Pre-course video updates!

The video is coming along! I’ve been having a lot of fun with it and see what effects I can add.

One thing I had to change was the style of some backdrops that were used. I was told by my advisor that beforehand, the backdrops looked to realistic to fit in with the rest of the video, so I was advised to properly trace the backdrops in my own style instead of automatically vectorizing them.

Here’s a comparison of how they look.

While it did take a while, I’m glad that I was advised to trace the backdrops. They look a lot more inviting and fitting now

Here’s one of the other backdrops I did.

I’ll be able to post the first draft of the video by the end of the week!

STA Roster Poster Spring 2024

Client/Prof: LAITS
Completion Status: Started on Jan 23
Staff Guidance: De’sha

This week I’ve been working on even more drafts! Sorry for the low quality, I’ve been having trouble uploading my work here.

Image tracking UTCF 11.5

Start: January 25, 2024

To be Completed by: March 27, 2024

Staff Guidance: Leilani & Yazz

Client: UTFC

Description: I was assigned to browse images for the module 11.5B Movies and Entertainment image tracking to later use in a presentation. This time I had to browse for images in pexels, pixabay, or unsplash that matched the vocabulary word given for the theme of movies and entertainment.

 

After filling out the google sheets after finding and the images for the vocabulary words and getting approved, I started making the powerpoint along with the edits.

 

One of the edits I had to make on photoshop was cropping, blurring out the background, and changing the title from english to french of a movie preview.

 

 

Completing all the edits, I finalized the powerpoint with the all the vocabulary terms and corresponding images.

Image tracking UTCF 13.5

Start: January 29, 2024

To be Completed by: March 25, 2024

Staff Guidance: Leilani & Yazz

Client: UTFC

Description: I was assigned to browse images for the module 11.3B Media and Impersonal Expressions image tracking to later use in a powerpoint presentation. I had to browse for images in pexels, pixabay, or unsplash that matched the vocabulary word given for the theme of movies and entertainment.

 

After the completed google sheet was reviewed by Yazz, some terms were deleted due to it’s abstract nature and others needed to be edited further before inserting them into the powerpoint presentation.

For one image, I had to cover up the legible title text of a newspaper.

Once all the necessary edits were completed, I created the final powerpoint.

UTCF Google Sheets & UT Box

Start: January 22, 2024

To be Completed by: January 22, 2024

Staff Guidance: Leilani & Yazz

Client: UTFC

Description: For the UTCF vocabulary unit 11, I transferred the terms into different google sheets inside the UTCF Course 3 Sourcing & Replacements. Additionally, I created the UT Box folders for each subunit in Unit 11  to start image tracking.

ART3800: TWENTIETH CENTURY ART CUSTOM COURSE GRAPHICS

START: January 23rd, 2024

COMPLETED BY: January 26, 2024

DESCRIPTION: This week I was tasked with the training to create a custom graphics package for a LAITS studio course.

BRIEF 
For this course, Dr. Fabiola Martinez Rodriguez, the professor of ART3800: Twentieth Century Art, wanted custom graphics that heavily took inspiration from the content of the course. One of her main requirements for this was incorporating a classic 20th century font and to look into Bauhaus and the International Style for design inspiration.

STARTING STEPS
To meet these outlined goals for Dr. Fabiola Martinez Rodriguez's course I started by creating a mood board of color schemes, mood-boards, and 1920-1930s art and design that I felt would align well with the Professor's and my vision. 

After making this mood-board and getting approval from my director, I was able to have a better grasp on how I was going to incorporate the requirements of this assignment into something that also represents the variety of art as a discipline. In addition to this I was able to see the legibility of a handful of 20th century font and which one would be most effective for the main audience of this course, students.

When drafting my first iteration of what the main design of this course would look like I started with designs that were more illustrative, as shown below.

 While inspired by the classic Bauhaus geometric and asymmetric composition, I quickly realized this illustrative style fell flat when it came to In-Studio assets that had to look engaging and clean in order to be transferable into many different graphics. After scrapping this idea, I went back to ideating and referenced my mood-board in order to see how I can convey my vision.

BASE/BACKGROUND DESIGN 
After playing around with more options and getting feedback from my director. I opened up photoshop, inspired to create a collage of some of the most famous works covered in the course content. 
After playing around a bit with placement, color, and texture, I was able to create a puzzle-like collage of some of the most recognizable pieces of twentieth century art. After being happy with the final result of this image I moved to testing it to see if it would comply with the In-Studio Asset guidelines regarding how a professor is framed and how a student is able to view them. 

 

My initial iteration of this idea, while cohesive with the styling the professor requested, had two main problems

- the saturation of the image
- the placement of certain art pieces  

In the feedback my director gave me, she pointed out the distraction of Frida Kahlo's eye peaking out behind the professor and the image of the cross coming out of their head. These two images along with the high saturation of it all made the collage a bit distracting for students when trying to listen to their professor teach.

After applying her feedback and suggestion I was able to come up with less distracting placement and toned down version of my previous design in order to confirm students have a productive learning experience.   

Final Background Design 

IN-STUDIO ASSETS 
After finalizing this design, I was able to move on to make the rest of the IN-Studio assets for this custom course. For these In-Studio assests I had to tweak this main design slightly to add variation and to fit the various sizes needed. For the custom course I needed to create 3 additional main layouts: the vertical monitor, the desk skirt, and the ipad overlay. 

