Jihyuk's Creative blog

Reflection and critical analysis of my ideas and documentations of my working process.

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Final thought/ reflections

When I first started this semester I was quite scared as I was treading on unknown areas. When Mikhail explained his idea to me, although the idea was intriguing, but I was not quite sure if I should team up with him. I did not want to team up only to lose motivation along the way. That would mean trouble for me and Mikhail as well. The whole filming is something I had never done before and it made me quite hesitant. But on the other hand, I believed it was crucial to keep an open mind and try new things. I have worked with Mikhail before so I know how he works so I knew the teamwork wouldn’t be a issue. Also I work much better as a team, I made the decision to group with Mikhail and pursue his idea of filming motions within water.

In the final days of the semester, looking back I feel that I could not have made a better decision. We really worked well together, divided the work efficiently. Our level of motivation was high throughout the whole semester, as we both were determined to produce the best result. I had really enjoyed filming as well. I learnt a lot about it, but there is so much more to learn. I might try some more filming next semester

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Imminence

Mikhail came up with the title for our project. The imminence means “the state or condition of being imminent or impending”. He explained his view on why he thinks it is a good name. I decided to just go with it because I could not come up with a better one and his explanation was satisfactory for me. With the stream of paint describing the uncontrollable amount of thoughts and decisions we make each day, hour or even each second we never really know what is going to happen. There are so many possibilities and different choices we can make but we can never really be sure what the best solution is. We can only try to make the best possible decision each time and hope it works fine. Sometimes we are able to go back and make the decision again if the situation allows us to, but sometimes we have to stick to the decision we had made. It is all about weighing the probabilities on what could produce the best result. Pauses between the streams are the rests we take such as sleep. This might as well be the only time we take time off the mental mayhem we experience we experience when we are awake. But this does not mean one cannot be happy with the never ending decisions and thoughts. 

“Imminence is a contemplative film piece which delves into the unending tension and resolution of decision making, a uniquely human trait, governed by our ability to think. Thoughts are generated as a result of interpreting the constant bombardment of stimulus and information around us. A thought results in a choice with then leads to a decision ultimately leading to either action or inaction. The complexity of the organic motion streams signify the randomness of thought. The only momentary perceived rest we have from this mental madness is during sleep which is represented by the gaps between each stream”.

This is a description for our project which will be displayed on the wall beside the video. It is a simple paragraph explaining the fundamental theories behind our work.

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Irritating setback

SO today, Kim started handing out the equipment people had booked. We had booked a iMac to run our video on the projector and I assumed we were going to be receiving ours today as well. But this turned out not to be the case. I saw two other people get their booked iMac from Kim. These are the iMac computers we have in the studio. Kim needed a different set of keys to unlock the other two iMacs. Kim told us that he had notified the IT guys and we should be getting it by today. So while we were waiting we decided to do a couple of things.

Mikhail wrote up a description for the plaque we will have beside the video during the exhibition. I proof read it and we printed it. We had to use the printer from somewhere else because the one in the hallway does not show our documents even though we followed all the instructions. Mikhail had picked up a good sized MDF from the 3D lab and after outlining the size of the plaque we cut it at the 3D lab. After some careful cutting of the printout and sanding of the wood to make each other in size, we used double sided tape to stick them together. 

Our iMac still had not arrived so we decided to finish our website and upload it. We did not think that finishing our portfolio would take that long. Clint had mentioned that only the best should go on the website and all the process, documentation and reflection should be on the blog. This did not leave many things we could put on our website. We decided that the final film, description of the project and the showreel would be enough for the portfolio. People can click on the link to our blogs for more information. So Mikhail and I will have the same stuff on our website and I do not think it matters. We quickly updated our website and uploaded it using cyberduck.

By this point we were really wondering when our iMac will arrive. We talked to Kim several times during the day, he assured us that we had urged the IT guys to hurry up, but he did not get a reply from them. We felt bad for constantly talking to Kim about the issue but we really wanted to receive it today. We knew that Kim was trying his best to get it for us, while multitasking numerous things at the same time. He promised us that he will make sure we get it tomorrow and that is that. I guess it won’t be a problem even if we get it tomorrow. So we wait for tomorrow as we attempt to wrap up the blogs. It is a minor setback but an irritating one. I can only hope that no more problem comes up... 

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Working on weekends

As there are only a few days left to finish everything, it was imperative that we come in on the weekend to do some work. On Monday onward we only wanted to focus on written work and setting up for exhibition. The purpose of meeting on this fine Sunday was to finish exporting the final film which will be displayed on the projector. Also bestofcolab, showreel, 7 sec av video and internet version of the final film needed to be finished by today.

