#otago polytechnic

This week we began work on our final task which is to be a 12-page children's storybook that includes up to 5 children's stories, nursery rhymes, or songs. The stories I have chosen are This Little Piggy, Hickory Dickory Dock, Hey Diddle Diddle, Little Miss Muffet, and Thre Blind Mice.

I decided to start with Hey Diddle Diddle as I figured it would involve the most amount of illustrative work and would take some time to complete as it was important to me that given the length of the story, all visual elements should be present. Because of this, I decided I would go for a 2 page spread in order to avoid clutter amongst the different elements within my scene. the text box (seen on the right of my sketch above) was inspired by memories of Nursery rhyme books I'd had as a child we're parts of the illustration would be whited out to make space for text. In my case though I plan on creating a transparent elliptical so that elements of the background will be able to be made partially visible to help integrate it within the overall image.

I began by creating the back and foregrounds (both separate layers) of my image using the pen tool with a green fill combined with a slightly darker green outline, to create rolling hills across the bottom as well as the rectangle object tool combined with the gradient tool to create the night sky. To polish this off I used the Star object tool and a lot of copy-paste (Command + C, Command + V; Option + Left Click + Drag) to fill the sky with stars. creating a new layer, the first of the elements I decided to draw was the Moon. I created this by using the Elliptical object tool, creating the basic shape of the moon, and then placing 4 ellipticals on the moon and adjusting them using the selection tool. I also made use of the Pathfinder tool in order to create a shadow on the right side to add depth to the subject. I grouped these and added them to the scene.

The first character I decided to draw was the dish (the dish ran away with the spoon) which I began by setting to its own layer and again with the elliptical object tool created the main body of the dish, followed by a light grey elliptical outline to create the center of the dish. the legs and arms of this subject proved to be my first hiccup within my process, while being rusty, I wanted to use simple outlines for the legs and arms of the subject but for reasons at the time, I couldn't get it to happen. I have since figured out why this was not working. Drawing the shapes for the legs and arms using the pen tool, I placed them behind the dish to avoid any clipping or disruption of flow between the body and limbs.

It was at this point I noticed I should have already planned out my text box and size so as not to make any mistakes further on with placement and spacing. I added this to its own layer and placed it at the top of my layers palette as nothing should be able to be placed over the top of it. I chose to lay out the text in a way that each section would be somewhat self-contained for it to be easier to read for children while also being able to follow the objects from left to right alongside reading. I also added a black line through the centre of the page to represent the centre of the spread to avoid my subjects falling into the fold of the book. I created another elliptical and lowered its opacity slightly and added a rounded text box. The font I chose was 'Apple Chancery' as it fits the fairytale-esque tones and nostalgic feeling I had envisioned within my sketch.

Moving on, I added eyes onto the dish and using the pen tool, created a mouth using Bezier curves.

after adding pupils to the dish and a transparent black elliptical for a shadow, I began work on the spoon. I began by first drawing half of the object with the pen tool and reflecting it onto itself to create a symmetrical object and removed the middle line.

I copied the eyes and mouth from the dish and adjusted the curves of the mouth to make it unique from the dish. Also adding another elliptical around them to create the illusion of a face/add depth to the head of the spoon.

much like the dish, I drew the arms, legs, and feet to match the dish so it would appear that they were in motion and running away together as the story tells.

After creating a new layer, I began work on the cow. I started by drawing a long, uneven-shaped oval to act as the body of the animal. After switching the fill of the shape to white, I then added a snout using the elliptical tool with a black outline and fill, with two smaller ellipticals with a darker shade for nostrils. for the top portion of the head, I used a rectangle and pulled in the inner nodes to soften the corners as much as possible then altered the lines with the direct selection tool to create a less flat-topped head shape. The ears were free-handed using bezier curves and turned out far better than I was anticipating and exactly as I envisioned them.

