Affinity Designer Tutorials

Start Here…

  1. Affinity Designer 1.5 Overview
  2. Affinity Designer Tutorial – Top 10 Things Beginners Want to Know (a great overview video)
  3. The A to Z of Affinity Designer (“This A to Z list breaks down all the tools and panels, including some useful functions and features. It includes links to Affinity’s official short video tips and descriptions of what each tool can do to help you become acquainted with this program.”)

Tutorials

This is a work in progress…

  1. Affinity Designer Tutorial: The Basics (overview video) (difficulty: 0)
  2. Basic Eyes (very basic) (video tutorial) (difficulty: 1)
  3. Modern Logo (video tutorial) (difficulty: 1)
  4. 3D Cube (very basic) (video tutorial) (difficulty: 1)
  5. Beautiful Floral Design (video tutorial) (difficulty: 1)
  6. How To Make Reflections (video tutorial) (difficulty: 1)
  7. Ketchup for Blood Book Cover (blog w/ video tutorial) (difficulty: 1)
  8. Cute Ice Cream (video tutorial) (difficulty: 1)
  9. Shopping Logo (video tutorial) (difficulty: 1)
  10. Gear Head Logo (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  11. Easy Flat Design Character with Shading (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  12. Artistic Text (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  13. Metal Text (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  14. Dog Sketch Tracing | Part 2 (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  15. Glossy Sphere (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  16. Flat Clock Design (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  17. iPhone Setting Icon Logo (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  18. Fire Text Effect (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  19. Cute Cactus (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  20. Wood Text with Reflection and Shadow (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  21. Pumpkin Carriage (text tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  22. Flat Birthday Cake (text tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  23. Making Galaxy (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  24. Lighthouse (text tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  25. Water Drops (video tutorial) (difficulty: 2)
  26. Water Dispersion Effect (video tutorial) (difficulty: 3)
  27. Metal Triangle (video tutorial) (difficulty: 3)
    Note: for this assignment make sure all corners are snapped together nicely. See me if you’re unsure how to do this.
  28. Let’s make BB8 (video tutorial) (difficulty: 3)
  29. Creamsicle Vector Illustration (video tutorial) (difficulty: 3)
  30. Retro Tutorial (video tutorial) (difficulty: 3-4)
  31. Festive Christmas Fireplace (video tutorial) (difficulty: 3-4)
  32. Frankentoon PDF (text tutorial – see me) (difficulty: 4)
  33. Captain America Shield (video tutorial) (difficulty: 4)
  34. Drawing a Van (video tutorial) (difficulty: 5)
  35. Cute Rooster (text tutorial) (difficulty: 5)
  36. Python Trace (video tutorial) (difficulty: 5) (image can be downloaded from here)

When submitting your files, please prepend the level number to the beginning of the filename. As an example, “Basic eyes.afdesign” would become “1_Basic eyes.afdesign”.

New Tutorials (need to determine levels)

  1. None at this time…

Note: There are many additional AD tutorials at tutsplus.com and frankentoon.com.

BTT1O

For the BTT1O students, you must do a minimum of 8 tutorials, with no more than one “level 1” tutorial. The two that are mandatory are:

  1. Python Trace
  2. Cute Rooster

TGJ2O/TGJ3M

For the TGJ2O and TGJ3M students, you must do all the level 1 tutorials, a minimum of 3 level 2’s, and a minimum of 2 level 3’s, 4’s, and 5’s.

For the TGJ2O and TGJ3M students, you must also find, complete, and recommend one addition tutorial for inclusion on this list. Please submit the name of the tutorial and the URL via the class comments in Classroom. Be sure no one has already submitted the tutorial you are recommending.

Just for Fun

Here are some extra Designer resources you might like. They are not tutorials but are still quite inspirational.

Archiving Your Google Data

I always encourage students to use the personal Google account for school work so they still “own” the data after they leave high school.

But what if they haven’t, and they’re above to move on to a postsecondary school or the workplace?

There are basically two options:

  1. Move your data to your personal account
  2. Download your data

To move your data to a new account, just visit https://takeout.google.com/transfer and enter the relevant information. Just be sure you have enough disk quota in your personal account or you may run into trouble.

To download your data, visit https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout and select the data you want to download. Note that this can take a long time, depending on how much data you have in your Google account.

 

Cool Tech

Assignment

Over the semester, you will be asked to do two informal presentations related to “Cool Tech”, one each half semester. Most students will choose to present on something technological (computer hardware, software, game platforms, entertainment hardware, etc.) that is relatively new, but you may also choose something else with the permission of your instructor.

Your presentation must be centered around a Google Slides slideshow. You must  submit the form to get your topic approved and prepare a short slideshow to present to the class. Be sure the title of your slideshow includes the name of the topic and the course code.

