HTML's

Hey,
I've been working on HTML's here during the past week and its a lot easier now from when I started out a couple months back. Its so much easier that I have fun while I'm writing code. I know the basics when it comes to  putting the tags on to text to place it in the site in a certain way. I made all the images on the site except the first image on the first page. I learned how to put keywords into the site that way if  a search engine pulls up any of them keywords, then my site might get hit. I just finished a web site and got it uploaded onto the internet. I put links to other pages that I made and I also put links to the site I got my information from. I did most of this web site in Dream Weaver, but I started it in Text Edit. Dream Weaver helps out much more when codes being typed up. Text Edit is a good program to start a web site, but you would have to have the add-in tags used in a making of a site in your head down pat.
Some of the tags:

• images tag(img sc)
• meta tag(for keywords)
• a tags(links)
• link to attach CSS style sheet to the main page to change it

If you have links on your page and they don't work, then check the spelling or how the link is set up on the html source code. Also, if your basic "HTML", "Body", "p(paragraph)" or "Header" tags aren't closed up properly that can mess everything too. Whatever tag that was started with would be ended with that same tag, but there would be a / in it. If you want certain parts of your page to have one effect then another part a different one, then just add a style sheet. Style Sheet's are linked to and from all pages on the web site that is trying to be made. If its done correctly, then you can have a good looking page.
* If you would like to see what a finished web site looks like using HTML, then here's a link to my new web site:new website

more new projects

We're presenting our image restoration projects today and all of them look a lot better than they did when they first came in. About the only thing that I did  was take the red tint out of it ,lighten it up, and  crop some of it out. It looks a lot more clear,  but there is still  some damage that  I can't do anything  about.

Here's the before and after picture:

Matrix Text & Background Effect

Hey Everybody,

We presented our tutorials yesterday and they all came out pretty good. I did the matrix background and text effect for my tutorial and it came out looking really cool. Here's the steps to recreate it.

• Start off in Photoshop with a translucent background, make sure the foreground/background color are in default, and press Alt/Delete to turn the background black
• Then, you'll want to take and images file (jpeg, etc.) and open it in something like Text Edit
• Just to be safe copy all of the code, then change the type tool to vertical type and click and paste
• Double click the code layer in the right layers panel to select all of it and change the color to 11, 143, 23
• while its highlighted, change the font to Lithos Pro
• Use the move tool OR V with mouse to position the text to you're satisfaction
• In the same right layers panel, click the name of the type and rename it 6pts
• Duplicate it twice OR Command J twice and change the names to 9pts and 12pts
• Change the font size of the 9pts layer to 9pts and change the font size of the 12pts layer to 12pts also (If a "rendering type" pop screen shows up don't mess with it, otherwise you'll get rid if your text)
• Add a mask layer (little camera looking button at the bottom of the layers panel) to 6pts, 9pts, and 12pts layers
• Got to Filter>Render>Clouds and put it on "mask layer" on 6pts, 9pts, and 12pts layers
• On the 9pts and 12pts layers, in the layers panel, click on blending list that says "normal" and scroll down to Color Dodge and click it
• Click the visibility off in the layers panel on 12pts and select 9pts
• Press the move tool OR V with mouse and move the text till you're satisfied
• Turn the visibility on 12pts back on, turn the 9pts visibility off and repeat the previous step
• IF YOU WANT TO, click the half white/black circle next to the mask layer button and go to Brightness/Contrast and adjust the levels as you will, but keep them close together

To add text in front of the background follow the next steps

• Turn the visibility off on all text, return the vertical text to horizontal if you hadn't already done so 
• Change the font to Miltown 2 and change the size to whatever you want
• If the color has changed then change it back to 11, 143, 23 and double click the bare side of the new text layer to bring up additional add ons
• Click Outer Glow and put the same color in the previous step, click the h bubble and select a lighter tint of that color then click ok
• Change the size and spread to 15, click ok

On arranging the text, if you don't like the results keep positioning them till you're happy with the results. So here are my results:

royalty free photography or fonts

Does anyone know what royalty is? Royalties are usage based payments made by one party( the licensee ) and another( the licensor ).  Royalties let other people use fonts or photography at a  specific rate. I have ten different sites that have royalty free fonts or photography on them. I decided to put at least a couple of sites that have royalty free photos on it.

