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

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.

Something interesting happened yesterday. Look at this. That’s where our visitors came from: 680 624 visits (Google’s numbers have changed since this morning) from 46 countries and 30 states. Our average isn’t plotted on GA but it seems to be in the teens most days. Unique visitors jumped from our high of 295 to 556 511 (see Visitors right here for a UV explanation). Our bounce rate (visitors who leave after viewing one page) went up to 53 47.6% from an average of 35% but that’s not too bad considering the unique visitor spike. We may have picked up a few new readers in those 2,371 2,443 page views. (Why did those change?)

So, you might ask, Why/how did it happen? Before I answer, I want to remind you about the opportunities the Mac Lab presents for you. The old 1.0 site still has loads of fans due to these. The blog is too new to have such a following but it’s taken off far faster than I ever imagined. When I fold in hundreds of new video tutorials, as I will in the fall, our readership will begin to expand. The larger our base, the greater the opportunity for you to make your mark. Yes, this is about you! One day a student project will go viral. On that day, a career will be launched, a life will be changed, and a dream will come true. I’ve explained all this in class as well as right here but, if you’ll excuse the pun, it’s the after-effects that’ll blow our lab right into another dimension.

If you want to understand, you really do have to read this first. Do you see what I’m getting at? Doing anything the first time is hard. Repeating the feat is always easier. Every year I raise the bar in here. I can get away with that — raising expectations each and every year — because of the fantastic work you do. You see, it’s not really me raising the bar, it’s you. And once a kid or group of kids hits one WAY outta the park, it’ll be easier for the next person/group to do so. Once that first viral project happens, we can expect it to happen again. Kids will believe that careers can be made in the Mac Lab because it’s happened before.* As Virgil said: They can because they think they can. With a small but growing audience, we have a built-in advantage for you to make your mark. Solitude, as good as it is, will have company next year. When we talk about the best projects ever, there’s going to be debate rather than consensus.

*FYI: Many students have gone on to careers in media arts after their Mac Lab days. It’s the “instant sensation” phenomena I’m referring to.

This blog is a grain of sand on Internet Beach. Yesterday we had our 10,000th visitor (since we began using GA on April 3). Oh, and the reason for our spike in visitors yesterday? I posted a comment about Jeff P’s Dark Knight Poster on Abduzeedo and 231 people clicked the link I left behind. I didn’t post the comment to drive traffic; I did it simply because it was relevant. Fishing for traffic leads to short-term gains and long-term losses in credibility. You build traffic with content. That’s how the Internet works. The better our content, the higher the traffic. Since you, the artists in the Mac Lab, keep providing exciting work (like Carlos A’s alternate self portrait), I can keep posting new content each day. Together, we’re building a world-class resource for the classroom of the future.

New Visitors: Cyprus, El Salvador, Ireland, Luxembourg (86 countries) Montana (47 states + D.C.)

You’re never finished in the Mac Lab! The motto I invented to rid the room of idlers (or at least that was the idea at the time) and a truism in the artist’s world. Oh, many will disagree, but I’ll tell you what defines done in the so-called real world: DEADLINES.

It’s an uphill battle trying to convince students that good enough is a vulgarity rather than a standard. Push your work! Make it better! The year’s almost over! (Yes! some students exclaim.) And here we are facing another deadline: THE DISTRICT ART SHOW.

So, Sarah S had to “finish” her poster. (The original and the reasoning behind the words she chose may be found here.) I told her I’d like to submit it in the commercial art category but the background needed to be richer, something to evoke Africa’s metaphoric and all too real parched landscape. Sarah set out with her usual diligence (a few teenage grumbles thrown in to remind me who the boss of Sarah is). After a few days and a few back and forth exchanges, we printed something that was a vast improvement over the original. Sarah was happy. Finished! Done! You know, Sarah, I said. Skockooooo! she replied, knowing I was going to push her again. To make a long story short, here’s the progression. Is it finished? It is as far as the art show is concerned but there’s nothing to prevent Sarah from returning to this in the future to move it closer to perfection.

As an aside, I woke this morning to an incredible coincidence (and you know how I love those). Michael Werner posted something on the forum last night that foreshadowed this post. (But since I decided to write Sarah’s story yesterday, it’s hard to say who really foreshadowed whom.) I created a new forum on our board, moved his topic to The Artist’s Corner, and deleted the original topic. Luckily, not trusting my noob knowledge of the board’s functioning, I copied Michael’s post before unintentionally deleting all traces of its existence. I’d link to his punchline (which still exists) but I don’t want to spoil his surprise. Once he wakes and patches the hole I made, you’ll find his amazing story right here (done).

