Research - Generating Ideas.

After doing a bit of research about propaganda, and the different style that there where, I started to think of ideas that I could use, but primarily draw my self. I need to remember my own artistic limitations. So having these in mind, I started to think of simple ideas, that I could create and make my own. My first idea was to include spys, and I have drawn out a few sketches of what I would like my spy to look like, and have included them in my sketch book. I would use this, except I can't find a suitable piece of art to model it after. I then had an idea with Communism involved. Russian communism propaganda used a lot of raised fists, to signify the rising of the common man.

I remembered this poster when I saw the facebook "Like" Symbol, and thought that there must be a way I can incorporate the "Like" Symbol into a communist looking propoganda poster. I have drawn up a sketch to put in the sketch book to go out along with it, and hopefully I can develop it further, and improve on my Illustrator techniques to make it worth while.

Propagana research one.

"Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda

Propaganda comes down to one nation creating advertisementsthat a biased towards the views of the nation. For example, in world one two, the propaganda was all about keeping quite, incase German spys are around, or helping the war effort by farming. It works by either making the audience proud to be apart of it, or afraid of the enemy forces. These feelings bring up biased opinions against the country, or group that is being advertised as bad.

Propaganda posters have been in play since 1915, during the first world war. This particular one (left) shows Kaiser Wilhelm taking a bite into the earth. This works, because the French citizens would see this, and start to think that yes, the Germans are only out to destroy the earth. 

"Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist." - Garth Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell






 Not all propaganda style pieces come from war. This is a cover for George Orwell's "1984". The book coined the term, "Big brother is watching you" and this is the sort of thing i feel i want to produce at the end of this project. I feel as though propaganda is all about fear, and i want to recreate this fear, but in a way that is relevent to modern internet websites. I like this style of drawing, because it is mainly shapes that imply something, which s effective, because it lets the audience use their imagination when viewing the poster. I think I'm going to research more about this style for my final product.

New Project - Propaganda Poster.

We've just been given our next assignment, which is to create a propaganda poster for a popular social networking website, such as Facebook, or Twitter. For this task, i will have to do a presentation, which means a big load of pre-production for me!

To get ideas, i plan to do a lot of research into different drawing styles of propaganda posters. I have an initial idea, but i need to find a way of producing it, to create a clear enough homage. I have three weeks to do this pre production, and at the end of those three weeks, will have to present my ideas, my development process, and my technical uses to the class.

But first! Research into the different styles of posters that their are. I feel i shouldn't just give up and do a world war two style, so im going to look into the different conflicts that produced propaganda, both about the enemy, and the home front.

Final thoughts.

Today is dead-line day. I only managed to get two cinema panoramas. I would have been able to get more, but the time in which i can actually do it was so slim, I never got a chance too. If i where going to do this project again, i think i would have to get my self in gear a lot quicker than i did, so that i don't have a rush to take my last photos, and end up with a shoddy last piece.

Also, because on one of my panoramas, that is a massive, obvious stitch, due to the camera i used. If i was going to start all over again, i would take my photos again, and work at stitching them better.

I have learned a bit on this project, like how to use quick masks and layer masks effectively, as well as being able to use parts of an image, to enhance other parts. There was a bit of this project where Andrew showed me how i can take small chunks of an image, like a part of a wall, and super impose it onto a part of an image that is out of focus, or dirty.

And those where my final thoughts.

Glitches.

I have a few glitches on my finished products that I am explaining now. The reason I had this first glitch was because on that particular section, i took to few photos, so i had to work with the picture out of focus. If i where to have to do it again, i would take more photos, just so i had a fall back.

This other glitch was a colour and light issue. I did all i could to the image, but there where to many contrasting lights, that If i changed it any more, it would have looked much worse.

JQuery.

Since i'll be using JQuery to present my Panoramas on the web, I figured it would be very useful to know about it.

• jQuery is a cross-browser JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML. It was released in January 2006 at BarCamp NYC by John Resig. Used by over 31% of the 10,000 most visited websites, jQuery is the most popular JavaScript library in use today.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JQuery

JQuery is a Javascript libary that works over all browsers. Its features include:

• DOM Element selections using the cross browser open source selector engine, Sizzle.
• DOM trabersal and modification
• Events
• CSS Manipulation
• Effects and animation
• Ajax
• Extensibility
• Utilities - Such as browser version, and the EACH fuction
• And Cross-browser support.

The library is just a single JavaScript file, that contains all of its common DOM, Events, effects, and Ajax. You can include it in any web page by linking it localy with the file in your network, or to a public one, such as Google, or Microsoft CDN. The code would look like this:

<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.js"></script>

Another, more popular way to link the JQuery Library to your webpage, is by using what is known as the .ready code. 

