This semester my favorite project had to be the project in Adobe Photoshop. I thought it was really interesting working with the program and being able to manipulate all of the photos within it. I thought the end result for my project was the best work I had done in the semester and I am really proud of it.
The skills the I learned this semester that I will use later on will most likely be the techniques for Photoshop and Illustrator because the kind of work I am pursuing with my degree with be closely related to those two programs. I really enjoyed working with them both, even though Illustrator was a little frustrating at times.
In the future, I see myself as a graphic designer. Taking this course helped me solidify that I wanted to pursue the advertising field, specifically the design aspect of it.
There aren’t many skills this semester that I will I had learned, seeing as how I don’t know many outside of what we were taught. Although, I did wish the sections on Adobe Illustrator were more in depth because I did struggle a bit with making my design look realistic with just the knowledge that was given. The Photoshop portion was well taught but since it was my favorite section, I of course wanted to do more work with it.
I didn’t really find any one specific website helpful with the coursework. I looked around a few design tutorial websites in order to help me inspire my design for my Photoshop and Illustrator projects. None were too helpful, but the combined knowledge I got from them did help with the projects.
I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed the class. The lessons and work were always, and I found that my TA was really kind and helpful when it came to any questions that I had.
When it came to editing my final video, I felt the original draft that I had submitted was already well done, but it did need some minor tweaks to make it better-rounded. When reviewing the video, I felt that it needed back ground music because when it came to the Titles in the video, which showed the questions that were being asked, it was kind of awkward to just have dead space take up that amount of time. In order to alleviate this feeling of awkwardness, I added the Ascona mp3 file provided from angel.
The audio file was too short for my three and a half minute interview so I had to make three copies in order to make it extend the full length of the video. The audio was too high when I first tested it out, so I went under Effect Controls in the Source pane, and chose Volume and then Levels and set the level to -10.0 dB so that the sound of the music didn’t drown out the sound of the interview, and I also had to up the sound of the interview audio to +2.0dB because the I felt the interview itself needed its own boost to stand out more.
Seeing the video after the audio editing, I had to work on the different visual transitions that I had in the video. I had noticed that almost all of the transitions were all Dip to Black, and I felt that there wasn’t any variety within the video to make it interesting. I changed the transitions on the artwork from the Dip to Black transitions to Film Dissolve because I liked the look of one piece of art fading away, and then the other taking its place.
After all of the editing was done, I was very happy with the final product because I felt it looked professional and it conveyed what I wanted it to across to the viewer.
Scene 1: Introduction
Visual
Video:
Video filename(s):
2052.mp4
Video length:
7 seconds
Title/Text/Graphics:
Video Description:
Tanner introducing himself for the interview
Stills:
Photo file name(s):
Title/Text/Graphics:
Photo description:
Audio
Script:
Audio (video) filename(s):
2052.mp4
Audio length:
7 seconds
Script text:
Hello, my name is Tanner Elliott and I am a sophomore at WSU.
Scene 2: What made you get into art?
Visual
Video:
Video filename(s):
2052.mp4
Video length:
50 seconds
Title/Text/Graphics:
What made you get into art?
Video Description:
Tanner describing the reasons he got into art
Stills:
Photo file name(s):
Title/Text/Graphics:
Photo description:
Audio
Script:
Audio (video) filename(s):
2052.mp4
Audio length:
50 seconds
Script text:
Art was never something that came inherently natural to me but it was something I strived for. I wanted to just express myself and I wanted to create art because it was the only thing that I felt that got my emotions out; that helped me get how I was feeling on the inside to the outside. To help get through several different emotions such as anger or sadness, anything like that. It was an expressionistic medium I used to help overcome these different feelings I felt at that time.
Scene 3: What is your favorite piece of art that you have created?
Visual
Video:
Video filename(s):
2052.mp4
Video length:
23 seconds
Title/Text/Graphics:
What is your favorite piece of art that you have created?
Video Description:
Tanner describing the project he created in Junior year of high school of the singer from his favorite band: Avenged Sevenfold.
Stills:
Photo file name(s):
M.Shadows.jpg
Title/Text/Graphics:
Photo description:
Black and white graphite drawing of a singer kneeling.
Audio
Script:
Audio (video) filename(s):
2052.mp4
Audio length:
36 seconds
Script text:
When I was a junior in high school I drew this portrait of this singer from my favorite band, and that is Avenged Sevenfold, and I drew it as just a means for a project, but after I started getting into it, I started pouring hours upon hours of detail into it, hard work, and I had put the most effort I had ever did put into a school project into it, and when I was done it was a sense of pride and I felt I did a great thing when I was done and so that’s why it’s my favorite.
