Semester Reflection

Semester Reflection

Photoshop Tutorials:

We started this semester by working with several Photoshop tutorials to get us introduced to the program. These tutorials taught us how to do several things in Photoshop, including removing blemishes, taking objects in images and removing them, and creating an ad. 

These tutorials took about a week or two to complete. There was many of them, so they really required some work and effort. I had difficulty with remembering which tool did which, and making sure there was not any blemishes after I changed something. The cloning tool was difficult for me to use at first but I eventually got ahold of it. 

With these tutorials I learned how to follow directions and steps to create a final project. I also learned how to generally use Photoshop and how to edit, remove, and move things around in an image. 

With my final products from the tutorials, I was given the feedback to make sure I really pay close attention to details. In some of my images, I had left a few blemishes, therefore I really need to take my time and work hard on every aspect. 

In this project, we did not have the chance to go back and change anything, so I could not really revise on my projects. 

I enjoyed this project, I thought it was a great way to intro into the year. It really introduced me to Photoshop and it was great that I could go back and reference these tutorials later when I had to something that was similar to what I had already done. These tutorials were a great tool to have and really taught me a lot about graphic designing. 

Fall Themed Raccoon/Postcard:

For this project, we followed a series of tutorials that guided us to create a raccoon with a fall themed background. This project took me about a couple weeks or so, because now I was working more or less on my own. 

Now I was working with Illustrator, so I had to get comfortable with using this new program an figuring everything out. But, in the end, I learned how to use Illustrator to create images. I'm comfortable making little animations like this raccoon and using shapes to create an image. 

I did not really receive feedback for this project because it was pretty simple. Others thought the pumpkin spice latte I added was really cute and creative though, so I suppose that was some good feedback. 

I did not get any negative feedback, so there was not anything for me to change. I really enjoyed this project, I thought the raccoon turned out really cute and it was fun designing the theme and everything. 

This next project was an add-on to the themed raccoon. I used the raccoon to make a themed postcard. I decided to make a beach themed one, in which the raccoon is on the beach with a surfboard and palm beach. This was made about the same time as the fall themed one was made. I didn't really have any struggles, once I had made the first one, this one was easy. 

For feedback, I was told to maybe change the font and place of my catchphrase on the card because it was hard to read. I didn't have to chance to change it but if I did, I would maybe move it onto the surfboard and try a thicker font. I enjoyed this postcard because it was super cute and allowed us to be creative in our designs. 

Vector Self Portrait

For this project, we had to find a headshot of ourselves and vector ourselves. This was the first time I had ever worked with vectoring at all so this was totally new to me. This took about a week or so to complete. This was the second most difficult project because I really did not know how to vector and how to really give the image volume and texture. But by the end, I learned the basics of vectoring and how to recreate a picture. 

I was given the feedback to maybe focus on the lighted and darkened parts of my face so that my project would look a bit more realistic. I did not get this feedback until I was done so I did not change it. I somewhat enjoyed my project, it wasn't my favorite just because it was difficult and my end project is kind of ugly. 

Infographic

This was our last project of the semester and the most difficult for me. We had to choose some subject and make an infographic about the information. I chose Taylor Swift's style which was a hard subject. This took about a couple weeks or so. The challenge for me was I was really fidgety on what exactly do I cover and what do I write about and what is important. I really did not know what I wanted to do the infographic about, so that took up a lot of time. I learned about color pallets and how to intertwine vectors and images with text and information. I was told to give more information because I originally just had graphics, so I added some facts from each album. I enjoyed this project, it was hard, but it was really interesting to see how it came out.

Reflection

I think I've used my time pretty well in class. It is not super often that I get super off track and I mostly get my things done. Most of the time, I just put my headphones in and work hard. When I finished early, which was not often, I would ask others if they had any advice on how I could improve or change anything. If I didn't finish in class, I would come in after to work on it but most the time I had time in class. Since I have taken this class I have really looked at things like a graphic designer, like the colors and fonts and the way everything flows together. 

I think my strengths are that I am creative and I like imagining colors and the placement of things. I think I could really improve with managing my time and focusing on the details to make sure everything is as good as it could be instead of just meeting the standard. 

I loved reaching outside my comfort zone, because I normally draw on paper and that's what I enjoy most but now I have to put my ideas on the computer. 

