In the past, Advanced Digital Imaging has been a class about Photoshop. I am so thankful that our instructor this quarter stepped it up and delivered a lot more value than usual to a disparate group of animators, photographers, and graphic designers. He came up with projects that forced us to work more holistically and explore unfamiliar skills. All quarter long, I looked forward to our final project: an short animation.

I always get a thrill from combining music with image in meaningful, energetic ways. I have no interest in creating a creating a character that talks and moves, but I think I could take any of my design projects and convert them to moving graphics enhanced with sound. The advantage to something like that is the total control I have of the viewers’ experience. As I guide them through visuals and information, I can also affect their emotions through timing and sound.

In the past, I’ve done this very simply in applications like Windows Movie Maker or iMovie. But the premiere industry-standard software for motion graphics and visual effects is Adobe After Effects. I made it my goal to learn this software in order to produce the final project. It was a blast! The best thing about After Effects is that with even a basic understanding, your possibilities are almost limitless.

Our instructor showed us Marvel Comic’s Spider-Woman Motion Comics as examples of what could be done using only still imagery and a soundtrack as the raw material. It was way more aesthetically powerful than I expected!

We were given a few parameters, but the theme/story of the animation was entirely up to us. I was interested in creating an evocative tribute to childhood memories, taking those evanescent thoughts and feelings and tying them impressionistically to shapes, sounds, and colors. This original plan morphed slightly based on my limited knowledge of the software and time constraints, so I’d say the end result turned out to be a more literal interpretation. I’m still happy with it, though.

Additionally, this project represents one of my first attempts at music sampling and remixing – something I want to continue to explore. I selected music and sounds that I remember listening to over and over in each hometown and looked for ways to blend them together.

Could I do the job of a LEGO package designer? Probably, but I would need more than twelve hours for the first few jobs. Or that’s what I discovered in Advanced Digital Imaging, when our instructor, Chris Pickey, brought in LEGO sets and challenged us to replicate from scratch their packaging.

My team and I snagged this intergalactic duo and immediately set about building the model. A quick trip to the photo studio, and we had our raw material. Then we painstakingly measured every side of the box to a sixteenth of an inch in order to create our templates. From that point on, each person was on his own.

I had a blast. There is probably nothing I can lose myself in more than creating detailed replicas — of anything. The clock was ticking for this assignment, however. May I also mention that there is little I find more frustrating than a deadline that precludes perfection? So what you see is what I managed to get done in twelve hours. You can click the image above to explore it in detail and compare with the original!

For those of you wondering how I made this, the answer is: Photoshop. Knowing about gradients and bevel effects. Recognizing fonts. Basically looking closely, then translating what I saw into the tools I knew were available to me — and presumably, to the person who originally designed this packaging. Whoever you are, I salut you!

The purpose of a sell-sheet is to thoroughly describe a product and sell it to retailers. In Advanced Digital Imaging, I created a series of sell-sheets for three products in a same line. I found these exotic chocolates in the ALDI special buys section. That’s part of ALDI’s draw – you never know what you will find for next-to-nothing, and it changes all the time.

Having selected my products, I proceeded to photograph the chocolate myself, which turned out to be a major personal breakthrough. I am somewhat terrified of complex camera settings and trial-and-error light placement. But my school afforded me high end equipment and two hours alone in a well-stocked studio where I began to actually have fun. Thankfully, the head of the photography department happened to pop in and add the one magic light to my setup, giving me the professional result I was hoping for.

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Advanced Digital Imaging class started off with a bang! Our instructor, Chris Pickey, is drummer and designer for worship leader Jake Brothers. Jake was putting out a new album, and Chris decided to let all of us compete for its design. After listening for the heart behind Jake’s music, here was my proposition. Though it didn’t end up being chosen, it was great real-world experience! Below is the insert.

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