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YAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I did the Spanish title again, because come on, this photo is full of Hispanics a.k.a my extended family. Like the previous assignment, I had to dig through my mom’s pictures on Facebook to find this photo. I then looked up transparent copies of a birthday hat and balloons which I then added to the photo through PicMonkey. This assignment wasn’t as hard as the rating it was given, but it was a pretty fun and enjoyable one.
For my final Visual Assignment of the week, I decided to complete Birthdays are the Worst for 2.5 stars bringing my total for the week to 8.5 stars! I thought I would really enjoy this assignment because I enjoy this kind of photo editing so far for the class. Here is my creation!
Everyone knows that birthdays never live up to expectations. For this assignment, you need to find a picture of yourself where you look upset and use photo editing software to add a birthday hat and party decorations. Bonus points if you’re in a group of people and you’re all wearing hats.
Story behind the picture: my sister and I took this picture on a cruise that we took over the summer to Bermuda. We purposefully made sad/angry facial expressions because at the time we were headed back home and away from the warm weather and paradise! It works perfectly for this assignment. Below is a tutorial on how I completed the assignment:
I enjoyed this assignment. It was fun to add a little happiness to a sad photo!
I had to work at my birthday? Not Happy!
This seemed like a fun assignment, because I like drawing over my pictures. My two favorites are the one where I made myself look like a Simpsons version of Bob Ross, and the one where I made myself into the devil. I also think this shows good contrast because it’s a real image with cartoon elements drawn in, which gives it a playful goofy feel. It’s also got good juxtaposition, because birthdays are supposed to be happy celebrations, and I’m using a picture where I’m not very happy. It’s also nice to re-purpose old photos. Honestly, this photo was a throwaway one of my friends took while playing with his new phone, so it’s nice to be able to use it for something productive.
“Many Happy Returns: I am NOT 6,” animated GIF by @aforgrave
When looking through the Visual Assignment bank, it seemed that the Visual Assignment 1720: Birthdays are the Worst would be most apropos for Number 6 and the episode Many Happy Returns. It asks that you “find a picture of yourself Number 6 where you he look(s) upset and use photo editing software to add a birthday hat and party decorations.”
Recalling that Mrs. Butterworth (aka Number 2) brings Number 6 a cake at the end of the episode, I quickly scanned ahead using Quicktime and copied out a single frame (Command-C, thanks, Bill!) and pasted it into Photoshop. Somewhere along the way I remember thinking, wouldn’t it be ideal if there were six candles on the cake?
Well, there are! Not a coincidence, I’m sure! And Number 6 doesn’t look particularly happy, either. Perfect!
To highlight that little irony, I used the Magic Wand tool to isolate each flame (one at a time) and then used Layer>New>Layer via Copy to get each flame onto its own layer. I named each of the layers candle1 through candle6 respectively. Re-selecting just the flame (using Command-click on the thumbnail for a given candle layer, I then switched back to the original photo layer and used Edit>Fill (Use: Content Aware) to get a good start on removing the flame from the original image. A little touching up using both the Spot Healing brush tool and the Clone Stamp tool removed any artifacts so that the candle appeared unlit. After repeating this for each candle flame in the original image, all that remained was to create a series of subsequent frames in the Timeline , each one adding in one additional candle flame layer until all six candles were lit. Two seconds for the initial and final frames, 1/2 second intervals for each candle flame, and a 0 pause 5-frame transition from the end back to the start.
“Using the Timeline in Photoshop to set frame intervals.”
However, along the way (between candles 1, 2, 3, 6 — and then 4, 5) I headed off to the Internet to find a party hat for Number 6. Very quickly the hunt switched from a simple clip art party hat to one that would say “I am 6.” After all …
A series of photographs of plush party hats caught my eye in Google images. Jumping out to the source website, I found they had hats in stock for ages 18, 21, 30, 40, 50, and 60, (as well as a crown and a traffic cone).
“I am 6, not 60,” animated GIF by @aforgrave
The Clone Stamp tool was used to remove the red 0 from the 60, and then, because the right side of the hat was initially a bit brighter than the left — and now more so with the space left by the removal of the 0 — I used the Colour Replace brush (sampling on the left side of the hat) to tone down the right side by painting over the right side. Voila.
Of course, Number 6 would never agree to wear such a hat in The Village, even on his own birthday, and so he marked it up a bit with some charcoal before putting it on his head.
And then, just at the final moment, I decided that Mrs. Butterworth deserved a party had to celebrate with Number 6, and because she was the reigning Number 2, she got the crown.
It seemed more appropriate selection than the traffic cone. Plus, it fit on her beehive hairdo.
2 Credit Units!
#BeSeeingYou
Everyone knows that birthdays never live up to expectations. For this assignment, you need to find a picture of yourself where you look upset and use photo editing software to add a birthday hat and party decorations. Bonus points if you’re in a group of people and you’ree all wearing hats.
