"Creating the Impossible"
The Project: Students will be using their Fireworks Photo Manipulation skills to create a composite “photograph” that demonstrates “The Impossible.” For example: A picture of a little girl riding a kitten to school or a group of people riding a rollercoaster that is actually a caterpillar. For inspiration, the students were shown a slide show of similar works from the website www.worth1000.com (now inaccessible from HHS due to internet blocks, argh!)
A Slideshow of "Impossible Pictures" for Inspiration.
Getting Started: Create a folder on your network space called “lastname_impossible.” Save all original files, plus your shadow_spoon.jpg picture, plus your final Impossible Picture, to this folder.
Base Images:
The students must use no fewer than 3 base images to create their final work. Save original copies of EVERY file and picture used in this project to your “lastname_impossible” folder, you get credit for them!
By the way, Google is a terrible place to locate quality photographs. Please try one of the following websites instead:
Techniques to be Used:
Students will use the following tools to complete their “Impossible
Picture”:
1. MASK tools to cut images from their backgrounds.
2. Adjust the color of all or a portion of an image using the FILTER>ADJUST
COLOR>BRIGHTNESS AND CONTRAST or FILTER>ADJUST COLOR>HUE AND
SATURATION tools to match the background of your work.
3. Adjust the softness of parts of your image using FILTER>BLUR>GAUSSIAN
BLUR.
4. Use of RUBBER STAMP tools, as needed, to combine elements in your
picture.
One of the problems that usually effects amateur Photo Manipulators is that of the SHADOW. One of the elements that you MUST INCLUDE in this project is that of the SHADOW. You must create a realistic shadow of AT LEAST ONE object in your picture.
How do you create the shadow? First off, open the following picture in Fireworks:
For this effect, we need to cut the spoon out of its white background. You can use the MASK tool if you wish, however, you might want to try the following:
Open your spoon picture- Click on the Green Magic Wand Tool Button, next to the Brush Tool Icon (see picture right).
- In the Property Panel at the bottom of the screen, change the “Tolerance” slider from 32 to 10.
- Click, using the Magic Wand Tool, on the white background of the spoon. All of the white parts of the picture will now be highlighted.
- Click the DELETE button, all of the white in your picture that is highlighted will be deleted.
- From the SELECT menu at the top of the screen, select “DESELECT.”
- Open a new canvas (FILE>NEW), size 500 x 500 pixels, white background.
- Click and drag your spoon from its old canvas to the new one with the black selection arrow.
- Use the SCALE tool to rotate your spoon so that it looks like the picture below.
Now, we will start creating the shadow: Duplicate your image by pressing Ctrl+C and then Ctrl+V.
Move the bottom of the two images apart, so that they look like the picture above. We are going to turn the right one into a shadow. Click on the duplicate, and choose Filters > Adjust Color > Levels.
Once inside the levels menu, you are going to take the arrow on the "white" end of the gradient scale, and move it all the way towards the black end. This is, essentially, turning all the pixels in your image to black.
You should have something similar to the following.
Now we need to add some perspective to our shadow. Choose Modify > Transform > Skew. Expand the bottom of the image, and tighten the top.
Now we need to position our shadow in its correct spot. Choose Modify > Transform > Free Transform. Move your shadow downward, and rotate it so that the bottom of your two images touch as shown below. Depending on how long you want your shadow to be, and in turn, how high/low you want your light source to be, adjust the scale of your shadow.
Next we are going to fade our shadow a bit. We will use the "Fade Image" filter, as it is quick and easy to do. Choose Commands > Creative > Fade image. Choose the fading style that corresponds with the direction of your shadow.
If necessary, adjust the handles on the mask that "FADE IMAGE" creates so that your shadow is fine tuned to where you need it. Then, you are done! Your image now has a perspective shadow, like the one below.
When you have created a spoon with a shadow, SAVE it to your “lastname_impossible” folder, call it shadow_spoon.jpg.
Now, head back to your Impossible Picture. Make sure that any of the objects that you have MASKed and combined to create your picture has the necessary shadows, using the techniques from the spoon tutorial.
REMEMBER, in reality, shadows work like this:
Make sure that your shadow makes sense. What direction is the light source coming from in your picture, where do the shadows go? How big does the shadow need to be, given the source of light (high light means small shadow, low light means long shadow)?
Grading:
This project will be graded as follows:
- Completed shadow_spoon.jpg tutorial picture = 50 points
- Copies of 3 different original base images for your Impossible Picture = 30 points
- Use of shadows in your final picture (all objects that need shadows should have them!) = 20 points
- Quality of the Impossible Work (how realistic is it?) = 50 points.
Projects will be submitted to the class DROP folder on the M: Drive. Please make sure to turn in your “lastname_impossible” folder, with all necessary files: