touring the sites

All:

I've just been doing my IPRs for the last bit of this class. Boy, I've really enjoyed the work we've all done in this class.


I feel Husam's design brief is outstanding. I've saved a copy and will be using it as a template going forward. I like his organization and direction.

I was Amy's IPR partner earlier in the class and her web site has undergone such a transformation. Before, her content was a wave of work all washed into the same corner. Now, she has a cohesive, organized narrative of her work at Mason. Go, Amy.

I think Lisa's work might be the most ambitious of all of ours. Her purpose is to teach people how to change their outlook, while standing on a street corner. She has to take inexperienced evangelists, educate them, motivate them and pus them out the door. Her content is the best of all of us. Once she finds the narrative in her site, she's going to have powerful work.

My project is now live at vinegar-hill.com. Someday, when I have a two days, I can really populate the site. So far, I have seven PDFs of the newsletters. Using inDesign, I've pulled out the content for one of those issues – and have about of a third of THAT on the site.

I think I know what I'll be doing during those snowy days this winter.

Thanks all. I'll see you in the next class.

go go video

I really enjoyed the video exercise. I layered my text above the video on my Flash piece, and it created an OK user experience.

I'm really looking forward to learning how to open/create video. Maybe I'm ready to become an auteur! http://harborsights.com/gmu/edit771/flash/video/video.swf

it's nearly hoops season

I forgot to show you my Flash piece. It's my name in lights, so to speak, on the basketball court.

enjoy.

http://harborsights.com/gmu/edit771/flash/tsakell_animation.swf

saturday morning redux

I really enjoyed our readings this week on animation. I felt like I'd known the 12 points of animation all my life, but just never had terms to put to the actions. I'd animated basketballs before, w/ sounds and shadows. It was a lot of fun setting the timing, trying to replicate gravity and "counting" -- the author used 2s, but I was breaking my bouncing ball loops into 5 frames up, 2 frames down. I'd make the shadow a circle w/ a Gaussian (dissipating) blur, and change the size of opacity, depending on how far from the ground the ball was.

The best part of the lesson was anticipation, one of those things we kind of know we want, but don't know how to do. The example was terrific; I thought I was watching a Tom and Jerry cartoon w/ a big bowl of Sugar Smacks in my jammies on a Saturday morning.

Lastly, I'm sorry the author never completed his explanation of the 12 principles. I'd like to hear more about Anticipation, Exaggeration, Secondary Action, Follow through & Overlapping Action, Straight Ahead & Pose to Pose, Staging, and Appeal.

Timing
Squash and Stretch
Slow in & Slow Out
Arcs of Motion
Anticipation
Exaggeration
Secondary Action
Follow through & Overlapping Action
Straight Ahead & Pose to Pose
Staging
Appeal
Solid Drawing

helllooooooooooo?

I'm calling out to fellow students in this class: EDIT 771. Please look at my work; what do you think?

I'm paying off a family debt and making a website for my dad's "old neighborhood" reunion committee. The group has always kept a paper newsletter, publishing about 2x /year. They're getting older, and interest is flagging, so I've offered to put the information online.

I'm back/forth over how to best offer the content. I like the idea of the Flash introduction, but switching to HTML inside. There's so much content: 6 issues, 8 pages, 20 images/issues.

I'm still having trouble in dreamweaver templates, but I think it's because I followed the tutorials too closely. I made too many areas in my template -- templatized. I'm going to go back in and "release" areas like H1 and main text. They'll be changing page to page.

So take a look, please. URLs in previous post. thanks.

so, what do you think?

Amy, Prof. Aird:

Please view my files here:

http://www.harborsights.com/gmu/edit771/survey.doc

http://www.harborsights.com/gmu/edit771/index.html

http://www.harborsights.com/gmu/edit771/community.html

I've loaded all the files to my EDIT 771 account, but you can't see them "in action" there. And, for some reason, I can't access my portfolios.gmu.edu this week.


Thank you.

thanks, dictionary.com

I went to the dictionary to find the word I wanted to use to describe this week's assignment: confounding.

I think I'm well versed in web design, structure and process. When I saw our assignment was to create templates, wireframes and mockups, I went through my usual processes: a blend of Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash and Dreamweaver. But my end products didn't resemble the requirements.

As I pored through Prof. Aird's podcasts and tutorials, I became more and more confused ; nay, confounded. These processes were completely different from mine.

So I tossed my work aside, and went step-by-step through the buttons tutorials, then the template tutorials. In the end, I didn't have to unlearn what I already know, but I sure had to block my memory of it.

I've now learned a new – and efficient – way of creating buttons and templates. They're fast and clean. They may not be right – for me – in every instance, but I've learned something today!

How many days can you say that?

Thanks, Prof. Aird.