Party Printables
This month’s playdate is printables. Organizing a pirate-themed birthday bash for your little boy; making a cute, romantic envelope for your love letter to your amour; or a scrapbook of the most memorable moments in your life – those are just some of the things you can do with printables. Not familiar with printables? Printables are ready to print illustrations that you can download from the internet and print with your own computer. They usually come packaged in groups, but there are also some printable makers that allow people to mix and match different bundles according to their preferences. Our artists have been making printables for some time now, but the rest of the BNP team hasn’t had much opportunities to experiment with them, so we decided to make party printables the topic for this month’s playdate. We’ve been hosting friendly competitions since we split up the team into three groups a couple of months ago, so before we started, the members of each team were asked to pick a theme first. The first team picked a pirate theme, the second one chose a “glam girl” theme, and the last team went for Halloween. After we’re done picking themes, we started to choose the things we’ll be using for the activity. Each group were asked to pick three items from a predetermined set (buntings, cup wrappers, cupcake wrappers, cupcake toppers, table toppers, straw flags, invitation cards) so everyone got busy discussing what they’re going to pick. After all the teams have decided what they’re going to do, we started gathering the materials we’re going to need. All three teams pretty much used the same materials, although some groups threw in a couple more for some extra touch. Since we were on the topic of printables, we just browsed our database for existing designs that match our chosen themes, then we had the artists from our teams group them together in one file. When everything was finally ready, we printed the designs, then we started snipping away the unnecessary edges. The buntings were quite easy to cut because they’re triangular in shape, but the cupcake and cup wrappers were a bit tricky because they are circular, so we had to make sure that the length and width of the printables matched the measurements of the cups and cupcakes so the edges would fit snugly. After we’re done cutting, we moved on to gluing the items we printed and cut to their respective places. When everything has been glued, we thrust the cupcake toppers on top of the cupcakes then we started arranging the designs together so we can take some photos of the final products. Below are some shots from the activity. What do you think? If you’re interested in trying it out for yourself, you can download one of the printables we used for this activity. We’ll also be releasing more printable designs soon, so do watch out for them....
read morePop-up Art
Do you remember those pop-up cards or books that we used to marvel at as a child? You know, those wonderfully drawn images springing up into life when we open the card or the book? This month, we’d try to make one of those. Let’s start with the materials. The most important thing you’d need in making popup art is the paper. You don’t really have to use any special kind, but you do have to make sure that it has the right amount of thickness for the project. A piece of paper that is too thin would have difficulties holding up while a piece of paper that is too thick would be difficult to fold. Usually, an Oslo paper should be enough to do the job. Aside from the paper we’d also need a protractor or a ruler (we’d have to use it to measure the angles of the folds), glue or double-sided tape (for sticking the popup art to its base), and a pair of scissors to cut out pieces of paper into our desired shape. When the materials are all set, we’d begin by picking a design. Pop-ups can either be paper cutouts glued or taped to the base, or strips of paper that are carved into the base. Which one you want to use is totally up to you, but if you neither have the time nor patience to draw or carve complicated designs unto paper, printing a digital design then cutting the parts you need out is a faster and easier alternative. If you’re going to use a cutout design, though, try to leave an extra centimetre or two of blank space from the edge of your design because we’d be using it to prop it up. After you have the design cut out, we’ll start folding the paper. To make the folding easier, you can use any object with a blunt end like a bread knife or an old ball point pen that has no more ink to make indentations on the parts that we’re going to be folding. However, before we fold the design, we’ll fold the extra centimetre of blank space that we set aside earlier first then slip it under the design until it’s no longer visible. When we’re done with that, we’d start folding the design itself. While doing this, make sure that the spaces between either side of the design is even (e.g. 45 degrees to the right; 45 degrees to the left starting from the middle) so the pop-up design would close down and open up nicely. After that, we’ll apply some glue or stick a strip of double-sided tape on the stand then press it tightly against the base. For good measure, you can also stick another strip of paper (the same width as the other stand) at the back of the designs so it will be easier for the designs to pop up when you open the card or the book. When all of those are done, just hold the back cover of the card or book, press it down against the front cover until the pop up design in the middle is flattened it out. Hold it down for a bit, then after a few seconds, open the card or the book, and the design should pop up. If it didn’t close down properly, you might have to adjust the angles of the stands supporting the back of the designs, but other than that, that should be pretty much everything. So, how did it go? Let us know the result of your...
