Tag Archives: graphic design

Netflix Stream Team, Photo-A-Day, Technology, Toys, Transformers, Vlog

Optimus Prime and the Apple Pencil

In Optimus Prime Helmet
Photo-A-Day #4219

Seeing as tonight is the last night of work before Halloween I opted to dress up a bit with my Optimus Prime Voice Changing helmet. However, when I went to use it the batteries were dead. So I went on a quest to change them. I had thrown out the directions years ago. I usually do. So I started looking around for the right spot for the batteries and ended up taking the whole thing apart only to find them by following the wires. I was able to replace the batteries. Then I wore it to work and people got a kick out of it. It is a very heavy helmet though. Left dents in my head from wearing it too long.

Today I received my Apple Pencil. I got it for myself for Christmas. When Netflix sent me my #StreamTeam gift I looked into accessories for the iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil was one of them. I ordered the pencil and thought that it would be delivered in December so getting i today was awesome! I have yet to really work with it but from what I heard it is a pretty cool accessory for the iPad Pro. I can’t wait to use it.

Photo-A-Day

And yet, not a Graphic Designer

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And yet, not a graphic designer
Photo-A-Day #1386

That title is kind of a personal running joke of mine. When I started at my present job I applied to be a graphic designer. I ended up in the implementation division traveling the country and teaching people how to use our software. I started this blog so that I could have a creative outlet and also to track the places I’ve been and the experiences I’ve had. I am completely happy that I wasn’t hired to be a graphic designer. What I take away from that is be open to new experiences and opportunities because you don’t know where they will take you.

Even though I am not a graphic designer I did get to use my photoshop skills the past few weeks. You see, I’m that guy that gets the 11th hour call when something visual is needed. This time I was called upon to hand create 321 yearbookyourself type images. The reason we didn’t use yearbookyourself to do this was that the site closed down on the exact day that the project was approved. So then plan B was invoked.

“Hi, I am Plan B.”

I was asked to take 321 photos from employee badges and then make those photos into yearbook ones. I started with a couple ones and I made a pretty crude attempt at the blending but they were good enough to keep so I got the job. First things first if I am making 321 of these images and making them look good I’d better learn a better way to edit these images. I turned to a very cool podcast called Photoshop Elements Killer Tips and I watched the episode called Clipping mask. I’d explain the process but Corey Barker does a much better job. So watch the podcast to learn how I took the image, changed the background layer to a regular layer, pulled over the other image, added a clipping mask and then blended the two images to make the old yearbook style images.

I wanted to make sure that everyone enjoyed and got a good laugh from their images so I worked really hard on them. I even gave myself the goofiest looking photo just in case someone didn’t like theirs they could look at mine and feel better.

So here is mine, for your viewing pleasure.

My base photo

andrew_bennett_bw

My base yearbook photo

hs_men_004

The finished product.

andrew_bennett_1969