Starlight

Translator, photographer, videographer, writer, aspiring dancer as inspired

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Log 11; My Culture; Sayang Malaysia

As posted, it was a video produced for assignment purposes; however we later found out from our lecturer that it was meant for a national competition.

This video was completed in the span of one week, overdue our assignment due date.

Originally, I had planned a simpler setting for the video, bringing together people of various race and culture, stating “I am Malaysian”. This idea focuses on the individuals explaining on how they are not the race that people often perceive they are, whereas they are of one spirit, Malaysian.

It was scrapped in discussions due to time restraints and the fact that we couldn’t cast that many people for that one day shooting.

Another idea was, showing the ‘beautiful’ aspect of Malaysia and contrasting it with the ‘dark’ side of Malaysia. Then, ending it with the different races at the mamak store cheering on Lee Chong Wei or their favourite football team. This one emphasizes on how Malaysia really is despite what is portrayed.

That idea, was rejected as well, once again due to the fact that we were rushing for time and we weren’t sure if it were appropriate to show the ‘dark’ side of Malaysia as part of a culture and tourism video.

In the end, we decided to simplify the latter idea, sans the ‘dark’ side and keeping it on the lighter note. We finalized the idea by brainstorming on where and when we want to shoot as well as who goes where to shoot. This way, we’d be more efficient as no takes would overlap.

We filmed various footage of the roads in Klang Valley, buildings and architecture that Malaysians are proud to have as our landmarks, as well as the food that keep us full, in addition to the cheers of the people coming together to support our national athletes and favourite football clubs. Though not all appeared in the final cut of the video, we believe those that made the final cut is what makes Malaysia, truly Malaysia.

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My Culture; Sayang Malaysia

A video produced for an assignment for my Television Production module but I later found out it was for a competition.

Produced and edited by yours truly.

My Culture; Sayang Malaysia.

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Log 10; Azure 青

More on my magazine, Azure.

An assignment to test my Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop skills in creating a cover page for a magazine.

Azure is a fashion-entertainment magazine, targeted towards young adult females (ages ranging from 18 - 25).

The few possible names before Azure were Highlight, Roulette, and Mèlange (French for ‘variety’).

I based my cover page on two issues from Elle: January 2015, April 2014 (as below).

Felt that this assignment was quite fun and easy. Actually quite enjoyed doing this assignment. Had fun searching for photos, though editing the text was a pain in the behind and also for my eyes.

I probably scorched my eyes with all the digital work I had that semester plus my part-time job but oh well, all hail poor student life.

All in all, I’m satisfied with my cover page even if it could be less cluttered. But that sums up my cover page! Feature article coming soon!

Disclaimer: Picture of Zhang Yixing is from Dior Homme. Cover lines are taken from other magazines. This cover page is not and will not be intended to be re-produced, re-printed or distributed in any form, and only serves as part of my digital portfolio to showcase my skills.

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Azure 青

For my Digital Graphics module, I was to design a magazine (and later a web page) with Adobe InDesign (and Dreamweaver).

Azure, a fashion-entertainment magazine, targeted towards young adult females (ages ranging from 18 - 25).

Disclaimer: Picture of Zhang Yixing is from Dior Homme. Cover lines are taken from other magazines. This cover page is not and will not be intended to be re-produced, re-printed or distributed in any form, and only serves as part of my digital portfolio to showcase my skills.

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Log 9; Warrior

Costume play artist in his Samurai gear.

Went on a day trip to Miyajima, Hiroshima by car with my host family and a host sister’s Austrian exchange classmate.

I brought out my camera on a rare occasion like this and tried to snap away. This was one of the decent shots I managed to take as there was quite a crowd, that day being a holiday.

As we were making our way out, we spotted a bunch of these costume play artists. They were actually allowing tourists or even natives to try out these samurai costumes; also allowing those who dressed to take part in a short samurai fight performance.

It was interesting to see how intricate the designs were and not to mention have a sense of appreciation for lighter clothes. Though I did not try the costume on, I carried it and, boy was it heavy !

I really admired those who worked incessantly to put these costumes on daily on a 9 to 5 basis just like how we put our jackets on.

It’s definitely nice to see how others stick to their traditional cultural roots, even in the age of modernisation where technology sometimes puts a wedge between us and our roots.

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Log 8; Seventeen

Channeling my knowledge in Illustrator and Photoshop to fandom satisfactions.

I had wanted a new wallpaper for my laptop that wouldn’t be as embarrassing when I connected it to the projector for presentations.

