Done with the Website(: Ready for Summer :D

So finally I'm completely finished with the website. It took a while to finish but I'm glad i'm done! Dreamweaver is so much easier after getting the hang of things and seeing and understanding how it all works. It's actually an easy program, you just have to practice it! :D YAY!! Done with the FINAL PROJECT!!! Now all we have to do is take the final but I guess this is it!(: I had a fun year in multimedia and I learned a lot of things about the different programs and stuff. I can now say that I am much better with technology than I was before! Goodbye multimedia(: Hello Summer!! Have a fun summer everybody! xD

WEBSITE!

Today I actually got a lot finished! I'm basically almost done at this point. All I need to do now is add more text and edit it more, but I'm getting there. We only have about two more days to work on it so hopefully I'll finish on time.

Website!! :D

Well today I actually got a lot done on my website. I really like it so far because it looks cool and neat and pretty(: I finished doing most of my pages and linked them which was really easy. Now I just need to add more text and finish up more details, but I'm getting a lot done!

In The Making...

Today was a much better day! I'm actually getting used to dreamweaver. I also already gathered all my old projects from my old computer. I got my home page for the website done. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna have a separate page for each program we have used this year. So far I'm working on my Photoshop Page. I kind of understand how the program works a little better. It's just that last time it seemed really overwhelming, but it's actually not too bad, like all the other programs we've used, it takes time! So next time I should be done with my Photoshop page!

Dreamweaver

So today we worked on our website on dreamweaver and it's so hard! I don't like this program at all. I had some trouble with the images earlier. I did get a rough sketch of how I want it to look like though. Hopefully I'll get better at it, but right now it's the most confusing program so far.

Today I helped Ale with her flash because I finished and I looked at some portfolio examples.

Today We...

Today I finished my animation and did the questions for the final. I also looked at some portfolio website ideas, and I kind of have an idea of how it looks like.

Questions!

Here are some questions that I came up with for the final.

1. What is the program where you can create 3D illustrations?
A) Illustrator
B) Photoshop
C) iPhoto
D) Keynote

2. What is the program where you can create an animation?
A) Photoshop
B) iDVD
C) iMovie
D) Flash

3. In which program were we able to create movie posters?
A) iMovie
B) Flash
C) Rome
D) iPhoto

4. Last semester, we made travel brochures on a country in what program?
A) Photoshop
B) Pages
C) Keynote
D) Illustrator

5. When ever you are using a free image off the internet (like off of stock exchange), what do you have to do to use it?
A) Cite it using citations
B) Change the image
C) Download it
D) Nothing

Bears and Shooting Stars??

Today it was only 9th graders which was pretty fun. I finished my bear animation and I made another one with shooting stars. Everything is pretty easy now after using it. Here's the video for my bear animation. Haha they fall in love!! :D

And here's a picture if the video doesn't work...

Bear Animation!!

Today I worked on my bear animation and it looks good so far. It took a while to create the bears and figure out how to do all the motion tweens but I'm really getting the hang of it. It's actually not that bad!

Flash

Today I looked at some more flash tutorials and I'm kind of getting the hang of things. I also tried some animations which was easy too.

Flash Tutorials

So, today we watched the tutorials and I learned how to group things on flash. I also learned some more of the basics for using flash and it gets easier after using it. Now I kind of have the hang of things and how to make shapes and change the properties and stuff like that. I'm scared of how to actually make the things move because it looks really hard. Here's the character I recreated.

Here's the one that I messed with the background.

Flash!

So today I started working on Adobe Flash. I watched some video tutorials which helped only a little because I already know how to make some shapes and things. The program is frustrating. I don't really like it because it's a lot like illustrator. It's actually harder than illustrator. Although I made a picture of Eve from Wall-E, well sorta haha. Here it is.

Japan!

So today we put our movie on iDVD which was super super easy. We also filled out our evaluation sheet for our video which didn't really take long but that's pretty much it. I also looked at some of the photos from the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami which were really sad because basically everything was destroyed! I really hope things get better for them, and we could do a lot to help them out!

iMovieee!

Today I think we're officially done with our video. We kinda added some finishing touches to it. So then we finished our work logs and we also started checking out iDVD.

I also checked out the Dynamic Viewing and basically all you need to do is add view/(mosaic, sideboard, flipcard, snapshot, timecard) to your blogspot url

For example:
http://theasianleprechaun.blogspot.com/view/mosaic
I think it's pretty cool because it's a different way of seeing your blog. You can also change which one you want at the top right corner of the viewing page.

