Cartoon Effect Tutorial

Have you ever wanted to add a cartoon effect to pictures in Photoshop? Well we figured out how to do it. We found the steps from a website. Here are the easy steps to making your picture look like a comic book page:

1.       Open photo

2.       Go to image – adjustments – levels

3.       When on levels make the input level 60, 1.00, 220 

4.       Go to filter- artistic – film grain

·         Make grain: 4, highlight area: 0, and the intensity: 10

·         Click “okay”

5.       Duplicate layer and name it “ half tone”

6.       Go to filter – pixelate – color halftone

·         Set max radius to 15 and leave the rest alone. ( you may need to change for your picture)

7.       Go to layers window and set drop down box ( that says normal) to darken

8.       Select the halftone layer, then click the “fx” button on the bottom of the layers window – stroke

·         Make the size: 20 px, position: inside, then change the color ( to do that click the  color square and then type next to the # “f5ecel”), click “okay”

9.       Add new layer and name it “rectangle”

10.   With the rectangle tool make a small orange rectangle box at the top

11.   Go to the “fx” button and select stroke

·         Make size 3 px

12.   Draw a larger white rectangle in the bottom corner

·         Make sure stroke is at 3px

13.   Add new layer above the rectangular layer

·         Name “border”

14.   Select the rectangular marquee tool

·         Select from the top left corner to the bottom right corner

15.   Go to edit – stroke

·         Set size to: 4 px, color: black, location: center

·         Click “okay”

16.   Deselect everything

17.   Go to filter – blur – blur more

18.   Go to filter – distort – ripple

·         Make the amount: 20%, size: medium

19.   Go to filter – sharpen – sharpen more

20.   Select the text tool

·         Type the date in the orange box (except for the first letter of the month)

·         Make the color: black

·         Size everything but first letter: 120, ( maybe different according to your picture)

·         Font: Mv Boli

21.   Make another text box and type the first letter of the month

·         Add stroke with the “fx” button

·          Change the color of stroke to red

·         Change the size to: 170 ( could be different for your picture)

22.   Write a caption in the white box ( optional: bold some words to add more effect)

23.   Flatten image and save as a jpeg

Before                                                                           

                                                             After

An Ad for Art Club

I created an advertisement for a fundraiser we had in Art Club. The advertisement is made up of a tie-dyed background and the basic information needed for the fundraiser. I used many different tools to help create my advertisement. At the bottom I incorporated my logo for Art Club. The main tools I used were the transform tool, text tool, cropping tool, lasso tool, opacity, drop shadow, ellipse tool, the fill tool, and the erase tool. I used the transform tools in two different ways: scale and rotate.

I used these tools to add interesting effects to my advertisement. I used the transform tool to scale down my logo and the picture for my background. I used  it in the rotate form by rotating the circles. I used  the text box to add to my advertisement. I used the text tool to create the four different parts of the information. The text allowed me to provide the needed information. I used the crop tool to crop down my logo at the bottom to make it smaller so it looked better. Another tool I used was the lasso tool to select a portion of my advertisement to move it around and cut it off the advertisement. I changed the opacity of the circles to add a space of solid colors so the reader’s eye will have a place to rest. I added a drop shadow to the title of the text to make it stand out. I created the circles with the ellipse tool and changed the color of them with the fill tool. The color corresponds with the colors in the background. Lastly I used the erase tool to blend the edges of my logo so it did not look awkward in the advertisement.

My Designed Logo

            The logo I created was for the Art Club at my school. The “A” is shaped out of two paint brushes and a pencil, the “C” is made to look like a pint pallet. I chose to make the letters out of these things because they symbolize the things we use in art club every day. For the paint brushes and paint pallet I chose the colors used on them for a certain reason. That reason is their meanings. The pink can show friendship and love, symbolizing all the friends you will make. The aqua and dark blue is associated with healing, I chose this because art can help you heal in many ways. The light blue is associated with knowledge and intellect. The purple is associated with joy and happiness, which symbolizes how much fun you could have in art club.

            For my logo I used some of the design elements. One of the major ones I used was proportion. I had to make sure the “A” and the “C” were about the same size and proportional to each other. If they were not then that would affect the entire logo. I used shapes in my logo to create the paint brushes, pencil, and the paint pallet. These items were the main focus of the logo, without them I would have nothing. By creating this logo I better understand the thought process that goes into designing logo. One must come up with the best way to present his or her company our group.

