Near and Far by Jennifer Ryan Kelly

Craft Curator Jennifer Ryan Kelly

Dedicated to my family and friends, whom I cannot see due to Ireland's lockdown restrictions.

Communication is a form of self-care. We need other people for support, or to just have a little catch-up. 

By talking to my family and friends I will ask them for photos of their faces and/or people in places. 

I will cut out features, such as eyes, ears, mouth, etc., and assemble an entirely new face. I will animate it by making the faces change on each frame. Joining all of the people together in a collage. This will give a sense of unity in isolation, bringing people together, and reflecting on the memories created, in a very funny, lighthearted way.

I will also cut out the people from different places in pictures. Leaving a gap where they should be and filling the background with writings from my favorite books.

What you will need: digital or physical pictures, books, scissors or craft knife, a computer with Photoshop or Krita (Krita is free to download!), and a video editing program.

I'm going to do this project digitally, but you can also do this physically! Camscanner is an app I use to scan images onto my phone and send it to my computer. 

Step 1: Open up Photoshop, Krita, or your photo editor of preference and make the size of the document 1920 x 1080.

Step 2: Import a picture of your choice. Use the rectangular selection tool, select around the face.

Step 3: Click edit>copy.

Step 4: Open your tab on your 1920 x 1080 document and select edit>paste, this will bring your previous selected image to your current document.

Step 5: Repeat this process with as many other faces as you want!

Step 6: Using the lasso select tool, trace around an area of the face you would like to use. Then, edit>copy

Step 7: Paste the copied area above your image. Arrange it the way you want.

Step 8: Click enter, this will deselect and will keep the fragment in place.

Step 9: Using different faces, and different areas of each individual’s face, repeat steps 6-8 until you have a (distorted) face!
Repeat this a number of times, creating a new unusual face every time. Don’t worry if it looks strange, it’s supposed to!

Step 10: Open up After Effects, or a video editor of your choosing, and click file>new>new project.

Step 11: Create a new composition. Ensure it is 1920 x 1080 px with any colour background of your choosing, using 25 frames per second.

Step 12: File>import>multiple files to import your images.

Step 13: Click an image, hold shift and select as many images as you want and click import.

Step 14: Once imported, hold shift and select all your images and drag them to your composition.

Step 15: Keep images selected when in your composition.

Step 16: Drag the images to 0.5 seconds.

Step 17: Move each image to the side of the image on top.

Step 18: File>export>add to Adobe Media Encoder Queue.

Step 19: Select and click the green play button to render your video.

Step 20: Your animation is now complete!

Bonus tutorial…

for those who may not have access to photo/video editing programs! I'm going to do this project digitally, but you can also do this physically! Camscanner is an app I use to scan images onto my phone and send it to my computer.

Step 1: Browse through your phone's photo album, old photo books or ask friends and family for photos. 

Step 2: Once obtained you can work digitally or practically. 

Digital: Open Photoshop, Krita or another photo editing program. 

Practically: Select photos, it's best to have copies of the original so you don't destroy your only physical memory, and grab a scissors or craft knife. 

Step 3: Cut out the person from the image. 

Digital: using the lasso tool, trace around the individual/s. 

Practical: Using scissors or craft knife, cut individual out of photo. 

Step 4: Take the person out! 

Digital: Once your lasso tool has been traced from start to finish;

Click delete on your keyboard OR if you would prefer to keep the person click>edit>copy, make a new layer, and paste. 

Practical: Once you have cut the person out, gently pluck them from the image. 

Step 5: Look for and select books. 

Use any page from a book of your choosing. 

Digital only: Scan the page with a scanner. If you don't have a scanner use the app Camscanner on your phone. 

You can save the image from Camscanner to your gallery and then upload it to Google Drive, Onedrive, whatever you prefer to work on your computer. 

Step 6: Page. 

Digital: Open the page image on your photo editor. Copy around the page and paste it into your photo you have been working on prior. 

Move the layer beneath the image, so the writing appears underneath. 

Practical: Simply place the page underneath your image where the person used to be. 

Step 7: You're done! 

You can choose to design and decorate in any way you'd prefer. Tracing around the missing figure, adding features to their place, etc.