5 Phase Project

 “How to Save a Life,” by The Fray

This song has many interpretations, but mine is that it’s about troubled relations, whether it be between friends or family. For example, losing a good friend or getting in a fight with one of your parents. Sometimes there are no words that can describe the way you feel, but music can. It evoked some feelings of sadness, but it isn’t a super depressing song. I have the image of two hands trying to reach out for each other to symbolize losing someone but still trying to save them.

 

In the song, the singer pleas to God that he can hear his friend and help her with her troubles. The image above isn’t a picture of Him, but it symbolizes the hope in the song that maybe things will work out in the end. The singer also says he “lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness.” I made a type portrait of a woman with a tear rolling down her cheek as losing a someone that means a to you is hard.

To create my photos in photoshop, I used a lot of drop shadows to give my text an additional depth. I changed the font of certain words or changed their size to add emphasis. For the type portrait, I used different shades of black and grey to give the apperance of shadows on the eye. In Illustrator, I gave my phrase a 3-d effect and a drop shadow to give it added depth and emphasis. I used a gradient for the background to give the picture an “awakening” kind of look.

 

Type Portrait

This is a Type Portrait of Kobe Bryant. The reason I choose him is because he is my favorite basketball player and plays for the LA Lakers, my favorite NBA team.

To create my type portrait, I went into Adobe Photoshop and created two new layers. I used the pen tool to create paths for my text. I traced around the major lines of Kobe first like the head, mouth, and lips. After creating the paths, I used the text tool to type words associated with Kobe along the path like his first and last name, nickname, and the team he plays for. To create the “shadows,” I used used a light grey color for the text and warped it so it went along the side of his face and neck.

Animation

 

Animation is the rapid display of images to create an illusion of movement. As the images flash across the screen extremely fast it looks like it is all one continuous movement. To do so in Adobe Photoshop, you must go to the menu bar and click Window>Animation to bring up your frames. For each movement of whatever animation you are doing, you must make a frame for it. For example, the balls moving across the screen took 12 frames to do so.                  

To make my other animations, I moved them one frame at a time. For the cereal guy, I copied each of the previous layer for each new frame to keep the changes consistant. I then hid the layers I didn’t want seen on the previous frames. I then used the polygonal lasso tool to select the parts of the character I wanted to move and free-transformed/warped it. The same process and tools were used for the pikachu on the right but I didn’t use as many frames as cereal guy.

Character Design

The name of the guy above is Golem. He is an escaped experiment that went wrong. Scientist were trying to create soldiers from inanimate objects such as rocks and trees to use those instead of using human lives. Their first subject was Golem, using the most durable rocks to make him a walking tank. At first, it was a success. Golem showed amazing capabilites. He was able to withstand hundreds of bullets without cracking and to heal his wounds all it took was some sand. Soon though, Golem grew more intelligent and realized the true intentions of the scientists. Golem was actually quite peacefull, he didn’t want to be sent to war to kill people. So one night, he broke out of the lab he was kept in and ran away in the night. Now he resides in the Sahara Desert, far from humans as possible. He now serves as a mysterious helper. If he encounters any lost souls wandering the desert, he helps them reach safety. He hopes he can live the rest of his life in peace and helping others, not doing harm to anyone.

I created my character in Adobe Photoshop. Like my illustration post, I used the Wacom tablet. I made two layers for my drawing, one was the line art and the other was for the color. I used different colors to represent different types of rocks and joints for Golem. I used the burn tool to give my character shadows and I used the smudge tool to spread it.

Monster Illustration and Digital Painting

This monster, which I call a clawed-turtle, was created in Adobe Photoshop. But the mouse was not used in creating this monster, I used the Wacom tablet. The Wacom tablet allows me to draw and move things using a pen and tablet, similar drawing something on a canvas or piece of paper. For the drawing itself, I made two copies of the background layer. The layer on top was my line art or outlines of the monster. The layer on the bottom was my color layer where everything inbetween the black lines could be colored in without overlapping the outlines. I also used the burn and smudge tool to give my monster a little shadow and look darker.

 To create this digital painting, I took the original picture of a toucan and duplicated it. Next I changed the filter to Paint Duabs to make it look more “soft” like a real painting. I then used the Wacom tablet and used the smudge tool to smudge the pixels wherever I moved the pen. I repeated the last step to every area of the photograph.

