Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of construction this product?
Mobile Phone
During the production of the magazine, I learnt how to upload a video to YouTube directly from my phone. The chosen video can be selected to be upload, using the YouTube app, via the share option that is available when viewing the video on the phone. When the YouTube option is chosen the video will be upload using the YouTube account that was logged into. The advantage of this that the process is quick, however the problem with Samsung phones is there is not any editing software on the Phone. Unlike IPhones , which have IMovie, Samsung phones be used to edit videos. Therefore, it was difficult for me to use this process during the project, but I did use this for the audience feedback in the task of deciding which genre and style I wanted for my magazine. In addition, I used this for adding audio files to the video I produced on style and genre.
Emaze
Scribd/ Slideshare
Indesign
Prezi
Movie Maker
Converting formats
Slidebean
Photoshop
Cameras
I have learnt how to take a photograph on my Samsung phone and send the JPEG file to the computer. I did this by sending the picture to my own email address from my phone and retrieving the file from the computer. This way was a more efficient way of transferring the pictures from my phone to the computer , where as usually a wire would have to be used to access the files.
I have learnt that a Word Document can be converted into PDF, which then can be converted into a JPEG image. This is done by selecting "Save as type" then "PDF" and selecting "Save as Image- JPEG" in PDF. This changing of the formats means the Word Document can be embedded easily into blogger as it is just an image.
I learnt about video editing as I created my own video for task 5. I learnt how to use movie maker. I inserted mini music video clips into my video to make my video look better. I learnt how to crop the video and how to put captions in too. I have never used movie maker before so I was unsure but now I know how to edit a video from YouTube clips. However, soon I learnt that I had to put the YouTube clips through YouTube converter/ Video converter and then save it to my home drive. This then enabled me to insert it onto movie maker. It was simple after awhile and I enjoyed the process of editing the clips.
The Prezi presentation software was easy to use and the format was simple in it's presentation style. When I used the software I learnt how to embed images and videos into the presentation from my home area. The presentation software is compatible with Blogger so I learnt how to embed the software into my blog. I learnt how to add more slides and how to change the order of the slides ; by reordering the slides remotely using the tool bar.
Emaze is a similar presentation software to Prezi, however Emaze has other formats like animations, quizzes and mini websites. I found the mini website was easy to use and I learnt how to change the website layout , by adding or replacing features, and adding images. In the software the embed option is located in the "share", which I had to learnt how to use.
Slidebean is an online presentation software, which is different from Emaze and Prezi. The reason it is different is because the features that can be include "pictures", "videos" and "text" are added remotely on a different home screen. When, viewing the presentation you can edit the look of the presentation but can add anything. This was something I had to learn how to rearrange the items within the viewing of the presentation. this was different from the other software as they allowed me to see the final product build up and how it would be presented, so I could edit it easily. During using the slidebean software I learnt how to embed a YouTube video into a presentation. The presentation software gives the option to add a video, so you have to copy the embed link for the chosen YouTube video, when the shared option is chosen on YouTube, and then pasted the link over to slidebean. This means I could showcase the rock genre with music videos straight from YouTube.
Scribd and Slideshare are both online software that allow you to upload Word Documents and PowerPoint into a format that can be embedded into the blogs. I learnt how to use the software and how to edit the format from slides to a portrait style. The slides were better for powerpoints but the portrait style was better for word documents.
With InDesign I have learnt how to wrap text around an image to make it the focus point of the article. This was a useful skill because magazines use this technique to make the layout of their articles creative. As well, InDesign was new to me before this process so learning how to use was similar to Photoshop in many respects but I preferred using InDesign as it was easier to manipulate images to suit the article. Another thing I learnt was how to develop my skills of making the article look professional by using the house colour scheme of the magazine on the article and introducing columns to kept the text inline.
I had to learn how to change the brightness of the camera so it would work with the lighting in the photo studio. I also learnt how to view the images on the camera. I learnt how to transfer the image using a wire instead of a wireless connection. I learnt that professional lighting is better for image quality than a flash.
I learnt how to manipulate images in a more detailed way. I learnt how to crop the background of an image with the magic wand tool, then how to create a new layer with a new more suitable background on. I learnt how to use the paintbrush tool to clean up the edits of an image. This helped me to create a well edited magazine and the block colour background worked best for my magazine. I develop my use of different fonts and the level of strokes around image and text to make them stand out. In addition, I learnt how to develop my skills of creating the correct tone with the brightness levels of the pages. The gradient of the coloured background meant that the page did not look too garish with a bright bold block colour overwhelming the page.