Entry 6 - Evaluation

When I initially heard about the requirements of the project, I was quite excited as I really enjoy being creative, but a little part of me was discouraged as I knew that I’m not really a Photoshop genius. I gathered that there would be a whole lot of self-teaching if I was opting for the higher mark.

I put aside the negative factors and started my research on different tips and handy techniques for my design. I came across a variable amount of tutorials and even tested them out too, but most were a waste of time as it was not really what I was looking for.

Next time I would try out a tutorial only after I am sure that it would suit my requirements.

I eventually found a few tutorials which created a decent look for my project and used them. They turned out ok once I put them together on the file which was a relief as I knew that I already have what I need so that was the end of my search.

One slight problem I faced was making the images on the front cover blend with each other properly. The two images look alright next to each other in other peoples view, even though they’re aren’t wrong, I’m not exactly 100% satisfied with the overall look if it but I thought to myself, it’s alright as long as I achieve my criteria. 

·        What I would do differently next time.

To erase the watermark on the image, I used a spot healing tool. I figured out after, that instead of using this, I could have used the clone stamp tool or a patch tool as these completely cover the unwanted area with actual parts of the image effectively.

From this example, I understood that I should take the time to learn more about the tools included in the software since it would usually have an easier solution to certain problems.

I wanted the DVD inlay to be 100% original i.e. consist of no unmodified images but due to time constraints, I was only able to devote my time for extra design on the front cover of the inlay. The back cover was already existent images. But overall I am quite pleased with the little effort I did put into it.     

·        What I would spend more or less time on next time

If I was to conduct a similar project in future, I would dedicate more time to the research of techniques or tutorials. This is because from the experience I had with this project, I learnt that these help in different ways; firstly, it helped to fulfil my assignment criteria and secondly, it introduces new techniques and which generally allows me to explore and bring out my creativity side.

In future, with this sort of project, I would spend less time fussing and being indecisive about the image or tutorial idea to use, and more time on actually getting the work done at the earliest with the first exceptional looking image or tutorial found.