PSA PROJECT!!

Today we finally finished our project!! iMovie actually wasn't too bad except at first it was hard to put the different camera angles together, but it looks really good now. We did a lot of effects for the videos as well which made them look better. We also finished all the subtitles and we even added credits and bloopers haha. It actually turned out a lot better than I thought. Plus it isn't too cheesy!

PSA Project!!

Today we started filming my part which was supposed to show me graduating. We were really lucky because we managed to get a cap and gown from the choir room. We also got a WAIS certificate from Mr.W. We got our clip completed and adjusted so we're like 1/3 done!

Planing Our PSA

So today my group(Deborah and David) planned out our whole PSA. We have the plan filled out, we have our storyboard with all the different scenes we will shoot, and we even have our script ready with the english and spanish. We actually got a lot of work done today, so basically next time we'll be prepared to shoot. We also just need to find some props, but I think we're done with all the planning.

PSA Videos

Today we found some really good videos on a website called drugfreeworld.org and I actually learned a lot of new things that I never knew about drugs, like the long term effects of it. I learned that after the first use you can die, and some people who are older can get really bad effects like numbness, ulcers, heart attacks, all sorts of things. It would definitely convince me to not do drugs so I definitely thing they are good PSAs. They aren't the cheesy ones since they have like real life experiences. We came up with an idea for our anti-drug video and all we need to do is find some props and we'll be good. Today we also filled out a worksheet that was to investigate our topic which we completed easily.

PSAs

Today we looked up different PSAs which our public service announcements to show people and convince people different things. My group chose to do teens and drugs and we'll be doing  a video over that.

Posters(:

Here are my movie posters: I did two, because I didn't know which to choose.

Here is the one I did for environmental. It's supposed to encourage people to plant more trees and love the environment! haha

Reflection!

The new skills I have learned so far this semester is how to make non-boring presentations. I also learned how to make a wiki article about different things. My favorite was the text animation because it was fun that I could make actual animations out of a regular keynote. Lastly I learned how to use Adobe Rome. At first it was kind of complicated but I got used to it. Rome isn't my absolute favorite program, but I know how to use it now. These skills will benefit me because the next time I have a project for another class, I won't have the most boring presentation. I learned a lot of keynote skills I will be needing later on. Also, it would probably be useful to know how to make a proper wiki article. Adobe Rome could be useful for jobs and even school. I can make all sorts of things, for instance I might need to advertise something for people to buy. I could just make a poster to print out easily. My level of effort effected my achievement because the more effort I put in my work, the better the outcome came out, and the more experience I have with the program.

Poster Project

Today I'm going on a field trip so I got less time to work on my posters, but basically I completed everything, I just need to work on the details now. Hopefully I'll be able to finish everything by next time.

Citations:Guglielmo, Davide. "Stock.xchng - Hand Stamp (stock Photo by Brokenarts)."Stock.xchng - the Leading Free Stock Photography Site. 5 Feb. 2005. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. <http://www.sxc.hu/photo/252373>.


Jule, Claudio. "Stock.xchng - Tomato Plant in a Tin Can (stock Photo by Kwod)."Stock.xchng - the Leading Free Stock Photography Site. 23 Mar. 2010. Web. 08 Mar. 2011. <http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1269974>.

Posters

So today I worked on my project again, and it was hard to get my pictures to blend in with the background.   Either I might continue on doing my poster, or start a new one. Hopefully we'll have more time next time.

New Project!

Today we worked on the projects we have to do on Adobe Rome. We have to make two different posters, one for a fictional movie, and the other for the environment or humanitarian effort. I worked on my movie poster first and found a picture of a handprint, so I decided to do a mystery movie. Then my title is The X Files, which is like a show and movie. So far it looks pretty good, but I need to edit more.

Citation for picture I used:
Guglielmo, Davide. "Stock.xchng - Hand Stamp (stock Photo by Brokenarts)." Stock.xchng - the Leading Free Stock Photography Site. 5 Feb. 2005. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. <http://www.sxc.hu/photo/252373>.

Rome again!

