Week 10
Critique of our assignments will start off the class. After feedback, you may continue and make corrections to your assignments before you turn them in. You will have the rest of class to work on your final. I may give some demos of other software that I use in combination with Photoshop.
Discussion of abstraction and concept generators.
Final Project:
Part 1- Research a living artist or designer you admire, or whose career path you would like to emulate. Give a presentation of no more than 10 images of his/her work.
Part 2 - Follow that presentation with a presentation of all your homework and in-class assignments that you have done for this class. After that presentation, you may also show any extra credit work you have done to raise your grade.
Here is the list of your homework:
- Na'vi self-portrait
- Blemishes (man with zits)
- Colored B/W Photo
- Image using layers
- Photo stitch
- Sign Replacement
- Brushes
- Your alien/futuristic city or world.
- Any extra credit
When turning this in please only submit JPG files with a number and your name -01jones.jpg, 02jones.jpg, etc.
Good Luck!
Week 09
Today will essentially be a studio day. You will have the opportunity to continue working in class on your alien or futuristic world. We might have an in-progress critique to get some class feedback prior to the piece being due next week.
I will also do a couple of demos.
- Batch processing with actions.
- Filters that I commonly use.
- Vanishing Point filter for extending buildings.
- Introduce 3d features of Photoshop
Also talking with another Photoshop instructor, he complained that many students don't have a solid understanding of print and color depth. I will cover that as well.
Next week, your alien or futuristic world is due.
Week 08
We are going to start with a critique of the homework. Then we will proceed with the new homework assignment.
This week I would like for you to create an alien or futuristic world. I will show you how to create a quick planet and provide you with some images and links for you to build with.This is due in two weeks(Week 10). The resolution should be 1280 x720 at 72dpi horizontal. I will be showing you some clips from Dylan Cole's Matte Painting DVD.
The tools involved in creating a planet is finding a texture, applying the polar coordinates filter, and the spherize distortion filter. From there you can create a layer mask for a shadow.
I will also show you an alternative technique for lining up photos. It is called Inverse Registration. We will also cover Overlay Blending Mode for Layers. I will also introduce Smart Objects.
Week 07
Today I will be showing you how to make custom brushes and edit strokes. We will also be using layer masks to stitch panoramas together. We will be adjusting the size of the canvas to make the images fit. If there is time, I will show you content aware scaling and the vanishing point filter.
In-class Assignment:
1)Stitch a panoramic image together. 400 pixel height crop. Use layer masks for this.
2)Replace an image with a sign of your own.
For both of these, make a text layer with your name on it. Then save as a jpeg.
Homework:
Your next assignment is to create an image that makes use of custom brushes. You can use them to create custom shapes and masks.
Extra Credit
For those of you who have missed assignments and classes, I will be giving you the opportunity to raise your grade through extra credit assignments. The extra credit assignment is to take an existing image(CD cover, Movie Poster, Book Cover, Website, etc.) and redesign it using Photoshop primarily. These will be due on the last day of the quarter.
Week 05
Today is midterms. There is an exam that I want you to take at the beginning of class. When everyone has completed the exam, we will continue with a lecture.
We will be dicussing masks, quick masks and painting selections. I touched upon this in Week 2, but I realize that some of you might have had a hard time wrapping your head around these concepts.
Last week, I did a demo on how to create fire. This week I will show you how to create smoke.
In-class Assignment: Color a black and white photo. Save as a jpeg.
Homework: Your next assignment is to create a multi layered file that makes use of layer masks. You can use them to change colors, apply effects, hide layers, etc.
Make this file no bigger than 1280 x 720 at 72dpi.
Week 04
It seems pretty clear to me that I made last week's assignment and demo much to hard for many of you. I apologize. So to make up for it, I won't be grading it very harshly and I won't be giving it a lot of weight. I'm going to back track a little bit and show some more basic tool usage.
If we can get to it, I will show you some scanning, specifically how to scan photos and how to scan art prints.
I would also like to do some painting with you in Photoshop, Sketchbook Pro, or Artrage. Everyone will need a tablet for this.
In-Class Assignment: Due by the end of class: Remove all the blemishes from the man in the photo.
Your midterm assignment is this:
Composite image featuring 3 people or at least 3 layers from your own digital photoshoot.
I refer to this one as the classmate composite because I want everyone to work with images they shot of classmates. You can use whoever…The goal is to consider Spatial Indicators (Depth Indicators, see Art Fundamentals text to review) as you put one person in the foreground, one in the middle ground, and one in the deep background. Goals include consistent light source, concept, realism.
Some suggestions for Ideas:
What you can do in Photoshop?:
Rotate
Crop
Retouch color
Change backgrounds
Smooth flaws
Photo restoration
- put yourself or a friend in a place or background that you/they have never been in.
- restore an old black and white photo
- take a bad picture of you or someone else and make it flattering
- half human half animal
- self-promotion flyer featuring 3+ images of your work, your full contact info, and the name of your “company.”
- Make a business card for yourself
- Cloning project
- Composite project
- turn yourself into a superhero
Week 03
I agree with the sentiment that going through the tutorials is the book is probably something you guys would be better off doing on your own. After talking to the other instructors about this class they all pretty much agree that the whatever book is used in the class it is probably better as a reference than as a hard guide. They all said to teach the class my own way.
So to that end, I am going to do some more demos that are fun. I came across this video:
Birth of an AVATAR from Peter Ammentorp Lund on Vimeo.
