Digital Camera Class 8: Term 2

Tonight’s class was a presentation all about the use of graphics tablets and the wonderful piece of software that is Corel Painter.

What is a graphics tablet? A graphics tablet (or digitising tablet, graphics pad, drawing tablet) is a computer input device that allows one to hand-draw images and graphics, similar to the way one draws images with a pencil and paper. The one that I have is made by the company Wacom, a company who has the reputation of being the best company for graphics tablets. The particular model I have is the Wacom Bamboo, as shown below:

Inspired by natural human abilities to create, their patented pen and touch input technology allows freedom of expression, inspired creativity, and drastic improvements in productivity, control and comfort. From product development and graphic design to the media and entertainment sectors, Wacom facilitates the work of individuals and workgroups with truly natural ways to work with digital content.

Wacom believe that technology should be easy to use and simple to understand. With products that rely on human intuition and natural movement, they claim to strive to bring people and technology closer together. Their pen and touch input technology has helped professionals around the world create extraordinary characters, digital art, films, special effects, fashions, and industrial designs. They say that some of the most celebrated companies in these industries rely on their products.  They also claim “No other technology company strives to design tools that empower creative professionals the way Wacom does. Not even close.”

After having a good look at what the graphics tablet is, we looked at Corel Painter.

Corel Painter is the world's most powerful Natural-Media software.  “ By adding Painter to your workflow, you gain a full art studio that gives you the tools to create unprecedented artwork.Digital art tools let you experiment with color theory, composition and brush strokes, without the toxins, mess and expenses associated with traditional art. Support for the entire Wacom® product line, including industry-leading Cintiq® interactive pen displays and Intuos® drawing tablets, gives you the most responsive digital painting experience so your hand and brush work fluidly as one. Customizable paper textures give your art added artistic undertones, plus a level of texture and detail that no other digital painting or photo-painting tools can produce. Painter is changing what's possible in art. Now it's your turn.”

Click here for details on the very latest version of Painter, with is Version XI

In its earlier forms, Painter would be sold in an actual paint can – quite a novelty, these days, now that ownership of the product is with the Canadian company Corel, they tend to do a certain amount of limited editions in cans, as a kind of nod to the past. Below is the limited edition can for version 10.

You can create your own pictures from scratch or turn your own photographs into works of art using clever cloning brushes. Here are some examples of pictures I have created myself.

 

 

Check out more examples in my own “Corel Painter” gallery by clicking this link

PC Maintenance Class 7: Term 2

When it comes to the point where you want to wipe a computer back to factory defaults, many machines these days come with a hidden partition on the harddisk that with a certain key combination will allow you to restore your computer.

What is a partition though?  Hard disk partition refers to the creation of logical divisions upon a hard disk that allows one to apply operating system-specific logical formatting.  Or in simpler terms, disk partitioning is the act or practice of dividing the storage space of a hard disk drive into separate data areas known as partitions. A partition editor program can be used to create, delete or modify these partitions. In Windows 7 we use the Disk Management tool, in the Computer Management console.

For example an 80GB harddisk, could be partitioned in half, the first half being drive C: and the second half being drive D:

For the sake of argument it is like the computer has two seperate drives.

Why might we do this?  One reason might be to seperate the System data (Windows) from the Users data (contents of My Documents).  These days though it is far cheaper to buy a second disk, and besides if something happened to the harddisk of which has multiple partitions, you’d loose all the data.

However, manufacturers sometimes set aside a minimal amount of diskspace in a partition to restore the computer back to its factory state. The size of such partitions can vary, be are usually somewhere in the region of 5-20gb, which isnt a tremendous amount of space to loose off something like a modern day 250 or 500GB drive.

The example we used in class, was my faithfull RM F-Series computer. In the case of the RM F-Series, when it boots, you see displayed in the upper left hand corner of the screen, the characters RMR….at this point you are given a few moments to access the partition for restore purposes.  To access the partitions, you need to press both Shift keys at that point. If you are too slow, you will have to reboot and try again.

The restore menu allows you to double check the intregity of the backup image, and typically takes about 10 minutes to restore, back to a state as it was when you first unpacked your new computer!

Digital Camera Class 7: Term 2

PC Maintenance Class 6: Term 2

Sorry folks, but I had to cancel this class. We will procede as normal after the half-term holiday break on March 2nd. To make up for this missed class, and additional one will be tagged to the end of the term, during the ‘catchup’ week – so you will not miss out!

See you in two weeks time!