Pitbull PowerPoint

These are all pictures from our last project in Electronic Communication, a Kiosk PowerPoint. We had to devote an entire PowerPoint presentation to an artist or band of our choice; I selected the rapper Pitbull. Professor O'Connell required us to have at least 5 slides and one song that ran throughout the entire presentation.

I think the best-executed aspect of this PowerPoint presentation was the backgrounds on the slides. In former work with PowerPoint, I became accustomed to using the pre-made backgrounds. With this project, however, I had to make my own original backgrounds. To do this, I searched for images of Pitbull, as well as his hometown of Miami, Florida. I then enlarged them, dragged them into the slides, and increased their transparency. This allowed for really appropriate, interesting, and creative slides instead of the generic PowerPoint ones.

The most difficult thing I encountered during this project was getting the slides and the music to run on their own. I first started this PowerPoint on my personal Mac, and I was unable to get the music to play and the timings I rehearsed to actually work. I couldn't figure it out on my computer, so I decided to wait until I could open the file on a computer in the North Campus Mac Lab. Once I did that, I was able to rehearse the timings and actually have them work. So, even though this was frustrating at first, I was able to solve the problem pretty simply just by using a different computer.

My favorite part of this project was definitely the audio portion of it. I had no idea that I could include music into PowerPoint presentations. I also loved that I could choose to make the music run by itself, and that it could go across all of the slides. I'm really glad that I learned about incorporating music into slides, and I plan on taking advantage of that knowledge the next time I have to make a PowerPoint presentation!

Finally, if I had more time, I think I would have experimented with animation more. I've never done anything other than slap a few pictures on a slide before, and this project made me realize that there are a lot of really fun effects in PowerPoint. If allotted more time I would definitely go back and apply some of the animation effects to my pictures and texts. Also, I think I would have added more slides-- it would've been nice to be able to display more information about Pitbull (because he's the best rapper ever!)

Contact Sheet

This assignment, the contact sheet, afforded me the opportunity to experiment with the general manipulation of images in Photoshop. With this project, I mostly gained experience in the resizing of images, although I also became more familiar with color and filters. Since my previous work in Photoshop concerned text primarily, I was excited to begin the contact sheet and work with the editing of images for the first time.

In the first set of photos, I had to change the resolution, or dots per inch (DPI) of a photo of gas barrels. To do this, I had to choose the “Image Size” option in Photoshop, de-select “Resample Image” and then change the resolution. Of the four pictures in the first row, there are resolutions of 72, 300, 600, and 1200. Though they may appear indiscernible from each other, at least at a size of 1 inch by 1.33 inches, their qualities do in fact vary.

For the format/mode portion of this assignment, I had to produce four copies of the same photograph in different color schemes. I had to transform a picture of a dancing couple to B&W, Duotone, Color RGB (for print), and Color CMYK (for web). This particular task required entering the “View” on the toolbar, scrolling to “Proof Setup,” and selecting the desired color.

The Orientation, Framing, and Content portions of this assignment were different, but all involved the changing of the image size. For the Orientation row, I had to resize the images; I made the height larger than the width for the Portrait, I made the width larger than the height for the Landscape, and I made the height and width equal for the Square. Framing and Content both involved resizing and cropping the images, so that some were close-up while others had wide angles, or that some were abstract while others were representational.

The final row consisted of applying different filters to a photo of a fire hydrant. I used Artistic Palette Knife, Drybrush, Crosshatch, and Journalistic filters.

The filters were definitely my favorite part of this contact sheet. I’m glad that I’m now capable of changing the quality, color, and size of photographs, but I think filtering is the coolest part. I really can’t think of a more eloquent way to word it: applying artistic and fun filters to photographs makes them look really cool, and I love it!

The most difficult aspect of this assignment was that, excluding the Resolution and Format/Mode portions, I had to figure out stuff by myself. Since I attended a journalism conference in San Diego and missed class on February 26th, I was not present when my instructor explained how to complete the other rows. Since I don’t have any previous experience with Photoshop, it took me a long time to do some (what I found later to be) fairly simple tasks. For example, I spent an hour or more searching for and researching (in books and online) for a button that magically changed a picture from Landscape to Portrait. It wasn’t until reading six or more online forums that I realized no such button existed, and that I had to manually change the height and widths.

