Project 2 - Kennedy

Amy's is a tough act to follow, but I'll try.

Questions:

Part 1

bii. For the planets layer, I grouped what we'll call Neptune and its storm, as well as what we'll call Jupiter, its ring, and its storm. This was simply done so be able to move the lot of them around together, as it wouldn't make sense otherwise. I actually did grouping on another layer - the text - because to mask it the way I wanted, I had to break it down into merge shapes, which made all the letters individually mobile. I grouped those as I obviously wanted to keep the word together.
2ci. My two "storms" on the planets - based on the actual planets - were just ovals which I stretched out on the sides to give a more realistic appearance.
2hi. There's nothing fancy about the order, except the text needs to be in front as its the focus, and it made more sense to keep the stars behind places where they overlap with other layers.

Part 2

1a. My recommendations for using complex graphics on a single layer is to use drawing objects or primitive objects to avoid merging things together on accident, and then grouping them when their relative placement is satisfactory, so they stick together. Using a single layer just causes too many potential headaches with graphics overlapping each other in unexpected ways.
1b. Undoubted, folders are useful, but the naming will probably be more important to me. I don't like to over-do organization, so it will be most important to make sure my naming conventions make sense.
1c. I struggled for a while trying to make sense of how to use a mask. Admittedly, I didn't want to start seriously working on the image until I knew what my plan was for that, because I worried I would get half-way done and realize I couldn't make a mask work with what I had. I did some searching and found an example of text masking an image, which is what I ended up doing with mine (though the image is just a spray pattern). I find myself once again impressed with the flexibility available with the primitive tools, as making a ring encircling Jupiter was much easier than it might otherwise have been. I hope to find a use for a few of these images in a future project as symbols.