Author: Daniel (Page 1 of 2)

Brooklyn College Internship Presentation (Final)

Daniel Sosanya

Fall 2020

Blog post 18

Photoshop Webinar

I wanted to watch another webinar for adobe max, I actually like them. I’ve never really been into webinars at all. I felt as if they were boring but this one person I watch seems kinda cool and explains cool features, I spoke about him before in one of my previous blogs. The guy’s name is Terry Whie. He reviewed the recent features and updates to the new Photoshop 20202 and i found something that i found so cool that i had to make a blog post about it. He spoke about a cool thing called neutral features. I’m not sure what natural feelings are because I’m still watching the video as we speak but I’m getting into something cool. He first provided a photo of a woman with makeup. The colors of the make up were blue and yellow. It seemed as if it was from a makeup magazine, it was a really dynamic shot which made her makeup pop out more. He then takes another photo of a simple caucasin woman. It was a simple headshot that showed her beauty. He said he was going to take the womans make up within the first photo and apply it to the second one with a few clicks. At first i’m like “ There’s no way in heaven or hell this man can apply a whole process of makeup on a person with no makeup in a couple of seconds using photoshop”. Boy did he shut me up. He used a method in the filters tab in photoshop called neutral filerts. Within these Neutral filters they have something called beta filters. Beta Filters are filters that are basically really cool but not fully/developed done but Photoshop lets you use them. There was a tab called makeup transfer, I was so lost. Within this Makeup transfer tab you are able to drag a photo into the document that allows you to transfer makeup way quicker than you think. I was so amazed my jaw dropped. I didn’t think it was possible until he did it. I hope I can get the update also, features like this are really needed. I feel as if people who don’t have a background of using  photoshop and other apps such as illustrators will have a harder time getting things done and will always tend to have to watch a video. Under this document i’ll show you the two photos and how it looked the second he hit the makeup transfer button. It didn’t transfer everything but I was sold as soon as I saw the lips. You’ll see too.

Daniel Sosanya

Fall 2020

Blog post 17

What about after ?

I’m lost, well not completely. I know I’m getting better as a designer but i wonder if i’m still ready to work in the outside workplace. Working at Brooklyn College as an internship isn’t as hard as I thought it was. I’m not sure if it’s because of covid but the college doesn’t seem to need that much to be done. The work I’ve done so far I’m pretty confident in and Lisa, my boss seems to be content with my work but I wish during the semester I could have gone beyond doing something extremely challenging or maybe even cool. Before i took the internship while in the interview, Lisa explained to me that the work i’ll be doing in the internship isnt going to be like the work i’ve done in my portfolio and now i see what she means. It’s not a bad internship dont get me wrong at all. I just thought we were going to do something huge, but I guess it’s not the right time. When I completed the first assignment for Brooklyn College which was the College Safety Letter head for the campus, me and Lisa sent the file back and forth multiple times. She said it was fine but deep down i felt as if it was a bad thing but it couldn’t have been because that’s how the design field is, you have to be able to keep working with the client until the target is met. I hope that doesn’t happen with other projects within the work field, I don’t want that to happen in the real world as much because I feel as if every time it’s not fully correct my confidence is slashed by a few points. I know it’s a feeling I shouldn’t have but it’s something I’m working on and I feel as if I’ll overcome it the more I get a chance to work in the real place. The animation assignment Lisa gave me seemed to go well ( Keep in mind that i’ve barely used AfterEffects in my designing career) but she didn’t send it back, she seemed to like it as soon as she got it. I’ve been told by many close friends and even a treacher once in high school that i tend to do bad on simple assignments but tend to do well in the hard ones. It’s so weird. Fast forwarding I need to improve my confidence in the upcoming months. I’m scheduled to graduate in december 2020 which is basically a month and a half away. I’m sort of scared because i still don’t know what to expect from the outside world but the internship at brooklyn college has made me more confident than i was before. Trust me. I’m still not sure where I want to work in the outside world like a specific workplace. I hope I don’t end up like one of those people who end up floating around after college . That’s one of the scariest things in the world to me. One can only pray and wish for the best. Until next time guys, be safe and wear a mask. Corona is coming back and she’s angry !

