Noir106

Bride Throwing Cat

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tdc1245: Bride Throwing Cats
http://tdc.ds106.us/tdc1245/

@talkytina submitted this daily challenge and it was a hard one to resist.

Bride Throwing Cat

I went for the extra @talkytina points and clipped the #priosoner106 cat. Reminded me of #noir106 cat. Not too cute or fluffy – a mysterious black cat. But in a world where points don’t matter – sometimes it is nice to go the extra and take the challenge.

I used the supplied footage from the directions of TDC – thanks for setting it up in infiniteLooper to the exact spot!
 http://www.infinitelooper.com/?v=CbTDZ5buKQE#/400;416

  • Worked with a screen capture of the cat in photoshop and got rid of the background etc. and made it a layer of its own.
  • Duplicated 3x
  • scaled and sized to look like throwing
  • Found photo with CC license of bride throwing bouquet and imported
  • added it to each cat layer
  • Timeline window – create animation
  • played with timings
  • saved for web as GIF
  • added to Google Drive for sharing with “anyone with the link” can view.
  • Open Google image in pop out window
  • Go to more dots and grab iframe embed
  • In wordpress switch editor to text and past code
  • Save as draft
  • Now the image GIF is embedded and resides in Google Drive. You will not see image in editor, only a gray box with a clip icon. Publish to view and see (below)
  • Deleted first and third layer
  • saved layer 2 as a jpeg and uploaded to Flickr (above)

 

Giffing it on down the line

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As the #noir106 has wrapped up, it is time to get back on track and figure out this #4life path I have started upon.

One thing I have noticed is that when you are #4life finishing a unit doesn’t mean it is checked off and done. You go back and you go deeper. DS106 is units – not weeks. You do and create in an ongoing state as new inspirations and collaborations come about. So you jump from design to video to audio to design to video and so forth.

Thanks to Rochelle Lockridge, I am embarking on Flipbooks for family stories. I love the ability to join many media and make it a complete story that someone can go through in any way they choose. I was hitting a wall thinking I was going to create videos to music for the last 80 years of family history!!!

This approach also gives me the opportunity to develop and create different media to include. Sound, video, design, photos, and more. It does have the potential for ongoing art creation and getting better at in each media. It also allows one to meet others on the path as they start or continue.

As Spring 2015 UMW has been winding down I have begun to uncover some #ds106 open course people through Mariana Funes #ds106 news. There are a few working on things and the stuff is cosmic! The news feature has helped more than the RSS feed. There are too many spam and other things in the feed that  make it difficult to follow. What I still can’t figure out is why the general open course participants don’t TWEET when they create? All the connections, feedback and connections that are lost. Tweet dammit! Use the hashtag – let the world know you are creating. It’s not going to bring in lots of traffic – but may bring you a person or two that will make a difference in your growth and work.

Now – what I have worked on besides planning my flip book is GIFs. After a few it finally hit me – DOH! these are not slide shows – so now I am on the path of trying to figure out how to make one picture be a story through some short animation. Below are the creations so far and what I am building upon. Still a long way to go especially when I look at John Johnston’s curation of ds106 TV Gifs!  

YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS!      http://johnjohnston.info/ds106giftv/#

I have used Photoshop, MPEG Steamclip and my own photos. A tutorial that was helpful was making smoke on YouTube. http://photoshop-tutorials.wonderhowto.com/how-to/create-smoking-gun-using-adobe-photoshop-cs4-357542/ It helped in making smoke as well as showing me how to use other features in PS.

I also found that using my Google Drive is a good way to share the GIFs and be able to embed them in WordPress…..here are some of my recent attempts.


Still some learning and some polishing to do – as well as making sure they are a picture story. One creation at a time!

Here are previous GIF creations – I decided to create a category for them under ds106 Assignments.

GIFfing Sub-contrator Case/Project Options

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Going back to some animated GIFfing as some creative pieces for project. It looks like the near future I will be creating different components that will fit together as one.

I went back to Photoshop to create the animated GIF. I started with my own photos: Cloud/Sky, 2 dog pics, hat, sunglasses, storefront. Each was manipulated and created into new images.

At first I had each part as a layer and it got overly confusing in trying to figure out which layer on or off and order. Duh! Finally dawned on me to create groups and then merge the groups. I ended up with 9 frames instead 27. I created the photos with text to insert by copying the image before it.

I also referred to another ds106 4Life YouTube tutorial by Michael Smith that helped with some of the details and location of features in Photoshop.

