Blog Entry #10: Flash Banner

During the last view weeks, our computer class has been working with Adobe Flash. Recently, our class has created an ad banner. We created this to show and understand how to create a movie in flash and an animation for anything we would want to represent in the future. I created mine on U of L volleyball because my sister plays for them (in white) and recently they have just moved from not only performing at Cardinal Arena, but also at KFC YUM CENTER! This image in the ad banner shows what you are missing out on! So, come see! You will enjoy the experience!
The way I developed this banner was very challenging, but it came out to be a success. The different tools I used helped me create this banner in many ways. I used  tools from Photoshop and Flash. Most of the tools from Photoshop were used to edit the image in general, while Flash is used to mostly create the animation.
One tool I used from Photoshop was the text tool. After I opened my image in Photoshop, I added the text to give it more affect. Another tool I used in Photoshop was changing the image size by going to image > image size. The image size changed in Photoshop then matched my stage size in Flash. Now that the size is the same, I used the align tool in Adobe Flash for it to be aligned in the stage vertically centered and horizontally centered. Before aligning it, I imported the image by importing to the stage. This was another tool used in Flash.
Beginning the animation all started by changing how fast you wanted it to be. This is known as the frame rate. I changed the frame rate by going to modify > document > frame rate. As you can see, when the banner moves, you get a bit of a blur. This was done by changing the blur filters. The blur filter determines on how blurry you want the image within the animation. Making the blur to go away had to do with the movie itself and the classic tween and key frame. When creating a classic tween or motion tween, you are creating the animation itself. Creating a key frame signifies that something is going to happen at that point. While making this a movie, I had to make sure flash knew it was. If you go to insert > new symbol, you can change the animation from being just a graphic or an image to a movie clip, which allows the animation to do what it does. The last tool I used in was adjusting the filter color. I did this by going the filters tab which should appear on the right hand side in Adobe Flash. Adjusting the filter color changed the contrast and brightness of the image. As you can see in the animation, the picture changes a little bit in its contrast. All these tools used helped me create the banner I had created above!
If I can do it, then you can too! Adobe Flash creates many things that anyone can create. It is challenging, but yet it is fun. If you ever are interested, then you can always look at some tutorials on what to do!

Blog #9: Photo Editing Tutorials

This week we worked on our last project using Photoshop. We worked on photo editing in Photoshop. Each group had the choice on what they wanted to work on. There were different options such as turn a portrait photo into a color sketch, ghost an image, and how to create light and shadow. In this case my group decided to do how to make your photo look like a retro picture. This idea came from google, How to Create A Retro Analog Effect Using Photoshop. This was very challenging. While it was challenging, it was very fun to work with! Below is the picture my group and I used to work on, and what it turned out to be after we made it look like a retro picture.

                   Before                                       After                           

                                                                             

While creating this retro picture, it took certain steps. We did the following steps:

1.       Add a curves adjustment layer by going to Layer, new adjustment layers, curves.

2.       Go to the drop down menu by going to layer, new adjustment layer, drop down menu. This tool allows us to begin manipulating the curves.

3.       Change the drop down menu to the red channel. Tweak the line into an S shaped bend.

4.       Now, change the drop down menu to the green channel. Increase the green mid tones by creating a large flowing bend in the lone. Do this by, moving the line up.

5.       Change the drop down menu to the blue channel. Add an S shaped bend and move the start and end points above and below the original curves  lines.

6.       Create new layer.

7.       Use the paint bucket, and fill the picture with magenta.

8.       Changing the blending mode to soft light instead of normal in the layers bar.

9.       Depending on the color of magenta used, change the opacity to tone down the effect. In this case, we reduced the opacity of the layer to 73%.

10.   Select all. Go to edit, copy merged.

11.   Create new layer

12.   Go to edit, paste. This paste the picture on your new layer.

13.   Add a Gaussian blur do this by going to filter, blur, Gaussian blur.

14.   Press OK.

15.   Add a layer mask to the blur layer. Do this by clicking the third button from your right in the layers bar.

16.   Use a small black brush by using the brush tool to erase the blurring from the main objects leaving spot of blurring from the edges and in the background.

17.   Create new layer.

18.   In the swatches at the bottom, change the color to red.

19.   Using a LARGE soft brush dab red spots on the corners of your picture. We reduced our opacity to 20%.

20.   Go to layer, flatten image.

21.   Go to filter, lens corrections.

22.   Click custom.

23.   Under vignette, slide it towards darken.

24.   Create a new layer

25.   Change the color to whites in the swatches at the bottom.

26.   Using a large brush from the brush tool, dab a large spot of white in the center of the canvas to highlight the main objects.

27.   Change this to soft light instead of new in the layers bar.

28.   Create a new layer.

29.   Using the paint bucket, fill it with black.

30.   Go to filter, noise, add noise. Give the noise layer a slight Gaussian blur to take the edge off the noise particles.

