Global Warming Video/ Reflection

**I forgot to cite Postal Service "Sleeping In" as my soundtrack-- THANK YOU to them!!****

(This is also the link to the video on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTn67oyxutw

So this is my video... like always, I ran into many issues before finally figuring out how to do it. This is my process:

First, I was out of town at a friend's when I started working on it. I was first working on a Mac computer, which was already a struggle for me since I am NOT efficient with those things. I first browsed through Flickr looking for images I wanted to use, and after downloading about 20 images, realized that 60% of they were .gif files.... which would not work with the movie making application. So, then I switched to another computer (Windows), and downloaded more jpeg files that would actually work with Windows Movie Maker. After I gathered the files I needed, I began looking for songs that would work with my movie. I decided on Postal Services "Sleeping In", pretty much for it's one verse it had about "the world getting warmer"-- and I liked the vibe of it as well. I second guessed myself a little, since it was a more upbeat song, and I didn't know if that would go with the emotion of my presentation (which when watching the finishing product, I now REALLY like it).

Another problem I ran into was transferring what I had worked on out of town back to my computer. I emailed myself the file, thinking that because it was going to transfer a movie maker project to another movie maker, it would work. NOPE. Had to start all over... fortunately I had saved all of my links for the pictures, and didn't have TOO much trouble putting my movie back together, but still a hassle. You'd think I'd learn after awhile!

Anyways, after putting both the music and the pictures into my video, I decided to quote an Al Gore quote at the beginning by webcaming myself saying it. I kind of wish I would have re-recorded it after it was done, because it was late at night when I did it, and I had to talk quitely because everyone was sleeping at my house (lol)... but at least you can hear what I'm saying (I think). After adding these in, I decided it would be important to add in some facts about global warming, and tried using transitions and titles to do so. That didn't work, since you can only write short snippets in Movie Maker. After fiddling around a little bit, I realized I could type out a slide in Powerpoint and save it as a jpeg file, which was then easily imported into movie maker. After adding in all of these elements, it was time to add in my effects, transitions, titles, and credits.

My favorite effect by far was the "ease in" and "ease out" features. I think the pictures by themselves without a zoom was so plain, but when you use those features it gives some life to the video. Also, one of the effects I think worked really well was the ripple effect, which I used on the picture with the fish and toxic waste behind. It made the picture look like it was really in water, which was cool.

I ran into a little bit of trouble with the ending credits, so I ended up using powerpoint again to type out all of my picture creds (there were so many it looked silly without listing them out in PP).

Overall, I do like the final product of my video (besides me talking... I never like that!). I'm disappointed in myself that I was late with it again, but with all the troubles I had I'm proud that I stuck it out and finished. Hope you guys enjoy!

Global Warming Movie: FATP, Mindmap, Story Outline

Form: Video

Audience: Classmates, people interested in global warming
Topic: Global Warming

Purpose: To inform and evoke emotion about the seriousness of global warming.

Outline:

Music: Postal Service "Sleeping in"

Intro: Title, Global Warming pic, video of me (quoting Al Gore)

Body: Pictures of pollution, concept "global warming" pictures, polar bears, melting ice caps, desert, animals in danger, smog, bleached coral

*Inserts* in body: Facts about global warming taken from National Geographic

Conclusion: Picture of frozen green leaf, credits and sources

Animation and Storyboard Reflection

Ahh... what a project! It was actually fun once I got going, but I do not consider myself a creative person- and coming up with a concept and visualizing what to do was pretty hard for me. Looking at my final product, I think if I hadn't been OVER thinking the concept, I could have come up with something better.

On Toondoo, the features are pretty straight forward, and it is not very hard to track what you want to do. One thing I did (thankfully after I had saved my toon), was somehow dragged my tab from the first screen into the middle toon, which overlapped it. I then could not figure out how to reverse what I had done (and even my little sister who has had to use toondoo before as well couldn't figure it out). Like I said, thankfully I had saved it, but it made me freak out for a short minute.

On GoAnimate.com, I enjoyed working on my animation a little more than the toon. It was really easy and once again straightforward to use, and there is an "undo" button, so you can test out as many features as you want and still be able to undo them. (I don't think I found that button on toondo?).

Overall, I did enjoy doing this project, minus the small glitches that I ran into along the way.

Global Warming Animation

GoAnimate.com: Global Warming by Hilaryw01


Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!


I kept with the Global Warming idea with my animation, and besides brainstorming forever on something clever for my characters to say, I do enjoy the final outcome.

