Story 2: Animation Treatment

They Both Bow (alternative idea)

1. The alternative idea is to make an animation which includes playing shadow puppets and playing the computer game characters. By making them challenge each other, I focus on representing the similar and fun experience of playing roles in the above two media.


2. In order to invite more young people to enjoy Taiwanese Shadowgraph, the end goal of my animation is to deliver the concept that playing shadowgraph in reality life can be as challenging and fun as playing computer games in the virtual world.

Design Form: Motion graphic & Paper-cut puppets

1. I will animate the paper-cut puppets in After Effect.


2. My characters will be made by paper-cut. Two of them will look like gray shapes of human body; two of them will look like shadowgraph tiger and shadowgraph puppet; two of them will look like computer game character and the game-play element (such as the monster and cannibalistic flower in Mario); one of them will look like a sketch of a human hand.

Time Period: 5 minutes

Characters

1. Protagonist and Antagonist: The left shape & the right shape
   The left shape represents the minds of people who play roles by shadowgraph puppet. The left shape plays roles with the media (shadowgraph) it is used to.
   The right shape represents the minds of people who play roles in computer game. The right shape plays roles with the media (computer game) it is used to.


2. Supporting Character: The hand
   The hand represents people who have the power to choose in which media they want to play their roles.

Location

1. A big white wall


2. Shadow playing situation


3. Game environment

Plot Summary
There is one gray shape of human body on the white wall. His shadow reflects next to him and they all look the same.

They both bow.

At first, the left shape starts becoming a tiger shadow puppet and attacks the right shape. The right shape picks up the sticks and needs to learn fast how to control the tiger puppet by the sticks. The background of the white wall becomes a shadow playing situation. At the end, the right shape succeeds and makes the tiger puppet calm down.

Then, the right shape becomes the game character and translates into different obstacles, such as the cannibalistic flower in Super Mario.

The background transfers from shadow playing situation into a game environment as well.

Consequently, the left tiger puppet needs to learn how to pass all the obstacles in the game situation. At the end, the left tiger puppet passes the challenge successfully.


The two shapes take turns to challenge each other faster and faster. The background changes faster and faster as well. The two shape start having the idea of controlling and keeping each other in its own media environment.



They start challenging each other by not following the rule of playing turns.

At the end, one human hand comes in. The hand crashes the two shapes into a gray shape and fades away on the white wall.

Story 1: Animation Treatment

Your Shadow Plays My Affinity

1. As a witness of the disappearance of the Taiwanese Shadowgraph, I would like to combine the art with computer animation and re-position its role in the Taiwanese modern life.
2. Because of the cultural difference caused by geographical distributions, people living in northern areas of Taiwan lost the opportunity to enjoy art. As a young person from northern Taiwan, I was taught not to play the shadowgraph or touch the topic which relates to it. Thus, I chose the Taiwanese shadowgraph as my thesis topic and the Taiwanese young generation as my target audience in order to regain our lost cultural affinity.
3. In order to invite more young people to enjoy art, the end goal of my animation is to deliver the concept that playing shadowgraph in reality life can be as challenging and fun as playing computer games in the virtual world.

Design Form : Stop motion & Paper-cut puppets
I chose stop motion as my design form which better applies to young generation’s media habit. I will animate paper-cut puppets in an interior mock-up house, shoot them frame by frame. With After Effect, I will edit the shooting footage and add effects.

Three characters will be made by paper-cut puppets (the father, the son, and the shadow puppet) and one character (the ghost) will be made by clay or stuffing doll. The paper-cut puppet will have the same structure to move as real shadowgraph puppets do.