31.   Press OK.

32.   Change the blending mode to screen instead of normal.

33.   Reduce your opacity to 15%

34.   You have a retro picture!

Since you have seen what can be done to your own picture, go give your photo a retro analog effect using Photoshop!



Blog #8: AD Design

So, you probably think in computer class it has been all about Photoshop for a while now. Well, it is! Recently, we have been working on our own advertisement using the logo we created, shown on Blog #7. In the bottom right corner of my advertisement is the logo I created. Enjoy the advertisement, and Mercy Volleyball enjoys your support!

This advertisement has a lot to express. My meaning is to show here at Mercy Academy we have an amazing athletic program, including the volleyball program. So, I created this advertisement looking the way it does to catch the audience's attention faster. In my opinion, I think the volleyball background makes it all because it tells the audience right away it is about volleyball.

Creating this advertisement has been challenging, but at the same time it has taught me a lot using a lot of different tools in Photoshop. In this project, I used 10 tools in Photoshop. One tool I used was the scaling tool. As I opened the volleyball in the background to Photoshop it was smaller than it is now. So, I went to edit, transform, scale, as it changed the size of it. This wasn't the only tool I used with the volleyball background. As you can probably tell, the color of it is not all the way showing. Well, as I changed it I used the opacity tool. This tool can fade the color of the object or text you are wanting to change. Another tool used in my advertisement was the select tool. As I selected the volleyball on one slide I moved it to the other where I was working on my advertisement. The select tool is very similar to the move tool because as you select your item you can move it to wherever on the page. Well, I did not move the volleyball this time, I moved my text after I typed it. So, how did I type this text? I used the text tool. The text tool creates a text box to where you can type the text you would like. On my advertisement there is plenty of text, and it was created by using the text tool. Some text isn't exactly straight. This is because I rotated it by using the rotate tool. I went to edit, transform, and rotate. This lets you rotate the text you have selected in whatever direction you choose. Now it all comes down to color. To get the color blue I used the swatches tool in Photoshop to select the color I wished to use. In this case, I chose blue and black with those being the Mercy Academy school colors. At one point I didn't have to keep going back to the swatches to select my color. I used the eyedropper. The eyedropper is when you click the color you have already on something, it will match that color for you to use again, as I did in my advertisement. Do you see any other tools that could have been used? Well, if you look closely enough I also used the line tool. I used the line to draw a straight line to separate the date and times of the camp. Not only did I just use the line tool, but I used the color swatches to make the line blue as well. In Photoshop every time you create something you should always flatten your image. This is the last tool I used. Flattening your image deletes the layers you have and will keep it the way you have it to where you can not go back and make any changes. If all these tools weren't used in my advertisement, my ad design would not be as creative as it is.

Go use Photoshop! Make your own advertisement because one day it might come to good use.

Blog Entry #7: Logo

Recently in class we have created  a logo representing a club or program that currently does not have a logo. I have created my own logo on mercy volleyball. Below is an example of a logo represented by eBay. Then next to is the logo I created.

                    eBay's Logo                           My Logo (Mercy Volleyball)

My logo's purpose is to represent Mercy Volleyball. If you did not know, Mercy Academy in Louisville, Kentucky has a mascot known as the jaguars. That is why there is a jaguar paw, and the 'o' in volleyball is a volleyball.

The colors I used represent Mercy Academy's school colors. I found this very unique because it brings the spirit in the school and shows others what Mercy represents.

This logo I created uses many elements of design. My logo uses movement. Movement is the use of lines, colors, and repetition to create the illusion of motion. My logo shows this because you can see the volleyball over lapping the paw on the jaguar paw. It shows a sense of movement. Another element of design that I used was shape. The paw is an enclosed object with color used as well. So many elements of design can be used through making your own logo through Photoshop.

Can you create your own logo? Try it! It is fun, exciting, and you learn through it.

Blog Entry #6: Reflection on my "Perfect" Body Image

Recently in my Mercy Computer Graphics class, we have been working with Photoshop. As you all have seen the collage before, we have started something in what we call our "perfect" body image. In, our "perfect" body image, we take a picture looking natural. In another words, without make-up. With the picture we take, we photoshop it (adding make-up, remove blemishes, etc.), and add it to a celebrity's face to make our "perfect" body image. Shown below is what I call my "perfect" body image. I have placed my face on Selena Gomez's face after being edited in Photoshop.

                                        Before                                     After
  

                            

While working with Photoshop, there are certain things you think and feel after the finished project. For example, I feel very confident on the way my image turned out. With some struggles, I feel the picture turned out looking very natural.

