Final Project

Passion Project ppt

PSA

PSA Presentation

Instagram Prezi

https://prezi.com/gv4shra8znca/instagram/#

When first going from PowerPoint to Prezi, the program can be difficult to understand at first. It took me a little bit of time to get used to the tools of Prezi. I think the most important thing to remember when starting a Prezi for the first time is that a Prezi is NOT a PowerPoint. I mean this in the sense that its not a linear presentation, and thats what makes it a different experience of presenting information.

I really enjoy Prezi and think that for visual learners, this is the way to present! I had a lot of fun creating this presentation and found that this format helps to create depth to a subject by actually moving through the layers of the information. This way of presenting is far more dynamic and has a greater impact on viewers to really digest the information without actually having to focus very hard.

Music PowerPoint

Dispatch Presentation final

During this assignment I gained a new perspective on how to use PowerPoint in a new way that engages the audience through visuals and music. The assignment began by creating a sound mix of 2-3 songs using the Audacity program. To do this I dragged three Dispatch songs in MP3 format into the Audacity window. The songs were displayed in rows on top of one another within the program, making it easy to work with each sound bite individually. Once I was done combining three Dispatch songs in Audacity, I exported it to a WAV file and saved it to my desktop. I then converted the file into an MP3 in iTunes.

After the MP3 was made, I began to create the PowerPoint. The first slide required the lease amount of work because it was a simple title slide. I decided to delete the text boxes on the slide and insert a picture of the band into the background. I then inserted a text box where I wrote the band name in 96 point Colonna MT font. I thought that this serif font represented the band well and was bold enough to catch the attention. I added a brush color animation which made the font change from blue to orange.

The second slide is where I included general information about the band in bullet formation.  Instead of having all of the information come up on the screen at once, I had each bullet come in separately with the “wipe” animation. When each bullet came in, I turned on the “dim” command which makes each bullet dim to white when it moves to the next piece of information. This helps to break up the information and helps guide the viewer through the slide.  I also made sure to not use more than five bullets on one slide and made sure that each bullet was no more than two lines. All of this was consciously done in order to portray the information most effectively to the viewer.

In the third screen I featured the album cover of “Silent Steeples.” I inserted the picture and adjusted it to take up half the screen. On the other half of the screen I instated a text box with a background that matched the album cover. I listed off the names of the albums songs in order with the “multiple” animation. I timed out the slide so that each track number had one second duration, this way it was not too fast that people could not read the track names. Once all of the names show up, I had the text exit the screen all together with the “shrink and turn” exit animation.

The fourth slide required the most amount of time and work because it included a table that had different pieces of information adding to it at different times.  I first selected ‘insert’, then clicked ‘table’ and selected how many rows and columns I needed. Once I made the table I was about the adjust the size to fit to the slide. When adding each piece of information including band names, first album, lead singer and hit song, I created a separate text box for each box of the table. I made it so that the titles of each column were automatically in the table when the screen changed but then the table fills up one by one with a different animation. I was able to set animations for each box and the duration they appeared before the next box appeared. I was also able to control the order in which each box appeared by simply dragging the order in the animation control panel on the right side of the screen.  I felt it was more interesting for the viewer to use both text and pictures in the table instead of it appearing too informative. Pictures grab the viewer’s eye.

In the final slide I started by making the background of the slide one picture of the band that appears automatically in large. I then manipulated the slide to have pictures appear over the background one by one with different animations. The final picture that appears over the collage of photographs is the final large picture of the band which takes up the entire slide and reveals a hyperlink the Dispatch website. To change the color of the hyperlink I clicked on ‘format,’ and then ‘theme colors. From here I selected hyperlink and changed the color to white.

The most technical part of making this slideshow was timing out each of the slides and having them run on their own with the music in the background. I inserted the MP3 into the slideshow by pressing ‘insert,’ ‘audio,‘ ‘from file.’ Once the MP3 is imbedded in the slideshow I made it play automatically wit the slideshow. I inserted a vortex transition in between each slide. Each animation in the slide was selected to appear automatically after previous.

As a whole, this assignment taught me the proper way to use PowerPoint. I was unaware that PowerPoint could be used in such an engaging way. I was surprised that teachers have put expectations so low on PowerPoint presentations. This assignment has made me have a better understanding of the software’s tools and the best way to use them in order to present information properly.

Magazine Cards

Concert Poster

In the beginning of the concert poster project, the class studied some of the effective layouts of posters. Prior to this lesson I was unaware that the layout of posters fall int different categories, but now I find myself noticing the repetition of layout shapes in flyers and posters that I see on campus an on the walls of dorm rooms. When I began to draft out different mock-ups I found that many of my ideas were centralizing around the circular/oval layout. Many of my ideas included using circular designs. I think that my natural instinct to represent Dispatch is some way with circles was because Dispatch is a band that stands for worldly matters. Hence, I was gravitated to images like the world, tree trunks, the moon, etc.  When I started to actually put some of my ideas together through Photoshop and InDesign, I thought it would be interesting to present the circular shape from a vantage point. It was a last minute decision to add the image of the hand balancing the world on a finger. I thought that this vantage point symbolized what Dispatch music is all about, changing the world with human outreach.

This assignment helped to gain an understanding on how to integrate two design platforms to make one image. Once I created the images I wanted to use on the poster with effects in Photoshop, I was able to bring the images into InDesign and move them to the layout that I envisioned. After the images were in place I added the text. My goal was to have as little text as possible. This being said, I wanted the message to be straight and to the point. When designing a flyer or poster, font is a key element. I chose to use a serif font for the band name called, Prestige Elite. Though this font is not bold or flashy, I liked the simplicity of it and felt that in 72pt, it made enough of a statement to stand out without being too loud, kind of like the band itself. I liked the Idea that a person may only see the centered title of the band and have to look closer to notice the specifics behind the time and location because I thought that the image alone should be able to catch people’s attention. I used a serif font for the ‘RWU Presents’ and the date and location called, Bank Gothic. I thought that though I used a serif and sans serif font within one document, it worked because the fonts appear to be from the same family.

When gathering images for the poster, I knew that I wanted to utilize a photo of the band but also knew that copy right laws made it difficult to take photographs without facing the potability of legal charges.  I worked around this dilemma by cropping a using a photograph that I modified through effects and filters to look unrecognizable to the original. I used the magnetic lasso tool to carefully crop the outline of a portrait of the band. I then dragged the cropped image onto the document I had already cropped the image of the earth on. Once I dragged the band image on top of the Earth, I utilized the erase tool to fade out the sharp edges of the band portrait so that the two images looked built in as one. I then adjusted the hue/saturation so that the photo blended into the background of the Earth. To add to this I added multiple filters and textures to the image so that the faces appear unrecognizable  but are effective enough so that people know that it is the profiles of the band. I completed the image by adding inner and drop shadows, I also adjusted the vibrance so that the image did not stand out too much against the background. I found a picture of the Earth from morguefile.com. It was very easy to crop using the magnetic lasso tool and I dragged the circle into a new document with a transparent background. Once the image was in the new document I adjusted the hue and saturation so that the colors took on a different intensity. I also put a filter on the image to give it more of a crumpled paper texture. I cropped the picture of the hand from a photo off of morguefile.com as well and changed the color and filter to yellow in hopes that the hand would represent Roger Williams colors. Once all the images were cropped and manipulated, I dragged the image into the black background I had created in InDesign. I was able to adjust the size of the image with a tool similar the the “free transform” tool in Photoshop.

When first switching from Photoshop to InDesign, it was difficult to adjust to navigating each program separately. There were many times where I tried to move text in a way that I could in Photoshop and had to go out of my way to adjust to the commands of InDesign. In particular, it was difficult for me to move images into InDesign without a white background showing up in the text box even though I had made sure to make the background transparent in Photoshop before attempting to save and move the image. I tried this multiple ways and multiple times and could not figure out how to avoid this issue. In the end, I decided to compromise by making a black background for the image in Photoshop so that when I dragged it into the black background in InDesign, it would not be noticed. I was able to work around my problem, but it also held me back at possibly doing more with the poster and making it more dynamic.

Animated Collage

Image Collage

This assignment pairs with the font poem as it utilizes images in form of a collage to convey the meaning of the saying in the font poem. I began this assignment by simply looking up images that could represent the words of my font poem. To do this, I used the website, morguefile.com, which has a free archive of useful images. It is important to keep in mind where you get any sort of images, video, or audio to use for a personal project because the issue of copyright laws come into play. One can only use copyright media without permission if the subject is used for educational purposes only.

Once I found some images, I decided that I wanted to choose a landscape image as the background to my collage and then add other images to the scene. I put the background image in and manipulated the hue of the image so it appeared to be more sepia. Then I began to separately open each image that I had saved and began to crop. This part of the assignment was the most tedious because in order for the images to look good in the collage, it is important that they are well cropped. For all of my images, I found it worked best to use the magnetic lasso tool to crop out the subject of the image. Before I cropped some of the images, the flower and light bulbs in particular, I found it worked best to background erase as much as I could before i cropped so that any other lines in the background did not attract the magnetic lasso. The cropping was a slow process because I had to move very carefully around the image to make sure the lasso tool framed the image in the way I wanted it to.

Once I cropped an image, I would select the image and drag it to m collage background tab. Once I held the image there, the new tab would open up and the cropped image would appear. In order to get the copped image to be the size I desired, I used the free transform tool. When re-sizing the image, I held down the shift key so that the image did not get distorted.

