Horses

View more presentations from Kyle.

When I began to make my final project I decided that the main message I wanted to construct my project around was horses and how helpful they are to children while growing up. I decided to in addition focus on horses helping children with attention deficit disorder and autism. When selecting images I wanted to show how happy children are when working with horses and show how people and horses can work together.
What I found challenging about this project was to edit my music and voice over. It was a lot of trial and error to get the mix of music I needed. I spent a lot of time mixing the 30 second clips to hide the editing. I also tried many different combinations of volume on all the tracks that I used so you could clearly hear everything.
One problem that I ran into was that a lot of the sound clips of horses neighing or running were in the wrong frequency so when I put them into audacity track they were too quick and didn't sound like much of anything. To fix this problem we recorded the sound on the computer to make sure it was at the same speed as the others so that I sounded right with the other clips.
In this project I am most proud of the slides as a whole. I think that once everything came together they worked really well. I was able to time the images right and they helped bring clarity to the narration. I think the images also worked with the music and theme really well to make one whole meaningful product.
If I had more time to work on this project I would have done two different songs. I like the song that I used but if I had more time I would have found another song to finish the presentation with after the horse running sound. I think it is still good with one song but two would have been more entertaining.

When creating the bind in-blow in cards I had simply to try and recreate the original card that I found in Cosmopolitan magazine. I found this project very challenging. The first problems that I ran into was how to make a triangle. In the card their is a red triangle in the bottom left side. I could not figure out how to make a triangle in either program. I finally gave up trying to use the cut tools in Quark and Indesign and moved on to Photoshop. In photo shop I made a red square the size I needed. Then I rotated the square45 degrees and cropped one half out to make a square. I then needed to use then magic eraser tool before I could save it as a jpg and insert it into my documents.
This is where I ran into another problem. In Quark when I inserted the triangle it would only be imported the size that I made the box around the area so that took some work to get the size as close as possible. Once I finished the project I went to open the document in the maclab for class and the program wouldn't open the document with the triangle. Mt solution was to simply redo the whole experience again.
Because I had so many struggles this would have to be my least favorite project. If I had more time there are many things that I would improve on. In the triangle there was text with a dropped shadow. Unfortunately, I could not make my text look the same. In Quark all of my images are blurry, If I had more time I would have found a way to make them more clear. Finally I would have taken more time to size the cards when I was printing them. They are all different sizes but when I created the documents they were all the same.
In this project I was most proud of the main text that started with "Limited-time". I think that the text was accurate and looked most like the original. I also found this section the easiest to complete.

Skype

View more presentations from Kyle.

When we went to make this brochure for Jacky's Galaxy we first began by looking at the website they have for their restaurants. We decided to make our brochure similar to the website. We followed the same color scheme, a kind of orange brown, and used a lot of the same visuals that they website did. We decided to do a similar brochure because the color scheme really seemed to fit the restaurant and gave it the vibe we were looking for.
The website had tons of information available with many tabs. Our decision was to condense the information and choose only certain things to highlight. We had inside folds as Venues, Banquets and Catering as well as a small about section. I think that these are really important aspects of the restaurants and that is why we chose to include them.
What I found most challenging was making the gradient. It was easy enough to simply add a gradient but challenging to find out how to change the color instead of just black and white. I kept trying different things but someone finally had to point out that you had to drag the color into the gradient. Once I did that the color was right but I still found it hard to make the gradient exactly the way that I wanted it. It kept being too short or too long.
Another problem that I encountered was that the font we chose for the pamphlet looked good on all pages but one. I simply played around with the fonts and in the end made the font size smaller but kept it the same to keep unity through out the project. This change made the spacing seem more natural.
What I am most proud of is the overall look of the brochure. I think that the whole thing came together nicely. It looks professional and I feel that it really gives the right information the the public in an easy to read and appealing visual.
Had I more time I would have spent more time on certain images. Some of the images just don't look as sharp as I would have liked them. With more time I think that I could have gotten them to look better and less fuzzy.

