Goal: explore your own interests
So far your learning has been determined by your instructors, but this is your chance to experiment with an aspect of new media that interests you most. To ensure you get a chance to explore what you’re truly interested in, you will submit this assignment as an individual. However, you’ll have opportunities in class to compare notes with classmates interested in the same media.
Focus: one creative medium, with or without AI
While you will write a reflection about your experience, your focus should be on the process of producing digital assets according to methods you researched in your answer to Task 12a. As explained in that task, you may choose create works with AI, without AI, or compare both methods.
Step 1: Due Wednesday 11 December at class time
- Create at least three variations on a digital asset, in the medium you chose for this task such as an animation, storyboard, web design, etc. Save all three to your hard drive.
- Start a WordPress post with a title like “Task 12: Mary Gonzalez” and give it a category of Task 12.
- Add your three initial experiments:
- For standalone files, choose Add Media to upload and insert them into your post.
- For external links like P5js sketches, add links to each external URL.
- Beneath these three links, describe in at least one 3-sentence paragraph how you adjusted your approach to refine the output or explored different tactics.
- Publish your WordPress page (you will revise it again before final submission).
Step 2: Due Friday 13 December at 11:59pm
Based on feedback you received in class, re-create or refine your media asset/s for the final time. Add these media to your WordPress page, along with two paragraphs:
- Describe how you achieved your final revision.
- Reflect on the challenges you faced. Do you think with more study and development you might be interested in this medium as a career or creative pastime?
Make sure to Update your revised WordPress post and complete the post-task survey for full credit (must sign into your UMaine google account for access).
Step 3 (optional): Due Monday 16 December at 11:59pm
Complete this additional step if you need extra credit or just want to share what you learned. If your grade on this project is high enough, it will substitute for your worst grade in all previous Tasks (including a missing Task).
- Watch this 9-minute tutorial on making a screencast.
- Following the guidelines in the tutorial, record a screencast tutorial that summarizes what you learned. Start by showing the best outputs you created, then demonstrate one technique that you used to improve those outputs. Your video should be short—not more than 30 to 120 seconds long—but must include visuals as well as a recording of your voice describing the process you’re demonstrating on the screen. (For more points, you may add your face and/or visual enhancements as explained in the tutorial.)
- Add a new heading at the bottom of your Task 12 WordPress post called “Extra credit screencast.”
- Choose Add Media and insert your movie. ☠️ Do not post a movie larger than 50 MB or you could break the entire site!
- Also upload your movie to the #extra-credit Slack channel.
- Watch and comment on at least 2 other screencasts in Slack by your fellow students.
Screencast format
- Save your screencast as an MPEG-4 movie. Most video editing software will export as MPEG-4 (a filename that ends in.mp4 or .m4v).
- Your movie should be at a medium resolution, eg 720 x 1280 pixels (“720p”) or 1080 x 1920 pixels (1080p) for a screencast), with a size should be somewhere in the 10-50 MB range.
- ⚠️ Do not leave your movie in QuickTime format, which is far too large.
- ⚠️ Do not post a movie larger than 50 MB.
- ⚠️ Drafts can be posted as a link (eg, to YouTube or Loom), but your final movie must be posted as an attachment to the Slack channel.
- ⛑️ If you don’t have other software to export your movie to the proper size or format, try a conversion utility such as Miro Video Converter.
FAQ
What’s the grading rubric for Steps 1 and 2?
- You created at least 4 variations on a digital asset: from 0 to +4 points
- You described how you improved the work from one variation to the next: from 0 to +2 points
- You reflected on the challenges and whether you might be interested in pursuing this medium in the future: from 0 to +2 points
- You were thoughtful or imaginative: from 0 to +2 points
- You were late: from 0 to -3 points, with one point off per week.
Your grade is the total of all points times 10, for a possible maximum of 100%.
What’s the grading rubric for Step 3?
- Your tutorial included legible visuals such as a screen recording: from 0 to +1 points
- Your recording was less than 50MB and playable from your WordPress post: from 0 to +1 points
- Your tutorial was the right length (roughly 30-120 seconds): from 0 to +1 points
- Your tutorial included an audible and clear voiceover: from 0 to +1 points
- Your tutorial was well edited, organized, and concise: from 0 to +2 points
- You added enhancements such as highlights or callouts to draw attention to details: from 0 to +2 points
- Your tutorial clearly explained what you learned from this Task: from 0 to +3 points
- Your tutorial demonstrated one technique effectively: from 0 to +3 points
- You were thoughtful or imaginative: from 0 to +6 points
- You were late: from 0 to -3 points, with one point off per week.
Your grade is the total of all points times 10. The possible maximum of 200%, which means this task could count as much as two A+’s on other tasks.
What are examples of creating without AI?
- Visual Piece Use Photoshop or Illustrator to create a series of digital still images or an animated sequence.
- Web Content Use HTML/CSS or Figma to create a basic website prototype.
- Interactive Media Use Twine or Unity to create a simple interactive story or game.
- Sound or Music Use GarageBand or Ableton to create a soundscape or music piece.
- 3D Modeling Use SculptGL or Blender to create a simple 3D object or scene.
What are examples of creating with AI?
- Visual Art: Use Leonardo, DALL-E, or similar tools to generate variations of your initial visual work.
- Web Content: Use AI to help redesign or improve your website, e.g., ChatGPT to generate HTML, CSS, and content.
- Interactive Media: Use AI tools like ChatGPT to add narrative complexity to your interactive story or game.
- Sound or Music: Use AI-generated soundscapes or music tools (e.g., Audiogen, Soundraw, Udio, or Suno) to extend your audio work.
- 3D Modeling: Use AI-based 3D tools (e.g., Meshy or Luma) to enhance or iterate on your model.
Can I get help with making a tutorial?
Apart from watching the Make a Screencast video mentioned above, you can also consult the instructions in text form.
Can I see a model answer?
This is the first time this task has been assigned, so sadly we can’t offer a sample A+ assignment for Steps 1 or 2. However, for help completing the optional Step 3, you can review these examples of student-made tutorials.