Swimming

This month’s playdate is Swimming! Yey! Summer has been here for two months now, but we almost missed it because we’ve been having so much fun working on the projects that we were assigned with this month. Luckily for us, we were able to find a way to mix business with pleasure by throwing in some swimming time on our monthly Playdate. If you’re wondering what swimming has got to do with the creative workshops we officially dubbed as our BNP Playdates, you’re not alone because we’re wondering about that too. But hey, who ever said artists are all about art? Besides, what could be a better source of inspiration for our next projects than the feeling of floating on water while letting your thoughts run free… if you can float, that is. Unfortunately, we eventually discovered that most of us have an unsettled love-hate relationship with water, so we had to do some prepping up before we stepped into the pool (it was impromptu, okay? ;p). First; the swimwear You may think that this was easy, but since we showed up for work unprepared (we had work in the morning and the impromptu swimming lesson in the afternoon), we had to scramble home to get some decent clothes (pictures of which shall be omitted to preserve our dignity). Second; the swimming demonstration Most of us have a love-hate relationship with water, but apparently, one has been in a long-term relationship with it. Since few were willing to volunteer for the task, he had no choice but to fill the role of the designated instructor. Third: putting what we learned into practice Watching from the sidelines, the swimming styles demonstrated by our designated instructor didn’t look particularly challenging, but putting what we learned into practice proved to be a different story. We did try our best to imitate what we were taught, but after several near-death moments (kidding!), we gave up and stuck with our own primitive ways of surviving in the water. The conclusion Reading how we didn’t get to actually learn anything, you’d think that we would’ve been frustrated, but considering how much power pools and other bodies of water typically hold over people both swimmers and non-swimmers alike, we ended up spending way too much time on the water that we had to be fished out of the pool by our more restrained teammates. Of course, that’s not the end of it, so, for now, we’ll just practice our swimming skills while we plan our next impromptu trip. Until...

read more

Digital Art

This month’s Playdate is Digital Art Most of us are already familiar with image editing programs. In fact, their use has become so widespread that the name of a particular program has become synonymous to altered photos. Some people’s awareness of the power of image editing programs are usually limited to cropping unwanted objects or the removal of pimples and other blemishes, though, so for our BNP playdate this month, we’re going to share how we used image editing programs to create whimsical art using a combination of photographs and drawings. Materials Used: Digital camera Strobe Lights Black backdrop Reflector Graphics tablet Headdresses for the mermaid and merman Sketchpad Pencil Computer Programs Used: Adobe Photoshop (for the background and photo manipulation) Adobe Illustrator (for the supplementary drawings) Estimated Duration: Depends on familiarity with photo shoots and image editing programs, but for this activity, it took us about a day for the photo shoot and the required preparation before that and another day for the actual photo manipulation process. Estimated Difficulty: Moderate. The activity required a fair amount of editing, so you would need to be familiar with the different tools commonly used in image editing programs. Number of People on the Team: Ten people assigned with the following roles: Illustrator Make up artists Hair Stylists Costume Designer Digital Artist Photographer Production Assistant First Phase: The Photo Shoot A good number of people who manipulate photos usually use stock images in order to save time and effort on producing the photographs, but since we wanted to get a feel of the whole process from the very beginning, we decided to work with a photograph that we’ll be taking ourselves. The concept: an underwater scene featuring a mermaid and her son. To give the activity a jumpstart, we had one of our illustrators do some sketches of the poses that would be done, and after we’ve picked the ones we liked, we started to prepare the things we’re going to need. The staff was recently joined by four more people, so dividing the work amongst ourselves had come easy with some acting as stylists and costume designers while the others work on setting up the backdrop, strobe light (for additional lighting), reflector (to spread the light evenly), and tripod (for steady shots). With everything finally set up, we proceeded to do the actual photo shoot by taking pictures with different poses. We then picked the photo that we liked the most and saved it for the next phase of the activity. Second Phase: Photo Manipulation Day 1 saw us preparing the photographs that will be used for the photo manipulation, but now that we’re done with that, we proceeded to the next phase – the photo manipulation. We mentioned before that we decided to work on an underwater theme, but at the last minute, we decided to make the subjects only partially submerged underwater so we can play with the background and subjects more. We did this by cropping out the lower body of the subjects and replacing them with tails drawn by one of our illustrators and attaching them to the upper body of the subjects later. Our digital artists then started to do some retouching, starting with the removal of blemishes up to the balancing of hue and saturation. We started drawing the background with the use of an image editing program and a graphics tablet. You might want to note that this wasn’t particularly difficult because our artist is accustomed to using these programs and devices, but if you’re not that comfortable with image editing programs and graphic...

read more

Using Color Schemes

Have you ever looked at a colorful painting and wished that you can extract all those vibrant hues and use them on your own project? If only things were that easy, huh? Well, actually they are. That’s what we learned during our Playdate this month when we experimented with Kuler and color schemes. Kuler is an application that helps you generate and create color schemes for just about any project like business cards and invitations, web pages, and even the motif of your brand new house or wedding reception. We’re afraid brand new houses and wedding receptions are still a bit far-fetched for us, so we had to settle for something more low-key like the miniature dream houses that we previously drew. Playing with color schemes was fun but not particularly challenging, though, so we thought of raising things up a notch by seeing who can make the most colorful and most beautiful house within three minutes. Since not all of us were familiar with the application, some of us tried it for a bit before starting the game. The cool thing about it is even if you know next to nothing about color schemes, you can still generate magnificent colors simply by uploading a picture you like or browsing through the thousands of photos on Flickr and picking the one whose colors you like best. It will then show you the dominant colors that were present in the picture then you can experiment with them by adjusting the general mood that the colors evoke such as bright, colorful, muted, deep, and dark. With everything all set, we started taking turns coloring the houses that got randomly assigned to us, laughing all throughout the game, because although we picked photos whose colors we thought were really good, using them at random proved to be not a very good idea because we ended up with psychedelic houses, ominous clouds, blue lawns, and other things that would probably look a little too out of place in the real world. Still, we guess that’s the fun part – getting the opportunity to stray from the usual path and having fun with it. And had fun, we did. You’ll probably have too.. Good luck! Related Links Kuler http://kuler.adobe.com/...

