Principles of digital image processing and electronic painting. Emphasis on bitmapped - or raster based image marking and the creative aspects of electronic illustration for commercial and fine art applications. Student must have a passing score on the THEA reading, have completed or have concurrent enrollment in READ 0308. Prerequisite: ARTC 1302 or consent of instructor. Laboratory fee $25. Sp (5004090000).
Downloads
Class Syllabus
Visit our course Facebook Group
Assignments
Week 1:
Jan. 17th:
-Review Syllabus
Week 2
Jan. 24th:
Project 1: Portfolio Evaluation
In-Class Project: Animal Morph
Watch this Video & Report on It
Week 3
Jan. 31st:
Project 1: Portfolio Evaluation
Discuss Ch. 7 Typographic Design & complete the lab
Famous Typographers
Packaging Design Examples
Week 4
Feb. 7th:
Project 2: Packaging Redesign
Discuss Ch. 8 Vector Drawing Techniques & complete the lab
Poseable Mannequin Warp
Week 5
Feb. 14th:
Review Sketches for Packaging Redesign
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Project 1: Portfolio Evaluation
The first project you have is to gather all your projects you've created for AGDT courses along with any photography, fine art and sketching and bring it in to class for review with your instructor. Together we will evaluate any weak areas in your portfolio and then assign three projects to be completed during the semester that will fill in those gaps.
Portfolios should have these main sections:
Illustration art digital & Traditional - something well represented
Design examples - 2D & 3D work - something that is lacking
Photographic both traditional and digital compositions - composition work is needed
Concept Development - thumbnail sketching, mind mapping & mock ups
Typographical work - logo, and type projects are needed
Touch & Feel - actual printed pieces
Portfolio should have between 15-20 pieces.
Contact info, project description and production date should be on each piece.
Categories include:
Book Cover Design
Self Promotion
Tri-fold Brochure
Postcard
Editorial Design - Magazine
Editorial Design - Newspaper
Illustration
Magazine Ad, Consumer
Multi-media CD/DVD
Flash Animation/Animated GIF
Outdoor Billboard
Packaging
Identity Package (logo w/stationary)
Web Banners
Website Design/Production (live student portfolio site)
Large Format Poster
Special Event Invitation
T-shirt/Clothing
The portfolio evaluation will take place on Tues. 1/24 and 1/31 in class.
Animal Morph
There are some pretty uniquely named animal species that exist in the world. You will be given one to make into a morph, combining two or more animals into one realistic looking animal. View some good examples of what I am referring to here.
Possible Topics:
Hammerhead Shark
Rattle Snake
Box Turtle
Bald Eagle
Turtle Dove
Emperor Penguin
Timber Wolf
Chinese Water dragon
Bull Frog
Google-eyed Bass
Jelly Fish
Tiger Shark
Zebra finch
Quarter Horse
Spider Monkey
Water Buffalo
Great Horned Owl
Mule Deer
Angel Fish
Pink Fairy Armadillo
Ground Hog
Bearcat
Nurse Shark
Seahorse
Killer Whale
Catfish
Horny Toad
Warthog
Pig-nosed Turtle
You can gather images from any online resource you want including:
sxc.hu
morguefile.com
google.com
freedigitalphotos.net
animalphotos.info
freenaturepictures.com
I want to see you use all the skills learned during Digital Imaging 1 including selecting, masking, paths, cloning, blending modes and adjustment laters. Pull out all your tricks on this one!
The final image needs to be sized to 600 x 600 pixels, RGB, 72 dpi, saved as a layered PSD, plus a flat JPG. Post the JPG on the class Facebook group. I want to see your finished work flow (layers in the Photoshop file) in class when you're done.
This is your chance to have fun, be creative and demonstrate your Photoshop skills.
Due: Thurs. 1/26 @ 9pm
New Features in CS5
Adobe Photoshop CS5 includes several new, exciting and very useful features. Watch this video and e-mail me a list of 3 of the new features including an explanation of what they do.
Due: Thurs. 1/26 @ 9pm
Famous Typographers
Below is a list of people who made a monumental impact on the world of typography.
- Matthew Carter
- John Baskerville
- Paul Renner
- Monotype Imaging Inc.
- Carol Twombly
- Eric Gill
- Charles A. Bigelow
- Max Miedinger
- Adrian Frutiger
- Claude Garamond
- Kris Holmes
- Giambattista Bodoni
- Firmin Didot
Research the typographer you were assigned, write a brief description of who this person, their accomplishments and attach an example or two. When done, either e-mail me your findings or post it on the class Facebook group.
Due: Thurs. 2/2 @ 9pm
Packaging Design Examples
In preperation for our 1st project, please go to this page on Smashing Magazine a read over the short article and look at the examples of various packaging, paying particular attention to the design, typography and color use.
If you're unfamiliar with packaging and labeling and would like a bit more info than check this out.
We will discuss the project in detail next week, but in the mean time I need you to think over what you want to redesign. The package needs to be relatively small, not a cereal box. It's also wise to use something that has flat sides and is not contoured or shaped funny. The package or label when taken apart and laid out flat needs to fit within a 18x12 sheet of paper.
When done please e-mail me the type of product you want to redesign so I can approve it.
Due: Thurs. 2/2 @ 9pm
Project 2: Packaging Label Redesign
You can download a PDF of this project brief by clicking this link.
Assignment
Find a product that is packaged in a small box, such as tea, soup or pasta. Anything larger, like a cereal box will not work for this project. It's also wise to use something that has flat sides and is not contoured or shaped funny. The package or label when taken apart and laid out flat needs to fit within a 18x12 sheet of paper. For the fun of it, the current design is no longer effective in acquiring new customers and our customer loyalty is dropping quickly, so we need you to redesign the entire outside label to make it more noticeable by our current customers and also be appealing in reaching new customers in our target audience. With a big budget available, you can use full-color in your new design.
Research:
Take some time to research your product in terms of what is does, who they are targeting to purchase it and it's main competitors. Pay close attention to the labeling and packaging of the competitors products. Use Mind Mapping to develop lists of relevant words, asking yourself what colors, textures, smells, imagery and type of customer would be associated with this? If you do not know what mind mapping is, then look here. Also create a morgue file of all images you find that are worth noting and save them into 1 PSD file, saving it as a JPG for reference. Make notes as to what is weak and ineffective with the current design and what visual elements the competition uses that really works well.
Sketching:
After you've thoroughly researched the product, you're ready to begin to sketch out ideas for the new packaging artwork. The best process would be to look at the front of the package and create several outlines in your sketch book with a similar proportion, based upon that shape, but smaller. Use these as your frames to work out new ideas for the packaging. I want to see 5 different penciled designs for this next week Tues. 2/14. They need to contain all the same information and wording as the current box does. After reviewing your thumbnails, we'll pick the strongest solution, which you will use in the next step.
Production:
Here are the steps you should follow to successfully complete this redesign project.
Step 1:
You need to carefully take the box apart where ever it is glued, being careful not to rip the cardboard. When you have a flat piece of materials, you'll see the overall shape of the package, along with fold lines and any other cuts used for tucking flaps in or windows.
Step 2:
Take your flat box and scan in the artwork at 300 dpi. If the box is white, you'll want to place a piece of black matte board or paper behind it so you can see the edges once it's scanned. Due to size, you may have to do 2 or 3 separate scans of it, moving it each time until you've covered the entire box. In Photoshop, create a new document that is 24x24" at 300 dpi and then pull in each scanned file onto this large document. Pull out some guides so you can line up the pieces. Use the polygonal lasso tool to select un-needed areas and delete them. Rotate as needed. DO NOT CHANGE THE SIZE OF THE SCANS. Fill in the background layer with a bright green color so you can see the edges of the box in the next step. You'll want to overlap the pieces until you have a precise, full-size composite image of the flat box on screen. Crop in as needed, leaving 1" margin around the edges of the box. Flatten and save this as a JPG. Click here for an example.
Step 3:
In Illustrator, you'll create the die-line for the box, which is an exact outline of every edge, fold and cut. Start by creating a new 18" wide X 12" tall document and then place the flat box image onto your document. For the stroke color, go to Swatch Libraries > Color Books > Pantone Solid Coated and select the 6th swatch at the top, which is Pantone Rubine Red C. The reason you use a Pantone color is because the printer can choose to not print a Pantone color when separating the color and making press plates. Also, this will be your guide when you build the new artwork for the box in Photoshop and/or Illustrator. Lock it down and begin to use the pen tool to first outline the entire box using a .5 pt stroke in Pantone Rubine Red C. Take your time and be precise. Once you outline the perimeter, you will then draw out all the other fold lines and cut. Once done, select the outline of the box and go Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste in Front. Then, in the Stroke panel, change it to 10 pt and make sure to choose the Align Stroke to Outside option. In the Color panel, change the % of Rubine Red to 30%. This outside stroke represents the bleed. All artwork you produce will need to extend to the edge of this in order to ensure proper printing. Use a dashed line for folds and a solid line for the edges of any areas that are cut out. Save this AI file as "die-line.ai" and place in your project 1 folder. Click here for an example.
