It's finally over

I never thought it would be.

Since I'm done with high school now I guess the future posts will show projects from college and/or my own projects that I'll do in my free time.

The future projects might have some limitations seeing that not much creativity is in me and the fact that my college might not allow certain things to be in my work (although that's not really a problem). But hey I'm still growing and hopefully there will be some kind of change seen in my work. Hopefully.

Old SkooL

Well, kind of...
I went back to what started graphic design for me, Illustrator. I outlined a picture of a phoenix using the pen tool and filled in certain parts with black or white. Then I used a flame font of sorts to make the flames (duh) on the Los Inmortales part at the bottom.

This was for my class' senior awards night booklet. Ironically, I didn't go.

Because I wasn't invited to get an award.

But apparently I did get an award. Two of them.

No one told me. *sob*

I got them the next day. No applause for me...*sob*

Even farther than before

This has gone too far.

An ugly cover, a bad model, too much going on in the background, illegible words, bland teasers (randomly choosing a country) and headlines, it has everything you don't want. I might have had an easier time with this if I used a different model, particularly not a real human model.

In a nutshell I used a lot of blend modes in the layers palette, particularly color dodge, then I used brushes along side from what I learned about glowing ribbons and I used masking for the pictures. This of course is not my best but what else could I do. Maybe later on if I get a better picture and more time, I could do this again. My inspiration has seemed to be Ghost In The Shell for a while. At first I tried to make a grid on the face but I gave up on that idea the last minute and started using brushes. It didn't come out as I wanted but I still got some interesting reactions, even if some were trying to be nice. By the way, I'm not used to having pictures taken of me so I can't smile by force. Well that and I never look good.

It's pretty obvious what our objective was but I'll say it anyway. Our objective was to create a magazine cover with us (in ten years) being the main point and why we were on the cover. This is rather pathetic for me ...or about me.

Went a bit too far

Okay, this is probably one of my favorite things I learned about in Photoshop. Adjustment layers. Really, that's all you need to put make-up on someone. I used it for the eye shadow, the eyes, lips and the rest of her face. I also used the pen tool to make the markings and used the brush tool to make those flowers. After that I used some effects to make the flowers and markings glow. Unfortunately I had some difficulty making her face softer. I first got rid of all the spots on her face and the glow to make her look a tiny bit better. After that, I then got crazy and made her face weird. I love how I made her look. Only problem that I'm displeased with is that weird blue line on the top of the picture. Weird.

Worst Project I've Ever Done

I can't emphasize how horrible this project was to me. Usually I would get some little idea on how to do a project and what it would look like, but I had really tough time with this. I never thought I would get a writers block or something of that kind. It really brought my whole week down and I can't bare to remember it again, so I'll leave it at that.

Does it look authentic?

This one was a bit more difficult than our previous Photoshop projects. Adding from what we learned about repairing photos, we also had to color in objects and make it look authentic (and natural) as possible. We learned about adjustment layers, saving selections and loading them and it wasn't really difficult. This project took us longer than the others since some of the students forgot that they could brush over the other objects and subtract them after loading a selection.

Those eyes...

This time we were learning how to repair an old photograph using an effect called 'Dust and Scratches' and the Clone Stamp tool. We also had to use screenshots in the History pallet while using Dust and Scratches and make sure we didn't leave a certain screenshot. Unfortunately if we didn't follow those exact directions we would have to start all over. The original is on the left and the fixed one is on the right again. I first got rid of the dust and scratches marks and used the clone stamp tool to get rid of the tape. Some of the dust and scratch marks aren't very noticeable, especially on the clothes. Although I still should have seen that something was wrong with that little girl's eyes.

Making people look a bit "better"

Now comes the fun part of Photoshop, messing with people's faces'. Well in this case it's making this guy look better. I used the spot healing brush, burn tool, and plain ol' healing brush. The original is on the left and the fixed one is on the right. If you can't tell the difference it's his wrinkles, his teeth and blemishes. His wrinkles and blemishes are less noticeable and his teeth have been whiten. Still not much? Well the next post should be better.

