Category: Blog Post

• Student makes a start with a digital portfolio https://portfolio.cr.utwente.nl/student/cedricomtzigt/showcase-portfolio/

In my portfolio I talked about the Google SketchUp design I made In grade 10, and a physics lab report where I measure the average diameter of a human hair by using a laser. These were projects from the past and I hope to (soon) have projects to post on the showcase portfolio that were made at the UT

 

Workshops

• Student attends at least one workshop. (Deepening/Widening)
• What did you think of the workshop? What did it give you/ what did you learn you can take  with you in your further development as CreaTer?

I attended the Javascript workshop where we were given a booklet with step-by-step instructions on how one of the student assistants made their game, and later on we were tasked to create our own game. Unfortunately I haven’t made much time to finish that game since it wasn’t obligatory. I learned some new Processing skills and implemented these skills in the game as well. I learned more about the Processing program and it’s endless possibilities to make your ideas a possible reality, you just need to be willing to go through the entire process of trial and error.

The second workshop I attended was the Photoshop workshop where Carlos and I worked together since I didn’t have photoshop installed on my laptop.

It was a nice workshop to refresh my photoshop skills with since I haven’t touched photoshop in years. The people in charge showed a photoshop feature and tasked us to find an image and use that same feature. This went on for numerous times until the beamer overheated and they had to improvise. This is what lead to our final project of the day; the album cover for our imaginary hardcore band, the Screaming Turtles. I will definitely take the photoshop skills with me for use in the near future because it is a great way of making graphical imagery for future projects.

 

Guest Lectures

• Student attends at least two lectures of a guest-speaker on Wednesday, the 24th of October (Exploring)
• What did you think of the guest lectures? What did it give you/ what did you learn you can take with you in your further development as CreaTer?

The guest lectures of Wouter Eggink and Douwe Dresscher were a nice way of introducing us to people with jobs that involved technology. My attention span is too short to be listening to people for that long and since we weren’t allowed to make notes (which is a bit odd) I have forgotten most of it. Luckily one of my fellow peers (who I will not name because he/she might get into trouble) did manage to make some notes and refreshed my memory. I recall Wouter Eggink being a designer and this was a field I was very interested in because of my passion for designing. From Wouter I learned about his life as a designer and the projects that he worked on. His view on design being the element that makes a product successful is a view that I fully support because when it comes to products, it’s the appearance that usually matters the most. This is something I’ll definitely keep in mind when designing a product in the future.

Douwe Dresscher is the Smart tech teacher in module 5 which is something I’m really looking forward to because the information that he gave about the projects that he worked on, such as the 3D point cloud that makes a 3D map of the space that is scanned, sound awesome. The 3D point cloud is something that I’ve been wanting for myself to scan objects and adjust them for 3D printing but unfortunately I haven’t ran into any free-consumer software.

Final words

• In what direction do you want to grow as a CreaTer? How could you / do you want to describe yourself as a CreaTer? What are your personal motivations, ambitions and expectations as a professional in the field of Creative Technology? How could you take control of your own professional Development?

As of now I am more of a designer when it comes to CreaTe. I would like to grow into more of an electrical engineer so that I can build my own creations and bring my ideas to life, instead of being stuck on the designing part and handing all the fun over to other people. My personal motivation for now is me wanting to get a job I enjoy that pays good money, and CreaTe is a course that is perfect for me, and I hope to find a job that suits my needs too. My expectations are to, in the future, work on various projects with teams to enhance the quality and quantity of my portfolio so that I have a good start when I have to look for jobs. Taking control of my own personal development happens automatically since the university life is mostly about teaching yourself the necessary (and additional) information. I am happy to have chosen this course and can’t wait to find out what my future career as a CreaTe student beholds.

For this assignment I had to review the site from one of my peers.

Carlos made his own theme on WordPress. i know that he uses WordPress because in the source it mentions the following: <meta name=”generator” content=”WordPress 4.9.8” />

Evaluation: it’s impressive how much he did on his own and I like where it’s going. I learned that, compared to his posts, i sometimes write a bit too much for a web post. I’m still used to writing essays so website writing is still new to me. I’ll manage.

