Assignments

Class assignments will be posted here:

Assignments are listed in chronological order below – the NEWEST assignment(s) will be posted at the top of the page as we move forward. Past assignments can be found by scrolling down towards the bottom of the page.

**Assignment Submissions Process /  Reminder – When you complete each assignment, please e-mail me to let me know – always add both your production files (.psd or .Ai or otherness file) as well as a .JPG or .PDF version of the assignment into your folder in our shared Google Drive (the link is located on our Canvas page in the NYIT portal)

Please label finished work indicating that it is a “Final” file submission – here is an example below:

Ryan_Seslow_Assignment#1-Final.psd

Ryan_Seslow_Assignment#1-Final.JPG

*************************************************

 

Assignment #1

Fictional Form Character –

Vector Portrait -> Poster -> Animation & Collaboration 

We will bring together the applications of a vector portrait, composition, image, typography, animation & collaborative ZINE layout. This is a multipart / fragmented project.

PART 1

Museum Exhibition Poster using a Fictional Self-Portrait

Process: Research. Find and discover a series of inspirational images and references to work from. Your research should inspire you! Create a new project folder in your google drive folder titled “Assignment #1” – save these images to your project folder. 

What is a “Self-Portrait” How would you define it? Is a self-portrait simply a “head-shot” front on view? Or can it be more subjective using fragments of the face and or various metaphors?

Your self-portrait must first be digitally drawn or rendered as “vector” art. You may work with vector applications like adobe Illustrator or Adobe Fresco – both can produce vector based imagery. (If you choose to work with procreate or photoshop you will need to convert the raster imagery into vector imagery later).

Create a series of 3-6 iterations of your 1st self-portrait by manipulating the imagery with various filters, textures and experimental methods shared in class. The purpose of iterating is to further advance and re-purpose the design / artwork and create various textures and filters by cross-synthesizing techniques. This is permission to be experimental and to display how many variations can be generated. (The new iterations may also be applied as animation content in Part 3)

After you illustrate your self-portrait and 3-6 compelling iterations, you’ll move on to creating the poster for the ex­hibit.

*Your self-portrait IS the main artwork for the poster campaign that you will create for the exhibit. You must design the poster in 2 sizes – one landscape version and one portrait orientation version. I suggest 11” x 17” or 11” X 14”

Part 2 – Poster Design Specifications: 

Select a museum of your choice that will be having the exhibit. Find out more about the museum / institution by viewing their website for research materials and resources. This includes getting access to the museums logo so that it can be placed into the poster.

*Minimum required copy/text verbiage for the poster is:

An Exhibition Title: “New Voices Exhibition” (or another title of your choice)

An Exhibit Date: April 15th – May 30th 2023

An Opening Time and Date: Opening Reception, April 20th 2023 7PM – 9PM

A contextual link: https:// the url of your museum.org

A Museum logo : *(the logo of the museum of your choice)

Fonts and colors – are entirely student choice. Students may ADD additional text / verbiage / copy, but may not delete from the minimum above.

Part 3 – Animating the Self Portrait or Poster

Students will learn basic frame animation skills with adobe photoshop and adobe after effects. You may choose to animate the self-portrait by itself or animate the museum poster (or both). Creating graphic assets and preparing them for After Effects will be demonstrated and encouraged. Output to file methods will be: .GIF, .MOV & .MP4

**PART 4 – Collaboration Submission

The aspect ratio of the isolated portraits must be sized at 8.5″ X 11″ – students will selected 

Web Examples to Explore: (will source inspiration from our class discussion)

Resources – GIF the Portrait (Tumblr project)

—————————————————————–

*****************************************************************

Assignment / Project 2 –

Advertising Hack / Remix, Displacement & Promotion & Presentation

Process: We will be creating a new design campaign that will be presented as advertising in public space. The design work will hack, remix, repurpose and re-contextualize existing advertising content.

(What era of advertising do you resonate with? 1940s? 1980s? 2000s? Other?)

The remixed design work should both communicate and promote a product or a service. The product or service should be something that currently exists or has at one time existed in the “real world” as we know it. Your remixes can be “hybrids” by combining 2 or more products together, or you may choose to remix the way that the imagery is displayed. The final design work(s) should be compelling and should push the boundaries of your comfort zone. Either way, we should see a very noticeable series of iterations. Aside from producing individual designs as imagery / files we will apply our work using free product mock-ups (using Adobe photoshop) as well. We will discuss context during our class sessions. You should also plan to animate at least one of your final iterations.

Software: Students can work with familiar design software that can produce the final digital art works. This will include adobe photoshop for generating composite imagery, cutting up existing images, creating digital assets and cutting out image fragments, adobe illustrator for creating vector graphics or applying variations of type and type effects, Adobe InDesign for lay out.

Size: The size of the completed digital artworks are open. Students can decide – but I suggest considering that you work sizing is consistent for presentation purposes.

