February 2012
3 posts
5 tags
Polytechnicast - Moving Away from Google App...
In this episode of the Polytechnicast I share an overview of why I moved my comic to Google App Engine and how things evolved to considering moving away from that platform. I’m leaning toward moving to S3 or GitHub, using a static generated blog styled as a web comic approach. Then again, Tumblr is a pretty tempting option! Along the way I give an overview of why I chose a cloud computing...
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Polytechnicast - Hunting for and Interviewing with...
In this episode of the Polytechnicast I share thoughts on seeking a job doing what I love, serving a community I care about, using tools and methods I believe in, to engage in a fair and sustainable trade. Along the way I share observations on the process of job/contract hunting and some of the tools I find helpful. Links Mentioned Comic - Independent Voice (the first place I published my...
January 2012
14 posts
3 tags
Polytechnicast - Preparing and Topic Potpourri
In this episode of the Polytechnicast I have “preparing” on the mind. Working on a few projects simultaneously I find myself in the cycle of preparing, making, and finding useful connections between my projects quite often. In addition to “preparing”, this episode is also a bit of Topic Potpourri! Links Mentioned and Links That Came to Mind While Writing These Show Notes ...
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Principles of Perception, Design, and Comics
World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo. Filling in the gaps. Bobby McFerrin didn’t ask everyone to guess a sound - he started a pattern with one sound, then another, and another. The relationship between those sounds is design (the Pentatonic Scale), the audience participating to fill in the gaps...
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Polytechnicast - Service of a Game
In this episode of the Polytechnicast, I delve into some behind the scenes planning and development I do to support Guitar Fretter. Recently I received an email from an Android user who is rather good at the game. On her Android device once she gets past level 12 or so the game has problems. I share details on how I’ll tackle that issue, ponder the complexities of the Android market, future...
Lean Into Art Cast - Skill Set Overlap
I call it an “emergent topic”. We started with the intent to mention my recent talk for the Comic Artist’s Forum at the Ann Arbor District Library and the topic took a life of its own. Jerzy and I went with it to explore how building an audience for your creative work is similar to both event planning and connecting with your local art scene. Download MP3 Show Notes ...
“But over the past few months the conversations often distilled: His frustration...”
– “The Life-Changing Rightward-Facing $20 Cow,” Leigh Alexander, Kotaku. Wonderful #longread about Ian Bogost, the creator of Cow Clicker, a game which satirizes Facebook games like Farmville. I’m fascinated by what I think of as protest programming. (via lifeandcode)
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Polytechnicast - Jumping into Clojure with Special...
In this episode of the Polytechnicast I’m joined by special guest Craig Andera for a totally unscripted tutorial session on programming Clojure. Clojure happens to be Craig’s programming language of choice. Clojure is a very different coding experience for someone like me who’s into Lua, Python, JavaScript, and ActionScript. Before this podcast I hadn’t written a single line of Clojure - now I...
6 tags
Interactive Empathy as a Design Concern
Considering how interactions flow - whether in-person or in an app/web system with empathy as a focal concern. Posted via email from Blog of an Interactive Storyteller | Comment »
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TurboGrafx Cameo w/Game Design Workshop Notecards
Notecards are part of my iterative process. These notecards are from whittling and playing with the topics I’ll be covering in my upcoming game design workshop at Lean Into Art. It’ll cover part of what’s outlined here - enough to design and build a basic game in HTML5 and JavaScript. More news to come. As to the TurboGrafx (actually the portable TurboExpress in this case)...
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December 2011
6 posts
4 tags
Polytechnicast - Making Comics in Adobe...
(#comics, #adobe illustrator, #art process, #making comics) In this audio+video episode of the Polytechnicast I’m joined by special guest Javen Ackerman, creator of the comics The Winchcombe and Q Burger! In recent years, Javen has made Adobe Illustrator the main tool he uses to produce comics. We chat about his process and in the video you’ll see him demonstrate his techniques and get...
