The Lantern

“Porsche, Paul, and Pogi’s Interactive Morphing Lantern” is an interactive website that features a morphing lantern from an original illustration. The whole piece in itself is the artists' interpretation of the lantern as a cultural kaleidoscope — a sincere attempt to capture and innovate the mega-hot pot of colors and cultures that is the UP Open University.

The project showcases a multi-colored 2D rendering of the lantern, an interactive journey guided by poems, and short visual pieces that utilize motion graphics and custom-built 3D models. To further highlight the theme, the piece also includes a custom 3D kaleidoscope with a design theme focused on sustainability.

Everything on the website is designed and authored by the artists. The piece was primarily made using the Adobe Creative Suite, DaVinci Resolve Studio, and Blender. It also uses transformative artwork (mainly for texturing and detailing) produced from heavily edited content from Adobe Stock and Poly Haven.

Christian Paul Velo

The Team

Robbie Gale "Pogi" Jacinto

Anna Porsche Gutierrez

Christian is a storyteller who produces art based on love, horror, and human experience.

He is currently studying Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia Studies at UP Open University.

Robbie is a creative who approaches each piece with a great sense of curiosity, aiming to be everything he can be.

He is currently studying Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia Studies at UP Open University.

Porsche is a graphic artist who is in love with strawberries, milk tea, and getting all dolled up!

She is currently studying Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia Studies at UP Open University.

Design and Development

The initial design focused on featuring the sunflower at the center of the lantern. It was intended to represent the core of UP students but the artists found that it didn’t align well enough with the themes presented.

Sticking with this concept, the artists pushed for different variations until the artists realized that the previous designs were not quite representative of the UP Open University and the inherent uniqueness of its students.

With each snowflake never looking the same, the artists used its structure behind the leaves to serve as a reflection of uniqueness and to commemorate the holiday season.

To further emphasize the individuality of students in UPOU and their corresponding cultures, the artists composed four color palettes for the more prominent types of students within the campus: (1) Full-time Students, (2) Students with Temporary and Permanent Disabilities, (3) Working Students, and (4) International/Offshore Students.

The main shape of the lantern was then developed into a 3D model. This is intended to mimic the traditional look of Philippine Parols with extruded centers and pulled-back edges.

This went through different three-dimensional interpretations further abstracting from the themes presented above. The types of students were expanded into four cultures in UPOU, respectively: (1) Distance Culture, (2) Accessibility Culture, (3) Hustle Culture, and (4) Global Culture.

The artists ended up with 1920x1080 px renders, each featuring a different spin on the artists’ lantern design.

Software Specifications

PRE-PRODUCTION

SKETCHING, DETAILING, AND ILLUSTRATIONS

VIDEO EDITING AND VFX

3D RENDERING AND TEXTURING

WEB HOSTING SERVICE

DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT (premium and open-source)

Concept and Theme

ON LANTERN DESIGN

The concept behind the design is heavily influenced by the season and the diversity of students at UPOU. The central sunflower reflects our core as UP students who strive for honor and excellence and serves as a nod to our “sunflower season,” which is December.

17 petals representing all 17 campuses and 8 leaves representing each constituent university of UP.

Since UPOU students can be in any of these, and sometimes even outside of these campuses. The snowflake behind represents how UPOU students come from different walks of life and that aspect of UPOU makes it all the more interesting.

As Seniors and Juniors of the BAMS program, the lantern serves as a praxis of the artist's experiences and skills developed throughout their stay in the university.

ON WEB DESIGN

From these lived moments, four major cultural points were determined by the artists:

• Distance Culture - the university's pedagogical design which is open distance and e-learning (ODeL) coupled with voluntary face-to-face meetups.

• Accessibility Culture - a device and an internet connection are the sole requirements to enter UPOU's learning environment, cementing it as the most accessible constituent unit of the UP system.

• Hustle Culture - a large number of OU students are members of the country's workforce.

• Global Culture - several OU students bring with them the mores and cultures of foreign countries.

The artists sought to represent these cultures through the visual metaphor of the contest's theme — a kaleidoscope, with each twist offering a different bounty of colors and shades:

• Distance Culture

  • Color Palette: Fuel Yellow and Valencia (Default Website Colors)

  • Visual Film: A student receives a gift from Santa while studying in front of their PC. It represents the perseverance that many students face during the holiday season, where they must push through their academics even when everyone else seems to be out celebrating. It also depicts the distant connections between students, as they interact with each other mostly through the use of their computers and gadgets. The aesthetics are inspired by 2000s magazines.
    

• Accessibility Culture

  • Color Palette: Mauve and Madang (Accessible Color Palette)

  • Visual Film: A restoration of a very distorted clip about a Grinch-themed Christmas.
    

• Hustle Culture

  • Color Palette: Chambray and Candy Corn (Vault Boy colors from the Fallout series)

  • Visual Film: A piece that reflects the general theme present from the game series, Fallout, which is the drive to survive even in the toughest conditions. This is meant to reflect the difficulty of juggling full-time work with full-time academics which is an experience the artist (Paul) shares.
    

• Global Culture

  • Color Palette: Cornflower Blue and Pastel Green (Earth Colors)

  • Visual Film: The lantern, wrapped in a map of the world, is suspended on a stand similar to that of a globe. It is partnered with a wall of flags that represent the various countries where some of the students of UPOU currently reside.

Final Statement

This project has reflected our collective experience as UPOU students and our relationship with one another as students coming from varying backgrounds. Each part of this project reflects the part of us that ties us together as UPOU students and what makes us distinct from one another, aspects that we’ve learned and honed as UPOU students.

Thank you for checking Porsche, Paul, & Pogi’s Interactive Morphing Lantern!