Oculus Rift

I cannot believe my luck, the opportunity to experience a demonstration of oculus rift. Especially that this whole project is about escapism. Oculus rift is virtual reality that works, and shows true potential as a way forward for games.You actually feel as if you are there. My first demo was of a countryside villa , I walked around took in my surroundings the frame rate was super fast and kept up whenever I turned my head, Then I stepped outside and caught a glimpse of a butterfly fluttering around the garden. The graphics are nothing to shout about but that didn't spoil the experience, and I know that this isn't the final version so there will be vast improvements. My second demo was of a shooting game in a cube made out of lasers, you had to fly around shooting cubes within this three dimensional space It gave me the feeling of flight, especially when I when for a loop the loop, I can understand why this could cause motion sickness (another area that I'm told that will be fixed) and finally I experienced a flying game that was controlled with wherever I looked. Overall I was very impressed with the technology, I can see so much potential for games,  It could place you in the middle of battle fields, scary horror games and globe trotting adventures the list could go on, and imagine the educational purpose's, virtual tours, school kids taking a history lesson in and amongst the first world war, and what about the benefits for the disabled, bed ridden and house bound. The only thing that has to improve is the graphics, and if game developers produce triple A titles for it then greatness awaits.
This could fit in to my project well but I have building up a idea already, it's a shame that I didn't experience this sooner, I am not ruling it out yet but time grows really short and I have to start finishing this project off. 

Custom Brushes

For this experiment I am looking at how to create my own custom brushes in photoshop, traditional and found  materials
First I gathered some leafs.

Then I scaned them In full colour at a high resolution to pick up the detail.

Then I opened them up in photoshop and desaturated the colour so that thew brush would work right. I  also adjusted the brightness and contrast to see what effects I could get. Then I defined the brush preset then hey presto, one custom brush.

From there I played with the settings, I used the setting known as scatering to give a scattering effect ,I changed the colour dynamics and altered its size. This opens up even more ways to use photoshop creativly , looking back I could of changed the perspective so it would fit with a certain image, I could change the opacity and build up paintings using this brush, there is just so many things you can do, but I havn't got the time to experiment with them all.

For this texture (custom brush) I used a mixture of salt and ink

For these two I went for a splattered ink effect for the image on the left and a mixture of sugar and ink for the image on the right for a more grainy look as opposed to the finer look of the salt and ink texture.

For these two (above and below I used the found leaf from earlier and aplied some acrylic paint to the surface and made a print.  

Then I used the same process (scan, desaturate, define brush preset.

And this is the final outcome textural brushes there to be used and manipulated if and when they are needed.
This as been a fun task, the final result has realy been effective , it has been nice to use mixed media in a digital form I know this method will come in handy in the future. 

Photomontage Thumbnail Sketchs

This is my starting point for my photomontage piece. First I want to make sure that the composition is right using the golden sections.The main focus is going to be the tv screen with objects breaking out of the screen with just the players hands visable with a controller in hand. Then I want some swirling graphics effect spiraling out of the screen that will lead the eye to the console then the tag line or heading, there needs to be aq dark background to make this all stand out as well. Things may change but I am happy with this start.

Photomontage Techniques

After sketching out some thumbnail drawings of the composition I  struck on the idea of adding statues, the beauty of  photoshop is that any object can be manipulated and scaled, so with this in mind I started to look for a object at work today, lucky for me I found this interesting statue and thought it could fit well into the river scene I created earlier in thee week. This is another important thing to remember in the future to keep taking photos and build a archive because you never know when they may come in handy.

My tutor advised me to work into this image a little more to gain more confidence and knowledge,  so I did.
First I changed the experimented with the levels, brightness  and contrast. Then I roughly cut out other elements from some of my images, I am treating this image as a sketch so there is much more room for improvement. then I started to burn some shadows to try to make the objects feel more natural. Then I started to clone stamp some moss onto the statue and learned that you can use any brush type with this method which opens up even more possibilities. Then finally I used A custom brush that I got free on a disc that produced a cloud effect. I need to try to create some of my own brushes so I am not limited of effects that I may need.

Understanding The Scope Of Photoshop

Photoshop is a vast program one that can't be learned in a year never mind eight weeks but I am beginning to understand the potential of how you can dramatically alter a image.

Just a standard photo of a plant taken at the winter gardens in sheffield. It so I decided to experiment with it to understand how I can improve it.

So I changed the brightness and contrast of the image which really brought it to life. I also changed the levels the image  as well.

In this experiment I desaturated the image and took all the colour away.

For this example I changed the hue saturation of the image, It struck me as good way of building a surreal fantasy image (escapism at its weirdest)

But it doesn't stop there there are blend modes to consider and how they can effect a certain layer, there's the fact that you can change just apart of a image using selections using the pen tool, magic wand tool etc, never mind the fact that you can clone stamp parts of a use your own textures and create your own custom brushes, I could keep going too this time next year, as I said a vast program full of endless possibilities.

Vector vs Bitmap

Work done by Helen Huang
Name unknown (illustrator)
Found from www.vector.tutsplus.com
The object of this post is to show my understanding of  vector and bitmap graphics. Vector graphics is the area that I have the most experience with, and that is why I have steered clear from using it for this project. Vectors are mathematical points that are plotted mostly using the pen tool to create shapes and colour fills. It is possible to create really complex images from these shapes and add effects such as Gaussian blur or patterns to smooth gradients to add some depth to a image. The main advantage of vector is the fact that any image can be scaled to as big as you like with no loss of quality and its for this reason that its the main tool to graphics designer to create logos, text etc for a small leaflet to a giant sign. Looking at the piece above I can see the process that have been used. Gradients have been used on her hair and clothing a pattern has been used on the dress, she has duplicated the leafs, I can see how she has created each shape, there is even a hint of Gaussian blur on her cheek for that rosy tint.

Work done by Greg Staples
The wall (Concept for the film Doomsday) Photoshop
www.gregstaples.com
Bitmap is the area that my whole project has been focused on because  it is the area that is unfamiliar to me. Bitmap  graphics (photos, digital paintings etc) are made up of pixels and if you zoom in on a image you can see these small squares of colour that make up a image. You have a lot more freedom to create realistic paintings and manipulate photos with a more painterly approach. Photography is the main area where they are used but concept artists favour bitmap as well. But on the down side you can only scale pixels so far until that loose quality (pixelate). But the images that can be created are truly amazing like the piece created by greg staples.

Sheffield Photos

I was really surprised today, I never anticipated how many interesting places there were in sheffield and I felt that I have gathered a lot of good imagery for my project. Water and nature keep catching my attention and also my imagination, I wonder what fantasy landscape I could build with all the images I have got ? It would be a perfect setting for a escapism theme. I need to sit and look at what I have got and start sketching out ideas of how this all could fit together and what message I want to send out to the viewer, I could take a photo of someone sitting down playing a game in there living room with this fantasy landscape bursting out of the screen.