The official language of my species is Trussian. The words are only English translations, as the characters are difficult to type!
Fa'rae means hello
Fa'rie means good-bye
Blikker means blogger
Blikk means blog
gry means other
Gree means yes
Ree means no
Gelgenbarg means maybe
Shaloh means friend
Shaloee means friends
Meshaloe means enemy/ non-friend
Khala'myn means 'how do you do?'
Lynas means name
My means girl
By means boy
Mennemma means species
Juniro means animal
Mez means nose
Leez means mouth
Kakos means hair
Stropp means see you later
B'in means I am
B'er means I have
B'iv means I like
B'uv means I don't like
Nie means like/ for example
La nu means they are
Zeenuuu means fantastic
Forbut means cheese [from spacecows!]
Noonoo means alien
Vupuq means boring/bored
Pulaa means home
Pulmasoy means jungle
Buni'ikr means food
Kikisor means eye/ kikisee means eyes
Stro means yellow
Mue means blue
Xut means black
Tux means white
Luj means green
Vee means orange
Que means red
Jus means pink
Gew means purple
Mim means grey
Doo means beige
Let's put it into context!
Fa'rae! Khala'myn B'in Mennemma homosapien. B'in lynos Annie. B'in my. B'iv shalohee nie Alex, Izzy, Meghna, Jamie, Liv, Cassie. La nu zeenuuu shaloee! Fa'rie! Stropp!
Myling- through the years
Link: http://firedaily.com/2009/10/files/2009/10/excited_child.jpg
So, here's Myling before and after!
Fa'rie gry blikker!
Linaghi
This is Linaghi and her updates. The final update is at the top! Hope you like her :)
I got the original image from: http://www.cameraphonesplaza.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/an-lg-partnership-makes-the-heidi-klum-biography-much-richer-02.jpg
Fa'rie gry blikker!
Facts about Ka'truss
Ka'truss is a planet the size of Mars. It is a bright purple planet even though really, it has a blue environment. Ka'truss is the home of several species of creatures, one of them being Mennemmas; primitive jungle-dwelling and creative humanoids. Mennemmas are adapted to the interesting conditions that Ka'truss throws at them. Here's facts about the planet
- We would not survive on most of Ka'truss, it would either be too hot in summer or too cold in winter (392 degree Celsius weather in summer and -392 degree weather in winter!)
- Mennemma skin and seed layer are adapted to the extreme change! When it's hot, their skin becomes slimy, thick and cool to keep a Mennemma cool and not overheated. In winter, their skin goes hard and tough to not let any heat out and keep the Mennemma warm and healthy.
- A human has a chance of surviving in the middle of the planet were many Mennemmas live. There is not a large temperature change (-29 degrees Celsius in winter and about 40 degrees Celsius in summer)
- Ka'truss land is made from hardened lava. Lava still flows in certain parts of the planet
- Mennemmas camouflauge in the blue environments
- A Mennema's eyes can change when stalking prey and camouflauging
- The purple is actually the thick CO2 atmosphere and a layer of extreme purple ozone unidentified to humans yet
I hope you know more about Ka'truss (and I hope it helps you understand some features of the Mennemma!
Ka'truss: http://www.flash-universe.co.uk/images/Drik-Beta.jpg
Amazing photoshop avatars!
These are the avatars that other people have created. I really like the rhino one and I believe that experimenting with fruit skins leaves interesting impressions. I like the spider x onion hybrid too as it can be mistaken for a real spider species! I think if the photoshopper blended the onion more then it would look more natural and believable. Nevertheless, the artist did a fine job. I think the artist who created the frog did it flawlessly. When I first looked at it, I couldn't believe my eyes! The photoshopper made it look amazingly realistic! Simply flawless. I quite like the Obama one. It looks so realistic! I like the way the artist used the clone brush to remove the nose and the transformation of the eyes. The spots work well, too! Obama makes my Mennemmas look like nothing!