I grouped all objects making up the cow and placed it within my scene above the moon. I could not be happier with how it had turned out, the subject fit perfectly into the scene and didn't look out of place over the moon. I did however feel like something was missing. I decided to add some more depth to the moon by taking three, slightly bigger, ellipticals and layering them, changing them to different shades of blue, and placing them behind the moon to give the moon a glowing effect and have it feel more prominent within the scene.

Now this, I was very nervous for. But I accepted the problem-solving to come. I began drawing the Cat and the Fiddle. I started again with two ellipticals and experimented with their shape using the direct selection tool to see what I could make in relation to a Cat. After a while of experimentation, I settled for what is seen in the screenshot on the right. But next came the really hard part. The fiddle.

Not having any idea how I would even begin drawing a fiddle, let alone one being played, I looked to the internet for some inspiration where I found an image that looked as if it would fit perfectly in what I had already created and what I was envisioning. Placing the image on its own layer and turning it's opacity down to 12%, I began tracing the image using the Pen tool.

entering the layers within this layer, I was able to place the Fiddle onto my subject and it was a perfect fit! Out of curiosity, I decided to lay the image over my subject to get a sense of how my subject should be posed. This urged me to rotate the head slightly as if it were resting on the fiddle, holding it in place much like the image itself. This also aided me in figuring out where I should place the eyes and ears of my subject. I drew some eyes using the pen tool but felt they did not give off the very friendly or playful tone that the rest of my scene gave off. Because of this, I decided to remove the eyes and pupils and 'closed' the backing shape of the eyes to give the result seen above. I added some darker details to represent the patterns of the cats fur and added it to my scene.

Even more so than the cat, I was very nervous about drawing my next subject. I again took to Google and found a .PNG of a laughing dog which would be used as a reference as I'm not very good at hand drawing dogs and wouldn't quite know where to begin digitally either.

Having the reference image made things a lot easier in this portion of my spread. I set the image to a separate layer and set it's opacity to 12%. I began tracing the image using bezier curves and broken points, occasionally hiding the image to make sure everything was looking the way it needed to and to clean up any stray lines. The eyes, mouth, Tongue, Nose, Studs on the collar (ellipticals), and bone (Bezier curves) were all made as separate entities and placed onto the subject after the initial shape was formed.

This week for fundamentals we were given the simple task of taking a Subject and placing it onto a background using the skills we were taught during our last session in Photoshop. For my background, I have chosen this image of my own I had taken in the streets of Christchurch.

My goal for this image is to insert my subject onto the sidewalk of this image and adjust it in a way that it appears to fit in as if it was there when I took the photo. For my subject, I have chosen this image of R2D2.

I have various other images of my subject as a backup in the event this one ends up not working the way I want it to, but for now, I chose this image as it fits with the vision I had when brainstorming an idea for this homework task, the angle of which he is facing in this image I think will definitely help sell the overall final product as my goal, again, is to have him blend into the environment as if it were just rolling through when the photo was taken. Another reason this picture was chosen was the fact that it had a solid coloured background which makes it easier for me to select and mask my subject.

I started by using the object select tool which (thanks to the solid background) selected my entire subject almost perfectly. Almost. Because of this, I then used the 'Magnetic Lasso' tool while holding down the Alt key (PC) to tidy up the selection area toward the bottom right of my subject.

After making my clipping mask I then compared my subject to my background in order to ascertain what adjustments I may need to make before taking it over and placing it into my background image. Given my background image is already edited, I wanted to edit my subject in a way that I would have when I did my initial edit. I first pulled up the Curves palette and boosted the contrast and a little bit of the brightness to have it appear as if they were edited together as one image. I applied my layer mask and put my image over into my background.

