Extended Practice - Progress Journal

 In this project, I aim to create a solo project which elaborates on the progress on my context of practice 3. In addition to that, I also aim to focus more on character design and backgrounds. Working on other projects will also help develop my skills and strengthen my portfolio as an animator.

[24/10/2020]                                      Initial Developments

         As I want to further develop upon the topic of synaesthesia in context of animation, I plan to create a short film recreating the experience of synesthete. I will accomplish this through  choosing one soundtrack and animating a series of visual elements synchronising to each section of the track itself. 

    The chosen soundtrack is 'Darkness' by V.K a Taiwanese composer. This soundtrack is heard from a rhythm game Cytus developed by a Taiwanese company, Rayark. The reason I chose this track is because of the dynamic flow and beat this track features, allowing interesting dynamic visuals to be interpreted.  

[10/11/2020]                                   1st Weekly Presentation

[Week 1 Presentation]

[Initial Mood board]

    In the first presentation, I talked about how I wanted to further develop the theme of synaesthesia from the Context of Practice 3 Module. With the chosen sound track in mind, I developed a visual mood board after synthesising with the song itself.

    I will also look at opportunities to work in other groups as either a background artist or a character concept artist. 

[24/11/2020]                                        2nd Weekly Presentation 

    Developing upon my visual board as tasked, I added a series of visual images that would help develop a visual style and imagery that will feature with this project. 

    Alongside that, I also completed a live brief from LoopdeLoop - TheSmilingBoy. This live brief required us to visually interpret a song which was about asylum seekers, in particular Farhad Bandesh whom was one himself. Inspired by a photograph which captured a boy smiling before being buried alive in northern Iraq as Saddam Hussein tried to wipe out their population in the late eighties, Farhad wrote this powerful song which embraces the struggles and experiences he and many others had experienced as asylum seekers. 

    I developed a visual board with provided and externally sourced images then produced a looping short for the song.

    I aim to progress from visual developments and get on to storyboarding the project.

[29/11/2020]                    Group Meeting [Rhys' Project - The Last Rider]       

    In the first meeting, we discussed about our roles in the group and the work we would like to each tackle for the project. As I was interested in character design for this project, I applied for that role. Alongside that, I wanted to practice and develop my illustration skills and decided to also take on that role as well.

[30/11/2020]                Meeting with Music students at Leeds College of Music            

  As my solo project does not need additional sound, I joined in to understand the progress of collaboration between music and animation students. Since I was a part of Rhy's project, it was also interesting to listen to the work and projects music students' have produced and how they maybe able to help out on the group project.            

[7/1/2021]                                                3rd Weekly Presentation

    Further developing on my solo project, I created a draft storyboard of the soundtrack. Separating it in different sections and taking notes on what visual elements and transitions would appear after indulging myself in the soundtrack.

    As I joined up with Rhy's group, I developed some character concepts. However, I found that I was more indulgent in developing and painting a concept background, taking up majority of the time; therefore a compromise was formed where I would focus solely on background concepts. 

    Feedback; Background needs to capture the 'hellish' theme of the world! It is realistic but lacks creative aspects.

    After that, I will have to develop the exterior but also keep the creative aspect in mind while doing so.

[21/1/2021]                                      4th Weekly Presentation

    From the previous weekly presentation, I started from scratch and redeveloped my vision on the projects' background concepts. I approached the world in from an abstract point of view and created several hellish like western landscapes. 

    After conversing with Rhys, we came to the conclusion where I would add a saloon in the landscape, keeping the abstract structure from the Design 2; developing into the final Design, 3. 

    Completing the exterior concept, I moved onto the interior. Using the Maya references made by Rhys, I developed several visual concepts with it. Keeping the creative aspect in mind, I made a hellish visual theme for the backgrounds. 

    Feedback; The original colour scheme and visual style was preferred over the overly hellish colour scheme from the interior concept. 

    Due to the constant development and time spent on the backgrounds I didn't have time to work on my solo project. However I do aim to resume progress next week.

[4/2/2021]                                          5th Weekly Presentation 

   

    As Rhys has finalised the Gantt chart for the backgrounds, I spent the time to develop and finalise the background I did as a concept during the previous weekly. The outcome was great and I am proud of the development, however I will need to keep the subsequent background visually consistent. 

