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Q4 Blog Post - Fangda

Posted by Fangda Luo in Advanced Art - Hull on Friday, June 1, 2012 at 8:53 pm
In Quarter 4 I mostly working on my Capstone project, some photos and some anime character drafts I designed. I didn't draw any artworks with color because I think my creation needs to be trained more instead of my skills. Most of the characters I drew is designed by me. But the first one is an exception. I love this character so much that I don't even consider as a fake character any more. The character, Furukawa Nagisa from the anime "CLANNAD" has her soul. It is portrayed so well in the anime that I have been strongly influenced by her. I drew the this anime using sketch techniques and it seems so well, better than I had imagined.
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And here is another draft for Nagisa and her family in the anime who touched me deeply in my heart.
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Option1 - Between Tibet and China

Posted by Fangda Luo in Globalization - Laufenberg on Saturday, May 26, 2012 at 1:14 am
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/44016394/Globalization_Benchmark.pages
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  • Since my topic is very well-known to many people, it's hard to find an appropriate attitude and explanation I should use for this project. So I looked over many websites and tried to find a objective attitude towards all kinds of comments.


  • It's really hard to find the actual truth of the story in Tibet, actually. After I searched all kinds of information, I don't even think that there is a truth exists. Foreign media is always not reporting the truth and exaggerating the mistakes Chinese government had, while Chinese government is always trying to hide something from the people and the media. All I can do is read articles from both sides and to analyze as best as I can. 


  • The story actually attracts far more attention than I ever thought, however, the truth is not attracting any focus at all. As if everybody are mislead to different kinds of acknowledgement, the people in China, the foreigners, the media, and even myself. Each side has its own point of view and evidence. Although I can tell parts of it are completely wrong, the rest is still bothering me because all the "truth" are in a conflict. For example, There is no way to identify whether Dalai Lama is involved in the conflict as a man with guilt, nor can I find any evidence to prove his innocence.

     
  • I think it will. After all the articles I went through, what I see was only one side disagree with another. Either Chinese media and government saying foreign media are all telling lies, or foreign media blaming Chinese government about freedom and human right but never speaking about the improvements. In my article, I tried to combine the two ideas together and try to find some similarities between them. 


  • I learned a lot about the ancient history between Tibet and China, and I also learned about the prejudice media have on China-Tibet conflict. What's the most important, I discovered that there might be something with no truth existing at all. What we saw is just a surface. The truth itself might already been covered up by time.
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Fangda Luo: Process of Making an Animation

Posted by Fangda Luo in Capstone - Manuel on Friday, May 25, 2012 at 3:24 pm
​Abstract:

This is a Performance Project: A short animation movie entitled “The Forgotten”
 
This choice was deeply rooted in my philosophy of modern life that modern human

beings should enjoy both the convenience of technology and the warmth of art, for

my ideal is to become an artist, not the one in its conventional sense, but the 21st

century artist that is armed with and can take advantage of new fruits of science and

technology. I understand that both art and computer science will play a central role in

this career and I must work hard in both these two fields. So in this sense, the project

I chose to work on offered me a good chance of practicing for my future career.

Furthermore, I strongly believe that interdisciplinary studies/projects like animation

making have become a new approach to innovations. This project will also contribute

much to my sense and competence of innovation and originality.



First of all: This is the settings for characters.
This animation is intended to reveal the corruption and devastating influence of money and

money-worship upon human spirit and human relationship by means of narrating the experiences

and observations of two young people.

Two major characters:

1) The Young Man

The young man is well-educated, and culturally and physically strong, and good at martial arts.

He has been told that he is an orphan and was taken and brought up by his stepfather. In fact, the

stepfather is the young man’s biological father, who, a wealthy businessman, has an illusion that

his son was adopted instead of being his own son just due to his strange psychological disease

which was caused by his great sorrow over the death of his wife, and thus puts his whole heart

onto money-making.

The young man is struggling between two values. On one hand, he is tired of the crazy wealth-

hunting acts and money-dominated values of his father and his father’s business partners. On

the other hand, he believes that he cannot live without money. Driven by such a dilemma, the

young man decided to live away, asking his father to give him the money just enough to support

himself.

The young man moves to a small and shabby lane, where poor people of different walks of life

stay.

This young man tends to humiliate people by showing them his money purposefully when he

comes to find somebody covets his money but never giving any chance to the latter.

