Project 3 :: Part 2

The Digital Poster

Due November 4

Computers are to design as microwaves are to cooking.

— Milton Glaser

Objective
To recreate your handcrafted poster for a Shakespearean play digitally, using only the computer. 

You may only use technology, photographs, and the Adobe Creative Suite.
No handcrafted items should be present in this design. 

Details
+ 16 x 20 inches

+ Must be a recreation of your handcrafted poster

Deliverable
+ PDF
+ Printed at full size (to be done in class)

Examples

Sara Luciano: Adobe Illustrator

Annmarie Lankewish: Computer

Alyssa Romano: Vector

 Eric Chaderton: Vector and computer set type

Annmarie Lankewish: Alternate computer version

Illustrator :: New Document

Creating a New Document

Step 1: Open Adobe Illustrator from the “Dock”

Step 2: Go to the Apple Menu > File > New…

Step 3: You will be prompted with a “New Document” window where you will need to set the “Size” to “Tabloid” and also choose the number of “Artboards,” or pages. Once you have made these selections, click “OK.” 

After clicking “OK” your screen should look like this…

Illustrator :: Saving

Saving Your New Document

First thing you want to do after creating your new document is to Save.

Step 1: With your newly created document open, go to the Apple Menu > File > Save As…

Step 2: The “Save As” window will appear prompting you to save your file. To expand the view of where you will save your file click the down arrow next to the “Save As:” dialogue box. 

With this expanded view open, locate where you wish to save your file, give your file a name (only change the highlighted section before the .ai), and click “Save.”

Upon clicking “Save” another window will prompt you with additional options, at this point just click “OK.” If you were going to be using a older version of Illustrator, say at home, this is where you would select the version.

Illustrator :: Type Tool

Using the Type Tool
The type tool is located in the toolbar on the lefthand side of the screen. It’s icon is that of a capital “T”

Step 1: Select the type tool.

Step 2: Using the type tool.

There are two ways you can use the type tool in Adobe Illustrator. 

First, take the type tool and click once on the “Artboard,” or white page. When you do this your text will continue on a single line. An example is seen below. This method is the best option when working with single words, or small groups of text where you want maximum control over your type. 

Before moving to the second option, hold down the “Command” key and click anywhere else on the artboard that does not contain graphics or text. Doing this deselects the previous item you were editing.

The second method allows us more control over larger bodies of text. Although Adobe Illustrator should not be used to set large amounts of text, this method may still prove useful on some smaller projects that you will create using Adobe Illustrator. 

To implement the second method, select the type tool, click and drag forming a rectangular shape and release. You can now enter in text that will “wrap” inside the shape of the rectangle very much in the same manner that text automatically goes from line to line in Microsoft Word. Below is an example.

Illustrator :: Font Families

Selecting a Typeface: The Basics

This will give you a brief introduction to the “Character” window and the various parts you can change to help customize the look of your type.

Step 1: 
Go to the Apple Menu > Window > Type > Character
Notice the keyboard shortcut next to “Character,” command “T.” Learning these shortcuts will allow you to work more quickly.
This should reveal the “Character” window in your Illustrator workspace. 

Within the “Character” window we can change numerous aspects that will change the look of our typography in Illustrator: font family, font style, size, kerning, leading, and tracking.

The first two items in the “Character” window are the font family and font style. Seen above to be set as Minion Pro and Regular. 

Below these two fields on the left, top is the type size, indicated above as the field set to 150 pt (we always want this set to a whole number). Just below the type size is the kerning, seen above set to “Optical.” We always want to set our default kerning to the optical setting. 

On the right below the fields for font family and font style,  we will find settings for “Leading” (top) and “Tracking” (bottom). For this demo we will leave these on the default settings, which can be seen in the above pictures.

Step 2: Changing the font family.
In your “Character” window, select the arrow next to the top most field. This will bring up a list of all the fonts that are installed on your computer. Scroll through and select the font family you wish to use. If there is an arrow next to the font family, it means that there are different styles that you must select from, a sample is shown below.

 In this instance, I am selecting Minion Pro and then will select the style that I want to use; Regular.

Project 2 :: Quote Poster

Quote Poster

Due Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Objective
Find a quote that you find inspiring and lay it out in a visually interesting and expressive way. This has got to be one of those aspects of design that everyone can ‘get’ or appreciate, especially if your design is effectively related to the meaning of the quote. Quotes can come from anywhere from songs to speeches, or you may come up with you own.

