This is so meta...

Where did all you zombies come from?

I feel that I must give some explanation behind the name of my project before I go into more depth. The title is part of a quote from a short story written in 1959 called "All You Zombies". It is at the end of the story, when the narrator asks, "I know where I came from - but where did all you zombies come from?", referring to the culmination of the events of the story, and the realization that each character in the story is  the narrator. I thought that was so fascinating, creating this paradoxical scenario in which the narrator is interacting with him/herself. I then thought that for my project, it would create an interesting concept in which there were multiple versions of myself interacting with each other simultaneously, adding a science fiction flair to my project. I also drew inspiration from a quote from the horror game demo, PT, which stated the quote, "The only me is me. Are you sure the only you is you?" It really resonated with me, with its mysterious, dark, and sinister tones. It made me think about the concept of parallel realities, and multiple versions of me. Though I didn't take it in that dark and sinister direction, my project still incorporated the idea of the multiple versions of myself.

I am happy with the results of my project. I think it really communicates what I was aiming for, and that anybody that observes it can clearly see the idea of my project. It's not confusing, and I think that the image flows well enough that people can see that it's basically me interacting with different versions of myself. I do not think the image is choppy, and I think the quality holds well. The only aspect I am unhappy with is that I think I should have adjusted the lighting more, and hopefully improving the image in the process. Otherwise than that, I am happy with how the project turned out.

When I first started my project, I took several photos of my living room, making sure to not change the position of my camera to keep the same background. The only thing I did was position myself in different places with different clothes to give the illusion of separate beings. When I uploaded the pictures, I made sure to keep one picture (the one with the tank top) as the official background which everything else would be relative to. After uploading the pictures, I copied and pasted each individual one to the same tab. I proceeded to create a layer mask for each individual photo, utilizing the paint bucket tool to fill each layer mask with black. Then, using the paint brush tool with white, I filled in the layer mask for each individual photo in a certain location to reveal each of the figures, and therefore making it seem as though they were all together simultaneously. As many of the photos had different lighting, I chose one to keep the background, and thus the lighting, the same across the whole image, and filled in the layer mask accordingly while leaving the figures intact. After that was done, and all figures appeared simultaneously, I proceeded to use the Image Adjustment 'Curves' to brighten the photo, as the image was relatively dark. I pulled the curve upwards in the middle to brighten the middle and back of the room. Then, as a finishing touch, I blurred each of the figures' faces with the blur tool, creating a sense of mystery and anonymity, relating to the mysterious tone of the PT quote.

Mini Lesson 4