FATP: Comic Storyboard

Form: Comic Strip
Audience: Classmates, other Toondoo-ers!
Topic: Global Warming
Purpose: Inform about global warming

by hilaryw01 | Create your own Cartoon at www.toondoo.com

Podcast- Basics of Guitar/ Reflection

After a LONG LONG LONG time of trying to figure out how to upload my podcast, I finally got it. Even though some creepy voice interjected its way in in my windows movie maker.... so here's the link, if you can suffer through the paranormal woman in the background..... :)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3P72Z

I enjoyed doing this project once I watched a screencast on how to use the AVS application. At first, I was trying to find sound clips off of the internet to use for my intro and outro music, but after hours of having issues, I decided to just record myself and the few things that I know how to do on the guitar. Mixing in the music clips with myself talking was not hard at all, but I knew it was too easy to be true. My sound file for some reason is over 40 MB, and houndbite only hosts clips up to 8 MB. Currently still trying to figure out how to fix this issue, so STAND BY :)

Script for Podcast- Basics of Guitar

Script- The basics of learning Guitar

Intro of speaker: This is Hilary from Multimedia Applications out of CCV, Vermont

Broadcasting from South Ryegate, VT

Intro Music: Me playing short guitar piece

Introduction:

-- Thanks for tuning in to the Basics of Guitar. In this podcast I will explain the very first things you should know before beginning playing guitar.

Sponsor: Thanks to CCV!

Focus/ Body:

Materials

-Guitar
-Pick
-Passion

What's this?

-Strings
-Frets
-Tuning pegs
-Neck
-Headstock

Tips

-Short fingernails
-Armless chair
-Practice


Finale:

-Bibliography- www.mahalo.com/how-to-play-guitar-for-newbies - "How to play Guitar for Newbies"
- Thanks again to CCV for sponsoring

Outro Music: Me playing a different guitar piece

FATP proposal and Mindmap- Guitar Podcast

Form: Podcast


Audience: Class, people interested in learning guitar


Topic: Basics of Guitar


Purpose: To aid beginner guitarist's in preparing and learning to play

I chose to stick with my guitar theme, it seemed fitting!

"How to play Guitar" podcast

Image from: http://copiousnotes.typepad.com/weblog/how_are_the_guitar_lessons_going/

At first when I chose this podcast, it seems like the narrator is already up for a pretty big challenge. How do you teach how to play the guitar over a podcast? The narrarator was up for the challenge though- this isn't the first "episode" of the guitar lessons, but it was still easy to pick up what he was talking about.

This episode, the narrator was describing different types of strum patterns to enhance the sound of the normal 6 string strum. He did a great job with this, because usually I would need to visually SEE someone giving an example of this, but because he would explain the frets and strings as well as the rhythmn, and THEN give an audio example- I could easily follow what he was teaching.

Overall, I think this narrator knew what he was doing and had done it before. (Obviously, since I found the link for the podcast off of myonlineguitar.com). I think its funny how some people seem so comfortable doing podcasts while others are a little ackward. I hate myself being videotaped, and even audio makes me nervous. I don't think I'd be able to record a 15 minute podcast without wanting to re-record 10 or more times!


http://myonlineguitar.com/wordpress/ Episode 13

Slideshare- Global Warming

I decided to do my slideshow about global warming. It's hard for me not to use words alot, but I think I condensed this show with enough images that words were not as needed.

F: Slideshow on slideshare.net

A: My classmates, users of slideshare.net

T: Global Warming

P: To use images to portray the effects of global warming

Global Warming

View more presentations from hilaryw01.

I actually enjoy putting together powerpoint presentations, and this assignment allowed me to really think about what types of images I wanted to use, and how it would all come together in the end. It takes a long time to put images and words together the way you want in a show, but overall I think I used my positive and negative space well, and I think the images told most of the story- which was what I was shooting for. Hope you enjoy!

Learning Guitar Now: Principles of Art

This is the slideshow I decided to break down using the elements and principles of art. It is about beginning guitar lessons!

Learning Guitar Now: Beginner Guitar Lesson

View more presentations from johntuggle.

“Learning Guitar now: Beginner Guitar Lesson”

I decided to choose this slideshow because I own a guitar, but haven’t played in about 5 years and want to learn. I figured since I’m a beginner, I could evaluate how well the slideshow presents this, and if it grabs my attention with the elements of art. This is what I thought about each slide:

First, there is a border surrounding each page, and I think it really takes advantage of using lines to draw the readers eyes to the center of the page. Also, it is not a full border- they run parallel to eachother, with a corner edge in one corner. I also think that helps the readers draw their eyes in- but in more of a subtle way (it represents unity throughout the slideshow, I think) Also, the use of color in the borders was a good choice. It is not a incredibly bold color, so it softens the look of the slides a little.

