Monday, December 22nd, 2008
Before machines became so advanced and mechanical reproduction was introduced, duplicates of art works high in demand were made by being copied by hand, the artists would sometimes create numerous versions of a painting or made very similar replicas, but the usual occurrence would be that students, apprentices or assistants produced the copies.
Handmade copies were using just as sort after as the original, but there were obvious drawbacks to this technique being the artist would have to pay the person who produced the copies a good wage, so it was expensive, time – consuming and involved hard labour. And still there is only a few of the copies made and they were never exact but usually just a translation or an interpretation of the original.
The need to multiply an image or a design has become more popular as the design world and industry has developed, it is hard to believe that people would actually sit and reproduce the same thing over and over by hand now we are living in a world full of high quality colour printers and photocopiers, we take for granted the easy method of reproduction, you can scan a piece of work into a computer and print it 1,000 times over in a matter of a few minutes.
This also is a example of how the digital era is making us as human creatives lazy, and the appreciation of an original piece of artwork or design is becoming almost unheard of due the fact artwork is repeatedly reprinted in art books, on canvas and even onto cups and mouse mats, all these factors result in loosing the ‘special’ element of seeing the artwork.
Tags: Design, graphics, handmade, Images, machines, original
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Friday, December 19th, 2008
With digital reproduction becoming more popular is any work actually produced as a ‘one off’ anymore? Pieces of contemporary fine art which have survived for hundreds of years still do exist but alongside thousands of images which are produced and then reproduced with the aid of machines.
Fine Art and contemporary pieces are now available for everyone to view, one form of this being the introduction of the internet, another development in technology, where you can just type in a name of a piece of work and it appears there in front of you on screen, you don’t have to go and visit a gallery or a museum, although sometimes it takes seeing the original piece there in front of you to appreciate just how special a ‘one off’ piece or original is.
There now appears to be a secondary system of recording where artworks can be reproduced and put into books, journals and magazines, shown through moving image in the form of films and television shows, advertisements and replica’s of sculptures sold at museum shops, art is available to more people than ever and in many more forms than the original due to the development in technology.
Tags: Design, digital, fine art, graphics, Images
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Thursday, December 18th, 2008
The digital revolution which is continuously taking place all the time has made it possible to encode any information which makes up a image, sound or a piece of text, so anything can be broken down and taken ‘back to basics’ due to the development of technology, clever use of technology can make it possible to manipulate, break down or connect any electronic images, sounds or texts.
This digital revolution makes grids, colours, formats and typefaces easy to process and then store and then these could be broken down and joined together with other pieces of information. As this evolution of technology continues more devices are produced which supports the electronic screen, which leads to more possibilities for information to be exchanged and re-produced, the sound of something can change e.g. a tone of a voice can be changed or modified so it is mixed with another voice.
Images can be broken down and put back together using parts of other images and photographs can be changed by manipulation if the pixels, the impact of electronic procedures are continuing to change the original outcomes and the culture of visual and verbal communication.
Tags: Design, digital design, formats, media
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Thursday, December 18th, 2008
In the world of writing and the media, objects of design and design works have created opportunities for the construction of books and essays and developed the use of verbal as well as visual communication. This not only being the actual writing itself but the punctuation which comes with pieces of writing e.g. paragraphs, symbols, pauses, silences, comma’s, question marks, brackets, visual signs all relate back to design in some aspect even though they are part of verbal communication.
Writers verbally communicate using a typeface that was once designed in order for them to be able to write, the entire processes of visual and verbal communication link in together and compliment each other, different grids, typefaces and symbols in a piece of writing are important for their formal qualities but also play a symbolic role and help us to regulate our interpretation of the text as we read.
All of these aspects used in verbal communication have been produced by a designer to visually communicate within everything from magazines, books, journals, dictionaries and encyclopaedias, and as the development of design and types of media used continues to progress, these graphic symbols are also being seen on corporate images, posters, television and the internet.
