REFLECTION PHOTOSHOP

Creative Media Yr 9 - Photoshop – Term 01 2011

Mr Andrews

Avatar Reflection/evaluation:

Respond to each of the following dot points (using complete sentences or paragraphs). You should include as much detail as possible in your responses.

· Describe any problems or difficulties you encountered during the creation and editing of your avatar. These may include; technical difficulties, corrupt or missing files, knowledge of Photoshop tools issues. etc;

I had no problems with saving files. Each lesson I would bring my USB and save whatever I had done on it and on my school account.

· Explain whether your planning and organisation (of ideas, files, inspiration) helped during the technical creation;

I knew I wanted to do a fairy type picture at the start. As I loved the magical type of things I could add to the image! I straight away learnt off by heart how to do sparkles as I knew this could be useful. I also looked at a few fairy images to get ideas and work out colour schemes. All this planning process helped as I knew what I wanted the end result to look like!

· Discuss whether you made effective use of the provided profile template to organise and prepare the required image assets and assist in the creative decision making process;

Doing the character profile really helped in creating and understanding of the type of picture I was creating and the emotion of the avatar. When it came time to take the pictures I knew what type of emotions I had to show.

· Clarify any time-management issues you encountered during the process and describe the steps you implemented to improve in this area;

At first I was really confused on how we had to actually create two completely different avatars. So I spent a lot of time on my first avatar making sure it was perfect and adding in little details to create a great photo. Then I only had one weekend to start my second avatar. I think it could have been a bit better if I had more time, as I rushed it a little bit.

· Discuss whether you undertook adequate and detailed reflection to throughout your project. Have you provided enough evidence to support your work? (Look back at your blogs/journals and think about whether it looks like a whole terms worth of work);

During making the avatars I kept the blog updated. The first avatar I did I kept forgetting to save as a jpeg after I did something. So the blogs for that are a bit jumpy. However by the second avatar I was used to it and after every few things I did to my image I saved it for web devices as a jpeg and labeled it in order.

· List any skills, techniques or tricks you have discovered during the project.

The main trick I have discovered is how to create sparkles! I also became very familiar with the mask tool as I used it very often. Another thing was the effects of the layer. When I was doing the little flower bush in the first avatar I needed all different flowers. It was taking a while to get the flower cut it then resize it. I figured out that if you get one of the layers of the flower duplicate it then apply the difference effect the flower would turn all different colours. This created the effect that it was a different flower and was less time consuming to just change the colour tones!

Discuss your feelings about the Avatar task:

· Are you satisfied with the final result?

I am very happy with my first avatar! It was so good to find that little girl fairy that I could put my head on and I changed the colors in our skin to blend. Then all the things around her really just make it a fairy scenario! The second avatar was ok I think if I spent more time on it it would have been better!

· Would like to change any aspects of your avatar?

In the first Avatar I would of liked to done it so it was clearer. That is were I went wrong. I dragged everything in to the background image and not to the one Mr Andrews took which was really high res.

· If you could start the project again what would you do differently?

Next time I would definetly come dressed in the outfit I wanted in the image to take the photo in. As it was really hard to find the right body that was under creative commons and a clear image.

· Are you pleased with the progress you have made in using Photoshop?

Yes very pleased! I am very good at using it now and it will be very useful for any photo editing that I want to do!

i decided that i wasn't happy with the sparkles done in the previous picture. They were a bit to cluttered and full. So i deleted the layers and started again. This time i adjusted the fade for each ring so that the sparkles died out at the end of the wing. I think it looks much better now!

Then i added sparkles! I used way i learnt off the tutorial. It was a great tool to learn as i can use it for heaps of things! i dragged the sparkles around the wings and changed the settings for it to have a blue glow. This mixes well with the colours in the background image. I had to put the sparkles behind the wing though as they were covering the wings to much.

Tonight i put the wings on. I got one side of the wing and had to flip it because i needed it the right way. I then copied the layer and stretched it back to look like it was on an angle for the back wing. Lastly i changed the brightness of the back wing so it was a bit darker. This made it look more real and like it was behind.