Straight away there are a few issues I am noticing, A) there is no shadow, B) it may be just slightly too bright, and C) it sits over the sign within my background image. So first I went back to my subject image and reapplied my layer mask (Ctrl + Z and readjusted my curves

To make a shadow, I went back to my subject layer mask, and using the exposure palette, I created a silhouette. From there I took the eraser tool, decreased opacity by -40%, and put the hardness to 0. Gently going around the edges of my subject I, I softened the outline of what would become my shadow.

I then re-applied my layer mask and placed my silhouette into my background image.

After placing it into the image, I then rotated it on an angle that matched the pre-existing shadows within the image, This was important as, given the time of day, If I wanted to sell the idea of R2D2 actually being in my image when this was taken, the angle and length of the shadow had to match. This was accomplished by Holding down the shift key and then clicking and dragging one of the corners of my image to elongate my shadow. I then flipped the shadow horizontally to create a complete shadow effect of my subject on the ground. Using the eraser tool, I cleaned up the parts that did not line up with my subject.

I then decreased the opacity to a point that matched up with the shadows on the ground in order to blend in. I was then faced with a new problem. The colours of the shadows did not match. To fix this, Selecting my Shadow layer, I used the Object Selection tool again to select my entire shadow. I then used the pipette tool to sample the colour of the shadow on the ground and used the brush tool (with my sampled colour and opacity at 61%) to colour in my selection area leaving me with this result.

to deal with the issue of the overlapping of my subject with the sign, I want it to be behind he sign to add depth to the image and give it more of a feeling that R2D2 was present.

I hid my subject and shadow and again used the Lasso tool to select the corner of the foot of the sign and created a copy (Ctl+C, Ctl+V) to layer over top of my layer.

After tidying up This was my final result. Taking into account that my subject still sticks out a little too much for my liking, I then went back in with the object selection tool with my subject layer selected and used the Burn tool to make my subject darker and boost the shadows. This felt necessary as the sun is placed behind my subject and as such should appear a bit darker with the already existing shadows on my subject also being darker.

This week in Fundamentals, We continued to dive deeper into the basics of Photoshop and its tools. We began with the different pen tools used for drawing, selecting, Cutting, Copying, Transforming, and altering images.

We began by exploring layers and how they function. by drawing and scribbling on said layers and moving/manipulating them to further understand how photoshop functions. Key shortcuts we were shown are: B - Brush E - Eraser [ , ] - enlarge or shrink pen size (any drawing tool) 1-9,0 - Opacity level V - Move tool (used for moving entire layers) Option + Del - Fill Section with Foreground Command + T - Transform Command + D - Deselect. by the end of this section of the lecture, this was my final result.

Moving on, we were given a series of images to alter using our newfound tools. The first of which was an image of the Earnslaw that we were tasked with multiplying the ship itself and adding to the background of the image making it appear as if there were legitimately two ships in the image.

First, we were to drag our Background Layer from our Layers Palette down to the new Layer option found at the bottom of the said palette in order to create a copy of the layer. We do this to maintain our initial image and in some cases have it as a backup in case things go wrong and we need to jump back to the start of a work. In this case, given the task at hand, had the purpose of being the main image that we would be superimposing our miniature Earnslaw onto.

Next, we used our Square selection tool to make a selection box around our boats in order to make a Mask which we would use to remove the background of the copied image. This was done by using the 'Create mask' button located at the bottom of the Layers palette.

after selecting the masking tool, we were given two additional layers atop our copied layer which we were able to switch between by holding Option and clicking on either of the two options (pictured above). The option shown on the right was our main focus for this work because by using the Brush (B) or Eraser (E) tools were able to add and remove different parts of the mask in order to effectively cut out our image the way we desired. It is worth noting that we had a rather soft brush while doing this so that when placed onto the original image, it would blend in and look more in place than if we were to use a 100% hard brush, giving an unnatural and sort of cut and pasted look to our end result.

The main things we needed to be wary of were the Shadow on the water, the smoke trail, and the ripples in the water as these would be key to keeping the realism to our image. My example here is fairly rough but as you'll see in my final result I adjusted this accordingly. I did this by continuing to use the eraser tool to carefully remove as much of the background (or anything that I didn't list above, really). I also used the Eraser again with a very low opacity which I used to brush over my boat in order to give it a more distant feeling, similar to the mountain in the background.

Onto our next image. Still using Masks, we were shown different ways of selecting and Deselecting. We were tasked with selecting the Orange (pictured above) using the Elliptical Selection tool. Simple at first, yet, our next task was to remove the lemon from our selection so we would only be left with the Orange. It was here we were taught how to add and take away from a Selection. We learned that Holding Option while using the Selection tool again allowed us to adjust our selection area within our image.

From here we realized that our selection area was still not perfect, with some of the Pineapple still present in our selection area, Toby then introduced us to the Polygonal Selection tool which (again, while Holding Option) allowed us to more accurately deselect the areas in question

Once we were satisfied with our selection area, we again created a mask of our image. this left us with just our selected fruits, much like our previous image but instead of superimposing the image onto itself though, we pulled up our familiar Hue/Saturation Palettes.

With our mask layers selected, we then adjusted the Hue Slider which changed the colour of the Orange. I also adjusted the Saturation slider, desaturating the Orange in an attempt to make it blend in more with the other fruit in the image.

We then experimented with different selection tools, namely the magnetic lasso tool, adding them to our masks and repeating the previous process. I personally find this tool the easiest and quickest tool to learn and master within the Selection tool kit as it tends to do a good job of sticking to the object you're selecting, especially if it's on a solid background and isn't too difficult to correct if it begins to go astray.

This may have been the most difficult part for me personally in todays lesson. For our next task, We went back a couple of weeks and used the Pen tool. Much like in Adobe Illustrator, the Pen tool allows you to draw and select parts of images using bezier curves, which if you're a master when it comes to bezier curves; when selecting long flowing objects like the one above they can come out very smoothly. At first, it took me a while to get the hang of it again due to the fact that even though this tool is very similar to Adobe Illustrator, the Pen didn't seem to behave exactly the way it would if used in that program. After selecting our item we then used Image -> Image Select -> to create the selection area we had drawn with our curves.

After again creating our masking layers we then used the Colour Balance palette to adjust the colour of our selected area.

For our final task, we were to cut out the bird in the image above and superimpose it on an entirely different image, altering the shape and colours very subtly in order to make it fit into our second image.

for this, we started by using the object selection tool which, by clicking on our object (the Hummingbird) gave us an outline around our entire object. due to the motion blur on the wings of our object, some more adjusting would have to be done in order to achieve the desired effect we were to achieve.

Again creating a copy of our background layers, we then created our masking layers and created another Layer which we then colour-matched to the background of the image we would be superimposing our objects onto (achieved by using Option + Delete to fill the layer with our chosen colour).

Next, we once again used the pen tool to trace the visible shapes of the hummingbirds' wings in order to get rid of any excess background colour the Object selection tool had missed due to the motion blur in the image. (Again, not so good with the curves so I went back over with the eraser to tidy up the more messy parts of the selection area to give a more natural feel) We then picked up the Blur tool which we used around the edges of our selection to take off the harshness of our mask and keep up the smooth, Blurred form of the wing in addition to using the Brush tool to darken the shadows on the front of our object to make it appear more realistic and give it more depth when placed into our final image.

After applying our layer mask by right-clicking the layer (image not available, ran out of space on post) and selecting "apply layer mask", we rotated our object and were ready to drop it into our second image.

This week, we've laid Adobe Illustrator to rest for the time being and our now focussing on the basics of Photoshop. Photoshop is something I have used in the past and was once quite Good at using, yet, once i acquired lightroom (as a photographer) I never seemed to go back. This class was highly useful in reopening my eyes to all the capabilities of photoshop beyond just composting. Today we tackled the basics, we were introduced to the layers and Priority palettes, their uses and their effects.