LIA Cast 16 - Cheating!
jerzydrozd:
New Lean Into Art Cast, where Rob Stenzinger and I share some of our favorite art cheats!
You can download and subscribe to the audio podcast here.
6 tags
Polytechnicast - Keep Moving
In this episode of the Polytechnicast is more art-journal than art-thesis. I share how I’m feeling good-yet-still-recovering from 30 classes in 30 days, some reflections on 30 Classes, and other November-timed art challenges. Links Mentioned 30 classes in 30 days Jerzy Drozd Krishna Sadasivam participated in 30 Characters Tyler James participant and founder of 30 Characters Creating...
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Character Silhouettes
More practice with making character silhouettes! I’ve become rather taken with this outer-shape approach of designing readable characters by establishing a strong silhouette. I’ve doing this via Sketchbook Pro, pencil & paper, and the iPad app Inkpad.
See the full gallery on Posterous
Instead of a long post, I captured my thoughts in this 10 min video via another iPad app:...
November 2011
8 posts
5 tags
Character Design Practice
This design is based on what I learned in Krishna Sadasivam’s Creating Crazy Characters class at Lean Into Art.More practice to come, this time I tried to do all the steps in Sketchbook Pro which led to some improvisation on the silhouette step. The characters silhouette step is a way to establish a character pose and outline that “reads clearly” showing key aspects of the...
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Thoughtful+Entertaining+Cartoon Illustration =...
Presented by Brad Colbow at last week’s M3 conference. Paging through this deck is rather entertaining - would have loved to have seen Brad present this live. I couldn’t agree with the core thesis more: to provide a good user experience, first you have to care. M3 colbow-v1 View more presentations from bcolbow Posted via email from Blog of an Interactive...
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UI and UX Commentary - Google+ Create-a-Page Final...
While using Google+ to setup a brand page for Lean Into Art - I noticed an interesting situation. The “finish/complete” screen tells me two things at once. First I see a message that I should know that I’m now using Google+ as a “page” user. Second, I see another message that I can announce my Google+ page - as my main user. A bit of conflict in those messages - which...
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Vash the Stampede - A Driven Metal Riff (Rhythm,...
If it’s been a while since I picked up my guitar, often I find a fun new riff or a new take on an old riff. If I happen to be recording, it helps me stay in the moment and not worry about losing the idea. I know from experience that if I stop myself part way through, connect my recording setup, then try to re-capture the idea it’s often already gone. A “creative energy...
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Songs for the Lean Into Art Podcast
Lean Into Art is an online art center/learning network I’ve been building this year with Jerzy Drozd. As part of the project we started a podcast called The Lean Into Art Cast which needed an intro and outro song. Looking back at the official intro song it feels as if I was channeling the up-beat let’s-go-kick-some-monster-butt feeling of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer theme. ...
@Jerzy Ran the @AdobeConnect "meeting connection...
via TweetDeck Posted via email from Blog of an Interactive Storyteller | Comment »
All Setup at Minneapolis Indie Xpo!
Posted via email from Blog of an Interactive Storyteller | Comment »
October 2011
6 posts
9 tags
Polytechnicast - Jonathan Rector on Exploring...
In this episode of the Polytechnicast I’m joined by comic artist Jonathan Rector. We chat about his recent delving into Manga Studio, how he used it for his 24 Hour Comic, what it’s like when you’re coming from an Adobe Photoshop background, and about using only digital tools to make comics. Links Mentioned Jonathan Rector on Twitter Scribbles With Jonathan - LIVE! and Scribbles With...
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Polytechnicast - Manga Studio First Impressions
In this episode I reflect on my first few weeks of using of Manga Studio. Adobe Photoshop Manga Studio Bizarro Krishna Sadasivam of PC Weenies Jonathan Rector Bryon Wilkins Web Comic Alliance - Getting Started With Manga Studio Rob’s 10 Finished Pages on 24 Hour Comic Day, All in Manga Studio Google Sketchup Export Sketchup to Obj (normally a Pro feature, this is a Ruby script...
