Noir106

30% – Really? Only 10 wks left?

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Time is flying by! 30% of the framed structure and suggested timeline of this ds106 course is now history for me. 5 weeks wow!

Unit 5 focused on Design. The topic that resonated with many who are on the path and has generated some awesome creations.

12 Stars total was the goal for the unit – plus 3 daily creates. My daily creates for this week were non #ds106 creating home decor and paint choices as my daughter is closing on a new home at the end of the month. Photoshop came in handy for inserting her belongings and trying out new colors, fabrics and textures. So another perk of an open course participant – altering the daily creates. I ended up doing a few, but late. Better next week is the plan.

Here are the assignments I created in Unit 5:
Design Assignment 313

reverese2Animating a movie poster.  4.5 Stars.
This was creating an animated GIF. In an early unit I created a few animated GIFs. This time I made it more complex and pushed in using features in photo shop that I had never even opened before. I struggled in deciding if I would use GIMP or PS. I settled on PS mostly because I have the software and wanted to make use of it. This poster came up in a search as NOIR, but it is a recent film. For the purposes of this assignment it had elements that made sense to me for animating. Still pushing me to try more, but not so complex that I would suffer learning thru complete failure. this took some time and went through a few iterations before coming to the product above. I don’t think I would have been able to tweak and improve on it without community feedback. No one gave me a specific answer- which is great, but the back and forth conversations, tweets, and idea sharing helped me see things I missed or had not considered as well as prompted me to go beyond input provided as well. I am pretty proud of the last iteration. The hard part is to not keep just making gifs! You get hooked.

I ran into a few issues with getting the gif to run in wordpress- but the community quickly answered and redirected. AWESOME!

Minimalist Movie Poster – Character Inspired 3.5 Stars

Queen Tillie and The Rabbi

Poster: Minimal Design

I am finding wisdom in the themed aspect of the cohorts. The headless course is well structured and provides a great learning experience. The theme aspect, this time period cohort studying Noir Film within a ds106 framework has participants carrying a character they developed throughout some of the assignments. I did not hook up with #noir106 until after they had completed the writing unit and did not create a character. It really became clear how useful a character would be to tackle assignments. Keeping assignments interesting, but also allowing focus on the real skills and not trying to think of context or content from scratch each time.

I decided to develop a character. I am using my Dad. My future #ds106 #4life will be creating stories out of family content of photos, video, artifacts. So I decided I would start with him in this learning process. I will take liberty and embellish the truth at times, but he will be my character.

Jerry as my subject – I created a poster of a book that could be a movie written by the class president and class thug remembering the glory years of growing up and high school on the Eastside of Milwaukee. My Dad was on the football team. The poster came together in thought and design quickly with using my context and content. I think that was easier than trying to think of something new for a movie that already existed.

Learning By Design – Using Design and Visual images to understand content. 3.5 stars as listed – I bumped my version up to 5 stars!

Sketchy Dr. Groom on Assignment

This assignment was a blast! Time consuming, sometimes frustrating, but definitely got the problem solving and creative juices flowing. I wanted to do sketch noting and a RSA on a budget type of creation. I went through some prep in reading, looking into different ways to create and experimented with a few things. That took about a half day overall if added up. I again used Photo shop to use more features available. I also went back to Audacity to continue with more sound editing and features so that I could include in this creation. Using the Groom is missing theme provided some light-hearted and fun content for use as well. I think with the addition of audacity and creating the animation video it is worth the extra boost in stars.

Some of my favorites from others this week:

Most of my favorites from this week came from being able to see them on the Twitter feed. The visuals, the 140 characters or less, the ability to keep a column of the hashtags makes it so efficient to pop around and see great work. I went back to the blog post roll in the Noir106 site. While it is helpful it seems much more tedious and less interesting to find and view work that others have created and posted. Many more clicks, waiting for things to load etc. Besides a title there really isn’t much to draw one in to explore like there is on Twitter.

My plea to other ds106/noir106 participants.

SHOUT OUT YOUR WORK WHEN YOU POST VIA TWITTER AND USE THE HASHTAGS!

You will be amazed how it will connect and help your work when others can engage easily and provide critical friend feedback and support. Don’t be shy! SHOUT OUT!

