Media Arts Yr 9 - Photoshop – Term 01 2014
Avatar Reflection/Evaluation:
Respond
to each of the following dot points (using complete sentences or paragraphs).
You should include as much detail as possible in your responses.
·
Describe
any problems or difficulties you encountered during the creation and editing of
your avatar. (These may include; technical difficulties, corrupt or missing
files, difficulty with Photoshop tools etc;)
During the construction of my avatar, I
had various issues that arised, most of them regarding the change of my idea.
For example, at the start, I had the idea to base my avatar on an iceberg but
as I worked, I realized that the iceberg wouldn’t really match with my avatar
so I changed to the frozen person idea. I wanted the ice to look like it was
melting so I had to put flames at the bottom of the picture because one flame
picture wasn’t wide enough to cover the whole background so I had to use two.
This then created a problem as the two pictures were on different layers so it
was hard for me to position them rightly. I asked Mr Powell for help and he
helped me by ‘merging’. Then, after I finished the original background, the
colours didn’t seem right and additionally, I realized that the picture was
supposed to be portrait instead of landscape.
As a result, I discarded my progress
and started again. When I was trying to find a new background for my new
avatar, the picture was watermarked with the company’s name and a tab at the
bottom. To access the original picture, you had to register and pay so I
downloaded the image and went into photoshop, thinking that I could either
‘clone stamp’ or ‘mask’ out the watermark and tab. It was then that I
discovered one of the amazing features of photoshop, I could click on the
watermark, press ‘delete’ and the watermark would disappear! I’m not sure what
the feature is but it helped me tons.
Furthermore, after I put the picture of
myself on the snow background, it didn’t fit in because the picture I took was
too much of a close up thus it didn’t look real. To solve this, I took another
photo and afterwards, I searched for a tutorial on how to create a ‘frozen’
effect on the internet. I followed the steps and when it asked to use the
‘frost brush’ I didn’t have it as a ‘preset brush’ so I downloaded it onto my
computer and used it for the first layer of ice on myself.
Did you undertake any additional
Photoshop tutorials to help with your project? If so what new skills/techniques
did you learn ;
·
Explain how
your planning (personality profile, ideas and reflections) helped to create the avatar in Photoshop;
·
Clarify
any time-management issues you encountered during the process and describe the
steps you implemented to improve in this area (Did you have your images ready
before class? Did you have your USB each lesson? Did you work on the avatar
outside of class time?);
·
Discuss whether
you undertook sufficient reflection to throughout your project. Have you provided
enough evidence to support your work? (Look at your blog. Does it reflect a term
of work);
·
List any
skills, techniques or tricks you have discovered during the project.
Yes, I used this tutorial http://psd.fanextra.com/tutorials/photo-effects/photo-manipulate-a-surreal-underground-scene-with-a-sleeping-frozen-beauty/
and the brush download link to
assist with my avatar. It taught me the feature ‘curves’ and how it can be used
to darken a particular object. For example, after you darken a picture, you can
get a normal brush and change the ‘opacity’ and ‘flow’ to aroundd 20-30% to
make particular areas lighter.
I think time-management was a pretty
big issue in the construction process of my avatar because I changed my idea
quite a few times and had to work out of class time to finish my project in
time. I feel like the last few weeks of my assignment was pretty rushed as I
felt pressured since I couldn’t find the ‘perfect’ idea/’way’ to approach my
avatar. During the weeks, I haven’t forgotten my USB in any lesson apart from
the one on Wednesday where we had to hand in our assignment. As a result, I had
to hand my avatar in the next day.
Discuss
your feelings about the Avatar task:
·
Are you satisfied
with the final result?
·
Does the
completed Avatar look like you imagined?
·
Would
like to change any aspects of your avatar?
·
If you
could start the project again what would you do differently?
·
Are you
pleased with the progress you have made in using Photoshop?
Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with my
final avatar as it looks pretty realistic in my opinion. If given the chance to
redo this whole assignment, I definitely would plan and think it through more
at the beginning because I feel like I dived into making the background straightaway
without nutting out every detail. This then cause the change of ideas, which
then lead to lack of time and many other problems. In my second idea, I said
that the ice was going to melt and therefore reveal my true self. I didn’t
follow through with this part because when I looked at my final avatar, I
didn’t see how the ‘melting’ part would fit in and also because I really liked
it the way it is. It looks like what I initially imagined and the colour of my
school dress matches the background well.
How it Reflects Me:
My avatar reflects me because it symbolises the fact that as I get older, my childhood self doesn't disappear, instead, it's frozen inside me. Meaning that, when I'm with someone whom I love very much (warm) the ice will melt and reveal my childish side. Additionally, it also represents the 'reserved' side of which most people won't see unless they 'break the ice'. This avatar means much more, but ^^ those are the two main reasons that have evolved from my previous ideas (the rest of my ideas are scattered throughout my blog)
Bye for now :D Happy holidays!