Step 4:
Using Illustrator, InDesign and/or Photoshop, you will create the new look for the package's label. Be creative as possible. Your job is to give this package a complete visual overhaul. It's vital your design is a big improvement upon the existing art. No matter what program you use, it needs to be built in CMYK @ 300 dpi and the document needs to be large enough to fit the die line on it at full-size. I'd strongly recommend using Layers and Groups for better organization, as this will be a large file with a lot of layers once done.
Additional Production Tips:
- Be sure to drop the opacity of the die-line down to about 15% or less, just enough to see it, but not too much that it distracts from the artwork on the box once printed. In the real world, you'd use crop marks outside the printed area indicating where it would be folded, but for this project, it'll be OK to print with it on there.
- If you create the artwork only in Photoshop, you'll want to create a 12x18" document in CMYK @ 300 dpi. Save a layered PSD file and then once done, flatten it and save a JPG at the highest quality setting. Then open up InDesign, create a 12x18 file and place that JPG and create a PDF of it.
- If you create the artwork only in Illustrator, you'll need to save it as a AI file and then a PDF once done.
- If you create the artwork in both Photoshop and Illustrator, you can use InDesign to build the final image file. Save it as a IND file and a PDF once done.
- The industry standard which I suggest you all try, would be to create elements of the new box in both Photoshop and Illustrator, then use InDesign as the final file, where you'll place all the parts of the box. Then layout all text in InDesign. This program is superior for type handling and is how you'd be expected to build this project at an agency or design studio.
Finalization:
Check the file size of your PDF. If it's over 7MB, you'll need to bring the file to the Campus Print Shop on a Flash drive. If it's under 7MB, you can e-mail it to copycntr@kilgore.edu and be sure to tell them to print it out two copies in color, on a sheet of heavy 12x18 stock paper and not to scale it at all. The reason you want it printed on heavy stock is because it's strong and will stand up right when you build the actual box. Go by the Print Shop in the CA building to pick up your prints. Carefully cut out the box using a rule and X-Acto Knife on top of the piece of scrap matte board. Where there are folds, use a dull butter knife to score it, but not cut it. A score is like indenting the line, so it'll fold easier. Be sure to not cut through the fold lines.
Construct the new box to match the original, using tape or glue as needed. You should also rebuild the original box back into 3 dimensional form. You will have the chance to take a photo of your new and old box side by side for portfolio use after the presentation on Tues. 2/28 in Jon Vashey's office in Devall Student Center. I recommend doing this as it's a very effective way to show the before & after in your portfolio and is much easier then bringing a real box and is more convincing them showing flat art.
In Photoshop, touch up your images of your boxes as needed, color correcting and checking the Levels and Curves. Save a large hi-res image. To show off your hard work, drop the image down to 72 dpi, make it no wider then 900 pixels in RGB color and save a JPG for the web. Upload this image to our class FB group.
Deadlines:
5 different pencil sketches due Tues. 2/14
Presentation is Tues. 2/28
Poseable Mannequin Warp
A new feature in Photoshop CS5 is called Puppet Warp and is a very easy way to create simple animations. To learn more about Puppet Warp feature click the links below:
This week I want you to explore this by creating a short animation using a poseable wooden mannequin. Click here to download the poseable mannequin image. I want your animation to have at least 5 different scenes. Some requirements/tips:
- Download the mannequin image and cut it out from the background so it's alone on it's own layer and make the background a solid color.
- The working PSD file needs to 350 x 350 pixels, RGB, 72 dpi, saved as a layered PSD.
- Open up the Animation panel by going Window > Animation. Click the bottom right icon in the panel to change it to frames instead of a timeline.
- For each frame, you'll need to use a different layer in your Layer panel. Upon which you'll use the Edit > Puppet Warp feature, placing pins and moving the mannequin as desired.
- Each frame is going to be a different scene or pose in your animation that should flow smoothly once done.
- Set the frame delay to .1 seconds or so for each frame
- Set the play through option to Forever
- Keep pressing the play button and testing it.
- Once done, save a layered PSD and then go to File > Save for Web & Devices, choose GIF 228 No Dither and save it.
When done please e-mail me the GIF file so I can post all of them below in this assignment, where you will be able to see them in action. Facebook does not display animated GIF's with actual animation so don't post anything there.
Due: Thurs. 2/9 @ 9pm
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