Over the past weeks, I was struggling to come up with reasonable and reachable ideas. The main problem I was facing was that I didn’t know where to start, in terms of generating ideas from research.
So, when in doubt start from the beginning, literally.
I started to look at images and videos on the NASA website as well as the Hubble Telescope’s Facebook page.
For ideas on how I could make a video about space, I looked at YouTube videos and found a video about failed space trips. (Video on the right) This gave me the idea to focus on a specific aspect of space.
I wrote down everything aspect of space I knew. Such as:
- Galaxies
- Black holes
- Comets
- Astronauts
- Astronauts suits
- Space ships/ Rocket
- International Space Station
- Planets
- Solar System
Then I began to research them individually. For example Galaxies have different types, such as: Spiral, Elliptical, Lenticular, Irregular ETC. (Look at slider on the right)
For planets – I looked at the history of planets, when they were discover and by whom. For example, Uranus was discovered by a British astronomer Frederick William Herschel in March 13, 1781.
Lastly, for astronauts, I researched how many female astronauts that had gone to space. There were only 59.
Being more specific, I researched how many black female astronauts went to space, the number was 4. Keeping with the theme history I had, I looked up the first black female astronaut.
On September 12, 1992, the first black female astronaut, Mae Carol Jemison, went to space. I want my idea to evolve around Mae Carol Jemison.
MY IDEA
In week one, I produced images that resembled things in space. (ART RULES CARDS) To carry through with that idea I intend use photoshop to create a digital artwork that resembles scenery from space. On top of that, I intend to create a vector character that is to represent Mae Carol Jemison in space.
“I’d love to go into space again if there were a mission to Mars. I’d also love to go to a completely different planetary system out of our solar system.”
(NASA: Challenging the space frontier, 2001)
The quote above gave me an idea on a storyline for my character. One of the images from the week one task resembled Mars. The words the stood out for me are in bold. I think my story will evolve around these keywords.
TO DO LIST
- Plan out story of Mae C Jemison (What is she doing in space? Is she going to Mars? Will she encounter any problems out there?
- Make backgrounds in Photoshop (HOW? YouTube videos? Tutorials? Drawings first then colour in Photoshop?)
- Make character in Illustrator (HOW? Research how to illustrate astronaut suits)
- Animate character in After Effects
- Compile video clips together in Premiere