Using Photoshop

     Another school year, another blog post. At the start of this years graphic branch in e-Com we started with Photoshop. I, myself, have never had the occasion use it before and I actually had a lot of fun going through the tutorials that were given for us. The concept was simple. We'd follow along on a video on our own in photoshop. So far with the tutorials given to us, this is some of what I have accomplished:

      Now, in some of the photos you provably don't see whats so 'Photoshop' about it. Starting with the black and white photo of the younger boy, originally his face was covered in mud and dirt. Using the 'Spot Healing Brush' and some masks here and there I was able to eliminate most of the original stains that were there. 

     Then, the one right under it of the lady with her navy jacket on. In the photo that we were given, there  was a tag hanging out right where you can see her left arm touching her jacket. But where, you may ask, has this tag gone? Using the 'Clone Stamp' and the 'Healing Brush' all evidence that the tag was even there is now gone. 

     Last but not least we have the lady on the top with her blue dress and purse. In the photo given you could see to the left of her the spot light stand which, was not wanted at all. Using the tool known as 'Content Aware Fill', it was easily taken off from the photo. 

Skills

    My personal favorite tool to use out through the whole process was actually the 'Healing Brush' tools. Spot healing brush was used to get rid of stains and unwanted bits and pieces here and there, while the regular healing brush was able to help erase evidence that a much more obvious object ever existed. I know it will be incredibly helpful in the future because you never know when an unwanted object or spot might sneak its way into your photograph.

Strengths and Weaknesses

     Probably my biggest strength was being able to get through all of the tutorials given to us easily and quickly. But my weakness lies in the quickly part. I'm sure I might have skipped over something while trying to complete the project. While all of my final products turned out rather well I admit maybe in one or two if you look close enough you might find something off.

What could've been done differently

     For starters I definitely could've taken my time more and made sure to review everything that I had done. Other than that all I can think of is double checking that my final product looked like the final product in the tutorial as well. 

What I'd do the same

     Everything else most likely. Following along with the video rather than stopping it then working and also using the tools in the exact manners as shown in the videos is what I would keep the same if I was ever to this all over again. 

Final thoughts 

     Learning how to use Photoshop has been a fun and long experience that isn't over just yet. I'm looking forward to what I'll be using photoshop to do in the future and I really like how all my products came out in the end. Here are the rest of the examples that I'd created throughout the following week:

Animation's Importance

     As a kid, most of us grew up with some sort of T.V. in the living room or kitchen where we would always watch cartoons while snacking or having dinner or maybe not eating anything. These cartoons are a form of animation. Animation is a huge influence on us since we've been seeing it almost for our entire lives. 

     The original animation was the magic box (1650) that would display images in a fashion to make them look like a character was doing an action. From there is started to grow into longer animations telling short stories with crude pictures. Eventually those curse pictures turned into vibrant colors, much better designed and much longer. Eventually going to 3-D and lasting hours long.

     Animation has almost lasted 400 years and is still growing and getting better every day.  In the link at the end, it talks all about how animation has evolved from the magic box to Walt Disney on the big screens.



Link

4th Quarter Reflection

       In the 4th Quarter of e-Communication we did a project that required collaboration and a team effort to do. We were to make a product and present it to the class. It took the entire quarter and needless to say I wish my team had more time to work. I was paired up with, personality wise, people who were the complete opposite of me. We did not get along well at first and I considered multiple times asking for a new group or, if possible, to do the project by myself. However that proved not to be the case and as time went by we figured out how to work well as a team. I learned it's good to give people second chances and that patience comes in handy in situations when you think you can't get along with the people around you. This project helped me understand the importance of collaboration in e-Communication. Surely, by myself, I wouldn't have been able to get so much work done.

      When working on the project my team never much asked for help or feedback unless it from a teacher. Thus, during the making of the project we kept what work we had done at first, it was rare for us to make any changes. One of the changes that we actually put in place was the video with the intermission part. But in my overall opinion of the work during 4th quarter was that I could've done better in many ways.  Specifically when it came to our animations and collaborating. Still, I think we did a pretty good job.

       During the time we had this 4th quarter I believe that my time was use effectively, spare a few moments when I got aught up in interesting conversation. I can't say the same for my teammates however. If there was I time where I finished early I would ask my teammate to review my work and tell me if there was anything I could've done better or that could be changed. Outside of class I'm on the Robotics Team, graphics. This came in handy during the Graphics part of the project when I was able to use a lot of different tools and skills that many of the other freshman did not know about. It was fun showing off to my teammates about all that I've learned from the Robotics Team.

       After one year of e-Communication I think I've learned a lot. I did not before know how to use any of the Adobe Programs, how to create an animation, or the rule of thirds. However, if I had to choose an area of strength it would most certainly be Graphic due to how much fun I consider it an all I've learned about it from Robotics. If I had to choose an area of weakness it would be Video because it requires collaboration with whoever you're videoing or it would require me to be in from of a  camera. Both of which I'm not fond of. During the 4th quarter I tried to do my best when it came to filming and collaborating with my fellow teammates about what we wanted to do. 

       In this last semester of e-Com if I was to choose a favorite part, it would be the days I called Mr. Cooper out on being sassy so that he'd eventually owe the whole class donuts. Perhaps it would be whenever I finished feeling and had the nice feeling of accomplishment or maybe even watching other people's video's to see how they interpreted what we learned that semester. Doing the Website had been fun too. If I got to turn back the clock, I'd have been a little more willing to cooperate with my teammates when it came to the final project. 