So I am going to walk you through how I would do this. We are going to use the tools we used from last time:
Move tool, Marquee tool, freeform lasso tool, wand tool (not quick select), add to/subtract from selection areas
but to that we will also use
pan, zoom, navigation shortcuts, Adobe Bridge, History palette, polygonal & magnetic lasso tool
We are probably going to need to use a few other tools. Initially I felt the was a strategy in the book for teaching certain things in order, but I think I will simply teach you how I use Photoshop. Again, I don't use every feature of the program. In the same way many good songs consist of a few chords, I prefer to use only a few brushes and tools and from the combine their use in different ways.
So some other tools we will use will be
layers palette(multiply), free transform, hard edge selection vs. soft edge selections, color selections, channel masks, and quick masks.
All of this stuff I just listed is generally intended for later in the quarter, but I feel like teaching it to you early. If you feel like I am moving the class forward too quickly, let me know and I will either slow things up or I will spend time with you individually.
Assignment: Turn yourself into a Na'vi. This is due next week.
- Check out a camera and take a picture of yourself (your entire face, close-ups of the details of your face, eyes, nose mouth, etc,) Make sure you take this picture under some good light. Outside would be best, if the sun is out.
- Take a picture of a tree against the sky
- Import the digital photos into Photoshop
- Make the alterations as demoed in class
- Add a tree
- Make a text layer with your name below your picture use the Papyrus Font. Choose a font size so that your entire name fits on a page.
- Your image should be 4 inches square(let's talk about this) and 300dpi.
- I want you to turn in jpg file AND a digital print.
I want this to look like a collaborative project.
For more details follow this link. io9.com/5444960/avatars-designers-speak-floating-mountains-amp-suits-and-the-dragon
Week 01
Hello everyone,
First things first, we need to go over the syllabus. That should take about an hour. Then we can roll into the tutorials which shouldn't take long at all. Essentially, I will be walking you through as many tutorials as we can get through. Be aware that next week is Martin Luther King Jr, national holiday so there won't be any school next week.
I'm really looking forward to teaching this class. I've been using Photoshop since version 3 came out in 1994. I got a job where they required me to know Photoshop. At the time, schools really didn't have computer labs or teach graphics software that much. Computer applications were still elective type classes. Anyway, I didn't know Photoshop, but I needed the job and I was able to get a hold of the manual. I went through it about halfway and most of what I learned beyond that was from other people I worked with. I've been using it ever since and consider it to be one of my bread and butter programs.
You guys are at an exciting point in that you have so many programs and applications which over time have become affordable to students. So really, there shouldn't be limits as to what you are capable of doing. The limit then becomes you.
Consider writing programs, such as Microsoft Word. There is spell checking and grammar checking. By all rights, there should be no way to make a mistake using Word. That tool has been around so long that it should be almost perfect by now. If that's the case, why aren't there more Shakespeares running around? If Photoshop is the de facto program, why aren't there more Leonardo da Vincis everywhere? The answer is that the magic doesn't lie in the tool, the magic lies in the artist. A great painter with a cheap paintbrush could still produce a great painting whereas a bad artist with an expensive brush won't create masterpiece.
And you all need to get this thinking in your head right now, that computers are simply tools. A great tool in the hands of a great craftsman is the key to producing great work. You need to separate the idea of content from the tool used to create it. Think about a movie you have seen that sucked. Did the movie suck because you watched it on a cheap TV or at a lousy theater with a crap projector? Or did the movie suck because the story wasn't interesting?
You need to learn tools like Photoshop because it's probably going to be on every computer at every job you're going to have. Also you need to learn it really well to the point of not having to think about it using it. You don't have to think about breathing, walking or driving, but you probably do all of those things very well. Instead, you should be thinking about your destination. This knowledge of making software work needs to become second nature and a part of your subconscious so you can think about your ideas and what you want to say about them.
You don't have to think about driving a car, you think about your destination and the best way of getting there. You don't become good at spelling to become a champion at the spelling bee. You become good at spelling so you can string words together and combine them to form sentences and express your ideas. Learning to use Photoshop is no different.
Weekly Outline
Week 1: Intro to Adobe, Adobe products, basic Photoshop selection tools
-Move tool, Marquee tool, freeform lasso tool, wand tool (not quick select), add to/subtract from selection areas
Online Quiz: E-companion.
Week 2: Holiday: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (No School)
Week 3: NavNavigation tools, Navigator palette, transform tools
-pan, zoom, navigation shortcuts, Adobe Bridge, History palatte, polygonal & magnetic lasso tool
Eraser tools, antiAliasing, color modes and extract filter
Online Quiz: E-companion.
Week 4: Contextual options palette, Layer palette, layer effects
Plug-ins(Alien skin, etc) Lab time for Midterm project.
Online Quiz: E-companion.
Week 5: Midterm exam, Midterm exam review.
Online Final: E-companion.
Week 6: Holiday: President's Day. (No School)
Week 7: Brush palette, layer masks
Online Quiz: E-companion.
Week 8: Text tools, text layers, resolution, Image Size & Canvas Size dialog boxes
Online Quiz: E-companion.
Week 9: Shape tool. Slices. Creating hyperlinks, basic web pages
Online Quiz: E-companion.
Week 10: Lab time for final project. Review for final exam
Online Quiz: E-companion.
Week 11: Final Exam
Online Final: E-companion.
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