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​our WORK

Rotoscoped Digital Self Portraits

Students used an iPad App called Procreate to create digital self-portraits.

Emphasis was on capturing emotion and expressing personality and character through the pose, facial expression, and use of color.

Students first photographed themselves using the iPad.  They then applied a variety of rotoscoping techniques, similar to what video editors use to transform live action into animated cartoons.  Three-dimensional form, textural and pattern were applied to create interest and a unique point of view.

Digital Photography Portfolio

Our digital photography unit was a commissioned project from our principal who asked us to create a photography installation for our school's front office.  Working in groups of four, students created a portfolio of iconic school-related photos.  They applied compositional techniques (rule of thirds, leading lines, contrast, pattern and repetition, interesting angles), AND learned how to successfully work with a client who has specific needs and a vision for the finished product.

Intro to Digital Editing

This unit introducing the open platform software Pixlr Editor resulted in a student work product called "When Pigs Fly."  Students learned to create and order image layers, add textures and backgrounds, use text, paint bucket and color picker tools, and manipulate ready-made images.  The biggest challenge students faced was using the appropriate tools to cleanly cut the pig image out of its background, resize it, and "frankenstein" it to create a winged composite image.  As always, students were encouraged to create a unique solution to the problem.

Personal Logos

Students began this unit by analyzing visual advertising campaigns.  We evaluated traditional commercial logo and trademark designs and compared them to their modern "rebrandings".  

After a class discussion about branding and identity, students used Pixlr Editor to create a personal logo.  Students used only black and white to create a positive and negative space that was dynamic but balanced.  Emphasis was placed on symbolic meaning as the logos that students developed expressed a personal character trait or belief.

Surreal Image Composites

After studying Surrealism, both the original movement in the 1920s and the recent photo resurgence of Surrealism, students were challenged to create a surreal photo composite.

Students took original photos and then used Pixlr Editor to arrange, layer, texture, transparency, and colorize a surreal composition.  

Traditional surreal techniques such as levitation, dislocation, scale change, and juxtaposition were employed.  

Students communicated a dream, nightmare, hope or fear.

Minimalist Self-Portraits

After getting their feet wet with Pixlr Editor or GIMP, students created a minimalist self-portrait poster based on the style of popular Minimalist Superhero art.

 

Students were challenged to use the following 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 guidelines to create their self-portrait poster:

5 (or fewer) elements, details, layers

4 (or fewer) colors

3 (or fewer) figures

2 (or fewer) words

1 personal logo (designed in a previous project)

 

Students started with a photo of themselves and transformed it with Pixlr Editor or GIMP fills, layers, textures, and other image manipulation techniques.  Color and font styles were carefully chosen to enhance the meaning of the final work.

Working with real-life clients is an integral part of our digital media arts experiences.  Each year we collaborate with our Fine Arts department to design a poster for use in our school musical.

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Students explore fonts, layered elements, and color impact to create a strong graphic image.

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Students also learn to work within the parameters of the client and the company from which we purchase the royalty rights to produce the play.  Only specific logos for the headline are permitted and some information, like the playwright, must be included on the poster. 

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Our client picks the top three designs to print for publicity posters and the winning design becomes the front cover of the playbill.

Graphic Design

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