Holy Shiitake!

NM3223 Assignment 3: Urban fantasy

A super overdue post because I couldn’t find time to redo my assignment 3 until now. Anyway, the theme is Urban fantasy. My first instinctive idea was to realize my fantasies in a urban setting. At this point in time, my fantasies are a mix of dance-battles, animes, hell-ish and gore related elements. I would love to create a dance related story whereby each character represent each genre of dance and be able to unleash mysterious powers with them, using them in battles against one another.

I then began to put them together into what I call the “Dance Off from Beyond”, affectionately coined after one of the local dance crews “Styles from Beyond”. This was the first attempt:

The idea was to make this street dance army that rises from the dead at night and takes over. One difficulty I met while creating this photomontage was that, while Dance is a verb, the photos are static, I can’t remove the feeling that my army are not dancing but are somewhat “posing”. And furthermore, the first try did not bring across the “urban” notion at all. 

here comes the second one:

Version 2 is improved in terms of bringing the idea of “army” and “urban” across. And the army seems more powerful in taking over the night as they literally fill up the streets. I had luck in finding the background stock image that uses a distorted fish- eye effect that gives the viewer a feeling of smallness and fear. 

I used smudge tool and blur filter to create the sense of motion for the giant, making it seem like it sprang out of nowhere and looming over everyone else. 

I learnt a lot from creating this photomontage from various photoshop tutorial sources, and learnt to position subjects on backgrounds to make them look cohesive by using vanishing lines. 

Stock photos that I have used in the second version are as follows:

NM3223 Assignment 2

This assignment is about the ketai phenomena, how it being so ubiquitous and advanced so far that it’s sub-feature, the ketai camera has dealt a heavy impact on photography. 

My concept is to highlight how the ubiquity existence of camera phones altogether with mobile apps that enables the user to apply different filters to express their “perspectives”. Using a method that is similar to photo-collage, I took photos of objects from different angles and applied different filters, and pieced them together using Photoshop. 

uitous ex

NM3223 Class Exercise 2: Photoshop

In today’s tutorial, we went through a couple of techniques useful for creating a collage. I honestly learnt quite a couple of new tricks which I am excited to use in the assignment. 

For selection purposes, I normally use the Rectangle Marquee Tool first, to select the required area and “inverse select” to delete the unneeded parts or by “Layer via Copy/Cut” to get the wanted area onto another layer. This step is to allow me to focus working on a smaller area. 

Some times the most frustrating selection to make is when using the Magic Wand Tool to remove unwanted colors, most of the time when the unwanted colors are interlaced with wanted ones, and it takes a lot of effort and time to slowly delete by enlarging the photo and remove by treating small patches of pixels. 

Today I learnt new and more efficient ways of doing such selections by using Quick Select Tool *new in CS5 (yay!) and tweaking the Refining Edge (see video). 

Also, the adjustment layers (which I have been using) are made more clear in distinction against adjustments local to the image itself. Basically the adjustment layer increases flexibility in editing photos without changing the pixels of the original file, while making local adjustments is “destructive” as it changes the actual pixels themselves and if saved, will not get back the original image anymore. 

Lastly we discussed about blend modes, which I have been using quite often but without understanding of the theory behind. Most of the time I just go by gut feeling and try out the different blend modes and see which one looks best. After some research, here’s what I learnt:

Blend mode applies when there are more than one layer.

Normal Mode is when the layers interact with each at 100% opacity, just like 2 opaque objects on top of one another, areas covered are not seen.

Dissolve: makes the lower layer take the color of the upper layer, effect is only seen when there’s some degree of transparency in the upper layer. 

Darken: displays the darker color between the two layers

Multiply: darkens the lower layer based on the upper layer. white becomes transparent

Color Burn: burns the color of the upper layer into the lower layer

Linear Burn: intense version of multiply

Lighten: inverse of darken

Screen: inverse of multiply

Color Dodge: dodges lower layer with colors of upper layer 

Linear Dodge: like screen but more intense

Overlay: multiplies the light colors and screens the dark ones

Soft Light: multiply dark tones and screen light tones

Hard Light: multiply dark colors and screen light colors

Vivid Light: dodges or burns the lower layer pixels depending on whether the upper layer pixels are brighter or darker than neutral gray. It works on the contrast of the lower layer.

Linear Light: same as Vivid Light but it works on the brightness of the lower layer instead.

Pin Light: changes the lower layer pixels depending on how bright the pixels are in the upper layer. It acts like Multiply when the upper layer color is darker than neutral gray, and acts like screen if the upper layer color is lighter than neutral gray.

