Third Six Weeks Exam

Choose a specific image, saveit to your "H" drive and post it in your blog.
Explain how that image was probably altered from its original form to the one that you post.
Your post should also reflect some of the facts and ideas that you learned in class this semester.
If you choose an image that was not altered, or write a short and uninformative answer, you will receive a failing grade.
you may also wish to read this post.

Pangea Film Contest

Read this website: Pangea and click on "submit a film."

If you want to participate in this contest, you can discuss your ideas for a film and the process we will use to develop a film.

Creating a film (animation) for this contest would take a lot of your time, but the benefits would extend far beyond those I would offer to you.

You may also want to consider this competition.

HUGE Extra Credit

If you attend this event, ask questions, and document your attendance (YOU need to come up with a way that proves your attendance without a doubt - like your picture at the event and a signed handout), you will receive a 100 for your fourth and fifth six weeks exams.


The ACC Video Games Information Session will be held, January 9, 2008, in room 201, at the Highland Business Center, from 7pm to 9pm.

The Information Session will be co-sponsored by SXSW Screenburn. There will be a drawing for free tickets to SXSW Interactive.

Please reserve this on your calendars. This will be an opportunity for students and prospective students to hear from industry professionals and get their questions answered.

What the Web Should Be Doing...

Check out this site:
http://www.freerangestudios.com/

Also read about their latest film here: link

Semester Final

This is your semester final:

1. Create a Photoshop, Illustrator or Flash document to demonstrate what you have learned.
2. You cannot use any image from the lessons, but can use any other image.
3. You will need to document the steps and show every image that you imported.
4. I should be able to create exactly the same document with exactly the same layout and sizes.
5. Create this documentation in Word, then post it to your blog.
6. Be sure to title it "Semester Final."
7. This image must use more than two layers, and multiple techniques. There are no other specific limits or minimum requirements.
8. Keep it simple.
9. Your image must be finished BEFORE the final exam is scheduled. You are still required to attend our scheduled exam time. This is a school-wide rule and is not in any way negotiable.
10. Your image cannot be even similar to any other student's image.
11. This image must be school appropriate.

This exam will be graded two ways:
Completeness of your instructions, and polished professional appearance of the final image.
You may wish to explain your image, why you designed it so, and why it looks like it does. You may also wish to explain the purpose of the image and who the audience is. The more info, the better.

Terms You Need to Know

You should understand the following terms and concepts for the third six weeks three weeks exam.
If you do not know or understand these concepts, you should consult your notes from class or find information online.
As with any vocabulary words, you need to be sure that you understand the context of these words. The first definition that you find may be insufficient or may use the word in the wrong context.

CMYK .
four color process printing .
RGB .
additive color .
subtractive color .
vector image .
raster image .
pixel .
path .
Adobe Illustrator .
swatch .
mask .
laser printer .
inkjet printer .
toner .

These terms and concepts will be on your three weeks exam which will be made available and is due on Friday, November 30th.

Check this list all week to see if more terms are added before Friday's exam.

Requirements

To pass the third six weeks, you need to:
-finish Illustrator through chapter 11
-finish the first 4 chapters of Pshop
-or if you started Pshop first, you need to have 15 chapters combined from Illustrator and Pshop
-have a blog entry for every day of class
-provide evidence of your work
-take and pass the six weeks and semester exam

Even if you are doing a project, you need a daily blog entry. Everyone does.

Everyone, regardless of what they are working on will need to take a semester exam, and even if you finish it early, you have to be here during the scheduled exam time.

Goals - Illustrator, Pshop and Flash

In the Illustrator book, you need to work through chapter 11.

In the Flash book, you need to work through chapter 15.

In P-shop you need to complete chapters 1-8, 10-12.

Most chapters should take you about a day (there are 32 total chapters to get through). We have about 40 days of class between now and the end of January (excluding test days and breaks).

When you finish the lessons in Illustrator, Photoshop and Flash, you get to move on to your project.

The project involves creating a logo in Illustrator, a display with your logo and "product" in P-shop, and then a small animation with your product and animation in Flash.


Your project is due at the end of the fourth six weeks.

The fifth six weeks will be spent on sound, working as a class.

The sixth six weeks will be spent with video.

If you want to plan the next 9 weeks now, you can create a grade sheet with a column for each chapter, a column for the date, a column for my signature and a column to check off your blog.

If you complete all of the chapters and a blog for every day of class, you will have a 100 for the fourth six weeks.

If you get all of the Photoshop chapters done and have a blog entry for every day of class by the end of this six weeks, you will have a 100 for the third six weeks. Be sure to get my signature for each chapter.

Digital Drawing Pads

After you have finished the first ten chapters of Illustrator, you can start checking out digital art pads to use for drawing on the computers.

Design Challenge

If you want to try this, I will give a full exam credit (100 points) if you complete a useable document. link

Oh, and you have to use Adobe InDesign.

Your Grade

You need the following by the end of this week to avoid a progress report:
11 Blog entries since November 13th.
Three finished lessons in Illustrator.

Blog entries will be pass fail, based on content and TEKS.
You will recieve 10 points for each, and lose ten for missing or inappropriate entries.

Your Illustrator lessons will be graded using these criteria:
Your Final post about each lesson should be titled: Final Image - Lesson XX
and should contain your final image.
You will receive a quiz grade for your final image based on how similar it is to the model.
For each significant difference, you will lose 10 points from a base of 100 points.
A significant difference is:
Placement - an object is more than half of the width of a text character off
Color - color is visibly different from the original
Other - tracing, cutting, pathfinding, alignment, letter shapes are significantly/visibly different

Any student who does not have at least a 70 will receive a progress report.

Progress First Week of Third Six

By ten minutes into the period today, you need to be ready to show the progress you have made this week and have your grade sheet completed and ready to sign for this week.

Prepare a grade sheet with a list of the weeks this six weeks.
The days of class this six weeks are:
November 13, 14, 15, 16; 19, 20; 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
December 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; 10, 11, 12, 13, 14; 17, 18, 19, 20
and the weeks ending date are: 11/16, 11/20, 11/30, 12/7, 12/14, 12/20.

Your sheet should list the week ending date in one column, a description of what you have done for the week in the next, and a place for my signature in the third column.

By ten minutes into the period today, you need to be ready to show the progress you have made this week and have your grade sheet completed and ready to sign for this week.

Instructions

follow them to the letter

Schedule - Third Six Weeks

Six Weeks
November 13-16 Illustrator - work through lessons in Classroom in a Book
November 19-20 Illustrator - work through lessons in Classroom in a Book
November 26-30 Photoshop - work through lessons in Classroom in a Book
December 3-7 Photoshop - work through lessons in Classroom in a Book
December 10-14 Combined Illustrator/Photoshop project*
December 17-20 Combined Project Due

* Create a project that uses several techniques from Illustrator and Photoshop. Suggested project is a logo and and ad incorporating that logo. You must document step-by-step what you do to create your document. The document has to sell or promote something. PSA's may receive extra credit.

Your daily blog MUST document before and after every day, and include text about what you learned and TEKS.

Failing Essays

These are examples of failing essays:



Essay 1:

I can't really say that I've learned anything in this class so far...

Essay 2:

The first part of this question confuses me. “In the future, we will discover…” That doesn’t make sense. If you know what something is, then haven’t you already discovered its existence? It’s like a European explorer saying, “In the future, I will discover America,” in the 1300s. If you haven’t discovered it yet, then you wouldn’t know what it is.
That’s irrelevant… the question itself is nearly irrelevant. In terms of what I thought this class would be, definitely irrelevant, but then, most of the TEKS are irrelevant to what I thought this class would be like…
Meh… how can I be creative with this? They’ll discover something they already know when they actually think about it? What will make them think about it? Maybe the fact that they already know?

