How I did my Stop-Motion Animation

To capture my animation I could've used a video camera and record it straight onto the PC, but i prefered to use my SLR to take the images and then join them together into a sequence.


Once I had taken all of my still images I put them into Adobe Premiere and combined them to make a video. I then edited the length of the clip to either slow down or speed up my animation.
In my case the speed I needed was about 1000%.

in preparation for my animation i have looked at more examples of stop motion.

Here is an example of a stop motion animation by Monty Python


Other examples I found are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG5gO4nlLRQ&feature=fvst
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfCUxeQ2VSE&NR=1

Hockney-Style Photomontage

I then had a go at making my own Hockney style photomontage.
I had a practice just using the school building for my images. This is the result:

After completing this I realised that it looks too realistic to what I wanted to achieve. Also, it didn't fit my choosen theme of moods from urban landscapes.

Also, I think my pictures fit together too well so for my next effort I will adjust angles, sizes and places of each image. When its finished it still needs to look like pictures stuck together rather than a normal image.

I put all my sections of photos together and rotated some of them and changed the sizes to make them look less natural and give a similar effect to Hockney's work.
After I had all the pictures in position I adjusted the Hue/Saturation and added a cooling photo filter.

Once I was happy with my work I saved it as a JPEG. I am very pleased with the result.

Photomontage

To make my photomontage i used two pictures that I have taken recently. One was of the town centre and one was at the skate park.

I used the picture of the town centre and added in all my other images onto it. Then, i took my other background image and put it over the top and selected an opacity of around 20%.

I liked the way that the sunset came through but it wasn't bright enough. So before I finished I selected the sky of my 2nd background at 20% and adjusted the saturation to more saturated. I then added all the layers back on and was pleased with the result.

Photomontage - Further Research and Plan

For my own photomontage, I want to incorporate an urban landscape. I have found some examples that are similar to what I want to produce.

These examples are particularly interesting as they add different moods to the landscape. The firtst one has a depressing and rather mystical feel to it, whereas the second image adds a feel of happiness to the city. We normally associate cities with work, business and many people, but this photomontage makes the city seem playful and exciting.

For my photomontage, I'm going to take some images of urban areas in surrounding areas and choose the best one or select the best parts from them and collaborate them into one. I'm then going to take photographs of everyday objects, both personal and social, to get a feel for the sort of lifestyle a person like me lives.

Examples of Stop Motion Animation

Here are two examples of Stop Motion Animation:

Stop Motion Animation

Stop motion animation uses photographs of still objects combined together in a sequence to make an animation of the object moving.
The photographs have subtle differences between them and when put together make a video-like .gif image or in fact video.
Here is an example:

Click Here

Photomontage 2

Photomontages are made from cropping and joining many different together and composing them as one.
Another photographer that uses photomontages is Radcliffe Bailey.
A lot of Bailey's work involves vintage sepia tones of African Americans from the past. He uses mixed media and uses bright colours to make his work have a human dimension to them.

















This photomontage shows a young man in the middle with many different shapes, colours and pictures around him. To me, these add personality to the picture which an ordinary photograph wouldn't do. It makes the person seem lively, creative and alive.

Photomontage

Photomontages are made from cropping and joining many different together and composing them as one.
One photographer that specializes in photomontages is Yutaka Inagawa.












Yutaka Inagawa creates digital photomontages. He blends delicate with grotesque and creates really abstract images.
this image is of a strange landscape with many odd items in it. He is renowned for using organic looking images and regularly uses items such as machines, animals, road signs, leaves, weapons and furniture.

Image Composition

This is an image that I composed from 2 images. Using a tutorial I picked up several tips to make the image look more realistic. I learned to use the 'Feather' tool so it blends the outline of the object blend more.

I also found out that you can add and deduct from a selection when using the selection tool. This is good when selecting small corners that the lasoo tool cannot.

I also found out that a good way of blurring an image is to select part of the fore/back ground instead of the hole image. Then blur the hole image so different sections are blurred different amounts.

I then tried putting these skills into 2 images of my own:

Changing Moods

I first got my original image: one I took in Grosvenor Park a few days ago.
To begin with, I cropped out the fence at the bottom as this was unnecessary.
I then added a warming filter of 44% intensity.
















I also change Hue/Saturation/Lightness to +6, +59 and -6.
















This is my resulting image.

More Filters

I wanted to experiment further with filters. So I took a picture I have recently taken.
I used the stamp filter and adjusted the levels to make the image look the best it could.
This is my original image:

This is by far my favourite edit so far. I am really pleased with the results and filter can make a good image even better.

More Filters

This is my original image that I want to add a filter to:














I changed the Brightness to -15 and the contrast to +73.
Then, I used the Invert filter.

For this image I used the Chalk and Charcoal Filter. I then adjusted the settings to:

Charcoal Area: 9 Chalk Area: 9 Stroke Pressure: 1

I used the Dark Strokes filter for this image. I adjusted Balance to 5, Black Intensity to 2 and White Intensity to 4.

Filters

Warming 60%












cooling 34%













Red 65%












Green 50%













Violet 40%

David LaChapelle

David LaChapelle is a photographer and director who works in fashion, advertising and art. He was born on the 11th March 1963 and is 46 years old. He attended the North Carolina School of Arts and the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Andy Warhol gave LaChapelle his first professional photography career after meeting in Studio 54.

LaChapelle is renowned for producing vivid ans surreal images of celebrities. He has also directed television adverts for Tommy Hilfiger, Nokia, L'Oreal, Diesel and Burger King.

Some of his most famous photographs contain celebrities such as: Marilyn Manson, David Beckham, Bjork, Mariah Carey, Madonna and many more.

Chapelle's work has been described as: "surrealist, grotesque, shocking and ironic."
Here are some examples:

Digitally Improving one of my own photos

Firstly I took an image that I've taken recently.
I selected the tyres and adjusted the Hue/Saturation and made them pink.

















I then cropped the image to cut out un-necessary background.
I then added a cooling photo filter to make the colour more cooling.

Hue, Saturation and Colourise

Hue, saturation, and brightness are aspects of color in the red, green, and blue scheme. These terms are most often used in reference to the color of each pixel.


















I used the magnet lasso tool to select the breast and front legs of this picture of a rabbit.
I then used the Hue/Saturation tool and ticked the Colourize box.

Using Levels

I selected an image I wanted to adjust the levels on.
I used the magnet lasso tool to select the sky.
I then adjusted the levels so the sky was more blue.

A histogram is a graph that allows you to judge the brightness of an image. A correctly exposed photograph, the histogram will be mostly central.

This is an example of the histogram of a correctly exposed image.





This is an image that I have adjust the levels on. A high key image is where most of the pixels are white.













A high key image is where most of the pixels are white.
A low key image is where most of the pixels are black.

Hand-colouring using brush tool

I first found an image that I wanted to colour.
Then I decided what part I wanted to colour and what colour it.
I chose to colour the rims pink, the same as the brake cable, brake lever and grips.















I then made a new layer, used the used the magnet tool to outline the rim, and adjusted Hue/Saturation until I got the colour I wanted.















For the rear wheel I did a similar process. I used the madnet tool to select the area I wanted to colour, then used the paintbrush to colour in the rim

This is the resulting image:

Cropping

Firstly I got an image that I wanted to crop

I then selected the Crop tool and selected an area I wanted to crop.
Once I had done this. I right-clicked, then clicked crop.













This is the cropped image:

Warming-Up shots