Independent Research: Instagram - @thomas_k

@thomas_k is a photographer from Berlin. He has a very vintage style of photography, his colours are quite cold which gives it a vintage feel. The whites, greys and blues give it a fresh, clean look that's simplistic and bold. He quite likes to photograph old factory buildings and skyline shots of Berlin which i find strangely satisfying. A lot of the buildings have a lot more character unlike the new builds you see around the UK where every house looks identical to the next one. There is something about them that is just a little bit beautiful than any other kinds of buildings.

Collide: Final Pieces

For my final piece, i want to create a photo montage that will really move my grandma and make her smile.

A piece that incorporates my grandma with her father and her children as well as her past. The things she holds most dear in life.

If i can create something that makes my grandma happy then my project will be complete.

I left my grandma alone with a folder of all of the pieces of work i have done for this project and let her decide one my final pieces.

I said for her to choose the pieces that meant the most to her as well as the artistic factor.

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This is a cut piece of film that my grandma took when she first moved over to London. The film got developed but was never printed so i decided to just scan it in.

I picked three photos to add into the film. The first, my grandma in red, after she arrived in London at age 19. The second, my grandma in orange, when she was still living in Guyana at age 17. The third, my mums cousins in green, bundled up for autumn at ages 3 and 4.

I thought i would colour the photos, even though they are originally in black and white, to show how far our technology has come. We can now completely re-colour photos, not that that is what i have done here, but i have added colour that wasnt there before.

The colour also represents the time and place it was taken. So, the red image of my grandma is when she had achieved her ambition of moving to London to study nursing, her determination paying off. The orange image of my grandma when she was still living in Guyana, representing  her optimism for passing school and getting the grades she needed to move to the UK. The last photo in the background is of my mums cousins, who were very close to my mum and my grandma. They are in green to show their growth with my grandma, she helped bring them up and nurse them whilst looking after my mum and her brother too.

This is my last and final version of my family tree. Although i didnt use my grandmas birth certificate, i still love this piece just as much. I let my grandma make the final decision on which background to have and she said that this texture of cardboard looked the best as it is lighter in colour in the middle and gets darker toward the edges, making the tree almost look like its glowing.

This is the last piece of work my grandma picked. The photo of my mum back in primary school. She was absolutely amazed at how i could take her eyes from one photo and fit them onto my mums face on another photo without having to use any scissors or glue.

She said she always saw herself in my mum but never realised just how much until now.

Now my grandma is happy, i am happy and this means my project is complete.

I would go to the moon and back just to make my grandma smile and i hope this reflects in my work.

Collide: Portrait Collage

This is a school photo of my mum with another one of her older school photos pasted on the mouth and my grandmas eyes over my mums glasses. If you squint at it, it still looks like my mum. This piece has to be a favourite of mine.

This was an interesting idea that i got from creating the previous montage. I have taken my grandmas eyes and my great grandfathers mouth and pasted it on my unlce. I then took my mums eyes from a much younger photo and my grandmas mouth and posted them onto my mums face.

My uncle now looks a little bit more serious and puzzled but my mum still looks her cheery self.

Although the images dont completely match up, i also just wanted to show that my uncle and my mum both have very distinctive genes from my grandmas side of the family.

Collide: The Eyes

Blanking out the eyes in my last experimentation gave me an idea to, instead of blanking out the yes, swap them for someone elses.

Will swapping the eyes change the expression on their face? Or will it just look a little bit crazy.

“The eyes are the window to your soul” - William Shakespeare.

“Your eyes speak the truth when everything else is a lie” - Unknown

“The eyes are useless when they mind is blind” - Unknown 

“Sometimes the eyes can say more than the mouth” - Unknown

P&P Lesson 16 - Jay Payne - Cinema 4D as a Design Tool - Prototyping

Lesson 3 - Workshop Notes
Cinema 4d as a Design Tool - Prototyping

Part 1 - Cans

1. Create a project folder
Project Name
C4d (C4d, texture images)
Artwork (illustrator, photoshop,)
Output (Images, Movies)

2. Set up Illustrator 
Open illustrator / open ‘Canshape.ai’
Open rulers / Move centre to bottom of shape
Reduce artboard size to fit
Save file as - Illustrator 8

3. Cinema4d
Merge ‘Canshape.ai’ / rename paths
Create 2 Lathe Nurbs / add each shape
rename accordingly / tick flip normals

4. Create an environment 
Create a Floor / Create a Background
Add a Compositing tag to floor
tick ‘composite background’
Create a new material / change colour to white (?)
Add material to floor & background

5. Create Materials 
Create a new material
Add Reflectance to material
Add... / Reflection (Legacy)
Layer Colour / Texture / Fresnel / dielectric / PET
Turn down Globals
Colour channel / add ‘canable.jpg’
Add this to can lathe



