There are some animation that I reference

Shingo Tamagawa used the pencil to draw the line draft, carried out colour experiments with ink and colour pencil. Finally, the line draft and colour draft were scanned into the computer and made into an animation.
Shingo Tamagawa believes that digital colour is less expressive, and he wants to convey more real and vivid emotions to the audience through his characters. Furthermore, to show that “it is possible to make something you love fun even in a silly way.”

In this personal project, I also hope to use ink and colour pencil for my colour experiments because they have more textured and expressive.
However, I might not be able to scan them into a computer and make them into an outcome like Shingo Tamagawa did cause I don’t have the scanning equipment. I’m not good at doing that on a computer, but I might keep the line draft and colour them electronically to mimic the texture of colour pencil and ink.

Storyboard text version 1

The story is about a little boy growing up. In thier world, children at a specific time become a chrysalis, after which they may become moths, butterflies or cicadas. Some people think it is necessary, some are eager for it, and some are very resistant.

Take this little boy, for example. He kept running on the grass, trying to break free of the silk that entangled him. He kept running into the forest, but the silk in his body was still trapped with him, and finally, he couldn’t run any more—the silk-wrapped him.

After a long time, he becomes a chrysalis, the liquid ooze out of the chrysalis, and the chrysalis falls to the ground. A human moth emerges from its chrysalis. The honey of the plants attracted all the human moths, human butterflies and human cicadas. They followed one different flower after another.
At last, they came to their door, and no one of them knew what was behind it, but all of them knew that this was where they belonged. The boy went in and closed the door.

The camera cuts to another point of view, and this is a giant coffin. Thread twined around the coffin, and they became pupae again.

Storyboard text version 2

Because I understood my first version of the storyboard, I only refined each shot when modifying the storyboard later.

Backgroud reference

In the background of the running clip, I refer to the game map design of the game I’m currently playing, the game Final Fanyasy 14. This game is very delicate in the background of the map, and the light and shadow of the time change, so I chose it as a reference.

Some references from other animation

RESULT

Character Design version 1

The protagonist prototype of this animation is my favourite Kabuki actor Somegoro Ichikawa. He has many characteristics of Asian teenagers, such as his eyes and face shape. This is what I hope to reflect in the animation.

So I found many of his photos and used software to transform them into various animation styles for reference.
Finally came up with the first version of the character design.

Character Design version 2

When making the second modification, I referred to some of my thoughts on the character design and many character designs from other animation.

Result

Use procreate for the third electronic drawing

Cross-cultural communication has always been a vital issue for international students. They are all born in different countries, speak other languages and have different cultural backgrounds. How to better get along with others in cross-cultural communication has become an essential topic for international students.

In one of UAL’s break out group discussions, my partner was a friendly Thai girl who was good at English. It was not the first time that I was in the same group as her. I’m not good at group discussions with many people, but working in groups of two and having an amiable partner did reduce my anxiety. Cause my English is not good, I lack confidence whenever I work in a group, and I will apologize to my partners in advance because it will affect the speed of our work. In describing some own ideas, I usually spend a lot of time. At this time, I also take a lot of time in the description of my storyboard. Although I hard try to use English to express my meaning, my partner will ask me where she didn’t understand and encouraged me to continue. Finally, I managed to describe my storyboard. It was the first time that I finished my group discussion so quickly, and we talked about the past for the rest of the time, which made us more relaxed to speak in English. I appreciate my partner very much! She made me feel more confident to practice my English harder. In my opinion, Vocabulary may be vital to be able to communicate fluently and confidently with others. Although some simple sentences can also describe something, it may be difficult for others to understand the vague explanation. I will try my best to improve my Vocabulary before the end of this semester and practice my oral English often.

In the subsequent cross-cultural communication, I will make more efforts to improve my English skills and become better at communicating with people confidently. I hope that in the future, I can inspire more people like my partner.

Project theme and where they come from?

At this time, my project theme is the cocoon and the transform. Cause when I think about “Transform”, the first idea is the metamorphosis of insects. Cocoon, filament and silk visualize in my mind. That related to some traditional culture of China. By access to information, I realize that people usually choose silk as a funeral in ancient China cause people really want their self like a silkworm could rebirth from the cocoon at a suitable time. It probably sounds terror, but it really interesting, and this an immense promise at that time.

What I will focus on?

The focus of my project is drawing and a sense of story. I am interested in using a picture book, animation, stop animation, or dynamic painting for the form. For the media, I probably will use watercolour or electronic drawing.

Who is my intended audience?

My intended audience is adults who are interested in rebirth, spring and insects. The cause of my outcome probably will close to these words. I hope to show a feel to the audience, which is people’s transform like the metamorphosis of insects.

What will my towards producing?