Web Examples to Explore: 

Google Search results for –  “1980s Advertising Posters”

Google Search results for“Food Ads 1990s”

The Noun Projecthttps://thenounproject.com

Free product mock ups in PSD formathttps://graphicburger.com/mock-ups/

—————————————————————–

*****************************************************************

Assignment / Project #3 – 

Building with Adobe Illustrator – from flat design in 2D to 3D -> Shapes, Forms, Composition & Color.

Exploring the 2D / 3D tools with in Illustrator. Project outcomes will instill the skills and techniques to design a new Toy(s) or a Collectible object ).

Process – This is a 3 Part series of exercises

PART 1 – Working in Adobe Illustrator create a new document sized at 11″ X 17″. (or something similar but keep the orientation vertical) Consider, how will you set your guides to equally balance and format the graphics evenly? Will you use a grid? Do you have a preferred method for layout? Let’s explore what this means.

Generate shapes and forms! Digging into the “tools” and developing contrasts.

Allow yourself to be experimental! There are numerous ways, methods and techniques to generate shapes and forms. I suggest working with one single color to emphasize the forms and use of positive and negative space.

Generate a new series of “subjective” graphic Icons following the layout and arrangement example. (Don’t re-create my example) make your own, but follow the balanced composition. Experiment! Make an entire page full of shapes and forms! (see my example from class) Select the 6 – 8 most interesting or compelling forms and use those to layer and compose your icons with. Limit yourself to 6 values of 1 complimentary color scheme. Referring to the adobe color wheel for reference.

Limit yourself to creating and composing your graphics with no more than 6 – 8 shapes created with the pen, pathfinder or the shape builder tool. Begin composing without using a “stroke” around your shapes and then apply a stroke for contrast later. Save your production work as an Ai. file (adobe illustrator) as well as a .pdf – the PDF files are for viewing on the web and printing.

PART 2 – Pattern making, composition and color exploration – each student will follow the images in the example shown in class as a guide to further extend and develop their icon designs.

Size – Use a square shape for this series of designs. I suggest 10″x 10″

Students will select and isolate their strongest single icon/graphic(s) from the original layout in Part 1 of the assignment – 1 version will include a stroke and one with out (example). Students will explore a 4-part color variation drawn from their selected color palette as well as 1-3 balanced patterns using their icons. (We will discuss the examples in class)

PART 3 – Design a Toy or Collectible Object using the skills practiced in parts 1 & 2. Experiment with bringing your 2D forms together to “build” structure and composition. The subjective forms will be used to design recognizable imagery, applying the 3D tools in Illustrator is exciting. The final design work will function as both a “product” and a “digital Illustration”(or a series of them) of your choice that combines a series of your forms together.

Web Examples to Explore: 

Coming soon!

—————————————————————–

*****************************************************************

Assignment #4 –  Student Driven Project: Short Story Animatic

Photoshop/Illustrator/After Effects

Academy Award winning Animation: (made in Photoshop)

https://creativecloud.adobe.com/discover/article/an-award-nominated-short-animation-made-with-photoshop

Project Requirements:
There are going to being multiple parts to this project (as usual)..

Part 1 – Answer a few questions and do some basic research:

What topic or subject do you want to focus on?
You may choose to create a character and make the animation central to that character.
Where is the location of your story?
Who are the main characters?
If you are using pre-existing characters that you created, who are they? What are they doing? Where are they going? What is the arc of the story?
Is your story a one-character story or is it multi-character?

You Can not proceed to step 2 without approval of Part 1

Part 2 –
You will need to present a storyboard of the animation you plan on creating.
Examples: https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/video/discover/storyboarding.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMCwtxjktRI

Your storyboard should be a minimum of 8-15 frames / shots. It does not need to be in color, but can be if you want. Keep in mind that a storyboard only serves to show the direction and outline of the storyboard, not the full detailed outline.

A storyboard is a “plan”.

Things to consider in your design:

Background images/landscaping
Characters
Timing

Part 3 –  The short animation is at least 15 – 45 seconds long in duration.
Students will complete this assignment using the color palette of their choice

Software: students can work with familiar design software that can produce the final animation – adobe photoshop, illustrator and after effects/

Size: The size of the completed animation is up to you but decide on the presentation orientation – will it be landscape or portrait mode? What are the common sizes for this using pixels? (1920 px V 1080 px is standard for all devices).

Submission or work in Process – Students will present their work in “sketch / concept and production / progress” in our next classes.

**Assignment Submissions Reminder – always add both your production files (.psd, .Ai , AE) as well as a final presentation format – for animation – .GIF or .MOV or .MP4  version of the assignment into your folder in our shared Google Drive (the link is located on our Canvas page in the NYIT portal)

*****************************************************************
Assignment #5: (coming soon)

Assignment #6: -> Final Portfolio / Presentation

*Final Portfolio / Final Presentation Date & Information

NYIT schedules our final exam / final presentation date and time. It is scheduled for – TBA

It is mandatory that we follow this schedule. On the final exam date each student will present a final portfolio of all of the work that they have completed in our class this semester.

 

css.php