Project 7: Timetoast.com

This is my final posting for my digital storytelling class. I wanted to create a collage of the six projects I have worked on this semester but most of the collage sites were really slideshow style software and I’ve worked on enough of those this semester. Then I found the site timetoast.com. This site allowed me to create a timeline of my projects with pictures and direct links to my blog pages where the projects are shown. The site was very easy to use. You pick a date range and then choose specific dates and use URL’s and uploaded images to create a digital timeline. I love the way that with web 2.0 tools the user is allowed to share information in a linear way and then a viewer can click for more details. It takes the timelines from a two dimensional linear world to a multi-dimensional sharing experience. The timetoast.com site could be used very effectively for a business production schedule with the shared timeline feature that could have clickable projects and further agenda items. The view can also change from timeline to list which is very handy for quickly viewing agenda items.

I have loved using this blog as a notebook for telling digital versions of my original short essay/story “Bedtime at the Bears”. I specifically enjoyed the use of zooburst.com and toondoo.com. The site Bubblr.com was not my favorite because none of the photographs were mine. I don’t think that project really came to together as something cohesive.

The ability to use web 2.0 tools to create digital stories is amazing to me. I have always meshed text with graphics but only with offline software like Photoshop Elements. I never knew all these tools existed and I am grateful for a class schedule that forced me to take the time to explore them.

Click here to view the project:
www.timetoast.com/timelines/100711

Project 6: PicLits

PicLits.com is a great site for those who love playing around with words. You can chose a picture and then a group of nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs and universal words appear that you can add to your chosen picture. There are not a lot of words to choose from, but that is what makes the project fun. When you chose a word you can click and drag it anywhere on the picture. I chose all the words that felt important to the meaning I was trying to convey and just put them on the picture. I then played around with the word order til a little bit of prose appeared that said what I wished it to say.

The using of pic lit allowed me to tell my “Bedtime at the Bears” from a different perspective, with one slide and one sentence. I attempted to boil the meaning of the story to me down into one slide. I am an atheist and talking to my daughter about god was a difficult conversation. She is so young. I don’t wish to actually tell her there is no god; on her path she might find one or two! I hope that she explores faith and the purpose of religion on her path, but I don’t want my personal beliefs to influence her one way or the other. We each have a unique spiritual path, and hers is still out there to be discovered.


click here for a link to my project:
http://www.piclits.com/viewpoem.aspx?PoemId=77504

Project 5: Bubblr

 

For this module I started out using a Google video creation site called Google Search Stories Video Creator. An ad for them ran during the Super Bowl of 2009 that told a story just by watching what a man in a long distance relationship with someone in Paris Googled. It showed him asking advice on line, and then booking an airline, finding a French pastry shop and a crib for a new baby. And they lived happily ever after was the theme.  I used my concept of a child asking questions about “where babies come from” and “what is god” in the Google Stories Video Creator, but needless to say, after every attempt to get it to create the final project; it told me there was an error. Part of technology right?

So back to the drawing board. Luckily there are more sites to create digital stories than I will ever get to even view during this course. So this time I went with a site called Bubblr that works with flickr images and word bubbles. I used the dialogue from my “Bedtime at the Bears” story and pictures from flickr. It was a creative project that was kind of random. I would type in a word from the dialogue or a word that represented the idea of the dialogue and see what pictures the site brought to me. I chose pictures that had a feeling about what I was trying to convey in the story rather than literal images. I like the way that there is a surreal kind of feel to the finished piece. It might be too abstract to be understood by anyone but me. But the images do represent my feelings about the text and maybe those feelings will show through.

"We All Come From Seeds"
click link to view project
http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/?id=26392

Project 4: Zimmer Twins Movie Making

For this project I explored a children’s movie making site called Zimmer Twins (http://www.zimmertwins.com/). It was wonderfully simple to use. Most of the sites I have used for this blog have had quite a bit of a learning curve. Time was spent figuring out where all the buttons were and what the site is capable of. Zimmer Twins did not have this learning curve. You could jump right in and start creating. Because it is geared toward children, it was simple and intuitive and yet still gave me wonderful options to tell my story with.

It is a well created story telling medium. You can chose to continue a story already started, or you can create your own movie from scratch, like I did. There are three main characters to use in the movie: a boy, a girl or a cat. There are then the options of dialogue, options for action and options for facial expressions that you chose for the three characters. Fifteen choices in background settings also accompany the movie. This is not just a slide show skit of comic characters, but an actual cartoon with movement when you are finished. There are small sound effects that accompany different scenes but not sounds that you can chose to add by choice.

Creating a username and password allows you to save the movie to the site for free, but only other members of the site can view your project then. You can upgrade to a Paid membership, but that is not what I wish to do for one project. Jing allowed me to view and save the video project but the sound does not translate into the video.This site is controlled creativity. As long as you have an idea for your story, you could make the characters, text and scenes do almost anything to fit that need. I see the site best used for creative, comic entertainment. It's fun!

Project 3: Audacity audio experiment

Audacity is a free audio recording software you can download on to your computer. There are tons of features that can be used to tweak the audio recordings. You can cut and paste different audio pieces in to a master project and then adjust timing and effects. (Let me just say that having a 4 year old attempt to help you in telling an audio story is a tricky experiment all on its own and being able to cut and paste different audio tracks was verrrry important.)