Daniel Sosanya

Fall 2020

Blog post 16

Resume and Portfolio addition 

I’m finally able to find some time to actually update the work I’ve done from the internship at Brooklyn College into my portfolio, well not just yet but im gettin ready to. So far for my boss Lisa I’ve worked on four letter heads ( with the addition of helping another intern complete two of his) umm oh yeah i did the format of the letter head also. Maybe i should have started with that. I’ve done some research into which she wanted me to gather information from college viewbooks and list them, in addition to the listing she wanted a comment on why I chose that college. I’ve also worked on an animation to show progression from building to remodeling. I’ve asked Lisa for more work but she says she can only give me work that seems fit for an internship student so until then I usually wait for more work. Lisa is a very busy person and is usually caught up in a lot of things so i just wait for her and take my time. I don’t want to seem like a bother but i’m willing to work. After getting that animation done I feel so pumped , that I can do anything well, not anything of course. I didn’t think I would get it done and in the time I did, but it literally took me the majority of one whole day. I’m not sure how to include animation within my portfolio, it’s something I’m trying to discover recently and it’s hard since im using the adobe portfolio rather than creating mine from scratch. I’ve also updated my resume and added brooklyn college to it. I had to correct my resume a lot. Like a lot it had many issues ranging all the way from spacing to font back to leading straight to font size. It was a complete mess, as if I wasn’t a graphic designer. The resume was from the start of my senior year. I’ve updated it with color and a more stable format. I didn’t understand how important a resume and cover letter was until this semester. My portfolio professor is on top of it, thank god because all the information that i had before had to be changed. Certain things I still need my contact information. I planned on finishing it once I was able to finish my website because I needed to add my website within the contact information. In terms of the completed letterheads that were done for Brooklyn College i’m going to add the before and after so that the viewer can see how messy the last document was and so they can understand how long it took me to fix it. If there’s one thing this internship has taught me it’s how to manage time more effectively. No one else can manage your time better than you. 

Daniel Sosanya

Fall 2020

Blog post 15 

BaseCamp

On this bright, humid and rainy day I’m taking the chance to review a program application that was used during my internship program. We’re using this program due to the covid 19 that is still goin on so everything must be done remotely. Most of the time when you meet someone for an interview nowadays it’s in a new application called zoom. It’s a program that lets you use your webcam and microphone to chat with someone remotely. It works really well, but I would say that’s just for calling people for small or group discussion. Within Brooklyn College we use a program called Basecamp.  Basecamp is basically a project management tool that is used to keep track of projects alone or with a group of people. Basecamp is more than just a project management tool , it’s a better way to work. Teams that switch to Basecamp are more productive and better organized. They communicate better and require fewer meetings. And they’re far more efficient than before. With Basecamp, you break up your work into separate projects. Each project contains everything related to the work at hand; all the people involved, every discussion, every document, file, task, important date, etc. Every project includes the tools all teams need to work together from : message boards, to-dos, schedules, docs, file storage, real-time group chat, and automatic check-in questions and many more . I would say it’s better due to how you’re able to spread work. Speaking work  across a bunch of apps is lousy and can confuse you at best; total chaos at worst. Things are often forgotten and it’s hard to see the big picture. Basecamp erases many issues by combining everything you need in one place so the worker is more organized.

When my boss Lisa, assigns a project it would usually pop up on basecamp. I would often keep contact with lisa through email but the basecamp is more of a scheduling tool. When the assignment pops up it shows who assigned the assignment, what the assignment is and when the assignment is due. It often helps me im all over the place this semester so it’s better if i have something keeping track of when i have work due. When i’m done with an assignment i have the option to let my boss lisa know by clicking done. When this is done it usually emails both you and the assignee that im done. I also has the ability to give in the assignment via Basecamp, i usually just email lisa the assignment when im done because she contacts me through email majority of the time and rather me give in the work by email in case there are any corrections needed. 

