Assignment 9 - ADA Project

            For this project I decided to do analog digital analog. The concept was pretty interesting to me. I started off by taking one of my drawings I drew about a month ago, then I scanned it into the computer. After I scanned it I opened it in Photoshop and made a trace of it. The idea I had to do with my drawing was to digitally paint it. This is something that is new to me and I used a drawing pad to keep the consistency of a hand drawing. In Photoshop I selected a couple of colors to work with, then I started to paint in sections. I also added some feathers to the top of the drawing.

 Original Drawing

    Digitally scanned and painted and texturized

Added the feathers

Printed the image out then scanned it back in.

Assignment 8 - DAD or ADA Project Brainstorming

        For this project we had a choice of doing an Analog to digital then back to analog, or doing a digital to analog then back to digital. I am thinking of making an analog to digital then analog. I want to select a few of my drawings and scan them into the computer, then draw and paint them in photoshop. I want them to still show the drawing marks slightly. I am very interested in this art style and want to experiment with the different ways to make digital art. After I render them in photoshop I would like to add some sort of effects to them using After Effects. Drawings I am thinking about using:

• The other drawing would be about the same but with feathers on the head.
• Another drawing I was thinking was of a Pharaoh head.

Assignment 7 - After Effects Tutorial

Ancient Title Tutorial extended from Justin Taylor on Vimeo.
          For this assignment we were to learn some new effects in After Effects. I went to Video Copilot and found a very interesting tutorial on how to make an Ancient Title effect. So I watched and learned how to make this effect. I had to learn various effects such as the Particle World effect, the tint effect, mesh warp, the fractal noise, linear wipe and the radial blur effect. All were very useful. I also used the 3D option and learned the uses of the t-matte modes and the different modes for the layers.

Tutorial Link:  http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/ancient_titles/

Ancient Title Effects Tutorial:

• ·         Create new comp
• ·         Import 2 different images of textures.
• ·         Bring first texture into comp and scale it evenly to comp.
• ·         Toggle Transfer Modes
• ·         Create text layer, put anything
• ·         Then pre-compose text layer
• ·         Select texture image – go to effect-color correction-curves.
• ·         Take most the contrast out
• ·         Go to Layer-new-adjustment layer, then add curves adjustment.
• ·         Make darker.
• ·         Select ellipse tool, double click it, set mask to subtract.
• ·         Turn feather up as desired.
• ·         Create new solid layer, name it particle waves.
• ·         Effect-simulation-particle world-turn grid off.
•       -Physics – velocity 0, gravity 0, -particle – faded sphere, -producer – radius xyz turn up to spread     around. –birth size – up to haze, as well as birth death. Gravity – 0.220, longevity – 2, size variation – 33%.
• ·         Drag mesh warp to particle waves layer. 3 rows, 3 columns.
• ·         Make mesh move inward or outward to make unusual flow.
• ·         Change transfer mode to screen.
• ·         Layer-new-solid, name small particle and change tag color.
• ·         Repeat making the Particle World effect as above, but make them smaller, and increase birth rate to about 10.
• ·         Layer-new-solid, name it light, then go to effect-noise and grain-fractal noise.
•       Transform- uncheck uniform scaling. –scale height to about 3300. –contrast up and brightness down.
• ·         Effect-transition-linear wipe, transition completion 23%, -wipe angle 0, and feather as much as needed.
• ·         Now set “light” layer to screen mode, then set the layer to 3D.
• ·         Use Z-axis and rotate tool to bring light forward.
• ·         Then ALT Click on the Evolution watch, type – time*100 to add movement.
• ·         Now duplicate “light” layer and name lightB, on the top one put “+500” in the evolution after “time*100”
• ·         Make title and texture layers 3D.
• ·         Layer-new-camera, hit “P” and hit stopwatch, then move forward in the timeline and move camera position closer.
• ·         Now highlight both light layers and pre-compose them, name it Light Comp.
• ·         Duplicate “light comp” and toggle switches to show the track matte options.
• ·         Select the small particles layer and set the track matte to luma matte “light comp”
• ·         Select the light comp above the layer and add curves, bring the curves up to see the particles more.
• ·         Make other light comp opacity to 70%.
•              Duplicate title layer, name it title shadow
• ·         Select title, layer-layer styles- bevel and emboss, -depth 300%, -size 1, -altitude 56%, -angle about 93%, layer styles- drop shadow, -distance 0, -size 14, -opacity 40%.
• ·         Select title shadow layer, effect-blur-radial blur. Change type to straight zoom.
• ·         Effect-generate-fill, any color, then go to radial blur and move center all the way above the comp, bring the amount to 7, quality 50.
• Now drag second texture image to comp, switch mode to overlay, make 3D, opacity 50%, and add adjustment layer, then effect-color correction-tint and curves. Tint to 23%, and mess with curves till text pops more.