This lesson i did a lot! First i opened my image of me (which is really high res) Then i deleted the green screen. I also enlarged the canvas so that it was landscape instead of portrait. Secondly i added in the background image to the me image as it is really high res and would keep the whole file big and clear. I then resized the bag round to go across the whole image, and made sure it was behind me (changed this by clicking and dragging in layers panel) i Then rubbed out my body and just left my head and hair using a mask. I then got a picture of Flickr under creative commons and used it for the body. I dragged it across and rubbed out using a mask, the bits i didn't want. Lastly i darkened the colours of the body using hue and saturation and made the colour tones a little bit more yellow to match my head.

i am now starting my new avatar. with the emotion of lost&curious! This is my new background image. I found it under the creative commons on Flickr. I went for a more darker forest to set the mood of lost. The Photo is really good quality which is good!

Here i just started to add a vine bush with flowers! I used different dark greeny colours and got a thin brush to draw in some vines. However the vines are not really going to be shown once i am done with all the pretty flowers. With the flowers i am just cutting them out and dragging them in and then resizing and moving. It is quite time consuming to do each flower. So i am going to see if i can keep the same flower but change the tones and colours for the others.

The next thing i have done was add two butterflies! I found them and then cut them out, dragged them across and resized them. With the blue one i skewed it slightly to look like it was in flight. Then to mix it up with the purple one i just rotated slightly to the right. The movement of the butterflies makes them look alive and flying around!

First i added a mushroom! i found it on Flickr and cut it out then dragged it across. At first the lighting on it was facing to the right., and since the light is coming from the left corner, i flipped the mushroom around so it was right. I then put a effect to the layer. I played around with a few till i found the right one, Pin light.

to create the magical fairy effect i added sparkles! using this tutorial file:///Volumes/POCKET/year%209%20creative/howtodosparkles.php.html

i learnt the easy steps. I found it really easy to follow the instructions and apply it to the photo. first i had to create the brush preset in another document then i just copied it across to the one i was working on, changed the bush in settings the way it said to in the tutorial and then i just simply painted it on. I did it around the fairy and then dragged it around a bit. To show she might of flew there. Next i want to add a few things in the create the forest more!

This lesson i put my fairy on the rock! i cut it out from the other picture it was in then using the mask tool, i fixed the edges up. When i first sat it on the rock, it didn't really look like it was siting it just looked like it was hovering over the rock. so then Mr Andrews suggested that i created a shadow. i did this using a drop shadow. i played around with the settings until it looked about right. i noticed that the sun was hitting the left up of the dress so i thought that the shadow is always underneath the light so thats why it looked best on the right.

The next thing was i added a rock into my forest. I chose one off Flickr that looked like a rock that would suit into the forest background. I coppied it across then edited the edges using the mask tool. I also rotated it a bit so it looked like it was sitting back a bit to the side. This rock was put here have the fairy siting on top.

On the background i applied a Gaussian blur. I then faded it to make it look more natural. This kind of made the image a little cartoon which is sort of the effect i am doing on my whole avatar.

original background image

This is the image i found of Flickr that i am using for my background. I made sure that it was under creative commons. It is going to be edited but this is just the original image.

This lesson I fixed and blended the hair. Before as seen in the picture before, the girls white blond hair is coming through. I used the clone stamp tool to clone my hair and then paint it over the blonder hair. This made my hair look much thicker. I also painted out at the top were it is tied up a little bit to show the definition of the pigtails. otherwise it just looked like my hair was out. this lesson i also fixed up the hands on my face and made them more clear.

so far..

This is what i have done on my avatar so far. Firstly i found a photo of the little fairy and i made sure it was under creative commons. At first I dragged my face into the little fairy image and resized my face to fit onto the body. When i showed Mr Andrews he realized that the image had very small resolution.This would be very hard to work with so he told me to start again. So i tried again and this time i moved the body onto the image of me that mr andrews had taken (which had a very high resolution). i then went through and changed the amount of pixels to about the same of the clear one. This helped a bit but it wouldnt matter to much because i was only using it for the dress. I then created a mask and rubbed out the other girls head so mine came through. Lastly i created a soft blur on the surface of my face. This is because it created a moor baby look since my character is quite young.