CASE STUDY

Brett Smith

December 11, 2018

America on Drugs

Digital Design: Art 112 A

CASE STUDY

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INTRO

The motion and type project was definitely the biggest challenge we have done so far. It was extremely helpful that our professor showed us how to actually make stuff move in photoshop thru animation film. I took it a step further and went and customized our class demo even more. Example is at bottom. Now for this final project, we had to decide on 3-5 concepts that represents our interests along and at least ONE SUSTAINABLE THEME to create a poster and a multimedia 30 second commercial. These can be from own photos, internet or any other ways of getting the necessary photos and assets. With this, I decided to create a PSA 1 minute and 20 second commercial about the drug epidemic in America.

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RESEARCH AND ASSETS

So when I first had the idea to create something about the drug epidemic, a lot popped up in my head. At first I figured that I would do like a small collage video, but then I expanded on that idea. I figured it would look better if it was a PSA and just stated facts and backed up and supported the group I was representing for, which was Yorktown Rehabilitation and Nursing Center. I decided to first make the pics that I needed just so the hard part about my main picture assets would be taken care of. First was the PSA sign, next was the city of pills and then the text would actually come in last; it would make things a lot easier that way. Next, I went on google and started searching for my pictures. I found the best ones that are compatible and that will fit well in my project. With all this set, I was ready to start engaging in actually making the first couple seconds of the film Here are some of the pictures I have that appear in my film. There is also my sketches, which was vital I did before the pictures.

ENGAGING IN THE FILM

So as my first time doing videos in photoshop, I decided that I would give it my best effort and just hope it came out good. The first thing i worked on was obviously the beginning of the film. The first five to ten seconds would consist of the PSA sign blinking back and forth with a black screen, then after a few seconds it would cut to a new frame or keyframe, which is a frame in the part of the video that holds one specific part or action. After the blinking was over the next keyframe would be a simple text, saying Drug Use is a Problem! Little did I know that you can make the text move, rotate, pan, and even zoom in and out. I took advantage of this and just kept playing around with it until I got the hang of it. Now I did take on many obstacles and I did have some problems, but a lot of youtube and studies on the internet helped me greatly. The next step was getting the audio track in and clipping it. Now I did have some familiarity with clipping music clips, so this part was the easiest. I was now ready to start actually taking my necessary gifs and put it in. However, this caused a little but of problem. Little did I know that in order for a gif to be in another different timeframe, it must be exported as a video in mp4 (audio track) and then brought in separately. Now this was very tedious, it was a very hard challenge to do this, but I eventually got the hang of it. The gifys are now in, the audio is in, and now my film has 20 seconds. I now decided to take my still pictures and turn them into motion, using tools such as field blur, gaussian, motion, radial and much more! The filter gallery was also very beneficial too. Pictures was probably the back support of my video, each picture portraying a specific meaning. For example, one picture was a photoshopped picture I actually made replacing buildings and skyscrapers with pill bottles and containers; the rest of the picture was also distorted to fit the pill-type feeling. So everything is set now, and I think I am ready for the final edits. However, my professor suggested that I try out and use Adobe Premier! This was a total brand new challenge for me. Without any experience whatsoever, I played around and fidgeted with all there cool tools. With this application, I increased the volume of the audio track, incresed the size and segment of my giphys, and even added some cool affects.Finally, I was now ready to wrap up my film. I had gotten the picture moving and the gifys down, I am now in full control of editing and aware of every tool.I finally got to the conclusion and credits, where I put my name, the ending screen title, and the background. With this, I worked very hard to make the film and actually I was very focused on it.

Blog Posts 12-14

We are now getting more in depth with motion and type motion. I am starting to learn how to move simple objects, like a ball or a text. This leads to exploring the timeline of photoshop and each of its distinctive tools, such as transform, opacity and keyframes. We learned about the difference between animated movies and real ones, different types of videos and explorations and much more.

Week 12

I now have started to work more on how to make motion in photoshop. I worked on a little demo for an animated gif and absolutely nailed it! Demo is below. Now that I have the ability to understand and comprehend this, I now have decided upon my 5 concepts and have chosen to do the drug epidemic in America. I have all my ideas and assets almost all set and I have a good idea on how this is going to turn out. Basically, it is going to be like a PSA and it will describe how bad opioids are and how horrible it is damaging people and this country.

Week 13

So now that I have my video around 30 seconds, I am starting to feel more and more confident on my project. I am learning a lot of these new tools and keyframes. What I need to get next is all my pictures in the right spot. After that, I am basically almost finished because all I have to do is engage on where each picture is and the pan or motion of it. It very exciting to play with these new tools in the timeframe in photoshop!

Week 14

I have just started to wrap up and do the final edits for my film! I can’t believe I did it! It looks great to me. I learned so many new things about photoshop’s timeline and video editing. It is 100% necessary for the future and the long run, I can now challenge myself to take on new tasks and abilities. My film is about 1 minute long and I couldn’t be happier.

Feedback and Challenges

With long projects come distractions, long time computer screen eyes, and much more. However, I just overcame these for some reason. I can say that feedback is definitely 100% in every project or thing you are assigned to do. I got feedback on some of my pictures, the duration of some giphys and the title, First, I re-edited my pics to match the feedback status. Next for the giphys, I extended the duration of them and actually made one giphy loop to match the text. Finally I fixed my text in the front and conclusion, and even adding some text enhancements such as bevel and emboss, satin, stroke, outer glow and drop shadow and for some even texture. It actually came out great, and that feedback about those specific gifs were very imperative. I think it was the fact that I actually knew what I was doing and gotten used to it that I was very excited to make my first own edited video in photoshop!

Conclusion

Well in conclusion I can say this project was very fun and somewhat tedious to do, but turned out to be a great learning experience. I never even knew you could make videos in photoshop! And I made a minute and 30 second long video unanimated! I learned a lot of new tools, concepts and different ways to look at your projects. Overall, this was a very fun project but not my favorite, that goes to the Golfer on the Moon! Other then that America on Drugs was a great project that I accomplished.

MY WCC FUTURE

Well now that I have completed my first class at WCC, I think I am ready for another one, maybe even two! Choosing this class was definitely a great choice, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is new to digital arts and wants a great learning experience.

All projects I have completed this semester