Monday, May 11, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Bind and Blow Cards
This was done in InDesign. I did not find it too difficult to do. The font was just plain Arial, and the lines at the bottom were the hardest part. I kept typing capital "i's" and changing the font size to match the original bind and blow card. I though doing this card was easy because there was no colors or images to match up with the original, just text.
This was also done in InDesign. The most difficult part was the "best deal" part with the circle around it. I used a script type writing for that text, but the arrow was the hardest to figure out. I could not get it to match perfectly, so I eventually drew it as best as I could. The image background is a zebra image I found online and cropped to only see the pattern. I used the same pattern on each card, to keep it the same. The pink was a simple magenta, and was not too hard to match up once I figured out how to use the eye drop tool. I used Myriad Pro for all the text on each card, and the letter code at the bottom is typed in OCR A Std. The entire card is 5.6 x 4.1 inches, for each different program.
This card was done in PhotoShop, and was probably the most difficult. Luckily, I did this one first, so the cards were easier. Layering was a pain, and I kept getting confused and loosing layers. I drew the arrow in this one too, and it took a few tries before it looked OK. I google image searched the Cosmo logo, so it is an image, not text. Once I figured out how to link and group layers, to layout was easier to manage. 
The final card I did was done through Quark. I am not a huge fan of Quark. For some reason, whenever I drew boxes, they kept getting locked and I could not move them. The circles were also very difficult to draw. I ended up having to use text boxes shaped as circles to get them on the card. I'd have to say my favorite program is InDesign, and Quark comes before Photoshop. It was very frustrating to have the boxes keep locking, and I never figured out how to unlock them. I ended up having to delete them and keep trying. Other than that issue, I did not have much trouble.Monday, May 4, 2009
Music Soundslide
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I chose to do Jack’s Mannequin for my music PowerPoint because they are my favorite band. I’ve been listening to their music since my friend introduced me to them in high school, and have remained a big fan. I’ve been to one of their concerts, and own both their albums. It is also a band that not too many people know, and I thought the class would enjoy being introduced to them.
The first thing I did was collecting a bunch of images for the slideshow. I gathered a good amount, and saved them in a folder to add to the PowerPoint later. At first, I was using a cursive font, but I eventually decided it was too hard to read. That’s why I switched to Handwriting-Dakota, because I felt as though it matched the theme of their first album, Everything in Transit. I am very happy with my decision, because I got positive feedback from the class when I presented.
For the title slide, I chose a black and white picture of the entire band. I also came up with the idea to crop the band’s name off of their first album through Photoshop, because it looked really cool the way it was flying in the plane. The cropped image did not look good against a white background, so I decided to make the background match the title image. I actually cropped a small corner from the end of the airplane image, and applied it as the background.
The second slide was Jack’s Mannequin facts, and I originally had all the slides with the blue background. I could not find space to put in a picture along with the facts, so I had to change the background to make it more visually appealing. I went into Photoshop and applied a gradient effect. Then I inserted it as a background. The new background made if difficult to read the black font, and I could not find a color that worked. I eventually figured out how to fill in the text box, and I made it 50% transparent. Then I layered each text box on top of each other and custom animated them to ascend in and out automatically.
The third slide had images of Jack’s Mannequin’s albums and a list of all the tracks on them. I could not get both albums to fit on the slide with their tracks, so I had to layer them. I custom animated them to dissolve and ascend in and out as well. This was probably the easiest slide for me, and I did not run into much trouble.
The next slide was the chart, and I had trouble coming up with an initial idea for it. Eventually I decided on a comparison chart. I compared Jack’s Mannequin with The Fray, because they are touring with them this summer. I also compared them to Something Corporate, because the lead singer, Andrew McMahon is the founder of Jack’s Mannequin. The Fray was the only band with any awards. I thought my chart looked pretty boring, so I tired to liven it up by making the album images float in.
The final slide is what I’m the most proud of. It took a very long time to find all the images I wanted to use, and even longer to Photoshop them. Resizing every image and figuring out where to place them was very time consuming, and it felt like I was doing a jigsaw puzzle. I converted some to grayscale, and made the final image with the band’s name a link to their website.
For the audio section, I wanted to use songs that maybe some people would recognize. This is why I chose “Dark Blue” because it was the hit single from their first album. The second song was “Resolution” because it is the first single from their second album, The Glass Passenger. It is also a very powerful song about Andrew McMahon’s survival from lymphoblastic leukemia. Once I got accustomed to Audacity, it was not difficult to combine the thirty second clips from each song to one. All I needed to do was copy and paste the clips, then export them as waves. I think my transition between songs worked well, because it changed right when there is an instrumental break in the first song.
I chose to do Jack’s Mannequin for my music PowerPoint because they are my favorite band. I’ve been listening to their music since my friend introduced me to them in high school, and have remained a big fan. I’ve been to one of their concerts, and own both their albums. It is also a band that not too many people know, and I thought the class would enjoy being introduced to them.
The first thing I did was collecting a bunch of images for the slideshow. I gathered a good amount, and saved them in a folder to add to the PowerPoint later. At first, I was using a cursive font, but I eventually decided it was too hard to read. That’s why I switched to Handwriting-Dakota, because I felt as though it matched the theme of their first album, Everything in Transit. I am very happy with my decision, because I got positive feedback from the class when I presented.
For the title slide, I chose a black and white picture of the entire band. I also came up with the idea to crop the band’s name off of their first album through Photoshop, because it looked really cool the way it was flying in the plane. The cropped image did not look good against a white background, so I decided to make the background match the title image. I actually cropped a small corner from the end of the airplane image, and applied it as the background.
The second slide was Jack’s Mannequin facts, and I originally had all the slides with the blue background. I could not find space to put in a picture along with the facts, so I had to change the background to make it more visually appealing. I went into Photoshop and applied a gradient effect. Then I inserted it as a background. The new background made if difficult to read the black font, and I could not find a color that worked. I eventually figured out how to fill in the text box, and I made it 50% transparent. Then I layered each text box on top of each other and custom animated them to ascend in and out automatically.
The third slide had images of Jack’s Mannequin’s albums and a list of all the tracks on them. I could not get both albums to fit on the slide with their tracks, so I had to layer them. I custom animated them to dissolve and ascend in and out as well. This was probably the easiest slide for me, and I did not run into much trouble.
The next slide was the chart, and I had trouble coming up with an initial idea for it. Eventually I decided on a comparison chart. I compared Jack’s Mannequin with The Fray, because they are touring with them this summer. I also compared them to Something Corporate, because the lead singer, Andrew McMahon is the founder of Jack’s Mannequin. The Fray was the only band with any awards. I thought my chart looked pretty boring, so I tired to liven it up by making the album images float in.
The final slide is what I’m the most proud of. It took a very long time to find all the images I wanted to use, and even longer to Photoshop them. Resizing every image and figuring out where to place them was very time consuming, and it felt like I was doing a jigsaw puzzle. I converted some to grayscale, and made the final image with the band’s name a link to their website.
For the audio section, I wanted to use songs that maybe some people would recognize. This is why I chose “Dark Blue” because it was the hit single from their first album. The second song was “Resolution” because it is the first single from their second album, The Glass Passenger. It is also a very powerful song about Andrew McMahon’s survival from lymphoblastic leukemia. Once I got accustomed to Audacity, it was not difficult to combine the thirty second clips from each song to one. All I needed to do was copy and paste the clips, then export them as waves. I think my transition between songs worked well, because it changed right when there is an instrumental break in the first song.
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