Best Work

This is most likely my favorite project that I'll ever do in Photoshop. Don't mind the cut-off borders, it was supposed to be a design for a CD cover. Our objective obviously was to create a CD cover front (left) and back (right). It could be anything you want: fake or real artist, video game soundtrack, DVD anything! For once I had creativity and I'm really proud of this project. In this project I utilized the extra tricks I learned from tutorials before anyone in my class learned them.

Here are all the tools I used: patch, gradient, lasso and wand, clone stamp, pen, quickmask, brush, type, adjustment layers and changing the blend modes. From what I can remember I used five different pictures in the front cover and four in the back.

I had a lot of inspiration for this one. The CD title is based on the nightclub in GTA:III, the Planetarium, hosted by Andre the Accelerator on Rise FM. Since the radio station plays house/electronic dance music I thought using Ghost In The Shell: SAC would be more appropriate to use. The majority of the pictures used were from the anime, in fact one picture is used as the whole back cover with only three added pictures (one being the Major, Lain from Serial Experiments Lain and Tsukiko from Paranoia Agent). The only thing not anime related was the picture of the turntables.

For the front cover I used a picture of a city (which you can't really see) and changed it to blue. I also added a rain effect I learned using brushes from a tutorial. Then I added a picture and changed it to blue and changed the blend mode and opacity. For more effect I used the clone stamp tool and added extra screens. After that I took a picture of Major Kusanagi, cut out the rest of the background, made her look like a hologram (also from tutorials) and used gradient for the bottom of the hologram. The same goes for the hands and turntables. I wanted to make the title look like the supposed holograms around the Major in a circular kind of way. This is the closest I got to but I'm ok with it. Unfortunately the DJ part at the bottom doesn't get much attention.

At last the back cover which was just the original picture changed to blue. The three main screens are cut out pictures of the female characters, changed them to blue and put them into the original background of Major Kusanagi. Since we had to have a least 10 songs (or whatever) I put in the soundtrack (only 5 songs) from Rise FM and made up the rest of the songs. I added a little something extra by making the song holders into small screens like the ones above it using the pen tool. Since I didn't like the uneven layout of 10 songs I decided to make the 10th song a bonus track and used the smaller blue screen to hold it. The last parts were making the spines for the CD, as you can see the title for both sides and cloned some part of the back cover for the spines. Then I used used the gradient tool at the bottom of the cover since I wanted the song names to be more noticeable. Finally I typed out Bonus Track in an arch over the main screen. Again this was probably my favorite project using Photoshop. I hope in the future I'll have just as much creativity or inspiration as this one.

More postcards?

Just for now. Our objective was to extract an object from a picture using the wand tool or lasso tool. We had to find everyday items (commodities) that set up a culture. My theme was Japan even though I don't actually know much about Japan. It's simple and unoriginal. I wish I could say its because we hadn't learned much about Photoshop at this point but I know it still wouldn't make a difference.

Yay?

We finally reached the Photoshop stage and look what I have to show you! Yeah not much, but hopefully it will get much better. Our objective was to use the canvas tool and change the resolution. It was kind of hard to make it look like a post card using the canvas tool but after that it got easier. Again not much.

Lost it again

No creativity this time after my last project. We had to make a poster or something for an event at our school about the arts and reading. I had the original sketch scanned in and used the pen tool to outline it. I later filled in the color for the eyes, nose, paws, the wing and the books. Yep, that's it.

A Shred of Hope?

