This gives me the strength to go on

Requirements for Folio Presentation

Semester 2
Small vs Large (Real vs Imaginary)
-2 x A3 prints

Collage Project
-3 x A5 prints

Extra points for
-Sketchbook/journal
and/or
-Print outs of backup images (a page of thumbnails would be fine)
and/or
-notes etc

All to be handed in at the drawing studio (Same as drawing and Painting folios)
You can present your work in either a box or folder (you could make your own cardboard folder if you like).
It is not necessary to buy an expensive folder, however I would like to see you take care and pride in how you present you work.
For example,
-A clean folder/box
-Clearly written labels if necessary (don't scribble labels on scraps of paper)
-Laid out in chronological order
-Cleary marked with your name
-Prints in good condition,ie, not smudged, wrinkled, dog eared etc

Creating simple animations in Photoshop

You can create simple animations in Photoshop using the ‘Animations’ pallete.

The animations pallete works with the layers you have. You select layers to be part of a a frame, then build a collection of frames into an animated process. You can do this by,

Moving an image in a layer then creating a new frame, move, image, create new frame etc
or
you can create two frames with two different states and then get the animation panel to ‘Tween’ them’

‘Tweening’ does not turn you into a 12 year old. What Tweening does, is that it takes two frames and inserts frames inbetween those two frames to make a transition

This kind of animation is often referred to as animated Gifs as that is the file you will eventually save your animation as. The good thing about Gifs is that they can be viewed in any internet browser. You can even upload it to your mobile phone and use it as a screensaver.

Once you have constructed you Gif you can save it in the File menu under ‘save for web’ option. Be sure to choose ‘GIF’ and not JPEG. Once the file is saved open it with a browser such as Safari or Firefox (Control click>open with>firefox)

Gifs work well when they are made small (under 1000 pixels) and looped. 

An example of a looped animation are a ball bouncing, something flashing, something turning around.

You can make Gifs from

• scanned drawing
• Computer drawings/art
• Photos
• Film

http://www.cloudyco.com/SCRATCH/MonsterGifs.htm 
http://www.senorgif.com 

Collage skills, week 1: Slecting, cutting and pasting

Before you can copy anything you will need to make a selection. You can make a selection by using one of the selection tools.
Once you have made a selection you can go to the 'Edit' menu and chose 'Copy'. This will make a copy of what is in your selection on only the layer you have selected (Check the layers pallete, which one is highlighted blue?)
Go to the file you wish to paste your image into, go to the 'Edit' menu again, and click 'Paste'.
A new layer will be created with what you have copied from the other document or layer.
If this does not work be sure that you have the right layer selected and repeat the copy and paste process.

Tips:
*You can make selections with many different tools
Lasso tools
Magic wand
rectangular marque tools

*You can add or subtract to selections by holding down the Shift (add) of the Option (subtract) after making your initial selection
*You can use a combination of selection tools in the one selection by using the above Shift and Options keys
*You can make a selection based on one layer and then chose a different layer to copy from
*Selections can also be made by using the pen tool and creating a 'path' or using the 'quick mask' editing mode
*You can select everything in a layer by going to the 'Selection' menu and clicking 'Select all' or by using the shortcut Apple/Control 'A'

*You can cut, copy and paste by using the shortcut keys
Cut= Apple/Control 'X'
Copy= Apple/Control 'C'
Paste= Apple/Control 'V'

*When you paste, it automatically creates anew layer above the one you have selected

New project 08/09/2010

Digital 1st year
Anthony Woodward
I am supplying you with six high resolution scans taken from an old science book. I would like you to look though these scans and choose parts of them to blend together into digital collages. I do not want you to add anything more than what is already in the images, but rather just make adjustments to what is already there.

Examples of things you can do,
•    Cut out elements and resize/reshape
•    Change colours (Invert or hue saturation could be useful)
•    Brightness contrast
•    Repeat images
•    Create a background
•    Use blending modes and layers

Examples of things I do not want you to do,
•    Add text
•    Paint over images with the paintbrush
•    Use simple filters (use filters only if you know how to blend them in with opacity, blending modes and layering)
•    Scan in your own imagery
•    Use any other files other than the ones supplied

Timeline: 4 weeks
This is not a race to see who can finish first or how quickly you can use Photoshop. Take the time to play around with some options and effects. For those of you that do finish quickly I would like to ask for your help in assisting those that do not have as much experience in Photoshop.
Output: Three A5 prints
To be printed in the last week (or when you are done)




Each week I will look at some of the basic skills you can use to complete this project.
The first week is selecting cutting and pasting

2000 free Photoshop patterns!

