Andrew Van Nest Graphics Class: July 2012

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Avaya Live Engage

The initial meeting in front of Avaya live

Quick tour around... seems to a common area.

Aerial view of the building.

Meeting on the second floor in the auditorium.

Meeting in the first floor conference room.

No idea why I was kicked out of Avaya, but when I came back they put me in a different world!

Wonderland Avatar + Photo

Couldn't get the photo to work for some reason... Tried a million different "fix its" couldn't get the photo to render.

OpenOffice Slideshow!

OpenOffice Slideshow

Link to Slideshow

Messing around and experimenting with different transitions between slides.

The final product... Slideshow with all the pics from Cloud party time, and text describing what is in each picture in different fonts, colors, and sizes.

Exploring the Education Grid and Wonderland Class 10 HW

Finally found my way to the Education Grid which led me to the "Getting Started With Wonderland" page and video.

These are the steps I took to create my Wonderland download and eventually my Avatar.

The OpenWonderland "About" page where we had to learn about what we were downloading.

Apple has its own version of Java but this screen shot is to show that I took the necessary steps in getting there.

The actual download and Launch page for Wonderland.

The Login screen where I signed in as a guest.

The final product. In Wonderland with my customized Avatar that can walk because initially you get this block figure that glides across the screen without actually ever moving. I used the edit menu to configure my avatar.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Gameboard 2 Class #10

Chrome Experiments Class #10

This is Spherical Harmonics Mesh Builder. A randomized 3D object building where its shape is chosen at random but will be symmetrical and you can use your mouse to rotate the object in all 3 dimensions. You can also click drag and throw the object having it spin on a fixed axis.

Spherical Harmonics

This was my favorite of the 3 because you could add cubes at your disposal. You could control their size, their color, whether they were multicolored, and whether or not they rotated and on what axis. So after some fiddling around I found that if you rotate them very quickly and keep adding them on top of each other you create this crazy spinning neutron shape.

D-Cubic

This is just cool because it reminds me of space mountain. It also has a lot of controls. You can set it to whether the tunnel goes up or down, side to side, how quickly the lights go back and forth among other features.

Old School Tunnel

Class #9 HW Cloud Party Time Building

Gameboard Class #10

WebGL Summary

WebGL is a Javascipt API or Application Programming Interface. It is used for the rendering of both 3D and 2D graphics (as long as the web browser supports it). The good part about WebGL is that plug-ins are no necessary. The real advantage to WebGL is that it is very easily integrated across platforms. HTML elements can be mixed within the WebGL elements. However WebGL seems to not be on good terms with Apple as iOS mobile browser and Sarfari are not supported.

Class #7 Roll 1

Class #7, GIMP Work B,C,D,E,F

Gimp 7b - I used a couple different tools here to created my stroked paths. I thought it was cool how you could design and customize your own "line breaks" to give it some personality. The background options available are great too. The best is using the Free Selection tool though.

Gimp 7c - I really enjoyed learning this trick in Gimp (so much so I used it again in 7d) It allows you to create a "mini world" within your canvas or layer that whatever you put in it won't breach the barrier set by you. I used batman to create my "paste into"images.

Gimp 7d - This one was cool because it gave me the idea to start with a textured background and have images overlay on top. I had to create multiple layers and the paste into option along with anchoring each image to create this png. The parrots are 100%, the basketball is around 75%, and batman in the bottom corner is 12%.

Gimp 7e - This coupled opacity and text. I chose spots within the canvas and typed sentences and then adjusted the opacity meter accordingly. Changing the font and size was simple, just highlight within the text box and chose.

Gimp 7f - The scaling option is pretty straight forward. The trick to a successful scale is making sure the aspect ratio is locked. As you can see the first image of the ball is perfectly scaled at 50% of the original. But the second image is distorted height and width wise.

MIDTERM #7

I chose Christian Bale because he is Batman in The Dark Knight Rises, and he's a symbol of fear in the hearts of villains, so I thought I'd add a softer side to him by giving him Hello Kitty Eyes! I used layering to allow me to copy the two images of Hello Kitty. I also used the paths tool to cut out the image of Hello Kitty. Layering allowed me to copy each one on a different layer which let me move them freely and position them correctly without moving the entire JPG. I Also touched up his forehead a little bit to get rid of some wrinkles.

MIDTERM #8

I used the smudge tool around my beard and hair to see if I could get them to go away or become a little lighter. Turned out that didn't work very well... I then used the Color Copy Tool to clone the skin color of my cheek and I then Airbrushed my eyes (to get rid of the raccoon eyes) and then I used it on my beard to lighten it up and see if I could make it disappear entirely. Many efforts proved fruitless haha.