There are four main principles of design that we’ll look at this year, Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity. That’s right, we’re aiming for CRAP in our work!

Contrast is probably the easiest and most obvious one. I mention contrast all the time when looking at your designs, and there’s good reason for that – it’s essential.

The most obvious type of contrast is colour/lightness, white and black. You put those two things next to each other, or one on top of the other, and things are going to appear opposite. It doesn’t get any more opposite than that. White is basically all of the colours of light, and black is none.

But that’s too easy. You don’t get to take credit for that one in this assignment. It doesn’t count.

Instead, you’ll focus on:

• colours (other than black/white)
• size
• shape
• scale
• layout
• type
• alignment
• and more!

Assignment: You’ll design a poster for an upcoming event. You can use a real event or make one up. You can make it for a sporting event, concert, meeting, bake sale, art showcase, whatever! You need to use AT LEAST THREE types of CONTRAST (again, white/black doesn’t count.) Pick 3 off of the list above to utilize, but you’ll need to EXPLAIN the types of contrast you used. If you think you can fit in more than three, even better.

You’ll put your poster together using InDesign, but you can incorporate Photoshop or Illustrator files. Make it 11 inches by 17 inches (either portrait or landscape orientation, up to you) with a .25 inch bleed. Resolution should be 300 dpi.

You need to incorporate images (high quality), some kind of shape(s), and text that is different levels of importance (such as a headline and details.)

Once you’re done, your reflection will consist of explaining the types of contrast that you used and how they drew attention toward or away from elements in your poster. Explain that clearly in a document and hand it in for your reflection mark.

More about contrast:

How to use InDesign:

Open the program (DUH!)

Click “New file”

Give your file a name (NO UNTITLED FILES WILL BE OPENED)

Change the Units to Inches

Make it 11 inches by 17 inches. You can make it Portrait or Landscape orientation (your choice!)

InDesign is often used for multi-page documents, but you only need one

Make sure you have a .25 inch bleed

Click Create

The first thing you should do is Save. Open the File menu and choose Save, or press Ctrl + S

Save it in OneDrive! (and make sure that you OPEN THE PROGRAM)

Like Illustrator, there are different Workspaces you can use. The program usually opens on Essentials, but I’m a big fan of Essentials Classic. Up at the top right of your screen, you can choose a different workspace (and I recommend that you do.)

Any other panels can be opened from the Window menu. I HIGHLY recommend opening the Properties panel:

Many of the tools on the left hand side will look familiar to the ones in Illustrator and Photoshop. Perhaps the most important one here (other than the Selection tool, of course) is the Frame tool. Every element you add MUST BE IN A FRAME. This tool looks like a rectangle with an X through it. You can also press F to activate the tool:

With that tool active, you need to draw out a frame:

You can use frames for images, text, or just use it as a shape by changing the Fill and Stroke.

If you want to put a picture or Photoshop or Illustrator file in a frame, you NEED TO go to the File menu and choose Place (or Ctrl + D)

IMPORTANT: images and files Placed in InDesign are not automatically embedded. By default, they are linked to wherever the file is on your computer. When you create something in Illustrator or Photoshop, or when you download a photo (preferably from Unsplash or The Noun Project), PUT THEM IN A FOLDER IN ONEDRIVE!

If you need more help getting started with InDesign, I recommend visiting THIS PAGE and checking out some of the InDesign Get Started course tutorials.

When you are done, MAKE SURE YOU PACKAGE your file to drop it off! If you don’t package, I won’t open it!

I want you to have something to show for all of your hard work and creativity this semester, so I’d like you to put together a portfolio of your best work. Mr. C will guide you and show you a great way to do this, but if you prefer to take the information and display it another way (create a website, put together a video, or some other creative use of your talents), that’s fine too. This should be the kind of thing you could take with you to a job interview to dazzle someone with your skills, or prove to your parents that you’ve learned and created a lot this semester.