Today I worked on a new tutorial for Layout and Formal Text. This one was actually really easy because basically all you do is create a bunch of text boxes and then just change the fonts and text however you want. Adobe ROME is getting a lot easier now that I know some of the basics. Here's the layout one I did about biking. It was kind of fun because I wrote a bunch of random things about biking around the world, so you should read it! It's really funny, well interesting haha.

After this, I worked on trying to make certificates for the talent show winners. I was only able to make one certificate, but here's the design for it.

Short Day!(:

Today I worked with Adobe Rome again and I followed a tutorial to do a logo. Most of it was easy but some steps were a little confusing. I think Rome takes so time to get used to, but after a while you get used to it and it becomes a lot easier, kind of like photoshop. Here's the logo I made with my initials. I messed around with the gradient tool to make it different colors.

Adobe Rome

Well today I finished my wiki article, and the link to it is on another post. After that, I looked at some other articles people did for their web 2.0 tools and some of them were interesting. I learned a couple of new things. Then, after viewing the wiki articles, I tried out Adobe Rome. I followed the step by step tutorials and overall it was really easy. The only problem was some of the instructions were kind of confusing, but I was able to figure it out. I think it's a cool program, and the adjustments are quick and easy since you can just scroll your mouse over most things instead of clicking. Here's the one I made...

Here's the citation for the picture I got:
Petrov, Marina. "Stock.xchng - Coloseo (stock Photo by Mpetrov)." Stock.xchng - the Leading Free Stock Photography Site. 9 Mar. 2010. Web. 18 Feb. 2011. <http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1266307>.


That was basically all we did today, and at the end of class, we saw the last of the presentations for the web 2.0 tools. Everyone did a good job because I didn't get super bored from watching like 25 presentations.

Wiki

Today we got our rough drafts back, and we turned them into actual wiki articles online. It was actually really easy, and I liked the overall outcome. This is basically all we did today, besides seeing other people's presentations for their web 2.0 tool. Here's my wiki article for Blogger!

Wiki Article

What I did today/ Text Animation

Today we first had to write a sample for multimedia. We were supposed to write about our web 2.0 tool and write it like a wiki article. It was a little confusing trying to word it like a wiki article, but I managed to write a well developed sample. By this point, I can basically talk about my web 2.0 tool in my sleep...

Other than that, I finished my text animation!! I'm so happy and it was a lot of fun! I exported the keynote as a quicktime onto this post. I'm hoping that it will work. If it doesn't, then I'll probably just have it on google docs. Next time I guess we'll be discussing what's happening in Egypt and I already have some information about it on an earlier post. That's basically all we did today. Here's the video to my text animation and hopefully it will work. If it doesn't here's the google docs link, and just download the keynote:
The Real Princess

Text animation Day 2

We were supposed to finish our mini project today. I'm really close to finishing it. I just need one more slide. Overall, I really like mine because there are a lot of cool animations. I'm not really sure how to post it onto the blog though. Next time, I'll definitely be done with my keynote. I just need to add some finishing touches. It's actually really time consuming though, but it's fun.

TEXT ANIMATION(:

Today we had a project where we have to create a slideshow that had text animation. First I chose a story off of Project Gutenburg (a website where you can download books for free) and looked up fairytales because that seemed like a fun story to use. I chose the book Andersen's Fairy Tales By: Hans Christian Andersen. After that, I chose one of the stories in the book called The Real Princess which is basically like the Princess and the Pea. After watching the example, I kind of got an idea on what text animation is. The tutorial was kind of confusing, and instead of using it, I kind of learned how to do the animations on my own. It's actually really fun and easy. This is one of the projects where you get to be creative. In order to do different animations, you would have to use several different text boxes to do different animations, and each one you have to do a separate text box, which was kind of time consuming and annoying. Other than that everything went smoothly and I got about halfway done with my presentation. Hopefully next time I'll get done, but I really like my outcome so far.

Surveys

So today more people presented and I was able to take surveys of people that had their survey uploaded correctly. I already took the survey for...

-Alaan 

-Rudy

-Isabel

-David P

-David K

-Deborah

-Randy

We also researched about Egypt social media and found some interesting information. Other than that, all we did today was take surveys, finish work from last time, and watched presentations. My presentation turned out pretty good, and it turned out the way I planned.(:

Egypt Social Media

I read an article about the problems with Egypt right now. It talked about how Egypt's connection to internet and cell phones were shut down. Many protestors would tweet or put on their facebook about the whole issue going on over there. They also talked about wether or not the social media is causing a revolution in Egypt. Even after they shut everything down, they still found way of communications to the outside world. Now that they have lost their internet and can't protest online, they're taking different actions, which is basically going out on the streets and actually doing something.

