ID: 0343197 Course: Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) Mechanical Engineering Module: Digital Photography and Imaging // Mr. Fauzi Yusoff
Group: A
Project 4
In this task, we were given the necessary outline to ease our progress and documentation of this task. In the first part, the theme must first be set and chosen because it would fully reflect on our whole design composition. In the self-titled section, we needed to express ourselves by reflecting on our personalities through visual digital design. This can allow us to build up our self-confidence and reflect on our interests.
1. Idea Development (biography)
Introduction
Hello, I am Isaac Yaw Wai Zac. A kid who was born in Ipoh, Perak. I am an extrovert and I always find time to go out and explore the world with my friends and family to experience many things in life.
Paragraph 1
I like photography, building stuff, sports, technology, music, traveling, and learning many new things.
Paragraph 2
I get motivated to achieve my dreams by staying productive and keeping myself occupied so that I could achieve more things in a shorter amount of time.
Summary
I would like to visualise my dream into an artwork by creating a complex perspective design, to demonstrate the productivity level that I want to achieve in life (on a daily basis).
1. Idea Development (statement)
Introduction
In my work, I would want to create a design that is a portrait of me, but with a lot of elements coming out of my mind, to show what I am thinking, and what I would want to achieve in the future.
Paragraph 1
The concept behind this idea is to bring out all the creative side that is going through my mind. I will have a portrait picture of me as the subject and have a cross-sectional cut somewhere through my mind/face to demonstrate/display my thoughts.
Paragraph 2
The message I want all the viewers to understand will be done by using elements that will represent me in a way (memories, hobby, passion, goals, friends, family, strength, thoughts). I want to deliver my artwork in a way that is my portfolio/a representation of myself in graphic design form (visually).
Summary (quote)
Keep on Hustling!
Stay Productive!
Keep Exploring! (chosen motto)
1. Idea Development (Mood board)
In the first stage of visual research, I already had a rough idea of what kind of design composition I would work with. Therefore, I would slowly browse through online sources such as Pinterest to see which design examples would give me further design inspiration. All the designs chosen were documented down below in Figure 1.1.
Figure 1.1: Design inspirations (research) (as of 29th October 2021)
This design could be made similar to mine as I already had the idea to create a portrait of me and have my mind opened up so that I could illustrate elements coming out of my mind. All the other elements such as clouds and wings also gave me the further inspiration to play around with foreground and background elements when developing my design.
This design is a relatively cool one as I got the idea to create a composition with a 'sci-fi' scale effect. For example, the person is made to be extremely huge when compared to the roads and buildings. I then had the idea to make myself huge and have large elements such as buildings small so that they could fit into my mind.
This particular design enhances the use of elements in a portrait composition. I really like it and it inspired me to play around with different elements in my own design later on.
Further developing my design, I remembered about one of my favourite LEGO creators (JKBrickworks) and a few of his previous works, that is the 'INSIDE THE MIND OF A LEGO DESIGNER'. His designs feature a human head sculpture that can be opened up in different ways to showcase the moving elements in the head. All the designs were documented in Figures 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, and 1.5 below.
Figure 1.2: 'INSIDE THE MIND OF A LEGO DESIGNER' by Jason Allemann
Figure 1.3: 'INSIDE THE MIND OF A LEGO DESIGNER' by Jason Allemann
Figure 1.5: Video demonstration of design inspiration (Inside the Mind of a LEGO Engineer)
2. Design Direction (sketches)
To kickstart my design, I did a few sketches based on all the inspirations and summaries that I have documented above.
Figure 2.1: Overview of design sketches (as of 2nd November 2021)
Design #1
With the slogan 'KEEP EXPLORING', my design #1 is to demonstrate an 'opened-mind' portrait of me and to have all the elements that I like coming out of my mind. I would want to include elements such as skyscrapers, musical instruments, LEGO, and camera. Basically, an illustration of me opening up my mind to show what I am thinking/ dreams/ goals/ hobby. It will demonstrate my small imaginative world in my head.In my opinion, this design would represent me the best through visual design.
Design #2
With this design, I want to create a world of fantasy to visualise my dreams. I want to create a small world of my own and have myself floating to further enhance the 'dream' effect. It will have a sci-fi effect because of the imaginative space I am in and having a small land/world that I live in. The reason why the UFO is there pickling me up is to demonstrate that I should keep exploring and look forward to more awesome things in the future. (Get up and do not be lazy!),Although I think that this design would not perfectly fit the theme, I would want to develop it to see how it would turn out and I would want to know what feedback I would obtain from Mr. Fauzi on this particular design.
2. Design Direction (Photography progress)
Figure 2.2: Photography session (as of 8th November 2021)
Figure 2.3: Photography outcome - with green background (as of 8th November 2021)
Figure 2.4: Compilation of shortlisted portrait pictures #1 (as of 8th November 2021)
Figure 2.5: Compilation of shortlisted portrait pictures #2 - photoshoot in the studio
(as of 8th November 2021)
All these pictures above were taken with my mirrorless camera (Fujifilm XT-1), together with a very suitable lens for portrait photography (Viltrox 85mm f1.8). Since this lens has a very 'zoomed' focal length, the portrait picture will turn out more condensed and appealing. Furthermore, the widest aperture it can go is f1.8, which is very large. Therefore, it can allow more light in even though the shutter speed is increased and also create a more enhanced depth of feel to the portrait picture because background objects will appear more blur.