[Change of plans for solo project]

    Due to the time spent finalising and painting the backgrounds, I did not have time to work on my solo project. Moreover looking at the time and deadlines set, I might not be able to produce a final film that I envisioned and will be proud of, some compromises may have to be done to shorten it if possible. 

    However as I am getting more and more interested in background illustration as an animator, I actually do not mind comprising the solo project to complete and put my fullest effort to create and complete the backgrounds for Rhys' animation project. The more I think about my solo project the more sense of direction lost from the planning phase as the 'feeling' of depicting specific visuals synchronising to the soundtrack maybe dependant on myself and changes overtime. I will make a final decision on the verdict of my solo project within the timeframe of this weekly and the next weekly.

[11/2/2021]                                          6th Weekly Presentation 

    Continuing on with the backgrounds, I've finished the second background and moving swiftly onto the third. As I am able to reuse a lot of the assets I've digitally illustrated, this makes the process of the backgrounds a lot faster; only having to adjust and repaint some parts of the background and not starting from scratch. 

    If possible, I aim to finish the backgrounds ahead of time, allowing room for improvement and changes if needed. Depending on how ahead I am from the schedule, I can then go back to my solo project if possible. As I still aim to create a abstract visual based animated short, I will not need the long process of pre-production but only to test animatic timings. Therefore if there is time left to spare, I do aim to get back to it after completing the backgrounds.

[18/2/2021]                                     7th Weekly Presentation 

    This weeks' progress was productive. I've managed to complete three backgrounds which puts me ahead of the set time schedule by 2 working days. I've managed to complete backgrounds 3, 4, and 5, moreover I got to add some minor details to the completed backgrounds of 1 and 2. 

    I aim to continue working at this pace, hopefully allowing myself to complete work ahead of time to allow room for adjustments.

[25/2/2021]                                                1-2-1 Tutorial

        In this meeting with Mike, I was able to inform and update him on my situation regarding this module. My plan for this module initially was to create a visual and music synced animation which lasted for 1 minute and 50 seconds. However that was put on hold once I've started committing on Rhys' project. 

    Although, I am ahead of schedule on Rhys' project and I aim to spare as much time as I can to complete what I wanted to do originally. I will compromise and cut down the time to around 30-40 seconds, focussing only on the main parts of the song. I will have to go back to the drawing board and fully plan my animation once I'm at a stage where I only have to do minor revisions on the backgrounds. 

    My second plan would be to fully help Rhys out on his project and do some producing of animating some scenes if my project is not developed or revised enough in a timely manner.

[3/3/2021]                                         8th Weekly Presentation

    As there was some time between the 7th weekly session and the 8th, I was able to get some more backgrounds completed. I am currently a little passed the half way point, 10/20 completed backgrounds and almost completing the 11h and 12th. 

    As aforementioned, I aim to complete the 20 backgrounds in a timely manner allowing time for me to work on my initial project. That plan can change and I might fully commit on Rhys' project not only as the background artist but also an animator. However that will be my backup if I do not come up with a revised storyboard and animatic for my project once I reach the stage of minor revisions on the backgrounds.

Feedback:
- Make the shelves messy! Not rearranged
- Generally, the place is too clean, need to mess it up more [on the floor] 
- On background 10, the cards needs revisiting, seem to be on different planes 

- Things look too even, needs foreshortening!

[10/3/21]                                          9th Weekly Presentation

    Since last weeks' weekly, from the feedback I got to make the environment messier and less clean, I decided to hold those revisions on pause after I finish all of the backgrounds first. As I am still ahead of schedule for the backgrounds, I aim to finish all the interior backgrounds first then move onto the two remaining exteriors.

    I planned to have worked on some of my solo project this week however I was not able to do so due to the backgrounds. Since I completed the interiors, I will hopefully be able to move onto the exteriors and revisions by next weekly. Leaving the remaining time to work on my solo project. 

[18/3/21]                                       10th Weekly Presentation 

    This week, instead of leaving the revisions till last, I decided to tackle them and finish them for feedback this week. Alongside revisions, I also completed the rest of the interior backgrounds that were not complete due to the bar shelf needing to be reworked as well as the bar atmosphere. 

    During the week, Rhys also requested for two additional interior backgrounds, I will be aiming to complete those alongside the exterior backgrounds for the next weekly. As those backgrounds will not be too difficult, I can complete them and also work on my solo project.

