Test Animation

A quick test of the bone tool in flash. I was given the graphic of the bird and was told to make it look as if it was flying. Not my finest work, but a good example of the tutorial. I could also hopefully loop the character to create a longer animation.

5 Integration Strategies

When trying to figure out how art is integrated into the real world, we have to try and figure out what methods would be more or less effective. There are five major methods of integration. They are Depiction, extension, reformatting, mimicry, and metaphor.

Of these methods, my most commonly used one is probably extension. I enjoy taking a current idea and seeing how we could expand it into a new territory. I find that doing this creates a further understanding on ideas that may have already been addressed, and as a result, avoids certain cliches.

Postcards

Postcards Artist Statment

For this project, I chose to focus on the library here at GVSU. I chose the library because it is the bank of knowledge here at GVSU, and there is this kind of stereotype that college kids choose either the creative pursuits or the more “academic” ones. The library is a good representation of this kind of haven for non-creative students, it’s a symbol of academics, and so, I wanted to show how this space can influence the idea of creativity. My question was, how linked are the “hard” academics, to the creative ones? For me, a basic knowledge of all subjects is needed for someone to be truly creative. If we look at creativity as a method of solving problems, then we must acknowledge that an understanding of multiple fields is mandatory when trying to come up with a solution. There are multiple ways to solve a problem. For example, if you lock yourself out of your car, you could smash the whole window to get it, or you could try and short a fuse to open the door, or you could try and pick the lock. All three require different skills, and knowledge, but all three will get you into the car. Being creative is about having knowledge.

For my first postcard, called “To Places We Dreamed Of,” I used Rene Magritte’s technique of “Making the familiar strange” by putting my location into space. By putting my objects into this new environment, I show how the knowledge obtained in the library can take us to places that we before could only imagine. It was through the use of creative thinking and experimentation that we were ever able to get there. Both in the design of the rocket, and in the survival of the astronauts. I once read that NASA struggled to figure out a way to keep all the instruments on the space shuttle both secure, and able to move from one part of the ship to another. All sorts of methods were used before someone finally said, let’s try Velcro. It worked great, it was a simple, creative solution to something that seemed much more complicated.

For my second postcard, I used Tom Bamberger’s repetition style to show the infinite amount of knowledge that is available to us in the library. I duplicated a row of bookshelf’s over and over to make it seem like a very long column. At the end, there is a single, lone workspace that a person can sit at to try and obtain this knowledge.

For my third postcard, called “Sparked Ideas,” I wanted to combine two of the ideas that were present in my last two cards, and fully link them to this idea of creativity, at least, in the classical sense. It uses Skoglund’s idea of transformation in a variety of ways.  We again, have a lone study space isolated in the library, with a book on the table. Floating around the book are a number of lightbulbs all different colors. The changing of the colors here, and their odd placement, are meant to follow Skoglund’s work. Lightbulbs are always a symbol for ideas, and the different colors are to represent the variety of ideas that can be sparked by just the one book. Outside the window, I put a somewhat fantasy setting to try and show the ideas that can be sparked are not just scientific, but also classically creative ones.

Finally, we have my last postcard, entitled “Bent knowledge,” that represents the ideas of Hozer and text mapping. I have taken a piece of art that is in the library, which looks like a bunch of bent books, and put the text on them. The statement, creativity is bent knowledge is kind of the overall conclusion I came to when asking my question. I think it ties together the rest of the cards very nicely.  

Photoshop 3d

Photoshops 3-d features are ones that are rarely used by the everyday user. They require quite a bit of computing power, and a decent understanding of how 3d models work. Today, we practiced the basic principles of them. Creating 3-d objects from a layer, how to extrude them, how to texture an extrusion, playing with lights, and creating 3d text. 

The first exercise had us render a coin in 3d. my choice of angle doesn't really show it, but you can see the shadow the coin casts from a custom 3d light, as well as the reflective properties I added to the face of the coin. If I were to redo this, I would start with my background image, that way I could simulate the light source in it to help blend the coin into the scene better. The second exercise showed us how to texture, and add other properties to the extrusion. In this case, we used a stack of dollar bills. We took two images, one of the bill face and another of a stack of papers, and combined them to create a 3d stack of bills in photoshop. We added a slight bump map to further the effect. 

Finally, we learned how to extrude text. Here I applied all the techniques I learned to overlay this text onto an image of the city of Detroit. I thought the 3d here really helped emphasis the space in the image.

To practice using the content erase tool, line tool, and text tool, we were tasked with designing a mock postcard. Using the background erase, I was able to isolate the woman and her hair from a white background and add her into the Maine landscape. I made her semi opaque, because she just kind of reminded me of a spirt or ghost. I also had to extend the sky on the Image. We also discussed how to use the marquee tool to create fills and borders, so I reused the background image as a border for the reverse side of the card. I then added a fill to allow text and hand writing to be visible on the card. I photoshopped in a stamp using similar techniques to complete the look.

Today in class, we learned how to use the text mask tool to create beveled text that could be overlaid onto an image. We also learned how to distort that text to try and make it flow with the background more. In this image, I tried to take the most noticeable part of the image, the sun, and comment on it, creating almost a motivational poster. I also added another layer in photoshop to blend the words behind some of the mountains, to tray and give it the feel of a rising sun since one is setting.  These tools will be very helpful in creating the post cards, as it allows me to very seamlessly integrate text into the image.