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Today’s Class

  • The Web
    • Web Services
    • What is the Internet?
  • HTML
  • Feedback

The Web

Let us first have a look at this medium, that we seem to know so well. It was  1991 when the World Wide Web became active as a platform for anyone to participate in. It had its origins in military data accessing systems.

Web Services

For the Web to functions it requires a number of Web Technologies. In order to understand what Web Technologies are used for it is important to have a common understanding of web publishing languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript or XML.

To view any website on the Internet most people use a web browser. Web browsers work by connecting over the Internet via modem or ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) via a server or ISP (Internet Service Provider) to remote machines, asking for a particular document (or page) and then formatting the documents they receive for viewing on a computer.

To allow you to view a web page on your computer, web browsers use a special language called HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol). The remote machines containing the documents run HTTP servers. A HTTP server receives a request for a page, and sends it to the computer. The page can then be viewed through the browser.

Each document that is stored on the Web has a particular URL (Uniform Resource Locator). This tells the browser which server to go to to get the document. The syntax of the URL is simple to understand.

The standard for web documents is HTML. HTML is a Mark-up language that uses tags to create all the Web pages. HTML can be used to create formatted text that allows web browsers to make web pages viewable on their screens.

HTTP can also include images, sound, animation and video clips. HTTP weaves together all the relevant elements of the page and describes how it should be represented on your browser. It can also link to other pages or sites on the Web through hyperlinks.

What is the Internet?

So, what is the Internet? I would like to post this as a question to the class.

Let us share our views of what the Internet actually is. What do we see in it, what it is it made up of? What does it symbolise or represent to you?

Please participate in the class discussion before reading on. If you have missed the class and are following the notes online please stop for a moment and think about the question above. You may want to write your responses down before you continue!

—

Image source: Data Center Knowledge

Image source: Data Center Knowledge

Andrew Blum, a journalist and author of the book ‘Tubes’ explored what the Internet actually is in a physical form. Please use your head phones and view this video from his TED talk in September 2012: Andrew Blum: Inside the physical.

So, has your answer to what the Internet is changed?

HTML

Please follow the in-class instructions:

we will work through W3Schools HTML Sections:

HTML Elements, HTML Attributes, HTML Headings, HTML Paragraphs, HTML Formatting and HTML Links.

Try to create a link to an e-mail, that allows you to send an email automatically to a recipient.

W3Schools Screen

Feedback

Please leave your feedback in form of a comment. Your feedback and suggestions will help me to make this blog more user friendly. Thanks!

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Today’s Class

  • Introducing each other
  • Introduction to Delivery Format
  • Introduction to the Content
  • In-class Task

Introducing Each Other

Spend 5 minutes interviewing your colleague and another 5 being interviewed. Next introduce the student to the teacher and other students.

Next think about one thing that you have done that no one else has.

Introduction to Delivery Format

The classes will be delivered in 2 hour schedules. The content will be posted on this blog as well as on MyKangan. Tasks, discussions and research will be conducted inside the 2 hour slot and at home.

Assessments:

Important: You need to submit all your assessments on MyKangan. It is your responsibility to follow up due dates and access to MyKangan.

  1. Day 1 Task – this task is a simple comprehension task to establish student participation. (due: after the first class)
  2. Assessment 1 – Create a HTML based Website

RAE – Research and Exploration or Class of Federico

This blog will be or main form of contact. It will be accessible from anywhere as long as you have internet access.

MyKangan

The unit title for this class will be combined in (the catchy name):

ICP40210-PGA4N2-PRIMU-2013-ICAWEB429A

As you can see, the titles are long and hard to remember. The easiest is to look at the last segment with the unit code and title.

The unit itself will be structured in the same way, that you have classes listed as Class 1, Class 2, etc and assessments will be listed by title inside an assessment folder.

This is also where you will submit your assessments. You will find hyperlinks with names such as Submit Assessment  1 here.

You can send messages to your teacher and you can leave comments as well. I am always open to suggestions, so please feel free to forward ideas about content or software that you would like to cover.

Any questions?

Introduction to Content

These units will be covered:

Please click on the links and follow the in-class discussion.

We will work directly with the help of the W3Schools Site: http://www.w3schools.com/ – Click on the Learn HTML tag to get started on HTML.

In-class Task

Please follow the in-class instructions and complete a HTML file that you will need to e-mail to your teacher and keep a copy. Afterwards upload the file onto MyKangan.

Work through the first four sections on W3Schools:

HTML HOME, HTML Introduction, HTML Editors and HTML Basic.

Create a html file with Notepad that includes:

  • a doctype declaration
  • the correct tags used in html
  • h1 tag with your name
  • p tag with something that you like doing
  • a link to www.dzineblog.com
  • make sure to use correct and valid html code

Write all the code from memory. Feel free to look at the code and then apply it after, but do NOT use Copy and Paste.

Save the file as yourname class1 task.html and use UTC-8 for encoding (this will be available when saving the file).

Feedback

Please leave your feedback in form of a comment. Your feedback and suggestions will help me to make this blog more user friendly. Thanks!

