Illustrator Pen Tool Assignment

Illustration

Original Image

Above is the design I did in Adobe Illustrator of a trumpet. To achieve the most accuracy of the shape, I took an actual photo of a trumpet and then traced over it. To create this image as an accurate representation of the original image, I first opened the image in Illustrator. I used the Pen tool to trace the lines of the trumpet, and used the Convert Anchor Point tool to create smoother curves and to reduce the amount of anchor points. After creating all the outlines, I added a gradient fill to the whole shape to give it more depth. To create the illusion of shine, I added ellipses with gradient fills as well to make it seem as if the instrument is reflecting light. To make the image more realistic, I made the outline  a similar shade to the fill of the instrument instead of a bold black line, which would make it look more like a cartoon. This made it more realistic because when you look at the original image, the outline is defined by a darker shade as it curves away from your view. Just by adding some discreet gradience to the image, it becomes so much more realistic.

For uploading the image to my blog, I wanted to maximize the image quality. I examined several image formats that seemed best for online sharing- JPG, GIF, and PNG-, and narrowed down my decision from there. I looked at GIF as a possible format to use, however, it reduces the richness of colour when compressed. I did not want this because the colour of my illustration is one of the most important aspects because of how heavily the realism depends on it. I then looked at JPG, which also seemed promising because of its ability to support colourful images. One large problem with this format though is that it does not cover sharp edges (vectors) well, so my image, a vector drawing, would turn out blurry. The final format I looked at was PNG, which was what I went with in the end. I chose this format because it supports colour and sharp edges well, meaning that the uploaded image in this case would be the same quality as it is in Adobe Illustrator.

While making this image, I did come across some small problems that I was able to fix. One problem was creating the curves with the Convert Anchor Point tool. When I went to add a curve to a line, I would curve the other line attached to the one I was trying to manipulate as well, but I did not want to. I figured out soon after that I just had to manipulate the line I was originally working on and then fix the other with the handle attached to it. Another minor issue I had was trying to add colour to a gradient fill. After researching it I learned that I needed to double-click on the pointers that adjusted the gradience under the Gradience panel to select colours from the window that would pop up. Besides those, there was nothing else that I had trouble with.

Overall I am very happy with my final result. There were a couple points throughout the project when I doubted that the final result would be this good, but I kept going and was rewarded with this. The things I am most pleased about are the accuracy of the lines compared to a real trumpet, the illusion of shine that I was able to create with the gradient tool, and the 3D illusion of the whole in the bell of the trumpet. The reason I am pleased with these aspects of the drawing the most is because they were the hardest to accomplish, and being able to do so left me fulfilled afterwards. The only thing I think I could have improved was the curvature of the shape, because at certain points the curves are a bit pointed, wobbly, and awkward. I am not too unhappy about them though because this was my first time using the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator.

More info on file formats

Pixel Portrait

GIF

PNG

Here I did a pixel portrait of myself. I uploaded two different file formats of the image, GIF and PNG. Although I've been asked to identify the visual difference between the two file formats, I don't see any difference in colour, value, or line. If there are differences, I cannot see them at all.

For this self-portrait I intentionally made it have noticeable pixels, like in 8-bit gaming. Because the quality of the photo is so low, making a portrait that accurately represented myself was a challenge. To do this, I made sure to accentuate my hair and eyes because they are my most unique features. I made my eyes black in the portrait even though they are actually dark brown in real life. However, unless you are up close to my face, my eyes look black. I also made sure that the shape and colour of my hair matched reality. I made my hair slightly darker than it actually is as well to get the idea across that it is dark. I also did it because most people think my hair is black, so I made it almost black to represent how other people see me. For my colour palette, I tried to limit it to a few colours to keep the cartoon effect of the picture. Although my face actually has small gradient hues and values, I made it one solid colour in the portrait that I felt was the average/overall skin tone. I did the same thing with my hair as well to reduce the amount of colours used.
 For my shirt, I made it a red blouse because I often wear blouses, and my favourite colour is dark red. Although I have only one shirt like this, I think it represents me the best.

To achieve this picture, I took a quick photo of myself using Photobooth on the computer to work off of for a more accurate result. I opened a new file in Photoshop at the size of 100x150 pixels and 72 pixels/inch. I then dragged the image into Photoshop and re-scaled it so it filled the frame.
After that, I created a new layer on top of the photo and drew on that with the pen tool.
During the actual drawing process of the image, the only part I traced off of the background photo was the hair and the eyebrows. Besides that, I drew the image by eye because I found it easier to capture my overall appearance by drawing myself how I see myself instead of tracing the actual photo.

Rene Magritte

Photoshop: merging a subject and background

To create this image I took a picture of a man walking while reading a book and merged it with this background of the universe and symbols. I will explain the process I went through to accomplish this, using Photoshop CS6 on Mac.

1. I first opened each image separately in Photoshop.
2. I dragged and dropped the image of the man onto the background.
3. I unlocked the background layer.
4. I selected the man using quick select.
5. I clicked "Refine Edge" under the "Select" window.
6. I selected the option to merge both layers.
7. I created a brightness/contrast layer and lightened the subject.
8. I'm finished!

