The End

It was a fun class and a fun blog. But now all is said and done, and it's time to move on.

I will no doubt use these skills for the rest of my academic (and hopefully one day professional) career.

Many thanks to all my cohorts and my teacher! I will miss seeing you all every Monday and Wednesday morning!

-Bram

Self Evaluation

1. I feel that I have had different accomplishments with each project. For the midterm, I was able to use the new photoshop techniques that I have learned, and apply them to a visual image that I wanted to portray. Before this class, I knew how to select, cut, copy, paste, etc. All the basics. But with this midterm, I was able to truly display an idea through the use of visual imagery.

The final helped me explore my curosity of animation and video. I never thought I could be so intensely focused on a project for hours at a time, and then come up with a finalized work. My other projects and images were results of hours of work split up between different periods of time. However, the video was on clear shot. I just stayed up all night working on it, and I loved being that focused and motivated on a goal.

To be more specific though, I felt the following were difficult details that I accomplished well:

Midterm:

a) The use of a clipping mask to throw a background image onto a figure (the rainbow swirls in the girl's body).

b) The proper use of transformation to align a framed photo on a wall (the photo of the nude model on the wall of the art gallery).

Final:

a) The use of a filter through multiple frames to demonstrate a lasting effect (turning Kristen into a sepia like, low layered image).

b) The use drawing tools to create an animation within a video (the heart, the text, the hand, and the face on the floor).

2. This is a bit too easy for me to answer, because it's animation of course! At first, animation was a far away concept that I hardly had a grasp on. Making an image turn colors for a few second took me at least an hour. Yet through the experience, I was able to make a 3minute long video with significantly improved effects and features. Instead of having a single face and going through filters, I took a trip to the library and had the viewer interact with the enviornment.

3. I'll compare my Movie Poster project and my midterm. With the movie poster, I simply manipulated an image to change the meaning of the poster. I turned a masculine, tough movie into a dark, mysteric romance about two men. I enjoyed this project because the author of the book Fight Club is actually gay and his book had many homosexual themes that were cut from the movie.

The midterm was much different, in that I didn't manipulate as much as I created from scraps. I took and used many different materials from different sources, and created a brand new enviornment. I took a nude model, a pedestal, a room, a picture frame, and a black and white nude photo, and turned into an art gallery that portrayed the different perspectives on beauty.

Final Project Artist Statement

Wow, it's hard to believe it's actually over. I'm a bit sad, as this will probably be the last art class I ever take. But as I continue on to my Marketing major, I know that this class will be a source of reflection and thought that I will use for years to come, in deciding what works (whether it be for consumers, colleagues, or just my own taste). It was a joy to be in this class, and I only wish we all had taken it for a longer amount of time.

But enough of the sentiments, on to my final artist statement!

In my attempt to use Photoshop's animation tools to create a final piece, I chose the word "Transformation" to define my statement. However, this project in particular turned into something I never had imagined. Each step pushed through an evolution that I had know way of knowing existed. As I have mentioned before, I actually prefer this method of taking risks in artwork in order to achieve an end goal, rather than play it safe and end up with something unimpressive to myself.

The first day that we talked about animation in the classroom, I had imagined something small in scale, only a few frames long. Something loop-able, and something neat. I took my movie poster and added a few changes, to come up with this:

The idea was that this was much like a flickering neon sign. I liked how it turned out, and so my curiosity grew, for pushing photoshop to it's limits. I wanted to see how far I could go.

And so, my next step was to take a video, and edit it. This was far more complicated than I had ever imagined. First, I had to take a video. Next, I had to convert it to .MOV format, next I had to import it into Photoshop by means of layers, and then I had to edit each individual layer.

This was by far the most repetitive, tedious work I've done for this class. A simple test run of different effects and filters took hours to make. Partly because of photoshop's stingy interface for animation, and partly due to my inexperience.

After this, I wanted to pursue something even more ambitious. Instead of a flickering image, and instead of a random 10 second clip, I wanted to do more. I wanted a video of choice, I wanted to make my own video and explore the world. I wanted it to be longer than 10 seconds. I didn't want it to be silent, I wanted music. And lastly, I wanted it to explore even more effects in photoshop than previous times.

And so, here's the process:

1. Take a long, single video of me walking around the library.

2. Convert the video into an .AVI format, and edit it to create a single, cohesive video.

3. Split this video up into smaller clips, so that Photoshop can handle it.

4. Convert these clips into .MOV so that Photoshop can import it.

5. Import into Photoshop (Video from Layers) and skip every 5th frame to reduce frame count.

I was working for hours on hundreds upon hundreds of frames and layers. It become so complicated, that I knew there was no turning back. Trying to edit this again would be virtually impossible. However, I am glad how it turned out, and I feel that the song is appropriate with the video.

Unlike other projects, this one wasn't as focused and pinpoint on a single idea (like women, or emotion). That's the only thing I didn't like, but I feel that it's still a good animation, and demonstrates a good amount of work.

I suppose the video was sort of dream like. Things that occurred were other-worldly. Such as the tower collapsing, my hands being charcoal, people looking like dark figures and growling at me, floors trying to eat me, and shoes that turn color.

It seems a bit random, I know, but I feel it sort encapsulates this idea of being inside your own head, and floating around. Even a simply trip to the library can become a crazy adventure inside your own head.

Blog 4: Final Artist Statement

My final artist statement can be summed up by the word: Transformation. I will be attempting to use the tools of animation in Photoshop to portray the visual of change over time in an individual. By using animation and having moving frames, I can order different layers in a way that will create motion, and give the image more depth. To be honest, I’m not sure in what context this can be used. I am familiar with gif images, and seeing them used mostly to put up funny, low quality video clips online as a source of entertainment. However, this will be using Photoshop, which in itself is the very opposite of low quality. It’s sole purpose is to optimize images. The real challenge here will be balancing the quality of images, the amount of frames, and the size of the final file.

In my midterm project, I was told to find an artist, and to relate it back to my work. However, this time round my influences are a lot less specific. I will still be going in the direction of visuals juxtaposed with human bodies (Justin Maller), but still have a different style than Maller or my midterm. Another influence is film and flash animation. In middle school I would visit the website Newgrounds.com often. This website is unlike any other, in that it provides a solid fan base for those looking to gain exposure for their flash animations. Many of which would be lost without that website as a home (Seriously check it out. Here is one of the all time best animations on the site: Fallen Angel Part 1 and Brackenwood ). My last influence is this particular video by Robbie Cooper. I saw this awhile ago, and it’s always stuck with me. The way our faces look when we have no social pressures, when we are immersed and have no reason to try and look a certain way: Robbie Cooper's Video .

As previously stated, I will specifically be using animation as a new, challenging tool in Photoshop. I feel that this tool can have a great impact on the work, and create great depth. I have used animation programs before (gif mostly) and while they made the process easy, it provided no tools to manipulate the images I was using.