You look at magazine covers today and say to yourself, "I think he/she is so pretty." Now that I have my own experience with Photoshop I now have totally different perspective. I now think to myself, "What does he/she look like naturally?" Magazines have very good examples of Photoshop. It shows you how magazine publishers changes the person's picture just to receive more attention by the fans and people who see the magazines picture in the store. With this experience, it tells you the view of today's view of the "perfect" body image. It catches your attention more than it really should.

While working with my "perfect" body image, I have the good things I did good on and the things I could defiantly improve on. One thing I believe I did good on is matching my face features to the Selena Gomez's. For example, I made sure my eyes fit to her eyes and my chin matched hers. Another thing I think I did good on is using the lasso tool to drag my face to the celebrity's and using the eraser to line it with her face. There are a few things I could defiantly improve on. One thing I could improve on is matching the skin tones. I think this because changing the opacity worked a little, but didn't turn out as good as it could have been. Another thing I could improve on is whitening my teeth. I could have done one tooth at a time, but I tried doing it all at once and left the space between each tooth.

So, what is your perspective on pictures on magazines now? Did this change your opinion or did your opinion never change? Photoshop brings a lot of differences to a persons body image, and that is what I have demonstrated above.

Blog Entry #5: "A Day in the Life of A Mercy Student" Collage

"Where girls with dreams become women of vision." This Mercy Academy slogan describes where each and every student comes from at Mercy Academy.

To your right, is a collage in what we call, "A Day in the Life of A Mercy Student." As I created this collage, I wouldn't have been able to done it without photoshop. Photoshop is a program where you can edit different kinds of photos and use different tools to make that photo look better than it did before. In my collage I used different kinds of tools. One tool I used was combining images. Combining images allows you to take 3 different pictures and make them into one. To make the combining images tool work you have to make sure the 3 images have a least 40% of the last picture taken overlapped. Also when you are taking the 3 images, do not move your feet, but turn your body. The picture I used the "combining images" tool on is the long picture of Catherine McAuley. Another tool used was scaling each picture by using the layers tools. The scaling tool allows you to resize your picture to the size you wish it to be. I used this tool on every picture in the collage. Another tool I used was the lasso tool. This tool let me get the picture to a shape I wanted it cropped to. As you can see this tool was used on a mercy student walking with her shadow, and of the two mercy students walking down the staircase. On some pictures, such as the Cathrine McAuley picture and the picture of the two students walking down the staircase was cropped. The crop tools let's me get the part of the picture I wish to use. This tool unlike the lasso tool stays a rectangle, and does not change the shape of the picture like the lasso tool did. Lastly, another tool I used in my collage was the magic wand tool. This is a selection tool that allowed me to darken the picture of the two students praying in the chapel.

This collage doesn't only use photoshop tools, but as well as photography elements we have learned in the couple past weeks. Elements used were picture in motion and rules of thirds. A picture in motion used was the picture of the two mercy students walking down the staircase. A picture that uses rules of thirds was the Cathrine McAuley picture. While the top of the statues head in intersected by the top line, it shows how rules of thirds works.

So as I have just explained how Photoshop and photography of elements are used, we can conclude that I have learned many important aspects of Photoshop and why picture taking can be important in some ways.

Blog Entry #4: Elements Of Photography

Good Composition is a key element of good photographs yet is something that is hard to define.
In elements of photography, there are certain kinds of elements or compositions to make a photo what it is. Below, I have described and gave examples of 3 elements of photography.

1. Rules Of Thirds

I will say right up front however that rules are meant to be broken and ignoring this one doesn’t mean your images are necessarily uninteresting. The basic principle behind the 'rule of thirds' is to imagine breaking an image down into thirds so that you have 9 parts. The picture (on right) shows how 'rules of thirds' works.

The photograph above demonstrates 'rules of thirds' because the upper horizontal line divides the hat of the character from the head. The top middle intersection separates the head of the character from the body. This photograph aligns this character within the guide lines and intersection points.

 2.Picture In Motion

Pictures in motion is another element of photography. When a picture is in motion, there has to be space given in front to demonstrate it as a 'picture in motion'.

The photograph to the right is a picture of my sister (in black) playing volleyball. As I took this picture she was passing the ball, therefore she was in motion. The shadow shows the space given which illustrates it as the element of photography...'picture in motion'.

3. Simplicity

Another element of photography is simplicity. Simplicity can also be known as simple. In photography, simplicity shows a simple picture in which there is nothing but an object. For example, the photograph to the left emphasizes simplicity because as the rock lays on the hardwood floor, the hardwood floor is the background within the picture. The rock is the main object within its background.

What can we say now about elements or compositions of photography? There is much more to learn, but for now, as we can see, there can be pictures you take everyday of your life; in some way that one picture can demonstrate some type of element of photography. So next time you take a picture ask yourself, "What does this picture represent?"