My "Perfect" Body Image

 I decided to see how easy it would be to change an ordinary picture of myself into a picture you would see on a magazine cover. This proved to be very easy. I added makeup to the picture of myself and then swapped the edited face of myself with this picture of Selena Gomez. I felt the transformation of the picture was very easy to do. I changed my skin tone, whitened my teeth, added eye shadow, and changed the color of my lips. I feel that the face swapping could have used a little bit more time and concentration. The new picture looks like neither Selena Gomez nor me.

While I was doing this, it made me wonder how real the pictures we see on magazine covers are. I now realize that the pictures I see all the time are, most likely, completely different from the original picture. Whenever I see a magazine cover now, I do not feel jealous of the person I see because it is not what that person really looks like. Through this project I realized that what women and girls see as the perfect body image is skewed. What we see as the perfect body image does not exist. It is a picture that has been edited and changed many, many times.

 I think I did very well making sure my skin was almost the same tone as hers.  My skin tone is very close to Selena’s. I blurred the edges of face to make sure it blended well. Another thing I did well was making sure my facial features were the same size and in the same spot. This helps my face look more normal with the rest of her head. If I could re-do this I would spend more time adding more makeup. This would make the picture look better and more finished. I kept the picture with natural makeup, because that is how I normally wear it.  The picture that I created was not perfect, but it had its good points and bad points.   

Photos and Photoshop

For a project I had to create a collage of photos on Photoshop. The collage was title A Day in The Life of a Mercy Student; we had to take pictures that described our life and the lives of other Mercy Students. Through this project I learned how to use Photoshop and how to use the photography elements in my pictures. At the beginning I found it hard to take pictures using those elements, but as it went on I grew comfortable taking pictures. Some of the elements I used were angle, rule of thirds, and lines. Some of the pictures I took were from above and some I took from the sides, this helped make the picture more interesting and eye catching. Other pictures had multiple elements to them, so I used rule of thirds to organize them.

To make the collage look better, I had to edit the pictures. Some of the techniques I used were cropping pictures, changing the perspective, cutting out part of the image, changing parts of the pictures color, and changing the picture to black and white. I cropped all the pictures to the best picture by using the crop tool. I changed the perspective of one picture by going to edit, then transform, and then perspective. In two pictures there was a sign in the background that I did not want in the photo. I cut it out by using the polygonal-lasso tool and used the magic wand to fill in the color. To change the color of a shirt I used the magic wand tool to change the hues of the color. The shirt was too dark for the picture and needed to be lightened. The last thing I did to edit the pictures, was I changed one picture to black and white.    

Elements of Photography

There are many elements to photography. One day I decide to take pictures, while doing this I also illustrated three of the elements of photography. The three elements I illustrated were simplicity, rule of thirds, and angle. The top picture is of one of my three dogs. This picture illustrates the simplicity element of photography. My dog is the only object in the picture; therefore the picture is very simple. Many people believe that for an interesting photo you must have more than one object in the photo, but I disagree. I feel that a well done photo of one object is much more appealing than a badly done photo of many objects. A simple photo allows the eye to focus on the object, that way you are able to take in the details of that object. In a photo of many objects, your eye cannot focus on one object at a time; therefore you cannot take in the details of the different objects. In the photo of my dog, you are able to see the details in her fur, eyes, etc.

The second element of photography I illustrated was angle. The second picture is of a row of paint brushes in different containers. The paint brushes in the back of the picture look much smaller than the ones in the front when actually they are the same size. It looks like that due to the angle that I took the picture from. If I took the picture straight on, it would not be as interesting or eye-catching as it was from the angle. Taking photos from different angles add originality and appeal to a simple photo. Tanking a photo from angle skews the photo to make it more interesting and appealing.

The third element of photography I illustrated was rule of thirds.  For a photo to be Rule of Thirds it must have the elements of the photo must meet at one of the intersection points on the grid view of a photo. The rule of thirds allows you to have multiple objects in the photo without one being the main one. In the third picture, of the paint brushes on the table, all of the ends of the paint brush meet at one intersection point. Also two of the paintbrushes line up with the grids. This allows me to have many paint brushes in the photo and have the photo still be organized.     

