Introduction to Photoshop
For our first session of Photoshop we started with the basics – sizes for canvases.
Our brief consisted of making 4 different sized canvases:
- Print Image 11.5 x 18.5cm (colour)
- Print Image 9 x 14cm (B&W)
- Web Banner 728 x 90 pix
- Instagram Image (1080 x 1080 pix)
Selections and Layers
For this week’s work we looked at layers and selection.
Layers Task
The highlighted background layer shows what we have selected and where all the work is put on. The plus box in the bottom is to add more layers. You can move and drag layers on top of each other or below each other. The eye icon can turn the layer invisible if you click on it.
The task for the week was to create an image using the blending options and layers. The blending options can be seen just above the layers, which is currently set to normal on the image above.
For my image I combined shaped together to create a new colour using the multiply tool.
Selection Task
For the selection task I needed to create my dream dog with the shape tool and either take shapes away or add. I found it was really fun subtracting circles from other circles to create a moon like shape. As well as taking shapes away from other shapes, I played around with changing some layer modes to multiply to show the colour behind.
Selection Task 2
The second task was to cut out a picture using the three different selection tools: lasso tool, polygon tool and magnetic tool. I found that with the lasso tool you have to move slow, the polygon tool you can select multiple points and with the magnetic tool, it’s better to use with a less detailed picture as it doesn’t always pick them up. The first image is the polygon tool, the second is the magnetic tool and the third is the lasso tool.
Scanning
This weeks work we looked at scanning drawings in and putting them into Photoshop.
When scanning the main things to look out for are: colour, resolution, scan to and auto selection. You want to make sure that when it has auto select, to turn it off as it will try to draw selection boxes around everything. When you “scan to” you want it to scan to your desktop but move it to a one drive file so it doesn’t get wiped. Resolution is the size of the print so if you scanned it at 300 dpi and the resolution is 300 dpi then it will scan to size. If you scanned it at 600 dpi then it will double in size.
The task for the week was to create a piece of work from a scanned in drawing. I started by drawing on two separate pages, an outline of myself and then the second page was a rough estimate of where the colouring sits. Once it was all drawn I scanned it in and then sent it to Photoshop. It was scanned B&W as I would be changing the colour in Photoshop.
I took my photos to photoshop and I needed to now separate the outline and colour from the background. Using colour range selection, I selected the black outline areas, copied this and pasted it onto a new layer so I only had the black outline. I repeated this for the colour layer. It was slightly more difficult with the colour background as there was different colours so I selected them separately. This also meant that I can change the colours for each section.
I moved both of the images onto the same new file where I could then play around with the colours
For the final image I changed the hair to a lighter blue and coloured the line art to a pink.
Introduction to InDesign
This week I looked at InDesign. Our basic task to get us to grips with the software was to create a booklet based on an a song. I chose Hong Kong by Gorillaz. I gathered some images from Pinterest based on the album the song came from as well as searching the lyrics up to put into the booklet. The booklet needed to be at least 10 pages. The specifications for the book is that it needed to be 120mm by 120mm. I made a new document with this size then added 10 new pages. To make sure that the photos were as high quality as I could make them when uploading them to the booklet, using “tools” I selected “large”. I fit the photos into the page by using the buttons “shift” and “command” to shrink them and then cropping the sides to fit. Once I added all the photos I added the lyrics to the song, moving them to where I thought they fit best.
Introduction to Illustrator
This week I looked at creating a logo inspired by work from Aaron Draplin. Using his video on working efficiently on illustrator as well as another tutorial on how to create a flower I made an exploding flower logo.
Logo’s For Companies in Illustrator
In this week’s work we had to make logo’s for companies as quick as possible. I made three logos: Buttery, K(after)9 and What’spap(er). I did all the work inspired by how Aaron Draplin works on Illustrator.
Badge Making
In this week’s project I needed to create a badge based on “anti-social anxiety”. I wanted to create a skull based on myself as I am a little socially anxious and the badge is to show who I am. I made a joke that “I’m Dead” on the badge so people look at the badge and either know what kind of person I am or think it’s funny. I followed a tutorial on how to make a skull on illustrator and then added a halftone effect to it so it had a noisy effect to it. The badge restriction size was 25mm so I made a first circle 35mm and then an inner reference circle so I knew where the main parts of the badge were. The rest of it is bleed that would be hidden behind the badge.
Once I had the design completed I printed it out and turned it into a real wearable badge.
