The Pen Tool

For this blog post I thought I'd talk a little bit about the pen tool, and how useful it is. When I go around my class it frustrates me to find that everyone seems to be using their brushes for masking. That's fine, but it just seems like everything comes out more accurate when you pen too your mask. Brushing is musch less accurate, and often times comes out more messy hen pen tool'd maks. The pen tool is a tool for making vector lines and curves to make more accurate selections.

I hope my classmates see the usefulness of this tool in years to come, I know I have. Bellow I have embedded a video explaining how to use the pen tool for you newcomers.

-Discord

Recently I found another really cool photo manipulator on Youtube. His name is Alexander Koshelkov. His style is very similar to Flew Designs. He's very good at taking elements from different photographs, and combine them in a realistic way. One of my favourite pieces by him is called, "Life On Mars". I think the main idea of this piece was to create an interesting visual and nothing more, but it could also be trying to symbolize the whole "Don't judge a book by it's cover" thing. Underneath is a picture of the piece with a speed art of him making it.

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Editing Software

Instead of my regular style blog posts, I thought it would be fun to talk about the variety of editing programs I've used in the past, and my experiences with them. First let's talk about the first editing program I've ever used, Windows Movie Maker. The WMM version I'm familiar with is probably dated by now, but I remember the UI was simple, and easily understood. It was an easy program to use, and was functional enough. The problem with it though, is it's limitations. You simply can't do the same amount with WMM than you can with After Effects. I had a brief glimpse if the new(ish) UI and I hated it, but that was just my first impression.

Now let's talk about the Mac OS equivalent, IMovie. I HATE this program. The version I've been using is much older, but it's caused the most headaches. It's way over simplified, and there's all these small glitches. Let's just say this isn't my favourite program.

Moving up from IMovie, we have Final Cut Pro. This program is a HUGE improvement. it was a little prone to crashes, (I had a cracked version, so I'm not sure if that contributed) but it had so many great features. The UI was relatively easy to navigate, and easy to understand, and my version auto saved, which is a feature that should be implemented on everything. I spent a lot of time with this program, and I was impressed.

Finally let's talk about the editing program I use the most today, Sony Vegas Pro 11. I've been familiar with Sony Vegas since I first started editing, so for about 5 years. It's a bit harder to learn the Final Cut Pro, and a lot harder to learn than WMM. It's a great all around program, and probably one of my favourites. The only problem is that it's pretty prone of crashes, so you really got to remember to save. It seems like it's the closest out of any of these programs, to what I would have designed if I were to create an editing program.

As for my favourite program, it really just depends what OS you have. If you have Mac OS get Final Cut Pro X, if you have Windows get Sony Vegas Pro 11.

Now inevitably, it's time I learned After Effects. Wish me luck!

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Jerry Uelsmann

When I first heard about Uelsmann's work, I wasn't too impressed. What interested me was the fact that he does all his work in the dark room.  NO PHOTOSHOP.  How he manages to blend his components to effectively amazes me.  The shadows on some of his pieces look perfect,  now it's hard to get shadows right in Photoshop, but in a dark room?

This piece is called "Untitled" and it was done in 1982. Since Uelsmann does his work in the surrealist style, it is very interpretive. The way I interoperate it is because of the roots connected to the house,  is I think it's trying to say that the house has been there  a long time because of the how long the roots actually are. The house is also abandoned and broken, which could be saying that the environment is abandoned and broken, because it's connected to roots.

Flew Designs

Hey Guys. Today I would like to talk about and artist that I admire. This guys are is what inspired me to try out photo manipulation. He goes by "Flew" and in my opinion, his pieces are amazing. He very good at taking components from other things, and integrating them in a way that looks real.

 One of my favourite pieces by him, is this piece called "Out Of View". It's in the surrealist style, and there's many ways to interoperate this piece. One way could be it symbolises people being born, because of the people in the bubbles lying in fetal position, and the way their floating onto our world, and how the concept is "Out Of View".

His website if you're curious:
http://www.flewdesigns.com/
-Discord