read moreStop Motion Animation
Stop motion is an animation technique used to make stationary subjects look as if they are moving. This is achieved by slightly altering the poses of objects, photographing each alterations, then viewing them in sequence to make the illusion of movement. Plenty of materials can be used for stop motion. Some of these are clay figures, wooden mannequins, and paper cut outs — but for this activity, we’re going to use the last one to do our little experiment. There are no special materials necessary. We just used a whiteboard to sketch the storyboard and draw the backdrop, a digital camera to photograph the different poses (using a tripod is optional, although we recommend using one to make the camera steadier and the shots clearer), a photo editing software to remove unnecessary objects in the photographs, a video editing software to place the photos side by side and play them in sequence, and a printer to print out the illustrations we’re going to use for the project. Before we started with the project, though, we tried to come up with a storyline first. The direction you want your story to go to is completely up to you, but we suggest you try to start with a simple one first because the more complicated the story is, the more photos it’s going to require; and believe us, taking photographs, sorting them out, and editing them could take quite a while. After a few minutes of deliberation, we decided to do a short featuring characters from talk@tee’s World of Tokkats taking a jeepney ride, and to give us a better idea of how the project would play out, we did a storyboard featuring sketches of each proposed frame. After we were done with that, we started drawing the would be background by drawing a typical cityscape on a whiteboard. Normally, we would have taken care of the characters first, but since we already had the designs we’re going to use on file, we simply printed them out and placed them against the background. Once that was done, we started taking photographs. To do this, we assigned one person to take the shots, one person to hold the lights, one person to move the cutouts along the background, three people to move the whiteboard to make the illusion that the jeepney the characters are riding on is moving along the highway, and six people to cheer from the background (Go, guys!) 😀 All in all, 175 shots were taken, 152 of which made it to the final video. Some of the photos had to be discarded because of continuity errors and lighting issues (we had to shoot indoors under artificial lighting, so we had to make some adjustments every now and then) and some new photos had to be taken because editing some parts out would have taken more time and effort. When the photos that would be used for the video have been picked, we superimposed some text on the photos in the extro to let people know where to get their own talk@tee shirts. After that, we used a video editing software to place the chosen photos side by side and play them in sequence then we we gave it a final touch by adding some music on the background – the result of which you’ll see in the video below: How about you guys, have you tried this before? Do you have any tips or stories that you can share?...
read moreKite Flying
This month’s playdate is about kite flying. It’s summer time once again! One of our colleagues who was in charge of the report discussed the brief history of kite flying and the different types of kites After that, we grouped ourselves into three then each group get to choose which design to make based on talkatee characters, Tok, Kat, and Tee. Hey, you can also join us in kite-making! All you have to do is follow these simple and easy step by step process: 1. First, you have to prepare all the materials needed. Here are the materials we’ve used: Sticks Japanese Paper Scissors Glue/Tape Nylon Cord/ Strings 2. Prepare the frame or spine of the kite by making a cross-like pattern. Place the smaller stick half-way higher than the center. Secure its position by reinforcing the intersection with string or tape. 3. Plot the japanese paper onto the frame then make an outline of the design. Cut out the paper according to your desired design. 4. Firmly fasten the Japanese Paper onto the frame with the use of scotch tape. After that, you can add some tail or “fins” that can add stability to the kite. 5. Make two holes near the cross section of the frame. Feed the string onto the hole and tie them making a keel. You can now draw some additional design on your kite. It’s done! Now you can make your kite fly. Here’s our very own Kat from talk@tee Kite, look at how it soars high in the...