Scene 4: What is your favorite medium and why?
Visual
Video:
Video filename(s):
2052.mp4
Video length:
7 seconds
Title/Text/Graphics:
What is your favorite medium to use and why?
Video Description:
Tanner describes graphite as his favorite artistic medium to use while providing examples of his artwork with that medium.
Stills:
Photo file name(s):
The Joker
Self-Portrait
WSU Architecture
Title/Text/Graphics:
Photo description:
The Joker: A drawing of Heath Leger as the Joker from the movie The Dark Knight with the words “Why so serious?”
Self-Portrait: A drawing of Tanner that is split in two, one side being colorful, and the other side being checkered.
WSU Architecture: A drawing of the skylight from the Holland-Terrell Library at WSU
Audio
Script:
Audio (video) filename(s):
2052.pm4
Audio length:
42 seconds
Script text:
Well, my favorite medium to use is graphite, which is just pencil. I have tried everything under the sun; I have tried charcoal, I have tried painting with several different things like acrylic and oil. But for me, pencil just gets the finite details that I like to incorporate into my drawings, the very minute and intricate that belongs in things like portraits of people or the environment where everything, even the smallest detail, makes a difference. And that is why it is my favorite medium to use.
Scene 5: What are your plans for the future?
Visual
Video:
Video filename(s):
2052.mp4
Video length:
51 seconds
Title/Text/Graphics:
What are your plans for the future?
Video Description:
Tanner describing his plans for the future, which is to get his degree in Communications at WSU
Stills:
Photo file name(s):
Title/Text/Graphics:
Photo description:
Audio
Script:
Audio (video) filename(s):
2052.mp4
Audio length:
51 seconds
Script text:
Well, after all of the hours upon hours upon hours that I have put into art, I would like to continue producing and being into the art field, but not with an arts degree. I have felt that going into communications will allow me to bring my art to a new media, which is through the computer; creating things in Adobe Illustrator, and editing my work with Adobe Photoshop, so I felt that the only way to evolve my art is to change it. And so, I would like to finish out my degree here at WSU, get my degree in Communications, and continue on to make art.
For my video project I decided to interview myself about the biggest thing in my life: my art. I felt that interviewing me for my final project was most appropriate because my topic is about myself.
The interview was done by my Samsung S3 smartphone’s video recorder, and I edited the video in the Adobe Premiere program which our Communications 210 class has been working with for the last month. I took the raw video shot by my phone, uploaded it to my computer, and copied it into Premiere. I then loaded the video into the sequence in order for it to be edited into the final product.
When it came to the editing, I used the Razor tool to cut away the sections where there was dead silence, and the parts where I asked the questions aloud. Once I was done cutting the footage, I then created four different titles using Default Still as the selected preference to appear more professional. Each of these titles had the four questions of the interview on them, and so I then separated the video sections from each other and put the titles against the newly created black background. In order to make the transitions smoother, I used the Dip to Black visual transition under the Effects in the Projects pane.
I added photos of my artwork as a sort of reference since I talked about them throughout the interview. In order to have only the artwork show but the audio still continuing, I highlighted all of the footage and then went under the Clips tab and selected Unlink so I can manually remove the video footage but have the audio continue uninterrupted. I had to fit the artwork to the size of the window of the video so I individually clicked on each clip of the artwork and went under Effect Controls in the Source pane, and went to Motion, then Scale, and finally changed the scale of the different pieces of art to properly fit in the video.
Scene 1: Introduction
VisualVideo:
Video filename(s):
2052.mp4
Video length:
7 seconds
Title/Text/Graphics:
Video Description:
Tanner introducing himself for the interview
Stills:
Photo file name(s):
Title/Text/Graphics:
Photo description:
AudioScript:
Audio (video) filename(s):
2052.mp4
Audio length:
7 seconds
Script text:
Hello, my name is Tanner Elliott and I am a sophomore at WSU.
Scene 2: What made you get into art?
VisualVideo:
Video filename(s):
2052.mp4
Video length:
50 seconds
Title/Text/Graphics:
What made you get into art?
Video Description:
Tanner describing the reasons he got into art
Stills:
Photo file name(s):
Title/Text/Graphics:
Photo description:
AudioScript:
Audio (video) filename(s):
2052.mp4
Audio length:
50 seconds
Script text:
Art was never something that came inherently natural to me but it was something I strived for. I wanted to just express myself and I wanted to create art because it was the only thing that I felt that got my emotions out; that helped me get how I was feeling on the inside to the outside. To help get through several different emotions such as anger or sadness, anything like that. It was an expressionistic medium I used to help overcome these different feelings I felt at that time.
