VITULA QUARTET is part of my semester project for second-year studio at University of Michigan Stamps School of Art. After each part, we were given an obstruction to challenge us based off of our last project. Each obstruction will be presented with its iteration.
January 2017 - April 2017
Part 1: The Vitula Quartet
Vitula is a troupe of characters in a world where conflict is resolved via music battle. On a mission to prove that creating a diverse cast of character can be done without cherry-picking identities, I created characters based off of the form, function, and history of instruments to draw honest conclusions with minority representation.
Addendum (March 20, 2018) These six panels were featured in the 2017 Stamps Undergraduate Juried Art Exhibition, and were awarded $1000 for the Irene Bychinsky Bendler Award in Design.
Part 2: Storyboard
My obstruction following project 1 in second-year studio challenged me to create a storyboard featuring the Vitula Quartet. In these panels I explore the reasoning behind Vitula's battles, the nature of the spiritual instruments, the relationship of power between characters and its representation in boards, gameplay mechanics, and the way to win. Other things I had to consider included how to simplify the costumes to create the storyboard.
Part 3: The Set Box
My third obstruction was to imagine Vitula as a musical. While I was not initially excited about this prompt, the set box allowed me to explore architectural design in an enclosed space. How would a theater look like in the Vitula world? How would the characters interact with it? How would their placement in the scene demonstrate the size of the world, the concert halls, the nature of the enemy? Did people of certain spiritual instruments cluster and settle in areas that were acoustically advantageous to them? Did that indicate class or power?
Part 4: Translation
In my final project with the Vitula Quartet, I ambitiously worked to learn Autodesk Maya in one month, completing the Lynda Essentials Training to be able to render and animate my own character model of Bastian. I chose to model Bastian as my golden standard, due to his balance of modern attire and early European style armor. In this project, I learned 3D polygonal modeling, UV texturing, how to manipulate materials, basic lighting and rendering, and basic 3D rigging and animation. I submitted documentation of this process as part of my application for an internship at Gwydion Inc.
Part X: Bonus Album
During this project, I was also enrolled in the Video Game Music class. For my final project I composed three pieces on GarageBand that were a part of the Vitula world. You can see my initial concept motifs, the battle theme loop (Col Legno), Overworld loop (Overtone), and menu theme (Rest) on soundcloud here:
