There are so many cool programs and projects that we could do in the time we have remaining before the end of the year, but we just don’t have time to spend time on them all! With the time remaining, you will have the opportunity to focus your energy in an area that interests you most.

You will be responsible for keeping track of how you spend your time and reporting back to me to explain what you’ve worked on, what you’ve learned, and what you’ve created.

Below you will see some of the tutorials/applications/ideas that I recommend. You should investigate whatever area of design/creativity interests you most! Make sure you DISCUSS YOUR OPTIONS & CHOICES WITH MR. ROBSON!

You could explore some of the options available as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud. Students have access to a wide variety of really cool programs. In Graphic Tech, we spend a lot of time with Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, but there are many more to explore as well:

Adobe Animate (animation)
https://helpx.adobe.com/animate/tutorials.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVQzNpX_L5g&list=PLYeXZOOCIwCuzJTgzS1ODTe-T8FrmPty9

Video Editing (Premiere Pro)
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/tutorials.html

If you’re not in Graphic Tech, or you want to go beyond what we’ve already learned in class, you could learn more about:

Photoshop
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/tutorials.html

Illustrator
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/tutorials.html

InDesign
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/tutorials.html

For excellent, in-depth training on a wide variety of applications & subjects, I highly recommend checking out LinkedIn Learning through the Winnipeg Public Library. In order to access these tutorials, you will need a Winnipeg Public Library membership number. If you don’t yet have a Winnipeg Public Library Card, go HERE: Library Membership sign up

You’ll need that card number again, so copy and paste it into a Word document or an email to yourself or whatever! Don’t lose it!

Once you do have a card, sign in HERE: LinkedIn Learning

We’ll start with one of the quickest programs to get started with and the easiest to learn. These files can even be downloaded and printed out with a 3D printer.

It’s called Tinkercad, and it’s all online and it’s totally free! You’ll have to create an Autodesk account, if you don’t have one already, in order to get started.

Join our class HERE: https://www.tinkercad.com/joinclass/YWU6HG9HT

You can create your account using your school email address, or if you wish to use your Apple, Google, personal Microsoft account, or Facebook, go right ahead!

Once you have created your account, you may need to go to JOIN A CLASS: https://www.tinkercad.com/joinclass

Our class code is: YWU6HG9HT

There are some easy tutorials to get you started. Please access those here.

Once you’ve got the hang of the basic controls, I recommend taking a bit of a video course so that some things can be explained to you. The course accessible at this link is pretty interesting and informative, but the keychain is a piece of junk! Well, it’s not too bad, but the loop that attaches it to your keychain is too small, and it’s kind of weak so it’ll break off (trust me.) Can you improve on the design to make one that won’t break and will fit better?

Eventually, you will make your own model to hand in for marks.

students who are FINISHED THEIR ASSIGNED PROJECTS and have been working on Typing Club and Coding may choose to make something using the laser engraver.

This is the type of project that we work on in Graphic Tech, which you should consider signing up for next year!

If you think that you would like to make something for a gift or for yourself, DOWNLOAD THIS TEMPLATE

Once the file is finished downloading, find it and double click it. It should open in a program called Illustrator.

The engraver will ONLY ENGRAVE THE COLOUR (ok, shade) BLACK. Your design needs to be BLACK AND WHITE or BLACK AND TRANSPARENT.

This would work great:

This would not:

If you’re looking for a logo, you might like a site called Brands of the World. The problem with that site is that most logos are not black and white. Files downloaded from there may be easy to edit, though.

If you wish to use Google Images, make sure you use the Tools button:

and narrow your search to Large files:

You should also change the Colour option to Black and white:

If you see something that you like and it looks like it would work, click on it. Go to the preview pane on the right and right click. Choose Save Image As…

I highly recommend a site called The Noun Project

In order to use that site, you need an account. Sign up with your email address if you would like to download something.

You can use your school email if you like:

Or you could sign up with Google or Facebook if you prefer:

Search for whatever you want. When you find something you like, click on it. It’ll go to a page with a blue Get This Icon button. Press it!

You’ll then be asked if you want to pay for it or not. Who likes paying for stuff!? Choose Basic Download:

There are two file types. Both will work, but the easiest to work with is SVG:

When you have downloaded the images that you want to engrave, go back to Illustrator.

In Illustrator, go to the File menu at the top left and choose Place:

Go find your file. Select it and choose Place:

Click on your screen to place it at its original size OR draw a box to size it into whichever of the template shapes you like.

You’ll probably want to resize the image. Make sure you are on the Selection tool on the top left of the tool bar on the left side of your screen. Pressing the V key on your keyboard will activate that tool.

When you resize your image, hold the Shift key and pull from the corner:

Fit your image into whichever template you would like:

Don’t worry about the text below. That has a funny way of disappearing…

 

I’ve given you one of a few different basic shapes/objects. If you don’t want to use them all, you certainly do not have to.

If you wanted more of one of those objects, you could make copies of those template shapes.

At the top right of your screen, you should see a tab that says Layers. Open that tab/window

You’ll notice that there are two layers. The top one is where your images go. The bottom one has the cut lines. The file that I’ve given you has those locked. If you wish, you can unlock that layer in order to make copies, resize them, or get rid of shapes that are there.

Let’s say I wanted to make more than one coaster. Once I unlock the layer, I could use that Selection tool to select that coaster shape.

In order to make a copy, you can hold the Alt key on your keyboard and drag out a copy of that shape.

So the basic challenge (which is a little limited) is to animate a snowman that describes your feelings about December:

Describe Your December
Use the new Animate from Audio tool in Adobe Express to create a video describing what it’s like where you are in the world this December.

TEMPLATE

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Now that you’ve had some time to play with Adobe Express and Generative AI, you can surely come up with something even more fun and creative! It doesn’t even really have to be about December. Write a little piece expressing an opinion or educating viewers about something that you are interested in!

