Archive for category Higher Graphics
Wacom Bamboo Graphic Tablets
Posted by Jim Black in Higher Graphics on May 8, 2010
A few months ago we bid for ‘Determined to Succeed’ funding to purchase twenty graphic tablets. We were granted funds to purchase ten, and advised to apply next time around for funding for another ten.
Our funding bid specified that the tablets would be a ‘whole school’ resource. This post is a review, with accompanying pupil work, for the benefit of other teachers here at school who may be interested in using them.
1. Make and model.
The tablets are the ‘Bamboo Pen and Touch’ model by Wacom. They cost around seventy pounds each.
2. Software installation.
Provided you have ‘administrator access’ to the computers at school, the software installs in the usual way from the disc provided. However, if you want to get the most up to date release of the software, visit Wacom’s site and download it, then install.
3. Use
Pupils took to them immediately and they’ve proved especially useful for digital drawing. They’re much easier to draw with than a mouse. It’s easy to set the two buttons on the pen of the mouse to left click, right click or double click; whatever you find useful. Pupils are very comfortable accessing the control options and doing this. Although the active (sensitive) drawing surface area of the tablet is quite small at around 160×110 mm, it is easy to achieve controlled pen strokes.
4. ’Pen and Touch’
Pupils didn’t find the ‘touch’ controls – similar to those on an i-Phone – of much use. I suspect that if our computers were a bit more powerful, and had graphic cards, there’d be less of a time lag evident when using the touch controls. Conversely, the pressure sensitivity feature of the pen works really well. Provided you’re using the tablet with a programme that recognises pen pressure sensitivity, pressing harder with the pen can be set to increase line width, or opacity, or rate of ink flow etc. Our pupils have been using the tablets with ‘Gimp’ primarily. Gimp is an open source (free to download and use) alternative to Photoshop. It’s good for digital painting and photo manipulation. The tablets have also been used with ‘Inkscape’, another free drawing programme, and with Serif PagePlus and Scribus – both DTP programmes. PagePlus is a commercial programme, but Scribus is free to download and use, and is our preferred option for Advanced Higher Graphics pupils laying out magazine articles etc.
5. Setting up and storage
The tablets plug in to any USB socket. When using with particular drawing programmes, experiment to find out if you need to plug the tablet in before launching the programme, or visa versa. The tablets appear to be reasonably robust, though the nibs of the pens may be liable to damage. This may be because of the pressure sensitivity feature of the pen. However, each pen comes with several replacement nibs. Our funding allowed us to purchase a few extra pens, in case of future damage. Each tablet has a small fabric loop that the pens slide in to, for storage. This is a very useful feature. Our box of ten tablets is small and light enough to transport around school. One pupil can easily carry it.
6. Summary
We’re happy with our purchase. The tablets have proved useful and popular and we’ll be bidding for another ten in future.
7. Borrowing the tablets
Check with us beforehand to confirm availability, then nominate one of your more responsible pupils to collect and return them. A second pupil should also be sent, to open doors. If you’d like a bit of initial instruction in using them, contact me. I’ll be happy to get you started.
8. Examples of pupil work.
In addition to the slide show included with this post, examples of pupil work created with the aid of a graphic tablet are available to view as follows:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1261007 – Robert Hackett
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1317051 – Rachel O’Donnell
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1259063 – Elliot Sutherland
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1277908 – Rebecca French
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1259414 – Kaitlin Pietersen
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1320058 – Ben Muir
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1267778 – Hamish Gentles
Higher Graphics Children’s Story Books
Posted by Jim Black in Higher Graphics, on demand printing on April 2, 2010
This is a new project for session 2009 – 2010.
Just before the Easter holidays most pupils completed their story books, ready to upload to www.blurb.com for printing and binding. Most used a combination of Inkscape, Gimp and either Scribus or PagePlus to create the graphics and lay them out, ready for export to PDF format.
Many pupils used colour and pastel pencils to create the graphics, which they scanned, then further enhanced. Some took photos and enhanced / manipulated them, to illustrate their stories.
This is quite a departure from the leaflets that pupils have produced on the Higher Graphics course over the last few years. All pupils were given the option to create a leaflet instead of a book, but all opted for a story book. A considerable amount of extra work was needed to realise their books, but almost everyone rose to the challenge, and will have an unusual portfolio piece to take along to university interviews in future.
Those who opted to use open source software (Scribus, Inkscape and Gimp) instead of a commercial alternative (PagePlus), don’t seem to have been disadvantaged: their work looks equally good. They’ve been exposed to out-and-out raster and vector graphics packages – Gimp and Inkscape - and should now have an understanding of what each has to offer. Those pupils using PagePlus may be less clear, as PagePlus is something of a hybrid, which cleverly converts vector graphics to raster graphics as it sees fit.
One advantage pupils using PagePlus have had is the way the programme processes transparent images to then save them in to the PDF format required by Blurb.com. PagePlus handles this in the background perfectly, whereas Scribus converts any graphics with partial transparency to full opacity. This has happened when pupils have prepared images with partial transparency in Gimp and exported them as Portable Network Graphics.
Pupils have been tasked with uploading their PDF files to Blurb.com, then purchasing a copy of their book using (a parent’s) credit card. The books are due to be submitted for grading on the first day back in school after the Easter holidays.
We’re very excited to see the results.
Depending on how the books turn out, and upon pupil demand, we may decide to register the school as a publisher, assign ISBN numbers to books, and try to get them in to local libraries and on sale in book stores.