He enjoys this kind of tricks, but in fact he is hurting himself at the same time. The more he

behaves in this way, the more evident the power of money proves, then the more it proves his

father is correct about money, and the more it proves that his values and spirit are twisted. So his

struggle and pain seems to be endless.

2) The Young Girl

The young girl’s father is also a businessman, and a business rival of the young man’s father. He

offends the powerful man over his big investment and later is killed quirkily in a traffic accident,

which the young girl is luckily absent because she is ill and is taken care of by her neighbor. The

father does not leave a will.

The young man’s father takes all measures and takes over the girl’s father’s business. The girl

moves to the home of her uncle, who works with the young man’s father’s company. The latter

cheats the girl’s uncle and usurps the girl’s father’s possessions.

Once the young man intentionally drops off some food and money when he notices the girl might

be seriously in need of money and food, and catches her when she picks them up. Then they

meet.

My process of making the animation is not fully finished because of time and difficulties of making animation and I have no way of converting the animation file from producing file into video file. However, Here are the drafts I have for the animation I am making.

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Take A New Look

Posted by Fangda Luo in Digital Video -4 day a week - Herman on Saturday, April 7, 2012 at 2:12 pm
Overview:

Zoe Strauss Billboard Project: Billboard #46 - Take A New Look
Location: 15th and Vine - Philadelphia, PA

    We chose to create a film inspired by this particular billboard because the visuals and text of this billboard are very layered in the meanings that they hold, based on our interpretations. We found this billboard interesting because it lacks visual attractions and is very "plain." The message on the billboard is clear, "take a new look" and yet it is somewhat mysterious as to what it means. From the billboard, we were able to draw many conclusions to the meaning and purpose of the billboard. From our developing interpretations and understandings of the billboard, we were able to create a script and film based off of our interpretations.


Take A New Look__0
Created By: Fangda Luo & Matthew Scuderi

Soundtrack:
Town, People, Flow of Time - Clannad (Anime) OST
Roaring Tide - Clannad (Anime) OST

Description:

    Take A New Look was filmed in center city Philadelphia, PA, in which a nameless teenager walks us though his view of the city. He is represented as the red line of the billboard in this film as well as his "single minded-view" of the city. His disposition of being forced into a high academic school by his parent leads him to hate the city that he lives in. Throughout the film, he presents his “single view” to the audience and later reveals his new view of the city. The entire time, we see the city through his eyes and hear his thoughts, until he finally tells of how he can see things differently in the end.  

Inspiration:
Zoe Strauss’ billboard, Take A New Look, has inspired this film and it’s storyline. We chose to make the film based off of our interpretation of the billboard, since we were assigned the project in digital video class. While the film is inspired by the billboard and demonstrates our interpretation of the billboard, the film is also inspired by the main character of the anime Clannad.

Interpretations and Connections from the Billboard to the Film:
    The billboard is very abstract and lacks color for a reason. We believe that the gray area that surrounds the "plain" red line represents a sort of emptiness or lack of perspective. The red line, we believe, is a single view/perspective of someone that runs into the painted over text that reads, "take a new look." From this, we were able to build many more interpretations of the billboard and we used various aspects of its message and features to write a story, script, and screenplay to go with an original film that we crafted. Other things that we interpreted and connected to our story are as follows:

- The gray area that surrounds the red line and fills most of the billboard: Plainness, emptiness, and loneliness that the character (represented as the red line) faces. The gray is also a representation of the city, which is mostly "gray" with concrete and shadows from buildings. The gray also inspired us to film on a cloudy and dreary day to reflect the city as a sad and depressing place.

- The text says literally what the dark blue paint that cover it says visually. "Take a new look" is the message of the billboard and this is used as our resolution in the film. The blue paint that covers the text is what makes the billboard abstract and different at this point because it marks the end of the red line (our interpretation as the character's old self and "single-minded view"). This paint also hides the text of the billboard and makes it hard to read at certain angles, which lead us to apply the theme of, "not everything is what it seems on the surface." The paint also represented the single perspective as well and how our minds are "clouded" with certain views as we ignore other views, hence the mention of ignorance in the film. Also, since the blue paint is all over the gray, which represents the city as well, the blue paint represents the changing city.

