Production experiments

1. Experiments
Alexander Sullivan-Cree

2. Process
When starting my Production Experiments, I
was told to look up Photoshop tutorials and
other program tutorials you may use when
making my final product. I stumbled across a
you-tuber by the username of 'Rafy A', a
Photoshop tutorial channel and came across
an interesting image of a little girl holing a
light next to a giant tiger. This gave me the
idea to create something similar using the
same tutorial. Instead of a Tiger I decided to
use a Red Panda. the like to the video tutorial
is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNnUyss
yHKY
original
I used a range of new and different photoshop tools
that I've never used before. I started by cutting out
the Red Panda with the mask tool which I later
refined using the refine mast cool . I then drag and
dropped the forest background which I used
another new tool the ‘field blue’. The field blur
allowed me to create the distorted background look.
The next step to creating this experiment was
changing the hue/saturation of the red pander to fit
the colour of the background, I also then changer
the colour balance of the panda. The next step in
the process was to apply the dark areas around the
panda and girl to give the overall experiment a more
realistic look with false shadowing. This was done by
applying a radial gradient from transparent to black
which I later changed the opacity of. The last new
tool I used was the curves function. The curve
function allows you to adjust the points throughout
the images tonal range. This just mean the total
number of tones in the image. After the process of
using the tools and functions, the rest of the
experiment was just a repeat of old techniques I
learned prior and the use of the new tools I
developed from this experiment.
I think the overall look the this
experiment was a success and looks
very professional. I would defiantly like
to use this same technique when it
comes time to create my final product.
However at this current point I'm not
100% sure where I can use this. I could
make a picture similar using the own
images and hopefully match the same
genre of my magazine. But ill think
about this more when it comes time to
create my final project and see how
much time I have left at the end of
production.

3. ProcessMy next challenge was to create a merchandise
from existing images. For my experiment, I
decided to use the photo of this model where
you can see the shading and creases in the top. I
also used a google image of one of the virtual
members of the band ‘Gorillaz’. I used YouTube
Tutorials for all my experiments and I find this
the most useful and effective was to developed
and learn more techniques. I used a video by the
name of ‘Teach Me To Design’ with the link
being
‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mceZfU5lx
cI’
The first step when creating a realistic t-shirt is
creating a path tool. I’ve never used the path tool
before however I found it extremely useful as
when using the pen tool, it allows you to save the
path as a Jpeg. The next step was to isolate the
top from the rest of the body which is quite
simple. You can just select the path you already
saved and copy it to another layer. Then I had to
create a displacement map. A displacement map
is a black and white version of the same layer
which is later used to apply a texture to it. After
creating the displacement map I than applied a
gaussian blur, this is to make se that there's not
any hard lines or edges to the t-shirt. I then went
on to drag and drop the image onto the t-shirt
and creating the black and white t-shirt, however
I wanted to go further and change the colour of
the shirt to green. This was the easiest step in this
experiment as all I had to do I select the path I
made earlier, create another copy and paint the t-
shirt to my desired colour. The final step was to
change the coloured t-shirt to an overlay giving it
the same texture as before.
Depending on time, I would very much
like to make merchandise of my own
using already existing images and images I
may make/take myself. The overall look of
the product looks semi professional
however if I spent more time of the
process of playing around with colour and
opacity I think it would’ve looked a lot
more professional. All the tools used to
create this experiment were all new to me
and so I developed more understanding of
photoshop and how websites such as red
bubble create adverting for the website.
This is defiantly something I look forward
to learn more about in the future.

4. Process
For my final experiment, instead of learning new
techniques on a program that I already knew a fair few
techniques already, I decided to learn an entirely new
program to me. This program being Adobe Illustrator.
For this I also look to YouTube to find any helpful
videos. Very similar to my second experiment, instead
of using an already existing image I decided to make
my own logo and other assets to my magazine and
website. The Youtuber Spoon Graphics with his video
‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzRGm95wiSI’.
Taught me how to create this spaceship logo and all
the basic and some advanced skills on how to do so.
Illustrator is quite similar to photoshop but also very
different.
I then took these
skills and created a
few logos of my own
which I think turned
out pretty well for
my first time using
Illustrator
The first step to creating these logos was create an
art bored with the smart guides turned on and
selecting the colours I intend to use for my logos.
Its quite hard to explain the process of creating
these as all the logos were created by using shapes
to overlay and cut of the parts that I needed. The
body of the rocket was created by making an oval
and turning the top and bottom point to corners.
Another oval was used to create the outline for the
thrusters and using the centre line panel to make
sure they’re both centred. I then used the minus
front panel tool to cut it out. All the other parts of
the rocket were make exactly the same, including
the window, smoke and wings. I find illustrator nice
and easy to use as it creates minimalistic logos by
simply using shapes.
I definitely want to use illustrator
to create background for my
website and maybe my magazine.
I really like the layout and tools
available in illustrator and ill
defiantly come back to it in the
future. The overall look of the
logos look professional to some
degree however I will learn and
further my skills in Illustrator at
my own time.

5. Reflection
• What elements of your experiments will you include in your final product?
When it comes time to create my final product, I will use a range or techniques and skills I
have learnt. However that doesn’t mean I will use the elements exactly the same but use
the skills more effectively in my final product. I defiantly will be using Adobe illustrator for
my final product, hopefully making my logo, merchandise or page backgrounds as the
preferred method. This is because I like how effective something can look only using the
shape tool and paint bucket.
Furthermore I shall be using the techniques I learn from the first and second experiment.
These techniques and tools being: the Hue/Saturation tool, Colour balance, refine mask,
overlay and path tool. The use of the Hue/saturation and colour balance will help when it
comes time to edit images I have taken myself. These tools will defiantly come in handy
when I'm creating my adverts for the merchandise. Alongside the skills in photography and
photoshop I have gathered throughout the year will hopefully create a professional looking
piece of work.