Tags: Design, media, Visual Communication, writing
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Wednesday, December 17th, 2008
Graphic designers and artists have been visually communicating for many years, their work has been made up from their own opinions and imagination, which they introduce socially by displaying their work – bearing their soul, this then leads to the work being structures of thought, interpretations made by critics and a source of discussion.
The visual nature of a piece of work is mostly what makes it culturally important, this is why images are so widely used to communicate a message – visual communication – images are a powerful way of communicating a point and are logical, most people would prefer to look at a image to receive a message instead of reading through page after page of information.
The majority of images are visually pleasing too, hence why people enjoy to visit galleries and exhibitions as a past time, it is enjoyable and also in our culture it is a way which we are familiar with to receive information, the symbolism of visual communication is predominantly social.
Tags: Art, Design, Graphic Design, Images
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Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
Images which are used for website layouts and templates, tables, JavaScript enabled menus and interfaces need to be cut up differently, to ensure they are proportioned correctly for what they are going to be used for, this tutorial will show you how to cut them up correctly and then input them into HTML tables ready for use on the internet.
1.) Begin by opening up the image which you want to cut up and use the shortcut CTRL & R to turn the documents rulers on so you have a guideline, drag the edges of the image out so you also have a grey work area to ‘play with’.
2.) Click on the ruler at the top of your page, hold down click and drag down with the cursor, this will make a blue line appear and then drag this line to the point that your want to make a cut and then let go, the final point you stop at doesn’t need to definitely be where you want the cut to be, you can still change the position if the line using the Move Tool to drag the line around.
3.) Use the same process only using the ruler on the left hand side of your image and your image should now be divided into four sections by the blue lines, you need to keep repeating this process until all the areas that you want to cut up are surrounded by blue boxes.
4.) If you want to animate a section of your image you need to make sure that the area is marked to be cut out and this will reduce the file size for your image ensuring the whole image will not need to be loaded numerous times for the animated section, also choose the Snap To Guides option in the view menu.
5.) Using the Marquee Selection Tool make a selection box around the area of the image that you want to cut out, when the area you want to cut out is selected press CTRL & C to copy the selection into memory and then create a new blank document using CTRL & N and the new dialogue box will show the dimensions of the piece you copied, press CTRL & V and this will paste the selection you have copied, save the new image and then go back to the original image.
6.) Repeat this process for every section that you wish to cut up and now the image is separated into usable pieces they will need to be reassembled so they appear to be one whole image again, this will be done using HTML TABLES. You will need the cell spacing, cell padding and border attributes to be set to ‘0’ and the width to be the same as your image as a whole, then all the images should appear lined up like they were still one single image.
Tags: Images, Layouts, Photoshop, Templates, Website Design
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Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
Chrome effects can be created in Photoshop to then be put onto objects or to be used as an effective text effect. In this tutorial I will show you how to apply a chrome effect to text or any other object.
1.) Start by creating a new image 500/500 pixels with a dark grey background, the foreground colour should be white and use the type tool to create text you would like to use to change into chrome, try and make the text as big as possible. Once you have done this choose Layer > Type > Render Layer and then hold CTRL and click on the text to select it, then go to channels palette and create a new channel.
2.) On the new channel fill the selection with white and then deselect (CTRL + D), then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and use a radius of 8. Repeat Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and use a radius of 4, repeat again using a radius of 2 and then again using a radius of 1. Once this is done go back to the layers palette and click on the type layer.
3.) Now the type layer is active go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects and use your preferred lighting effect, try and set the texture of white high and use the light type as a spotlight. Also set the sliders to a more shiny and metallic level.
4.) After this go to Image > Adjust > Curves and alter the curves to a setting which you believe looks the best.
5.) Now you have made your chrome you need to highlight using blue highlights and again having the sliders highest at shiny and metallic. Keep adjusting the levels until you have an effect that you are happy with.
6.) Once this is completed you need to resize your type down to about half the size that it is and then add a drop shadow, you can change your design by creatively ‘playing around’ with Photoshop’s other layer style to add further depth and detail.
