Blog Entry #10 Flash Banner

            In computer class recently we have been working on an ad banner that you would commonly see pop up on any website you may visit. The ad is exactly like the ones you would see off to the side of the site. We created this ad banner to get more experience with computers and learn how to do other interesting things with a computer. Before this project I would have never known what Adobe Flash was. What it is, is a program that allows you to create little animations and create them however you would like.
            This is probably my favorite project we have done throughout the year. I learned so many new tools and actions from this program. For example, the align tool. What this tool allows you to do is place the photo directly in the center of the canvas perfectly. More tools I learned about were the following: importing to stage, modify, create classic tween, blur filters, key frame, converting to movie clip, changing background color, making new layer, and the transform tool. Now I'll explain what each of these tools are. Importaing to stage is when you save a picture from the internet and instead of copying and pasting it you import it to the stage for a better image. Modifying the image is changing the image size so it fits the canvas better. Creating a classic tween is allowing the picture to have motion in it. Blur filters add a blur to the picture, this is commonly used when you have a picture fade in and out. A key frame signifies that something is going to happen. Converting to movie clip allows the clip to react as a movie would, in motion. Changing background color allows you to make the canvas any color you would like. Making a new layer is when you make a new layer so you aren't overlapping steps with one another. Transform tool is when you transform the picture into any shape you would like.
          I am posting this on my blog because I want to share with you what I have accomplished in this project. I have worked very hard on this and I hope you enjoy it!

Retro Picture

This week we worked on our last project using Photoshop. We worked on photo editing in Photoshop. Each group had the choice on what they wanted to work on. There were different options such as turn a portrait photo into a color sketch, ghost an image, and how to create light and shadow. In this case my group decided to do how to make your photo look like a retro picture. This idea came from google, How to Create A Retro Analog Effect Using Photoshop. This was very challenging. While it was challenging, it was very fun to work with! Below is the picture my group and I used to work on, and what it turned out to be after we made it look like a retro picture.

                   Before                                       After                           

                                                                             

While creating this retro picture, it took certain steps. We did the following steps:

1.       Add a curves adjustment layer by going to Layer, new adjustment layers, curves.

2.       Go to the drop down menu by going to layer, new adjustment layer, drop down menu. This tool allows us to begin manipulating the curves.

3.       Change the drop down menu to the red channel. Tweak the line into an S shaped bend.

4.       Now, change the drop down menu to the green channel. Increase the green mid tones by creating a large flowing bend in the lone. Do this by, moving the line up.

5.       Change the drop down menu to the blue channel. Add an S shaped bend and move the start and end points above and below the original curves  lines.

6.       Create new layer.

7.       Use the paint bucket, and fill the picture with magenta.

8.       Changing the blending mode to soft light instead of normal in the layers bar.

9.       Depending on the color of magenta used, change the opacity to tone down the effect. In this case, we reduced the opacity of the layer to 73%.

10.   Select all. Go to edit, copy merged.

11.   Create new layer

12.   Go to edit, paste. This paste the picture on your new layer.

13.   Add a Gaussian blur do this by going to filter, blur, Gaussian blur.

14.   Press OK.

15.   Add a layer mask to the blur layer. Do this by clicking the third button from your right in the layers bar.

16.   Use a small black brush by using the brush tool to erase the blurring from the main objects leaving spot of blurring from the edges and in the background.

17.   Create new layer.

18.   In the swatches at the bottom, change the color to red.

19.   Using a LARGE soft brush dab red spots on the corners of your picture. We reduced our opacity to 20%.

20.   Go to layer, flatten image.

21.   Go to filter, lens corrections.

22.   Click custom.

23.   Under vignette, slide it towards darken.

24.   Create a new layer

25.   Change the color to whites in the swatches at the bottom.

26.   Using a large brush from the brush tool, dab a large spot of white in the center of the canvas to highlight the main objects.

27.   Change this to soft light instead of new in the layers bar.

28.   Create a new layer.

29.   Using the paint bucket, fill it with black.

30.   Go to filter, noise, add noise. Give the noise layer a slight Gaussian blur to take the edge off the noise particles.

31.   Press OK.

32.   Change the blending mode to screen instead of normal.

33.   Reduce your opacity to 15%

34.   You have a retro picture!

Since you have seen what can be done to your own picture, go give your photo a retro analog effect using Photoshop!

