Introduction
“Who am I?”
This unit was about discovering yourself and your values. This unit was filled with various projects that taught me about myself. I learned so much, from editing the reverb on a song in Digital Media to reading historical books like Parable of the Sower in English to making a PSA about the importance of voting in Design. I learned that I want to explore music and film more, as well as expanding my knowledge of more Adobe applications to further my main passion of design.
Core Values Video
This video showcases the values that I hope to portray in my college essay. I first recorded all my values separately, normalized the clips, and edited them on Adobe Audition. I imported them in Adobe AfterEffects and edited them to be animated and have background music. The Photo is my Adobe AfterEffects workspace.
AfterEffects Practice
In this unit, we did a deep dive into AfterEffects to edit, animate, and make our still images more interesting. We did a variety of videos to further engage with all the tools AfterEffects provided. I practiced Rotoscoping, Graphics and audio, and more effects that will help better my work.
Mandala (Meditação)
This piece was an assignment that challenged us to create our own unique mandala using Adobe Illustrator. After the mandala was created, we would laser-engrave it on wood. I chose to create a 12-slice mandala. I began by creating a central motif of a sunflower in the middle of the mandala, which then transformed into making the whole mandala have a floral-like feel to it. I added a variety of dots, different widths of strokes, and petal-like shapes in order to mimic nature’s haphazardness. This piece was heavily detailed and took me many hours; if I had to change anything about this piece, I would utilize the brush tool instead of the pen tool in order to create more organic shapes. From this piece, I learned the significance of repetition and how it can impact a final image.
For the colored version of my mandala, I wanted to include warm colors that appear in nature. I used variations of sage, rose, peach, mint and tangerine.
For the laser engraving of the mandala assignment, the last part, I chose to engrave my design onto a bamboo wood plank. I wanted to choose something with lighter wood that would reflect the feel of the design well.
I shot a picture of my mandala, keeping in mind the rule of thirds and leaving negative space for text. I brought out the curves in the piece in order to show detail. I also exposed the background to create a higher contrast that would emphasize the mandala as well as the text.
MAndala reveal video
For the Mandala Reveal Video made on AfterEffects, I did a title screen with a lavender-blue color that I thought represented my mandala well. I then put my mandala in the frame and rotated it to look like it was spinning and put a white mask over it to slowly reveal the mandala. Finally I put upbeat jazzy music in the background.
Summer Collage
After we came back from the summer we had an assignment to recreate our summer using photographs (royalty free and personal). I first recreated my summer on Adobe Photoshop. The flower represents the many different flowers I saw and picked in Baltimore. The road sign reminded me of the road signs I saw in Baltimore. The sky represents summer. As I studied figure drawing, we drew many statues so I wanted to implement that with an example in the bottom left corner. I went to Las Vegas and watched the Cirque du Soleil Beatles show and I was so in awe so I wanted to include the Beatles in the top left. I put the actual building I studied in. I included me and my friend Ruby in the center of the piece. Finally, I put an arc as a border to make the the image stand out and act as a vignette. I then traced the entire thing in Illustrator in the original colors and then in fun blocky colors.
PSA
Historically, the younger generations have had a lower voter turnout. With this piece, I hope to appeal to young voters and encourage them to vote. In this poster, I made two separate versions that correspond with one another, drawing inspiration from Shepard Fairey’s editorial works. I strived to highlight the importance of voting by including patriotic symbols such as the Statue of Liberty. Similarly, I wanted to appeal to the emotional impact of voting by putting a young woman as the subject to encourage younger voters to “see” themselves in the poster. I used geometric shapes and bright, saturated colors to highlight the urgency of the issue. I textured the background to emulate a paper ballot. I then included the color palette at the bottom as a stylistic choice. This is a political piece that addresses an important message about the value of voting, with the intended audience being the people who have just become eligible to vote.
Making this piece in Adobe Illustrator posed some challenges. I wanted to make it feel organic, which called for precise use of the pen tool. I also wanted to incorporate the use of contrast not only with color but with various uses of texture to emulate a voting ballet. Overall, this piece is successful and portrays the message I wanted.
Aboriginal Art
For my Aboriginal art piece, I chose to center the theme around my zodiac sign: Pisces. I researched various aboriginal symbols and chose the river symbol and the water symbol to continue the aquatic theme. I used a complementary color scheme of orange and teal that would emphasize the fish in the center. I wanted the piece to drag the viewer’s eye from the bottom left corner to the top right corner, mimicking the way water flows. I utilized balance in this piece by keeping the piece symmetrical. This piece is made up of dots and lines, drawing inspiration from various aboriginal artists.
This piece was challenging on many fronts; I wanted to keep the piece interesting but not too crowded and showcase symbols without overpowering the fish in the center. I did many revisions of several different colors and compositions until I found the right balance. I believe this piece emphasizes my zodiac sign well and is overall successful.
