The Mac Lab

Please refer to this page for important information.

If you’d rather skip directly to the page you’re looking for:
Students | Parents | Educators | Visitors | Tutorials

See, Hear, and Speak No Evil by Kyle R.

In the spirit of yesterday’s addition to the first longish post of summer, here’s something new by Isaac Molina. Well, it’s new in the sense that I wrestled it like an anaconda for the past two hours in order to generate a Vimeo-friendly version, matching the score to the length of the animation. (Isaac, either extend the music or put up with the slower version of your soundtrack.) It’s a sweet story animated with clever cinematic touches. Another senior comes through right at the end. Here’s the FLA if you’re interested in how it was created.

Yesterday, I’d already planned on featuring Isaac and an animation theme in today’s post but woke to these two comments. In response I’ll say that the new-post-every-week-or-so-with-hopefully-daily-updates format will continue for two reasons: I want to spend most of my time building up the rest of the site and there’s just not enough student art on hand to support daily posts. Remember, I’m locked out of the lab as construction continues for the next two months and my focus, as it should be, is on the incoming students. I love that you’re clamoring for more but the stats don’t lie. Some of you aren’t taking advantage of what I’ve been posting about. And that’s okay! You’re certainly not obligated to follow all the links. I’ll try to keep posting a variety of short, hopefully interesting info each day. I enjoy reading your comments and suggestions but please understand that the bulk of the daily additions are taking place deeper into the blog (especially here and soon here in a big way) and on our secondary sites like Vimeo, Behance, etc.

0616: Trinidad and Tobago & Sudan make 103. We passed 75,000 page views on Saturday (just noticed). I’ve been adding to Inspiration, Vimeo, and Behance. Tons left to add. You might want to check out the new Photography page (speaking of tons left to add). Look and learn to see the world differently when holding a camera. Also, here’s a video for our cat lovers out there (myself included). I’m heading out with my camera now. What (creatively speaking) are you doing today?

Corey et al., here’s some cool Photoshop brushes from Abduzeedo. More here and here (see Downloads Photoshop).

0617: Have been working on project ideas for the fall and am jazzed at the prospect of learning from the countless mistakes of last year and getting off to a much stronger start. Oh, it’s going to be a great year! The daily expansion of our online morgue file also continues. Amongst the cool stuff I’ve been adding to Inspiration, you might want to check out the latest Typo-Graphics.

Crazy Great Personal Challenge: Flying Mouse has challenged himself to create 365 designs in one year. Have you set any goals lately?

Welcome to the Mac Lab Blog Summer Edition. Rather than daily posts, I’m going to continue to add to this first one for a few days or even weeks to so to see how that works (Zack T). Yes, that’s not how blogs are supposed to work. Roll with it. Note: Zack added 33 layers and 26 masks to that original render. I wonder how many comments I’ll add to this post?

I ran across this open letter last Friday. Read it. Bookmark it. Read it again. Read the comments. Do you own a sketchbook? Yes? Use it. No? Get one and use it. Jot down or sketch out ideas as they occur to you. Carry a camera. Take pictures that capture or convey ideas. Snag images/articles from the Web. Continue to build your morgue file. Look at the Inspiration pages I’ve been building. They’re updated nearly every day so check back often. I’ll be adding more categories soon.

Just added our brand new Vimeo Mac Lab Channels. First there’s the Mac Lab Showcase for student work. Then there’s third-party examples: Stop Motion | Rotoscoping | Story Telling | 3D Animation | Motion Graphics | Kinetic Typography | Animation | and more to come! (These will grow in the weeks ahead.) When you happen upon worthwhile content for any of our online morgue files, add a comment to the blog and let everyone know.

0608: Speaking of the best Mac Lab artists, I forgot to tell you guys about our invitation to join the Behance Network. Quite the honor! I probably spent 20 hours there prior to requesting the invite (applying for inclusion) looking at fantastic artwork and getting ideas for next year. To have your work featured in our Behance portfolio is a step up from the Wall of Fame. Yes, I have much yet to add. Who will be next?