What we did today

Today we had a lot of activities to do. First we were supposed to take other people's surveys. Some of them I couldn't do because you had to sign in and it got messed up, but I did get to do some of them. I also wrote about my web 2.0 tool about blogger and tried out cooliris too. It's a really cool program that I would like to use. I also finished my input and output which was pretty easy.

Input or Output?

1. Computer Screen/ Monitor- Output
2. Keyboard- Input
3. Mouse- Input
4. CD/DVD Drive- Input
5. Headphones- Output
6. USB Flash-drive/ Jump-drive: Input/Output
7. Projector- Output
8. Printer- Output
9. Wireless Internet Hub- Input/Output
10. ActiVote- Input
11. ActivBoard Pen- Input

Cooliris

Cooliris is a really cool way for you to be able to search photos. It's a much more different way of viewing photos, and it's also interactive. I would definitely love to use this on different things. I guess it's a search engine because you can look up photos and view them, and it's much easier and faster. It's definitely flashy, and it's fun to mess around with. It's also really visual too. I definitely would use this as my search engine instead of things like flickr or google images.

Web 2.0 Tool

Blogger
     Blogger is a great way for people to be interactive and a way they can write freely about anything they want. A blog is basically a website where you can have different entries or posts, and you can also create how your blog looks, and all sorts of gadgets on your blog to make it more interesting. Other people can also comment on your blog as well. Users can view other people's blogs on blogger, or they can choose to just blog about different things. You can have several different blog posts and different blogs on one account. It's much easier to manage it all.

     

There are several things that are good about blogger. First of all, you get to choose what to write about. It's also all electronic and easy to use. You can access blogger from your phone too, any sign up for blogger mobile where you can post from you phone. You can also design it however you choose, from the layouts they have, and you can change colors of different items to your personal liking. The best part is that you get to apply all sorts of gadgets! There's a wide variety of gadgets that you can find. It's much easier if you just look them up on google. They have gadgets where you can have social networks connected to your blogger, people can IM on your blog, interactive gadgets, animations, photos, videos, and so much more. You can even make money off of blogger by having advertisements on your blog.  

   Blogger isn't perfect though. Since Blogger is owned by Google, they can basically monitor and control your account. If you have things that they don't like, they have the ability to delete your account. They have complete control of your blog, so there's not much freedom with blogger. It also isn't very safe. You need to be extremely careful about what you post on your blog. Everyone will be able to see it, so if you put really personal information onto your blog, it can be dangerous. Another bad thing is that  there aren't that many designs on the website. There are some that you can choose from, but if you really want unique designs, you'll have to download them yourself.

     Blogger is great for students because instead of having to hand in assignments, you can easily just post them onto your blog. It's definitely more efficient and it's a lot easier as well for both the student and the teacher. Teachers are able to monitor the student's progress and daily work from their different blog posts and plus it saves a lot of paper in the end. Students are actually being interactive as well because they use blogger every day, and instead of wasting time writing they can just type it up easily on the computer. It's so much easier for the teacher too because they have access to all the student's blogs and they are able to comment on their work as well.

Here's a link to Blogger

Citations:

• Blogger: Create Your Free Blog. 1999. Web. 14 Jan. 2011. <http://www.blogger.com/>.
• "WordPress vs Blogger? Pros and Cons – Part Two." Modern Street - A Blog on and about the Web. Modern Street. Web. 19 Jan. 2011. <http://www.modernstreet.com/wordpress/wordpress-vs-blogger-part2/>.

Input and Output Devices/ What we did today

Input- When you have a device with information and you put it into a computer. It puts new information into the computer.
Ex: Camera- it brings pictures(information) into the computer

Output- Something that displays information from the computer.
Ex: Printer- takes information from the computer and displays it onto a sheet of printed paper.

What we also did today was we looked at other keynotes made by people. I actually learned a couple new things and it wasn't really boring either. After, we used cards to do a sort. It was a little challenging but we finished.

