CogBlogged under ‘Blog Pile’

(cross posted from 106tricks.net just because I am so excited about tonight’s ds106 in class activity) This is the result of tonight’s in class ds106 challenge. As we are starting audio, I did a little explanation of the role of the foley artist in film and radio. Students formed 5 groups, and each group was charged with creating sound effects for a specified 30 second segment of Charlie Chaplin’s In the Lion’s Cage. They could use any props in the room or their own body. I played the video back with the sound muted, and asked the groups to perform the effects live. The video above was edited to overlay the audio I recorded. They did pretty damn good for only have 15 minutes to plan their sounds. My only small disappointment was a lack of a Willhelm Scream. My thanks for Scott Lockman with whom a skype conversation the [...]

This past week’s Daily Creates I seemed to have done more this week with my iPhone camera than my DSLR, and dod a bit more experimenting or playing with 2 apps – PhotoGene for editing and ToonCamera for making cartoon effects.

ds106 Propaganda posters– they seem to be calling from many places; I came across a great collection at Shorpy (another mint archive for visuals from the past). Hence a warning poster about ds106: This one was rather easy to work with- the original poster was a warning against the dangers of syphilis: The backgrounds of the text were pretty much solid, so it was a matter of picking some fonts from what I had installed in Photoshop. Bauhuas worked ok for the top headline. I did not find exact copies for the script font, so I used Savoye LET and the bottom text was using Marker Felt. Heck I was tempted to leave the white cursive text as it was ;-) Once infected, #4life.

BAGMAN may be running for president, but you should know of his leftist leaning ways formed from his Woodstock days Yes, even in 1969 the brown acid bagman was #4life (one more ds106 assignment Hey Wait Where’d That Guy Come From?)

After seeing a tweet for these retro Russian propaganda posters I could not resist one more ds106 poster: Best I can sort out, this means “GLORY DS106″. Glory indeed.

Some might say that MAD magazine is not a comic, but I went for an animated version anyhow for the Animated Comic Cover ds106 assignment: I saw this cover of Alfred E Neumann and ET and felt like they might me a love match for each other, so they gaze at each other with affection and experience the tickle of that magic extra terrestrial finger. Don’t they make a sweet couple? I read a ton of MAD as a kid, and I can recall backing out the plots of movies from the parodies there- so I knew about the Godfather from he satire first, seeing it in MAD before ever seeing it on video. I think there is a future assignment related to the troubles faced by Roger Kaputnix or maybe a bit of mashup of Spy vs Spy. In this animated GIF, I used a bit of magic I [...]

It’s hard to resist a good ds106 assignment submitted by a student- such as the ds106 Propaganda Posters by Daniel Zimmerman (who is taking zero prisoners in this class) Time to let out your inner Big Brother! Create a propaganda poster for ds106. Use your photo editing software of choice and write a message to inspire your fellow ds106ers. For example, I took a WW2 poster about increasing ammunition production, and turned it into a poster promoting tweeting. I found a bunch by searching Google Images on “vintage posters” and was drawn in by the superhero look of a set of Kick Ass Posters from Affein Heim Theaters This was some quick Photoshopping; it will take me longer to describe then to do it. I used Popular Std font to put the “1 0 6″ on the head- each a separate layer so I could rotate. For the 6, I [...]

I’ve been daunted by the ds106 Spreadsheet Invasion assignment where you are charged with creating an animation using the software designed for… sales reports, etc. It is, ironically, the first Design Assignment. And one that is least frequently done. But thankfully, it was my student Tiffany who undertook it bravely in her Tale of a Flower version that pushed me over the hump of inertia to try this. So here, I tell in a rather horribly inaccurate fashion, the process of Geology that form sedimentary rock (invasions of inland seas, rivers, and desert environments over time) and uplift/eroison processes that shape canyons. I did this while idling time yesertday at BWI airport, wine was involved (Malbec, I love relaxing at Vino Vola). A lady at the next time working on NUMBERS in her spreadsheet must have been tsk-tsking me coloring in cells. There is a fair bit of slop, I [...]

It is about time we had a Bag in Charge we can trust, which is why I am on board to elect BAGMAN for President! My contibution is this campaign poster for the ds106 assignment BAGMAN Campaign Poster. Although not of the same political ilk, I was compulsed to reach back for another unlikely candidate, Richard Nixon in 1960: I found this at the Learn California site which has info on the Nixon Campaign: As radio and television gained popularity with the voting public in the 1940s and 1950s, image and media exposure became increasingly important to waging successful campaigns. Companies subsequently sprang up across the nation offering campaign management services. Richard Nixon hired two of the most preeminent and innovative of these companies to run his California campaigns for his 1960 presidential bid. I did this one in Photoshop CS5- some of this might not have been easily done [...]

The future of the StoryBox is subject for a new post. Let’s say my new approach is to find ways to release the content by making it available for people to create remixed new works out of the pieces. The original media shall remain in the box, in the time capsule, but can be released by remix. Here I wanted to share three things I made out of the StoryBox content, as the first public examples.