Computers 8 (Friday) - Foreign Culture

Good morning Computers 8!  Happy Friday!  Today's assignment for your photo editing portfolio is to seek out a high quality, evocative photo of a foreign culture or landscape/scenery and edit it in the way that you feel is the most appropriate.  You may use several different effects until you achieve a final product with which you feel satisfied.  You may choose to fade sections out, boost sections, crop the photo, add text, soften the original, add filters, change the colour tones, etc.  You may also choose to use only one or two effects (sometimes less is more).  The biggest part of the work on this assignment is selecting the most interesting photo to edit.  For this assignment I would prefer no text to be added.  If you really want to add a quotation or some other text, save the edited photo first and hand it in, then continue editing and add your text.  Save it again with a different file name (ie. "Foreign Culture text") and hand it in again so I can look at both when I'm marking the assignments.

When you are finished, save the assignment with as "Last name, first initial Foreign Culture" and hand it in to the folder.

Have a great weekend!

Computers 8 (Wednesday) - Interesting Portrait

Hi Computers 8!

Our next assignment is called "Interesting portrait" and I want you to really spend your time looking for the right photograph to edit.  Look for a high quality portrait online of someone who looks intriguing or interesting.  Maybe it's an elderly person with lots of laugh lines around their eyes, or maybe it's a person of a different ethnicity who has particularly striking features, piercing eyes, etc.  Maybe it's someone with an expression on their face that looks like it tells a story.  Take your time selecting just the right portrait!  Please note that portraits should be relatively close up; you should see the person from about the shoulders up, not full body.  If you finish with time to do more you can choose some different ones that include people from different vantage points, etc. if you choose.

Use any of the techniques you've learned in Computers class (or any others that you feel enhance the subject matter) to complete your edit.  Save it with your last name first, as always, call it "Interesting portrait" and hand it in to the folder.  When you are done, find more interesting faces to edit!

Happy editing!

IP 10 (Tuesday) Yearbook planning

Good morning IP 10!  Today we are going to be looking at selecting our favourite backgrounds.  Some of the most popular choices from our initial browsing last week were:

7 votes:
Static

5 votes:
Clouds

4 votes:
Fabric
Purple Fabric color
Sunset Sky
Vintage double
Blue Backdrop

3 votes:
Brocade
Cloudy Sky
Concrete Blue double
Ink Displacement
Music Notes
Notebook Paper
River Current
Sunburst
This Is It
Waterfalls

2 votes:
Aftershock Colour
Aged Parchment
Athletics
Aquatic Vortex
Believe double
Blue Waves
Boxes, Rainbow Gradient
Brushstroke Jewels
Bright Futures double
Camera Flash double
Constellations
Crinkle Paper double
Digital
Doodle Drawings
Light Unto My Path
Locker Art
Mountain Landscape
Painted Horizon
Peace
Print
Puzzle double
Rainbow
Snowy Trees
Spray Paint
Spray Paint Fusion
Springtime double
Sunset Psalms

Single Votes:
Adoration Double
Aim for the Stars
Ancient Map (Model UN)
Around the World (Model UN)
Autumn Surprise
Blue Circles
Build Your Future
Color Pencils
Dotted Lines
Dotted Swirls
Energized
Environment
Equalizer
Extreme double
Fern
Fireworks
Floating Ink
Filmstrip
Galaxy
Green Foci
Honeycomb
Making Time
Metal Gears
Metallic Light Reflection
Moon
Movie Reel
Ombre
Orange Triangles
Our Environment double
Overlapping Circles
Paper Airplanes
Popcorn
Purple Parchment
Rhythm in Blues
Slanted Stripes
Snowflake Double
Straws
Super Stars
Swoosh
Underwater
Watercolor
World Network (Model UN)

This morning I will be giving you a piece of paper that includes these background names in a table so that you can cross off the ones you don't like, highlight your top contenders, etc. and start majorly narrowing down the options.

By the end of the period we will aim to have a Top 20, or even a Top 10 if possible.

Computers 8 - Subtlety text/photo editing assignment

The next assignment is called "Subtlety" (please spell it correctly!).  To achieve this effect, please follow these steps:

1. Choose your photo from Google Image Search, ensuring that it is high-quality, high-resolution, and has interesting content.

2. Upload that photo and edit it in any way you choose.

3. Select a minimum of 4 words that fit the theme or mood of your selected photograph.  Type them in separate text boxes and move them around wherever you'd like to achieve the best effect.

4. Make them relatively small and then fade them out until they are just legible and not incredibly invasive or obvious.

5. Save, and hand in to the folder as "Last name, Subtlety"

Happy editing!

