This module is a little different when compared to the others. It requires us to go to a place to study the culture and make something out of what we have learnt from the place. I was assigned to go to Tokyo, Japan.
Lectures Week 1
We were first introduced to the module, about what we should expect throughout this course, the marking, the projects and what the requirements. We were also split into different groups of 3. After that, we were introduced to a theme that will help further narrow down what we should lookout for- LIVING WITH NATURE Week 2
This week, we were given a lecturer by Mr Charles about old media and new media. Then we were asked to watch 2 videos, then answer the questions. Video 1 Video 2
After that, we were then split into groups in class ooo we can discuss about the questions with each other.
Projects
Project 1: Proposal
We were first assigned in groups of 3. My groupmates were Ahmed, Tiffany and Me. For the first project, we were required to create a proposal of what we would want to study in Japan. Before we started our proposal, we were given a theme so we can further narrow down what we would want to study which is Living with Nature.
So while researching about Nature in Japan, I came across Japanese Literature. Below are some subjects that we decided to touch on.
Haiku
Haiku is a very short form of Japanese poetry that contains only 3 phrases of 5, 7 and 5 syllables. Haiku originally originated from renka, which was the first part of a long renka poem. Since people enjoyed the first part so much they decided to make it an independent self. I realised, when reading a handful of haikus, is that they incorporate a lot of nature elements in the poetry itself.
Haiga
Haiga is a style of Japanese painting that incorporates the aesthetics of Haikai. They are normally painted the haiku poets themselves as they are normally about what the haikus are. Unlike other paintings, Haiga has no standard set of styles as it was passed down from the Master to the students.
Kanji
Kanji is Japanese forms of that traditional Chinese character that were first used as far back as 8000 years ago. Some of the basic forms of kanji are actually formed from the literary thing. They were transformed from pictures to words.
Symbolisations of animals and flowers
Japan is a country with rich animist beliefs also known as SHINTOISM. Thus a lot of animals from Japan have a lot of meaning. For example, the koi fish. It is to represent good luck and perseverance.
Besides just animals, flowers also play a big role in Japan. There is something called Hanakotoba, which is a floral language. For example, the sakura, it is to represent beauty, renewal, gentleness and kindness.
Rationale To educate and remind the oblivious about the culture in Japan through play and design.
Below are some research we've done on the topics that we wanted to study.
Project 2: Data Collection
After completing the proposal, we then embark on our journey to Tokyo. Before going to Japan, I narrowed down what we should look out for in Japan.
How colours are used there
How the Japanese use nature in their elements
The art style
How is our chosen topic being used in Japan
In Japan, we went to multiple places in Japan:
Edo Tokyo
Sensojī Temple
TeamLab Boderless
Akihabara
Nezu Museum
Shibuya
Meiji Jingu
Yayoi Kusama Museum
Harajuku
Ghibli Museum
Shinjuku
When we were there, I tried to take as many pictures as we can. Some related to our topic and some not related, just in case we change our minds. Besides just taking pictures, I also tried taking notes in places we were not allowed to take pictures. I also took a lot of pictures of billboards and commercial signs, to study how they design their advertisements and also the colour. In the train stations, there were a lot of flyers and I collected as much as possible, to also study how the Japanese.
Below are the pictures I took
Figure 1.5 Photos taken at EdoTokyo Museum
Figure 1.6 Photos taken at EdoTokyo museum
Figure 1.7 Pictures taken at EdoTokyo Museum
Figure 1.8 Advertisement in subway and some pictures on the way to Sensoji Temple
Figure 1.9 Sensoji Temple ceiling and souvenir (cards) in akihabara
Figure 1.10 Pictures taken at TeamLab (flower exhibition)
Figure 1.11 Pictures taken at TeamLab
Figure 1.12 Picture taken at TeamLab
Figure 1.13 ads taken at the subway
Figure 1.14 ads taken at the subway
Figure 1.15 Ads taken at the subway
Figures 1.16 Pictures taken at subway and 7-11 and Yayaoi Kusama Museum
Figure 1.17 Ads taken in the subway and Meiji Jingu
Figure 1.18 Pictures taken in Meiji Jingu
Figure 1.19 Neon sign in Harajuku
Figure 1.20 Ghibli Museum
Figure 1.21 Flyers taken from various subways
Figure 1.22 Packagings
Figure 1.23 Pictures taken from Aquarium
Besides all the pictures taken, we also interviewed some kids if they were aware about how nature plays an important role in their country and the response was the opposite and that were unaware about their natural surroundings.
So after we came back from Japan, we found out that a lot of things were kinda of hard to find.
Haiku
Haiga
Kanji
Symbolisations of Animals
Symbolisations of Flowers
We decided to rule out Haiku and Haiga as it was kind of hard to find it around in Tokyo. After we explored Japan, we found out that Japanese design keeps it simple and minimalistic yet it was still effective. Also, we found out that Japanese designs are very minimal, yet it was still really detailed.
Besides that, we also saw that the advertisements and the products that they have, a minimal colour palette is always used.
So we tried to decide what we would want for the final outcome. After coming back from Japan, we were really inspired with what we have seen in the Ghibli musuem (we weren't allowed to take pictures). We were in a room and we saw a lot of the actual sketches of the animation and it was done frame by frame. We also saw a special exhibit in which they showed how colours are being used in the animations. From the shadows to the moment where the lights are shown on the animations. Each and every detail was made to perfection and I really looked up at the animations.
