When creating my collage, I wanted it to give a good representation of what my blog was about-me. In order to achieve this, I used three images that I thought were a good representation of who I am. Keep in mind however, this is still my draft and there is work to be done.
When deciding how to create and organize my collage, I took inspiration from Helen Bradley’s YouTube post on how to seamlessly blend photos together. I really liked the concept of making three separate photos appear as one. I achieved this by using multiple layers and masks, and then the brush tool to reveal the other photos underneath. I continued to blend the backgrounds into one another until I felt it was seamless.
While my collage is currently three photos of me, I think when it comes time to create the final collage, I will make the photos of me doing something that truly represents who I am and what I love to do. I plan to keep the seamless blend look because I think it is a creative yet uniform way to display multiple pictures as one.
My collage keeps the background of the original photo because there is plenty of room on the sides to add and blend the other pictures and it is also a neutral color with an industrial appearance, which I like.I have tried to incorporate a lot of the tools I learned during the tutorials assignment as well. In the final draft, I may consider adding something that represents Kent State.
I still have a lot to achieve before my final collage is submitted, but I am also really happy with the content I have so far.
For this project, I decided to create A Day In the Life of a Student. I chose this topic because it is relevent to my life everyday and something that I am obviously very familiar with. I strive on structure so I have a similar routine everyday making this assignment an easy way for me to represent what I and other students encounter each day.
Design Process
Some design principals that insipred me were vlogs on YouTube where content creaters record what they are doing that day. Although in vlogs, the creaters generally talk as well whereas in my video, I chose to just record each event that day and will eventually add appropriate music and sounds.
One thing that I am also working on is to blend or diffuse each clip together so that it has better flow and seems like it fits together rather than jsut having a bunch of random clips in order.
Update: For my final video I added text to describe what the event was that I was doing adn to make it more clear to viewers. I also added upbeat music and faded it at the end when my newly added credits appeared.
Technical Detail
In order to collect the elements I used to create this project, I basically recorded everything that I would do in a normal day. At times, I had my roommate help me depict these events while I recorded them.
After putting most of my footage into Adobe I arranged it into the order of a natural day. I am still working to diffuse the clips together and also add the proper music. In order to create my title in the first clip, I chose a graphic, selected the font, and also cropped it to fit into the timeslot I wanted.
One problem that I ran into was blending the clips together. In order to solve this, I am going to rewatch the tutorial video so that my video can have better flow.
Overall, my project is coming together but still has a lot of work to do. One main thing that I am going to be working on is adding the music and proper sound effects. I also must plan on how I am going to end the video and belnd the clips together.
Update: I was able to blend the footage together better and also added the text fonts which helped move my video along greatly. I belive that I chose appropriate music for my video that continues throughout. At the end on my video I had the credits appear, which I think wraps it up nicely.
Visual Elements
Audio Elements
0:00-0:10 First images are a pan of three main sites on campus. The fountain, the library, and the flags.
The music is upbeat and friendly.
0:10-0:20 Video of a girl sleeping and waking up to her alarm in a dorm room.
The sound of an alarm goes off, interrupting the soothing music.
0:20-0:30 The girl gets up and goes to the bathroom to brush her teeth. This will be a side shot of the girl.
The music returns to its upbeat tempo.
0:30-0:40 The girl then heads to the dining hall and shows the food she is eating at an areal view.
The audio is still be upbeat and happy music.
0:40-0:50 The girl looks through her closet to decide what to wear. She picks out a t-shirt at an angle that her eyes are at, so you can only see her hand.
The audio continues to be happy music.
0:50-1:00 A close of shot of the girl getting ready to leave for class.
The audio will be the same upbeat music as playing before.
1:00-1:05 The visual will be of the girl walking to class, it is a back shot.
Audio is upbeat music.
1:05-1:10 The girl sits in class, a pan of the students taking notes.
The audio remains the same.
1:10-1:20 The girl crawls into bed after a long day, stretches, and then falls asleep.
The music is still upbeat.
The video ends with the credits appearing.
The music beings to fade and come to a complete stop as the credits do.
For this project, I decided to create A Day In the Life of a Student. I chose this topic because it is relevent to my life everyday and something that I am obviously very familiar with. I strive on structure so I have a similar routine everyday making this assignment an easy way for me to represent what I and other students encounter each day.
Design Process
Some design principals that insipred me were vlogs on YouTube where content creaters record what they are doing that day. Although in vlogs, the creaters generally talk as well whereas in my video, I chose to just record each event that day and will eventually add appropriate music and sounds.
One thing that I am also working on is to blend or diffuse each clip together so that it has better flow and seems like it fits together rather than jsut having a bunch of random clips in order.
Technical Detail
In order to collect the elements I used to create this project, I basically recorded everything that I would do in a normal day. At times, I had my roommate help me depict these events while I recorded them.
After putting most of my footage into Adobe I arranged it into the order of a natural day. I am still working to diffuse the clips together and also add the proper music. In order to create my title in the first clip, I chose a graphic, selected the font, and also cropped it to fit into the timeslot I wanted.
One problem that I ran into was blending the clips together. In order to solve this, I am going to rewatch the tutorial video so that my video can have better flow.
Overall, my project is coming together but still has a lot of work to do. One main thing that I am going to be working on is adding the music and proper sound effects. I also must plan on how I am going to end the video and belnd the clips together.
