YAHOO GEOCITIES USERS: Be sure to work on your final exercises early and often as Yahoo! Geocities has daily limits on the amount of data that you can upload and download (access). If you wait until the last week to upload and test your files you will exceed these limits and be "locked out" of your Geocities account, in which case you will not be able to submit your exam files on time (and late grade penalties will apply).

Vector Graphics, Part II [ONLINE CLASS]

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.

ROLL CALL

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"

HELP

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.

INTRODUCTION TO TONIGHT'S ONLINE CLASS

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 Life by 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)

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"

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TIME: Complete this section within 45 minutes
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Introducing Vector Graphics

Vector and bitmap (raster) graphics are fundamentally different forms of computer graphics. The ability to scale (resize without loss of quality) to any size or quality of display device, small file sizes, and "editability" are three major advantages of vector graphics over bitmap graphics. Vector graphics can't be edited on the pixel level, however, and they can't represent photographic quality images, nor are they directly supported by Web browsers as some bitmap formats (notably JPEG, GIF, and PNG) are. A browser plug-in is therefore necessary to view vector graphics in a Web browser.

READINGS: To understand the power of vector graphics, and how they differ from bitmap (raster) graphics complete the online textbook readings listed under Section "02. Introducing Vector Graphics" of our course notes.

Readings from our online textbook:

Book: Discovering Vector Graphics (click icon at left to open this book) Sections to read now (read ALL chapters that appear under the book section listed below):     1.0.0 INTRODUCING VECTOR GRAPHICS (Object Oriented Graphics) NOTE: Do not follow (click) on any links in the chapters; just read the main chapter material.

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TIME: Complete this section within 15 minutes
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Windows Media Player

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:

Windows Media Player 10 and our DIGITAL TEXTBOOK VIDEO TUTORIALS

• Install Windows Media Player 10 (or 11, if you can't get 10) at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/10/default.aspx
• Many of the video tutotrials in our online textbook require Windows Media Player, so be sure to update or install it if you have problems
• Our course textbook is online at http://web3dbooks.com/graphics/discovering/
• Be patient: Depending on the speed of your Interent connection it might take a few minutes for the textbook Video Tutorials to download
• View the video tutorial "B.4 Video Tutorial: Word Drawing Introduction" in our VECTOR GRAPHICS textbook to see if your Windows Media Player is installed properly
• ZOOM (enlarge) our digital textbook window so that you can see the videos and the TEXT links that appear below them
• Use the links under that appear under the video window to view the videos directly in Windows Media Player if you can't see them in our textbook

Problems HEARING the videos?

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:

• Follow these instructions to learn how to turn up the volume on your Windows XP computer
• When viewing the videos (which uses Windows Media Player) look for the following volume slider control and turn it up (slide it to the right):

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TIME: Complete this section within 2 HOURS
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Microsoft Word Video Tutorials from Textbook

Our online textbook features a number of "video tutorials" that show you how to use Microsoft Word's vector drawing tools. Read (and do!) each of the bullet points below:

MICROSOFT WORD VIDEO TUTORIALS

• Microsoft Word supports vector graphics, which you'll use to create Midterm #8 and #9 (see "Class 5: Vector Graphics, Part I" notes at the top of this page for details).
• Our course textbook is online at http://web3dbooks.com/graphics/discovering/
• Be patient: Depending on the speed of your Interent connection it might take a few minutes for the textbook Video Tutorials to download
• ZOOM (enlarge) our digital textbook window so that you can see the videos and the TEXT links that appear below them
• Use the links under that appear under the video window to view the videos directly in Windows Media Player if you can't see them in our textbook
• View the following video tutorials, and complete each task shown by these tutorials. :
  B.4 Video Tutorial: Word Drawing Introduction - practice drawing, coloring, and moving shapes as shown by this video
  B.5 Video Tutorial: Word Drawing Course Diagram - save your .doc file and submit it as Midterm #9. For details see the MIDTERMS file in our Yahoo FILES area.
  B.6 Video Tutorial: Word Drawing House - save your .doc file and submit it as Midterm #10. For details see the MIDTERMS file in our Yahoo FILES area.

MIDTERMS

See the "MIDTERMS" file located in the FILES area of our Yahoo Group for detaills on each midterm that you'll submit for grading. NOTE that for non-bitmap midterms (and finals) you'll submit both a screenshot on blogger AND the file itself (such as the Word .doc file).

Problems HEARING the videos?

If you have difficulty hearing any of the videos follow the instructions in the above section to boost the volume.

ROLL CALLS #2 AND #3: SNAP A SCREENSHOT OF YOURSELF IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD DURING THE ROLL CALLS TAKEN AT THE MIDDLE AND END OF THIS ONLINE CLASS. POST THEM TO YOUR BLOG WITH THE SUBJECT "ROLL CALL 2 FOR BITMAP GRAPHICS CLASS 3" AND "ROLL CALL 3 FOR BITMAP GRAPHICS CLASS 3"

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TIME: Complete this section within 30 minutes
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Vector vs. Bitmap (raster) Graphics

Vector and bitmap (raster) graphics are fundamentally different forms of computer graphics. To understand the difference between vector and bitmap graphics complete the online textbook readings listed under Section "05. Vector vs. Bitmap (raster) Graphics" of our course notes. Finish these readings on your own time before next week if you can't complete them all tonight.

Readings from our online textbook (finish these readings on your own time before next week if you can't complete them all tonight):

Book: Discovering Vector Graphics (click icon at left to open this book) Sections to read now (read ALL chapters that appear under the book section listed below):     2.0.0 VECTOR GRAPHICS vs. BITMAP (RASTER) GRAPHICS NOTE: Do not follow (click) on any links in the chapters; just read the main chapter material.

Peer Review

CHECK YOUR WORK AND SEND YOUR BLOG LINK TO OUR YAHOO GROUP FOR REVIEW BY ME YOUR FELLOW STUDENTS.

ROLL CALLS #2 AND #3: SNAP A SCREENSHOT OF YOURSELF IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD DURING THE ROLL CALLS TAKEN AT THE MIDDLE AND END OF THIS ONLINE CLASS. POST THEM TO YOUR BLOG WITH THE SUBJECT "ROLL CALL 2 FOR BITMAP GRAPHICS CLASS 3" AND "ROLL CALL 3 FOR BITMAP GRAPHICS CLASS 3"

TONIGHT'S CLASS IS NOW OVER.

FOR NEXT CLASS: MIDTERMS ARE DUE SOON!

READINGS: Do all of the online textbook reading from our previous classe. NOTE: You can SKIP any PhotoShop readings, as we're working with GimpShop (you can do the PhotoShop readings and exercises if you'd like, but they are not required). Also note that you can use any graphics tool to do this work, not just GimpShop (so you can actually do them in PhotoShop if you prefer, in which case you should also do the PhotoShop readings).

MIDTERMS: Midterms are due soon. See the "MIDTERMS" link on our course Web site notes for details.