NOTE: Older course work was supposed to be finished by January 20 anyway, so it is not a priority. That having been said, if there are assignments that can help your mark, I will try to look at them January 30-Feb. 1. You can email me any time in Outlook if you have questions or need help with something, and I will try to catch up with anything that’s already been handed in. Anything else might be looked at before the end of the semester if I have time.

Your job in your portfolio is to display a range of projects that you’ve created and explain the skills that you’ve gained along the way. You should be demonstrating work completed in Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop.

In order to access these tutorials, you will need a Winnipeg Public Library membership number. If you don’t yet have a Winnipeg Public Library Card, go HERE: Library Membership sign up

You’ll need that card number again, so copy and paste it into a Word document or an email to yourself or whatever! Don’t lose it!

Once you do have a card, sign in HERE: LinkedIn Learning

Then you can click on the links below to view the videos.

This chapter gets into the really fun stuff! You’ll actually create your first animation project after watching these:

Generating static text

Animating with classic tweens

Designing nested animation

Controlling graphic symbols

Using movie clip symbols

Animating with motion tweens

Animating with the camera

Creative assignment1: Create an animated greeting card. Make a Christmas card, birthday card, or whatever occasion you want! Just like a card, it should have different pages/scenes and lots of motion and text!

Hopefully you completed the tutorials in the last chapter. If not, go back and do that now! Now you’ll get into designing your content for your animation.  This time, I want you to create a scene using the tools mentioned in the tutorials and hand it in. I don’t want to see anything using the sample files, I want you to create something on your own!

In order to access these tutorials, you will need a Winnipeg Public Library membership number. If you don’t yet have a Winnipeg Public Library Card, go HERE: Library Membership sign up

You’ll need that card number again, so copy and paste it into a Word document or an email to yourself or whatever! Don’t lose it!

Once you do have a card, sign in HERE: LinkedIn Learning

Then you can click on the links below to view the videos.

Creating a document for animation

Drawing with shapes

Managing color

Drawing with the Pen tool

Manipulating paths

Drawing with the Fluid brush

Drawing with vector art brushes

Frame-by-frame animation

Animating with shape tweens

Using onion skinning

Masking your content

Once you’ve completed those, you will know how to create a detailed scene and do some basic animation. Use those skills to come up with your own scene to hand in. The more work you put into it, the better your mark will be.

Hana:

We will begin to use Adobe Animate to create dynamic animated graphics. You may have used the program a bit before, but it’s important to review the fundamentals even if you think you know how to work the program already.

In order to access these tutorials, you will need a Winnipeg Public Library membership number. If you don’t yet have a Winnipeg Public Library Card, go HERE: Library Membership sign up

You’ll need that card number again, so copy and paste it into a Word document or an email to yourself or whatever! Don’t lose it!

Once you do have a card, sign in HERE: LinkedIn Learning

Then you can click on the links below to view the videos.

You can access the files used in the videos by going HERE

You do not need to hand in any of the files you see or work on in these videos, but it will be obvious very soon if you haven’t watched them! Take the time to learn how to use the program properly and the assignments will be MUCH EASIER!

Lesson 1: Choosing a document type

Lesson 2: Modifying document settings

Lesson 3: Saving your Animate document 

Lesson 4: Managing Animate preferences 

Lesson 5: Working with assets

Lesson 6: Managing Timeline layers 

Lesson 7: Extending the Timeline with frames

Lesson 8: Using keyframes

Lesson 9: Previewing your animation

Lesson 10: Sharing your animation

Before we move on to complex animation in Adobe Animate, we’ll look at some simple animation projects that you can create right in Photoshop. One of the most common is the animated .gif.

Here’s a tutorial that will get you started

Create your own animated .gif expressing your creativity and imagination and hand it in!

SAMPLES:

Crystal:

Maddie:

Ryden:

Hana:

Tyler:

If you’ve finished the projects that we’ve done in class and have finished three of your own, you should be well on your way to becoming a Photoshop master. Now it’s time to put your impressive skills to the test by creating something AMAZING!