http://www.freakingnews.com/Pictures/2/Animals-or-Plants.jpg
http://sayiamgreen.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/photoshopped-plant-animal06.jpg
http://egelwan.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/obamalien.jpg
http://deralt.smugmug.com/Other/Winning-PhotoShop-entries/frog-cover/99506078_QoiNb-S.jpg
Reflection
I really enjoyed working with photoshop. Through all the frustration and stress I faced, there was always the fun and creative side which I loved to experience. I had never worked with photoshop before, and masking seemed totally new to me! I had a bit of trouble with masking before. I used to accidentally unlink the masks and cause myself all sorts of stress! Hue and saturation was great to work with, especially the colourizing and saturation- very fun to play around with and create cool designs. I began to get very annoyed with creating layers! They took a while to make and really became tedious towards the end of my piece! Luckily, I didn't experience too many problems with it. Sometimes, I accidentally forgot to inverse and pressed delete when I was using a marquee and got a heart attack. Luckily, good old history panel was there to help me! Whenever I did something wrong which I couldn't undo, I was very relieved that the history panel existed. Otherwise, I'd be failing this assignment at the moment! The clone brush took a while to get used to. I was annoyed that I had to keep selecting the area I wanted cloned because I sometimes ended up getting hair on a nose! I found that frustrating but I became really good at it towards the end. (If you couldn't already tell, I cloned out the nose!) I also found changing the hue and saturation was very easy for Linaghi because her hair was blonde and did not need much saturation so it looked more natural when I coloured it. However, Myling, having darker hair, needed a slightly more saturation. I found changing it annoying and it took me a few lessons to finally be happy with it. The skin feature (seeds) worked well. I had difficulty with brushes though. Mr Powell helped me with it, and he said to use a soft brush and reduce the flow. I found that the skin looks much better and more natural and a lot easier to do than use a hard brush with 100% flow and make the outline perfect. I used the soft brush for the hair on both of my avatars. If you look back on a photo of me with purple hair, and one of my avatar's, then you'll see a difference in the hair straight away. I used a hard brush in the first image as well as too much gradient and saturation so it looked artificial. On my avatar, let's say Linaghi, I used a soft brush and not too much saturation to improve the realisticess of my avatar. I had to experiment with certain flows to find which brush worket best in my situation, and it was usually 58% that did the job. I found that working with opacity saves a lot of time and the opacity I used for the seeds on my Mennemmas was perfect and added the effect I desired- bumps around the seeds and a slightly red-ish tinge. Overall, I rate Linaghi 9.5/10. If I could improve her, I'd definitely add more alien effects so she could look even more sci-fi than she already is. I rate Myling 8.5/10. If I were to change him, I would definitely change the pink tinge where the nose used to be and make it more like Linaghi's- blue and blended. Linaghi's dark eyes helped convey her calm nature, and her crossed arms help her look serious and smart. Myling is very energetic, and has bright eyes. By lookng at them, one can tell that he is excited and energetic. I used hue and saturation of the eyes to help deliver their personalities.
I liked the idea of making an avatar, but how they were made really frustrated me at times- especially when things did NOT work out! The paragraph above will explain what I found frustrating. As annoying and repetitive as it was, the emu and frog hybrid we made for the first fortnight or so really helped me understand masking and opacity as well as hue and saturation. If not for the fromu, then I would not have had the understanding of masks and layers that I do now. I learn by watching a professional (Mr Powell) do it first instead of wandering into the mist and not doing the right thing I was meant to do. I found one-on-one help was fantastic and suited everybody's needs. Demonstrations were essential when introducing us to new topics and combined with one-on-one help suits my needs. I completed the task quite simply by listening and looking at Mr Powell's demonstrations on the smart board, then attempted to do the action on photoshop. If I failed, I would write my name on the help list and Mr Powell would show me how to do it one-on-one which was great and helped me achieve my final avatar. He showed me the clone brush and the soft brush which I probably would not have discovered in time for the submission date.
I think I used my time wisely somewhere in the middle of the term. In the first two weeks, I must admit, my friends and I were obsessed with photobooth and got easily distracted by the little gadget! However, towards the middle when we got our assignments, we started using time wisely and spend 95% of the time fully focussed on our avatars. Towards the end of the term when my avatar was complete, I found myself helping my friends and working on Blogger. I was 79% concentrated then. I started writing my reflection earlier this week but didn't get much done because I was pondering whether to submit my avatar or not and whether I had done enough to please Mr Powell and myself. I started my blog, then I forgot about it before having an epiphany and realising I had a blog which I needed to post on! I kept it up-to-date for the rest of the term, and I won't do something stupid like that again. I managed to save everything in PSD and JPEG and didn't lose any files and I believe my saving method was effective, and I saved a separate file for each avatar. This was effective so that if I make a mistake, I can track back and start again on, let's say, update 5. I am quite pleased with the resulting avatar. You can find my ratings and reasonings in the first paragraph. If I did have my time all over again, I would make sure to use it wisely and remove the nose better to make it look more natural. I like my avatar design and believe that it's very interesting, original and quirky.
