Hi everyone! I’m Melissa, a graphic design major and illustration minor. I figured I’d introduce myself in my first Where Creativity Works blog post by showing one of my final projects in my sophomore year here at Marywood. 

This year has gone by extremely fast, and I can’t believe I’m already halfway done with college. I’ve learned so many cool techniques, especially in one of my spring semester courses, Motion Graphics. In class, we first focused on frame and video timeline animation in Adobe Photoshop, eventually progressing to the introduction of two entirely new programs, Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects. These new programs definitely took some time to get used to, exploring their seemingly endless effect menus, capabilities, and keyframing techniques. But, once I got the hang of it, I found myself having some of the most fun I’ve had seeing the creativity of the finished projects, not only in my own work but in my peers’ work as well. Although the projects were time-consuming, the results were well worth the hours of work. This class was an exciting learning experience and a great addition to a designer’s resume. 

The Motion Graphics final was a two-part final project. The first part involved creating a kinetic typography video, using a quote from a tv show or movie of our choice. For this one, we had to sync the words with the audio track, focusing mainly on typography to communicate the mood of the quote with minimal graphics. Although the digital illustrator in me put a little bit more of an emphasis on the graphics, I had fun creating color schemes, picking typefaces, and using different capabilities in After Effects to produce a clip from my favorite tv show, “Friends.”

The second part was more open-ended, which involved creating a promotional motion graphic on anything about ourselves. It could be a presentation of work, our favorite things, our interests, our hobbies, etc. The finished product was really up to us when it came to deciding on the subject matter and how we wanted to present ourselves. I decided to create a video based on a few of my favorite things, so hopefully, that short clip will help you all to get to know me a bit better. 

I can’t wait to see where this session of blogging takes me, and look forward to sharing art and design in everyday life!