Solo Project Update:

- As adjustments had to be made due to the lack of time left before submission date, I decided to retackle the concept of my solo project.

- I changed songs, from 'Darkness' by VK, to 'Luolimasi' by SIHanatsuka

- This short will be a self reflective piece, illustrating self struggles and overcoming them through synchronised visuals with the track

- To accommodate for the time remaining, I will have the option to cut down the song, however that effects the 'storytelling' aspect of it as I aim to synchronise the tone and mood portrayed by the track to the visuals. However my solution will be to have the first half illustrating self struggles and battling them illustrated in a black and white animation, finally breaking free and transitioning to fully coloured visuals at the end.

    I aim to portray my concept through a developed storyboard and animatic by next week alongside the backgrounds. 

[25/3/20]

    Tackling on the exterior backgrounds, I used the exterior concept piece to get an understanding of the rest of the sky that I will have to build upon as this background is planned to pan from the sky down towards the saloon. 

[Original Concept Exterior]

    I decided to redo the main assets of the background as the lines and the colouring of the mountains, tower, and saloon are well underdeveloped and lacks the consistent quality of lighting and style.

    But before tackling the assets, I had to settle down on the background composition. The concept Rhys provided was a portal that opens up leading towards the saloon in the sky; some thoughts of colour came to mind and I decided to try out different colours for the sky.

[Background 13 Colour Tests]

    Rhys suggested the colour of the portal to be a hellish orange colour, therefore tests were done to make the sky orange fading to the green for the portal. However there was an issue of consistency where if there was to the background, I would have to apply the change to the other backgrounds where there were windows showing the landscape from the interior. 

    Rhys and I mutually agreed to keep the background colour range from hot pink fading to a pale purple to make things more simple.

    A workaround for the portal was to replace the portal with the moon, making that the focal point suggesting that this world presented was a fantasy Hellscape; which was suggested by Rhys. 

    Happy with the decision and direction, I started to compose a composition for the clouds. 

[Background 13 Cloud Composition]

    After polishing off the clouds, I moved onto the assets. I decided to tackle the tower and mountains as those were the easier ones to redo first. 

[Background 13 WIP1 - Tower and Mountains]

    

Tower Changes:

- Completed base colour and removed the line details

- Separated the creature statue from the shaft of the tower and added a shadow underneath it

- Repainted the scales of the neck portion of the creature to replace the lines

- I decided to not paint the 'brick' texture on the tower and make it just simple stone shaft

Mountains Changes:

- Repainted some areas to make it more complete

- Changed the hue of it to reflect a more reddish tone, fitting the hellscape environment

[Background 13 WIP2 - Saloon]

Saloon Changes:

- Repainted the entire structure

- Changed the base colours, instead of browns mirror the texture of wood, I changed it to a maroon tone to push the hellscape aspect further

- The wood textures on the structure are now more visible 

- Added interior details, so now the windows are see-through to the inside of the saloon

Overall, I am really happy with the outcome of the saloon. Although this process too long, it was really worth it.

[Background 13 Final - Added Shadow and Lighting]

[Background 13 - Close up of the Saloon]

Final touches:

- After adding the lighting and shading, the saloon really popped

- The saloon sign was a bit dull even after revision, so I decided to push the fantasy aspect further and made it emit a hellish green flames which worked extremely well

Solo Project [Storyboard]:

- After spending majority of the week working on the first exterior background, I was only able to get the general concept of the storyboard complete. 

[Revival Storyboard]

I plan to complete the backgrounds and start animating next week after completing the final and last background for Rhys group project. 

[1/4/20]

    Working on the final background, the background is a wide-shot illustrating a sand-dune background. Reusing assets of the mountains and clouds, I created a draft version to see if this was the direction Rhys wanted for this background. 

[Background 19 - WIP1]

- Simple background to accomplish as a lot of assets were reusable

- Most difficult aspect of it would be the sand-dune 

    I mainly struggled with the colours of the sand-dune as I did not know whether to depict it with an array of reds to reflect the hellscape theme or use colours I used to depict the ground form the first exterior background.

    In the end I decided to keep the colours consistent and use the lighting of the hot pink to help depict that hellish fantasy aspect. 

[Background 19 - WIP2]

 

    After completing the assets, I started to work on the lighting, shading and minor details. 

