狗年賀卡 A Zoetrope Card (Year of the Dog)

卡蘭賀卡堂堂邁入第(12+2)年了！雖然今年賀卡的方向很早就決定好了，但是因為工作忙碌，加上設計難度較高，還是拖到了一分鐘…要提早做好真的不是卡蘭賀卡的傳統XD

This is the (12+1)th year making my own greeting cards for the Lunar New Year. I can’t believe it, either! Once again, the card design didn’t get finalized until mid Jan due to the usual suspects. lol

‘使用’說明 Here’s How To (No Pain No Gain!) :

8. Glue the inner strip first and put inside as the photo above

9. Expand the inner strip to fit (align with the white lines)

PS：顏色滿一點效果較佳！ Bold color combo works better for this Zoetrope project!

因為實在拖延太久，某人又再度心生退意（哈！）但是，好不容易超過一輪，再晚也還是要尬出來啊～而且今年可能會是告別作！This could be the final year designing the greeting card…We’ll see!

【排除萬難時間】
為什麼難度這麼高？因為我選的主題是要會動（活該) !
Why is it so hard to design this time?

I want it to be a non-static design, and that requires doing many many prototypes first.
- I’ve looked up the phenakistoscope, spinning top, Jewish dreidel, and zoetrope. Considering the ease of mailing, I need to think about how to make zoetrope without additional material. I got the idea of making the base like a dreidel. I tested with different sizes, number of flaps, angles of the bottom base, and finally locked with the current design.
I don’t know what to draw for the animation strips!
- I can draw, but drawing for animation is not something I am good at. It’s easier to draw something relevant, but…I don’t know how to draw dogs ? lol
- I settled with a Samoyed dog, although mine looks more like a bear, haha!
Unplanned manual jobs (trimming and scoring) ☠
- I had tried very hard to avoid any sort of manual work, but still ended up doing scoring and trimming for the strips because they are printed on the same cardstock which is too thick to bend.
Work is too busy…
- Can’t find time to write the cards…

難題1: 怎麼動？

這次研究了相關題材，比方說費納奇鏡 phenakistoscope, 陀螺 spinning top, 猶太人的光明節陀螺 dreidel, 西洋鏡（幻影箱）zoetrope 等等，真的非常多。

若考慮到郵寄方便，折紙陀螺有不少優勢。但是，多年來的經驗告訴我，千萬不要涉及任何手加工，於是很快的淘汰！最後決定採用西洋鏡的概念，因為我真的很喜歡紐約的Masstransitscope Project，但如何讓西洋鏡可以郵寄呢？附上竹籤彈珠什麼的是不可能的。那就讓它能自己轉吧！於是我開始實驗如何讓鏡台底部旋轉。試驗了許多大小和鏡面數量 (鏡面太小或太少會導致轉太快看不見)，終於敲定了八個鏡面底部緩斜的設計。真是不知道多久沒有用尺量東西了!

難題2: 要畫什麼？

雖然畫畫不是太難，但是要畫動畫對我而言就沒那麼簡單了。加上如要應景，恐怕就得要有狗兒出現，但…

終極難題：某人不太懂狗，更不會畫狗（泣）

研究諸多狗兒們，最後確定我平日就有好感的薩摩耶犬Samoyed. 嗯…我的版本是比較像熊啦～（更多薩摩耶的照片 more cute photos）