Team 1 Crit 5 Dec 3rd

1) What is the Visual Content of this image?
This is a very retro-looking piece with 2 figures dressed in 1930's style clothing in an empty room. There's a window that doesn't reveal what is outside and a exit that leads to a blank hallway. Maybe it moving day and this was the childrens bedroom? Who knows.. that's haldf the fun.

2) Name 3 Design Elements
TONE: The whole piece seems to be in a similar tonal faded range. Nothing is too dark or too light. very pastel.
COLOR: like the Tones the colors here are muted Earth tones, pale green and light brown - faded.
SIZE: the different sizes of the two figures are important to this piece. In fact, the size of the foreground figure seems somehow "off" from what it ought to be - an interesting effect.

3) What Color Scheme is used?
For one thing the color choice here fits perfectly with the era that the photo is portraying. Pale greean and muted brown along with the off white. Only the girls blue dress stands out, though even that is a muted blue. The colros are used very effectively here.

4) What could be improved?
It's a little too washed out. I think more contrast and lighting might heighten the mood. Also i am still not sure if the boy is really in that picture or not. There is something wrong about the perspective and I'm not sure if that is on purpose or an accident.

5) What wins on this page?
I see the boy first, as he is the largest thing in the picture. Then I see the little girl. What is their relationship? Why are they there? Where are they? It bring up many interesting questions. So it does draw me in.

6) you like this image?
Yes I do like it! anything that has so many unanswered questions is always a good piece. It tells a story - I'm just not sure of all the stories details and i like the mystery.

TEAM 1 Crit 4

What is the Visual Content of this image?
The visual content of this image is positive and negative or black and white image. I believe that it is more positive and negative because the two girls in the image both have different facial expressions. One is frowning and one is smiling. The two girls are the primary contributors to the space. Because the are twins and they are wearing similar dresses, they offer some symetery to the image against the blank background.

Name 3 Design elements that are prevalent
For me the main design elements consist of -
TONE: Lots of high contrast black and white in this photo
SHAPE: The shape of the 2 girls repeat and merges almost like a rorscauch test.
DIRECTION: The direction here is very vertical for the most part and runs down the page to collect on the bottom.

Name 3 Design principals in this image
BALANCE is an obvious one - though its interesting that the ground being off balance give it a sort of creepy feeling.
EMPHASIS: The emphasis is totally on the 2 girls in the foreground. Both exact except for their expressions.
UNITY is evident in the clothing, the merging of the two girls and the centering of the picture.

What type of color scheme is used?
Realtively few shades of gray are used here. But they are used effectively.
There are of course no colors.

What could be improved in this image to make it more visually effective?
As the others have mentioned, perhaps better centering. and a little more white space at the top. I have no problem with the bottom o f the picture though.

What wins on this page, draws you in, catches your eye?
The shape of the 2 girls sort of merged together draws me in. At fisrt look I thought they were siamese twins! Then the different expressions they have. It's amazing how much different the same face can look with just a slight change of the moutn or the eyes.

Project 4 Foil Package

So I've made good progress on project 4 and am now trying to get the art finished up for the foil package that the cards go into. My main task will be learning HOW to account for the foil layer and where it bleeds through or is partially covered by the ink. This will be the tricky part, since i can't really see what it's going to look like. But we'll see how it comes out...

I've also been working on the cards and trying to make progress on them as well. I have close to 20 of them done - so only 46 more to go! Don't know if I'll actually get them all done by the end of class. With luck I'll have more cards, the foil packaging and some of the poster/maps done.

OK that's it for this episode...

Picture 3 Comments

1. What is the Visual Content of the Image?
The FACE at the top. THE ARM at the bottom. The Hand, lending support. The TWIGS growing form his arm and the indistinct blue BACKGROUND behind him.

2. Name 3 design elements...
The crooked LINEs of the twigs. The COLOR of the background and the SHAPE of the face and arm all add to the overall look of the piece. There is almost no depth to the piece as the background is hard to fathom. Is it near or far? Who can tell...

