DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND IMAGING - FINAL PROJECT

22/10/19 - 26/10/19

(Week 9 - Week 14)

See Zi Yi (0340094)

Digital Photography and Imaging Final Project

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INSTRUCTION.

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Week 9 (22/10/19): Idea Proposal 

Progress.

For our final project, we are required to create a futuristic city from scratch which can be either a utopia or a dystopia. A sketch and a short description describing our city should be shown to the lecturers for approval before we start on it. 

This time, I intend to create a utopia but I wasn't sure of how would I want it to look like, hence I searched up the Internet and various social platforms like Pinterest and Google Images for inspirations. Based on my research, I found that there are a few categories of utopia/dystopia, such as ecological, economic, political, spiritual, science and technology utopia/dystopia.

This is the link I referred to https://veronicasicoe.com/2013/04/15/utopia-and-dystopia-the-many-faces-of-the-future/

Here are some of the inspirations I found on the Internet.

Fig. 1.0 Inspiration #1

Fig. 1.1 Inspiration #2

I settled on the ecological utopia because I like nature and think that the future would look amazing with nature. Below is the sketch I first developed.

Fig. 1.2 Sketch

Feedback.

Mr Martin approved my idea and it's nice that my sketched utopia has a depth in the composition.

Week 10 (29/10/19): Image researching

Progress.

Due to poor time management, I didn't work on it before coming to class hence I only started working on it today. Little did I know, I actually spent the entire class to search for the background image and elements for my project. Here is the mood board I created in class with some of the elements I found.

Fig. 1.3 Mood board #1

Feedback.

Mr Jeffrey said image searching is indeed a very time-consuming process and it's something every designer has to go through.

Week 11 (05/11/19): Composition planning

Progress.

In this class, I finally had an idea of how I want my composition to be. The waterfall felt a bit off, so I removed it from my composition. This time, the initial idea was modified, and I decided to make a nature-related floating city, with other elements I found on the Internet.

Instead of using a background image with has both the sky and land, I decided to use a sky image and another mountain image.

Fig. 1.4 Background

I experimented with several mountain images to see which suits my composition the best.

Fig. 1.5 Layers for mountain images

Fig. 1.6 Final background and foreground

I also developed another mood board with the new elements which will be included in my utopia.

Fig. 1.7 Mood board #2

Then, I started to form my floating city on another file, one at a time, by combining each building with a floating board (second from the left) and masking off unwanted parts. Since the floating board's perspective is close to a worm's eye angle, I had to make sure that the buildings are having the same perspective as well. Hence, I searched up on YouTube to find out how can I change the perspective of an image on Adobe Photoshop.

Here is the link I referred to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPMEWHKVffc

Below are the steps taken to change the perspective of an image:
1. Convert object to a smart object
2. Edit > Perspective wrap
3. Attach pins to edges of the object
4. Change the mode from "Layout" to "Wrap"
5. Begin adjusting the perspective by moving the edges

Fig. 1.8 Step 3: attach pins to edges of the object

Fig. 1.9. Step 5: changing the perspective by moving the edges

Fig. 1.10. Step 6: add on the floating board

Colour matching is also applied on buildings which do not match the background image.

Fig. 1.11 Before colour matching

Fig. 1.12 After colour matching

Fig. 1.13 Another floating building with its perspective adjusted

Upon completion of combing the buildings with their respective floating board, I moved several floating buildings to the main file. However, I noticed that this part of the globe-liked floating building's floating board doesn't look right because it's supposed to look darker in colour when there's a building positioning in front of it. So I duplicated this part, adjusting its blending mode, and layered on top of the original floating board.

Fig. 1.14 Step 1: Duplicate the part

Fig. 1.15 Step 2: Changing of blending mode from "Normal" to "Multiply"

Fig. 1.6 Step 3: Layering on top of the original floating board

Feedback.

No feedback is received this week.

Week 12 (12/11/19): Composition planning

Progress.

This week, I proceed to place all of the floating buildings on the background. However, I figured Fig. 1.10, Fig. 1.12 and Fig. 1.13 showed too much similarity so I didn't include two of them in my composition.