6. Adjust Mapping 
Material tag / projection / cylindrical
Side = front / Rt click / fit to object
test render / map should fit can

7. Create a Material 
Add Reflectance to material
Colour / grey 36%
Reflect / Layer / GGX / Rough 20%
Layer Colour / Texture / Fresnel / dielectric / PET
Turn down Globals / 50% & 60%
Add this to top lathe

8. Add Lights 
Omni Light / Coords XYZ / -500, 1000, -500
Copy light / Coords XYZ / 500, 1000, -500
second light / intensity = 50%
Add an Area light / place on right of can
Coords XYZ / 500, 400, -400 / Rot H = 45deg

9. Render Settings 
Anti-Aliasing / from Geometry to Best
Add Ambient Occlusion
Output / size = A4 portrait / dpi=300
Current frame / save / jpg / 95%
Test Render

10. Add Clones 
Cloner object / Random effector / Grid array
Count = 3,1,1 / Size = 400,200,200
Random effector / Parameter / rotation only
Rotation H = 180 (ish)

11. Render Out 
Change background colour & label artwork as necessary
Save file





Part 2 - Bottles

1. Set up Illustrator
Open illustrator / open ‘bottle.ai’
Or create a bottle shape / and a liquid shape
Open rulers / Move centre point to bottom of shape
Reduce art board size to fit
Save file as - Illustrator 8

2. Cinema4D 
Merge ‘bottle.ai’ / rename paths
Create 2 Lathe Nurbs / add each shape
rename accordingly / tick flip normals

3. Create an environment 
Create a Floor / Create a Background
Add a Compositing tag to floor
tick ‘composite background’
Create a new material / change colour to white (?)
Add material to floor & background

4. Create Materials 
Browser / Presets / broadcast / Materials
Glass / Glass Stained (green)
Transparency / Refraction = 1,2
Turn absorption to white
Turn off bump channel
Copy Material / change colour to yellow
Add yellow to liquid lathe
Add green mat to bottle lathe

5. Create a Lable 
Add a cylinder object / caps / untick caps
Adjust size to fit snugly around bottle
new material / Alpha channel / add beer mask.jpg
Invert mask / add to cylinder
material tag / turn off tile / projection / cylindrical
Right click on tag / Fit to object
Colour channel / add ‘bearlable.jpg’
Reflectance Channel
Add... / Reflection (Legacy)
Layer Colour / Texture / Fresnel / dielectric / jade
Turn down Globals / add to cylinder



6. Bottle Top 
Spline tool / Add a Star shape / 20 points
XZ axis / inner rad = 33 / outer rad = 37
Add a Circle shape / Rad = 33
Add a Circle shape / Rad = 29
Add a Circle shape / Rad = 17
Add a Circle shape / Rad = 0
Create a Loft Nurbs / add all above shapes
Move to top of bottle / move shapes to create a cap
Select the loft object / U subdiv = 41 / V subdiv = 2
Iso subdiv = 3 / Tick Organic form / Caps / turn off
Simulate / Cloth ? Cloth Surface / Add loft to this
Cloth surface / subdues = 2 / Thickness = 1

7. Cap Material 
New Material / Reflectance Channel
Add... / Reflection (Legacy)
Layer Colour / Texture / Fresnel / dielectric / PET
Colour / add ‘cap.jpg’ / Add material to cap
Material tag / projection = flat
Rt click / fit to object / say yes to sub-object
Left of viewport toolbar / select Texture Mode
Use rotate tool to rotate texture 90deg
Rt click on texture tag / fit to object / say yes
Left of viewport toolbar / select Model Mode

8. Add Lights 
Omni Light / Coords XYZ / -500, 1000, -500
Copy light / Coords XYZ / 500, 1000, -500
second light / intensity = 50%
Add an Area light / place on right of bottle
Coords XYZ / 500, 400, -400 / Rot H = 45deg

9. Render Out 
Save file / Render out

 

Collide: Image Replacement Experiments 4

This is a montage of my uncle, my mum, my great grandfather and my grandma. A photo that could never actually be taken as my great-grandfather died when my grandma was just 20 years old so my mum and uncle never got to meet him.

When i showed this image to my grandma, she couldn’t help but smile and said she wished the photo could have been real.

Im not quite sure where i was going with this photo. These children are my mums cousins again at the adorable ages of 3 and 4, all bundled up for autumn. I blanked out the eyes because i believe eyes hold most of your emotion. Without the eyes, what do you see? Do you see happiness? Miserableness? Anger?

P&P Lesson 15 - Sara Nesteruk - Showreels

This is my end of year showreel, a compilation of everything i have created in my Process and Production lessons with Sara. The effects used in this video show just how far i have come in After Effects as i created the video from memory.