Knowledge Will Set You Free

Hey!

I just wanted to share a project I did in my tech class. We made t-shirts based on The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

I did mine based off of article 26(2):
"Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace."

I really liked the article, because it reminded me of the quote "knowledge will set you free," which I believe it does. I think education can give people freedom, because it gives them a sense of wrong and right. Education teaches people to act civil to each other, and to respect all ethnicity and genders. And if education isn't used to do that, then it's wrong.

If all people around the world had a basic education and were taught to respect everyone, I think the world could be like the picture. Maybe not to such an extent that there is confetti spraying from a person's head, but there could be less war and dislike among nations.

I'll blog again soon!

The iPhone 4

Hello!

A while ago, I heard that apple was coming out with a new iPhone; I thought this was insane, especially with the release of the iPad. But I'm starting to learn that anything is possible with Apple.

When they revealed the information on the apple website was when I actually started to believe that they came out with another phone. I watched the video, although there isn't that much that is different. Now there is something called "face time" because of the two cameras on either side of the phone. I thought "it's not that much of a big deal, many phones have that feature." But then I saw how you can use both cameras to chat, and I thought that was impressive.

The main changes were the internal camera, and that the camera quality has improved it is now five megapixels rather than three. Not only that, but the iPhone finally has a flash. I also found it really cool that the phone now has iMovie to edit the videos you take on the phone.

The resolution has apparently improved a whole lot, with new really strong glass on both sides of the phone.

Overall, I think the phone looks really good, and I'd say I'm thinking about getting one, but I've yet to find a summer job. And besides, I'm perfectly content with everything I have now, but if anyone is considering getting one, I'd say they should.

Rebel Without a Cause... On Stage

Hey guys!

So last night I went to see my old school's main stage. They performed Rebel Without a Cause. When my sister (who is the stage manager) told me that was the play they were doing, I was shocked. It has alcohol, gangs and violence. I wasn't sure how well a bunch of middle school kids would be able to handle all of that maturely.

The play had professional lighting and sound. They even had headsets, to communicate when the cues would be (when to turn the lights on and off, and when to play the music.)

When I went to see it, I wasn't shocked to see that most of the fight scenes were interpreted by dance; that's what we did when I was in the same school's production of Animal Farm. Even though I was expecting it, I still thought it was really interesting that the director would think of something like that to do.

There was one actual fight scene, including knives, (I guess some things are better not interpreted in dance) which was done very professionally, and their stage falls were really good.

The thing I was most impressed about was that there was a technical issue. The lighting board wasn't working at one point; the lights were supposed to go off and the two actors were supposed to exit the stage. When the lights did not go off, they were completely professional and frozen. They didn't even twitch. When they got the signal, they left very professionally. I know many people were talking about how mature they acted, and that's what really impressed me that night.

If I have the chance, I'm definitely going again:)

Another Tutorial- Vines and Branches

Happy Sunday! Well I guess that depends on how much work you have to do...

I was looking for something to blog about and found another illustrator tutorial. I thought it was really cool.

I really liked the tutorial because of the curves and twirls in it. In the tutorial I also learned how to make custom brushes and symbols, which is surprisingly simple; all you have to do is make the shape or brush stroke you want, then drag it into the brushes or symbols palette, then adjust the settings for it.

So first you should start off with a curvy line, drawn with the pen tool or the brush or pencil tool (whatever you prefer).


Here is where you make one of the custom brushes. Use the pen tool or the triangle tool to make a shape like this:
For the settings to put for the new brush, go to the tutorial (Step 3).

So now that you have the brush, click on the curve you made and apply the brush.

Next you can apply another branch/vine; make the stroke size smaller (like the varying sizes in my picture below).

Now use the pen tool to make some leaf shapes (like the ones in the picture below), and keep them relatively small. Now drag them into the symbols palette, name the leaves something that makes sense, and make sure you click "graphic" rather than "Movie clip."

For some of the other vines, you have to make another brush; make it look something like this:
Follow the same directions for the first custom brush. On one of the branches, use the pen tool to make a small arc, then apply the brush to it.

Next is the part where you can be creative, just keep making swirls and branches until you're satisfied with what you've got.