Here are links to pupil books, both Higher and Advanced Higher, that have already been uploaded to www.blurb.com for printing and binding -
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1259414 – Kaitlin Pietersen
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1232400 – Claire Mathieson
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1261007 – Robert Hackett
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1237007 – Michael Speirs
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1274579 – Matthew Connolly
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1274833 – Sam Wynn
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1259063 – Elliot Sutherland
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1317051 – Rachel O’Donnell
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1277908 – Rebecca French
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1320058 – Ben Muir
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1267778 – Hamish Gentles
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1288704 – Alison MacLellan
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1261506 – Jordan Dear
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1293879 – Blair Cowan
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1304641 – Jessica Whyte
Our Current Pro/ENGINEER Setup
Posted by Jim Black in Higher Graphics on March 14, 2010
We’re reaching the deadlines for Standard and Higher Grade Graphics folios, and pupils have been generating their ortho drawings from their CAD 3D models.
At present, we’re using Wildfire 4 (M092) and this session we’ve adopted the user interface provided to us by James Collin and James Todd at St. Augustine’s. It de-clutters the Pro/Engineer screen and makes the materials and rendering buttons easily available (though it also hides the ’sketch’ button). We’ve also adopted their ‘format’ and template drawings for Standard Grade, and adapted them for use at Higher Grade.
At Standard Grade, St. Augustine’s format and template speeds up the process pupils go through to generate their orth drawings, by prompting them to enter details in the title box as the drawing opens, and by automatically adding plan, elevation, end elevation and isometric views.
At Higher Grade, where we’re using Pro/Engineer for the first time, we’ve modified the format to include an area where pupils may add their own company logo.
The startup web page that appears in Pro/Engineer is now one from our web site, made narrower to avoid the need to scroll horizontally to view it all. The page includes a gallery of work and links to tutorials. Not all of the links are currently working, and we’ll be adding links to PDF versions of the tutorials soon.
In the coming weeks, we anticipate using Pro/Engineer (and Blender) to model products for 3D printing on our recently delivered Rapman. Info about our experiences with the Rapman will be posted here soon.
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video.A Hat for Haiti
Posted by Jim Black in Higher Graphics, product design on January 30, 2010
Yesterday, the school had a ‘dress down day’, to raise funds for disaster relief in Haiti. Everyone was encouraged to wear a hat.
Most of these photos were taken during block three, when Higher Graphics and Product Design classes were in the department.
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video.Shameless Self-Promoters – Business Cards
Posted by Jim Black in Higher Graphics on January 30, 2010
A couple of months ago, former pupil Michael Chalmers visited us to deliver a talk about his film studies and photography – see earlier post at cdtlog. He brought along a pack of business cards he’d had printed by the on-line service Moo.com. Michael said he hadn’t imagined he’d ever need business cards, especially while still studying at art college, however he had in fact found them invaluable.
Suitably inspired, I assembled some examples of work I’d produced over the years to support pupils, and had them applied to a set of cards. A pack of fifty cards cost £12-99 including postage. One side of the card employs one of Moo’s standard templates and includes my contact details, along with the school crest. The other is a full bleed image.
The cards are gorgeous, printed on heavy weight smooth matt stock. The images have turned out a wee bit dark, so if I were to use the service again I’d lighten the colours before uploading. I’d probably also upload my own layout of the contact info, rather than complete one of Moo’s standard templates.
Pupils in our Higher Graphics classes are currently creating suites of business stationery, as part of the ‘display’ element of the Thematic Presentation. They have found the cards of interest and examples of their final work will be posted over at our main departmental site soon.
A couple of days after the cards arrived, our new rector, Mrs Frith, was visiting class and mentioned that until now she simply had business cards printed out in school, but that the Moo.com cards were superior. I suggested that she have a set done at Moo, each with a different piece of pupil work featured on the reverse. If she goes down this route, I’ll ask her if I may feature the resulting cards here.
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video.Higher Graphics DTP mind maps
Posted by Jim Black in Higher Graphics on November 15, 2009
This session, pupils will produce booklets as their main DTP assignment. The booklets may be picture stories or instructional / learning texts, aimed at young children, teenagers or adults. Each will be themed around an object such as a torch, and the centre spread of the booklet will include a ‘how it works’ feature incorporating technical graphics produced in Pro/Engineer.
Last week, pupils produced mind maps with lots of different ideas for stories etc. During the process, the mind maps were swapped from pupil to pupil every two minutes and different scenarios jotted down. Each two minute session was given a genre, such as horror or science fiction, or a location, such as ‘at the seaside’.
A follow-up lesson the next day required pupils to suggest company names for the publisher of their books, along with a company motto / slogan. Once again, the work sheets were swapped around and pupils encouraged to add to, or suggest variations on, proposals already written down. Pupils will each produce a range of business stationery for the publishing house, along with business cards for one of the editors.
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video.Higher Graphics DTP Assignment
Posted by Krysia Smyth in Higher Graphics on November 7, 2009
For some years now our main DTP assignment on the course has been a two-fold A4 size leaflet. For examples follow these links -
http://www.royalhigh.edin.sch.uk/departments/departments/CDT/hgc_0809_leaflets.html
http://www.royalhigh.edin.sch.uk/departments/departments/CDT/hgc_leaflets_0304.html
This year, we’re considering a children’s story book(let). A possible format is 200mm square, printed double sided and stapled together. As well as the story, the centre spread might incorporate a ‘how a torch works’ technical diagram (utilising renderings and technical drawings created in Pro/Engineer).
We anticipate that our pupils will take photographs of each other using their ‘thematic’ objects (such as torches, shavers, kitchen gadgets etc) and then paint on top of the images in Gimp. The digital paintings will illustrate a simple story written by the pupil.
A sample page is posted below -
Jim
A sample page from a story book
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