read moreHiking
This month’s playdate is about hiking. When we were little kids, some of us wonder how it’s like to climb a real mountain, thus we enjoyed playing and climbing on piles of rock, sand, or soil, which served as our “mountains” way back then. And now that we’re all grown ups, an opportunity of climbing a “real” mountain must not be missed. Excited as we were, we’ve planned and scheduled the date of our adventure trip. After that, we secured all the necessary permits/documents that were needed for us to make this adventure possible. Our adventure destination is at Mt. Banahaw, an active volcano which is about 2,170 m above sea level, and is located between the provinces of Quezon and Laguna. Since most of us are first-timers, and we’re not to camp overnight, our itinerary was just to reach the first camp or Camp 1 of Mt. Banahaw via Tayabas Trail (Banahaw de Tayabas) which is roughly 1 – 2 hours climb from the jump off point. And so, with our bags packed with lunch, snacks and “hydrations”, we set off and began our journey. From Lucena City, we commuted to the city of Tayabas via jeepney, and got off at the city proper, then from there, we took a tricycle going to the jump-off point of Banahaw de Tayabas, which is located at Brgy. Lalo. After final briefing and preparations, we began with our trek. At first, the trail seemed to be smooth and easy, so we’re just joking and laughing around as we climb. But as we went further up, we started to feel tired and exhausted, as the trail becomes harder, muddier, and rockier. It was then that we started to take some 5 to 10 minute refreshment breaks, which we took very frequently. 😛 As mentioned earlier, most of us were first timers, so minor accidents like slipping, being bitten by land leeches (which are very prominent in those areas), and getting minor cuts from thornbushes, were really inevitable. After two hours of trekking, we finally arrived at Camp 1. Since it was almost lunchtime, we’ve washed ourselves clean then we prepared our table by lining it with fresh banana leaves where we placed our foods. It’s time for boodle fight! After we finished lunch, we left the camp. Nope, the adventure is not finished yet, rather, we’re up again for another one. Our colleague-slash-guide told us that there is a nearby waterfall in the area, so we decided to go there and pay a visit. The trail going there is not that easy. We can say that the real adventure started here. There were many rocky and muddy slopes along the way and most of us experienced a hard time going there, but the journey was really rewarding. After a short splash of refreshment and enjoyment, and it’s also getting late in the afternoon, we decided to pack our things and go home. All in all, the experience was indeed very challenging for all of us, but we can say that it’s all worth it. Hope to see you again on our next...
read moreRadio DJ 101
This month’s playdate is Radio DJ 101 We hear them almost everyday in our radio sets or thru our cellphone’s FM radio. They entertain us and keep us updated on what’s hot and what’s not in and out of the music scene. They’re the radio DJ’s. Well most of us are a bit curious on how it is and what are the basics of becoming a radio DJ. And since some of us here have actually experienced being a radio DJ for quite some time, we’ve decided to share with our fellow colleagues the experience on “how to talk” on the radio, hence DJ 101 becomes the topic on our playdate. The original plan is that we’ll drop by at a local FM radio station here and we’ll do some on air greetings. But unfortunately due to the bad weather outside, it did not pursue, so we’ve come up with the idea of setting up our “own radio station” here in the office…err, we mean recording ala radio. After the needed software was installed and tested we’ve proceeded with the discussions about the basics of being a DJ. One of our colleagues who also become a DJ was assigned for the task. The subject focused more on picking up your radio name or alias, the personality of a DJ, preparations, using headphones, music selections, playing song requests, and of course, how to talk on air. After the discussion, we’ve prepared a script that we’ll use for recording which consists of the common jokes that we share here in the office. We’ve enjoyed the recording process and after the editing and adding some effects, here is the final outcome of what we’ve recorded: http://www.bnpdesignstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/edit-with-bed_.mp3 Hey, you might want to try it too! All you need is a voice recording software and your headset (with mic, of course!) and you’re all set to becoming your own DJ. Before we forgot, here’s the bonus part, our bloopers! 😀...
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