MadTV Apple i-rack

Wordpress [Gallery/Contact Form] Plugin

I installed wordpress (contact form & photo gallery) by uploading it to plugins folder ..

Then I've activated it from Plugins management page..












I created an album & pasted the required code that will run the gallery in my page...






Here's the gallery with some uploaded images..
























the same thing for contact page, I've pasted the code in text area & updated my page ..






Contact page with all required fields..



















Testing "Contact form":


its working :)





















Resources:

http://alexrabe.boelinger.com/wordpress-plugins/nextgen-gallery/faq/
http://alexrabe.boelinger.com/forums/
http://dpotter.net/Technical/2008/03/nextgen-gallery-review-introduction/
http://ideasilo.wordpress.com/2008/03/29/contact-form-7-faq/
http://ideasilo.wordpress.com/2007/04/30/contact-form-7/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/contact-form-7/installation/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nextgen-gallery/faq/

Changing / Customizing Wordpress Theme

Now, my blog is ready to be customized. Luckily, Worpdpress has developed professional wordpress themes and provided efficient support of their templates that are free & ready to be installed and edited.
Wordpress themes directory:
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/
WordPress themes collections are with a graphical and textual preview available for each theme & Sorted in search feature as well.
------------------------------------------------
How to select a wordpress theme?
Using Themes ..
Wordpress Free themes
------------------------------------------------
After many research, I found a portfolio theme that is free to use.
Basically, To install a theme I need to upload the theme folder into my wp-content/themes directory. Once a theme is uploaded, I'll see it on Themes page.



(Presentation Theme Panel)

By clicking on theme title it will preview the theme to activate it. By confirming the selection should immediately become active.










My Wordpress portfolio theme
sorry for my spelling.. i took the screen shots earlier..
Edited theme:






























Final theme..

Experimental Development : Setting a Database & Installing Wordpress

Through out my research.. I found that most of the new e-portfolios are a blogs or dynamic websites that let the user update his entries easily ..
I decided to use wordpress as my blogging platform ..
Why Wordpress is now my Blog of Choice



Why Wordpress?



- WordPress is free & well known for its ease of installation.
- WordPress has a focus on usability and user-testing which many open source projects lack.
- It has a simple content management system, that allows the user to edit and create posts.
- Installing WordPress is a very simple process and takes less than five minutes to complete.
- Many web hosts now offer tools (e.g. Fantastico) to automatically install WordPress for you. However, I like to install WordPress myself..

Firstly, I have to interact with the database that I'm going to create, e.g. edit a configuration file, use an FTP client to upload the software, and then run through its quick online install process, before modifying WordPress to suit my needs.

1. Setting up a Database:

my web hosting accounts allow me to use cPanel, an easy to use interface that allows to quickly get to the important control areas of my website.

It allows me to easily add a database as well as a user for the database so that WordPress can run properly.


The steps you need to take in cPanel is to click on mySQL Databases icon,








and then adding a new database, adding a new user, and making sure the user to the database has a full permission to add and remove records.







WordPress stores all its information, and my blog posts in the database, and so it has to be able to connect to the database with full permissions.



























2. Uploading/Installing Wordpress & Editing the Config File:

I downloaded the latest version of Wordpress from (http://www.wordpress.org)
To tell WordPress which database to use when uploading it, I edited a file that comes with WordPress ( wp-config-sample.php). There's alot of ducomentation in the Wprdpress website that explain in details how to install Wordpress.
I renamed this to wp-config.php and changed a few lines. They have commented the code really nicely, so understanding what to change is relatively easy.
The things in red/lowercase are the ones I can change. For the first three items, I will input the information I used when creating my database. The last item, asks you what you want the tables in the database to be prefixed with. This allows me to install more than one WordPress blog in one database. I can keep it as its default.


Next,I uploaded the files to where I want to install WordPress. I created a sub-directory, a folder named “wordpress”.

For uploading my files, I use FileZilla.I input my details and connected to my directory. I then draged and droped all the files and folders and uploaded them to my hosting account.

Once all the files are uploaded, I browsed to where I put WordPress and go to /wp-admin/install.php. and it would bring WordPress’ install page.

I clicked on First Step, and it asked what I want my blog title to be as well as my current e-mail address.

Once I clicked submit, it brought me to the last page in the install process where it shows my temporary password to log into WordPress blog.

Wordpress default blog theme & content management system


















Resources:
http://www.wordpress.com
http://www.wordpress.org
http://www.zeldman.com/wordpress/

Work Based Learning at Middlesex University

Open Evenings take place at the Middlesex University Hendon campus on:

Wednesday 10th June 2009

Wednesday 15th July 2009

useful links:
WBL
Brochures & Information
students talk 1
students talk 2
FQA about distance learning
BA/BSc Work Based Learning Studies programmes

"My Digital Space" research + experimental development

Research:
http://www.shauncollings.com/

This website is a personal digital portfolio that contains a storyboards of all graphic motions.

The storyboards show the logo of clients that he worked with









This e-portfolio website lists all the designs in vertical way.. the client can navigate through by choosing the company name and click on the small blue arrows to see more images of the design.














http://www.graffe.co.nz/site.html

This flash based e-portfolio is designed very well ...
The client can over his mouse over any link to display the storyboard of the movie/graphic motion/ ident/ TV ad and he can click on it to watch it..

The designer divided his work depending on his year of work on that company...

As he put details of his displayed files such as:
-the size of the file ..
-the duration of the clip..


The purpose of E-portfolio:

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2002/11/the-electronic-portfolio-boom-whats-it-all-about.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_portfolio



How to design/create your E-portfolio:

http://electronicportfolios.org/portfolios/howto/index.html
http://eportfolios.googlepages.com/howto
http://www.teachnetuk.org.uk/2007%20Projects/CC-E_Portfolio/E_Portfolio/resources.html

"My Digital Space" project

research
experimental development
3variations of your concept
website:
http://www.omsamer.com/amal_design_studio/index.html
sitemap
CD containing the files
750 design evaluation of your personal portfolio

Rotoscoping

1. export the video (Frame rate to 15 per sec) as JPG sequence >> less frame rate= less papers to print
2. print the images as drafts (not in high quality print)
3. draw over the images
4. scan 'em or use ur digital cam to take the photo of each paper
5. use any software to put the images in sequence again & export it as a video ( i used sStopMotion)
6. the result:
watch it here

"When u become scared" scratchy movie

"When you become Scared" Scratchy movie from Amal FM on Vimeo.

This was my first video experiment last year using different simple techniques and equipments to produce a video of the outcomes for a theme "Thriller"
we used:
SLR camera
Black & White 35 mm film
photocopier
We used the images in a conjunction with the art box..
scanner
Photoshop to edit the images contrast
Sony Vegas to mix sound clips for the outcome

{ Blossom Moments }

Rotoscoping - iTV2 Ident

Rotoscoping - iTV2 Idents from Amal FM on Vimeo.

Here is one of my video experiments using the traditional rotoscoping technique..

i'll post my new video of making it soon inshallah..

Mobile Uploads {last 3 weeks}