Pinterest Embed

 

Follow Pinterest Pin pets on Pinterest

My First Interactive Graphic Embedded on my Website

I copied the Embed Code from the ThingLink "share" button ad embedded it into my new WIX site. Check it out at my new site here:

• Remember to check out other WIX Sites for ideas: https://www.wix.com/explore/websites
• You Can find tips, tricks, and answers to questions about the WIX tools here: https://support.wix.com/en?referral=HelpWidgetDashboard

My FIrst Interactive Graphic

 

Review these websites!

 Take a look at these examples of personal websites:

https://collegeinfogeek.com/personal-website-examples/

Pick three sites you found inspiring and write a short summary of their positive points. (Include links!)

Post in a blog for us to see examples.

The Internet Knows - and Never Forgets

 Explore what the internet knows about you - and how you look to others.

• Learning what Google knows about you
• open your chrome browser and log into your Gmail/Google acount
• click this link and we will explore together/privately: https://bit.ly/GoogleKnowsU
  
  
• Learning what others see about you on Google
• While still logged into Google, go ahead, Google yourself
• Now log out of Gmail/Google and Google your name
• Note the similarities and differences
  
  
• Dr. Nichols shares a brief presentation - "The Internet Never Forgets."
  
  
  

• Think about HOW YOU WANT TO BE SEEN by completing the Personal Brand Worksheet in Canvas before our next class meeting.

Embedding a Pinterest Board into Your Website or Blog

Here is a widget for my Pinterest Board - Artifacts from the Future!

 

PUT WIDGET HERE

Wanna know how I did it?

First - add this line of code somewhere in the body of the html for the web page or blog:

<script async="" defer="" src="//assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

(This lets your page know you are utilizing javascript.)

Second - place this java script code where you want the "widget" to appear in yoru website or blog - remember to change the url to the url for YOUR BOARD!

 <a data-pin-board-width="400" data-pin-do="embedBoard" data-pin-scale-height="240" data-pin-scale-width="80" href="https://www.pinterest.com/randydnichols/artifacts-from-the-future/"></a>

So - remember to use the HTML view to edit yoru blog - NOT the compose view. ALSO - don;t get freaked out because you can;t see the widget active in your "compose view." - Try the Preview button - but when you publish it - you can "VIEW BLOG" to see what your visitor sees.

You should be fine after a few trials and adjustments.

Good Luck

Introducing Me

I am Professor Nichols. 

I am from South Carolina. 

I teach at Limestone University. 

In five years, I will be on a beach in a hammock with a fruity drink with an umbrella.

 

 

PUT WIDGET HERE

 Virtual Reality Tour of the Earl Scruggs Center!

Students will take one final walk-through and make last-minute adjustments before submission to our clients at the center in Shelby, NC.

*LINK*

Lighting and Shooting the Classic Interview Scene

 Learn tips, rules, and guiding principles for shooting video

• Examples of Camera Shots
• How To Shoot Like a Pro
• Rule of Thirds - Film Lab
• 180 degree Rule - Film Lab
• Shooting Interviews - Film Lab
• More Interview Tips - Film Lab
• Shooting B-Roll Like Peter McKinnon
• Peter McKinnon Shoots B-Roll
  
• Basic Three-light Interview
• Lighting:Rembrandt
• Lighting: Reflectors
• Lighting: Eye Lights

The above provide descriptions of, and resources for, the application of coursework in Digital Composition with video.

You will set up a classic 2-camera interview video session for practice - but you might also incorporate these principles in your Video Interview.

Spring Cleaning: Sprucing up the Portfolio!

Students will add their video creations to their personal websites/digital portfolios - along with samples of work from graphic design, 2D art, photography, VR photography, interactive images, QR codes, etc.

Students will use the web-building tools to organize the materials to make them easily accessible for site visitors - AND - will attach a RATIONALE for each sample in the portfolio.

Rationale

Each example will be accompanied by a written explanation of the sample, a description of the production process, and a discussion of all considerations that went into the design. The rationale is the opportunity for the student to explain their learning to their social media audiences, which may include faculty, family, colleagues and potential employers.

 

Updated websites will be reviewed in class on Thursday before Spring Break.

Making your own Music Video!

 Students will hone their editing chops by producing a "music video" using song lyrics and "freegal" video & photo resources. This will help develop a simple planning process for editing (which can be transferred to shooting video, too.)