Consisting of Rose Quartz (pastel pink) and Serenity (the pastel blue-purple), or more likely known as colours of the year 2016 by Pantone.

Besides being colour of the year, it is also the fandom colours of Seventeen, a Korean pop idol group.

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Warrior

Samurai.

Warrior of utmost honour and discipline.

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Seventeen

A side-project just to pass time.

Computer background with Seventeen’s fandom colours (Rose Quartz, Serenity)

HD links:

(1890 x 1080) https://goo.gl/zDOQII

(1902 x 1080) https://goo.gl/Fjb7H3

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Log 7; Infinity Battery Draft

A little insight of my first Illustrator Project.

When I thought Photoshop was hard enough, obviously I hadn’t tried Illustrator yet...

This assignment was such a turd blossom, however I had so much fun doing it during chill sessions with my classmates.

Here is my log on my first Illustrator Assignment.

Despite the many complaints and whines, I knew I had to get this assignment done just in case I have a few stray marks left to pass my module or something...

The starting was very hectic and hard because I couldn’t gauge myself with the pen tool. After a few tutorials, I got used to it and everything started getting brighter from there.

I actually enjoyed Illustrator more than Photoshop because the possibilities were endless.

I first came up with a product I wanted to illustrate or be innovative about - which so happened to be batteries.

In the Padlet above, you can see that I had added in my ideas on what based my product.

Batteries that never ran out of power. Batteries that can either be used as is or as a power bank. Power banks that were small and lightweight.

These were some of the many criteria that produced my product.

I then came out with my brand (Salt and Batter), headline of the poster and the body copy.

Though my headline was “Be the very best trainer with unlimited battery” (at that time Pokemon Go was ‘the’ thing) but it later changed to “Never run out of juice with Infinity” due to the product name and suitability.

Once I started tracing my product, and headed towards finalisation, I created a number of logos for both my product and the brand name.

Above is the logo for my brand; Salt & Batter.

There were two variations to the Infinity logo.

The first one above, where the outlines were of a similar pastel blue and the one below of a darker shade of pink. The above logo was inspired by the K-Pop groups Infinite (the logo for their latest album) and Seventeen (the colours used are the fandom colours).

Though I was being biased towards the first one, I had to use the second logo as my logo faded into the background and wasn’t as distinct.

All these factors resulted into my finished logo for my product, Infinity.

The different layouts I played around with (before settling on the second one) so I could test things around.

Ended up adding much more text in the finalised poster and colours.

This assignment was much more elaborate compared to the Photoshop one.

At times it was rather difficult because I had the urge to just Photoshop and paste. I have much more respect for those who Illustrate and Photoshop now.

However difficult it was, I find myself having more fun in this assignment compared to the first one.

Perhaps because of the freedom to design, create anything. And because I did it together with my classmates.

Overall, I am rather satisfied with the outcome and can only hope for a good percentage !

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Infinity Battery by Salt & Batter

This is my second assignment for my Visual Communication module and it instead of using Adobe Photoshop like my first assignment, I had to use Adobe Illustrator in this one.

My product is a battery which can be used normally or as a power bank. It recharges either with electricity or the better alternative, solar rays.

(Keep reading to view my poster !)

This assignment was significantly harder than the previous one since I had to ACTUALLY draw, create and illustrate a product AND poster. I am not one who does drawings. I prefer not to draw if there is choice because it is never understandable. 

Despite the procrastination because I refused to do Illustrator because I was so bad at it, I got the hang of it as I sat for the tutorials.

My work is not as amazing as professionals but I’m rather satisfied since I was an absolute noob with Illustrator.

My poster is below:

Apologies for the bad pun on the website name ;; 

As you can see, I tried to keep it minimalistic but failed yet again...

However I am satisfied with my work and even if there are tons to work on, I believe there is much to improve and I can’t wait to improve.

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Plant Trees to Prosper Poster

Behold, my first assignment (and probably only assignment) with Adobe Photoshop.

The drafts and ideas are in my previous log post so, do check out my log for the journey to my finished product !

Keep reading to see my poster !

Here is the finished poster, and due to my settings when I had edited the poster, it’s the reason why it seems very saturated.

For the less saturated and corrected version, I’ll leave the link for the poster below:

https://goo.gl/d5FZrn

Help Save The Earth.

More trees mean a cleaner and happier environment.

Save the Earth, plant a tree today.

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Log 6; Plant Trees to Prosper Draft

A little insight of my first Photoshop Project.

I wasn’t keen on Photoshop because it was such a tedious job and I wasn’t always a visual person.

