That Damn Pen Tool

Well, this exercise was quite an experience. I had so much trouble on something that is so simple. At first I was thinking to myself that this would be super simple because I have used the pen tool in the past and remember it being not too difficult. However, I was wrong.

After going through all of the readings about the pen tool, I felt like I was ready. I went onto Photoshop and got a golfer and decided to outline him. So I did. It was very simple to get the outline down. But then this is where I got stuck. I was having difficulty getting my object that I outlined to fill in and have it look like a silhouette. I was freaking out and wanted to throw my computer across the room.

I watched a few videos and took a nap then came back to it. It was suddenly working for me and I was able to figure out how to make the silhouette. I took the golfer, Rory McIlroy, and went around him with the pen tool and was able to black him out.

Original Silhouette

New Silhouette

The other thing I decided to do was make myself famous without having to do anything! I took the cover of DJ Magazine, with Afrojack on the cover, and replaced his face with mine. I first used the pen tool to cut out Afrojack’s face, so that I could place mine in. I took an old picture of me and used the pen tool to cut out my face and paste it where Afrojacks was. Once I figured out how to use the pen tool again, these were quite easy to accomplish and will definitely come in handy for the future.

Original Magazine

New Magazine Cover

Basic Flash Clip

Adobe Flash is very fun to use. However, it is very hard work and takes a lot of patience. The reason I enjoy it so much is just because I really enjoy creating things. I am a music producer so creating beautiful work is what I do. However, this one is not so beautiful. I decided to name my video, Basic Basketball. It is just a guy dribbling and shooting a basketball into a hoop.

Basic Basketball

Flash animation is not too difficult. After watching the Lynda tutorial videos, I had a basic understanding of how to create a basic motion tween. A motion tween is what makes it possible for a shape to move around the page. I started with a motion tween for the basketball and had the guy dribble it up and down a few times, and then walk toward the basket. Once he gets close enough, he shoots the ball. By creating 2 different layers, I was able to make the guy and the ball move at the same time. I then changed the path of the basketball so that it would have more of an arc to it and look more like a shot. And at the end i had the ball bounce around a bit on the ground after he successfully made the shot.

Animation is actually very simple once you sit down and really understand it. I can now see how different shows and games that are animated work. There is a lot of very basic animation skills that can be used to create magnificent artwork and animations.

Wireframes

I decided to make a wireframe to a website for myself. I am a DJ and producer and wanted to find a way to connect with my fans better. This was what I needed. I made a simple entry page so you know that you are about to enter my page. Once inside, I went ahead and made the layout pretty simple. I added my logo to the top left side of my page

This is the Intro page for my site

so that it is one of the first things that the user sees when he enters my page. I used the first page as a description page. This tells the user more about myself and why I write music. For the third page, I decided to make it for my music. Here you can manuver through my music by sliding the album covers across. Once you find a song you like, you can listen to it by clicking the play button underneath.

Here is a more detailed write up behind the decisions I made.

Logo Badge

TO: Mr. Aaron Delwiche, Deaf Productions

FROM: Eric Redeker – DJ and Music Producer

DATE: May 12, 2015

SUBJECT: Artist Logo

I have finally finished my logo for my DJ name as requested by you and the rest of Deaf Production. As you know, my DJ/Producer name is ReddiOrNot and so I wanted to take my name and create a logo out of it. This took a long time because I really wanted to make something that portrayed myself as an artist. I used several different fonts to help really make my logo look unique so that it can be recognized. I was thinking of going the minimalistic way that David talks about in his book, Logo Design Love: A Guide to Creating Brand Identities, but I am a complex person, so I felt like my logo needed to be somewhat complicated.

When starting off, I did not know if I wanted to go more of a psychedelic and “hippie” look to it because of the type of music I am trying to produce, or if I wanted to make it look dark and haunting because that is something that is very appealing to me. I ended up going the psychedelic route because I was able to find some great colors for it. The first font that I used was from DaFont.com and it was called “Hippie Movement”. I really liked the look of this text because of the waviness of the letters and how they are slightly misshaped. Once I found my generic text, I wanted to find something to use for the O’s to make it look more interesting. I used a font called the Texticle Font. This was just a bunch of different shapes and so I chose one that was good enough to put it in the O of “Not”. I then wanted to show how a little symbol to show how I live my life. So I decided to add in a peace sign to the O of the “or” in my name.

ReddiOrNot DJ Logo

I wanted to make the color of my look really intense, but still not take away from everything else. Originally, I had the color contrast way too high and it was almost impossible to read my name or any of the little symbols that I made on it. I made the background a little thicker and pulled back the fierceness of the color and it looked a lot clearer. Although I have so many colors in it, it would still look okay in black and white. French discusses this a bit and says, “The color may be important, but the color isn’t the be-all and end-all because your logo is going to be photocopied, it’s going to be faxed, and it likely going to be printed on black and white printers and it needs to hold its own in black and white”. This is why I enjoy the font because it will be more applicable when you cannot see the color. It will be the same with the symbols that I used as well. There will be more attention drawn to them because of the color not being there.

I put a lot of hard work into my logo and went through a lot of trial and errors, but I really enjoy what I have created. I think that this logo really shows a little bit of who I am without having to explain anything. Please let me know what you think about the design.

Flash Animation

Flash animation is so much fun for me. It is very strenuous though. Lynda.com taught me a lot of the basic function that are needed to create a short video. I already had a little experience, so this helped me refresh my mind on some of the basic flash animations. I created a simple video using basic animations and basic shapes and called it, Rainy Days.

At first, I had no clue how I was going to be able to bring simple shapes to life. I figured out how to draw everything quite easily, but then I had to go into the act of making them move. When ever you create a shape, you need to save it as a symbol so that you can make add movements to it. Once it is a symbol, I needed to make it a tween. This makes it so that I can go down a few frames and then move the shape so that when I play the video, the shape will move to the spot I moved it to. It does not look too clean, but if you spend enough time on it, this can be the most useful tool on flash. I used these motions to make the sun rise, the clouds to cover the sun, and then the rain falling. I had all of the rain symbols repeat as they would finish their path so it looked like it was constantly raining without having to make hundreds of rain drops.

I also used a motion tween in this video for my light bulb. This makes it so that after a certain number of frames, you can make the shape completely change to something else. I made the light bulb look like it just appeared out of the guys head like an idea. This is a little more advanced skill, but it is till quite simple. I also threw in my own song from a very long time ago to give the video a little more life.

Rainy Days

Reddi For My Life Story

Playing golf for Trinity University

My Name is Eric Redeker and I am a Sophomore here at Trinity. I am originally from Katy, Texas where I lived there for around 11 years. I play on the golf team here and I absolutely love it. Golf is my life and everything about my life is golf.