Font Homework

Dwayne tasked us with creating fonts.  Thankfully we were allowed to used to tutorials rather than coming up with something on our own.  Below are the two I built.  We're supposed to have one printed for tomorrow, but I'm not sure which I'll use.

Despite the claim on these tutorials that each should take about an hour I easily tripled that.  I didn't make it easy on myself, though, and departed from each tutorial in ways that forced me to learn the ins and outs of the tools.  Now I just need to finish up my interior/exterior perspective grid drawings.  Too much to do and no time to do it...

Assignment 4: Live Trace and Gradient Mesh

Assignment 4 consisted of two separate projects.  The first is to use Live Trace on an existing image and then make a logo out of it.  The logo can be a re-imagining of an existing logo or something completely made up.  The second must be an object made with the Gradient Mesh tool.

I made up a logo for an imaginary company called Darkmoon Publishing.  I used Live Trace on the books and the moon and then further edited each to create my logo.  Here are the results:

I decided to challenge myself for the Gradient Mesh part of the assignment.  I decided to recreate one of the masks in Emil Nolde's Masks using only this tool.  I'm not entirely happy with the results but considering the limitations of the tool I think it turned out alright.   My rendition is on top and Nolde's original [full] canvas is below.

Learning the tools: gradient meshes in Illustrator

Last Wednesday we learned to use the gradient mesh tool, which can be used to sculpt and add depth to objects.  Here are some examples I created:

In the first of these two objects, the cherries, I did a manual trace of the cherries with the pen tool, then went back and used the gradient mesh to recolor and add depth to the flat "cherries" I drew.  In the second I started with a raw, generic rectangle and sculpted a sort of emerald out of it.

Live Trace Assignment: Dwayne

Dear Shephard Fairey,
   Please don't sue me.

Yours truly,
Rick

More Illustrator Learnin'

In addition to the blend tool, we also learned how to combine shapes to create new objects.  I think (hope?) this is what Dwayne meant by the "ring tutorial" he said he gave us.  We then used the 3D filter to add depth to text (and other objects).  Below are my results of these tutorials.

Yes, National Annoy A Graphic Designer Day does use the trifecta of rainbow colors, Comic Sans, and Papyrus.  It also has "A" capitalized to annoy grammar teachers.  I was going to add a lens flare, too, but that just would have been mean.

We also had to make 5 "3d objects."  Yeah... I wasn't able to finish.  I got SOMETHING, though!

Learning the Tools: Blending in Illustrator

Today we learned how to use the blending tool.  It was not unlike tweening in Photoshop animation.  We had to build 5 blended drawings.  Here is what I came up with:

Learning the tools: vectors and Illustrator

Last Wednesday dove into Illustrator for the first time... or I did anyway.  I had played with it before but mostly felt lost.  With the more formal introduction and Illustrator's ability to lay itself out like Photoshop I was able to find myself around a bit better.  This first image is what I did doodling around during class as we learned the tools.

Very simplistic, I know.  Keep in mind that I'm just learning the tools here.  Toward the end of class we were told that our assignment for the weekend was do draw out 5 scenes using the entire artboard in Illustrator.  The instructor suggested this would take between 10 and 20 minutes for each.  It took a lot longer for me.  I probably spent at least 30 minutes on each and still feel like what I made is pretty basic:

For some reason a few of these remind me of video games from the early/mid 90s.  The table especially conjures up images of old adventure games like Police Quest.  I'm not sure why.

I found the tools in Illustrator cumbersome and somewhat difficult to work with.  This was especially so when it came to cropping or deleting portions of an object I had drawn.  The process wasn't exactly difficult once I figured it out, but it was still a damn site more complicated than it strictly needed to be.  I still haven't figured out how to get the dropper tool working the way I expect it to.  I guess I need to keep playing.