[Background 19 - Final]

    After this background I still have a final background to complete depicting the final scene depicting Marrow, the protagonist and his skeleton horse. 

I will work on that next week and focus on my solo project backgrounds first.

 Solo Project Update:

- Due to minute amount of remaining time, I have decided to cut majority of the storyboard concept down to only the ending where the character breaks through from the darkness and flies through the skies. 

- I will complete that aspect of the project first as that will be the most visually impactful scene, leaving the remaining time for polishing and finding a workaround to depict the 'struggle' aspect

   

    Working on the first background, I struggled a lot with the perspective, technique, and the depiction of the city. 

    I started by composing the perspective of the shot and started painting. 

[Revival Background 1 - WIP1]

    After working on the perspective and the composition, I managed to get a general composition of the background. Excluding the city, I've painted the mountains and sky. 

[Revival Background 1 - WIP2]

Trial and Error:

- As I wanted to speed the process up for the background, I tried and attempted photo-bashing, to depict the aspects. However I found that too difficult and inconsistent in terms of texture and style

- I resorted back to painting using a textured brush to give it a rougher look

- Thinking about the scene, I thought of elongating the background and changing the colour of the sky, making the two backgrounds combine to make the process easier

- I attempted photo bashing for the city, however I did not like the perspective of the sot and in the end, I decided to find a better reference photo for the perspective and start over

    I will work on the background next week, and hopefully experiment with after effects to see how I can transition the sky from night to sunrise.

[8/4/20]

    Working on the new background, I got a perfect reference perspective for the background. With that, I started to work on the new background. As this animation project is a personal project relating to myself, I used a cityscape of Hong Kong as a part of my background to demonstrates my origins.

[Revival Background - Perspective reference]

    After gathering the images, I started to compose the city aspect first as that was the most trouble I had in the previous background. 

[Revival Background - WIP1]

- Using colour range, I created the light contours of the cityscape of Hong Kong Victoria Harbour

- I then photo-bashed various views and cityscapes of Hong Kong to complete the missing aspects of the contour

- I played around with the hues and saturation to make the city scape monotone 

[Revival Background 1 - WIP2]

  

- I changed some areas of the cityscape hue to make the contours more apparent 

- I used colour range for the city reference image of Victoria Habour and adjusted it to get a selection of the cityscape highlights

- I adjusted the colour of orange of the sky to reflect that on the highlight buildings 

    I then started to work on the clouds; starting with the sunrise.

[Revival Background 1 - Sunrise clouds]

[Revival Background 1 - White clouds]

[Revival Background 1 - Grey clouds] 

    To save time, after finishing the sunrise clouds, I adjusted the hue and saturation of it to produce the white and grey clouds. 

I aim to finish the last background for Rhys, the second Revival background and start animating next week.

[15/4/20]

    Working on Rhys' last background, it was quite simple as it was just a change of composition and some minor details.

    I used the sand-dune from background 19 to create the background, added a flat foreground  to complete the ground composition. I was deciding whether to have a flat landscape or a more dynamic one, I decided to create a more dynamic background to make the landscape less static.

[Background 23 - WIP1]

- I attempted to repaint the clouds using a chalk brush but that changes the style of the clouds immensely ruining the consistency, therefore I kept the clouds the same  

- As in the storyboard, there were boulders around the mid-ground I decided to add those there for the final composition to make it look more interesting and less empty

[Background 23 - Final]

- I finished rendering the boulders and the post for the leash of the skeletal horse

- I added lighting and shadow to this piece and completed it

Context of Practice 3 - Progress Journal

 [1/10/2020]                             Context of Practice 3 Initial Research

    During the summer, we were tasked to develop a research presentation to present to our peers. As I was interested in music and visual animation from last years' COP module, I decided to retackle that topic in a different angle. Instead of looking at AMVs, I wanted to understand the synthesis of music and visual on an in-depth level.

   

    Having a general direction for what I want to research upon, I then developed a statement of intent for this project. The statement of intent covers a general basis of what I will be researching upon in the written piece, alongside with a rationale stating my intentions for researching on the chosen topic. 