3. Name 3 design principals
I think this has an asymmetrical BALANCE to it, with the face at the top and the arms at the bottom bracketing the central area.

For me, the twigs growing out of the man's arm are the main EMPHASISof the piece. THe face is looking at them and thearm at the bottom stops your gaze like an imaginary horizon.

The UNITY of the color and mood of the various elements really work together here to give this piece a similar "feel" The somber face, the pale blue background and the unearthly "twigs"

4. What color sceme is used?
The colors here are somber. THey inspire thoughts of winter, night time and isolation, very effective.

5. What could be improved in the image
I have to agree with another poster. It would really add to the mood if the glass behind him were a rainy window and we could see more of where he is to get better context of what is happening. Is he in a hospital in the city? The future? or is he at home? Of course half the fun is perhaps not knowing those answers...

6. What wins on this page
I see the face at the top of the image, which is of course where one naturally reads a page. Then the arm and the strange "twigs growing form his arm. Finally the background - where is he? When is he?...

7. Do you like this image?
I like it because it is unnatural and i enjoy art that is unnatural. Although it is not something that I would choose to frame and hang in my dining room to stare at while I eat.

The Making of a Background

In the first cards (shown in earlier posts) I chose a background from a Nasa photos of a galaxy. That was pretty easy as I just looked for the right photo and color adjusted it. For the next background the designers asked me to create a sort of hypnotic swirl. I really couldn't find anything online, so I just made it from scratch. So I here is the process I went through..

No 1: I created a black pointed "spoke" that a replicated and started to arrange on a central point.
No.2: I got the spokes all arranged and started to adjust the color. They wanted something that was comic book like.
No3: I copied one set of spokes and layered it on top, then rotated it. I used colors that were reminiscent of a circus tent.
No 4: I then used the distort tool to "twist" the rays in a circle. I played around with the lighting effects, but found it was easier and quicker in this case to just use the airbrush tool with a really big brush. I then imported it into the card template and added the text and images for the card.

Creation of an icon

So I thought it might be interesting to break down how I come up with the icon designs.
I have to design 66 icons for use in this card game and have been looking at clip art, books and online image searches for ideas. Sometimes the idea for a card is obvious and I just sketch it up, ink it, scan it and start coloring it and adding effects.

Here are two examples where i "found" the idea. Its very obvious these inspired me to create the card image. The moon icon is very close to my finished design in many ways though there are differences in the face, shape, size of the star and the color "blue moon" So my question for the rest of you is, is my version a "steal' or is it 'inspired" by the jewely photo? I'd love to know what you think...

The other image is a little less obvious, but the photo of the 4 hands pointing in different directions obviously inspired me to create the confusion image. I wanted it to be a little more "creepy, so I added the eyes and the tentacles to create a sort of strange 'compass".

Its a real challenge coming up with 66 images, but I am making progress. I have about 10 done so far 9though not all have been approved by the games designers yet. Only 56 more to go...

So What IS Next?

Rachel gave me a great review of my first project and then asked "So what is next?" I figured I'd answer that here. Since I turned in the project, the game designers have finally approved the card layout and design, so this last week I have been actually creating new cards for the deck, using the Zeta Body card (Project 1) as my template. The designers want me to get a bunch of cards made, so that they can print out playtest version of the cards so they can try the game out under real world conditions.

WHAT I NEED TO LEARN...
In terms of tutorials, I'm going to have to find out how to do several things I've never done before;

1) Sticker Die-cut layer: since these are stickers I have create a layer that will tell the printer where to put the sticker cuts. The good news is all the cards will have the same die-cut. My big questions is should I create this layer in Photoshop or place it in InDesign?

2) A fifth color layer. Yes they want to add a florescent ink to the card for the logo and a few words. I think this may be something they will end up NOT doing in the long run, but they are planning for it and I'll have to figure out how to do it.

