2014 Video Final

    With this semester I really enjoyed myself. We did a lot of projects that I enjoyed but there were also some I didn't like. Some of my favorite projects would probably include the final, the blood drive, and the music video. Probably the only thing I disliked this semester would have to be the Lego video. Overall I feel like I learned a lot with editing which I really enjoyed. We also learned more about how to hold the camera and different shots we can film. I can't wait for next semester!

Firefighters

The basic idea for this project was to make the firefighter stand out but not seem to flashy. At first I tried this with color but I didn't like the outcome and while messing with the opacity and blending modes I took out all of the colors from the fire fighter. I feel liked how the details turned out so I continues and found a unique background to go with it. Then to give the picture some character I added another picture over it and messed with the blending and gave the firefighter a blue red glow. This is definitely one of my favorites because of the simplicity. Hope you like it just as much as I did. 

Post Cards

   So with this project we had a lot of freedom. We first had to make a very simple card with just clip art to spell out "fall" then I added the text below it and the boarder to make it more elegant. Next I moved onto more creative projects 

   The first free range I worked on was the "my life in 10 years" picture. This one had some challenges which I had to face. One of the main problems was making the font patch with the rest of the card. Finally I blended several layers to make a very light and airy background. 

   Then I moved onto the happy holiday card for my friend. I enjoyed this one cause it has a collage feel more fun and light hearted. I think this one is my favorite. 

   Finally I made a very simple yet fun picture with the text "One breath at a time". This one gives off the no worries feel and I liked how simplistic and cute it looked. 

   What I want to work on more is finding the perfect fonts. I want all of my posts to be visually appealing and fun to look at. 

sky shadow

Quick project using shadows and different layering styles. Took me less than 30 minutes to make. Super fun and easy

Vampire symphony

With this project it just started out as a extraction project but then I changed it up to have a haunted creepy feel to it. I started out with taking my extracted image and finding a background that fit my ideals. Then I added such extras as blood stains, fog, the ghost in the background, and the red eyes. Super fun project and I enjoyed giving it a scary twist.

Japan

This was a very simple edit that I did. I extracted the temple and tree line. I put it onto a busy city background and They added clouds and the text "japan" Very simple and took me little to no time to make.

Documentary

Legos are a part of childhood 

 

Donating Blood Saves Lives

The idea of this first project was to try to tell the story of Mackenzie's experience with lego's. I wanted to give it a sort of carefree and light feel to it.
   The second Project was the blood drive. For this one I wanted to give it a very professional feel. I feel like it turned out much better than my original "Lego" project. This is probably because I already had practice with the 1st one.
  The process that I used to accomplish this was to find a partner and then start filming. I tried to ask some different questions but it was difficult to keep coming up with interesting questions and not be repeating myself. The next step after filming was the basic editing to find the good shots. I found a select few and dragged them down and made a rough story. After that I got voice overs recorded. They sound a bit awkward and stuttery in my opinion but they worked so I went with it. Finally I uploaded it and that was it! I had made my first documentary styled video.
    I thought this was going to be an easy project but I definitely learned differently. I figured out how to use "L" and "J" edits. They were very helpful from keeping my video seem blocky and cut strangely. They basically kept the flow.
   The next time I do a project like this I would like to do a more interesting topic rather then legos or a blood drive. Maybe something like a walk-threw of the average cooking class. I feel like I could get some really amazing shots and have a fun story-line. Something I would like to do the same is to add music. My lego video had a lot of awkward quiet moments and I felt like the music really made it more interesting.
   My overall view on this project is that I really enjoyed it. The general structure has more rules and makes it a challenge. Also keeping your viewer interested is a challenge within itself. I would very much like to do this again some time.

Sailing

With this project I started off with the idea of a floating pirate ship, kind of like in peter pan. I first started out by taking the pirate ship and removing it from the original image and putting it onto the sky base. Then to give the ship an impression of movement I added clouds to give it a wave look. then I wanted to fancy it up with some lighting. I finished by adding my name and I was done. I really liked working on matching up the images. I figured out some simple tricks to giving it a unique look. Overall I think this turned out pretty cool looking. Next time I want to keep more of the original colors rather than covering them up. 

Re-post Floating Mountain

   

   The idea for this project was to make a mystical floating mountain, kind of like in the movie avatar. My process was to follow the directions I was given but then add my own style with 3 different elements. I added a flock of parrots, a boy fishing, and a dragon. After I had finished the basics I forgot to add my name and title so I have come back and added that in. After that I screen shotted the image and uploaded to this blog.
    I did learn an important skill which is extracting an image without pixel fringe. I used the refine edge tool and it worked out wonderfully. The next time i do this project I need to focus on matching the colors and tones. I noticed the mountain does stand out strangely because my color got off. I would like to use the refine edge tool again. It really helps me get the image out without and problems (usually).
   What I drew from this was that instructions are fir helping and shouldn't limit you. Overall I liked this project, it was very creative and fun.