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Today’s Class

  • Photoshop CS6
    • Ways to open an image
    • Selection Tools
  • Use of Hue/Saturation function (Image adjustment)
  • Feedback

Photoshop

Good morning and welcome to our second class together! We will look at some beginner’s tasks in Photoshop, based on images with white backgrounds.

So, let us start with that!

Ways to open an image

First ensure that you use a good folder structure. Save your images from your USB onto the PC that you are working on into a folder with a short, yet descriptive name, eg images.

Select File>Open – find your images folder and select the image that you want to open. Photoshop will open the image at the image pixel size and at the resolution of the file.

Open the images folder and have Photoshop open and accessible. Now drag the image into the Photoshop window.

Create a New Document in Photoshop and choose File>Place. Next place the image into the document.

There are other options, such as dragging an image directly from a webpage into the Photoshop window or selecting File>Open As Smart Object. Photoshop is a very versatile software package. The most important is to know a way that keeps the resolution high.

Selection Tools

The Selection Tools in Photoshop are one of many strong points of this package. We will work with this slow loading instructions from the Teacherlink site: Selection Tool Instructions

Below is an screen shot of the Selection drop menu with annotations:

Source: The Graphic Designer's Digital Toolkit, Alan Wood, 5th Edition, 2011

Source: The Graphic Designer’s Digital Toolkit, Alan Wood, 5th Edition, 2011

  • The Rectangular Marquee Tool (Short cut M) – This tool draws square (with the help of Shift) and rectangular selections (freehand). It is important to understand that you are actually not drawing as such, you are simply creating a selection and will be able to do something to that selection only and only on the current layer. Drag the image below into your Photoshop workspace and select a rectangular shapes. Press Ctrl + U and change the colour settings – just play with it. Keep the file active.Image Source: www.photoshopessentials.com

    Image Source: http://www.photoshopessentials.com

    Open this excellent tutorial on PhotoshopEssentials.com: Rectangular Marquee Tutorial

  • The Elliptical Marquee Tool (Short cut M) – This tool draws circlular selections (with the help of Shift) and elliptical selections (freehand). You can draw the ellipse or circle commencing from the centre by holding Alt (option for Mac) while you draw your selection. Visit this tutorial on PhotoshopEssentials.com to see a good example on how to use the Elliptical Marquee Tool. For this class select the red cylinder and change the colour as per instruction above.
  • The Lasso Tool (Short cut L). Basically you draw your selection freehand. It is an early Photoshop tool and has some good uses still (like creating a quick shadow underneath a vehicle with the help of Gaussian Blur). It requires a high level of mouse skills. Try to select the handshake with the Lasso tool and change the colour. Visit this tutorial on PhotoshopEssentials.com to see one good use of the Lasso Tool.Image Source: www.photoshopessentials.com

    Image Source: http://www.photoshopessentials.com

  • Polygonal Lasso Tool (Short cut L). You draw your selection by dropping points. It is an advanced version of the basic Lasso tool and can be very useful. It requires practice. Try the tutorial from PhotoshopEssentials.com: Polygonal Lasso Tool.
  • Magnetic Lasso Tool (Short cut L). You draw your selection by clicking once to select the outline of your object and then you simply follow along the outline and the tool does the rest for you. If a mistake occurs use Backspace to go back one step. It requires practice. Try the tutorial from PhotoshopEssentials.com: Magnetic Lasso Tool.
  • Magic Wand Tool (Short cut W). You make your selection by clicking in the field of what you want to select (eg inside the suit). The Magic Wand selects pixels based on tone and colour. You can change your selection criteria, for example by increasing tolerance your selection will be wider and less affected by tonal variations in the picture. That will result in a larger selection. If you bring the tolerance down it will result in a smaller selection, which means that changes in tone or colour will affect your selection earlier. Try the tutorial from PhotoshopEssentials.com: Magic Wand Tool.
  • Quick Selection Tool (Short cut W). This tool is extremely useful as a selection tool. It is similar to the Magic Wand, but it is more advanced and user friendly. You make your selection by clicking in the field of what you want to select (eg inside the suit). The Quick Selection Tool selects pixels based on tone and colour, but it also has the ability to detect similar textures in an image. As a result it is better at detecting the edges of an object. You can change your selection criteria by changing the size of your brush tip: increasing it will widen your selection and decreasing it will narrow your selection. For a more in detail description please look at this informative tutorial at PhotoshopEssentials.com: Quick Selection Tool.
  • How to add to or subtract from a selection Hold the shift key to add to an existing selection. Hold the Alt key to subtract from a selection. You will need to hold the key while adding or subtracting.

Use of Hue/Saturation function (Image adjustment)

This is a very quick intro to this function: Press Ctrl + U. 3 sliders allow you to change either the hue (the exact colour), the saturation (the amount of colour) and the lightness (the tone, lightness and darkness). You can also tick colorize to get a nice retro effect, it makes your selection monochromatic.

Layer overview

We will cover this in more detail in the next class. We basically will just have a look at the layers to get a broad understanding in class.

 

Feedback

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