Animal Skin

                                              My Replica of Original Example

                                 My own Zebra Hippo. Zippo.  


 This is my last project for my Photoshop class! In this project, I was supposed to learn how to take the skin off of one animal and fit it onto another (not nearly as gruesome as it sounds). I didn't expect it to be difficult at all, but it was definitely a bit harder than I thought it would be. It didn't turn out exactly like I thought it would; I wish I could have gotten the skin of the zebra a little bit lighter (and if I did it again, I would do that), but I kind of like the way the stripes look against the purple-y skin of the hippo. Honestly, I was a little disappointed in this project, and I'd probably give it a 7/10. Oh well, at least it didn't take too long! In general, the class is going well, because all I have to do is put together my final website. On to Portfolio- I need to complete Port. in 4 days. YAY

Smoke

                                           My Replica of Original Example

My psychedelic smoke

My own creation

In this unit, I learned how to create smoke and add it to photographs. I didn't anticipate the difficulty of making it look like smoke once I pasted it onto a photograph...I had to adjust and re-distort, etc. to make it look more real. I didn't really know how it would turn out but I was satisfied with the result once I chose to make it sort-of a trippy background rather than an image. If I did it again I think I would try to have the psychedelic smoke coming out of my mouth, but I didn't feel like blending and making it look real because since my image was already in greyscale it was more logical to just use my regular smoke layer. I am most proud of the way that I originally did the psychedelic smoke. Overall, it was fun! 

Pop Art!

                                                 My replica of original example

    "Lil' Poppies," starring Pepper and Scarlett!

In this unit, I learned how to make a normal picture look like super cool pop art, fifties and sixties style. I was definitely not expecting how difficult doing the lips would be, though; I had messed up and layered stuff in a weird way earlier so I didn't have a normal picture with which to fill in the lips, and I spent the most time on them. It actually turned out better than I thought it would. I am most proud of my color choices...I think I matched our skin tones pretty accurately and the shades of yellow and pink are just very happy. On a scale of one to ten, I give this project an absolute ten, and now I can give Scarlett a picture of us looking pop-arty! 

I am so grungy

Top: My replica of the original example

Bottom: My own "Pepper" Grunge

In this project, I learned how to make your picture look a little bit "grungy", although I definitely kept it classy. What you see above is not my original "Pepper" grunge piece...I was two seconds away from being done with the masterpiece that was the old one and I accidentally deleted it. I had spent all day (lunch+third block+ 3 hours after school) on it, so I just started freaking out and tried to do a really quick one that was similar. It didn't turn out like I thought it would, but I'm glad for that because it allowed me to give it an older feel with the color splotches and noise, etc. I am actually pretty proud of it because I cranked it out in 30 minutes after spending hours and hours on the first one. If I did it again, I would not delete it just before completion because that is a dumb thing to do. I would give this project a 10/10. When I first started it I was prepared to be super bored, but I definitely got creative with it. I would probably rate my creativity as a 9 or so on this particular project....I really enjoyed using Austin and Budapest as backgrounds, and I feel like it could almost be a postcard from the turn of the century from Pepper, France or something. 

Masking Fur

                                          My Kangaroo Ghost of Town Lake

                        My Replica of Original Example


I will now start answering my blog reflection questions in paragraph form rather than list form because at Gonzalo Garza Independence High School, we MIX. IT. UP. 


In this unit, I learned how to mask/add fur to animals when setting them on a different backdrop. I wasn't   expecting it to take such a short time to complete, but I'm happy with the final result because I felt more comfortable on my third project using Photoshop and made it a little more my own. If I did it again I would probably try to place the kangaroo more strategically. Secret: I only made him a ghost because he was already standing on the water and as far as I know, there are no living and breathing kangaroos that walk in Town Lake. I could be wrong. You never know. But I just played around with the opacity and color overlays a bunch to make it look ghostly. On a scale of 1-10, I'd probably give this project an 8 because there weren't that many steps and those meerkats seriously creeped me out. The class as of today is going well because soon I will have it triple-blocked or all day, allowing me to finish on time! Yay Pepper.
              

Swapping Faces!

Humphrey Bogart's Face on Marilyn Monroe's Body

My Replica of Original Example

Blog Reflection Questions:

1. What do you think you were meant to learn in this unit and did it work?

I was meant to learn how to put someone's face over someone else's and make it look convincing, and I think it worked.

3. Did it turn out like you thought it would?

For the most part, yeah, except that I was having trouble with his chin...Humphrey Bogart has a dimpled chin and the way that I selected it from the original photo (with the pen tool) made it look like his chin had a triangle cut out. I tried to blend but oh well. The rest of it looks cool!

4. Did anything take longer than you thought it would?

It surprised me that the part that took the longest was finding faces to swap. I really wanted to swap some of my friend's faces, but with the varying sizes and picture quality and other stuff you get from, say, Facebook photos, it proved to be too difficult. It was easier once I decided I wanted it to be black and white so that I could play around with the grey and the skin tones/wrinkles since that wasn't a part of the tutorial.

5. What would you do differently if you did it again?

 I think I would definitely use a different tool from the start to select Humphrey's face because that triangle chin was killin' me. I would also spend more time Free Transforming to match up the face more precisely, and I would have spent more time shadowing the chin, but I'm pretty pleased with the overall effect.

11. How is this class going for you in general?

Right now, I'm super duper stressed out because I'm trying to graduate in less than two weeks. I like the Photoshop class but I'm feeling more and more like I won't be able to get everything done and that it's going to hold me back from graduating.

Applying Tattoos!

                           Taylor with Dobby Tattoo

                      My Replica of Original Example


Blog Reflection Questions:

1. What did you think you were meant to learn in this unit and did it work?

   I learned how to apply tattoos onto a body using Photoshop. I think it worked out tremendously!

2. Was there anything unexpected?

    I wasn't expecting the effort it took to fit it onto the skin to make it look super legit, what with the noise, warping, etc.

3. Did it turn out like you thought it would?

    For the most part, yes, though I realized that for this particular unit it's easier to use some sort of art rather than try to make a regular google image look like a tattoo.

7. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate this project? 

    10. It was easy to understand and easy to follow, and it was an interesting thing to learn how to do.

10. How would you rate your own creativity on this project? 

    A 10, of course! To say differently would either make it look like I had a low opinion of myself or make the subject (Taylor) sound ugly! I had a beautiful subject, made even more beautiful by her artsy tattoo!