The Life of Cacophony

Still Image

Video

For this assignment we had to choose a word and create a still image and video to express the meaning of the word. I chose the word “Cacophony”. This word means loud and harsh sounds or anything really unpleasing to the ear.  My concept for my video was intentionally supposed to be someone sitting in a corner with their ears closed while noise is in the background. I decided to change that by showing different objects that make loud and/or annoying sounds e.g. ticking clock. For the still image I originally wanted to have a close-up of someone’s ear while another smaller person was yelling into it.  I also changed the idea for my still image and thought that I should have a shot where someone is closing their ears while people are yelling at him/her.

The design elements that I used to tie the still and video together are that I used balance. For example in the video I used it by making some of the scenes soft noise and then it gets loud then soft again. For the still I balanced it by putting equal people on either side of the person closing their ears. This also shows that loud and harsh sounds can come from any direction. I think that my still expresses my word well because it shows people yelling and the girl/boy is covering their ears because the people are irritating her and there being loud. For my video I think that I expressed cacophony because I showed some objects that would be loud and/or annoying to hear like a ticking clock and dripping tap. For the class scene I showed a teacher teaching while kids are listening but they appear to be bored. I added different sounds to represent that some students may feel like the teacher is saying things that they don’t care about so it appears to sound like loud booming or random sounds.

The scenes that are shown in my video are a ticking clock, tap dripping, class room, traffic scene, fireworks and a girl closing her ears. The orders of the scenes are in the order listed above. I did it this way by showing certain objects that are annoying to hear and then it gets really loud then back to soft. The shots that are soft are closer up to show the emotion and the louder ones are farther away to show more of the scene.

Do create this video I used iMovie and a Nikon camera. iMovie was a create movie maker tool to sequence the shots and add effects to my movie. I think I did well for my video and still because I personally think that I expressed my word. It was fun and hard at parts. I think that I could have been more specific with what I wanted and it would have been easier to create the video. Overall I think I did well.

Fork Animation

This is my fork animation that I did. Hope you enjoy!

Phoenix Animation

This is an animation I made with my CyberARTS class. Check it out!

Peacock

The assignment we had to do was to make a reduction print.

We had to pick a type of bird. I chose to do a peacock. Instead of making the peacock realistic 

I chose to use simple shapes which makes this piece abstract.

My Digital Surrealism Photo

My surreal topic is based on the environment and pollution. I chose this topic because I think that pollution in our society is a big problem and we need to fix it. Pollution in our world is huge and I feel like we’re killing earth faster by not caring and damaging it. I brainstormed some ideas like a picture of the earth with garbage coming out of it and a lake with someone swimming in garbage. I ended up using the idea of the lake with a swimmer swimming in garbage.  At first I wanted to fill the entire lake with garbage so show that it shows that if we continue not to care about pollution our lakes would end up being disgusting and filled with garbage.  I thought that was a great idea but I thought of a more emphasized idea. I thought that I could place garbage in one half of the lake and make the swimmer swim into the garbage. It would show you the lake without garbage and the half of the lake filled with garbage. It emphasizes that one day if we pollute and don’t stop, our lakes will be over flowing with garbage. It also shows that we would be putting ourselves in that position and pollution can cause health problems.

I chose this topic because I think that pollution in our society is a big problem and we need to fix it. Pollution in our world is huge and I feel like we’re killing earth faster by not caring and damaging it. My idea is pretty surreal because if the lake was filled with lots of garbage no one would swim in the water. The swimmer is supposed to represent the people and how we out ourselves into situations that aren’t good for our environment. The garbage as we know is supposed to represent garbage (pollution). The colours are mid-tones, not that bright and not to dull. It is what you would see on an everyday sunny day. I think I did well representing the symbolism that I wanted to portray.

To make this surreal photo, I used Adobe Photoshop. It is amazing to use, create, edit photos and many other things. The first step for me was to take pictures of the lake and garbage. I first went out and took pictures of the lake with a Nikon camera. I took pictures of the lake at different angles. I captured quite a few of photos. I also then took pictures of garbage by using the green screen. After taking photos, I then went on to use Photoshop. I made a file and the canvas size was 8x11. I pasted the lake first and that became layer 1. I then pasted the person (layer 2) onto the lake picture (layer 1). It was time for me to use the lasso tool which taking out background. You select around the area you want to disappear and it’s gone. I used this tool often in the process of creating the photo. I also used the magic wand tool which also takes out background. You do this by clicking on the area you want gone and select delete. This tool was helpful to use for getting fine and small pieces out. I used the lasso and magic wand tool to take out the background of the swimmer in a pool. Now you can see the swimmer but it still needs some editing because the colour doesn’t match. To fix the colour, I used Selective colour and played with the Blues and Cyans until I got to a match of the lake colour. This now makes the swimmer blended into the lake. I now have to put the garbage into the picture. I pasted it and it became layer 3. I used again the lasso and magic wand tool. I also used the Free Transform and Transform to play with the size and perspective of the garbage. This made the garbage look more part of the lake and the angle it was taken at. I used the exposure to make certain garbage darker because of the shadows. I copied the layer until I had enough to complete how I wanted it to look.

Overall, this was fun and challenging at times. I would say that this was my first time actually using Photoshop. I learned a lot from my teacher, friends and tutorials from the internet. I think I did pretty well for my first time but I know as I learn more I can make it better and other things I do better. I feel really satisfied with the swimmer and how I blended it to the lake but I don’t think the garbage was the best. Some parts were good but it was challenging to get it in perspective, the right brightness and the size. I would like to learn more about blending and making things more in proportionate. It was a lot of fun to learn and create this photo. I can`t wait to learn more.