Art 202 Pareidolia Animation Storyboards For Adobe After Effects Assignment

Edit:  You can see the finished animation this post refers to in today's update:http://artmusicpoliticsfaithhopeandlove.blogspot.com/2013/03/finished-assignment-pareidolia.html

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Hello,

Our spring semester is really flying by in my Art 202 - Digital Art Survey class.

We're already working on the second project of four...a Pareidolia Animation.

A "pareidolia is when a vague or random image is perceived as recognizable".   

(I found that definition on flickr and you'll find a few examples if you follow my link there)
 

Probably the most common example of a Pareidolia is seeing faces or animals in clouds.

Our assignment is to make a 1 minute minimum pareidolia animation using Adobe After Effects to assemble it.

We can use other software like Photoshop or Illustrator to create the images and our instructor will be covering rotoscoping soon...something I've always wanted to know more about.

The storyboards for the project are due today.  I've always resisted doing them...because I'd rather jump right into creating...but discovered I really enjoy the process of creating them and it really helps you put together your ideas.  So I'll probably find myself doing more of them for my own work.

I may or may not use the exact sequence or scenes from them...but I thought I'd share what I'm submitting in class today:

As you can probably see on this last group I moved away from "narrative" and got more experimental as I went along...something our instructor will probably like to see.

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Well that's it for now.

As always thank you heaps for stopping by!

"Snow" Falls In Phoenix Arizona

Hello,

I've lived in the Phoenix area for over 15 years and had family here for some 35 years now.  So through the years I've seen all kinds of different Phoenician weather.

BUT NEVER SNOW!!

Ok...to be fair the media is calling it graupel or a "soft hail".  *

But to me...if it walks like a duck..............

And what we had here this evening...we would've called snow when I was growing up in Colorado.

Granted, there wasn't much...what my mom woulda called "just a skiff".

But I snapped a few pics as a reminder...and I'll let you decide for yourself what to call it. : )

Keep in mind as you're looking at theses images that Phoenix is located in the Sonoran Desert often records temperatures of 114 degrees!

Note the Palm Tree off in the far right

"Snow" sticking to cars and lawns:

*  A few years ago the main-stream media breathlessly, and unanimously reported a "man" gave birth to a child.  So maybe they aren't always the best source of truth and information. 

:)


Thanks as always for stopping by!

Jephyr's Art 202 Photoshop Assignment: Identity Project

Image from Art 202 "Identity Project" - Copyright 2013, Jephyr

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Hello!

Yesterday, my Art 202 - Digital Art Survey class had a critique day for the Adobe Photoshop "Identity Projects" we've been working on for the last three plus weeks.

A lot of students in the class are just beginning with Photoshop but I was surprised at how good many of the submissions were.  There was so much inspiring variety...and lots of cool, sometimes very thought provoking images.

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As usual I really went into over-drive for my assignment and put in endless hours...and was generally pleased with end result...but you never know how it will be received by others. 

Sometimes what "speaks" to you as an artist...seems to completely miss the mark when you finally share it.

But in this case I was happy to find that there was a lot of positive feedback...and even a few compliments that would be wrong for me to repeat.  Let's just say I wish everything I did had this kind of response.

Below I'll post the full "Prospectus" I submitted to our instructor at the beginning of this assignment...but the summary will probably explain enough for most:

Project Summary: 

"This project will explore my own aging and its effects on my perceptions of life.  A series of self-portraits and other images will be shot with a digital camera and then enhanced and manipulated in Adobe Photoshop."

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So If anyone is still reading...and didnt' just go straight to the images...here they are...beginning with the "triptych and quadtrych" I submitted as the Final images for the project.

 (click to see larger views):

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(Triptych removed)

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Lastly, as you age, you become more and more aware of mortality.

While I'm not morbid about it...the older I get the more I find myself thinking about my own exit from this planet.

Here's a larger view of The Skull Image from the first Triptych.  I took several high contrast portraits of myself and a reference skull that I have and composited them together:



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And here's the prospectus I submitted for the project:

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Thanks as always for stopping by!

Video Tutorial: Awesome Photoshop CS 6 Painter's Color Wheel Extension (CS 4 & 5 versions as well)

* PLEASE NOTE *:   Unfortunately it seems that this painter's wheel no longer works for "CC 2014" because Adobe is now using html for extensions instead of flash.

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Hello,

I just put together and uploaded a video tutorial for Len White's Free "Painter's Color Wheel" for Photoshop CS 6 (which is backward compatible with CS 5).  

There is also a CS 4 + version available which works for both CS 4 and 5. 

The Painter's Wheel for CS 6 has a few more features and uses the popular Photoshop darker color scheme for its interface. 

But if you're like me and have Photoshop CS 5  and don't mind a little different look for the interface...IMHO you'll want to use the CS 6 version for those little "extras".

Here's a look at the CS 6 interface: 

And here's the CS 4 + version:

The tutorial video should help explain all the features and covers how to download and install it.

If you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments below.





Thanks for stopping by!