EHS MAC LAB

The Journey Continues (Week 19)

hayes — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:28:39 +0000

“This is the Mac Lab Experience. Your mission is to explore new art, develop new skills, and boldly go where no man has gone before.” ~Me

A new semester begins . . .

Most of you did a great job of learning the technical skills required in the class. However, for many of you, your design skills left something to be desired. Our focus for this semester is to expand on the technical skills and to master the design skills. The focus is going to be on how well your portfolio demonstrates a knowledge of the Elements and Principles of Design.

In addition, you will be writing a “Post a Day” (technically a post per class period) documenting your journey. You are going to prove to me, with evidence, the grade you have earned.

Best of the Best First Semester

The following students did an exceptional job throughout the first semester. They created amazing artwork. Will your name be on the list for next semester?

New Students

Welcome to the Mac Lab Experience. You will begin by watching ALL of the videos on the Rules and Expectations page and completing the Digital Agreement. The Rules and Expectations can be found under Students on the main menu.

Thursday Update

Once you have logged in with your user account, you will begin working through the New Media To Do List. What is the Mac Lab Community? How does cmd + tab work? Have you Setup Dropbox? Did you Create Folders? What about the CS5 Settings under CS5 Central . . . Did you Sync Colors, Create a Photoshop Inkjet Document, Setup Illustrator?

If you get through all of the setup, start on Logo Design.

Fall Finals 2011

hayes — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:10:52 +0000

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” ~ Steve Jobs

We had twenty five students that came on on Saturday for extra credit. Where you one of them? If not are you happy with your grade? Remember, if you owe time you can not earn an A in this class.

The leaders in extra time for the semester are: James H (660), Michael A (460), Joey C (450), and Randy D (320). Great work.

Final

For the final you are responsible for making sure all of your work is on your Website and organized properly. This is your opportunity to WOW me. Show me what you have learned.

Fall Final Instructions | New Media Example

Don’t be Afraid to be Original (Week 18)

hayes — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:19:38 +0000

“If you are not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” ~ Sir Ken Robinson

With design you have to be prepared to take chances. With digital art and design you have the benefit of being able to undo. Your chances of doing anything amazing depends on how many chances you are willing to take, how much you experiment, and how many times you have to undo when an experiment doesn’t work. Are you prepared to be original?

Multimedia Design

We are going to start a series Designing With Photoshop tutorials. The first one on the series is Designing With Color. These tutorials are going to expand on the basics of Photoshop and explore specific concepts of designing with Photoshop. Photoshop is an extremely complex program and creating anything great requires “Thinking Photoshop.”

A large component of “thinking photoshop” is to experiment and to mix concepts together. The concepts you learn in Photoshop do not operate in a vacuum. Just because you “used layer masks” for one project already doesn’t mean you won’t use them again. As you learn more Photoshop skills experiment with combining them together.

Continue working on your three Poster Design projects. How are you going to get people’s interest? How are you going to change their mind?

New Media

Is your The Walking Dead Poster finally done? If not you are a few weeks late . . .

What about your FOUR Desktop Wallpaper Calendars? If not next week is the last week . . .

How are your Genetic Mutations coming? Don’t forget to do all of the steps. You have to cut each mutation out and put it on a new background image.

Information on finalizing your Portfolio Website for the semester will be up next week.

What is in Poster? (Week 16)

hayes — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:06:57 +0000

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” ~ Pericles

Multimedia Design

Poster design combines the elements and principles of design, composition, and good typography. I am going to be looking for all three when I grade plus a clear message. Remember . . . the purpose to of a poster is to inform, persuade, or a combination of both.

New Media

Finish up your January Desktop Calendar (and your “The Walking Dead” poster if you haven’t already done so). Then begin on your Genetic Mutations. Remember to start with your picture as the base and add any crazy combination of facial features from the class. The goal is to make it look “weird”, but at realistic at the same time. You might not earn higher than a “D” if all the features don’t blend well.

Adventure Time (Week 15)

hayes — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:55:31 +0000

“You fool, dwarves eat only coal! Now you’ve made him REALLY mad!! (please don’t feed the dwarves).”

Adventure was the first computer adventure game. Will Crowther was the original programmer and wrote the original version of the game with 700 lines of code in Fortran. It was played on old computer mainframes.

Your task today is to launch Adventure from the Applications folder and play. You are NOT going to work on any other assignments. The high score in each period will earn 60 minutes of extra credit in participation. HINT: Take out a blank piece of paper and draw yourself map as you go along. You may restart the game as many times as you like.

