Stop Motion Animation-Participation

Recently, we had to make a stop motion motion animation, but we also got a word, which my groups was 'Participation'. In ours, we chose four different celebrities, the put them together in a gym class. Basically what happens is that one of them does not want to participate in the current activity, which was basketball, so the other three try getting them to actually play, until eventually they do. 

This was a bit difficult at first, since me and my group had NO idea how to make a stop-motion animation with 'participation', but soon it became slightly easier, and we got it done. Here is the video above, and i hope you enjoy it :)

Photoshop practice- taking something from one picture and pasting it to a new background

So in class, we were shown a tutorial of how to do some things in photoshop, this involved selecting something, like a person, from another picture, removing their background, and pasting them on a whole new background, and do a few things until it looks like it fits in, or blends with the pic. in this case, I took a picture of a cosplayer, and a nice sparkly background, the my steps. 

Firstly, I obviously saved the pictures and opened them in photoshop, I took the cosplayer, and dragged the image onto the sparkly one. I then used the quick selection tool, and took like, 20 minutes selecting around her so I could actually get everything. When I was satisfied with the selection, I used refine edge, and selected it so it looked like what it would without the background, and took away any remaining parts from the original background, then clicked okay. And the cosplayer was only on the sparkly background. 

Then, I adjusted things such as exposure, brightness and contrast, before selecting the cosplayer through a mask, deleted the lock on the background layer (which was the sparkly-ness) and made a new layer with it via copy, so part of the background was in the shape of the cosplayer. I moved the layer up over the person, set the layer to color, and adjusted it until I was happy. I also put some white over her, just to brighten her up manually a bit more.

Neither pictures belong to me, the cosplay picture was found here, and all rights go to her; http://dantelian.deviantart.com/art/Levi-cosplay-409034284

And the sparkly picture:  http://mysticaltemptress.deviantart.com/art/Sparkly-Background-153695208

The Musketeer

Title:The Musketeer

Artist: Henri Matisse (1869-1954)

Date:1903

Medium:Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 31 3/4 x 23 1/2"

What I really like about this piece is the colors the artist used. They are relatively dark, but despite the dark colors, you still get a feeling of power, and slight happiness, mostly from the 'musketeer' in the image. But other than that, everything is okay, it was just the colors pretty much though. 

Emergency Room

Title:Emergency Room

Artist: Robert Colescott

Date:1989

Medium: Synthetic Polymer paint on canvas

Dimensions: 299 x 289.8 cm


Like "Fire", "Emergency Room" is a fairly busy picture, but it is still very interesting nonetheless, so its not overwhelming in any way. Its realistic in terms to the subject of the painting, but its surreal in a way, which is why I like it. 

Fire

Title:Fire

Artist: David Wojnarowicz 

Date: 1989

Medium: Synthetic polymer paint and paste on plywood, two panels 

Dimensions: 6 x 8'

This painting quickly sparked my interest. It seems a bit random, yet cool at the same time. My favourite part of the image is actually the top left corner. With what looks like a person, a volcano, a snake, all surrounded by...I think newspaper or buildings, that I'm not to sure of. Another thing is that this painting is very busy, yet still interesting, so it makes you want to look at almost every small detail throughout the entire picture. 

Manny-Creepy stop motion animation

Manny is a creepy stop motion animation created by Adam Rosenberg, which involves a...'beautiful' mannequin head, and a few other things. I know its a bit bloody and whatnot,but I found it very interesting to watch. it basically involves some tampering with the mannequins face and head, and it gradually gets stranger throughout the video. Its similar to another stop motion by David Firth, called crooked rot, which is as well involves mannequin heads like in this video, tampering with the face and whatnot.

Just  a warning though, the video does involve some blood/gore, and is a bit creepy, so if you're not comfortable with things like that, then I suggest not watching it. Though if you don't, go right ahead! :D

Some people might be thinking why I'd even watch a thing like this and think it was actually interesting since its so bloody. But thats not why I think its interesting. I think its interesting

Gulp-stop motion animation

Gulp is the largest stop motion animation video in the world. To not spoil anything, its just pretty big. Another thing is, there isn't any professional photography or cameras, nor was there stop motion animation programs used while taking these pictures; they were all taken on Nokia phones, which is pretty impressive. What I learned from this is that not all stop motion animation is small, made out of clay, or anything like that, stop motion animation can be any size, made with anything and almost everything. Out of the two we had to watch, Gulp was most interesting and awesome to me. I really recommend you watch it! :D