Short Film

Benched

Project:

The past three weeks a group of my friends and I have been working on a short film. We were given a prompt that we had to base our film off of. We had to include: the quote, verbally spoken, "lights out", a bottle of water, an obvious/intentional source of light, and a hat.

Process: 

We started out brainstorming ideas together. In a group we would through out ideas and then see if we could incorporate the needed criteria. After many other thoughts we decided to have our plot be about softball players. All of us came up with the different ways to incorporate the needed elements. The next step was writing the script. To make sure everyone got their say, we huddled around a computer and wrote the script together. Next, we storyboarded together and created a shot list of what we wanted certain shots to look like. The next week and a half was spent filming. We all came back and spent the rest of the time editing our own videos. 

What I Learned:

I learned a lot with this film. In one specific instance I got help from an expert with Final Cut Pro. For one of my flashbacks I wanted to have everything else black and white and keep the hat red. I had no idea how to go about creating this effect, so I asked my teacher. She was able to help me reach my desired effect. I now know a lot more about Final Cut Pro. When I had problems with my audio, I looked around and found how to increase the levels even more, so it could be clearly heard. With this film I also continued to practice my editing skills

I got my music here.

Complications:

Since most of our film was outside we had to deal with the weather change and the wind. The wind was by far the worst part. All of our audio was completely covered by the loud, howling wind. Next time I would check the audio constantly and learn how to add in voice overs if the audio is bad. We did try to fix some lines, but it just sounded really weird and it didn't fit well. 

 Favorite Part:

I really enjoyed working with my friends and creating this film. When we all worked together and brainstormed, we got some great ideas. I just enjoy creating short films, so this whole process was enjoyable to me.

Carton

Process:

To come up with an idea for my product I just started to think about things that I wished were real. I then came up with the idea to have a supplement to change your eye color.

Things Learned:

This assignment was to create a product and design a carton layout along with all the graphics to go on the carton. In addition I learned much about color chips and global colors. To extend our knowledge on this we also created a 3D view of the box and a bottle.

Favorite Part: 

To me, the best part of this project was creating the graphics and the product. I have learned a lot of new skills in Illustrator and I know how to create a layout for a carton.

Complications:

Since this was my first time creating a carton I had trouble creating a die line and a bleed. Another problem was creating each panel. I had many ideas, but there was only a small about space to work with. The last major complication was creating a 3D revolve. 

Final

MINI PENGUIN:

Project:

      This assignment is our final. We were to take what we learned from the last project and use it to create a new carton and a new product. The new carton had to have a second life, or second use. Our product was a little penguin toy. Our box's second life was to unfold into a snowy landscape to play with the penguin in.

Process:

      After finding a toy that we could use, we then decided what our colors would be. Then we created a type palette. Our group split up and created the different panels of the box. Together we made a 3D revolve to see what the finished product would look like. 

Challenges:

        One of the biggest problems was coming up with an idea for our box. We had several ideas on what the box's second life should be, but they were too complex for us. Another slight problem was working in a group. 

        Overall I learned many valuable skills. I now know how to create a carton and new graphics. 

Mandalas

Brain Break:

Working for long periods of time can cause you to become tired, so it is important to give your mind a break. This brain break does still need to be productive, but also give you a rest from the hard work. In graphic design my brain break was creating mandalas. The options of shapes to create is limitless. Overall, this brain break was productive and sparked my creativity.

eMagine

eMagine is an event designed to showcase work created by student. There are 4 major categories: Graphic Design, Video, Animation, and Web Design. I went and really enjoyed seeing everyones work. 

 

Blogger Makeover

A Better Blog...

Recently in class we took a look at our blogs. We realized that there were several aspects that could be improved, so we started to remake and design our blogs again.

CARP

This is a very essential part of graphic design, so of course I needed to apply it to my blog.

C- This stands for Contrast. In my blog I added contrast by varying fonts, text sizes, and styles. To break up long chunks of text I added headings and subheadings to group things into their needed place.

A- This stands for Alignment. To make things look nice and even, everything needs to be aligned. To improve my blog, I went through and fixed my pictures and text to flow nicely.

R- This stands for Repetition. Repetition is used to establish a pattern and make things look nice and consistent.

P- This stands for Proximity. To use Proximity in my blog, I had to consider the placement of things.

Before And After:

Before I redid my blog, it was ok, but not great. It had a few issues with CARP through it.

Now, after I have remade my blog, it looks so much better. It now displays CARP better than before. I am now more organized, with the Pages and Labels that I added. 

Movie Poster Remake

Man Of Steel

Process:

The movie range we had to select from was from the past 5 years. I had pick a movie and remake a poster for it. We also looked to Saul Bass for an inspiration for our posters.

Things Learned:

I learned how to manipulate text and create outlines for them. I also learned how to create a geometric look on pictures.

Complications:

It took me a long time to decide what movie to create. I originally was going to use the movie Now You See Me, but after many creative tries I just was not liking my results. I then switched to the movie Man of Steel. Then, a friend of mine recommended a tutorial to me and I really liked the way it looked, so I finally had my idea. However, the last obstacle I faced was being gone from class to work on this. 

Favorite Part:

My favorite part of this project was finally finding something that I enjoyed to create. It was fun to try out different ideas and tutorials to find the one I liked the best.

Boundaries:

The creative boundaries set in place for this project helped me to create my poster. The inspiration we used for our posters is Saul Bass. He had a certain style of posters that we used to work off of.

Working with Type

For this project we had to learn about manipulating text. While in Illustrator, we messed with the kerning and tracking. This helped me to create my own custom graphic. This process is a very beneficial thing to know, especially for my Movie Poster Remake which I am currently working on.

Top Ten

Poster of Top Ten Values

Values:

The inspiration for this project was my top ten things that I value in life. I had to decide what I valued in life, however, it could not be ordinary things that people choose, such as: family, religion, friends ect. By choosing my ten things it revealed my values in life. It is important that we learn what our values are so we can see how that drives things in the market.

Type:

A important part of this project was our type pallet. In class we studied about typography and how fonts fit together; we also watched a video that had rules for paring fonts. I chose the Raleway and Guill Sans font for my poster. In order to create contrast, I used Raleway for the headings and Gilll Sans for the rest of the text. I wanted my items to stand out more than than the description, but less than the headings. In order to fulfill that wish, I made the objects a Light Italic Gill Sans and the description text a Regular Gill Sans.

Learned:

This was my first time using InDesign, so was able to learn the program. This was also the first project where I really focused on type and grid layout. After a few days of learning about grids, I created my own. Originally I wanted my layout to be vertical but after trying to recreate it in InDesign I realized it just wasn't going to work, so I had to change it to a horizontal layout. This taught me that you need to be flexible when designing things because you never know what problems could happen, in fact they may just make you realize a better way to design something.

Like/Dislike:

I did enjoy learning how to use InDesign and I feel like it is a fairly easy program to use. I also liked designing my own grid and creating a personal typeface. For me, the most challenging part of this project was deciding what my top ten things would be.