The tutorial was helpful in understanding the different choices when saving so that I could reduce the size of the file without changing my intent. Instructions were clear and very helpful

The next challenge was where to store animated GIFs to save on space in my WP media gallery and not use up storage. I decided to try my Google Photos and when accessing found that my account has been flipped to Photos in Google Drive! YEAH! So now I can get share links and embed codes for things I save in my Google Drive. One more storage well to use. Skor!

I want to try the cut out GIF, but haven’t figured out what I would use yet and how it will fit into my story thread. More things to create – I can see why this would be a good collaborative project and not independent. Lots on the list!

The Boys and 4LC Staff are available for some side jobs – we don’t have a drop dead deadline to meet like #noir106. Or open #ds106 collaboration opportunities considered too. If you have a need for some temp help – Fill out the contact form and we will get back to you.

******I also added sound and saved the GIF as a video  – the song just wouldn’t get out of my head until I did it!

 

4LC Agency Under Construction

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The journey continues.

As part of a culminating project for #ds106 I will be establishing an agency storyline that may have some #noir106 elements. Being able to create from the energy and ideas of the UMW course adds challenges and motivation. My challenge will be to continue to create in directions which have meaning for me and have some sort of satisfaction of completing or developing, and still keep up connections to the #noir106 community in their last weeks.

I am not sure how many of the #noir106 participants will flip to #4life soon. There are many who I think will find their way back eventually when they have established and can see the top of their own hills in life. Many are still establishing their life maps and 4Life will have a place, but most likely many ebbs and tides. The growth and skills developed will show up in many places in the future and perhaps in some way reconnect with the first community down the road. I expect that many will develop new community networks and model how to effectively connect and collaborate.

This #ds106 life has you reflecting often and looking at things from multiple angles. In trying to figure out a meaningful and self satisfying project these thoughts came to me. How do you sustain connections, community and allow ebbs and tides. When you are a student fulfilling requirements to get necessary credentials – how much do you carry over into life. I am already seeing in my self that weekly summaries are helpful – but really every week? I think not. But I also can see if I don’t do some journaling or documentation creations start to diminish and quality can decline. It is great when someone reads and comments – but even when required – there isn’t much interaction. The summaries need to be done because they are good for self. And if one – just one other stumbles upon it some day – the better constructed it is, the more meaningful it will be and it will make a difference.

I have found that one degree can make a difference in life. I used to think if something didn’t take off or impact many it was not successful. Years later – guess what – the one degree – the one person makes more of a difference than the thousands.

The other life lesson I have learned – Mom was right – give more and you get more. When you sit and wait for things to come to you, or you live in an entitlement state – you generally end up with not much and not happy. There is no reason to be taken advantage of. You give because you can and when you can. If you are in a place in time that you can’t give – then take. Just remember to come back and give some day. I am a true believer in give one get many….try it.

I went tangential! – I was interested in how the #ds106 assignment bank was a sort of community sharing crowd source and wanted to learn the details behind it. With some easily found information I am reconstructing the assignment bank theme into 4LC or in the longer name 4 Life Connect. A place for sharing in different paths and connecting without all the burden of maintaining constant updates and creations -but still reaching out to others.

I am still juggling different groups of stakeholders that could be interested and if it will meet any needs or desires. It has gotten me to create a subdomain, work on configurations, look at connections etc. I also now need to see how this can weave into a story or if it is just a huge project along side a story….whatever – it will be my personal challenges and goals and hopefully maybe one person out there might use at sometime.

So thanks for reading if you made it this far….just open air thoughts to document my journey and the mile marker I am approaching.

Masters Golf – Minimal Paper Poster

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Dailycreate tdc1185 – If it has to be a movie = Caddy Shack

Create a minimalist paper poster.

The inspiration video for this create was a pleasure to watch. A rare occasion to agree with @TalkyTina as it was better than the real paper creations. I did find myself trying to guess what they were before the subtitle appeared.

It is early in the week – we will see how many #noir106 students are #4Life. They have no points for daily creates this week – only to prove if they are for life by the work they do….who will do some daily creates? Which ones? How many?

Great to see the general #ds106 community step up and make sure there are submissions to keep things going. Would hate to have @mdvfunes be disappointed that her volunteer efforts to keep TDC going each day was not met with some submissions!

I rummaged through the foyer desk for paper to do this. Found some holiday cards stuck away in the drawer and used them as the paper (reduce, reuse, repurpose!) The Masters golf tournament is this week and a big thing on my husband’s list to watch. The green paper brought it to mind right away. A few cuts and placements, camera phone and upload! I chose this picture out of the ones I took because I liked the added shadows from the papers not being glued down.

Dailycreates do keep the art juices running. Try some! 

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