assignments
due Tue Sep 12
one: Preliminaries
- Send me some email (mahoney@marlboro.edu) to tell me you're taking the class.
- Once I set you up, create a personal page on the course wiki.
- For the rest of this assignment, (a) come to class prepared to discuss, and (b) submit your work with the "submit work" link here on the assignments page. (For this first one, it's OK if you submit the work after class, if you're not sure how or aren't in the system yet.)
- How does light, vision, photography and all that work?. Use any sources you like, from the 'net to your high school science books. In particular,
- Where does light come from?
- How sensitve (spacial resolution, color resolution) are your eyes?
- What do camera settings like "f 2.8", "ISO 400", "1/60" mean? How do they affect the pictures the camera takes?
- We're also going to look at base 2 and base 16.
- On the course page where you submit this week's work, also tell me
- what your computer background is, and
- what you want to get out of this class.
due Tue Sep 19
two: Gimp
- Pick one of the GIMP topics listed in class to explain to the rest of us. Read the Grocking section on that, summarize in your online submission, upload some image examples, and do show-n-tell next Tues.
- Explore the compression vs size tradeoff, by saving a photo in several different forms (jpg, png) and at different "quality" settings. What sorts of artifacts appear? How much compression can you get?
- Here's a few other reading and numbers general questions to answer in your submission:
- How long does it take to download an 8.5 x 11 600dpi image over a 28k phone line?
- What's the difference between a JPG, PNG, GIF, and TIF? Which one is best?
- A web color is given as 556B2F . What does this mean? In particular, how much red, green, blue is this? Is it dark or light? How do you find out?
- How many different of gray can the typical computer display?
- If a display advertises that it uses "32 bit color", what does that mean? How many colors can it show? (Hint: look up "color depth".)
- Coming: I'm going to ask everyone to do the "make a photomanipulation of a person in the wrong place" for next week, including taking your own images with a digital camera.
due Tue Sep 26
three: photo manipulation
- This is your "mini-project" for the first "images" part of the course.
- Take pictures of (a) a person, and (b) a landscape or background with a digital camera, and move them to a computer. (I have a camera which can be loaned out, John Willis has several, or borrow one from a friend if you don't have one.)
- Using the two photos, create a new image that puts the person into that landscape. Brownie points for any interesting variations or techniques (for example, having their hand appear to hold or rest on something in the landscape).
- Submit this by uploading the originals and your composite, as well as describing what exactly what you did.
- Start moving towards sound manipulations:
- Install Audacity and start playing around with it.
- Start reading about audio and Audacity from the links on the resources page.
due Tue Oct 3
four: audio
- Browse through the sound/musics/audio links on the resources page. (Add your own if you have more.)
- From those sources and/or books in our library and/or your own background and high school courses, answer the following background questions.
- How do 'wavelength' and 'frequency' relate in sounds? For example, if a sound has a wavelength of 1 meter, what frequency is it? Is that audible? How can you create a pure sound like that?
- Jim said in class that our hearing is 'logarithmic' in both pitch and volume. What does that mean?
- What is an 'octave'? How many can you hear?
- What's the difference between an audio file 'container' and a 'codec'?
- Describe what each of the following are : WAV, MP3, OGG (Vorbis), and FLAC (See for example wikipedia's Audio File Format article)
- How much audio fits on a typical CD? How many bits is that, and what is the bps (bit per second)? How much compression do you get with a format like MP3? And what bitrate would that be, typically?
- How do microphones and speakers work?
- Using audacity, create a short audio track that overlays some spoken text (which you have recorded) with a music clip.
due Tue Oct 10
five: blender first tutorial
due Tue Oct 17
six: more blender
- Work through any blender project / cute trick / online tutorial. Fit its complexity to your own skill level.
- Submit (a) a *.blend project file, (b) a *.jpeg or *.avi rendered version, and (c) a description of what you did and how it went.
- Be prepared to show your work to the rest of the class.
due Tue Oct 31
seven: project proposal
- (Note that there is no assignment due the week of Hendrick's vacation.)
- Describe in reasonable detail your term project, and be ready to explain it to the class. Include (a) what technologies you're going to use, and (b) what resources you've identified to assist. It should
- Be a substantive piece of work, comparable to a 10-15 page paper, or something that takes a month of steady effort (i.e. a good portion of the time dedicated to this class)
- Include both a product (movie file, sound file, image file(s), ...) and a written document describing what you did and what tools you used that would enable someone else to follow your footsteps.
- Video questions (I posted these late; handing them in late is OK.)
- What is the difference between interlaced and progressive? Does .mp4 support both, or only one?
- A video is labeled "1080p". What does this mean? What sort of equipment do you need to watch it?
- You make a 10 minute movie, and decide to post it to your website. What are reasonable choices for a file format container? What are reasonable choices for a codec? What sort of file size would you expect? How long does that take to download by a modem? Over the campus network? Explain where you got your numbers from.
- What is the difference between NTSC and PAL?
- What sorts of containers / codecs / equipment does the media lab in the library typically use? What are the advantages / disadvantages?
due Tue Nov 7
eight: short video project
- For the last of your week-long assignments on the various media, create a short (2 min is fine) video clip on a subject of your choice that includes at least one editing effect. It should be something you've shot yourself (with a digital camera, the science building video camera, one of Hilary's or whatever), and should be uploaded here in a computer-compatible form, along with a description of what you did and how you edited it.
due Tue Nov 21
draft of project
- Show in class a first draft of your final project
- Post it on the assignment submission page, along with a progress report
due Tue Dec 5
nine: plugins and scripts
- Using my Nov 28 lecture notes or other sources, read about how plugins and scripts work for a multimedia application like Gimp, Blender, or Audacity.
- If your application and setup allows, install a new plugin or script and try it out.
- Or write one of your own, following a tutorial example or adapting someone else's.
- Or just pick one that's already installed and explore what it does.
- Turn in a description of what you did and your results.
due Fri Dec 15
final project
- Final date to turn in the files and description for your project (see assignment seven, above).
- Note that is the Friday after the last day of classes.
- Also, be prepared to show your work to the class on Tues the 12th.
term grade
