I completed the Photo Sourcing and Color Grading training, which taught me how to use gradient maps and color matching to create a coherent aesthetic or style for images. I found this training super fun and easy, and thought I’d share my results below —

For the gradient map part I was asked to choose my favorite film as a starting point. I don’t exactly know if I have a favorite film, to be honest, but Suspiria (1977) is definitely one of my favorites, so I went with it. It’s a stunning movie that I recommend to anyone who hasn’t seen it!

I used the following screencap as a source for colors:

Here were the resultant images:

https://sta.laits.utexas.edu/blog/2021/10/18/suspiria/

Weekly updates

I took Monday off this week for a medical appointment at a weird time. Here’s what I worked on this week and last week! I also was able to schedule a meeting with Marla to discuss Chatter numbers and whatnot for the PR project. I plan on talking with Chris Pittman next, and hopefully Matthew nails down the faculty presentation soon.

Photo ID Guidelines

Ingrid, Angie, Abriella and I have all been working to update the photo ID aesthetic guidelines and training. Last week, we finished the aesthetic edits slide deck, and this week, we chose photos — categorized into easy, medium and hard — for new STAs to practice on. Here are examples:

 

Here are a couple of slides from the slide deck. I actually learned about the selective color tool from Cristina — changed my life. I also tried to emphasize in the slide deck that most photos will need more than one type of edit, and some edits require others after (like cool color balance –> vibrance)

 

 

Color grading training

This was super fun! Thanks to Sheryl for making it! For ~fall vibes~ I chose to match colors to Wes Anderson’s adaptation of “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” incidentally one of my favorite movies.

https://sta.laits.utexas.edu/blog/2021/10/15/41864-2/

ARF320 Buttons

This week I also created two new buttons for the AFR320 course.

 

 

Project: COLA Website Refresher
Client /Prof: N/A (College of Liberal Arts)
Completion Status: Started August 25, 2021
Staff guidance: Michelle Vanhoose, Chris Rankin
STA team members: Ingrid, Adrian
description/plans: Continue migrating data from the old CMS to the new CMS
To be completed: TBD (long-term)

 

Hey everyone. This week I migrated more COLA pages, mostly the language ones which were a lot easier to migrate than the tables. I also updated some of my previous pages with the tables using the HTML source code which made formatting look a lot nicer.

 

 

Project: Blanton Website Migration
Client /Prof: Blanton Museum
Completion Status: Started August 23, 2021
Staff guidance: Ruben Garza
STA team members: Asmita, Marianne, Angie, Abriella
description/plans: Work on migrating the current Blanton museum website pages to the WordPress site
To be completed: TBD (long-term)

 

I started working on the Blanton Website Migration and started migrating pages there as well. Blanton, as I’ve been told, is a massive project so I’m sure that there will be lots of work to do between COLA and Blanton. I also got to attend the STA Fall Welcome Back Party, which was a lot of fun as I got to tour the building and meet the other departments as well as make origami and buttons. Here’s a Blanton page that I worked on.

Ethics and Fairness Course Graphics

This week I have been working on completing the Ethics and Fairness course graphics. Besides the studio backdrop, the course graphics a quite simple to put together.

 

 

 

Csms_CSEF_TitleCards

 

 

I also ended up creating a collage backdrop for this course when it wasn’t necessary. But I feel that is still looks really good.

 

 

Now I am currently trying to figure out what is the best backdrop version with a subtle design. Here are the different versions with the studio test.

 

.  .  .   .       .    .   

 

I personally like the darker versions better. I feel like they provided a great contrast for the professor. I feel like the design could be lowered in opacity to provide the more subtle approach.

 

COLA Web Refresh Project

Work has continued on this project. I’ve been continuing client communication, specifically for the Academic Enrichment sites. All the CM STAs submitted the checks for understanding Google Form, so I’ll be calling Suloni today on Slack to discuss next steps.

Also, Crystal granted me access to UT’s Image Relay, a repository of UT photography used by University Communications for me to use for certain pages that need an image refresh (which is many pages).

Also, I created new buttons for the Maymester and Faculty Led Pages, as the program offerings have changed:

I also created a new banner for ASL on the Languages set of pages, trying to mimic the style of the original designer as much as possible

Before:

After:

HIS 314K PPTs

I reformatted another HIS315K ppt.

The Devil/Pirate Wears Prada

https://sta.laits.utexas.edu/blog/2021/10/11/pirate-wears-prada/