Sunday, July 26, 2009

Templating

I did a lot of sketching in the car during my recent vacation and once I got home last night I started flipping through looking for something that would work with the style of spiffy the dog. I felt kinda burnt out on random figures, objects and landscapes and was starting to struggle for an idea when I reread my old post and saw I had previously mentioned something about packaging. So I started to make some templates that could be useable in the future based off the techniques used in the spiffy the dog image.

The only completed one I have is a Can. I do however have a glass bottle and a generic box also started. My progress on them will be posted later in the week as I try to recover time lost from the vacation.

Working Can Template:


















It looks kinda boring on its own but templates are not usually incredibly exciting. Just like in the illustration of spiffy the dog. Step 1 was to trace an image of a can in illustrator and all its shadows, highlights and low lights. Step 2 was to bring all that into photoshop. Step 3 was to use the paths, brushes and gaussian blurs to my advantage to replicate the can's highlights and lowlights. One of the neat little things hiding inside the working photoshop file is a gradient layer that when turned on and adjusted, it will change the color of the can with almost no difficulties.



While not as creative or adorable as spiffy the dog (and pretty lackluster), This group of templates I am working on should hopefully come in handy. Packaging and labels have always kinda been something I have been interested in and played around with. Having these little tools should be great. I think this is what those teachers have been calling "integrating ideas from other classes into your personal work".

Also what exactly should be in our "final project" I know we have to upload stuff to a picasa account and on the server. But I am kinda lost in what all should be involved. Is it a independent project that uses the skills that we have learned from this class and a summary on how we plan on integrating this (skills, resources, websites....) into our careers?

2 comments:

  1. After relooking at it this morning, the cans could use some more drastic shadows.

    Also is anyone else having problems making images to where you can open them in a new window?

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  2. If you rearrange your images from the visual preview when you make your post it messes up the code for the larger image preview. You should open up the edit html view and cut or copy the whole code block to a different place in relation to the text.
    I think that the templates is a great idea.
    Your approach to this particular project is a lot like my intent for the final. I want people to really look at what they will do after this class with what they have worked on during the class. Your final should be a very in-depth post or series of posts where you talk about your newfound techniques, tools, and processes that you think you will continue to use in your future work. Teach us what you have learned!

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