Submitted by: Michael O’Neal, Kelly Nixon (Student Teacher)
School: Hermitage High School
Summary
The purpose of this lesson is to provide students with experience in digital manipulation techniques. Students will discover how to seamlessly blend images. Blending images is a skill that is invaluable in editing personal and professional images. Students will create a hybrid animal using Adobe Photoshop techniques and photo manipulation to merge different animal images and textures into a new, original animal. The hybrid should include at least two animals, one texture, and should show evidence of different tools being used to combine them. Students will create a focal point in their image.
TIPC Ratings
Students are instructed in advanced research, copyright issues, and royalty-free images. They select authentic resources based on this knowledge and use powerful vector-based (Adobe Photoshop) and raster-based (Adobe Illustrator) programs to design their animal hybrids.The guiding question that students use for this research is: Can the photographs they find be easily blended to create a new image? In addition, students gather a wide variety of photographs to determine which ones are suitable for their final hybrid project.
Students form groups based on interest (copyright laws, project guidelines, project rubric, class computer policies, and source list) and instruct the remainder of the class on the use of these guidelines.Websites are compared within groups to make sure project requirements are met. Full class discussions throughout the project and the end-of-class critique and reflection on individual projects allows for student input and feedback.
Students choose the digital tool (Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator) which best fits their hybrid project. Students also evaluate websites and select royalty-free images. Throughout the process students are questioning the ease of blending selected animal shapes and colors. In addition, they analyze and experiment with several images in deciding which to use for their final project. Students discuss each others’ projects and individually reflect on ways in which they excelled or could improve. A student recorder makes notes on this discussion and shares this with the class via School Space. Students use these notes to review for future assessments.
Students use assigned as well as unique researched websites to create their hybrid animals. Students take risks in determining the simplicity or complexity of selected images to be utilized. For example, combining two similar animals would be less risky than choosing three dissimilar ones. During the research phase, students observe trends in creating animal hybrids that help them create their original work. The final product that students create is a unique animal hybrid based on their research, digital tool, skill, and creativity. As students view each others work, via School Space, they reflect on their originality and technique and decide how their work could be improved.
Student Artifact
Download Files
- Lesson Plan
- Rubric
- Intro to PhotoShop Tutorial and Animal Hybrid Tutorial
- Source List
- Student Work Samples
