Scribbles to Memories

This week is the last lesson for creative thinking.
Therefore, instead of the usual groups of 5 group work & presentation,
Ms Tan Ai Khim told us to draw a short comic for a random classmate.
She said this is the chance to create memories with this classmate; a memento.

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Firstly, we all obtain a piece of a4 paper, and was then instructed to scribble randomly on it from a start point and to an end point.

Secondly, we are then told to fold the paper into 6 boxes, and then use a marker to mark the fold lines.

Lastly, Ms Tan collected all the a4 scribbles and hand out each randomly to everyone.

What I have gotten

I received Shirley's scribbles.

Wow, this must be fate. Somehow we always "encounter" each other by chance. Whether it's religious beliefs, rants, the number placement in the attendance sheet; her's just below mine, interests that aren't common(at least among girls); we both play Dota 2, we were so shocked when we both found out, didn't expect each other to play. And the fact that we sat together for the very first lesson of college, becoming friends.

Surprisingly, we don't really share the same wave length though.
Fate is sure weird.

Everyone's ready

By using the lines, we're to use our creative skills to decipher what each line can look like and make a story out of it.
It's time to let imagination do the job!

Finished drawing

Halfway through this drawing, Ms Tan started to play interesting videos for us to watch. It was quite distracting as I was working and I wanted to watch the videos too.

This comic I made for Shirley is an inside joke that only her or Dota players can understand.
The joke is basically just about the Dota character, Pudge which is Shirley's most hated character in the game and game tropes.

Shirley, scarred for life

Hmm.. If I were to describe Shirley..
First impression, she's an aloof person; cool and distant. However that doesn't mean she's unfriendly, she's probably just thinking what to eat for lunch. I am certain it's 100% Mos burger. She has this mysterious air around her, kinda reminds me of a cat.

She's also..
Fashionable! I think everyone can agree with me on this. Judging from her in game profile picture, I believe she's really into fashion models, especially Western/European.

Independent. She does things on her own. She's not subjected to be in control by others, capable of thinking and acting for oneself. I guess she resembles a lone panther then?

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Ugesh, why so tall lah

When the lesson was ending, I was thrilled as I wonder who made a comic for me.

It was Ugesh!! He's really huge; thanks to his almost daily workout. It was a new experience to take a picture with someone as big as him.

My experiences with Ugesh isn't much but I can tell that..
He's a really cool person. As in, very calm & composed and has his own style that stands out.
He's friendly. I was slightly intimidated at first because he's really tall, but when I spoke to him, everything went smoothly, he's really chill!
and finally, I feel that he's really mature, I'm not sure how to describe it but, it feels like he's really an adult, I guess? maybe because of age differences.

Surprise!

This is the comic that he made, about life journey & love.
A man's rough journey and at the end he is able to find his one true love at the end.
At the back of the page, he added on with saying that I should keep moving forward and shouldn't give up for at the end I will meet a good life.

But does a good life equates a good love story? I guess love is an element that contribute to a good life.

Debbie, a sweet girl

If I were to describe Debbie..
She's a meticulous person. You would mistaken her for a JC student or a Polytechnic student studying a math/science course. She's always punctual, in fact she's always arrive early to class.

Like her name, she's cute, and she LOVES cute things. She has that child-like cuteness. That doesn't mean she's childish though, she's actually a very serious person.

She's good at speaking. I'm sure everyone has noticed that she's always the one speaking in presentations in her group. She's vocal and isn't scared of attention.

Siew Kei, SK. Not SK Jewelry.

If I were to describe Siew Kei..

She's diligent. She always completes her work on time and you can really see her effort in her works. And the fact that she works to upkeep her stay in Singapore as she is from Malaysia.

She's independent. Like what I mentioned, she works to upkeep her stay in Singapore. To add on, she lives alone. That's admirable.

She's also fashionable. Always wore clothes that fits her and it's obvious that she keep up with fashion trends.

She would make a good big sister character.

