Discussion:
Project #1 Feedback from Maria:
I think Alex did a great job in realizing his goal. His two main creatures really look like they are fighting. I don't know how he got the colors on the the creatures the way he did. I am excited that he said he will show me the technique he used.
I was surprised by how good his creatures looked in their world. Alex obviously spent a lot of time making them. Everything in his environment, including his creatures/beings, fits really well. He said he wanted the world his creatures to live in to seem alien. I think it does look alien and a bit like the world in the movie Avatar. He was able to match the lighting and colors of the world to all the creatures, which really made the piece cohesive bringing all the different elements together.
Overall Alex's composition is quite strong. My only suggestion would be to have more space on the left side of the canvas. The topmost creature is really close to the left edge and I think it would look better if there was more space around it. Alex could also blur the smaller creatures in the background to make them look farther away.
I think Alex did a great job in realizing his goal. His two main creatures really look like they are fighting. I don't know how he got the colors on the the creatures the way he did. I am excited that he said he will show me the technique he used.
I was surprised by how good his creatures looked in their world. Alex obviously spent a lot of time making them. Everything in his environment, including his creatures/beings, fits really well. He said he wanted the world his creatures to live in to seem alien. I think it does look alien and a bit like the world in the movie Avatar. He was able to match the lighting and colors of the world to all the creatures, which really made the piece cohesive bringing all the different elements together.
Overall Alex's composition is quite strong. My only suggestion would be to have more space on the left side of the canvas. The topmost creature is really close to the left edge and I think it would look better if there was more space around it. Alex could also blur the smaller creatures in the background to make them look farther away.
Reflection:
Reflection Questions:
How successful were you in achieving your project goal? (If you were successful, what went well?) (If you felt that you
were not as successful as you had hoped, what did not work
well?)
I feel that I was very successful in achieving my project goal. I was actually really surprised by how well everything ended up fitting together. I spent a lot of time getting the different pieces of the project to work together and was initially really frustrated when the imagery I selected didn't seem to work well. The professor recommended that I search for different imagery that better fit what I already had. It took a while but I was able to find pictures that did work.
One element that did not work as I had intended was that I wanted to only use bat wings for my creatures. I ended up using some creative liberties and put in hawk wings for one of my creatures as I just could not find or manipulate the bat wings I had found to fit the fire-breathing frog. I also really struggled with making selections in Photoshop. The professor showed me how to take better advantage of the polygonal lass selection tool which made selecting the edges of and getting clean borders much easier. Photoshop was initially really frustrating as I was a bit overwhelmed. I found that I did really well in class, but when I went home I forgot some of the steps and couldn't get the tools to work right. I decided to take start taking notes for the tools I knew I wanted to use. This helped me remember how a tool worked when I went home and didn't have the professor's example or help.
What techniques and strategies worked best when completing a project? Did you find that you are someone who learns best from taking notes, repetition, or through reflection?
This project was a bit harder than I thought and I found that I needed to ask for help. I usually try to solve everything on my own, but I was just getting frustrated with Photoshop. The professor worked with me and asked me to write some key phrases down in my notebook and asked that I relate specific tools to the phrases. The selection tool in Photoshop proved quite difficult as well as just using the Photoshop interface. I learned some really helpful techniques in class demos, but I also found some helpful YouTube videos that I watched at home that refreshed what we did in class. Along with my notes, the YouTube videos helped me to remember what I had learned and practiced in class.
I found that I am someone who definitely learns by doing. I thought I would remember how to use a tool after just using it once or twice, but that was not the case at all. The professor kept saying that we would need to practice and I hoped I would just be able to pick up the program without much effort. That ended up not being the case. I started taking notes on the tools I knew I would use like the move tool, for image manipulation, the polygonal lasso tool for separating my imagery and cleaning up edges, and information on how to work with layers. I feel like repetition along with taking specific notes really helped me get the project done and understand Photoshop. This is the first time I am reflecting on anything I have done before. Reflecting has made me realize what worked for me, so that is really helpful. I plan to use some of the same strategies I used for this project for our next project.
How successful were you in achieving your project goal? (If you were successful, what went well?) (If you felt that you
were not as successful as you had hoped, what did not work
well?)
I feel that I was very successful in achieving my project goal. I was actually really surprised by how well everything ended up fitting together. I spent a lot of time getting the different pieces of the project to work together and was initially really frustrated when the imagery I selected didn't seem to work well. The professor recommended that I search for different imagery that better fit what I already had. It took a while but I was able to find pictures that did work.
One element that did not work as I had intended was that I wanted to only use bat wings for my creatures. I ended up using some creative liberties and put in hawk wings for one of my creatures as I just could not find or manipulate the bat wings I had found to fit the fire-breathing frog. I also really struggled with making selections in Photoshop. The professor showed me how to take better advantage of the polygonal lass selection tool which made selecting the edges of and getting clean borders much easier. Photoshop was initially really frustrating as I was a bit overwhelmed. I found that I did really well in class, but when I went home I forgot some of the steps and couldn't get the tools to work right. I decided to take start taking notes for the tools I knew I wanted to use. This helped me remember how a tool worked when I went home and didn't have the professor's example or help.
What techniques and strategies worked best when completing a project? Did you find that you are someone who learns best from taking notes, repetition, or through reflection?
This project was a bit harder than I thought and I found that I needed to ask for help. I usually try to solve everything on my own, but I was just getting frustrated with Photoshop. The professor worked with me and asked me to write some key phrases down in my notebook and asked that I relate specific tools to the phrases. The selection tool in Photoshop proved quite difficult as well as just using the Photoshop interface. I learned some really helpful techniques in class demos, but I also found some helpful YouTube videos that I watched at home that refreshed what we did in class. Along with my notes, the YouTube videos helped me to remember what I had learned and practiced in class.
I found that I am someone who definitely learns by doing. I thought I would remember how to use a tool after just using it once or twice, but that was not the case at all. The professor kept saying that we would need to practice and I hoped I would just be able to pick up the program without much effort. That ended up not being the case. I started taking notes on the tools I knew I would use like the move tool, for image manipulation, the polygonal lasso tool for separating my imagery and cleaning up edges, and information on how to work with layers. I feel like repetition along with taking specific notes really helped me get the project done and understand Photoshop. This is the first time I am reflecting on anything I have done before. Reflecting has made me realize what worked for me, so that is really helpful. I plan to use some of the same strategies I used for this project for our next project.