Read through ALL of the instructions before you begin!

You will need to find images for this assignment. For ones found online, make sure that they are BIG, HIGH QUALITY images! If you’re tempted to use good ol’ Google Images, make sure that you use the available search tools to limit your search to LARGE images! CHOOSE WISELY! Quality really counts! Use CREATIVE COMMONS pictures like the ones found on Unsplash, wherever possible!

You may also need to TAKE PHOTOS yourself as well. Use a good camera (ie use one of mine or something similar.) Make sure that your photos turn out well and that you’ve made life easy for yourself (ie if you can help it, take your photo against a plain background, make sure that there’s enough light. We do have a photo studio in the other room, you know!

Any photos placed into your project must include an ORIGINAL copy of the image that you HAVE NOT touched. These will be layers that are hidden, but there for me to compare the ORIGINAL image to the one(s) that you have manipulated.

Any objects that are cut out of the original should be cut out cleanly. Use the correct selection tools/methods, NOT THE ERASER!

All layers should be properly named.

Your file should be saved with the correct name. eg: photoshopproject.psd

You will have to remove/cover/modify parts of an image (or images). Use the correct tools.

Use text! Make that text fit in with the original image (try to match the font, size, colour, or choose something that fits in with what’s already there.)

Use drawing tools/shapes/brushes to add new elements in.

Use layer styles to add appeal/interest to your layers.

The assignment:

Create or modify a movie poster, album cover, or book cover. If you have a different idea, please run it by me first, but I am certainly open to new suggestions.

Find a movie poster/album or book cover online. Add new elements to it using the criteria above OR recreate one with new pieces. Change/modify the look of what’s already there (take out, replace, and/or add new stars to the movie, songs to the CD, information about the book, etc.)

This is NOT as simple as putting your face on top of someone else’s in a movie poster (although that could be part of what you do.) You need to be creative and you need to use the tools listed above.

Doing this well will require some PLANNING/thinking ahead. Before you commit to an idea, take some time to think about what you’re going to remove, add, or modify. If you’re not sure whether something will work or whether it’s a good idea, TALK TO ME.

The finished project should look realistic. If it’s easy to tell what you’ve added/changed/replaced, you probably didn’t do a good job.

MOST IMPORTANT:

TAKE YOUR TIME

DO A GOOD JOB (don’t just worry about just getting it done, actually create something you will be proud of)

Don’t be afraid to MAKE MISTAKES and FIX THEM. This means that you could have to go back a bit and undo some mistakes, or in extreme cases, start again!

If you need help with a particular tool or idea, consider looking up a video tutorial on Youtube or search for one and find a website that will show you how to do something. There are thousands of great Photoshop tutorials out there.

HAVE FUN! If this isn’t fun, you aren’t doing it right!

Examples

before:

after:

before:

after:

Some of my QUICK (not necessarily GOOD) Photoshop projects: (yours will be BETTER THAN THESE! These do not necessarily meet all of the criteria for this assignment!):

Have you ever wished that you could live someone else’s life for a while? Well, with the magic of Photoshop, you can!

For this assignment, you’ll blend your face (or mine, or a willing classmate’s) onto a new body, or take someone else’s face and put it on your body. You’ll take your new subject (new face on head/body) and put this person on a new background.

Technically, you don’t need to use a photo of you, me, or someone in the class, but it REALLY HELPS to be able to pose/look in a very specific direction and make sure that you’re using somewhat similar lighting.

MAKE SURE YOU ARE USING HIGH-QUALITY IMAGES! Your end result will not be good if you start with one or more low-quality images! Use a school camera to take your photos if you can.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT IMAGES IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART! Take your time! Make sure that the images would wok and make some kind of sense together. Ideally, the new face will come from a head that is looking in the same direction as the target head. Ideally the light will come from a similar direction.

