Craig's Classroom - Virtual Course Graphics for Bloggers 101 is underway. (course information page, pre-recorded videos, watch at your own pace.) We have a nice group signed up! :) I am creating a series of classroom assignments for the students to complete the course. This post is to illustrate a report on Assignment #3
Composite Graphics Assignment
Create TWO composite graphics
The first (lead off) graphic should be square shaped and 340 pixels wide so that you can align it on the right edge and have the blog post text flow around it on the left. Overlay caption text over the photo and also use a drop shadow effect on the image. (rounded corners are optional). Use either Picnik.com or iPiccy.com to do the edits.
The second graphic should be a full width graphic 684 pixels wide. It should be a collage composite of either two or three photos. You should use Picasa to create the graphic (alternatively you can use Picnik while it is still online). The canvas of the image should be either black or a color of your choosing.
In your report blog post, write a narrative of the steps that you took to create the graphics. (this narrative will also provide you text that will flow around the graphics so it will look like an actual blog post that you will be creating!)
The following post is an example of what the students need to create
(I'm including this post in my own regular blog feed as well as you all might learn a point or two from our class discussion! ... and enrollment is open if you want to learn even more!)
Assignment #3 - Composite Graphics
The image that you see here I created using iPiccy.com. As most already know, Picnik.com is going offline in April. iPiccy is a very close resemblence to Picnik in the tool sets that it has (not exactly, but a very close second).
I used several tools in iPiccy. First the crop tool. I chose the square shape and cut out all but the focal point of the photo. Then I used the rounded corners tool. I added drop shadow. Next I used the border tool with a WHITE color to give myself a little extra canvas to work with for the text to overflow the photo. Finally, I used the text tool to overlay text caption on top of the photo. Then I saved the file to my hard drive.
The image below was created in Picasa. I used the technique that I did a tutorial video on just recently. I exported three selected photos to a folder where I could make edits (and not alter the originals). I cropped my three photos into portrait 4:3 cutouts. I used the collage tool to arrange them on the canvas. I set the canvas color to black. After I locked in the collage as a single image, I used the crop tool to cut away the excess perimeter canvas. Then I exported to 684 pixels so it was just right to insert into a blog post.
(About the photos above) The Staten Island Ferry is one of the main ways that us Staten Islanders head to work in Manhattan each day. It is said that about 75,000 travel on it daily. It is a 25 minute trip each way.
If you are visiting NYC, the ferry is one thing that you may want to put on your itinerary for part of your day. It is a very scenic trip passing by Ellis Island (left photo), Statue of Liberty, and fantastic views of lower manhattan from the water. Harbor sunsets are spectacular also if you time your journey right. (Oh and by the way, the trip is FREE!)
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