Difference: acts on the difference between pixels in the lower and upper layer, larger the difference lighten the color, small differences darken the color

Exclusion: uses the darkness of the lower layer to mask the difference between the upper and lower layers

Assignment 6

This assignment we are supposed to convey meaning using typefaces. I chose the chorus from the song Clarity by Shawn Mcdonald. 

I need clarity and truth to be, and peace to make me whole. I need freedom to come, hate to be done. And Love to guide my soul.

I used a simple font for the word “clarity”, with a clear blue color and a top-down reflection to bring out the “clear” feel of the word. 

For the word “truth”, because it is so abstract, I have no idea how to make a non-English speaker get it, but I used a combined layer of three fonts spelling out the word to symbolize the multi-faceted nature of “truth”.

“Peace” i think the pigeon and the warm colors should convey the meaning. 

And “to make me whole” I intended a person to hug the three words to bring out the “wholeness”, but left only the arms so that the top of the picture does not look too cluttered. 

Then “freedom” — butterfly, “hate” — blood, to bring out the general feelings associated with the word. 

Thereafter, “Love”, I tried to make it less cliche by placing the words “love” into the heartshape, kind of combining too cliches so that it end up not so. 

Assignment 5 POSTCARDS

This assignment is about using colors to convey information. I did 6 different color scheme based on weather and climate. 

Please comment thank you!

Assignment 4

In this assignment we had to create a poster regarding some health issues. I chose to do on Anorexia nervosa because I had read about it recently and I feels strongly towards this health issue. People with anorexia have severe self-image problem, such that despite the extreme lack of body fats they still perceive themselves to be in need of slimming treatment. And the fact that this self-image issue is perpetuated and rooted in the pop culture of glamorizing the skinny-beauty is disturbing because not only are teenage girls dying to be skinny, models and celebrities are fast becoming horrifyingly skinny in an attempt to stay on top of their career. Anorexia is commonly a female illness because women are putting their health on the line ultimately for the fleeting attention of men. I feel that this way of sacrificing health for superficial beauty and attention is undermining the value of life and the resources they are provided with. 

This is the poster I came up with. Honestly, I took the original photo off the internet, because I could not find a model who would want to pose half-naked for me even if it’s just the back I want. But I painstakingly took hours to photoshop it into what you see, so technically I am not free-riding. I am still looking for models, so this post is to be updated in time to come.

During the class critique session, comments about the tagline at the bottom of the poster was that, it is rather random and does not fit the theme. Further, if that was to be the main tagline, then it would make more sense if there was a mirror in the poster. Which I think is rather true, the two taglines do seem to be vying for attention.

The initial idea was to combine the slimmed-down photo with a skeleton on the back to induce fear, but due to the lack of photoshop skills, the skeleton appear more like a fearsome tattoo than protruding bones. In the end, I compromised to let it make the back look as unhealthy as possible. I played around with the blending options in the layers to achieve the desired effects, and I found it a very useful tool. 

To be updated.

Assignment 2

In this assignment, we had to abstract our idea from assignment 1 in 5 steps, and choose one that both combines simplicity and information to be on our business card.

I instinctively chose volleyball over dance, because dance is something I am just picking up, I don’t feel the that much attachment to it compared to volleyball which I am very passionate about.

(200 word writeup)

“B.V Pte Ltd” will be the name of my company, it of course stands for “Beach Volleyball”, not a very creative name but it really is the essence of the company. BV deals with everything beach volleyball, from apparel to equipments, events to competitions; our name will appear anywhere where there is beach volleyball.

Sales side, we have our own beach sportswear line especially for beach volleyball. Check out our patented “Anti-slip” bikini, which you can wear worry-free and enjoy the game whole-heartedly while being in style. We also carry brands such as Swatch and Mikasa to offer a wider range of choices to our customers.

On the other hand, we undertake events and oversee competitions; we provide the best trained professionals to umpire, line-judge for all volleyball games. We also hold our own annual BV championships every summer. There are two categories for all male, female and mixed teams, namely the Teenage category and the Adult category. Prizes are progressively more attractive due to the increased outreach of the championship where we have seen a steady increase in sign-ups from both categories over the years.

My job as a business executive allows me to meet more beach volleyball enthusiasts, and it has been an enriching experience. We head down for a game whether our business deals come through or fall short. All in the name of Beach Volleyball!

There are some further editing to do about my assignment because I initially missed out one step of the abstraction, and from peer critique I have gotten a rather good idea to implement. 

To b

The one chosen is the third one because it is dynamic and tells the objective of the company and more aesthetically appealing than the subsequent ones. 

And the actual name card will look like:

Updated 17/09/2010