It can be difficult to pack up everything and move on to a new life, but it can also be grand and exciting. You spend half of your time reflecting on what once was, remembering all of the happy memories of your former life, but the other half of your time you are excited to discover something new, all of the possibilities that are out there that you get to create for yourself. The journey is going to be difficult, but it’s easier when you have a crowd to back you up and support you. After taking that chance, leaving everything you’ve ever known, you will feel so gratified that the journey has just begun. Our design focuses on two parts; The preparing and packing up for a big journey, and the leaving and discovery of the journey itself. The first part is more mental. It’s light and airy and the subjective aspects of it are created to spark interest and curiosity in the viewer. What are they looking at? Maybe it’s mementos or stamps or letters collected by the person embarking in the journey? The second part is physical in it’s representation of the journey itself and ready to start a new life with the world in front of you.
Research
I visited an exhibit at the Ohio State Thompson Library that showcased books with moving elements. this is one of the examples from a book that i wanted to explore, although i do not have the name or author of the bookthe was the first exercise where we learned how to do a pull-tab to reveal an object behind.
Me and my group partner decided on the song “Coming Back Around” by John Powell from the Dreamworks movie “How to Train Your Dragon”this was after an exercise that we had in class to get me thinking more abstractly
the song made me think of rising up and so I wanted to depict clouds and have them move. I tried drawing from the idea of the book from the libraryAfter we came up with the idea that the song feels like its about leaving and exploring to find a new world and see all that the world has to offer i mocked up some sketches for my section of the song.
I then chose to simplify the idea and came up with this scene to have the ‘world’ spin around the character and then have a stick attached to the character and have a string spun around it to the character would also spin and would make it so that it would look like a drone shot in a movieI then came up with the new idea to iterate the clouds idea and rising above them and also having them spin.
After the activity where we learned how to be more abstract, I decided to work more on this idea of rising and a group allowing the subject to rise.I then worked ion sprints activities and quickly came up with a concept statement
The second sprint was the next iteration where I decided I wanted ta background that I planned on having for my first iteration
I began testing how I wanted the mechanism to workI worked on testing out how to get the sliders to work smoothly and not fall out
I then added a push tab to push the sliders up and then be able to fit between the two sliders and continue to push up the middle part higherI switched to the idea of using a pull tab. I used strings and wrapped them around pins and tried to figure out how to move the middle piece
I decided to use two separate pull tabs that so that once the first tab stopped pulling the diagonal sliders, I could continue pulling the middle one, and then cut the middle of the pullies out so that there was space for the middle slider to riseThis was the beginning of the final production.
Final production of the tabs for the strings to go around with pins on top so that the string wont come offhot glued a glob on the end of a pin for the string so that it would not fall off
After getting all the mechanisms working, I started finding what shapes and colors to use for the moving piecesI went with brown to show a feeling of lower class and circles to represent a crowd. I then decided on the smaller white square to match the size of the circles
I then made a background with different layers and colors of green to show distance (even a little lake). so that it could be pulled through the black frame i made and give the idea that the whole world is ahead of the subject piece.
Production
I decided to use brown circles to represent a crowd of a lower class to help emphasize the white diamond shape that is the subject who is a higher class and is rising above and reaching the top in deciding to become independent and realizing that the entire world is in front of them, leaving their old life behind. I wanted to make a solid frame so that the skyline could be guided smoothly in the background. I think I did a good job tackling complex movements and being able to make them move smoothly together and at the same time. I learned how to make pully mechanisms work and ways to make do with the materials I had to get them to run smoothly. Some potential improvements would be to try and stir away from the narrative and try to make it more abstract. The other thing that I wish i had more time to do that made the project a hassle would be to add more guides in the back along the pulling tabs so that after pulling they would not come undone and be a little difficult to put back together to be ready to pull again.