[9/10/2020]                                       Statement of Intent

    Completing my statement of intent, I have narrowed down and pinpointed specific areas that I have decided to investigate upon from my initial research phrase. In my essay, I will research into visual aspects such as colour, shape and texture and understand how sound is visualised and associated with different notes. How that changes according to the pitch or frequency. I will also look into different music genres and how that will affect the visuals. The goal is to experiment with music and visual elements to find an equilibrium between the two that will ultimately enhance visual and auditory experiences to the audience. And how I will be able to incorporate narrative into it. 


[21/10/2020]                                     First Tutorial Session

    During this week, we had to complete our introduction segment of our essay for our first tutorial with our assigned tutors.

Feedback:
- Fix tenses
- Implement in-text citations for referencing to used sources
- Tie sources into my introduction [how I am going to use my primary and secondary sources to help achieve my practical goal]
- Try to look at opposing sources to create unbiased viewpoints 
- Contact Samantha Moore 
- Create a Gantt Chart for better planning
- Place 'Page of Context' in Appendix instead of front of essay
- Try to include diversity in research [practitioners] to see if there are correlations in gender?

[29/10/2020]                                            Gantt Chart

- Gantt chart demonstrates a rough timeline for this module [COP3/LAUAN601]
- I gave myself a week for each research session, alongside that my practical will be experimental shorts, I will develop my practical in conjunction with my research as a response to each segment. 
- The ideal plan is to finish my work by November 25 to give myself leeway to edit and refine my work if necessary before the due date of December 10

[30/10/2020]   Getting in Contact [Samantha Moore & Music Engineer Undergraduate]

Conducting some primary research, I got in contact with two sources. I have a friend who is an Undergraduate Music Engineer student from Birmingham City University. Knowing that he has symptoms of Synesthesia, I interviewed him to see how he visualises colour in his perspective. 

- Lower pitch // Lower end notes // Flat = Darker hue [Blueish- Purple]
- Higher pitch // High end notes // Sharp = Lighter hue [Brownish]
- The lower the flat, the more purple the hue is; whereas the higher the flat, the hue will be progressively blue
- Green and Red are not colours that are not visible
- Colour hue goes from Brown to Orange to Yellow  
- Future plan: Get Archie to fill out a colour graph of one Octave

Samantha Moore was suggested to me by Mat during our 1-2-1 tutorial. I sent an email today to try to get in contact with her to inquire her about Synesthesia and her experience with it. 



I have prepared some potential questions that would be useful for my essay and practical progression.

1) How did you find out you were a Synesthete?

2) How is your experience with music in general? Does listening to music necessarily intensify the visuals or are they base off of the loudest/apparent sound? [does different layers affect it?]

3) Have you listened to different types of music? If so, do different genres and languages effect the visual depictions? [genre like Pop, Rap, Lofi etc. // Languages? // Instrumental?]

4) Does all sound and word necessary have a specific shape, form, colour and or texture?

5) After watching your short film "Eye Full of Sound", you illustrate visual imagery and patterns of how sound is visualised from your perspective. Do those visual depictions change over time [age?] Are they dependant on your emotions?

6) If you listen to a piece of music, do those visuals necessarily tell a narrative along with the song? [Do they necessarily go with the music or no?]

[2/11/2020]                                       Second Tutorial Session

    After completing majority of the research for my essay, I sent my second draft in for review for the second 1-2-1 tutorial session.

Feedback:                                                                                                                                        - Polish introduction ['Aim to analyse a variety/variables instead of 'successfully']

- Format all the completed research into finalised sentences/paragraphs

- Since Samantha hasn't replied yet, try to find another primary source

- Triangulate sources

- Draw conclusions based on research + apply to practice

- Make a start on practical 

- Use range of sources [introduction]

    Now my aim is to finish formatting and finalising all the writing aspect of the essay for the 12th of November as that will be the draft hand-in date where I will have to have completed at least half the essay. I will utilise this weekend to finish that aspect so I can start my practical next week.

[6/11/2020]                                     Potential Primary Source

    As suggested during the second tutorial session, I reached out to see if anyone that I know that studies music would know anyone that has Synesthesia. As I understood that people that has perfect pitch are also Synesthetes. 

    I was able to get ahold of a student who studies in Royal College of Music in London and hopefully will be able to conduct an interview with her soon this week.

[6/11/2020]                       Primary Source - Eyra Norman [Erya's work]

    After attempting to reach out to Eyra as my back-up primary source, she responded not long after. During our conversation, I got a significant amount of insight about synesthesia which helped a lot as some information I wasn't able to gather through secondary research.