~Annie K
Hmmm...?
I'm unsure whether to do a background or not for Myling... I tried but it's too complicated but it does contribute to his personality! I think I'll ask Mr Powell in the last lesson tomorrow. Until then, I need to do my reflection! [which is almost finished]
Personality profiles
Linaghi aka Heidi Klum is a Mennemma from the planet Ka'truss. Linaghi lives in a hut she constructed herself. It was carefully engineered to fit her standards and to be large enough to contain her two daughters and husband. She is generally calm and quiet. However, she can be a bit fussy when something does not turn out the way she expected it to! Linaghi is quite active and likes to exercise and problem solve. She can be bipolar sometimes if everything happens too fast or when she's frustrated under pressure but that's only on a rare occassion. Linaghi is quite smart and thinks outside of the box and therefore is considered of high status and value so she wears a white shirt/blouse to indicate that. Linaghi's tattoo is usually dull to reflect her personality- calm and placid. It would become brighter if she was aggravated, distressed and took on a energetic character. Linaghi's tattoo is similar to her great grand mother but Linaghi's has a curve inside the inner circle. In three words, Linaghi is quiet, smart and calm.
Myling aka excited boy is also a Mennemma from Ka'truss. He is a child, and children especially at his stage are usually highly energetic and active. Myling lives with his parents in the middle of Ka'truss. He has no siblings and desires to be left an only child. Myling is an active little boy who loves to imagine everything as something else, like the floor is dirt (the floor in Ka'truss is actually lava in some places! The seeds on the skin help keep the skin cool and insulate their skin so they won't be burned by the lave) He is very social and has many friends. Myling is not the brightest child of his species, but he certainly has a talent for art. Myling is generally happy and energetic. However, if something upsets him he could go hysterical and restless. He can be a bit judgemental and does get jealous quite easily. Myling is grumpy when he does not get sleep and when his skin goes to slimy! Myling has approximately the same size tattoo as Linaghi but each Mennamma's design is different and each is unique and used as a form of identity.
Overall, the Mennemmas of Ka'truss are athletic and creative creatures. They all have unique talents. As explained in Myling's personality profile, the Mennemma seeds are actually a protective layer to keep their skin protected against nature and lava which is very common in Ka'truss. Mennemma skin does start to peel at certain stages of their lives in which they much stay in shelter before the skin grows back as venturing out could potentially hold dangerous consequences. Mennemma children are very active and energetic during their first 30 years of life (30 years = approx 10 years on our planet, to find out how old you are as a Mennemma simply multiply your age by 3! I'm 39) After the age of 30, Mennemmas become very calm and relaxed before their life becomes a balance of both at the age of 64. An interesting feature of the Mennemma is that:
- They have no nose, but they breathe through an organ found on their back which supplies their lungs with CO2 (they breathe CO2 not oxygen!)
- Their ears are also their organs used for smell
- When Mennemmas blush, their feet turn yellow
- Mennemma tattoos are barely visible when they are depressed
- When a Mennemma is angry, their ears will turn red too!
Mennemmas are very fascinating creatures!
An inspitational story
On a fine day sometime in the middle of the term, I was pondering life's many questions. My mother called me into the kitchen and I subconsciously followed her command. She offered me tea and I rejected but I eyed a strawberry. I took it with my two fingers and examined it. 'Twas then when a light shone on me and I realised... It was the chosen- no, it was actually the ideal skin feature I wanted on my avatar, both alien and interesting, I tried the idea and out popped Heidi Klum, my final submitted avatar!
'Strawberry skin? How preposterous!' The other children chanted. But by creating Heidi Klum, I believe the strawberry has worked well. Don't you think?
I was inspired by a previous picture that I photoshopped when I did her hair. I attempted to photoshop my own hair... but it looked very fake. I decided to try and do it on Heidi, to make her a violette instead of a blonde. I think it worked quite well, and complements her skin colour.
The lips... I really wanted to make them contrast! I tried different colours but I found that yellow simply was best. No other colour stood out as much (without making the lips look super weird) I think they make Heidi look a bit quirky.