0609: As I keep putting more irons in the fire, I might as well come clean with an idea whose time has come. To be honest, Chris Jones, Mac Lab veteran and current Purdue Boilermaker tipped the scales with this comment. Another Chris (Dalton) got me thinking about this originally via an email exchange. We need a Mac Lab Hall of Fame™. Much of our current success is due to the veterans who first showed the way. Now, if I can just dig up enough old work to get this idea rolling…

0610 Randomness: Presidia Creative is giving away cash for an Intuos4 tablet. Details here. You can’t win if you don’t enter. I’ve been spending a lot of time adding content to the Inspiration page. There’s gold in them thar links! Here too. Remember this? See this. Think about it. You like to draw? So does he. Found that here/here but just saw him featured here as well. Good work travels fast. And if you like doing good work, check this to see if the work’s really for you.

0611: Worked on Inspiration from 3:00 to 8:00 this morning then had to clear out all day while our ultra-attractive acoustical ceilings were removed. Home sweet home smells funny but looks a lot better. The Elephant Odyssey at the Zoo is beautiful (lots of pics of textures and patterns — the tourists thought I was crazy) and Angels and Demons was pretty good. Kenya makes 99 countries. Oh, and speaking of stats, you guys are barely peeking at these links!

0612: District email is down for the third day in a row. I wonder who thinks I’m ignoring them? Three hours later: Ah, it came up for a few minutes before crashing again. Out of the 100+ emails I momentarily saw there was a confirmation that Mariner Software wants to collaborate with us next year via Contour, a story development system. This is good news. Remember how learning The Rule of Thirds wrecked movies for you? Then remember how it made them so much better to watch? That transformation is nothing compared to what Contour is going to do. But don’t worry. Most of you will never be interested enough to grasp the concept. Most of you won’t even watch these three videos all the way through: 01 | 02 | 03. Even fewer of you will stick with the writing. That’s okay, too. I figure two or three good writers is all the Mac Lab can support this year anyway. For those of you interested in story telling and willing to fight for the right to write, this is pure gold. Study those videos and start developing your ideas right now.

People from 100 Countries have Visited the Mac Lab Blog: Just 72 days after setting up Google Analytics, someone from Bandar Seri Begawan in The Sultanate of Brunei visited our little corner of the Web. I wonder what he or she thought. I’m getting good geography lessons! Other milestones here.

0613: Georgia (this one, not this one) makes 101. Sixty visitors from the state of Georgia have spent over two hours looking at over 120 pages and must have found something of interest. Our visitor from the country of Georgia immediately fled. Win some. Lose some. New Jersey (this one, not this one) remains our most prolific US visitor (outside of California): 470 visits, 42 cities, 1,000+ page views, 35+ hours on the site (4+ minutes per visit). Florida is number two: 424 visits, 53 cities, 900+ page views, 16+ hours on the site (2+ minutes per visit). California skews the results for everyone else: 12,390 visits, 145 cities, almost 66,000 page views, over 1,850 hours on the site (9+ minutes per visit). Worldwide, 37 countries average more than 1 minute per visit to the Mac Lab Blog. I find that stat the most astounding of all. I imagine it’s the student artwork that keeps them engaged since many probably don’t read English. After all, I visit Fubiz quite often and don’t bother with the translation unless I really want to read something. I found this there and loved it! Note: We’re going to be using stop motion for projects next year. Motion graphics will be part of the mix too. Oh, and are we going to push Photoshop in the fall! If it wasn’t for Fubiz, you’d never have gotten to see this or this (she’s quite the amazing model, don’t you think?) from Eric’s site.

0614: I am soooooo sore! Sue and I took Noël to see the Elephant Odyssey at the Zoo this morning then out for a late night at Boomers (dang, didn’t know about that promotion) with another dad/daughter team. Filled a 4GB CF card with texture/macro shots at the Zoo and got to the top of the climbing wall at Boomers. I think it was the wall that broke this old guy’s back. The kid in charge tried to talk me into the expert route. Yeah, right. Since a little girl was on easy, I opted for medium and was pretty happy to hit the button at the top. Cross that off the bucket list. About 20 minutes later I was having trouble getting down to take the golf ball out of the cup but still managed to play 18 without a cart.

I know, what’s this got to do with the Mac Lab? Well, number one is looking at new things, or looking at familiar things in new ways. Number two is trying new things, getting out of your comfort zone. While everyone else was looking at the elephants, I was looking at stuff like this. A woman came up and asked, What do you see in there? When I tried to explain about the pattern of the translucent material itself, she said, Oh, I thought I was missing something.