3) FOIL layering. I'm not completely sure how to even describe this, but some of the cards (the rare ones) will be printed on foil and I'll need to work out how to let that "bleed through" in various places. It was mentioned in class that maybe that could be done with lighting effects in some way - but I have no clue about how that would work - so I have my research to do there.

The Card shown in this post is a design that they rejected as they thought it looked too much like the Riddler's logo (from the Batman comics) Of course that was what I was going for. That's the way it goes sometimes, You have to design for the client and if you can't do that, you should probably be a fine artist rather then a commercial one...

PROJECT 1 - New Version of Card

As I mentioned in the previous post about the Card Project, the game designers and I are still moving forward on trying to pin down a final card design. Once that is done I can really start creating multiple cards for the set. I have some of the icon designs already done, and waiting to put on the final card template.

Meanwhile here's the latest version of the card. You can look at the earlier post to see the difference. The main change is that now the card text is placed flush left below the large icon image. I need to do more research to find out how printers want to have the diecut level should look like to let them know properly where the cuts go. I'm sure I can find a tutorial on that.

I heard recently that they want to add a 5th color as well, so I'll have to figure that trick out as well too.

Critique #1 Golden Arm Poster

I got this critique done weeks ago, but realized I had not actually posted it on my blog. So here is is now.
Critique 2 has been up on my blog for over a week at this, point. So here is finally critique #1.

Q 1) What is the Visual content of this image?
A) The image contains 2 blue, 2 black & 1 purple rectangles and an L shaped black shape with a symbolic arm extending from the bottom. The style is crude, almost tribal and the objects are arranged like bricks or a maze.

Q 2) Name 3 design elements that are prevalent in this image
A) olor: Black, white purple and blue each distinct.
Direction: In their own way, the corners of the rectangles "point" towards the center of the image.
Shape: the black arm and rectangles, and their rough angular edges create a mood and look for the piece.

Q 3) Name 3 design principles
A) Empahsis: the arm is the center and everything else in the piece builds around the arm.
Balance: the 2 bars at the top and the 2 bars at the bottom give the piece a sense of balance
Unity: The colors and tribal style give this piece a sense of unity. If feels like a building or a maze to me, with the hand trapped in the center.

Q 4) What types of color scheme is used?
The colors are stark, clearly defined and yet they share a similar color sceam: dark, sad and somewhat menacing. The color of rain or concrete at night.

Q 5) What could improve this image
I would eliminate the top and bottom bars and make the arm and the title MUCH larger than what are now. I would also make Frank Sinatra's name much larger across the top. It's an easy fix, that would still give the piece the same feeling as the orginal.

Q 6) What wins - what draws you in?
That white square in the center and the arm. My eye is pulled right into that center area.

Q 7) Do you like this image?
I think this is a very poor design for a movie poster. It does not emphasize that Frank Sinatra is the star or really give much hint as to what the movie is about. If someone were to try a do a movie poster in that style today, they would be fired. A fun exersize would be to redesign this poster using the same text, but totally different graphics.

PROJECT PROGRESS CARD PROTOTYPE

OVERVIEW: So over the last few weeks I have been discussing and working with the game designers on exactly what their card will look like. This is a particularly tricky prospect since the card has to do the following: A) it has to look "cool" B) it has to have all the game design aspects in place & C) it has to be as user friendly as possible to allow it to be easy to play. So I have developed a prototype of what a typical card might look like based on the developers input.

IMAGE: I created this multilayered image entirely in photoshop, though I suspect that the final version will have much of the smaller type placed in InDesign after importing the basic cmyk image (minus the type) I got the background of the galaxy from the Nasa Hubble site. The car is from a stock 3D image site I found. (though I changed the color and added the headlights.)

OPINION? At the moment, they seem pretty happy with this, but I have my doubts about the functionality of the small type running around the central image. It may be too hard to read, especially if one is trying to play a fast-paced game. This is really where the design and the function have to be balanced. I'd really like to get some feedback from the rest of the class group and see what suggestions or comments you 4 might have. (Rachel too for that matter)

Crittque #2 Truck in Winter Design Comments

1: Name the Objects in the picture...
A: The truck, the foreground, the wires a tree and the background.