This is my number 1 favorite project I've done in Illustrator. I actually had some creativity in this, but only to the credit of my inspiration. Of course what inspired me was Daft Punk in their Alive 2007 concert (that I never got to go). Our objective was to create a soda label and we also had to write a description of the fake company, the audience and demographic. I had a lot of fun with both parts (except the name of the soda). But of course with that fun also came the many difficulties I've had with the project. Trying to replicate the upbeat and bright nature of the concert using Illustrator was really, really hard to do. I had to make the audience using the pen tool (keep in mind we only have the mouse to use) and copy n' paste them until there was no space left. Since the lights were what really made the label, it took me the majority of my time to concentrate on. Unfortunately they don't look good and are pretty pitiful looking. Also you can see the little bit of the label runoff on the lower right corner that I couldn't cut off. As you can see, this clearly doesn't do the original picture any justice. Daft Punk would be ashamed of me.

How girly can it get?

This is my second best work in Illustrator that I'm happy with. I'm happy with the use of the clip art that we were given and how I made the flowers. The objective for this project was to use the scale tool, the action pallet, rotational and reflect tool, reshaping using the direct selection tool, and making symbols. The main reason for this project was to show if we knew how to use the action pallet for the flowers (also leaves) and make them into symbols to use throughout the whole magazine cover.
I tried to make it look like there was wind coming up around the main girl by using the pen tool (pink) and have leaves and flowers follow the same path. I also liked how the other girls got lighter as if they were far away from the main girl. What I'm not ok with is the font, especially in the title: Color Predictions. Other than that, I'm a happy camper.

Not my kind of thing...

The objective for this project was to make a logo metal-works related for a business. Unfortunately I didn't know much about metal work or have any artistic/creative ideas for this logo. I took a picture of the tool used in the logo and used the pen tool to outline it. I then used the gradient tool to add the supposed metal look. The rest was just using the pen tool to make the bolt and type out the words for the logo. Again not very creative.

Not much into Business myself

As you can tell I used the second logo for the fake restaurant business I made. I remember it being a bit difficult since I was absent the day our teacher was teaching this stuff. This fake restaurant identity suite consists of an envelope, a business card and a letter template. Am I happy with what I've done? I guess. I do like the warm colors I've chosen and I especially like the manager's name. No one got the joke. Can't win them all...

Messing with Symbols

Our objective was to use scaling, choosing fonts, create and use symbols, alter symbols, and later change logos to black and white. We had to make logos for a fake restaurant of our choice and of all the restaurants I had to choose, I chose Chocolate Heaven Cafe. I know it's pathetic but so many students chose to do the sushi restaurant and I didn't want to do something predictable. It was difficult but with time it got easier to do. The first logo has a symbol of some beverage of sorts, but I cut out the middle part and put the actual cup and base together to make some kind of coffee cup. The second one has an already made symbol of a baker and I just added another symbol (the cake in his other hand) and changed the color. The third one has the coffee from the baker by itself. Again being kind of cheap, I changed the color and made a steam look using the pen tool.

No Creativity Whatsoever

People might say that I'm too harsh on myself, but they don't. We had to create pictures that depict the definition using glyphs. Easier said than done. I had a bit of a rough time on this one. Not the most prettiest ones and these are my three best out of the six I made. While doing this project our objective was to use masking and cropping, choose fonts from the glyphs palette and create an outline. The first one was supposed to be a yin and yang sign for the definition of positive and negative. The second one is a picture of Pacman for the definition of playful. This one has been done numerous times by other students. Definitely not original. The last one is a pattern for the definition of ... well pattern of course. Not much of thinking outside the box. And it seems that it'll stay this way for a while. Also I'm really trying hard to get used to making blogs about my old work that I'm embarrassed about.

The beginning of a genius?

Nope, probably not.
I don't really remember much about this project. But now that I look back with all the knowledge I know now, I'm kind of embarrassed with all my old work. I could have done better, but I probably wouldn't have any creativity to make any major changes.

I used Illustrator with an already made clipart of the bee. Our objective was to edit the clipart, use masking and cropping and work with type. I tried to make the bees look like they're in a swarm and flying fast, but I'm not really happy with the result. But I'm ok with the gradient in the background.