Time Period: 5 minutes

Characters

1. Protagonist: The son
   The son is a game character designer. He plays all kinds of game, especially being good at “Super Mario” and “The King of Fighters.” He enjoys playing roles in virtual world and thinks that his father’s business, the Shadowgraph master, is out-of-date. He is twenty-five year-old and five-feet-five-inches tall. He has middle black hair to his ears, unhealthy pale skin color, and a big belly. He wears big frame glasses and dresses like a nerd.
2. Antagonist: The ghost
   The ghost is a mischievous spirit that comes from the hell. It enjoys its vacation in the Chinese ghost month. It likes to sneak into people’s houses and have fun by getting people in trouble.
3. Supporting Character one: The father
   The father is a shadow puppet master. He appreciates shadow puppets not only because the puppets earn his living but also play one part of his life. He is fifty-five year-old and five-feet -inches tall. He has cropped gray hair and a slim body. He has healthy skin color and dresses his old white singlet with shorts all the time.
4. Supporting Character two: The shadow puppet
   The puppet is one fourth tall as the father. It is an old puppet with fading colors. It likes and appreciates the old father as latter appreciates the puppet.

Location
House setting: An old mock-up room will be made by fiber board (MDF) and interior setting materials. It will include one big table, wood furniture and file cabinets, a big box (to preserve shadow puppets) and a small indoor stage behind a big white curtain, a computer with the computer desk, one window and one door, and two beds.

Plot Summary:
The old father enjoys playing the leather shadowgraph puppet. His son shows him his game character design. The son impolitely replaces the puppet’s shadow on the wall by his sketch and laughs at his father’s out-of-date business. After the son glorifies the advantage of computer game, they go to bed.

At midnight, the mischievous ghost comes into their house. The father wakes up. The ghost is shocked and is going to hurt the father’s life. The ghost grabs the father’s neck and lifts the father into air. The father passes out. The son wakes up and picks up the long sticks in order to save his father. The ghost loosens the father’s neck but stretches out its hands to catch the son.

Suddenly the shadowgraph puppet wakes up and tries to divert the ghost attention by running on the other side of the room. The ghost starts chasing the puppet rather than the son. At the same time, the son drags and hides his father behind the white curtain of the indoor stage. The son makes a bird hand shadow to guide the puppet to pass all obstacles in the room as if he plays in the computer game. The puppet successfully avoids the ghost’s chase and runs around the room to make the ghost tie up its knotty long hands. At the same time, the son pretends to be the other fake ghost and manipulates his father’s body with sticks behind the curtain. He successfully plays a shadowgraph show of “Jhong Kuei catching the ghost” by himself and his father. Finally the ghost gets frightened and starts melting away.

Story 1: Precedents

Story 1: Storybaord

Your Shadow Plays My Affinity

(On the walls is the shadow of the old father who is making the leather puppet in the dim light. Lights up! His son came back home.

Son: On my way home, I was smoked by the fire of celebrating ghost month. Father: As smoke by fire, we pay homage to the spirits.


Son: The puppets you made are out-of-date. Most of them are not seen on the stage nowadays. It’s not like a computer game. With a computer, you can play any character in a virtual world and make them level up to a hero.(The son sits in front of the computer.)

Father: Instead of virtual world, I play puppets with sticks in reality. Rather than decoding (translating) my emotion by the computer, I play the puppet directly by my hands, voice, and my mind.(Father smiles satisfyingly.)

Father: Which game character, you make now? Son: Hmm. He is like a new born Paladin belonging to multi class. Father: What is multi class? Son: He fights like a Warrior, has the power of a Mage (Wizard), and cures himself like a Priest. Father: Sounds like a digital “Sun Wukong.” Son: Haha. kind of…his mission is to drive out the evil spirits.


Father: But we learn to get along with spirits every ghost month. Son: Yes…that’s why spirits still bother you to make puppets entertain them…I have to go to bed…good night dad.



(After the son and the father went to bed, a ghost went into their house and the son started sleep-walking.)

Son: I am the Paladin warrior. Tonight I will wipe you out, the evil spirit.

(The ghost was shocked and stretched out his long hand to grab the son’s neck. Suddenly, the leather puppet woke up and tried to control the son’s body by the game remote controller but the controller did not work.)


