Pete

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Speed Art
Pete Jittalarn

Supervisor: Ms. Puk Year: 2013 Word Count: n/a

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Introduction Goals Selection of Sources Evaluation of Product Reection on Learning Conclusion Works Cited Appendixes

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Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Acknowledgements
I wish to thank Dr. Puk for her valuable guidance, encouragement, and technical support for this project.

Introduction
I was introduced to time lapse videos of people drawing by my friends on YouTube several years ago. I was fascinated by how easy it looked for the artist to create something that would take several weeks on paper. This fascination compelled me to investigate on digital arts. I decided to do my personal project on this subject because I have some prior knowledge about the technology required and I have always wanted to draw as a hobby since I was young. My only prior knowledge about this subject is about the software most professionals use, Adobe Photoshop. I have used Photoshop extensively in the past before to edit and retouch photos but never to create something completely new.

Goals
My goal for this personal project is to show that it is now easier than ever to learn to create beautiful pieces of art that would be difcult if not for technology available today. I decided on these specications for my product: - The videos must show the actual time taken to complete the piece. - The remapped duration of the video has to be shown alongside the actual duration. - There must be background music. - I must utilize layers and layer styles. I would like to focus on the Area of Interaction, Human Ingenuity, as I wanted to educate people about how it is not hard to pick up new hobbies and jobs with the technology we have present. I hope to do this by showing the difference in how much time I spent to make a piece of art in contrast to how much time artists in the past have spent on their work. I also want to show that having technology assist us does not mean modern artists do not require skill, simply a different set of skills that give them the potential to go beyond the limits of traditional art.

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AOI Connection
I would like to focus on the Area of Interaction, Human Ingenuity, as I wanted to educate people about how it is not hard to pick up new hobbies and jobs with the technology we have present. I hope to do this by showing the difference in how much time I spent to make a piece of art in contrast to how much time artists in the past have spent on their work. I also want to show that having technology assist us does not mean modern artists do not require skill, simply a different set of skills that give them the potential to go beyond the limits of traditional art.

Selection of Sources
Most of my research information comes from a wide range of sources. I looked into a lot of online forums and communities where digital artists communicate with others. Magazine articles also prove to be resourceful, providing me with reliable information to support my ndings. There are also video tutorials that showcase the process of making a speed art video in detail. Apart from online sources, I interviewed people who are experts in making software and hardware choices in a business environment and took note of their reasons. In the end, I found forums to be the most helpful for my research because I can take note of different artists opinions and reasons instead of reading or listening to a single person. I rst started my research into software choices, this includes deciding between operating systems, painting software, and recording software. I read an online article from the Indie Goldmine reviewing different pieces of screen capture software to determine the most appropriate for my use. I also watched a couple of video tutorials from popular channels, each outlining the process of recording with different pieces of software. It was a small challenge to decide between FRAPS simplicity and reliability versus Camtasia Studios features. I ended up with FRAPS because it is much cheaper than the other alternatives and is extremely reliable, allowing me to pause recordings and recover work easily in cases of emergency. I then had to decide between using Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter. This was a much harder decision to make because both have their advantages and disadvantages over one another. Photoshop has an massive collection of brushes and thousands of tutorials can be found online, it is generally easier to use but the results might not look as good if I wanted to simulate real paintings and is the go-to choice for most artists who also need to edit photographs. Painter lives up to its name and provides an excellent range of brush control and texture options, it is the choice for those to like to make digital paintings that look and feel realistic. Some artists on DeviantArt forums also nd it easier to sketch in Painter and color the image in Photoshop because of Painters better sketching tools and Photoshops superior image editing controls. My nal choice was to use Adobe Photoshop for my entire piece because it is easier to learn with the large number of tutorials and other help material accessible online. My nal software choice to make was a choice of operating systems. This wasnt a hard choice to make because FRAPS is only compatible with Windows and I dont own a desktop Mac computer. My last piece of research was to nd out why digital artists worldwide prefer to use Wacom tablets over other brands. I rst read through several artists opinions on CreationSwap forums and most of agreed that the features offered by Wacom tablets arent available from other brands, one of the artists also pointed out that Wacom tablets
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are worth the money saying I can't say, I've never looked into your product before. However, you know that Wacom is a tried and tested company. You know what you will get from these guys will be a high quality product. If cash is tight, can you afford to be wrong about the other company?. Other artist blogs also mention similar reasons to Wacoms dominance in the tablet market, its because For the digital artist, there is no more important tool than a Wacom tablet which has a cordless, batteryless, pressuresensitive stylus that gives controls which far exceed those with conventional media. I ended my research by interviewing my mother who is the executive ofcer of Creative Spike, an ad agency in Bangkok. The company is responsible for creating ads for several well-known companies such as CP Foods, KFC, Krung Thai Bank, and RIM. She rst described the agencys choice to use Mac OS and their upgrade plans. Lastly she explained the companys choice to use Wacom Tablets, saying Their products are extremely high quality, providing our artists with insane precision and a lot of great features to assist them, all within a reasonable price range.. I can conclude that Wacom tablets dominate the pen tablet market because of their unmatched feature set and price.