Watch these intro tutorials (courtesy of Mike Skocko) before starting your adventure: 01 | 02. Adventure map.

Thursday/Friday Update

First things first . . . the semester is ending in three weeks. Remember that half of your grade is participation. Have you checked your participation score lately? If your participation is not positive you will not earn an A in the class. Your task today (for 60 points of extra credit) is to come up and WRITE your PARTICIPATION GRADE in the grade column on the clipboard and write +60 in the extra time column and circle it. I will not help you with this. You should know what the clipboard is by now. If it is unfamiliar to you, watch the How do I earn an “A”? videos on the Rules and Expectations page.

You should now know how much time you need to make up, outside of class, in the next three weeks if you want to bring your grade up. There will be ONE more Saturday Lab.

Dektop Wallpaper Calendars

There are FOUR calendars do for the first semester. Each month has a theme/requirement, check the Desktop Wallpaper Calendar page on the To Do List for specifics.

I highly suggest that you check Smashing Magazine for examples. Most designs I have seen so far (at least for December) are “C” level work at best. The December and January calendars should highlight your Photoshop skills and look professional. They should have great Typography. Remember Contrast and Alignment.

Is it Winter Break, Yet? (Week 14)

hayes — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:09:44 +0000

I was looking at Vector Illustrations over the weekend. This year we have some of the best illustrations, yet. Great work. Remember, if you make the gallery and/or the Wall of Fame you earn extra credit.

Once you finish learning learning about the Basics of Photoshop and about Blending Modes and Layer Masks, you will be creating a Desktop Wallpaper Calendar for December. I will be looking for you to show off your new found Photoshop skills. Use AT LEAST three high resolution images and composite them so that you have a cohesive design. Since it is December, your calendar should also have a theme to represent winter and/or the holidays. Don’t forget strong typography (leading, kerning, tracking, contrast, alignment, etc.)

New Media

Once you finish your December calendar you will be working on The Walking Dead Poster. Will yours be Wall of Fame worthy? You may also want to look at how to use Photoshop Smart Filters.

Gallery: Logos 2011 – 2012

hayes — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:55:52 +0000

Featured Artist: Shayne S

Gallery: 2011 – 2012 Logos

Gallery: Illustrations 2011 – 2012

hayes — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:43:51 +0000

Featured Artist: Megan M

Gallery: Illustrations 2011 – 2012

What’s Under Those Layers? (Week 13)

hayes — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:40:10 +0000

Photoshop . . . so it begins. Photoshop is a very complex program. It originated as a photo manipulation program and has grown into a major tool for Graphic Designers, Web Designers, 3D Artsist, Video Production, Real Estate, Bio Medical Illustration, etc. We are only going to scratch the surface. The goal is to get you to “think Photoshop”. That is not easy to do. Have five designers create the same graphic and your likely to have five different ways to do it.

We are going to start with the Basics and then move into Blending Modes and Compositing.

Watch How to Access Stock Photos Using Bridge.

You will be showing off your new found Photoshop skills by designing a Custom Wallpaper Calendar for December. **Remember** - School appropriate background. Or face the consequences.

Are You Afraid to Fail? (Week 12)

hayes — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:58:22 +0000

“An inventor is simply a person who doesn’t take his education too seriously. You see, from the time a person is six years old until he graduates from college he has to take three or four examinations a year. If he flunks once, he is out. But an inventor is almost always failing. He tries and fails maybe a thousand times. It he succeeds once then he’s in. These two things are diametrically opposite. We often say that the biggest job we have is to teach a newly hired employee how to fail intelligently. We have to train him to experiment over and over and to keep on trying and failing until he learns what will work.” ~Charles Kettering

Don’t be afraid to fail. Success rarely comes from the first try. Ever eat a banana? How many times do you think it took somebody to figure out to peel it before eating it?

In most of your classes there is a right and a wrong answer. Usually it is all right or all wrong. That is rarely the case in the real world and never the case with creativity. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Would this look better in blue or dark green? What if I tried this brush style instead of the default. What does this tool do? How could I use it to make my project better?

If you are afraid to fail, you’ll never succeed.

Wow me with your Vector Illustrations. If you want an “A” on your illustration it better show improvement over your self-portrait. I expect shadowing, gradients, different brush strokes, etc.

Also, don’t forget all the final steps: Enhance in Photoshop | Turn final Print into my dropbox | Image: Vector Illustration

November Desktop Calendar

When you are done with your Vector Illustration, you are going to use it as the basis for creating your November calendar. If you forgot how to set it up, check here.

Here are some examples from Smashing Magazine – Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: November 2011.