For this assignment I decided to create a concert poster for the band Sugarland. I chose this band for a few reasons. One reason is that I am attending the concert. Second is that the band is fun, they have great concerts. I felt they would be a relatively easy band to make a concert poster for. My original idea was to make the poster look like an envelope and the images the stamps. I was going to put the information in a line like the address on an envelope. The poster has similarities to that idea but in the final process something else occurred.
I had wanted to have the background be the manilla color of an envelope. When I found an image of a stamp I wanted the background was black. Instead of editing the border I simply cropped as much as I could and then changed the background to black. I found that this change also allowed me to use a wider color palette for my text that would not have looked as good on a white background. Another decision that I made was to add the image that is not in a border. I felt that there was something missing, and tried a couple different ideas to fill the void but I eventually decided on the additional image.
I found it really challenging to simply get used to the program. I kept trying to drag images into the program instead of importing them until someone tipped me off that the program worked better with out dragging. I also found it hard to remember that I had to put a box where I wanted the image to go. I tended to forget and then have to start over importing the image. As I spent time using the program I became used to the different steps I had to take and began to enjoy the program more.
One of the problems that I encountered was that the first image that I imported into the poster I did not use a box to place it. Therefore it became part of my black background and couldn't move it later when I wanted to adjust some things. To fix this problem I simply deleted my background with the attached image, then redid everything so that it was correct and could be placed and moved separately.
What I am most proud of is the stamp borders around the images. It took a while to get them just the right angle to match the images. In the beginning I became frustrated with making them look good but I stuck with my original design and am glad the way that they cam out. I am also proud of the way that I have the poster laid out. I feel as if it really fits the z format that is most effective and is easy to follow.
If I had more time to work on the project I would work with the fonts. I had looked at the Sugarland logo but personally I think its a little ugly and definitely didn't fit with the type of poster that I had made. I like the font type that I picked but I am not sure I like the second font time for the other bands and information. It was also suggested that red wasn't the best color to use in the font but I think it worked with the color scheme that I had and chosen and was present in the images. With more time I would have worked with the shade of the font.

When I first wanted to make a PowerPoint presentation for Dierks Bentley I decided that the design must be fun and edgy, like him. His country music tends to have a little rock feel to it so I wanted to make that stand out. I also decided that I wanted to incorporate as many pictures as I could that show Dierk in all aspects of his life not just singing, but with his family.
A lot of time went into this presentation, partly because I was never happy with the first decision that I made and would redo pretty much everything. I redid my title slide 3 times because I just couldn't make things look quite right. In the end I decided on a concert picture in the background with glowing letters. I think the final decision ended up sucessful. I also decided to have a series of images as the last slide because I really wanted to show how Dierk was as a person and all the fun stuff he does...like riding a motorcycle.
What was most challenging about this project was getting the timing right. It was really difficult to tell if a person had enough timje to read the slides and at the same time have enough music for the other slides. Trial and error was really the only way to work out the timing. I had to change the timing of each slides length as well as in many cases speed up the animations. Another problem that I encountered was that the origional song that I had for my slide show was simply too short. I couldn't have enough time for each slide because I ran out of time on others. To fix this problem I simply remixed my song, and actually ended up picking a new song all together.
One decision that I am particularly proud of is the fun facts slide. I decided to put a row of images at the top, and then change the opacity so that they weren't the main focus of the slide. I think the images livened up the slide but kept the attention on the text. I also am pleased with how the music came out. I have never used Audacity or any other music mixing program. It was a lot trickier than I thought to really get the times down, but I think I managed to still make the merge of the two songs to sound pretty good.
If I had more time to work on this presentation I would spend more time working on the song and meshing the two clips together. I am not totally satisfied with the outcome but for a first try I could not expect any better.

Dierks Bentley

View more presentations from Kyle.

