Creating Cartoons and Comics

For all those Simpsons (et al) inspired fans, the ToonDoo site should prove a great hit! ToonDoo is a comic-creating tool enabling a "new way of expression for those who do not have the talent to draw."

As well as creating simple ToonDoos consisting of 1 to 3 screens, you can also create ToonBooks by combining unlimited ToonDoos.

I think this one is very funny, succinct and highlights what education is all about!

By ChrisMarshall | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

Similarly, Witty is a comic creation site which enables you to create a three-strip comic. Here's an example on podcasting. Based on Witty comics, the ComicCreator is a Widged inspired flash production enabling you to create your own 3-strip comic.

Also came across Kerpoof thanks to Alan Levine. This is a fun tool for creating cartoons. Makebeliefscomix is another comic strip creating site (discovered thanks to Lucy Gray).

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Technorati Tags: draw, education, flash, kerpoof, podcast, toondoo, witty

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Personalise Online Videos

With Mojiti you can add your own perspective and information to any online video. Mojiti enables you to add features on top of existing videos - including the addition of text, shapes, flash art and multimedia (image, freehand, audio and video).

Update 25/8/08: Have just discovered that Mojiti is no longer available!!!!

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Technorati Tags: audio, image, mojiti, multimedia, video

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Finding Photos with CC Licenses

flickrCC is a great place to find CC licensed images.

Not only does it find images but flickrCC also allows you to edit them by cropping and resizing.

As well as this you can add text anywhere on the image. Finally, you can add a frame and inculde the correct attribution at the bottom of the image.

Once edited use a screen capture program such as Printkey2000 to save the image to your computer.



PictureSandbox is a cool tool that lets you choose the CC license type before it searchs Flickr for your specified photos.  First came across this on Tama's eLearning blog. It is easy to use and should encourage students and teachers to pay more attention to copyright regulations!

  

Came across another similar tool on Stephen's Web called Behold. This tool searches Flickr specifically for high quality images. Make sure you tick the 'free to use' box!

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Technorati Tags: behold, copyleft, copyright, creative commons, flickr, flickrCC, picturesandbox

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Online Goodies(9) - Spresent

Spresent provides an alternative to OpenOffice Impress. You can create and edit flash presentations online. Being flash based, the presentations can be easily added to websites and blogs. They can also be sent to an e-mail address for downloading and viewing in a browser.

Flickr photos, YouTube videos and podcasts can all be easily added to enhance the presentation.

Have a look at the cool features presentation created using Spresent. For a series of video tutorials on using Spresent, check out skypepodcast and RobinGood on YouTube.

Here is one showing you how to create an eCard and send it to an e-mail address:

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Technorati Tags: blog, ecard, flash, flickr, openoffice, podcast, Spresent

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Creating software tutorials

Use Wink to create tutorials on how to use software packages. With Wink you can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons and titles. Audio (voice or music) can also be added as you create the tutorial.

The resulting file can be saved in several different formats including Macromedia Flash (for the web), Standalone EXE (distrubition via CD-ROM), PDF (user manuals), PostScript, HTML or image formats such as JPG, GIF, PNG.

Have a look at this completed example to see how Wink works. Links to further examples can also be found on Wink's showcase page, which is a collection of good examples of tutorials created with Wink. Finally, if you need any more ideas, check out the examples at Instructional Endeavors.

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Technorati Tags: audio, flash, screenshot, wink software

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Professionally Produced Music Videos

The Phoenix Park as you have never seen it before!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Animoto is an interesting Web2.0 application that creates professional music videos. Simply add your photos and choice of music and let Animoto do the rest. The Animoto short film (30seconds) is free, with a full length video costing $3. Producing unlimited full length videos for one year costs $30.

Animoto could be very useful for producing promotional type material!

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Technorati Tags: animoto, office2.0, video, web2.0

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Screen Recording with Camstudio

CamStudio is capable of recording all screen and audio activity on your computer. An AVI video file is created but this can be converted to a web friendly flash video format with the inbuilt SWF producer. This sofware is particularly useful for creating demonstration or tutorial type videos. It also allows you to addd screen or video captions to the recording. CamStudio can also be used to 'record' videos played on video sharing sites such as YouTube. 

Make sure that you change the default compressor (Microsoft Video1), otherwise the final file size will be very large. The DivX codec or the CamStudio Lossless codec are both recommended. Dowload and install these codecs before using CamStudio. You should also download and use the LameMP3 encoder for audio compression. Watch the following excellent video to see how these setting in CamStudio must be changed:

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Technorati Tags: audio, camstudio, flash, swf, video, youtube

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Online Goodies (8) - Slideshare

Slideshare is a great website to use for sharing all your slideshows. It claims to be the "world's largest community for sharing presentations on the web".  You can upload your PowerPoint, OpenOffice, Keynote or PDF presentations.

Slideshare also enables you to tag the presentations and embed them into your blog or website. You can search and browse for other relevant presentations and bulid up personal and group contacts.

This is an interesting one covering 25 basic styles of blogging. Didn't know there were so many!

The 25 Basic Styles of Blogging ... And When To Use Each One

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: tips marketing)

Slideshare has recently introduced slidecasting (adding audio to your slideshow). It is easy to use and gives a definite multimedia dimention to the presentation. Here's one I made earlier. Sit back and enjoy!

Phoenix Park

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: dublin)

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Technorati Tags: audio, blog, multimedia, open office, slidecasting, slideshare, tag

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Open Source Desk Top Publishing

Scribus is an open source DTP package. It can be used for producing all your newsletters, posters and brochures etc.  The sofware is quite powerful including some high end features that would be found in commercial packages such as Microsoft Office Publisher.

Support for Scribus is supplied in several ways including documentation, mailing list, wiki and bugtracker. You can also find several video tutorials on GoogleVideo (search for scribus).

There is also a portable version available - although I haven't tried it. The following video gives a brief introduction to the basic features of Scribus for the uninitiated!

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Technorati Tags: bugtracker, dtp, googlevideo, open source, scribus, wiki

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