Stop Motion Animation Day 3: Character & Scene Creation & Layout

Today’s essential question: How will I lay out my scene and characters?

Today we will create our scenes and characters by cutting paper.
Your scene must be landscape orientation in order to work properly with the app:

Note: If you have a phone and have not yet installed the WordPress app, please do so. It will make your like much easier over the course of this project.

Photographic Storyboard

Once we have created all the pieces, we will take photos of each major key frame in the story to create a photographic storyboard. (You are only conveying the general idea of the story, not creating the entire animation – we will start that next class.) Here is an example of what I am looking for:

You must post photos of the work you did today to your class blog in order to receive participation points. If you do not get around to creating the photographic storyboard today, post photos of whatever you did complete.

Storage & Organization

It is important to keep your pieces organized. Use one ziploc bag per character, and a separate ziploc bag for the pieces that make up the scene. Then store all the bags in a folder with your name on it.

Today we will:

• Create our scenes and characters by cutting paper
• We will take photos of each major key frame in the story to create a photographic storyboard
• Organize our pieces by storing them neatly in separate bags within a folder
• Create a new blog post with the following:
  • Photos of the work we did today
  • A few sentences describing what you created, and how you created it

Stop Motion Animation Day 2

Today’s essential question: What role does the storyboard play in an animation?

Today we will finish our storyboard packets for our stop motion animations.
Aaliyah has created a great example of what I am looking for:

Today we will:

• Plan out our cut paper animations by filling out the storyboard packet.
  You must fill out BOTH the planning overview page and the storyboard page in order to receive full credit.
• Post photos of the work we did today to our class blog

New Project: Paper Cut Out Stop Motion Animation

Today’s essential question: How can I use a storyboard to plan out my animation?

Stop motion animation is animation that is captured one frame at time, with physical objects that are moved between frames. When you play back the sequence of images rapidly, it creates the illusion of movement.

Here are some examples of paper cut out stop motion animations:

 

Project Requirements:

• Created from cut paper and filmed using StikBot Studio Pro
• Tells a cohesive story with a clear beginning, middle, and end
• At least 60 seconds long
• High-quality craftsmanship
  • smooth, fluid animation
  • consistent camera angles
  • well-designed frames

Part 1: The Storyboard

“The story is king.” – Pixar

In order to have a good animation, you must start with a good story. As you plan your animation, you will sketch each key moment in the story as a key frame. You should also write a brief description of what is happening in each key frame. Here are some examples of what I am looking for in a storyboard:

Today we will:

• Plan out our cut paper animations by filling out the storyboard packet. You must fill out BOTH the planning overview page and the storyboard page in order to receive full credit.
• Post photos of the work we did today to our class blog

Room Design Day 7: Finishing Touches and Artist Statement

Today’s essential question: What do I need to do to finish my room design?

Today we will finish our room designs. We will then create a blog post with our final room design and an artist statement about the project.

Artist Statement Brainstorming Questions:

• Describe your artwork
  • What does your artwork look like?
  • What art elements (ex. color, value, shape, line, texture, form) or principles are most obvious in your work?
• How did you create your art?
  • What media is your artwork made from?
  • Describe the process or steps you took to create your artwork.
• What is the big idea behind your artwork?
  • Who or what inspired your artwork?
  • What is your artwork about?
  • How do you want people to feel when they view your artwork?
• Overall thoughts
  • What did you learn from creating this artwork?
  • Is the final piece what you imagined? How so?
  • What did you do well? What could you have done better?

Other incomplete assignments:

• Boone – Artist Statement for Celebrity Prints
• Rasheen – Final Blog Post with Set of 4 Celebrity Prints and Artist Statement
• Treasure – Final Blog Post with Set of 4 Celebrity Prints and Artist Statement
• Anastacia – Final Blog Post with Set of 4 Celebrity Prints and Artist Statement
• Gianna – Final Blog Post with Set of 4 Celebrity Prints and Artist Statement
• Poe – Final Blog Post with Set of 4 Celebrity Prints and Artist Statement
• Robert – Final Blog Post with Set of 4 Celebrity Prints and Artist Statement
• Tianna – Final Blog Post with Set of 4 Celebrity Prints and Artist Statement
• Aaliyah – Final Blog Post with Set of 4 Celebrity Prints and Artist Statement

Today we will:

• Finish our room designs
• Upload our finished room designs to our shared Foundations 1 Google Drive folders
• Create a blog post with the following:
  • our final room design
  • an artist statement about the project
• Finish any incomplete assignments and post them to our blogs

Interior Design Day 6: In Process Critique

Today’s essential questions: What are some things that are working well in the featured student examples below? What could be improved to make them even better? What ideas do these give you about your own project?

Compare your rooms against the project requirements during the critique.