Daniel Sosanya

Fall 2020

Blog post 14 

Visual Exhibit 

The piece from the Nassau Museum of Art’s Virtual Exhibit “Blue” that caught my eye the most because of the intensity of the blues was Huxley’s Guide to Switzerland, 2011. I know when I see christophers work because I’ve seen it before. Chris is an English contemporary artist. In addition to painting and drawing, both abstract and figurative, Winter also makes video and sculpture. His work interprets contemporary reality and reactions to modern life. He is an  enormously talented storyteller, and I mostly view his perspective work because it’s what he is mostly known for. I love the way he separates his blues into higher and lows so that the viewer can catch a better view of the perspective. The blue he uses is odd to me, I’ve never seen anyone get that type of blue so i was always wondering how he was able to go about it. After reading up on this specific piece of art I’ve found that he stated  “I start with Ultramarine or Cerulean (these two blues cannot be mixed from anything else but are like fathers to whole families of blues). Each parent blue can then be guided to new depths depending on whether you add them together or mix small amounts of green, black, white or purple to them.” That’s just beyond me. I can’t even tell you what 2 colors are next to one another on the color wheel.  He sees blue as soothing and occupies a huge part of his painting palette. Within this painting the central characters are floating in space above a lake in Switzerland but the way it’s done, it’s as if the main characters are falling into a river or maybe they are falling  through the sky ? one cannot be so sure. It’s as if he painted these characters while they were falling in mid air. It’s as if The force of gravity has been lost and they float through a blue sublime landscape. When I look at chris paintaints it’s as if he paints everything freely, I hope I didn’t confuse you. If i did i would rather say the characters are painted with a free spirit if that helps the image more. The painting was created by acrylic on canvas in the year 2011, with size. If I had to see Christopher myself and needed to ask him a question I would ask him how long this took. In my opinion I feel as if this must have taken about a week. I don’t paint personally so i can only imagine how long but it’s probably way faster. He’s a professional 

Daniel Sosanya

Fall 2020

Blog post 13

Portfolio Overview 

On this fine day I’m taking the chance to make a journal entry about my portfolio. This semester I’m taking the portfolio course, as stated in the last blog post. The class isn’t as easy as it seems each week you and your professor go over past work that you’ve completed before graduation and basically update them. Majority of the work I had sucked. It was work that was good, but I would say it was good enough to pass the class. Some of the work I’m honestly not sure what I was thinking. The portfolio class I took is a general portfolio class. I wasn’t sure the type of portfolio I wanted to have so I felt as if the general route would have been the safest. With the addition of completing revised work one must also complete a resume, portfolio and extend previous work. For an example if I was to create an ad for a company such as Bounty the extension would be something to complement the ad such as an Instagram ad or something like a billboard. For my portfolio I plan to use the majority of the pieces I made in my last semester in college. I felt as if the work I’ve completed in communication design 1 and other classes such as graphic design principles didn’t meet up to the requirement to fit into my portfolio. There are certain aspects I want in my portfolio. I mostly find myself doing campaigns which I like to do. I don’t mind. Other things I plan to include that I mostly find myself doing are logos. I planned to be able to put motion within my portfolio by this time but the programs are just too hard to understand. I’m still in the process of learning them as we speak and trust me it’s not going well. To host my portfolio on a website I planned to use adobe. The school is covering adobe for students while the corona virus is still in play. Within this membership given by the school , you are able to use the adobe portfolio application which helps you bullish a portfolio at the speed of light. It’s way easier even a space monkey can do it. You just drag your work saved as a JPEG and you are even able to leave a little comment if you want to about the work. You can change the background of the portfolio, the text, and even apply hover options. It’s way better to one that doesn’t know how to code but it restricts your design level. It’s not like you can code certain things to be in certain places the coding gives you more freedom. 

Daniel Sosanya

Fall 2020

Blog post 12

Checkin evaluation 

I decided to take a day to make a blog post about myself, now about myself as in terms of eve day but more of a self check in evaluation. This semester has been a lot with all of the work that I have to do. I’m having a hard time managing my time but I’m trying my hardest. This semester I’m taking 3 classes with no financial aid. I have a little family trouble and my family  trouble ended up changing my financial aid. I’m taking a well of course internship, senior project and portfolio. These are the final level courses that must be taken in order to receive your bachelors within the communication design program. I know it’s only 3 classes but it’s a lot trust me. Did I mention I help with rent and have a part time job ? Yea I have a lot on my plate as I’m trying to finish college but one can only believe in himself. The most important thing I have to focus on is my time. It can run slim without me knowing. I’m usually in and out of the hospital due to my aunt having the Corona virus and such so you can only imagine what I’m going through. Senior project is taking up the majority of time. I’m really trying to not fail the class, this class ain’t something that I would want to repeat in the long run, it’s so tedious and annoying. I’m doing a project on Blm on low income African American communities. The call of action to my project is to get people to vote in the upcoming election for president ( so that changes can be made to the community ) and donations to the awareness. It’s supposed to act as a grassroots campaign. You know the Bernie Sanders campaign where he raised a lot of money from little donations. That’s the point I’m trying to draw across, that something is better than nothing in the world of asking society for help. I feel as if more people would feel to play a part even if it’s a couple cents, everything counts. The awareness is called injustice and injustice plans to tackle problems in low income communities such as safety, education, access to credit, job availability there’s a lot of facts that play a part when it comes to making a community better, but it can only be better if everyone plays a part to help reach the end goal. I really hope In the end the project comes out the way I want it to. I’ve put a lot of blood tears and sweat into the project so I would feel bummed if it isn’t what I expected. Well wish me luck everyone I’ve got work I have to do as always.

