Media
The media I used to create my project consisted of various pictures I took of myself, my friends, and my various surroundings. When converting the pictures into usable media I used two different methods.
One way was to use Flash.
I imported the Bitmap image to the Library and then converted it into a graphic symbol. After that, I used the Modify Menu and under the Bitmap option I choose “Trace Bitmap”. I increased the Color Threshold a bit so that there would be less of a color variety in the final result and then I increased the Minimum Area so that the final shapes would not be too small. I then changed the Curve Fit to “Very Tight” so that the final result would have interesting looking wisps between the different colors. I left the Corner Threshold on Normal. After Tracing the Image, I went back in and selected colors from lightest to darkest and changed them to different shades of gray, black, and white accordingly.
Here’s an example of one of the images transformed using this method.
Before After
The other way was to use Illustrator to create vectorized images, in particular the silhouettes. I would import the photograph to Illustrator, select it and then hit “Live Trace”. I would then adjust the Threshold to make the image much blacker. After I was satisfied with the way it looked, I would hit “Expand” and go back in and get any of the white or grey pieces that were missed and make them all black.
After I was satisfied with the way they looked, I would save the file and then Import it into Photoshop, there I would apply a Stroke Layer Mask that would outline the whole image in white.
Here’s an example of one of the images transformed using this method.
Before After
