CH0 - A Project Bestowed
About a month ago, I was practicing for my test on modelling for optimisation. It was arguably an easier topic than Complex Analysis, and later Modelling Differential Equations and Fourier, but the amount of reading had me really bored! I haven’t been able to engage in many hobbies at this point as university was starting to get really busy. Amidst the FPGA configurations, product designs, and app development, the only free time I allowed myself was my monthly budgeting, reading, anki reviews, and a little bit of penspinning!
I’ve been refining several cross links as a certain community’s anniversary approached, though I couldn’t dedicate even an hour to casual hobbies because of priorities! I was able to film for Lisan’s Birthday CV, though it was really just a short cross sequence of:
Charge Pass 34-13 (2 in) [FC43] [/FC43] > Pass 13-14 [FC13] [/FC13] >~ Sonic 14-12 > Full Tap T12 [FC21] [/FC21] > Half Tap T1 > Fingerless Thumbaround 〆
sorry, ill ask eurifor for notation help later uwu
Although I didn’t mind just doing my university work, I admit the current topics were slightly boring, and I secretly wished I had a better excuse to spend more time on my hobbies! That was until I got a message from Novva telling me that PJ’s birthday was coming up and that he was planning to organise a CV! Novva was asking if I would be willing to participate and edit, and although I was a bit hesitant with 11 days to the deadline, it was something that called out to me that I really felt that I wanted to do it!
He then created and added me to a server with other members to prepare for it. It had the basic skeleton set up with an announcements and general channel, alongside a submissions thread. Early on already, before any formal ideation, I had this kind of vision of what I wanted it to look like, and I then organised respective dates for each identified deliverable in the project.
Now I haven’t made a CV in quite a while! SK 2nd was released 5 years ago from that point, but I’ve worked on a lot of creative projects since then, too, following the same steps and principles for each of them:
- Identifying criteria and goals
- Setting an artistic direction
- Creating low-fidelity drafts
- Cycle back to scope and elimination
- Create mid-fidelity drafts
- Execute, and iteratively improve
I really want to write more about my thoughts on what makes a Collaboration Video in a future write-up and video, but one thing I will say is that the most important aspect is vibe and cohesion (in my opinion). The vibe is more important than any level of editing will ever deliver. If it lands, it will land and be impactful. An example is a recent CV from Domo, Domo 2nd. He was asking us in Fenspinner how to approach CV creation, and the final product he made was really, really cool due to the theme he went with!
Cohesion should then hold the CV together through consistency in its artistic direction, pacing, and overall execution of ideas. Pen Spinning CVs are ultimately a visual art, but these moving elements must also synthesise well with music to ultimately create the specific vibe! Cohesion in particular was a criterion I pushed for in the Spin Awards judging. I wish to write about the administrative and editing process of the Spin Awards at some point, too! These include organisation, understanding team dynamics, judging choices, setting deadlines, and future improvement, where I found many things could still be improved in the process. Anyways, back to the PJ Bday collab!
CH1 - A Squishy Vision
PJ, PJ, PJ!! What comes to my mind when I think of PJ!? I remember when I first talked to him on Planet, when he had just created a new account. I started greeting him among other members, and I found out he was really squishy and nice!! He would always greet the community back and ask us how we were doing, and everyone became all squishy nyawawa!!
Now, we’re all quite familiar with birthdays and themes. There’s cake, balloons, and happy people, maybe. However, I didn’t just want to make a birthday-themed birthday collab. Birthday CVs are, to me, a gift from the community. It’s casual and represents the thought of each member who wishes to celebrate PJ! It helps to ask, what does PJ represent beyond his squishy character?
Generally, everyone in the penspinning community has a specific spinning style, a favourite mod, a group of friends, and, importantly, an icon that sets them apart from others! These were all elements I wanted presented in the CV in some way, using their ‘icon’ as the basis for the artistic direction. PJ’s profile picture is this cute little deer drawing, and I thought it represented him very well. Considering the constraints of my university deadlines, I identified that the CV design will have to be simple too.
pj's profile picture!
