Living Movie Stills - Year Four

Posting your gif.

Please post the animated gif on your blog. Title the blog post Cinemagraph or Living Movie Stills and put the quotation you chose and the name and year of the movie.

Also, briefly explain the context of the gif and how the quote contributes to the impact of the scene you chose.

Now continue to work on your personal cinemagraph!

HTML Basics - Year Four

In the 1059 folder on your desktop, go to the PickUp folder.
Find Ms. Silverman - CyberARTS - Year Four. Open up the html WITH Dreamweaver.

That will give you the code and you can replace the image (YOUR IMAGE), with your animated gif file.

You will save your finished coded file as index.html as well.

Year One Tracing Assignment

Objective:

You have been asked to choose an object or animal that you think represents you and use that as something to trace in order to learn the pen tool in Illustrator and also create a personal logo.

You will need to think about what qualities the object/animal possesses that you relate to, or that expresses something about you. I will ask you to explain this in your written artist statement when you submit your final work.

Procedure:

1. Select an object/animal that represents you in some way AND that will work well as a graphic pictorial representation. (Think distinctive shape and considerable pattern, lines or shapes within the outline of the object/animal) You MUST choose a photograph to trace and not a graphic.

2. Trace your photograph. Remember to label ALL layers and to put the photo on layer 1 and lock the layer.

3. Once you've traced all the portions of your image, you can begin tweaking the outlines using the white arrow to move any nodes or reposition curves. You can use the Convert anchor point tool to change corner points to curves and vice versa and you can add or subtract anchor points as well. Use the black arrow to move the whole shape without moving individual points.

4. Begin filling in different areas to create 3 versions: 1 - Black and white only 1- Grayscale 1 - Full colour

5. Experiment with how it looks to create the maximum contrast, emphasizing the important areas. Check the links below to understand some of the important aspects of logo design.

6. Colour page - using your base outline - copy and paste your graphic 8-10 times on one artboard in Illustrator. You can then work to create variations on your colour scheme. Think about some of the associations we make with certain colours and try to match the colours you choose to your personality and also to the object/animal you chose.

7. Finishing touches. You might choose to put the graphic image of your logo inside another shape to help contain or emphasize it. You could also have a partial shape, or have the logo overlapping a shape. See below on the colour emotion guide for some ideas about that.

Click here to read more about colour in design. Or check out this handy dandy poster.

7. Bonus - Add typography. If you have time, you can add text to your logo the might include your name, or your name as a graphic designer (ie. Silverman Designs) You can save one final colour version with type for bonus marks.

Submission requirements:

1. Print your final full colour logo with either your black and white OR grayscale (whichever one your prefer)

2. SAVE your logo in your logo folder. First create a folder called AI (or Illustrator files) and also a folder called PNG (for PNG files) labelling each one accordingly (BWlogo_lastnameFirstInitial.ai, Grayscalelogo_LastnameFirstInitial.ai, Finalcolourlogo_Lastname_Firstinitial.ai, Colourversions_LastnameFirstinitial) You will also need to create a web version (png for your blog because you can not put a vector file directly onto the web. From Illustrator choose Export from the File drop down menu. Choose png and save all three versions as pngs.

3. Post your FINAL 3 version (BW, grayscale, final colour) as well as your full page of colour variations on your blog in a blog post titled Illustrator tracing assignment - Logo. Also please post the original photograph that you used to create your logo.

4. Written Statement. You must include a written statement that follows the format below:

    WRITTEN STATEMENT: WHAT TO WRITE

1. Where did you begin? 
Start by explaining your choice of images and how and why the object/animal you chose connects to you in some way.

2. Elements and Principles. 
Now discuss your choices of shape, colour, line quality, direction (thick, thin, gritty, smooth, diagonal, horizontal, curvy etc.), texture and space. Also discuss your choice of typography if you added any. What do those letterforms (the way the letters look) say? Are they edgy, artsy, confident, corporate? Be as descriptive and specific as possible. State the shapes used. State the colours used, the name of the font, the description of the lines. And then, explain the meanings behind all of these design choices. (ie. I chose a circular shape because it represents the sun, the moon and all of eternity (or whatever it represents to you). I chose to place the pictorial image so that it overlapped the circle to represent the idea of leaping forward etc.) Also discuss principles of design such as emphasis, rhythm, contrast and unity.

3. Get technical.
Discuss your technical process. What did you learn and how did you use Illustrator? What tools, use of layers, any effects etc. Please be specific in correctly naming the tools you used and their functions.