Important Film Features and Process Reflection:

    In our original five minute footage, we observed a cone in the lower center of the frame. We decided that the cone would be a major motif because the city is "changing" and therefore, "taking a new look." In just about scene we went to shoot, there happened to be a cone or cones in the shot without us having to place them there. Weather on the days we filmed was in favor of the shots we needed. There was one day that it was really hazy and cloudy that we used for "ugly" shots or shots of "ugly" and construction stuff and for a few days, it was really nice, which we used for "beautiful" shots. In the beginning of the film there is panning with red lines of the character's jacket, which happened to be my (Matthew) personal jacket that I wear to school a lot. We used the lines of the jacket to represent connection to the billboard and that the character is represented as the red line on the billboard. Since there are two red lines on the character's jacket and he is at first talking about how his view of the city changed, which represent his old and new view of the city and life in the city he once hated. Another element that we used in our film is traffic signs to represent changes, confusion (the shot of the one way and stop sign together), and direction of the character's life (detour).  

Special Thanks:
- Zoe Strauss (For having this billboard placed in the city.)
- Mr. Herman (For assigning this project, providing us with necessary equipment, advising, and making suggestions.)
- Anna Roman (Quick shot.)
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Egypt vs. Brazil

Posted by Fangda Luo in Globalization - Laufenberg on Wednesday, March 21, 2012 at 11:58 am
I worked on the comparison between Egypt and Brazil. As far as what I get to know, this is kind of a comparison between social incongruity and stability. I first did the whole thing wrong and did neither the framework or the grading. I happened to be working on the industry and economy facets at the beginning so I have to do it all over again. If I would do this again, I have to work harder on the citations, which is always something I am confused with. Also I have to read the requests more carefully. This benchmark is not hard but really took a lot of effort. I would be searching more data and information about the topic. Some information is not that evident, but it still explains a lot of things. While doing the project, it is really hard to find reliable sites and official explanations.

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/presentation/d/1CfX5ASsswwoiveZLv057CjzaoNc9bPMuav0GOr-XU6s/edit#slide=id.g328ab7e_1_49
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World of 100

Posted by Fangda Luo on Friday, February 10, 2012 at 8:26 am
The first graph shows my personal, average, and correct answer of the percentage of different age. It is interesting because it really shows how big the difference is between three sets of data. I never thought that there is that much percentage of people between the age of 15-64.

The second graph is a chart about how many people around the world doesn't have electricity as power. The average of the entire class is really funny because it is kind of the same percentage. My personal answers are closer to the correct answers than the average.

The third graph is about the religion percentage around the world. In this graph I considered the percentage of Christians too high and other religions too low. The average answers from the class are similar to the correct answer. I think this is because they know more about Christianity.


Analysis
1. I am most accurate in the electricity section, and I am most not accurate in the section of diversity of age. For electricity section I think it is because the some people are too passive about the world right now. For the age section I think it is because I came from China and have an understanding of a Chinese. In China, we have a great percentage of children being born and large amount of senior aged people.

2. For me, I think the percentage of people between the age of 15-64 shocked me most, because I first thought that if a family have at least two child, that means they have more children to raise and more senior aged people to take care.

3. I think I am a bit off course. For example, the percentage of Christians around the world, I got about 10 percents of difference. I think this is because I am not familiar with Christianity. I don't even know the possible percentage of Americans who are Christians.
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Film Review: the Grave of the Fireflies

Posted by Fangda Luo in Digital Video -4 day a week - Herman on Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 6:08 pm

Film Review: the Grave of the Fireflies

The film begins with a scene of the boy Seita after he is dead, giving the audience a understanding of this movie that it is a tragedy.

 

The way of using color in this movie is very unique. The scene of dead Seita is shown by using reddish color to portray the character and background, which is attractive since the dead Seita sometimes has some interaction with the actual world, or his memory. For example, when a guard at the train station threw away the candy can that carries Seita’s sister, Setsuko’s bone meal, the dead Seita, or his soul picked it up.

 

On character portraying, the film shows a strong contrast between different characters. In the aunt’s house, Seita and Setsuko’s cousin always spoke for them while the aunt was mean. Also in the later part of the film, when Seita and Setsuko lived the abandoned mine, without anything to eat, other boys ran pass them with nice clothes and went to fishing happily. Meanwhile, those adults are all different with each other on the attitude of treating Seita and Setsuko, for example, the aunt’s selfish but a little compassion, the old farmer’s sorrow, the doctor’s indifference and the demobilized soldier’s abhorrence, each person has his or her idiosyncrasy.

