Going over the basics of HTML, I learned that creating websites is a lot of work! You need to keep many things in mind with programming, especially avoiding small mistakes like missing semicolons or incorrectly naming files. The website and the video provided me with a good introduction to HTML, and I hope I can continue improving my programming skills.
This week, I learned the basics of digital photography and working with Photoshop. Before watching the Linkedin Learning course videos, I had the bare minimum knowledge of Photoshop. I used the program to create digital art, but my use never extended beyond the brush and eraser tools. With the videos, I found the information on printing very useful, like the amounts of PPI to take into account with specific images. I also really appreciated the info on file types, as I never used to consider this when saving images.
This week I learned how to use different blending modes to alter photographs in photoshop. I never knew about the different blur modes, especially the iris and path blur, so I experimented with those tools after viewing the videos. The smart object information is also very handy. Being able to manipulate a layer without any imprint on the original is so much more efficient!
This week I learned how to use masks and implement different blending modes in my work. I still feel that I should brush up on my knowledge with masking since I tend to select the bits of an image I want and erase the rest. Masking is a far more efficient tool because I can always go back to the original image and take out bits I want to use again. I also never knew about the magnetic lasso tool, which is so efficient and easy to use! I just have to trace lightly around an image I want, and the tool will do the work for me.
Before this course, I had never used Illustrator because Photoshop had all the tools I needed. However, I now realize that Illustrator offers many tools that make creating vector images much more effortless than Photoshop. The videos explained how to use the program in a fairly straightforward manner, and I feel that I am catching on very quickly! I only need to keep in mind to lock my layers when needed! Sometimes, I will forget to do so, and my layers will get muddled. It is a habit I feel I will develop with time!
This week I continued learning about Illustrator and the tools available with the program. The information given on grouping was beneficial because Illustrator is far different from Photoshop. Instead of merging all layers or flattening the image to combine layers, creating groups in Illustrator is far more efficient. Grouping has helped me immensely with certain drawings when I was familiarizing myself with the program, so the added knowledge from the videos was very much appreciated! I also liked the information given on creating patterns and working with gradients, two areas I need to focus on more to familiarize myself. Tony Harmer is an excellent teacher, and I enjoyed watching their course on Illustrator!
This week I completed the Linkedin Learning course on using Illustrator. I learned how to work with images in Illustrator, and how to export my images properly. Since this was the last bit of the course on Illustrator, I decided to take the time to brush up on any skills that needed improvement. I wanted to make sure that I was able to fully grasp the program, and while I am not yet an expert, I feel that I am in a comfortable spot with the program.
This week I continued watching the Photoshop 2022 Essential Training, where I learned how to animate using the program. I decided to mess around with my workspace to gear the program towards my animation needs, and I used to puppet tool to manipulate photos so that they would animate. Retouching is also a very important skill that the training course covered, because I always want to ensure that my images look crisp and clean.
This week I learned how to create graphs with Illustrator for my data representation project. Creating and manipulating graphs was easy enough, all I had to do was input data. If I wanted to make the image 3D, I could mess around with the different settings to create different kinds of graphs.