Have a look
http://designm.ag/resources/2000-free-photoshop-patterns/

Week 5: examples for project

The above image is from http://www.flickr.com/photos/snailbooty/ check out her Flickr site for some interesting photographed sets. I think a lot of the work on snailbooty's site fits into the project description. I have added some annotations above to demonstrate how.

Return of the teacher

Only a lucky few of you got to see that I have returned from my parental leave yesterday, so yay to you. As for the rest, you will have to wait until next week, boo hoo!

There was a little bit of confusion with this project, which I was able to resolve with those there. Some main things to keep in mind,

*The project is going for a total of 6 weeks, we have already completed 3 weeks and have 3 weeks left. This means you should have a good idea of what you want to do with the project by this stage, ie, sketches, notes images etc

*You need to make something for this project to work, this is in fact the background or you could say stage for your work

-A cardboard building/wall/s
-A figure or shape from clay/playdough/molding clay
-Something made from lego/duplo bricks/mechano set etc
-A painting or drawing (for a background)
*If it is totally impossible for you to do this then I will need you to discuss with me the reasons why not and how you may substitute making something with using ready made objects, ie, dolls house, toy cars etc

*All images used need to be photographed/scanned by you or a friend, this means no internet images

*The final output of this project will be two A3 prints. You may make many variations of your work but only two will be chosen for print

*Bring in some cardboard, paints glue etc to class next week and we can use the hi-res cameras from the graphics department to photograph

Cool

Week 4: Real VS Imaginary - Small VS Large. Further insights into project

Just some thoughts...


The dream machine game
http://www.thedreammachine.se/
http://dreammachinegame.blogspot.com/

Doll house built from cardboard
http://miniatures.about.com/od/makeminiaturefurniture/ig/Miniatures-Community-Gallery/Betty-Hiltz-Cardboard-House.htm

miniature set
http://web.media.mit.edu/~guy/portfolio/set.php

Resubmiting work

As I mentioned I had trouble with CD and USB's not working and I will need to get certain people to resubmit. These people are,

Gillett, Beaux
Gorsuch, Emma
Guerra, Betsabeth
Hobbins, Lynda
Mcintyre, Cameron
Batten, Ron
Braybrook, Sarah
Charles, Cain
Gadd, Ingrid
Koene, Michael
Rogers, Rachal

I have decided the easiest way to resubmit is to post the 5 main projects to your blog. I will not worry about the earlier projects as I have seen them from the majority of people and if you can complete and post these things to your blog then it shows you know how to do those earlier things any way.

I am sorry for the confusion. Next time folios will not be able to be submitted on CD or USB to avoid these issues.


Blog projects (5 in total)

1-Digital collage 15 x 15cm #1
http://dig2010.blogspot.com/2010/05/class-19th-may-2010.html

2-Digital collage #2 15 x 15cm
http://dig2010.blogspot.com/2010/05/class-26th-may-2010.html

3-Pop Art Portrait #1
http://dig2010.blogspot.com/2010/06/class-2nd-june-2010.html

4-Pop Art Portraits #2
http://dig2010.blogspot.com/2010/06/class-9th-june-2010.html

5-B&W Photo recolouring from Flickr
http://dig2010.blogspot.com/2010/06/class-16th-june-2010.html

If you feel you already have these on your blog, leave a comment and I will recheck

Week 3: Real VS Imaginary - Small VS Large. Further insights into project

Artists
Seth,
is a comic artist who made an entire city in his basement out of carboard. the buildings have been displayed in the Art Gallery of Ontario and also in New York Galleries. 
http://www.adambaumgoldgallery.com/Seth/Seth_Dominion.htm

Loretta Lux,
creates imaginary portraits which address the idea of childhood as a paradise lost.  The artist utilizes photography, painting and digital imaging to execute her compositions, creating scenarios of isolation and distance that occur in an ambiguous time and space while referencing paintings by Old Masters, such as Bronzino, Velasquez and Goya.
http://www.lorettalux.de/

Slinkachu
http://www.slinkachu.com/
Slinkachu blog
http://little-people.blogspot.com/
My 'Little People Project' started in 2006. It involves the remodelling and painting of miniature model train set characters, which I then place and leave on the street.