My Logo

I have created this logo for the Mercy Jaguar bowling team championship tonight. I created this by using Photoshop, the main app we have been working with all semester in computer class. I created this because the team needs support tonight on their big night. We need all the support and fans we can gather, not only will you be watching the team bowl but there will be much fun, such as karaoke, dancing, and food will be served. I am asking you as a strong supporter of the Bowling team to come out and cheer them on tonight towards their victory. The tools used to create this logo were very difficult to manage. In the process of making these logos my class used many, many tools. Some tools I used was the brush tool, which allowed me to paint the big paw print in the top left hand corner. I also used the text tool so most of my text would look nice and match evenly with each other. The picture in the middle of the logo was too large to put into my picture at first so i had to use the laso tool to help refix the size. What the lasso tool does is helps cut a picture down to make it smaller. It is almsot like cropping a picture, if you would prefer to look at it that way. I used the swatches tool for color. I used light shades of blue, because Mercy has light shades of blue for some school colors. I also used the transformation tool, this shapes the picture to the perfect size you want, or rotate it in a certain direction that you would like. One time I had lost the color I was using so I had to use the eyedropper tool to match up the colors again. I had tons of fun with this project, it was interesting to create a logo like all the famous places do.

Designing A Logo

    This logo communicates its purpose by giving a little extra creativeness to the Mercy Academy Bowling Jaguars. I chose this team to design a logo for because I really wanted to join the team but with Track coming up I do not think I would have had time to do both with school as well. I chose the colors light shade of blue and black because blue is the color of Mercy, my school, and black is a color that stands out. I used black so it would be easy to see on the paw print in my logo. I used the element emphasis in the spelling of bowling. How this element is portrayed is I have drawn a bowling ball for the O and a bowling pin for the L. I also used the element balance, this is used by the two colors I chose to use. The black shows up very well on the blue, it is not too dark nor too light. I am pleased with my logo, I hope you enjoy it!

Photoshop Transformation

   I feel pretty happy with the overall outcome of my picture. I am obsessed with Taylor Swift and to look like her would be a dream come true. The overall transformation of the picture I believe looks good, my face does not look to plastered on there. It looks quite normal.

   This changes my views of magazine ads because now I know no one, absolutely no one is perfect or even looks like the ads in magazines or papers. The way you can edit pictures now a days is astonishing, you can take someone who has wrinkles, red eyes and extra fat and make all that go away. The people you see in magazines are real people but that is most likely not their real body. So do not get discouraged by looking at them and thinking they have the perfect body because they do not, no one does. We are who we are.

    What this says today about the perfect body image is that if you do not have the perfect body you just do not fit in. It really affects teenagers because as young ladies we already stress enough about having the perfect body. We stress about it to either fit in or impress the guys. Having billboards and magazines showing those photoshopped bodies on there makes it twice as hard to feel good about ourselves. Everyone should be happy with the body they have, everyone was made perfect.

   A couple of things I really did well on were getting my face to fit almost perfectly on Taylor's. I had to rotate it and cut some of my face off to fit on hers, but I got it to fit just right so it would not look abnormal. Another thing I did well on was getting rid of blemishes, as a teenager we all get blemishes every now and then, and with photoshop you can clear all that up. I got rid of mine, almost every single dot on my face is gone.

   A couple things I could spend more time on is putting make up on my face and adjusting my skin tone to match more perfectly with Taylor Swift's. If you look really close at the picture of Taylor you can see my skin tone on my face does not neccessarily match hers. The make up was an extremely hard process to conquer, you had to take all kinds of little careful steps. The process took many classes to complete. I would like to spend more time on these tasks because it would make the picture more effective and look more real.

Before                                                                                    After

Photoshop Fun

    In computer class, these past couple of weeks we have been learning about Photoshop. Photoshop is a program that allows you to upload photos and decorate or fix them in anyway you choose. We made collages about The Day In The Life of A Mercy Student. What we did was gathered pictures from around our school and outside our school, in our homelife of things we do each day. What I have learned is outstanding, I can now fix red eye on a picture. What red eye does is it fixes someones eyes who have red dots in them. In my project I used numerous different elements to fix the photos I have chosen.

    Many other elements I used were such things as, cropping. What cropping a picture does is it cuts out parts of the picture you no longer want to show in the photo. I also used the rotation tool, this rotates the picture in anyway possible. If you had taken a picture kind of slanted-like, you could rotate the picture on Photoshop to make it look like you had taken it vertically or horizontal. Another element I used was the spot healing brush, what this did to my picture was removed a smudge of black from underneath my friends eye. The last element I used was the black and white tool. This changed the photo that was in color to black and white. To me pictures look better in black and white so I figured I would add this creativeness to my collage. This collage explains the life of us, here at Mercy, where our dreams become reality.

© 2011 Brianna Berry

Photography

    This is an example of Simplicity, I say this because there is no extra ordinary things in this picture. It's a plain bottle of hand sanitizer on the floor with a dull of background of carpet. Nothing really pops out in this picture.

      This a picture merge. This picture looks awkward because it looks as if the lamp pole is growing out the top of the stuffed doll's head. To fix this I would need to adjust the doll and the camera angle to make this a better picture.

      In this picture I am identifying a picture in motion, she looks as if she is about to throw the ball forwards because I have left space in front of her to make it look this way. If I would have put the extra space behind her it would not look like she was about to throw the ball.