$(document).ready(function() {
// jquery goes here
});
  

 Or the shortcut

$(function() {
// jquery goes here
}); 

History research... Two

Robert Barker

Robert Barker was an rish painter that used the term Panoramic to describe his Paintings on Edinburgh. After creating them, he was soon exhibiting them in London, titled, "The Panorama". In 1793, Barker moved his panoramas into the first purpose-built panorama building in the world, located in Leicester square, London. He made a fortune.


Audiences flocked far and wide, paying 3 shillings just to stand on the centeral platform under a skylight, and get the panoramic experience. His most famous one was a 360 degree view of the South bank from the roof of Albion Mills. The audience had a option whether to purchase a series of 6 prints that modestly recalled the experience.

His achievements involved the sophisticated manipulations of perspective, which has not been encountered in Panorama's predecessors. He managed to capture the side-angle "Prospect" of a city that was familiar since the 16th century. When Barker first used his technique in 1787, he gave it the French title of La Nature a Coup d' Oeil, Which translated means, "Nature at a first glance".

Tecnique.

While doing this project, I've learned a few new techniques for stitching images together that i never new before. When i started this, I figured it would be a simple cut and paste job, but after creating two effective panoramas, i now know that it takes a lot more than just that. Luckily, photoshop has the right tools to achieve a clean stitch, with a bit of work.


The first tool that I have been using is the quick mask tool.

 

 What the quick mask tool does, is it allows you to select objects, or even parts of objects using the brush tool. This is effective, because you can change the opacity of the brush tool, allowing you to select a small amount of an object, or a large thick bit of the object. It is especially effective when trying to get shadows right on your stitch.

 

Another tool that I have found to be very useful is the layer mask tool.

The layer mask tool allows you to place a mask over the selected layer. Its like putting tracing paper over and image to see what it would look like if you added other things to it. It wont damage the image underneath the mask, allowing you to see what works and what won't.

Resolution.

Because of the size of my files, I feel that it would be beneficial to lower the resolution, as it takes way to long to load up, and even save my pictures. They are currently at the point where photoshop as made them into .PSB (Photoshop big). The file size isnt SO important, but these pictures are going onto the web, so they dont need to have such a high resolution, as they are currently set to print. This is why I am going to change them all down to a resolution of 72 DPI. This is a much better idea, not only for my work flow, but also the finished project would take a lot less time to lead up on the server if i dulled them down a bit.

3rd Panorama

Turns out we still have a week to go with this project, which means I am able to do one more panorama. I did originally plan to do 3, but I thought that the deadline was a lot sooner. My 3rd panorama will be in one of the Auditoriums at the uckfield picture house. I did try to do this once before, but had some irritation camera issues, to the point the camera refused to take a picture... But since i still have a week I'm sure I can figure something out.

My last two panoramas had a few problems with the tripod, to the point where it looked as if I would have to go back and take new photo's. Luckily I was able to use the tools on photoshop to fix this, and could finish my first two. I was told the best way to do these is by getting a tripod with a spirit level built in. I would do this, but money is tight, so the plan is to find a bog standard spirit level, and use that on the camera every time i rotate it. This will make sure that all the photos are level, and I would have to distort the image as much.

My First Panorama..!

Here is my FIRST panorama made! On this blog post, i will talk about the task, and how i managed to create a panoramic image using 24 different images.

It took my a while to blend all the joins together, but by using a different combination of tools and techniques, i manged to mask most of my joins, if not all of them.

Firstly, i used a lot of layer masked. These allowed me to edit the photo, while not doing any damage to the original file. This is called constructive editing, because it will not destroy the original file, but more overlay information, that masks the photo. This allowed me to blend from one join to the other, using a very soft brush, with about 35% opacity, and a 20% softness. This was particularly useful when merging a shadow to a wall.

Quick mask was also very useful. It has the same principle of a layer mask, but allowed you to select certain parts of the photo with the brush tool. This is effective because it permits different softness and opacity to the brush, letting you choose soft areas, or hard areas, or hard areas with soft perimeters.

When creating my final join, from far left to far right, I chose a neutral zone, and cut it down the middle. With this done, i placed both sides facing out wards on either side of the document. I then warped my two middles together, did a bit more blending, and then i had a clean panorama that would work at 360 degrees. The last thing i did was to make sure i could fit as much as i could in this image, so i used the Ruler tool (Apple+R) and marked out where i would like to cut. I then carefully warped the image to fit in the lines I had to be extra careful not to warp my two ends, otherwise it wouldn't work at all.

I then cropped, and saved. I am yet to code it, but once i have at least one more panorama finished, I shall..!