Assignment #2 – Making our first GIF Post Narratives!

Making our first GIF & GIF Post Narratives!

Assignment #2 – (week #3)

***the full video tutorial will posted after class at the bottom of this post***

Exciting Times!

Let’s make some GIFS and explore their history, contexts and the potentials of this Internet culture sensation! GIFs are obviously here to stay! How far will they go? Can you tell a story with GIFs?

Some of you have already applied some great GIFS to your posts from last week!

But First, and Importantly:

What makes a successful, compelling and engaging Blog Post?

You can certainly see my examples, but now, you have a contrast and a result to work from now that we have published our first assignment (did you publish assignment #1?), looking back, did you cover all of these aspects listed below? (you can always edit and update your existing posts, I highly encourage it! And make sure that you are responding to your comments!)

Good Blogging is:

  • being thoughtful with your post titles –  How will your audience know what the post is about if you don’t make this clear and engaging?
  • giving your opinions, feelings, insights & philosophies – Ct101 is a platform for you to share, express and discover the potentials of creative writing through embedded media and well crafted narratives.
  • backing up your resources, inspiration and research with hyperlinks, we need to see where the source information has come from.
  • proof reading your grammar and punctuation. It’s OK to work stylistically, but it should be kept consistent.
  • and always embedding cool media that’s made or found from elsewhere to give context and keep the audience engaged.
  • what else could we add to this list?

(You can click on the images above and they will re-direct you to their websites. I did this by selecting the “custom URL” option in the media / image uploading specifications area in the blogging editor and added the URL – watch my demo)

Imgur and Giphy are great platforms to explore and create GIFS with!

They both have a HUGE repository to choose from! In our class this week let’s check out both of these platforms in a series of video tutorials, both Imgur & Giphy are free to use and work with. (I encourage you to sign up for your own account, both are free) Let’s experiment with both platforms this week as we work on this week’s new assignment blog post.

Be sure to share your thoughts on what you think about both platforms, did one work better for you? If so, what were those features?

*The Assignment #2 Details:

Let’s publish a NEW BLOG POST of your own and be sure to comment on one or two of your Classmate’s GIF Posts too!

Video tutorial from today’s class on 9/13 – 

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/wkNQuBZd1SlZnAJKX2fXnHpKjRhfUDWrcvb7Ay3KY7VbbjqpdR02DPyxIvjJl7Fh.naDxMPOMs4HZDUQH

Passcode: 47.JuH8P

Create a NEW blog post on our class website and embed a series of new Reaction GIF s that narrates your feelings about our CT101 class so far!

Let’s get creative, how can you tell your story in GIFs so far? Hmm?

Think about these questions, and answer them:

What did you think on the first day of the CT101?

Did you like hearing about the course and its creative content? How did it make you feel?

How does CT101 compare to some of your other classes so far?

What are the creative potentials of this class?

How do you feel about learning new skills that use Internet tools?

(yes, you can make this post as long you wish and make it flow like a story – This assignment description that you are reading is also a BLOG post example of the assignment!)

***Each reaction GIF that you use should be accompanied by a sentence or two or three of verbiage to help describe the GIF and narrative you are communicating.

Here is an example of me responding in GIF expressing the above GIF:

“Demonstrations and examples will be shared and executed during our class time, don’t miss it!” (and if you do miss it, I’ll post the video tutorial from class here below) Sinister audio fades in and out as Skeletor mercilessly GIFs himself into oblivion!

**PS – Here is a handy tutorial on how to make a GIF from a YouTube URL using Imgur from Prof. Smith a few years back –  My first GIF post

How do you say it / pronounce it? Gi-f or Ji-f?

The battle continues! 

Oh, wait, you cant possible publish your new post without referencing and discovering some GIF history! How will you incorporate it into your new post?

Here is the WIKI for the GIF file format – its a good read.

Smithsonian – History of the GIF

A good article for WIRED on the 30th Birthday of the GIF

GIF History via – VOX

Let’s get started!

Here is the class video tutorial below:

(to be posted after class on 9/13)

**And be sure to also comment on one of your Classmate’s GIF Posts!

Let’s Do it!