Now, look at your own work again. Since I know most of you won’t, I’ll say it in my teacher’s voice: LOOK AT YOUR OWN WORK AGAIN! RIGHT NOW. I MEAN IT! LOOK AT IT. NOW! Okay, now that I have your attention, I have one question for you…

Is it finished?

Balend pushed way back when and thanks to his most recent push I’m able to knowingly welcome readers of Scott Kelby’s blog who’ve begun to drop by because of a comment I made regarding yesterday’s guest posting by Tomasz Opasinski. One telling fact about the comments Tomasz generated from Scott’s readers is told in the numbers.* You see, Tom’s gotten fewer comments so far than the typical guest does and I’ll tell you why. Just as I’ve made some of you uncomfortable with my call to take responsibility for your own education (check from here down for the real scoop) and my persistent demand that you experiment, so did Tom with his challenge to Scott’s readers. Read what he has to say if you don’t believe me. And read some of the comments. Quite illuminating!

Hey, I’ve got nothing against tutorials. I not only use them, I’ve recorded over 3,000, have begun incorporating them into the blog, and will soon be using the forum as another vehicle to deliver tuts. But, and this is a really BIG BUT, as it says right here: the last thing I want you to do is to follow a step-by-step tutorial, produce the exact same image that the tutorial’s author created, then call it your own. The tutorial is just the starting point…

Before I forget, I want to explain one thing to our visitors. All of the art on this site (except here) is student-generated. Explore the blog and click thumbnails for a better look at the kids’ amazing work. Try the galleries for more examples. Now, back to our regularly scheduled program…

Today’s image is brought to you by Steven Moyer (note the page’s title). Steven is one of those kids who might have slipped away had I not pounded on him week after week. (As you know, I can be quite relentless.) When he finally hit his stride (two months before graduation), he conceived and pulled off the greatest collaborative project yet in the Mac Lab (play it loud). Here’s the interviews if you haven’t seen ‘em already. Coming back next year? Think big! (More on Adam Lee, Steve’s cinematographer here and here.)

*It should be noted that Tom’s post includes a time-released component. Some readers won’t get it until the words sink in. I remember a kid dropping by the Mac Lab a year after he graduated. He walked in, shook my hand, and thanked me. I said, For what? You never did anything in here! He said, I get it now. I’m going to Platt College and I’m loving it. Since then, I’ve never forgotten that some students may not understand while they’re here, but may in some tomorrow they’ve yet to experience. And that’s another reason I keep trying so hard to reach those Pinocchios.

P.S. Congrats to Andrea C. She’s our second scholarship winner in the past two days. Remember: You can’t win if you don’t enter!™

There’s only so many battles a teacher can fight and hope to win. My students know that one of my crusades is to rid the world (or at least the Mac Lab) of the improper use of the work “like” as in, “Like, I mean, that’s, like so lame.” or “I mean, like, that’s so, like, lame.” It may not be peace in the Middle East but at least it’ll help these kids have a better chance at getting a job. Every year I have a number of students who thank me for the upswing in their communication skills but they always add, “Now that I hear it (the word ‘like’) my friends are driving me crazy!” Ah, such is the price of progress.

Speaking of progress, Aaron L has come so far in the past few months that it’s hard to describe, so I’ll show you instead. I’d like to show you a big, juicy picture but for some reason he gave me this tiny, little render. How, you might ask, after squinting to see the details, did Aaron get so good? Well, he comes in nearly every morning before school and diligently works at acquiring new skills via the tutorials that I’ve asked all of you to follow. (Yes, I’ve suggested to Aaron that he replace the message on the paper so don’t give him grief about that.)

As for the choice of Aaron’s picture today… This blog is like a kitchen table we gather around for sustenance and conversation. Today’s menu includes another requirement for the final: a capstone project. I want you to create a single composition that shows how much you’ve learned this year. 3D Artists: I’d suggest you follow Aaron’s lead and present an HDRI render of your best models arranged in a creative setting. Digital Artists: This will require more thought but I’d suggest you begin here for inspiration. Hybrid 3D/Digital Artists: think about how to show off your skill sets. Everyone: Look for inspiration and work in RGB at print resolution. Maximum size is 17″ x 22″ at 360 ppi. You may work at a different aspect ratio but one dimension must be at least 20″ and all work must be submitted at 360 ppi (a smaller version will be posted to your Website). Naming conventions and other details for submissions will follow in a separate post.

Got the girls to the airport for their mono-gender, multi-generational (mother-in-law, wife, daughter) vacation to Virginia so for the next five days it’s just you, me, the cats, and the honey-do list. Removing and rebuilding the stairs running up our hillside is going to eat up most of the week so I better get started… with the blog. (Hey, it’s still dark outside so it’s not like I could get anything done out there yet.)

