Painting the Ocean

I wanted to make a landscape since that is what we had done before so I went with something similar, that being a sea scape I followed the tutorial given but instead I adjusted it for my picture. I used the mixer brush to  make the sky a smoother transition. I used it for the water as well when I added the brighter reflections in the water. finally I used it in the clouds when I added in minor highlights.

My Personal Logo

Step 1

The first step I went through was a Design brief where essentially I said that I was making a logo that was going to revolve around music and I wanted it to represent expensive or high quality things. I also wanted simplicity

Step 2

I researched how this had been done before and came across the idea for a sound wave so it gives the high quality feel without tying me down to one aspect. Lots of the logos were red or orange like the one to the left but I was going for more of a mellow feel.

I then came across the logo to the right and found that I like the light blue's calmer feel paired with the simplicity of this logo. I then googled the values associated with each color and found that teal Has an "expensive","trustworthy" and "creative" symbolism associated with it.

I also recreated the adidas logo following a tutorial, and was very happy with the way that I turned out.

Step 3

I worked with a lot of different ideas before I finally narrowed it down to sound waves. my big revelation was when I found that my "H" fits into my "M" which I then combined with the sound wave Idea I had 

Step 4

I began by trying to make my logo with the pen tool but soon saw that that wouldn't work

Online I found a tool that could make sound waves from a line and I used that and expanded it and edited the line to create a growing and decaying sound wave with a "M" in the middle. From there I copied the line and flipped it over the x axis then created the "H" from the negative space.

However the "H" wasn't prevalent enough so I put it on a black background and made the "H" white and tested it with my word mark

I wasn't a big fan of the word mark so I got rid of it and put my logo in a circle to define the edges

Because I had been getting peer review along the way from people around me, when we did peer review as a class there weren't many suggestions. Alas, my logo is complete

Floating Mountain

I feel like this project mostly revolved around selecting. Through it we learned new ways to select objects. An example being the quick select tool where you can paint on the selection and it also can detect edges and fit the selection better. This project also revolved around layer masks where as you can see at the bottom of the picture the cloud is in front of the mountain which in this case adds more of a 3d look to it. The main things I added were the sun rays in the sky and the "Mason butterflies". If I were to redo the assignment I would probably stick more to the main goal and have a little less going on.

Drop Shadow

In this project we worked with making shadows. Shadows can add a lot to a picture because it is one of those things that you notice the pictures is missing but you "can't put your finger on it". I think that this technique was very simple and the shadows were very realistic. I could have picked a better object because the bullet bill is angled upward and the tutorial was focused on something that is flat on the ground. If I would have done it without the tutorial I would not have thought to use the gradient to make it fade off and I would have most likely made it a hard edge. Through this tutorial I also have learned a new tool that I can see myself using plenty in the future, that would be the pixel lock tool which allows you to lock pixels so that it is restrained to that area.

Professional Article Review

The article has 4 major parts to it it starts with what is 2d animation, then it lists the different tools that animators use. The next part it goes over is the 12 laws of animation; squash and stretch, anticipation, staging, etc. then finally it finishes off with the process. The main things that the author argues is that 2d animation and 3d animation are different in the idea that 3d animation utilizes more "fancy digital models" and "virtual spaces". The other thing that the author argues is that 2d animation is generally always done the same other then a few slightly different techniques. the author supports both of these claims with lists of the tools and processes. The article's weakness is that it doesn't necessarily take a side on anything but instead is a neutral paper. Its strength would be that it is very thorough in its lists. The author's conclusion is that 2d animation is the same whether it is done at home or a professional studio. My critique on this article would be that the main points, as far as an argument perspective go, were not very significant. I find that the evidence is convincing and as an animator I can improve my animations by going through the same processes that professional animators use. I understand the article very well. I really liked this article even if I had to dig for a claim because I feel as though this can help me in making better animations.

Creative anarchy at its very best

This article reviews the rules of graphic design or how to bend and break them. It uses metaphors to real life to explain how some can be broken and others can be bent. The authors argument is that to create a successful piece it needs to stand out from the crowd and to do that you need to know how to break the rules. this article has many strengths for example it helps to clearly understand how ideas work and when you can break the rules. There are parts I disagree with as well; it says that all ideas have already been created and that any "new" ones are just a recycled old one. I would argue that when did someone create the last new design and start redoing old ones. This article is applicable not only to graphic design but really anything you do. Overall I think that this article was correct in the sense that most follow the rules so to stand out you need to know how to break the rules.