Liliana, sweet enough for diabetes

Liliana is very adorable.
like her mannerism and reaction and stuff. Very adorable.
I really think she's incapable of being angry. She's also very tease-able despite being 2 years older than me. I love her company; she's really easy going person & amiable. Charming in her own way.

If I were to describe Liliana..
ADORABLE

Huei Hao aka the most admirable person I know

If I were to describe Huei Hao...

He's super hardworking & diligent. I cannot emphasis in words, how hardworking he is. He's work ethic is simply, superb. I'm not sure how he manage really, I can't imagine being in his situation.
He goes back to Malaysia everyday, 5 hours a trip. If we were to count back and forth, that's 10 bloody hours. And to add on, it's 5 SGD a bus ride (or was it RM?), that's 10 SGD! AND his drawings are really good! You can tell that he is really serious about his studies. He also works 16 hours a week to earn some money to upkeep his studies.

He's ambitious. Ambition correlates with diligence. He aspires to be an comic book artist, specifically, an manga artist in Japan. That's why he is studying Illustration & animation (same course as me!).

He's also level-headed; a composed and sensible person.

I'm really glad that I met someone so serious and ambitious like him as it motivates me to work even harder too.

P.S Do a speech in the future when you're successful Huei Hao!

Food challenge

From left to right, wefie of me, Debbie, Siew Kei, Liliana & out of picture Huei Hao

Today is our last group work for creative thinking.

Because it's our last group work, Ms Tan Ai Khim allowed us to form our own groups.

*Cue happy music and noises*

Me, Liliana, Debbie, Siew Kei and Huei Hao, formed a group of 5.

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Our objective is to open a restaurant, starting with the menu.

The menu must consist of appetizer, main course & dessert.

We also need to design a logo & name for the restaurant.

Sounds fun!

The challenge is that we only have 3 random ingredient available to use; a chef nightmare.

We are given a intended audience too, for example, kids, junkies, athletes, etc.

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Ms Tan told every group to send one person to the front to do a lottery of the 3 ingredients & intended audience.

I went to the front, thrilled at the thought of what I will get.

Maybe something easy and interesting?

As I reached my destination, it was my turn to draw.
I hesitated for a short while; looking at the papers, hoping I can decipher what it is.

Heart beating in anticipation, I drew one.

"MARS BAR, APPLE, APRICOT JAM"I giggled, liking what I have gotten.
Feeling great, I drew the second.

"WEIGHT LOSS"

What.
That was my reaction. I had no idea what to do weight loss.
Maybe creating a dish that has 1 cm of a mars bar, apple, apricot jam can help with weight loss?
Or, since definition says "Fibre-rich", we can make the main dish just cut apples, like 1 kg of them.

My train of thought was broken when Ms Tan says that we are allowed to re-pick once.

Oh boy.

I called my group members over, discussed whether we should re-pick or stick with this.
They were just as lost as I was.

Siew Kei said to change the intended audience, and everyone agreed with it.

"Okay" I said.
 Intuition telling me that I shouldn't; feels like a bad idea.

Re-picking can't be too bad right?

........

"DIETING"

What.

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What we random'd

I went back to my group, placed the lottery results on the table, and watched my group mates reactions.

Their reactions were hilarious.

Most comments went to the Mars bar. "Dieting people don't eat chocolate!"

Hey, at least we got apple, that's 100% diet-able.

Debbie writing everybody ideas on her writing pad

This is when the brainstorming starts.
The group discussion was lively; everyone was contributing and bantering.

Brainstorming results

1. Appetizer: Apple slices served with melted chocolate & apricot jam.
2. Main course: Mashed apple mixed with apricot jam, with melted & chunks of chocolate served with cold apple juice special beverage
3. Dessert: Melted chocolate sticks skewered with apple coated with apricot jam
   
   
   Sketches for logo & food was done.
   
   We split work up based on what we have contributed in the brainstorming,
   
   

   Logo: Huei Hao

   Appetizer: Debbie

   Main Course: Siew Kei & Liliana

   Dessert: Me

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Process of work

The making of logo

An apple tree is used as our main ingredient is apples.

Since dieting is the intended audience, the logo has a slim woman figure, replacing the trunk of the tree.