What inspired the eyes, I hear you ask. Well, they're from an actual animal... but they're slightly bigger than in the original image. I decided to colour them purple to match the hair. Mr Powell said to put them behind the strawberry skin then mask it and I did so. I think it looks more natural. The eyes don't glow as much and suit Heidi more.
I thought rainbow eyelashes would make the eyes stand out, and they do! The eyelashes are so big and multi-coloured that they attract a LOT of attention to the eyes and therefore, the eyes are one of Heidi's most visual features. When I applied the eyelashes, they didn't cover the area I wanted them to and instead of stretching, I decided to simply add extensions to them. Now I think that they are big and turned out how I wanted them to.
Where's Heidi's nose? I hear you ask. Well, I felt that it just wasn't working the way I wanted to and I decided to get rid of it! It makes Heidi look more alien and strange. I think it looks awesome!
Heidi's 'tattoo' is quite faint, because she is quite relaxed. If you look at excited boy, he has a very visible tattoo because he is excited!
I didn't have much inspiration either than that strawberry!
A personal reflection
Wow, looking back now, I have realised that because I took home a laptop, I have greatly improved on my avatar. Last week, I was at the finishing point in my Heidi Klum avatar.
I took a laptop home again this weekend and did very fine touch-ups on Heidi. I believe that now, I'm ready to submit her.
Todat I worked on my excited child, too. I think he needs very fine touch-ups before he's submitted.
I felt that my species needed something extra. I didn't show it on Heidi, but since my excited child is displaying his tongue, I felt the urge to make it rainbow and stripy. It used to be blue and I think that he looks more alien now, and if anything, better and more complex.
In my next post I'll show you what inspired my quirky creations and how I made my final decision on what my species would look like!
The unveiling of avatar 2!
Bonjour fellow bloggers... or should I say Fa'rae gry blikker!
Today in class I worked on avatar 2- Myling.
Myling is a little boy who is showing surprise, a common emotion in children his age!
I must admit, he is awefully adorable... at least before his ultimate makeover.
Here he is as of 16/3/10
As you can see, Myling shows a clear resemblance to another of his species- Linaghi. The male Mennemmas generally have smaller skin features (seeds in this instance) than that of female Mennemmas such as Linaghi. Children, especially, have smaller features than they will have as adults.
Myling is not complete yet. I need to do touch ups and give him a 'tattoo' and eyelashes. I might also give Myling some other features that Linghai lacks. e.g. Myling has brighter eyes than Linghai (confusing names, I know, but I'm getting into the sci-fi theme and attempting to learn Klignon while I'm at it!)
How do you like him so far? Any suggestions would be appreciated :)
Fa'rie gry blikker!
The unveiling of Homer!
Homer Simpson- your typical donut-eating no-brainer. He pays no attention whatsoever to what he eats- Homer simply eats whatever he finds, his favourite food usually being a donut!
But wait!
A new image has been leaked onto the internet...
Homer...
eating a PIE!!!
I did this quickly one lesson. I really like the Simpsons and thought it'd be funny to make Homer eat something other than a pie. Simply by masking, I have made Homer eat a healthier choice. I've dedicated this post to the unveiling of the photo!
Avatar 1
Hey look! Is it an alien? Is it a monster? No, It's Heidi Klum or Linaghi a Mennemma from the planey Ka'truss! (uhh I just thought of that at the top of my head)Notice anything different?
Well...
- I imprived Linaghi's eyes and blended them with the skin more. This has made them look realistic, and not like the 'glasses' she once wore. To do this, I put them behind the skin-feature layer and then simply masked it and used the black soft brush to erase the bits on the eyes. The eyes now look darker and more realistic. The ones before appeared to glow- something you don't see everyday!
- I did the usual touch up-s and made the skin appear more natural rather than a mask simply by doing an outline with a soft brush. The soft brush blends everything in and saves A LOT of time! (but can be tedious to the amateur)
So... how do you like Linaghi/Heidi NOW?
who is THAT??
This is my updated avatar- Heidi. I decided to change Heidi's eyes. They suit her more (no offence Heidi) and make her look more alien. I added eye lashes to make her eyes look more natural. I also did some fine details around her arms and neck so her skin is seed-y in the right places. If you haven't alread noticed, I've decided it was best to remove her nose. I think it gives the picture an alien feel to it. The nose didn't seem to work with Heidi in the particular cirscumstances. I think she's almost finished! My second avatar will be surprise. I've decided to ditch my angry man and go with an excited boy! I didn't save it as a jpeg but stay tuned for my next post or few!