Instructionals
miniature set building,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kIgNJDoM4w
http://vimeo.com/4923501

Ways to construct your set.
I'm not expecting you to build some amazingly detailed and expensive miniature set but rather just get creative with the materials you have at your disposal, e.g.,
Carboard from boxes
Lego or other building bricks
Dollhouse
Objects, books, boxes, drawers cupboards, pipes

Linkage

Blogs
http://www.drawn.ca
http://www.boingboing.net
http://superpunch.blogspot.com/


Twitter
@DeadByCubicle


"Two employees try to induce a co-worker's relapse by pouring baking soda on his desk and repeating the word "crack" over and over."


@shitmydadsays
"Don’t focus on the one guy who hates you. You don’t go to the park and set your picnic down next to the only pile of dog shit.""


Texta Queen

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6516459243&ref=ts

Week 2: Real VS Imaginary - Small VS Large

Concept:

To create a digital image that is a new take on reality by combining real and imaginary elements together.

Process:
Use a combinations of photographs at different scales and combine them together. Photographs will be a combination of the set you make, props/objects, and real life.

We see the use of sets in film and video all the time, where a miniature set is made to imitate the real world. If you think about this you may realise that you are very familiar with this kind of vision. I do not care how you make you set or if it looks fake, in fact making it look fake might be part of its charm. You may construct you set out of 'ready made' objects, or you might construct a city out of paper or cardboard. Whatever you do you will have to photograph it at different angles to get some pictures that you can manipulate digitally.


Format:
Create two A3 digital prints.


Examples (but not limited to):
-Construct cardboard buildings/structures and digital place real world objects in this miniature  scene.

Due date:
We will be working on this for 4-5 weeks

Aims:
-To look at how you as an artist can create new worlds that make the viewer question what is real, or what they are looking at
-Combining photographs and digital effects
-To solve visual problems with digital methods

Leave a comment with any questions and I can get back to you.

 

Week 1: Inspiration and linking

Sometimes it is hard to understand what the value of blogs, twitter and facebook is until you actually discover something you like, or someone you like using it.

I would like you to try and find some sites that interest you, preferably art or culture ones or something that is inspiring to you. Take the time to really search for something good.

There are three things I would like you to look up and link on your blog

1. A blog, ie, blogger, wordpress, livejournal; Not a myspace page.
2. Twitter account
3. Facebook fanpage

Once you have found three links I would like you to link them in a blog post, add pictures and a writeup if you like. It is a good practice to link to sites that you like for a number of reasons. For example, linking to other sites increases your ranking in search engine results, it may ensure that whoever you are linking will will link back to you, people may even just come to your blog to see who you have linked to recently.

I will be introducing our first digital concept project this first week, so you can also ponder this project in the first week back.

Semester 2

For the second semester I would like to focus on giving the class digital art concept projects that you have to come up with a solution for yourself, as opposed to giving you digital techniques based classes. For each of these ideas you will be given advance notice and you may need to come to class with drawings, photos or sculptures even that you can use.

I have also had some extreme difficulties marking the folios for first semester due to some of your discs or USB drives not working. Some folios were missing significant projects we undertook. Therefore I will be giving students one week (after our first class back) to correct these issues, otherwise a 'CN' (fail) grade will be given.

I may need to take some time off in the coming weeks due to the arrival of a new baby any day now, although I have already designed your workload for that period.

Keep an eye on the blog for any updates!

Funny article

 From the illustration Friday blog,

10 College Rules to Help You Never Become a Successful Illustrator
1. Skip as many classes as you can get away with.
2. Don’t make an effort to submit assignments and catch up with your homework when you skip a class.
3. Always be late to class.
4. Recycle assignments from other classes so you don’t do as much work.
5. Don’t ever do more than you’re asked to for your assignments.
6. Don’t participate in class so you don’t learn how to articulate your thoughts while you’re still developing your skills.
7. Get sick so often and for so long that you can’t even draw for school.
8. Don’t take advantage of the opportunities given by both your school and professors while you’re still a student.
9. Spend as much time as possible hanging out, drinking, smoking, watching TV and sleeping while you’re still in school.
10. Don’t realize you’re graduating and entering the real world until you’re a senior.