Project Requirements:

• Created in Adobe Photoshop from the provided blank room template
• Includes a minimum of 10 different images
• Floor and walls have been covered with texture or altered in color
• Contains a light source (lamp, fireplace, windows, etc)
• Follows one point perspective
• All objects in the room go together to create a cohesive style
• High Quality Craftsmanship
  • No pixelation
  • Background cleanly removed
  • Images photographed from appropriate angles
  • Lighting matches up
  • Scale and proportion makes sense

Today we will:

• Critique our room designs so far with 1-2 classmates. Write the feedback in a new blog post. You will reference this feedback as you continue to work on your rooms.
• Continue working on our rooms, incorporating any feedback we received during today’s in progress critique
• Upload both the PSD and PNG of our progress to our Google Drives
• Create a new blog post with the following:
  • a PNG of our progress
  • the feedback you received during today’s peer critique
  • what you worked on during today’s class, and what you still need to do to finish your room

Interior Design Day 5: Adding Scenic Windows

Today’s essential question: How can I add windows with a view to my room design?

Today we will learn how to add windows (and any scene we desire behind those windows) to our room.

How to Add Scenic Windows to a Room

1. Open your window image and drag it into your room file:
   
2. Adjust the perspective of the window with the scale and distort tools (Edit -> Transform -> Scale, and Edit -> Transform -> Distort)
   
3. Duplicate the Layer (Layer -> Duplicate Layer). Hide the lower duplicated layer by clicking on the eye in the layer palette.
   
4. Remove the inside of the window with the tool of your choice:
   
5. Open the scene you would like to go in your window.
   Drag the scenic image into your room file.
   Make sure the scene layer is below the windows layer in your layers palette:
   
6. Adjust the perspective of the scene so it matches the perspective of the window with the scale and distort tools
   (Edit -> Transform -> Scale, and Edit -> Transform -> Distort)
   Remove any part of the scenic image that does not belong in the window with the Photoshop tool of your choice:
   
7. Make the lower window layer visible in the layers palette and select it so it turns blue:
   
8. Adjust the opacity so the glass looks see through:
   

This technique also works for doorways, closets, trophy cases, etc:

Today we will:

• Continue working on our rooms
• Save our room files as both a Photoshop (.PSD) file and PNG
• Upload both the .PSD and .PNG files to our shared Google Drive folders
• Create a new blog post with the following:
  • a PNG of what our room design looks like so far
  • A few sentences describing what is going well as well, what your next steps will be, and what you are finding challenging.

Room Design Day 4: Ceiling Texture

Today’s essential question: How can I add visual interest to my room with a ceiling?

Ceilings are often overlooked in interior design, but the right ceiling details will tie a room together.
Look at the ceiling types below. Which ones do you think would work with your room design?

Tray Ceiling

Coffered Ceiling

Beadboard Ceiling

Cathedral Ceiling

wood cathedral ceiling chiefly Open concept living room vaulted ceiling with beam detail

Exposed Beams

Today we will:

• Continue building our rooms in Photoshop
• Save our image as BOTH PSD and a PNG
• Upload the PSD and PNGs to our shared Google Drive folders
• Create a new blog post with a PNG our progress

Interior Design Day 3: Adjusting Perspective to Add Texture to Floors and Walls

Today’s essential question: How can I use various features in the transform tool (perspective, distort, scale) to add detail to my floor and walls?

Today we will download the blank room source file and begin building our rooms in Photoshop.

Download the Blank Room Source File

1. Log into your school Google Drive.
2. Click on “Shared with Me” on the left column.
3. Right click on “empty-room-source-file.jpg” and select “Download.”

OR Click here to download the file. (You must be logged into your school Google account to be able to access it.)

How to Add a Texture to Your Floor Using the Perspective Tool

1. Drag your floor texture into your room (do not use the “place” feature!)
   
2. Edit-> Transform -> Scale. Scale your floor so it fills the space below where the floor meets the wall. (This is one time that it is ok not to hold down shift, because distorting the dimensions of the floor texture in this step might actually make it look more realistic later.)
   
3. Edit -> Transform -> Perspective.
   Drag the front corners of the floor outward to transform your floor so it has the correct dimensions.
   
4. If your floor still feels a bit off, you can adjust individual points by going to Edit -> Transform -> Distort.

How to Add a Texture to Your Walls Using the Perspective Tool

You can use these same tools to add texture to the wall.

1. Drag your wall texture image into the room file and use the perspective, transform, and distort tools to make it look like it fits on the wall:
   
2. Once the first wall looks correct, you can duplicate the layer (Layer->Duplicate Layer), and flip it (Edit -> Transform -> Flip Horizontal) and then move it to the other side of the room.
   
3. Duplicating layers will also help you fill the back wall. For example, simply scaling the image on the back wall may look strange if you force the bricks to fit the space.
   
4. However, you can scale the image to be the appropriate height (Edit -> Transform -> Scale).
   Once again, it may be ok to distort the dimensions of the image in this case.
   
   Then duplicate the layer (Layer -> Duplicate Layer).
   Flip the image so you will have a seamless tile (Edit -> Transform -> Flip Horizontal) and move the image so it connects with your other layer.
   
