A Day In the Life

Composition: Color

Activity 14: Color Echo

For this activity, we were asked to find a picture with a simple background. I found the image of a pair of lips on Google. I chose it because it had interesting colors that would fit nicely for this assignment. I used Photoshop for the rest of my composition. I used the magic wand tool to cut out the lips from their background. I then used a second layer to create the new background. The assignment was to echo the colors from our original picture, onto a background in which we would put it all together and make a poster/sign, etc. My original picture looked like this: 

In order to echo the exact color of the lips I decided on making a background that focused on the most important colors. I chose the dark purple, the magenta/ hot pink, the golden yellow, and the orange yellow.  Once I picked out the colors and made them exact shades of the original, I then dimmed and made the background a little transparent to soften it because I wanted the main focus to be on the image.Then, I added text in which I chose a soft purple/pink for the color. I thought it was important to focus on a color that matched but was a little offsetting so it could be viewed as equally important. I used a font that was bold to signify the importance of the message, but that was also fitting to what the words said. I thought the edginess of the letters brought the whole image together. My final result looked like this:

This was by far the most challenging exercise. It is extremely hard to color echo, but once done right the final result is very rewarding. I learned that sometimes using similar colors on an entire image can bring the whole message together more than just text and a plain background. If you really want to spice up a poster this would be an excellent way to grab someone's attention.

Activity 13: Saturation and Hue

In this activity, we were asked to focus on color. We were asked to pick out a picture from the internet with good color in it. I chose this original picture of a box of crayons from Google (seen below). We were then asked to go into Photoshop and alter the hue, saturation, and value (lightness or darkness).

                                                                                     Hue:

I chose to alter the hue to -66. I thought it would be a nice contrast to the original picture which was already so bright. I think it makes a statement to darken the hue because all of a sudden crayons don't look that exciting to play with. If I was a kid looking at a commercial to buy crayons, I would want the vibrant option rather than the one presented here. The tone is darker and more humble than the optimistic and exciting option of bright colors presented in the original.

                                                                                    Saturation:

The saturation example I did next is the opposite of what I was demonstrating with the hue. I chose to alter the saturation to +47. This option stood out to me because the vibrance came alive. It wasn't too saturated so that the picture lost it's aesthetic aspect. This is my favorite demonstration of color. You can really see the variances in colors which is what I was ultimately trying to accomplish.

                                                                                        Value (Lightness):

The value aspect of color shows off how white or black you can make a picture. If I had to choose I would prefer a whiter version of the original crayon picture, like the one displayed here, because the blacker one is almost impossible to see. With so many colors originally, it becomes difficult to separate and therefore black just becomes mush. This example showed me that I would rather have a color variance to a picture because lightening it just makes it dull. The activity becomes lost in this example.

I enjoyed this example simply because I love playing with colors. I have a much better understanding of what to look for in a good colorful picture, or what to avoid when I'm constructing my own picture with multiple colors. For example making the image too negatively hued or too light bring about unpleasant aesthetics, and a saturated picture can sometimes be better than an unchanged image.

Composition: Legibility and Text Safe Areas

Activity 12: Legibility 

The class was asked to make fake greeting cards for this activity that included a semi-simple backdrop with text on top of it. I chose clouds from Google Images, because they are a relaxing scene. I wrote the word "Welcome!" on my greeting card as well. I wrote it in bold font to offset the blue of the backdrop, and I used sans serif font (meaning the words did not have feet on them). I felt that this made the card more inviting. The text had a bit of comic style to it to also emphasize relaxing, as if this were a greeting card from a hotel or promoting a place of travel. I wrote the text on the bottom left hand corner to add aesthetics of flow with the picture. The clouds look as if they are shifting from left to right and by placing the text where I did, it allows the eyes to keep the same pattern of view. My result looked like this: 

I enjoyed doing this project because it helped me to understand the importance of text and legibility. If someone wanted to make a greeting card with clouds and used soft blue font, and was hoping to use it as an important business venture, no one would take them seriously because they did not put enough "time and effort" into making their card seem realistic. It would look sloppy and incomplete, and therefore give a bad look to that business. I use this example in my head to make sense of an abstract situation for there are many more examples that people use text for in the every day world. Communication is how the world functions and keeps society moving. Text is a channel for that communication, hence its importance is monstrously important for every day life.

Composition: 3D

Activity 11: 3D images

We used this activity to buid a 3D image inside the 3D world SecondLife. We were asked to construct an object inside this real world simulation website of our choice. I chose a cone. I altered the object by changing its gradient to Spanish tile. I then made it transparent as well as emphasized it's shininess. I rotated it so it's tile marks showed more to the people which allowed the uneven sections to reveal themselves, and lengthened it so it was taller than all the avatar present. My final image looked like this:

This activity taught me how to operate inside a 3D world. It opened my eyes to graphic design which is quite an interesting task. I found as I was producing my object that graphic design is a bit of a tedious task for me, but I appreciate the effort that so many people take to make websites, etc to look as good as they do. It is extremely hard work to make something look realistic, on top of which being aesthetically pleasing. I think that I did a decent job for one who had never even seen a website like this before let alone operate in it. 3D life is a lot more challenging than I ever thought.