jacqueline iwanto s4129035 weekly reflective journal by vexizz _

week 1

elvexizz — 2025-07-27 01:57:28 UTC

week 1 progress

elvexizz — 2025-07-27 12:41:29 UTC

week 2

elvexizz — 2025-08-03 08:36:32 UTC

week 3

elvexizz — 2025-08-09 07:18:34 UTC

week 4

elvexizz — 2025-09-23 18:57:50 UTC

week 5

elvexizz — 2025-09-23 19:09:44 UTC

week 7

elvexizz — 2025-09-23 19:23:54 UTC

week 6

elvexizz — 2025-09-23 21:54:01 UTC

week 8

elvexizz — 2025-09-23 22:00:32 UTC

week 9

elvexizz — 2025-10-27 18:56:30 UTC

week 10

elvexizz — 2025-10-27 18:56:34 UTC

week 11

elvexizz — 2025-10-27 18:56:38 UTC

week 12

elvexizz — 2025-10-27 18:56:42 UTC

week 13

elvexizz — 2025-10-27 18:56:45 UTC

final thoughts

elvexizz — 2025-10-27 18:56:52 UTC

week 2 progress

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:05:22 UTC

Final draft on how I think the environment and scene would look like, sketched on Procreate, as well as how it would interact.

week 3 progress

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:09:58 UTC

Drawing the storyboard and the justifications of each creative choice, such as the colour scheme, doodles and aesthetic based on the research I've conducted.

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:13:35 UTC

References and moodboard for the aesthetic of the doodles and scribbles, choosing both rough and familiar symbols in a messy aesthetic to convey "overwhelm" and disoriented confusion. I've posted my current progress on YouTube: https://youtu.be/uuMK2pJdGiQ?si=nvOGM4JtV9QbEAMt

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:15:28 UTC

Creating the greybox prototype on Blender, referencing from my Pinterest Board of several subway trains. It didn't need to be fully completed as well since the camera will only be panning in a certain direction.

week 4 progress

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:19:04 UTC

Researching on even more textures and halftones that I can implement to my video, Buzzed Out, in order to create that grainy, grunge retro feel which I was aiming for. I took reference upon many different kinds of halftones from the internet before using them to make my own brush in Photoshop, so I can create my own kind of filter way easier.

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:19:44 UTC

Creating my own halftone in Photoshop, before exporting it and the settings into a brush of my own.

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:20:05 UTC

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:20:16 UTC

week 5 progress

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:23:50 UTC

After recording each instrument on either the synthesisers and in real-life in my friend's studio, I compiled them into Reaper and layered them all upon one another, starting to compose my song for Buzzed Out. I also adjusted the volume of each instrument, making the bas louder as well as lowering the drums since they were a bit too loud.

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:26:18 UTC

Afterwards, I experimented by after compiling them all into one layer, readjusting the reverb and playing around with each settings to see which would sound the most realistic and produce the most overwhelming effect in terms of how "heavy" and "realistic" it would sound.

week 6 progress

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:28:17 UTC

I continued making the basic textures and simply lighting the train scene. I was in a debate over whether I should make the seats dark muddy brown or bright orange, but after asking Mark and the others, the retro and nostalgic feel of the bright orange seats seemed to be more popular, thus why.

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:31:11 UTC

I also continued storyboarding, sketching, doodling, and then scanning the physical prints of the videos. Each colour was drawn from my previous research on colour theory, grunge aesthetics as well as the physical states of what feeling overwhelmed feels. This is shown through my prominent and frequent use of the bright colours yellow, orange and red.

week 7 progress

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:35:26 UTC

I reused some of the old 3D paper assets that I'd made in Blender beforehand, exported them and scratched them up so I could edit them into my Buzzed Out Video digitally, in order to add to even more of the overwhelmingness. I didn't want only the physical media to evoke that feeling of chaos, and wanted to incorporate digital editing as well for that purpose, making it fully a MIXED media.

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:38:14 UTC

I also started producing the audio for my sublime train, recording my bass guitar and also synthesizing the piano from MiDi Reaper. I imported it into Reaper afterwards and played with the timbre and pitch, dragging my bass to the extreme lows to emulate a buzzing sound while distorting the pitch of the MiDi keyboard with some Reaper plugins to make crackling sounds for when the lights flicker.

week 8 progress

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:41:32 UTC

I continued my progress in iterating and constantly redoodling, reprinting, rescanning and re-editing my frames. I felt that some of the transitions felt a bit too abrupt in a few scenes, so I had to often change how I would go about it; Whether it be ripping the paper, adding more strobing lights in After Effects, or even rearranging the structure of all the frames.