(Then the puppet picked up the traditional sticks to control the son’s body by manipulating the sticks and imitating the son’s speaking of Jhong Kuei.)(The puppet also manipulated his body to pretend a fake ghost and imitated the fake ghost's voice and played the fighting process of “Jhong Kue catches the ghost” behind the shield. )

Puppet as Jhong Kuei: How dare you, the mischievous ghost. Do you know who I am? I am Jhong Kuei, the master of catching ghosts. Let me bring you back to the hell!Puppet as Jhong Kuei: I will ask the guards of the hell not to give you any vacation in next ten-years of ghost month.Puppet as the fake ghost: Don’t do that, master. I will not hurt people anymore.Puppet as Jhong Kuei: But, I felt there was another ghost in the room...

(The mischievous ghost was frightened and ran away from the house.)

(The son went to bed again and the puppet slept as well.)

Story 1: Character Sketch

Your Shadow Plays My Affinity

son


puppet


ghost



father

Story 1: Scripts Version 2

Your Shadow Plays My Affinity

(On the walls is the shadow of the old father who is making the leather puppet in the dim light. Lights up! His son came back home.)

Son: On my way home, I was smoked by the fire of celebrating ghost month.

(Note: The seventh month in the lunar calendar is called the "Ghost Month ," in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm.)

Father: As smoke by fire, we pay homage to the spirits.
Son: The puppet you made are out-of-date. Most of them are not seen on the stage nowadays. It’s not like a computer game. With a computer, you can play any character in a virtual world and make them level up to a hero.

(The son sit in front of the computer.)

Father: Instead of virtual world, I play puppets with sticks in reality. Rather than decoding/translating my emotion by the computer, I play the puppet directly by my hands, voice, and my mind.

(Father smiles satisfyingly.)

Father: Which game character, you make now?
Son: Hmm. He is like a new born Paladin belonging to multi class.
(Note: Paladin is the character in the online game, “World of Warcraft.”)

Father: What is multi class?
Son: He fights like a Warrior, has the power of a Mage (Wizard), and cures himself like a Priest.
Father: Sounds like a digital “Sun Wukong.”

(Note: Sun Wukong known as the Monkey King, is the main character in the classical Chinese epic novel Journey to the West. In the novel, he accompanies the monk Xuanzang on the journey to retrieve Buddhist sutras from India and protect him from the monsters. He knows 72 transformations, which allows him to transform into various animals and objects.)

Son: Haha kind of…his mission is to drive out the evil spirits.
Father: But we learn to get along with spirits every ghost month.
Son: Yes…that’s why spirits still bother you to make puppets entertain them…I have to go to bed…good night dad.

(After the son and the father went to bed, a ghost went into their house and the son started sleep-walking.)

Son: I am the Paladin warrior. Tonight I will wipe you out, the mischievous spirit.

(The ghost was shocked and stretched out his long hand to grab the son’s neck. Suddenly, the leather puppet woke up and tried to control the son’s body by the game remote controller but the controller did not work. Then the puppet picked up the traditional sticks to control the son’s body by manipulating the sticks and imitating the son’s speaking of Jhong Kuei. )

Puppet as Jhong Kuei: How dare you, the mischievous ghost. Do you know who I am? I am Jhong Kuei, the master of catching ghosts. Let me bring you back to the hell!

(Note: Jhong Kuei is the master of catching the ghosts in the Chinese legends.)

(The puppet grabbed the other shadow puppet to pretend the fake ghost. The puppet imitated the fake ghost's voice and played the fighting process of "Jhong Kuei catches the ghost" behind the shield. )

Puppet as Jhong Kuei: I will ask the guards of the hell not to give you any vacation in next ten-years of ghost month.

Puppet as the fake ghost: Don’t do that, master. I will not hurt people anymore.

Puppet as Jhong Kuei: But, I felt there was another ghost in the room...