Here's a list of Royalty free  sites:

http://www.fontmaster.com/

http://www.freebyte.com/clipart_images_photos_icons/


http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/freefonts.shtml


http://www.123ppt.com/fonts/


http://www.graphxedge.com/


http://www.clipart.com/en/se/fonts


http://www.prospector.cz/Free-graphics/Fonts/

http://www.graphicxtras.com/products/font1.htm

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

http://www.sxc.hu/







 

Importance of protecting itelletual property

Hey Everybody,

Does anyone know what intellectual property is? Intellectual property is involved everyday when you wake up in the morning. It's on the newspaper, cereal boxes, and the radio's scanning function. Intellectual property has four categories: patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and copyrights. Some of these Intellectual properties have an expire time and some don't. Copyrights protect the expression of a idea. Trade Secrets are probably the most straight forward. Patents are the most technically demanding of all in this  category. Trademarks protect the product identifiers. Say that you created something that no one else had created before; the purpose of the intellectual property is to protect your rights to keep it and keep it from getting stolen or used without your permission. It's what businesses first think about and what freelance designers think about too.

New Projects

Hey Everybody,

I presented my 8.5in by 11in, standard paper size, project a couple of days ago and I like how it turned out. We were supposed to create three design advertisements and mount one for presentation. I went ahead and presented all three of my designs. I thought that the criticism that I got from the class and others was pretty helpful. Apparently, Ms. Gilpins, Mr. Williams assistant teacher, thought my third design, the clock ad, was my strongest piece. She thought that my middle piece, crappy photo ad, was the weakest of the three.

I'm actually glad that I got the reviews that I did. Mr. Williams said that he liked the first ad, know what your doing?, and I've had others say that they like it too. On my first ad I got everything to tie in with each other. The second one I tried to tie everything together, but I'm not sure if it completely worked. My third ad was very simple and I like how it came out.

*In case anyone is wondering, the company name and contact info is fake

Here's my three advertisements:

Ice Text Effect

hey everybody,

I'm going to post my tutorial for last week on here today. It's ice text and it looks very real and cool. I just typed in the text that I wanted and added a whole bunch of filters to it. I tried the text that it used on the tutorial but it didn't look good at all because I couldn't read it. So, I went with Valdemar text and it came out much better. I even tried it with new text that I downloaded for another tutorial and it night look even better in that text than Valdemar text. I added blur, crystallize, find lines, and wind filters to it. I also merged and inverted it.

• First, you want to start with a white background then type whatever words you want to(don't worry about the color, It'll get token care of later)
• Go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise, choose 150 for the amount to add
• Go to Filter>Pixelate>Crystallize, choose at least 3 for the value
• Filter again>Stylize>Find Edges
• Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, choose one for the value
• Go to Layer>Merge OR just do Command E for the short cut
• Command I for the short cut OR Image>Adjustments>Invert
• Finally Command U for the short cut OR Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation, click the colorize box on the lower right, change the Hue to 220, then change the saturation to 90. You don't want to messs with the last slider at the bottom Hue/Saturation panel because it will mess up when you try to put the text in a photo.

Then you're done and if you don't like it then you can bring up the Hue/Saturation again panel and play with it till you like the results.


Here's a couple of the ice texts:

Our Movie Posters

Hey everybody,

We just got done with finishing and printing our movie posters. They all came out pretty good and it was fun while we were trying to get it done. We made our posters from scratch with the exception of the idea we based it on. I based my poster on the first Matrix movie and it is really cool. I relearned how to do the lightning effect to be able to put it on my poster, and I drew my own buildings in illustrator. I drew one side of the building(windows, doors, and the buildings itself), copied/reflected it to the other side, then I grouped them together and rotated them to my satisfaction. I had everyone in the poster think how would they pose in a matrix movie and they did a good job. I spent a lot of time on getting rid of the green background on each the individual photos and I found it easiest(for me) to use the magnetic lasso tool, normal lasso tool, the eyedropper tool and the color replacement brush tool. I did at least six lightning effects to get that lightning up at the top. I just made a single linear gradient, inverted it, and changed the levels for the lightning effects.  I tried to get the "matrix" font , but the closest I got to it was by using the "Valdemar" font.

Here's the poster:

Night Vision Effect

Hey everybody,

We started to present our tutorials and it turned out pretty interesting. I did night vision as my tutorial and it is a pretty neat effect. I already had one of my classmates ask me how to do it. I just took a picture and made different layers to add the night vision effect.

• go to image>adjustments>desaturate
• layer>new
• click the gradient tool, change the foreground color to 103,202,101
• change the background color to 18,91,25 and click/hold to apply the gradient to middle of the image and drag
• change the blending mode to multiply and adjust the levels(command L)if you want to
• make a duplicate if that layer(command J)and do the desaturate step again
• chage the levels as you see fit
•  If you want to make it a old version of night vision, then go to filter>noise>add noise 

Here's a few pictures of the night vision effect:

Lava Text Effect

Hey everybody

We started to get photoshop tutorials off of the internet, and we presented what we learned from them.
I found a tutorial that  shows how to create lava text  and it's turned out pretty good.  I've gotten use to it so much that I don't need the tutorial on the screen anymore if I forget something. It wasn't really that difficult when learned what to do either. When I was done with the normal one I just started playing around with it and presto, I got the inverted one. You're gonna have to do this on photoshop. Here's how it's done:

• make the background black
• type white text,big and spaced out
• deselect everything, choose layer>flatten image
• choose filter, stylize>wind-apply twice both left & right
• choose filter, render>difference clouds
• type same text, same way in the earlier step, and position it on top of the original
• repeat the flatten image step
• deselect everything, press D to swap white/black stroke and fill
• choose filter, stylize>extrude
• choose image, adjustments>invert
• choose image , adjustments>color balance
• change midtone values to 100,0,0
• change shadow value to 80,0,-40
• change highlight value to 70,0,-70
  

If I remembered all the steps right there should this cool lava text in front of you, and if you want to see something else kind of cool then just repeat the invert step. Here's the normal one(bottom) and here's the inverted one(top).

Inspiration

Hey everybody,

What gives you inspiration? Many things give people inspiration to do or create something great. I might become inspired after an idea I just had. The idea might persuade me to get up and turn that thought into reality. For example,  on the last day during the 3rd week of my second class, I had gotten scared by a Halloween decoration and during the ride home I thought it would be very cool if someone would take that decoration and make a life size version of it. I was inspired to maybe get the idea out to someone with the ability to create it or if I could someday make it myself I would.

I hope that this has inspired you to get up and do something great to.

Making a Poster

Hey everybody,

Well, Its October and our teacher had us get into groups to do a poster. The poster was Halloween based and the poster had to include everyone in the group. I did the wolf man's left arm and eyes. Until then I didn't quite get how to change a picture into another picture. I masked the eyes and changed them into werewolf eyes, and I also replaced some of the arms for werewolf arms. It took me a little bit to understand how to actually do this. Everyone else did their own thing and it turned out very good. Here's the poster:

Applying a logo to business

Hey everybody

We started to apply our logo to letters, business cards, and envelopes. We had to find the right size for business cards, envelopes, and letters. I changed the logo a bit by reflecting it and changing its opacity to about 40%. All I did on the letter was rearrange the words a tiny bit. I didn't change the font or its style all that much. Here's my business card, letter, and envelope that I created( they are still in the editing process):

Making a Logo cont.

Hey everybody again

I just got done with my second logo. I used the pen tool for most of this project and I can't really believe how easy it was compared to the first time. I thought about what I want to show in my logo and I wanted to show that I'm open minded to different ideas, hence the name "Open Minded Productions". I really like how the logo turned out and I hope you do to.
Logo:

Making a Logo

Hey everybody

We started on our logos yesterday and we got some logos done today. I made the logo below( with the help of my teacher) yesterday. It's pretty straight forward and simple. I just took one of the two letters and set it up on the inner shapes. I had the left over white part of the inner shape used for the O. I used the basic colors: red, white, and black. It was a little difficult to do at first because I didn't really know what to do.

 

Introduction to Graphic Design

hey everybody
Today's my first day in Introduction to Graphic Design, and it's going great. I just got finished making three different caution signs in a tutorial which are cold hazard, radiation hazard, and fire hazard. I basically had a gold-like background and black images. I'm fixing to get started on second tutorial which is making "Balloon Festival Artwork".

P.S. If anyone who I sent out an email to so that they could have a look reads this, the link to the web site is on the one before it: "Making a Website"

Making a Website

It's my last day in Introduction to Technology

 Hey everybody,

It took a couple of days, but I completed my first website and posted it onto the web. We started it on Dream Weaver,inserting the text and images, changing the background color, and adding the links.

I went to some websites that have some information on the graphic designer I'm researching for my site. I put some of the information on the pages and left the rest for the links. I split the links up in three pages and added a home page. The four total pages all have links on them to the next page.

I changed the text style, color, and size. I didn't really change the image size, however it all worked out. I made all of the text, including the links stand out from the blue background. All of my website and page links are working properly. I think that it went pretty well for my first site.

Site Name: www.tampabaycreative.com/barnabas

making a flash presentation

making a flash presentation is pretty easy, especially after you get it done the first time and the computer freezes up on you AND you didn't save like you should've. well, i didn't make that mistake again. i saved every bit that i could when i redid it. what was most stressing about the presentation was trying to mask so that the name revealed the picture. i finally stopped trying to mask it because i got just so frustrated with it. however i finally got done with it today and i'm glad.

anyway, we're starting to look into dreamweaver and i think that it'll be pretty interesting and fun.

another animation

we don't really have anything to do today in here. well we do, but i don't know what the heck to do. i tried working a bit on my last project, but it didn't turn out like i'd hope. so, i just started tinkering in flash and i made another animation. it has at least three layers on it and its pretty simple.

it's basically two stick figures with one burning the other one up with heat vision, fire eyes, or whatever you want to call it. i might be able to upgrade it somehow but i'm not sure yet on how to do that.

sorry i can't get the animation on this blog, it just won't work.

