Man, do I hear that word often. Almost 24 times every class period. That doesn't change how important it is though. You can't create something through without taking design into account. It's also a pretty good topic for a blog post, so that's what i'll be doing. Just the simple use of shapes and colors is enough to create a beautiful image, as seen above, if you know how to use those techniques correctly. Creators of many kinds of media are required to put effort into how their work both looks and how it conveys a message. So naturally, people will try to create systems and vocabulary to organize the whole process, which takes form in the production cycle, vector/bitmap graphics, and entire careers built off of it as well. Every kind of media format uses these systems, from movies to video games. And I've learned a surprising amount of vocabulary talking about the little pieces that come along with this behemoth of a topic. So it's going to be in almost all of my assignments, whether its GAD or any other class. So i'm gonna have to really practice if i'm going to create anything like the picture above.
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Moving on from the concept of editing images with Photoshop. My class is soon going to be actually creating images from scrap with the power of Adobe Illustrator. Too bad i'm not a great artist, but it seems very interesting regardless. Adobe Illustrator works with vector graphics instead of the traditional bitmap graphics. The difference is that vector graphics use mathematical equations for the creation of the images, which produce better quality drawings, logos, e.t.c, which is what Illustrator is mainly used for. There are some concerns I have with this though, the first one being whether we make the equations on our own. Sadly, judging by the tone of Mr.B's voice, we're mostly making them on our own.....hooray. At least the images in Illustrator have perks compared to Photoshop, and we aren't going back to it for awhile, so I'll have to get used to it. There are going to be the addition of many more kinds of software throughout the year, so new assignments will only get much more chaotic.
I've been hearing about the Dark Souls series for ages, and I only now mustered up the courage to actually give it a try. So the one I decided to begin with is the remastered version of the first game. Oh, and for anyone who wants to try out Dark Souls as well, be prepared for it to test your patience, the entire series is notorious for it's difficulty. Branching off of that, the beginning of the game almost seems to be working against you, with it's multitude of strange mechanics. The game starts with you having to chose a class before the tutorial, and you have quite a few options, from a heavy hitting knight, to a class called deprived, which is a person in only a loincloth with a club and part of a door for a shield,(challenge character). Completionists are going to be in for quite a challenge as well, there are plenty of secret items to find, I missed multiple items in just the first section of the game. And even with the items, the game will very easily make many players rage quit, but I say this from experience, it will get better. So it's nice to finally be able to wrap your head around the game and know what you're doing. Then, many difficult enemies will seem weak when you come back to them later with the right stats and equipment. Another piece to the game the that greatly appeals to me is the thorough story, even though it actually took quite some time for other fans to actually find out what the story was in the first place. Every game in the series is the same objective (and there are 3 of them), which is to bring back fire to a slowly decaying world. But each one has an extensive amount of challenges, bosses, and other little pieces to keep the players interested. Overall, the game is very expansive and quite strange indeed. But all new players need to know that they should be ready to commit to a game like this.
Detail on story: MacDonald, Keza. “A Guide to Dark Souls' Plot (In Case You Missed It).” Polygon, Polygon, 5 May 2016, www.polygon.com/2016/5/5/11526384/dark-souls-plot-you-died.
I've been working with Photoshop for a few months now, and I've discovered that not only is it quite fun, but your choice in tools can make a big difference, especially with holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas rapidly approaching, I'm already brainstorming some tools I can use to make some festive pieces. There are many different tools that are special for certain projects, but of all the options, one I've been using quite often is the Quick Selection Tool. If you may not understand what that is, it's used to select a certain section of a layer in an image, which can make editing that section much easier. It's a very basic tool, but its accuracy is what proves to be helpful with editing images. The image above is from one of my assignments in class, an image of a dock that was originally grayscale (black and white). Creating something like this requires a number of tools, but as you could have guessed, I primarily used quick select. Since you have to mess with many individual pieces of the image, you need specific tools to select each piece. I found quick select to be the easiest to use due to how it's more accurate than the magic wand, and how you can easily deselect parts of the layer, there is also the option to mess with the size, edges, e.t.c of the selection brush. Not that the magic wand isn't helpful, it just selects everything of similar color (which in a grayscale image, is everything), so its not too effective in more complicated images. Although, Photoshop is massive, so there are many kinds of selection tools to use. Though Quick selection is used so often that its also used by professionals, mostly because of its overall simplicity and usefulness. In the case of Photoshop, sometimes it's better to be simple.
Sources: Annie. “Photoshop Selection Tools Explained.” Annenbergdl.org, 26 Mar. 2018, www.annenbergdl.org/tutorials/photoshop-selection-tools-explained/.
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AuthorI have a passion for creating things, and hopefully one day those things will be video games. You can check over on this blog if you wish to see any updates on my work or other subjects. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools.
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