CAMM Second Six Weeks EXAM - 250 exam points

A minimum 500 words are required for each question. You must complete both questions.


Essay #1: Describe the work you have completed in CAMM this first twelve weeks. Discuss what you have learned, how it fits with what you already know, and what you learned that surprised you.



Essay #2: In the future, we will discover that landfills are filled with available minerals and materials that can be reprocessed more easily than mining new raw materials. Write about what events might bring about the decision to harvest landfills. Then write about how this process will look - what machines, what techniques, what processes will be used? What will the differences be between landfills that were filled and covered decades ago and those that are still being used today? What will the results of these efforts be?


In writing these essays, more details are better, and a structure is required (don’t just write, compose and organize your essay).
Post your answer to your blog. You may want to write your answer in a word processing program and paste it into the space below and your blog. Watch your time - this is due by the end of class today.

These essays will be graded using the following criteria:
20 points each for structure
5 points for spelling
20 points for introduction
60 points for details
and on the last essay ONLY, 40 points for creativity (THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX!)

The Nightmare Film Festival

The Nightmare Film Festival will be held November 17th and 18th.
16 films will be shown including Night of the Living Dead, Scared to Death, The Amazing Transparent Man, Teenagers from Outer Space, The Last Man on Earth, The Brain that Wouldn't Die, White Zombie and 9 more!
Two Day passes are being sold and are $20 for adults, and $12 for students ($24 and $15 at the door) in the main hall during the week before the festival.

Students in my classes can get 10 daily points for each blog review of each movie and 100 points for a signed ticket. The ticket is required to receive credit for the reviews.

Blog Entries

Your DAILY blog entry must contain:
1. something you learned in class
2. TEKS that apply to what you learned.

You CANNOT pass this six weeks without 30 blog entries which contain the two elements above.
You have just about TWO weeks to get these done.

No Exceptions.

Project Grading

A breakdown of your project and grading overview:

1. Sound Editing - you should edit and combine three different recordings in three different formats. Take screen captures of the separate recordings and the final product. Include links to the files and the screen captures in your narrative. Each recording and the final product should be in your narrative. With every element of this project, you need to record who worked and what they did. Without the description of what you did and who did the work you cannot receive credit for this item.

2. Live-Action Video Editing - you should edit at least three separate video segments together. If you use people for stop-motion, you can overlap these two items. Include links to the files and the screen captures in your narrative. Each segment and the final product should be in your narrative. With every element of this project, you need to record who worked and what they did. Without the description of what you did and who did the work you cannot receive credit for this item.
3. Still Image Editing - you need to use the following elements in Photoshop or a similar application: masks, stamp tool, blend or blur, more than three layers, import vector image, import two raster images, export as jpg and pdf. Each imported file and the final product should be in your narrative. With every element of this project, you need to record who worked and what they did. Without the description of what you did and who did the work you cannot receive credit for this item.

4. Stop-Motion Animation - (which may overlap with Claymation and Cut-Paper Animation) - You need to put together ten seconds minimum at a 15fps rate or higher. The final product should be in your narrative. With every element of this project, you need to record who worked and what they did. Without the description of what you did and who did the work you cannot receive credit for this item.

3. Claymation - (may overlap live action video or stop motion) - minimum two figures, which must have at least two articulated joints. You need to put together ten seconds minimum at a 15fps rate or higher. The final product should be in your narrative. With every element of this project, you need to record who worked and what they did. Without the description of what you did and who did the work you cannot receive credit for this item.

4. Cut-Paper Animation - (may overlap live action video or stop motion) - minimum two figures, which must have at least two moving parts. You need to put together ten seconds minimum at a 15fps rate or higher. The final product should be in your narrative. With every element of this project, you need to record who worked and what they did. Without the description of what you did and who did the work you cannot receive credit for this item.

