Surreal Composition Project
In Digital Media, we experimented with a variety of different mediums with which we could tell stories and explore worldbuilding. We learned different Photoshop techniques during the Surreal Composition project, learning how to compose and combine different images to create something that wasn’t there before. Although our worldbuilding project eventually went in a different direction than what I created here, this was a fun project that taught me a lot of useful skills, and got me thinking about different worlds I could create in the rest of the unit.
For my surreal composition I created a magical woodland scene with a little cottage tucked in the branches of an old, gnarly tree. There are glowing mushrooms, daisies, a rope swing, and moss everywhere. I put a trail of fireflies to add to the magical feeling of the scene. I wanted to create a composition that looks like it’s something from a fantasy world. I like the effect of the dim lighting under the canopy giving the feeling of just a little bit of mystery.
I used Adobe Photoshop to place and edit these photos together to create the final composition. I am very proud of how all the elements work together and look overall fairly seamless. I added all the moss on the trunk which I really like the effect of. I was able to practice some valuable skills of image compositing and editing, especially with the lighting and coloring to make all the images I used look as if they all belong in the same world.
Multi-Layered Art Project
For the layer art project, I worked with one of my worldbuilding group members to create a physical piece of art that went with our worldbuilding project. We chose to focus on the architecture styles that we had envisioned for our world, which includes a combination of greenery and greenhouses, tree-lined canals, stained glass windows, stone cathedrals, and futuristic glass buildings. We started with a lot of sketches of the different types of architecture, and then moved onto layout sketches before beginning to work in Illustrator.
Figuring everything out in Illustrator took a lot of spatial awareness for a digital program, since we had to figure out how the layers would work with each other and with gravity as a 3D piece of art. We created each layer separately so they could all be cut out by the laser cutter.
Once we had laser cut out each layer, we assembled the final light box with foam board, glue, and the electronics to light it up. It was really fun to see our layer box come together and become a 3D piece.
This project was based on the worldbuilding unit we were doing in English, where we imagined a world and all the details about it. One of the elements that really interested me was the architecture we envisioned for our world, Eldoria, which was a unique combination of futuristic aesthetics with glass buildings everywhere and old-fashioned styles such as stained glass windows and stone cathedrals. Laser cutting the layers and then assembling the light box was really fun, and I really like how our final product came out.
This new medium of creating 3D layer art was a fun challenge, because we had to think about how different layers would interact in a 3D space instead of only in 2D. Displaying it in Adobe After-Effects was a fun third way to present our art, to help the viewer get a feel for the different layers. It’s a very useful skill that I can see myself using in the future to display other types of productions. Being able to use both Adobe Illustrator and After Effects both help me to better create and present my creations, to make them more professional and clean.
Music Project
We have the amazing opportunity to have access to Freestyle’s Music studio, and this project allowed us to really explore what we were capable of using it. We brought musicians into the studio and recorded them, and then mixed and mastered the whole thing in Adobe Audition. I also got to create cover art for the song which was fun experimenting with a new style.
For this project, I worked with my partner Ethan Fey to produce a cover of From the Start by Laufey. This was a very fun and rewarding project as we got to work directly with the musicians in Freestyle’s recording studio. We got a very talented group together to record each instrument, to get an arrangement that included vocals, maracas, guitar, bass guitar, and piano. From the Start was a fun song to work with, a jazzy bossa nova song with interesting rhythms and charming lyrics.
In post-production, we used Adobe Audition and its variety of audio editing tools to mix and master this piece. It really increased the quality of the sound of each of the instruments and made it overall more cohesive into a song that we are very proud of.