Update on ARH301 display

Last week some screen tests were done with the art history graphic for Professor Johns to see what it will look like during her lectures. There are two monitors in the space, one behind the desk (which will show in the picture-in-picture video/powerpoint lecture) and another down below and in front of the desk. We agreed that the graphic would look best on the desk monitor because on the back one it would be too distracting during her powerpoint lectures.

I made some adjustments to the design so it would work for the new screen. The main issue was that all the text needed to be moved as far up as possible so it could still be read in case the bottom of the screen got cut off, and also there was a red cast on the screen so I created a color balance layer on top of everything to slightly tint it cyan. The images I enlarged in a more uniform grid pattern, with equally spaced margins. The negative space below Starry Night and Venus will be filled in with images soon.

For the back monitor we decided that something not too busy would be best, and Suloni and I discussed options including a grid, triptych or multi-panelled image, and large graphic letters spelling ART. Professor Johns will send us a list of artwork she uses on her exams for use in the display (also, I’m downloading the pictures from UT’s Digital Archive Services, DASe, and they are unaffected by copyright laws because they being used only for educational purposes and not outside of an educational setting); in the meantime I made a grid design and an eight-panel design as clipping masks so that I can easily add the images later.

Update on Russian animation/illustration

The two other views of Waitress 2, completed. Today I’ll begin a tutorial on symbol creation and make some phone symbols.

My first Russian illustration assignment, which I’ve sketched out. The scene is Oleg and Polina picking flowers in a field while Grigory takes their photograph. It looks a little pixelated because it was a drawing that I scanned in and then had to change the line color to this mauveish-rose color from the original black, but I don’t think it matters because the line work is going on a new layer on top of this.

I was assigned to make a 1920 x 1080 digital display for Prof. Ann Johns’ ARH 301 Intro to Visual Arts fall class. I was given this previous digital display for a black studies class as an example of the type of design I should model, and also the images, text (using Garamond), and colors (black and blue–#344c75) Prof. Johns requested I use.

I left room for the UT and/or department logo/s to be added, as in the black studies display. I will rearrange the images a bit more after that so there won’t be any gaping holes like there are now. The display, once finished, will be on a screen behind Prof. Johns during her recorded lectures

Other things I’ve been working on. I made some amendments to my “Waitress 2” character design, adding some strands of hair so that the bangs on the front view would look more realistic. I’m getting the hang of the Animate tools, which work differently than they do in Photoshop. Instead of using many layers like I normally would, in Animate you have the option to change the settings on your pen/brush to paint on top of, inside, behind, etc, existing lines. I also finished my practice illustration for Kathy (below).

Other ongoing projects I’m working on: Cascade documentation. A few of us were tasked with updating the guides on how to use Cascade which will be extremely useful for faculty who need to manage pages within their department sites. When faculty come to us to learn about Cascade, we can point to this as a resource and make the process much easier for everyone involved. We’re planning to have this completed by the end of the month. Also, for TBH I’ve been organizing .mp4 files that have been converted from .mov. Once they’ve all been moved to their correct folder I’ll check them to make sure that they play.

This past week I’ve finished working on Cascade I’ve started working on my two training assignments for the online Russian course. For Kathy I’m working on a practice illustration which was supposed to include one character, one animal, and a background. I started drawing a person walking their dog on a country road, first sketching everything in and doing my line work and colors each on a separate layer. This is my progress:

Today I did some COLA IDs, assigned by Chloe. I adjusted the exposure, brightness, and saturation of the images to make there faces more visible and the color more vibrant.  The first photo was sent in as a 100 x 124 px image, too small for the 200 x 300 px profile image, so I was advised by Suloni to use the original size for the profile picture and not stretch the image.

I was also assigned by Tate to create a hairstyle for a character that’s going to be used in the Russian animations. I’m drawing the side and front view of a ponytail for “Waitress 2”

Next week Chloe and I will meet with a client to explain the process of using Cascade.

Updated the “This is Democracy” graphic to have more wig-like looking wigs:

 

(Mostly) finished Cascade training:

The staff aren’t showing up on the Staff List even though I’ve assigned them to my page through the database… I think there might be some lag time?

Yesterday I made a mockup for the cover art of a podcast called This is Democracy. The client requested that the image show young people wearing 19th century wigs, with the U.S. constitution as a backdrop, in a 1400 x 1400 px document. Here is my mockup:

 

 

Beyond that, I’ve just been working on COLA IDs:

And my Cascade test site (see previous blog post).