Intro to Narrative #1

The narrative unit taught at Freestyle Academy teaches us how to properly tell a story through visuals. As an Animation student, I was assigned a group to create a 90 second animation. In English class we wrote a short story that we then digitalized in Digital Media. Digital Media also included a unit where we practiced illustration.

In Animation: Although a member short in the production of our visual novel (only 2 members rather than 3), we were able to finish the novel and improve upon the skills we learn during the conceptual unit (the previous unit). We made a large part of our animation in Adobe After Affects as well as Adobe Photoshop.

In English: I learned to express the emotions of my characters through 1st-person narrative and internal dialog. I had never attempted to tell a story in a manner like this before and dramatically improved my skill as a writer in doing so.

In Digital Media: We digitalized our story from english class and practiced illustration. The illustration practice was fun and helped improve the quality of my animation.

Story

During our narrative unit at Freestyle Academy, we were assigned to write a short story for our English class. The short story that I wanted to create was on the subject of being apathetic. The idea didn’t work out in the end, however. During the time period that I was writing my short story I was personally dealing with how I could keep my ADHD in check and could not focus on the topic that I originally chose. Instead I wrote my short story on how I was feeling at that moment. Later I created an audio version of the short story in Digital Media. In order to make the story more enjoyable to the ear, I added a reverb over my voice to make the recording sound more like an audio diary like the story was intended to be. I also added sound effects of an old recorder to make it more immersive. This unit taught me the specifics behind audio novels and how to use them to improve my own work.

Diary Entry #1

I found out today that I have ADD. Unlike ADHD, where the owner of the dysfunction decides to bounce off the walls for no good reason, ADD makes it so I forget or avoid what I’m supposed to be doing. I guess that’s why I never do homework. “That’s just an excuse,” some intellectual reader might respond. Oh really? Is that the case? Let me give you a quick example of my daily routine, you tell me if it’s really just an excuse:

Listen to the scenario (All My Love (remix) – Major Lazer): School finishes and I’m out for the day. God bless. I then proceed to hurry home as soon as possible, ensuring maximum time to engage in games of the video variety. A four-hour binge of an entire Anime season is also an alternative (and completely within the realm of possibility). Maybe tie in some youtube here and there and dinner somewhere in the mix.

BOOM

Before I know it the clock reads 10pm.

…

“Oh right, homework. Yes, homework. What was there to do? Like some creative story writing for English, yeah? Plus some math and maybe some science. Sounds like a good 2 hours of work right there. I’m just going to get started on it right now and actually sleep tonight.” -Logic, courtesy of my brain.

Starts with science homework

*Checks science homework online* “Oh, what a pleasant surprise! No science homework assigned for tonight! That saves like half an hour of work!!!” *Proceeds to browse reddit for half an hour*

Boom

Before I know it the clock reads 10:30pm.

…

“An hour and a half of homework to do, guess I’m staying up late… Do I really need to do my English? I can just send my teacher an email explaining my situation. He’ll understand, right?” -My Brain “No no no, you did this yesterday and the day before (and everyday for the last who-knows-how-long), at some point you have to actually do the work.” -Also, My Brain

*Proceeds to take a 1 hour long shower*

Boom

Before I know it the clock reads 11:30pm.

…

*at 12pm, after getting dressed for bed*

“Alright, time to do my math” (me talking to myself)

*Proceeds to finish math homework*

Boom

Before I know it the clock reads 12am.

…

“OK, just 30 to 60 minutes of English, I got this. I can do this before I crash, right?” -My Brain “I mean yeah, but I don’t want to do it right now.” -Also, My Brain “Your kidding, right? You’re doing it, bro. You don’t have a choice in the matter.” -My Brain

*Proceeds to browse the internet for 30 minutes (found an interesting article about how ADD affects a working professional’s job career)*

Boom

Before I know it the clock reads 12:30am.

…

“Do your English” -My Brain

“Yep, no disagreements here.” -Also My Brain

…

*Ambient noise – A faint humming from an air purifier in the corner of the room. A small orange light that says ‘wash’ on it glows on the top of the machine* “Man, I do love me some crisp air.” -Also, My Brain “What does that even mean? Also the air filter needs to be changed.” -My Brain “Huh, maybe the air in here ain’t as crisp as it once was. Maybe I should change the filter?” -Also, My Brain *brief moment of serious contemplation* “Nah, just do your work bro.” -My Brain “Yeah, not quite feeling it chief. Manual labour most definitely ain’t it.” -Also my brain

…

“I’m gonna do this in bed.” -Also, My Brain

*Mental sigh*

“Why?” -My Brain “Because it’s comfy.” -Also, My Brain *Climbs into bed with computer. Still hasn’t typed a single word.*

…

“So does it actually matter what I write about?” -Also, My Brain “Just do something, please!Anything!” -My Brain “Coolio.” -Also, My Brain

…

I proceeded to use and hour and a half writing a reflection on how bad of a student I am.

Boom

Before I know it the clock reads 1:49am

Why do I do this to myself? I need help… I think…

Because people like to know about the “behind the scenes” process, add an “impressive” screenshot of your Audition Short Story Audio file and add a caption to explain what the image is about.

Illustrations

This is an illustration of medusa that I made in Adobe Photoshop, using a digital pen to trace the lines of a paper copy that I drew previously.

Animations

During the most recent unit, the Animation students created an animated visual narrative. We were to create a story told primarily through the actions of our characters and the scenes around them. Although the projects was originally to be created in groups of three people, due to numbers being slightly uneven my group had only two. This helped us get better at animation techniques as we were forced to be more efficient to meet the deadline. I especially want to thank my partner Priyah for working hard to finish the project on time along side me, staying at school to as late as 10:00 so that we could work on the project longer. Below is the production mentioned:

Visual Narrative

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