Digital Photography and Imaging : Final Project SELF-TITLED
18/10/2021 - 22/11/2021 (Week 9 - Week 14)
Seojeong Kim / 0350085
Digital Photography And Imaging
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor’s University
Final Project: SELF-TITLED
LECTURE
Exercise Link Below:
INSTRUCTIONS
After Effects Animation Exercise
1. Download the composition
2. Import the W9_ANIMATE.psd into Adobe After Effects.
3. Create a composition setting 1080 px (Width) x 1920 px (Height), Duration 15 second
4. Create a keyframe animation to the layers using Position (P), Scale (S) & Masking path.
5. Render output: Quicktime (H.264)
6. Upload your exercise into your Youtube Channel.
7. Update your progress and video to your E-Portfolio blog.
8. Attach your E-Portfolio link on this Submission.
Final Project: Self-Titled
1. Idea Development
- Write a biography about yourself
- Write a statement about your work
2. Design Direction
- Create a sketch for your work.
- Create a digital poster for your work.
3. Execution and Post Production
- Import your Final Poster to After Effects
- Develop the composition techniques using Digital Photography & Graphic Design.
3. Animation & Finishing
- Animate your composition in After Effects.
- Attach your video progress.
For our final project, I was tasked with creating a realistic own poster using our own photos. After you create the poster, you need to animate it using Adobe After Effects. In addition to After Effects, you can add video effects using Adobe Premiere Pro. At the end, you should use music to put it into your video. Posters and videos must be 1080px x 1920px (width x height) and video must be 15 seconds long.
Process And Research
Idea Development:
Biography and statement about my work
Inspiration Researches
- Below are my Researches for my work. I like movies, games, I like various old games and pixel art. And I wish to go to an arcade game room in the 1980s. The arcade game room is an element often used in various works such as movies, posters, and games. I want to make my poster based on this.
- I looked up various pictures related to the arcade. I think this will help a lot for the poses of my photographer that I will take later. And the feelings in this background were also what I imagined.
- And I looked for various retro-style posters. This helped me a lot in finding inspiration for mood, typography, color, etc. to use. Sparkling techniques, techniques that may look a little old-fashioned but have a sophisticated feel, these were enough to make my heart beat.
Design Process
Photographs:
- I had to take a picture of myself first to give the arcade a retro feel, so I wore my clothes in the most fashionable style in the 80s and 90s, bought the glasses that were used a lot at that time, and took pictures wearing these glasses. Also, after searching for my makeup in the 80s and 90s, I put on makeup and styled my hair accordingly.
Photographs PDF file:
- I took pictures of as many poses as possible to use various pictures for my poster. This was a very interesting task, and it was very enjoyable to take photos from my own ideas. And I really liked the photos from here.
- The photos above were the last three positions I picked. I will use the pen tool to erase the background and only use the visible subjects. Since I will be working on this using Photoshop pen tools to only show subjects, the position was very important.
Digital Design:
- I collected the photos I selected and erased the background using the pen tool. Precise work was required. This is a very time-consuming task, but it can complete more sophisticated and detailed work.
- Next, I decided to create a background. I wanted to make a background using an arcade game machine, and I wanted to make an arcade machine based on various works. I could have brought a reference and used it, but not all of it was to my liking.
- First, I knew how to use the neon tools in Photoshop. I used this to make typography of neon signs, and made arcade machines using various lines and drawings.
- This is the background of the completed arcade machine. I wanted to put a poster I made on the screen of this machine. But when I got feedback in class, there was one thing I didn't overlook. It's just 'size'. If I made a poster inside an arcade machine, it would be very small, and it wouldn't express much of my skills. So I decided to remove the background right away. It seemed that my efforts were disappearing, but I realized that it takes determination to make a better work.
- First, I decided to make a background for the poster. I created an old town-like city background and a neon-like sun in the background. I made this by matching the colors to make it orange and pink.
- Then, based on the reference given by the teacher, I added filters to each of the already cropped photos to be included, and adjusted the saturation and color to add effects to my photos.
- And I laid out the subjects to fit the composition of my poster. The largest picture is on the left, and the medium size picture is on the right.
- And I brought this to express the toy gun, cut it using the pen tool, and inserted it into my photo. And I erased the parts with hands to make it more natural. I also used effects in the same way as my photos. This was a very time consuming task, but it was just as interesting. My work has become more and more realistic.
- And the picture of me with my arms outstretched, I wanted to express it as if a bullet was being fired, so I made it the smallest and adjusted the position accordingly. It's like a bullet (Me) being fired from a toy gun I'm holding.
- I had to choose a typography to put on my poster. So I looked for various retro-style fonts and saw 'ArcaderFS', and I fell in love with this font at first sight. I worked with neon fonts to bring out the retro poster feel, and used a simple and basic font to write details on top.
- Finally, I made my ending scene for my animation. I used the same background as my poster, and the same font was used to put the phrase 'Game Over', and I made this using neon like the poster's typography.