Semester Video Reflection

Semester Reflection

Feature Story

        

This was the second feature film we had to do. For this video, I interviewed my friend Courtney Honors about her amazing, unique art. This video took only a day to film and about a week to edit. This took pretty long to edit just because I knew what I wanted it to look and feel like, so that was pretty difficult. But with this video I learned how to transfer what I had in my head onto the computer so that was really interesting. I was given the feedback to maybe make my voiceovers shorter and more excited, but I did not get a chance to fix that. Overall, I really enjoyed this video and I think it turned out pretty well. I think the shots are pretty and it definitely has potential.

ONW Now News Story

           
This was my first news story, and it was different than the past feature stories that I've done. A news story is different from a feature story because it focused on the overview of an event rather than a feature story which focuses on a specific person. This video took me two days to film and edit. It was pretty easy plus I worked with one other person and it had to be short. The challenges I faced was just making sure the video flowed together and that it kept the viewers attention. With this video I learned how to make a news story and how it's different to film and edit from a feature film. I was not given  any feedback besides that people really liked and enjoyed it, so I did not change anything after I was finished. I am pretty proud of this video because I think it was edited really well and it's entertaining to watch.

Summary

I think I used my time in class pretty well. I learned that it is better to just put in my headphones and focus on my video. It was rare that I finished early, but when I did I would ask for feedback from the teacher or my classmates on how I could improve my video. When I did not have my video finished, I would come in before and after school to work on it. I've been watching more movies, short films, and newscasts in order to look for new ways to improve my videos. 

I think my strength is that I am really creative and I'm willing to work hard in order to finish something I'm passionate about. I love video so much and I love being able to express my imagination and ideas through video. I think I really need to improve on time management and what are realistic goals for me to reach. 

I loved doing the feature films and ONW Now segment. I love interviewing people and I loved seeing the final products. I especially enjoy being in front of the camera and reporting, that was so much fun. I would maybe have changed my first feature film topic just because I'm not super proud of it because it's really boring. I also really want to work on the six shot system because my video are lacking that depth and I want that in my future projects. I have learned so much about writing scripts and filming and how to convey what I want through my filming and editing. I have also learned how to work with Premier Pro, which was a totally new program for me this year. I like that program, even though it is a little confusing sometimes. I am super excited about making a short film and a music video and I just really, really want to work hard on those and be proud of them. My finals thoughts are that I love video so much and this is what I'm passionate about and I want to keep doing this.

What Makes a Feature Story Great

The first thing that struck me about the winning video was the strong introduction. Lina grabbed the audience’s attention with a strong narrative, addressing who she was interviewing and what she was going to be interviewing about. I loved all the different shots, varying from shots of Abby swinging to Abby stretching. I enjoyed seeing all the scenery, and the shots changed every couple seconds so the viewer was never bored. I also liked how Lina showed shots of Abby’s father helping her, so it tied in Abby’s father as Lina’s second source. The part I enjoyed the most was how Lina ended her video, with all the different shots of Abby and her father hitting the ball, it just tied everything together. The last shot of the golf cart driving away was really creative and completed the video.

The audio was good and flowed, it was never too loud or too quiet, it fit the mood. The wide variety of shots kept the video interesting. The voiceovers flowed really naturally and enhanced the story for the viewer. As the viewer, I got to know the subject of the video and I felt very satisfied at the end of it.

The winning feature story by Lina Sattarin is linked above. 

A Feature Story

For the past few weeks I have been working on my first feature film. I wanted to do something I thought was interesting and what I would want to watch a segment about. I asked Corbin Eaton if I could interview him about his video Emma Say Yes, and he was nice enough to work with me. Corey has a really fun personality so it was a good time interviewing him.

My voiceovers were pretty easy to record because I used the general news segment formula and introduced Corey by naming things people in the school may have seen him doing. I think the introduction was really strong and I'm pretty proud of it.

Corey sat down with me and let me ask some questions behind the process of the video, and it was really fun to hear what the concept was before he created it. His best friend, Jacob Downing, also gave me insight into the concept work. Both interviews went really well together because Jacob and Corey go well together, they are best friends after all.

Once I had all of my interviews, it was easy to write the script and voiceover, and since Corey was an expert interviewer and interviewee, he gave me clear, concise answers.

Shooting my video was also easy, I just had to pick a pretty, well-lit background for the initial interview. For B-Roll I used Corey's original video, which was really helpful because I did not have to collect extra footage.

I am really proud of this video, I worked really hard and I'm happy with the way it turned out. I think my editing is pretty good and everything flows, and I am happy with my voiceovers and questions. Overall, I am proud of my work and I look forward to creating more feature films.

