In these past weeks we have been working with Adobe Animate. In that time I created the monster gif you can see above from a tutorial. I do not consider Animate to be one of my favorite programs. I encountered many frustrating problems when using it. The first was my trouble in creating shapes. The monster we were making was not made up of any common shapes, which forced me to use the pen tool. I quickly found the pen tool in Animate operated differently from the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator. The pen tool in Animate had a tendency to to create more angular shapes. This did not compliment the organic look of the monster. The pen tool also had a tendency to count lines as separate even if they were connected. Still, the pen tool wasn’t responsible for the most time consuming problems. That honour goes to the way the program operated. When I say that I don’t mean the interface or how it was organized. I didn’t really have any trouble getting used to it or figuring out how it worked. The problems arose when I made mistakes. In other programs I have used, like Photoshop and Illustrator, mistakes can be easily remedied if they happen. I cannot say the same for illustrate. There were a lot of opportunities to mess up, and when I did, it would often be a while until I noticed it. Thus, I would usually be forced to go back several steps to fix it. Luckily, I never had to restart, but I did lose a large amount of time. Most of the time I could see what I had done, but other times it seemed like the program had a mind of its own. I remember one of the eyebrows began jittering about for seemingly no reason. This forced me to do the eyebrows all over again to fix it.
In the end, my first experience with Animate was rather frustrating. Still, I ended up with a good result, and I hope to get more familiar with this program.
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Idle animations have always interested me. I remember an afternoon spent discussing with a friend what the idle animations of people we knew would be if they were characters in a video game. When thinking of idle animations in games I have played, only one game comes to mind. It was this game that sparked the discussion I mentioned at the beginning of this post—Lego Dimensions. Lego Dimensions was a game that brought together many different worlds, including Batman, Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Beetlejuice and the Lego Movie. All the characters had multiple different idle animations. They would also say different things depending on which characters were present. I loved these idle animations and sayings because most, if not all of them, were references to things in the movies or shows the characters were from. The Batman from the Lego Batman Movie would take out a guitar at times, as he played a guitar in the movie. Betelgeuse would spin his head around, which, unsurprisingly, he does in the movie. One of the more interesting characters for idle animations was the the Doctor from Doctor who. While there are currently 13 Doctors, at the time, there were only twelve. Therefore, within one character, there were twelve, and each had, not only their own way of standing, their own weapons, their own phrases, but their own idle animations. Unfortunately, I don’t remember all of them, but I do remember some. The Twelfth Doctor would occasionally take out a blackboard and write on it. The Tenth Doctor would, at times, put on 3-D glasses, or build some gadget. The idle animations were extremely important in lending a different personality to each Doctor, and beyond that, each character.
Couture, Joel. “What Makes a Great Idle Animation? Devs Share Their Favorites.” Gamasutra: The Art & Business of Making Games, UBM, 21 May 2018, gamasutra.com/view/news/318163/What_makes_a_great_idle_animation_Devs_share_their_favorites.php. At first glance, the image above appears relatively normal. A closer look will reveal a strange figure standing in the background. This is one of many photos I have editing to add such a monster. All of the edited photos were taken sometime in my recent life during a memorable event. This features the most obvious example of editing. In some of the other photos, the figure is so small it can’t even be seen without zooming in.
I suppose I should’ve begun with why I made these. In short, they were made for my own amusement. The monster was a character created by me and my friends. It became a running joke, and I decided I should use my new knowledge of Photoshop to bring it to life. Now that I’m past explaining the motivation behind Photoshopping such a monster, I can explain how I did so. The actual design of the monster was something I created around two years ago. Luckily, it was fairly simple and easy to recreate in Photoshop. All I had to do was paint a black figure, blur it, and add a little inner glow and a fair amount of outer glow. It seems easy, but, sadly, it wasn’t always so. Sometimes I had trouble painting the figure in a way that looked humanoid yet monstrous. Still, I was able to get past that fairly easily. The hardest part in creating these images was making the one you see up above. It was the first image I edited the figure into. Unlike the other images, I traced over an existing figure to create the monster. It seems easy enough, But I found I needed the monster to be thinner than the person it was traced over. In order to keep the original figure hidden, I spent a while using the clonestamp to erase parts of him that were showing through. After a lot of work, I was able to make the picture look all right. In the end, I managed to use Photoshop to not only add a monster to old photos but create one all together using only tools in Photoshop. I think shows how versatile Photoshop is, and the ways someone like me can use it. Though it was only for personal amusement, I think this project expanded my knowledge of this program.
So far, we have mainly worked with two programs, Photoshop and Illustrator. Both are used to manipulate 2-D graphics, and both are similar in some ways, but, at the same time, are very different in others.