Avatar update!
Look! It's Heidi! How much has she changed from the last time you saw her? Since when did she dye her hair purple, wore yellow lipstick, had an odd eye and contracted a rare skin disease? Since I photoshopped her, of course!
I liker her skin, especually on the arms. Heidi's yellow lips really contrast and stand out from the dark colourst I used on her. Her purple hair compliments her skin and her odd eyes are quite strange, too. The species shall be from the planet PAND- I mean uhh Tiffany and co? No, I haven't thought of the name of the species as I haven't done my second avatar either. I've made a start but I'm unsure whether or not I would like to continue with it. I might select a different image where the face is more dominant and it's more high res.
On Heidi, I am unsure about the:
- eyes... should I give her animal eyes? I was thinking of goat or a tarsier as they both have out-of-the-ordinary eyes!
- eye brows... should I give her big bushy eyebrows or amazing eye lashes? If I do both, they would clash
- her emotion. I'm pretty sure she looks content but I still need reassurance
I'm looking for my second image. Tell me if I should keep it but I'll do another one anyway just in case it looks better, and I might submit that too!
Isn't he gorgeous?
Recents
I converted some previous photoshop experiments to JPEG so I can look at them without photoshop. Today I looked back on everything I did and wow, I have improved so much! I can do anything now, really. The first creature I created was my fromu, Bobby 19 v8. He took a whole lesson to create. Now, I can make something similar in seconds. 
Cute, huh?
I've also photoshopped a kangaroo with lion-like features. It's not the most attractive creature you'll find but it's still pretty cool!
How did I make it? Simply by finding a picture of a lion and pasting it into the kangaroo picture. From there, I lowered the opacity and I pressed 'Apple T' for transform and played around with sizing until the eye of the lion alligned with the eye of the kangaroo, and so does the nose. Once they were at the desired position, I masked it and used the black paint brush to erase the areas I didn't need. If I (which I did) erased bits I didn't want erased, I simply used the white brush to make the spot(s) reappear. I decided to do orange stripes on the face and did it by using the black and white brushes. This isn't done to the best of my abilities, as I wasn't very confident in photoshop when I first started!
Look! Purple hair! (image is small because I don't want stalkers : if you want the image, I can send it to you) My hair is medium brown and I made it purple! Sure, it looks unnatural but I finally have the hair colour I want! I tried hue and saturation, but because of my hair it didn't work so I had to 'bleach' it. To do so, I simply adjusted the curves and voila, my hair was considerably lighter! From then on, I went to hue and saturation and... it worked! I made my hair purple and then I just had to mask it and get rid of all the bits I didn't like. Then I went around the edges with a soft brush and ta-da! I have awesome hair all thanks to PHOTOSHOP!
Haven't posted in a while...
Haven't posted in a while, I know but this post is going to cover for it!
We got our assignments, and we have to make our avatars. After experimenting with different animals (and even myself!) I have come up with my inspiration:
Image 1: emotion is content. I am using Heidi Klum as my victim. I am going to make her eyes very big and purple, have a 'tattoo' on her forehead, give her whiskers and animal ears (maybe) and make her teeth small, and possibly mouth, too. Her skin is probably going to be a very pale blue. I'm going to change the background if I can to a rainforest if there's time.
Image 2: emotion is ager. I am going to try and persuade my collegues to allow me to take photos of them showing this very distinct emotion. Her cheeks will glow red as a sign of anger, as well as her ears.
As well as filling you in with my avatar idea, I'm going to show you some work I did in previous lessons.
I bought my guitar in (as well as the amp) haha only joking. I did this very quickly. My parents were getting me a guitar that I picket out. I thought it'd be funny to quickly mask the guitar over and dreadlocks and the amp. I have it now and it's a very nice sounding guitar.
I started on my avatar with Heidi Klum as my first victim. I don't really like the way she looks right now though, so I'm going to have to do some intense photoshopping! She looks content. For my 2nd victim, I am going to find a picture of an angry man and do the same as I did with Heidi Klum, except do a more masculine design instead of the flower-type tattoo on Heidi's forehead and do green lips instead of yellow to signify gender change.
I'll keep you updated on my avatar. Until then, bye!