High-quality photos can easily be found on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/ Click the arrow on top of the thumbnail in your search results to download

If you ABSOLUTELY MUST use another site, MAKE SURE you’re using Google (NOT BING) and click Tools

and change the Size to Large

If you wish to use a picture of yourself or a classmate, borrow a camera from me and take the photo that way. If you want to try to use my picture (or a photo of my kid), there are some HERE

How to start

I would find ALL THREE of the required photos (face, body/head, background) FIRST.

I’d like to print some of these out, so start with a file that is 8.5 x 11 (or 11 x 8.5 if you want it Landscape) with a resolution of 300 pixels per inch

SAVE YOUR WORK in OneDrive right away!

Add each of your photos by going to File and Place Embedded

I want to see a layer for ALL OF THE UNTOUCHED PHOTOS!

Rename your layers and make a copy. Lock and turn off the original. Work on the copy

Background & Subject

Resize your background PROPORTIONALLY so you don’t squish/stretch it

On your body/head layer,

click the Select menu and choose Subject

Make sure the seletion looks good (no parts missing, no extra parts of the background included)

The easiest way to separate the body from the background is Ctrl + J (copy to new layer). Name it.

Now I have my new body on top of the background:

How to swap faces

There are a lot of great tutorials on YouTube that will show you how to use Photoshop to do a face swap.

Here’s a good one:

Here’s another:

You don’t really have to do a reflection for this one. I’ll get you to use these skills in another project later on, and you’ll do a reflection for that one.

Hopefully you know how to create designs and combine shapes by now. You need to know how to expand text. You may wish to import and trace simple pictures.

You’ll create an Illustrator file that is Page/Letter size (8.5 x 11 inches)

On this file, you will create an original design that can be cut out of vinyl and placed on a binder or a piece of plastic board, or it could be put onto a shirt or shopping bag.

You need to be able to do all of the things we’ve covered in the previous lessons and assignments.

• Get to Know Illustrator
• Illustrator Shape Builder Skills
• Combining Shapes

Some tips:

For this, you want to design something that uses ONE colour. Obviously the material you press it onto will add a second colour. You can try two if you want, but it can be REALLY HARD to properly line up different coloured pieces.

Positive space is the colour you’re designing with. Negative space is the holes that will show the material below. So if I’m designing something that I want to be red, and I’m pressing it onto something black, you’ll see the black through in spots to create your design.

You’ll have to CAREFULLY pick out ALL of the little bits of negative space! For example, if my design has the letter O in it, I’d have to go and pick the middle of the O out. Make sure that your negative space pieces aren’t too tiny! Also make sure that your positive space pieces aren’t too tiny, because those won’t be easy to work with either.

Take your time. If you rush through this and your design is too simple, you’ll lose marks. If it’s too complicated and can’t be cut out, you’ll lose marks.

Student samples:

Design:

Outlines:

Design:

Outlines:

Design:

Outlines:

This one’s kind of nuts and would be super hard to prepare, but it sure looks cool!

You’ve been working on logo designs, and I’m seeing a lot of great work. A lot of them are ending up looking great. But even some of the ones that look great have some kind of important problems that should be addressed, so we need to do some practice.

Here’s one that looks particularly great:

Illustrator artwork is made up of lines. The simpler the lines, the easier the artwork is to handle later on when you go to make something out of it. This one looks great when finished, but the lines (PATHS) look like a bit of a mess:

I totally understand how and why this logo got like this. I never explained any of this beforehand, so in this case/this assignment, it isn’t a big deal.

For the first product that we’ll produce, however, those messy lines are going to make life a lot more difficult.

I rebuilt this logo properly, and my lines look like this:

I see one little mistake on the right side of my rings, but overall, this file is MUCH EASIER to work with when we go to cut it out.

Here’s how I made that logo:

You’ll need to come up with some artwork of your own that has cleaner lines. It’ll need text and shapes (simple AND compound). When you come up with something, we’ll cut it out and put it on paper, plastic board, or a shirt.