Groom on Assignment and challenges from Burtis and Bond to use assignments with Groom as a subject seemed to pull the community together around a common topic and showing off their design skills. It was great to begin to see new avatars on the Twitter feed. I am also looking forward to Monday and taking some time to look thru the website feed to see which design assignments others chose and what their creations turned out to be.

This photo shop hack by J. Law was classic! Great job Groom does look a little schizoid here doesn’t he?

GroomShining

Brian Christensen used the Godfather as his Groom poster spoof. I loved these movies when they came out and actually read the books! – maybe that is why I was attracted to this creation.

Check out his soundcloud sitcom song by Brian Goulet – Brilliant!

Mia Boleis has a very sophisticated and elegant poster going on.

Some terrific work by Landon Epperly http://landonepp.com. I think he will be showing us a thing or two of greatness over the next few weeks. Take a look at his work so far.

And I love the wit, humor and intelligence of Emily Bostaph! I am a fan!

Too many others to mention here – but I will stop by your posts if I see them in Twitter. Keep sharing!

My DAILY CREATES: 

Creative Hands

tdc1129 Creative Hands

Super Power tc 1130: Home Design

tdc1130 Super Power

Play with Your Food: tdc1134

tdc1134

Also did a quick animated gif in honor of @mdvfunes birthday Feb. 15.

maridannbd2

It has been a jammed week with design but fun! Closing this week off by dinner on Sunday and relaxing for the evening – at least that is the plan!. Glad to see more participation in the social networks from others and hoping it increases.

What will week 6 bring?

Designblitz

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Designblitz is a #noir106 assignment. 

The open course version is to do a photoblitz. I may still do the photoblitz. With a heavier concentration on design in the noir syllabus I preferred the direction of assignments that were suggested.

The challenge was to find at least 4 photo ops that would illustrate the design concept out of the 10 principles listed. When you are looking for design principles they are actually harder to find. You search for one and miss the ones that were right in front of you because you had a different search going on in your head. At one point I thought maybe it would be better to do it photo blitz style and just take a whole load of pictures and then go back and analyze them for design. Each method has its pluses and minuses. The other challenge is to post only one for each concept. For someone with over 7300 pics in my Flickr Photostream – you can see narrowing down is not a strength!

Here I the ones I chose to share here:

1. Form and Symmetry – or Balance

These are 3 concrete painted white forms as an art piece in front of a TJMaxx store. With our winter snowfall around them they take on a new look and the forms begin to take on another dimension. They attracted my attention with being white and the snow that is round them at this time. The snow adds texture but also emphasizes the forms through contrast. Symmetry is part of the original design, and the snow emphasizes that even more by not being symmetrical.

Balance is evident and created by the symmetry. This one picture is an example of how many design elements can create a design and a viewer may see one over another.

2. Symbolism

Symbols

I went with this image for symbolism. The neon gives color, shape and light -but also symbolism by identifying a motorcycle. I am in Milwaukee – home of Harley Davidson. Motorcycle symbols come in several flavors. This is on display and actually for sale at a local lighting store. The store itself is unique and provided for some fun photo ops while I was there.

3. Rhythm

2012_04 Patterns

This is cardboard inserts stacked next to each other. Rhythm and pattern happen in the repeat of the layers of the cardboard. Looking at them as multiples instead of separately repeats and creates the rhythm.

  • This is an example of a Regular rhythm: A regular rhythm occurs when the intervals between the elements, and often the elements themselves, are similar in size or length

4.Typography

Typography

This just struck me as Noir time. The typography is part of the advertising. It actually is an original. Another find at the lighting store. The use of the outline and capitals easily puts the type as the focus and the graphics of the people as support.

5. Scale

Fun with Clips

Scale is the dimensional element defined by other elements of design size relative to art, its surroundings or in relation to humans. Scale is the size of an element as it relates to its usual physical size. I chose to take this picture mostly because I liked the idea of a large and small paperclip and how huge the one looks compared to the other. It is 5 years old – but what came to mind when I couldn’t find anything to photo shoot. We are experiencing winter right now and getting around especially outside is a challenge. Too cold! (minus 30F).

6.Another one from the files.

Lighting Row

Going out and finding design elements, taking a photo of it and then describing why it is an example is not as easy as it sounds.

One thing about design is that the more simple it looks, the more complicated it probably is!

To view submissions by Noir and ds106 participants. use the tag designblitz in Flickr to see submissions.

