STA Blog

Jake Engelberg

Hebrew Flash Conversion in Canvasser

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Hebrew Flash Conversion in Canvasser

We’ve decided that to recreate the Hebrew flash interactives, the easiest way would be using Canvasser and screenshotting the original flash version. I have come up with a workflow for setting up each flash interactive in a uniform way that allows the lining up / coloring of interactives easy in photoshop.

However, I’m running into an issue when producing the interactive in Canvasser: overlapping clickable objects are all clicked, disregarding visibility/stacking. Working to figure this out right now.

Workflow Video

https://laits.utexas.edu/canvasser/canvasser_content/hebrew/hebrew_test.html

Web Support Documentation

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Web Support Documentation

I have begun to take web support requests from Liberal Arts faculty having issues with web editor tools. For one of these requests, though, I had to actually document a solved issue within the LAITS knowledge base. I had to do some extended research on the topic I was doin to make sure I understood it fully enough to document correctly. I ended up discovering a few special cases along the way.

https://sites.la.utexas.edu/kb/2019/10/16/how-to-delete-a-cascade-page/

The First Canvasser

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The First Canvasser

I’ve completed my first canvasser! The software for the most part is easy to use and suits the tasks I have. After being trained by Estella, and struggling through the first iteration of an interactive, trying to figure out all the of UI elements and settings, things get pretty methodical. It’s definitely satisfying when everything comes together.

https://laits.utexas.edu/canvasser/canvasser_content/vlabslab12/lab12section2relativebrainsizethroughtime.html

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Project: Hebrew Flash Conversion
Client/Prof: Professor Raizen
Completion Status: Unfinished, Unknown ETA
Staff Guidance: Kevin/Valerie
STA Team Members: Estella, Kevin
Description/Plans: Convert all flash interactives created into another format retaining the same information.

 

The current stage we are at is decompiling and extracting all hebrew text from said modules and reproducing the interactives in a variety of different formats to determine which is best suited for the content of these activities. I created an interactive quiz in both Quia and Quizlet. What I determined is that Quia is more flexible in structure of quizzes, allowing deliberate formatting and organization of quizzes. This allows the activities to be more accurate to their original flash counterparts. Although Quizlet is more popular and easier to use, it lacks the depth required to recreate these interactives like Quia does.

Quia:

 

Quizlet:

 

https://sta.laits.utexas.edu/blog/2019/10/09/29289-2/

STA Banner

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STA Banner

I was tasked with creating the banner that will display all STAs for this Fall’s program. It was definitely a task to figure out how to display a bunch of photos in an interesting way, without drawing the eye away or making viewing confusing. I went through quite a few iterations, and much thanks to Jac for adding in the photos and making some text a little more readable. I think my first draft was pretty gross but the end result was really nice. It’s interesting to see an idea advance after breaks between working. Overall I enjoyed the project a lot, I tried a different style than what I am usually making and the design requirements were fairly open to play with.

Caricature

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Caricature

I made a caricature for the STA banner! I’ve used illustrator and photoshop a lot, but I don’t think I’ve ever made an image of myself, so this was fun to do. I did this in illustrator.

I decided to copy a style created Nigo, a famous street designer/artist. He used this flat caricature style for humanoid designs when working on his brand A Bathing Ape. I’ve always been a huge fan of thick linework and flat design. He grew close to Kanye West and Pharrell Williams, eventually doing Pharrell’s album cover. However, making this blog post… I just realized I forgot the thumbs!! I’ll fix it later.