5. Computer Animation - must include background, background animation, minimum two figures, 15fps or higher. The final product should be in your narrative. With every element of this project, you need to record who worked and what they did. Without the description of what you did and who did the work you cannot receive credit for this item.

6. Vector Image Creation - You need to use these tools: pen tool, transparency, three different brushes, transform, filters and effects. You need to export your graphic as a pdf and a tiff. The final product should be in your narrative. With every element of this project, you need to record who worked and what they did. Without the description of what you did and who did the work you cannot receive credit for this item.

Your project should also include a technical narrative of your work - daily reflections on what you do each and every day, description of tools and techniques used, problems you faced, how you solved problems and links to your resources (instructional sites used, reference sites used, etc.). This narrative should be in the form of a single, HTML and CSS formatted web site.

Documentation is the most important element of this project. Keep it simple! You will get a five percent bonus (if requested) if this project has a community service or educational aspect.

Make yourselves a checklist. Make sure that every element is in the final product. Create a grading rubric which lists the items and requirements and three levels of performance. Your rubric should have a column for running possible points, actual points, and comments. The project is worth 500 points, with a minimum passing score of 350. You cannot pass without at least a seventy in every category and every required element. Reverse engineering is acceptable - a rubric created to reflect 100% completion based on your final product, but I must receive the rubric three days before the final due date.

Presentation Project Summary

Your group's presentation should cover how you will address the required elements which are:
1. Sound Editing
2. Live-Action Video Editing
3. Still Image Editing
4. Stop-Motion Animation (which may overlap with Claymation and Cut-Paper Animation)
3. Claymation
4. Cut-Paper Animation
5. Computer Animation
6. Vector Image Creation

Your project should also include a technical narrative of your work - daily reflections on what you do each and every day, description of tools and techniques used, problems you faced, how you solved problems and links to your resources (instructional sites used, reference sites used, etc.). This narrative should be in the form of a single, HTML and CSS formatted web site.

Your presentation is due by the end of class Tuesday, October 30th, and you should be ready to present by Thursday, November 1st, at the beginning of class.

Interim Assignment

By Friday, November 2nd 2007, you need to use Pivot Stickfigure Animator to create a 240 frame animation. It must have action/conflict and a beginning, middle and end.

This is a pass fail assignment. If you complete it you get 100, if you do not complete by Friday.

This is an individual assignment.

Chris Jordan

Please suspend your work on the project today, and work on this project.

Visit the site of photographer Chris Jordan (link) and visit the exhibit "Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption.

Also view this link from The Dallas Morning News (link). View the gallery. Pay special attention to:
jet flights (link)
soda cans (link)
plastic bags (link)
cell phones (link)

Spend about 15 minutes answering these questions:
What do these pictures represent?
What do these images convey to us?
How are these images supposed to make us feel?
Why do you think that the artist chose to create these photographs?
How hard do you think that it was to create the photos?

Spend about 15 minutes writing about one picture, and describe the problem that you think that it represents.

With a partner, discuss possible solutions for this problem. After about ten minutes, describe some possible solutions.

Please use assigned duties to be sure that computers are inspected during your class period, and that your work area is clean and neat when you leave. Thank you for your help.

Maker Faire - this weekend!

If you attend Maker Faire this weekend and take notes on some interesting demo, you can earn a full quiz grade for writing about it.
If you take pictures and post them to your blog (and write about what you saw), you will pass the second six weeks exam with a 100.

Out Friday

I will be out Friday, 10/19.

You should explore the three different Office suites if you are at computer # 1-12, and the Master Suite applications if you are at computers # 13-29.

Blog about the differences in the office suites or about three of the master suite applications, and explore their functionality.

You should also explore the blogs in the blog list in Reader and find one article relevant to multimedia, animation or game development. Blog about it and what you think you learned from the article.

Please be sure to inspect carefully during the last five minutes of class.

Mrs. Moyers has the key for the cabinet - Danny, Stephanie and Jazz should put the video cameras away and carefully close the cabinet.