With these in mind, a simple and cute theme will be created! There was no better way to approach this than to have PJ’s profile picture pair with other elements that represent him, his country, his favourite mods, and the birthday themes that ground the overall design of the birthday collaboration!
Cute little drawings like PJ’s deer can be found in little picture books or scrap diaries. This had me consider the pivot of creating something adjacent to a storybook. I’ve always wanted to make one like this and fit the criteria. A storybook gives many options for illustrating a story, thereby complementing his birthday and how it relates to his own story, among others celebrating it.
Each participant in the CV shall then have their own page and their relation with PJ! This can be illustrated with their personality and PJ’s deer sitting among them, representing his presence in their lives. When each participant finishes their combo, the page will flip to the next participant! The elements for each player will be drawn by me, such as mods or specialised items; otherwise, I can also find free line art online.
a draft of how each 'page' will look like
So I thought this was looking kinda cute already, but to further add onto the softness, I decided I would also integrate turbulent displacement! This is a really common effect in After Effects, and it’s something we see in a lot of video editing.
I’ve personally used it several times, like in a school project where we had to convey a physics concept, the wobble adding this approachable energy, and an educational feel. It adds this hand-drawn feel too, which sits well for the theme I want!
pj's pfp after turbulent displacement effects!
I also used it in this music video I edited and illustrated, and the organiser noted that the effect made everything much cuter! CC Page turn was then used for the page-turning effect.
A storybook tells a story, so I had other, more secondary ideas where I could animate PJ travelling through a series of events related to his penspinning journey! Similar to Lisan’s BDay CV, I thought about adding short interludes that talk about fun facts about PJ, but it was of less priority at the moment.
old storyboard drafts i shared in development
Within an hour, I was able to generate these ideas, and I identified the most important elements to include in the project! The deadlines were then finalised, and I created a personal timeline goal for myself and the participants. A primary deliverable I needed was combos and a message for PJ.
As some people can be busy, I decided to make an alternative where if one cannot make a birthday card, they can give me a message about what they think of PJ. I noticed birthdays have these signboards, and I wanted to replicate them digitally through this CV! With the basis done and presented, I shared a few pieces of the mid-fidelity storyboarding and assigned my respective deadlines.
The final breakdown of deliverables will be: an introduction scene, an about PJ page, all spinner combos, a credits page, and a page for all the birthday cards and wishes. Interlude pages were also considered, but there were many more spinners in the end that I decided to exclude these 'fun facts' from the final.
lofi storyboards, cv external deliverables, personal checklist
CH2 - A Squishy Process
It was time to edit! The first thing to do for CVs, however, is to really kind of understand the theme that you’re going for. By extension, again, making sure that music fits the combo and is in good synchronisation is an incredibly important part of CVs. Motion graphics in particular work together with audio, but this time, my design will be fairly minimal.
In the early stage, I was planning to use squishy Kirby music as I thought it matched PJ’s energy, but as more people joined and submitted, I looked for other tracks that fit the new length. The specific energy I had in my vision was low and somewhat carefree. However, as this is a birthday collaboration with spinners as a collective, and not one with a specified theme and energy, I got a diverse amount of submissions of varying energy.
This means one of the iterative pivots I had to make was changing this earlier vision I had with the music. I ended up choosing a free track with mid-to-high energy that was very bright and happy! The length matched exactly, and I was satisfied with the results!
Now it’s time to really edit! By using the first draft layout, I created 22 designs for each of the participants in the CV! As noted in the vision, I wanted each spinner to have their own set of elements that represent them in some way, while I add PJ squishing around through each one of them. As someone fairly integrated in the community, I knew a lot of the cast quite well, apart from some of the newer-ish Melbourne spinners! Each of the designs is as shown:
Cover: PJ squishing around with little birthday elements and their date of birth!
