I would need to consider when designing.
“Mood board Collection III: Poster Idea I”
Mood Board Design III: For this final board, I mainly began looking for Typographical elements for my piece as I believed it would be difficult to effectively implement text and make it feel more diegetic/integral. From my findings, I found that a majority of the pieces incorporate text in contrast to the figure or background while expressing a mini-message. Additionally, the text feels more related to the end product as the text interacts with visual elements - either by replicating the geometric feel or by remaining confined to a specific shape.
After gathering a series of sources which specialised in a different module, I felt more confident to begin producing sketches which I would be able to use as a base for the final submission. It is important to note that before I began sketching some layouts for the assignment, I was sure to consider future elements which I could not truly capture i.e one aspect required by the Photography Module is a short 15-second animation.
“Sketch Design I for the Final Submission”
For this first sketch, I started with the positioning of the head - choosing to have it angled at a 3/4th turn and allowing the sketch to have a lot of head-room above the figure. The general idea would see a creative graphic be used for the background and have the head gradually split-up into three pieces and open-up in the animation phase. Additionally, there should be a visual frame on the border of the piece where a majority of the text could be found; however, my custom typeface would be dead-centre, displaying my name.
“Sketch Design I for the Final Submission”
For the second sketch, I wanted to experiment with a head-on shot, again leaving head-rom above the figure which I could utilise during the animation section. Similar to the first one, the main idea would be a desaturated silhouette with a vividly coloured background however, this time I wanted some of the background to cut-into the figure. As seen on the right cheek & left brow, the idea was to have some paint streaks cover the figure - as a weird symbolism that our ideas can be greater than ourselves and can even obscure our original intentions.
For Typography: As previously mentioned, my custom made typeface would need to be used in the final submission & would need to be considered the dominant typeface. I aimed to achieve this by making the typeface the largest element (minus the figure) as well as putting it in the centre of the page with a vivid colour. Any additional text would be placed alongside the borders in a similar style to modern promotion material or cards.
For Illustrations: A majority of the creative elements used in this piece would stem from my creative skills I acquired through Illustrations & visual narratives. The idea for this sketch was to have a series of lines designed to look like spilt ink to be placed behind the figure and metaphorically ‘spill-out’ of the head during the animation. These lines would be characterised by their vivid colours and striking gradients + grain. Additional elements to be created using the Illustration Module are the supporting frame & small icons.
For Photography: This would be one of the most important parts of the design as I would need to capture a usable photograph of myself. The original idea would be for me to pose in a particular lighting condition in which harsh shadows are produced solely on one side of my face. Additional lessons I would implement from Photography is image editing. One Idea I had was to put various effects on my figure to resemble something similar to the ‘Get-out’ poster seen in the Mood-boards.
Overall, with a general plan put in place, I would be able to begin working on the final render in the following week.
WEEK 13: Assembling the Project - Self Titled
With all of the planning and rough designs being completed in the previous week, I would now be able to fully focus on converting my original ideas into a digital Poster - ready for the final submission. Once again, it was important to me to keep in mind the expectations stressed to me by my lecturer’s which is why some aspects of the design were changed.
Finally, in order for me to begin working, I would need to choose which sketch I would like to pursue for the final submission - needing to consider their potential. Ultimately, I would choose to go with the first design as it could be edited to introduce elements found in the second sketch plus, I felt more confident with my first design as I could always add more without overlapping elements.
Stage I: Illustrations & Visual Narratives
To properly start-off this final render of my poster, I decided it would be the easiest to start in my preferred software, Adobe Illustrator. The ultimate idea here was to create as many of the assets as I would need here and when I’m finished; port over the finished layers into Photoshop where I could make minor changes.
“Importing References & arranging the Cinematography of the Piece”
While working in Adobe Illustrator, it came to my attention that a majority of my creative processes would be done during this stage - suggesting that I put a lot more effort into the cinematography of the scene before switching over to Adobe Photoshop. However, this proved to be my first challenge: Adobe Illustrator is not fully designed to work with complex images such as photography and thus, I would need to arrange my designs with reference to space. To counter this, I made a rudimentary ‘Rules of Third’ Grid as well as an image of myself, set to tracing-mode to better design the space. Once I had found a spacing I was happy with, I would then be able to begin creating the lines to populate the background.
“The creation of the Background Streaks in Adobe Illustrator”
For the background, I mainly wanted to create these ink-like streaks which used vibrant colour which were to be in contrast to the monochrome look of the figure. In order to create these streaks, I had to first create a series of ‘blotches’ in various shapes & sizes which would indicate the turning points seen in the images above. Once I had the shapes and had decided on their colours, I was free to use the ‘Key-Shape Blend’ tool in Adobe Illustrator to connect them together which also created a unique gradient pattern. Interestingly, while experimenting with this setting, I found that it was possible to make the lines look more 3D which was a unique look I kept considering my computer would struggle rendering 3D shapes as shown later.