Figure 2.6: Camera used for the portrait photoshoots (as of 8th November 2021)
Figure 2.7: Demonstration of wide aperture in the lens for background blur (as of 8th November 2021)
2. Design Direction (Digitising progress)
Figure 2.8: Digital progress #1 - importing all pictures into Adobe Photoshop
(as of 10th November 2021)
Figure 2.9: Digital progress #2 - removing background for portrait
(as of 10th November 2021)
Figure 2.10: Digital progress #3 - creating floating Isaac
(as of 10th November 2021)
Figure 2.11: Digital progress #4 - cutting head using lasso tool
(as of 10th November 2021)
Figure 2.12: Digital progress #5 - creating 3D effect for the head
(as of 10th November 2021)
Figure 2.13: Digital progress #6 - adding more elements into Adobe Photoshop
(as of 10th November 2021)
Figure 2.14: Digital progress #7 - adding more elements into Adobe Photoshop
(as of 10th November 2021)
Figure 2.15: Progress overview (as of 10th November 2021)
Figure 2.16: Progress overview (as of 10th November 2021)
Figure 2.17: Progress overview (as of 10th November 2021)
Figure 2.18: Digital Posters #1, #2, #3, & #4 overview (as of 10th November 2021)
Out of all the digital poster compositions, Mr. Fauzi agreed on POSTER #2. I agreed with this selection too because it looks better composed compared to the other designs.
3. Execution and Post Production (After Effects)
Figure 3.1: Digital progress #8 - importing into Adobe After Effects (as of 11th November 2021)
Figure 3.2: Digital progress #9 - creating keyframes in Adobe After Effects
Figure 3.3: First draft (as of 11th November 2021)
Figure 3.4: Digital progress #10 - editing to a better composition and undergoing colour correction
(as of 16th November 2021)
Figure 3.5: Digital progress #11 - organising layers (as of 16th November 2021)
This process was done to ease the process of animating my composition in Adobe After Effects because all the moving elements were grouped together. I created multiple folders instead because it is more organised and is easier to label the layers this way. Then, I matched the colours of the elements which were off to the sunset background so that the overall colour and lighting would look better. I also used the hue & saturation tool, shadows, curves, and exposure tool to correct each of the layers under each folder.
Figure 3.6: Digital progress #12 - organising layers and creating keyframes for moving elements
(as of 17th November 2021)
Figure 3.7: Digital progress #13 - animating using puppet tool for certain elements
(as of 19th November 2021)
Figure 3.8: Digital progress #14 - overview of finalised layers and utilising parent & link tool
Figure 3.10: Video progress #2 (17th - 19th November 2021)
Figure 3.11: Digital progress #15 - downloading mp3 files online (as of 19th November 2021)
Before editing the sound for the animation, I downloaded a few mp3 files from some Youtube videos I found that were fitting for my 15 seconds video. Each sound effect would represent an element that I included in my composition:
Building sound - sound of buildings being built/rising
Violin sound - instrumental
Elevator sound - sound of elements being pushed upwards
Gears spinning - sound of Lego gears and pieces moving
Lego building - sound of Lego pieces moving
Lever pull - sound of claw machine moving
NF’s song - clown/joker sound effect (outro)
Slot machine - sound of claw hitting the top
Wind - sound of Isaac floating away
Figure 3.12: Digital progress #16 - Sound production - using Filmora X (as of 19th November 2021)
I used the Filmora X video editing software at first to play around with the sound because I needed to wait for my Adobe Premiere Pro to finish downloading.
Figure 3.13: Digital progress #17 - Sound production - using Adobe Premiere Pro
Figure 3.14: Animation outcome (as of 20th November 2021)
Final draft and Final Submission (Static & Animated)
Figure 4.1: Final draft for 'KEEP EXPLORING' design by Isaac Yaw - Static
(as of 21st November 2021)
ARTIST STATEMENT:
(Designed by Isaac Yaw)
This is a visual portfolio/introductory representation of Isaac and a very deep message to be delivered, that is to keep exploring and always look forward to the good things in life and in the future. With that, it is very important to have a larger sized portrait of me in the middle which is the main subject of this composition. Then, I included elements to show that they are coming out of my head/mind because those are the things that I like.
I like photography (represented by the camera - taken by me)
I like to explore skyscrapers (represented by the PNB 118 building)
I like to play different musical instruments (represented by the violin - taken by me)
I like to play with Lego (represented by the Lego gears and bricks - taken by me)
I like to try new things and live life on the edge (represented by the cliff)
I like to explore the world from different perspectives - traveling (represented by the floating Isaac)
To make the composition even better, I included some clouds and a scenic sunset picture that I took previously as secondary elements to enhance the imaginary effect. Then, I also included a claw to demonstrate it grabbing my top head to show what is in my mind. The reason why I chose a claw is because the second message I want to deliver is “life is a challenging game, you may not win/succeed in the first few tries but you will eventually get there one day”. It also creates a good flow that enhances good visual hierarchy in this composition.