Re-Post Music Video

   The idea for this project was to give a story about a guy who wanted to do something amazing in his life so he decided to try a dance audition. The process for creating this started with coming up with the actual idea. Then we spent some time choosing music that fits our idea well. When the basics were done we moved onto creating the story board. once we were done w could start filming. After some difficult film days we finally got to the editing process which went rather smoothly.
   
   Along the way I learned the importance of planning everything out. I also learned i needed to focus on getting things done. Next time I will get my group members numbers so I can send them reminder texts. If I could do something the same it would have to be the actual team.
   
   I enjoyed all the members in my group. it was a very interesting and fun group of people who never made things awkward. What I was able to come with, as a lesson i learned, is to collaborate with my group. I liked this project but next time I am going to work harder on the actual idea and the music choice. I hope to have another project like this soon.

This is the latest project I had to do. The top one is the practice that would help me move on and make something better. I followed instructions and took images and turned them into words and added a label underneath saying "seasons greetings" and then added a fancy underline to enhance the picture. 

The next one I moved onto was the actual project. I made it on my goals for the next 10 years. These included getting married, finding my dream job, and going to japan. I added stamp like clips to give it more of a card like appearance. Then I downloaded a specialty font that looks like hand writing and changed the mask and gave it an effect so it blended better with the rest of the picture. Overall I enjoyed this project and learned how to do a lot of cool things. By changing the opacity I made the "just married" stamp blend better. I will definitely use this in future projects. I didn't like how I used some of the other pictures (which I removed later on). I hope to do more projects like this in the future. 

Mountain

     The idea for this project was to make a mystical floating mountain, kind of like in the movie avatar. My process was to follow the directions I was given but then add my own style with 3 different elements. I added a flock of parrots, a boy fishing, and a dragon. I did learn one important skill which is extracting an image without pixel fringe. I used the refine edge tool and it worked out wonderfully. The next time i do this project I need to focus on matching the colors and tones. I noticed the mountain does stand out strangely because my color got off. I would like to use the refine edge tool again. It really helps me get the image out without and problems (usually). What I drew from this was that instructions are fir helping and shouldn't limit you. Overall I liked this project, it was very creative and fun.

Starbucks Dive

After finishing this picture I have noticed that I have gotten faster and have been using more shortcut keys. I used the Quick selection tool and rendered it to get the diver. 

Summer Nights

Just finished up another random Photoshop project. I found this picture (bottom picture) and thought it would look cool if I made it look like she was at the beach still sitting on her couch. I added a few extra touches, like a marble sparkly background and lowered the opacity to make a "filter" to make the images come together. Overall I think its pretty cool looking. If you have any questions or comments leave me note down in the comments box. 

Angel

With this project I just wanted to add a singular thing father than take the object of focus and put it on a new background, If you look below you can see the original image and how it was changed. 

Shadow

This was a simple project, Once you extracted the image from its original background it was fairly simple. I decided to use an image I had already been working on. I mostly used the Quick selection and magic wand tools. Next step was adding the shadow. This step was insanely easy. it took me less than 5 minutes to do. I already knew how to do it so it was a quick and fun tutorial to do. Finally I added the background. Overall I didn't have much trouble with pixel fringe because of all the tools we have already learned how to use.

       Started out with just the plain black background with the two dancers and then I changed it up a lot by removing the plain background and replacing it with a canyon and finally added water ripples and the large splash at there feet to symbolize the movements. I also decided to go with a black and white tone to make there stance to seem almost sad. I really like how this turned out. It took me awhile to decide on what I wanted to do with this but I am glad this is the direction I took. If you have any comments or questions feel free to leave them in to comments box

More random photoshop

This was just a quick photoshop project I did because I had some extra time, most of the time I worked on finding the right image to fit the idea I had in mind. Took me about 2 class periods to finish off. It was a lot of layers to work with and special effects to make it fade out to white shine on the top.  I think my favorite feature is the hands in the background, it really draws in the attention.

Flowers

I had some extra time in Video so I made some text art. The word "Hana" is Flower in Japanese, thus the flower style this has. It took about 50 minutes, mostly because I wanted to try out the different effects photoshop has to offer. This was a pretty fun way to pass my free time.

90 Second Video

   This is a short version of my "Safe and Sound" music video. My most recent assignment was to take my already completed music video, and make it 90 seconds long. I made a few major changes to make this work and I also did some color adjustments to make the video flow better.
    I really like how this turned out. The shortened clips made the videos pace a lot better. The flow also improved because I made the transitions match up with the beat of the song.
   There were a few clips where the color was off due to the different lighting. I didn't have time to fix it the first time around but this was my chance to fix it. I fixed about 5 to 6 clips that really needed to match up. Next time I film and start editing I definitely need to remember to keep the color of the lighting about the same.

