Entry 7 - Visual Attempt

Here is a side by side comparison of my attempt at the visual aspect of the project. As you can see there in no one in the actual shot. As there was no model free at the time, this was merely a test at an illustration without a model. It was notably difficult to illustrate a character without any form of reference and when there was the lighting could not match as such a lesson was learned regarding this project, a model was necessary for this project.

Entry 6 - Attempts at sound

Time has not been in my favor as of late, as such the photography has been set on hold.

In the meantime, attempts at the audio aspect have been made. Beginning with Audiosauna. Audiosauna while nothing was truly produced was very intuitive with its audio capabilities, but going through the entire list of options, nothing really suited the idea I had in mind for the audio.

Immediately after that was the use of FL Studio. FL Studio filled with all so many possibilities had a learning curve issue and as such took some time to get used to, or still getting used to, to be honest. But it does seem to have what I am looking for in the audio aspect. Jass like tunes seem to be possible in this program.

Entry 5 - Visions and Wonder

The concept of visions and wonder is filled with infinite possibilities, with the selected idea in mind, it  was clearer that the theme of visions and wonder would fall on the concept of everyday life. The idea of everyday life, as seen like so would feel rather dull, but seen from a different perspective it can become interesting.

The images would be of natural scenes taken from a camera, illustrated over to show a different feel or emotion while the audio would act similarly to a game where it would be something like background music.

For this the process in which the story would take place will fall on the concept of time, starting from the morning and either ending at night or by the next morning, similar to a repeated cycle. The idea is to take a specific shot at a specific time and illustrating it to have a the feeling of the time it was taken, for example a shot at sundown would be more orange or a shot a night would use colors like purple or blue.

Entry 4 - Ideas

With more time given a variety of ideas came to mind in my attempt to create my works.

A variety of options were presented.

A orchestral group, an image showing various musicians holding onto different instruments as the camera pans. The audio for this piece would increase per the specific musician. For example a my audio which may have  a piano will increase in volume as you pan closer to the pianist.

A game, this would fall more to the audio as the visuals would look like screenshots to a game.

Photography mix with illustration. Taking shots in the most natural environment in order to get the natural lighting from my artist. Once the photographs have been taken, it will then be illustrated over.

Entry 3 - Insights and Findings

Here are some insights and finding about both artist I had discovered in my research.

VOFAN

His interest in drawing started from reading manga when I was young.

He loved a game called Virtual On, and the fact that I’m a big FAN of the game… I did not put much thought into coming up with a pen-name so I just used VOFAN.

A self taught artist

Found his current visual style around 10 years ago. Before that, he would draw and illustrate in the style influenced by my favourite artist at the time but as I kept on drawing, I managed to develop my own style and I stopped following in the shadows of other artists.

Recent inspirations are Okama-sensei and Makoto Shinkai.

His works are based of the feeling and personality he desires

He was graduated in Department of Architecture

Pastel colors with no outlines utilising shades to denote depth and different objects

Most images use soft and natural lighting and compositions are similar to photographs (likely because of his initial works in photography) with clean cropping, lots of background and interest perspectives.

Learnt photography for drawing at first, but photography have become one of his hobby now.

Skills learnt from camera are useful in illustration, such as the composition and the skills to color.

SHOJI MEGURO

Given his passion for technology, it was only natural that his interests extended to electronic musical instruments

He was encouraged by his mother to learn the Electone organ and also went on to learn the trombone

As a kid he was interested in Classical music

During his highschool years he became interested in

T-Square, jazz fusion band

Casiopea, jazz fusion band

Herbet Alpert

Graduated with Fluid Dynamics

Joined Atlus, suffered from lack of creative freedom

Casted aside his ego during work

Crucial point of his career came was the creative freedom on one game Digital Devil Saga

Popularity came from the Persona series, staple song "Aria of the Soul"

Continued to produce more Jazz mix Rock music as his central focus

Directed the port over version of one of the games

Cites T-Square, Casiopea, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as some of his musical influences

Musical characteristics are good, smooth linked tunes

Entry 2 - Sound Artist

Shoji Meguro

Shoji Meguro is a composer and director at Atlus best known for his work on the Megami Tensei series. Born in Tokyo on June 4, 1971, Meguro became familiar with technology from a young age, given his parents owned a small family-run factory. Given his passion for technology, it was only natural that his interests extended to electronic musical instruments. When four or five, he was encouraged by his mother to learn the Electone organ and also went on to learn the trombone. As a child, Meguro wasn’t fond of mainstream music and instead listened primarily to the classical music of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. The themes for several film and television programs also left quite an impression on him, and he went on to interpret such scores on Electone. The artist’s tastes diversified during junior high school. He grew to enjoy jazz fusion artists such as Herb Alpert, Casiopea, and T-Square; although distinct from his current musicality, he gained long-term inspirations from their smooth melodic songs. He even started to warm to J-Pop. While Meguro wasn’t particularly academic, particularly struggling at maths, he became very passionate about playing music.

Shoji Meguro was selected as my inspiration because most of my passion for video games came from the music behind the game. Often listening to his works motivates to push on forward to my dream and unlike most sound artist, he found fame from his job rather from his previous works. His job as a music composer has really pushed him forward among many sound artists.

Exmaples of his work can be found here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh3FgVv24-0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcE4-6QGgpc

Entry 1- Visual Artist

Vofan

VOFAN is a Taiwanese artist mostly known for his unique, border-less art style that uses a lot of bright pastel colors and soft, natural lighting. He is the illustrator for the Monogatari light novels, having drawn every cover in the series along with illustration pages and promotional artwork.

Not my first pick, but one of my many inspirations, VOFAN was one of the early artists that piqued my interest into illustration. What did however, made him my selection was his ability to learn something new in order to improve on his craft. 

Here are some examples of his work.