Photo of Me - Transformation Project

I compeleted the traceover of my face and body today, and it actually turned out quite decent. Although I wish I could somehow put some type of shadow effect over the face, I was afraid that if I did that, I would lose the quality and distinctiveness that I currently have, so I ignored trying to change it.

Before Picture:

Transformed Picture:

Road Signs (S-Curve & Railroad Crossing)

I did these two within a class period. I think these two turned out a lot better than the other signs that I have made:

Before (S-Curve & Railroad Crossing)

After (S-Curve & Railroad Sign):

Road Sign Copy

The road sign copy that I made does need some tweaks, but I think it did turn out alright:

Re-Created Shape

Original Shape

Illustrator - What We Learned

Adjacent is my name and a somewhat huge "vase" made in Illustrator. Below I was messing around with the 3D revolving tool, and came up with this:

Google Pages

For the Google Pages mini-project, I decided to dedicate the site to myself. Since resumes can be bulky and enviromentally unsafe, I felt that I should put a site up that dedicates my achievements on a web page in order to list on my resume to visit. Not only does it show that I can "work my way around a computer", but it gives them a general sense of my personality and what I am capable of doing.

Link To Home Page: http://smitjoshua.googlepages.com/home

(Although the site needs some work yet, it is a good start to showcase some of my accomplishments, affiliations, and a little background from my past).

Postcard

I've decided at the last minute to create an Alaskan postcard that went along with the advertisement. Although I did the image within the class period before we went on to Illustrator, I think it exemplifies the beauty of Alaska even more by appealing to the fishing industry, which I can only imagine is really big. There are a plentitude of sites people can visit, but this once again shows off its beauty.

Layer Project - Alaskan Frontier

For the layer project, I decided to do an advertisement for the State of Alaska. I have never been to Alaska, but the state has always perked my curiosity. With so many natural qualities about the land, the animal reserves, and of course, our interest with oil dependence, I find the state fascinating in many different ways. There is a lot to see, including some parks and mountains, but what truly grabs at my heart is that scenery. Just looking at it and being lost in it definitely gives me a feeling of melancholy and sereness.

Hopefully these feelings translate into the work I had put into this advertisement:

Adobe Photoshop Restoration Project

For our Photo Restoration aspect of learning the Adobe Photoshop program, I decided to pick up one of my photos that my mom took a few years ago. The goat in the foreground was named Emma, who passed away a few months after this photo was taken. My mom had this goat for about 10-12 years, which is actually a long lifespan. I decided after seeing this that I should fix this photo.

The biggest changes I made to it was the background, which had a lot of damage to the front of the barn. I also elimanated some of the goats that were surrounding Emma, and tried to clean up some of the color balance issues. Just for fun, I also got rid of the rock that was in the foreground in order to have continuity throughout the picture. I actually liked how it came out, and after showing Wade a comparison of the two, he thought it looked very different, so I am satisfied with the results overall.


Before Picture:

After Picture:

InDesign Project Time!

Believe it or not, goat's milk has a lot of nutritional value to people who are looking for a metabolism boost. I have lived on a farm all my life with Alpine Nubian goats, and I always remember my mom harvesting the milk, filtering it, and giving it to us to use for a variety of things, including but not limited to drinking it and using it in recepies.

I've decided that for my project, I wanted to create an awareness brochure about the importance of goat's milk, and how much it can contribute to a person's health. Not only will I describe its benefits to a person, but I will also discuss some receipies that include the use of it. Have you ever tried goat cheese? It's actually pretty good! And I know there are some fans out there who are just "dying" to get their hands on some of these recipies as well.

Just in case anyone in class is reading this, I did have some experience with InDesign due to COM 432 Newspaper Production, so if anybody is stuck on how to use some of the buttons or how to create something, let me know, and I might know what you need. Just FYI! :)

What I Expect Out Of This Course

It is great to take a class like this, because I am able to do a lot already, but I hope to solidify those skills by doing hands-on projects. Because of the nature of this course, I hope to be able to publish on the Internet for everyone to see, because it could be used as a great resume builder for potential employers. I also would want to show them in both a mental and physical form that I am capable of making a variety of items, including important documents that they could use.

Although I want to be a lawyer, I still believe that this could come in handy for projects that are of a legal nature. Firms are always looking for innovators who test the learning curve, and classes like these could further distinguish me from other potential candidates. Advertising and the Internet are becoming more and more important, and as long as I can stand on this "wave", I can distinguish myself from others due to my background.

It is my hope that I can enhance my creativity and inspiration in this class by making cool projects, regardless of what they are (but, hey, learning Flash would be a dream come true!)

First Post!

Welcome to my blog! I'm Joshua Smith, a senior Political Science/Communications major with a minor in Business at Alvernia College. I hope that you will get a "kick" out of seeing what I can create within Multimedia Design & Editing.