DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY & IMAGING - FINAL PROJECT

25/10/2019 - 29/11/2019 (Week 9 - Week 14)
Rifath Ali (0335738)
Digital Photography & Imaging
Final Project

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INSTRUCTIONS

Project Brief

Our final project also consists or two parts. Part A; Photo Manipulation and Part B; Animated Still. We were asked to design a futuristic city scape. It was up to us to envision whether the future will be a dystopia or a utopia. We had to build the city from scratch, from highly imaginative to realistic (Project Part A). For Part B, we animated the image we created in Part A. We were asked to use Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects for this project. 

Part A: Photo Manipulation
25/10/2019 – 17/11/2019 (Week 9 – Week 12)

To begin the project, we were asked to present a sketch of our idea with the concept behind it. I wanted to create a utopian future for an island nation such as Maldives. My concept was a future where we use renewable sources to generate energy in every island and build a city around it. The following sketch was inspired by the boat on the old MVR (Maldivian Rufiya) notes. My concept was to bring a futuristic design to the boat where it is a building that generates the power and energy needed for the entire island. The “Solar Sails” are fixed with panels to generate energy from sunlight.

Fig. 1.01: Old Maldivian Five Rufiya Note: My inspiration for the boat/building

Fig. 1.02: Initial Sketch

Following are the source images I used for this project. All the images were taken from Unsplash.com with free license for commercial and non-commercial use.

Fig. 1.03: Sky Background 1, Agung Gunawan, Unsplash

Fig. 1.04: Sky Background 2, Patrick Fore, Unsplash

Fig. 1.05: Island 1, Mohamed Sameeh, Unsplash

Fig. 1.06: Island 2, Naail Hussain, Unsplash

Fig. 1.07: Building 1, Denilo Vieira, Unsplash

Fig. 1.08: Building 2, Connor Meakins, Unsplash

Fig. 1.09: Architectural Lines, Erik Eastman, Unsplash

Fig. 1.10: Flag Post, Adam Birkett, Unsplash

Fig. 1.11: Power Cable, Danielle Macinnes, Unsplash

Fig. 1.12: City 1, Robert Bye, Unsplash

Fig. 1.13: City 2, Wilf Luck, Unsplash

Fig. 1.14: City 3, Mario Bruns, Unsplash

Fig. 1.15: City 4, Lucy Claire, Unsplash

Fig. 1.16: City 5, Geoffrey Chevtchenko, Unsplash

Fig. 1.17: Building 3, Danist, Unsplash

Fig. 1.18: Building 4, Dimaz Fakhruddin, Unsplash

Fig. 1.19: Building 5, Juan Gomez, Unsplash

Fig. 1.20: Building 6, Kai Pilger, Unsplash

Fig. 1.21: Building 7, Nick Karvounis, Unsplash

Fig. 1.22: Building 8, Simone Hutsch, Unsplash

Fig. 1.23: Building 9, Victor, Unsplash

Fig. 1.24: Building 10, Victor, Unsplash

Fig. 1.25: Highway 1, Ashley Knedler, Unsplash

Fig. 1.26: Highway 2, Chuttersnap, Unsplash

Fig. 1.27: Car 1, Grahame Jenkins, Unsplash

I started off the design on a portrait canvas of 1920x1080. I imported the image of the island and used Content Aware Fill to remove the boat. Then I created a mask and removed the sky in the background and imported the image I wanted for the sky. I adjusted the Hue/Saturation of the sky background image to match it to the image of the island.

Fig. 1.28: Island Image; Content Aware Fill selection

Fig. 1.29: Sky Background Image; Hue/Saturation adjustment

Once the background was set, I started on the main subject of the design; The Solar Sail House. I created the building from scratch with the use of images, transformation and mask tools. First, I created a mask to remove the background from the image I wanted to use as the base. I used Match Color on this image to bring the effect I wanted. To create the sails, I used an image of the Sydney Opera House and created a mask with the part I needed. I imported the sail to the same file as the base and used Match Color to make sure it blends well with the base. Then I duplicated the layer to create multiple sails. I placed them according to the sketch I made.

Fig. 1.30: Solar Sail House, Base; Layer Mask

Fig. 1.31: Solar Sail House, Base; Match Color

Fig. 1.32: Solar Sail House, Sail; Layer Mask

Fig. 1.33: Solar Sail House, Sail; Match Color

Fig. 1.34: Solar Sail House; Sails duplicated and arranged according to the sketch

To create the iron posts that connect the sails to the building, I used the image of the flag post. I had it duplicated and transformed according to the sail it was attached to. As the final detail for the building, I used the power cable image to create the iron wires that also attaches the sails to the base of the building.

