Graphic Novel Librarian’s New Logo – Daily Create Week 16

Daily Create #tdc1581 challenged users to use online text logo design tool MarkMaker to create a personal logo. I have been so engaged in the development of my digital ego – the graphic novel librarian – that I thought it would be cool to have a loge. Playing with the MarkMarker tool was fun – it is interesting to choose some interesting designs and have the tool produce new options based off your choices. I found many elements that worked for me that I wanted to incorporate into the final design of the G N Librarian logo and hundreds of other elements that were cool but did not work for me. That is the strength of this tool the number of elements make simple to choose a randomly generated but stylish logo. Where the tool became less user friendly was went I wanted to mix and match elements I had seen in a non-randomly generated way, I found that in the editing space specific elements were not labeled and finding specific styles of elements became guess work.

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Triangle Rex – Daily Create week 12

I have a little cartoon I like to draw and his name is Rex Patrick. When I saw today’s daily create challenging us to create a drawing using Triangulart I knew I would have to try to make Rex. I like the simple nature of this program and it was fun to experiment. I wish there was a way to move groups of triangles around the canvas, because I started my picture to high up and I ran out of space to make his hair. Beyond being to squished on the canvas the hair was hard to render in the way I normally draw it. With more room I would have experienced with a more standard haircut.

The Great Train Advertisement – Daily Create Week 10

I am so excited for the new downtown to DIA train that is opening in Denver CO, on April 22nd. The Daily Create assessment tdc1530 ask to make a gif, with a caption, from the classic silent movie “The Great Train Robbery”, here is my response:

I had to make some difficult decisions for this gif. I had originally imagined that the gif would involve a short video of the train running down the track, with a caption sharing the opening date for the airport train. I decided to switch to the shot of the robbers jumping onto the train because of the great arm signal by the first bandit telling his compatriots to “come on”, which tied in nicely with an “all aboard” in the caption. I also had to choose if I wanted to lengthen the clip to include the train pulling away from the station, but the train takes five or six seconds to get moving and that created a lot of dead space in the gif and I decided to focus on the robbers getting on the train. I hope you like my piece and are excited about the new airport train as I am.

Oasis Farms – Find Refuge from the Food Desert – Daily Create week 9

This week I decided to tackle Daily Create #1522: Make a Sign For Your Randomly Generated Ranch Name. I think using name generators then having to create something form the name is an awesome idea, I could see doing this exact activity with my students and extending the activity to having the farm be a setting in a short story.

The name generator gave me Oasis Farms, which I was drawn too because it provides the perfect counter part to the term food desert – which describes a neighborhood with limited or no access to fresh produce or other non-packaged foods. I used familiar imagery form both an oasis and farm for the Oasis Farms sign. I wanted create a sign that not only invoked nostalgia of farm fresh foods but also the relief from suffering provided by an oasis.

The Birth of Discow: The Man and Moovement – Daily Create week 8

I have been anticipating/dreading the creation of gifs as expand my experience in the creation of digital stories. I think gifs are great ways to express quick thoughts or stories but I also think the format seem imposing to create. I saw this gif daily create and thought it was a great opportunity to practice creating a gif before diving in on the ds106 gif assignment. I was surprised at how easy it was to create the gif. I used imgflip to make make the gif and all I had to do was upload images and then adjust settings. Imgflip provided a preview so I could see how I was adjusting the gif and could see the final product. I got images from freeimages, and was able to find almost everything I wanted for the gif. I originally envisioned Discow emerging from a magicians cloud but but could not find one, I then experimented with fireworks and color swirls, which I almost used a combination of both. Fortunately  I stumbled on the black and white hands when I searched ‘creation’, because they are so much creepier better. The only work I really had to do was use photo shop to crop the images so they were the same size and not distorted to fit together in the gif.

Ask a Teacher to Make a Word Problem – Daily Create Week 7

I am a teacher – I make word problems for breakfast. So when I saw this daily create challenge to make a cowboy word problem I knew that I could nail it. I found the perfect image, font and problem to convey my western theme, and the problem itself is straight out of my lesson plans for next week!

The Searchers – Daily Create Week 6

I could not reset the opportunity to change the dialog in a comic for a daily create challenge. I had thought about making the Jesse James character speak as if he were the professional wrestler Jesse James. but when I looked at the comic I knew there was only one way to change the set up. I am thinking of making a gritty reboot of a classic here. Keep an eye out for my Kickstarter!

For True Loves on the Range! – Daily Create 1498

I wanted to find a way to highlight the relationship between cowboy and horse for this daily create challenge. My wife suggested incorporating the  horse with beautiful hair meme, I used MakeAMeme.org to create this image and it could not have been simpler. I searched for the horse image, added text and downloaded the image. I can’t believe that I had not used this simple but effective tool sooner.

My Mountain Treasure – Daily Create Week 4

I loved going to Beau Jo’s pizza in Idaho Springs when I was little. I still can’t resist the lure of a mountain pie whenever I am on 70 going past Idaho Springs. Hell I think the third exit-ramp into Idaho Springs is solely there for people who changed their minds and are going back for pizza.  Follow this handy map and the treasure of pizza can be yours!

Big Helmet; Little Sheriff

I have these two Broncos helmets that I thought would be perfect for the big car little car daily create. I also am trying to expand my digital prowess with these projects, so I decided to digitally create a Payton Manning jersey for my cowboy/Manning stand-in.