space invaders blogging

I'm asking my students to blog each lesson the improvements they  make to their space invaders game.

Today we brainstormed some ideas. They were make the enemy explode, destroy the bullets when the hit the enemy, background image, music, enemies move faster and that was about it.

I'm also asking that you put in a screen shot each lesson, as your game improves. 

 

space shuttle: did it myself

Some students were complaining that the space shuttle gif animation exercise I set them was too hard.

I do admit I did set it as a harder type exercise because it’s good to have a real challenge every now and again.

It took me a while but I have now done it myself. The final animation file is quite large, 757 KB, so it might take a while to load – would take 2 minutes on a 56K modem
TIPS

1. use contiguous wand to prepare images (quicker than rubber alone
2. use layers, one image per layer
3. make new layers for new images
4. to rotate the shuttle: Layer > Transfer > Arbitrary rotation
5. tools to use: rotation, scaling and move
6. at the end add an earth layer for each shuttle layer, then merge down
7. add another Earth layer for the supernova effect: Filter > Light Effects > SuperNova
8. Keep evidence that you have done it yourself – save some transition files along the way

 

space shuttle animation

You have already done the GIMP noughts and crosses animation. The space shuttle animation uses similar sorts of techniques.

The tutorial is published online  as part of a free book titled Grokking the GIMP by Carey Bunks. It’s generous of him to distribute a whole book about GIMP on the web for free

The space shuttle tutorial starts here. I have downloaded the images you need to start with and put them in a folder called .

Your task is to make the animation yourself.

 

Thursday 2nd March lesson

The teacher is away. Go on with what you haven’t yet finished. The relief teacher has worksheets for some of the tasks (4, 5. 6). Otherwise look on the teachers blog for hints about what to do, how to do it. Enjoy!

1. picture grid ,picture pile, picture variations – do in picassa, post product to your blog with comments about how you made it
2. Visit at least 4 class blogs, leave comments and then write a blog post about which blogs you left comments on
3. Do a blog roll of at least 5 class blogs
4. Finish noughts and crosses animation in GIMP, post animation to your blog and write about how you made it
5. Make an animation  using Game  Maker and strip sheets
6. Use GIMP filters to vary images and then display them on a web page

 

free web hosting

When you have finished your GIMP picture gallery – including the styling – then try putting the finished page and images onto a free web host

Here are a couple that look promising because they say they don’t have pop up advertising  and they provide you with a fair bit of storage.

http://5gigs.com/

http://www.hostrocket.com/free/

I want to try them out and evaluate whether they are good services or not.

 

GIMP filters

ANIMAL VARIATIONS using GIMP

monkey variations

Go to the above URL to see the sort of product I want you to make using GIMP. There is a worksheet available.

What is written below are some experiments I have been doing to see if we can publish the styled image variations in wordpress – it seems not because when you try to tweak the HTML in wordpress it resists you!!

can you add div tags? yes

The ability to add style to wordpress is limited

* can only add inline style

* can only add one style per div tags, the ; is stripped out

* it’s worse – all the style is stripped out when you publish %4#@

Will have to publish styled images elsewhere, bye

Frog

 

picasa file management

We had some trouble with this. To understand file management in picassa I had to read the picassa help. READ THE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Some of you tell me that you hate reading but it does help some of the time.

How to start with a single picture, produce variations and then combine them into a collage:

1. Create a new folder in your personal directory with a copy of the picture you want to perform variations on
2. Add that folder to picasa: File > Add Folder to Picasa
3. Configure Folder Manager to the Scan Always setting: File > Add Folder to Picasa > Scan Always (radio button). You need to do this so that you can see your new copies as they are created.
4. Double click on the picture in picasa and perform your edits: Basic Fixes, Tuning, Effects
5. When you apply Effects then by clicking on the Effect (Sharpen, Sepia, B&W, etc.) more than once then each Effect is magnified and this can produce more dramatic effects
6. File > Save a copy … or Ctrl + S is a shortcut way to export which puts a new copy immediately in the same folder that you are currently working in
7. You can always undo any change you make in the picasa editor. So you can always get your original picture back
8. Select your best 9 variations and made a collage grid out of them
9. Upload your collage to wordpress and write a reflective comment about it

 

noughts and crosses

You can use GIMP to make a GIF animation. You make the pieces, like the grid, the nought, the cross and the winners line.

Then you add the crosses and noughts layer by layer and GIMP has the capability of turning it into an animation. I have a worksheet on this, send me an email if you want a copy: billkerr (at) gmail.com

 

categories

Login to wordpress and go into write or edit a post mode.

Look to the right and you’ll see a ‘Categories’ tab. Click on the + and add categories. I’m using categories like picassa, problems, bubbleshare, wordpress, animals. Simple words that categorise what your posts are about.

Each time you post you tick the category boxes on the right which best describe your post.

 

changing your look or theme

Login into wordpress

Dashboard > change your sites look or theme

Choose a theme that you like. That’s all you have to do.

I chose the ‘connections’ theme.