Completing Graphics Project
Your assignment this week is to complete your Graphics Project. Last week you made 1 slide from your graphics project. You learned to combine pictures and text, and to create composite images.
Now, following your script and storyboard, produce the rest of the images necessary to tell your story. Remember, the requirements are:
- You have 5 to 10 images to tell your story; don't go over or under the limits
- Most images should integrate horizontal or vertical text
- Use visual hierarchy to direct the attention of the viewer to the most important parts of the image
- At least one image must combine two pictures, which is called a composite image.
- Image dimensions should be 800 by 600 pixels
It IS DEFINITELY OKAY to depart from your script/storyboard if you want to. These pre-production tools are not meant to tie you down during production. Artists often change their mind and modify their work in the midst of production. Be creative but DO respect the requirements above.
Production
While you are producing the images for your project, be sure to save them in the 'Photoshop' format (the extension is .psd). This format will keep all of the data regarding layers, history etc. that's vital to editing images.
Be sure that you are following your file management strategy and storing images in their correct folders.
Save final images in the 'Photoshop' format with a filename that will make it easy to identify your 'final' version later on. You may want to do another version of this story next year, and you'll want to track down your final edit quickly.
Compressing images for distribution
Now you'll want to save a version of each image in your story to show it to the world!
You should save a version of each final image in a compressed graphic format suitable for distribution. This will be either .jpg or .png. These formats produce quite similar results of very high quality. JPEG typically allows somewhat more control over the amount of compression applied. This is not particularly important for our graphics project, since I am going to ask you to use the Maximum quality setting if you decide to compress in jpeg (you'll notice that .png doesn't give you a choice of compression settings). Pick the format that you want to try out.
Your filenames should be: grpflastname and should be numbered sequentially. For example, the first two images in my story would be named grp_apines1.png and grp_apines2.png
On a PC (Mac won't do this for you)
In the Elements Organizer 10, select the items you want to export by clicking to hilight them, and then choose File > Export As New File(s).
Specify any of the following options:
File Type: .jpg or .png and if you use .jpg, choose maximum quality.
Size And Quality: If you have been good, all of your images are sized at 800 by 600 pixels. Choose original size.
Location: Specifies the folder in which to store the exported file. Click Browse to specify a different folder or drive. Create a new folder to store your compressed graphics image files.
Filenames: Specifies the name of the exported file. Select Original Names to use the current name of the photos. To export files with the same name plus a sequential number, select Common Base Name and type a name. If a filename already exists in the target folder, the exported file’s name is modified to avoid overwriting an existing file.
Click Export and wait for your PC to process the images.
On a Mac
Sorry Mac users, this is a rare instance in which Adobe did not make their application consistent on both platforms. Mac users will have to save a compressed copy of each image individually. You may find a work-around that will let you batch process your final files, but the Mac version of Organizer does not have an Export option as described for PC above. So here's my old-school recommendation:
In the Elements Editor 10, open the .psd version of your final image file(s).
CAREFULLY using the "Save As" command, save a copy of each image into a new folder that you have created to store your compressed graphic images. The "Save a copy" box should be checked in the Save As window.
Use .png or .jpg compression, as you wish. If you use .jpg, choose maximum quality.
Your filenames should be: grpflastname and should be numbered sequentially. For example, the first two images in my story would be named grp_apines1.png and grp_apines2.png
Submitting your graphics project for grading
The last step of the project is to upload the graphics project folder full of sequentially numbered compressed images. You will find the button to submit the assignment below.
Before you do, it's a good idea to compress your folder to take less space on our class server. This will be especially important when you submit the video project, since video files can be quite large. Here's how to compress folders:
Compressing your folder on a Mac:
Locate the folder you want to compress and click to highlight it.
Right click on it and then select Compress.
A window will appear indicating that your Mac is compressing the folder. Depending on the size of the files or the folders, this could take a couple minutes.
Once your Mac has finished compressing the files or folders, you'll see a nice little zip file. This contains all of the files and folders you selected to be compressed.
Send this to me and I'll be able to open it, whether I am using a Mac or a PC. All Mac users have to do to open the zipped folder is to double-click it!
Compressing your folder on a PC:
Locate the folder that you want to compress.
Right-click the folder, point to Send To, and then click Compressed (zipped) Folder.
A new compressed folder is created. To rename it, right-click the folder, click Rename, and then type the new name.
Send this to me and I'll be able to open it, whether I am using a Mac or a PC. All Mac users have to do to open the zipped folder is to double-click it!
Congratulations! You've completed your graphics project, hopefully on time and
Sharing your graphics project with the rest of us (OPTIONAL)
This step is optional, but I really hope you'll want to share your story with the rest of your classmates. Playback days are the most rewarding days I have in my face to face classes. I hope we can all share our stories and give each other the kudos and feedback that we deserve.
I have created a forum for this purpose on Insight, called Share your project. Basically, all you need to do is to upload your project to a web-based photo sharing service and copy the link. Then, start a new discussion in the Share your project forum, and paste the link into it so that we can all enjoy your story. I'm sure plenty of people will want to reply to your post once they've seen your great work!
The Elements Organizer 10 makes it easy to send your images to a variey of photo sharing sites (including Tumblr and Facebook). Just click on the Share tab at the top right of your screen and select your graphic project images. Follow the instructions to upload them to the site of your choice.
You may also want to use Google Photos (aka Picasa Web Albums) for this, since you already have an account, whether you know it or not, because it is part of the Google Apps suite that City College makes available to you. Even if you have never used it before, your login for this service is the same that you use to get your City College email.
Uploading your images to Google Photos
Follow these steps to upload photos and videos from within Picasa Web Albums:
Sign in to Picasa Web Albums at http://picasaweb.google.com
Click Upload.
Set your album title (eg. Malcolm's graphics project)
Click Choose photos to upload.
Select multiple photos from the same folder: Press the Ctrl key (Windows) or the Command key (Mac) on your keyboard while clicking photos.
Select all photos in a folder: Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-A (Windows) or Command-A (Mac).
After the images upload, hover over a thumbnail to add a caption, zoom, rotate, or delete within the upload screen.
Click OK.
New albums will be visible to only you until you share them..
To create a slideshow in Picasa Web Albums:
On the album that you just created, click the Picasa Web Albums create slideshow button. Use the controls at the bottom of the slideshow to adjust slide duration and play/pause. Please don't include music, and use only the captions that you created in Photoshop on the slides themselves.
On a single photo, click the Picasa Web Albums create slideshowFull Screen button. Identical slideshow controls are available, however the slideshow is paused to provide a full screen view of the specific photo.
To exit the slideshow, click the X button or press the Esc key.
To see your colleagues slide show, click on the link in their forum post, or copy the url and and paste it into your web browser to navigate to the online slideshow. Go full-screen by clicking F11 on your keyboard.
For more help with Picasa/Google, go here:
http://support.google.com/picasa/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=187407&topic=1689793&ctx=topic
| Available from: | Saturday, 14 September 2013, 06:00 AM |
| Due date: | Sunday, 22 September 2013, 11:55 PM |