Week 1 and 2 learning and documentation can be found on the Pebble pad link
https://v3.pebblepad.com.au/spa/#/public/8kz7bbZhht7G9dxmgbt6kk98HM
The more experimental part of my still and moving image journey begins with research.
I had watched the Inspiration Series: The Edge of Design as recommended in Week 1. However, I went back and reviewed a few of my favorites with my very new knowledge of Lightroom. My lecturer had talked about his skills of being able to identify lighting, f-stop, aperture, etc in images just by looking at them. He has an enormous amount of experience and this was something I can only aspire to do. The one I loved the most in the series was "Makin Moves" - I love choreography and dance - the way this splits and manipulates the images to the music is fantastic. I also love the "muse" as the surrealist aspect appeals to me - I love the transitions and the movement and this is something I can't do with my existing design skills and software knowledge. Of course, I also had to review the king of Title sequence Saul Bass.
Over the Lockdown period, I did have the chance to watch both documentary series " Watch the Sound" with Mark Ronsen, and "Move" on Apple which both touch on aspects of motion design and presentation.
I have also been trying to explore new compositions and collage with my week 3 Photoshop experimentation.
I am not new to photoshop - however, I don't get to use it enough as a designer. Those days of montages and overlays are far too often replaced with branding mockups and tweaking client instagram images. I have throughly enjoyed the playfulness of it and the happy accidents
Using masks and opacity
Rotate, transform and feathers
Overlays and effects in the layers pallet
This was my experimentation in class of images I took of my daughter over the holidays. One of the kids fashion camps had been cancelled due to lockdown so we had decided to do our now photoshoots.. They are not raw images but they still allowed me enough detail in Lightroom to extend the effects further.
I have taken many many images including 2 sets of self portraits in week 2 - however not satisfied with either set - still playing around.
I did spend far too much time playing in lightroom - I wanted to understand the difference between Lightroom and Photoshop and how they work together. This immediately became evident as I started to work with large amounts of files. I am quite indecisive so taking one image over another is never easy and as a result, I import them all. I exported 4 collections in total to Photoshop. 2 sets of myself and 2 sets of my daughter. I find working with my own face is much harder because I am critical of the features flaws etc - whereas working with other images I am able to see composition, balance, and focal points far more easily. I think this is natural.
selfies
Raw files from SLR
Daughter 1
Daughter 2
I am extremely excited about learning to create more effective moving imagery. I needed a direction. I was enjoying experimenting and exploring but I could see I didn't have a clear direction. Accidents were certainly happening and I loved them - but they would send me off on different color paths, styles and it was a rabbit hole of options.
I needed to apply some constraints. I have another secondary project (with the AGDA mentorship program) and I have been tasked with visualizing my personality more effectively. I have found this to be extremely difficult, however, I have been given some valuable critical feedback to work with. I started looking around at the things I love... not just online but in my house - the little details that draw me and make me smile.
Below are some images I took around the house and screenshots I captured that I will use as inspiration, distortion of figure-ground, collage, facets and asymmetrical movement, the contrast between colour and monotone
reactions and natural light
colours and angles. - imitating the reactions I had seen in the city
hidden layers, negative space
my most favourite book
natural shapes of the trees we were camping next too.
my daughters painting, overlays and textures
collage, duplication and repetition
colour and black and white
This was a fascinating set of title art
current photography p[romotions
movement and colour
Movement and colour - I really like red
distortion of figure ground - how the objects can become part of the landscape
The most powerful image on my mood board is King Arthur (below). The relationship between background and foreground - the story and the light in this image really connect with me. Because this is a visual representation of a personality - albeit mythical, I would like to take some of this magic forward into my own composite portrait
I also was finding myself drawn to bright colours - in particular, orange and red...the warm colours. I want to show all the facets of my personality -own my crazy eclectic ways, my indecision and present it as valuable. I found this second image below where the portraits are disconnected - missing and modified above and below the line. This is a concept and composition that I might be able to use in my animation sequence. I can see how either side of the divide my change and move - not only as an image but in colour and style and this could demonstrate the creative collective of myself. I am a Gemini after all...2 heads might be better than one. The final image is just something I love...it reflects the experimentation that I have been doing but more importantly it incorporates textures, layers and the overlays I intend to use. I absolutely love collage and decoupage.
Below are the layers I'll be building on and working with as I undertake the project. - visualizing my personality more effectively. I have drawn on the colours; divide and collage effect as inspired by the images above.