My concept was to continue to work on the digital story about my daughters actual conversation one night before bed. I've worked with cartoons, created an online pop up book and now an audio representation of that story. This is my first attempt at audio recordings and I am definitely an amateur, but I worked really hard exploring what the possibilities of audacity were. The finished product is not ideal but I consider this blog a notebook of me exploring different tools to tell digital stories with. There is still a lot for me to learn with audio tools for sure. The project has  fading in and out problems with the voices and static in one section that I just could not get to go away. I recorded each sentence many, many times and finally just chose the ones that were the best and stitched them together.

Time is up on me working on this particular tool. Time to paste what I have, my work in progress, and move on to the next tool.

Original Written Story Script for Bedtime at the Bears

Baby Bear’s room was dark, except for the soft candle nightlight. The nightlight outlined on the wall the shadows of Momma Bear and Baby Bear practicing their nightly yoga postures.

“Momma are you done growing?” Baby Bear said. Momma Bear placed her hand over her own head and went into tree pose and the tall shadow Momma Bear did the same. Then Baby Bear placed her hand over her short head and sure enough the shadow Baby Bear copied her movements too.

“Yep.” Momma said with a chuckle. “I’m as big as I’m gonna get” Momma Bear bent down and touched her toes and the shadow Momma did the same, “We all start from little seeds and little eggs…”

“I wasn’t a seed! I was a baby.” Baby Bear said confidently as she reached down and grabbed her own toes.

“Yes but first you were a seed from Papa Bear and an egg from Momma Bear. Then you grew and grew like a tree.”

“Grandma Bear and Grandpa Bear did not come from seeds though.” Baby bear said as she stretched out of tree pose and practiced cobra pose on the floor.

“They came from seeds too, love. We all did.”

“Well who took care of the first seeds?” Baby Bear asked as she slid up into downward dog position.

“Baby bear. That is a very good question. No one knows who took care of the first seeds. Some people call it God…”

“But God does not have a face or a shirt!” Baby Bear interrupted.

Momma Bear laughed and stretched for the sky. “No one really knows who or what god is. God is another name for what we don’t know. For the mystery things in life that we can’t explain.”

Baby Bear started to cough and bounced up over her stuffed animals into her bed. “Can I have a drink, Momma Bear? And one more kiss and snuggle too?”

“Yes Baby Bear. Then it is time for sleep…”

Momma Bear left the room and smiled. All one really needs is a kiss and a snuggle, and maybe some warm tea with honey, to make the mysteries of the universe seem down right comfy cozy.

Project 2: A young mind questions... (using zooburst.com)

For this project I practiced using the website zooburst.com. It is a site that creates pop-up versions of books for online use. Some people within the gallery had used them as trip journals, uploading personal photo’s and narration. I chose to continue exploring different ways to tell my story Bedtime at the Bears.

The zooburst.com final product is highly interactive allowing the viewer to rotate the page and view it from different perspectives. Using a webcam the viewer can actually become part of the images that they are viewing. The story can progress like a physical book with text at the bottom of the page and illustrations above the text, like I chose to do; or it can be used with more interactivity with sound bites or text bubbles appearing when different items on the page are clicked.

The pluses of this program are that I have never seen anything like it before, it is relatively simplistic to use, and the ability to add narrative in concise little clicked areas is unique. One of the drawbacks of the program is that there is no “search all” ability when you are searching for stock images to add. I happened to type in the color silver in the search box and that is how I found preformed letters to add to the project.

Perhaps I’ll go back and add narrative voice at a later date.

To view the pop up book online:

http://www.zooburst.com/book/4cabef481ba69

Project 1: Bedtime at The Bears (using comic panels from Toondoo.com and Pixton.com)

Bedtime At The Bears

Baby Bear’s room was dark, except for the soft candle nightlight. The nightlight outlined on the wall the shadows of Momma Bear and Baby Bear practicing their nightly yoga postures.

“Momma are you done growing?” Baby Bear said. Momma Bear placed her hand over her own head and went into tree pose and the tall shadow Momma Bear did the same. Then Baby Bear placed her hand over her short head and sure enough the shadow Baby Bear copied her movements too.

“Yep.” Momma said with a chuckle. “I’m as big as I’m gonna get” Momma Bear bent down and touched her toes and the shadow Momma did the same, “We all start from little seeds and little eggs…”

“I wasn’t a seed! I was a baby.” Baby Bear said confidently as she reached down and grabbed her own toes.

“Yes but first you were a seed from Papa Bear and an egg from Momma Bear. Then you grew and grew like a tree.”

“Grandma Bear and Grandpa Bear did not come from seeds though.” Baby bear said as she stretched out of tree pose and practiced cobra pose on the floor.

“They came from seeds too, love. We all did.”

“Well who took care of the first seeds?” Baby Bear asked as she slid up into downward dog position.

“Baby bear. That is a very good question. No one knows who took care of the first seeds. Some people call it God…”

“But God does not have a face or a shirt!” Baby Bear interrupted.

Momma Bear laughed and stretched for the sky. “No one really knows who or what god is. God is another name for what we don’t know. For the mystery things in life that we can’t explain.”

Baby Bear started to cough and bounced up over her stuffed animals into her bed. “Can I have a drink, Momma Bear? And one more kiss and snuggle too?”

“Yes Baby Bear. Then it is time for sleep…”

Momma Bear left the room and smiled. All one really needs is a kiss and a snuggle, and maybe some warm tea with honey, to make the mysteries of the universe seem down right comfy cozy.