Digital Photography and Imaging / Project 3

08/6/2023 - 06/07/2023 / Week 10 - Week 14
Michael Chan Henn Loong / 0363611
DPI / BA of Design (HONS) In Creative Media / Taylor's University
Final Project / Self Titled

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LECTURES

Week 10-

Digital Surrealism

Fig 1.0 Realism VS Surrealism

Realism:

Takes subject matters of the ordinary and common world which we call "reality". It almost always takes a non-exotic and non-extraordinary subject matter and theme. There is no need to think outside of the box, as that is not "real".

Surrealism:

A twist on Realism. It explores the subconscious mind, with subject matters concentrating on dream-images and often aims to distort the ordinary and what we call reality. 

Fig 1.1 Surrealism

Surrealism:

Surrealism defies logic. Dreams and the workings of the subconscious mind inspire surrealistic art (French for "Super-Realism") filled with strange images and bizarre juxtapositions.

Fig 1.2 Digital Surrealism

So what is Digital Surrealism?

Surrealism is a cultural movement focused on type of arts to express about the artist's idea themselves. In this digital era surrealism is one of the top digital art styles.

Fig 1.3 Example of Digital Surrealism

Fig 1.4 Example of Digital Surrealism

Week 11-

Introduction to Adobe After Effect

Fig 2.0 After Effect

Adobe After Effect is a digital visual effects, motion, graphics, and composing application developed by Adobe inc.; it is mostly used in the post-production process of film making, video games and television production. Among other things, After Effects can be used for keying, tracking, compositing and animation.

Fig 2.1 Layering 

Normally we use photoshop as a platform to composite the layers, all the layers should be arrange and rename accordingly so that it will be organized and easier to be animated in After Effects. 

Fig 2.2 Composition of layers in After Effects

We then can import elements such as images, videos, vectors and more into After Effects. All the layer elements needs to be organized and synchronized to the external software platforms such as Photoshop & Illustrator, After Effects files doesn't not embed its media, it links to it.

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INSTRUCTIONS

Project 3 / Cinemagraph

Photoshooting

This project is meant for us to find out who we are what we are interested in and also find out what type of personality do we have and use all that knowledge we've gained on ourselves to create a digital art of self expression.

Fig3.0 Photoshoot

So before starting the with the poster and animation we had a photoshoot session for the whole project, as in this project we are required to create a cinemagraph using our own portrait to express ourselves. So as shown above these are the pictures that I've taken.

Process-

We are asked to create a digital poster before proceeding with the cinemagraph.

Fig 3.1 Digital Poster 1

So for the poster I actually have two ideas one is messy and creative thinking the other one is gamer so for the messy topic I just added in all the stuff I think funny and cute just anything as it's my topic I don't think it should be tidy as when we think all the thoughts will just appear and I don't think that it should be tidy.

Fig 3.2 Digital Poster 2

Fig 3.3 Attempts

As for the gamer poster I actually just inserted a few elements related to gamer and as I think it's too normal so I actually tried to add in something more so I went and did some research and created some effects as in Fig 3.3 I tried inserting the newly created effects into the poster but initially it doesn't work so went and tried another solution, I created a glitching effect in PS for this poster.

Fig 3.4 Glitching Effect

This was better than the original poster but I still felt like it's a little bit empty so I stopped with this poster and proceeded with the messy mind theme.

Fig 3.5 Progress Work

Final Work-

Fig 4.0 Final Poster (JPEG)

Fig 4.1 Final Video (MP4)

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FEEDBACK

Week 10:

-Remember to convert layer into smart object so that while trying to cinemagraph it works.

-Remember to back up layers

-Think of ideas for next weeks class

-Remember to finish up E-portfolio

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REFLECTION

Experience:

I had a lot of fun during this whole process throughout this project, first of all this project actually gave me a time to chill down, relax myself and think back who am I, what I do, how am I etc..., I have not talk to myself for so long. Secondly I never thought that we will be having a photoshoot session it was quite fun that day. But I still struggled a little bit with the After Effects as I'm a slow learner but with Mr. Martin's lesson and help I still managed to finish up the project. Overall everything is fine and I'm fine with my outcome too.

Observations:

I tried to look up for inspirations on Pinterest it is then I noticed that there ain't a lot of self portraits out there so I kind of stuck there but the ideas are still applicable so I took some and used it in my final cinemagraph.