For the past few weeks we've been working in Illustrator to create a variety of finished works, each demonstrating how to use a particular skill in Illustrator. I enjoyed all of these assignments except for the last one in which we had to create a postcard of somewhere in North Carolina. The assignment itself is fun and pretty easy, but I overthought it and caused my self to do a lot of extra work. The main part of this assignment that I went wrong with was choosing a bridge to trace for my location. It was tedious but I learned a lot from spending several hours tracing a bridge and some mountains around it. The main thing this assignment taught me was to work smarter not harder, there were a lot of ways I could have taken shortcuts in making my postcard which could have saved me hours of work. However I think I like how my postcard turned out, having traced every single line rather than grouping some together makes it a little more realistic. All in all this was basically just an assignment I spent more time than I needed to on, but at least I learned something and had fun doing so. Through additional research I have found out that other people agree with my work strategy, claiming that something done right is better than something done quick. In the example of my first source, the author works in the automobile industry and claims that if the job gets done right the first time, people will likely not need to come back as often. Whereas if it is done quickly and sloppily, the customer is likely have to come back and the job will be rushed again, causing more problems. The author also brings up the point that you wouldn't want your heart surgeon to rush your heart surgery.
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Citations: https://www.ericthecarguy.com/kunena/15-Technicians-Only/69027-working-efficiently-vs-cutting-corners https://www.tdisdi.com/business-shortcuts-vs-cutting-corners-the-good-and-the-evil/
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Just like with Photoshop, I didn't understand how to use Illustrator at first, but that was expected and that is why learned how to use it over the course of multiple class periods. Even after learning about the pen tool I still didn't really understand the point of using it because it was way too complicated to manipulate. As with most things this can be worked around though, and luckily not much of our work required the pen tool. Getting the practice from working on assignments helped me to understand Illustrator more because I got to personally find out which controls do what and where to find them. I don't know much about Illustrator yet, but so far it has been the same as learning Photoshop although more focused on the selection tool. The speed at which you can work seems to be much faster in Illustrator though, mainly because you can just create a shape then alter it instead of having to alter piece by piece of an image. Illustrator also has practical uses too, many people make a living off of using Illustrator daily. Jobs such as Medical Illustrators and Graphic Designers require the use of Illustrator daily. Medical Illustrators mainly use Illustrator to aid with the teaching of anatomy and surgical procedures by creating visual representations which can also be used in textbooks and pamphlets. Graphic Design is more straightforward, illustrators will literally illustrate images needed for their jobs using Illustrator. Both of these jobs can make $50,000 per year, but Medical Illustrators can make anywhere up to $175,000 per year. Therefore, not only can you make a living off of Illustrator, you can also become rich just by using a simple Adobe software.
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Citations: http://www.mshealthcareers.com/careers/medicalillustrator.htm https://ami.org/medical-illustration/enter-the-profession/careers https://www.bls.gov/ooh/arts-and-design/graphic-designers.htm Recently we've switched from working in Photoshop with bitmap images to working in Illustrator with vector graphics instead. So far we've mainly learned about the pen and shape tools as well as the differences between bitmap and vector images. I haven't had much experience with Illustrator yet so I can't say whether I like it or not, but Photoshop was easy once I got the hang of it so hopefully Illustrator will be the same. Due dates and the end of the quarter have all been shifted due to the snow days and honestly its kind of confusing, but hopefully schedules will straighten out soon. My favorite part of Illustrator so far has been the simplicity and flow of it, just about anything can be made with simple shapes and there are several options to join shapes together. I prefer bitmap images to vector images mainly because for me it is easier when zoomed in to edit pixels rather than the smooth lines that vector graphics maintain no matter the zoom level. We haven't learned everything about vector graphics yet so this may be wrong, but I feel like having many pixels that make up an image allows for more color variations in the image, especially for small areas where there are several colors. Vector graphics are better for items that are often displayed in many different sizes though, such as company logos. After doing some additional research I found that vector and bitmap images are actually part of our daily lives, and sometimes we can't even tell which format an image is in without taking a closer look. Everyday we see hundreds of examples of vector and bitmap images whether we're conscious of it or not, websites are made up of bitmap images while vector images are used for logos as we well know. Therefore without a close examination they may not appear different, but vector and bitmap images are made in completely different file formats using different software all to make a similar picture.
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Citations: https://designshack.net/articles/layouts/vector-vs-raster-what-do-i-use/ |
AuthorMy name is Andrew Prichard and the this is my first digital arts class, I look forward to a good year with lots of hard work. Archives
May 2021
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Last updated 5/14/21
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