Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Cut That Out!

Today we learned to use the lasso tool and its variations to cut up images and paste them into a scene.  We also learned about transformations--scale, rotate, warp, etc--on those objects.  We were tasked with creating several scenes with "10" (the instructor's euphemism for several) new objects integrated into a backdrop.  I finished two which are included below.  Next week we will have to have a total of 10 (a real number this time... I think) of these scenes.  For now, I give you Tsunami Ducks and Pirate vs Ninja On the Bay respectively:



All of the images used to composite these two, with the exception of the duck, were pulled from Google using an image search.


Tuesday, August 30, 2011

ART2301 - Homework - Stuff I Want to Learn Pt.2

More Stuff I Want to Learn:

6) This image by artist Jim Kazanjian [link] is mind-bending.  Like some of the entries in Pt. 1, this is a composite photo but taken in a much more surreal direction.  This image invokes Escher seeming real yet being utterly impossible once it is more closely examined.

7) Tilt-shifting, like toy cameras and toy camera filters, has become somewhat trendy of late.  However, much of the contemporary tilt-shifting is done poorly in Photoshop instead of with a proper tilt-shift lens.  However, being a student who can't always afford a fancy new lens, I'd like to be able to create this effect in a more convincing manner.  This image was borrowed from brainz.org.

8) While I do have some experience with Photoshop and other bitmap editing tools I have almost none with vector graphic tools.  However, being able to create digital, vector-based art can be critical when working in printed media that may need to be re-sized. [link]

9) Halftones are also very handy in print media when gradients are needed but unable to be reproduced reliably (such as in screen printing).  This image, borrowed from Wikipedia, would appear quite smooth when viewed from a distance.

10) I already use Photoshop and other tools to retouch photos.  But, when it comes to color correction, it would be more accurate to say that I play around with settings until I find something that looks close to correct.  However, it is important that I learn to be able to perform proper color correction if I am to be successful as digital photographer.

11) Finally, I would also like to learn some basic video editing.  The video below, a fan film based on the popular video game Half-Life, is a mixture of in-game and live footage used to tell a new and compelling story.


Monday, August 29, 2011

ART2301 - Homework - Stuff I Want to Learn Pt.1

I think it's traditional, as a christening no doubt, to welcome the world to a new blog when it is birthed.  So... welcome!  This blog is being setup as a part of the ART2301 (Digital Art I) class I'm taking this semester.  The instructor has asked us to set this up to track our research, progress, and work throughout the course so that he may keep an eye one us and that we may more easily communicate with our classmates.  However, if I can muster the will, I may keep this going for the rest of my time at university.  We'll see.

For now he has given us an assignment to find 10 examples of digital art that we want to learn to make.  Here are my first five:

1) A composite photograph by Homato [link].  This image layers several photos of the same scene to create a crowd (cloud?!) of airplanes.  This many airplanes would have required several hours or even days to take all of the shots yet the exposure on each seems to be basically the same.  Learning to match exposure between images that were taken with slightly, or even drastically, different lighting conditions is important to my work as a photographer.

2) This next image, titled Snaippo, is also a composite though it is taken in a different direction.  It is by an artist going by the name of "humandescent" on Deviantart [link]. What I appreciate most with this type of composite is the artist's ability to combine two extremely different creatures into something new and even believable.

3) Next is a type of moving image called a cinemagraph.  This one, originally a series of stills of model Coco Rocha, was found on Cinemagraphs.com and is by the artists Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg.  These images use skillfully crafted animated GIFs that bring a single moment to life not unlike the moving photos of the Harry Potter films.

4) This image is a shameless plug as it is my own.  It was taken in Dublin in 2009 shooting across the River Liffey.  However, this image is not the original.  A pre-fab filter was used to make it look like it was taken on a toy camera when, in reality, an iPhone 3G was used.  This style is exceptionally trendy today but I want to be able to create custom effects for my images that set the mood of the story I'm trying to tell--and not necessarily just those of the hipster variety.

5) This last image in Pt.1 of Stuff I Want to Learn is by the artist Zippo12, also on DeviantArt [link].  The image itself is just okay but it does illustrate a technical ability I wish to attain.  The shapes and pseudo-text (runes?) are created, placed, and grouped very precisely.

Tomorrow, Pt. 2!