The Lonely Push-Pin

Here is the animation that Alex, Yu Qin, and I created. The theme for this is one of the aspects of community; relationships. The video is a simple demonstration of how good relationships and bring people together to create a healthy community.

4 Principles of Animation

Squash and Stretch

Squash and stretch is a technique in animation used to give an object weight and/or movement. A person moving there whole head and even body around as they talk would be an example of squash and stretch. Basically, squash and stretch is the exaggeration of movement in animation.

Anticipation

Anticipation is a visual preparation for the audience to know what is going to happen next. In an animation of a frog leaping, instead of it suddenly flying through the air and landing, there would be a moment where it readies itself as it coils like a spring before making its leap. That would be an example of anticipation. So, instead of a movement occurring without warning, there would be a smaller movement before that, letting you know what is going to happen.


Staging

Staging is the compilation of camera angles, background, lighting, and poses to create the mood of the story and convey the message. It influences how you feel while you watch, and what you think the story will be about. In staging it is important that it should not be too complex, as it will distract the audience from the story. The key to successful staging is cohesiveness with the set and the animation.


Straight-ahead and pose-to-pose animation
Straight-ahead animation is an animation technique done by making drawing-after-drawing of an movement from beginning to end. It is sloppy though because in each image proportions, position, and size are changed more drastically. It is however preferred for wild action scenes.
   A cleaner way of doing an animation is pose-to-pose animation. Instead of drawing each image until the animation is over, several key poses throughout the animation are drawn, and then the space between each pose is filled in with slightly altered images.

How To: Stop-motion Animation

In this tutorial a different approach to shooting stop-motion animation is used. Instead of using a camera to take a picture for every frame the speaker used a camcorder and took a video of the subject. He would slightly modify the subject and remove himself from the frame so only the subject was there, wait a few seconds, and then repeat the process. Afterwards he took a snapshot of all the brief moments in the video when the subject was isolated and slightly modified and then compile them all together in an animation.

   He also gave a basic introduction to clay and Lego animation. For clay animation he created a wire frame to build a clay figure off of, giving it more stability so it wouldn't fall over or apart altogether. He also showed a trick on how to make the clay look as if it is flying by sticking it to a wall and then slightly moving it, so in the final animation it looks like it is moving by itself.

   He also explained the basics of Lego animation, a simple process done by moving the figures' heads, arms, and legs slowly for each screenshot.

   The speaker even used another person's animations as examples of stop-motion animation and useful techniques to create certain effects, such as using white fluff to create the effect of splashing water.

I think the tutorial is useful, especially for beginners because it gives a simple introduction to stop-motion animation and how to do it. It provides multiple animation styles, examples of stop-motion animation, and even introduces a new filming technique, so overall it is a very informational video.

Zoetrope Optical Illusion Toy

I like how the layout of the site is simple and has only the optical illusion toys as part of it besides the title and description of the site. This way it is easier to find what I am looking for. It's also nice how there are no advertisements, links, etc. at the side of the page to distract me from what I am looking for. My only suggestions would be to include the title of the device and maybe a brief description next to the picture, and to update the links the author posted because they are no longer working.

The Zoetrope is an old illusionary toy invented in 1834 by William Horner. He originally named it the Daedalum, which meant "wheel of the devil," until the name was changed to Zoetrope by William F. Lincoln who patented it in 1867, meaning "wheel of life."
      The Zoetrope uses the persistence of motion principle to create the illusion of motion. It is a drum with an open top that sits on a central axel, which is what makes it spin around. Hand-drawn images on strips of paper are placed on the inside of the drum walls sequentially so when it spins a simple animation is created. Slits are cut in equal distance apart around the drum so the image can be viewed from anywhere around the device, meaning multiple people can observe it simultaneously. To make the device work you would need to spin a wheel with a handle attached to the Zoetrope, making the drum spin around. The faster it spun, the clearer the image appeared. (At the bottom of the post there is a link leading to a video demonstrating how the device is used)

      I find this toy interesting because unlike the phenakistoscope, multiple people could view the animation at once instead of only one. I also find it interesting how the toy became forgotten for nearly thirty years until it was re-discovered and patented by British M. Bradley and American William F. Lincoln. I understand that it probably was forgotten because it became obsolete, but the fact that it became popular again nearly three decades later I didn't expect. The thing I find most intriguing is how Horner was able to come up with the idea of creating this. Obviously it must have taken quite a bit of time to think up the idea and develop it.

      This device is significant because it was one of the final steps towards modern cinema, the praxinoscope coming after along with flexible photographic film, and finally modern cinema in 1895. Although cinema is different from the Zoetrope they both run off the same concept of a wheel with multiple static images spinning rapidly to to create the illusion of movement. This was a small but important invention in the history of animation because of its technological advance after its predecessors.

Fresh Guacomole by PES

A very creative stop-motion animation with a funny concept to it.