“Experimenting with the Figure & Background Streaks in Adobe Illustrator”
With the streaks created, I wanted to experiment with the original idea I had for the animation which would see the head of the figure divide and be pulled apart - the streaks then leaking out. To test if this would be a viable design, I would use the ‘Trace Image’ + ‘Knife’ tool to experiment with the figure. Looking at the images above, I was not too happy with the way that this ended up looking; as a result, I thought it would be better off if I didn’t divide up my figure and kept it as a single shape.
“Development of the Glowing Crown in Adobe Illustrator”
One idea I had late into the piece was the introduction of the glowing crown - being used to subsidise the loss of the animation. With the extra head-room becoming near useless, I decided to add some form of crown or ornamentation on top of the head which reminded me of the 3D features of Adobe Illustrator. As Originally taught to us by our lecturer, Mr Zamri, it was possible to convert 2D shapes into 3D ones where we could experiment with textures. For the crown, I converted a rectangle into a cylinder (as shown above) and found a way to map the text on the outside. To map out the text, I had to form the sentence I wanted (Which I chose to be my birthday) and convert it into a line-texture which could be formatted around a 3D shape. Ultimately, I believed the design would look better if the crown would emit some type of glow; however, I knew I would be able to implement this in Photoshop - marking the end of what I wanted to do for the Illustration & Visual Narrative Stage.
Stage II: Digital Typography
Before fully changing over to Adobe Photoshop, I wanted to stay within Illustrator a little longer and begin implementing the Typographical elements in the piece. The main objective I had with Typography was to create an overlapping element, somewhat like a frame or border which would be surrounded with minor text as well as adding the main message down the centre of the page.
“The Creation of the Curvatura custom Typeface”
To summarise the creation process behind the ‘Curvatura’ custom typeface I had created; I first began by experimenting with physical calligraphy using a variety of different pens in order to find a unique Art-style. After being advised by my lecturer, Ms. Hsin Yin Low; I would begin to design the font in Adobe Illustrator, using Bodoni std as my reference font. From Bodoni, I would extract dimensions such as Ascender/Descender heights as well as x-line heights etc. to format my own text. Once I was happy with the design, I would move onto importing the design into a newer program, Fontlab (Version 8.)
While in Fontlab8, I would be working to adjust the dimension of the letters to match the real-world counterparts as well as clean-up the line work by reducing the amount of anchor points used to create their shape. This was only truly achievable in Fontlab due to its engine always attempting to preserve the shape while keeping the loop closed (something not offered by Illustrator.) Once completed, I would export the typeface pack to be used for the ‘Self-Titled’ Project.
“The Creation of the Curvatura custom Typeface”
Despite a majority of the work already being completed in a previous assignment, I would need to add additional letters to the typeface in order to make new words to fit the message I wanted to say. I originally wanted to put my name (as shown in the sketch) however, I thought I would change it to ‘Learning’ instead - making the piece have a sense of ‘ongoingness’ - something without an end considering all people are life-long learners. To finally conclude the Adobe Illustrator part of the Assignment, I would begin to lay out some additional texts (using Bodoni as a supporting typeface), often adjusting their kerning to help the text feel less compact yet still legible.
Stage III: Digital Photography & Imaging
Moving over to Adobe Photoshop, I would begin by porting over each individual layer from Illustrator and arranging them as needed to match the original hierarchy. As I am now working in Adobe Photoshop, I finally am able to use all of my assets and can truly finalise the design of my Poster.
“Creating a mask to cut-out figure & Important shapes”
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“Original files used”
Once I had ported over all of the designs from Adobe Illustrator, I needed to begin introducing the photographs I had previously taken for this stage of the assignment. After importing them into Adobe Photoshop, I predominantly would use the “Smart-Selection Tool” to select the main component of an image before creating a higher quality selecting mask using the ‘Refine-Brush’ Tool. This way, I would have a clean-cut out which I would be able to use later. Other than the portrait of myself, I repeated these steps for the image of the forest, buildings and the mountains not too far away from where I used to live.
In order to match my original vision, I would need to render these newly cut-out shapes in a monochromatic style with the end-goal of creating contrast between the subjects & background. To do this, I had isolated Hue/saturation Filter to solely focus on my portrait and would wash-out the hue (to make it black&white) and increase the saturation (to further darken the shadow/ further stylisation.) To make the piece feel more unique, I would also apply a gain-noise filter over my portrait to create the look of half-tone dots - borrowing the design from traditional comics. This process would be repeated to create all photo elements.
I wanted to include would be a more rudimentary ‘double-exposure’ effect which would sit on my shoulder behind my ear. To do this, I needed to organise the buildings, forest & mountains before merging them & turning them into a clipping mask. Once completed, I would need to enable a passing-mask where I would need to paint back in some of the additional elements that extend past the head silhouettes, creating that sitting on the shoulder look. Finally to add a bit more detail, I would duplicate the layer before inverting horizontally - creating a reflection look.
