For this project, I decided to just create the map of my hometown, Cheektowaga. I went for a blue and orange/red color scheme for the map, as they are complementary and some of my favorite colors. Even though Cheektowaga does not have too many exciting places, I made sure to mark the highlights of the town, including the Walden Galleria mall, the Buffalo Airport, Cheektowaga Town Park and one of my favorite places to go for a walk when the weather is nice, Stiglmeier Park.

After receiving critique, I have not changed much. I moved the labels for some of the areas off the colored areas and onto the background so they are easier to see. I also slightly increased the font size for easier reading. I removed the bottom rectangle and moved the legend, compass rose and scale. This was done to make the map seem more together and that these three parts almost exist on the actual map. I did enjoy the rectangle before, but I do see the appeal of it not being there as well. Overall, I think this was a very fun project. It was a lot more open ended and taught me a lot about how layers interact with each other. I think my favorite part was the town banner. There was a lot of cool options for it and the making of the ends of the banner was creative. It is very neat how changing the colors of pieces of the banner can make it look like it is 3D.

This is my product package. When I think of milk, creamer and dairy products, I usually think of more pastel colors. For the background pattern, I made a combination of more pastel colors that reminded me of these product colors. The cream color, the blue colors and the orange color were appropriate for this. I also added a green to the background pattern as this product is an apple pie spice creamer. I chose a simple coffee cup to the front and make it the same color as the logo, a light blue. I chose light blue as I usually think of the light blue that some milk containers are to signify that they are skim milk.

After the critique period, the first thing I did was reduce the opacity of the background. This made the colors a little less vibrant and achieved the pastel look I wanted to achieve. I made the calorie circles have a white background to contrast them from the pattern in the background. Finally, I updated the “Our Story” section with a short story from the Elmhurst website about how they started. I made all the font to be a similar script font to match the logo of the company. I added a lower opacity white box behind the Our Story to make it easier to read.

For Project 2, I decided to take the photos that I made and edited in Project 1 to create a Facebook page for if my character, Fulgur, decided to become a DM like myself. This could also be a suitable composite image for my own profile as a DM of D&D since he is my favorite character that I have made. I learned how to use various tools in Photoshop to make a composite image including masking, layers and layer options and effects. I used these tools to create an engaging and layered image.

Honestly, I didn’t find this project too hard or too easy. Discovering all the different options for masks and layer properties was fun to experiment with. I even learned how to change the pattern I used in the background. Masking the various pieces of the composite image was a bit tedious, especially with the number of details there are on Fulgur (the dragon). Overall, this was a fun project to work on and experiment with and explore Photoshop in.

I believe I did a fantastic job with this project. If I were to improve anything, I could have tried to do something with the small empty space to the left of Fulgur. However, I thought with the silhouette of the dragon statue on the left that adding else would make the left side too crowded. I believe the image is well balanced enough that the small empty space is fine to be there.

I believe the assignment is good as is. It allows a lot of creativity and experimentation, which I enjoyed. I believe one of the best ways to learn the workings of the program is to just let students find out themselves and explore what they can truly do once presented with the basic tools.

I started playing TTRPGs a few years ago with a group of people from the Fusion gaming club at Canisius. I did have a good time with it in the moment. However, I learned that some of the people who introduced me to the games were not the best of people. After that, I didn’t think I was going to play much anymore. The games had associated themselves with these people and a bunch of my friends and I stopped playing them.

I still wanted to play the TTRPGs, but no one else really wanted to. So I made the decision to take it into my own hands. I wanted to dissociate it from the people from before and make it fun again. I bought myself the Starter Set for Dungeons and Dragons and rallied a group of friends to play. We loved it. They thought I was a good DM, and I loved doing it.

I’m now currently writing and DMing a campaign with the same friends that I have made myself. TTRPGs have quickly become one of my favorite hobbies that I cannot wait to play with my friends every week.

I learned how to use Photoshop and InDesign to touch up, color-correct and resize photos and scans and organize them into a document. The project was not that hard, only tedious. I did enjoy doing the levels and curves on the pictures, especially for the Fulgur drawings. They look so much better and brighter than the scans of them were by themselves. I think I did the best that I could with the assignment. I did improve it from its original by changing the picture of the dicebox. I think it can be improved by making the amount of pictures smaller, but forcing the theme to be more strict. Some people’s projects might have way too far of a spread to have a “theme”. I think a smaller set of pictures with a more strict theme requirement would be. Overall, I did enjoy the project. I was happy to show off my love for TTRPGs and my characters, specifically Fulgur.