duranten – duranten

Project 3; Pawns With Powers

duranten — Mon, 03 May 2021 16:57:18 +0000

For my pawn, I attempted to draw a figure in the 2D field which I expected to look like a flower, which would have flower powers- of course. However, once I spun the shape into a 3D model, it looked more like an atom bomb, or a water spout. While an atom bomb pawn would certainly have special abilities, I didn’t feel that this was creative, so I decided it would be a water spout pawn that would spray it’s contenders off the board. I tried many different water texture images, but for some reason they all turned my pawn into a different shade of blue rather than the pattern you would expect to see at the bottom of a pool. I said c’est la vie and moved onto the modeling. It took some playing around to find the right sculpting tools to get the effect I wanted. I used flatten on the thin part of the spout to create that sort of movement I would expect down there, and blobbing and clay on the “folds” of water at the top. The central “nub” of water at the top was still square though which looked odd. So I then used the snake hook feature to give it a nice little swirl. I played around with the lighting for a very long time, because the shape of the water fall looked more solitary depending on where the lights were, and I really wanted the water fall to look more alive and as you might see a decorative waterfall at night. There were six different light sources by the time I was happy with it. I like that my piece looks elegant and effective. Overall I am very pleased with my pawn, as I think it looks quite natural, I only wish that the texture worked out better.

I then decided I wanted to mess around with my pawn from Lab 6. At first, I wanted to cut a hole through the middle that would consume its opponents- but I couldn’t find a sculpting feature which could accomplish this. The closes I got was the blob on both sides, but blender didn’t understand that I wanted the blob to open up and make a hole on both sides. So then I thought it would be cool to put a scary face on the pawn that would scare it’s opponents. Weirdly enough the features which I expected to work to add more surface onto the pawn worked in the opposite manner, and I used the scrape tool to add a face shape onto the pawn. I then used blob to make a hole for the mouth, and the elastic deform and grab tool to create eyes and a nose. I played around with the lights for a while until I had it where it looked scariest. The face is not as realistic as I would like it to be, but for just messing around I am pleased.

Personal Brand; Project 2

duranten — Fri, 16 Apr 2021 16:20:01 +0000

Creating the personal brand came in perfect timing for me, as I was just starting to create my social media for my new Etsy shop! I had already sketched out ideas of what I wanted, so after that it was a matter of creating the image in Figma. The gradient I used in the tear drop shape I felt made a encapsulating and mysterious look. In addition, the white border represents white light energy as a flame (something very powerful in my spirituality). I also like that the tear shape is similar to the triangle, one of the most powerful shapes in several religions which recognize a trinity of powers (buddhism, daoism, and christianity) which are each interpreted a little differently but basically encapsulate the same things which are the rock for the rest of the religion to ride off of. It was harder than expected to make the MCS letters conform smoothly into the tear drop shape. At first they were jagged and not smooth. I then learned how to create and use curvature in Figma. After that it was certainly easier to make the letters look more fitted. I had to group the images together to make sure they weren’t distorted when I changed the size onto a business card. I like the way that I incorporated my name and information onto the card, as it looks nice with an hourglass shape next to the teardrop. I thought of making the background a color other than white, but if I were to print this I believe that would make it more expensive, and I like how the text looks and is easy to read on white. I think the font I used has a professional and reliable vibe, which is what I am going for. I am pleased with my final product, and now it is the face of my company!

Web Design; Lab 5

duranten — Fri, 16 Apr 2021 15:59:57 +0000

I found this project to be a lot of fun! Luckily I already knew basic code from working on Textbroker.com. That made it really easy to understand what I was looking at. The most difficult thing to figure out was definitely the logo. It took a lot of messing around to make the logo not only appear, but appear in the right size. The first time I got the logo to appear, it was as big as the resume itself. I then had to go into Figma and change the pixel dimensions, create a new file, and use that in brackets. I realized that I had to drag the file into brackets under the hdml and style sections. Once I finally got the logo in there, I realized I wanted to make a completely new logo since I felt it was random that Mystic Colors Studio’s logo would be on my resume. Maybe it’s not that random, but I also like the color green since I feel that it correlates to my major and professional experience, and I didn’t like how my original logo looked on the green I chose. So then after I created the new logo, and I had already figured out all the mistakes I made from putting the logo into the resume previously, it was much quicker. After that, I edited all the specific words and experience, added some lines and deleted some. I am very happy with the final product, and I think it would be very cool to use this format as my resume in the future to kind of show off to whatever job I am applying to. The only thing I wasn’t sure of, is that I changed the copyright name in the bottom of the resume. It had previously said Benjaman Dunkle, and I changed it to my name. I wasn’t sure if the copyright was just for fun, or if the copyright was on the original layout, or if I was allowed to change the copyright since I changed the product.

Birthday Card Creation

duranten — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 20:21:30 +0000

From this project I learned that GIMP can be a little finicky! I also learned that if I want to use certain images for professional products, then I would have to buy the rights to use those images. For example, my background on the front of the card is watermarked. In addition, by holding down the shift key while scaling an image, I can maintain the original dimensions so I don’t distort the image. Adding a drop shadow allows a 2D image to have more dimension. I can use free websites to download new fonts, which is very exciting! The easiest part of this project was to use my creative juices. The card probably doesn’t make a lot of sense if you are not the person I made this card for though, and so maybe that is something I need to reconsider. I could also work on making the theme a little more concise, because the content seems kind of random if you are not either in my head or Paul. At the same rate, it was also difficult to fill up the entire card. I could have chosen just regular birthday theme photos as well and added the characters around those things. The most difficult thing was changing where the centerline of the card was for the final print, since it was not exactly in the center the first time I did a print and mock up. I had a lot of difficulty figuring out all the different things I had to click in order to perform a task in GIMP, but I am glad I was able to learn from those moments. I think my submissions could be improved if I was able to find another background image for the inside before adding all the images and words I wanted in the foreground. That being said I am actually really pleased with the final product and how nice it looks, and I am excited to give this to my cousin! Having cardstock available in the labs would be nice, but I was able to make it work gluing two pages together. I will be using what I learned through typing and layers lessons to create cards for birthday and invitations, I have always liked painting or drawing cards but I think it will be fun to mix in some of these as well. I will definitely be using this to make a Mother’s Day card since that is coming up soon. The very first lab we did, working with layers, inspired me to check out more of the filter options and settings.

Creating Abstract Imagery

duranten — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 18:08:22 +0000

Abstract1

I chose the noise filter setting RGB, and amped each color and alpha up to 100%. I then unchecked the box for linear RGB. Once pleased with the amount of noise I proceeded with the rest of the steps. I chose the pixels in this portion because I liked the colors grouped there. They remind me of cotton candy and unicorns and other magical things! This image could be used in screen backgrounds of course, as it could brighten any situation and perhaps influence the viewer to feel more creative and inspired. Maybe this could also be the background in a fishtank, although I am not sure if this might stress out any particular species. I would love this printed on a mug for my morning coffee, or have this made into fabric for a stuffed animal.

Abstract2

This image was created from a picture of a Jacaranda tree. They are one of my favorite plants, splashing thick tropical green forests with the most vibrant purple you may have ever seen. I also just got some flowers tattooed on, so perhaps I am a little extra in love with the plant as of late. It served as the perfect image to perform this lab with though! I selected a bunch of flowers with deep purple shade and bright purple light on it. I then zoomed in more and more until I found the most wonderfully dramatic layout of hues. The resulting image evokes feelings of deep thought. Perhaps this could be used on a bookmark, or a shower curtain.

Hello world!

duranten — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 21:11:59 +0000

Welcome to DMA Blogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!