 

About the film itself, I have some opinions. Firstly, I consider Setsuko an innocent poor girl suffered in the war, but Seita a ignorant and lazy boy with a simple mind filled with militarism. If Seita really loves his sister, what he should do is not taking her to the seaside and play with her but trying his best to find a work or help his aunt’s family by doing housework. Although he was only thirteen or fourteen at that time, although he was brought up in a rich family, he should have grown mature enough to handle things, and the decision he made to move out of his aunt’s house is totally wrong and childish.

 

Secondly, being a Chinese, I really abominate what Seita thinks about war. Even before Setsuko is almost dead, he is still dreaming to join the army. What will he think him be doing? Killing Chinese or Americans? Although the main theme of this movie is about anti-war, Seita is apparently some sort of advocator for war.

 

Thirdly, the film itself is really moving and touches deeply into one’s soul.

Everybody knows from the beginning that this film is a tragedy, but people still feels sad or even cries for Setsuka’s Death. Seita and Setsuka's desperation  reflects the theme of protesting to war and a wish of hope. In the entire war, countless families like Seita and Setsuka's are broken and destroyed, and even seldom does one know whether their government is right or wrong. This film no longer shows a tragedy of a family, but a tragedy of a whole nation, a whole world.

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Q-1: Rethinking history about Pablo Picasso

Posted by Fangda Luo in Reading, Writing, and Rising Up - Rami on Monday, November 7, 2011 at 8:33 pm
​I made a puzzle game for 9th graders to match Picasso's artwork with its name so they can flip the correct two cards over to find either political ideas or personal life information about Pablo Picasso.

The rules are listed below:
Before hand, A “true or false” question will be held for students to answer, whoever answers correctly gets on credit and have a chance to take a try in the following steps. I am going to make a kind of puzzle game that has two columns of cards about Pablo Picasso, one is artworks of Pablo Picasso, and the other is the description of these art works but messed up in order. Once students linked the right pair together, they can flip up these two cards and see the information under the cards. The information under the literal descriptions is about his personal life and that under the images is about his political ideas.
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Q-1: Still object drawing

Posted by Fangda Luo in Advanced Art - Hull on Friday, November 4, 2011 at 10:04 pm
I do this work because we have to draw something that is glass. Also, the sketch can be sort of a warming up for me to draw the school's yearbook cover. In this process, I am trying to make my ​drawing as accurate as possible, and this turned out to be successful.

I only use pencil to draw this drawing and I use pencil to draw most of my sketches because it is the tool I am most skillful with. For the object I drew, I drew this object simply because I think it is beautiful. It looks really nice for a white flower to put in a transparent glass pot with water in it. The skill I use on this sketch is that I shade on the frame of the picture layer by layer, from the darkest part the the lightest part, while not miss anything and not confuse the value of even the smallest area. 

This is not the first time I sketch flowers and I really enjoy it. Since flowers will soon wither after they are picken, so whenever I can draw a flower, the beauty of the flower can stay on my drawing for a long time. This is really satisfying for me. But still, I finished this picture in two class periods. In this case, I drew the shade in the second class period when I can not find the flower anymore. So I have to go and look for some images on the internet to complete my drawing. Well, from the final drawing you can all see that this worked. It's quite successful, so I write my signature at the bottom right corner of the drawing.
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Q-1: Portrait

Posted by Fangda Luo in Advanced Art - Hull on Friday, November 4, 2011 at 9:42 pm
There is no difference for me to draw a portrait of a person from which direction or with what pose. In my point of view, as long as a person wants to draw, he can draw an awesome picture as long as he want to. I am the one who have a great passion on drawing, so I spent months and months to practice drawing skills before and up to now, I am always serious about every picture I draw. I only spent 2 hours in all on this portrait, but I hardly turned away my focus in these two hours. Well, the result turned out to be good eventually, although there are some places I think I still need to change a bit.

I first thought of using color chalks(That's how we call those things in China, but I don't know the exact name here.) to draw the big portrait. But since I am not quite familiar with how to draw on such a big paper and the color of drawing materials is limited, so I first use a light color to draw the frame of the model and than I use charcoals to put the shade. 

As I am not very familiar with drawing on such a big paper, it is a bit weird for me in the beginning of the drawing. But after I measured the ratio of different parts of the model's body, the drawing gradually became easier. Just as I said, the result turned out to be okey, but I think I have to focus on the congruity of the ratio of a person's upper part of the body to the bottom part.For example, in this portrait, the legs of the model should be longer.
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