Organization in Premiere Pro Tutorial

Here is a tutorial of how to organize all of your clips in the bar of premiere pro. In order to get a neat  clip bar, you can use bins to store your clips. The bin icon is located in the lower left corner and looks like so: 

Click on that and a new folder should appear among your clips.

Go on and title this folder, I had a lot of text slides in this particular video so that was the first one I created.

Next, just click and drag clips into that folder.

Then you can continue and make more folders for the other clips you have like the bloopers one I made below.

 Once you have placed all the clips you needed into folders, you are good to go! Now your clips are neat, in folders, and easy to find.

Now, next time you start a new project and need some order, use this tutorial to keep some organization during your project!

1 in 2000

This past week I have been working on this interview for the ONW 1 in 2000 project. I interviewed Amanda Campbell who is a sophomore here at Northwest. She shared with me about the camp she went to over the summer which was a KU design camp where she explored similar e-communication strands. She got to work with both video animation projects which furthered her knowledge of those areas. She got to help design jerseys and different animations. I discovered that she is very serious about this area of video production and she want to have a career in her future doing something with video.

This was the first video in a long time that I have had to record a voiceover, and I really enjoyed it because it added to the video and made it feel more professional. I liked adding a voiceover because it gave me a taste of what it would be like to work in convergence and work with ONW Now which I am very interested in doing.
 one shot

I enjoyed filming this video more than the other because I really only needed one shot at the least and it was very simple and pulled together so I liked that. I liked having minimal shots because it let the viewer really focus on what she was saying and what she had to share with us and I think that is important.

I like that my finished video is very simple and clean cut. I like that it tells the story and really conveys what the camp is and how much she enjoyed this camp. I'm really proud of this video because it kind of dips my toes in the water of what I want to create when I work with ONW Now.

Photoshop Reflection

Photoshop Tutorial Reflection

For the past week and a half, I have been working on some Photoshop tutorials that have helped strengthen and expand my knowledge of Photoshop. I have learned many new things including how to built a portrait collage, how to remove logos on t-shirts, and how to build a product ad. Before these tutorials, I would have had no idea how to do any of this editing. 

Tutorial 1

 The first tutorial started me out pretty simple. I used the marquee tool to edit out part of the background in the picture of the model in the green to smooth out the backdrop. In the photo of the man against the wall, I used the lasso tool to remove the blemishes form the wall to create a better background.

Next, I advanced onto logo removal, in which I removed the logo from this man's surfboard

                                         Or using another technique, I simply moved his logo on the surf board in case he still wanted it.

Tutorial 2

In this next tutorial, I was introduced to using the patch tool to edit out graphics on t-shirts. In the photo, the father's shirt had a graphic that the photographer was not too fond of, so I used the lasso tool and patch tool to remove the graphic

                                    

Tutorial 3

In this next tutorial, I again used the clone stamp tool to remove a tag form the model's coat. This tool draws color from another area of the coat, and then uses it to cover up where you need it to. This helped give the photo a cleaner and more finished look. 

Tutorial 4

Continuing on, I got to use some tools I was not really used to using. The clone stamp tool is a pretty handy and important tool, because it lets you take a sample of color from another area like the one you are fixing, and use that to edit the area you want. I used this tool a lot in the picture below, where I edited out the building above the man's head.

Tutorial 5

In this next tutorial, I used the patch tool to help clean up the freckles and blemishes on the boy's face to make the picture a little cleaner and more precise.

   

Tutorial 6 

In tutorial 6, I got to built a portrait collage. I started out with three individual photos and ended up with one composite. There were several steps to creating this including having to stretch the background, edit in shoulders for the center photo from another picture, and blend out the background to get rid of the trees. 

Tutorial 7

In this tutorial I got to make a product ad type photo. I started out by adding the logo onto the bottle and slightly bending it to look more natural. Then I placed it  behind the horizon line, gave it a glow, and faded it to flow with the setting. 

Tutorial 8 

In this last tutorial, I worked with a McDonald's billboard. The actual billboard itself and the ad started out as separate pieces, but then I combined them and then scaled the ad down to fit the board. Then I rounded the edged and bend it slightly to look more realistic.

Overall

I really enjoyed doing these tutorials, they taught me a lot I did not even know before. Three important tools I learned were the clone stamp tool, the patch tool, and the quick selection tool because they are good foundation tools. These will be helpful in the future because I will be using them a lot and they will make my project look clean and neat. 