We were given images by Toby for us to color correct using Curves, Color Balance and Hue/Saturation. Beginning with Curves we were given this image.

With the image being blown out and too bright, our task was simple. Make it Darker. We did this using the 'Curves' tool (as shown below). The first piece of new knowledge i received was that by dragging the top left and bottom right corners of the Curves Histogram to where the 'activity' spikes, I found it brightens and darkens the image while also narrowing down the areas of the image that need to be adjusted, giving a more satisfying and frankly easier result than if you were to just go for it of the jump and spend time trying to get it perfect.

From there we began experimenting with placing different points along the diagonal line and moving them in different ways, being encouraged to 'muck it up' as it were, to get a feel for how the tool works and the effects it has on the image e.g. drastically dragging the points around causing the image to over and under expose, losing information in the progress, demonstrating the loss of information that can occur in said process. Below is the end result of the image after using the curves tool.

Moving on from a black and white image, we then repeated the process with a low-resolution Colour image learning about how different lit areas can affect colour and how to balance these things to avoid the image being inconsistent.

onto our next image. Again making use of the curves tool to brighten our image.

Next, we stepped things up and moved on to the Hue/Saturation tool. This tool is used to manipulate colour in an image to give it a more uniform or stylized look, or simply to just bring out, change or brighten the colours in the image. the sliders used in this tool affect the Hue, Saturation and Brightness of your image and is a frequent tool used while colour grading as it gives the user a fair amount of control. Hue and Saturation are good for boosting or reducing colour/saturation within your image, especially in a situation where you have one colour dominating the piece that you need to be turned down in order to make your image more appealing. (More on that later) While working on this image we were reminded to take into account how the initial photo may have been taken, what the environment might have actually looked and how the colours actually came across in person so as to not over-manipulate and make something unnatural or unappealing.

Moving on from this we were into our next image, this time using the Colour Balance tool. The colour balance tool is useful for accurately adjusting the colours, hue and saturation of the shadows, highlights and mid-tones of an image.

I began by adjusting the shadows, as I felt the left side of the face needed a bit more colour to it as it felt slightly bland.

With this done, the image now 'pops' and is more contrasted than it was before. Next I moved on to the mid-tones as even as an improvement it does feel harsh.

i made very minor adjustments as it seemed that the more I did, made it more oversaturated. I was happy with the end result and we moved on. This time using every tool (Curves, Hue/Sat, and Colour Balance) at our disposal.

Immediately I recognized the image was very blue dominant and that this would need to be fixed, The mountains in the very background were also something to be wary of as if I were to over-correct I may lose them in the process.

Starting with Curves, i adjusted the histogram as we had learned with my goal being to bring out the mountains in the background, get more detail out of the mountains in the "middle ground" but trying to keep the foreground as bright as possible as not to darken the image too much. I achieved 2 out of 3 of these things but was overall happy for now as I could always come back and make adjustments thanks to these tools being worked with in Layers as opposed to directly applying them to the image, which can make it difficult to go back.

Moving on to the Colour Balancing tool, I wanted to tone down the amount of Green/Blue within the image to produce something a little more realistic and pleasing to the eye, i began by adjusting the Midtones by sliding my Cyan/Red slider more into the in attempt to inject more warmth into the image to counteract the cold temp color in the image.

This had a good effect as the foreground began to turn more yellow and started to resemble the colour of the stones. Next, i moved on to the Shadows. By slightly adjusting my Cyan/Red and Magenta/Green sliders left I achieved in a more neutral (in temperature) image while also bringing out more detail in the foreground. Things are coming together!

last but not least, the highlights. I adjusted my colour sliders in both directions sort of counteracting each other to balance out the colors throughout the image and finalize all that I had done.

With this i had my final image. It could have done with some more light to brighten it up but in terms of the colours, i was pleased with what i had achieved.