      

       I learned more about video in this semester than I have in my entire life with the rule of thirds, the 180 rule and all the different camera angles. Besides that I learned about the importance of collaboration when it came to doing important projects such as the final. For next year one of my main goals will to collaborate effectively, put my skills to good use whether I'm working by myself or with someone else and not to have any late assignments. Ever. I believe that this year of e-Communication is the best of many to come. I'm excited for what awaits me in this class as a tenth grader.

The Final Project

     

       My team for the 4th quarter project called ourselves 'Puppy Productions' with our product 'Bow-Wow' which was a device installed a treat that when consumed by your dog would allow transmissions to reach your phone sending you in texts what your dog is thinking. Our slogan was, 'When your having a ruff day, your dog will know just what to say'.

       We started with making our video which took us a while to edit, but overall turned out pretty well. We ended up having to re-edit it in oder to put our animation in it during the 'intermission'. Afterwards we went to Mrs. Smith's room too do our graphic design, which was my favorite part of the doing the project. Since I am in the robotics graphic design I picked up some ideas from there to use on our logo and such when bringing it to life. When it came to animation I was in charge of making the website and my teammates were to be making the rest of the project, however there was a confusion with the 3-D animation and we were not able to get it done.

       I learned a lot about DreamWeaver when I was making the website. Choosing the font and linking everything together was very fun and I enjoyed it. When it came to collaboration I leaned it's important to find a way to motivate your team members. This whole project relied on our ability to work together effectively and looking back on it we could have done a much better job at that.

       If I had to this over again I would finish the 3-D animation and figure out the 2-D animation to make it better, since I don't really liked how it came out. Also i think I'd collaborate a lot better with my teammates since they're as important to this project as I am. The video could also use more work because the tapes we the dogs we took would be great inside of the video. They were not originally used because we lost them somewhere in the files. Also with the website, I would've created another panel in order to show off the animations and graphics.

       I'd keep the designs we used in Graphics because I think we did an excellent job with coming up with the color scheme and using it effectively in all of our graphic designs. I especially liked the idea that we used in the ad and in the product logo. I'd also keep the original animation because of how I ended up using it into video along with the blooper that was shown in the end.

       The presentation was definitely more a less of a success depending on how you see it. Our speaking parts, where we talked more about the product we did a well job on along with the presentation of the video, however I don't think everyone noticed our animation in the 'intermission part' since it was small for whatever reason. If I had to do it differently I'd be more specific when pointing out the animation and have put in more graphics so they could've been seen. Also it would be better to have talked about what each team member had done to create this.

       In all, even though my team did do a reasonably well job i believe we could've done much better and I plan using the experiences of the collaborations done here in future projects in e-Communication.

   

Last Day of Animating

Our Website is going extremely well and our animation is almost finished, which I do not have screen shots of sadly. We're almost done with our Website which is also going goos. Our #-D part of the project is already done. We are working alright together though I do admit that we could be doing better.

The Project (so far)

      In e-Communication we're been in graphics for a while now and the work we've done is pretty good. I admit that our work in Video wasn't the best so I was hoping to make it up with our work in graphic design. So far so good. We've almost finished with everything except for our coupon. The work we do have done is our Product and Company logo, our Product Ad and our Website Banner.



      The colors that are being used for it are a light blue, grays, white, browns, and black. The company logo is a large 'P' shape with stripes onto of that there being another 'P' shape that is the light blue with the shadow figure of a dog in it. This stand for our company name which is 'Puppy Productions', not my idea for a name but it worked well. To the right of the P's there was two letters which included 'UPPY' and 'RODUCTIONS" since we didn't the the need to put P's in front of the
word since we already had the other design.



      We also had to make the Product logo which was very simple to us. It was a simple blue color contained in a circle wit a dog in it. The dog had a bone in its mouth and above the circle it had the words 'Bow-wow' with the '-' being a bone. The words themselves where a lighter blue than the actual one of the circle.



      The Web Banner was the hardest to do in my opinion. In seemed oddly plain when we were done with it. The banner was black with our slogan featured to the left of the banned saying 'When you're having a ruff day, count on your dog to know what to say'. In the middle was our Product logo then off to the right was our company logo. In the middle of the banner was a white circle that blended with the rest of the black banner.



     The Product ad was different than that of the Product logo. It's a square ad with a black background and on the top left corner is our company logo. In the top middle is the Product logo, which looks much bigger than the company. The Product logo has been given a drop shadow and there are splatters of paint going behind it. Below that logo there's the slogan we've been using.


     The coupon is looking very well. The coupon has our product logo in the center of a square, which is cut diagonally with the left side being a more brownish and the right being a light shade of gray. Besides that there is the slogan to the right of the scanner.

Website

      Recently, these couple weeks we have all been working on two different projects. The first one is our last video that we've been filming, the Chase Scene. The other one is a website project that this out will talk more about. I'm very proud of how it turned out. We made this using DreamWeaver and interactions that were available to us in GoogleClassroom.

       The process for all of this was incredible easy, starting with us opening DreamWeaver then making a new file. From there we attached the new pile to the file containing the poem and some others. After that we started editing. Going into different sectors we edited each of them according to the instructions that were included in GoogleClassroom. When finishing we would then open it up in Safari and took screen shots.

       There was nothing new here, we just simply followed the same intrusions that we had on our last web project. Although this one did prove to be differently made since instead of putting our latest projects on it, we instead put a poem on it. The only part that proved to be difficult would be the part where we had to put the font into the code instead of where we would regularly put it.

      If I had to this all over again I would pay more attention to the instruction but other than that I would do nothing else differently since I think this is one of my few projects that turned out very well first try. Still, I will admit having a few difficulties with the instructions here and there. Mostly because of how unclear they could be.

       Overall this was a fun project and easier than expected even with it few bumps here and there. Coming up next is the Chase Scene. My finished product (right) compared to the original (left):