5. At the bottom of your layers palette, click on the folder icon  to make a new folder.
   Name it “brick wall”.
   Drag all the brick layers into this folder. That will help keep your layers organized.
   

Further uses for the perspective/distort tools:

• make a poster, framed picture, or mirror look like it is hanging on one of the side walls
• add windows to one of the side walls

Today we will:

• Begin dragging images into our room and using the perspective and distort tools to make them look like they realistically belong in the room.  Make sure you name your layers!
• Save our image as BOTH PSD and a PNG
• Upload the PSD and PNGs to our shared Google Drive foldes
• Create a new blog post with a PNG our progress

Interior Design Day 2: Tips & Tricks

Today’s essential question: Why is it more important to find images taken from the correct angle vs images that contain the correct colors?

Today we will learn several tips & tricks that will help with our room design project.
We will download very large images (at least 2MP) and remove the images from their backgrounds. We will save these files as PNGs so the backgrounds remain transparent and upload them to both our blogs and Google Drives.

Angle of View

When downloading images, consider the point of view from which the image was chosen.
For example, this couch would look great against the back wall:

while this couch would work better against a side wall:

If you have to choose between an image that is your ideal color, or one that has been taken from the perfect angle, choose the perfect angle. Trying to fake the perfect angle with Photoshop’s perspective tool will give you something like this (notice how we should be able to see the side of the armrest):

Changing Color

On the other hand, it is very easy to change the color of an object in Photoshop.
In the example below, I will change the color of the couch:

Duplicate the couch onto a new layer (Layer->Duplicate layer) and use the eraser tool until only the part whose color you wish to change remains.

Then go to Image -> Adjustments -> Hue/Saturation and adjust the sliders until you are happy with the result.

See how well that works?

Adding Color

Hue/Saturation will not work for anything that is white, gray, or black, since those colors are desaturated and technically have no hue.
Luckily, it is very simple to add color to a neutral object.
We will paint the white walls in the image below using the Color Balance effect:

Duplicate the layer with your object and use the eraser tool until only the part whose color you wish to change remains.

Then go to Image -> Adjustments -> Color Balance and adjust the sliders until you are happy with the result.

In this case, I have dragged the cyan slider as far as it will go, but the wall colors are not as intense as I would like them to be:

In such a case, we may need to apply the Color Balance effect more than once.
Simply hit “OK,” then go to the top of the screen, and once again go to Image -> Adjustments -> Color Balance:

This is what the walls look like after a second round:

Today we will:

• Remove the backgrounds from any images we may want to include in our rooms.
• Save these images as both PSDs and PNGs and upload them to our shared Google Drive folders.
• Adjust the color of any objects (if necessary)
• DO NOT TRY TO BUILD YOUR ROOM. This will force you to save your images with their backgrounds removed in separate files.
• Create a new blog post with the following:
  • PNGs of any images whose backgrounds you removed today or whose colors you changed.
  • A few sentences describing what is going well as well, what your next steps will be, and what you are finding challenging.

New Project: 1 Pt Perspective Room Design

Today’s essential question: How can I design an interesting interior space?

Interior Design Project

Today we will begin our interior design project. We will research various interior design styles and create a new blog post with a “mood board” of the look we hope to achieve.

We will start with the blank room template below and turn it into an interior space of our choosing. You may want to consider, but are not limited to, spaces such as a dream bedroom or dorm room, an art studio, a coffee shop or restaurant, a music venue, or a store.

Blank room template:

I have purposefully not provided the high-res version of the room template today to force you to spend all class on your project planning post. No one should be working in Photoshop today!

Here are some examples created by past SOTA students:

Project Requirements:

• Created in Adobe Photoshop from the provided blank room template
• Includes a minimum of 10 different images
• Floor and walls have been covered with texture or altered in color
• Contains a light source (lamp, fireplace, windows, etc)
• Follows one point perspective
• All objects in the room go together to create a cohesive style
• High Quality Craftsmanship
  • No pixelation
  • Background cleanly removed
  • Images photographed from appropriate angles
  • Lighting matches up
  • Scale and proportion makes sense
• Final Blog post includes:
  • PNG of final image
  • 150 word Artist Statement

Today we will

• Research potential interior design styles we may use in our project
• Create a new blog post with the following (use Giacomo’s post as a guide):
  • A minimum of 20 images we may use in our room design project. Make sure these images are large enough not to look pixelated! These images should cover the following things:
    • lighting
    • furniture
    • architectural details (stairs, pillars, molding, wall and ceiling textures)
    • floor materials and coverings
    • windows and window coverings
    • art and accessories
    • intended color scheme/style
    • Remember, you are starting with the plain image at the top of the blog post, so you will have to add every detail in the room yourself.
  • A paragraph describing the intended purpose of the room, the style you are trying to create, and how the items you have posted will contribute to the room