Trying to figure out this assignment on my own may have been difficult, but it was also really rewarding. I’m proud that I was able to do research and experimentation to discover how to execute that last few portions of the contact sheet on my own.

If I had more time to complete this, I would have changed my Landscape portrait. Since I was not present in class when we learned how to do the Orientation, I was not aware of the exact sizes we were supposed to use. Although the width is larger than the height, the width is not 1.33 inches like it should've been. I definitely would have changed this if I had more time and knew earlier of the correct size. Also, I think I would have devoted even more attention to the filters. Looking back, I realize that there are so many different filters and filter settings that I could have tried. I have every intention to experiment with filters with personal work. That’s because, like I previously mentioned, they’re so cool!

My Font Poem!

For our first Photoshop project, my classmates and I had to chose a poem and experiment with the different fonts available to us. For my poem, I chose a quote by Benjamin Franklin:

Hide not your talents
They for use were made
What's a sun-dial
In the shade?

I decided to use this poem because I've always loved Benjamin Franklin, I've always felt like we've had some kind of crazy connection. Ever since sixth grade, when I made a Benjamin Franklin puppet for a class, I've been fascinated with his life and accomplishments. I particularly like this quote because I think it has a great message; it encourages people to be proud of themselves and make use of their talents and abilities. Some times people prefer to hide or downplay their talents for fear of being considered arrogant, but I think this poem puts a positive light on self-confidence.

I used the following fonts in my project:

• Onyx
  
• Gill Sans Extra Bold
  
• Zapfino
  
• Candara
  

I thought Onyx worked well because it was a small and narrow font that reflected the word "hide." It makes it appear as if the word itself was trying to remain hidden in the piece. I used Gill Sans Extra Bold to emphasize the importance of "not," "use," and "shade." I made the font red for "not" to illustrate the severity of the word and its meaning. I also did gray shadowing with this font on "shade" to act as a literal interpretation of the word's definition. I really wanted those words to stand out, and I think that Gill Sans Extra Bold font helped me accomplish this. Zapfino is a very fancy and elegant font, which is appropriate for the words "talents" and "sun-dials." These words represent a person's skills and accomplishments, and Zapfino helps portray this idea. For the word "sun-dial," I changed the color to yellow in order to convey sunlight. Finally, I decided to use Candara for all of the other words because it seems like a somewhat understated font. It didn't detract from the other fonts, but it's still slightly decorative.

I arranged the words the way I did to place emphasize on what I deemed to be the most important words. I didn't want to stack the most powerful and significant words directly on top of each other. Instead, I alternated the lines in order to separate the main words, whose fonts I also increased.

Some of the problems I encountered include the shadowing I put on the word "shade." I had no idea how to make shadows, but I was really interested in executing that effect. I looked up the steps online, but was still a bit confused. After trying to decipher the instructions, I realized I needed some help from Professor O'Connell. She came over to provide some aid, and in addition to the online directions, I was able to figure out the technique and include shadowing in my project.

I am the most proud of the shadowing effect, because I did not think I would be capable of figuring it out. As I just explained, after some help from both my professor and the Internet, I was able to. I think this experience made me aware that I can navigate through and overcome tricky situations, and I'm extremely proud of this realization.

If I had more time, I think I would have worked more with the arrangement of the individual words. I maybe would have tried manipulating the words more and experimenting with the different types of effects that I could apply to them. It would have been fun to play around with everything that Photoshop has to offer. I'm looking forward to doing this with future assignments.

Hello!

Here's my first blog for my Electronic Communication course at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island. Throughout the following semester I will be posting all of the projects I do for this class. These projects include, but are certainly not limited to, a QuarkXpress poster, an InDesign newsletter, and a Kiosk PowerPoint. Amongst other information, I'll include pictures of my work, descriptions of the challenges I faced while completing them, and the changes I would've made if allotted more time.

I'm new to the blogging world, so I definitely need to explore this website and see everything it's capable of doing! I'm excited to start experimenting with fonts, designs, pictures, audio, and video. I'm hopeful that this blog will transform into a professional-looking showcase of my work.