1. Students will select a song to make into a video, and will script out the lyrics (with time codes) in a table to create a "shot list."
2. Students will complete the table with a description of what images they want for each lyrical segment, making a "shopping list" for video footage and photos, etc.
3. Students will begin "shopping" for "freegal" visual collateral, saving all assets in a folder dedicated to the project.
4. Along the way, students should keep records of the assets which require attribution, (e.g. CC BY licenses.)
5. Students will revise their shot list based on the images they actually chose to use, making the list into a Video Editing Guide - which will guide their editing in the lab.
6. Students should refresh their knowledge of copyright laws and Fair Use guidelines to discuss how such materials may or may not be used.

Below is an example of a couple minutes of a music video of Mary Chapin Carpenter's "I am a Town"  using CC 0 (Public Domain) image resources from the Library of Congress and Wikimedia Commons, and video footage licensed through VideoBlocks, and a few CC BY images from VisualHunt (which will be acknowledge in the credits of the finished video.)

The Shot List / Editing List looks like this:

Some Audio and Video Resources

 Try these Resources for Audio assets:

• Dr. Nick's Pinterest Board for  "legal" Audio
• Jamendo - lots of music, various CC licenses
• FreePlay Music - free personal and student educational use
• PD Sounds - free sound fx

Try these Resources for Video assets:

• www.nps.gov/media/multimedia-search.htmU.S. Copyright Statement on Fair Use
• Dr. Nichols' Pinterest Board for "legal" video
• Archive.org public domain film, movie and video footage
• WikiMedia Videos - CC & Public domain
• US National Parks B-roll

Editing Video!!!

 

Students will use Premiere Pro (and provided video, audio and photos) to recreate the 25-second introduction to a fictitious documentary called "Baseball: America's Pasttime."

 In doing so, students will demonstrate their learning of the program interface, importing collateral, using photos, layers, timeline, transitions, effects, editing clips before and after insertion to the timeline, titling, the Ken Burns effect, and exporting to various video formats (in this case, a format suitable for YouTube.)

They will upload their videos to YouTube and embed them in their blogs with additional prose commentary on the process.

In the folder I shared you will find a sample - also available here: 

Some of the tasks I completed while making this clip:

• cutting a video clip into two segments
• dropping in a music clip for background
• shortening a music clip
• "fading out" a music clip
• adding title
• adding photos and resizing photos for frame
• fading in - and out - title
• fading in photos
• cross-fading between photos
• "Ken Burns" Effect - rough cut - on still photos
• fading video to black
• and more...

A good YouTube tutorial of the "Ken Burns Effect"
 

Adobe has some helpful links to instructions and video tutorials to help you get started HERE.
(In follow-up projects, students will create a sample of camera shots, and a brief tutorial on tips to make video better.)

RESOURCES:

Is Google (Still) Making Us Stupid?

 Let me provoke some of your thinking with an article that is now a "classic,: "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"
As you read the article, think about these questions to provoke insightful comments in your next blog.

1.  How does the author describe changes in his attention span?
2. Do you relate to the experiences of Scott Karp or Bruce Friedman? How so?
3. How did the typewriter affect the writings of Nietzsche? Can you describe how specific technologies have altered your reading, writing, thinking in similar ways?
4. Authors Lewis Mumford and Joseph Weizenbaum both discuss a piece of technology that changed human life in incredible ways. What device was it? 
5. How has the Net changed other media, like TV, newspapers, etc.?
6. What do you think of Taylor's "system" and philosophy? Based on the info in the article, what do you think it would be like to work at Google?
7.  What was Socrates' fear about the invention of writing? Can you apply that concern to other technologies?
8. What does Richard Foreman see as the difference between the ideal human of his time and the ideal human of the digital age? Do you agree with him? What are the implications of such changes?
   

IF THIS ARTICLE WERE WRITTEN TODAY, (instead of in ancient times of 2008) - WHAT WORD WOULD YOU PUT IN PLACE OF "Google" IN THE TITLE?  Which technology, social media platform, device, program, etc. would you write about? Explain why you made this choice.

Shooting a "Video Vocabulary" - Part 1

  PART 1:

Students will be "shooting the vocabulary" - that is to say, shooting original video illustrating a number of shots used in video production, namely - these shots:

• The extreme wide shot
• The wide, also known as a long shot
• The full shot
• The medium shot
• The medium close-up shot
• The close-up shot
• The extreme close-up shot
• The establishing shot

SEE THIS SET OF EXAMPLES!

