Student of the Month Poster
A quick assignment I was given for graphics IV was to make a simple student of the month poster for the technology and engineering department. I had one class to make this so I kept it really simple. I used photoshop to crop her picture and fix the coloring. I then used publisher to type out the "about me" section and used word art for her name. I added a yellow box in the background for a pop of color. I printed this out and hung it up in the case outside of the main office for everyone to see.
New Stop Motion Program
My next assignment in Graphics IV was to pick a new stop motion animation program for next years students to use. In the new school, the students will be using macs, so we needed a stop motion program that works with a mac, rather than having to use bootcamp to switch to windows and use stop motion pro 7. I looked up different stop motion programs and downloaded free trials to make sure that they had all of the tools necessary to make a good stop motion video. The best program I found was istopmotion by BOINX. The program allows you to use onion skin and time lapse. You can use the microsoft lifecam, or the built in front camera. You can add different tints, edit frame by frame, add different foregrounds and backgrounds, rotoscope/lip sync, soundtracks, reverse frames, cut paste, and delete frames, and loop frames. The best part about this program is that you can send the frames directly to imovie for editing. Istopmotion by BOINX has everything that stop motion 7 had and much more. It is the perfect program for graphics students to use for next year.
Psych Logo Project
My next mini project in graphics was to make a logo for my AP psychology porject. We had to make an advertisement for a pre-workout mix that enhances performance in sports. I started with a picture of a gatorade bottle which I put into Adobe Illustrator. I changed the color of the drink to blue using the color replacement tool and took off the logo of the bottle using the blend, smudge, and clone stamp tool. I then made the logo for it the letters SS on a lightning bolt because the name of the product is special stuff. Next, I took the edited gatorade bottle and put in in a picture of a football player jumping to catch a football, replacing the football to make it appear as though he is jumping to get our product (its just that good). I think this image came out really good and added a lot to our poster. We also received a 95 on the project so I think Mr. MacDonald enjoyed it.
Country Fest T shirt Contest
My next project for graphics IV was to make a t shirt design to enter the country fest t shirt contest to win tickets to Country Fest held in Cadott, WI. I love country music and graphic design so I figured it would be a great project for me. To make this t shirt design I used Adobe Illustrator to make the base of it look like the Jack Daniels whiskey label because what is more country than Jack Daniels? That's right, nothing. I then took images of a guitar and remade them using Adobe Illustrator making them more simplistic and recolored them black and white. Last I added Country Fest as the title on the front and the set list of who is playing throughout the 4 day concert on the back. I hope this t shirt will help me win some tickets and give me a chance to take a road trip to WI. I'm really happy with how it came out.
Wine Tasting Poster
For the next project we did another wine tasting poster for the Holy Name School in collaboration with Ms. Nassif. To make this poster I took a picture of corks, put it in the background, and lowered the opacity. I then found a picture of a wine bottle and got rid of the actual company label for copyright reasons using the paint brush, blur, and clone stamp tools. I then took a drawing of grapes and altered it a little bit to make it fit on the bottle better. I used the transform tool to rotate it and used the magic eraser tool to create a transparent background and place it on the bottle. Next, I took a separate picture of a wine glass and cropped and transformed it so that it would fit on the poster. I then put the wine glass on a separate layer and arranged it so that it was behind the wine bottle. I had to use the smudge and clone stamp tool to elongate the wine pouring from the bottle and the stem of the glass. Last, I added text and arranged it so that it drew in the eye and made the viewer focus on the important features
Prom PSA
Our current project in graphics is to make a prom public service announcement to encourage kids not to drink or do drugs and drive on prom night. Mackenzie Johnson and I are currently in the process of making a stop motion animation video to show at the prom assembly held every year at our school.