To my dedicated and devoted Yearbook Students...
Your next task is to find and research blog software and report your findings. We currently have a class blog using blogger, an online newspaper using wordpress, and I've heard many great things about tumblr.
Find 3 different blog softwares out there - there is already a myriad of reviews that have been written. Take a look at them, do some comparisons and be ready to present to the class which of the 3 you researched you would recommend for our purposes.
What are our puposes? Well, I'd like each of you to have your own blog that can be used as a personal journalism site to practice your craft. As a yearbooker you are essentially a journalist - you are documenting the story of Lakeshore C.I. through this school year. The yearbook itself is a traditional form of presenting that story - in print with lots of photos, and some words and graphics. There are many other ways of telling stories digitally - digital storytelling - that offer so much more flexibility and immediacy that the traditional yearbook can't begin to touch.
Check out the links on the sidebar of this blog - Digital Journalist and Visual Journalist as well.
check out this guys' photo blog. Not sure which site he used.
Chris Wahl - The Wahl Post
When you have finished your research, present it to the class.
Criteria. Please include the following points in your research. Not necessarily in this order.
1. Ease of use (how easy is it to use for the average person)
2. Design tools (how much flexibility and control does it give you to change/control the look of your blog)
3. Publishing and Tracking (syndication feeds offered)
4. Software/hosting (what type of software and hosting)
5. Tech support (How quick/easy is it to get help if it's needed)
6. Any other additional bells and whistles
Here are a few sites to get you started. You can also google blog software or blog comparisons and see what you find. Extra point for finding something other than wordpress, blogger and tumblr (since those are the only ones I have mentioned!)
Tumblr vs. Wordpress
Blog software review
Tumblr vs wordpress vs blogspot!
By the end of this assignment, we will agree as a class which blog software seems right for us as a class - I will be starting a new blog as well as the class blog.
Due: Thursday March 22, 2012.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Creating vector portraits in Illustrator
There are many ways to create vector portraits - in Photoshop or Illustrator.
Here are a few tutorials that I found that seem fairly straightforward. The basic essentials are as follows:
Use Photoshop to alter the photograph so that it is reduced to 15-20 layers or tones instead of a continuous tone photograph. You can use smart blur, cutout filter, posterizing etc. You can also alter the colour balance and change the hue/saturation of the image to play around with different colours.
Once you have something you are happy with, copy the image into Illustrator to begin tracing.
You are tracing the shapes that create the various values and tones in the image. You can choose colours and tones from the actual photograph to fill the image, or finish tracing and then add tones later.
Continue buildling and adjusting as you go.
Here are a few tutorials to try. You may find some aswell for yourself.
http://bit.ly/tqdRKs Spoon Graphics Blog
http://adobe.ly/wMjcvi Adobe TV-Max Design: This is a very long video on Adobe TV. Please don't waste your time watching this in class, but you might want to check it out at home.
http://bit.ly/bi4WUZ This one seems really good, though I haven't tried all the steps. It's from Digital Arts Online. While it's a bit complicated, I think it might be one that gives you the most control and detail.
Also check out this guy's work. He's fantastic. http://www.eelcovandenberg.com/
Eelco Van Den Berg is an illustrator based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Here are a few tutorials that I found that seem fairly straightforward. The basic essentials are as follows:
Use Photoshop to alter the photograph so that it is reduced to 15-20 layers or tones instead of a continuous tone photograph. You can use smart blur, cutout filter, posterizing etc. You can also alter the colour balance and change the hue/saturation of the image to play around with different colours.
Once you have something you are happy with, copy the image into Illustrator to begin tracing.
You are tracing the shapes that create the various values and tones in the image. You can choose colours and tones from the actual photograph to fill the image, or finish tracing and then add tones later.
Continue buildling and adjusting as you go.
Here are a few tutorials to try. You may find some aswell for yourself.
http://bit.ly/tqdRKs Spoon Graphics Blog
http://adobe.ly/wMjcvi Adobe TV-Max Design: This is a very long video on Adobe TV. Please don't waste your time watching this in class, but you might want to check it out at home.
http://bit.ly/bi4WUZ This one seems really good, though I haven't tried all the steps. It's from Digital Arts Online. While it's a bit complicated, I think it might be one that gives you the most control and detail.
Also check out this guy's work. He's fantastic. http://www.eelcovandenberg.com/
Eelco Van Den Berg is an illustrator based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Send me your blog!
Hi TGG4M1 Graphics students. Please send a comment to the bottom of this posting with your blog's URL. Please remember to use a pseudonym (fake name) in all of your blog's information. Everything you publish can be traced back to you and is there forever! For safety reasons, you must remain anonymous. Of course, I will know who you are so I can look at your fabulous mark and give you the credit you deserve for it.
We'll talk more about personal publishing and blogs shortly.
We'll talk more about personal publishing and blogs shortly.
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