Online Process Journal

Week 01 Creating a database and a Lightroom catalogue

Creating folders for each software application

Creating sub-folders inside application folders

Folders generated by lightroom after creating a catalogue file

Week 02 RAW Image capture and processing in Lightroom Classic

RAW photos in lightroom after being imported

Experimentation with colour grading in lightroom

Using lightroom’s before and after tool to compare the colour grading changes

Week 03 Compositing in Photoshop

Loading the PSD files as an image stack into photoshop so that they can all be edited in one document

Experimentation with the transform and marquee tools

Experimentation with deleting pixels and using the transform tool.

Experimenting with the layer mask tool in photoshop

Experimenting with applying blending modes to the images

Using the hue and saturation adjustment layer

The final result of the experiments in photoshop

Week 04 GIF animations in Photoshop

Creating a unique frame using the transform tool

Creating a tween to make a smooth animation

New interpolated frames from the tween function

Exporting the animation as a gif for the web

Experimenting with changing images each frame

Using hue and saturation to animate the photo’s colours

For this animation I had to increase the number of colours to 64 as 32 was too limited for this particular animation

Week 05 Image sequencing in After Effects

Exporting the image as TIF files to be edited in after effects

Importing the tif files into after effects

Moving the files into a folder in after effects

Experimenting with the different transitions

Creating a composition with cross dissolve

Experimenting with effects by adding a cartoon filter on the frame

Using the transform tool to shrink the images into frame

Changing the preset in media encoder so that it can be uploaded to youtube

Animation 1

New composition with each image lasting one frame

Composition with each frame lasting 10 frames with 5 frames of cross dissolve overlap

Composition with 5 frame sequence and 3 frame front dissolve

Composition with 20 frame sequence and 5 frames of overlap with no transition

Reflective Report

Throughout the past five weeks I have developed a strong understanding of the software used in this course and understand how they operate together in an integrated whole. By creating my own database, I have learned the importance of clear folder structures and file names. In the past, I would not have been so diligent with my folder structure. This might have been fine in smaller projects, but I see now when working with bigger projects how difficult it would become to manage the files with how quickly they add up. I have also learned the fundamentals of lens-based imagery and an understanding of colour management. I now understand the importance of choosing the adobe RGB colour space when capturing photos and how the choosing the correct colour space allows me to colour correct in greater detail. Before starting this course, I already had a strong understanding of photoshop and how to use it’s tools. However, this course taught me how to use the timeline to create frame by frame animations. Initially, the timeline confused me as it was different from other animation software I’ve used before. However, I eventually came to understand it once I realised how the adjusting the layers affected the frames. Likewise, learning to create animations in After Effects was also initially confusing as I’ve never used this software. After using it to create several animations I am now confident in importing image sequences and making adjustments to the frame rates, overlaps, and effects to create my own unique animations. Overall, after completing the tasks, I believe I have developed a strong baseline understanding of the software covered so far, providing a solid foundation I can continue to build on in the future.