The final project for FMX 210 was designing our portfolio on Indesign. First, I sketched the portfolio layout to understand how I wanted to position every section. After choosing the layout, I chose the color scheme for the portfolio. I decided to go with different shades of blue, as I wanted to keep it simple and portray my favorite color. Nevertheless, this was a really fun project as I saw my work portrayed in a presentation. My favorite part was creating mockup images of my work on either billboards, hoodies, or other real-life scenarios. The hardest part was formatting the layout, as I had to take into account different factors like bleeding and text positioning. By putting all of my gained skills into this final project I managed to get the result I much wanted. Thanks to the class of FMX 210 I leave this spring semester with knowledge and skills I will use in my professional and personal life.
For this project, I had to create three designs for business cards, all of which had to include my three colored logos. For the first design, I did the blue-colored logo and decided to keep it simple by simply adding the logo at the front. For the back, I added a circle of the same size and color that contained the information.
For the second design, I decided to be minimalistic and add the letter E in cursive to a black background. The E represents the first letter of my last name. For the back of this design, I decided to divide the space in half with the gray/orange logo on the right and my contact information on the left.
For the third design, I added a little more color. This design was for the original yellow print-colored logo. The front of the card has my initials and full surname written in the middle. My name is surrounded by light yellow and beige rectangles. The back of this design has the same colored squares on each corner and the logo on one of those corners. The information is centered in the middle, making the design simple.
I enjoyed this project, as it consisted of bringing my technical and creative skills to the test. It is definitely a tool that will be useful in my future career.
I missed the class explaining the project, so I struggled to clarify the instructions. I followed the tutorial provided on Canvas and understood the assignment. I found it intriguing that the postcard had to be based on the Eclipse. Therefore, the first thing I did was search for a photo on Adobe stock. Once I found one that I liked, I started creating the document with the right measurements. Then, I added the text with fonts obtained in DaFont and added the effects. The final part was adding my tag brush as a stamp. The hardest thing about the project was downloading the separate documents, as it was the first project where we needed to submit multiple things in a folder.
I decided to add, "and so the world waved" because an eclipse is supposed to create strong tides in the ocean, so I used it as a metaphor to people, as the whole world moves around the topic of the eclipse whenever it happens.
Creating an animated GIF was definitely the most time-consuming project so far. I first had to create the images and icons I would use in the animation. I used Adobe Illustrator to create such icons and start the process. I traced the meditating man and the face portrait with the pen tool. Then, I created the fire using basic shapes and the smoke with a pen tool. The fire was the most important part to draw because it is the part that shows most of the animation. After finishing the creation in Illustrator, I started the animation process using Adobe Photoshop. The hardest part of the project was adding and removing layers from the intended frames, as sometimes it changed things in previous frames and made me start over.
Nevertheless, the animation is named Peace of Mind as it resembles a state of tranquility in an individual's brain. Everything starts with our mind, every action, and every word. In the end, I managed to create the animation, and though it was not as good as I had pictured it in my mind, I was satisfied with the result.
For the first tutorial onAdobe Indesign, I watched a 10 minute video that explained the basics for someone with an interest in starting to use the app.Throughout the semester I have enjoyed all of the adobe applications and I look forward to learn about another one. The first thing I noticed is that basic tools that usually work the same in photoshop and illustrator do not apply to Indesign. For instance, the direct selection tool has a similar function but is operated differently. In Illustrator the tool can be used to round shapes, however, not in Indesign. Other tools that capt my attention were page tool and gap tool. I am not familiar with this type of tool and adapting to all of them might be challenging at first. The page tool is used to re size the page and edit basic contents. The gap tool is used to add spaces and gaps between objects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCAaLlrty1A
I watched a short video for making Indesign presentations. I was curious about how Indesign could enhance my presentation game, so that's why I chose this short video. It directly explains how to start a layout for a presentation. It describes how important setting the number of columns and gutters is. For instance, the gutters number should be half of what the margin is. I realized that the guuters help structure the presentation and maintain order when creating. Another thing I really found interesting was the mouse type. I liked how they use this to name short text that typically goes on the bottom or top corners. You can grab the text and use its format for the mouse type of every slide. I am not sure what I am going to struggle with, as I am familiar with doing presentation but it is a lot of functions to take in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UT47Y5Q_8w
For the third and last tutorial, I watched another presentation tutorial for Indesign. This tutorial focused more on interactive presentations. The tutorial covered a mini lesson on buttoned structures and animation for presentations. Starting these functions requires the same initial step of clicking window, than animation on photoshop. In Indesign you go to window, interactive, and click on buttons and forms or animation. Buttons are a cool and simple way to make a presentation interactive, as it has the function of organizing and taking the viewer to other parts of the presentation. This video was quite simple, but it explained the basics of this functions very well. However, I hope to learn more about this in class and on the assigments/projects.
For the first tutorial on frame-by-frame animation, I watched a character walk. I've always loved animation. The first thing I noticed is that you have to change your pre set to film and video, as well as to create a new layer for each frame. You must add each body part to a separate layer to create a character walk. This is done to avoid having to delete the whole thing because of one error. You must add all of the layers for each frame movement to a group. Keeping the layers organized is crucial for the animation to work. This tutorial was a great introduction to animation as it kept it simple and introduced key elements.
I watched a quick tip video for frame-by-frame animation for the second tutorial. I was curious about how the frames worked, so I chose this short video. It directly explains how the frame falls into a timeline, where you organize and choose how you want the animation to go. You have to create video groups and duplicate layers until you have as many frames as you need. Enable onion skin is an option that I really liked because it shows faded versions of your other layers, so you get an idea of how the animation is playing out. This video really helped me to understand the basics of animation in Photoshop further.
For the third and last tutorial, I watched another short frame animation tutorial. The short videos keep it brief and simple, so I do not get overwhelmed. This tutorial helped me understand the step by step of creating an animation. It separated the video into small sections that explained one function at a time. It explained the same as the previous videos, but it made me realize that animation can get a little confusing. It requires a lot of layers for the frame-by-frame to work, so that might be something I will struggle with. Nevertheless, I am excited to learn more about animation and start acquiring new skills in Adobe Photoshop.
The Somewhere project is definitely my favorite project so far. I had no idea that Photoshop was this fun, and honestly, I never thought I would learn to do it. The project started by choosing an image of a movie or TV show. I chose Peaky Blinders, as Thomas Shelby is one of my favorite characters on TV. Then I took a picture of myself dressed as a Peaky Blinder. The hard part was getting the right picture and trying to get a good-quality image. In the end, my picture was nowhere near the quality of the image I was photoshopping myself into, so I had to play around with the layers and add different tones to each mask. It wasn't till the end that I learned about the unsharpened mask tool. This tool made my image look more professional, and I couldn't be happier with the result. Moreover, I learned new skills in Photoshop and tested my knowledge. It was a great project!