One of the main differences between the two programs is the type of image they can be used to make. Photoshop is bitmap-based, making it resolution dependent. This means it works with images made up of pixels. Illustrator is a vector-based program, which means it works with images that are resolution independent. For this reason Illustrator is better for making images that might be enlarged, like logos. Since vector images are resolution independent, they can be enlarged without losing quality. As the name suggests, Photoshop is better suited to editing photos and making more realistic graphics. Beyond the types of images they are used to create, there are differences in the way these programs operate. Many of the tools are different, and some of the tools that seem the same operate in different ways. Still, the layout is somewhat similar. I remember finding that learning Illustrator wasn’t particularly hard after learning Photoshop, which was likely a result of, among other things, the similar layout. Now that I’m familiar with both, I have no trouble going back and forth between them. They involve similar skills, which I think was helpful when I was learning to use Illustrator. While I enjoy working with both programs, I have used Photoshop more outside of class. I prefer working with it because I can make more realistic graphics. If I want to draw something, I generally prefer to do so on paper than in Illustrator. Still, Illustrator is preferable for making professional looking illustrations, though so far I haven’t really had a need for any. In the end, Photoshop and Illustrator differ greatly. Still, they are similar enough that it isn’t hard to learn one if you are familiar with the other.
Animation is a very interesting and complex art form. It requires an immense amount of work. I have had experience with animation in the past, but said experience was mostly limited to stop motion.
Stop motion animation has interested me for as long as I can remember. Several films I like utilize stop motion, whether they be animated or live action. There are many types of stop motion animation, the most popular of which may be claymation. Many of the stop motion films I like utilize complex puppets. Like any form of animation, it is extremely complicated and requires a lot of work. Unlike live action films, every scene, every shot, and every movement must be carefully pre-planned. Depending on what materials are being used, character building may end up being difficult. If the animation uses sets, they can end up being extremely complex and time-consuming to build. Lighting is extremely important. The actual shooting process involves taking pictures and slowly moving the characters, which is tedious work. Hours of work often results in only seconds of footage. While we haven’t been working with animation in DDA yet, we have acquired some skills that might help with animating. One thing that might be useful is knowledge of the production cycle, particularly pre-production phases, as planning is especially important in animation. Another is knowledge of composition and design. Photoshop and Illustrator could be used to create stills which in turn could be used to create animation. Thus, I am a little prepared for what is to come. In the end, though it will require a lot of work, I look forward to working with animation.
Maison, Jordan. “Stop Motion: A Step by Step Guide.” Videomaker, Videomaker, 3 May 2018, www.videomaker.com/article/f4/18027-stop-motion-a-step-by-step-guide. “What Is Stop Motion - Why Are Stop Motion Animation Movies so Popular..?” IKITMovie Stop Motion, IKITSystems Limited, 2018, www.ikitmovie.com/what-is-stop-motion/. Recently, we've begun working with Adobe Illustrator. In working with Illustrator, there are multiple struggles I’ve come across. The biggest issue at first was simply that it was different than Photoshop, which was what I was used to. Sometimes the way you did certain things you could also do in Photoshop was different. This made Illustrator a little hard to learn at first, but I was able to get used to it fairly quickly. One of the later problems I encountered was using completely unfamiliar tools. In creating the image above, I made use of some of these tools. I used the mesh tool to create the shading on the burger. It took me awhile to figure out how to use it, but once I figured it out, it didn’t take long for me to get the hang of it. The pen tool, on the other hand, was a different story. I managed to create the cheese and lettuce with it, but it took a while. It wasn’t hard to figure out how it worked, but it was, and still is for me, at least as of this post, hard to use. Hopefully as I work more with Illustrator, I will get used to it.
While some parts may be hard, I find Illustrator an enjoyable program to use. I like how I’m forced to use only shapes, which makes me think outside the box when trying to create something. It’s interesting to see what you can make in such a program. Illustrator could be used in pre-production of a game or film. It can be used to create concept art, which is something I hope to do with it. Overall, Illustrator is an interesting, and highly useful program. While parts may be hard, I enjoy using it.
So far I have learned a good deal in Digital Design and Animation I. I have learned about things like the elements and principles of design and compositional techniques. I have also learned about and explored Adobe Photoshop. I hope to take what I have learned and use it frequently outside of school.
One of my main interests is film. I can use a lot of what I have learned when making personal films. Compositional techniques are vastly important, as they are used by any good filmmaker. Before starting DDA I, I already knew some of these techniques, but my knowledge on them has expanded now. I can now use these techniques when composing shots. A greater knowledge of both the elements and the principles of design will also help when designing shots and other things. Photoshop will come in handy in many ways involving film. I can use it to create stills. I can also use it to make promotional pictures and posters. I can also use Photoshop in ways that don’t relate to film. I can use it to edit photographs. Even though we have moved past using photoshop in class, I might use it recreationally. I will probably colorize images, because I enjoy it a lot. These might be old images of musicians and like people, or old family photos. I can also use photoshop to help design things like family Christmas Cards. If I make things of that sort, I can utilize compositional techniques to make them visually appealing. Evidentially, there are a lot of ways I can use what I have learned outside of class. All of the tools and techniques we have learned are very useful.