You see, I’ve got this crazy notion that you guys need to learn to take more interesting photos and also make richer backgrounds in Photoshop. This is one of those feeding two birds with one seed ideas. On top of that, we need to try new techniques to create richer imagery with Photoshop (feeding three little birds now?). I just played around with that photo for about 10 minutes and wound up with this by trying a few things I’d never tried before (mixed with some familiar techniques). Here’s the psd if you’re interested. (These are smaller. The original image is 19MB.) No, it’s not a work of art but it is a step in a new direction and that’s always good in a creative sense. On a whim, I just threw a few motion blurs and a light vibrance on it and… click (think background, not final image). We’re just getting started with this. And since we are, we’re going to need a new home for 500+ new video tutorials. Don’t get too excited. I haven’t even made the first one yet. But you know they’ll be coming… soon. And there’ll be way more than 500 by the time next June rolls around.

Big changes are coming to the Mac Lab! Stay tuned for more details.

Once again the kids in the Mac Lab blew away my expectations yesterday. During day one of finals, I saw some incredible work (Oscar H) on the big screen! But the presentations were cut short because about 80% of the students chose to ignore my very challenging instructions. Aughhh! I never expected that! (And I let the students know it.) Now I have a choice. Give 200 students a D- (or worse) on their final exam (based on the rubric) or cave yet again to give the lot of ‘em a final second chance. I think you know how I feel about the compromise I’m making. The last three days of school are completely shot. Gone is the celebration and you better heed this WARNING: If you’re one of the 200 and you’re not 100% plugged in and finishing what you should have started weeks ago, the D- (or worse) you earned for the final yesterday will be your lasting memory of the Mac Lab.

Recently, I admitted that I’m no Mr. Rogers but today I’m thinking that I should give it a try.

Hello, boys and girls, today we’re going to learn about following instructions. Can you say, Follow instructions? Good. Can you follow instructions? That’s good too because you know what happens to boys and girls who don’t follow instructions, don’t you? That’s right. They get bad grades. Can you say, Bad grade? Very good! And you don’t want to get bad grades, do you? No, I didn’t think so. Okay, now let’s sing a song…

Or you could just watch these step by step instructions THAT HAVE BEEN POSTED AND REQUIRED SINCE SPRING BREAK! Grrrr! The 10 Required Projects | The Generic Webpage | 00.html | Using the 00.html Page | Making the Links | The Structure of the Index Page | The Rubric Page | The Rubric Movie | Rubric Answers | The 5 Point Scale

Now, boys and girls, wasn’t that easy? I’m going to go outside now and beat my head against a wall. Have a nice day!

Visitor Update: Today our 15,000+ visitors have accounted for over 70,000 page views.

Wednesday/Thursday Note: As these are the last days of school, I’ll not be adding blog posts today or tomorrow so you can focus on your finals. I forgot to tell the students yesterday about the Digital Yearbook you may sign if you’d like. Forum regulars have set up different options. Enjoy your summer and always remember to Pay it Forward!

Every year I plead with the seniors to leave a legacy behind to inspire next year’s crew. In the Better Later than Never category, the winner is… Alex S. His Tie Fighter presentation (among others he’s recently created) will help me drive home the fact that students must learn multiple skill-sets if they are to shine in the Mac Lab and beyond. Thanks in part to these legacies, we can all look forward to a quantum leap in student achievement next year. But please remember to also look back in order to catch up on things you might have missed. Yesterday’s blog posts aren’t old news. There’s inspirational gold waiting there for you to (re)discover.

As I was sitting at home grubbing on pizza and garlic bread waiting for the Cinema 4D demo to finish downloading, I decided to come back and read up a few links I missed. The Integrity link in particular was thoroughly enjoyable and it’s a shame people may not backtrack to read up on it.
— Comment by Christian L

Wise words, Christian. It is a shame. Everyone, if you’re planning on a return trip to the Mac Lab next year, please check back periodically throughout the summer. The Students Page will give you a head start on what’s to change and what’s to be expected of you. I’ll be updating the Galleries, the Inspiration Pages, and making occasional blog posts. Like every prior year, we’ll be doing some things differently to improve the experience for all. There are some exciting opportunities ahead! (Read the comments there for additional details.)

The Mac Lab Needs Your Help: ROP is updating 31 of our computers next year. We need to raise $18,000 to purchase the remaining 14 to round out the lab. Mike and Rochelle Joplin (the kind family behind the Valhalla Foundation) have graciously offered to match the first $6,000 so we’ll be two-thirds of the way there once we raise the first $6k. You may donate directly to the Foundation (choose Mac Lab from the Booster menu) or via Pay Pal from this page. All donations are tax deductible and the tally will be kept on this page. Thank you in advance on behalf of the students who will be using these computers over the next three years.