After exporting the video we tested the video on the projector and we realized what we see on the laptop screen is not equal to what we see on the wall. We could see less detail on the projector and we did not why. On the laptop we saw a lot more streams of white paint. It is possible that the setting on the projector is causing this. This is the only logical explanation because it looked fine on the laptop. Another things was that the grain removal effect we applied to the video on after effects did not exactly create the effect we wanted. By applying the effect we thought we could make the video clearer, but it seems that the video prior to removing the grain is better. It did remove some of the noise, but it also created some unwanted effects. After some discussion and some helpful input from Dem we decided that the video with grain is better. The grain itself is not that visible anyway. People will not actually stand close enough to see most of the noise and we can adjust the frame of the video by adjusting the setting on the projector. Even though the four hours of waiting for the export to finish was wasted, but in the end we have to make the best decision for our project. This whole process who deciding what to do funnily related to our theme of the project, the paradox of decision making. There are so many possibilities we never end up doing what we first intended a lot of the time. We choose to go towards a direction but we might realize that this is not the way to go and we will take a few steps back and analyse the situation and try to make the best possible decision for the project. So today we did not decide to use the video with no noise. But it does not matter. It is all for the best. 

Next, we needed to add the audio to the video. Mikhail needed to do some last minute touch up on the sound. While Mikhail was doing that, I worked on the showreel. I gather all the test videos we did and chose the best ones that will be included in the showreel. I decided to put several clips in the same frame to show more videos in less time. All the tests we conducted was crucial for reaching the final film and with the sheer amount of tests we did it was impossible to show them one after the another. I included 3 to 4 videos in each frame, and they show the phases we went through and the development of the idea and filming technique. We decided to put in a free audio available on the internet as a background music. We did not create the audio, and we only included it because it was better than no audio. I exported it and uploaded on YouTube. 

After Mikhail was done with the audio, we added it to the video. As the audio was longer than the video we had to find a good spot to cut the audio. We decided to cut it when the audio goes into a low. Next we exported it, but after watching the exported video, we noticed a pop in the noise when the video finished. As the video will be played in a loop on the projector it will be disastrous if there is a pop after each playback. I found a fix online where adding the constant power effect to the premiere fixes the issue. Fortunately this seemed to have fixed the issue. Video for projector was finally done.

After that I added the intro to the video. It is just a simple fade in of the title and fading out with the streams of white paint starting to come down. We uploaded this on Vimeo as an online version.

We finished the four images of bestofcolab, and we chose a 7 second section of the video we can use for the 7 sec av. 

It was a long day from early in the morning to evening, but it is the last spurt before we wrap up the semester and we wanted to get a good result. From tomorrow, once we get the iMac we will start to set up for exhibition. I am certainly feeling the pressure of the due date, but I do not feel that we are behind. I think we are on a pretty good schedule and this leaves us plenty of time to do it properly

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Jihyuk and Mikhail, #bestofcolab Snapshot of the final film Imminence.

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This video initially might seem like a typical pouring paint in water, but upon closer inspection I noticed that it is different from what I have seen before. In the large tank, a triangular shape is hung and by pouring paint over it an interesting motion is created by the paint. The paint wraps itself around the triangle like clothes and it is able to create a interesting effect. I realized that something simple can make so much difference. The quality of the video combined with the beautiful fluid motion of the paint creates something really unique. There are so much videos on the web about pouring paint in water but this is the first time seeing something different. It makes it more refreshing. 

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Showreel for our studio project. It shows the process we took and experiments we conducted in order to get our final film.    

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Video editing

I am trying to enhance the overall quality of our video by editing it with premiere and after effects. We ran a test by playing the video on the projector which is exactly where our project will be at the exhibition, and we agreed that it would be better if the video had more contrast to it. It would make the background darker and white more brighter. Also we notice a lot of film noise in the video. This may be because there was a mistake in how we filmed it. I will use after effects and try remove the noise. It would greatly increase the video’s quality. The process of achieving this is not hard, but it is just a matter of finding the perfect setting. Removing too much noise would make the video lose a lot of the important details and textures. Exporting takes a bit of time, so It’s just been a constant cycle of adjusting and exporting until I am satisfied with the result

On the image it is hard to tell if there is any difference to the two sides of the video, but the left side of the video has significantly less amount of noise. After applying the effect we will export it to premiere, add the soundscape and export it again. That will be our final film that would be used for the exhibition. We will need to test it on the projector before we can finalize it. It is important to test the video we have often on the screen as it is where it will be played. There is no point if it looks good on our laptop but looks bad on the projector. We need to adjust to what the projector shows us.

We had a chat with Kim and he gave a very helpful insight into exporting videos. After exporting our videos we had constant issues where the video would lag and we did not know whether it was a export problem or it was just a lag within the video player. The video also seemed to lag on the Plab so we were stuck in what we should do. We certainly did not want the video the lag. We want the viewers experience the video with no issues at all. After some talk with Kim we were able to confirm that it is a hardware issue where our laptops are not enough to run our videos. He recommended booking a iMac instead of a PLab. Also he suggested using media encoder and exporting as a photo-jpeg format as it is easier for the computer to play. Kim basically explained it’s a less complicated video for the computer to read and decompress. So we decided to export two times as two different formats. One as photo-jpeg which would play on the projector, and the other would be H.264 format as it would be uploaded on the internet. The internet version would include intro and credits to the video. 

These last few days are really stressing me out but we are slowing getting there. But it is essential we give it our all in order to get the best results. I can only hope that no issues pop up during the exporting of the video as it takes four hours to render. I will really be happy when we run the video on the projector and it is everything we hoped it to be.