About: Information about PJ that I learnt from Novva! I found out he likes the oil nut and the apogeum, so I drew them out! It looks a little bit goofy and wobbly, but I thought it fit the theme quite well, too!
Zefia: He spun a stalogy for his submission, so I decided to draw one on his page! I didn’t want the stalogy to be lonely, so I added their favourite partner, unmod, Dr. Grip, too. For this one, PJ is at the bottom right, admiring the unmod spinning!
Avisuper: He really likes bread and coffee, so I found assets and added them in. I remember specifically that Avi liked cheesebread, but I don’t really know what that looks like, so I kind of just opted for a default! For this one, PJ is at the top right, peeking near the coffee!
Luna: Their name is Latin for moon, so I added a little crescent, a planet, and some stars around the page! For this one, PJ is seen sitting atop the moon, overlooking the night sky! The hanger spinning here was funny too, and I like how it was acknowledged in Shomon’s PS Monthly recaps!
Mugmaster: I went to use my previous oil nut drawing here because he was spinning one! The way he presented his message to PJ was creative, using the tape of the oil nut. I decided to also add a piece of tape as an asset, where PJ would sit on top of it! I also thought the spinning here was cool!
Windmage: I knew apart from pen spinning, they had other interests in the trumpet and also cubing, so I decided to add these as the elements for the page. PJ here is sitting below near the trumpet! He’s kinda silly though because it’s upside down (nya).
Wanadoo: I’m not actually sure how wanadoo ended here since I haven’t quite seen him interact with PJ (lol). For his page, though, I went on to add a baguette orz. However, I also added the wana neko, where PJ was there interacting with it! I like the nivecore spinning here and the desk bounce was cool!
Novva: I remember when he was playing the klb song I made on the guitar in voice chat, and it was how I found out he plays! For this one, PJ is at the top left listening to the amazing chorus of my klb song.
SepelaThons: Wow, this is me!! I had no idea for a freestyle, as I wanted to keep the materials but not just spam, so I decided to spin with my drawing tablet pen! It was a bit sloppy, but it got the work done. The main presentation was to showcase my mid-editing background (ehe). I decided to use the Dr KT and keitai drawing I used for this website for my page, where PJ is peeking at the right.
Dxvx: Dalvix!! I know he’s really good at Minecraft, so I decided to add several little cubes on his page! PJ is sitting on some of them, ready to do parkour!
Symphie: Synonya has a cute nickname and energy (uwu). For his page, I decided to draw the one and only thieaudio monarchs! I promised him I would try these out, but turns out Addicted to Audio in Newmarket closed down, and I don’t think I’ll be spending 1,000 USD for IEMs! My etymotics are my endgame after all! PJ here is at the top left!
Lisan: Okay, so I know Lisan travelled far and wide trying out other hobbies apart from pen spinning! One I know he tried was cardistry, so I drew little cards to his page! I remember he also does bali and yoyo, but I chose cards, which PJ is sitting atop of.
Jamal: I’m going to be honest, I don’t quite know who Jamal was before this CV. All I know is they are a Melbourne spinner, too. I found we were mutual in the cookie run server, so I kind of just added cookies, oops. For this one, PJ is peeking from the right.
Yishai: Kiwiana! Ferns, korus, and of course, a squishy kiwi next to squishy PJ! I really like how I was able to add our own kiwiana elements in a collaboration. Maybe one day, Yishai and I will make the next NZ collab!
Tree: I wonder what I would add as an element for the tree’s page. I think a tree would be a good choice! PJ here is on the left, floating on a birthday balloon!
Jay2up: Now, one thing I know is that Foxy really loves yoyo-ing too, apart from just pen spinning, so I decided to add little yoyos and strings! PJ continues to float on his balloon here.
Ricey: Yay rice! I decided to add both types of rice to a bowl, and rice from the plant here. For this one, PJ is peeking from the right again!