Scene 3: What is your favorite piece of art that you have created?
VisualVideo:
Video filename(s):
2052.mp4
Video length:
23 seconds
Title/Text/Graphics:
What is your favorite piece of art that you have created?
Video Description:
Tanner describing the project he created in Junior year of high school of the singer from his favorite band: Avenged Sevenfold.
Stills:
Photo file name(s):
M.Shadows.jpg
Title/Text/Graphics:
Photo description:
Black and white graphite drawing of a singer kneeling.
AudioScript:
Audio (video) filename(s):
2052.mp4
Audio length:
36 seconds
Script text:
When I was a junior in high school I drew this portrait of this singer from my favorite band, and that is Avenged Sevenfold, and I drew it as just a means for a project, but after I started getting into it, I started pouring hours upon hours of detail into it, hard work, and I had put the most effort I had ever did put into a school project into it, and when I was done it was a sense of pride and I felt I did a great thing when I was done and so that’s why it’s my favorite.
Scene 4: What is your favorite medium and why?
VisualVideo:
Video filename(s):
2052.mp4
Video length:
7 seconds
Title/Text/Graphics:
What is your favorite medium to use and why?
Video Description:
Tanner describes graphite as his favorite artistic medium to use while providing examples of his artwork with that medium.
Stills:
Photo file name(s):
The Joker
Self-Portrait
WSU Architecture
Title/Text/Graphics:
Photo description:
The Joker: A drawing of Heath Leger as the Joker from the movie The Dark Knight with the words “Why so serious?”
Self-Portrait: A drawing of Tanner that is split in two, one side being colorful, and the other side being checkered.
WSU Architecture: A drawing of the skylight from the Holland-Terrell Library at WSU
AudioScript:
Audio (video) filename(s):
2052.pm4
Audio length:
42 seconds
Script text:
Well, my favorite medium to use is graphite, which is just pencil. I have tried everything under the sun; I have tried charcoal, I have tried painting with several different things like acrylic and oil. But for me, pencil just gets the finite details that I like to incorporate into my drawings, the very minute and intricate that belongs in things like portraits of people or the environment where everything, even the smallest detail, makes a difference. And that is why it is my favorite medium to use.
Scene 5: What are your plans for the future?
VisualVideo:
Video filename(s):
2052.mp4
Video length:
51 seconds
Title/Text/Graphics:
What are your plans for the future?
Video Description:
Tanner describing his plans for the future, which is to get his degree in Communications at WSU
Stills:
Photo file name(s):
Title/Text/Graphics:
Photo description:
AudioScript:
Audio (video) filename(s):
2052.mp4
Audio length:
51 seconds
Script text:
Well, after all of the hours upon hours upon hours that I have put into art, I would like to continue producing and being into the art field, but not with an arts degree. I have felt that going into communications will allow me to bring my art to a new media, which is through the computer; creating things in Adobe Illustrator, and editing my work with Adobe Photoshop, so I felt that the only way to evolve my art is to change it. And so, I would like to finish out my degree here at WSU, get my degree in Communications, and continue on to make art.
My final audio interview I felt I should compare my creative outlet of art to my other outlet which is music, more specifically the guitar. I wanted to give my listeners a good sense of how seriously I take art and how it compares to my guitar playing. Although they are close in importance to my life, art is just more dominant when it comes to being able to let loose and fully express how I feel. I have been playing guitar for about six years now and I still enjoy playing but I does not feel as natural as drawing does. They both challenge me in many different ways, but walking away from a finished piece of art is different than setting down your guitar after two hours of playing. You have something to show for your hard efforts when you finish drawing, while with music I still feel a little empty about it.
Another addition I made to my final audio story is that I added some background ambience to the interview. I used the track “ascona” which was provided to the class during the audio tutorials. I had to use two copies of ascona because my interview went longer than the length of only one but was shorter than the full two; I cut the extra time on the ending but gave 5 extra seconds so it does not end abruptly. I used the Fade Out option with the audio file so it drifted away at the end, and used the Fade In on the beginning of the interview. I felt it set a good ambience to the interview, and felt a little more complete than just not having any background noise at all.
