Sound Design

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye3nuq07vq0

This particular scene in The Lion King is one that displays a great amount of tension and drama. It’s the big turning point of the story and the musical score reflects this perfectly. It displays basic listening modes as well as the Gestalt Principles and Illusion. The opening of the scene is very casual. There is absolutely no background music, only the natural sounds of the African Savannah. Crickets are buzzing, and they occasional bird can be heard in the distance. This compares to later in the scene, where it’s more semantic. When Simba’s father cries out in pain, he does so in a way that is a mixture of an animalistic roar and a human yell. Gestalt’s Principle of figure and ground is also used in this scene; the idea of seeing (or in this case hearing) the tree in the forest. With all the music and all the thunderous hoof beats, Simba’s and Mufasa’s voices can always be heard. They’re never over powered by the music or the sounds. Illusion is also used for the wildebeests. In the herd there are thousands of animals are rushing at once and it sounds like a great thunderous roar, when really, it’s just one or two on loop.

"Finding Your Howl"

http://changethis.com/manifesto/51.01.YourHowl/pdf/51.01.YourHowl.pdf

After sharing the story of Mumon, Flaum tells a story of his own personal experience when he was in fifth grade. One of his classmates wrote the best story in the class, a repetitive story about the captivity of a tiger at the zoo. The tiger tried and tried to escape, but every time he managed to get out, he was placed in another cage in another zoo. At the time, Flaum hated the kid for his brilliant story. However, looking back on it, he realizes that it’s an eerily accurate look into how life is for us all. 

One of my favorite quotes of all time was said by Marco Tempest during a TED interview where he was displaying some new tricks with iPhones. He discusses how the tricks that he’s doing is magic, even though some people wouldn’t agree with that. But he makes the point that what he’s doing is art. He says that “art is the greatest deception of all. Art is a deception that creates real emotion. A lie that creates a truth. And when you give yourself over to that deception, it becomes magic”. This connects to another point that he made during his interview. He says how all people, whether it’s big or small, tell lies. It’s an unavoidable fact of life. But it’s how we tell these lies that matters. If we look as art and magic as lies, it’d be safe to say that these are ‘good lies’. Lies that don’t hurt, but rather inspire. This whole concept is something that I’ve found inspiring in my own life. I draw all the time and am constantly looking for new artistic ways to express myself. When I think about it though, is what I’m doing just a form of deception? A lie that I’m telling everyone who views it? Even if this is true, and I’m lying to people with my false reality, I think that’s okay. Just as Marco says, the emotions are real and I believe that to be the most important thing with art. Even looking beyond traditional handmade art, take music for example. Nearly every song tells some kind of story. And this story might not always be true. Even if it’s based off true events, things may be distorted for entertainment or personal reasons. The same applies with movies. That’s why it’s ‘based’ off a true story, not a true story. As an audience, we’re lied to. But that’s okay because we expect it. We expect to be entertained and we expect a good, amusing lie. This is basically the same for any type of media in our culture. Books, video games, music, movies, even the internet. Let’s take Facebook for example. Nearly everyone uses it to connect to people, post basically anything, and even play games. Yeah, we’re talking to real people, but are our means of doing so real? It’s lacking the face to face means of communication. Does this make it a lie? Possibly.  Certainly aspects of it are, but it’s hard to say if it all is. However I’d say that it is safe to say that humans as a whole crave these kinds of lies. We have for thousands of years, and we’ll continue to and the Media business will only grow and grow (or at least safely stay where it is). I’m studying to be a video game designer for my career. I feel pretty confident about this choice because (not only is 3D modeling something that I absolutely love to do) I know that the market and job department is stable. A lie that people can interact with. And they go nuts over it! Video games have been evolving and evolving rapidly since they were first developed. A revolutionary art form, one that borders on magic.

Protagonist and Antagonist

Protagonist Willow
 Color:

 The light blues with some shades of purples are very cool, soothing colors, fitting to Willow's personality. She is a nurturer for others and for her to do this, she would need to have a very calming air about her. Her soothing tones put others at ease and make the audience aware that this is a trustworthy and caring character. She has a monochromatic color scheme with both very saturated and very unsaturated hues. Other than the outline itself, there is no black in her for shading or the colors of her clothing. Shadows are suggested by more concentrated colors while likewise light is suggested by less concentrated colors containing more white.

Light:

Because of her purity and innocence, I wanted to avoid shadows as much as possible when designing her. I kept her light source in a way that it looks like it's shining right in front of her, illuminating everything, for she has nothing to hide. I put no shadows in her design, only slightly more concentrated colors to suggest these shadows in a less obvious and foreboding way. She looks to be well illuminated, and this is the way that I picture her to be most of the time. She is a very pure character, and has no reason to hide in shadows.

Shape:

Aside from having the obvious human features, I wanted Willow's design to be fairly rounded. According to psycho-geometrics, circular characters are the peacemakers and soothers of the story. This is exactly how I envisioned Willow. I want her to be the level-headed, warm and generous character the reader will grow attached to for her endearing kindness. Her skirt and collar and very round designs, along with the flow of her hair. If it was something that due to basic human anatomy that I couldn't make round-ish, I at least wanted her to flow in way that suggested peaceful-ness.

Antagonist Minerva
Color:

A lot of blacks and dark greens were put into Minerva's character to highlight her evil. A high contrast to how light the protagonists very light hues. Minerva is jealous of anyone who posses more than she and is very greedy to get whatever it is she desires. Green is the color of envy and the blacks mixed in only highlight her evil and sinful traits.

I wanted Minerva's lighting to be a little different than most antagonists in the sense that I didn't want her to always be totally enshrouded in shadows. Minerva's character used to be a good one, right alongside Willow. She's a shape shifter in that sense, shifting over to the enemy's side. She always has a fair amount of shadows on her, suggesting her evil ways, but I always want there to be some light there on her, usually in the hair, which is also still a lighter color. The lighting is used in this way to suggest that even though she may be evil now, her past is still a part of who she is.

Shape:

Again I chose Minerva's design based off of psycho-geometircs. A squiggle character intuitive and motivated, however they are also impulsive and ungovernable. All traits that Minerva displays. I tried to display her shape, again following human anatomy, through the ruffles on her clothing and her tight curls in her hair.