Poster 3 Progress: OLIVIA

To see what this project is based on, see the first post in this series.

The Darkness descends
nocturnal beast come to feast
craving for lost souls.

Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/the-night-descends by Kay, November 2014

This poster was themed on isolation, and was a storyboard with 12 frames. At first I attempted to come up with a story that was focused on an isolated human, but due to recent events those stories hit harder than they would normally, and I felt that I would not be able to effectively work on them given time constraints.
I found that one I was able to work on was a story of an AI (OLIVIA) who runs a space station, and once an accident occurs, they are alone, forever.

As there is a level of competency in drawing that is required for it not to pull you out of an image, a competency that I did not have (Especially given time constraints), I opted to not show humans, and instead use two simple techniques that I was able to effectively use. That is a simple 3d modeling using onshape, and a tool called playscii, a tool that allows me to create “ASCII art” and has an inbuilt “CRT filter” to make it look even more like a retro-computer output.

I used these two techniques to differentiate the two types of frames I would have. Internal frames, from the POV of OLIVIA, and external frames, from the POV of some omnipotent being.

So I planned it out:


Planning the location of all the frames and what they would have in them.

Then I stopped. Recent events catching up to me and making it very hard to do work, I struggled to do anything for a few days and dreaded the deadline growing closer. So, after taking a day to do nothing and recover, I pushed on. Creating all of the frames.


Frame one: I tried to make it more like the rest by making it square (And removing the ship that I found less appealing) but it ended up that most of the other frames where rectangular. Thus making that one of the ones out of shape. This and the next two frames where setting the scene.
Frame two: The first map I created, it was meant to emulate a retro-futuristic (The subset being Cassette Futurism) feel (Sadly I can't find many sources online that back this claim other that personal correspondence, a wikipedia page, and a tv tropes page). Bright lights, simple colors, and blocky shapes. It was also meant to look like what we think a computer would "see", placing a bunch of information in a small space that isn't necessarily readable by humans.
Frame three: The first of the output logs, this, much like frame two, emulates a retro-futuristic vibe. This one cramming in as many lines of commands as possible, the error showing what red means in this computer "interface".
Frame 4: Starting on the next line everything is going wrong, it's the map from earlier, but with a lot of red stuff covering it. And as we learned earlier (and as is often signified by red), red is bad. Keen eyes may notice that 9 people just died or where elsewise removed from the population. This is what is referred to as the Twist, and the stories pace speeds up.
Frame 5: Back to the output log, there are errors, and OLIVIA getting people out of there. Also a hint at why (there's radiation hazards) people won't come back.
Frame 6: Halfway and we start to slow down the story, this is the reveal. OLIVIA just helped the surviving humans get away, so now she's all alone.
Frame 7: Reveals the map again, showing that the area has been quarantined, and that there is no-one on the station.
Frame 8: Looking out at space. This is an almost empty shot, but there are still stars here, scattered and far away.
Frame 9: To show the slowdown in pace, this is the same frame as the last, although OLIVIA is realizing quite how alone she is.
Frame 10: Back to the output log again, nothing is happening. An empty log awaits input.
Frame 11: There is meant to be a large amount of time passing while just looking at an empty screen, but then finally something happens to the signal she detected earlier, and she is truly alone.
Frame 12: In the closing shot we see how alone she is, placed in the last place (According to the rule of thirds) you'll look, you see how there is nothing left, no stars, no people, just OLIVIA, alone.

As you can see I removed the interior shot of the station and replaced it with a view of space. This was for two reasons: One: I wanted to show that the story was slowing down, as fast paced scene swapping is not conducive to the idea of loneliness, and Two: I was running short on time, and knew I didn't have the time and ability to make a good looking interior shot of a retro-futuristic space station.

I made some use of the rule of thirds the positioning of the station and ships from the outside shots in order to make the shots more dynamic and interesting. In the OLIVIA POV frames I used proximity, repetition, and semiotic signs and signifiers, as well as alignment to push this retro-future idea of a computer, and most people will recognize it as such.

  • Proximity, being that I placed the commands/responses in one block, and the title of what the frame was representing in a farther away block.
  • Repetition being in the from of the ">" which to anyone with computer background will likely recognize as a command input line (A use of semiotics). This also shows when a newline starts rather than a loop-over of the previous line.
    • Also on the map segment I used similar visual items to relate that they where the same type of thing, even without a key.
  • The font and color was also chosen to draw out that retro-future computer feel.
  • The right side alignment emulates that of a standard computer console window.

And that brings me onto my final version, one where I didn't change much, but made it more consistently rectangular in order to keep people from being drawn out of the narrative by the mismatching frame shapes and alignments. I also added numbers to each frame in order to make it more obvious of the order.

References:
1. Cassette Futurism. (n.d.). In TV Tropes. Retrieved 9 April 2020, from https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CassetteFuturism
2. Current COVID-19 Alert Level. (2020, April 6). Unite against COVID-19. https://covid19.govt.nz/alert-system/current-alert-level/
3. Kay. (2014, November). The Night Descends, Haiku. Family Friend Poems. https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/the-night-descends
4. Onshape | Product Development Platform. (n.d.). Retrieved 6 April 2020, from https://www.onshape.com/
5. Playscii—An open source ASCII art and game creation program. (n.d.). Retrieved 8 April 2020, from http://vectorpoem.com/playscii/
6. Retrofuturism. (2020). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Retrofuturism&oldid=948658585 7. Velarde, O. (2018). The Meaning of Shapes and How to Use Them Creatively in Your Designs. Visual Learning Center by Visme. https://visme.co/blog/geometric-meanings/