Visual Narrative: Visual Effects Week 1

In this project, we were asked to create a character that reflects the theme of Tragic Hero. We were introduced to Nuke and the face builder by Keen tools which allows us to model our faces, apply materials and track them to video footage of our choice. My outcome came with some rendering and final adjustments in After Effects and Premiere.

Being introduced to the topic ‘Tragic Hero’, I thought about some characters in literature and musicals, such as Quasimodo from Notre Dame de Paris, Jean Valjean from Les Miserable and also some chinese historical figures like Qubin Huo and Fei Zhang.

Inspired by Quasimode who had the face of a devil and the heart of an angel, I related this tragic hero character to a childhood experience of mine where I was mocked at a mole on my face. I wanted to use this character to express the beauty of imperfection.

The first in-person session is about camera. I have never used a professional device before so this was a complicated class for me. Even though I found all the information a bit too much for a photography freshman , it became clear and easy for me to understand all the key elements and how to use them. The photos above were took by my classmate Liliu when we were experimenting different functions on the camera.

Above shows the portrait I took for the project, using a professional camera.

I infused some Chinese elements into the pattern design inspired by the face pattern of the “Chou jue”(buffoon actor) in Cantonese opera, which has a large area of white with a red glow around it. Although the direct translation of this character in English is ‘ugly character’, the ugly character usually plays a relatively positive role in the play and this contrast matches this theme and my concept very well.

I was influenced by many stylist/make-up artists, such as hungry’s collaboration with vogue and yoyoomakeup’s work on ins,  in terms of exaggerated design and textures, so my work will have some fashion style twist in it (such as my poses and the use of high-contrast colours).

CONCLUSION:

The first week is conceptual and I really enjoyed learning about cameras. It really showed me a technical aspect of photography which I never intended to study about. The concepts works for me and I shall move on to sketches and visualising my ideas for the following week.