I took the newly made interview and drug it over into Adobe Audition, and began to edit the file with the Razor tool cutting away the long silences between my words and the occasional “um”s that I have a bad habit of using when talking. After I cut away all of the excess from the file I had to find the perfect place to put my newly edited third interview. When I added the new interview track into my already edited audio story, I had to re-listen to the interview in order to find the spot between where I finish talking about my artwork and when I am asked what my future plans are. I felt that in that space it would help show my feelings about art and why it has caused my career path to follow the way it did.
For my audio story, I decided to talk about something that is near and dear to my heart: my artwork. I wanted to talk about how art has influenced me throughout my life and how it has shaped my future. Art has by far had the largest impact on who I am; it has allowed me to be creative, think of unique ideas and designs, express inner thoughts through these different designs, and relieve stress, both physical and mental, by just allowing my mind wander and letting my hand draw whatever comes to mind. This has been very therapeutic over the last ten years of my artistic career.
The follow up to my discussion of art is my future career and how art has affected that career path. Following along the lines of art, I wanted to be in advertising. One of my favorite things I have done in art is creating different designs for people, whether they are logos, tattoos, or even just self-portraits. I wanted to continue this feeling after leaving high school and make a career out of it, and I heard doing advertising or graphic design would be my two best options. I decided to take this Com 210 class to better my understanding of the design field since all of my knowledge is only held within pencil and pen, rather than computer programs.
I recorded my audio interviews with my Samsung S3 smartphone. Once I got both of the interviewing parts I wanted I uploaded them to my computer, then drug them both into Adobe Audition to be used and edited. When listening to the interviews, I noticed I have long breaks between my words, and I say um a good amount; the first thing I needed to do was fix these long gaps by using the Razor tool and cutting them from the audio. I found that the Razor tool was more useful and quick than the Time Selection tool, so it sped along the editing process. Once I finished editing the two separate audio files, I put them both onto the same track and made sure that they ran smoothly together.
After my first draft of my logo design, I felt that it was too bland and two dimensional. Since my personal skills in Adobe Illustrator aren’t up to par, I had to find a guide online to create the pencil design I wanted which I found here.
To get it the multiple shaded angles of the wood on the pencil, I first had to create three identical pencil-shaped, two-dimensional pieces all different shades of the same color. In order to create the wood tip of the pencil I made a line with the pen tool and used the 3D revolve effect with a brown fill. The graphite tip of by doing the same process but with a dark grey fill, to create the metal clasp for the eraser I had to use the pen tool to make the rough outline of the metal and 3D revolve it with a yellow fill to create the clasp, and I repeated the same process for the eraser with a pink fill. Once I created all of these separate parts, I had to line all of them up: starting with the three pieces of the same shape, I aligned them right next to each other, then I put the wood tip below it and send it to the back so that it was properly in the background of the design, then set the graphite tip on top of it, and put the eraser and clasp on top of the pencil. As I final touch to the finished pencil, I added a drop shadow to make it more three-dimensional.
I enjoyed the balance of the pencil logo because it is perfectly symmetrical, which is what drove me to attempt to design this logo. I feel like the pencil is a good representation of one of my main driving forces in life, which is to create artwork that I can be proud of. Since graphite drawing is my favorite medium to use I thought it would make a good symbol for my own personal logo.
For my logo design, I wanted to express my love of drawing. I couldn’t quite figure out how to properly depict this, until I thought of just doing a simple pencil. But in order for this pencil to be more creative looking, I decided to make slight changes to its original look.
I started off drawing a rectangle that would be the basic shape of the pencil. I added a circle to the top of the rectangle with the ellipses tool that would be the eraser to the top of the pencil. In order to get the tip of the pencil, I created an equilateral triangle with the star tool, and had to reflect it horizontally in order for the tip of the triangle to be facing downwards. To finish off the outer shape of the pencil I highlighted all three of the piece, after lining them up with on another so it roughly resembled the shape of the pencil, and then using the merge tool under the pathfinder window I merged all three shapes into the outer shell of the pencil.
To make the pencil more animated, I decided to use the warp tool to make it look more cartoon-ish. Once I warped the pencil, I had to add in the inner details of the pencil. I used the arc tool to create the sharpened area of the pencil, the graphite tip, and the metal band below the eraser. As a finishing touch, I used the paintbrush tool and using the charcoal feather definition on paintbrush, I created a swirling line which looked like the panel was writing something. For a slight addition to this logo, I decided to create a box with rounded edges next to my logo with my name inside of it as a sort of name placement with it.
I wasn’t able to fully figure out how to add color to my logo, so I plan on doing some research on it or getting help with it from my TA for my final logo.
Tanner Elliott 