    Erya learnt about her condition in secondary school during a neurological differences in school, specifically the autistic spectrum. Synesthesia experiences were brought up and she then realised that she was one that related to those experiences. It did not occur to her that anyone though differently, she assumed everyone saw colours and felt temperatures with sound. 

    To conclude, the main things I've learned about Synesthesia after our exchange:

- Eyra has Chromesthesia [Sound evoking colours, shapes and movements], Misophonia [Sound triggering certain emotions or physiological responses] and Auditory-Tactile Synesthetisa [Sound affecting ones' tactile sensation, tingling, localised pressure/tension]

- Each and everyone's perception of colour via sound is personal and unique [Chromesthesia]

- There are factors that may change the colour perception of certain things and things that will stay definite. As for Eyra, her colour system of notes stay definite; how she associate notes to colour. However factors such as timbre (particular tones that distinguishes a sound/compound of sounds), pitch (how high/low a certain note is), where the music is placed harmonically, and her emotions and how sensitive her hearing is on that day affects the visualisations a lot

- Eyra's visuals can be dependent on different factors of music. Sometimes, her visual corresponds best with timbre, sometimes it's overtones, sometimes the key and sometimes the individual pitches

- Middle C is always Forest Green, the lower the flat of C is, the darker it is, the higher it is, the more lurid it is

- If that note is played on violin, it's Blueish but retaining that hint of Forest Green 

- On a clarinet, it's Brown, Silver and Green

- Depending on Eyra's hearing, if it's more sensitive, the more on the lurid side colours will be, and duller colours will be more prominent if normal

- If an instrument has strong overtones/undertones [higher/lower frequency of a note] those play a factor to the colours/patterns visualise

- Eyra's overtone system; purples, reds, oranges and copper-gold

- The visuals that she depicts in her work are a series of intricate, intense and colourful still portrayals of various shapes, lines and patterns. Usually swirls and circles but also various lines that range in type; wiggly and zagged, length, thickness, texture, all small visualisations compounded into a still illustration.  

[12/11/2020]                                     1st Draft Submission

    After cleaning up my notes and restructuring them to paragraphs and sentences, organise my appendices and bibliography alongside the required format and handed the draft in for submission. Unfortunately I was too focussed on the writing aspect of the essay and did not progress for practical. I will be doing that next week to hopefully complete at least 70% of my experimental shorts and reflect upon it within the essay. 

                                                        Interview Results [Table]

    After the interview with Eyra and Archie, I asked them to fill in a colour chord graph which visually illustrates their interpretation of colour in relation to music. In addition, to them, I found out that another one of my friends also experience synesthesia and asked her to fill in the table too.

    As I develop my practical, the first step was to develop my own colour correlation chart in relation to an octave.   

Self Developed Colour Table in Accordance to an Octave

Through developing this graph, I have learnt several things...

- As I do not experience synesthesia, the colour relations are just self correlations dependant on mood of myself and the sound, and are not consistent or permanent 

- Notes that are not sharps/flats are duller in comparison and it gets progressively lurid as it goes from C to B

- The feeling that I get from playing sharps/flats in an octave, the minors, give off an eerie tone, therefore I associate them with a theme of 'haunting' colours; such as Maroon, Lavender and Grey

Colour Table [Yvette, Eyra and Jason]

Comparing the two interviewees who are synesthetes, here's what I found:

- Comparing Yvette and Eyra's colour chart, it is evident that they both experience synesthesia differently even though they have the same type, Chomresthesia

- Whilst Eyra's chart just depicts the C note on an octave scale of different instruments, Yvette's chart illustrates a whole octave. Comparing how they interpret the C note, Eyra's interpretation is forest green whilst Yvette's is yellow. As Eyra has perfect pitch, she is able to precisely pinpoint the specific notes of any sound; alongside with synesthesia, her visualisation of C changes depending on how high or low the C note is. The lower it is the darker it gets and the higher it is the more lurid the colour gets. 

- Besides solid colours, Yvette experiences a combination. Evident from her visualisation of the D note, she sees it as an aura with blue being the base colour with a seafood mint radiating around it. As for her G sharp, a teal base with gold marbling within it is visualised, this is different as it is a specific pattern unlike other solid colours. 

