Tuesday, 30 November 2010

Shattering Text

Shattering Text
We wrote simple text today to then add effects to it. We first used a FX that was bevel and emboss to make it look metal type face. We then merged the layers of effects down because if we didn’t the effects would mess up from splitting the text. Then using the polygonal lasso tool we selected triangles from the text to slightly move to give it a broken glass effect. I am sure this can be used in lots of ways and it has sparked ideas to use it in my other module for the ending of my comic book.
We then used the lasso tool on a new layer to create a circle around the middle or the whole text and then feathered the lasso using Shift F6 to create a blur around the outside of the selection. We then deselected the lasso and the use the effect Blur and Radial Blur. To create almost a black hole kind of space zoom feel we used the Cloud effect by going through the Render menu. After giving a space feel behind the text we needed to give the Text the same zoom to make it fit. Therefore we right click the thumbnail and select the pixels in the text layer and then we make a new layer to add a 50% grey fill therefore creating a grey version of our text below it. We then go back into Blur and Radial blur like before to give the explosion text inside it. We then merged the two explosions to make it easier to match the Hue and Saturation that we were about to change. Making sure we only selected the explosion layer we changed the explosion to a colour that we wanted. Then to give the Text and Shadow we used the Effect Stroke and Drop shadow to position a shadow in the place we wanted it.



we made a Snooker ball in Photoshop we did this by first making a gradient on a layer above the background. This gradient went from foreground to background. This created a black fading to white background on which we could create our snooker ball. We then used a selection tool called elliptical marquee tool. This tool creates circles but only if you hold Shift. We then positioned the circle in the centre of the page we then used the selection we already had to create a copy of the circle slightly below the circle we had and then filled that one in black. To create a shadow from the black circle we used Gaussian Blur on a scale of 25 to give it a very Soft edge that looked like a shadow then positioned it in the right place. Then to make the shadow look natural we used dodge tool to create a highlight on the original circle and then used the burn tool on the bottom to make the bottom of the circle blend with the shadow we did. We then made a selection with the elliptical marquee again and created three ovals that where all connected and then saved the selection. Using the circle selection and loading the new selection into the current it meant we could create a layer mask and then with reduced opacity to fade the colour in circle again but leaving a faint white outline to make it look like a glare coming off the ball this we the final touches to our snooker ball.



Animal Merging

we did a Demo in Class to merge a Hippo's Head onto a Lizards Body this was alot easier than I thought it would be These are the pictures I started the exercise with and the last picture is the end result that i created. I had to change the hue and saturation of the hippos head to match the lizards skin then i used the Rubber with lower opacity to make it blend easier. then i colourised the back ground.



Monday, 15 November 2010

Character Advanced Designing

Today I put my characters onto computer and edited it in Illustrator. This was a fun learning curve for me because to draw them properly I took out a graphics tablet. I have never used them before and therefore I had to do a lot of trial and error to get my characters the way I wanted them. Today I really got into the flow of things and got a lot of designing done that I thought would take me a few days.  During today’s design session I took a template of a man. And took it into illustrator I then took the image of my character from my story boards then using the graphics tablet and the black paint I started to change the template into the character I wanted.

However this template was stuck in the same position and I wasn’t able to get a different due to the fact its wouldn’t be the same body shape, therefore using the pen tool I drew round bits of the template that I wanted and copied then out of the picture that way I made sections of the man. I used these to then change the template using basic rubber and paste tools into the different positions that I needed some of the changing process took awhile but I feel that making the templates of each position I could now work faster to create different positions if needed.



Wednesday, 10 November 2010

Illustrator Experiments

Today we opened illustrator to get to grips with the interface and learnt what could be done on the program. This program has really stuck with me and I seem to pick it up very quickly and enjoy using it other than Photoshop. I can also design everything in illustrator then move it to Photoshop using export to then colour and tweak it slightly adding final touches.
I experimented on illustrator using the touch screen drawing straight onto the canvas using the brush set up of chalk scribble I didn’t have an idea what I wanted my end result to be but after messing it became clear that I could turn the shapes and fluid lines into something very interesting.
This was my image.


I then got told to add shapes and basic text to the image to show my understanding of shapes and tools in illustrator and I came up with this even though I prefer just the phoenix. I understand that I had to add to it to cover the shapes and show that I took everything in while the demo was being taught.


Snooker Ball

Snooker Ball Stuff
Today we made a Snooker ball in Photoshop we did this by first making a gradient on a layer above the background. This gradient went from foreground to background. This created a black fading to white background on which we could create our snooker ball. We then used a selection tool called elliptical marquee tool. This tool creates circles but only if you hold Shift. We then positioned the circle in the centre of the page we then used the selection we already had to create a copy of the circle slightly below the circle we had and then filled that one in black. To create a shadow from the black circle we used Gaussian Blur on a scale of 25 to give it a very Soft edge that looked like a shadow then positioned it in the right place. Then to make the shadow look natural we used dodge tool to create a highlight on the original circle and then used the burn tool on the bottom to make the bottom of the circle blend with the shadow we did. We then made a selection with the elliptical marquee again and created three ovals that where all connected and then saved the selection. Using the circle selection and loading the new selection into the current it meant we could create a layer mask and then with reduced opacity to fade the colour in circle again but leaving a faint white outline to make it look like a glare coming off the ball this we the final touches to our snooker ball.



Text Effects

Shattering Text
We wrote simple text today to then add effects to it. We first used a FX that was bevel and emboss to make it look metal type face. We then merged the layers of effects down because if we didn’t the effects would mess up from splitting the text. Then using the polygonal lasso tool we selected triangles from the text to slightly move to give it a broken glass effect. I am sure this can be used in lots of ways and it has sparked ideas to use it in my other module for the ending of my comic book.
We then used the lasso tool on a new layer to create a circle around the middle or the whole text and then feathered the lasso using Shift F6 to create a blur around the outside of the selection. We then deselected the lasso and the use the effect Blur and Radial Blur. To create almost a black hole kind of space zoom feel we used the Cloud effect by going through the Render menu. After giving a space feel behind the text we needed to give the Text the same zoom to make it fit. Therefore we right click the thumbnail and select the pixels in the text layer and then we make a new layer to add a 50% grey fill therefore creating a grey version of our text below it. We then go back into Blur and Radial blur like before to give the explosion text inside it. We then merged the two explosions to make it easier to match the Hue and Saturation that we were about to change. Making sure we only selected the explosion layer we changed the explosion to a colour that we wanted. Then to give the Text and Shadow we used the Effect Stroke and Drop shadow to position a shadow in the place we wanted it.



Monday, 1 November 2010

Panning and Tweening on Flash

Today we focuses on doin simple pan's and tween's on flash this was very useful due to the fact that it will be vital to my project that we will be doin soon.
Tweening an image was a very simple task you just select a frame in front the the frame you are on for example we picked 50 because we where on frame 1 you then hit F6. we then Right Clicked a frame in between them and clicked Classic Tween and then moved the picture in frame 50. We then played our video and it slowly moved the picture from the start position to the end in frame 50. We then increased our frame to 100 then repeated the last process and moved the picture side ways instead of zooming in therefore creating a pan instead of a tween.