Slide 1: This is just the introduction slide, but I like the simpleness of it. All it says is “So you want to play guitar?” with a half border around the writing, and a picture of a guitar beneath it. I think that is a good use of space, since when you don’t use a lot of space in a slide, it draws more attention to what is actually being said.

Slide 2: This slide asks “what should you learn first” for guitar playing, and lists 3 beginning chords that are the most useful for beginners. It has a picture of a guitar to the right, and below that is a question “But why should I learn these chords?”—I think this slide uses space again, very well. A lot of people would try to dress their slides up a little more, I think- but again, the use of negative space helps to highlight the positive space that is the important part that people want to know.

Slide 3: There is a contrast in the font color between the first and second sentences, which I think seperates and puts emphasis on both sentences. There is also three pictures representing the bands that you can learn songs from with the 3 chords mentioned- and those included with the 2 sentences completes the slide. Also, this slide is proportioned very well. The first two sentences are centered, and the pictures are equally spread out at the bottom of the slide.
Slide 4: At the top of the slide, the writing says “All you need to know is D, Cadd9, G and a couple of strum patterns.” There is a lot of negative space in this photo, with once again a picture of a guitar taking up a little bit of it. This slide made me think- if there wasn’t the borders surrounding some of these pictures, they would look too plain. The slide does lead into the following slide with the “So what are strum patterns” question, but I still think there is too much negative space, and not enough variety in the slide.

Slide 5: This slide takes up a little bit more space, as the sentences are longer. The first sentence is a definition, and the second sentence (whose font color is black, making it a focal point for the eye) explains how to use a strum pattern, with a visual to the bottom right of the page. In this case, I think the negative space is the left bottom corner of the page actually works- since the focus is suppose to be on the strum pattern.

Slide 6: This is one of the first slides with barely any negative space. It has an enlarged picture of the strum pattern it is teaching, with writing examples to the side. I think this slide has pretty good balance- nothing seems to overpower anything else, and there doesn’t seem to be emphasis on one object- everything is the focal point in this slide.

Slide 7: this slide is very similar to the second slide. There is a defining sentence at the top, with a small bulleted list of the 3 things to learn. The only thing I don’t really like about some of these slides is that each one has a picture of a guitar in it. This does give a theme to the slideshow, but at the same time gets a little boring after awhile. There is some negative space in the bottom left corner of the slide, and overall nothing really grabbed my attention about this one.

Slide 8: This is one of the concluding slides, and the only writing is at the top “You too can play the guitar by learning these three things.” There is too much negative space in this one, as there are two pictures of people playing the guitar- but the pictures are so little you can barely see them. There is really no emphasis or focal point of this slide, and I just think for a concluding slide its too boring.

Slide 9 (final slide): This slide is kind of an advertising slide, with a “For more info, please visit my website” – it’s boring with not much going on.

Overall, I think there wasn’t enough variety in this slide show. The balance was pretty good, because in each slide there always seemed to be a complimentary image or sentence. There was a lot of negative space throughout the slideshow, but in certain instances it worked really well, and in others I think it just made it look boring. Like I said at the beginning, I think the border really helped a lot with the emphasis on what was inside of the border, though it could have had a little more movement and variety.

Composition Pictures!

So, I didn't have access to a digital camera, or a picture phone, so I gathered up pictures from the last 2 years that I have taken on different trips and some even close to home. I actually surprised myself when picking out some of these, my old digital camera used to take some pretty nice pictures- and some of the angles I got were pretty cool. You will see a re-curring theme in this blog of tropical pictures. Whenever I am somewhere tropical, I love it SO much, I have to take tons of pictures. Enjoy!



This one shows the rule of thirds with the man standing in the left bottom corner. I love the palm trees lined up behind the stone wall, with the contrast of the clouds in the back as well. Very simple.

This picture was actually taken about 1/3 mile down the road from my house... it's obviously a very dreary day out, but I think it gives some emotion to the picture. This definetly has the quality of leading lines- the road, river, tree line, power lines, and sky line-- all are horizontal, making the picture look layered in a way. This also has the natural frame of the window- with framing diagonal edges.

Another sunset picture- captures the "depth of field" concept I think with the highway ahead leading into the mountains. Leading lines are also present with the clouds (which I absolutely love in this picture).

This is my best friend's daugther (my niece), Gabby, on their wedding day. It was the weirdest thing- this one mirror that was in the corner behind the head table kept her attention all day- and she would run up to it and laugh, and laugh, and LAUGH! She was either seeing something or laughing at the fact she could see us by looking at the mirror!

I like this picture for its simplicity and elegance at the same time. Her smiling face in the mirror is a finishing touch.