- As Eyra's chart is only of the note of C in various octaves, it is apparent that her perception is very different from Yvette's. As Yvette visualises in solid colours and in some cases a combination of colours and a motif, Eyra's colour chart is dependant on the pitch of the sound and instrument.

- All in all this is evident that synesthetes have their own experience and neurological correlations that produces these outcomes

Strong Correlation [Archie]

 

Interviewing Archie, it is stated that he does not experience synesthesia and instead just has strong correlations between numbers and letters with colours. In synesthesia, this type would be under grapheme colour synesthesia. 

Conclusion

    All in all, I learnt the difference between strong self correlation and synesthesia. Synesthesia is an experience where it comes naturally and involuntarily, like a sixth sense, however that is different from strong correlations as strong correlations is not all natural and does depend on at least some thought. This is evident with the examples as I interviewed Eyra and Yvette who were synesthetes, Eyra particularly said in the interview how her colour to music correlation is always constant and can only be effected by factors such as her sensitivity to hearing and this case different instruments. Where as in Archie's example, during the interview he had some trouble listing and correlating some colours to numbers/letters as his correlations are from how he relates those two elements together however it does not come naturally. I can also elaborate upon this as I also had to give some thought to it when I was creating my own octave scale, thinking of a system and how sharps and flats correlate to haunting and eerie sound, and how normal notes are more mellow and natural. 

[19/11/2020]                                   Visual Board Development

    Developing my practical of my experimental piece, I started to create visual boards of songs that I listen to. 

Separating to instrumental and lyrical, here's what I have developed. 

TINFOIL - Linkin Park [Instrumental // Visual Board]

- This progressive instrumental piece features elements of drums, piano and an 'echo' like sound that drowns the clarity of the instruments

- Through listening to this piece, the patterns/stokes that I visualised were a series of faint 'sonar' like depictions alongside some rough textured strokes.

- Moreover the piece gave me a strong visualisation of a dark tunnel which travels towards the light as the piece progresses

- Strong sense of colour also came into mind, dull colours of maroon, magenta, a mixture of the aforementioned alongside some greys and beige

I Luv U - SQUAR - Cytus [EDM Instrumental // Visual Board]

- This instrumental has various musical elements such as brass, strings and piano, mashed with electronic elements giving it a unique combination

- This piece presents a grand feeling with the classical instruments but quickly transitions to a mythical and adrenaline rush like feel once the electronic elements unite with the instruments

- The visuals I connect with listening to this piece are a series of patterns which slightly resembles leaves, fur and animal prints, mainly dense series of shapes, some geometrical patterns which somewhat resemble rhythm game bars and music scores, and organic flows of lines

- The textures are mainly a series of psychedelic swirls and patterns along with checkers patterns as the instrumental's mythic aspect brings correlation to Alice and the Wonderland

- The colours that I tie this piece with are a series of bright and vibrant colours    

G.O.A.T - Polyphia [String + Bass Instrumental // Visual Board]

- This instrumental piece features mainly guitars and drums. The combination of the two make a simple yet unique piece that gives off this juxtaposition of a freezing hell sort of environment

- The lines/strokes that I visualised are a series of patterns that feature both organic symbolic motifs and some geometrical ones too; a series of smokey light patterns and some being a combination of swirls and glyph like symbols

- Some textures that I envision are coarse textures such as sand and rice, alongside with densely packed visual textures such as scales and binary and some ice elements

- The colours of this piece range from vibrant hot pinks and oranges to colours such as olive and peacock and a series of dull greys, blues and greens.

Koiwazurai - Aimer [J-Pop // Visual Board]

- This song by the Japanese artist Aimer gives off a romantic and upbeat feeling

- As I do not understand Japanese, my interpretation of the song are purely based off of the mood, tone and rhythm of the song and not the lyrics.

- After some research into the lyrics, this song is about lovesickness, as the name of the song translates to that verbatim and is about the struggles of feeling love sick and the pain and emotional aspects that strongly affects the 'victim'; a direct contrast to my initial interpretation of the song

Moon River - Aimer [Song // Visual Board]

- This other song by aimer is a cover of the infamous 'Moon River'

- As I understand the lyrics, this song makes me visualise a calm and cooler atmosphere and environment. Creating a subconscious relationship between what I visualise and the name of the song, Moon River.