2: Name 3 design elements...
Color: This is starkly red and white with some black.
Size: The truck's size dominates the image Shape: The shape of the truck centered in the picture, almost like the white snow is a picture frame.

3: Name 3 design principles...
Emphasis is the most important one as the truck is the most important object. There is a lot of Balance at work here as well. The truck is balanced on the horizon and the truck is blanaced in the picture as well for the most part. Proportion with the truck background and foreground is well represented.

4: What type of color scheme is used?
I see this as a 2 colors contrasting RED & WHITE. With the winter background and the red truck it brings on thoughts of Christmas without directly showing Christmas. The colors imply it.

5: What could be improved in this image?
I would digitally remove the telephone wires and show a little bit more of the sky above.

6: What wins on this page? What draws you in?
The child in the truck looking out the back window. Partly because the figure is NOT centered and thusly stands out all the more.

7: Do you like this image?
I really do like this image. it works on many levels and is strong from a design and photographic standpoint. Good balance, strong imagery and nice theme.

First Power Icon for card game

I made some forward progress with some of the icons that go on the cards I'm wokring on. And have taken one to competion. I took the daVinci drawing of (Vitruvian Man - Original link here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man ) I used the magic wand tool to select him out of hte background then used the Saturation tool to colorize him blue. I added an atomic symbol in front of him and then put a glow around his figure to make him look like he is crackling with energy. Now I just have to create 65 more icons! Don't worry - I won't make a blog for each one. I'll be concentrating more on what I learned as I went along in making these. In this case, I got to try out using the glow option. Something I hadn't done a lot with in the past. Also getting the text to bend in a circle. I still may tweak this piece a bit more, but only in minor ways at this point.

MY MEGA CARD GAME PROJECT

Thought I would just put this all down so I can remind myself what I'm trying to learn and so the rest of my group have some idea or what the heck I am doing, which is a set of 66 stickers/cards and a printed foli wrapper to go with them..
I have a client that wants me to create a deck of 66 cards and a wrapper for it. I'll be doing all the design, graphics, typesetting and pre-press for the cards. Many aspects of this mega project are going to involve doing things in photshop I have not dealt with before.
Below is a partial list of some of the things i have to figure out how to do...
How to create a layer that will indicate where stickers will cut for peel offs.
How to create a reverse maks that will show where foil will show or not show on an image
How to indicate a mask that can indicate areas of transparentcy for an underlayer of white
How to better use HISTORY for recreating various photoshop effects on very similar files.
How to better convert images into web compatible pages or images
How to best prepare these images for working with InDesign.

New Do Reviews 1-3

Followed all the tasks in Review 1-3. Most of it I knew, though I did pick up a few keyboard commands I didn't know. It also helped remind me of navigating around a mac. I have a PC at home and have used PCs at most of my art jobs - (believe it or not)

Here is the image I worked on of Ma and Pa from exercise 3. I don't know if we needed to post it, but what the heck...

What ARE my goals?

Woo... well it took a bit, but I got the blog up and going. The tough part was the whole MEID password and Maricopa .edu stuff. - yuck! Anyway...

GOALS

I'm pretty good at Photoshop, but there is STILL so much to learn on it! I really want to learn more of the detailed functions like using history to repeat actions, and how to make it work more smoothly with In-Design and Dreamweaver. Can you really make useful webpages with Photoshop that work with Dreamweaver or is that just a rumor? I want to find out. Among other things.

What else can Photoshop do that I don't know about? Plenty. Hopefully I'll pick up a few things along the way.

Above is a sample of some of my photoshop work, (mostly so I can test out posting a photo on the blog) I took a picture of a painting from the 1500's which was covered in varnish cracks and age. I removed the cracks and color adjusted it to attempt to "restore" the image to what it might have looked like when it was orginally painted. (Click on the image to see it in full size)

That's Art Talk for today! See ya in class!