Punishment Game
This month’s playdate is Punishment Game. If you ever had to look after a younger brother or sister, you’ll know better than to leave them on their own, especially when they’re bored out of their wits. Of course, there aren’t any kids around the office, so we thought we could take it easy, but apparently leaving eight bored adults with nothing to do isn’t such a good idea either. It’s a good thing we’re not too keen on the idea of spending a day in jail or in a courtroom because instead of causing some damage around the office, we ended up playing a punishment game instead after some technical problems gave us some unexpected downtime. Before we proceeded with the game, though, we decided on the punishments first. We already had some ideas before then, so we just wrote them on several pieces of paper, folded them, and placed them in these egg-shaped toys lying around the office. After that, we asked everyone to pick an egg and show everyone what they got. The first punishment was proposing marriage to the first guy the one being punished would meet outside the office. By chance, the lot landed to a female illustrator who had to propose to the gardener on the spot. Luckily, her proposal was received favorably, so they lived happily ever after. The second punishment was walking around pretending to be a cat. This was drawn by one of our writers who is, incidentally, a cat lover, so the task didn’t turn out to be particularly difficult, although we highly doubt she’ll be looking forward to meowing her way around the compound on a regular basis. The third punishment, on the other hand, was following commands from a military officer. The lot was drawn by one of our writers who was sent marching around the compound under the strict guidance of our commandant… errr… newly-engaged illustrator who was all business during the task. Thankfully, the punishment was limited to marching and hand salutes so we found no need to call the paramedics in. For the fourth punishment, someone was designated to act out a lovers’ quarrel… with a tree — a task that fell unto one of our male illustrator’s hands. Lucky for him, there weren’t too many people passing around that time of day so he was able to express his regret and undying devotion to the tree in question without any reservations. The fifth punishment was logging everyone’s time card off for one week. It wasn’t exactly a punishment, but it’s something we wouldn’t mind passing to someone more willing to do it, so we had no problems adding it to our list. It was considered the easiest out of all the punishments so everyone was hoping they’ll get it for themselves, but lady luck favored our lone computer programmer — probably because he was the one brave enough to draw the first lot. For the sixth punishment, a person was chosen to have random doodles drawn all over their face. Unfortunately for our male illustrator who was chosen for the part, most of the staff does not come close to his drawing talents, so it didn’t take long before his face became an outlet for our drawing frustrations. If the sixth punishment was slightly fueled by envy, the seventh punishment was largely motivated by need. For this, one of the staff was sent out to ask for some change from the first person she’d meet. This one took some time because we’re obviously not the only ones who have a strong attachment to our hard-earned...
read moreOrigami
This month’s Playdate is Origami. You know those moments when you get so bored that even the all-knowing internet fails to amuse you anymore? Then maybe it’s time you get off your desk, unplug your computer, and go back to basics – and by that we mean go back to traditional sources of entertainment – like origami, for example. What is Origami? If you’re not familiar with origami, origami is the popular Japanese art of paper folding. It is still disputed whether the art of paper folding is actually Japanese in origin since there have been earlier references to paper folding in China, known to Chinese speakers as “Zhe Zhi,” not to mention that modern paper itself was invented in China and was just later introduced by Buddhists monks during their travels in Japan, but it is a widely recognized that the art of paper folding started to gain international attention after a book on how to fold origami models was compiled by Akira Yoshizawa in 1954. How do you do origami? The appeal of origami mainly lies on its simplicity and the large number of designs that you can make with just a piece of paper. Yup, that’s right – just a piece of paper — and an optional pair of scissors if you want. What kind of design you’re going to used would depend on your experience and the amount of time and effort you’re willing to put in, but since we have a t-shirt business on the site, we thought it would be fun if we’ll try some clothing-related designs. Origami Designs We found a great site that offers plenty of tutorials on clothing-related designs, but since we’re no experts at this, we started with the simpler ones first like this t-shirt design first. The t-shirt design was fun to make, but an outfit would not be complete if there won’t be no skirt to match the top, and so we made this skirt: We already have a top and a skirt, so we decided to move on to a one-piece outfit, and since we’re doing origami, we thought we shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to make something Japanese such as a yukata. We’ve already done three kinds of clothes at this point, two more than what we originally planned to, but we had more fun than we expected that the team requested to make one last design before we wrap things up. This time, we chose a rabbit design with clothes. Pretty cute, huh? We wanted to try a couple more designs after this one but we ran out of time, so we had to save them for next time. Anyways, if you have more time than us, why don’t you check out their list of other designs and try them for yourself? Happy folding! (^_^) Source: Origami. (2012, September 05). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 05:43, September 05 2012, from...
