A lot of our our class was off out at an event today so we had a bit of a break and designed clay characters. We used large paperclips to support the characters and we also discovered the importance of big feet!
We thought about what kind of character they were (good, bad, happy, clumsy, depressed, scatterbrained). We wondered if the Grim Reaper character was scary and mean (with blood on his scythe) or clumsy (with strawberry jam after he tripped up at breakfast time)
Last week we started researching types of internet communications:
Today we did more research and started writing our reports. We need to write a 500 word report talking about three of these areas and talking about using one of them.
For each area we looked at we tried to answer some questions:
I wrote an example report:
Internet Messaging
What is it?
Instant messaging (also known as IM) is a quick way of sending messages to a friend. You both need to be logged into the IM system. It is private, so your messages don’t get displayed to other people (like they do on Twitter and Facebook). It’s usually free.
Examples
Google Talk, Microsoft Live Messager (MSN) and Blackberry Messager (BBM) are all examples of instant messaging services.
What does it let me do?
IM lets me send private messages to my friends without using a mobile phone.
Why would I want to use it?
It’s great for sending messages to my friends on my computer or using an app on my phone. I don’t need to use a mobile phone which means I don’t have to pay for text messages.
Picture Sharing
What is it?
Picture sharing or photo sharing is a way of putting photos online and letting other people see them.
Examples
Flickr.com, Facebook photos, Photobucket.com, Joomeo
What does it let me do?
It lets me put all my photos online and share them with my family and friends. Some sites let you edit your photos, such as correcting red eye or cropping photos. You can put your photos into sets (like “My summer holiday” or “Fred’s party”). Your friends can favourite your photos and add comments to them.
Why would I want to use it?
If my real photos or my computer were damaged then all my photos would be safe. Also, my mum can see photos of my holiday before I even get home!
Internet Telephony
What is it?
Internet telephony is a way of making phone calls using my computer or a phone app. It is also known as Voice over IP or VOIP.
Examples
Skype, Google Talk, Bria and Mumble are examples of internet telephony.
What does it let me do?
VOIP lets me call my friends and family using an internet connection. I can also send photos and files and use an instant messenger facility with most VOIP services.
Why would I want to use it?
I can use VOIP to get cheaper calls to my friends or family than using a mobile phone. It is a lot cheaper to call people who live in other countries. It is useful for talking to more than one person (doing ‘conference calling’)
I still need to add in a description to my report of using a method of online communication. We will be doing that next week when we will be trying out Flickr.
This article links to lots of interesting sound websites for downloading music and sound effects legally
Today we look over all the photos that were taken in a rush yesterday. We talked about focus, blur, cropping and the use of tripods! Some of the photos had uneven light because one light had broken. Some of the photos of bottles looked good except the whole bottle wasn’t visible – the top or the bottom had been cropped.
We also talked about the position of the camera compared to the subject. If the camera is looking up at the person it makes them look powerful. If the camera is looking down on the person it makes them look weak.
We took the photos again. The results were much better! We set up two even lights for our blue screen area. We set up the tripod so that the camera was eye level.
At the end we started to edit the photos and construct our posters. I discovered my nice tropical island background image is just too small to make into a poster so I’ll need to find a bigger resolution image next time.
We started our assessed work for Internet and Online Communications today. We were doing web surfing. There were four tasks:
Task 1
Go to www.ed-coll.ac.uk
or www.stevenson.ac.uk
or www.jec.ac.uk
Navigate around the website. Find details of a course you think sounds interesting
Save the web page onto your home drive
Task 2
Use a search engine to search for jobs or careers you are interested in.
The web page found must include three of the following types of information: text, numbers, graphics or sound.
Write down the words you used to search
Save the web page onto your home drive
Task 3
Go to dir.yahoo.com.
Search the site for information you are interested in.
Write down the words you used to search
Save the web page onto your home drive
Create a folder within your bookmarks/favourites. Give it your name as a title, for example: ‘Steven’s Favourites’.
Add this webpage to your favourites folder.
Task 4
View the browser’s history. Use the history feature of your browser to re-visit the first web page found.
Take a print out of the history window by pressing the Prt Scr button, go to Word then select Edit / Paste
View the bookmarks/favourites and take a print out of your bookmarks/favourites window
Use the bookmark/favourites feature of your browser to re-visit the third web page
Today we kept gathering images. We used a lot of generators to help us.
We created EAN barcodes for our bottle labels to look just like the barcodes used in shops.
We created QR codes to link to websites. We thought this would be good for running competitions. A couple of pupils decided this website would link to a Joke-of-the-week site that they could make.
We used a nutritional label generator to create nutrition labels for the backs of our drinks bottles. I used nutrition facts from a similar type of drink so the data would look right. If we were making these for real we would need to involve the Science department to help us measure calories etc.
Today we explored fonts and logos. Firstly we talked about Serif and Sans-serif fonts. Serif fonts have twiddly bits on the letters. ‘Sans’ means without. Sans-serif fonts are without twiddly bits.
We looked at different font styles on Google Web Fonts and talked about what would be a good font for a logo. We then created logos for our drinks labels using CoolText.com.
Today we discussed faking images. We looked at the image of a shark attacking a helicopter and thought about how it was made.
We found images of water (anything like an ocean or a swimming pool) and then images of something we wanted to put into that scene.
We talked a lot about direction of light, shadows, brightness and contrast. It is actually really difficult making hoax images!
We’ve been working our way through the different tasks that need finished for Computer Games Development. Everyone seems to be at a different stage!
S4 Task list
1. Draft and final poster
2. Draft and final box art
3. Type up and finish game review
4. Finish your own game in Scratch
5. Type up a review of your own game
6. Research new technology for playing games at bit.ly/emergingtechno
Today we looked at how to recreate images involving pictures in them. I had seen an image with an iphone smile and I thought it was quite cool.
I had also seen a similar technique recently with old photos. We searched about for photos where we could make the same effect.
It turns out there’s not enough photos online of Craigmillar Castle, and it’s difficult to find an old and new photo of Edinburgh Castle from the same angle. The Forth Rail Bridge worked quite well, as did the Eiffel Tower and the Great Sphinx of Giza. It’s difficult to find a modern day photo that is larger than the old photo so that you can see the effect.
We then started looking at our final project (our “our mission”!) for the Still Images unit. We researched different designs of drinks bottles and cans as we will be designing our own and creating the marketing for the drink.
Update: I found a lovely blog today called Dear Photograph with lots of nice examples of this technique
Update 6/2/13: Here’s a brilliant image by Danny Charge of Princes Street in Edinburgh