Here is my log on my first Photoshop Assignment.

Brainstorming session lead to this visual mind map.

I thought of doing 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) but I couldn’t think of much to it at that time so I settled with Tree Planting since I was intrigued with botany at that time.

Despite the bad drawing and the painstaking effort put in, it came out quite reasonably and understandable. I guess it’s more of a minimalistic approach to a visual mind map?

An insight of my poster. Lecturer said it was too illustrated for Photoshop but #okcan .

I was quite satisfied with this result because I wanted it to be more informative than impactful. I wanted the poster to be aesthetically pleasing and minimalist. However so, since it was too simple and illustrated; I had to change things up.

So, I had to wreck my brain again, squeeze whatever remaining juice there is, hoping for a miracle.

My brainstormings and ideas, inspirations and progress all in this padlet:

https://padlet.com/mikapikachen/plant_trees

Took me a few weeks to compile this. From how I wanted my trees to look like, what I want my fonts to be, what I wanted to put into my poster etc.

It was hard to find posters that were more of the imagery than the illustrated ones.

Okay, the colour might be off by a little on tumblr but I swear, it doesn’t look as saturated green in real life.

I did it in the cmyk, so that’s probably why (?) Anyways, the Google Drive link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B52nkApfqrIBNlF3WUdON05oYUU/view?usp=sharing

I wanted a half alive-dead tree thing because I couldn’t get Two-Face out of mind (had a Batman marathon somewhere in between) therefore, I had to do a two-face bipolar thing!

It came out nicer than expected, nicer than my illustrated poster but there was one problem, where in the world will I place my headline. And then comes the brainstorming session again.....

Yayers! Had my problem solved during consultation.

Though, I have to say I preferred the first one (where I had no where to place my headline) but I had to sacrifice SOMETHING in order to put my headlines in there right ?

Google Drive link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B52nkApfqrIBLW92aGlES3V3a28/view?usp=sharing

All in all, I pulled through and managed to create an aesthetically pleasing yet minimalist poster ! Though it was far from the compilations in the padlet, I realised that the padlet helped with the general idea, to start up my brain juices.

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Log 5; Culture Shock

This video, the first assignment for my Mass Communication module.

It served to educate us and others on the different cultures that there are in the world.

I helped in the filming process together with Daniel and Qistina whereas Qistina had edited the video. I also had appearances in the video as the Japanese and Korean girl. I had fun throughout the whole process even though there were quite a number of conflicts.

The whole video was done the simple way without much planning. And in my opinion, that was the major factor contributing to the conflicts.

Above is the list of cultures we were to act out on. It ended up as the makeshift script.

Filming sessions went on really well. I am thankful to the wonderful teammates as everything was done impromptu.

Here is us (I’m the second from the right) filming and due to the lack of good lighting, we had to pull out our “flashlights” (our smartphones) to improve the lighting in the room.

All in all, it was an eye opening experience to be working with people I’ve just met. It really helped with my adapting skills to work efficiently with new people. I learnt to express opinions better in a new setting. I’m very satisfied with the end product, but I do know that there is still room for much improvement. I am also very thankful for the great and sporting teammates !

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First assignment for my Mass Communication module.

A video on cultural differences all over the world.

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Log 4; Derp Dave

Still testing out my AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G lenses. 

I was looking for more inspiration around the house and when I was bored with household items, I did a small photo shoot for the cats of my house.

On this day I focused mostly on Dave, the said cat in the photograph.

It was rather frustrating to take photo with cats as they kept moving whenever you want to press the shutter !!

However, later on I found the trick to keep them still; wave something shiny or shake some kibble above your camera and they will stay still long enough for you to take the shot !

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Derp Dave

My personal derp cat, Dave.

He was waiting for his dinner.

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Log 3; Cakes in a Cup

26th March 2016: Cupcakes on display at one of my cousin’s Akad Nikah Ceremony.

I was testing the waters with my AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G lenses on that day. Wanted to take some ボケ (bokeh; the effect of a soft out-of-focus background that you get when shooting a subject) shots of my family and relatives on this special day.

It was rather frustrating at first as it wasn’t a lens to be able to zoom around with.

However, I got the hang of it after awhile and I managed to take shots that I’m quite satisfied with.

Here’s an experimental shot with the sugar flowers as the decoration on the wedding cake ! It isn’t as aesthetic as the other photograph that made the cut for it’s own post but I’m still quite happy on how this one turned out, so I’m sharing it on this log.

I’ll still be playing around with these lenses until I can perfectly master them. Until then stay tuned for my progresses !