Evaluation of Product

I managed to nish two speed painting videos before the creation of this report. I am satised with the two videos, both of them meeting all the design specications I set. I inserted a title screen at the beginning of both videos showing the name of the piece, the original duration it took to complete the piece, and the remapped duration. I had to use several songs per video because they longer than I expected. I did show my usage of layers, coloring each part of the piece on separate layers. I also used layer styles to temporarily change the color of my sketch to allow me to easily see the difference when inking the sketch. These two videos achieve my goal of to show that having technology assist us does not mean modern artists do not require skill, simply a different set of skills that give them the potential to go beyond the limits of traditional art.

Reection on Learning
My research has been of great use to the creation of my product. The information I got from online forums and articles has helped me make signicant choices in both recording and painting software. My hardware choices were also inuenced by the interview I conducted and the forums and blog posts I read online. My product will have an impact on those who want to do art but believe they cannot because it proves that anyone with minimal background knowledge pickup the pen tablet and start drawing with the right tools. This project has helped me develop as a learner by teaching me that it is possible to pickup and learn new skills with the help of technology within a short amount of time.
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Conclusion
As discussed earlier in this report, my main goal for this project is to show that it is easy not difcult to create paintings digitally using techniques that would otherwise be very difcult in analog art. I believe I have not only met my design specications but succeeded it, showing off techniques that would have been impossible to do on paper or canvas. Completing this project was a fun and challenging experience, I endured a lot of unfortunate events including my computer being fried after a power surge. I was lucky enough to have access to a second computer or I wouldnt have been able to complete the project. I learned how to sketch, draw, and paint different styles of art ranging from semi-realistic to japanese anime. I also managed to nd answers to why Wacom Tablets are used religiously by artists everywhere. In the end, I now see the ever-changing endless potential of digital art that can be accessed by those who are believe they still have the ability to learn, adapt, and achieve.

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Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Works Cited
"The Big List Of Screenrecording Software (Windows Edition) PixelProspector the Indie Goldmine." The Big List Of Screenrecording Software (Windows Edition) PixelProspector the Indie Goldmine. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. <http:// www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-screenrecording-software-windows-edition/>. "Treat's Tuts - How to Make a Speedart." YouTube. YouTube, 25 Mar. 2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um-yRnzb-Lg>. "Which One Fraps or Camtasia?" Yahoo! Answers. Yahoo!, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. <http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100222104742AAwqcG4>. "Corel Painter versus Photoshop." Digital Artist. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. . "DeviantART Forum: Corel Painter Vs Photoshop." DeviantART Forum: Corel Painter Vs Photoshop. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. . "CreationswapCreationswap." Discuss. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. <http:// www.creationswap.com/post/1568>. "Wacom Tablet Reviews & Opinions." Wacom Tablet Reviews Opinions. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. <http://www.wacomtabletreviews.net/about/>. "WACOM TABLETS." WACOM TABLETS. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. <http:// www.dlwaldron.com/Wacom.html>. "Interview with Cleopatra Jittalarn." Personal interview. 10 Nov. 2012.