Podcast and Piracy

     For a class assignment we had to create a group podcast, here is a look at our podcast. we discussed our views on piracy, the effects it has on normal people, and the effects it has on the stars.We had a graphic to go along with our podcast and music at the beginnig and end of the podcast. The music was from Jingles in Garageband. It is considered to be included in Public Domain. The graphic was of ourselves and was edited by one of the group members. The podcast and graphic were completely original and the music was in Public Domain.

    Before learning about piracy and copyright laws, I did not think that downloading music for free was wrong. Now my views have changed considerably. I now understand that many people are by downloading free music. There are many consequences when you download music. If you pay for the music, then it is perfectly okay to downlaod the music. Copyright laws should exist to protect one's work.If we did not have these laws, then no one could say that a work they created was truly theirs. There would be no way to tell who the author of something truly. You would not be able to take credited for your own work, because there would be no way to tell if it was really yours. Piracy is very prevalent in our present society for many reasons. I believe the reason for it to be so prevalent because not many people know the consequences of piracy. Also people think that it does not hurt anyone, but it hurts artists, producers, new artists, etc. piracy prevents artists from  becoming famous or becoming more famous.

    My group and I put a lot of hard work into our podcast. I would not like it if someone used our graphic or podcast for their own use. I would feel as if some stole one of my personal possessions. We put a lot of hard work into it, and I would not like it if someone said they created it when they did nothing. After doing this I learned more about piracy and the effects it has on people.   

Copyright Law

Everyone has an opionin on what the copyright law really means. To me, it meant that you could not copy the ideas or words from someone else. It also meant that you could not copy something straight off the internet. After I did some reasearch, I learned more about the law and what it means exactly. Now that I know more about the law my opionin about it has changed. I now know that the copyright law covers ideas, words, pictures, art works, songs, etc. I also discovered there are some things that you can use without the fear of plagiarism, those things are considered public domain. That includes phonebooks, documents written by the government, and pieces that are more than 75 years old.

While researching, I came across an internet piracy case. In this case, four Swedish men were accused of creating a website offering links and help to download songs, films, video games, etc. for free to their members. These men were found guilty and were sentenced to one year in prison. They were also forced to pay about $3.6 million a piece. These men were breaking the law by setting up a site and allowing members to download freely. I think the punishment they recieved is fair because they broke the law and should be punished for what they did.

Reading about copyright law and internet piracy I now understand that you have to be careful with what you do on the internet. I also learned that when you are unsure whether or not something is public domain, you should cite the source where it came from. No matter the use of the plagiarized, you will most likely get caught. To sum up what I learned, be careful with what you take from the internet.

My Technology Experience

     Everyone uses some form of technology at least once, if not many, times a day. You cannot go one day day without the help of some form of technology, whether thaat be a computer, calculator, phone, or maybe even a blog. Many people are just naturally good at things, and even some people can master any type of technology.  I have never had a good experience with any form of technology. Although, I have always been interested in how it all works. I have always wanted to learn how to use all the new types of iPods, tablets, smart phones, etc., even though I will never be able to use them properly. I also like to learn about the histroy of technology and where it all started.I use technology very basicly, I have a cell phone, laptop, and an iPod.

    During my elementary years, I obtained the basic knowledge of how Microsoft Office and the internet work. In that class we did a few activities to learn the basics, but we never went into how it all worked or why the things we did happened. Those are the things I have always wanted to learn about technology. I never enjoyed computer class until I went to high school. There I finally learned more than the basic information. Outside of school, I use technology to study, do homework, connect with teachers, and connect with friends. I mainly only use the internet for  personal use. To me, the internet is a very confusing thing to use, that never works properly for me.

    Where is technology going? That is a question most of us have thought about before. Many people have different thoughts on the future of technology, I think that the future will solely be based on your personal cell phone. Everything from school books to conducting job duties will be on the cell phone. With everything on your cell phone people will be able to conduct their lives from anywhere in the world. If this happens life would be much easier and less stressful.

   Some people just naturally understand technology and how to use it, others just know the basics. No matter which category you fall in, you should know that there is a future in technology that will affect you in some way. For me, I hope to learn how to use each and every new thing that comes out to the market.