December - Egypt

Image references used for the December calender design.

As usual, open a new document and the size is set to A4. The canvas is then rotated so it becomes a landscape view. Then the pyramid image is placed as the background image. The size and position is adjusted with the Free Transform Tool (ctrl+T).

Duplicate the image into a new layer by pressing ctrl+J and apply photo filter on it. I used a Dark Blue filter with the strength of 100%.

The image of the cyclone is imported in and background is erased with the Eraser Tool (E) with the soft brush selected. Then go to Image>Adjustment>Match Color and select the photo filter layer as the source. This will make the cyclone's color match the background.

Another image of cyclone is imported and the color of the cyclone is matched with the background too.

 By using the clone stamp tool, the cloudy sky is cloned to fill the empty spaces. Making it more realistic as cyclones comes with cloudy and gloomy sky. Clouds are added at the ground level so that it looks like dusts. The clouds are added by selecting an area using the Lasso Tool and then go to Filter>Render>Clouds and the master opacity is lowered.

The cracked floor texture is then imported and resized by using the Free Transform (ctrl+T) and also perspective. The image is duplicated to fully cover the ground. The blending options of these layer are set to Luminosity. 

Add a new levels adjustment layer and adjusted it to be darker.

The final image after the calender template is inserted.

The making of.... November

These are the image references used in the process of making the November calender..

And now, to the process of the making...

First, Create a new file with the size of A4 and go to image>image rotation>rotata 90degrees. Then import the background image of the Eiffel Tower and press ctrl+T for free transform and adjust it to desired size and position.

Next, by using the Quick Selection Tool (W) I selected the top part of the tower and cropped it out. Next I  selected the sky with the Quick Selection Tool (W) and select inverse by pressing ctrl+shift+I to select the lower part of the tower and the trees. The image selected is duplicated in a new layer by pressing ctrl+J.

The cropped part is placed on a new layer and the position is adjusted as shown in the image by using Free Transform (ctrl+T)..

The sky image is imported and placed under the duplicated lower tower layer. I adjusted the color balance and levels to get a more chaotic and gloomy look for the sky. The lower and upper tower layers' colors are matched with the sky layer by going to Image>Adjustment>Match Color and selecting the sky layer as the source.

The image of the explosion is imported and resized with Free Transform. The unwanted parts and background is erased with the Eraser Tool (E) with a soft brush selected.

The image of the debris is added around the explosion to make it more realistic. The layer is duplicated to get more debris around it.

Finally, the lightning image is added. The background is removed with the eraser tool. The size is adjusted with the Free Transform Tool and in the layer style, outer glow is enabled to gain the light effect. The image is duplicated and placed randomly at the skies.

Finally, this is how the calender looks like after the calender template is inserted =)

Image for US in calender

Based on our theme "2012 Around the World", I've created an image for the country U.S.. Below are the steps and explanation on how the image is done:

these are the images used in the process

First I created a new canvas which is landscape a4 sized and placed the image of the sea onto it.

By using free transform (ctrl+T) I resized the image and place it covering around half of the canvas. Then, I used the magic wand tool to select and remove the unwanted part.

To create a stormy color for the sea, we need to change the levels and color balance. Go to Image>Adjustment>Color Balance/Levels.

These are the settings I've used.

Next, place the image of the cloud on the layer behind the 'sea' layer. By using the healing brush tool I removed the lights on the clouds by selecting the darker areas to give a more gloomy feel.

Next, open the statue of liberty image on a new tab and crop the background out by using the magic wand tool. Place it on a new layer, use free transform to resize and flip it horizontally and place it as shown in the image. Next, go to Image>Adjustment>Match Color and select the cloud layer as the source. 

Duplicate the sea layer by pressing ctrl+J and select the eraser tool and soft brush, erase till the head and arm of the statue is visible.

Duplicate and crop out a bottom of the sea, where there is a wave breaking. Set the blend mode to lighten and remove unwanted parts with the eraser tool. 

Place the wave as shown in the image and use the clone stamp tool to create more waves around the statue.

Next, place the image of the man kayaking and resize it to desired size. By using the eraser tool and soft brush selected, remove the man and unwanted sea water; leaving only the splashes. 

Place the wave layer under the statue layer. Use clone stamp to create more splashes, making it more realistic. Keep on cloning until you are satisfied with the results.

Duplicate the wave layer and place the layer above the statue layer. Again, use clone stamp tool to create more splashes around the face and arm of the statue.

Open the boat image on a new tab and match the colors of the sea by going to Image>Adjustment>Match Color and select the sea layer as source. Roughly cut it out and paste it on the original project after that. Set the blending mode to pin light and erase unwanted sea water using the eraser tool. Then, duplicate the layer and set the blending mode to normal and erase everything else except the deck and the mast.

 For the storm effect, place the lightning image on a new layer. Match the colors to the colors of the sea.

Copy the image into the main project, resize and position it behind the sea layer. Change the blending mode to Lighten and erase the background with eraser tool.

Now for the rain effect, create a new layer (ctrl+shift+N) and go to Filter>Render>Clouds. Make sure the color palette is set to white and black before that. Then, go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise and add 60%Gaussian Monochromatic noise to the clouds. After that, go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur and set the values to angle 74 and distance 44.

Change the layer's blend mode to screen and the opacity to 16%. Lastly, I adjusted the color balance as shown in the image: 

After the adjustment, this is how the final image looks like:

This is the image after the calender is added in. 

Calender Interface Final Decision

After discussion, the interface of the calender is changed. Each of our members gave their suggestion and ideas and after adjustments and corrections, the outcome for the new interface is:

The orange highlighted days indicates weekends and public holidays will be highlighted with yellow (fff200) and the holiday will be written under the respective date.

Second meeting

Date: 21-Oct-2010
Time: 3pm-3:45pm
Location: DR0001
Attendance: Khim Wui, Chin Yong, Fen Nie, Yook Meng
Absent: None

In our second meeting, we decided to put our idea of portraying the specialty of each country in each month on halt and try experimenting on other ideas before deciding. Chin Yong did a brief explanation of the functions in Photoshop as the two girls are still unfamiliar with it. Although the theme was on halt, we had decided which month we are responsible for as shown below:


January-March: Pook Khim Wui
April-June: Tang Yook Meng
July-September: Yau Fen Nie
October-December: Te Chin Yong


We had cleared some of our doubts today by inquiring the lecturer and hopefully we can proceed smoothly. As for the theme, it will be decided after we experimented with other ideas and decision will be made based on the results.

Minutes prepared by: Pook Khim Wui

Intro

Okay so this is our work-in-progress blog for our assignment 2 group. And.. I.. Am the group leader.. Members include me, Pook Khim Wui, Te Chin Yong, Yau Fen Nie and Tang Yook Meng. So we are supposed to post our progress of our assignments here including the idea in each month of the calender created, design, references and sketches.. Minutes of our group meeting shall be recorded in here too.. By the way if the group name doesn't really sounds okay to you all can tell me and we can come up with another name.. Uhh. Seriously I don't know if the lecturer is gonna put more people in our group or not =__= anyway.. For this assignment, just want to wish all of us

GOOD LUCK.