Raster Self Portrait

I am usually a calm person, so I chose blue as a background color to represent calmness. The pictures of the basketball court and the track are there because those are the sports I play. There is a snare drum because I am a percussionist. My favorite vacation has always been Hawaii so I added a picture of Maui with its distintive clear water. I believe that for everything there is an opposite or counter to it. The yin-yang symbol represents this well. I see Nike every sport I go, and wear it almost everyday so I had to add the infamous swoosh.

To make my runner and basketball player stand out, I used bevel and emboss to make them stand out and give them a polished look. I used the burn tool to make the black of the yin-yang symbol even darker to contrast agaist its other white half. For the basketball hoop, I used the spot-healing tool to clean up some of the rust on the hoop. I bolded and made my font for my quote red to make it stand out and contrast against the blue background. I lowered the opacity for the nike swoosh and gave it a drop shadow to add more depth to it. For my own picture of myself, I lowered the opacity so the yin-yang symbol behind it could divide my face with brightness and darkness.

The rule of thirds is basically breaking down an image into thirds, like a grid. If you put points of interest along the lines or on the intersections, your photo becomes more balanced and natural. For example, the black and white dots of my yin-yang symbol and matched with two intersecting lines of the grid. The free-throw line of the basketball court picture lines up along the second line of the grid. The runnner and basketball player’s right foot match with intersections of the lines.

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Parking Permit

The goal of my parking permit was to make the name of the school stand out but still be simple overall. I think I achieved this goal. The school colors, cardinal and gold, were primarily used. The white space is for the ID numbers.

To create the parking permit, I used Adobe Photoshop. The gradient tool was used to make the background. I used the rectangular marque tool to make the white space. For the words “Roosevelt High School,” I used a few layer styles like adding a stroke, bevel and emboss, and drop shadow.

Illusion

The picture above is a leopard-shark. It was created using adobe photoshop. Inspiration came from me having a facination with sharks and I wanted to put a spin on the species. Everyones seen and heard of a tiger shark, but not a leopard shark.

Both these two images were used to create my leopard-shark. I thought these two pictures worked well together because both animals are in a more horizontal pose so aligning them would be a little easier than if the leopard was sitting or the shark was faced a different angle. Both of the lighthing conditions are similar, as both animals are a little brighter than their backgrounds.

In photoshop, I used a layer mask on the leopard. Next, I used the paintbrush tool to mask out the leopard’s background, tail, legs, and head, leaving only the body and its spots. I then warped it to align it with the hammerhead shark’s body. I lowered the opacity to give the body the “underwater” look, as sharks do live in the ocean. I used the clone stamp tool to cover the rest of the shark with the leopard’s spots. For the top of the background, I took an image of a ice covered lake and masked out everything but the top. I then gave it a drop shadow to add depth to the picture.

RHS Planner Cover

To create this cover, I first started with a tutorial. Using the text tool, I typed the words “Roosevelt High School” and “Student Planner 2012-2013.” Then, I made two copies of each layer. For the first layer, I gave the text a crimson and gold gradient overlay. I used the effects bevel and emboss and drop shadow to make my text stand out and look more polished. For the second layer of the same text, I used a higher pixel stroke to surround my gold text in a darker crimson color similar to the school colors. I used the font Trajan Pro for Roosevelt High School and Times New Roman for Student Planner 2012-2013.

I wanted my style to look polished and simple. I think it appeals to my audience because it is easy to the eyes. Everything is organized neatly with emphasis on the words “Roosevelt High School.” There is not anything super abstract, just a simple and appealing planner cover.

Tutorial

Ad Layout

My slogan, “We’ll sweeten your day!” communicates that our products will satisfy a hungry customer. My logo communicates a feeling of simplicity and fun. The photo gives the viewers a preview of what kind of treats we can make.

The order the viewer sees the ad is the photo, up to the title, then to the slogan, to the logo, and finally the ad copy. A border was used to frame the work to keep it organized.

I made my logo in Adobe Illustrator using the pen tool to make the cupcake-like background. For the text, I used a bold font and made it arch upwards to give it emphasis. The border was made by using the rectangle tool.