Ostroff Final

Surrealism

   This is my surrealism project. The strongest technical aspect of my project is the eye. This is the strongest aspect because it's what pulls together the work and makes it surreal. The weakest aspect of my work is in the eye. In the eye I have my mountain earth I made and an astronaut floating in it, but I could've added something more into the background along with it. The easiest part of this project was making the mountain earth in the center. I did this by taking a 360° panorama of a mountain, then made a new document to make the image square, and then flipped it, and finally used the polar coordinates filter to make it appear as an earth. The hardest part of this activity was thinking of what to make. I tried multiple ideas which all failed miserably and it took a while before I found what I wanted to do that worked. I demonstrated the objective by making a surrealism styled work by taking normal everyday things and making them in a dream like state. If I could do this again I would change everything completely and go with a different idea.

Platypard - Animal Mix Project

     This is my mixed animal project. I mixed a Leopard with a Platypus to make a Platypard. The strongest aspect of my project is the opacity on the leopard spots. This is the strongest part because I lowered the opacity enough to make the spots still visible while also letting the original Platypus fur texture to show through. The weakest aspect of my project is the leopard spots by the neck. This is the weakest because for some reason it looks different there than anywhere else.
     The easiest part of this project was making the clone stamp areas. To do that I selected the clone stamp, went on the leopard layer, and then held option and clicked on the spot of leopard I wanted to make the clone stamp area. The hardest part of this project was putting the spots down. This was hard because I kept having to restart putting them down to get it correct.
     I demonstrated the objective in the project by using the clone stamp tool to combine 1 animal with another, in this case a leopard with a platypus. If I could do this project again I would pick 2 different animals, or an animal and a food, or plant.

Tattoo Project

     This is my tattoo. The strongest aspect of my tattoo is the curvature in the top text to make it appear as if it is wrapping around the arm. This is my strongest aspect because it makes the photo more believable that it is a tattoo because in reality a tattoo of that size would start to wrap around. The weakest aspect is the star on the arm. The star itself is good, but when it was put on the arm and made to look like a tattoo it thinned out the outlines and made it appear as if it was fading so I could not properly match the skin tone completely while also making the tattoo completely visible.
     The easiest part of the project was designing the tattoo. This was easy because I've been planning for a few years to get a tattoo myself of a very similar nature so thinking of and making the design took very little time seeing as I had already essentially made it in my head. The weakest part of my tattoo is the star when on the body. This is the weakest part because of the reasons I mentioned before, essentially to make it match completely it would ruin some of the tattoo outline, and to make the tattoo completely visible I had to make it slightly off of the skin tone.
    I demonstrated the objective in this project by designing a tattoo in photoshop, tracing and drawing on a piece of paper, taking a picture of the trace, and then making it into a tattoo. If I could do this project again I would make a tattoo of a similar nature but darken up all of the lines in the original drawing to make it easier to match to the skin tone without compromising the tattoo itself.


  If you're are wondering what it says in Hebrew, the big text is my last name, and the text inside are the names of my family members.

"Commie Crunch" - Cereal Box Project

     This is my cereal box for "Commie Crunch." The strongest aspect of my work is my front cover. This is the stingiest aspect because the text fills a decent space with good negative spacing, and the bottom is filled with a cereal bowl with custom made cereal and the cereal's mascot. The weakest part of my work is the back of the box. I think this is the weakest because I couldn't think of what to put in the bottom left of it so I put something somewhat boring and plain.
     The easiest part of this project was making the logo. I made the logo by going online and getting a USSR font, then typed the name and warped it to how I wanted. I then took a USSR hammer and sickle and put it above the "O" in commie as an added touch. The hardest part of this project was making the cereal. To make it I took the USSR hammer and sickle and put a cheerio as texture inside of it. The reason I think it was hard is because it didn't come out very well due to the fact it was difficult to find a cereal piece big enough to somewhat proportionally fit into the hammer and sickle.
     I demonstrated the objective in the project by making an original cereal box with all the requirements (cover, nutrition facts, ingredients, etc) as well as following the dimensions so after it was done it could be printed and folded and glued into a small cereal box. If I could do this activity again I would do relatively the same thing but make a different cereal called "ConservitO's" which would be the same theme as "Commie Crunch" but with a republican theme.

No Work - Painting Project

 

     I would say something along the lines of "this is my work" but sadly, my work was deleted tragically so here's a picture of a puppy. Anyways, here goes me trying to write this reflection with no work. 