Fig. 1.17 Placing of elements

Besides, clouds and sunray PNGs are added to the composition as well, to give a better setting to the composition. Below is the work I completed in class.

Fig. 1.18 First attempt

Feedback.

Mr Jeffrey commented that:

1. My work looks surreal and he kind of like it. 

2. It's nice that I have a foreground and background as well. 

3. To make it look more like a city, he suggested that I can add more tiny cities to the back of the ones I have right now. 

4. The hierarchy of the floating cities should be adjusted too.

5. It's a 7-8/10.

A friend of mine said my work reminds her of the movie Tomorrowland.

Progress.

Upon receiving feedback, I worked on my still image again, by adding more small and distance buildings, as well as additional clouds, to my composition. Floating buildings are re-positioned too.

Fig. 1.19 Second attempt

Feedback.

Mr Jeffrey commented that:

1. The composition is now too cluttered.

2. I should find a balance in the composition.

3. The first attempt is okay, and the additional buildings just need to be smaller and positioned further.

Fig. 1.20 Third attempt

Feedback.

Mr Jeffrey commented that:

1. The second building from the second row to the rest of the buildings until the end should be resized.

After a few rounds of amendments, below is my final outcome of final project still image.

Fig. 1.21 Final outcome of final project still image

Week 13 (19/11/19): Animation

As for my animation, my initial plan was to animate the floating buildings and clouds and emphasize the movement of the first building, the globe-liked building, by separating the buildings into 3 different parts. To start with, I went back to Adobe Photoshop to separate the layers and exported them as PNG files to be imported to Adobe After Effects.

Fig. 1.22 Work in progress to separate the layers

At first, the duration of my animation was set to 5 seconds and the buildings only moved up and down once. This resulted in very subtle movements thus couldn't be noticed easily by the viewers. Hence, I lengthen the duration from 5 seconds to 10 seconds.

Fig. 1.23 Extending the duration

After importing the files and animating my desired layers, I came up with the first attempt of my animation as seen below.

Feedback.

Mr Jeffrey commented that:

1. The movement of the first building looks unnatural.

2. Not separating the parts would look better.

Hence, I amended the animation by not making the globe to rotate and to stick with the upper part of the floating board. However, I decided to make the lower part of the floating board to remain separated from the upper part to make it seems more interesting, also to differentiate it from the rest of the floating buildings. Below is my second attempt.

Feedback.

Mr Jeffrey commented that:

1. The movement of the first building looks okay.

2. Secondary animation can be added.

Taking Mr Jeffrey's advice, I paid closer attention to my still image to search for things to animate and I thought of animating the sunray positioned on the upper left of the image. Below is my third attempt.

However, I still thought I could animate more hence I went to check out the Google Classroom of this module, to see if I can find some inspirations there. I found out a tutorial of making a day-to-night transition which I thought maybe I could try it out. But for my animation, a night-to-day would look more suitable because I would like to create a mysterious start with a starry background, and slowly revealing my utopia with all the floating clearly seen, and a ray of sunlight entering the image as the ending. I referred to the video below on how to create blinking stars on Adobe After Effects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuLMBZXFUZ8

Below is my fourth attempt.

Feedback.

Mr Martin commented that:

1. The movement of the floating buildings are not suitable and should only be applied in motion graphics. 

2. The buildings should not freeze at any point, but should still have subtle movements going on.

With the feedback received, I came up with my fifth and final attempt at animating. Below is the outcome.

Description:

Despite mother nature is facing severe destructions from mankind, I truly believe with the rise of voices of the climate activists, our awareness to preserve the nature will gradually increase, thus start taking actions to save the nature. Hence, I envision the future to be an ecological utopia. Ecological utopia depicts a way of life where humans are close to nature, respects and protects it which achieves harmony in living. Besides, science and technology will also be incorporated into my ecological utopia due to technology advancement, where buildings and houses can be seen floating above the sky. A tubular glasshouse, for example, combines the capabilities of modern industrial design and the natural wealth and beauty all in one. With the help of technology, I believe the future can be friends with nature. And we will get there, a step by a time.