STA Blog

STA Work Blog

STAs: Student Technology Assistants

Who We Are
LAITS: IT and Facilities Director, Joe TenBarge initiated the Student Technology Assistant program in 2004. STAs are UT students who work on a variety of projects in collaboration with UT faculty and LAITS staff members. STAs assist College of Liberal Arts faculty members and administrative staff with print and web design. From building presentations, to creating audio/visual works, and producing online classes in the LAITS film studios, STAs are instrumental in helping COLA faculty realize their vision for multimedia projects that enhance their teaching and the students learning experience. By the end of their student careers, STAs have portfolios which demonstrate their accrued technical and design skills.

Prospective STAs:

Creative and technically inclined students are appointed as STAs for one year, with the possibility of being rehired as long as they study at the university. Applicants for the program are hired before both long semesters. Interested students may look for postings on Hire-A-Longhorn when positions are available. Positions will have Student Technology Assistant (illustrator or web designer) in the title of the job post.

Faculty and Staff:

Faculty & Staff with questions about services, please contact us.

https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/laits/contacts.php

  • Audio Services: Michael C Heidenreich, Audio Services Manager
  • Video Services: Kelly Webster, Video Production Supervisor
  • Graphic Design & Web Design Services: Suloni Robertson, Art Director / STA Program Manager

Week of 7/2

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This week was more bearable after the hectic workload of last week finally wrapped up a little.

For the RGT, I made a simple campus map base for the main page:

I first took the colored map into Illustrator, then removed all the numbered labels and made all the objects a solid color. Then, I used Photoshop and changed the color of the objects to white, and just added a black choked outer glow and a drop shadow for the outlines. The style is supposed to be similar to the hand icon I did before, i.e. an engraving. I think the map will look a lot more complete after we add the etching marks on specific buildings and stops.

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I also continued my work on the Russian Animations object creations with my Awake Girl and a notification bell:

Awake Girl’s looking cute! Not much to say on her other than the fact that it definitely gets easier the more you do. The pigtails are always the hardest part since the Kyle Legacy brush has a hard time drawing curves that look aesthetically pleasing 🙁 Meanwhile, the bell was especially fun for me since I finally got to do a little animation. I had some experience with motion/classic tweens from before, but it was mostly for rotations and position. I’m glad I got the opacity part figured out without much hassle! I look forward to animating more!

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For Russian illustration, I did this work for Kathy. It felt kind of rushed because I was doing it at the end of my week (since I only work 3 days) so I was frantically picking colors the last part of my shift. I don’t usually cell-shade when I color, so it was a bit of a challenge to create interesting textures with a solid brush. I also didn’t know if we were allowed to add effects like sparkles and sun rays (though in truth I was also just running out of time, #procrastination). I liked how my piece turned out overall though, especially the birds!

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I was also asked to do more edits on my “This is Democracy” design and incorporate a more “historical” look and feel by adding things like the parchment texture, a quill, and the relief of a neoclassical building. I also touched up the wigs a little, but I’m not sure how much more “realistic” they can be if I want to maintain the simplistic and minimalistic look. One thing I’m struggling with by adding all those images in the background is making the two puppet characters stand out just as much as they did in the other drafts. Compared to the older version, the new one has a darker but more “historical” mood, which may or may not be a bad thing? Anyways, I’ll keep working on it!

     

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Finally, I also did more Cascade work. I added contact info, staff pages, the sidebar video, some external links, and the magic trick. Most of the Cascade site is done now, I just need to fix a few details:

Illustration

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Illustration

This is a very chill illustration assignment that don’t have much restrictions on the content, so I resorted to what I find the most fun drawing- cute girls. I started off with just a girl sitting in a field of flowers with a cat in hand, but then I want something to frame the composition more, so I added a bird cage.  The cage by itself still don’t feel quite right for me, so then I added a galaxy background with lots of stars. The clustered stars effect is achieved by a splatter paint brush, and the muster yellow dots against dark Ultramarine and Prussian blue made them appear to glow.

The floral garden kind of vibe I received from the bird cage eventually lead me to add more leaves around the edges, and I also doodled some flowers, circles, and butterflies (that I detest with passion) around the girl. To make the girl stand out more, I erased all colors from her, leaving only a white silhouette with colored outlines.

The assignment preferred flat cell shading, so instead of doing my usual routine with multiple dark and light layers to create a sense of space and form, I relied on the shape of my brush and different combinations of 100% opaque colors to add complexity to my illustration.

 

 

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My finalized version of the This Is Democracy project ended up looking like this:

I rounded the corners (upon Suloni’s request) which I really liked because it matches the round and simplistic style of the image. One of the largest issues I had while finalizing this was that the Constitution in the background was clashing with the characters and speech bubbles. Suloni advised that I add a paper texture overlay to make everything look slightly like paper cutouts on top of the Constitution. I added a little bit of natural drop shadow in photoshop and I think the end result looks more cohesive than it did before.

Another assignment I finished was Kathy’s illustration test. 

Here’s an image of my process from sketching > line art > coloring:

 

The first idea that came to my mind when I was starting this drawing was something colorful and fun, so I went with a cowgirl riding a unicorn down a rainbow. I haven’t used a tablet to draw in photoshop in quite a few years, so my line art and coloring weren’t the cleanest, but I enjoyed the tone of the final illustration. Overall, I had fun letting my creative freedom drive this assignment.

Finally, I did Tate’s second object creation Animate assignment where I got to make cookie symbols! Again, I have to praise the thorough and detailed tutorials. They really helped me a ton with figuring out the layout and workings of Animate.

This past week was a pretty enjoyable and productive one. I’m loving learning all these new skills, and I can’t wait to complete more projects!

 

https://sta.laits.utexas.edu/blog/2018/06/28/23384-2/