Stop-Motion Animation

I enjoyed watching DOT because of how creative it was. After watching how it was made I realized stop-motion is much more tedious and complicated than I imagined. The process of creating DOT was especially challenging for the creators because it was the world's smallest stop-motion film.
         They used a simple camera phone with an attachable microscope to film the 9mm protagonist because a regular camera would not be able to zoom enough to capture the film. Instead of using a camera specifically designed for microscopic filming the creators used a camera phone because of its ease of use, ability to share media, and cheapness.
         They also set the camera in place on a stand facing down facing the set which moved for the animation. This made the camerawork accurate so the placement of the set or character wouldn't be jumping around in every frame, and also easy to pick up from where they left off the next day.
         To create the main character they made many gel moulds of her in different poses, painted them, and attached a rod to her so they could move her. They created several models because they were so small that they were impossible to manipulate into different poses. You can see all of the different models being used in the animation as she runs. For example, each time she took a step forward a different model was used in each frame that was slightly different from the other to make her running more fluid. In the original pictures you could see the rod that was attached to her head for manoeuvring purposes, but was easily edited out with computer software.
         DOT was an interesting stop-motion film with an even more intriguing creative process. I enjoyed  watching both how it was made and the actual production itself.

Steady and Dynamic rhythm task

STEADY rhythm task:

For the task in which I was supposed to create rhythm with lines varying only in thickness and distance I made sure to keep it repetitive by making each line the same length, shade, and direction. Through the repetition of these elements I created  a sense of rhythm, meaning there is a pattern the viewer will pick up on and perhaps feel a sense of unity. Because of how simple and repetitive this image is it is easy to tell that the purpose of it is rhythm. This image can be related to a barcode that you see on most products, This could even be a way of communicating rhythm as well because it is the repetition of seeing the image in the viewer's  mind that automatically makes them familiar and seeing a pattern already. In not the pattern itself do they see rhythm, but seeing it again is what creates that effect without them even realizing it. Overall this simple image can still have a somewhat strong impact on a person because of its balance in repeatedness  and abstract touches, as well as their personal connections to it.

DYNAMIC rhythm task:

For this task I was more liberal with what direction, shapes, length, and thickness I used to create the sense of rhythm. I used three of the exact same swirly lines but added a slight tweak by flipping the two on the outside vertically. I included the horizontal lines sectioning off each swirl design for several purposes as well. I placed them so they are all the same length, thickness, direction, and distance apart to create rhythm. They way they are placed also creates a bit of a grid design, giving the viewer the sense of order and unity. These lines fill in the outer space enough to satisfy the viewer's eyes but not attract them too it. This higher concentration of colour unconsciously attracts the viewer's eyes towards the middle where the swirly designs are.

Logo Assignment

Astute Outfitters 

For my logo I used a cat to represent my company and myself. The cat represents intelligence, quickness, order, and reserve; all good traits of a person in the workforce or cyberarts program and their company. I made sure to capture the essence of a cat with it being in the classic curious position of it sitting and intensely eyeing the viewer to convey those traits I mentioned earlier. I made the image so it wasn't too complicated in design but not too simple so the image would be aesthetically pleasing, making it a satisfying image to look at.
For the elements and principles I used the most typical colours/shades to make the logo as recognizable as a cat as I could. Usually when people imagine a cat they see it as black, which also is a good portrayer of intelligence and quickness. I used white for the whiskers, tuxedo triangle on the chest, and body features to prevent too much confusion of colours. I also used pink for the inside of the ears and the nose because those are the most typical colours you will see on those parts of a cat.
I concentrated the most features of the cat on the face to emphasize it and draw your eyes towards it, making you look the cat straight in the eyes and feeling respect towards it because of its fearlessness and grace. I made the edges of the insides of the ears, nose, eyes, tuxedo triangle, and body outline all rounded not only to make the image more realistic but also less intimidating. This is because subconsciously sharp lines have a more intimidating effect on your eyes.
I also made the image as clean as possible, meaning there are no out of place lines, random markings or poor use of symmetry. This helps convey the trait of a cat being orderly and clean.
To create this picture I took a good image of a cat that had a distinctive shape that could be recognized as the animal it is. I then traced the shape of the figure with the pen tool so I had the base layer I could place the other shapes on. Next I did the eyes, the second most important feature in the logo. I created an ellipse shape, filled it with yellow, copied and pasted it, and placed it symmetrically next to the other. This created a pair of eyes both perfectly the same and in line. I added the pupils to fill in the eyes and make them less open and intimidating. The next layer is the nose, mouth and whiskers. I created an ellipse shape and used the mesh tool to form it into the shape of a cat's nose and used that to work off of to create the rest of the features. I created a line segment and then used multiple copies of the same one and placed them symmetrically around the nose to create the whiskers. After that I used the arc tool to create a simple design of the mouth, completing the facial features. The next layer is the tuxedo triangle. For that I made another ellipse shape and used the mesh tool again to make the shape more organic like on a real cat. The final layer is the lines defining the arms, paws, and tail. This adds balance to the logo so there isn't an empty space at the bottom of it. I made sure not to get too detailed so if the picture is minimized the features won't completely disappear.
Overall I am satisfied with my logo, although I see some small things I could have improved. For example I could have made the outline of the cat less awkward and chunky so it was smoother and more graceful like a cat. Otherwise I am happy with this piece and don't want to change it otherwise.