Jerry – (Character Dossier)

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As I work in ds106 alongside noir106, assignments sometimes are based upon a character that was developed in the first weeks. Character themes are not a requirement for open course participants and there are plenty of ways to complete assignments or choose assignments from the banks without one.

Looking at the archives of individuals who have worked this framework, a theme seems to have a positive edge for cohorts. There was Wire – looking at things thru a TV show, summer trailers, and other themes that seemed to help participants move thru with a thread and build skills within a parameter so that you didn’t eat up your time thinking of a new angle, but the actual work.

Spring 2015 UMW students are using the theme NOIR films. I am now in week 5 and can see if I had a character, some of my work would be more part of the group and be easier for feedback purposes.

My target is still to gain skills to be able to begin to use all the content I have from family. So in that thread, I am going to use my Dad as my character. He had a great way of looking at life and the things that happened in his life. He also lived during times that were different than mine and his stories of how things were seem fitting as “character” material. As I use him, his life will be a foundation of my character  – with some truths and some elaborations.

JERRY 

My character is my Dad – but with creative license to embellish the truth for the purposes of creating in ds106.

Name: Gerald Elmer Gruenewald –
Nickname: Jerry
Birthdate: May 30, 1937 (Memorial Day)
Place of Birth: Milwaukee Wisconsin, USA
Occupation: Mechanical Engineer
Marital Status: Married
No.of Children: 2 daughters
High School: Senior Picture

Jerry

2009 (4 years before passing away)

Granpa of the Bride

Bio:

Jerry is a handsome man at every age. He never had to have school supplies in high school. The girls were more than happy to make sure he had what he needed in class when he needed it – whether it was pen, pencil. paper or other. His mother was of Polish decent and his father German. His father passed away when he was 16 from cancer and Jerry became the man of the house for his mother and brother Bryan – 7 years younger. He fell in love with DixieLee at the age of 18 and eloped at age 19. They were married for 52 years before she passed away. He was a star on the high school football team and popular in his class. He started as a machine apprentice out of high school and continued to learn and perfect his skills. While he had some college credits, he never entered a full program or completed a degree, but he became the first Wisconsin state certified professional engineer based on his proficiency and expertise over the completion of a college degree. He built 3 homes, loved woodworking, cars, and especially family. He was a Green Packer fan.

Favorite Food: Pretty much anything with lots of flavor. Seafood – fresh was a favorite later in life.

Favorite Drink: Whiskey on the rocks. There were those Manahatten times in early years.

Favorite Color: He said he didn’t have one because he was color blind. – But it seemed to be blue.

Favorite Book: Loved books on local history

Favorite Movie: 

Favorite Posesion: License Plates of every car he drove, his vinyl record albums

Personal Motto: Fantastic!

I can already tell this might be helpful – there is so much about a person we take for granted or think we know, but never really asked them. This will be good for looking into the rest of our family as well as capturing some of these things from those of us still around.

 

 

 

Snap, Crackle, FRACTURE

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DESIGN: Create an animated movie poster

unitfiveposter600_2

Lesson learned was saving final GIF in several sizes for different uses. When I first saved this it was huge (see at end of post). In order for it to run in the blog the file has to be inserted as a full size. Which then means if you want it to present nicely (design!) you need to have options of different size files to insure they will run, unlike a photo which you can resize within wordpress itself for different design considerations. How to video embedded below.

From feedback received – a tweaked iteration in which the build is reversed.

I chose this assignment for the following reasons:

  • 4 stars to challenge and stretch
  • Theme of movies seemed in alignment with #noir106
  • Having to use PhotoShop for more than a quick image manipulation.
  • To be successful in figuring out PhotoShop animation at an entry level.

I first searched for NOIR movie posters. Several options came up including several “100 Best Noir Movie Posters”. I ended up on a site with posters from the 40’s-today. (I will put the link here when I find it in my history).

There were several posters that text, color, placement- the design elements this unit is focusing on,  were prominent. But they were not great candidates for pushing my current animation skill level or too complex. I was looking for something that would give me a chance to learn animation, but also give the chance to apply principles of design.

