think along the lines of my last i dea i have come up with anoner one. i thought about splitting an image in half one side being back and white or sepia, then having the other side in colour. the 1st side would be a photo of dead trees or bushes and the 2ndside would be full of flowers or a green feild or something similar.

war photography

looking at war photography has inspired one of 4 ideas i have to create for the set of stamps. i thought that mabeytaking a photo of an old head stone in the shape of a cross then adding barbed wired wrapped around it in photoshop and finally to finnish make the photo sepia tone or black and white. what will i require for this?

photo of a head stone cross
barbed wire photos
photoshop or something similar
camera

The semiotics in this piece freedom wise are easy to understand everyone knows that the dove is a sign of peace, but the freedom bit might be a bit harder to understand. the broken bars that the dove is behind reprent freedom letting the dove come and go as it pleases, but would the audience be able to interprate theimage it that way. well i think that everyone knows the meaning of the dove and should be able to guess that straight the way but the bars i dont think that the audience would associoate broken bars and/or railing with freedom. the colours are very bland and muted, drawing your attention to the dove. this has the same effect as the image below but may not be interpreted in the way it should be. perhaps i should think about a similar approach for my stamp design but colud thiss effect be acheived on the illustrator? perhaps i should consider which media would be most appropriate to create this kind of effect. this peice inspired me to produce the two half dove with one side whole and the ohterside as a skleton.

this piece is typical of the sixties period and is very hippie like. The typography style is also very typical of the sixties. this piece uses bright colours and symbols that are closly related with hippies. the piece portrays peace and freedom with the use of bright hues but also symbols. the universal symbol is clearly visable within the piece but there are also other sysmbols of peace and freedom within the piece for example, the flower could be interpreted as a sign of peace but also a sybol of freedom this is because a flower is left to fend for its self. the use of the black backgrounds makes the foreground colous stand out just drawing you attention to the foreground this would be nice on a stamp because it simple and everyone would be able to understand it. i have used a similar style in one of my ideas and think it is very effective due to it simplistice approach. what media should be used to produce a piece like this?
well i would of thought that this style would have been better to be produce on a vector based piece of sowfwere, i think this beacause if this was produce on say photoshop the image would contain artifacts and would spoil the aesthetics of this peice.
this pieces colours have inspired me to produce a similar styled idead with hearts and flowers.

the peace and dove sybol are the two most recognisable symbols related to peace and freedom, these two symbols in the blue circle in my opinion represent world peace. the dove outside of the circle possible is a representation of freedom, i think this because it is silouetted blue making it look like it has been cut out of the blue circle making it look like it has escaped. The colours are also closly related with peace but white is the most common. the peace sysmbol has been seet in the middle of the piece making it the center piece of the image the designer has used simple colour making a silouetted effect this could be interpreted in to one of my designs. the sillouetted dove is possible an idea i colud incoporate into a design

the semiotics in this piece are very obvious. the peace symbol is understood by eveyone around the world, and can only be perceived in one way. The colours of this peice are very vibrant, these type of hues are usualy associated with hippies and hippies are big fans on peace. To conclude the typography gives the meaning of the piece away but this can only be understood by people who can understand the english language. the font is very typical of the sixties period when hippies were at the peak promoting peace. this pieces composition is very simple. the colours are very bright and draw your eye towards the peace symbol in the middle of the piece. in order to make the peace symbol stand out the designer has added a drop shadow to show the outline. the use of the sixties style typography has inspired me produce a similar style pecie with bright hues as the background

i was just wondering how the backgorund would be produce because clearly its digital but its not a gradient so what tools/filters would be used to produce the vibrant background

mabey the designer has created a brush then just used clicked and not draged the mouse? i dont know but it has stumpped me

this peice portrays the theme of peace and freedom by using the pece sign produced by the fingers and freedom by using images of animals that can fly e.g.