IP 10 Yearbook Exploration

Hi IP 10!

Last class you were to hand in 10 yearbook ideas from Pinterest - this could include ideas regarding the CONTENT of a page (ie. student interviews, highlighting sports teams in an interesting way, etc.) or the LAYOUT of a page (ie. Brady Bunch theme photo boxes with people looking at each other from photo box to photo box, etc.).

Today you are to go to the Yearbook website in INTERNET EXPLORER (onlineyearbooks.lifetouch.com), and enter your username: firstname.lastname@yb10745217 and the password I provided in class.

Search the colour backgrounds and make a list of any that catch your eye as being potentially suitable for our yearbook.  Save the name of those backgrounds in a word document and hand it in to me at the end of the class.

Some of my favourite backgrounds:

Aged Parchment colour (page 1)
Blue Backdrop (page 1)
Boxes, Rainbow Gradient (page 2)
Bright Futures double page colour (page 2)
Concrete Blue double page colour (page 3)
Fabric (page 4)
Light Unto My Path double page colour (page 5)
Music Notes (page 6 - could use for band/choir/orchestra pages?)
Painted Horizon (page 7)
Print (page 7)
Puzzle double page colour (page 7)
Sunset Sky (page 10)
This Is It (page 10)
Vintage double page colour (page 10)

Career Ed 8 poster assignment - Habits of Effective People

Today in the computer lab we are creating posters highlighting one of the 10 habits of effective people (listed in the yellow section on Pg. 81 of your Careers for Life textbook).  The assignment, in a nutshell:

1. Choose one of the 10 habits that speaks to you.
2. Create a poster highlighting that habit in Microsoft Word - you can use a pre-existing template or start from a blank document if you'd rather create it from scratch yourself.
3. To generate content for the poster, you should consider having the following:
a) A title (Habits of Effective People)
b) A relevant photo or image for visual interest
c) The habit, in text that stands out (ie. "Reward yourself.")
d) Commentary on that habit, whether that is a relevant quotation on the topic, a list of "fun facts" or research on the topic, ideas for how to develop that habit, etc.

Example created from a Word template (I altered it to fit the poster assignment):

Create your own

Hi Computers 8!

Same idea today for this new edit, but you are going to design your very own Tumblr-esque inspirational quote photo.  The criteria is the similar:

1. TWO overlays (at least one image with a transparent background and at least one geometric shape, etc.)
2. At least 2 different fonts and 2 font sizes, carefully arranged for clarity and artistic effect.

If you find an image that you would like to use as an overlay but it doesn't have a transparent background, you can upload it to this website and remove the background, save the image, and use it as an overlay.

Website: http://www167.lunapic.com/editor/

Save this assignment as "Create your own" and hand it in to the appropriate folder.  You are free to use any other filters or effects that you wish.

Computers 8 Imitation Criteria

Hi Computers 8!  I will be at the Music Festival during our class today so Mr. Tessier will be with you in Period 3.  Today's assignment will require careful planning and cross-checking criteria to make sure you are choosing a photo that fits my requirements.

You will be recreating another image that you find on Google image search (likely from Tumblr or something similar).  Think inspirational quotes, similar to what we have done for the past 2 classes.

For this assignment, the image you choose to recreate MUST satisfy BOTH of the following criteria:

1. At least 2 different fonts and/or font sizes
2. At least one image overlay (like the arrow from the "Some Paths" assignment" or geometric shape sticker (like a circle, banner, rectangle, line, etc.)

The background image needs to be as similar as possible to the original (similar solid colour or pattern if the background is not a photo, or similar photo in terms of colour, content, angle, etc.).  For example, if the background image is of nature, make sure that the image you choose is the same type of nature scene - snow covered mountains, a winding river, etc.

You will need to hand in the original as well as your edit so that I can compare the two.

This assignment will take just as much time selecting the photo as it will editing your version!  Do NOT try to work as quickly as possible if it means not making the best choices for your edit.  If it requires two classes, we will use two classes.  I will check in with you next period.

Save this assignment as Imitation Criteria and hand it in to the appropriate folder.

Computers 8 - Inspiration Imitation

Hi Computers 8!  Today (Thursday) with Mrs. R you will be doing another imitation assignment.  We will call this one "Imitation Inspiration."  So far you have learned about the following aspects of creating an edited photo on Ribbet:

1. Font manipulation (colour, size, position, fade, etc.)
2. Adding stickers and manipulating them (colour, size, position, fade, etc.)
3. Searching for images with transparent backgrounds online
4. Uploading those images to Ribbet and manipulating them to include with your photo (like the arrow in the "Some Paths" assignment).

