Final Website

http://www.demandeuphoria.net84.net

During this unit I think I was meant to learn how to create a website using Photoshop and Dreamweaver.  Although I followed along and found the process fun and interesting, I would definitely need a lot of extra practice to feel confident enough to create a website on my own.

Nothing on the actual project took longer than I thought it would (expect maybe picking out the pictures to use, so many choices!), but there were some hang ups such as the website host being inconveniently blocked, or like right now, I'm typing this waiting for a certain web page to load that WON'T!  Also I'm sure if I would have made a little more effort to get to class in the past week I could have been done a lot faster...

On a scale from 1 to 10 I would rate this project an 11 because it was SO MUCH FUN to create, I really liked pulling all of the components from different interests of mine and compiling them together to make a super cute web page.

I would rate my creativity really high on this project because I felt like I took the extra time and care to get my website just right and how I wanted everything to look.  I felt like I took into account how I was portraying myself to the audience through my web page (that seems like a big deal now with facebook, tumblr, etc.)

Well, this class is not going for me anymore, I have picked up and moved on, OH woe is me!  I have left with many fond memories and useful skills that could possibly take me through the rest of my life, Thank you to Ms. Banks!, you have been an AWESOME teacher, and I've really enjoyed spending my mornings in your class room, so cozy and warm!  I appreciate your patience and help with everything over the course of this class.  I will be Bach!  :)

Stone Kitty!

This project turned out exactly how I thought it would, the cat looks just like it was sculpted thousands of years ago by the ancient Egyptians!  I was really impressed with how well the final image came out.  (While I was messing around trying to find a background I could set the cat in I tried to make it look like it was coming out of the sands of time in the Sahara, it didn't work very well but I thought it was a funny idea.) :)

There was nothing that took longer than I thought it would, I was actually really surprised with how simple it was to turn the cat to stone.  In the tutorial there were many steps and it made it seem like it would take a long time, but with my own project, I suppose because of the image I chose, many steps were omitted.  I was actually glad I had to add on the shadows in a bunch of different places because otherwise it was too easy!

If I were to do this project again I would spend more time choosing stone textures and I would probably take time to choose some different water marks and such to really make my image stand out and look old and worn.  If I had had the time I would have put more thought and care into the project in general messing around with the different textures I could use.  (That's not to say I didn't put care in this image!)

For my project I'm most proud of the shadows that I created to make certain parts of cat stand out or look more realistic after I added the stone texture.  I'm also happy with the stone texture I ended up using, I like the big crack coming from the tip of its ear that runs down its back, I think it adds interesting detail and helps it look authentic.

I think I've done really well in this class so far, I'm so disappointed that this is my last project!  I really wish I had the time to continue in this class and learn to do all of the projects because its so fun to create new and interesting things.  I like the cool ideas I start to come up with for my own project while I'm completing the tutorials.  I've learned so much in the course of this class, I feel comfortable with the tools I'm using and can really venture out and mess with different settings to see the different results I get.  I've really enjoyed being in this class in general and creating such cool projects, I can't wait to begin the website!

Just Because

The Smoking Elephant

If I had to pick something of which I was most proud I would have to say the elephant because I think that the way that it came out is really awesome.  I think it looks good and you can actually tell what it is!  I also really liked the smoke coming from the elephants trunk, which was a last minute touch. 

Originally I was planning to do a horse running out of the smoke but it turned out to be difficult to draw, which I guess I should have expected but I didn't.  This is also why I was so surprised about how well the elephant came out because the tiny circle paintbrush is hard to control and maneuver.

It took a little longer to create the final image because with the way the woman in the photograph is facing, when I added the smokey elephant you couldn't see it with the bright light coming from behind it.  Therefore, I had to darken the whole picture, brighten the elephant, and then come in over the mask and paint back the brightness of the woman so she and the smoke image would stand out.  I also blurred the background behind the elephant as another way to help it stand out. 

If I were to do his project again I would take more time to distort the smoke before adding the elephant because I didn't realize until the end that I just blurred the smoke and I think I could have made the image look more realistic by twirling and waving the smoke also.  When I realized this I actually came back in and took my original smoke drawing and distorted it but it was just too late to add it to the final image, there was no room for it. 

Although this project was fairly simple and didn't take me very much time, I thought my creativity was about a 7 or 8 because I took the time to draw the elephant.  I thought I really put a lot of thought to how the final image would come out when choosing the different elements involved in creating this project. 

Square Balloons?

During this unit I think I was supposed to learn how to photoshop objects in order to make them look square or any other shape.  I thought I was easily able to learn how to do this and I thought my project idea portrayed this concept well.  Overall the process was fairly easy and I found I didn't have to rely on the tutorial as much as I usually do. 

The only thing that came up unexpected was the highlights originally on the balloons.  I had to come up with ways to move them around and hide the old ones so that they worked with the square shape I was trying to create, but after I got a general idea of where they needed to be placed it was simple to rearrange them. 

I'm most proud of using an object with a background, I thought it gave a kick to the final image that square balloons in a blank space wouldn't have given. 

On a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate this project at about an 8 because it was a fun project, it was fairly simple to get a grasp of, and I thought my final image came out well.  The only thing was that there was a limited amount of ideas you could use and many of my original ideas got cut because they wouldn't have come out right. :( I think it  would have been interesting to see the square globe for example.