Figure 4.2: Overview of design with golden ratio grid
(as of 21st November 2021)
DESIGN STATEMENT:
(Designed by Isaac Yaw)
In terms of visual hierarchy, it is very important for a design composition to have a good flow when being viewed by all viewers. In this composition, I overlaid the golden ratio grid over the composition itself for us to further break down the visual hierarchy with the golden ratio rule. The biggest element will be viewed first which is the portrait of me (the main focus), and then followed by the top head being removed, and lastly, the floating person.
Other than that, the overall colour correction style done to this composition is made relatively balanced so that none of the colours from any particular element will stand out/overpower one another. This was done because every element had vibrant colours initially such as the colourful balloons, bright violin colouration, bright yellow shirt, and the vibrant sunset background. I executed this by matching the colour of every element relative to the sunset background because I want to create a more ‘dreamy’ and ‘dramatic’ lighting effect on the overall composition. Then, I added an adjustment layer (hue and saturation) and correct the colour for the overall composition to achieve this effect just like how we edit our pictures using filters. All the elements look a little ‘dreamy’ and ‘pale’ at the end which was what I initially intended to do and instead, let the placement and sizing of the elements control the visual hierarchy and flow to this composition.
Figure 4.3: Final draft for 'KEEP EXPLORING' design by Isaac Yaw - Animation
(as of 20th November 2021)
ARTIST STATEMENT:
This design is entitled ‘KEEP EXPLORING!’ because I would want to deliver a message to be imaginative and look forward to all the things in our future. Meanwhile, open up your mind and be creative and enjoy what you like to do. For example, your hobby, your favourite place(s) to go, achieving your dreams, and staying positive. This composition has an overall sci-fi genre to it because of the head being opened, the floating person, and objects coming out from the head. This was done because there are a few messages that can be extracted from this design.
Stay imaginative and look forward to enjoying the awesome things in life.
Enjoy the little things in life.
Open up your mind and relax/stay positive.
Life is a challenging game. You may not succeed in the first few tries, but you will eventually get there one day.
Figure 4.4: Final progress in Adobe Photoshop - adding adjustment layers (as of 22nd November 2021)
Figure 4.5: Overview of the final product before and after adding adjustment layers
(as of 22nd November 2021)
Figure 4.6: Final submission for 'KEEP EXPLORING' design by Isaac Yaw - Static
Figure 4.7: Final submission for 'KEEP EXPLORING' design by Isaac Yaw - Animation
(22nd November 2021)
Feedback from lecturer
Week 11
This week, I came up with my idea for my design composition. In my idea development section, it was a very opened-ended one and pretty subjective. Therefore, Mr. Fauzi give me the green light to continue with my sketch ideas based on my motto. Further feedback will be given in the upcoming weeks.
Week 12
Mr. Fauzi mentioned that my sketches were good to go because of the meaning and explanation behind them. He also mentioned that I should go with sketch design #1 because it looks better composed than design #2 and has a better message to it.
Week 13
Mr. Fauzi had a look at my first draft and had a few concerns about the way I composed the top part of my head. He mentioned that it looks cool and has meaning to it, but I looked like mickey mouse because of how my top head splits into 2 parts. Instead, I should just remove the entire top part of my head or find another way to reposition my top head so that it would not look too weird.
Week 14
Mr. Fauzi complimented on my overall work and composition coming into this week. He also mentioned that I could try out some flake or snow effect as an overlay so that I could achieve the 'dreamy' and 'interactive' feel that I initially intended to. If I were to use the same composition without the overlay, Mr. Fauzi suggested that I should play around with adjustment layers as filters to make the composition more saturated.
Reflection
In this project, it was a very fun one because I get to learn and explore many new things. The design sector is very new to me because I am from a different school. However, I get to explore many new design software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, and Premiere Pro. With this project, I get to pick up so many design software skills and animate digital designs. In the other aspects such as communicating and documenting my progress on my projects, I find it very interesting as once again, it is a new style/format for me. I like the way we document and update our Google slides and blogs on a weekly basis so that we are always on track and not missing out on anything. About the design/final outcome for this project, I think that it turned out alright although there is room for improvements. It was a great learning journey and I look forward to more similar projects like these in the future and also using my knowledge and skills in designing to solve daily problems/tasks.
I'm enjoying your design process here Isaac. That was a great documentation. I'm glad that you've enjoyed and learned so much from this module. Keep on practice on what you've learned and keep on exploring. Wish you all the best in future! - FY
I'm enjoying your design process here Isaac. That was a great documentation. I'm glad that you've enjoyed and learned so much from this module. Keep on practice on what you've learned and keep on exploring. Wish you all the best in future!
ReplyDelete- FY