Font Poem

I fear I can't take it tonight I lie awake feeling empty, I can. -Paramore

The font poem assignment although different from the contact sheet, still uses photoshop. However instead of working and adjusting images I practiced manipulating fonts. This assignment is almost overwhelming when you realize how many different ways you can customize words.

Before even using photoshop I had to chose a 10-15 word sentence about life, which took me way to long to find. What I decided to do was chose lyrics from the band Paramore. Paramore is an alternative rock band, so their lyrics have a lot of emotion. I chose these lyrics because I believe they represent how life can be an on going struggle to achieve one's goals. It begins by showing the stress and fear of failing, and it ends with confidence of future achievement.

I wanted the fonts I used to represent the words best they could. This was harder than I thought just because of all the options photoshop offers. Being indecisive does not help. Some words I wanted to appear as scary, for instance "fear". I found that Matura MT Std achieved this the best, I also added effects. I decided to make the word have a bubbly texture, which combined with red font made it appear like blood. I also used the Lasso Tool and paint bucket tool to make it appear as if blood was dripping off the word. I was most proud of this word out of the rest.

The next word I was very proud of was "Feeling". I chose the font Shuriken Boy Std, and added a pixel effect, that gives the word a pins and needles feel to it.

My main goal when arranging the words was to use all the area without over crowding the words. I also felt that it since my font poem discusses "lying awake" I thought the words could be arranged in a sort of messy confused layout, sort of how you feel when you can't fall asleep. If I had more time I would of liked to make the background like a starry night. I also thought it would of been cool to add sound to the animation, like the lyrics being sung by the actual artist.

Contact Sheet

When I first saw the contact sheet listed as an assignment, I thought it would be a completely different type of an assignment. For instance making a sheet with my contact information. I was glad to here that the assignment was not that but instead an assignment based on editing images with photoshop. I have never been able to use photoshop, and its always been something I have wanted to learn. Especially since both my parents know how to use it.

When starting this assignment I was introduced to the term DPI (Dots Per Inch). The more dots an image has the higher quality it is. We were instructed to find an image that was 1200 dpi, which apparently is a high quality image. Finding an image that was 1200 dpi was a bit difficult on flickr.com. So what I did was type "1200 dpi images" into google. In order to check to see if the image was 1200 dpi you have to open it up in photoshop. Once in photoshop you go to Image ---> Image Size. I did not realize how much better the 1200 dpi image was until I had to change the same image to a 72 dpi image.

The second row I found to be the most difficult, because in order to make the image duo tone I needed to change the file to a pdf file. To make this row easier for me to do, I always kept the original image saved with its original coloring. I would re open the image every time and start from scratch. The image is originally RGB since I found it on the web.

Row three was the only row that I had to use the crop tool not the for the purpose of zooming in on the image. I started by finding an image that was already a landscape image. I then opened up the image and changed the height to 1 inch. By changing the height the width changed automatically. All three images on this row have a height of 1 inch. However the widths are different. To get the image to be a perfect square I used the crop tool, and set if to 1 inch by 1 inch. I had the hardest time making the image a portrait. The image size window would not allow me to make the height bigger than the width. What I ended up doing was using the crop tool but not giving it any restrictions, so I could crop whatever size I wanted.

Just like in row three, it was easier to complete row 4 if I set the image to "fit to screen" mode. In row four I had to crop the image to zoom in on a certain part of the image. This was difficult because in order for the zoom feature to work, you could not crop from the edges and you had to press the check mark. Keeping the image from becoming blurry with each crop was a challenge. I eventually figured out that I needed to crop from the original image instead of previously cropped images that had less pixels.

Row five required more an artistic touch, where you used the tools learned from row four and applied them to make an abstract image. The problem I ran into was I did not zoom in enough to confuse the viewer. By confusion I don't mean having a blurry image, but instead a clear image that is zoomed so far in the viewer doesn't entirely know what they are looking at.

I had the most fun with the last row, using the different artistic tools that photo shop offers. Clicking filter > Artistic opens up a hoge menu of options to customize your photo, to make it appear as a painting or color pencil drawing. After you choose one of the options a window pops up where you can customize it further.