Plan

I know my posts have been somewhat vague and sparatic (and that is due to this whole traveling thing) but I have been giving some thought to what I want to do in regards to my final project. As stated before, I want to use the background image of the two planets with the flow of electricity between them, along with Santa and Darth Vader. My ultimate goal is to have Santa and Vader in an epic battle of good vs evil. Santa will be at the bottom of the screen and Vader at the top. I picked these specific images of Vader and Santa because both of them have their hands extended; the reason being, I want Santa to look as if he's shooting the blue beam from his palm and Vader to be shooting the red beam from his palm. In addition to those three photos, I was thinking about putting in another. This would probably some sort of electrical shock/explosion that would be placed at the point that the two beams met. The reason I havent put a picture in this blog is because I am writing from my iPad, and I cannot upload pictures. (bummer, I know) so I apologize for the inconvenience. I will more than likey use the 'threeColors' filter and then blend the red and the green to create a purple explosion (obviously what happens when blue and red collide). On a further note, I will probably try to make the background pop a little more by adding some red and green to it. I want to make it clear that Santa is supposed to represent good and Vader is supposed to be evil. To accomplish this, I want to do some sort of color effect with Santa and Vader, but I'm not quite sure yet...I'll figure that out once I tinker with it a little. A downside to this is that I will more than likely have to take Vader and Santa into photoshop to remove the background of the images. I don't know if this can be done with the filters learned on Thursday. I will ask professor Oldham on Monday. Also, there is a possibility that I will place more good characters (i.e. Chuck Norris, Buzz light year, and Superman) behind Santa, and more evil characters (i.e. Zurg, Magneto, and Syndrome) behind Vader to better show that this is a battle of good and evil.

Journal Entry 4: not too much happening

Not too much happening in regards to my final project. Still been thinking about what filters I want to use. The stuff that was done yesterday looks pretty neat - wish I didn't have to miss it!

Journal Entry 3: searching for ideas

SO...I am trying to figure out how I am going to make my final project look as incredibly awesome as possible, and I think that the threeColor effect can accomplish that goal. I think I might apply the effect to both Santa and Darth Vader to better distinguish that Santa is the good guy and Vader is the bad guy. I will probably make Santa more blue and Vader more red because I think everyone connects red with evil and blue with good. It makes sense, Luke Skywalker's lightsaber was blue and Vader's was red. I am just keeping the trend.

Here's something fun I did with the threeColor effect. I added a gray to the code and used it instead of a blue or a red.

Journal Entry 2: tinkering with the tools

Today I have been playing around all the tools that we've learned thus far. I am really trying to get comfortable with all the tools so I know how to manipulate images myself instead of relying completely on the codes in the labs to do all the work for me. I personally like the color blending effect. I might try to incorporate that into my final project or into a side project somehow - we'll see.

I also thought that class was really interesting today. I felt that everyone got a whole lot out of discussing the article that Carr wrote. These are topics that most people don't even think about, and they need to be discussed.

Response to Carr

I found this article very intriguing. I believe that this very issue will become more prevalent in the next 3-5 years as society moves from an physically-dominated world into a digital world. Carr told his story of how easy it was for him to manipulate a digital text that he had written. I believe that he is completely correct when he says having digital text presents many dangers as well as some advantages. The danger is that anyone with the source file to these texts can manipulate them.  So teachers that don’t agree with certain things in a text book can change the actual text to fit their bias; Politicians can alter articles to change the way the public views them, and the list goes on. I have a personal experience that involved the digitization of text. I needed to buy my book for the summer reading assigned before we first arrived on Centre’s campus, so I was debating on the digital iBook version, or the physical book. I ended up going with the digital version. I quickly noticed there were some advantages to digital texts. First, the price – the digital version was far cheaper than any physical book I was able to find. Second, availability – the digital version was available at any time, any location, and on any computing device that I owned. Third, speed – my digital version downloaded in a matter of a couple of minutes. If I were to have gone with the physical version, I would either have had to wait days for it to arrive in the mail, or gone to a bookstore and spent my time looking for it there. I was, however, hesitant to purchase the iBook for the very reason that Carr is concerned with digital text. I was not sure if the digital book was the author’s true work. What society is going to have to figure out is if sacrificing security for speed, price, and availability is worth it. I personally haven’t decided. I like saving money and the speed of digital text, but there is something to be said for knowing that the book you are holding is the author’s true work. Some might argue that even printed texts could be corrupted by the printing company, or publisher, or by some other means along the way. So some might say that printed texts cannot be completely trusted as the author's true work either. My point is that it is far more trustworthy than a digital text that can be manipulated on the fly. There’s also something nostalgic about having the physical text in my hands that I like. One thing that might sway me more toward liking digital text is if there was some way to restrict the source file from being manipulated. That way, the first version submitted is the only version that would be seen – nothing could be changed about it.

Journal Entry 1: the plan

 Alright, here goes nothing! my plan is to use these three pictures in my final project. As abstract and random as these three pictures may seem, they will be used in a way that (hopefully) makes sense. Santa Claus and Darth Vader will be in an epic battle of good vs evil...in space of course. (I find myself laughing as I type this...) Santa will be placed on the bottom of the screen and it will look as if the blue electricity is shooting out of his hand. Darth Vader will be at the red planet, and his hand will look as if it shooting the red electricity. Clearly Darth Vader must have the red electricity because his lightsaber's red; Santa must have the blue electricity because he lives in the North Pole and, hey, it gets pretty cold out there. I hope it's clear that this is a battle of good vs evil. We have the most common "bad guy" in Darth Vader, and Saint Nicolas as the "good guy." If the picture turns out looking like Darth Vader is just angry because Santa Claus put him on the 'naughty list,' I will be just fine with that too. On a technical note, I will more than likely adjust the RGB values of the background to make the red even brighter and the blue even brighter - just to give the electricity a little 'pop.'