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.
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 & Staff with questions about services, please contact us.
https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/laits/contacts.php
My main focus for the past month has been on the LAH flyer, U11_6, some photo ID’s, PPT reformatting,
and scanning slides to digitalize them.
Update and final version of the LAH flyer for Ms. Amorous:
I also worked on the PPT reformatting for AFR303:
https://utexas.box.com/s/gpzu71y2w86ikb6bi7muflm6bgovfwbk
U11_6:
Initial sketch on paper
Outlines on Photoshop
Started coloring
Finished product!
Today I worked on my first powerpoint reformatting assignment. Essentially, I took the original 4:6 slides and converted them into 16:9 slides. Utilizing predetermined formatting guidelines (specifications on background, font, alignment, and color), I edited this lecture powerpoint to be cohesive with the others.
No one technique is good for every project; we discovered this with Rockshelter. After a LOT of doubts, thought and checking with the client, we decided to implement the interactive a little differently from the original. I went back to photoshop to edit the picture a little and then made it interactive with Canvasser. I think the result was pretty good.
I think the font looks really cool and the squares make it pretty obvious what to do, this is good for the kids.
We had problems again when it came to a similar interactive: Gathering Girl. This one is also about clicking but it’s not a portrait so the squares would ruin the picture. We decided to modify that one to in Photoshop and then make it interactive. I’m pretty pleased with this one too.
We’re going to need to include the text somewhere else but the lines make it pretty clear which objects are the important ones.
Although these interactives were pretty difficult to think out, the implementation was pretty easy. I’m excited to get a new interactive and work more with animations.
I’ve been busy working on scene U10_1!
Scene description: Polina and Oleg are sitting inside a homemade pillow and blanket fort. They’re reading a book by flashlight.
I started by roughing out a composition in Photoshop.
After some feedback, I decided to reuse the living room scene background.
I started placing in the puppets and began to roughly draw in the overall structure for the blanket fort! I wanted there to be multiple blankets and to make it clear that it’s being held up by various objects that may be found in the living room area… such as tables and chairs. I also edited the living room scene to make it look like it was taking place at nighttime.
Started blocking in colors and repositioned Polina so I could add the flashlight she’s supposed to be holding. I also thought adding Christmas lights would add a fun, dreamy touch to the scene. I also added in a stack of books as a fun extra detail.
I finished adding in the extra lights and added a glow. I also gave the blankets different prints to make the scene more playful and colorful.
After some more feedback, I added more lighting and some shadows to create more contrast… I also changed the background so that the lamp would be lit as well. I also changed the time on the clock and aded some stars and the moon outside in the center window.
I finally added some finishing touches and made some minor adjustments to the lighting… I tried to make the lights more “glowy” and adjusted the shadows so that they would make more sense with the light sources… I also added some lighting to the trees outside as an extra detail, which I feel really pulls it all together!
This was a really fun scene to illustrate! I really wanted to capture a playful, dream-like feel… Almost a little nostalgic? I hope I was able to convey that!
The U12_2 depicts Oleg and Polina on an ornate staircase, where Polina is at the bottom looking up the stairs with Oleg at the top looking down on her.
I felt the most important part of the scene was the perspective. The stairs are the focal point of the scene, but Polina and Oleg also needed to have the correct perspective to make it seem more realistic and show their position and where they are looking.
The photo I chose reference showed a clear perspective that could easily show the two characters and had good tonal qualities.
I did a rough sketch of the scene.
Once I got approval, I started the final drawing. The perspective of the staircase was easy to capture, but the hardest part was actually drawing the ornate railing, especially since they were all at different distances. I needed to get the right amount of ornate-ness but not detract from the actual stairs and Oleg/Polina (since that was not the focal point).
I added Polina and Oleg in, and while Polina fit in nicely as the perspective was much more straight forward, it was a lot harder to capture Olegs perspective.
I needed to make a sculpture of Oleg out of clay in order to visualize the perspective, because none of the other character sheets showed that perspective from looking down at him. Once I found the right perspective, I pieced together parts of Oleg from multiple character sheets and constructed a new position for him on the stairs.
The tonal renderings were not that difficult, especially since there is a pattern going up the stairs where there is much harsher light and shadows towards the window and softer more dispersed light towards the back.