7.) Satin is a good effect to use with chrome of you lower the default opacity and the Outer Glow, Inner Glow and Inner Shadows also work well. Gradient Overlays with low opacity can create a interesting effect and explore the blending modes instead of just sticking to normal.
8.) Exploring the different layer styles can help you to learn new ideas and effects, and when you find something the works well you can also save it by clicking the New Style button but ensue you save them when your finished by clicking styles at the top left window, click the arrow button to the right and choose Save Styles.
Tags: effects, Photoshop, photoshop CS3, Photoshop Effects
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Monday, December 15th, 2008
There are several ways of making a drop shadow in Photoshop and this tutorial will show you them all, drop shadows are very simple yet they are used a lot in the design industry and if used correctly are effective.
1.) Begin by finding an object that you would like to add a drop shadow to; drop shadows can be applied to most elements so you can use a logo, text or clipart as long as the object is on its own layer. Once you have chosen your object press D on your keyboard, this will reset yours colours to their default value.
2.) If you have chosen text to apply the drop shadow to, select the type tool and then type your text, make a new layer in the Layers Palette and drag it underneath the layer that contains your text, then name this layer shadow. Hold down CTRL on the keyboard and click on the text layer and this will load a selection around it.
3.) After doing this go to Select > Feather and choose a number and then press OK. The higher the number you choose the softer and more spread out your drop shadow will appear.
4.) Check that the Shadow layer is selected and then go to Edit > Fill > Foreground Colour to then fill the feathered selection with black.
5.) Depending upon the direction your ‘light source’ is coming from you need to move the shadow layer several pixels up/down and several pixels right/left.
6.) Once you have finished this the shadow will look unrealistically dark and to change this you will need to adjust the opacity of the Shadow layer, meaning you make the shadow lighter, do this until you believe the shadow appears realistic.
Tags: drop shadows, Photoshop, photoshop CS3, photoshops effects, Tutorials
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Monday, December 15th, 2008
To view any of your created images it is best to use the file browser in the toolbar menu, different buttons on the options bar will give you a number of ways to view your images one of which will allow you to quickly open up the browser and view high quality images alongside custom-sized thumbnails.
If you are making numerous adjustments to you’re images involving using a lot of layers your best option is to use layer comps, these will let you capture configurations of a document by recording the position, visibility and blending options of the layers which means you can later find a layer comp from the palette and reuse the setting and way everything was set at that stage.
Layers are the building blocks of many image creation workflows, especially if you are building up a document or a image from a number of other images. You may not need to work with layers if you are doing simple image adjustments, but layers help you work efficiently and are essential to most nondestructive image editing.
Tags: layers, Photoshop, Photoshop Effects, toolbar
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Monday, December 15th, 2008
The majority of Photoshop’s effects are most effective when used on photographs, but they can also be used on other types of images. One feature effect that works well on photographs is the lens blur filter, is uses effects that are similar to actually lens used on cameras e.g. focal distance, specular highlights and Iris.
These effects are attached to sliders where you can adjust the size of the aperture, as you would do on a camera, the curve of the blades and the number of blades. And then you apply the adjustment to the area that you want to blur, the effect the acts as a depth of field control tool.
After this you adjust the specular highlight control which then makes the catch lights white again, this process works on a alpha channel by creating a gradient mask and this means you can pin point focus to a certain plane in for example a landscape to make the foreground and background appear out of focus.
The crop and straighten tool is perfect for photos which have been scanned but haven’t been align properly by the scanner, there are scanners available which automatically rotate a skewed photo and crop it but if your scanner doesn’t have this feature then the crop and straighten tool saves a lot of time aligning photographs.
Photograph filters is a feature which professional photographers will appreciate! The photograph filters are automatic colour correction filters and applying these will automatically add a preset filter and then you pick the colour you would like to add using the colour picker option, the intensity of a filter is controlled by an opacity slider and fade option, automated photograph filters will pick which filter would work best for your image without you having to have any input.
Tags: cropping photographs, CS3, filters, Photoshop, Photoshop Effects
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