The Reflections Unit has been one of my favorite units thus far. Our goal for the unit was to answer the question, “Who am I?”, and through multiple different projects in each class, I was able to find my answer in different ways. In English, we focused on writing our personal essays, a unique way to see how I have grown into the person I am today. Moreover, in design, we created a PSA about a topic that we feel passionate about as well as created our own Aboriginal art pieces through Adobe Photoshop. Digital Media helped shine a light on my core values and aided me in reflecting on the kind of person I want to be moving forward into the next chapters of my life. Through the Reflections Unit, I have learned that helping others through the power of communication and talking about emotions is a great passion of mine and I can not wait to explore it further in College.
My Core Values: Love, Gratitude, Passion, Patience, Empathy, Community, Compassion
Mandala
One of our first projects of the year enabled students to learn how to use mirror imaging in Adobe Illustrator to create their own Mandalas. The purpose of the mandala was to visually portray your core values while maintaining beauty and originality and detail. For my mandala, The Sundrop Flower, I decided to reflect upon my value of gratitude and patience, I feel that reminding myself that not all good things come fast is a valuable lesson to have. I also decided to incorporate elements from the magical flower in the movie, Tangled, as it was one of my favorite childhood movies and felt appropriate to include as I am reflecting on my life.
The second part of the Mandala project was bringing our digital artwork into the physical world. Students were given a variety of mediums, such as leather, wood blocks, and clear acrylic, but I chose to have my Mandala laser engraved onto a pizza board. My family and I enjoy pizza nights frequently and being able to use something I created with my family will be very special. I look forward to sharing what I made with my family and friends and I feel as though the pizza board ties back to my value of community, as I am able to share it with the people I love.
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Personal Mandala- Black&White + Colored
Perfectly Imperfect
Using Illustrator, I created a detailed yet simple and imperfect Mandala, just like me. The message behind my Mandala was that not everyone is as perfect as they seem. I confirmed along the way of this project that everyone is special in their own way; each Mandala is unique regardless of how much detail they have.
I encountered struggles primarily in the beginning, with so many options and ideas I didn’t know where to start. Another problem I had was working on my Mandala too zoomed in, meaning that it was hard to see any of the details once I zoomed out because they were so much smaller than I realized.
I am proud of the outcome of my Mandala and that it’s true to who I am and the ideas I had in my head. I wouldn’t change anything about it, and look forward to using my Mandala template again to create new and exciting Mandalas.
Sundrop Flower
My inspiration behind this Mandala was the magical flower from the movie Tangled. I used similar colors and elements from the film, such as the magical sun and flower. I modified my original black and white Mandala, which I created in Adobe Illustrator, by adding color and some new details. One struggle I encountered was finding a cohesive design that worked well with my small details.
I am most proud of my ability to create a new piece from an existing project and turn it into something completely new. I am excited to create new and colorful mandalas in the near future.
Laser Engraved Mandala
My inspiration for this project was the magical Sundrop flower from the movie Tangled. My message for the project was to look for magic in the little details or flowers. I grew through this project by learning to appreciate the delicate details in a Mandala and its ability to communicate a message.
Some struggles I encountered were starting the Mandala to zoom in and losing the details I had worked on once I zoomed out. I overcame this by starting fresh and periodically zooming out throughout my process to ensure I was not losing anything within the Mandala. I am proud of the outcome of my project and look forward to creating more mandalas in the future 🙂
Mandala Reveal Video
Personal Essay
The Personal Essay was an opportunity for me to go beyond the surface level and really try my best to answer this unit’s question: “Who am I?”. At first, I was confused not knowing where to begin and how far I wanted to go in my history to find out the truth. However, once I was able to look past the fear and hurdle of not knowing who I was I slowly began to piece together moments from my life that began to form the person I am today. It was a very interesting and emotional journey to write this essay as it allowed me to reflect on memories that I either forgot about or cherished. Being able to read my personal essay and with confidence say that it reflects who I am is a very satisfying feeling and I am proud of my work 🙂
Motion Graphics
In this section, we learned how to dive into the dynamic realm of visual storytelling, where creativity meets technology. After Effects, a powerful motion graphics and compositing software developed by Adobe helped us create captivating animations, visual effects, and dynamic content from retro scooping to simple motion graphics. Overall the learning process for motion graphics was challenging and at times frustrating, but now that I have the skills to produce visual storytelling I am grateful for the opportunity to explore and create with After Effects.
My Cool Graphics and Audio
My Simple Motion Graphic
Rotoscoping
Being able to create moving visuals with audio is such a valuable skill that helps me elevate every piece of film to the next level. I look forward to implementing these skills in future videos.
Design
The reflection unit in Design has been super fun and was a chance to get really creative with the things that are important in my life and how I wanted to present them. From our chosen Public Service Announcement about something that we are passionate about, to our unique Aboriginal artwork that depicts who we are and our values all with the help of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
Public Service Announcement & Moodboard
Music is Food for the Soul
In front of you is a Public Service Announcement that depicts the importance of music in people’s lives. “Music is Food for the Soul” can be seen in this PSA with the help of the old diner menu, and under entrees and appetizers, instead of food items, there are music notes. I hope this PSA reaches an audience of people who either love music or have not yet taken advantage of it. I hope this influences them to reconsider the importance and effect of music in their lives. I chose these colors because they are the classic diner colors that are also fun and exciting.
This PSA was made with Adobe Illustrator. I could make a legible and moving announcement by creating layers, adding custom fonts, and creating a cohesive design. I used design elements of size and color to make my PSA stand out while ensuring it fits in with the rest of my design.
Aboriginal Art
People Person
My piece resembles how different parts of my personality make me who I am. The center focus of my piece is my astrological symbol, which is a Gemini. I also included the Gemini constellation as well as my spirit animal, which is a Koala. For the aboriginal symbols, I chose the people sitting and the human footprint because I believe that both symbols help represent my belief that we leave a footprint and an impact on the people we meet.
To create this piece, I used Adobe Photoshop and many, many dots. One problem I encountered was not knowing how to fill in negative space while still wanting to make my symbols stand out. Something I would do differently would be to adjust the layout of my piece so that I could create a more cohesive background.