Thank you for helping class run smoothly today.

Minimumality

Each daily blog entry must be at least four sentences. It should address something you learned in class that day. You should also include a sentence from the TEKS that describe what you learned.

The Ultimate

Need a project idea to include your interest in hardware and software and building computers?
Need a basic game plan to start your project?
Need to find a way to address all of the TEKS, leap forward in the college and job process, and feel really good about yourself?

Try this:

The ultimate project:
1. Visit Goodwill Computer Store and coordinate some training for their staff to show you how they recycle computers.
2. Volunteer for several days to help the Goodwill Computer Store refurbish computers.
3. Create some basic instructions on the process of refurbishing process.
4. Create a wiki about refurbishing and connect different resources (people who donate equipment, people who are interested or knowledgeable about the process, people who need computers, people who will volunteer).
5. Add instructional content (video, still images, sound, animation) about refurbishing.
6. Coordinate volunteers to refurbish computers.
7. Contact software companies to supply software for free.
8. Possibly form a computer club to legitimately raise money for refurbishing costs.
9. Document your work and present the work to internet service providers, and convince them to provide free internet service with each refurbished computer.
10. Start a website and document some of the families and how they were helped.
11. Get media coverage to gain community support.
12. Hold fundraisers to raise money for refurbishment.
13. Provide a presentation to three community groups (Rotary, Lions, etc.) about the project.

Timeline:
1-2: three to four weeks
3-5: four weeks
6-10: six weeks
7-13: 12-18 weeks

Impact:
a. help families and students gain resources for learning.
b. bring together hardware, software and service providers and provide them with good press
c. develop project management and volunteer management skills
d. develop huge sections of practical experience for your resume/college app.
e. leave a lasting legacy to McCallum of a program that helps the community
f. set an example as a community leader
g. network with business and community leaders to establish relationships with personal and professional benefits
h. get an "A" in CAMM

Good Habits

Beginning Monday, you need to get in the habit of reading my blog every day, and checking off assignments and posts as you finish them. One way to do this is to use your Google reader and mark the posts as "read" when you read or finish them.
You will need to document your job every day, or you will lose points. If you do not have a job, it is your responsibility to get an assignment from the duty manager for your class. You need to consistently earn service points every week to pass this class.
You also need to start posting one blog post EVERY DAY. It should be reflective about something you learned or did in class.

All blogs and comments need to be appropriate. Beginning Monday, students who post inappropriate posts or comments will lose computer access for one day for each infraction. Three infractions will result in a week suspension of access and a full letter grade decrease for the six weeks daily grade.

Google Blocks - TEKS Interpretation

Google's system thinks that we are someone trying to abuse their servers. Since they see us all at the same address, they decided that we are trying to use their service so much that no one else can use it.

If you can get to your document somehow, copy it and paste it into Word, then save it to your "H" drive (studenthome).
If you cannot access your document, find someone to get it from and use theirs as a source and finish it yourself.
There will be no extension on this assignment, because we have already been working on it for a week.
To receive your grade on the assignment, email the document to me as an attachment to your email. Your subject line should include "TEKS Interpretations," your name and your class period.

Blog Challenge

If you submit a blog that is not already on the reader list, and I choose to include it, you will raise your grade by one step (e.g., from A- to A, or from C to C+).
Each student can only submit only one blog, and if the email does not have your name in it or the link does not work, you get no credit.
The best submission (judged by me) will receive a two step grade increase. If you have a 100 for the six weeks, you can bank the raise for another six weeks.

New Reader List

A new list to import into your reader is in the shared folder.
You should: 1. Import the list into you reader. 2. Check the list to see that your blog is listed. 3. If it is listed, be sure it is in the correct folder for your period. 4. If it is in the correct folder your are done. 5. If it is in the incorrect folder let me know - with the title and link to your blog. 6. If it is not listed, you need to send me a post from your blog and be sure that I can decipher your name and class.
If your blog is not listed, you will lose enough points for this six weeks that you will likely fail.