• dove
• butterfly

semiotics wise the silouetted animals are not quite an obvious symbol of freedom, and the silouette hearts in my perception are a sign of peace but perhaps would not be perceived like that by other people

this peice inspires me with the use of the bright colours and how they are used in the background to make you look at every object in the piece.the colours and the way they are used in the background inspired me to rproduce an idea that is very colourful and that uses hues similar to this piece

brief rewrite

Peace & Freedom

For this assignmen i am required to produce a set of four postal stamps for the royal mail with the theme of peace and freedom. i will conduct research into the history of postal stamps, i will do this by gathering:

• imagery of stamps
• symbols of peace and freedom
• graphics
• illustrations
• photography
• works of art

also i have got to include non visual references in my research:

• quotes
• poems
• music lyrics
• newspaper articles

All this reasearch will be collected from a range of various sorces.

in order to select suitable ideas i will have to use ideas generating techniques e.g.

• evaluating
• further development

To follow i am required to produce digital client visualsl, notes and development drawings. i am required to present my development and final piece in a presentation

The client requires me to think about the following constraints:

target market

• likes/dislikes
• who will use/see it
• needs

Environment

• where and how use
• what it will be linked to

production

• quantity produced
• method of production

• software

the image was was made in photoshop

• effects

the designer adds some distress layers to add interest to the illustration, and added some 3D renders tofinnish the effect. The designer Sets the Hue to 171 and the Saturation to 25 with the Colorize preset box ticked. The designer set the mouse back inner layer’s blending mode to Pin Light.then the designer clips the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, setting the Hue to 296 and the Saturation to 25 with the Colorize preset box ticked. the designer then does same for the ball layer using Hue 318, Saturation 31, but leaving the blending mode unchanged.

next the designer sets the Mouse circuit outer layer’s blending mode to Screen,then Clips the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, setting Hue to 175, Saturation 25 with the Colorize box ticked. the designer then sets the Mouse circuit inner blending mode to Soft Light, then Clips the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer with Hue set at 218, Saturation set at 25, with the Colorize box ticked. The designer then sets the Mouse top inner’blending mode to Saturation,then Clips the Hue/ Saturation adjustment layer, with Hue set at 182, Saturation set at 25, with the Colorize box ticked. next the designer sets the Mouse top outer blending mode to Overlay, then Clips the Hue/ Saturation adjustment layer setting the Hue to 302 and the Saturation to 25 with the Colorize box ticked.

• layers

the designer Opens Mouse_2.jpg and create a path-based selection, then the designer copies-and pastes it into a new layer and labels it mouse back inner. next the designer Lowers the layer’s opacity and scale and positions it using the central hole as a guide. The designer Opens Ball.jpg and usew the Elliptical Marquee tool to roughly select the ball, then Nudges and Expands/Contracts the selection to fit. next the designer copies-and-pastes it as a new layer and labels it Ball. the designer then Opens Mouse_3.jpg, generates a path-based selection, copies-and pastes it into a new layer and flips it (Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal). next the designer Positions and re-sizes, and labels it Mouse circuit outer. then the designer open Mouse_4.jpg, drags and drops as a new layer (there’s no path), and labels it Mouse circuit inner. then the designer Lowers the opacity, then positions and re-sizes it over the previous layer. then the designer Generates an inverted selection from the underlying layer, the designer ensures that the new layer is targeted and erases only the lower inner and outer areas.

the designer pastes new layers into t he working document from Mouse_5.jpg (labelling it mouse top inner and Mouse_6.jpg labelling it Mouse top outer. next the designer generates a selection from the uppermost layer and creates a new Alpha Channel filling the active selection with white. Next the designer paints out the wheel slot using a white, hard-edged paintbrush, then hits Cmd/Ctrl + I to invert the Channel. then the designer Disables the visibility of all layers but Mouse back outer and clips the adjustment layer by holding Alt/Opt while clicking on the Create new fill of adjustment layer icon at the foot of the Layers palette, then the designer Selects Hue/Saturation, In the next dialog box ticks Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask.

next the designer Drags the mouse Group Folder into the new canvas and positions, rotates and scales it as shown, then drags and drops Bones_render.png as a new layer and labels it ‘Bones’. next the designer Set the blending mode to Linear Dodge and lowers the opacity to 35%, then hits Cmd/Ctrl + I to invert the selection. then the designer Drags and drops Skin_render.png and labels it Skin. next the designer Sets the blending mode to Linear Light and drop the opacity to 35%, then Alignsthe hand and bone layer and then Shift + clicks both layer icons and scales and positions them over the mouse.