Daniel Sosanya

Fall 2020

Blog Post 11

After Effects Intern assistance 

Today I received an email. At first I thought it was my boss Lisa but no it was her intern Eli. Eli is a student who goes to city tech also who is participating within the internship program at Brooklyn College. Eli emailed me because he was concerned about the internship assignment that Lisa had given to him. It turn out the assignment that he was concerned about was the animation assignment Lisa had given to me. I’m guessing Lisa assigned the assignment to multiple students, so that she can pick the best one of her liking. Eli was concerned because he was unaware how to use AfterEffects. I explained to him how I recently learned how to use the program myself. He wanted my help, he stated how Lisa shows him. My animation said she wanted something along the line of this. He wanted me to explain to him the basis of AfterEffects so that for that project and future projects will become an ease to him. Eli has eventually called me and we must have been on the phone for an hour or two before he understood the basis of the program. I had to explain to him how programs like AfterEffects mostly operate off of key frames. I’m not a god when it comes to the program but I get things done. A Keyframe is used to set parameters for motion, effects, audio, and many other properties, usually changing them over time. A keyframe marks the point in time where you specify a value for a layer property, such as spatial position, opacity, or audio volume. 

I had to explain how to control other things such as the tool in the tool panel and the properties settings. Most of all the opacity (His plan for his animation mostly involved the manipulation of the opacity. Other major things that to be explained is how to work the duration for each frame. Each image is placed on its own layer and the user must set the duration of each layer. I explained to him how mine came up to about a minute long so you must really plan each frame being used because you don’t want the animation to be long. AfterEffects is very tedious to use a little thing you do can change the outcome so you have to be careful. I explained how to apply text to within an animation although it was still. Lisa asked for a simple animation so I didn’t think I needed to take it any further and teach him text animation when she wanted something simple. Most people would have a hard time understanding me especially for being on the phone for a long time, but I seem to work well with Eli. He took his time and asked questions when he felt needed. I explained every aspect I probably can but Eli called me back twenty minutes later and I forgot something. The most important thing of all, how to save the work. I felt so slow, how could I forget that. I explained to him the process of rendering and now it incorporates everything so that it can play back in real time. The rendering time took a lot for him but that’s how it goes it the world of animation/video 

Daniel Sosanya

Fall 2020

Blog Post 10

After Effects Struggle 

Yes if you’re probably wondering, I’m still struggling balancing all my work together. This senior year in college isn’t a joke. It’s literally tearing me up and spitting me out. I found the time today to actually sit and work on the animation assignment that was given to me by my boss Lisa. I had to watch a video to catch up on the AfterEffects program. It turns out that it actually did update and I’m not sure where anything is. I didn’t lie to my boss because I have used it before. It’s just that when it comes to working with programs, they usually update now and then so you really have to keep up with them. I counted I watched a total of ten videos just to figure out what I was trying to do. The videos I were watching all had an issue, either it was they were working on an older update of the program, or they were speaking too low. There were a couple that completely lost me and I had to actually end the video early. What I’m trying to do is take each of the images given to me ( There were twelve in total ), arrange them in the order I wanted them to be and then animate it. Easier said than done right ? I’m trying to make the animation of each photo start with a zoomed in frame and then zoom out. For an example Each Frame is eight seconds ( Based off my choosing ) in the eight seconds that I have for each of these images I want the full image to be zoomed out and fit the entire frame by the sixth second so that the viewer gets a chance to view the full frame. 

I had to do this for each of the photos, to get a general idea of the transition of the buildings flowing correctly. It take way longer than expected because every two seconds I couldn’t find something or something wasn’t going the way I planned it to. I planned to finish the whole animation within a couple of hours but it actually took me a day and a half. The whole animation came to about a minute and four seconds. I wasn’t sure if it was too long or too short but I felt like a minute was fine. The most annoying part when it comes to animation is the rendering process. we render because            

You want your video project to playback in real time with little stutter and with all effects and everything else in place. In addition to that it’s the process before saving your file in order to convert it into a mp4. There’s always a step after another step after another step, which is why AfterEffects is very annoying and tedious. The rendering process took about 20-30 minutes which wasn’t a surprise. I was expecting a longer period. The file for videos take up a lot of space but it’s nothing that I can escape, I wish there was a way to make my files take up less space but I’m still learning AfterEffects as the days go by