New Visitors: Albania brings us to 98 countries. We also had our 15,000th visitor drop just a few minutes ago.

Yesterday a student told me that Dreamweaver was “broken” on his computer. You see, he’d been moved to a new computer and it turned out the only thing that was broken was his memory. He didn’t know how to define his site. And sadly, I know he’s not alone. If you’re one of those lost in space students, this movie should jog your memory (ignore the password.rtf file). Of course, you’ll probably also need directions to connect to the correct server. Better now? That some of you don’t know this tells me that I have to do a better job teaching the fundamentals next year.

It’s not just the kids who aren’t holding up their end of the academic deal who seem to have forgotten things either. Yesterday a student was weaving something (a key chain?) in class. When I asked what she was doing, she informed me that she was “finished” with her Website. Can you imagine how I reacted? Everyone, repeat after me.

Today is the last official day to work (Jake C). I’m going to begin grading your projects this weekend but I’ll tell you right now that any student who chooses to finish out the year flaunting the rules will pay an academic price. Yes, yearbooks were handed out yesterday. No, you may not exchange them in class today. Don’t even open it or it’ll end up in the VP’s office with the cell phones. You’ll have plenty of time in class next week to sign to your heart’s content. Today is the last official day to work, remember? So how ’bout we finish on a strong note? We’ll get through most of your final presentations on Monday so you’ll have plenty of time during our last two-hours for wrapping up personal affairs. Fair enough?

Yes, even though it’s a pain, I’ll let you make up time and work next week but the door closes on the day of your final. (I’ve got to stop being such a softie!)

Yes, I skipped the “F” reference in the title, and I sure wish you guys would, too. Giving grades is a pain in the assessment. It’s by far the worst part of my job. I’ve rigged the game so you’re guaranteed an A or B if you play by the rules but I’ve still got students choosing other grades for themselves. Hey, I’ve written over and over about how stupid I used to be. I guess some students feel the need to exercise their right to self-destruct, too. Talk about going in circles (David B).

Note: I would have said, Talk about stupid! but I’m not supposed to call students names.

Since we just had a peek at David’s disc design, I should confess that the printer is currently in malf-mode. I’ve got numerous lines in to tech support and hope to receive deliverance today so we can start printing your discs. The assignment still stands. I’ll be printing your jewel case sleeves every day from now on and will print the discs when/if the printer’s working. If I have to come in Saturday to get this done, I will, but there’s NO SATURDAY SCHOOL so don’t ask to come in. Sorry, but that’s the only way I’ll be able to get things done. Grades close tomorrow. Finals start Monday.

Be a busy bee. Finish strong.

For some fortunate students, the Mac Lab will be a fond memory. It may also be a stepping stone on their personal artistic journeys. Vocation or avocation, art will always be a part of life for some of you. Lauren C is such an individual. She is plugged in to her art and she’s worked as intensely as anyone I’ve ever seen on this piece. From the start I expressed my misgivings about the clash of artistic styles between the boys and their surroundings but to her credit she’s stuck to her vision. I’ll print this and let you be the judge. One thing I will say, without reservation, those boys represent some of the best line work (Illustrator) and shading (Photoshop) we’ve seen yet in the Mac Lab. Really a tour de force that Lauren should be proud of.

I’m seeing an ever-growing number of students who, at some point during the year, have discovered a palpable passion for art. For them, the class isn’t work, it’s a joyous adventure that others will never understand. I’ve tried to describe this but words really do fail. It’s something you have to discover for yourself. One of the tragedies of life is that there are people who walk through their days without ever touching their bliss. You need to discover what it is that you love to do. (Yes, need is the correct word.) Read the quotation at the end of this post and find a way to feed the real you.

CD/DVD + Jewel Case: Right-Click and download these Photoshop templates.

