University in a Pandemic..

[ashleyysmithh]

Still images I used for my 10 second animation

[ashleyysmithh]

Pics from my photo essay

[ashleyysmithh]

Photography Pics

For my photo essay I chose to take photos of myself at a popular fast food restaurant called five guys. I was going for a theme and I thought the colours would complement the theme which I was going for, as I wanted to glamorise fast food. I chose to photograph myself as I’m comfortable in front of the camera and my friend didn’t feel comfortable posing and she preferred to take them of me. Also because I know what I wanted to achieve and I feel like me being the model I could pose how I wanted to and I could fully achieve what I wanted. To get the effect of glamorising the food and making it seem positive I used photoshop, which came in handy in terms of editing the image and making it look lively and full of colour as that was the aim. With these images I kind of wanted to show off that I had skills in photography and knowledge in photoshop and wanted to use that as an advantage.

I want the images to look fun full of life and juicy just like how in advertisements they make the food look better and appetising, it draws you in causing you think “I wanna try that, or “that looks nice”. That was the aim and what I was trying to convey within the images. So I feel as if Photoshop helped me do so in terms of using camera raw and not making significant changes as I still wanted it to look realistic.

[ashleyysmithh]

Narrative Project Lectures

 One of our big projects for my module digital media is called a narrative project, which I’m looking forward to completing . This project allows us to be creative options of what we want to do in terms of being interactive and making the website, or making a stop animation or a stop motion video. I like the idea that we get to choose which you like to do because some people have different strengths and I don’t plan on doing an animation, but I could change my mind as I am confident now with the software and Audacity.

As the due date four our project is coming closer and it has been extended due to the pandemic, which has been slightly helpful in terms of having more time to plan. In some of the lectures our lecture would go through tutorials and ideas on what we could do for now to project, which included showing us how to make a website. Also refreshing with premiere pro and how to make a video, as I’ve made a website before but I had used wix , which kind of makes the template for you so you don’t really have to do much work in a sense. So that tutorial on how to make a website helped just in case if I did want to go down that route. The lecture was helpful because it was live so we were able to ask questions there and then if we didn’t understand the steps.

[ashleyysmithh]

Essential Readings

 On my digital media module, we have a reading list of books that we need to read and incorporate within our work. So for this week's reading I’m looking into a book called, Introduction into media designs with Adobe creative suite. I wanted to talk about the exercise that I read within the book which is related to the media. The first exercise I wanna go through is about just your drawings using the template layer. There are three parts and it provides a tutorial. Talks about using the paint brush to create shapes and curves on the template and how to succeed doing so. The second exercise is creating straight lines with the Pen tool. It goes into depth about using the anchor in the red line to ensure you create the perfect straight line on the template and it goes into more detail onto Hollie onto how to achieve this using the pen tool.

The third exercise elaborate on how to create curved lines on the template in detail. To create the curve, it is created in two points. The curved tall does not work like a pencil or paintbrush, so you’re not able to just drag it and you should release it. He goes further into detail on that at the end of the curve click it and drag slightly to make it similar to the template.  Within the book it elaborates more on different exercises that are relevant however I just wanted to speak on these specific three.

[ashleyysmithh]

Premiere Pro

 For my 10 second animation, are use the software called premiere pro which is normally used for animation or stop motion videos. I think I did use this software before in secondary school but I am not very confident with it and I don’t really remember how to use it, so I had to watch tutorials and rewatch lectures. For GCSE video one of our tasks in coursework was to create a movie trailer so I did have to use this software but because that was a long time ago I forgot.

However this was slightly different because I’ve never created an animation before. To make my life easier, I used someone's example of an artist I’ve quoted in my recent blogs which was recommended by my lecturer and I wasn’t sure how using my own photos would’ve turned out. Although it was tricky at first I did figure out how to make the animation come together. Whilst editing I did have to make the animation longer because it was too short at one point so I had to try to extend the animation by adding more pictures towards the end to lengthen it. I chose to use a man holding an axe or something similar to that and him hitting the ground implying that he is digging up something.

So the animation made it into a little well short film of the repeated actions and I felt like it was effective. However I do feel confident that I will be able to create a better high-quality animation

[ashleyysmithh]

Audacity

 I’ve never used audacity before so this was quite new for me and at first I did struggle with using the software. However I did catch on quite quick after watching tutorials and attending the digital media lecture and audacity. In the lecture my lecturer explained how to use audacity and download it as it is a free software which was useful and he went through and gave it to tutorials on how to use it which I needed because I was unfamiliar with the software and it was required for making and editing the sound recording.

As I incorporated different videos in the sound recording so I needed to edit it to make it shorter and flow better, just cut out certain things within the audio. It did take me a few takes on how to get the audio exactly how I wanted to get it as I didn’t want any pauses in the audio and I had to make sure to be careful of volume, due to the recording only allowed to be at a certain volume. I didn’t have to make any major changes which was good. At first I did struggle with it but now I do feel confident, from watching tutorials and the lecture on the software that I will be able to create a better sound recording. Also following along the lecture did help me with creating the sound recording and conveying the aim to promote Kingston town centre.

