Digital Photography and Imaging - Final Project


18/11/2025 - 23/12/2025 (Week 9 - Week 14)

Cher Pei Ying (0389055)

Digital Photography and Imaging

Final Project


TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Lectures 

    1.1 Introduction to After Effects

2. Process Work

    2.1 Biography

    2.2 Statement

    2.3 Reference

    2.4 Sketch

    2.5 Digital poster

    2.6 Animation

3. Reflection


1. LECTURES

1.1 Introduction to After Effects

Adobe After Effects

- 2.5D animation software

- used for animation, visual effects and motion picture composing

- used in post-production phase

- used to manipulate imagery (combine layers of video and images into the same scene)


Motion graphics animation

- manipulating vector and rasterized art to create and tell a story

- integrate physical based media as well through photographs and videography


Steps:

1. Compositing Layers in ​Photoshop​: layers in Photoshop needs to be arrange and rename accordingly so that it will be organize and easy to be animated in​ After Effects.

2. Compositing Layers in ​After Effects: layer elements need to be organized and synchronized to the external software platforms such as Photoshop & Illustrator. ​After Effects files links to its media instead of embedding it.

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2. PROCESS WORK

This task is to create a self titled poster to express individuality and reflect upon my own personality into digital art self-expression. The main idea is to build up self-confidence and discover my interest.

2.1 Biography

- Introduction: Please introduce yourself, where you come from, your interests, traits, etc.

My name is Cher Pei Ying, I am a Chinese Malaysian who grew up with a fun and colorful childhood. I am an animal enthusiast and my favorite animal is cats. I sometimes resemble myself with cats as I enjoy being alone and act calm but on the inside I am very affectionate. I also grew up enjoying different genres of music which motivates me and adds happiness to my daily life. Music allows me to focus on myself, reflect and recharge. 

- Paragraph 1: What is your passion?

I have developed many hobbies over the years but art has always been my true passion. From a young age, I took art classes where I learned a lot about drawing and coloring with tools like colored pencils, crayons and paints. These experiences helped me think creatively and led me to pursue arts in my studies now. I often view the world in an imaginative way, picturing ideas and concepts in my mind before bringing them to life. Therefore, I always see the world as a beautiful place.

- Paragraph 3: What motivates you to achieve your dream?
I aspire to become a strong, responsible and courageous individual. The small moments in life inspire me to pursue this goal, as I see the world as a place full of wonder and possibilities and I want to be an active part of its magic by living fully, contributing meaningfully and embracing the adventure of life itself.

- Summary: How would you like to visualize your dream into an artwork?
If my dream is an artwork, it will be a piece full with different colors and flowers. Like flowers, I aim to bloom beautifully on the outside, but I know that reaching this goal takes patience, care and growth over time as each petal represents an experience, a lesson or a passion that has shaped who I am today. Just as flowers need sunlight, water and attention to thrive, I believe nurturing my creativity, kindness and curiosity helps me grow into the best version of myself. 

2.2 Statement

- Introduction: What style would you like to apply into your artwork?
I would like to apply various colors of flowers in my artwork to express my life blooming with fun and joy. Besides, the overall theme will be a bit vintage to show that the past made me who I am today.

- Paragraph 1: What is the concept/story behind your idea?
Just like how flowers bloom, life is not perfect and doesn’t last forever, but each and every moment is special and unique.

- Paragraph 2 :What is the message that you want people to understand?
Life is short, much like the short time flowers have to bloom. Therefore, we should live each day fully and with purpose. By embracing the things we love, it motivates us to keep going and enjoy life more. Besides, we should appreciate every small moments in life and do what makes us happy. With that, we will be able to bloom brightly while we can by making the most of the time we have.

- Summary: What is your motto/quote?
Bloom as deeply as you live.

2.3 Reference

I searched for some references from Pinterest:


Figure 2.3.1 Reference 1

Figure 2.3.2 Reference 2


Figure 2.3.3 Reference 3

2.4 Sketch

This is the photo I will be using:

Figure 2.4.1 Picture of myself

Then, I did some sketches on my idea for my own poster design:

Figure 2.4.2 Sketch 1                                 Figure 2.4.3 Sketch 2

2.5 Digital poster

I inserted my photo into Adobe Photoshop and selected myself with using the quick selection tool. Then I refined the edges and hair in the select and mask page.

Figure 2.5.1 Refining edges

Figure 2.5.2 Background removal

Then I added a vintage background and two landscapes after removing the background with object selection tool.

       
                   Figure 2.5.3 Vintage background                  Figure 2.5.4 Landscape

Figure 2.5.5 Adding background and landscape

I then added a frame. A duplicate layer of me was added on top of the frame layer and I linked that with the original layer to create a look where I pop out from the frame.