I didn’t have nearly as much time as you do to play around, and I came up with this:

The first step is to figure out what you want your animation to say. I wrote a little script in a Word document. (Keep it school appropriate…!)

The next step is to find a way to convert your words in to audio. I did a quick Google search for “text to audio free.”

I tried a couple of sites that either weren’t really free or didn’t sound very good in the end. I eventually used THIS ONE. I played around a bit until I got it sounding pretty natural. For some reason, I found that when I downloaded the file in the popular .mp3 format, Adobe couldn’t read it, so I used a .wav file instead and it worked much better.

All of this is to say that you’ll have to play around a bit in order to get something that works.

Then you can figure out your character and background. Then upload the audio file. From there, just play around and add elements, animations, text, and whatever else you can think of!

 

TEMPLATE

You do not have to use a photo of yourself if you don’t want to. If you do want to, we can take a photo of you with a good camera to make sure it turns out well. You could also use a photo of me if you really want to, but feel free to find a GOOD photo of just about anyone or anything to put in your globe.

AI can be a powerful tool in a lot of areas, including creativity. It’s easier than ever to bring your most amazing ideas to life with just a few commands. Unfortunately, it’s almost too easy, so you’re not learning how these things are done when you just let a computer do the work for you. You also often end up with end results that are clearly created by AI, not a real human being.

That having been said, there is great value in learning how to create things yourself (like we do in Graphic Tech!) but sometimes it’s fun to just play around and see what you can come up with.

One really amazing tool is Adobe’s Firefly. TRY IT OUT

Adobe also has a really cool creative product called Adobe Express. TRY IT OUT

We’ll have some fun with Adobe Express and try out some of their Creative Challenges!

For the first one, you’ll need THIS FILE (or find your own!)

From that page, click Remix this design

When you’re done, DOWNLOAD your file and hand it in! Take your time, be creative, and have fun!

Finished samples:

Instructions & Questions

Please watch and do some research to see whether ALL THREE videos are real or fake:

We will be working on a unit that will introduce you to some of the basics of computer coding. You will be marked for completing the projects and the units.

If you have already created a username and password for code.org, go sign in first. https://studio.code.org/users/sign_in

I need to know who you are! It is amusing that someone signed up as Monkeyfart and someone else as friedchickenmaster, but I can’t give you marks if you don’t use your real name.

Please Join our class:  https://studio.code.org/join/FGLZNX

Work through the exercises and assignments. Be creative and have fun!

Coming up in December is an event known as Computer Science Education Week. Every year, there’s a huge worldwide activity called The Hour of Code, where millions of people will learn how fun and easy it can be to learn to write computer code. Whether you’re trying to build or fix your own website, animate your designs, write an app for your phone or tablet, or just see what you can teach computers to do, learning code is really important and fun. You have no idea how much you’re capable of doing right now, until you try.

These skills will help make you part of a growing workforce of people who require computer science skills. These skills are becoming more important in almost every area of society, and sadly, there aren’t nearly enough people with those skills to fill important positions. By increasing your skills, you give yourself a far greater chance of landing a good job in the future, and unlock worlds of new possibilities now.

If you take a moment and create an account, you can save your progress so you won’t have to

Please Join our class:  https://studio.code.org/join/FGLZNX

If you prefer to pick your own path, go here: https://code.org/student/middle-high

Many more cool options here (Minecraft, Star Wars, sports, Flappy Bird, etc.) https://hourofcode.com/ca/learn

OR you can try it out at Code Combat (a bit more challenging): https://codecombat.com/students?_cc=LampDreamDog

OR you can try it out at CodeHS (a bit more challenging): https://codehs.com/section/489494

Congratulations! You have just won ONE MILLION (pretend) DOLLARS!

Once you win that kind of money, you have the ability to buy almost anything you could possibly want, so you’d likely want to get shopping. That’s exactly what you’re going to do in the next assignment!

You will create a spreadsheet that will keep track of your purchases and how much you’ve got left to spend. You’ll find sources online and keep track of accurate prices and link to the sites where you get your information.

You’ll have to keep track of:

• the amount of money you have left to spend
• the stores where you plan to buy your items
• the pre-tax sale price of your items
• the amount of PST you’ll have to pay (7%)
• the amount of GST you’ll have to pay (5%)
• the total amount with tax
• the grand total of how much you’ve spent
• the average price of your purchases
• the highest priced item
• the lowest priced item

Make your page look purty by changing fonts, sizes, and colours, add shading, borders, and pictures

Your sheet does NOT HAVE TO LOOK LIKE MINE! I’d rather you came up with your own layout & idea, but mine looks like this:

You know how to do all of this after finishing the Formulas assignment

Except…

I want you to add hyperlinks to the pages where you went to get your prices so that I can click on them to see the price for myself.

First, GO SHOPPING! Find items that you’d buy with your million dollars and then COPY the URL (address)

Once you’ve found an item you want to buy, click on the address in the address bar

That should turn the address blue (highlight it)

COPY it (Ctrl + C) or right click

Go back to Excel (Ctrl + Tab)

To make a hyperlink:

Click on the cell where you want the link to go

On your keyboard, press Ctrl + K

OR

Go into the Insert menu/tab

Then press Link

A box will pop up. Make sure that the top option is selected (Existing File or Web Page)

Click inside of the Address box at the bottom

And Paste in the address/URL that you copied (Ctrl + V)

At the top, there’s a section to fill in the Text to display. Type in the name of the store/retailer where you’re buying the item:

Press OK

And you’ll see the name of the retailer in the cell and it will be underlined and written in blue

You should be able to click on the name and be directed back to the website in your browser

In the end, you’ll see a list of links that I can click on to check