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:41:46 UTC

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:42:08 UTC

week 9 progress

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:43:34 UTC

I explored more on Reaper MiDi's features, also playing around a bit more on the synthesizers in order to help boost the effect of my sound design in both works.

week 10 progress

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:47:19 UTC

I felt that my 'Buzzed Out''s audio was still too lacking, and Mark said that I should try pushing the limits. So I revisited my Buzzed Out audio file and recorded a few extra layers to incorporate them into the song. I also rerecorded some of the guitar distorts from before and boosted both their volume and treble, before layering them right underneath the main mix (the original sound) to give it that sort of dissonant echo that's described in overwhelming scenarios.

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:48:58 UTC

I continued with my Buzzed Out frames as well, rearranging some of the frames into coherent transitions and also adding syncing flashing boxes whenever there is a drum beat, relating to my research in previous works, according to synchronisation.

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:51:00 UTC

I finished rendering my sublime train scene as well on Blender, tweaking the lightings before exporting it as a video for 160 frames, and imported that video into Adobe After Effects for further digital editing. I had spent the whole week creating the textures in order to create that glossy, finished look, as well as a bit of TouchDesigner in order to create a reflective galaxy that seems real and vast. It was more convenient than creating an entire galaxy from scratch, especially since what the viewer is seeing will only need to simply be a plane of a video, rather than the entire 3D scene.

week 11 progress

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:53:50 UTC

I continued colour correcting my Bystander video, adjusting values such as the video's Lumetri Colour in order to create that retro VHS-tape aesthetic, and ramping up its sharpness to emulate the same old-style digital camera feel.

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:55:35 UTC

For the flickering of lights, I added in keyframes every few beats that would ramp up the bloom very quickly before returning back to normal. I layered keyframes over one another all throughout, and added a displacement map to create a dizzying and ethereal aesthetic to the video in Adobe After Effects.

week 12 progress

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 12:58:29 UTC

I reproduced the same progress and settings as my Bystander videos into my Buzzed Out video, also colour correcting the first scene by making it mostly greyscale and monochrome, before flashing immediately into bright colourful pops of colour at the beat drop. I wanted to emphasize the burst of overwhelm even more than I had before, and tried to make the contrast more drastic than before. I still added in Wave Warp and Lumetri Colour in order to make it seem more like it was filmed using a vintage camera.

week 13 progress

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 13:00:00 UTC

While adding the halftone filter and grain into my video in After Effects, I also thought that fisheyes would be a great incorporation as well. So through the use of Youtube tutorials, I learnt how to replicate that scene, readjusting the optic sensations through AE's settings.

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 13:01:57 UTC

I also did some final adjustments to the audio of Buzzed Out through Reaper, compiling them all into one master mix and simply readjusting the volume levels throughout the entire audio, and increasing its reverb as well as adding some fade-ins and outs at both the beginning and the end.

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 13:02:06 UTC

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 13:02:21 UTC

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 13:03:54 UTC

Through Reaper, I also adjusted the playback of the flickering audio to match the beats of the lights, preserving pitch so it wouldn't sound inconsistent and unrealistic. I wanted the audiovisual to sync, an important feature I've learnt from all my previous research this semester.

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 13:05:58 UTC

The final looks after the implementation of all the filters and extra digital editing onto the physical prints.

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 13:08:01 UTC

Implementing the grainy effect through the use of mosaic and Gaussian blur settings in After Effects onto both Buzzed Out and Bystander.

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 13:11:03 UTC

I also continued rendering and lighting the Blender scene of my train, adjusting the global volume of the camera and ambient occlusion to create more depth in the shadows so it looks more realistic and eeringly dark.

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 13:13:36 UTC

I experimented using crayons, coloured pencils and sharpies as well on some of the old polaroids and photos I've printed before in order to see how the ink would stay on and how I can creatively come up with various kinds of doodles depending on the sharpness of each pen, and the varying size of each print since I plan to not keep all the frames consistently printed for an unending sense of surprise.

elvexizz — 2025-10-31 13:15:17 UTC

I started doodling and printing each frame with my crayons and coloured pencils depending on the colours I've researched. Afterwards, I'd scan them and transfer them to both my PC and iPad for backup. I haven't yet applied the filters, but so far, these are the beginning frames I've thought of.