Dynamic: I never really found a meaning to their profile picture, but I decided to replicate its design for the page! A stickman with a paper boat as a hat below falling rain… PJ here is walking happily on the right side! I found this combo really cool too!
Eurifor: Many, many ideas for euri (ehe). I decided to add a representation of the Fourier series for the page, though! It might be difficult to discern the silhouette, but PJ happens to be catching a ride on a BLÅHAJ on the left of the screen!
DumBananaMike: Really nice combo! For this one, I just added a lot of bananas! PJ, be careful, you might slip!!
Sleepy: The SC 2H was really cool! For this one, I decided to add squishy pillows and a blankie for a sleepy setup. PJ is at the top right here, about to sleepy time too!
Human: This combo genuinely blew me away. I really liked it! For human’s page, I decided to a lot of humans! Of course, added the funny eye thing in his profile picture too! PJ can be seen at the right here interacting with a human!
Jackson: I remember seeing this submission and thought it was one of the coolest things! Best of luck for PSO26 R2, nyansn! The message at the end was so cute, too. In this one, PJ is peeking at the left!
This marks the end of the cast in the CV! I made sure to quadruple-check each submission I have, ensuring that each element is drafted and animated and that their card or message are included. There really were more people than I thought! Some late submissions did occur, but I was able to re-time the music well.
For example, in order to make way for another ten-second submission, I would trim out a few of the unnecessary pieces of footage of some combos or move different combos to different places. Knowing how the music operates means I move around combos through timing mechanics based on the track's stanzas.
Additional rules were made where specific combos had to be in specific places, like Jackson’s submission! I felt it was the perfect way to conclude it because of how unique it was! With everything nearly done, I collected all the participants' messages to create the digital birthday wishes page and the cards gallery!
Outro: The card that concludes the end of the cast!
Credits: Notes organiser and editor!
Gallery: This is the penultimate page showcasing all the little cards we made for PJ!
Wishes: The final page to conclude the CV is filled with digital wishes! I was watching the end of the editing and really stopped to read all of the messages. I just thought to myself how squishy and nice the pen spinning community is. Although we can have our moments, seeing all these little messages reminds me of what it feels like to be in a community you belong to. For those who read my ps memoir, you would know what I mean! (ehe)
CH3 - A Squishy Birthday
I managed to finish two days in advance and didn’t have too many issues! I was really happy with how it turned out and was a bit nervous for the premiere date. Novva didn’t want to do a final check because of spoilers, so I made sure to triple-check everything before the day!
One thing that was unlucky was that the premiere date happened to be on daylight saving time, so the times displayed were really weird on YouTube! In the end, it turned out okay, though, and PJ was really happy! Although it was the first CV I made in a while and the timeline was only 11 days, I think I was able to make something I’m fairly proud of! The whole thing made me so happy, too, as an editor, and I can’t wait to do more projects like this one in the future! (ehe)
This express happened to be quite linear in terms of process and overall creative progression. As each page was kept relatively the same, there was no need to ideate and storyboard dozens of unique designs and transitions between them. Even this write-up was a bit lower on effort, taking only around two hours to write, but, I still had a lot of fun documenting the process. Stay tuned for the future announcement of Planet Express too though! I managed to form an early vision and theme to pursue, and I’m relatively excited to see how it turns out. As of now, I need to get back to storyboarding it!
The PSO26 compilation should finish fairly soon, too, and hopefully I’ll have some extra time to do more writing, make combos and do my other hobbies! I really, really want to make more express CVs too, with all the different aesthetics I love!
I do want to write about the Spin Awards organisation and editing writeup soon, but I also want to start drafting a comprehensive guide on CV creation, and what makes a collaboration. I’ll have to plan external interviews to really deduce points along with my perception, and I should start adapting some entries into videos for YouTube. Other than that, though, thank you for reading, and see you next time!! :3