Evee A is reworking this poster but I’m using it anyway because it’s the perfect message for what the Mac Lab is all about. We create artistic imagery. If you think about it, there’s the potential for artistry in virtually any undertaking, even rebuilding stairs. Like I’ve told you before, it all depends on our own personal perspective. I have a choice. I can view the stairs as an onerous task or as an opportunity to do something creative. Let’s see, do I want to dread it or have fun with it? Tough choice, eh? It’s kinda like the requirements for your final. You have a choice, love it or hate it. What’s it going to be?

So, for today’s requirement, I’ll just make it short and sweet. We’re going to create a shortcut page for our Websites. Repeat the steps in this movie and you’re on your way to an A.

And while we’re talking about artistic imagery and the creation of wonderful things, I should mention that I began building an “Inspiration” section of the blog yesterday (links at the top of the page and to the right). Think of it as a visual version of Grand Central Linkage, kind of a community morgue file. I’m going to limit the imagery in the Inspiration galleries to examples that are within our creative grasp. (Yes, I expect you to be able to approach and/or exceed the artistry in these images). If you want to submit third-party imagery for inclusion in these galleries, email the info (be sure to include a link to the artist’s page).

While I’m on the topic of oversights, I’d be remiss in not addressing the April Fool’s Day joke being played on some folk when the Conficker worm does its thing tomorrow. What that thing is, and how many people will find out first hand (Cat S), is yet to be determined with any certainty. Google News lists 4,000+ stories published about said worm. This cnet story says, “A quick way to tell if your computer is infected is to try to access the Web site of a major antivirus vendor, which the worm blocks” but I have no idea if that’s a foolproof method of checking.

If you have a PC and have not taken any precautions, Microsoft has details here and here. See the “Manual steps to remove the Conficker.b variant” in the first link for specific information. You may want to speak to someone wiser than I about this as I’m pretty clueless about protecting oneself in the Windows world. Mac Users are not at risk from this worm unless you run Windows as well as OS X. (This is NOT bait for the Mac/PC debate which was outlawed in right here so don’t even try to post inflammatory comments.)

As always, make sure your OS/security patches and antivirus software is up to date. See the vendors’ sites for the latest information.

Spring Break is right around the corner and I know many of you will be suffering from horrible withdrawal symptoms. To ease the pain and anxiety associated with going off the Mac Lab cold turkey for two weeks, might I suggest Adobe’s wonderful software trials? Rather than simply downloading the Master Collection, why not just try a program or two at first? Since the software times out after 30 days, it makes more sense to download only what you’ll be able to use over the next month, yes? Think about how delicious (Steven M) that would be! 3D students may also download the Cinema 4D trial.

If you plan on purchasing the software, use an academic reseller and consider buying one of Adobe’s collections rather than individual programs to save money. Here’s one example of collection pricing. Even better pricing can be had through Cuyamaca or Grossmont Colleges. C4D is also available.

While we’re talking about purchases, Wacom just release their newest graphics tablet at Photoshop World. For a real treat watch this promo for the product. It moves the creative spirit in me and both Scott Kelby and John Nack are raving about it, and for good reason. The folks at Wacom hit one outta the park. What an artist’s tool! I’ve already begun searching for grant money to put one of these at each computer next year. As for Photoshop World/Vegas in September… I took 5 kids to the one in San Diego in 2002 but it’s only been in San Francisco and Las Vegas (the permanent West Coast location now) since then. I’ve gone alone every year except the last one (because we hadn’t landed CS4 yet). It’s an unbelievable experience, learning from the best of the best, and I wish I could take a few choice students in September. But chaperoning kids in Vegas?! That’s too scary to contemplate. Well, almost too scary. We’ll see.

How many times have I gone on my do the right thing rant this year? As I pose that question to you, I can hear Dumbledore’s challenge to Harry in my mind: We must choose between doing what is right, and doing what is easy. Today, more than ever, those words ring true with a capital T. Humanity’s at a cusp and much depends on each of us choosing to do what is right.

I can almost hear your eyeballs rolling, but it’s true. Little things matter. Call it the butterfly effect or say it’s for want of a nail but in the end, it’ll be the cumulative effect of a million, million little things that saves the day, or doesn’t. It all depends on you and your choices. What you do or don’t do actually makes a difference.

Over the weekend I wound up smack in the middle of an ethical dilemma. To make a long story short, I found out that a few Valhalla students were engaged in intellectual property theft. Since these kids had never been enrolled in any of my classes it would have been much easier to turn a blind eye and simply relax on my one day off (we had 5 Hours of Fun™ on Saturday). Instead, I entered the fray and issued a few challenges. These young entrepreneurs now understand and honor the concept of intellectual property and stand a much better chance of achieving success the right way.

After all that, today’s assignment, believe it or not, is to learn how to steal. Just like there’s a right and wrong way to skate (Brian H) in public, there’s a right way to “steal” what you already own.