Students will also add samples of the four basic camera movements: Pan, Tilt, Zoom, and Dolly/Truck.  (See Pan, Tilt, Dolly, Zooming)

Students will keep these video clips in a dedicated folder for editing. (The folder should be named something like, "Video Vocabulary" or Vocabulary of Video Shots.")

Pre-Site Visit - VR Tour of Earl Scruggs Center (Beta)

 In preparation for Thursday's visit to the Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby, 

Go to this link in your browser:

https://www.thinglink.com/video/1572980406364405763

or scan this QR code with your phone:

Now - 360 Recreations!

 Next step is to recreate your photos in 360 Spherical Images.

This might help: https://limestonedigital.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/7/7/12773739/theta_vr_camera_instructions_2.pdf

Troubleshooting:

https://help.ricohprojects.com/hc/en-us/articles/4412702772115-Troubleshooting-When-RICOH-THETA-Cannot-Connect-to-Mobile-App

https://topics.theta360.com/en/faq/c_00_s/9_2/

Remediating the Image for VR/3D

 

Re-creating Photos in 2D (and beyond)

Professor of Photography Brett Schenning visited our class to discuss photographic composition and gave us this provocative exercise...

1. Find a famous photograph. (Just Google for some ideas.)

2. Go recreate that famous photograph.

3. Post both the sample famous photograph and your recreation in your blog with a reflection of your process and product.

and I added this part:

4. Turn your recreation into an Interactive Graphic with explanations of various parts of the composition that explain the comparisons and processes.

Here are my examples from a couple years back...

First assignment - appreciate and recreate Todd Hido's shot from "Excerpts from Silver Meadows"

Copyright Todd Hido

 Todd Hido discusses the "Excerpts from Silver Meadows" photos:

My attempt at recreating Hido's Photo:

without filter

with Instagram Filter

See also: https://photos.app.goo.gl/BzFt7W8uK9qW6Q2r1 

Like Todd Hido, I drove around in my car, waiting to see the right sun at the right angle for the composition. I took a couple that worked - one from my moving car through the dirty driver's side window - and then this one, from the parking lot of a closed business. This allowed me to "frame" the shot with the windshield of my car. I splashed water on the window and shot with different focal points to vary the bokeh effect. Then, to imitate Hido, I used Instagram's Mayfair filter.

---------------

Next assignment: appreciate and recreate Lewis Baltz' shot from "The New Industrial Parks near Irvine, California 1974"

Copyright Lewis Baltz

Lewis Baltz talks about his work in a video interview produced by the Tate:

My attempt to recreate the Baltz photo:

I drove around to several industrial buildings before settling on this shot - the side entrance to the massive delivery area of Hamrick Outlets in Gaffney. The vent lines echo (perpendicularly) the lines of the blinds in the Blatz photo, and the shadow play from the awning imitates Baltz use of the plants' shadows.

Let's get Interactive!

In Canvas, You will find this...

ThingLink Interactive Image Assignment

(Your group is “Digital Comm” and your code is in your email)

Assignment: You will make an interactive Personal Campus Map of Limestone College, using a sample campus map and your own photos, comments, video, sound, etc. You will embed the image in your blog or website and share a link in Canvas to your published image.

 Use the ThingLink interface (http://www.thinglink.com) – sign up with the code provided in your email to build a dynamic, interactive VIRTUAL PERSONAL CAMPUS MAP with digital collateral.

1. Watch the walkthrough tutorial video here: https://support.thinglink.com/hc/en-us/articles/360034508093--Video-How-to-use-the-ThingLink-editor 
   
   
2.   Try your hand by building a “Personal Campus Map” using the campus map image attached. (Use “upload image” for this one – we will do 360 images later.) Create and use at least one of each of these “tags” below.
• a.      Add text and media with each of these elements:
1.   Text
2.   Photo
3.  Audio
4. Add text label
5. Add content from website:
6. YouTube/Vimeo video OR
7.   Embed code from one of your creations
8. (No need to do “tour button” yet. But play around an add as much as you like.)
   
   
3. When you finish, PUBLISH a brief blog entry describing your experience and INCLUDE your interactive image (you can make public or unlisted,) via the EMBED the code, in your blog or website. (I think you will see there are many potential uses for your own website for this!)
   
   
4. Lastly, post the link to your interactive image in the Canvas assignment! I have done a hasty sample for you with some of these elements here: 

 ..

 

 

Click here to view the accessible version of this interactive content