Midterm Exam Study Guide

I know you all are anxious to know what you can expect for your exam. I have made a study guide for you to use and we will go over it in class on Thursday, December 1. You must be signed in to Google Docs to view it.

Agenda November 29 - Finish Ad and Begin Photo Editing Tutorial

Today you should finish up your advertisement. I have seen that some people have already posted theirs. Be sure you are answering all the questions as explained in the previous post about Blog #8.

The blog is due tonight at midnight.

If you finish today you can begin the next project which is a photo editing tutorial. See the post about Blog #9: Photo Editing Tutorials for the details.

Blog #9: Photo Editing Tutorials

The next project we do (and the last assignment before the end of 1st Semester) is a Tutorial you will write to edit one of your own photos. You may have a partner for this project. You should search online for topic ideas and there are lots of "Photoshop Photo Editing Tutorials" out there that will take you step by step through editing a photo and do amazing things! Just do a Google Search for that topic. I encourage you to look online for ideas and you can even take one you find and change it a bit to make it easier for your classmates to understand. Just be sure to cite your source for where you got the idea, even if you change the wording. Notice that on the rubric there is a category for difficulty. I want you to challenge yourself and do a tutorial that is more than just removing a blemish, making teeth white, or making a picture into a black and white. I do not want to have any repeats, so I have made a sign up sheet on Google Docs. You will post your "Before" and "After" photos along with the step by step directions as Blog Entry #9 before you present it to the class. When you present, you will walk us through editing your photo, using the steps you posted on your blog, and hopefully, if you did it right, you'll get the same results. This is worth 45 points and the rubric can be found here.

You will present this in class on December 7 and 9, so it needs to be posted before you present.

Here is an example of what I am looking for:

This tutorial will help you create a Vignette Effect on your photograph. Just one tool I have learned and would like to share.

Before

After

Steps used to create effect:

Note: Works best with a photograph where the subject is centered in the photo, but you can also crop the picture afterwards as I have done if necessary.

1. Open picture in Photoshop

2. Make Layer out of background by right clicking then choose layer from background. You can

accept "Layer 0" as layer name.

3. Make new Layer (Layer, New) then drag it to behind Layer 0.

4. Make sure Layer 1 is selected and add color to Layer 1 by clicking a color in the swatches palate

and pressing ALT + Backspace to fill the layer with that color. You won't see any changes at

this point.

5. Go back to Layer 0

6. Use Elliptical Marquee tool to select picture. If you need to you can add to the selection by

choosing Add To Selection button on top menu bar and drawing another oval. This is good if

there are two faces in the picture that you want to select.

7. Go to Select, Feather and choose a number (the larger the number the blurrier the edges will be of your oval. I suggest 15-20.)

8. Select Inverse.

9. Press Delete key.

10. Your vignette is finished, but you may want to try different color backgrounds by selecting layer 1, selecting a new color in the swatches palate and then press ALT + Backspace.

11. Flatten image and save as a JPEG.

So go online and start looking for some cool effects you would like to apply to your own pictures!

You should have a topic chosen by the end of next class.

Agenda November 22/29 - Work on Ad Design

Today, You should work on your Advertisement. See previous blog entries for details on the project and the blog entry. The blog entry is due at midnight on Tuesday, November 29.

Blog #8: Ad Design

Use Adobe Photoshop to create an original Advertisement (click for rubric). It should promote an event, service, organization, or product and include your logo from the last project. Make the audience for your ad whoever would be attending the event, buying the product, etc.

• Set image size to 7.5 inches wide by 10.0 inches tall with 150 pixels per inch resolution.
• Include both text and images in your design.
• Demonstrate application of Graphic Design elements and principles
• Show off your graphic editing skills by using at least 10 different tools or effects in preparing your poster. Make a list of the Photoshop tools and effects included in your poster.
• Use of copyrighted material in your poster is not allowed

BLOG #8: Write a brief description of how you created the advertisement on your blog. Describe why you created this poster and the target audience. Be sure to describe how you used all the tools in creating your graphic. Explain how you used each tool, do not simply list them.Upload your advertisement to your blog.

This is due by midnight on Tuesday, November 29

Agenda November 18 - Advertisements

Today we will be discussing the elements of graphic design as they apply to advertisements. We will look at some advertisements in magazines and see how they stand up to our "rules". The next project will be to create an advertisement.

Graphic Design "Rules of Thumb":

• Know Your Audience.
• Be careful not to have too much text or too many pictures on a page, find a balance of elements
• Colors should complement each other.
• Don’t use more than two fonts on a page
• Use an appropriate size font for your audience; large size for small children and older people, no smaller than 12-14 pts for everyone else.
• People in the US read from left to right and down in a “Z” pattern, so design your page so the reader’s eyes will travel that way.
• Provide visual breaks and rest spots. White space on your page does this.
• Maintain consistency in everything; fonts, sizes, placement of elements on page, etc.
• Be sure to only use graphics that will not look blurry or pixilated in the final copy.
• An excellent design may never see the light of day if it is submitted after the deadline.

