Assignment 2 - Less Is More

For assignment 2, the task is to create one pictogram that comprises two celebrities or politicians. I chose Donnie Yen and Chuck Norris as the two celebrities. Donnie Yen is famous for his role as Ip Man in the two movies. Chuck Norris is famed for his roundhouse kick and the Internet phenomenon in 2005. Therefore, I chose the Ip Man photo and Chuck Norris in his kicking pose. The visual statement I want to present is two famous martial artists from the east and the west facing off.

After the class critique, the feedback I gotten was that there was no interaction between the two celebrities because the two were not in contact. The reduction process for the fifth and sixth was not much different. The suggestion I received was to add in a boxing ring as the background and bring the two characters close to each other.

*The new version will still be the same two celebrities but the photos used will be different. It is in the process of finishing.

Class Exercise C

Abstraction

For this week class exercise, we were tasked to choose an object and exercise our abstraction technique. From a realistic photo to an abstract image of the original object. The object has to go through a five step abstraction level to reach a simplified representation of the original object. For this exercise, we chose a watch and the final abstract is left with a clock face and its hands.

Ex C Groupmates: Keng Kok and Samuel Lee

Assignment 1B - Me, Myself and I (Final Prototype)

For assignment 1B, I received feedback from the tutor and class to add a pose to my mecha to make it look more dynamic. I made reference to the Hong Kong actor Bruce Lee's pose.

Base Sketch:

More Details Added:

Final Prototype:

More improvements to add on: 

- either a space background or a battle scene background.

- metallic texturing

- tweak the tone of the green colour

Class Exercise B

Constructive Criticism Model

Description:

·        An advertisement poster by McDonalds™ based on the theme of a popular movie at that point in time, Avatar.

·        Pictorial representation of a popular movie, Avatar with its main character in a setting similar to its movie poster.

·        A male Na’vi’s face is displayed like a passport photo.

·        This picture is actually generated from a avatar face generator.

Analysis:

·        There is no direct linkage between the relationship of food (McDonalds) and movie (Avatar). In addition, the film title and the McDonalds’ logo are not connectedly and appropriately positioned. The bright red color of the logo is also unfit with the deep tone of the whole poster. 

·        However, the poster made use of the popularity and success of the movie to try to possibly draw crowd to its premises. This can be seen in the poster where the focus is on the characters and scene of the movie where else McDonalds logo is only a small part at the top right corner of the poster.

Interpretation:

·        The clever use of color combinations blends well with the overall poster and brings out the focus of the main character, which helps to draw attention to it, achieving its initial intention. For example, if bright colors were used somewhere in the poster, it would distract people’s attention away from the main character or might even destroy the overall feel and look of the original image of the movie that people might relate to.

·        The weak connection between the factors reduces visual effects that the main character initially creates.

·        The use of such “cartoon-zed” character in the poster could also mean that its main focus is to reach out to the younger generations of people, as it would appear more appealing to them.

·        The background of the picture looks flat which fails to bring out the magnificent views of the planet Pandora.

Judgment:

·        This poster would definitely have a positive effect on attracting the attention of all viewers especially younger children due to the “riding the success of the popularity of a movie at that point in time” as well as the nature of the graphics.

·        If it was McDonalds intention to attract people so as to boost sales, the poster may not be as powerful in doing so as the logo of McDonalds is “diminished” in the poster (small). A casual viewer taking a short glance at the poster may very well deem that its intention was to promote the movie only.

·        Due to the nature of the graphics, the shortfall of this poster is such that it may only be appealing to the younger generations and might fail in attracting the attention of the other spectrum of people.

·        If the image is displayed within the blue border, it will look perfect. However, if this is how the image will be displayed with the edges, then this image is not properly edited.

·        The eyes of the Na’vi look terribly wrong especially the left eye which looks out of place.

·        The piece is successful in a way that it allows Na’vi fans to see how their avatars will look like in the picture especially when the movie is a huge blockbuster movie with millions of fans.

Ex B Groupmates: Keng Kok and Trang

Assignment 1A - Me, Myself and I (Preliminary Sketches and Full Scale Roughs)

For assignment 1A, we are tasked to present 4 preliminary sketches that represent our ownself, then pick one from these 4 sketches and further develop it into 2 full scale rough sketches. The first preliminary sketch is the three Japanese iconic stereotypes: Samurai, Yakuza and Geisha. I took the module "Samurai, Geisha and Yakuza" in the previous semester and is quite interesting. For the second sketch, I learnt dancing only when I entered NUS. In addition, two humans can form any letter easily. In the third sketch, I used the body structure of a western dragon to form my initials. Finally, the last sketch is a mecha design integrate with my name. I chose to further develop the mecha sketch into full scale rough sketch because I think it is much less common in the class who will use mecha as their design and I like mecha.

4 Preliminary Sketches:

2 Full Scale Roughs:

4 Preliminary Sketches (With the letters shown):

2 Full Scale Roughs (With the letters shown):

Class Exercise A

  

My Creativity Machine

In this class exercise, we were tasked to design a machine/device that enhances our creativity 100 times. It doesn't need to be working realistically.

The machine that came to my mind was Doraemon the robotic cat. Every chapter of the manga introduces an interesting and imaginative device. Hence, Doraemon is the best reference for a machine that enhances creativity 100 times. In addition, Doraemon has the ability to time travel. Time is an important element to design; certain things are appreciated during certain time while others are considered rubbish. A companion cum mentor machine can provide feedback to my design works.

Singa the courtesy lion is merely an image reference to fuse both characters into my own creativity machine.