first the designer has found a photo of a road on the internet and placed it in to photoshop. Next the designer has got a photo of a person in the correct position for the effect being created. now the designer cuts out the person using the pen tool, this is done by outlining the person, then go to layer, layer mask and then reveal layer this has nowremoved the background from the photo of the person. in order for the guy to fit in with the back ground the designer has made the shadow setting on the person darker, this is done by going to image, adjustments , curves. next is to create the shadow of the person, this is done by holding the control button and clicking the thumbnail on the layer in the layer window, then a new layer is added this is filled black. Now the designer goes to edit>transform>distort, the verticals are move to create the shadow in perspective this makes the sun looklike it is shining for the top left of the image. the shadow is then set with a guasien blur making it look more softer. the designer has moved on to created a circle around the person using the elipse tool, the desinger then adjust the bottom of the circle to make it look like it intersects with the road. next the designer adds a new layer then goes to filter>render>clouds to add a cloud effect this will make up the smoke look of the bubble being created around the person . the designer then creates a mask on the clouds layer, this adds the clouds render to the circle previously drawn making the circle look smokey. next the designer makes the circle look more like a spherical shape by using the liquify tool then changing the setting to bloat, then the designer sets the blending mode to soft light this makes the sphere allowing the veiwer to see the person. next the designer has created a new layer and repeated the last step, then the step is repeated again but this time the blending mode is set to colour dodge this makes the sphere moke smokey looking. next the designer reveals the mask by going to layer>layer mask>reveal all, the designer then selects the brush tool and set the colour to black this is then used at the bottom of the sphere to erase some of it making the intersection less subtle and obvious. next the designer makes the bubble sharper by using the sharpen filter. then the designer makes a new layer fills this with a white fill and crates a mask this is so that an out glow can be added to the spere. the designer has added a yellow to white linear gradient to show the reflection of light on the sphere. next the designer creates a mask and starts to mask out the glow around the outline of the sphere. next the designer creates the bottom on the sphere, this is done with the eliptical marquee tool, then filled black and the opacity changed to 40% this gives the elipse a transluscent look. the designer then reveal the mask and adds a gradient to the elipse making it look ighter one side thsn the other. the desiger then moves on to add a shadow for the sphere by applying the mask and dsitorting a duplicated layer in the same way the persons shadow was created. the designer then creates a new layer above the road photo and add another cloud render using the cloud filter, next the ripple at the bottom of the sphere needs to be created this is done by going to filter>distort>zigzag. the settings used were 100 for the amount and 5 for the ridges. next the layer is distorted eaxctly the same as the spere and person shadow and the blending mode is set to overlay to give a translucent look. next the designer creates another shadow by selecting the elipse on the outside of the sphere, filling it and changing the opacity. next the designer adds a truck to the image to make it look like the person is deflecting it, this is done by placeing it on a new layer using the laso masking tool scaling it down to make it look like it is in the distance and position it the truck image correctly.

image manipulation 2

To start the designer creates a new adjustment layer then adds a linear gradient fading from dark Grey to black to produce the effect of lighting in the background of image. next the designer then creates a new layer and adds a colour linear gradient, then changes the layer fill to 25% giving the gradient a translucent look adding colour to the previous gradient and also allow the previous gradient to be seen through the newly added one. Again the designer has made a new layer and added a gradient but this time instead of a linear gradient a radial gradient is used. the designer has then set the layers opacity to 65% this adds colour to the added gradient and makes the previous gradient look central as if there is coloured light radiating from the center of the image. the designer has now started to add the text to the image, then by setting the blending mode to screen makes the letter disappear. The designer then moves on to changing the layer style and adding an outer glow to the letter. the blending mode is changed to colour dodge, opacity set to 20%, range set to 50%. Moving on to sthe stroke, the dsigners has set the pixle size to 2%, position outside, opacity 50% and the fill colour to white. all this together creates a letter that is transparrent with a glowing outline. the designer has then duplicated the layer and change the font of the letter creating a streaky and rondom effect. the designer has then copied this method two more time but rplaced the letter with a different one. the design then moves on to adding a base for the text to sit on using the eliptical marquee tool, to follow then adds a motion blur to the elipse making it look blured at either end making it look as if it has a glow. the designer has then gone on to create a plain for the xtext and base to sit on so it dose not look as if it isfloating in mid space, the designer has done this by filling the layer then flattening the image then adding a stroke and glowing outline to the defined pattern. This is then set on a new layer and to give it the look of a plain is set in a perspective veiw this adds depth to the compsition of the image. To finnish the designer adds a reflection to the image this is done by duplicating the type layers then they are placed under neathe the existing type. To continue the designer then flips them horizontally to make the duplicated type more of a reflection. The opacity is set to 25% making the type more transparrent and reflective. To compleate the reflecion the designer hasadded a mask and over the top added a black to white linear gradient making the text darker and faded at the top like a reflection in a puddle of water.