First Final Poster:
- I made my final poster. And I got feedback about this in my module class, and first of all, he said that the contrast was very lacking. And he gave me a reference on how to insert a filter as a whole to bring out my retro feel. And overall, my typography felt too rigid.
- So, although I had little time left, I decided to put all my passion and time into rewriting the final finals based on feedback.
Final Poster Outcome:
- Based on the feedback, I added the shadows around me and the shadows of my subject, and tweaked this to make better use of the typography. And after it looked too complicated, I adjusted the background layer and replaced it with a new one. My final work that came out in that way was surprisingly pleasing to me. I think this is going to be a piece I really love.
Final Poster Outcome In PDF Files:
Animation
- When I first started using After Effects, I had a lot of trouble, but after practicing and trying, I realized that this was a really interesting exercise. As I started using After Effects, when the images became more and more alive, it really inspired me a lot.
- I had to put a lot of effort and time into this. Although it is a short 15-second video, I learned how much effort, time, and skill are required for that video.
- First of all, I created an animation of the feeling that appears by typing typography to give it a Retro game feel. And in the title font, a blinking effect was added to this to make the title of the game blink.
- In the background, the retro sun is slowly rising. as the sun rises. Also my subject flickered a little bit, making it look like a glitch effect. Like an old TV. I wanted to express that the screen of an arcade game machine often glitches.
- Then, in order to give the feeling that the screen is gradually shifting to another screen, a background was created and the effect was added.
- Lastly, I wanted to make the 'Game Over' scene blink continuously in the ending scene, and the question mark and the words Yes and No also blink continuously. It's like the usual 'Do you want to continue?' at the end of a game. The phrase is always created, and I wanted to express it.
Sound Music
- I wanted to edit the music to fit my animation. So I selected three pieces of music and edited them with an editing tool.
Music Reference Link:
- First, I cut the first, middle, and last of these three songs to fit my 16 second animation. Then, to make the music more natural, the sound of the part where the music was interrupted and continued sound was turned down so that it went on naturally.
- After linking the last cut songs, the music that starts, the glitch sound that comes out when the screen is changed, and finally the ending music that matches the ending is inserted.
Music With PDF File Below:
Final Animated Poster:
Final Animated Poster AVI:
Final Animated Poster MOV:
Final Animated Poster On YouTube:
TITLE:
Shooting Lova
ARTIST STATEMENT:
This work was created to express things like, if I am a person in the 80s and 90s, if I am a character in an arcade game.
When I made this video, I really wanted to give the feeling of playing in a game room. So, I wanted to give the arcade game's unique sparkly and neon sign feel. And my theme colors are neon pink and fluorescent orange, which usually represent the colors of arcades. I made my video based on this color.
My character in this video is gradually expressed as a glitch and then the scene skips, which I wanted to express that game over is approaching. It flickers and then goes on after the screen cuts off, and this is what makes a screen where retro-feeling games are game over.
Then, I found the right music for this video and edited it by myself. There are three pieces of music in this video: the opening music, the stuttering sound, and the ending music.
FEEDBACK
Week 11:
I went to the university campus to do my photography. There I met Mr. Martin for the first time, and his actual classes were much more interesting and enjoyable than the online lectures. He taught me various photography techniques, and based on that, I took pictures for my poster. He looked at my theme and said that it was good, and that even my outfit went well with it. And when I was taking pictures, he complimented me on how natural I was and how well I posed.
Week 12:
I went back to school to listen to my class modules. Actually, I really enjoyed the class, so I wanted to visit the classroom again. This class also gave a lecture to learn the technique of the camera and to hear an explanation about our poster. This was a really enjoyable process. And Mr. Martin looked at my sketch and said it was a very good idea.
Week 13:
I showed him my digital poster, and he said it was too complicated. To animate this, my photo had to look large, but my poster was too small and other subjects took up too much space. I accepted this and decided to boldly throw away the background I was working on.
Week 14:
I showed Mr. Martin the final poster, and he said it was a very good idea and was actually cool. However, I said that my poster lacked the filter and contrast, and after adjusting this, I would like to make the colors a little more vivid. Then he said that it would be good to start animation. After hearing this story, I immediately made corrections and made the rest of the animation.
REFLECTION
When I started this project, my heart was beating really fast. Because the theme is 'SELF-TITLED', I thought that this project would flow like water if I use something that can express myself. However, in practice, it was not as easy as expected. It was a very difficult task to come up with an idea and create something out of nothing. Besides, when setting up the plan, I also had to think about the animation at the end. So I thought about myself again and looked for various articles such as movies, posters, and videos to get various inspirations. This has been very helpful to me.
This project required more sophisticated details than any other work I've done so far, and it took a lot of time. It was enough to learn and feel a lot. Not a single thing has gone through my hands. Therefore, it was a more satisfying and enjoyable project.
From making a plan to the final finished work, I felt like I was becoming a true artist. I was able to remind myself once again of how much effort and devotion people put in to complete a single piece of work. From posters to animations, this project, where I could learn many things, it was probably my favorite project I learned this season.
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