Serena Deshpande
Digital Projection Design
Fall 2013
Coming
into this course, I had very little knowledge as to what digital projection was
and only some experience in digital media. Digital Projection Design truly
allowed me to gain hands on experience with the digital design process,
familiarizing me with new programs such as Isadora, Gimp and Pd Extended just
to list a few. Not only did I get the chance to work with and understand stimulating
new programs, I was also able to experience working with a team of driven
designers, like myself, to create a full production from start to finish. Over
the course of the semester, I worked independently as well as alongside many of
the other designers in the class to complete various projections and background
images for the show.
Once
the director, Paul, interpreted how he envisioned the play, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus,
I started sifting through images on Wallbase and selecting ones I thought would
fit the theme appropriately. My first major contribution to the production was
the Faustus Park scene. After finding the panorama online, I used Isadora to edit
and add unique visual effects such as bloom, zoomer, HSL (hue, saturation,
lightness) adjust and posturize. After the completion of the park scene, I worked
on other projects to add to or tweak the show, many of which involved working
as a team.
I
realized that I genuinely enjoyed working with other students. Not only did we
efficiently complete the tasks at hand, through observation we were able to
teach one another what we did not know beforehand about the programs we were
using. Terrence demonstrated some shortcuts in Photoshop and Yeejee showed how
to animate an image in Aftereffects. With practice I know I can build from
these techniques to acquire better skills with the programs for future
reference. Like I stated earlier, majority of my later contributions involved
cooperating with other designers in the class. I found the picture of the female
demon that Paul had requested and told Terrence how to edit both male and female
demons on Photoshop in order to make them visually appealing projections rather
than simply two 2D images layered on top of a scene. I also found the image of
the theater proscenium we used for intermission and with Terrence and Yeejee,
helped remove the center with an alpha channel and layer mask on Photoshop. At
one point, close to opening day of the production, I attempted fixing the rig
of Mephistopheles using my knowledge of
Maya when we had originally planned to create his character in real time.
During rehearsal week, when the design aspects were
almost perfectly completed, I got the chance to experience working as a
correspondence between the Acting directors and Digital Media directors. I took
notes throughout the rehearsals on some scenes that needed to be slightly
tweaked to match the performance. I also communicated with some of Paul’s
assistants, noting down their feedback as well.
Viewing the production on opening night was an
amazing experience. I have to admit I was slightly nervous throughout the play
but every projection performed perfectly and I believe the production was a
success. Tom and Kevin did a fantastic job of hitting every key on point and
the audience seemed to enjoy the show, I know I did. Overall, I believe I
gained a lot more than I had originally had imagined through this course and I
hope to continue the skills and friendships created throughout this semester.
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