As If By Magic: Vicious/Virtuous Composite Still Image
Through the power of imaging, transform the mundane into something extraordinary. Using Adobe Photoshop and at least 3 original images, employ layering, masking, blending, and other skills to create a unified and cohesive composite image that communicates a narrative using principles of the genre of magical realism. I chose the cycle of a daily routine of getting ready in the morning and getting ready for bed, and included makeup as part of the process. I used the positioning of the mirror at an angle and lighting to show the different times of day, and added a subtle magical element by adding extra hands. The yellowish coloring is intended to make the image look mysterious and somewhat horrific. I used 6 different images to create this piece, and it took about 2 hours to complete.
As If By Magic: Trance State
An oddly specific moment in time. Extend the theme of magical realism to create a cinemagraph of a moment frozen in time in a perfect loop that gives the impression of it lasting forever. Use Adobe Photoshop and the photoshop frame animation timeline to create a gif of your seamless looping animation. I chose to create a cinemagraph of blowing bubbles where nothing is moving except for the bubbles. This makes it look like I'm stuck continuously blowing bubbles, but there is no new breath intake, so it's somewhat eerie. I also adjusted the color of the image to make it more aesthetically pleasing, and this took about 30 minutes to complete.
No Useful Purpose: Narrative Context Video
Based on your single-channel performance of futility, create a story using the action as a plot point. Adapt the story to a video by creating a storyboard focusing on key plot points, shoot the story on your camera, and edit footage together in Adobe Premiere. My futile act was attempting to hammer a nail into some wood using a stuffed animal, a small Hokie bird. The story that I came up with as context for this was that my 3D duck is telepathic and told me to use the Hokie bird as a hammer. The backstory between the duck and the Hokie bird is a mystery. In my video, I get instructions from the duck, go out to get supplies, perform the act, and then explain my failure to the duck (but there is no dialogue). Planning, filming, and editing took about 4 hours total.
Audio + Object Motion Study AE Video
Use Adobe Illustrator to creator vector art of 7 discrete objects and animate them in Adobe After Effects in a 30-40 second looping video. Then use sounds you find on the Internet and create your own sounds to add to your animated video. I chose a sushi theme for my animation and created different scenes from fish jumping in the ocean to a person eating a piece of sushi. I tried to make the visuals in a style that is colorful, smooth, and pleasing to look at. After I created the images and separated them into the necessary layers, I animated them by adding different effects and movements to help tell a story. I then found some interesting or realistic sounds to add to each scene in my animation that make it fun to watch. Illustration took about 3 hours, animation took about 2 hours (without all of After Effect's stalling, crashing, and generally not functioning on my computer), and finding and adding audio took about 1 hour.
