Today the class was being taught by Kyle with assistance from Krista and Thomas. The focus was graphics. He started off the class by showing an example of a vector picture (one that is made up of lines) vs a bit map picture (one that when zoomed in, consists of many boxes). He then took a box he had made in InkScape, a program that enables the user to draw vector images, and pulled it up in TextEdit which is a program that will give the coding of things like websites or pictures and showed how to change the rectangle using hard code. However, his focus for the workshop was on InkScape. Once the InkScape guide papers were passed out, Kyle went through each of the tools in the tool bar and gave an example for each tool. After showing off the examples, he let the students open their laptops and experiment on their own. After some time the students went to Heather's website and downloaded InkScape files to practice on. When everyone got past that stage the class manipulated the NIKE logo by changing background colors and even making the logo from scratch. Next the class was shown how to make the Target logo by just using two circles. First, Kyle used two circles to make a doughnut shaped cut-out. Then he added in another smaller circle to be in the middle. Some of the students had the arc tool selected, so Kyle explained how the arc tool will only make arcs unless they are brought around on the axis to make circles and that the ellipse tool would be easier since it makes circles automatically.
The next subject covered was attaching text to an object. The Honda logo was used for this example. Kyle started off by typing a regular "H" and then moving around and extending the inside of the "H" to make it more curved like the Honda "H". Before opening the NBC file he asked the students how they thought it was made. He showed them how to use the duplicate tool to make the NBC logo feathers. Next he taught them how to prepare a logo in order to upload it to the Internet. The students discussed what a logo is and what it is used for. After the discussion, Kyle had the students create their own logos.
After lunch Neal took over. He started out reviewing InkScape, what it is and what the students had learned. He also used an example to show bitmaps. After the students opened a link on his website, he opened Gimp, a program that is used for photo retouching. He went through the tool bar as the students followed along with a guide sheet. He then had the students open different picture files. When the students were in Gimp, Neal explained what layers were and how to use them. After a while he had a competition to see who could figure out how to scale the blimp image first. The class went through various methods of how to duplicate and scale the picture. After working with scaling and creating a duplicate image of the blimp Neal had the students explore all of the options that are available when working with colors. He showed the students how to delete certain parts of the image with the fuzzy select key. Then Neal had the students pull up a picture of the Taj Mahal to manipulate. After taking the sky out of the pictures, an image of fireworks was pulled up so that it could be put behind the Taj Mahal. The next image that was pulled up was a road. The students added a layer of fog on the road as well as incorporated filters into the picture. After showing different options of manipulating the various photos to the class, he let them create their own logos in Gimp.