Rest or articles here

Class 16th June 2010

I would like you to go to flickr.com and do a search for ‘commons’, this will bring up a range of public domain images that are basically copyright free for our purposes today. Would like you to find an old B&W photograph for you to download and work with today. Usually photographs in the commons can be downloaded at larger sizes, try to get the largest size you can find.
We will look at colouring B&W photographs by painting in a layer underneath the photograph layer.
To do this you will need to make sure you have new layer underneath your photograph layer, and then set your photographic layer to the blending mode ‘Multiply’ (you can find blending modes in the layers palette)
Then simply use any of the tools to create colour underneath the images, paintbrush, paint bucket, pen tool, magic wand etc. You will need to be sure you are in RGB mode and not greyscale, you can check this by going to Image>Mode>RGB

Advanced options
Create a B&W collage with images you find on Flickr commons, create textures and layered effects underneath the B&W images. Create multiple images like this.
Basically just use the time that you have to make work that you are capable of.

Aims:
Look at flickr.com
Learn about creative commons
Think about the resolution of images
Downloading and saving images
Understanding colour modes
Working with layers and blending modes
Being creative within Photoshop and thinking of innovative ways to use the tools

New tab

Blogger has a new template designer for better or worse. You will notice that when you log into blogger now, instead of the 'Layout' tab there is now a 'Design' tab.
You may wish to have a look at it and see if you can update the look of your blog. Be warned though, some of the more fancy designs are harder to customise.

Class 9th June 2010

Merging layers and Blending modes

From your Pop Art image you created last week I would like you to take the black face layer and apply these blending modes,

Screen task
Create new layer underneath the art layer
Set top layer to ‘Screen’ mode
Paint bucket a colour, gradient, texture, or photo underneath

Invert task
Go to Image>Adjustments>Invert

Invert 2 task
After inverting the image play around with blending options

Screen & Multiply task
After you have screened an image though to the black art layer, merge the two then, create new layer underneath the art layer
Set top layer to ‘Multiply’

There are other blending modes which create interesting effects as well, feel free to play around with them and see what effects you can achieve.

Computers on level four

"Alister has asked if those who use the computers in the level 4 lab please delete as much work as possible as the computers are working very slowly. Could everyone please make time to do a clean up of 2009 work especially, and any work that can saved to other devices"

For our assessments I will need to have each student create a folder on the desktop with their name and the year, ie, 'Anthony_Woodward_Digital2010'
For those of you who use laptops, you will need to burn a disk with all your files clearly named and ordered.

Class 2nd June 2010

Today I would like you to make your own pop art portrait either of yourself of another person in the class. This portrait will be based on the work of Andy Warhol.Warhol worked with screen printing but thankfully we can achieve similar results using digital methods.

Put simply this will consist of two main elements
1- Top layer which has been contrasted in B&W
2- 2- Bottom layer/s which are segments of colour

This can be done in a number of ways, for example

The top layer can be made by,
Image>Adjustments>Threshold
Or
Filters>Sketch>Stamp

And the bottom layers can either be made by the pen tool or by using a filter such as, Artistic>Cutout

Personally I think it works better if you use the threshold option and the pen tool.

Post your finished image to your blog

Class 26th May 2010

This week I would like to look at the website illustration Friday
http://www.illustrationfriday.com
Create a digital collage with the same dimensions and requirements as
last week, except this time use illustration Fridays word for the
week. Once finished link your entry to the IF website.

Class 19th May 2010

Combinations of effects and tools (especially Opacity and Blending
modes)

Up until this point I have avoided looking at the filters in
Photoshop. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with them but
they can be overused and look cliché. I feel it is best to learn
Photoshop in a way that you can create your own effects using
combinations of various tools, including filters. In particular I
would like you to become familiar with the opacity settings and
blending modes in the layers palette.

I want you to look at creating a digital collage that use combinations
of things like,


Layers
Opacity
Blending modes
Filters
Gradient masks
Image adjustments
Rasterising type
Merging layers
Selections


One way to do this is to make a copy of a layer, then apply a filter.
You can then lower this new layer’s opacity and change the blending
mode to alter and soften the filter effect.

I would like you to create the collage from web images found on the
web such as google images or flickr. I would like you to stick to
using only photographs for this piece with the exception of using non
copyrighted artwork such as old etchings and clip art.


Size: 15cm X 15 cm 150 DPI
Program: Photoshop
Due: On screen, end of class

Note: If you would like a list of what all the blending modes do go here
http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Photoshop/10.0/help.html?content=WSfd...
Although it is best to just use them and get a feel for them.


During or after class:
Log into google groups and add a user pic and add a link to your blog

Add links in the sidebar of your blog

Create a bloglines account, subscribe to class members blogs

Bloglines

Bloglines is a site that allows you to follow other blogs and websites through RSS feeds

The start

A blog for Visual Arts Digital class 2010