COURSE: MT 35101 Discovering Computer Graphics
RESOURCES: Course Resources
PROF: Walsh, Aaron (bio) <walshag AT bc.edu>
| PAGE: http://www.gridinstitute.com/bc/mt35101/
COURSE: MT 35101 Discovering Computer Graphics RESOURCES: Course Resources PROF: Walsh, Aaron (bio) <walshag AT bc.edu> |
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THIS CLASS CONSISTS OF NUMBERED "SECTIONS" THAT GUIDE YOU THROUGH THE MATERIAL ON THIS WEB PAGE. START WITH SECTION 00 BY READING THE TEXT UNDER THAT SECTION (AND DO ANY EXERCISES OR ACTIVITY IT SPECIFIES), THEN PROCEED TO THE NEXT NUMBERED SECTION. START WITH THE ROLL CALL.
| SECTION |
00. ROLL CALL (1 of 3), HELP, AND INTRODUCTION TO TONIGHT'S ONLINE CLASS |
ROLL CALL 1 OF 3: SNAP A SCREENSHOT OF YOURSELF IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD DURING THE ROLL CALL TAKEN AT THE START OF THIS ONLINE CLASS (see Section 01 below for details). LATER IN THIS COURSE (NOT NOW) YOU WILL POST IT TO YOUR BLOG WITH THE SUBJECT "ROLL CALL 1 FOR BITMAP GRAPHICS CLASS 3"
USE OUR YAHOO GROUP TO REACH ME IF YOU CAN'T CONNECT WITH ME IN SECOND LIFE TONIGHT
WARNING: Interactive 3D graphics are very computing intensive; they consume a lot of computer memory (RAM), and Central Processing Unit (CPU) resources. You should consider restarting your computer before starting this online class, and be sure not to run any applications except your Web browser! Depending on how powerful (or not) your computer is you may (or may not) experience a crash during this class. If you do, simply restart your computer and pick up where you left off.
Second Life "in-world" help: Can't figure Second Life out? Can't find your fellow students yet? Getting frustrated? If you click on the following link you'll be taken into the Second Life help island. This is an "in-world" help area, meaning the help area is inside of the Second Life world. When you click on the link below it will launch Second Life and take you into the help area where you can ask someone for help on the basics of Second Life (such as how to search, find friends, teleport, etc). Click the following link to enter the in-world help island:
Enter the Second Life Help Island NOW
When in Second Life: If anyone you meet in Second Life asks you what "Immersive Education" is simply tell them to visit ImmersiveEducation.org since ImmersiveEducation.org is the official home page for Immersive Education.
IF SECOND LIFE GOES DOWN TONIGHT : Second Life has become very popular lately, and is having severe growing pains as a result. Sometimes the sheer number of people using Second Life cause it to be slow or unavailable (meaning you can't log in or use it). Second Life also FORCES updates on you from time to time; this usually happens when an important upgrade is available and they want you to be "up to snuff" in terms of your software. If you have difficulty getting into Second Life, or if a problem happens during a forced update, try restarting your computer and then connect to Second Life again. That doesn't always solve the problem, but it often helps. If Second Life is unavailable entirely (meaning the Second Life "grid" is unavailable) there's NOTHING you can do about it. In this case keep trying every 15 minutes or so, and work on your finals in the meantime. IN A WORST-CASE SCENARIO SECOND LIFE WILL BE OFFLINE (unavailable) FOR TONIGHT'S ENTIRE ONLINE CLASS. If that happens you'll have to coordinate with your classmates and meet with them at another time (such as tomorrow night), in which case you probably won't have a chance to meet with everyone at the same time -- just be sure to meet with AT LEAST 1 OTHER FELLOW STUDENT so that your screenshots show you and at least 1 other student in this course.
Tonight's online class is entirely online in Second Life. You must have Second Life installed to meet me and your fellow classmates online for tonights class. NOTE: YOU MUST HAVE VOICE CHAT ENABLED IN SECOND LIFE FOR TONIGHT'S ONLINE CLASS!