read moreVegetable Planting
Planting Inspirations usually sprout from nowhere, but for the BNP staff, we seem to be more inclined to find inspiration while in the middle of filling our stomachs with food. First, there was that paint-a-mural challenge that we came up after noticing how bare our wall was while we were eating lunch, second was a sudden cosplay skit that we decided to put together while watching an animated series during lunch, and more recently, the planting activity that we decided to do after looking catching a glimpse of our backyard while — you guess it — while having lunch. Yep. From being painters to cosplayers to gardeners – that’s how we break monotony the BNP way. Anyway, one of our artists has a little background on gardening so she volunteered to provide the seedlings and teach the basics to us, and since it was our stomachs that inspired us to do this activity, we decided to plant some vegetables for “future use.” Armed with mustard, okra, chili pepper, horse radish, and eggplant seeds, we headed to the backyard carrying gardening tools and a pair of seedling trays. After finding a good spot, we started digging for soil that we will be transferring to the seedling tray which we then proceeded to fill halfway through its brim. After the seedling trays were ready, we started to sprinkle chilli pepper and mustard seeds all over it, keeping a gap of at least three inches between each seed. We then set the seedling trays aside and started working on the seed beds. For the seedbeds, we prepared two rectangular plots of soil which we dug and cultivated with trowels and garden forks. After they were ready, we then sprinkled mustard and horse radish seeds over it, also maintaining a three-inch gap in between seeds. Still left with okra and eggplant seeds, we thought the seedbeds might get a little too crowded so we decided to plant the remaining seeds in a row around the seedbeds which we did by digging burrows of about two-three inches deep and burying the seeds in them. With no more seeds left to plant, we decided to wrap things up by taking a bucket of water and sprinkling it over the now covered soil. This is what our mini vegetable garden looked like after we finished planting. And this is what it looks like 2 weeks later. Not bad, right? Anyone wants some pakbet or sinigang?...
read moreSnow White and the Huntsman
This Month’s Playdate: Movies and copyright Howdy guys! After last month’s Playdate on which we had enjoyed fun under the sun (swimming, that is), this time, since most of us loved watching movies, we have considered seeing a flick as a topic for our Playdate. So for this month, as we had our popcorns and drinks ready, then its movie time! Oops! Before anything else, we have to pick up a good movie first. And because everyone’s inclined to see “Snow White and the Huntsman,” we have decided to watch that movie. So off to the cinema we go! We arrived a little too early for the scheduled time of the film showing, but nevertheless, we bought the movie passes. And while waiting for the time to pass by, some of us went to the arcade, while some just took a stroll around the mall, while others bought some snacks. Shortly after that, all of us meet up then we went inside the cinema. We have enjoyed watching the movie and its special effects as well as the “twists” that were not “originally” present on the fairy tale, especially the fact that Snow White was now regarded as a heroine and not just the traditional damsel-in-distress-waiting-for-prince-charming anymore, although the main elements of the Snow White fairy tale (i.e. the poison apple, magic mirror, the seven dwarves, and the wicked witch) were still there. After watching the flick, we returned to the studio and discussed the brief history, or rather, evolution of Snow White; from the first Grimm’s fairy tale, to the Disney’s animation, to the various movies and theatre plays, to video games, up until the latest Snow White movie, and that is “Snow White and the Huntsman.” We have also discussed the copyright terms and trademark ownership of the said fairy tale. That’s it for this month’s Playdate! Do watch out for more in these coming months!...
read moreSwimming
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 moreDigital 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...
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