Sunday, April 12, 2009

Storybook

Creating a storybook was as tiring, as fun, as enriching as I thought!
Through this process, I did learn a lot of things from brainstorming, to conceptualizing, to drawing of the different frames, to the different layout, to the various ways we incorporate text, dialogues and visuals, to the different typography. (wah, I never knew there was so much to consider when creating a storybook)

As our target audience are kids 6-7 years old, our story emphasis on teamwork and cooperation, as well as honesty, friendship and forgiveness.
We spend quite a bit of time on building up our characters, we hope to make our characters cute but also mirror the real life counterparts in some ways.
As for our colour scheme, we choose mainly brightly coloured tones to create a bright and cheery atmosphere.
For the layout of our storybook, we chose to combine the main copy with the settings and characters on the same page as we feel this allow for better visual flow.
We tried to make it more fun by implementing the concept of 'speech bubbles' into our storybook:
In addition to the interactive of our storybook, we also have an activity page for the kids to help find Mr Carrot in this picture:
Yups, that's about all for my storybook!
OH, and its really expensive printing hardcover storybook, it was 20bucks for the content of our storybook and 60bucks for the hardcover itself. A grand total of 80bucks!
No wonder paperback also cost so much cheaper than hardcover books. :)

This is probably my last post for NM2208.
I feel that 2208 can be rather taxing and draining at times. However, there are definitely times when I enjoy doing this module. I especially love the tutorial class when we get to see others' work and get others to comment on your own work!
All in all, NM2208 was fun and a great experience. I would say its a module in which stress meets fun. haha.
Lastly, I would like to say a BIG THANKS to Jing, for her guidance and encouragements, my friends, Eunice, Sam, ACJJ for constantly giving comments, helping me in any other ways.
and someone special who helped me a great deal through this sem, listening to my complaints, helping me out, encouraging me and always being there for me:)

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Storyline

Just a little update!
Here's our storyline:

Scene 1:
Ellie the elephant waits for the school bus.
He can’t wait to get to school fast!

Scene 2:
“Good morning, good morning everyone!” (Ellie)

Giraffe gives Ellie a pat.
Bear snores back.
And Penguin waves hello in his special air-conditioned hat!

Monkey refuses to sit.
He climbs up on railings and hangs from his feet!

Ellie waves to Rabbit and her favourite toy, Mr Carrot.
He sits with his best friend Hamster, who was anything but quiet!

Scene 3:
Finally the school bus arrives at School.
All the animals thought School was cool!

Mr Zebra stands at his crossing
to make sure all vehicles are stopping.

“Come on guys!” (Ellie)
Little Ellie hurries to class.
The elephant didn’t want to be last!

Scene 4:
Each morning before the teacher comes in,
the animals would make a big scene.
All laughing and running
Except for Monkey who never once looked happy.

Scene 5:
Finally, Mr Teacher the Tortoise stepped into the classroom.
And back to their seats everyone zooms.

Scene 6:
Hurray hurray! It’s time for recess,
time to play games and see who’s best!

Suddenly, Ellie sees Rabbit sobbing,
and he wonders why she didn’t go hopping.

“I’ve lost Mr Carrot!” (Rabbit)
“That’s terrible!” (Ellie)
Rabbit cries and Ellie wishes it was a lie.

“Don’t worry Rabbit, me and Hamster will find it!” (Ellie)
Ellie makes a promise
while Hamster gives Rabbit a kiss.

Scene 7:
Ellie, Hamster and Rabbit look at the schoolyard.
Finding Mr Carrot shouldn’t be too hard!

Scene 8:
“Let’s start with you Bear, did you see Mr Carrot anywhere?” (Ellie)
“Zzz,” Bear snores in reply, and Little Piglet giggles until he cries.

“Have you seen a carrot anywhere?
Its orange in colour and kind of bare!” (Ellie)
“Hmm, Is this it?” (Little Piglet)
“That’s an Orange, Little Piglet!” Ellie laughs.(Ellie)
And so the three friends left to look for Mr Carrot.

Scene 9:
“Miss Giraffe, have you seen Mr Carrot anywhere?” (Ellie)
“Oh dear, I think I have it here.” (Giraffe)
Giraffe looks at her mouth and asks.
“That’s an orange flower, Giraffe!” Ellie laughs. (Ellie)
And so the three friends left to look for Mr Carrot.