Code Writing

hey

have any of ya'll tried to do a code for something. we're doing that for our third project and you know what, its FREAK'N IRRITATING!!! (at least for me) i don't think i can count the times of thinking i got it all fixed up, then boom, another error pops up

well i hope that this code thing'll get better and i can finally be done with it.

talk to ya'll later

ninth day in class

hey everybody

we learned more about what we could do in flash. our teacher showed us how to do masks and other things. i worked a little bit on my gator race game. i really need to get on the ball with it.

i done an animation with two stick figures in it. i used at least five layers to create it. i had the first figure hold, throw, and cut off the second figures' head. when the head went up in the air it exploded into four splits of red mark for blood (thanks to my teacher). it was really cool to see it all come together. i wish i could've put it on this blog so ya'll can see it.

thats all for now everybody

Tweening

hey everybody
well, all we did in DAMM was tweening. it's easy for some people who've done it a couple of times. near the end of class i finally learned on what i was doing wrong when i was tweening. hopefully i'll remember this and then everything should be easier.
because of the tweening we weren't able to work on any of our projects, but i got a little bit done on mine. other than that, we worked a bit on our blogs and it was pretty simple
talk to ya'll later

Wikis

hey everybody again
Any of yall know what a wiki is? A wiki is a piece of software that allows users to create and edit webpage content using any web browser.It also supports hyperlinks and has simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages.
There are alot of benefits having wikis. Here are some of them:

• advanced document and content management/development
• facilitate collaboration/communication between people in networks
• enhance knowledge building, sharing, searching
• easy self publish by contributors

There are more benefits in the usage of wikis. Here are some of them:

• ability to write down quick or long ideas, more time for formal writing/editing
• instant collaboration
• accessible from anywhere with web connections
• everyone has a say- they can update your ideas if they want to

Here are some tips for having a helpful wiki:

• keep navigation simple- use alot of attachments
• keep all notes together- while organizing your thoughts on one subject you'd come across something that you'd forgotten.
• don't be scared of using synonyms

Here are some tips for people using wikis in groups:

• don't be precious- practice at getting thoughts out of your head and into words
• don't share too much
• watch spelling/grammer- don't expect everyone to clear up after you
• every edit should be emailed to you
• comment on everyone's idea

Resources:

http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki

http://www.oreillynet.com/network/2006/07/07/what-is-a-wiki.html

http://trans4mbiz.blogspot.com/2006/08/benefits-of-wikis.html

Day Six in Class

hey everybody
were learning how to use adobe flash and figuring out all of what we can do. It's really cool, but it's a little confusing for some people. we did a design rocket ship project and now were staring on a ocean animation project. haven't really worked out all the kinks yet but it sure looks like it'll be fun. keep ya posted.

Why people blog?

Hey everybody,

people blog for so many different reasons  and there are so many helpful sites on the internet that can help new bloggers too. People blog for money, to get feed back, or to grow intellectually. Setting up blogs that give small bits of information help people absorb the info. easier. Questions also help the bloggers' blog prosper. Any way here are some sites that might help bloggers.

A Newbies Guide to Publishing.
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2006/03/what-makes-good-blog.html

It gave information about what gets the readers to come back and what helps out the bloggers.

Gothamist Notes1: what not to do when you blog.
http://gothamist.com/2003/12/08/gothamist_notes_1_what_not_to_do_when_you_blog.php
It tells you what not to do when people blog, especially newbies.

11 things you must follow when starting a new blog
http://techie-buzz.com/blogging-tips/blogging-tips-for-new-bloggers.html

why people blog?
http://www.shoutmeloud.com/why-people-blog.html
they opened my eyes on why people blog.

Dos and donts of blogging
http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2007/11/03/the-dos-and-donts-of-blogging/http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2007/11/03/the-dos-and-donts-of-blogging/
I like the fact that it gives you four dos and four donts on blogging.

Blogging resources
http://www.blogging-resources.com/
It shows what some people have done with blogging.

Welcome to top ten blog tips
http://www.toptenblogtips.com/
It showed the top ten latest and greatest blog tips

5 blogging basics cant live without
http://bloggingtip.net/
It shows more on why people blog.

About.com: human resources
http://humanresources.about.com/od/businessblogs/a/business_blogs.htm
It shows how blogs are important to businesses.

Problogger
http://www.problogger.net/
It helps new bloggers in their blog by experimentation or designing it.

Second day in class

this is what we started to do in the second day of class. we took pictures and changed them. I changed the color, saturation, and the shadows and lights. I had a very fun time doing it too.

Design and Multimedia

first day of class

I have learned a few things in the hours of being here. I've learned to set up an HTML and start a blog. I chose this school because it was the first and only school I came to. I also chose it because of their convenience for their students. For example, their class sizes. I think that I'll enjoy my time here and I hope that I can get a good job upon leaving here.