(The mischievous ghost was frightened and ran away from the house. The son went to bed again, and the puppet slept as well.)

Story 1: Character Design Idea

Your Shadow Plays My Affinity

I will try different materials to make my characters.
One is to combine the clay body with shadow puppet head.
The other is to make a whole paper shadow puppet.
I will base on the shadowgraph old man style to design my old father character.







Based on my research, the "World of Warcraft" is the online game Taiwanese yound generation play most. I will combine the character style of the online game with traditional shadowgraph puppet to design the son's look.

Story 1: Scripts Version 1

Your Shadow Plays My Affinity:

(On the walls is the shadow of the old father who is making the leather puppet in the dim light. Lights up! His son came back home.)

Son: On my way home, I was smoked by the fire of celebrating ghost month.

Father: As smoke by fire, we pay homage to the spirits.

Son: How many puppets have you made? The puppet shows are out-of-date. Most of them are not seen on the stage nowadays. If it were a computer game, you can play any character in a virtual world and make them level up to a hero with your own kingdom.

(The son sit in front of the computer.)

Father: I play the soul of the puppets in reality. They play the minds of people sitting in front of the stage. As you connect with people through your game, I connect with my friends through the stage.

(Father smiles satisfyingly.)

Father: Which game character, you’re making now?

Son: Hmm. He is like a new born Paladin belonging to multi class.
(Paladin is the character in the online game, “World of Warcraft.”)


Father: What is multi class?

Son: He can fight like a Warrior, have the power of a Mage (Wizard), and cure himself like a Priest.

Father: Sounds like a digital “Sun Wukong”, he can transform anything he wants.
(Sun Wukong known as the Monkey King, is the main character in the classical Chinese epic novel Journey to the West. In the novel, he accompanies the monk Xuanzang on the journey to retrieve Buddhist sutras from India and protect him from the monsters. He knows 72 transformations, which allows him to transform into various animals and objects.)

Son: Haha kind of…his mission is to drive out the evil spirits.

Father: But we try to get along with spirits every ghost month.

Son: Yes…that’s why spirits still bother you to make puppets entertain them during the month…I have to go to bed…good night dad.

(After the son and father went to bed, a ghost went into their house and the son started sleep-walking.)

Son: Listen, I am the Paladin warrior, tonight I will wipe you out, the mischievous spirit.

(The ghost was shocked and stretched out his long hand to grab the son’s neck. Suddenly, the leather puppet woke up and tried to control the son’s behavior by the game remote controller but the controller did not work. Then the puppet picked up the traditional sticks to control the son’s body by manipulating the sticks and imitating his speaking of Jhong Kuei. )

Puppet as Jhong Kuei: How dare you, the mischievous ghost. Do you know who I am? I am Jhong Kuei, the master of catching ghosts. Let me bring you back to the hell!

(The puppet grapped the other shadow puppet to pretend the other ghost and imitated the other ghost's voice to play the process of "Jhong Kuei catches the ghost" with the fighting sound behind the curtain. )

Puppet as Jhong Kuei: I will ask the guards of the hell not to give you any vacation in next ten-years of ghost month.

Puppet as the other ghost:Don’t do that, master. I will not hurt people anymore.

Puppet as Jhong Kuei: Hmm. But, I felt there was another ghost in the room...

(The mischievous ghost was frightened and ran away from the house. The son went to bed again, and the puppet walked back and sleep as well.)

Summer Prototype 2

Story 1: Your Shadow Plays My Affinity

The father is busy making the leather shadowgraph puppet in the evening but his son is unwilling to help him and laughs at his out-of-date business. At midnight, the petty ghost comes into their house and is going to damage their life. The shadowgraph puppet suddenly wakes up and tries to fight against the ghost. At the same time, the son starts sleepwalking and imitates the characters in the computer game. But the son makes the situation worst. Finally, the puppet successfully frightens the ghost by controlling the son’s body with the traditional sticks rather than the game remote controller, and by playing a traditional shadowgraph show of “Jhong Kuei catches the ghost.”