At 7:25 during the 19th and final Mac Lab Saturday School™ of the 08/09 school year, there were 55 students in the room. (The clock always reads 10:30, and if you’re counting, the others are out of frame behind the file cabinet, far right.) When I got here at 6:15, 27 students were waiting outside. (Kevin L and Atheer M were first in line at 5:40.) Thankfully, the incoming flow tapered off and “only” 65 kids showed up. Some had to wait a while but everyone got to work eventually. For some, it was just another day. For others…

Made an iFriend Sunday morning when jumping from here to here to here to here. Departing seniors continuing on with digital arts, you’ll want check out the second here for must-have Illustrator scripts and the fourth here for killer Illustrator sketching tips and a bonus, “Oh, that’s why Illustrator bogs down sometimes!” factoid. It’ll change the way you work (and the way the rest of us will work in the fall). Everyone, the third here is a wonderful read about doing the right thing. Find some time outside of class to read and ponder the implications in your own life. Returning veterans, Adam O’Hern, the author of those posts and reformed HiC heister, has offered to drop by the Mac Lab to share some of his artistic wisdom with us next year. (Anyone who puts Spitwad-Marksmanship on his resumé is okay in my book.)

Final Exam: There’s been a lot of angst about the CD/DVD portion of the final. Let’s put this to rest. The custom CD/DVD + Jewel Case is a Mac Lab Parting Gift™ and all you have to do is create something that you think is cool for full credit. I’ll print your jewel case insert and disc, you burn your files onto the disc, take the groovy souvenir home with you, and everyone’s happy. Get it?

Girls, read this sometime, heed the advice, and stay safe out there in the WWW!

Is that eye beautiful or what? Check out Andrea C’s alt self portrait WIP that references this and this and this but just like the others have done, Andrea takes it a step further. As for the eye, that’s a brand new idea that I absolutely love! Brand new unless one considers the ultra-cool triangular-based illustration Nicole C is working on. Since the girls are in different classes, I’m guessing neither knows what the other is presently working on. Besides, Andrea’s uses negative space along with overlapping translucent triangles that generate other polygonal shapes and whilst Nicole carefully maps adjacent triangles. You guys are so good it’s brain-numbing. You’ve all been part of the most creative group of artists ever to pass through the Mac Lab. Thanks for making this such an astonishing year. And considering the consistent, quantifiable, year by year leaps in student achievement, it’s awe inspiring to ponder what’s going to happen next year. Talk about exciting!

Finding oneself is more often associated with college than high school. Truth is, over the past seven years you’ve helped me to find out a lot more about who I really am. This is my second tour of duty in high school and there’s no comparison; I’m having a lot more fun this time around. The ABC’s of my initial high school experience were alcohol, bongs, and cutting class. That, btw, despite any cliché you may have heard to the contrary, is a good recipe for losing oneself and one’s future. It’s not a right of passage. It’s more like dancing along the edge of a cliff.

I’m not quite sure how I managed to graduate (2.46 GPA) but I do know that without a natural aptitude for passing tests I’d have never qualified for college. I spent five years there (1.91 GPA) spiraling into an ever-deeper drug-induced hole. I did manage to fall in love with a girl I met on September 19, 1976 (her first day at Cal Poly) and build a pretty impressive portfolio before leaving town with a broken heart and an empty wallet in 1978. The portfolio grew and kept me fed, housed, and medicated for the next decade or so. If not for a deep, abiding love of art and design, there’s no way I would have survived this journey into darkness. Art not only paid the bills, it gave me an alternate focus.

There were professional successes, personal failures, and an ever-present insatiable black hole at the center of my being. I’ve written here and elsewhere about synchronicity, but I don’t think you’ve ever understood that the only reason I’m still alive is that the author of this RPG, after slapping me around for a year or two to get my attention, reached out and showed me one way the game works. (Three years of round the clock meth can leave one slightly disconnected.)

I was telling my wife the other day that I can’t remember the last time I wanted to do drugs. She said that I was addicted to the Mac Lab now. Once an addict, always an addict. I laughed along with her, but she’s wrong. It’s not just the Mac Lab. I’m addicted to the RPG. I’m addicted to Life. I love the synchronicities. I love the flow of inspiration and intuition. And, as I’ve already told you, I love you guys and I love my job. My wife and daughter complete me. That Noël (class of ‘15) will be here in two+ years is exciting. That she’ll be following in her mother’s footsteps (class of ‘76 — Valhalla’s first graduating class) is beautiful symmetry. That her mother happens to be the very same girl whom I fell in love with all those years ago, proves that miracles do happen.

Find yourself (Kevin L). And if I may offer some advice… Skip the cliff dancing.

New Visitors: Armenia (97 countries)