   I think this was very helpful because it made me realize that I had a lot of extra time in the shots that I didn't need. I will definitely use these skills next time I get a project.

Spheres form Illustrator and Photoshop

   The first sphere I made was the illustrator sphere, I used this tutorial to make it. I first watched the tutorial and then began to use some of the same steps that he had used. But instead of the same concept I changed it completely. I made a different pattern and instead of the glowing effect I gave it a simple american flag look with all the stars and stripes.

  The next sphere I made was the photoshop one. I used this tutorial. Unlike the illustrator project I stayed on track and made exactly what the tutorial wanted. The reason for this is that I am unfamiliar with photoshop and still need a lot of work to become use to it enough to take a more creative approach. 

   I did notice a lot of similarities with photoshop and illustrator but there were also many many differences. One of the main differences was the way they operate. Photoshop, to me, seemed more like you were actually drawing. While illustrator was a lot more stiff with more rules. It doesn't have as much free hand like I am use to but it still was simple to use. The next thing I noticed was there were more helpful tools in illustrator. I think in time wise illustrator is the better choice as long as your project doesn't need much detail. photoshop depends a lot more on the persons skill level and experience, making it the more difficult program. 

Safe and Sound Music Video

  I learned the importance of reviewing my shots before we stop filming. In some of the main shots I noticed small things missing like Brendon's backpack, the judges not in the audience, and other things. They may not be big and noticeable but when they happen a lot it makes your video look bad.
  Some things I will work on next time is definitely getting some unique shots into the mix. I felt like the shots I have been filming tend to be a little boring. I did enjoy the first person view that I did with the lights. It gave off a shiny effect that looked really pretty. I plan on adding more quality shots like this in the future.
  I really enjoyed my group this time. It was a group of fun loving people who were really easy to get along with. I do think we could have been more productive with our filming but I can always work on this next time.
  The process was to film, edit, then post. seems simple but it was a difficult experience. I am just glad I had such friendly people to work with.

Photoshop Sphere

This red sphere was made in Photoshop and it was a bit more difficult to make. I prefer illustrator for making 3D objects while I think photoshop is better for adding details. With this sphere I changed up the tutorial a bit. Instead of having the shadow in the center I moved i to the side so that it looks like it is resting on something. Next I made my sphere a lighter color and added 2 highlighted spots.

Red Sphere

This was a simple project where all we had to do was make a red sphere with a transparent shadow. All I had to do was add the gradient of red to black and angle in the correct way. Next I did a similar steps to make the shadow. One thing that I didn't know how to do originally was how to make a circular gradient. Finally I signed my name and screen shotted the entire project.

Logo Sketches

   So to start my creative process of creating a logo I had to sketch out some rough drafts. If you look I tended to focus on a circular design even though I did try using a square and triangle. I experimented with different perspectives and abstract designs. I did end up going with the badge deign since it seemed to be the most clean cut and most visually attractive one.

Black and White Logo

This is just my personal logo changed to a black and white version. The reason for the change is to test and see if my logo still is visually appealing in a different color scheme. To me I think it still looks nice. The white is a lot more dramatic and makes the logo pop.

Google Logo

   The official Google logo was designed by Ruth Kedar. It was based on the Catull typeface, an old style serif typeface. In 1998, Sergey Brin created a computerized version of the Google letters using the free graphics program GIMP. On May 6, 2010, the Google logo just got slightly redesigned, changing its “o” color from yellow to orange and removing the drop shadow which created a rather ugly imbalance all these years. 
   Google tends to keep things simple. To make things exciting google changes its logo on various occasions like festivals, important holidays, tribute to famous people. They are called Google Doodles. 

Logo Version 2

This was the 2nd version of my personal logo, I used some of the skills that I learned with my last logo and applied them to this one. I changed it up so it had more of an abstract look to it. I used 2 main shapes, circles and squares, to make this. I like the more free-style font rather then the more business look. This logo is a lot less serious and more carefree and colorful.