I took this picture at the beach in Maine, and like it because of the simplicity. I like the unusual angle (I think I was laying down when I took it), and the umbrella turned out to be a good focal point.

This picture I think is the one I am most proud of taking. This was taken in Panama City Beach right before I went parasailing myself- beautiful day! It has an unusual view angle, great lighting on the parasail, and the rule of thirds kicks in a little bit too I think (it also creates kind of a triangle between the person, sun, and parasail). I still can't believe I took this picture.

I also took this picture in Panama City Beach at sunrise. I think the sharpness and quality of the car and palm trees mixed with the sunset looks great. It also includes the rule of thirds, with just the corner of the car sticking out in the lower right corner.

Carson's Picture: Before and After

This picture is of Carson Johns, one of my best friend, Tasha's, baby. (I actually watched this little guy be born!) He was born February 21st, but I used his photo for this project because I had never done anything with them prior. I figured I could kill 2 birds with 1 stone, since now I can print out this picture and give it to Tasha!

The application I used to edit the photos was Picnik- which I really enjoyed, because it is web-based. The first thing I did on Picnik after I uploaded the photo of Carson was click "auto fix"- it brightened up the picture alot. Then, I used the "Exposure" tab and increased both the exposure and contrast to the picture. Next, I sharpened the picture just a tad. Then, to add a little warmth to Carson's complexion, I increased the temperature a little bit. Next, I used the Effects link and applied the "Orton-ish" effect to put an angel-like effect to Carson (I mean, he is a little angel :) ) Next, I used the Matte app, which is the whitish blue fade around the picture. Last, I used the picture frame border, and added the blue border around the whole picture.

Now that I have finished editing Carson's picture, I'm reminded a little about why I used to edit pictures! haha, I stopped editing pictures a long time ago because it just got too time consuming- but applications like picnik are incredibly user friendly, and worked really well.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hilaryw01/

Screencast of Greenshot

The process of screencasting was interesting. Like Sherry, I also had trouble using the Screentoaster to do my screencast- and ironically ended up using the freeware she reviewed, Camstudio, to do my screencast. She was definetly right, it worked much better!



The other ironic part about this screencast was that before I looked to see what DQ 2's freeware was to review, I had already downloaded Greenshot to do my screenshots of Houndbite! I demo'd the Greenshot in my screencast by showing what I did with Houndbite. So, pretty much my screencast is a wrap up of all my assignments... haha.



GREENSHOT: It is a freeware that allows you to take screen shots and then edit and annotate them afterwards. The only thing I didn't really like about it was that it doesn't actually open on your desktop and can only be navigated by the task bar- until you take a shot. I like being able to open my programs and navigate them, so that was different.



Overall, I learned alot in these past two assignments- and being able to wrap them up together a little bit with this screencast was fun.


Here it is- Greenshot! :

Houndbite!

http://www.houndbite.com/

Hmmm.... HOUNDBITE?

Who has ever heard of that before? Honestly, I'm really glad I was assigned this website to review. I had no idea what it was, and when I reached the website, I thought- Wow, Cool!

In a nutshell, Houndbite is a Youtube for audio instead of video. Instead of uploading videos, you upload audio clips. People use this as a way to document clips of their life. In Houndbite's own words, "Houndbite.com is a place to listen and share the audio clips from your life. These houndbites could be prank calls, inspiring speeches, guitar riffs, or whatever Houndbites fill your life."

I have included some Screenshots to explain how it works a little better.

efolio's, mindmaps, and craziness

The title sounds harsh. It's not all craziness- just my life outside of summer classes.
Just want to vent for a minute- my week was crazy. I have accounting classes Tues and Thurs nights an hr and half from my house. Thursday, my purse and makeup bag was stolen out of my car (which can I just point out is a women's LIFE). On my way home from class, my breaks pretty much give out, and I have to drop my car off to get fixed at the shop. $500 later, I'm broke- with no purse, no makeup, no car, and sadly no internet. Thus, here I am, 2:16 Tues morning, trying to finish my assignments for class. Humm.

Moving on to more important subjects, I surprisingly had fun creating my webpage. I love playing around with fonts and colors and things to make my works somewhat creative. I thought it was cool to be able to add my mindmap to my home page, but am thinking about taking it out once I am finished. I would love ideas and comments on how to make my ePortfolio better though! I'm also trying to think if there are any major categories that I'm missing and will need. Who knows though, like I said- I'm eager for comments from anyone on how to do better!

Reflections on ePortfolio!