My strengths were I was good at following the tutorial and I could pick the stuff up pretty easily. One thing I need to work on is organization of my layers and masks and everything because that is really important. One skill I learned was time management and how that effects meeting deadlines, because I had to work really hard to get these done.

Overall, I really enjoyed getting to know Photoshop and this was a good project to start the school year. 

ONW Procedure Video Reflection

This last week and a half, I have been working on a video about an ONW procedure. The video wwe were supposed to create was one about a procedure that we as students are supposed to follow. Right off the bat I knew I wanted to create a video that was different from everyone else', so my partner and I though of how we are supposed to walk in the halls.

During story boarding, my partner and I came up with a few concepts of how we wanted our video to turn out. We decided on two ideas, do not stop in the hallways and do not walk slow. During the editing process, I went with the first idea because it fit within our 30 second restraint. While we were filming, we tried to get as many shots as we could, and tried to get more faces in our video.

Since this was our video project of the year, I had to get back into the groove of deadlines and production. Along with this new year, we started using a new video editing program, Premiere Pro, which was difficult because I was totally unfamiliar with it, and I am still exploring it. I also learned how to work with difficulties, because during the first two days of filming, we had limited equipment, so I had to learn how to work through that in order to meet the deadline.

What I would do different is spend a little more time mapping out shots, because by the time we got to editing, I realized we really need more shots and closeups in order to complete the video and give it a beginning, middle, and end. One thing I really liked while creating this video was editing, I loved working with the colors and the text overlay. Next video, I will make sure to map out what I want the final video to look like while story boarding.

Overall, I really enjoyed making this video and I think it was a good starter project for the rest of the year. I am excited to see what else I will learn and create.

e-Comm Product Presentation Review

My group's product was Spray On Clothes and our team name was ELLO. We worked together pretty well, we all knew what we had to do ad we did each of our own parts. We struggled a bit with communication and overall team encouragement. For the next product, I will make sure there is an established leader and that everyone trusts their team. I would have made our script a little bit longer, and maybe have done something different with the commercial, but we did the best we could. I have improved by stepping up and being a leader and directing people to what they need to do.
This quarter, I designed the logo as seen below.

I also directed the shots for our video, which you can see some screenshots below.


Overall this was a very good experience with product design and presentation, and also working with people you may not normally work with.

My Personal Logo Ideas

In graphic design, we had to develop our own logo that represented who we are and what our business means and represents. In this first logo, I drew from Twenty One Pilots logo with the slash through the "O". This design is very simple and to the point, which is what I would like my business model to be like.
It also shows, with the font, the creativity I would bring.

  This logo was a favorite of my peers. This shows my fresh

and lighthearted side with the colors.

 the color are simple but bring a good feeling. 

Normally logos have the circle around them, so

 I used my circle to represent the "O" in my name. 

This is my last logo and this was also very well liked. My last name is Markey, so I wordplayed on it to make this logo like a marquee. The text is an older, Broadway feel, for I really enjoy vintage 1950's era. This logo gives a comfortable                                                                           feeling, yet a vintage and eccentric mood.

Photoshop Projects

In our last days before spring break, we experimented with Photoshop and created these images. I got to use very different tools I had not used before, like on this one I used the clone tool that created the fluttering effect on the butterfly's wings.

In this photo, I used a few different images and faded them then placed them on top of each other.

This photo's procedure was much like he last ones, except I actually cut the raven's head from another photo and placed it on top of the one of the school.

In this one I used the gradient tool that I hadn't used before, and that created the blue and black hue outside the letters.




Overall, I learned more about Photoshop and I am much more comfortable with the program.

- Olivia

Famous Logo

This week we made replicas of famous logos using

 tutorials that professionals have made.

 I made the new Adidas logo,
which was a bit of a challenge.

 It was not complicated to make, but the way the tutorial 

showed was a different, more difficult route than 

what I would have done. But I really enjoyed doing this because it really helped me get used to Illustrator and its tools.

Graphic Design Week 1: Colors

This quarter, I am in graphic design, and so far it is off to a great start. This week we have been learning all about colors and how to properly use it during branding. We created a "ugly" color wheel to learn about the relationship between the colors, mine is above.





We were also allowed to try things out Adobe Illustrator, and my creation is above. To create this, I used the star image, colored it in, and rotated the image. To create the sections in between, I used Pathfinder to make it look so interesting. I really enjoy using Illustrator and I am looking forward to learning more about it and the elements of graphic design.