For this project, you’ll need a series of high quality photos that will help you spell out a word or two. You’ll take those photos and fill in the letters that spell a word or phrase of your choice. Here’s an example:

Start off by creating a new blank file. I’m making mine the size of a standard piece of paper,  8.5 x 11 inches, but I’m putting it in Landscape orientation, so my measurements will be 11 wide and 8.5 tall. If you want to make yours 11 x 17 or 8 x 10, that would be fine.

Don’t forget to immediately save your work with the proper name in your OneDrive folder:

This is actually pretty simple. First, find a typeface that’s pretty big and blocky. You need a nice, thick, bold letter. Start off by making a letter in the top left corner:

PUT EACH LETTER ON ITS OWN LAYER!

You can copy layers (Ctrl + J) or alt + click/drag to copy out the letters until you have something like this:

Again, make sure that each letter is on its own layer!!!

Start by selecting whichever layer/letter you want to start with. Select the letter/layer.

Go into the File menu and choose Place Embedded…

Find your first photo and put it on top of the letter. Rename the layer.

You can move or resize the photo so that the most interesting part is right over top of the letter or move/resize later!

Right click on the letter and choose Create Clipping Mask

‘

Or… use the Layer menu and choose Create Clipping Mask’

You’ll notice that there’s a little downward arrow next to the layer icon:

And the photo now takes the shape of whatever is below!

You can move or resize the photo layer to get the most interesting part right inside of the letter:

Keep doing that until you fill all of the letters

Your layers panel will be staggered, with each photo “clipped” on top of a letter

Place another photo in the background and adjust that

You’ll notice that the really colourful letters don’t contrast with the colourful background, so use those Layer styles/effects. Select a letter layer and click the little fx button on the bottom of the Layers panel

Play around and find the right layer style for you. A Stroke makes a lot of sense to me:

Putting a fairly thick, dark stroke around a letter makes the shape stand out. Make sure the Preview box is turned on and move the panel so you can see what you’re doing. Play with the settings until you get a look that you like:

Once you find a Style/Effect you like, you’ll notice a little fx on the layers panel

If you want that same look on other layers, you can hold the Alt key and drag it onto another layer!

Have fun and be creative with this one!

Once you’re done filling your letters, feel free to find more photos on Unsplash to create different Photo Letters/words or use a camera to take photos around our school to make your own Westwood letters!

 

 

 

Make sure you have learned how to use Photoshop’s Selection Tools and Layers properly by following THESE INSTRUCTIONS before you attempt this assignment!

Your task is to take 4 or more images and create a composite image (which is just an image made up of multiple parts.) You should have fun and be creative with this one! Think of 3 parts/pieces that might go together, stick them in a new background, and you’ve got yourself a fun composite!

NOTE: I want to see an untouched copy of all of the images that you use! COPY pieces onto new layers as you PLACE images/Layers into your composite.

MAKE SURE YOU USE HIGH-QUALITY IMAGES! I HIGHLY recommend using Unsplash for this! Want to incorporate a picture of me for some reason? Get those HERE
If you want to use any of the images I downloaded when putting together mine, you can get those HERE

Example:

THIS odd creation:

is made up of all of these pieces:

Again, make sure you include an untouched copy of all of the images you use! You should also rename your layers!

My file’s layers look like this:

 

examples:

We’ve been working with Illustrator over the past little while and one of the most difficult, but most important concepts to pick up is combining shapes to make a clean outline that can be cut out of vinyl to make a sticker or a shirt.

Not only do you need to put something together using shapes, but you have to figure out how to combine shapes or cut pieces out so that each different coloured piece can be cut out and put together separately.

Here’s a quick and easy challenge. I want you to draw a simple picture of a snowman, kind of like this:

But… here’s the tricky part, you need to be able to go into the View menu, turn on Outline

And see something clean and simple like this:

If you have a whole mess of overlapping lines, it isn’t right and you’ll have to fix it because it wouldn’t cut out properly.

You could draw something else if you want to instead, but make sure it incorporates the same tools and ends up with the same, simple outlines for the different coloured pieces. There are no points for creativity here. It’s either right or it’s wrong!

In order to do this, I recommend learning a bit about the Pathfinder options:

Here’s a good writeup (the video is way too fast for me): https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/illustrator-in-60-seconds-how-to-use-the-pathfinder-tool–cms-25572

Official Adobe info: https://helpx.adobe.com/ca/illustrator/using/combining-objects.html