It's kind of exciting to be creating my own new website! At first I was a little apprehensive about my design and layout that I wanted for my site, but after viewing a few examples, I decided my mindmap's layout would pretty much work. I haven't added my career goals or hobbies yet though. Career goals because I'm not quite sure of exactly what they are yet (lol), and Hobbies because I'm not sure if that is necessary for a professional website?? What do you guys think?

The link to my new ePortfolio is http://sites.google.com/site/hilaryeportfolio/Home

Once I started my eportfolio, it took me some time before I was able to navigate the apps the way I wanted. At first, I thought that the "create page" link was going to give me a whole new website (don't ask... I was tired), so I searched and searched on how to expand my pages.... ahhh. Finally though, I started to figure it out. One of the things I started doing with my pages was creating them in a word document first (because I can navigate easily in Word)... and it seemed to work pretty well! I like the colors I've chosen for some of my writing, but is that too much for a professional website? Hmm. Any ideas?

Mind Map

Form: Website
Audience: my classmates, potential employers, possible potential colleges?
Topic: My work experience, career goals
Purpose: To sell myself and persuade employers to hire me

http://share.xmind.net/hilaryw01/e-portfolio/

When doing this project, I was at first confused as to how to set up the mind map. Some of the ways XMind is set up didn't follow the video's we watched, but after starting my first few topics, more ideas started flowing. I hope that I followed the instructions well- I finally figured out how to add a few images to my map, but could have probably added more. Although, I wonder if the images made my map a little harder to follow? Also, after many many tries, I finally have uploaded my map to my Xmind account, so people can see it now. Yay!

The FATP concept is actually pretty helpful. It helped me focus in on what my ePortfolio will be based on, which so far seems to be career-oriented. I'm a little neervous about how my site will look when it is done, because I feel like my experiences/ background isn't impressive- and will make my site look bare and boring. I'm hopeful though! We'll see how it goes!

Social Networking

I just wanted to write a quick post about how I think social networking is changing. It's kind of sad really, that before this class and being formally introduced to these other networking sites, that I had no idea they existed. I guess I kept up with facebook and myspace because thats what my friends and the people around me were networking on. But now, I really am starting to realize that there are networks out there that, even though not "everyone" has jumped on yet, can actually be really useful and helpful when trying to do things- such as professional networking. I am really starting to learn that knowing what your doing on the net now consists of more than 5 websites and copying and pasting. Interesting stuff!

facebook vs. Linkedin

Alrightttt! Hard to believe we're 3 weeks in already.... time is flyinggg by right now (hopefully it slows down, since we only have a few months of summer!). Anyways, the sites we have been introduced too thus far are actually really useful! The most intriguing to me, though, is Linkedin. I like that instead of posting info such as favorite movies, books, foods, etc.... it actually has a professional focus. It helps you network with businesses and professionals without them seeing you drunk at a bar (as "Demo Girl" states in her screencast about Linkedin- below). I suggest checking out her screencast on how to use Linkedin, it not only shows you how to use the features of the website but she has some interesting insight as well.
http://flash.screeniac.com/linkedin/linkedin.html?TB_iframe=true&height=590&width=1050

This is one website that I can honestly say I will definetly continue to use- it seemed like such a hassle to watch my friends who have graduated have to make their facebook's private, and delete pictures and information, for the purpose of professional networking. This site seems to solve that networking problem and can pool together professionals, who can suggest friends to other friends, thus helping them create a professional network. YAY for learning how to use this site!!!!!

One more thing- one of my tasks to figure out for this blog was how to post the actual video instead of the link- can anybody help me figure that out?

Alright week 4, here we come :)

Screencasts

I decided to write this blog about screencasts, because I had seen them before (only once or twice)- and never thought twice about what they were and why they were significant.

According to Wikipedia, a screencast "is a digital recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration."

It turns out, that after reading and watching about screencasts, they have numerous uses. One of the most uses and popular uses is actually for teaching how to use computer software (kind of ironic, using a computer program to learn how to use a different computer program). For kinesthetic learners such as myself, this use is VERY helpful. I often have a very hard time understanding a concept without doing it out by hand, and screencasting is the perfect piece to this equation since it shows you hands on how to do something. Wikipedia also makes sense with this statement: "Considering the high cost of instructor/ faculty led training and the relative ineffectiveness of typical computer based training (CBT) systems, screecasting is likely to become a very popular technique for imparting high-quality knowledge at a low cost."

Now that I understand what a screencast is, this use for it makes COMPLETE sense!

Here is a Blog link that talks about teaching software with screencasts. Check it out! :)

First Post :)

So, this is my first blog post for multimedia class! I didn't have much trouble setting it up, since I already had a google account and had signed up for blogging before. I am excited to learn more about applications I can include in my blog!