Summer Prototype 1

Digital Puppet


Nowadays, Taiwanese Young generation is major network and movie users (Taiwan NICI government report 2007, EICP 2008).I started thinking that I can combine the traditional art and the computer technology as a new media resolution which can let young generation have the opportunity to experience it.


My first prototype is a digital puppet made by Processing. The puppet has similar structure with the real shadow puppet. I would like to create the interactive interface for young generation to experience the art with their intimate media.


The Processing puppet is composed of ten separate segments, including the head, and each segment of the puppet’s hand and leg which can be rotated all the way around by key-pressing. The puppet’s position can be changed by user’s mouse-dragging.

Assumption
1. Chang, Hsing-Kuo: key-pressing by users’ fingers can
help them experience the way the masters learned how
to control the puppet.

2. After testing target audience, they suggest that I can
add different functions to change the characters, bg,
and make puppet move fast than it does.


Source code: sketch_080913b

Built with Processing

Summer Research

Picture from "The Stories of Shadowgraph"

Summer Research Powerpoint

Taiwanese Shadow Playing Show


Chinese Shadow Playing Show




Introduction
As a witness of the disappearance of the Taiwanese Shadowgraph, I would like to re-interpret the art by computer animation and trigger a narrative by re-positioning its role in the Taiwanese modern life with the idea of “Your Shadow Plays My Affinity.”

By following the history flow of the Taiwanese shadowgraph, the map itself vividly portrays that the shadowgraph not only entertains certain Taiwanese, but also plays the affinity inside of them. Along with the changes in the media environment, nowadays the Taiwanese young generation has their own affinity with the new media, such as network and movies. But the shadowgraph still plays its own narrative with different images in the young generation’s mind.

Because of the cultural difference caused by geographical distributions, old people living in northern areas of Taiwan lost the opportunity to enjoy the art. They even created a scary image of the leather puppets and believed that leather puppets will call back the spirits of the dead. As a young person from northern Taiwan, I was taught not to play the shadowgraph or touch the topic which relates to it. I felt it was a pity I lost the opportunity to enjoy the traditional art. Thus, I chose the Taiwanese shadowgraph as my thesis topic and the Taiwanese young generation as my target audience in order to regain our lost cultural affinity.

After researching secondary data, I found out that the art started declining in the mid fifties because the Taiwanese changed their media habits from traditional drama to television and movies. Today only five shadowgraph troupes exist in southern Taiwan and they all devote to shadowgraph education in cooperation with the Taiwanese government. The second reason for the decline is because people living in different regions of Taiwan have their own local culture and in the past they did not have the opportunity to know and enjoy it.

I started thinking that I can combine the traditional art and the computer technology as a new media resolution which could lead the young generation to experience it. My first prototype is a digital puppet made by Processing. The puppet has similar structure with the real shadow puppet. I set up the puppet’s movement to be controlled by the user’s Mouse-dragging or user’s key-pressing. I would like to create the interactive interface for young generation to experience the art with their intimate media.

After in-depth interviewing with two shadow playing masters, I got the idea for my second prototype, I would like to create a narrative and focus on presenting the culture difference between the young and old generations. In order to invite more young people to enjoy art, the goal of the animation is to let them know that playing shadowgraph in reality life can be as challenging and fun as playing computer games in the virtual world.

Conclusion
After testing my target audience and having the conversation with the shadow playing masters, I decide to go for the second prototype triggering a narrative. From my summer research and my interviewer’s suggestions, I felt to create a narrative by combining the traditional shadowgraph art with the computer technology, such as effects, sound, editing, which can deliver the essence of shadowgraph show better than only by interactive interface. People can sit in front of the new media and enjoy the traditional art which plays not only the masters’ affinity but also our technology’s affinity.