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Lean Into Art - LIA Cast 08 - Participatory...
Can a podcast episode about artistic self determination and participatory culture be interesting? How can it not be? That kind of topic exploration is developing into a pattern for our show. The Lean Into Art podcast is only 8 episodes along. However, in a way, that’s 8 iterations. Each episode Jerzy Drozd and I are both building off what we think was working from the prior eposides and...
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Polytechnicast - High Adventure Crossover with...
In this episode I’m joined by illustrator, musician, and teaching artist Kevin Cross. We discuss various aspects of making art for the all ages market. We ponder what styles and stories tend to reach all ages markets and which presents multiple challenges as a creator. Also: how to face the doubt that some parents have when some things seem on-the-surface not as kid friendly while those same...
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Three Starting Points for Learning to Code
lifeandcode:
Hackety Hack — Suitable for kids as well as adults, a program that contains a built-in programming environment with embedded lessons
CodeAcademy — learn to code without anything but a browser.
The EPIC HOWTO — Coding for Journalists and Other Busy People
September 2011
11 posts
4 tags
@micahgoulart I know it's speculation, but I can...
via TweetDeck Posted via email from Blog of an Interactive Storyteller | Comment »
9 tags
Polytechnicast - Expanding My Workshop Repertoire
In this episode, I share my work in progress plans on adding 6 more art/code/comics/UI workshops (in a fairly short timeframe) to my 3 workshop repertoire. Links Mentioned Lean Into Art and 30 Classes in 30 Days Storytelling to Make Your Comic’s UI Awesome Comics Are Great by Jerzy Drozd Turning Jokes into Comics: Laughing Yeti Monkey Spaghetti Intervention Con Follow Rob on Twitter...
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So Many Tabs - A Screenshot Comic
Believe it or not, Chrome didn’t bog-down or crash. Not even an aw-snap and I had > 60 tabs open. It’s a fair question to wonder why would any sane person need so many open tabs. I was taking a break and catching up on all the show notes links posted with the incredible Back to Work podcast series. Subscribe to it. You’ll high five me later if you’re not...
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Lean Into Art - Workshop Schedule Filling Up!
We’re beginning to fill November’s calendar for the big 30 Classes in 30 Days event! Here are some of the great workshops you’ll get by signing up: Comics Fundamentals with Jerzy Drozd A four-part series of workshops taking you from blank page to a developed comics story. Creating Crazy Characters! with Krishna Sadasivam A four-part series of workshops where you’ll...
News! Intervention, Comics Are Great, and Lean... →
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Polytechnicast - Building on a Hunch
In this episode I reflect on how I started out making an experiment in HTML, CSS, JS, and jQuery just out of curiosity. I was wondering if it would feel fun to have a gallery style User Interface for browsing the art posted at 30 Characters. Also: How much time and effort it would take? With a little time and curiosity I set out both to see if it was feasible or if it’d be a giant project in...
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August 2011
6 posts
10 tags
Polytechnicast - Lean Into Art Announcement and...
In this episode I share the news of that “secret project” I’ve been working on most all of 2011. It’s Lean Into Art! I also share a bit about the tech we’re using to launch this virtual center of learning visual and interactive arts. Links Mentioned Lean Into Art The Big LIA Podcast Feed (LIA, Thunder Punch Daily, Polytechnicast, Fabulous Secrets) Art & Story Mark Rudolph Kevin...
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Polytechnicast - Code Sketching for Artists and...
In this episode I discuss how I believe code isn’t just for people with a computer-science background and that no matter your background it can be helpful to draft your code by sketching it out. Links Mentioned and Useful Resources Rob’s random-sort jQuery plugin at Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Coding languages/environments mentioned (though there are many, many more worth checking...