Figure 2.5.6 Frame

Figure 2.5.7 Adding frame and linking layers

After that, I added a vinyl on the top left of the page and music notes flowing out to the right. I choose to move the music notes because it looks better compared to my sketch.

                                   Figure 2.5.8 Vinyl                                    Figure 2.5.9 Music notes

Figure 2.5.10 Adding vinyl and music notes

I then placed a bunch of flowers behind me. Same as how I did the linking for my picture, I also linked the flowers of two different layers while the parts that overlapped my picture was erased.

Figure 2.5.11 Adding flowers

Next, I added two pictures of cats on the bottom left and right of the poster. My motto "Bloom as deeply as you live." was also added at the bottom of the frame.

                                   Figure 2.5.12 One cat                          Figure 2.5.13 Two cats


Figure 2.5.14 Adding cats

A layer of vibrance was added on top of my picture so that I can lower the vibrance, that way my skin color is more pale and matches the overall poster more.

Figure 2.5.15 Adding vibrance layer

Then I did a double exposure where I added a layer of sky on top of my face. I searched for more elements to cover replace my eyes and lips.

                                         Figure 2.5.16 Sky                               Figure 2.5.17 Eye
                                         Figure 2.5.18 Butterfly                 Figure 2.5.19 Lips

Figure 2.5.20 Double exposure of face and sky

Figure 2.5.21 Adding eye, butterfly and lips

Here I realized I was working on the wrong size of canvas, so I adjusted it to the correct 9:16 aspect ratio.
Figure 2.5.22 Correction of canvas size

This is my final digital poster:

Figure 2.5.23 Final Digital Poster


2.6 Animation


Before getting into Adobe After Effects, I need to rasterize and apply layer mask to all the layers in Adobe Photoshop.
                                               Figure 2.6.1 Rasterize            Figure 2.6.2 Apply layer mask

I first animated the vinyl. I added rotation to it.
Figure 2.6.3 Vinyl animation

The puppet tool was used to animate the music notes. I did a couple of key frames to show the music notes flowing up and down.
Figure 2.6.4 Music note animation

For the cats, I animated them to repeatedly rotate to the left and right. 
Figure 2.6.5 Cats animation

Then I animated the butterfly to fly away by applying the position transformation and puppet pins.
Figure 2.6.6 Butterfly animation

I adjusted the opacity for the sky, eyes and lips to make them fade away.
Figure 2.6.7 sky, eyes and lips animation

All the flowers will appear behind my picture after applying transformation of scale and position.
Figure 2.6.8 Flowers animation

Here I see that the flowers will overlap my picture, which means I arranged the layers wrong. To fix this, I cut out another picture of myself that fits perfectly in the frame in Adobe Photoshop. After that, I added the file and layer into my workspace.

Figure 2.6.9 Flowers overlapping figure

Figure 2.6.10 Adjustment for my picture

Figure 2.6.11 Adding new file

Figure 2.6.12 Adding new layer

I then adjusted the key frames for the sky, eyes and lips so that they fade away after the butterfly flies instead of starting the animation at the same time.
Figure 2.6.13 Adjustment for sky, eyes and lips animation

I added rotation to all the flowers so that they move around with no order after appearing.
Figure 2.6.14 Adding more flowers animation

Lastly, I added easy ease to all the key frames.
Figure 2.6.15 Easy ease keyframes

This is the final animated video:

Figure 2.6.16 Final Animation Video

Artist statement:
My artwork explores the idea of life blossoming through flowers and colors. I incorporated various floral elements to express joy, growth and the enjoyable moments in my life. The overall style has a slightly vintage feel, which shows how my past experiences have shaped who I am today and continue to affect my creative journey.

The inspiration for this work comes from the way flowers bloom. Like flowers, life is flawed and fleeting, yet every moment has its own beauty and meaning. Through this artwork, I express my wish to live life fully and cherish the things I love like music and animals, which provide me comfort and happiness. Only then I can confidently be myself, therefore showing my face in the poster.

I want people to understand that life is short, similar to how quickly flowers bloom. Because of this, we should live each day with purpose and gratitude. By embracing what we love and appreciating even the smallest moments. We should always keep growing, stay motivated and shine brightly while we can.


3. REFLECTION

I really enjoyed this task as I am comfortable with working with compositions. Although I had to go through a bunch of options to get the elements I am satisfied with, the overall process of searching for elements to use went smoothly. Upon that, I realized how privileged I am to have so many sources on the Internet to use in my work. However, I think I could've shown more flora elements, as that was my main theme, I don't think I fully showed that in my final work.

Animating the poster was very fun as I was able to explore various different ways to show my work in a more visual way. Adobe After Effects was quite easy to use and I progressed well upon creating my work. I could improve on arranging the layers beforehand in Adobe Photoshop before creating my animation as I had a bit trouble on that. Luckily I was able to find other ways to solve those problems, and successfully completed my piece without having to redo everything.

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