Adobe Illustrator
Create a 11 x 17 inch poster in illustrator using you Character setting for Typography—kerning, leading, etc. Think about whether you will use Serif or Sans Serif fonts. Keep that in mind. Be creative!

+ this poster explores a quote and its application to a poster using nothing but typography to convey its message.+ create a typographic poster around a famous quote, or one of your own

Design Requirements

+ Exhibits NO surface errors: spelling, grammar, etc.+ only typographic elements can be used to make the layout of the poster.+ You can use a part of a quotation if you want. + The quotation must be readable, and any illustrated artwork connected to it must strengthen the author’s argument

Specifications & Dimensions 

+ 11 inches x 17 inches (width x height)
+ 3 Pantone colors
+ Only three typefaces used.
+ Printed on the color laser printer in the lab.

Resources
+ www.fontsquirrel.com
+ www.losttype.com 

Lost Type 
When downloading and prompted to donate you may choose $0 and continue to download the font. If you ever use the typeface in a project that is paid, you should donate a portion to the type designers who create these typefaces.

Deliverable

+ Color laser print of your poster; you can print for free on the lab laser printer.

Examples

Week Three :: Videos

The History of Typography

Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are necessary to improve overall efficiency. 

It will take time to learn even the basics, but the quicker you can learn these shortcuts the faster you will be able to move through your work.  

Below is a list of all the shortcuts available to you in Photoshop CS6 (click to enlarge).
Here’s the link to where you can download your own PDF.

Photoshop Tools

Photoshop CS6 sports a hefty number of tools. Not to fear. This handy guide shows you the Photoshop tool icon and the name of each tool, even if it is tucked away, hidden in a flyout menu:

Adobe Photoshop Pen Tool Tutorial

A two page tutorial one how to better use the pen tool in PhotoShop, however the dynamics of the tool don’t change that much when we move to Illustrator. 

http://www.adobetutorialz.com/articles/2794/1/Adobe-Photoshop-Pen-Tool-Tutorial

Photoshop Tutorial

Open your photos in Photoshop\

Remember to save your file often. You cannot save your file too much

Creating a New Document
Step 1: Go to the Apple Menu > File > New… to create a new document with the correct dimensions for the project.

A new window will prompt you to set your dimensions for your file and pixel resolution. Set them to match this photo…

Click “OK”

Removing the Background on an Image

Step 1: Go to the image you want to remove the background from and go to your “Layers” tab. Click the icon on the far right of that tab  and select “Duplicate Layer”.

Name the layer…

Step 2: With the new layer selected, Select the “Paths” tab and from the same pull down menu create a New Path…

Name the Path…

Step 3: With the new path selected, go to your Toolbar on the left and select the Pen Tool…

, Zoom in and begin to create your Path, outlining the image carefully. To use the Pen Tool remember to click and drag the “handles” in the direction that you are outline (if your next point will be created above the previous point, click and pull up; to the left, click and pull to left).

Continue around your image, closing your path so that you create a complete shape. If this icon     does not appear at the end when trying to close your path go back through and double check to make sure that your path is continuous and fix as needed.

A closed path…

Step 4: Next, with your path selected Click on the third icon from the left at the bottom of the Paths tab to select your path (make marching ants).

Your image selected…

At this point make sure you uncheck the “Eyeball” (seen above) that sit next to the Background Layer.

Step 5: Now you are all set to add a layer mask. To do so, click the third icon from the left at the bottom of the “Layers” tab. Seen below…

Once you click this icon your image should change to look like this…

You have successfully removed the image background, now to make it look less “mechanical”.

Refining the Layer Mask

Step 1: With the layer mask selected, go to the Apple Menu > Select > Refine Mask…

Step 2: Upon selecting this it will prompt you with a window where you can make various adjustments. As you can see I chose to only adjust the “Feather” and “Smooth” areas. When you have adjusted the “look” of the layer mask to your liking click “OK”.

Step 3: You have successfully removed the background and altered your layer mask so the edges look more natural. Your last step is to save the file. Go to the Apple Menu > File > Save As… when the window prompts you remember to select the triangle next to the file name to better see where you are saving your file. Make sure you save this file as a PSD format so you may edit it if needed at a later time.

Moving one image layer into a new document
Step 1: Click on the tab (in the main Photoshop window) of the image you want to combine with your new canvas and drag it away from the tabbed bar so it creates a new window, and release.