Scene 10:
“Hey Penguin, have you seen Mr. Carrot anywhere?” (Ellie)
“Is this it?” Penguin points to the sky.(Penguin)
“Oh no, that’s a orange butterfly!” (Ellie)
“Don’t worry Rabbit, we’ll find Mr Carrot soon!” (Ellie)
And so the three friends left to look for Mr Carrot.


Scene 11: (ask him, he say no, confront)
They arrived at the monkey bars and saw Monkey playing alone.
“Have you seen Mr. Carrot anywhere?” Rabbit moans. (Rabbit)
“No, I haven't! Go away, I don't care!” (Monkey)
And poor little Rabbit looked so blue.
Just then, little Hamster spotted a clue!

Scene 12: (refuse to return)
“Hey everybody, I found Mr Carrot!” Hamster shouts. (Hamster)
He jumps and dances while everyone looks about.
“Isn’t that Mr Carrot you naughty Monkey? Don't you know stealing is not very funny?” (Ellie)
“All I wanted was a friend and maybe one day to hold someone’s hand!
Mr Carrot is so fine, he’s my friend and he’s all mine!” (Monkey)


Scene 13: (return)
“Don’t be silly, dear little Monkey! You didn’t have to steal Mr Carrot to be happy.
Let’s shake hands and let’s be friends.
We’ll laugh and run and have so much fun!” (Ellie)
Monkey hangs his head as his face turns red.
“Sorry Rabbit, here’s Mr Carrot.
I promise you I’ll change my habits!” (Monkey)

Scene 14: (go school)
“Thank you Ellie for helping me!” (Rabbit)“And helping me even when I was guilty! (Monkey)
“You’re welcome everybody,I’m glad we solved this mystery!
Oh look it’s the end of recess,
Time to study and prepare for tests!” (Elephant)

And so, the animals returned to class
Everybody was happy at last!

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Final Project

WHEEE!
FINAL Project. the last lap of NM2208.
storybook or comic script?
my group chose to do STORYBOOK for kids 6-7 (I LOVE KIDS!)

Meet some of our characters!
Ellie the ElephantRabbit who loves her carrot!Monkey who is always lonelyPenguin with an air conditioned contraption GiraffeBear who is always sleepy

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Poster

Sorry for the lack of updates!
has been really busy with final project, other datelines and presentations.
will be updating about my final project soon.

But before that, I did some changes to my poster!
Before:After:Firstly, I changed the NUS logo. I had a hard time looking for the NUS logo against a black background. The website given in lecture only gave me NUS logo against a navy blue background. A BIG THANKS to Eunice for finding it for me!
Jing gave comments that my words look a little too thin and might not suitable, so I played around with the fonts and decided to use this as the lines of the alphabets are thicker, making it easier to read.
I also changed some alignments so that my poster looks more balanced on the whole.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Poster Development

When I started drafting my poster design, I wanted something that most people could relate to. As issue that everyone is concerned about and wouldn't mind stopping for 2secs to take a look.
The first thing that came to mind was environmental issues. There have been much news, issues and concerns about our environment and I believe that if everyone do their part, it will definitely make a difference.

I started off with a sick Earth talking to his 'friend':I think the general public can relate to the thermometer and the plaster on Earth, understanding that Earth is sick and 'injured'. I think most people know that the planet with a ring around it is Saturn. Next, I add some text and website link for more information.Then I played with different colours and layout of my poster.
I shifted the few short sentences up to the top of the poster. I didn't really like this idea as I still wanted the Earth to be the focus. The public should see the sick Earth first:)

So I shifted the words back down and reduced the sentences as I want to keep the poster as simple as possible, with minimum words. I also changed the colour of their conversation so to add more colours to the posters, hence, being more attention grabbing:)
Now, will be to show it to Jing and my friends and see what they say about it!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Assignment 4

Finally, getting down to do my assignment 4 before shifting all my attention and focus to my final project!
P-O-S-T-E-R!
Poster is something that everyone is very familiar with. We see them along the walkways and corridors in school, on notice boards, at bus-stops, interchange. However, how many of us do actually take a look or two at these posters? How many of us read the details on the posters or do we just simply take glance at it?
If the poster do grab our attention, how effective is the message? Does the reader interpret the meaning of the poster correctly?

I personally like posters with attention grabbing pictures. Posters with illustrations, few, simple words or sentences and if I am interested, I can more details from a website or something. Therefore, I feel that its important for posters to be 1) attention grabbing, 2) convey message in the simplest way, 3) give information about where to get more details.

Our posters' theme is 'Save, Prevent, Kill...'
will be brainstorming tonight!