Multimedia Wrap-up

It's the end of the week and the end of the DHSI and I have finished a bunch of projects for the Multimedia Design for Visual, Auditory and Interactive Electronic Environments class.

You'll notice a new title image above (courtesy of the Fireworks and Blogger Templates portions of the class) and if you follow me on Facebook, you may already have heard my little Coffee on Campus podcast --  I put it up on the Internet Archive for all to hear. The only problem is that there is supposed to be an initial image of a coffee cup that doesn't come up right away and I haven't had time to fix it (and I don't have the program we used -- Garageband -- at home).

Another assignment was to design an invitation, here's the finished result (there's actually a white border around the image, too... but it disappears on this page):

 

But the one thing I was really excited to play around with was Flash. So after a frustrating start, I did manage to put together the world's cheeziest Flash animation, complete with dance music. I have exported it as a Quicktime movie so that I can upload it for you to watch (and share the cheeeeeze):

[EDIT: apparently, the compression or perhaps the delivery over the web, sucks so the video above is very choppy. Sigh. If you want to see the original, let me know and I will figure out a way to share it.]

Multimedia Explorations

I am blogging from one of the Mac labs on campus and essentially being paid to do so -- I am in the midst of the week-long Digital Humanities Summer Institute and this year I am taking Multimedia: Design for Visual, Auditory and Interactive Electronic Environments. 

I had been hoping for tips on digitizing multimedia but it is much more about design: Dreamweaver, Flash, iMovie, Fireworks, Garageband and Blogger. There was some challenge for me with the "Visual Itelligence" portion -- basically art history/art appreciation 101 (something I have long avoided) and a bigger challenge in getting iMovie to work (though it turns out I was just impatient). 

For my final project I think I would like to work with Flash; it is something I haven't done before and it looks fun when it is done. If it is not complete dogfood, I will share it with you, too.

Friday Follies undead edition

Star used to regularly write "Friday Follies" posts and seldom a Friday goes by when I don't think about them and how wise she was to post every Monday and Friday (coincidentally the days when my page views here are also highest.) So, here for you are some fun, silly, and interesting things out there on the web:

• Spelling with Zombies. Much better than those glitter words applications and you get results like this:
  
  Zombie Letters from e-zombie.com
  



• Speaking of (un)dead... how about bookshelves which convert into a coffin after you're gone?



• Or maybe you just feel a little undead and could use some caffeine. I'm looking forward to trying out this method of cold-brewing coffee concentrate for summer iced coffees. However, I really want to point you toward one of the most beautiful espresso maker designs ever: the Otto. I love designs that are so bold they look like nothing that has come before; the Otto definitely fits that bill.
  
  
  
• And finally, some video fun....classic Ray Harryhausen stop-motion skeletons from 1963:
  
  
  

What happens when you take the Channel out of A-Channel?

Apparently you get something that looks like FOX:



On the right is the new logo for "A" which is Global's rebranding of both A-Channel (on the West Coast) and ASN (on the East Coast); on the right is FOX television's logo. You tell me if FOX should call their lawyers.

Great idea(s)!

Quick round up of useful, clever, or just nifty stuff I've seen on the net lately:

Animal Tracks ABC is a set of flashcards featuring an A-Z of animal tracks! If Kiddo were younger, I would definitely order a set (only $10 plus shipping) from etsy user doggiepiggie.

Doodle Tags turn your child's art into a permanent keepsake -- made from recycled silver! The $95 price is higher than I would normally pay for a pendant but it is a unique and very personalized piece of art. And there is a bonus: you also get a rubber stamp of the image with your purchase. How cool is that?

Pocket Watercolour Tin. You may have already seen this instructable from jpmartineau for a portable watercoulour container made from the ever-popular Altoids tin (there will be riots if the company ever changes their packaging!) plus some polymer clay. The coolest thing about the instructable may be the section on choosing the colours to pack along.

Recycled Magazine Garbage Can. While this project looks very impressive, there is no way I have the time or patience to do it... and if I did somehow manage to complete it, there is no way I would use the resulting container for garbage! Craftster user lovething does suggest using the technique for other items, though, and I might try that.

There's something familiar here....

Check out what Hubby noticed about some recent Fisher Price toys versus a very well-known and well-loved Pixar franchise....

And if you liked that, check out the "You thought we wouldn't notice" blog.

Mmm-hmm. We noticed.

Really, really bad design.

I often rant about bad web design, or sometimes bad building design, but this tale of bad design made me laugh out loud.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Muni drivers have reported over the last couple of weeks that people have been shutting down the power on their buses by flipping a switch that can be accessed easily through an unlocked panel on the outside of the bus.

When that happens, the drivers can't accelerate, they lose radio contact with dispatchers and the interior lights on the buses go out. The power loss does not affect the brakes.

How stupid is that -- placing the off switch behind an unlocked panel outside the bus? It's just begging to be monkeyed with! Now Muni is on the hook for locking the panels and probably will have to develop a full policy for access to the panels, too. If I were them, I'd be sending a big fat bill to the company that built-in the design flaw.

Etsy Makeover.

I've spent a bunch of time this evening fiddling around with images in Fireworks to come up with a new banner for my Etsy shop. I wanted something to better represent me. Above is the small version, for promotional use on my webpages and such. Below is the full version that appears at the top of my Etsy shop:



I've also been trying to figure out how to best promote my shop without resorting to weaselly tactics. I was happy to find an Etsy wiki (speaking of wikis, if you've ever wanted to collaborate on a script... head over to the CrowdPublishing script wiki....), the TransCanada Etsy Team, and a few other Victoria-based Etsy sellers looking for each other....

Unfortunately, self-promotion is something at which I suck. So, if you have ideas for weasel-free self-promotion, I'd love to hear them.