read more

BNP Sportsfest: Palaro ng Lahi

Do you remember the time when we used to go out and play in the sun all day? When we scour our villages in search of new hideouts to brag? Back when we pride ourselves with how fast we can run? Sure would be nice to relive those times, don’t you think? We thought so too, and that’s why we organized the very first BNP Sportsfest, with the games centering on traditional Filipino games that we all loved and played in our childhood. Taguan First on our list was one of our old-time favorites – the “Taguan” (hide-and-seek). This was an ideal game because our studio is located in Le Jardin de Fleur, a compound surrounded by towering trees and other plants, so there were plenty of places to hide. The only problem was running around with our fragile bones that have not experienced proper exercise in weeks, although the thrill of hiding and slipping past detection seemed to have overpowered that as we spotted fellow staff members crawling on all fours as they slowly inch towards the “safe” base. Tumbang Preso Still on a roll from the Taguan, we proceeded to the second game on our list – the Tumbang Preso. We apparently played slightly different versions of it when we were kids, so we decided on the official rules first before choosing the “it.” The first few rounds were a bit easy because some of the staff were still trying to get the hang of the game, but after things warmed up a bit, the game started to become more challenging as the succeeding “prisoners” aggressively pursued those who tried to retrieve their slippers. Holen With all the running around starting to take its toll on us, we decided to give ourselves a chance to catch our breaths by playing a less strenuous game for the third game. This time, we chose to play with “jolen” (marbles). However, while it did give us an opportunity to recharge our batteries while preparing for the other more physically demanding games, we soon learned that it’s no less competitive than the previous games as the staff focused hard on taking the most number of marbles home. The game even came to a standstill after the last marble remained rooted to its spot despite the staff’s successive attempts to knock it out of the ring. A winner was eventually declared, though, and everyone posed for a commemorative photo showing their spoils. Patintero Feeling recharged thanks to the previous game, we moved on to team sports, picking Patintero first. Like the previous games, members of the staff proved they were serious about the whole thing by strongly defending their posts, creating several deadlocks throughout the game. However, what the players were not able to achieve through sheer speed and agility, they made up for by using feints and distraction techniques, and after a prolonged battle of wits, Team A emerged as the winner. Batuhang bola Eager to make up for losing the previous game, Team B wasted no time in attacking the opposite team, effectively eliminating three fourths of Team A in the first few throws. The agile Team A captain proved to be a difficult opponent to bring down, though, as she continued to evade one attack after another, ultimately managing to “revive” all her fellow teammates. The game continued for another round, but even with Team B successfully preventing Team A from scoring another point, the game eventually ended in Team A’s favor. Football A combination of football and baseball, this locally adapted game is played with the same rules...

read more

How to Make a Collage

Another year has come and passed, and to celebrate the year that was, we decided to do a collage of the things that inspired us, intrigued us, or brought a smile unto our faces in the year 2011. A collage is a compilation of random things, usually pictures, scraps of papers, ribbons, yarns, buttons, or other materials with flat or semi-flat surfaces, combined together to create a whole new piece of work. It’s very simple to do and can be quite a lot of fun too. To begin the activity, we’re going to need the following materials: Old magazines, newspapers, brochures, stationery or pictures for clipping cork board buttons stickers glue scissors paintbrush cup any other random materials that you may want to use Once we have our materials ready, we’re going to get things started by deciding on a theme. This part is actually optional, as you can just go for whatever you feel like combining together. But if you want something meaningful and memorable, you may want to pick a theme that helps you express yourself. It might be about your journey in life, the people you met, the lessons you learned, the achievements you made, your favorite things, or just about anything that’s close to your heart. Then we can start cutting the clippings that we’re going to use for the collage. They don’t have to be of a specific shape. Aside from using different cuts for the clippings, you can also rip them apart, tear them into shreds, or burn their edges to give them a more interesting look. Next, we’ll need the cork board. As the base, we can either leave it as it is, or we can also cover it with a thin layer of colored paper to serve as a background for the collage – which is what we did in this activity. When our cork board is ready to use, we’ll start pasting the clippings we’ve previously gathered together. For our inspiration board, we decided to group the colors with similar hues together to create a smooth transition. Of course, you can go wild and wacky and put clippings with random colors wherever you please. If you want to add a 3D look, also throw in some folded pieces of paper as well as some small and thin materials like yarn, buttons, ribbons, laces, leaves, or flowers. Additionally, you can add some strips of paper with text written on them such as an important day in your life, a quote from your favorite movie or book, or you and your loved ones’ names. You can also paint the collage with glue to give it a glossy look. Here’s our new inspiration board: Number of hours to complete: 4 hours Number of people in our team: 7 So that’s about it! We hope you had as much fun doing it as we did. Until next time!...

read more
Page 2 of 212