[ashleyysmithh]

Photoshop lecture

 In one of my lectures there was a tutorial on how to work photoshop, as I've said before on this blog I do have a background with photoshop. However I would classify myself as an intermediate, just because there’s probably some things I could improve on and also learn how to do fully on the software. In terms of editing and adjusting photos and more to do with photography and effects I’m pretty good with that but I wouldn’t say I’m the best so that tutorial was helpful, in terms of refreshing my memory. Also the lecture helped me learn new things to do on photoshop, as I am not completely confident on there but I do feel as if I could walk someone through the basics. So for me I didn’t have to worry about this aspect as I feel like the tutorial was for people who weren’t as confident with photoshop including the basics.

So during this lecture I was feeling okay and slightly relaxed because I actually was looking forward to working with photoshop as I do enjoy being creative and playing around with it. The only thing I haven’t properly used is lightroom and it’s associated with photoshop but for taking the photos I wanted to stick with what I knew because I knew that would work best for what I was trying to convey. Overall for me the lecture was easy to follow and I was able to pick up some ideas I could use.

[ashleyysmithh]

Digital Media

On Mondays I have Digital Media lectures, which I’m interested in. I have other different modules included with my course and they are reflectively different and Digital media is more practical, so I like the fact we are able to still do some practical stuff during this pandemic. Although it’s hard to maintain focus with the online lectures and can be challenging at times.

The course provides a lot of different creative projects, which is interesting and I do enjoy the practical side of media more than just writing long essays because it allows me to be creative. Including making websites, animations, blogs, which I don’t mind doing because I’m able to incorporate my own ideas and be in control of what I want to make. In most of the lectures we are shown new software to use within our projects and how  to use them, basically a live tutorial and how to achieve whatever you're aiming for. Which I find helpful if I haven’t used the software yet or if I’m not fully comfortable using it. Also able to rewatch lectures which is good and convenient.

Having the practical reminds of what I enjoyed back at GCSE and A levels, in terms of creating movie posters and trailers and being able to create stuff individually or with friends. So I’m comfortable with that and with what would go into it.

[ashleyysmithh]

Animation PP

The last part of my narrative project was creating an animation and I wasn't feeling relatively confident in doing it, as I’ve never created one and had no absolute clue on how to achieve what I wanted. So as a good student would do, I watched tutorials to help me and I fairly got the hang of it and now I feel like I could create a better one. Although it was a 10 second animation, I underestimate what would have to go into that, thinking it could be done quicker than I expected but I was wrong haha. To make the animation on premiere pro I used images from Eadweard Muybridge, he was known as an English photographer and for his motion picture projection, he often used animals in his work and human models.

 In the animation I’ve chosen to do one of his motion pictures with a model which was a male holding an object, using it to make a hole into the ground.  I thought the idea would be effective because in the animation you are able to see him repeatedly swing the object back and forth, whereas if it was just someone walking, I feel like it adds more to the animation. I used photoshop to cut the images separately and create new layers so that it would be easier for me to work with in premiere pro. I do think my animation could be improved in terms of possibly reversing it and many other things, but overall I think it is still effective and looks like an animation.

[ashleyysmithh]

Sound Recording

So continuing on from my narrative project, the next thing I had to do was a sound recording using this software called audacity, which I’ve never heard of or used so I guess that was interesting. However I’m open to trying new things and I kind of needed to use it anyways as it was required so I watched tutorials to try and help me develop the sound recording. Although I spent a good two hours trying to figure it out, I then realised it was actually quite easy to work so I probably would’ve finished it a lot quicker if I knew from the start. The purpose of this was to promote marketing in Kingston Town and attract people, also the town centres relevant attractions and the sound should embody the location.

My sound recording is a mix of 2 different locations I’ve chosen, Weatherspoon's in the town centre and Prizm, a popular club for 18 year olds. The recording is showing a night out in Kingston town and giving it a positive vibe, aiming to reach out to an specific audience of 18 & above, including university students. In Audacity I used the envelope tool and cutting tool, to make the audio slightly quieter so you are able to hear different sounds effectively. I used the cutting tool to make the audio flow better and to cut out any pauses within the audio, which I didn’t find difficult to do and learnt quickly. The Idea of this was to make Kingston seem busy, exciting and lively, like the party doesn’t stop.

[ashleyysmithh]

Photo Essay

Hello to whoever is reading this. I'm a first year university student and the course i do is called Media & Communications, which is interesting and does come with the workload haha but I guess it’s manageable. One of my projects we had to do was a narrative project, which included photo essay, sound recording and animation. So I'll give you guys some background knowledge. I did photography at A level. I'm very much comfortable around a camera and taking pictures so I enjoyed completing the photo essay. The pictures took created a narrative of me at a restaurant with the food showing my experience within the 5 images. I created the images in photoshop, generally just enhancing what is already within the photos. So to achieve this I used camera raw in terms of adjusting the colours and making them vibrant as I wanted the images to be colourful to also capture the burger effectively and to glamorise the food, as fast food is often glamorised. In the photos I’m doing different poses with the food to make the shoot look professional as if it could be published in a magazine as that was the level I was aiming for, so I only tried to enhance the colours within the images instead of using other techniques which may not have created the same effect and level of professionalism I wanted to achieve. I’m also comfortable with using photoshop so I was able to edit and play around with the pictures like I wanted.