[jh-im-creativetech]

Imminence (Ambient Background Audio)

Ambient background audio for an experimental film entitled Imminence my friend Jihyuk and I created recently.

This is the soundscape Mikhail produced. I really like the ambient feel to it, and how it doesn’t have too much sounds playing at the same time. It feels simple but I think it goes really well with our video. From this point we will be working to wrap things up as we approach the final few days.

Things to do list

 By Sunday                                                                                            

1. Put audio and clip together and export it to the right format that we can play on the projector.

2. Input intro and credit to the video and export it as a format that we can upload on vimeo.

3. Put together the showreel.

4. Write up a project description that we can display next to the video. 

5. Best of colab.

6. 7sec video.

By Wednesday

1. Blogs

2. Portfolio

3. Set up for exhibition

[jh-im-creativetech]

Getting there

After the final filming, only the audio is left which Mikhail is going to produce. We both agreed that ambient sounds would work better with our film and intents. We don’t know how we will make the sounds, whether it will be synths or sounds we recorded ourselves. At this point we are open to all options. We will go out and record some sounds outside sometime this week. It is just a test on what kind of sound we are able to capture. We will experiment with the recording and see what kind of effects we are able to produce. Mikhail will likely do all of the audio production as I have no knowledge in that particular field. I will only input opinions on whether I like it or not, and suggest whether it should contain more bass and etc. I do kind of feel that I am leaving all the work to Mikhail to do, but after the audio production is done I will do some video editing so that kind of balance it out.

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Jihyuk and Mikhail #bestofcolab experimenting the contrast between light and darkness.

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Mikhail and Jihyuk, #bestofcolab getting the lighting just right before we start filming.

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Searching for perfection

So the filming continued. We wanted to finish the filming as soon as possible so that it gives us plenty of time to produce the sounds. But we were quite sure what we wanted our video to look like. One of the biggest question we had was what colors we should use. Would using bright colors help our project? Or do we go for something rather simple and use one color. Both produce good results visually. The black paint on white background like the image above is amazing on its own. At this point we are in the process of perfecting our filming technique and searching for what we want exactly. 

As more filming continued over the days we have found something we were searching for. The image of white paint flowing down the dark background is really beautiful visually but also it relates better to our idea than any other videos we did. The background was created by mixing black and white into the water. One thing though is that we felt that white was rather weak in the video. We need to find a way to darken the background and make the white brighter. So we tried turning the lights off in the studio using the lighting rig we borrowed from Kim. By having no lights over us, we don’t get any unwanted shadows and we can control the brightness of the light ourselves.

The setup is explained pretty well with the photo below. We have the lighting rig directed slightly away from the tank allowing it reflect off the surfaces onto the tank. By experimenting with the position of the rig we were able to find a sweet spot where the darkness of the background was perfect. 

This is the shot where it shows clearly what our final film will look like, in terms of color. We will shoot several videos and will pick one that is most clear.

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Presentation

Today was the big day where everyone had to present their prototypes in class. Amos and I decided to do a slideshow presentation and I genuinely feel it was the better idea than the video presentation. We simply did not have the time to produce the video. Anyway we decided that we will start of together as one group, and Amos and I will share our idea and Dylan will present his. I was kinda nervous but I think it went fine. I think we were able to deliver the purpose of the game and how it is supposed to work. Ricardo said that the idea had a lot of potential which was really good. 

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Addiction to achievements

Achievements are something that is always around us. We always thrive and desire for it. Achievements might be something simple as going through a lecture without sleeping. Or it might be something bigger such as receiving a good grade. The fact is achievements have also started to seep into the world of gaming. A game sets a goal for you to pursue and when you have reached that goal the game rewards you with something. But sometimes the game might not reward you at all but just give you a acknowledgement that you have reached that point. Whatever it may be we seem to be attracted by it and we want to get it no matter what. So what makes us attracted to achievements?

Achievements cater to a natural human need, the desire for a feeling of accomplishment, no matter how arbitrary or superficial that accomplishment may be. As a species we like to set challenges for ourselves to overcome. It happens in sports, in business, even in our daily routines. We strive to excel in whatever we pursue, and gaming is not exempt from that rule. Ultimately, achievements supply a demand, and because of the way we’re psychologically constructed, it’s a demand that will never truly be fulfilled.

Our game does not reward the user with anything valuable, like money and such. But it will fill their desire for sense of accomplishment. The objective is get them hooked to the simple yet addictive stuff. And I think there is a lot of potential in the field. Idle games have been gaining popularity over the times, and I think there is a lot to explore and study into why people play these idle games which you leave it alone and the game plays itself.  

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This video might seem simple but it is so visually powerful. I can instantly tell it was filmed with a very good camera and lens. The monochrome erases unwanted colors and it allows the viewer to focus on the water. It also brings out the texture more clearly. There is so much tension within the water. I really like the camerawork and how the music really mixes in with this video perfectly. 

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Jihyuk and Mikhail, #bestofcolab, pouring watercolor paints in water and capturing the movements with a macro lens.