4. Your thoughts and opinion.
Are you happy with the logo and how it turned out? Would you do anything differently if you had more time? What did you learn about designing a logo? Now that you know more about Illustrator, what do you want to do next? What do you want to learn more about?

Resources

Here are a few more interesting  sites to check out on logo design.

http://www.demilked.com/logo-history-future/

http://www.fuelyourcreativity.com/50-kick-ass-logos-for-inspiration/

http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/inspiration/72-creative-and-smart-typographic-logo-inspiration/

Types of logos
http://www.logodesignsource.com/types.html

http://www.nodinx.com/5-basic-types-of-logos/

On making logos - tips

http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/web-design/logos/

Adobe TV tutorials

http://tv.adobe.com/show/visual-design-cs6/

Living Movie Stills - Year Four!!!

In your handout, I suggested that you check out IWDRM for inspiration.

You can also go to Tech Noir for more inspiration of great living movie stills.

Also known as Cinemagraphs

This seems to be a pretty good blog as well and it might help you create your cinemagraph.

Here's another How-to blog about making cinemagraphs.

Please google this. If you look up "creating cinemagraphs in Photoshop" you should find tons of links.

Adobe Illustrator

How to Use the Pen Tool.

If you missed seeing this in class, please click on the above link to watch this tutorial on using the pen tool. We will be starting our graphics unit with the pen tool in Illustrator. It's a great tool to know and understand how to use.

Poster Analysis - Elements and Principles

Step 2: Analysis of a poster design - to be presented
AND please hand in your worksheet for your group.

Look HERE for some beautifully designed posters
or HERE at my pinterest board of fantastic posters.

or take a look through this blog called Gentle Pure Space. It's lovely.

Don't spend too much time looking, because you do need to do your analysis as well.

1. Choose one fantastic poster or design that really speaks to you/your group. Try to find something that has a variety of elements and principles to discuss.

2. Using another blank chart, begin listing any and all elements and principles of design that you see in the image. Write them down as a group - have one person do the writing, but all of you should be doing the looking and the thinking. Make notes about how each of the elements used in the poster helps to create the principles of design.
 i.e. the thin, wispy, curving lines help create movement in the poster by leading your eye around the image. OR the vibrant use of bright red against the neutral gray coloured background creates a strong point of emphasis

Group Evaluation:

(Thinking/Inquiry)   /5
Notes - thorough and evidence of understanding of elements and principles of design

(Communication)  /5
Clear and well-spoken - shared between group members - thorough and well thought out.

(Knowledge/Understanding)  /5
Overall evidence of knowledge and understanding of definitions of each of the elements and principles and ability to recognize and explain them when seen in a visual design.

Analysis: Due Thursday Sept 11, 2014 to present in class.

The Elements and Principles of Art and Design

The Elements of Art & Principles of Design from jdavis76

The Elements and Principles of Design are the foundations of design, whether it be in the print industry, photography, illustration, advertising, animation, video and film, web, fine arts, graphic design etc.

Once you know and understand these basics, you will gain the ability to control where your viewer looks, and when, or in what order! And then, the WORLD!!! Or at the very least - unbelievably cool looking posters, logos and other designs...

Once you have seen the powerpoint presentation in class, or if you missed it, find it HERE, fill out the handouts either by hand - or on the computer (whichever you prefer). Or you can see it right here from the blog post, if the link isn't working, or vice versa.

Elements of Design and Principles of Design Handouts 

Due: end of class on Tuesday, or first thing Wednesday morning - handed in.

Welcome Year One CyberARTists!!!

First post assignment

1. Make sure you send a comment at the bottom of this post with your URL (that's the www.blahblah.blogspot.com) and your first name only.

2. Post your typographic identity

3. Find new post and add the title at the top of the post. Typographic Identity should be the title.

4. Add a picture by clicking on the picture icon in the menu bar. You should be able to add a jpg or png easily. Just browse to find where you have saved it.

5. Choose the size for your image (probably medium is fine for now. Too big starts to take over and too small isn't large enough to be visible.

6. Write down a few sentences that explains why you made the choices you did. Essentially what you did in class in front of everyone - why you chose the words you did, colours, shape and font.

That's it!

Congratulations. You've made your first blog post!!!

Now relax and have a great weekend.

Wayfinding Systems - Welcome back Year Fours!

Welcome back Year Four CyberARTS Digital Media students.

Good luck on your first project to improve/create a usable and clear wayfinding system for LCI.

Here is some additional information that you might find helpful.

Understanding Pictograms

Simple. Clear. Reduced to basic function and visual understanding across cultures and language.

Visual examples of great pictograms