I really like my final product, and I'm probably going to use if for things like backgrounds and websites.

In the rest of the tutorial, it switches the image into Photoshop and makes a cool background, check it out if you wanna see:)

I hope that was helpful:)

Swirls in Illuatrator

Hey!

I was looking at tutorials for Adobe Illustrator and stumbled on THIS ONE. I thought it was cool because it looked simple and easy, but still really cool at the same time.

I actually tried to make one myself, but I messed up halfway through, and being the middle of the night, I don't really want to try again... but I took one screen shot of the beginning:

So basically, you start with a shape, i.e. a circle or a square. Then you select it and go to Effect>Distort & Transform>Transform, and either look at the adjustments in my picture or the tutorial's preview

One you've got your shape, you drag it into the GRAPHIC STYLES window. The cool part after this is you can make a different simple shape like a square and click on the style, and then it will look like the picture on the left, in square version.

The next step is to expand the object you just styled: Object>Expand Appearance, then un group (ctrl+shift+g) the resulting shapes.


After, double click the blend tool and type in a number in the "specified steps" field.

Now, Ctrl-Opt-B with everything selected to make the blend, and it should turn out something like as seen on the left.

And you should be able to see the path I highlighted in pink; it can be changed to a straight or curvy line. Draw the line and then go to Object>Blend>Replace Spine, and if you go to the tutorial, you'll see the final image.

Thanks for reading! I'll be back soon:)

The Girl Effect and Typography

Hey guys! I hope you had a good weekend.

So you may have read something about "the girl effect" in my previous blog, well today I'm dedicating this post to the introduction video.

A little while ago in tech class we had a whole unit about typography, and I saw this video and was amazed by how simple it is, yet it still gives me chills when I watch it. The video is made entirely of writing in a simple and readable font in all capitol letters. The whole video is made of the colours black, white and orange, which I thought was very simple and effective, especially because there are no words actually being said, but only music in the background, but the timing of the words is in sync with the music, especially at 0:31, where is says (DRAMATIC PAUSE) and the music stops briefly at the same time. There's actually a voice in my head kind of pausing and going faster or slower with the words


I also like the meaning behind it, I thought the girl helping a girl concept was really interesting. It really doesn't take a lot of effort to keep someone on the right track, all people need is education and a decent living space, so it's really unfortunate that developed nations have too much, while some developing nations barely have anything, even clean water to drink. I think everyone should check the website out.

Well that's it for now, I'll be back soon!

-Roshni

Good Websites and Bad Websites

Hey!

I'm going to be discussing what defines a good website and a bad website today.

So what's considered a bad website?

MLIA - My Life is Average

Although I'm a fan of this website, once I learned the 10 principles of Web Design, I deemed it a bad website in terms of design.

True, the site is funny, but when a user goes to the website for the first time, they would lose interest quickly, because you can't tell what the website is about. Once the user looks at the navigation bar, they will see "submit a story" or "vote on submissions" and guess that the website is about sharing stories, but they will not know exactly what the website does until they search around, or go to the "about" section. There is a very eye catching advertisement right at the top of the page, making it one of the most prominent things on the web page. This is bad because it diverts the user's attention away from the actual content of the website. The final reason why I think this is a bad website, in design terms, is that there is too much white space at the sides (it is cut off in the picture) and everything is clustered in the center.

What's considered a good website?

The Girl Effect

The girl effect is, as quoted on the home page, "A powerful social and economic change brought about when girls have the opportunity to participate." There is an introduction page when you enter the website. If you click AGREE or DISAGREE, it takes you to an introduction video (Which I find very inspiring and I will blog about it later) which you have the choice to skip. After that it takes the user to the homepage. The homepage is very clean-cut and straight-forward. There is very effective writing because you can tell that the site is about an organization for girls in developed countries helping girls in developing, poverty-stricken countries. The site is easy to navigate; on the homepage there are three main options: LEARN, GIVE and SHARE, when you scroll over them, it will tell the user where the link takes them (shown below). The thing I like most about the website is that it's very simple. There is a lot of white space, so it's breathable, and all the animations (which only happen when they are clicked on) are purposeful and effective.

So I hope this post helped you guys see what defines a good and bad website! I shall be back soon!

-Roshni