One of the last digital touch-ups I needed to do for the piece was the glowing effect which would be seen on the crown. In order to do this, I tweak the layer setting for the text - changing its rendered hue as well as adding both an internal glow (to make it look more like a neon bulb/ interior glow) and an external glow (making it blow out the surrounding colour/ illusion of light.) To further sell the idea of the text glowing & casting light, I added two quick brush strokes which would be rendered as clipping masks over the figure. One of these lines would be treated using ‘Hard-light Setting’ to show surface glow while the second line was treated using ‘dissolve Setting’ which made the lighting look more present.
Overall, with a few more adjustments and additional detail, the final poster had been made and in the next week, would be ported into Adobe After Effects for animation.
“Outcome for the final Poster”
WEEK 14: Finalising the Project - Self Titled
To Finally close out this project, as required by the Digital Photography Module, I would need to produce a short animation to give more life to the final piece. Additionally, it was highly recommended that the image could loop seamlessly which was something I of course, wanted to do.
Stage IV: Digital Photography & Imaging pt.II
To begin with, I am not the greatest with After Effects and thus believe that my work, from an animated perspective, will not be the greatest. Regardless, I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt, hence the whole week's dedication to it. To begin, I started by setting the parameters for the animation as recommended by the Photography Lecturer: A4 size format, 15-second runtime, animating at 24 frames per second.
“Creating a Timeline”
Relating back to my original vision, I decided that I wanted the elements of the shot to appear systematically - both as a way to draw attention to that detail but also pad out the runtime. To achieve this, I tried to work exclusively with the scale, rotation & position tabs when animating but sometimes, it proved useful to animate using the opacity setting.
Another interesting setting I wanted to include (which is seen with the main figure) is a ‘masking shape.’ In essence, the main figure was designed to appear in a unique fashion due to the masking shape slowly revealing it as it was animated to start from offscreen and ending by centring on the figure. Another useful tool which I employed the use of was a few nulls - being an unseen element which parents other layers (set layers copy what the null does i.e everything disappearing together at the end.) Nulls are mainly used to simply animate a large group of the layers and stream-line the whole process.
As for the final details, I never wanted the piece to feel as if it was sitting still - choosing to animate small details until the very end. This includes minor features such as the light flickering when the crown appears, birds constantly flying as the animation continues and the moon spinning constantly until its disappearance at the end.
“Final Video”
Overall, I’m not too disappointed with how the final animation came out and I am glad that I was able to use this assignment as a teaching moment which had made me more comfortable with the animating process.
THE FINAL PRODUCT: “Forever Learning”
“Finalised Products”
Artist Statement: “Forever Learning” is currently one of, if not, the most large-scale production I’ve ever been asked to make in any setting. I had originally designed this piece after my interpretation of the theme “Self-Titled” being not only the way we see ourselves but also how we carry & show our values. At the beginning, this piece was hard for me to make; I’m not often one to put myself out there - especially if I don’t need to. But, after finding an idea which worked for me, I wanted the piece to capture more-or-less my lesson in life - making something more than me. Hopefully it captures my pessimistic optimism - my belief that things in life often do go wrong but they always pass and that’s truly what we can be hopeful for. I aimed to express this mainly in the contrasting elements such as the Subject vs. the Background. Additionally, I’ve added this message into the text - not only the quote but also the “Learning.” All of us are Life-Long Learners and we all learn to see the world as we want to. Even if you don’t agree with my view, that conflict is most likely based around how you learnt to see the world.
REFLECTION & FINAL THOUGHTS
With the completion of this project (and the first semester as a whole,) I’ve truly begun my journey into the academically creative field - somewhere I’ve always wanted to be. The main lesson I’ve learned which is shared between lecturers is that creative projects take time and, as much as we don’t like it, we can only truly learn by making mistakes. I do believe that I’ve made my fair share of mistakes during this semester and with the help of my lecturers, I hope that I can continue to improve upon them. One positive statement I can make about this course is that I've become more accustomed to putting myself out there and showing people my work - something I mainly wish to keep private. This I believe is important as if I ever wish to see myself working in any creative industry, I need to be able to express my ideas and be willing to accept less-than-desirable outcomes. To counter this, one negative statement I could say about this course is management. I personally am not the most organised individual and it is something I intend to improve on in future however, I’ve also been made aware how disorganised facilities & organisations can be. Although groups in an organisation can share a common goal, they often go about in their own way and do not inform everyone - leading to inconsistent deadlines or miscommunications.
Overall, I’ve been quite stressed out by a lot of this semester and I know future semesters will be the same. My only hope is that I will continue to enjoy them and will be able to meet my own personally set goals in life.
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