Internet Saftey

Today in class, I was posed the question, “If people were to Google you, what conclusions would they make?  From observing your on-line communications, what kind of person would they believe you are?  What type of thinker are you?  What skills do they think you have?”

So, I decided to look for what is on the web about me.  And what comes up?  Nearly all of the links are just about a heap of different ways to access the picture I entered into a contest at photoshop talent.  Unfortunately, I actually really dislike this picture because I completely messed up on the blending transition from foreground to background and the water. 

If people were able to find my site, their attitude would hopefully improve from contempt of having such a skill-less person trying to compete to slight more respect for my efforts to learn and adapt upon what I learn.  I believe that people will immediately see that I am actually not very original in my ideas, but still end up being different enough to have a totally different ’synergetic effect’.

Whether or not most people will actually like my pictures is not really my concern.  I just hope that some will, and be creative enough to make their own ideas and act on them.

cc some rights reserved by Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things’

What Is Synergy?

As I am here at my computer typing, I realize that many people probably do not know what synergy is and what it could possibly have to do with Photoshop, technology, and my web class.  The American Heritage Dictionary’s definition is that synergy is: “The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects”, and also that “Cooperative interaction among groups…that creates an enhanced combined effect”.

What does that have to do with this site?  Quite much, actually.  I believe that when you use technology, especially photoshop, to take different things, put them together and come up with something completely new, that that is what modern synergy is.  And by learning on my own from different people than condensing and simplifying my experiences, I could teach you how to make your own synergetic effects, and that is what I aim to do.

cc “Fractal Blues“ Fabio Pinheiro

20% Time 1/26/08

This week I found quite an interesting tutorial from masters of photoshop.  I originally started off following the basic design, except with blue in the background, but I actually believed that the overall result could be changed completely.  So really, this tutorial showed me some ideas for the shape, but not much else.

When creating this picture, I quickly discovered that the creator of the tutorial did not intend for this to be made with Photoshop 7.  (I actually find that a lot, but I am usually able to manage.)  First of all, I did not have a “wrap” feature and had to hand draw the base shape.  After that, I applied the appropriate gradients and shadows, along with multiplying the layer over about eleven times, finally got the cool little graphic shape.

Then, once blurring the copy layer of that image and rotating it, the result was totally different than the tutorial.  I then went on to use “stylize-find edges” and then “artistic-smudge stick” by this point, the final shape was there, but just too rough so I then smoothed it over with “noise- median” finally, I got this–

However, I was not done.  I then went on and shrank the image to four times the original size, added different colors, and made copies of everything.  That result looked a little cheap (to me at least) so I continued on and smudged the gradients with the liquify filter to create an energy orb kind of look.  For a final touch, I created two copies of the original shape, enlarged it, and set the bottom one to darken and the top one to difference blending.

If this seemed a little confusing, it is.  The overall result took me about three hours to figure out.  Speaking of orbs, I’ll include a section about a tutorial to create a more detailed one that I found a while back next week along with whatever I find.

OLPC’s Founder Nicholas Negroponte

Today in web class, I saw  a video of One Laptop Per Child’s keynote address by the company founder Nicholas Negroponte.  This ‘company’ is becoming known throughout the country because of their humanitarian work of creating and supplying $100 laptops to students in third-world countries. 

The founder, Nicholas Negroponte, made sure to bring up the crucial point that the ‘company’ was involved in an educational project, not a laptop project (It was just that the laptop is cool so more people focus on that).  The the nonprofit company OLPC wanted to make sure that their “clarity of purpose” was to be always toward a humanitarian view and not a buisness view. 

I also found that the computers were made with the most affordable programs, parts, and original ideas to create the most affordable, workable computer possible .  Another reason for their stance of being nonprofit is that it gives some pressure to the big companies to help out in manufacture.  However uncomfortable, those companies need that extra pressure to put down their prices becuase most electronics would not be so expensive if companies did not renew their features every eighteen months. 

cc some rights reserved

“OPLC Children’s Machine XO Laptop Computer” by DCMetblogger

For the actual video of the keynote address, click mediaberkman.

I ended up liking the laptop’s overall functionality because of all the new things that have never been done before.  The laptop itself took a long time to become as greatly developed as it is.  First of all, the screen is completely different than anything in the market today.  It has a dimmer for the backlight within the screen that when turned of, and out in the sun, the readablitity is reportedly better than a piece of paper and a resolution better than our own laptops now, but in black and white. 

cc Some Rights Reserved “OLPC Screenshot: Home Screen” by Karindaziel

For the computer itself, there are some even more interesting things in it.  For the actual design and programming, the anntenae can swivel past the screen to get massively better reception than today’s laptops, is dust-proof when closed, the keypad is water tight, and their are three different touch pads.  Really, though, the greatest difference in these “XO” laptops is that they have what is termed a “mesh network interface”.  It is this ability that makes the computers a great asset to students in third-world countries.  In short, the interface allows kids to see who is nearby with a computer and be able to interact with them (download apps, chat, cooperate on a project).  The OLPC laptop also has absolutely no moving internal parts, and is completely free of heavy metals and so is envirinmentally freindly. 

As Negroponte said, the hardest part of the whole project is the launch.  The company many times needed to get advice form buisness people, only to have to do the exact opposite.  The first assembly line for the computers is opperational, and now they only need to get more countries to accept their help. 

cc Some Rights Reseved “Adaptors Aloft”  from Dean Sharski andCnet 

20% Time: 1/16/08

Hello dear reader, this week I was able to find a few interesting things this week.  The first thing I found was a written tutorial explaining the creation of an 'exploding planet' by devv for gimp.  (Want to see more explosions?)  I know you may be thinking, “I thought you were using Photoshop?”  Well, I am.  However, I just learned that the basic principle is the same.  With some basic modifications to the process, the picture still came out pretty cool when I tried.

First, I downloaded the picture (provided by devv) of 'cracking soil‘ and spherized it twice.  Unlike gimp where you can actually wrap your pictures around a shape (and not have to deal with the outside edges afterwards) with Photoshop I had to take an extra minute or so to create a circle around the sphere one a seperate layer to get a selection around the part needed and then have to cut off all the flat outside space left. 

After inverting the colors and 'un'polarizing the picture, I was able to spend another seven minutes trying to find out if the program I was using had the all-important wind filter.  Fortunately, it did, but (of course) it was not the same.  So after a few minutes of guessing and experimenting later, I finally had what I wanted- a big streaky blue and white column.  I then had to 're'polarize the coordinates and change the coloration balance of the picture to make it look fiery.  After bluring the edges a bit, this was the end result-

One other thing that I found today was a little tutorial about making background objects disappear.  Here is the video tutorial from Juvenall from youtube.  Unfortunately, I was not able to get any pictures that I found suitable to use the technique on, I.  When I finally do get a hold of one, I’ll post it immediately.