I toward producing a stop animation or dynamic painting. This will help me to show this project. In other words, these are the most suitable form that I think. But I still consider using the picture book. Cause of it is the most familiar form that I know.

What subject areas are my intend to research? and the likely sources of information?

I intend to research some artwork from practitioners like Shingo Tamagawa，the ancient Chinese traditional culture, and the ancient Chinese tomb history field. I have found some academic papers and news reports about it. However, the challenge is that many academic essays and news resource related to this theme are in Chinese. I need to find some English resource in the essay citations. This may take much time.

What Facilities at LCC I will use?

I prefer to use the Intaglio workshop. Cause I’ve already tried it once on the location project as a primary research project. It works very well last time, and if I use it again, I think I will be more skilled and have a prettier outcome. I want to use it to make some cards like postcards for the outcome.

What have I learned from past projects?

In the past projects, I have been more clear about what a project needs to prepare in the primary and secondary research, and how to specify a clear plan. And how important it is to pay attention to project deadlines. Where can I find academic resources, refer to the works of practitioners will bring me more inspiration and the reflection after each step will bring me greater progress.

What problem may arise?

First, it may difficult to find relevant English resources in secondary research and spend a lot of time reading academic resources. Second, that my outcome may not be able to express my meaning clearly.
In my recent research, I also realized that I might need to revise my research from silkworms to cicadas. Because the pronunciation of the two is very similar in Chinese, many academic sources on Han Dynasty burial culture show that the cicada is more closely related to rebirth and transformation.

What was successful and why?

In the outcome, the colour, form and line picture are successful. For the colour, I reference a lot of colour from practitioners’ works, and I made many colour experiments—these the best, for now, I could do. Learned several new colour technique for this project also is my gain. It’s made me improve. For the form, this I first time try to do a pop-up book. In the beginning, I want it could like a cabinet that shows the audience the story which I collect. In fact, it does. This why I feel it is successful.

What you could you improve and how?

I want to improve my media and habit. For media, marker and watercolour probably will show the audience a better result which I feel. Cause of colour pencil is too littery or just because I didn’t have a skilful technique of colour pencil. It has a texture which is great for drawing character, but it made my background too littery. This why I think marker and watercolour will be better. Those media usually will let people feeling the picture clear. For habit, I usually afraid to start something cause of start is the most difficult part of everything. I sent a lot of time on research and didn’t start my outcome. I’m too worried that I could be drawing well at the start. It made me done everything slowly; I always want to be more perfect and think this is the most important. Actually, it’s not. Finish the work on time and try my best during that time is the most important part. I couldn’t avoid the problem appears. It will stop improve me. For this project late, I feel really sorry. It’s not only let me fall into anxiety but also bring trouble for others around me.

What were the key moments in your research that led to your ideas development?

In my research, the most important are made more sketch which led to my idea development. When I drew my sketch, I usually find some problem that I didn’t realize before. The picture is empty, some elements are excrescent and change a media will have a better result. It also made me avoided a lot of problems when I doing the outcome. Sketch also gave me more new ideas, which could probably solve the problem I find at before or just let me draw a new picture. A high degree of completion sketch could help me in the colour experiment. It saved lots of time and give me a better colour scenario.

Drawing sketch also let me know start doing is the most most important things. Do not stop drawing cause of afraid drawing not well. The right order when facing a difficult thing is: start doing, find the question, solve the question and realize the new question. A picture has hardly become perfect. It probably will have all kind of problem, no matter at any process. So don’t be inquietude about my drawing is not perfect or usually have some problem. It’s inevitable. It is made us improve myself.

What working practices worked well, what documentation techniques worked?

I used photography, sketch, collecting photos from the online recourse, write down the details of each collections’ rules, mind maps, notes, and collecting stories from my friends and family members. Then I write them down on a piece of paper, this helps me avoid forgetting any details from their stories, which is used as my working practices. These methods are really suitable for me to use. The most effective documentation techniques are photography and sketch. In this particular situation, photography always gives me a lot of inspiration about the outcome, I also can import these photos into my computer for secondary authoring, modification, or make some color experiments. This not only facilitates me to improve my outcome but also gives me more possibilities for the outcome. Sketch allows me to better reflect on what’s missing from my pictures and how can I improve them. 

· Story background

This outcome talk about stamp and my parents’ love story.

My parents didn’t meet each others at the beginning. They knew each other through my aunt, then they wrote letter for more than a year to get to know each other. Since then my father and mother they both has in love with stamp collecting.

After one year wrote the letter, my mother took the train to Shandong Province to met my father. They became a couple for seven months then they got married became husband and wife.

·Structure of pop-up book

· Reflection

The successful part is that there is no problem with the shape and structure of the stars, but I need to add two pages to reserve space for connecting the cover.

The current progress is still a bit slow, today I will upload the three storyboards that have been organized. (draft one, line one, and color one)

·Draft