My next step was to narrow a choice down to interest and forms and shapes that would challenge me, yet be proper for using in photoshop animation. For this first attempt I wanted the pieces of the poster to build the and not try to create movement within an image like a leg kicking or gun firing. That attempt will be the next creation. I decided to do “Fractured”. It is actually a newer movie, but does come up as Noir. I will gladly wait for comments to tell me how it is not Noir. Not taking a full noir slant to ds106 I do have license to be as Bond has stated – a heretic. 🙂

Using the resource links from the UMW instructors for #noir106 I came across a screencast created by Alan Levine from a poster for the movie Bridge over the River Kwai. It was helpful in pointing out Photoshop had an animation feature and that it built upon the concepts of layers. Seems that Shrek’s reference to life is better as an onion – it has lots of layers is a key in this creation process for digital media.

@cogdog screencast: https://www.screenr.com/Lcos (can’t get this to embed – any suggestions?)

I began with making the segments. Lots of do overs, and using blurs, cuts, smudges. With the pieces completed, it was time to find the animation. The screen cast was an earlier version of Photoshop so a few queries on Google and I found where the location in my version. Some time spent in things being grayed out, etc. Finally got the slides and timing to an acceptable point. It was then time to Google how to save as a gif.

How DESIGN was a part of this assignment

Design considerations were a big part in this assignment. While the poster already designed for effect, taking it apart to animate also had design considerations.

  • What order should pieces become visible to show design and story?
  • At what speed and duration for each piece?
  • How much of the original picture should stay static?
  • Are there pieces that should be cut?

One part I did have was the tag line coming before the title of the movie. Tendency is for one to read or view left to right for comprehension, but for visual interest how would the pieces coming in take the viewer’s eye from one place to another?

I began with the left upper piece – to start as this would be what the eye and brain would expect. I then jumped to the right to pull the eye across and then top center to join. This gives the viewer activity, yet in a flow. The static background becomes the canvas. Once 3 top pieces are in place the form or the man becomes visible and the viewer knows it is a person – but not who until the end.

At this point I was bringing in the tag line. Again following convention of reading top to bottom. When finished it just didn’t feel right or flow. It looked okay and ran – but design wise it wasn’t at the mark yet.

Back to the order and animation. I had to start over with the timeline because I couldn’t figure out how to put the correct stops in again after changing a layer in the original. Not a big deal – I was getting faster at doing it and it reinforced what the steps were so that I can do this again.

This time I switched up the middle sequence and brought the 3 parts of the title in then the tagline. So much better. It emphasized the title and made more sense to me now. I liked the flow and order.

Looking at each part as an object and not content provided the mindset needed to do this as design.

Settings complete. Saved and it works when I open it in a browser.

My next try at this will be to add position – flying in or out etc. as well as some actual builds of the visuals coming in view thru opacity levels rather than as full picture at once. With this poster, the abruptness of entry I thought was appropriate to the feeling of fracture.

Assignment Prompt:  http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/animated-movie-posters/   This assignment was rated 4 stars.

Thanks to @mdvfunes, @cogdog, @phb256, for help on getting the graphic to run. The solution is to insert as a Full file not smaller in word.press. Which then is the new lesson to save and create the gif in a size that is right for posting within a blog or other space. I will go back to the file and save again in a smaller canvas.

Right in the ds106 handbook!!!

Thanks to the ds106 community. Feedback and critical friend comments ease frustration and help growth at exponential rates!

Way too big for good use in publishing here – this was the first save. Also note: The following had a white band across the background layer as a fix for the wording. Design wise it detracted. So more tweaking and corrections were made to get to the version at the beginning of this post.

posteranimateunit5

 

Four Units Done- No Way!

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Well, I used to think time flew bye when I was busy at work and that calendar just flipped at warp speed. I had some time where the time seemed to be taking a long time to move forward. Then I jumped into this ds106 life and I am seeing the calendar fly again! But it is in a good way for sure. Flying by, but rich and satisfying.

Having this adventure run along side a group of students at UMW using the ds106 model with a theme of Noir has kept me focused and on track. While I am working through at my pace and timeline, having 3 sections of students in a traditional model with weekly deadlines keeps things moving and energized. I guess there is value in having some structure and explicit accountability to someone to keep things moving until everyone in the world is truly on the far end of the learning continuum and has achieved independence.

My path is part open, part noir106. I choose what I want to do. Although the basic infrastructure of ds106 focuses on a framework and sequence that builds and ensures success so the major difference is that open course is not themed.