Vertical Monitor: 

Desk Skirt:
Ipad Overlay:


CANVAS COURSE GRAPHICS
To finalize the course assets I additionally had to make canvas course graphics for the homepage, dashboard, and buttons. Due to the base design being completed this portion of the design process was not too much of struggle. 

Call-Out Buttons:

Canvas Dashboard:

Canvas Homepage:


ADDITIONAL GRAPHICS
Animation:
In addition to these course graphics I was also asked to storyboard a starter animation for this course that would play before the beginning of the lectures. 
My idea for this animation was to make it look as if someone was cutting out the art pieces themselves to make this collage. I wanted to have a realistic almost magazine like feel of cutting out the images from these art pieces and gluing them to the page. At the end it would show the final collage and the camera would slowly zoom in to reveal the finalized background and the text desired.

Powerpoint: 
I was also assigned to make two main example slides for this course. This task was fairly simple and required just slight adjustment to the background (black 50% opacity box) to make the text legible and comfortable for students to take notes on and read.

CONCLUSION + FINAL DESIGN MENU
Overall designing this custom course was such an informative and fun process. It allowed me to be creative but also consider the usability for it target audience of students. The past user research done on what distracts and helps students learn in a digital environment helped me a lot when it came to this product and I will take what I learned designing "Twentieth Century Art" to future graphics and assets I create as a design STA.
 

I am back for the spring semester and ready for anything this semester throws at me! Excited to be back at work and keep collaborating alongside everyone this semester.

A quick run through my winter break. This break was a much needed break for me and has allowed me to take a step back. I was able to relax while also take a look at my future with this semester being my last one. Though very daunting at first, I got some perspective. I stayed home during the break with my dad and brother, my mom came back from Peru towards the end 0f the break. My break consisted of going to local places in my hometown and got to do things like rock climbing, going to the arcade, and ice skating. It was nice getting to see friends from high school again and catch up. During a couple of our hang outs, we got to do some fun activities like making presentations of our semester recap! Yeah I know at first it sounds like homework, but it was fun explaining our presentation in detail. Another thing we did were vision boards! We all met once and spent the entire day printing and designing our vision boards! Overall it was a good break to catch up on sleep and relax for awhile.

 

This week, I had two project assigned to me, both were course packet styles for MUS 307 and E316L

Course Graphic Design: MUS 307

Start: January 16, 2024

Completed by: January 30, 2024

Staff Guidance: De’sha & Jennifer

Client: Dr. Charles Carson

Description: The client requested a new course graphic set for MUS 307 – How Music Works: Popular Music in Popular Culture with Style B assets. They asked for two options to show the professor in order gauge the direction the professor would like to go with. The course centered around popular music in popular culture with the professor mentioning popular artists like Taylor Swift and Beyonce, and possibly using color palette in reference to them. They requested for PPT slides (Course Title slide, Lecture Segment slide, and Additional PPT slide), and Canvas Graphics (Dashboard, Homepage Banner, and Buttons).

 

I first started by searching for images that dealt with popular music in Pexel, Unsplash, and Pixabay and created some Canvas dashboard sets to get some feedback on what design the client would like to go with:

 

Images –

Canvas Dashboard –

After receiving feedback that the client wanted the maroon color iteration, I then created the canvas graphics and PPT slides.

After a studio test, the PPT background slides needed to be more transparent so I lowered the opacity.

 

Course Graphic Design: E316L

Start: January 17, 2024

Completed by: February 19, 2024

Staff Guidance: De’sha & Andrea

Client: Professor Elizabeth Hedrick

Description: The client requested for a Style A course packet for the summer course Intro to British Literature, including PPT slides (iPad Overlay), Canvas Graphics (Dashboard, Homepage Banner, and Buttons), and Studio Assets (UT generic/ UT Seal). In the notes, they had requested it to be in teal color  with no headshots as other professors would be using them as well.

 

I followed the Style A course graphics guidelines and changed some design aspects as needed. I created the assets in a teal color, removed the headshot image spacing, and rearranged the space.

Afterward, the client expressed that they wanted a set of powerpoint templates for the class as well, so I created them.

It feels good to be back! My break was pretty relaxing and I mainly focused on spending time with family so now I feel good to jump back into projects I wasn’t able to get to in time.

Pre-course LAITS Video

After finishing the course graphics for the 301 Astronomy class, a new project was given to me that is largely animation based. LAITS has a studio that allows professors to stream online classes and a special feature of it is that students can even attend the live studio to see the professor in person (kind of like a live audience). My assignment was to make a video that airs before the class to inform students on things to be weary of during a live class and general etiquette for the studio.

I first started with designing storyboards for an animatic.

Next, once I was given the rough audio, I was able to make an animatic.

Once the animatic was approved, I was able to move on to designing the assets. This assignment has given me a lot of creative freedom as I was allowed to design the infographics for the video myself. I’m getting pretty comfortable with Adobe Illustrator.

This process was definitely what took the longest as I wanted to ensure that the assets not only looked nice, but also that the Illustrator file was properly formatted to be imported into After Effects for animation.

I have all the assets finished and am currently working on the animation. I’m excited to see how it’ll turn out!