Lastly, we were provided a very poorly aged/exposed image. Things I noticed immediately were that it was too bright and was over-saturated in yellow and washed out..

beginning again with Curves, i brought down the brightness while also trying to darken some of the details (the towels on the line) so it would pop in the image and be more noticeable.

I then adjusted the Mid-Tones using the Colour Balance tool, dragging the sliders into the blue/colder ends of the sliders, to diffuse the warm, dominant yellows.

achieving that, the image now appeared more neutral but was now left washed out. I moved on to the Hue/Saturation sliders to try bring out the colours in the image. (as seen above)

Next, I was on to Colour Balancing, Still combatting the yellows in the image I adjusted my sliders to the cooler (cyan, green, blue) ends of the sliders achieving a more natural and vibrant image with all colours now recognizable and standing out on their own.

Fundamentals, Week 3 - Penguin!

this week in Fundamentals, we put together all we had learned thus far and put it into practice. Whilst also learning new skills and incorporating these into this final product. The class was primarily focused on getting more used to the labyrinth that is Adobe Illustrator, it's shortcuts, its useful tools, and overall how it functions. Starting with the 'Join line' function and key bind "Command + J (mac)". This was demonstrated by first making an elipse using the elipse pen, deleting it's middle most anchors to the left and right of the circle and pulling them apart. after this we selected the two left anchors on both halves of the circle and used the Join function. repeat on the opposite side and this is the result:

From here we added extra anchor points to the bottom right of the, now, oval shape and moved them into the desired shape. The penguin begins to take shape!

repeating the last step at the top of the shape to create somewhat of a 'cow lick'.

From here, Toby took us further into the world of, morphing shapes into other shapes. For example, we took the square tool and made a box shape at the front of the 'Penguin' and were shown to adjust the outermost nodes into a pointier shape creating a beak.

Moving onto the eyes, we were introduced to the gradient and colour palette tools. Using these we created a Blue to black Gradient fill for our eye shape finishing them off with details comprised of smaller white circles to give off the effect of shine.

From here we began the feet, this was a part I definitely enjoyed most as we learned how to produce 3 dimensional shaped using a multitude of tools and techniques. We began by drawing one-half of our penguin's foot, again, selecting the left and right most anchor points and using the Reflect tool ("Shift + Option?) which resulted in a mirrored shape making the completed foot.

This is where things became fascinatingly complicated, yet, very satisfying to learn. Going into wireframe mode (Command + Y) we made a copy of our foot shape and began deleting individual lines between the first design. We selected these lines and copied them (Option + Left Click) and dragged the copies downward leaving us with this:

Again using The 'Join Line' function (Command + J) to join the gaps in between which began to resemble a 3D image!:

We filled these lines with our desired shades of Orange using the color palette window, including our copy of the total foot shape we took earlier, and placed them together:

Success! 3D Flipper complete... Although it does look a little, different? At this point, we were introduced to the Stroke editing tool which allowed us to select our Bezier curves and adjust how these curves Worked with each other. Color our Stroke lines black we now had this to work with.

Again using the technique we used in the beginning we created a leg to connect our foot to our body.

From here things became a little turbulent so I am lacking the screenshots but, alas! We moved on to coloring our Penguin. Exploring the Layers tab and creating different layers for the features body, the belly, and the shading. We were shown many different techniques, mainly simply using Bezier Curves, for creating the shapes around the eyes and belly with added more depth and texture to our Penguins, and also using a similar technique for the shading that goes across the bottom of the figure. we explored different colour palettes, mainly, HSB (Hue, Saturation, and Brightness), and how they (colours) can work together.

22/02/23 - Fundamentals 1 Today we learned about the foundations of Adobe Illustrator and about different image file types and how they differ from each other. We learned that Jpeg files, when compared to Vector files, are limited by the size of the image file itself. This was useful to me as a photographer/artist as this was something I was not familiar with in the past and will be applying this knowledge to my future personal and course works.

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