Project 2 - Stephen Brooks

Part 1
1. b. i. I grouped all of the background elements that would not be animated in the future

1. b. ii. Grouping the background into a single object made it easier to modify multiple items on one layer, without interfering with what I had already created. This made it easy to create new items, but at the expense of ungrouping and regrouping the same background image until it was complete. In the future I'm not sure how useful of a tool this will be, but at least it's available...

2. c. i. I created a plant with curved lines, leaves and an elaborate flower. If you zoom way in on the flower it looks great, but in the context of the picture it appears to be lost. The brush feature with high smoothing (~75) made the pedals easy to manipulate on a combined 3 merge drawings for a substrate. I think I'll make this a little bigger...

2. f. This part was very difficult for me and although I practiced with masking I couldn't find a use for it while designing. For me it was easier to create a background and order it such that my "outside" layer was behind it and cropped/masked with the empty window. I could have created an image with a mask, but I felt like I was creatively restricted so I used another version of masking...

2. i. I adjusted the layers such that the "outside" layer was in back, the "background" interior layer was on top of that & the objects that I intend to animate (for project 3) are symbols in my library on top of everything else, within their respective layers.

Part 2
1. a. Making multiple additions to a single layer can become cumbersome quickly. If you are deadset on using a single layer for multiple objects, group similar items such that they can be set to the side prior to integration. Start with the largest items and group, then move them to the side of the stage so you're not limiting your available workspace. These changes should all happen to large objects that will be covered later (like backgrounds). If you need to create small objects, use a different layer because it will become too cumbersome to avoid changing items that you have already used to fill the stage...

1. b. I will manage future projects with multiple layers simply because it makes it so much easier to turn items on/off visually, or lock them to prevent changes. As I went through the creation of this image I realized quickly that organizing layers within folders would make my life easier once I decide to animate. Also, grouping symbols within folders will make it easier to have a single complicated object move and give you options for multiple versions of an item (i.e. eyes will blink, mouths will speak/eat, etc.)...

1. c. I prefered to use the brush tool to create variations in the flower and I can see how I would use this tool in the future for creating textures/patterns. I also enjoyed exploring the 3D elements that should make animation so much fun, though I haven't used the actual 3D tool yet. Giving a sense of depth was easy, but keeping a sense of "wholeness" was a bit difficult. I am not a visual artist by any means, but I can tell it didn't look right with black and white objects intersparced with colored/bordered objects and colored/non-bordered objects.

The only thing I didn't like about this project was the use of the deco tool since it always seems too rigid/cumbersome to look good. Maybe I just need to use it more, but I don't think I will be a favorite of mine....