     The strongest aspect of my work was the blending brush. This is my strongest aspect because I used the brush in certain areas, such as on the big duck to make it look more 3 dimensional and life like. An aspect that could've been improved on was the smaller background areas. This could've been improved by using smaller detail brushes rather than filling big areas and trying to detail afterwards.
     The easiest part of the project for me was using the mixer brush to make things look more realistic. This was easy because after all the painting with the regular brush was done, I just went in the the mixer brush and "repainted" over what I had just done. The most difficult part of this project was painting the small background buildings. This was difficult because there were so many buildings in the background, and they were also fairly small and hard to paint in.
     I demonstrated the objective in this project by using the brush, different size brushes, different brush styles, using the mixer brush, and painting on multiple layers. If I could do this again I would do 2 things differently. The first thing I'd do differently is pick a different picture with an easier background to paint. The second thing I'd do is rename the file so a special someone doesn't replace and elite my work with theirs.

Polaroid Project - Dog

     This is my polaroid project entitled "Dog." The strongest aspect of my work is the placement of the polaroids. This is the strongest because it covers enough of my dog that you can still clearly tell it is a dog, but it looks as if its many polaroids spread out. An aspect of my work that could be improved is the parts that come out of the polaroids. I could improve this by getting another picture of my dog that has easier parts to make come out of the polaroids.
     The easiest part of this activity was choosing the background. This was easy because I looked up hardwood floor and filled the background. The hardest part of this project was keep tracking of the almost 55 different layers of polaroids and the images within them making it hard to find specific parts of the work to edit.
   I demonstrated the objective of this activity by having more than 10 polaroids down and having at least 1 pop out on the polaroids. If I could do this again I would do the same thing but with a different picture that would allow me to have more pop outs.

TED 2 - DVD Cover

     This is my school appropriate rendition of the Ted 2 DVD cover. The strongest aspect of my cover is the middle bar, this is the strongest because it is the most accurate to the original case. The weakest part of my work is the fact that I couldn't include much from the actual movie due to the fact that is has a lot of illegal/non-school appropriate paraphernalia. The easiest part of this activity was the text I made for the title. The hardest part was finding pictures to represent the real movie. I demonstrated the objective by making a DVD cover based on a movie in the correct dimensions. If I could do this again I would pick a movie that's more school appropriate.

Picture in Text - Great Wall

    This is my work entitled "Great Wall." The strongest aspect of my work is by far my "path." This is the strongest aspect because it follows and path and is shaded with the shadows perfectly  The weakest aspect of my work is my trees. This is the weakest aspect because they are dark and with the background somewhat hard to see.
     The easiest part of this project was making the text itself and getting ready to have the picture placed within it. This was easy because you only had to type the text, rasterize, and transform it to make it fit with the picture. The hardest part of the project was transforming the text to fit perfectly. This was hard because some of the text was hard to get perfectly shaped.
    I demonstrated the objective by putting the background photo into the text and recreating the photo with text. If I could do this again I would choose a different background photo. I would do this because the one I chose was very hard to get the text lined up perfectly for the photo to go into the text.

Jacob Ostroff - Identity

     The strongest technical aspect of my work is the cut-outs i made on the 4 athletes. This is my strongest aspect because I cut out all of the background only leaving the players perfectly cut out to be used without covering the background due to their own backgrounds. An aspect I could improve upon is my spacing on the league logos. This could be improved upon because they're all very different in shapes and sizes so I could've resized and worked them around to be more even looking.
     The easiest part of this activity was the background and the text. This was easy because the background required me to just drag and drop it in and the text just required me to type "Boston MA" and then color the 4 colors of the Boston sports teams. The most difficult part of this project was cutting out the backgrounds of the players. This was hard because it was difficult once there was barely any background left because it was very easy to cut out part of the player and have to redo the cutting.
     I demonstrated the objective in this activity by cutting out the backgrounds of the players, using the new tools we learned, and I used things such as opacity from the first project. If I could do this project again I would change how everything is spaced out to make it look less cluttered and clean.

Graphic Design - Text Art "MLK"

     This is my work entailed "MLK" made with text in Photoshop. The strongest aspect of my work is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as the focal point. This is the strongest aspect because it provides a focal point for the work and covers many of the requirements. Something that could be improved is the gradient in the middle, after looking at it for so long it started to look slightly off, I could change this by making a new gradient.
     The easiest part of this activity was the 2 arches I made. I made the first one using the warp text tool then duplicated the layer, flipped it, and moved it down to reflect the top one. The hardest part of this project was had to of been making MLK in the middle. This was difficult because I was not very familiar with using masks but I used a mask to mask the image over the J's and it took me awhile to figure out.
     I demonstrated the requirements in these ways: The arches for warp, flipped, and gradient text and MLK demonstrated opacity and size. If I could do this differently I would've made a different person in the center.