Since we were inspired by the animations, our group mates decided it'll be nice to make a Ghibli inspired animation and project it in a TeamLab kind of experience.
Project 3: The Final Idea / Outcome
For our final, as said before, we will be doing an animation. So in order make sure the animation is smooth, we planned some things before hand, like the story board, story line, style of animation and stuff like that.
But why?
As said before, in our interview with a few kids in Japan, there are kind of oblivious with the use of nature in Japan. They aren't aware of it enough and they might not even care. So, my group and I thought about how we could change the children views as they are mainly our future. We thought about it in a kids perspective and realised that a cartoon will be the best solution as kids are really attracted to cartoons. So an animation (that can combine both fun and educating) would be the best direction to go to.
Our initial story line: A girl will be seen walking through a fake land (inspired by the EdoTokyo models) and the camera will kind of transition into a real world, to show how nature is used in Japan since the beginning of time
Figure 1.24 Rough sketch
Figure 1.25 Rough idea
Figure 1.26 Rough storyboard version 1
Figure 1.27 Rough storyboard version 2
Figure 1.28 Figuring out how it will relate back
Figure 1.29 some more planning
After that, we decided to change a storyline, as after our consultations, our lecturer commented on how we had to groom our storyline as it still had holes. So we decided to come up with a better storyline with ups and downs.
We were mainly inspired by the movie MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO. So from there, we started our brainstorming. We (my groupmates) had watched a handful of Ghibli films and we realised that there's a great mixture of imaginative characters and also imaginary backgrounds in the animations.
We thought about what kind of creature we could create that can be the main character of the story while at the same time, could represent Japan. So we were like thinking about the 2 animals that represent Japan, which is a Koi and Cats. Kois and cats represent different things in the Japanese culture.
Koi -Good Luck and Perseverance
Cat -Luck, Prosperity, Wealth and Happiness
So we decided to create a hybrid between the 2 animals and call it - NEKOI.
We then decided on a better storyline. Basically, in a dystopian, no nature, Tokyo, this creature will be seen flying over it. It has a very strong power of growing plants but this little creature itself is really oblivious about it. He will be seen flying to the dead forest. A squirrel ( that kind of represents us humans) is seen trying to eat a nut but instead when its trying to eat it, it suddenly crumbles into pieces, which means that the nut was already bad and disintegrated. The nekoi will be seen as very angry, kind off disgusted by what the humans have done to the world. With his loud roar, it was powerful enough to restore the life of the forest. Leaves will be seen growing out of the tree branches and in the end, the forest will become green again.
After coming up with the storyline, it was time to create the character. I did some brief research on how the character would look like.
Figure 1.30 Inspo 1
Figure 1.31 Inspo 3
Figure 1.32 Inspo 3
We decide that it would be round and fat as we wanted it to have a little cute structure but at the same time a fierce look (to show that its powerful)
Below are some sketches of the character design.
Figure 1.33 Character sketch #1
Figure 1.34 Character sketch #2
Then Ahmed refined the character more by drawing it out in photoshop.
Figure 1.35 Nekoi Version 1
Figure 1.36 Nekoi Version 2
After creating the character, we then decided to briefly draw out the whole video and briefly animate it so we would have a clearer version of what we would be doing.
Before we started to illustrate, we kinda studied how Ghibli animates the characters. I took a slow motion video of Totoro blinking its eyes so I can see how it transitions frame by frame.
For the environment design however, we were mainly inspired by Meiji Jingu for the forest part and also a picture taken by Ahmed which is the Tokyo view from Sky tree.
1.37 Meji Jingu Forest
Figure 1.38 Meiji Jingu Forest
Figure 1.39 Meiji Jingu Forest
Figure 1.40 The wishing counter
Figure 1.41 Skytree view of Tokyo City (taken by Ahmed)
Then, we started to illustrate the animation, with Ahmed doing most of the animation and environment design. Me and Tiffany were in charge of the character and some scenes. We were also in charge of the storyline and character design.
Process
Figure 1.42 Process of drawing the forest ( by Ahmed)
Figure 1.43 Forest
Figure 1.44 Drawing the tree branch
Figure 1.45 Tree branch
Figure 1.46 Drawing out the character.
Figure 1.47 illustrating the dead forest
Figure 1.48 Animating in OpenToon
Figure 1.49 Process of drawing the dead forest
Figure 1.50 Editing the video in iMovie.
The Final Outcome.
The message behind this animation is to tell children or anyone in general to take care of environment now before it is too late. Since its talking about our possible future (the dead forest / a world without nature) we decided that the title of our video would be- MIRAI (未来) which literally means 'future' in English.
Anyways, We hope you liked our animation. I would like to give a big shout out to my groupmates - Ahmed and Tiffany! They are literally one of the best team mates I could ever ask for. Without them, this animation won't even be here in the first place. So shout out to y'all. Y'all LIT. <3
Anyways thats a wrap for Intercultural Design. I honestly had a blast with this module (excluding the stress and all). I got to meet new people and also got to visit Japan. It was hella of a rollercoaster but it was sure worth it.
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