Edge Lighting

This week, we were given a test of our Photoshop skills by taking a regularly lit portrait, and adding edge lighting to but the normally lit photo in a sunset context. I tried to keep the colors natural in this piece by sampling from the background around my friend's head. This color choice kept the lighting natural. I was debating on whether or not to keep the background in focus but the DOF the lens blur adds gives the subject, in this case the head, the proper attention while keeping the general context of the background. Lastly, the composure was originally arranged in a rule-of-thirds method but I instead opted for a center oriented subject.

Tutorial: Creating Topiary

http://cgcookie.com/blender/cgc-courses/creating-topiary/

This week, I've been following an excellent tutorial by CGCookie on how to make topiary in Blender. I've only chose a mesh I waned to use so far with the branch network and leaf particle system yet to be implemented. The complex branch structure is made using a clever add-on called IvyGen. After the branches have been implemented, the leaves are placed over top as a particle system with Cycles materials and realistic UV textures. Hopefully, I'll have a finished product ready for show after the long weekend.

Image property of CGCookie.

Cinemagraph

At first, I found the idea of making a portraiture gif to be rather daunting. After discovering the greatness of cinemagraphs, however, the project became quite fun. The process involves taking a still video and setting one frame as a static layer and then using the others to add selective motion, like in the hands flipping the pages. As a global ascetic, I tried for a moody feeling by shifting the subject to the right and adding a gradient vignette across the left. This added the negative and positive space I was looking to achieve.  

Portraiture 2

In my second portrait set, I decided to create a central focus. Through using certain continuities such as the subject, color choice, setting, and visual clues, I aim to present a theme of struggle or hardship.
Color choice was critical in composition. I applied a cooling filter to every image to suppress vibrant tones which would draw away from theme. I decided to refrain from full black and white because I feel that the middle ground between color and monochrome is drearier than full desaturation, which has become "trendy". All three are organized using DOF to connect the subject to important visual cues, especially in the second image where I used a Tilt-Shift blur to create a line of focus from subject to flag.

Low Poly

For my portfolio piece, I decided to explore the potentials of low poly design. The concept and modeling is rather simple, standard quads can be used in production and then triangulated to give the stylistic shading and shadows. Perhaps the two most important elements required for low poly work are texture and color. A flat texture without any sort of specularity is absolutely imperative to give the proper style. The texture should appear smooth while the model should appear angular. The color should convey synthetic and solid colors. The simpler the color choice, the better. Complementary colors should be mainly avoided as to not clash and disrupt the flow of the piece or draw unwanted attention. 

More portraits and painting

I've been out of town without a full desktop so this blogging have images attached. I'm continuing my portraiture through a greater degree of editing than the previous set. mainly, I've been working on portrait painting as part of a tutorial on the topic. I haven't gone much further than the line art and some base colors so it'd be hard to comment on any elements and principals just yet. Additionally, I've composed a piece of a frightening face using a typical face, this being from yet another tutorial. I can hopefully have images up by Monday.

3 Portraits

In these portraits, we were to play with different perspectives and angles in order to get unique shots. In the first piece, I experimented with a bloom feature and different exposure adjustments to alter a seemingly bland photo into a more interesting one. A main topic I aimed to focus on with these portraits was color choice. I chose to bring out the blue in the sky of the first portrait and the blue of Ryan's shirt in the third. Additionally, I used selective motion blur filters on the second and third pieces to give a sense of action, even when the subject is stationary. Lastly, in terms of composition, I used a typical rule of thirds composition in the third portrait and placed the subject in the center for the first two.