Game Testing - Rear Projection TV

There is no money to replace the bulb in the big TV. We have to try to conserve the life it has left. Please be sure that it is turned off, or lunchtime testing will have to end.

Camera Missing

Last week, some time after Tuesday, Sept 25, my personal camera went missing from my room, 153.
In my experience, having lost items in the past from my technology labs, the item usually appears later and was not actually "stolen."
In any case, I would really be happy to be re-united with my camera.
It went with me to Europe this last summer, and we were very close.
It is a Canon Powershot 630, a small silver camera (about the size of a tin of Altoids or pack of cigarettes). It has a small dent in the front about the size of a finger nail. It answers to the name Zippy.
I will gladly pay $40 to anyone for the return of the camera, or information that leads to its discovery.

Picture of Camera:
http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=145&modelid=12956

Thank you

Jobs

I need to see a document that details the job assignments, and the logs for each position. The only logs that cannot be electronic are inspection logs.
Finish this by beginning of class Monday, October 1st, 2007.
Ultimately this is the responsiblity of the documentation manager, but each position needs to ensure that their jobs are done. It is not the job of the documentation manager, but he must ensure it gets done.

Game Test Host Rules

When hosting game testing sessions you need to prepare the following:
A testing log
A testing sign in
Rules

The testing log needs to contain who played and some information about what you observed when they played.

The sign in needs a statement similar to this: I understand that I am testing a video game and will be observed by CAMM students. My play is at the discretion of CAMM students at all times. The sign in needs to include the testers' signature and printed name.


Rules need to be developed which include: no swearing, CAMM students decide console, game and players, keep an aisle open on both sides, and clean up before the bell.

All of this needs to be kept in a notebook organized and punched.

TEKS Interpretation

The example document for your interpretation of the TEKS interpretation is on the shared drive in my folder in CApps.
The example document is a pdf - which means you cannot edit it, but can view it as an example.

This is due by October 4th, 2007.

CAMM needs to complete the TEKS interpretation for Computer Apps, BCIS and CAMM. (BCIS is under business and the others are in Ch 123).

Here also is a link to the CA TEKS as I started them. link

Show How

Get with a partner who sits in a different third of the room (left wall, right wall, back wall).
Teach your partner to do something related to blogs, reader or gmail that they did not know. You cannot control the mouse or keyboard, but must tell them what they need to do.
After you finish, you need to blog about it (both partners) then switch and have the other partner teach and you will learn. Then blog about that. Two blogs, one teach, one learn. Ten percent of your daily grade for the first six weeks.

Six Weeks is A-comin'

CAMM grades for the first six weeks will be determined as follows:
Daily grade, 10% each:
Blog started
Five Posts
Five Comments
One game test post (complete)
One "show how"

And 50%:
TEKS broken down

There will be a test posted to the CAMM folder of the S drive which you can review at any time after Friday, September 28th, 2007. You must take the test during class on Tuesday, October 4th, 2007.
This test will cover things you should know from Computer Applications or BCIS, and questions about the TEKS.
This test will consist of 20 regular questions, worth 5 points each.

Game Test Blogging

Whenever you test a game, you need to blog about it.
You need to describe the game, the system, and who played.
You need to observe something about the game other than who won.
What was difficult?
What was easy?
What was different than the last time you tested that game?
What does this teach you about how you would design a game?
What would you change about the game if you could.
If someone from outside the class tested with you, you need to list their first name and last initial.

Get ready because you will have to come up with a concept and sell it to the class by winter break.

CAMM - Contemplate

Please select one of each: new hardware, new software, new innovation of any type, then:
Blog about the article - what was it about and what did it make you think about? - Discuss the impacts of this technology. Include a link to the article itself (not in your reader).
Comment on 5 posts of others in this class.
Due by the beginning of class Wednesday, September 26th, 2007.

For this assignment, please link to your five comments in a post.