http://psdtuts.com/text-effects-tutorials/create-a-layered-glowing-text-effect/

image manipulation analysis 1

the designer has created this piece on photoshop, this is because it would not be able to be produced on other pieces of software this is due to the effects that are needed. First the designer has aquired an image of a camera and cut it out using the masking tool, next the designer has created a new layer with a radial background to create the effect of space and a radial glow around the object being manipulated adding a soft glowing light to the outline of the camera. This effect draws your focus towards the camera making the camera the centerpiece of the image. moving on to the ribbons in this piece. in order to create this effect the designer has first used the pen tool to create the line, he has then added a stroke to the line using the paint brush tool. The designer has then repeated this process with many diffent brush sizes to create a radomised look. To add an even more random look and ripped look to the ends of the ribbons the designer has used the smudge tool at the ends of randomly selected strokes. Now the designer starts to use filters to add the effect of the strokes in motion in order to do this the designer has used a motion blur, this make the stokes looke faded and quite translucent. next the designer has added a gradient mask and applied a lense blur filter to the layer this makes the stroke more translucent and apper to have even more motion. now the designer adds a lense flare to create the flas of the camera using the lense flare filter. The dsigner then has added a transparent glow to the underneath of the strokes using a soft brush, this makes the strokes apper to be irradiating light. next the disgner has aqquired a photo of space for the stars on the manipulated image. the designer then moves on to setting the layer to blending mode, changing the opacity of the image so that the image undernathe can be seen. Next the designer moves on to erase parts of the blended image using the erase tool so that the image becomes clearer. finally to finish the designer uses the glowing edges filter on the stokes to add more light to them and in turn adding light on the camera improving veiwing and make the camera outline more obvious.

http://psdtuts.com/tutorials/designing-tutorials/how-to-digitally-illustrate-a-camera-with-light-streaks/

i am well impressed with my self !

this effect is very good and the way the gradient tool is used to produce the colour on the light glow is ingenious

JPEG ARTIFACTS

Artifacts are wobbly line that are created by the pixles in the image, these are a result of image compression. The reason they form is because jpeg is a lossy format, this means as the image's compression ratio goes up the quality of the file/image is reduced. this can be avoided by using a lossless format. Another way to reduce the chance of artifacts on an image is to compress the file to a ratio where the file size is reduced but the image quality does not change. from my experience of using the image compression on firework, i have found that Approx. an 80% compression ratio does not reduce the quality of the image/file

comparing gif and jpg

this gif has the wrong colour but compared to the jpeg below, it is smother and there are hardly is any pixlation. the jpeg howeever has the rite colour pallet but due to the compression ratio the jpeg has atifacts within the image.

gif compression

• 2 colours
• file size 3.87k
• download time 0 sec @ 56kbps
  
  

• 4 colours
• file size 8.04k
• download time 1 sec @ 56kbps

• 16 colours
• file size 17.42k
• download time 2 sec @ 56kbps

• 64 colours
• file size 32.79
• download time 5 sec @ 56kbps

• 256 colours
• file size 52.69k
• download time 8 sec @ 56kbps
  
  
  
  
  
  

jpeg compression

• 100% compression
• file size 2.27k
• 0 sec to download @ 56 kbps

• 80% compression
• file size 3.09k
• 0 sec to download @ 56 kbps
  

• 60 % compression
• file size 7.95 k
• 1 sec to download @ 56 kbps

• 40 % compression
• file size 11.70 k
• 1 sec to download @ 56 kbps
  
  
  
  

• 20% compression
• file size 20.16k
• 3 sec to download @ 56kbps
  
  
  

• 0% compression
• file size 91.06k
• 14 sec to download @ 56kbps
  
  
  
  

hi

this is my new blog created for my college work (tbh its because dan cannot be arsed to mark annotations)