Photoshop has been around for over thirty years, and it has greatly impacted our society. Its impacts are both negative and positive.
One way photoshop has impacted society is its influence on the modeling industry. Photoshop has been used to alter models and give people an unrealistic idea of what they could, and even should, look like. A survey done on women in 2013 found that 15% of 18-24 year olds surveyed believed altered images of models were not photoshopped. This shows many take these images to be real and therefore achievable. The survey also found that many people felt uncomfortable with their body, which could be attributed to Photoshop. Photoshop has also contributed to misinformation. A well photoshopped image can not be distinguished from an unaltered one. Therefore, when it is seen by itself or accompanying an article it seems irrefutable. I myself have seen many photoshopped images made of celebrities tweeting ridiculous things. The same can be said of news articles. Though these are intended for comedic purposes, and aren’t to be believed, some think them real. I myself have sometimes been forced to fact check well photoshopped news articles and tweets to see if they were real. While many of its impacts on society can be described as detrimental, Photoshop has helped society in multiple ways. It has made photo manipulation available to the public. It is an extremely valuable tool to designers, photographers, and people of other professions. As I briefly mentioned earlier, Photoshop can be used to create comedic images. Photoshop can also be used as an art form. Artists can use it to make images that are more realistic than they might be if they painted them or drew them. In the end, whether for better or for worse, Photoshop has had a great impact on society. Few computer programs can pay claim to that.
Vagianos, Alanna. “Proof We Still Need To Talk About Photoshop.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 29 Nov. 2013, m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_4350263. I haven’t been using Photoshop for very long, and I only consider myself to be somewhat familiar with the program. I have enjoyed almost all things I have done in Photoshop, and have liked using many different tools and techniques. So far, my favorite technique that I have used is colourizing images through blend modes. I enjoyed adding an extra layer to old black and white photos. I enjoyed taking black and white images of musicians I liked and adding colour to them. I feel like it can add an extra sense of depth to them. In my opinion, colourization helps people relate to older photos. The colour makes them seem more similar to something from our time. I also like how I can decide what colour things might be. Colour is important to the mood an image gives. Thus, when I colourize an image, I can make the picture better reflect the mood I think the image should give off. The image above is one I colourized, and one can see how I used colours that may not have necessarily been extremely accurate to give the picture some character. I think the most important tool is any tool designed for selection. Without a way of selection, it would be impossible to do a great deal of things. There are a fair amount of tools made for selection. In the short time in which I have been using Photoshop, I have become rather partial to the Quick Select tool. Other selection tools include the magic wand, and the various types of lassos. While using Photoshop, I find the tools I typically use the most are selection tools. Selection tools allow you to manipulate certain areas of an image while keeping the others the same.
Battlefield I is a game made to recreate World War I. It was released in 2016, and was praised for its realistic graphics. Minecraft, initially released in 2009, is a very different game which is cartoonish in nature and generally appeals to children. Those who designed Battlefield I and Minecraft made use of both elements and principles of design. The first screenshot is from Battlefield I. Many things like lines and shapes were chosen to make the game as realistic as possible. The shapes are almost all organic in nature. Colours are also utilized to create realism, though they might toned down a little to make the game feel bleaker. This game makes excellent use of texture. Textures appear to be extremely realistic, and are of the utmost importance to the game's realistic feel. Things like proportion are used to create a sense of depth, which adds again to the realism of the game. The toolbars, maps and other on screen items make use of asymmetrical balance to give them a more organic feel. It is clear that the designers of this game strived for realism and hoped to appeal to a more mature audience. The second screenshot features the game Minecraft. Unlike Battlefield I, Minecraft utilizes geometric shapes. It features a rather surreal and cartoonish color palette, and extremely basic textures. There is a great deal of repetition in all forms, whether it be shape, color or size, which help make the game somewhat appealing to younger audiences. Most things in the game are somewhat vibrant, and there is little contrast. The toolbar is very basic in design, and is symmetrical in balance. Minecraft utilizes elements and principles of design to be surreal and appeal to younger people.
Conditt, Jessica. “The Big 'Minecraft' Cross-Platform Update Is Live, but Not on Switch.” Engadget, Oath Tech Network Aol Tech., 20 Sept. 2017, www.engadget.com/2017/09/20/minecraft-cross-play-xbox-switch-ps4-nintendo-microsoft-sony-better-together/. Purslow, Matt. “Battlefield 1 PC Port Review.” PCGamesN, Network N, 18 Oct. 2016, www.pcgamesn.com/battlefield-1/battlefield-1-pc-performance-port-review. |
AuthorI'm interested in film and animation. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools.
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