Posts Tagged digital media adventures
A Closer Look at Adobe Photoshop
Digital Media Academy News + Events | March 24th, 2009 by Ben
Hi! I’m Ben Jaffe, one of the instructors for Digital Media Academy’s Adventures Program. I want to give you a closer look at Adobe Photoshop CS4. We use Photoshop for image creation and modification in our Web Design class.
Photoshop is the industry standard for image manipulation and creation. It’s even become a verb! “That looks Photoshopped!” Usually we use that term to describe photographs that look like they have been modified. Photoshop is good for many other purposes too. In this case, we’re looking at a simple header for a website that we’ve created in Photoshop.
A header goes at the top of your website. Often, it is an image that includes elements related to the site. For example, if we are making a site about different kinds of ducks, we might make the header image look like a pond and put ducks in it!
On the far left of the above image, we can see our tools stacked vertically. We cover all the tools, but focus on the most important ones. On the right, we have several panes where we can modify the image in different ways. There are also pop-up windows that you can access in various ways, shown below.
This can all seem very overwhelming. Photoshop is an extremely deep application, which is why it is the standard for image manipulation in several industries (film, photography, print, etc). As complex as it is, with the proper guidance, it can be easy to learn even for young children. It’s much like a car. For example, you don’t need to know how to change the oil or replace the tires in order to get gas at a gas station. And you don’t need to know how to install a spark plug in order to change the oil. As with most things, people learn Photoshop modularly, piece by piece.
There are always different ways to accomplish things in Photoshop. Everyone I know takes a slightly different approach. We teach the kids several techniques for getting different effects, and with guidance from us, we let them take the route that is most fun for them. Your child can learn basic and some intermediate techniques in Photoshop, create graphics for an incredible website, build the website, and add animation, all in a week at DMA!
I hope to see you this summer!
-Ben Jaffe
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My Son Had Fun at Digital Media Adventures!
Digital Media Academy News + Events | March 22nd, 2009 by Phil Gibson
By Claire Haggin, DMA Adventures Parent
Last summer at Digital Media Adventures, my 9-year old son worked on 3 different types of computer games: Platformer, Ball & Stick, and Dodge the Screen Bouncers. On Monday, the teacher started by explaining how to “control” the environment with arrow keys so the characters won’t “float” around. After that, he showed them how to make ladders, how to utilize the screen to “zoom” and “follow” a character – even how to create enemies who shoot weapons that must be dodged! Then, at the end of the week, they learned how to incorporate sound effects like “crashing” and “breaking” noises.
As an aside, my son especially liked circling around and switching chairs so he could play and test classmates’ games, and of course, give them feedback.
A highlight of every morning and afternoon was going outside to play – after working for a few hours it was a great way to get re-energized. A favorite memory was playing a game that involved tying a balloon around your ankle, then running around trying to pop others’ balloons – all while not getting your balloon popped. All in all, he really had fun.
And not to be taken for granted, Miles also loved the lunches!
Adventures: Kids Learn Web Design and Flash
Digital Media Academy News + Events | March 17th, 2009 by Ben
I’m Ben Jaffe, one of the instructors for Digital Media Academy’s Adventures Program. I teach Game Design and Web Design.
I love teaching Web Design to 9-13 year olds. One of the best parts about DMA’s Adventures Web Course is the software we use. We teach the kids how to use Adobe Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver. We use Photoshop to create and modify graphics, and we take some of these graphics into Adobe Flash to add movement to them. Finally, we use Dreamweaver to build a full website and upload it so they can share it with friends and family.
We see Flash files everywhere on the web. YouTube uses a flash player, and most web banners and online games are created with Flash. Dreamweaver is used to build and manage websites of almost any scale. Photoshop is used for image modification and preparation. Virtually every image in every print publication has been modified with Photoshop. It is even used to prepare graphics for videos!
Our students learn how to use the same tools that the pros use. Photoshop, Flash, and Dreamweaver are the industry standards for graphics, animation, and site design. After taking our course, many students continue using the software to create websites and media. Middle schools and high schools often have a few licenses of the software. Knowing these applications gives anyone a distinct advantage in the job market.
When I first learned about Photoshop, I was in 9th grade. I took a multimedia class, and we covered Photoshop in moderate detail. There suddenly were so many possibilities open to me, and so many fun projects to work on. I impressed my family by creating realistic-looking photo compositions, and eventually made my way into video. Now, I do graphics, animation, video and audio work as a profession. It only took that brief introduction to pique my interest. The seed was planted. But the job I enjoy most is teaching, because in every class, there is a chance that one kid might latch onto what I teach them, and blossom.
I hope to see you this summer at DMA!
Film Camp for Kids. Cool stop motion video made between film projects at summer camp!
Digital Media Academy News + Events | March 10th, 2009 by Philip Harding
Kids learn how to make a movie at summer camp!
This is a project the Digital Media Adventures film class (movie making and special effects) made in between movie projects this past summer at DMA summer camp in Michigan. Somehow they managed to shoot these hundreds of photos and stitch them together in Final Cut Pro as a fun project in between the two other short films they made in one week! This is truly a great film camp experience for kids.