Sources of Material

Relevant Expectations

ICS3C

  • D3.1 explain how emerging technologies can affect personal rights and privacy (e.g. video surveillance, cyberbullying, identity theft);
  • D3.2 describe some emerging technologies and their implications for, and potential uses by, various members of society;
  • D3.3 describe some of the solutions to complex problems affecting society that have been or are being developed through the use of advanced computer programming and emerging technologies (e.g., monitoring and regulating electrical supply and demand; using facial recognition programs to verify the identity of persons entering a country; analysing criminal activity by overlaying crime data on satellite imagery; analysing large-scale meteorological data to predict catastrophic storms).

ICS3U

  • D2.1 demonstrate an understanding of emerging areas of research in computer science (e.g., cryptography, parallel processing, distributed computing, data mining, artificial intelligence, robotics, computer vision, image processing, human–computer interaction, security, geographic information systems [GIS]);
  • D2.2 demonstrate an understanding of an area of collaborative research between computer science and another field (e.g., bioinformatics, geology, economics, linguistics, health informatics, climatology, sociology, art);
  • D2.3 report on an area of research related to computer science, using an appropriate format (e.g., website, presentation software, video).

ICS4C

  • D3.1 describe the evolution of some emerging programming languages;
  • D3.2 investigate and report on innovations in information technology (e.g., webcasting, VoIP, multiplayer online gaming) and their potential impact on society and the economy;
  • D3.3 describe programming requirements for a variety of emerging technologies (e.g., web programming, smartphones, embedded systems).

ICS4U

  • D3.1 explain the impact of a variety of emerging technologies on various members of society and on societies and cultures around the world and on the economy;
  • D3.2 investigate an emerging technology and produce a report using an appropriate format (e.g., technical report, website, presentation software, video).

TDJ3M

  • C2.1 research and compare technological eras (e.g., agricultural, industrial, information), and describe ways in which societal needs influenced these eras;
  • C2.2 research and describe cases where technological design has improved the quality of living (e.g., fireproofing, prosthetic limbs, air purifiers, catalytic converters);
  • C2.3 demonstrate an understanding of ways in which history, trends, culture, and geography have inspired technological design.

TGJ4M

  • C2.1 independently research and report on political, economic, cultural, and/or environmental issues that affected technological innovations in the past (e.g., traffic congestion spurred development of compact vehicles, increasing population density led to the construction of taller buildings);
  • C2.2 describe examples of how culture, economics, and politics could influence the future design of products and/or processes (e.g., environmental awareness and rising costs for fossil fuels could increase the development and use of alternative energy sources);
  • C2.3 describe how technological change affects society (e.g., developments in telecommunications, health care, and robotics).

TGJ2O

  • C2.1 demonstrate an understanding of social standards and cultural sensitivity and use appropriate and inclusive content, images, and language in communications media productions (e.g., including people from different races, cultures, and backgrounds in media productions; portraying minority groups with respect and sensitivity; avoiding sexism, homophobia, and cultural or racial bias);
  • C2.2 describe the effects of recent changes in communications technology and applications on society and the economy (e.g., effects arising from the use of devices such as cellular phones, personal digital assistants [PDAs], and portable media players and from the emergence of computer-based social networks, user-generated web content such as wikis and blogs, and easy-to-download music file formats);
  • C2.3 identify emerging communications technologies and describe their potential impact on society and the economy;
  • C2.4 describe legal concepts and issues relating to communications technology and media production (e.g., copyright, privacy rights, consent);
  • C2.5 describe social and ethical issues relating to the use of communications technology (e.g., promotion of hatred, irresponsible use of the Internet, cyberbullying, cultural appropriation).

TIJ1O

  • C2.1 describe some of the effects that technological innovations of the past have had on society (e.g., effects on health, on people’s ability to travel and communicate, on living standards, on education) and the economy (e.g., creation of new types of jobs, automation of factories);
  • C2.2 describe how society is being affected today by various new and emerging technologies (e.g., electronic messaging, Global Positioning System [GPS], wireless access, hybrid vehicles, nanotechnology, biotechnology);
  • C2.3 describe economic, ecological, social, and safety considerations facing consumers when they make choices between particular products or services (e.g., natural versus synthetic materials, renewable versus non-renewable resources; inexpensive products created in developing countries versus more costly products created domestically; higher-priced products with additional safety features versus less costly products without them);
  • C2.4 demonstrate an understanding of, and respect for, cultural and social diversity as they develop and create various products or services (e.g., prepare foods from various countries around the world, use video or graphic images that are representative of the school population, demonstrate hairstyles from various cultures, compare traditional landscaping styles of different cultures);
  • C2.5 describe how social and economic factors influence the development and use of technology (e.g., high fuel prices and safety concerns influence automotive design, rotating blackouts speed the development of energy alternatives, people’s desire to be connected with family and friends drives telephone and wireless device design).