If you want to check out my review, scroll down. ⮟

Continue reading “Peer Review”

Instead of only using the standard theme provided by WordPress, I had to add a personal touch to my website.

I wanted the user to see what page they’re on and make the menu items bob when hovering over them. I achieved this by adding CSS code to the Additional CSS tab in customization. This overwrites any existing CSS stylesheet code allowing me to really turn my website into, ‘my website’.

In the picture you can see that:

• I made the font global
• The current menu item is displayed in white with a white line below the text.
• The white line is also displayed when hovering over the menu items.
• The menu items bob up and down when hovering over them

The menu bar is now done, who knows what’s next ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For We Create Identity we have to make an interactive video and the group and I decided that it would be fun to do a superhero/action movie. We want to give the audience the power to choose whether our superhero becomes a villain or incrementally turns into a superhero, and gradually work towards that result In the beginning of our movie, the protagonist runs into a burglary where a woman is being robbed. The thief (antagonist of the story) demands that she hands over the pills. In this first scene the audience already gets to choose whether they should fight the thief or continue walking. This is where our protagonist and antagonist (potentially) meet and also shows the first of many choices in our movie that alter the story line.

There is 5 of us and 2-3 main characters which gives us room for at least 1 person behind the camera at all times and some supporting characters. We already know where we can get all the equipment from in terms of technology so all that has to be done from here is:

finishing the script and shot-list- planning film days and the filming – figure out how a movie can be made interactive – editing the project and then the presentation.

The script writing is done on celtx, a basic script writing website where people can collaborate on a script, like a shared document in google docs.

Below is a preview of the first page in our script.

Nothing in this picture is final and may become subject to change.

 

 

Give an update on your progress regarding the design activities for your site.

I have switched themes, so that I can turn the parent theme into a child theme more easily. This will allow me to edit the code of the site myself instead of only being able to use the basic customization options. The child theme will also act as a backup, in case I want to roll back to an older version or mess up the code.

 

What do you consider to present on your site?

My blog will serve as the place where assignments and updates to my website will be posted. In order to keep an overview of all the topics there will be a title with a hyperlink posted on the blog page that refers to the post, instead of having long, endless pieces of text on the blog page.

 

What sections/order will you use?

The necessary sections so far are the about me page, where the visitor will be able to see who the owner of the site is. The About Me page is still under construction as I still want to upload more about the projects and events in my life so far.

The Blog page will feature posts for assignments, nothing more nothing less.

My Art page is a link to my Behance gallery where all my public digital art is showcased.

At last there is a Showcase Portfolio where I will be showing some of my achievements such as games I coded or other school projects that I am proud of.

 

Present a base-design you consider (a sketch).

1. When hovering over a menu item there should be a white curve-edged background behind the text and the text should appear black.
2. There should be a search bar in case the teacher (or others) want to search for specific items when there is a load of content on the site
3. There will be titles with hyperlinks to the posts so that there is an easy overview of the topics
4. I want a drop down tab under the menu title on the page where all my projects are categorized
5. If I happen to have time for this; I’d like an image gallery consisting of 2 rows on the bottom of the page where the top row moves left and the bottom row moves right. When the user hovers over the pictures he can then go left or right himself.

A free festival showcasing creative technology, photography and other forms of art, which relate to the future of technology.

 

• Which installation did I like most, and why?

Bas Burghard’s unthinkable electronic instrument

Bas Burghard wanted to create an electronic instrument if it were to be designed in a time where instruments like that were unthinkable. He started out with printed circuit boards using natural materials (such as stone and wood) but noticed that the installation made electronic sounds he already knew. Which lead to him making the installation sound more “natural”.

It really felt natural when I was standing in front of the installation. Somewhat calming too between all the noise of the other installations in the Concordia exposition. The installation also had a natural look and didn’t appear to be out of this era, the future or the past. It was something new.

Continue reading “Visit to GOGBOT 2018”