Fig. 1.34: Solar Sail House, Masts; Duplicated and arranged

Fig. 1.35: Solar Sail House, Iron Wires; Duplicated and arranged

Once the Solar Sail House was complete, I imported it to the background. Then I imported an image of the city scape and removed the sky and the ocean with the use of Layer Mask. I used Match Color to keep it in the same tone as the main building. I made use of the Layer Mask even more here to give the effect that the buildings are popping out of the trees.

Fig. 1.36: Futurescape, City; Layer Mask

Fig. 1.37: Futurescape, City, Match Color

Fig. 1.38: Futurescape; Duplicated city image and use of Layer Mask to popup the buildings from the island

As few of the final touch-ups, I used the Brush Tool and Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur to create shade and shadows on the buildings and the trees to blend all images together. I used the same technique with the main building and the sails. Then I duplicated the main building to create a reflection on the water. I changed the Blend Mode and used Distort>Ripples to create the reflection.

Fig. 1.39: Futurescape; Use of Brush Tool to create shade and shadows

Fig. 1.40: Futurescape; Creating the reflection

Before I finished it up, I used a cloud brush preset and bird brush preset to add more details to the sky.

Fig. 1.41: Futurescape, Initial Design; A Maldivian Utopia

Although I received very good feedback for the design, I didn’t feel like it represented a cityscape much, just some buildings popping up here and there. Therefore, I decided to redo my design, this time on a horizontal canvas. Although I didn’t bring any changes to the main building, I used more images of cities and buildings this time.

I created a new background for this design. I used images of a different island and a different sky. I repeated the same steps as the previous time to create the background. I imported the images of the cities and used Layer Masks and Match Color to blend all the images together.

Fig. 1.42: Futurescape, Draft 2; New background

Fig. 1.43: Futurescape, Draft 2; Main building and cities

I added even more buildings to make it look more like a city. I tried to use more futuristic looking buildings with modern architecture. Even with all the buildings I still found that there was no liveliness in the image. So, I decided to add some highways to the island to give a sense of motion. I also added a small detail of a few cars.

Fig. 1.44: Futurescape, Draft 2; Additional buildings imported

Fig. 1.45: Futurescape, Draft 2; Highways and cars imported

Instead of just using the Brush Tool to create the shades and shadows, I used Layer Style>Inner Shadow, Layer Style>Drop Shadow and Layer Style>Inner Glow. Once again, I duplicated the main building and used Filter>Distort>Ripple to create the reflection on the water.

Fig. 1.46: Futurescape, Draft 2; Applying shades and shadows

For the final edit, I used the cloud brush preset and the bird brush preset to the sky. I also made a minor adjustment to the Hue/Saturation of the final design.

Fig. 1.47: Futrescape, Part A Final Still Image; A Maldivian Utopia

Part B: Still Animation

17/11/2019 – 29/11/2019 (Week 12 – Week 14)

I opened the PSD file in Adobe After Effects as a new composition. I set the composition time to 10 seconds. I started off with animating the clouds. As I wanted to focus more on the city, I chose to bring an effect to make it look like the clouds are coming closer. I used the Scale Transform by creating two keyframes; one at the beginning and another at the end. I changed the scale to 125% at the last keyframe.

  

Fig. 1.48: Futurescape, Animation; Sky Scale Transform

I used the same Scale Transform on the sea layer as well. But to make it more realistic, I used Effect>Distort>Ripple on the sea and the reflection of the main building. I adjusted the radius, wave speed, wave width and height of the ripple to keep everything at the same rhythm as the clouds.

Fig. 1.49: Futurescape, Animation; Scale Transform and Ripple Effect on sea and reflection

For the birds, I wanted to use the puppet tool to make them flap. However, due to the low number of pixels, I had to just use the Position Transform to animate them. I created 3 keyframes; one at the beginning, at the middle, and at the end. I adjusted the position of the birds (each separately) in the most realistic way I could.

Fig. 1.50: Futurescape, Animation; Position Transform on the birds

Before I finalized the animation, I also added a subtle Position Transform to the cars on the highway. After that I was ready to render the video. I added the composition to Adobe Media Encoder queue and exported the MP4 file.

Fig. 1.51: Futurescape, Animation; Adobe Media Encoder Render Queue

Fig. 1.52: Futurescape, Part 2 (Final Animation); A Maldivian Utopia