Your document will look like the image below once this step is complete.

Step 2: Switch to your document you created for this project and keep the new window in the foreground. As also seen in the image above click on the layer you want to move into the new document and drag it to the window of the 10 x 8 inch document. Make sure that both the image and its layer mask is being “copied”.

Moving an unedited image to a new document
Step 1: Go to the image you want to move into your project document. Go to the Apple Menu > Select > All to select the entire image area.

Step 2: Next go to the Apple Menu > Edit > Copy to copy the selected area.

Step 3: Move to your project document and go to the Apple Menu > Edit > Paste to paste the newly copied image into that document.

Once pasted your file will now look like this… and you will need to reorder your layers to see your other image.

Step 4: To reorder your layers, select the the layer you want to move and drag it into the order you want, as seen in the image above. After reordering your photos your screen will look something like this.

Transforming a Photo
Step 1: With the layer selected that you wish to transform, go to the Apple Menu > Edit > Free Transform as seen below…

Step 2: Next make sure that you click the “link” between the height and width to ensure that you will be scaling your image proportionally. The icon is highlighted in image below.

Step 3: Now that we have everything set up for proper scaling, we need to zoom out so that we see the edges of the image we are scaling (or we see the handles on the image). To zoom out hit command plus the dash symbol (the key to the right of the zero on your keyboard). Zoom out until your screen looks similar to the what is below.

Step 4: Grabbing one of the corners scale your image to whichever size you would like and position it on the canvas. 

When satisfied with the positioning and size, double click within the frame of the picture to finalize the transformation.

Altering the color of a photo - One method
Step 1: Zoom into the area of the photo which you want to alter and go to and click on your “Paths” tab. Once here select this icon  and select “New Path…” seen below.

When prompted name your new path.

Step 2: Next use the Pen Tool  to create a path that outlines the portion of your image that you want to adjust the color or apply another effect. In the case of this demo, it will be the eyes. 

Step 3: Once you have completed your path, you will need to turn your path into a selection. To do this click the third icon from the left at the bottom of the “Paths” tab to convert your path into a selection (marching ants). Highlighted in the image below.

Step 4: With the layer that contains the image that you would like to adjust the color selected, click on this icon  and select “New Layer…” seen below. Through out these next steps make sure that this new layer is always selected.

When the window prompt comes up, name your layer. In this case I will call it “Eyes Color”.

Step 5: Next we will want to choose the color that we want our selection to become. To do this go to the bottom of the toolbar on the left hand side of the screen and click the foreground color. 

When the “Color Picker” window appears, select the color that you would like to use and click “OK”, seen above. This will set your foreground color.

Step 6: Next we will want to switch the foreground and background colors. This can be done in two ways: 1) by pressing “X” on your keyboard, or 2) by click the two arrows highlighted in this image of the toolbar…

Step 7: Once you have swapped the foreground color to the background color you will need to hit “command plus delete” to fill your selection with the background color. Resulting in an screen that may look something like this. 

Step 8: You will now need to deselect (remove the marching ants) the eyes. To do this go to the Apple Menu > Select > Deselect as seen below…

Step 9: In the “Layers” tab choose the drop down menu that states “Normal”, this is your layer style. Change your layer style from “Normal” to multiply. You can also adjust the Layer’s opacity if you wish to get the exact look you would like. Feel free to play with the different layer styles to get the effect that you like and will work with your image. 

Adding an Adjustment Layer
Step 1: With the latest layer you created, in my case “Eyes Color”, selected move to the bottom of the Layers tab and select the fourth icon from the left to choose an adjustment layer, which will allow you change the properties of all the images, or in this case just one layer. For the purpose of this demo, I will be choosing “Hue/Saturation”.

This action creates a new layer, which if not nested to one layer will affect the entire image you are creating. To nest the adjustment layer to another layer, hold down the option key and click between the two layers (a symbol that looks like a square with a double ended 90 degree arrow in the lower left hand corner will appear right before you click). Once nested the layer should look like the image below.

Step 2: With this new layer selected, you can now adjust the properties of the adjustment layer. In this case we have the option to adjust the Hue, Saturation, and Lightness. Different adjustment layers have different properties that you can adjust. Again play with the different type of adjustment layers available to determine what might work best. 

When you are all done just close the Properties window and Save your document.