- A short narrative or scenario that I strongly envision is a man on a wooden boat fishing in the starry night whilst star twinkle bright and shooting stars pass by in the dreamy and tranquil night

Glassy Sky - AmaLee - Tokyo Ghoul [Song // Visual Board]

- This song is a song for an Anime series Tokyo Ghoul. 

- This original sound track has a really ethereal sense to it, and in the visual board, a lot of post-apocalyptic images and desolate landscape are noted as listening to this piece creates a narrative for me

- In a post-apocalyptic world where majority of man kind has been wiped out, only few have the will power to try to save the planet. There is a tower that reaches beyond the clouds breaking a transparent barrier surrounding Earth after the apocalypse, whoever reaches the top will be able to destroy this tower in the cost of their life, removing the barrier encasing the Earth and allowing Earth to heal from this apocalyptic state. 

Conclusion [Instrumental vs Song]

- I found that instrumentals allow me to envision more visual aspects, lines/stroke, textures and colour and less on the narrative elements whereas songs allow me to fully indulge in the more clear and complete visual sequences and narrative. 

- Instrumental music is more challenging in terms of implementing narrative aspects as it is solely visual focus, where that narrative foundation is already built for me with songs.

- I learnt that language in this case doesn't necessarily become a hinderance however it enables another aspect of self implementation and interpretation evident with the 'Koiwazurai' visual board example. 

[27/11/2020]                                     Visual Short Development

    After developing the visual boards, I wanted to choose one visual board and further develop upon it to create a visual short. In the end I chose Aimer's cover of Moon River as I had consistent visual imagery and have made strong correlations between the visual elements and the song itself. Using the visual board to guide me, I created this painting/background for the animation short. 

Practical Development [Initial Background]

 

- As I stated in my visual board development stage, the song reminds me of a strong visual element of a tranquil and dreamy setting, with a wooden boat and a man fishing upon the still water. 

- Heavily inspired by the DreamWorks logo and the title of the song, this is how I would visually depict the song Moon River in context of animation.

- I also overlay a crayon texture on top of the piece to give it a softer and dreamy tone

Practical Development [Background Texture Experiment]

 

- I painted the boat and the fisherman both with a brush that gives off a similar texture to the crayon texture overlay 

- I tried removing the overlay texture to see how it would look and in the end decided that keeping it would be better as it suits the visual portrayal of the theme better

 

Practical Development [Adding Moon, Ripple and Stars]

- Using the same brush that I used for the boat and fisherman, I painted the Moon to keep the visual aspect consistent 

- I changed the colour of the overlay crayon texture from the original baby blue to monotone to avoid the clash between the texture colour and the background 

- I animated the ripple part for the fishing rod, in addition to that, it was animated in the time of 4 frames per a quarter of a second which syncs with the ticking beat of the clock of the song.

- I also added three sets of stars. The smallest stars are static and are constant illuminating, whereas the medium and large stars illuminate at different times. Medium stars having the same time signature as the ripple animation and the large stars have a half second sequence longer than the medium stars.

Practical Development [Darker Filter and Moving Clouds]

- After getting some suggestion, I decided to work on the clouds and make them move instead of leaving them static in the background just to make it more visually interesting

- The clouds move to their static position by the end of the song, and the speed of the cloud varies depending on the size

Practical Development [Shooting Stars]

- Finally, I added in the last part of the animated short which are the shooting stars. As I synced the stars and ripples already with the rhythm of the song, I decided the shooting stars will sync to the lyrics

- Each set of shooting stars will sync up with the lyrics of the song, starting from each set of lyrics and ending disappearing into the background after the same set of lyrics are done 

[28/11/2020]                                        Visual Short

- This is the final outcome of the visual short

- From visual board developed into a looping short that has various visual elements that subtly reflect the theme that I envisioned and the timing of the song 

- The result of this practical piece captures the essence of my developed visual board. As it has elements of the shooting star, fisherman in a boat and a dreamy and tranquil vibe visually. In combination with the song, the visual is able to enhance the visual and auditory aspect simultaneously, allowing the viewers to be encapsulated in the song 

[3/12/2020]                                           Practical Presentation      

    Finishing my practical, I have complied them into a short presentation showing and demonstrating my visual boards and my final visual short developed from one of the chosen visual boards.