AS Media Text Manipulation

AS Media Blog:

Typography Manipulation-Photoshop

Task:

•        To utilise Photoshop in order to manipulate a form of typography for a certain effect, or to create an idea of genre.
•        We had the freedom to choose what to do with the typography.
•        We had the help of tutorials to aid us I manipulating the text

Tools I Used:

• Warp tool

First Experiment:

After watching the first video I decided to use the warp tool to blend a few pieces of text with a picture. Starting with the picture below, in a similar fashion to the video I used the warp tool to put text into the shape of an object. After completing this experiment I have come to realise that this wasn't the best image to use as the lips are open making the shape of the lips not entirely true and make it harder to re-adjust the text into the correct shape that I had planned.

After distinguishing this i proceeded to use the following dimensions for my font.

After this i used some word association to determine what words would be meaningful and relevant to the image chosen.

Words I came up with:

- Love
- Passion
- Kiss

After coming up with these words i lowered the opacity of the picture of the lips so that it was easier to work with manipulating the text.

Then I Typed in the word love and alligned it so that it covered the majority of the right side of the top Lipton


Next, following the video, i used the warp tool to shape the text into the shape of the background I stretched the corners of the word out so that it filled the space and I squished other part so that it fit the arch of the lips, also i had to elongate the "o" as it would then fit the shape.

After this i proceeded to insert the next word 'passion' onto the bottom lip as it was the longest word and I thought it would be a substantial length to cover the whole of the bottom length.

Using the same technique as previously and using the same dimensions as the previous word I placed the word in the position of the bottom lip and proceeded to warp it into shape. 

The outcome of this is that the text seems rounder and more three dimensional so that it fulfils the image of a pair of lips, however it didn't quite turn out as perfect as I had previously imagined as it doesn't quite reach the corners of the lips and isn't in line with the top lips because of this. If I were to re do this I would have made sure that the allignment of the text would have been tighter and more precise to the scale of the background in question.

Next I inserted the final word 'kiss' and did all of the previous steps to make it fit into the shape of the top left part of the top lips.

As you can see the alignment and placement of the text was wonky towards the left and the shape of the word did not match that of its opposite side. If I were able to re-attempt this then I would have copied the word 'love' out, flipped it so that it is the same shape as the previous one making it symmetrical and then changed the text to kiss as it would have kept the same dimensions and editing as the other side thus making the lips seem symmetrical. This mistake could also be down to the background picture as the gap in the lips made the judgement harder on wether to stretch or reduce the size of a certain part of the text and may have hindered the results. With this in mind I would have picked a clearer picture such as the one below.

Using the skills i had just acquired and knowing the level of success that the previous experiment had received o decided to create a simpler shape.

Experiment 2:

Tear Drop:

Using the picture to the right I used the same method learnt in the video that I watched previously to create an image out of text with some form of relevant and symbolic text used within the shape to send a deeper underlying message.

After this I chose to use word associated with a tear and came up with the following words:

-Suffering

- Pain

- Hurt

- Vulnerable

- Sadness

I opened this in photoshop and proceeded to use a simple font using the text tool (below left) to type the word 'suffering' I then rastorized the text, in able to warp the text by using the paint tool (below right) and clicking on the text which brought up the message (below centre) which when you click ok rastorized the text.

After this I went to edit and transform and warp.

This lead to the text being bound in lines (as seen below) and enabled me to change the dimensions of the text.

 After this I rotated the text so that it was portrait by going to edit rotate 90˚ CW, and then proceeded to warp the text into the shape of the head of the tear drop making the top end rounded and making the size gradually expanding so that it filled enough space on the image. I chose not to change the opacity of the image as previously i found it more difficult to distinguish the hard edges of the shape and this resulted in less accurate scaling towards the image.

After this i chose to use the word 'pain' next as I thought that the straight line in the 'P' would be easier to curve into the above shape of the 'G' making them seem more flush and more neat.

Following this i used the word 'hurt' as I was under the impression that the 'H' would be similarly easy to distort into the shape, after putting it in the same way as the word 'pain' i realised that the aesthetics of the tear weren't to the standard I was aiming for. Therefore I flipped the word to make it more aesthetically pleasing, however by doing this I had put the letter 'T' next to the curve of the 'G' which made the distortion of the text significantly harder than I anticipated as it left a minor gape between the lettering that was a minor flaw. Nonetheless if i was able to re do this i would have chosen a better fitting word for the part of the tear as it was an unnecessary inconvenience that occurred whilst carrying out the practical.

After this minor set back I realised that the word 'hurt' was longer than the word pain which made the next word 'vulnerable' more off centre and wonky than I wanted (illustrated below left). With this in mind utilising the same skill used throughout the practical I adjusted the positioning and angle of the writing to make the words in the image seem like they were neatly aligned and allowed for an easier platform to insert the final word in (below centre + right).

After this I added in the final word of 'sadness' to the bottom of the tear. Whilst doing this i realised that the word would have to be angled slightly as the previous attempt of restoring the neatness of the piece was not as successful as previously imagined. With this in mind i repeated what I had done previously with the word 'vulnerable' and managed to be successful in keeping the shape of a tear.

Below is the finished product of the tear drop idea.

Personal Comments:

Overall I am pleased with the turn out of my image as the shape of the tear is clear and neat even through the mishaps. I am also pleased that all of the words that I wanted to use were included in the image.




Experiment 3:


- Clipping Mask


After watching a video (link at bottom of blog) about how to insert an image into text I picked an image that I wanted to use (below).

Sources I Used:

Why/How It Helped:

I was introduced to new tools and methods on how to use photoshop