Logo is inspired from Starbucks cafe.

Everyone working hard

Everyone was quiet, as attention was put into work.

Pricing the items

Titling & touching up

We had to borrow markers from other groups because we do not have much colouring materials.
Thankfully, the group infront of us lend us what we needed.

Welcome to Apple Tree

Best dieting cafe you will find in Singapore.

Order our full course only at $32.70!
                     

                        GST not included.

Our menu

Please visit Apple tree!

And this concludes our activity for today, glad that we finished everything on time.

Next week we're going to present our cafe.

STUCK IN SPOOKS ISLAND

Today's group work

My apologies for the unclear photo. To summarized what's said on the photo, we have to design a ghostly outfit. This is to defend ourselves from the bloodthirsty beings on SPOOKS island; by disguising ourselves as a ghost.

Sounds like a good Halloween comedy movie material. Just imagine fitting in with the ghosts while wearing big garbage bags and a silly hat, and the ghost is stupid enough to mistaken you for his kind. Heck, if the ghost is friendly enough, he might as well "bro" you. Or what if the ghost was an old spirit from the Britain in the 19th century, then he starts taking out his favorite teacup set, magically pour earl grey into the cups, while speaking in old English about how people these days don't understand real art.

Hey, who says all ghosts are bloodthirsty? Maybe a lot of them are misunderstood, and the bloodthirsty ones are the loud minority. After all, the unknown and unnatural is always scary to us.

Back to topic,

Can we survive?

Requirements for today's group work

In groups of 5, Me, Huei Hao, Siew Kei, Ma Chao and Nguyen Tien Sy.

We have 1 hour design the outfit and to film a 30 second video.

Hopefully this photo is clearer. Basically the photo says what requirements we are supposed to fulfill.
We have 5 requirements to meet; only 3 fingers, no eyes on face, very long hair, body part must contain 2 paper plate, covered in 50% black tar(garbage bag).

Sounds simple?

However, if we fail to meet any of these requirements, the bloodthirsty beings will find out and kill us. If this was a real situation, it will be so unnerving and frightening.

Twine Strings, Penknife, Cellophane wraps, Masking tape and Garbage bag

This are the materials we are told to prepare last week.
Time to put them into good use!

Oh god, this is when the horror atmospheric music starts. I think Ms Tan Ai Khim searched for 1 hour of horror music in Youtube? Props to her for playing music in class, making it a more engaging and enjoyable experience.

P.S. Play some Silent Hill soundtracks!

We communicated our ideas and sketched the drawings out
Left is illustrated by SY, while right is by Ma Chao.

The left illustration looks like an Air spirit, whereas the right looks like a demonic tribal spirit that wants to trick you with it's cute looks and then claw your eyes out.

We decided we like the left design more, and therefore will be making it.

Next, we need to pick our model. Naturally we should pick a girl as one of the requirements require as to have long hair. But nay, we decide not to pick a girl because picking a girl is too mainstream.
The module is called "creative thinking" for a reason!

Our model is the fabulous Huei Hao.

Pyramid shaped helmet

Our dear fashion student, SY designed the helmet, meeting the requirement of having no eyes on the face, as the cellophane wrap is translucent.

Iconic character from SH, Pyramid Head

I asked him if the helmet was inspired from Pyramid Head, a horror game character from Silent Hill.
"Yes, it is inspired from Pyramid Head." He exclaimed, happy that someone knows the reference.

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Making of the "hair"

Next up is the requirement of having very long hair. An easy requirement to tackle.

Basically, to have long hair; we attach cut cellophane wrap onto the top of the helmet. This works like a knight's helmet, the plume.

The making of the plume didn't take long as the cellophane wrap is easy to cut.

Nice teamwork going on here

Attaching the plume

Finished the helmet!

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Cutting the bag

Trying to make it fit

Finally, the making of the clothes.
For clothes, we have to fulfill the requirement of body covered with 50% black tar. Another easy requirement to tackle.

By using the garbage bag, we can cover 50% of the body.
Following the idea drawn earlier, the bag will be covering from the torso to the thighs.

The arm is tied up with twine strings.

We had to make a hoodie to make sure the shirt's collar is covered.

Making of arm, using twine strings

Making of the hood

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Almost finished!

Now, we are left is having only 3 fingers and using the two paper plates.
On the photo, we are trying out where to place the paper plates.

would make an good video character design

We end up putting the paper plates on the hands, to act as a weaponry.

Those are my hands!

This is how we tape the fingers together to fulfill the requirement of having 3 fingers.
3 Fingers and 2 paper plates requirement done in one go.

We fulfilled all the 5 requirements!
What is left is the 30 second video.

Our finish product. We didn't really name this character but it's along the lines of, "ninja samurai knight warrior." Our naming attempts all sounded edgy and childish.

Lets just call him the mega ultimate super undead edgy samurai ninja knight warrior, Huei Hao the dark eyes beholder, vanquisher of the holy, master of the pyramids, manipulator of the shadow.

Behold mortals, bow before your END!

As for our 30 second video, we went to the graffiti wall to film an epic battle between the cellophane wrap wielding holy knights versus the mega ultimate super undead edgy samurai ninja knight warrior, Huei Hao the dark eyes beholder, vanquisher of the holy, master of the pyramids, manipulator of the shadow.

I don't have the video with me unfortunately, but here are the spoilers,
All knights died in a horrific death. It's very graphic and I don't advise anyone to watch it. My favorite character died in vain. Truly the saddest moment in the video.

I'm not sure how the survivor became a real ghost and end up killing people too.
What if surviving in the island turns you into a bloodthirsty being too?

Our spoils-of-war

Here concludes our lesson.

I feel that this is the best lesson aka best group work we have done for creative thinking module.
It served as a nice break from the stressful routine.
Not exaggerating; It's the most enjoyable experience I had in NAFA so far.

Hopefully more group work are like this!

10/10

Paper Tower Challenge

 Our team is tasked to build a structure as high as possible using only paper in 45 minutes time, (15 minutes of brainstorming and 30 mins of building)

The challenge is that we are not allowed to use adhesive, bluetacs, stickers or alike and the fact that we must ensure our structure is stable.

Group are as usual; 4 people are randomly put into a group. (I get to know more about people in my class, which is great.)

This is the limited amount of paper we are given, 10 pieces. Because of limited resources, we cannot afford to experiment as much as we can, but to put more effort into strategic planning.

This is when the brainstorming starts.
All of us think pretty alike, we thought about the techniques we learnt from our 3D fundamental classes, specifically, the cardboard slotting technique.

Though, it took us a while to understand each other idea as a member in our group isn't familiar with English, as she is from China. I, being the only Chinese speaking member other than her, acted as a "mediator", and translated any English words said that she didn't understand.

Other than that, the discussion went smoothly.
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Without further ado, we moved to working on the structure.

Measured, and then cutting a slit

Iszuan has a different method of approaching the slotting technique, so we watched him make the prototype to see if it works.

Unfortunately, the slit he has cut is way too big. As a result it was way too loose.

The prototype was deemed a failure.

Sadly, we can not try making it again as limited paper prevents us to.

Folding it

The end result of it

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We moved on to another idea that we had.

A stable base that is easily made just by folding the paper nicely, and then making a small lock to interlock both sides of paper.















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We made another to slot it into the base.

The slotting is successful as the structure is firm and stable.














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End result of our structure

Next, we made a cylinder shaped paper by rolling it.
The same techniques were used, interlocking both sides together then slotted onto the last base.

Once, that was stable, we placed a cone onto the cylinder to maximize our structure height.

And that was last of our resources, therefore we are finally done with it!

I like how it resembles the Statue of Liberty.











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Other group works

Looks like poker cards or cups stacking. It must be really stable.

I like how this one looks! It resembles a cocktail. They called it the 'Lemon juice king on the ground'.

I like how this resembles a giant plant sprouting from a small plant pot. Maybe a gigantic beanstalk?

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This week lesson was enjoyable. I got to know a little more about my classmates and different techniques and methods to make a structure.