My favorite part of this project was liquefying the balloons and the apple, it was really cool to see it morph into the outline.  My least favorite part was that I was limited to using the balloons idea because the liquefy tool messes up any distinct lines on objects.  I also didn't like the highlights, although they were easier than the ones on the chocolate moon because I knew where to place them, I still don't think I'm very good at them yet.  All I need is practice!

Chocolate Moon

In completing this project I think I was meant to learn how to make something look like it is covered in chocolate.  Although I believe I learned the basic skills in order to have this effect, I don't think I was able to capture the full effect of the chocolate dripping, it just doesn't look very real to me.  I did learn all of the tools and a lot of new information that I'm sure will help me on other projects.

Unfortunately this project didn't quite turn out how I thought it would, the only really challenging part was figuring out where to put the drips and then making them the correct size in order to make them look real.  I also had a hard time with the highlights, it was difficult to control the mouse to make it do what I wanted, in other words the drips were kind of hard to draw. 

My favorite part of this project was coming up with different objects to cover in chocolate, it was fun to look through the different pictures online and think about how it might look or work to colorize them and put chocolate drips all over it.  My least favorite part was creating the highlights, I felt like that point was when the image really didn't fit together and it looked fake.  It was difficult to figure out where to put highlights outside of the drips, but I still thought it turned out pretty well. 

I would rate my creativity on this project pretty high, I thought I had some good ideas on what to cover in chocolate.  I had really liked my idea to use a hand and I was sorry it didn't work out.  Even though it didn't turn out exactly how I thought, I still thought putting the moon on the scene of the boats was clever and that part turned out well.  The only part that wasn't as creatively inclined was the fact that the moon was simply a circle, it wasn't very complicated. 

This class is still going well, I'm pretty sure this is my half credit! :) I have a feeling that after this I'm going to have a harder time picking projects that I want to do, but I'm becoming a lot more comfortable with the tools needed and I'm able to use what I know to problem solve or create my own effects on different projects.  I'm super excited to learn and create more!

Breaking Boundaries

I think I was meant to learn how to create a picture frame inside of a picture and make it look like something was "flying out of bounds" into space.  Considering how many layers I ended up creating I thought it worked very well and that I have a good understanding of this concept. (I ended up not using the like 16 or so extra layers I made.)  Like I said last time the repetition of the use of tools definitely helped me grasp how to create my final image better or easier.

My picture turned out exactly how I thought it would, I really liked how the final image came out.  When I made frames around the rest of our bodies however, it did not come out how I thought it might.  I was really excited at first but then it just looked too busy to me, and I wish I had more interesting ideas for frame shapes, maybe then I would have liked it more.

If I were to try this again (which if I have time I'm sure I will), I would add our heads into the full image instead of having them inside a separate frame, the space where our necks should be just isn't abstract enough and it looks a little strange.  I think the disconnected heads would look better if I had kept the rest of the frames going down our bodies.

I would rate my own creativity pretty high on this project because I thought I had a really good idea and added some own personal touches outside of the tutorial.  Not to mention I had about 30 other ideas for the project that I wanted to do and I even tried one out (the spearfishing guy) before I did my final project.

I would rate this project at a 9 because I thought it was really fun and interesting, and it's super neat to see the final outcome.  It is also very tedious, but it goes pretty quickly and I'm definitely excited to maybe try some more of my other ideas when I get the chance.  

While doing this project on my own I didn't expect it to be so hard to focus the light away from the center.   I couldn't figure out why there was so much concentrated light and I found it hard to spread out.  I thought I did a better job on my Purple image of creating a visible pattern rather than a blob of crazy trails of light (which was still really cool looking).

Nothing took longer than I thought it would, it was pretty simple and I didn't have to rely on the tutorial as much which I enjoyed. I even made an extra one before class just to mess around with extra settings to see what I could come up with. 

I'm most proud of the blue image with the pink (which is the same image as the green background), I really liked how the colors turned out and how the lights look like trails or streaks, I used a different setting, ink outlines I think, which made it look really interesting.  

I would rate this project at an 8 because it's super quick and you could do it a million times with different results.  You can play around with all the different settings without anything getting messed up.  My favorite part was seeing the different effects I could add.

I think the class is going a little bit better, I'm learning the keys and tools better, and the repetition is helping me to find things easier.  I'm starting to be able to use my general knowledge to find tools that will help me if I get stuck or I need to perform a certain task without having to solely rely on the tutorial or instructor. :)

EleDog

During this unit I think I was meant to learn about Photoshop and begin to be able to navigate the site.  I'm supposed to have learned how to morph one creature into another and I believe the tutorial was very helpful and I did accomplish what I was supposed to.

There were some unexpected hangups when I began my first idea to combine an egret and a giraffe, I couldn't get the spots from the giraffe to fade into the white feathers.  I also couldn't change the color of the giraffe to white as easily as I thought I could and I ended up having to try different animals. 

If I were to do this project again I would take more time to think about the animals I wanted to use in order to create a better, more creative, and neater looking final project.  I thought I did a good job but it I felt it was a little too simple and I could have put more effort into it overall. 

I would rate my own creativity on this project kind of low because I didn't do as well as I thought I could of in terms of coming up with interesting animals to use.  I had Ms. Banks' help finding certain animals when my first project didn't come out right, but I wish I had been able to come up with a better idea on my own.  I appreciated your help!

This class is going a little slow for me right now but I am excited to become more comfortable with the tools and the materials and design some really great things! I'm definitely ready to move on and start more interesting projects.