When I went to create this design I really wanted to focus the visuals on the wind aspect and people standing. I wanted to have people in the wind embracing it rather than letting it get them down. I found some great images when searching for wind but alot of the time the images just didn't look right. So I spent a lot of my time searching for the right images, adding them and deciding they weren't right. I wanted the images to kind of be randomly placed and hectic to show that sometimes life is changing and different things happen just as the song says.
One of the challenges that I encountered was that when I animated my poem and tried to insert my collage the collage appeared on all the animations. I fixed the problem by dragging the collage on to a new level that I created while the eyeball icon was clicked off. I also ran into a problem when after I finished everything I played it back and the words somehow had gotten clicked on at the wrong times. I think this happened when I brought in my collage but I am not very certain. I simply had to go back and just redo some of the words in the animation.
What was new to me was pretty much the whole assignment. The only experience that I have had working with photoshop has been what I have done in this class. Animating the font poem was entirely new and it did take a little trial and error before I was able to figure it out. I also used new tools in photoshop to work on my collage. I tried the blur tool, as well as the paint brush to blend the images together.
I enjoyed making the collage the most in this project. Once I had all my images inserted it was more of an art project to me. I was in control of the color, size, satuaration and everything else that went into my image. It was also fun to learn how to use the tools in photoshop and see the effects that they can do.
I am most proud of how the collage turned out. I had fun making the collage and I think that that can be seen in the final project. I think my collage is very unique and to me represented what I thought that the song meant. I had fun working with the different tools especially paint. I made a hectic border around the dandelion image to help blend and enforce the idea that anything can happen.
If I had more time to make this project I would have inserted the font poem over the collage. I made some of the images correspond with the locations of words so that if I did have time the words would overlap. The girl on the right walking on the beach would have been covered by stand to reenforce the idea. I would have liked to put the words in as a reminder to the song and show why I picked the images that I did.

Contact Sheet

The first row of the contact sheet focuses on resolution. This was a pretty easy row to create since the image was already given to us and was of high resolution. To change the image resolution I simply had to click on image size and enter the resolution needed. The challenging part of this was to insert the image into the contact sheet so that they were above the words and the correct size. It was really sensitive to where I placed the image.
The next row was about format and mode which dealt with color. I had first selected an image that really did not show the difference between CMYK and RGB as I would have liked. I went back and selected a better image where it was easier to tell the difference. The next challenge that I ran into was that the black and white image would not insert into the contact sheet. To fix this I had to save the image differently and try again.
For the row about orientation I chose an image of a waterfall. Unfortunately, the resolution was low and very hard to see especially when I began to crop the image. I went into image size and changed the resolution from 72 to 300. When I first learned how to crop it took a couple of tries and playing with the crop tool to realize where the cropping would end up. Once I became used to the tool I was able to easily isolate the waterfall and crop the image.
Creating the framing images was very entertaining. I was surprised by how much detail came out of the image by creating a more close up view. This row of images went very smoothly and I found no problems along the way. I did spend time working out the size and placement of the cropping that I did.
The row that I had the most fun doing was the row about content. I found this great image of a snake that was in a very high resolution. When I cropped in to focus on the scales the image was still incredibly interesting and clear. I tried to gradually zoom in on the exact same spot on the snack each time to see a progression of where the image came from.
The last row about purpose was very insightful because I was able to experiment with the different and unique brush strokes and artistic applications. The image of Carrie Underwood was a little hard to work with because some of the different types would distort the image so completely that you couldn't tell what the image was. I chose to put Sumi-e crosshatch because I liked the dramatic blurred edges.

The lyrics that I chose were from the Rascal Flatt's song "Life is a Highway". I chose these three lines that I thought were meaningful because they show life's instability. I like the lyrics because to me it shows different choices to be made. These lyrics also had words that I thought I would be able to illustrate more easily than others.
I chose to leave the less important words in white and in the same font to make them look similar. I chose to make the word "YOU" in all capitals and in a young looking font so that it stands out. I made the word "gone" begin larger and decrease in size to give the illusion that is was disappearing. The color also becomes lighter to emphasize the word. "Wind" was in Vladimir script to create the illusion of light and airy look.
To arrange the words I considered each word individually. I had to find a way to cover the whole page. Because I only changed the font and size of some of the words I had to space them so that they weren't all at one point on the page. I decided to place words that I thought were less significant closer together. The significant words are isolated to draw more attention to them.
The first problem that I encountered was that I used another computer to work on the project. When I opened the project again all the layers had disappeared. I think that I accidentally saved my draft as a jpg. I learned from my mistake and from then on I made sure that I saved my document as a photoshop document. I also was having difficulty in using the full page. My earlier drafts are organized straight across the page. I fixed the problem by spending more time moving around each word focusing on separating and off centering the words. I also increased the font size on every word so that it would take up more space on the page.
If I had more time I would work on the color aspect of the design. I used blue and different shades of blue to add meaning to the words but I would have liked to add different colors. I chose to use blue because it represented wind, and I was able to use different hues to add meaning to the other words.