Artist Lecture 1 - Blane de St. Croix

      Blane was a very energetic artist.  He had many images of his projects he had been apart of. He would sculpt landscapes in different areas of the world in a smaller form. One of the first projects he showed us was called "Broken Landscape," which is a huge installation showing the Mexican border from when it started. He likes to point out environmental and political issues that surround his pieces. In Eagle pass a border town I found it interesting that he said it has a fence that is 1.2 miles, and only 14 feet tall and it cost $12 million to have built. Blane believes that is a waist of money and could have been used for other things.

       The project above is a collage of non-existing mountains. Its called "Mountain Views," and is located in Long Island City, Queens. The mountains were meant to obstruct the skyline and to reclaim its spot. These no longer existing mountains were removed to make cities like New York. He wanted the mountains to reclaim their spot and sees it as a memorial for them, He brings up the issue with coal mining and mountain top removal. The piece is made from recycled foam, steel, wood, paint, dirt, concrete and stucco. In the near future Blane plans on his next project being in the arctic. He plans on studying the issues of global warming and implementing them in his works. 

http://blanedestcroix.blogspot.com/

Assignment 6 - Funny King

Funny Pharaoh Shortened from Justin Taylor on Vimeo.

Assignment 6 - Write-up

              For the 6th assignment I wanted to continue my works on my Pharaoh animations. My goal was to change it so that it looked better. I wanted to use sound, masks and a different replacement animation for the eyes of the Pharaoh seeing as they didn't really go well with the piece. I split the project up into 3 separate compositions. The first comp was edited for the introduction of the piece. The second one I focused on the main movements I wanted to achieve. The last comp involved the Pharaoh and all his body parts to expand off the comp. My intentions for this piece were to make the character more silly even though he thinks he isn't at times. I set it up as this whole little video would be episode 1 and the next comp I make will progress to episode 2 and so on. The only issue I ran across is trying to space the frames so that the piece wouldn't be too fast or slow at times.

Assignment 5 - Write-up

               Assignment 5 is focusing on masking. I used the previous assignment called sleepy eyes and added some mask techniques to it. First I started out with a mask layer that gave a blinking sense. I wanted to imitate what people do with their eyes when they start to get sleepy and then finally fall asleep. I ran into multiple problems at first. I couldn't do the stroke effect like I wanted and I also made a path in Illustrator and tried to bring it into After Effects so that I could make it a motion path, but couldn't figure it out. After researching a little I got some of what all I wanted and plan on practicing these techniques more so that I won't run into any problems in the future. I have the basic components of masking down but need more practice on how to make a correct motion path and using the stroke effect.

Sleepy Eyes 2 - Assignment 5

sleepyeyes2 from Justin Taylor on Vimeo.

Assignment 4 - Write-up

             For this assignment I went in a different route but still stayed within my same theme. I wanted to focus more on the replacement animation technique and matching audio up with the piece. One challenge I had was making the eyes blink a little faster at certain times. It is basically a basic understanding of how to do the replacement animation and to implement audio in it. I made the eyes in Illustrator and had to figure out what size I needed them to be as well as how I would configure my layers. I initially planned on making a moving mouth along with it but I like it with the eyes only. I plan on taking this further by using the skills I am learning in class.

Sleepy Eyes - Assignment 4

Sleepy Eyes from Justin Taylor on Vimeo.
Basic Understanding of using replacement animation, audio and motion.