Unit 4 is Audio. Working with audio in manipulation, storytelling and most of all listening.

A radio bumper was required as a prep for radio assignments in the weeks ahead. I thought I might do a Noir bumper – but the sections were hot on the topic and had to do a bumper in the genre so I chose to do a generic ds106 radio theme bumper. I kinda missed the thought of “bumper” and pushed this one to the 30 second extreme. But I love the song and to me it seemed to fit in the spirit of the open radio station.

The details are here on how I built this assignment.

One assignment that had me really regretting I didn’t go full #noir106 and create a character was the sound effects story. Having a character to build and define through the weeks is really a plus. In some ways it may feel constrictive, but when you don’t have one – you can really see that it helps focus and as it builds depth it puts to rest having to figure out what your story is because it is already directed. I think this assignment could/would have been more focused on using the audio to make the story if I had a character.

I am okay with my outcome and have notes on what I will do to include the sound effects in my family stories to be created.

I was going to push myself to complete the same number of stars as the student groups – but hey – life happens and I didn’t get to it. I did gather audio clips and some music for creating  a speech to music – but didn’t get to putting it together. I am coping out and sticking with the open course syllabus for Unit 4. I still want to do the assignments I picked out – they just won’t make this timeline.

Being able to take part in a couple of live tweet events while listening to ds106radio was rocking! The first one I missed because I was time zone challenged. Didn’t register that the announcement was EST and was na hour late. I could listen to the program, but it was minus the back channel.

The next two evenings I tuned in. It felt like talking while the movie was playing but not getting any dirty looks or sushing sounds directed towards you. The range of experiences and ages of those who were tweeting made it a richer experience. The radio ads were a hoot!

All I could think of was MacGyver and duct tape. LUX did everything for a woman! LOL

Daily creates this week were a nice mix (thanks @mdfunes). The puppy caption took off quickly and by the time I figured something out – it seemed not worthy because of all the brilliant submissions. That was one that was great to be a viewer.

I did 3 as suggested this week and feel pretty good about that. Daily Create makes me feel like I need to do one every day – 3 in a week suggested makes me feel like it can be accomplished but still lets me do more when it works.

The first one was paper sculpting and making a video to show it.

The ruin-porn photo would have been more adventurous if we hadn’t just had a foot of snow fall that needing clearing. So I had to use a photo I already had instead of finding a new subject. But it worked.

What were those doors leading too?

I'm Sorry Noir DS106Radio

The I’m Sorry daily create worked in perfectly with me missing the radio broadcast.

Make your Dot! tdc1126

And I submitted an idea for a TDC which came up – so felt the pressure of having to submit!

The other part of this week is that I moved my blog from wordpress.com to my domain through ReclaimHosting. This took some time – but not extensive in exporting and configuring. I am happy with the move to http;//konarheim.com. The format gives me options for setting up things the way I would like instead of limiting. I still ahve some trouble shooting to do. My Twitter timelines don’t seem to stay live. I also have not been able to get the ds106radio widget to work as an embed.

How’s it going?

I love it! Having purpose and having community to share creations with and learn from is key. Having responses to posts and feedback is worth a million bucks. It really does show how publishing, being public and sharing with others makes your work real. It drives you to do better and to complete.

I am thankful for being able to meet others, interact and engage with them as they create or publish. In some ways it has felt like being a groupie of a stalker. In the Google + group it seems I am posting more than others – but it is just that others have already done the things I am just starting. I could have stopped – but figure eventually there will be others and it be helpful for them to see there are posts.

I do like seeing others attempts at assignments and the write ups. I have to confess – my preference is a link and shout out in Twitter more than going through the RSS Feed on the website.  The tweets are more focused and direct and allow for wandering and immediate connection for me. Until everyone has tagging down better – you can miss things in the feed. If they are in Twitter – they seem more accessible.  I have come to follow a few because they are present and post- hoping more start engaging through Twitter and blowing their horn when they do something so we all can learn. We want to see what you are doing!

No complaints.

I am enjoying being able to be in the role of learner and one of the “class” instead of having to facilitate or lead. At the same time I am so appreciative and awed at the great examples the instructors are setting and the broader application of this model and process in professional learning as well as student learning. So many good lessons for others to learn.

Can’t believe it is Sunday already? Looking forward to the #noir106 weekly video on Monday and moving to next steps and unit 5!

 

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