Google Drive update

New from the Google Drive team ... you can now upload folders from your desktop to Google Drive ... yay! This is soooo much better than the previous file by file upload.
Thanks Google!
Follow the Google Apps blog here if you don't already.

Pinnacle for iPad

Another tool I've just had the good luck to test is the new Pinnacle Studio app from Corel. I've done a bit of video editing on my iPad using iMovie, but I have to admit that I found using Pinnacle really easy.

Try it - at the moment it is free on the App store.

ClassDojo goes to the App store

Another welcome addition to the App store for me is the ClassDojo app. I've been using ClassDojo for a couple of terms now with a Year 9 class. They love it. They hate seeing the red negative numbers (and I only use it for no homework - it's the secondary school teacher in me). They love the green numbers.

If you've got an iPhone or iPad - use it. If you've got an Apple TV too, then showing the class their page each day is worth doing!

Mobile Editing of Google Apps

At last! I have just updated Google Drive on my iPad. And yes - what they say in the blog post at google is true!

Updates for iOS
Starting today, if you’re using the Drive app on your iOS device you can also edit Google documents, just as you can with the Android app. From your iPhone or iPad, you can create a new document, edit an existing one or format text. And just like on your computer, you’ll be able to see other people’s edits instantly as they’re made.

So, while I would have liked to have seen this functionality many moons ago - I am happy from what I have seen tonite that I look forward to seeing our students with iPads get shot of a couple of other applications that they have been using that they now don't need!!!

Thanks, Google. Seriously!

Motion Capture and Animation with Year 10 Students

Over recent weeks some of my students have been exploring the realms of motion capture and animation - the sort of stuff that makes some of the special effects in Avatar so cool. If you are not too sure what motion capture (or MoCap) is - then this might try and explain it a little.

And while the clip above talks about the facial capture - we haven't worried about that aspect. We have focussed on the animation of the character. As another example of the type of animation that MoCap "captures", this is another short view

We are fortunate to have a good working relationship with the Auckland University of Technology and the department of Digital Design. John Piper, the Head of Digital Design has been a guiding hand for us in our quest to provide our students with a real life application of advanced animation techniques. AUT have the only MoCap studio outside of WETA Workshops in Wellington, and so our students have been very lucky to get access.

So - what is their project all about?

Everyone knows the wild success of Pixar and Dreamworks animated movies. From Toy Story to Cars to Madagascar to TinTin. What we are attempting is to bring the "very" short story concept to animation. Our students have no experience with animation software, but by exploring concepts in short animated stories they have worked in pairs to create a 30 - 60 second animated story.

As a lofty goal we set our sights on this type of thing ... Pixar's Knick Knack ..

After spending time understanding that there is a story board behind the movie - with everything from character development to conflict to theme - students set about creating their own story lines and characters. During the process they also had to create original art work to be the background prop for their animated story and the audio to accompany the story.

At the moment we are at the stage where the background images, audio has been created. The motion capture has been done and the students are now trying to get to grips with the animation process.

This series of short videos shows the start of the journey from motion capture to animation. We'll follow this one as it develops. 

The Story Line: Stickman

Basically "Stickman" is so thin that when he goes to the closet to get a T-shirt to put on - it falls straight to the floor. He gets the idea to put on weight - and the second part sees him start pushing weights to try and bulk up. That doesn't work, so he gets a bike pump, inserts the tube into his mouth and starts inflating himself with air - to the point he explodes.

Here's the motion capture.

Now - you'll notice the "grey dots" on the suit. These are the "dots" that the cameras (on the stands in the background) are focussed on capturing the motion of. There are dots on the cap, the arms, body, hands, legs and feet. Once this motion file is captured, it then needs to be applied to a 3D model. To do this we have been using MotionBuilder. Here are a couple of versions of the process and what the final MotionBuilder output looks like.

The above file is the motion file with the "dots" - try running the 2 videos above at the same time to see how it works.

The video below is a version of the mapping of the dots captured to a standard 3D model.

The next phase will see the students apply this model and it's motion to their context - and I'll document those stages over the next couple of weeks as they get to grips with either Blender or Maya as they continue on their animation journey.

Google Docs as an online timeline creator

Just found a cool addition to the reasons why Google Apps is useful in schools - or anywhere for that matter. The timeline below is generated via a Google spreadsheet using a very simple format provided by TimeLineJS by Verité.




The spreadsheet is simply populated with URLs to any of the content you want to use - I used Flickr and YouTube for the above. You can add titles and comments in columns in the spreadsheet.
Once complete, simply publish your Google spreadsheet as a web page, copy the URL generated and paste it into the "embed generator" on the TimeLineJS page. It generates your embed code for the finished timeline which you then post on your website/blog etc. Any changes you subsequently make to your Google spreadsheet will automatically show up.

You'll find the Google Docs template half way down their page - look for this image

It's very cool and pretty darn easy to use.

There are of course plenty of other tools that do a similar job - ie they create an web based timeline.
xTimeLine is one I have used.
Another relative newcomer is MeoGraph - but I have had some trouble getting audio to work with it - not sure if it is me, the browser or our firewall getting in the way here - so  more investigation required.
Others that seem to be useful (and free), but I haven't used ...
TimeToast
TimeGlider
TikiToki also looks interesting, but the free version doesn't allow you to embed by the look of it.

Big Brother, Freedom and Life

We all love our cell phone. If we are lucky enough to have a so called "smartphone" then chances are we tweet, we Facebook, we tumble, we browse, we email, we photograph, we video, heck - we may even make the occasional call on it. And let's be honest - we may have given the whole privacy issue about whether the information that passes through our phones might be used by someone else for whatever reason - but the chances are that we have not understood some of the issues, or thought through them, or maybe we just don't really know what is kept by phone companies and what might be done with that information.

Enter Malte Spitz. A Berlinner. And a Green Party MP in Germany. He actually went to court to find out what his phone company had on him. And with the help of some other people what he has to say in this recent TEDGlobal talk might raise a few eyebrows. It certainly provides a perspective which I found really interesting.

So - watch this 9 minute TED talk and wait till you see the graphic representation of the data that is presented towards the end. If you are an "ethics" or "social implications" enthusiast - then it will provide plenty of discussion points.



Now - you might like to know what your local phone provider has to say on this. I'm a Vodafone customer ... this is from their website this morning  ..

1. What information does Vodafone collect?

We collect information relating to you that you have provided to us (for example, on an application or registration form or through the way you use our products and services) or that we may have obtained from another source (such as our suppliers or from marketing organisations and credit agencies).

This information may include, your name, address, telephone numbers, information on how you use our products and services (such as the type, date, time, location and duration of calls or messages, the numbers you call and how much you spend, and information on your browsing activity when visiting one of our group companies' websites), the location of your mobile phone from time to time, lifestyle information and any other information collected in relation to your use of our products and services.

There will of course be governmental rules around privacy of information ... here are a couple of starting points if you are interested in following through on some of this.

Telecommunications Information Privacy Code 2003
Privacy Act 1993