Keynote

Today I finally finished my keynote and it turned out really good and I really like it. I did the best I could to try to make it less boring. I actually learned some interesting things that I'm sure people had no idea about. Hopefully it'll make my keynote more entertaining. I also made it a bit shorter, just as long as I talk more instead of reading off the slide, I'll do fine. I'm just kind of nervous because I'm not much of a public speaker, but I feel pretty confident after going over it a couple times. I also already posted my survey on to my blog again.

Survey

Presentation

I presented my keynote to one of my friends in class today. He said I needed maybe some more different animations. They did say they were a little bored, so I need to work on making it less boring by adding additional unknown facts. He also said that for some things, I could explain in detail more about. For example, one of the interesting things about blogger is that you can get paid for it, so I can talk a little more about that. Other than that, he said my presentation was good, so next time, I'll want to edit my keynote a little more. I just really hope it won't bore the audience.

What I did today?

Today after reading the article, I worked on my Keynote about Blogger. At this point, I'm basically almost done with mine. The challenging part is that I need to find a lot of neat information that people don't already know about blogger. I did find out things that I had no clue about, so hopefully it'll be enough. I'm also trying to make my Keynote more simple, and less boring. I'll try to add more pictures to make it less boring.

Article

Today I read an article about powerpoint called "We have met the enemy and he is powerpoint". It was mainly about how PowerPoints are affecting the military. It explains how generals have to make PowerPoints and for some, they have to spend most of their time doing so. PowerPoints are only useful when officers need to tell things briefly, but not when they need to tell a lot of information. Worst of all, many of the officers and general have to sit through boring PowerPoints, sometimes even every day. PowerPoint is definitely an issue in the military. "It's dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control."

I don't think PowerPoint is to blame for some of the military issues, but it does make problems worse.

Keynote

Today, I started my project about web 2.0 tools, and I'm using blogger as my tool. I created my presentation on keynote, and things are running pretty smoothly. To get my pictures, all I have to do is take screenshots which is command+shift+3. I got a lot done today and I'm starting with the pros of blogger. I'll try to put less text on my slides so that it won't be as boring, and I'll also use some more of the tips from the powerpoint I watched last time.

Death by Powerpoint

We looked at a powerpoint presentation today, and I learned a lot of interesting information about how to make the powerpoint less boring. For example, I learned that:
-you need to really get to the point
-don't put too much information
-a lot of pictures!
-you need to rehearse what you say
-interesting and significant statements
-make it memorable
-and other great tips

After looking up things about the boring powerpoint issue, I found some other solutions:
-Don't have too many visuals or animations, it causes a distraction
-Large and simple fonts
-In the beginning, list what you will be talking about in the first few slides
-Try using more unique templates, rather than templates given on the program
-Try to add a little humor, to keep audience interested
-Try avoiding full sentences

Keynote:
Luckily, I have already used keynote before, so using it to make a powerpoint won't be very difficult to me.  It's actually a lot like pages, except it has some other different effects. I like how you get to choose from so many cool themes, and some of them look really professional, and others look more like for fun. Hopefully I'll learn more things that will make my powerpoint better.

Web 2.0 Tools

What are Web 2.0 Tools?
Basically it's a way to get the computer user more interactive. They are used so that the user of the computer can customize things how they want it to be on the web. So while the user is viewing a certain website. They could personally customize that website for themselves as well. They can also be used to share different types of media and information like videos.
Examples of these tools would be like Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, and also Blogger.

The web 2.0 tool that I want to do my project on is Blogger. http://www.blogger.com People are able to write things about themselves or whatever they want to put, as well as customize the blog design however they would want it. The pros about this is students are able to be interactive with the web while using it. Also, the teacher can monitor the student's progress throughout a class by checking their blog posts. Although the cons would be that it isn't very safe to use Blogger. If you put any personal information about yourself on a website like Blogger, it could be extremely dangerous, so you have to be cautious while using this tool. Also a disadvantage of Blogger is that some people may not have internet at home, so it's harder for them to use it.

My backup choice is Skype. http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home Skype is used as a way of communication around the world. It's free, so you no longer have to have long distance calling fees. Plus it is also used for education because teachers could have guest speakers over Skype without the hassle of setting up an appointment and everything, so now it's also a much more convenient and affordable way of learning for this generation.

I have an advantage of choosing Blogger as my tool since I'm already familiar with it already. Although, it would be nice to know more information about it later on, like more Pros and Cons and more educational purposes of Blogger. I haven't used Skype before, so that may be more of a challenge. I do know that some of my teachers have used it before to teach us in a lesson.