Enable Voice Chat in Second Lifeby following these steps:
1) Run Second Life
2) Select PREFERENCES from the EDIT menu
3) Click VOICE CHAT
4) Select (turn on) the "ENABLE VOICE CHAT" option
5) Click the APPLY button
6) Close the Preferences dialog box
7) QUIT SECOND LIFE and proceed with the rest of tonight's class notes (proceed to the next section below)
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01. TELEPORT INTO SECOND LIFE and VOICE CHAT |
PLEASE NOTE THAT TONIGHT'S ONLINE CLASS IS SELF-DIRECTED, MEANING I (THE INSTRUCTOR - AARON WALSH) WILL *NOT* MEET YOU "IN WORLD" (IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD) TONIGHT. INSTEAD, TONIGHT'S CLASS IS MEANT FOR YOU TO INDIVIDUALLY BECOME COMFORTABLE WITH THE BASICS OF THE SECOND LIFE VIRTUAL WORLD ON YOUR OWN, WITH YOUR CLASSMATES, AND TO USE THE COURSE TEXTBOOK. WE WILL MEET TOGETHER, IN PERSON, NEXT WEEK ON CAMPUS AND DISCUSS THE SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING EXPERIENCE THAT YOU HAVE TONIGHT. SIMPLY FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW AND CONTINUE WITH EACH NUMBERED SECTION ON THIS PAGE TO COMPLETE TONIGHT'S ONLINE CLASS:
To start, simply meet with your fellow students in the Second Life virtual world using the teleport link below (click the teleport link to the British Literature classroom below). When you are there SNAP A SCREENSHOT of yourself with your fellow students. Save this snapshot as your first roll call for tonight. Name it rollcall1.jpg (and later do exactly the same thing for roll call #2 and #3, naming those pictures rollcall2.jpg and rollcall3.jpg). Save your roll call screenshots on your computer; in a few weeks you'll submit them via your blog for grading.
If you don't already have GimpShop or Gimp installed you can use the SNAPSHOT button at the bottom of the Second Life window to create a screenshot. Or you can use the Paint graphics program instead, which is installed on most Windows computer. To take a screenshot and save it in Paint follow these instructions:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/tips/screenshot.mspx
Once you have GimpShop (or Gimp) installed, which you'll do later in tonight's class, you can use the ALT + PRINT SCREEN button technique that we learned in class last week. Here's a summary of that technique:
Press ALT+PRINT SCREEN by holding down the ALT key and then pressing the PRINT SCREEN key. The PRINT SCREEN key is near the upper right corner of your keyboard. (Depending on the type of keyboard you have, the exact key names on your keyboard may vary slightly.) NOTE: You can take a screen shot of your entire desktop rather than just a single window by pressing the PRINT SCREEN key without holding down the ALT key.
TELEPORT:After you have enabled voice chat (see the previous section) click on the following link to launch Second Life and "teleport" into the island we're meeting in tonight. Click to teleport, and then, after Second Life starts you'll log in and then see the map of this place at which point you'll have to accept the Teleport. NOTICE: IF YOU CAN'T GET INTO THE PLACE BELOW JUST GET INTO SECOND LIFE LIKE YOU USUALLY DO AND ASK YOUR FRIENDS (VIA INSTANT MESSAGE) TO GIVE YOU A TELEPORT TO WHERE WE ARE:
PROBLEMS? If the above island isn't available, or you can't "get in" for any reason, use the following link and when you arrive there send an instant message to your fellow students so that we can all join in the same place (ask for a Teleport to get us all together): The Promised Land : Click here to join us! After you find us in Second Life I'll guide you through the rest of tonight's online class.
NOTE: YOU MUST HAVE VOICE CHAT ENABLED IN SECOND LIFE FOR TONIGHT'S ONLINE CLASS!
Enable Voice Chat in Second Lifeby following these steps:
1) Run Second Life
2) Select PREFERENCES from the EDIT menu
3) Click VOICE CHAT
4) Select (turn on) the "ENABLE VOICE CHAT" option
5) Click the APPLY button
6) Close the Preferences dialog box
REMINDER ABOUT ROLL CALL 1 OF 3: SNAP A SCREENSHOT OF YOURSELF IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD DURING THE ROLL CALL TAKEN AT THE START OF THIS ONLINE CLASS. POST IT TO YOUR BLOG WITH THE SUBJECT "ROLL CALL 1 FOR BITMAP GRAPHICS CLASS 3"
| SECTION |
02. OUR DIGITAL TEXTBOOK and GIMPshop |
The readings, tutorials, and videos that you'll do tonight come from our digital (online) textbook. A link to the textbook is in our course SYLLABUS.