Using your knowledge of how to recreate an image as closely as possible, recreate your choice of one of the following:

Please note that you will need to add circle stickers, change some text to white, etc. to make this edit work.  You will need several different fonts in several different text boxes.  Get creative with the shapes - do you need to add stickers, or can some of the shapes be created with text and punctuation? Do you need to search for those shapes with transparent backgrounds on Google image search?  I won't tell you directly how to achieve the finished product, but I am confident that you will be able to achieve the desired outcome.

Keep in mind that these fonts are quite heavy, not scrolly, ALL CAPS, etc.  Pay special attention to the size of the margins around the words (lots of blank space between the words and the edge of the page).

You can leave out the website addresses at the bottom of these examples when you are recreating your own.

The only artistic license that I will allow for this assignment as far as the overall look is concerned is that you can choose your own background colour.  Please note, however, that this background is not solid - there is a gradient and some texture to it, so any other background that you choose will have to have a similar effect.

Enjoy!  I can't wait to see the finish products!

IP 10 - Odd Jobs Profile

Hi IP 10!  Today you will start on an "Odd Jobs Profile."  What is this, exactly?  Well, we all know some of the most common jobs that maybe we even dreamed of doing when we were younger: teacher, doctor, lawyer, firefighter, movie star, fashion designer, construction worker....

This assignment is a bit different. For this post, do a bit of research into a weird or unusual occupation, learn about it, and write about it. Have you ever considered, for example, being a drawbridge tender? How about a jelly donut filler, fingerprint analyzer, or a skyscraper window washer?

Guidelines for the assignment:

1. Identify the occupation

2. Give a description of the duties required of such a position (as specific as possible, where appropriate)

3. Find out the hourly wage or annual salary of such a position, if possible

4. Choose a photo or video to complement your writing

5. Outline two or three benefits and drawbacks of finding yourself in such a career

6. Tell your audience whether you would ever consider doing this job (or something similar) yourself

A creative writing style will enhance your post for the viewing audience. Use descriptive language and engaging words to grab the attention of the reader.

Happy blogging! :)

Computers 8 - Some Paths

Hi Computers 8!  Sometimes one of our handiest computers skills is the ability to recreate something that we see.  For example, Mr. Bernier gave me a concert poster from last year and asked me to make the poster this year's concert.  I made it look similar even though I wasn't the one who had made the original poster.  See what I mean?

The original poster from 2016, designed by someone else

The re-created version!

To make my version of the poster I found a green background through Google Image search and formatted it to be placed in those 2 locations (top and bottom of the poster).  I searched for an interesting treble clef to insert and format on the left side.  I added text boxes to keep my text in place around several areas of the poster, I changed fonts and colours, etc. (while adding my own flair as you can see!).

It got me thinking that it would be pretty neat to do something like that with you folks.  So, that's what we will do!  I pulled an interesting photo from a Google Image search of "Tumblr quotes" and today we are going to recreate it.  Trust me, this is not a 5-minute editing assignment; it should take you the better part of the class period to complete it if you are doing careful and meticulous work.

Here's the original:

Pulled from Google Image search.  Now our task is to replicate it as closely as possible!

So how did I start?  I searched a photo of a highway and saved it to my computer.

This beauty needed some cropping so I did that edit under the "Basic Edits" tab in Ribbet to make it square like the original photo.

Here's the finish product that I edited:

In hindsight I see now that I would prefer all of the text to be shifted slightly downward to make everything more centred.  In any case, this was as close as I could get to the original.  Not bad I think!

To get the arrow, I searched "hipster arrow transparent" in Google Image search and found one that I liked and then saved it to my computer.  Make sure that the background is actually transparent, and not white!  If you are signed into a Ribbet account you are able to upload more than one photo at a time, so I uploaded the arrow while I was working on the highway photo, and just dragged it from my Photo Basket onto the photo I was editing.

What other edits does it look like I made?

1. "SOME PATHS" is written with 9 separate text boxes so that I could position them in an arc formation.

2. The lines on either side of "CAN'T BE" are rectangular stickers from the "geometric" collection, changed to white and made as narrow as the settings will allow.

3. I used 3 different fonts, and all text is slightly faded out so that the lines aren't as stark white as the original settings allow.

4. "DISCOVERED" is in 3 separate text boxes because the Ds needed to be slightly taller on either end to mimic the font in the original photo.

5. I added a couple extra effects at the end to try to make the photo look a bit snowy ("Noise" and "Film Grain").

Enjoy this imitation project!  It should take you almost all period.