For the topic of my audio file, I chose to talk about sorority recruitment. This is something that I recently experienced and I found the topic to be interesting. I interviewed my good friend that also joined a sorority and we discussed Big- Little reveal as it is something that I will be going through this up coming week. My friend had already gone through this because she is in a different sorority so she was able to tell me what to expect, which was nice.
I chose not to add background music in my draft, although I may decide to work it in before the final draft. The reason I didn’t add music in the first place is because I didn’t want it to take away from the content of what we were saying. Depending on the music chosen, I sometimes feel like it can take away from what the narrator or “characters” are actually saying.
While editing, I cut out the intro to the interview in the original because I had already described who and what we would be talking about in the audio clip beforehand. I also incorporated the use of the razor tool when editing out the frequent uses of the word “um”.
My goal for this audio clip was for it to sound like a podcast of some sort or a talk show. I was acting as the host and my friend who was being interviewed would be perceived as a “guest” on my show. I am really liking the way that Audition allows you to do so much with multiple tracks at once and I find the program to be really simple even though it can appear to be very complicated.
Overall, I like the way my audio footage turned out and I may consider making some adjustments before the final is due. I think that by talking about something both me and the person I am interviewing are familiar with, really helps the conversation to flow and makes producing the content a lot easier. Lastly, I enjoy the way Audition has been working for me and find the program really easy to navigate.
Update: When making my revisions I did in fact add background music. I chose music that was light and uplifting. At the beginning of my footage there is about five second of just music before the voice audio begins. I chose to do this as opposed to an intro. I had the music fade at the start and end of the audio as well.
When editing the audio footage, I continued to remove a few “ums” but not every single one just because I didn’t want it to sound robotic and I wanted it to be as if it was a casual conversation occurring.
After completing the final draft, I am happy I chose to add the music because in my opinion, it gives it a more professional feel.
For the topic of my audio file, I chose to talk about sorority recruitment. This is something that I recently experienced and I found the topic to be interesting. I interviewed my good friend that also joined a sorority and we discussed Big- Little reveal as it is something that I will be going through this up coming week. My friend had already gone through this because she is in a different sorority so she was able to tell me what to expect, which was nice.
I chose not to add background music in my draft, although I may decide to work it in before the final draft. The reason I didn’t add music in the first place is because I didn’t want it to take away from the content of what we were saying. Depending on the music chosen, I sometimes feel like it can take away from what the narrator or “characters” are actually saying.
While editing, I cut out the intro to the interview in the original because I had already described who and what we would be talking about in the audio clip beforehand. I also incorporated the use of the razor tool when editing out the frequent uses of the word “um”.
My goal for this audio clip was for it to sound like a podcast of some sort or a talk show. I was acting as the host and my friend who was being interviewed would be perceived as a “guest” on my show. I am really liking the way that Audition allows you to do so much with multiple tracks at once and I find the program to be really simple even though it can appear to be very complicated.
Overall, I like the way my audio footage turned out and I may consider making some adjustments before the final is due. I think that by talking about something both me and the person I am interviewing are familiar with, really helps the conversation to flow and makes producing the content a lot easier. Lastly, I enjoy the way Audition has been working for me and find the program really easy to navigate.
To create my logo, I incorporated the type on a path tool often. It was simple to create my two initials by using the text tool and then increasing the font and fitting the “G” letter into the “C” because of their similar shape. I then used the brush tool to create the two lines coming out of the letters and I believe by having Smart Objects selected, they smoothed and straightened on their own.
I really enjoyed being able to apply different colors and fonts to my design but I was careful to not use too many because it would otherwise take away from the main aspect of my logo. I chose one color and made it a bright one to draw attention and continued the same font throughout the entire design.
In order to increase the thickness of my letters, I increased the stroke. One thing that I may consider changing in my final design is the font of the two initials. I made them super simple originally to ensure that they would fit into one another. I might change the font to make it more interesting and to have it represent myself and my blog more. One thing that I think does a good job of that is the cursive font with my name and tagline. I believe it gives my logo a more girly but also professional feel.
Overall, I am really happy with the way my logo design turned out and think that it is a great representation of what my blog is. It could still use some work as I become more familiar with the tools in Illustrator.
Update: To complete my final draft, I only made minor changes. I fixed the two black lines that come out of my initials. I did this by making them more even and aligned with one another more. I also re- centered by tag line to make that appear more even as well. I really like the way my design turned out and I think that it is very versatile and a good representation on what my blog is.
My logo draft is simple yet effective. I originally got my inspiration from other personal blogs and the Graphic Design Junction site that showed a lot of examples with clean cut lines and letters.
To create my logo, I incorporated the type on a path tool often. It was simple to create my two initials by using the text tool and then increasing the font and fitting the “G” letter into the “C” because of their similar shape. I then used the brush tool to create the two lines coming out of the letters and I believe by having Smart Objects selected, they smoothed and straightened on their own.
I really enjoyed being able to apply different colors and fonts to my design but I was careful to not use too many because it would otherwise take away from the main aspect of my logo. I chose one color and made it a bright one to draw attention and continued the same font throughout the entire design.
In order to increase the thickness of my letters, I increased the stroke. One thing that I may consider changing in my final design is the font of the two initials. I made them super simple originally to ensure that they would fit into one another. I might change the font to make it more interesting and to have it represent myself and my blog more. One thing that I think does a good job of that is the cursive font with my name and tagline. I believe it gives my logo a more girly but also professional feel.
Overall, I am really happy with the way my logo design turned out and think that it is a great representation of what my blog is. It could still use some work as I become more familiar with the tools in Illustrator.
Cassidy's Blog 