You'll also need to download and install GIMPShop now if you haven't already done so. Below is a link to the Windows installer for GIMPShop (if you are using a Macintosh look under appendix B.9 of our textbook for the Macintosh installer and see the notes below about GIMP vs GIMPShop for Macs). Click the link below and either RUN the installer or save it to your computer (and then run it). When the installation is complete a shortcut for GIMPShop should appear under in your PROGRAM menu (click on the START button, and then select PROGRAMS and look for GIMPShop):
Windows GIMPShop Installer: http://www.plasticbugs.com/blogimg/gimpshop_2.2.8_fix1_setup.exe
When you run the installer (and when you run GIMPshop the first time) simply accept the default settings it suggests. In other words, let the installer configure GIMPshop for you.
In this course we'll use the GIMPShop bitmap graphics content authoring tool. For Macintosh users who can't install GIMPShop you might be able to run "The GIMP" instead. The GIMP is the original program on which GIMPShop is based (GIMPShop is a slightly modified version of the GIMP -- the modifications make GIMPShop look more like Photoshop). In terms of look and feel the GIMP is still quite close to GIMPShop, however, and so Macintosh users might find it helpful in cases where GIMPShop can't be used. Here's the GIMP homepage and installer for Macintosh:
http://www.gimp.org/ (HOME PAGE)
http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/ (MAC INSTALLERS)
Alternately, you can always use Photoshop or any other graphics program in this course.
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03. WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER |
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TIME: Complete this section within 15 minutes
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Our online textbook features a number of "video tutorials" that are in the Windows Media format. You will need to install the freely available Windows Media Player (version 10, or a higher version if you can't install 10) to continue tonight's online class.
If you haven't already done so, test to ensure that you can view the video tutorials in our textbook (follow the bullets below to test). If you can't see the video tutorials you'll have to install Windows Media Player 10 (or a more recent version if you can't install version 10) using the link provided in the bullet points below. Then test to ensure that you can view the video tutorials provided in our textbook by reading (and doing!) each item listed under the bullet points below:
If you can't hear the audio when watching the video be sure to TURN UP THE VOLUME for both your Windows XP computer (the computer volume itself) and also for the Windows Media Player. The computer's audio volume and Windows Media Player volume are two different volume controls: turn them BOTH up to hear the audio clearly. Here's how:
| SECTION |
04. GIMPSHOP INTERFACE BASICS |
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TIME: Complete this section within 15 MINUTES
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Now watch the video tutorial "B.10 GIMPshop Video Tutorial: Open and Zoom" in our textbook again, and this time pay close attention so that you can become familiar with the basic interface of the program. Follow along with the video by downloading the following "monster" image (Monster.jpg) onto your desktop, and then open Monster.jpg with GIMPshop and do all the things shown in the video "B.10 GIMPshop Video Tutorial: Open and Zoom":
MONSTER: http://gridinstitute.com/bc/mt35101/images/Monster.jpg
Note that GIMPshop's floating tool menu (not the main menu in the background) is the window that you'll use to open graphics files and work with them. The main GIMPshop window that appears behind the floating tool window is merely used to QUIT (end) the program when you are done. Sometimes GIMPshop won't quit, in which case you must either RESTART your computer. Alternately, you can press the following three keys at the same time to bring up the task manager to force the GIMPShop program to quit. Only do this if you're comfortable using the task manager, however:
CTRL ALT DELETE
If you press the above 3 keys at the same time you can enter the task manager and force any application or task to quit.
| SECTION |
05. GIMPSHOP STEP-BY-STEP TUTORIALS |
See our MIDTERM NOTES for examples of this midterm.
