October

After being out for the first week of October due to being sick, I was left with one less week to work on the Early Voting animations and the rest of the animations. While I was able to get the Early Voting animations in on time, I feel the animations could be better if I had more time for a couple more rounds of feedback.

It was then time to move on to the last two animations: “Tomorrow is Election Day” and “Today is Election Day.” I was able to complete these rather quickly because I was able to use assets and animations from the previous animations. A few adjustments later- I officially completed all of the Voting PSA animations!

Here are the final icons used (Credits to De’sha for the vote early icon!):

And here are the final two animations:

Overall, I felt like this project allowed me to really get comfortable in After Effects! I had fun experimenting with different animations and learning the best workflow for me.

My October!

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been working on web development projects for the UT Lifespan Lab and our Alumni network site.

UT Lifespan Lab

I was tasked with redesigning the website shown down below, to be more user-friendly and visual dynamic while keeping a lot of the same elements (like the header).

I was coming back to WordPress after a very long time, so there was an initial learning curve, but I was able to come up with the layout below after some trial and error:

The header was the most difficult to work on– being able to preserve the original design while somehow finding a way to avoid a clash with the newer layout was a challenge.

I went through multiple iterations before deciding that a gradient could help preserve what the client still wanted to showcase while allowing for a softer approach.

This was the final header:

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Other Pages

About Page

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People Page

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Directions Page

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STA Alumni Network Site

The most recent project I’m currently working on is the new STA Alumni Network site. The site houses resources for alumni, chances to connect, and recent news regarding STA alumni. SInce this project started very recently, my current progress is limited to the Home page.

I was tasked with adding the following elements to the layout:

1. Header
2. Hero Section
3. Highlight/Mission Section
4. Carousel Section
5. Featured Alumni Section
6. Check Us Out/Latest News

Next Steps

• About
• Alumni Showcase
• Events
• Job Board
• Register as an Alum/Log In

Photoshop Training – Photo Sourcing and Color Grading

In-between the projects I’ve been working on so far this semester, I had time to do a quick training in Photoshop to enhance my understanding of color and blending modes in Photoshop.

Activity 1

For this first activity I was told to choose a scene from a movie that had an interesting color palette. I chose this screenshot from Into the Spiderverse:

Next, I used Image > Mode > Indexed Color to choose reduce the image down to its 8 most prominent colors. Then, Image > Mode > Color Table… > Save and Import Swatches to turn these colors into a usable color palette.

I then found a random stock photo (left) to apply the color scheme to (right). To do this, I added a gradient map to the image using the colors from above. I then played around with blending modes and opacity until the colors weren’t too overpowering.

Activity 2

For this next technique, you find a source image that you want to pull colors from to apply to another photo. I chose this as my color source image:

And this as the photo I wanted to edit / Then, using Image > Adjustment > Match color and playing around with color luminance, intensity, and fade, I was left with this:

Notes: Recently, I’ve been interested in how color and light works, so I figured this training would be insightful. I think it’s interesting how much color affects the mood of a picture. Applying the bright color scheme from the Spiderverse screenshot gave the stock portrait more intensity and volume. In the second exercise, the edited photo feels colder than the original. It looks like the first photo was taken in the spring and the second in the winter.

Fall STA Roster Posters

Video Team

Project Overview: Design a poster based on the “Love Actually” movie poster that showcases the video STAs.

What I Learned: For this project I got to practice my photo editing skills by adjusting the lighting on some of the STAs to make them look uniform with everyone else. I also practiced my layout design skills when creating the spaces to place each of their headshots.

Notes: One of my favorite parts was deciding which headshot to use for each STA. I tried to create a balance of looking at the camera vs. not and looking to the left vs. the right to make the final product look cohesive and as playful as the original poster. Overall, I really like how this turned out!

Tech Integration Team

Project Overview: Design a poster based on the “Men in Black” movie poster that showcases the Tech Integration STAs.

Process/What I Learned: This poster presented some new challenges. First, I focused on creating the title. After I found a font that looked like the original, I added a gradient to make the edges of the words darker than the center. Then, I created the light rays to go behind. To do this I used the Radial Blur effect in Photoshop on a brush stroke of blue/white. After adding the stars and submitting for feedback, I was given the suggestion to add the suits, watches, and sunglasses. To do this, I cut out the suits, sleeves, and watches from the original poster. I then used the warp tool to fit the suits to the STAs as accurately as I could without distorting the photos. I also cut out Drew’s hair and each of their hands to layer on top of the suits. Here’s them without the suits for reference:

Notes: I’m glad we decided to go with the full Men in Black outfits. I think it’s fun and makes the whole poster come together. It also allowed me to practice cutting out objects in Photoshop.