My Personal Logo

 

 So I finally finished my logo and this is how it turned out! I used a tutorial that I talked about in my last post to make this. I did add some extra touches such as the color scheme and the star in the center.
   My process started out with sketches, I worked through some basic ideas to get me started on making this logo. The next thing I had to do was apply my ideas to illustrator. To make my ideas work I looked up a tutorial, the link is here.
   The reason I added the star was because I felt the logo itself was kind of plain so an extra element was needed. I then looked through the tools. My original idea was to use a heart but once I saw the star tool I knew that would look amazing.
   The color palate was a mix of my favorite colors. I took three different shades of blue to add depth the the ribbon. then for the center I used white for the details to give it a classy look. The center part to the star was accidental because I originally was going to make the center of the star the same color as the rest of the green but the slightly different shade made the accent pop and made the other color choices blend well together.
   Something I really need to work on is my knowledge of shortcuts. Several times I had to stop mid-work and google how to find a specific tool to continue with my creative process.
   I enjoyed this project because of the creative freedom. I had a lot of fun working with the program illustrator because it is new to me and there is a lot of different things I can do with it. I look forward to my next creative project like this.

The tutorial I used

The video I watched was found on youtube and it is called 

"Illustrator Vector Badge" on the channel Elias Sarantopoulos

This video showed me step by step how to make a badge like logo. I enjoyed this tutorial because the shape of the logo was a circular shape which goes well with the idea I wanted. This was a simple idea which is visually appealing on many levels. The video had a man speaking to you explaining each step. I think this is a very easy tutorial to do.

The Chase

      This project was called the chase. I spent 3 days filming over 30 shots. I had some difficulties this time around but I think I worked them out.
      The most important thing I learned was to always save your footage on the server. I ran into a few problems with the clips I filmed. I ended having to redo half of my video to get things right.
      For the next project I do I plan on being more sat with my footage so I don't have to go through this headache again.
      The collaboration for this project was a lot different from the last two. in the last two we were doing our own separate videos but with this one we had to work together to get the same shots and make a story. I think coming up with the story was the hardest part. We spent an entire class time working on just the story board.
     I think if I want to improve collaboration I will need to say my mind more often. I think some of my ideas could have saved us a lot of time.
     Overall though I believe that we did well with this project and despite my difficulties it turned out pretty good. I am excited to work on more difficult and trying projects.

My Font

       To find out the font that best fits me I went to this website: http://www.pentagram.com/what-type-are-you/ I was asked a four questions about my personality to which I answered; I am Rational, Understated, Progressive, and Disciplined. With these answers I received the font Courier. 
        Courier isn't the most modern or elegant font. It is well suited for documents that needs to look as if they were created using a typewriter. It is also a good choice if you need an old-style government or bureaucratic look. Basically Courier is a classic font. 

Two Six Shot Sequences

With this project we made a video with two six shot sequences. I learned how to make the video flow better and look more natural. I also figured out how to change the color balance so that all the clips look like they match up.  These were only just a few of the many things I figured out.

For my next project I will try to make my storyboard flow better. I have had some problems with making the sequences make sense. I will also try to get the color balance more accurate. I feel like these things will enhance my next project tremendously.

The textbook definition of collaboration is “the action of working with someone to produce or create something.” In my own words I think collaboration is working with another person to make something you both will be proud of. In this project I had to work with Bryce to make my video. He was very considerate and easy to work with. Without his help I could not have finished this project.

2 Complimentary Objects

So this is the final product of our Creative Complementary Objects. 

      I decided to make my complementary objects nail polish and mirror because they both have to do with beauty.
      I learned how to correctly and efficiently use adobe illustrator. At first I found this project to be difficult because I was not acquainted with the program. But after a few tries and some help from my neighbor I was able to start to understand the program. I had a lot of problems with my gradient at first but with the shortcut "G" it was much more easy to do it.
   

The next tool I learned how to use was the "shape" tools. They were not entirely difficult to use which was nice.
    I enjoyed the last step of the product because it had the most creative freedom. I looked at a simple image then used its basic shape to create nail polish and a mirror.

                        This is the first project I did in illustrator. It had a lot more creative boundary then the other two projects but I think it was a good starter to get us back into the swing of things. 

6 shot sequence

 

The newest thing we learned in class was the six shot sequence. we learned how to correctly film 6 different shot angles.
          The first shot is known as the Extra Close up, it is abbreviated with XCU. Its mostly used to focus on a single body part (hands, feet, ext)
          The next shot is Over the Shoulder, abbreviated as OTS. Its job is to show what the person is doing.
          Next is the close up, also known as CU. Its job is to answer who it is,  who the person is that you are filming.
         The Medium shot, MS, is when you film a person from the waist up.
         The next shot is Wide shot, WS, This shows what the person is doing.
         The final shot is Extra Wide shot, XWS, this sets the scene.

What I learned from this is how to correctly apply Camera shots to make a good video.
      I can use these new skills to make a quality videos in the future. You can't make something amazing without building up from the basics.

What is Graphic Design?

So.. What is Graphic Design ?

Graphic Design is the combinating of text, pictures, typography, and white spaces to communicate to the viewer. Its commonly used in advertisements and graphic design is all around you. Its in the signs in the streets and in the sodas that you drink.It's an Art and a Skill. Graphic design is communication.