Agenda November 16- Adobe Exchange

Now that you've been using Photoshop for a couple months, you have used the brushes and maybe gradients that are available. But you also may have seen features used on Photoshopped pictures that are not available on your computer. Well, thats because you can download new brushes, textures, gradients and actions from the Web and load them into Photoshop. Just like you can download fonts for Microsoft Office programs and put them in the "Fonts" folder on your computer so they'll show up in the font menu, you can download new features and put them in the correct Adobe Photoshop folder so they'll appear when you go to use that tool.

One tool that we haven't talked about is Actions. These are basically like mini programs that you can write (or download already created) that will do several steps to your picture automatically. It is helpful if you like to frequently do the same thing to different pictures. You don't have to remember the steps, just run the Action!

One of my favorite sites to go to for downloading new features is Adobe Exchange. Once you go to this site, you use the same Adobe ID that you created to download the Color Swatches and then you can download whatever you want. There are other sites where you can download them, but we will stick to this reliable one today. There are lots of options on this one site!

Here's how you do it:

• Click Brush, Texture, Gradient, or Action, in the menu on the right and find one that you would like to download.
• Click download button, then you'll have to sign in
• Click "Open" and it will open in WinZip
• Open "My Computer" in a new window. Browse for: C:/Program Files/Adobe/Photoshop CS5.1/Presets/click on folder of what you are downloading (brushes, Photoshop Actions, Gradients, etc.) and drag from WinZip to that folder.

To load brushes:

• Go into Photoshop
• Select Brush tool
• On the part where you select the size and type of brush there is a small button that looks like a circle with a triangle (arrow pointing to the right)
• Select "Load Brushes"
• Find the file you just downloaded (click on my computer on the left and browse for the folder)
• Now your brush should be able to be chosen from the menu.

The other features (textures, gradients) work the same way, you just have to select that tool and find the triangle button to load them. I hope this opens up even more possiblilities for what you can do with Photoshop. We will download one together in class and then you can play with it on your own. Here's the Action and the Brush I'll download to show you as an example. Where you load textures can be a little tricky, so I'll show you how it works by making something look like its painted on a brick wall.

Agenda November 14 - Finish Logo

Today in class you will finish your logo project. The blog entry is due tomorrow (Tuesday) by midnight. Please see the previous blog post Blog Entry #7: Logo for the topics you should address on your blog along with posting your Logo.

When you are finished editing your Logo in Photoshop, make sure you flatten it and save it as a JPEG so it can be uploaded to your blog.

Agenda November 10 - Work on Logo

I'll take a look at your design brainstorm and you can get started on your Logo today. Please make sure you are considering how you are using the Graphic Design elements and how you use color in your design. Blog #7, which includes your logo, is due on Tuesday night, November 15 at Midnight.

Agenda November 8

After you take the survey we will look at the notes from last class.

Agenda November 4- Graphic Design and Logos

I won't be at school today. Please take a look at all the notes that I was going to introduce today and write down any questions you have for Tuesday.

1. If you were not here on Wednesday, there are three PDFs in your Google Docs that are about Drawing Tools, Painting Tools and Adding Text. You have used these tools before, but there are several great tips on these documents. Please read them.

2. Today you will take a look at some basic Graphic Design Elements and how they can be applied to logos. A logo is a symbol or other small design that an organization uses to identify itself or its products. There is a presentation shared with you in Google Docs that we will go over today and then we will look at some examples of logos from real companies/organizations/products.

We will discuss possible canvas sizes for logos. Typical sizes are 79 x 51 pixels (very small), 150 x 25 pixels, 125 x 144 pixels, and 243 x 103 pixels. This is set when you create your new document in Photoshop.

3. The next assignment will be for you to design your own logo for a person, group or organization that does not already have a logo. Think about clubs, small businesses, etc. Here is the rubric.

4. The first step is to brainstorm ideas for your logo. By Monday, you will need to sketch your idea and write down how your logo will incorporate any of the design elements from the Graphic Design Presentation.

Blog Entry #7: Logo

In this blog entry you should post your logo and answer the following questions:

• How does the logo communicate its purpose?
• Why did you choose the colors you used? (Think about the color wheel and messages that the color send.)
• Explain how you used any of the following elements of design: (you do not have to use all of them.) Line, Shape, Emphasis/Contrast (Focal Point), Proximity/Groupings, Balance, Alignment, Harmony/Proportion, White Space, Repetition. **Make sure you look back to the Graphic Design Presentation to see what each of these mean.

Due on Tuesday, November 15 at midnight.