When inserting the face of the crying boy, I had to smooth out the edges of the crop so that his face faded into the picture. In order to do this, I used the magic erase tool to fade out the edges of his head and shoulders. I also changed the boy’s hue/saturation and exposure so that he appears almost translucent in the sky.

I cropped and rectangle of notebook writing to fade over the sky part of the background. I also used the magic erase tool here to take out the hard edges of the crop. I inserted the pen to make it look as if it is on the ground but writing the script in the sky. I put a smart filter on the image of the pen and used the blur gallery. I also manipulated the brightness of the pen so that the bottom part looks like it is glowing on the pavement.

The light bulb image is supposed to symbolize ideas coming from words. This is why I have the light bulbs hanging from the sky as if they are the raindrops. I changed the opacity of the light bulbs so that they fade into the image. I also utilized an outer glow. The flower which was originally very bright, I put a color filter on so that it matched better with the background.

The image collage was a struggle at times. But, it really helped me feel more comfortable with Photoshop and allowed me to be creative. I found that if you have a vision, anything can be done in Photoshop, you just need to work with the tools to figure out what the best way to carry out the idea.

Double-Exposure

Image Contact Sheet

The contact sheet exercise was a very beneficial way to get to know many of the tools of Photoshop. The purpose of the contact she is to represents what is called a proof sheet in photography where there are rows of images laid out to be judged for print quality. In manual development, these photographs are first represented with negative strips of film, that sheet is then developed to get an overall sense of how each photograph will turn out. The contact sheet is used as a great point of reference when developing film. This assignment was not quite like the process of developing film with a proof sheet. Instead, we chose different images to manipulate with a variety of tools and lay them out in order to show the effects manipulating the image with each particular tool.

We started off by changing the dpi of each image to see how it effects the quality. Dpi refers to dots per image, and it relates to the quality of an image. We discussed that images on different platforms hold differing dpi standards. For example, magazines images typically have 300 pixels/inch, while the standard images typically have a resolution of 72 pixels/inch. Print typically has 600 dpi and color print has a dpi of 1200.  To change image dpi we clicked view – image size, and a window pops up where you can manipulate the dots per image. As we noticed with this first row of the contact sheet, when we reduced the dpi of the image, it became blurry because pixels become more spread out.

In the second column of the contact sheet we learned how to manipulate the format/mode of an image in order to change its color scheme and quality of shading. During this section, we discovered that there are two different types of image color schemes. RGB is the color mode that used for images on the web because it gives more of a crisp, vibrant look to the image colors. CMYK is the color mode used for printing ink. With CMYK we found that the image had slightly duller color and edges. We each chose an image that was particularly colorful for this part of the exercise because it made it easier to notice the differences between formats. We then made the image black and white by clicking on the channel mixer and selecting monochrome. We made sure to select black over white on the left side of the screen. We were then able to manipulate the image on the RGB scale to determine where we wanted the most shading or contrast but utilizing the curves tool. We then selected image- mode- gray scale and chose; duo tone where we were then able to select two colors the be represented in our image. In this row, we are able to see a dramatic change in image color format.

We then worked on manipulating image orientation by utilizing the crop tool. In this section we saw how  an image can be effected by is framing into portrait, square, and landscape. To do this we selected the crop tool. Once the “marching ants” popped up, we used the corner anchor points to adjust and crop the image from the outside. We noticed that by adjusting the frame of the image, it helped serve a purpose in drawing attention to different parts of an image.

We continued using the crop tool in the next row where we learned how to crop from the inside of an image in order to changed the framing from wide angle to closeup. Each time we cropped into the middle of the image, once cropped the image remained the same size but appeared to be zoomed in on a particular aspect of the image. The smaller we made the crop box, the more zoomed into a closeup the image became. The repeated this four times in a zoom-in sequence.

In the third next row we learned how to utilize the crop tool to manipulate the content as well. To do this, we all selected an image and chose to zoom so far into one characteristic of the image so that the zoomed in image becomes an abstraction. In the representational photograph, the image looks like the subject it represents. I chose a photograph with pumpkins. But then, as we cropped from the inside of the image onto a particular aspect of the image, it became more of an abstraction. This is because we chose to zoom in on one feature of color or texture that is unidentifiable of what the image represents when held out of context away from the representational image.

Finally, we utilized the Photoshop filter gallery to manipulate an image. We started off with a ‘journalistic’ image that represents the original image before manipulation. Then, we had fun selecting different filters that made the image artistic. This was the most enjoyable part of the assignment for me because it is a simple tool to use but its effects can really work to manipulate the look of the image. I chose to use the filter of mosaic tiles, ink outlines and glowing edges of an image of actress/singer Zooey Deschanel.

Once all the images were created, we selected Tools- Photoshop- Contact Sheet II. This was a simple way to create a single platform with all the images laid out. The contact sheet assignment was very beneficial to someone like me who is a new user of Photoshop and just getting to know the program and its functions.