After you open the redeye.jpg in GIMPshop use the pencil or paintbrush tool to write your full name (first and last name) on this red eye image. WRITE YOUR NAME ON THE IMAGE BEFORE YOU DO THE TUTORIAL! Write your name large enough so that it's easy to see and takes up a lot of space. This is important: don't continue until you've written your name on the image. Then finish the tutorial (remove red eye as instructed in the tutorial).
When done upload the image that you create to your blog and give it the subject "MIDTERM 1". The image that you create in this tutorial is the first midterm exercise that you'll submit for grading. In the same blog post write a few sentences about what you just did (in other words, "blog your work").
See our MIDTERM NOTES located on our main course notes webpage (click the MIDTERM link) for examples of this midterm.
See our MIDTERM NOTES located on our main course notes webpage (click the MIDTERM link) for examples of this midterm.
When you load this tutorial in your browser you'll see a picture of a cat, which is the image you'll download onto your computer desktop for this tutorial. Read the "downloading images to your computer here" link that appears above the cat image if you need help downloading the image to your computer.
In this tutorial you'll use the "Select Region" tool that appears on the GIMPshot floating tool window. The "Select Region" is denoted by a dotted rectangular outline (it looks like a square, and is usually located on the toolbar alongside the oval selection tool). Can't find the tool you're looking for? Note that if you REST YOUR MOUSE OVER A TOOL ICON FOR A FEW SECONDS THE NAME OF THE TOOL WILL APPEAR. If all else fails, rest your mouse over every tool icon (one at a time) until you find the "Select Region" tool.
Note that in the tutorial you are shown how to put the text "samus is a trouble maker" onto the cat image. This is not enough! BE SURE to add your FULL NAME (first and last) and "says" before the word "samus" so that your text reads, for example, "Jane Doe says samus is a trouble maker". If your full name and "says" doesn't appear before "samus is a trouble maker" (i.e, "Aaron Walsh says samus is a trouble maker", etc) you won't get credit for this midterm exercise.
When done upload the image that you create to your blog and give it the subject "MIDTERM 2". The image that you create in this tutorial is the 2nd midterm exercise that you'll submit for grading. In the same blog post write a few sentences about what you just did (in other words, "blog your work").
See our MIDTERM NOTES for examples of this midterm.
When you load this tutorial in your browser you'll see a link called "Ball.tif" which is the image you'll download onto your computer desktop for this tutorial. Read the "downloading images to your computer here" link that appears beside "Ball.tif" if you need help downloading the image to your computer.
After you open Ball.tif in GIMPshop use the pencil or paintbrush tool to write your full name (first and last name) on the ball image. WRITE YOUR NAME ON THE IMAGE BEFORE YOU DO THE TUTORIAL! Write your name large enough so that it's easy to see and takes up a lot of space. This is important: don't continue until you've written your name on the image.
Once your name is on the ball image follow the tutorial instructions and save the resulting image in JPEG, GIF and PNG format as shown in this tutorial.
When done upload the images that you create to your blog and give it the subject "MIDTERM 3". Upload the JPEG, GIF and PNG ball images that you created (together these 3 images are midterm #3) and write a few sentences about what you just did (in other words, "blog your work").
Open the completed (finished) "red eye" image that you created earlier, and use the "Save As..." option to save it in both a GIF and a PNG format. Previously you created it in JPEG format, but now you have it in GIF and PNG as well. Upload all three images (JPEG, GIF, and PNG) to your blog and write a note about the quality difference that you see between these formats. Can you see a difference? If so, write about it in your blog. If not, write that you can't.
CHECK YOUR WORK AND SEND YOUR BLOG LINK TO OUR YAHOO GROUP FOR REVIEW BY YOUR FELLOW STUDENTS.
Video tutorials and readings from our online textbook:
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Book: Discovering Bitmap Graphics (click icon at left to open this book)
Sections to complete Midterm #6:
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Assignments and Exercises:
MIDTERM #5: Do this midterm exercise while watching the corresponding video tutorials from our online textbook. For details SEE OUR MIDTERM NOTES.
MIDTERM #6: Do this midterm exercise while reading the corresponding tutorials from our online textbook. For details SEE OUR MIDTERM NOTES.
| RELATED CLASSES: |
MT35801 Video Games and Virtual Reality |