Website Review Guidelines

Your web page must be educational and include specific, appropriate content related to the provided topic. It must not be a page that only includes links to other websites.

You should not write your review until it has been approved by the instructor as being relevant and unique (i.e. not already chosen by another student). To get the website approved, fill in this form and see your instructor ASAP.  [teacher link]

Submission Form


[Teacher Link]

Review Format

After the website has been approved, write the review using this format:

Title
URL

Intro paragraph — “I chose this website because…” (or similar)

Review paragraphs, for each of the four categories shown below.

Ratings, as shown below.

Use the following rating system for the review, giving the website of 1-5 (in asterisks) for the categories shown:

Educational: *****
Organization: *****
Suitability: *****
Aesthetics: *****

…as well as an Overall rating from 1-5.

To submit your review, you will be given a link to a Google Document where you can write your review.

Example Review

DC Circuits
http://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/tutorials/ohm/Q.ohm.html

I chose this website because it had content that looked like it closely matched what we were learning in class.

Educational: This site has a lot of useful information such as Ohm’s Law and basic schematic diagrams but it doesn’t take the time to make the concepts clear for the reader (important if you’re new to electronics like me). I would have appreciated more applied explanations of the topics before just leaping in like they did.

Organization: A side navigation bar would be greatly beneficial to this website. I found it troublesome to have to go to the bottom of every page to choose my destination. The provided links do the job though (i.e. Back, Next, Return to Main…)

Suitability: This site is fairly suitable for our class as it touches on similar electronics-related topics, however I would not recommend it as a resource simply because there is much clearer, well laid-out information available on other sites on the web.

Aesthetics: This site has a very uninteresting look to it. It makes it easy to read, but does not grab your attention or interest.

Ratings:

Educational: **
Organization: ***
Suitability: ***
Aesthetics: *

Overall: ***

Marking Method

10% will be deducted if there is no title.

Up to 10% will be deducted for each grammar or spelling error that has to be fixed.

Up to 10% will be deducted for each category of the rating system that is not mentioned in the review (which is impossible to do if you follow the guidelines!).

20% will be deducted if there is no rating.

Things Not To Say in Your Review

“This website contains a large amount of information on it.” (Be specific about content.)
“All I can say is Wow. After finding many sites that didn’t do jack for me I found a great site. I found it hard to believe that this site is hosted on a Geocities account.” (A lot of words without saying anything specific about the site.)
“This website is jam packed full of goodies.” (What kind of goodies? Be specific about content.)
“This site is very nice.” (Says nothing about the site.)

Chrome Sign In

For students having trouble signing into Chrome with their DSBN account, enter this address directly into the Chrome address bar and you should be able to sign in properly:

chrome://chrome-signin

Why sign into Chrome?

It will sync your bookmarks and Chrome extensions so wherever you are logged into Chrome (other classes, at home, on your laptop) everything will be sync’d.

The Design Process

Design Process

This design process model is based on the Ontario 2008 Technological Education curriculum.

From the curriculum:

“Although processes such as this involve a framework of sequential steps, they are typically iterative processes that may require a retracing of steps, diversions to solve specific problems along the way, or even a return to the start of the process if it becomes clear that the situation needs to be clarified and the problem redefined. Problem solvers soon discover that the process calls for an open mind, the freedom to be creative, and a great deal of patience and persistence.”

The graphic above is based on one created by Jackie Griffith. Thanks to Jackie for allowing me to adapt it.

Here’s a comical look at the design process! (click to view full size)

Comical View of the Design Process

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Article: How (and why) to use Google Photos on your iPhone or iPad

Article source: https://goo.gl/OyllG4

Installing Google Photos on your mobile device is a recommendation I make to all my students.

If you take pictures with your smartphone, it’s silly not to use Google Photos. At a minimum, it serves as a safe backup for all your photos, at no cost to you. A bonus is that Google Photos creates cool content of some of your images, including instagram-stylized photos, animations, and collages. Continue reading “Article: How (and why) to use Google Photos on your iPhone or iPad”

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Light and Shadow — Greatest Cinematographers of the World, Interviewed

This is an incredibly inspiring video that will appeal not just to the videographers in your classroom but the photographers as well.

In my Communications Technology class, students are asked to watch the video and share a few inspirational quotes or messages they gleaned from it. I often create a Word Cloud with the results, similar to the one below.

Note: you must be logged into your DSBN account to access this form.

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How to Save URLs in a Project Folder

This video will show you how to save URLs into your project folder. This is necessary when creating and submitting projects that use assets from the Internet.

Always give credit where it is due!