Geek Weekend

A hilarious translation aka engrish on a ski parka.

In today’s global society, you can’t help but run into an occasional odd translation here and there. Sometimes these translations can be downright hilarious.

In fact, funny translations have become so popular in recent years that they have spawned what is called “the Engrish phenomenon,” with people going to great lengths to document and share the humorous translations they come across. According to a since-revised explanation in Wikipedia, “Engrish has been found on everything from poorly translated signs, menus, and instruction manuals to bizarrely worded advertisements and strange T-shirt slogans.”

The fact is that that anytime you translate something from one language to another, you run the risk of having something lost in translation and–depending on your sense of humor–the chance of coming up with something absurdly entertaining.

This entry will teach you how to make your own “hilarious translations.” The game is similar to Mad Libs, but instead of filling in blanks with random nouns, verbs, and adjectives to produce a funny story, you make your funny story by translating your writing into another language and then back into your own.

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Tagged with: game • internet

Filed under: Featured • Humor

The game materials

The other day, Erica and I played an old Scrabble game, a vintage board from 1953. The copyright on the box says “Manufactured by Selchow & Righter Co., New York, N.Y. for The Production and Marketing Company” and below that reads “Copyright 1948, 1949, 1953 by Production and Marketing Company”. It’s in great condition.

These are the rules that I didn’t know exactly, or at all. I read the back of the Scrabble box lid, finding a bunch of rules I didn’t know. Please let us know in the comments if any of these rules are new to you, too!

1. The first thing I noticed when reading the introduction to the game at the top of the list of rules, is not a rule but an interesting factoid. Read the rest of this entry

Tagged with: game

Filed under: Articles • Featured

Graphic reduction of the tire photo.

This workflow describes how to make a simplified vector graphic from a pixel image suitable for a basic logo using programs in the Adobe Creative Suite (CS4/CS5). The simpler the original image, the better for the graphic reduction. Please note that this is an introductory technique and not geared towards advanced users.

Cut Out the Image in Photoshop

1. Start with a simple image, ideally one that has a homogenous background.
2. Cut out the background in Photoshop. (For the tire image, I used the elliptical marquee to select the tire, Select>Inverse to move the selection to the background only, and then deleted the background).
3. Adjust curves, levels, or brightness and contrast in Photoshop as needed.
4. Save the edited file (PSD, JPG ok). Read the rest of this entry

Tagged with: Adobe CS4 • artwork • CS5 • graphic design • Illustrator • instructions • Photoshop • print design • symbols • vector graphics

Filed under: Adobe How-to • Articles

Fake tattoo legs

Fake tattoo sleeves are fantastic on many levels. For one, they look a lot like the real thing, so you can much of the fun of having a tattoo without actually getting one. They are also great for costume embellishments, practical jokes, or anything else you can think of.    

Many benefits are to be derived from making your own slip-on tattoo art instead of going for the mass-produced, store-bought kind. These include:  1) You get to try on your own designs (this is great if you are considering an actual tattoo); 2) You don’t have to pay money for them; 3) You can do your part for the environment if you reuse old nylon pantyhose; 4) You get to exercise your creative muscle; and 5) You will end up with an original fashion item that will undoubtedly make you the envy of partygoers.    

Let’s face it, making your own slip-on tattoo art is just way more punk rock. In this article you will find out how to make tattoo sleeves for both arms and legs. Read the rest of this entry

Tagged with: artwork • crafty • instructions • tattoo

Filed under: Articles

dingbats, pi fonts, & glyphs, oh my!

Pi Fonts

“Pi characters, often called ‘symbol,’ ‘logo,’ ‘dingbat’ or ‘ornaments’ are used to insert symbols that are reused many times into text. These might include characters in a math font, a company logo, blocks in a crossword puzzle, borders for a page, credit cards, astrological symbols or map symbols. If there is a need, such a font is often created. This saves much time and space in documents, where a logo may even be used as a bullet point.” (Type Companion for the Digital Artist, p. 51, Against the Clock Series, 2002)

Pi Fonts in Adobe

Below are some Pi fonts in the Adobe suite that can be used as symbols within type or as independent graphics as illustrated on this page. (This is not an exhaustive list.):

• Webdings
• Wingdings1
• Wingdings2
• Wingdings3
• Bookdings
• Bookshelf Symbol7
• Carta
• Common Bullets
• MSOutlook
• Adobe Woodtype Ornaments1
• Adobe Woodtype Ornaments2
• ITC Zapf Dingbats

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Tagged with: Adobe CS4 • artwork • CS5 • fonts • graphic design • Illustrator • InDesign • instructions • print design • software • symbols • technology • vector graphics

Filed under: Adobe How-to

Venn diagram about the concept of sustainable community, created in Illustrator CS4.

1. Make a new file using File>New.
2. Change units to inches (if you want) in the dialog box that appears, then click “OK.”
3. Select the Ellipse Tool from the Tools Palette by clicking and holding down the right corner of the shape tool (a rectangle) to get the submenu of tools, where you will select the ellipse. (If Tools is not showing, go to Window>Tools).
4. Set ellipse preferences in the top toolbar by adjusting the fill and stroke:
   1. Find fill and stroke, upper left. Use the drop down menu to select your fill color—in this case try the white square with red line through it so the fill is clear and the ellipses overlap—and also stroke color.
   2. You can also change the stroke thickness in this area. (I used 2pt.) Read the rest of this entry

Tagged with: Adobe CS4 • diagrams • graphic design • Illustrator • print design • software • web design

Filed under: Adobe How-to

Scene from three RAW images, converted into jpg's to use with Qtpfsgui.

I thought I would stop theorizing for a minute and give some concrete steps that I have been using to create HDR images using free tools. Actually, I am using Adobe Photoshop, which is not free. I am using it to convert single RAW (.dng) files to three different images at different exposures. You see, I’ve been using the single RAW image process so that my alignment is perfect. The three images are really versions of the same original, so that I don’t need to use a tripod, or fiddle with exposure settings while trying not to move the camera at all.

My camera, while not a digital SLR, is a consumer-level camera, without detachable lenses, that shoots RAW images. They retain more light in the final images than the usual jpg’s, which is a compressed file type. I have a Casio EX-FH20 that I bought for its slow-motion video and sequenced still image capabilities. But I’ve been rewarded by the additional ability of the camera to shoot RAW images.

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Tagged with: high dynamic range • instructions • photography • software

Filed under: Articles • Featured • HDR Photography

Chipmunk! To freeze the image, I used one RAW photo here and set different exposures using Photoshop

When I started to process the images I had shot with my little point and shoot camera, I found that I had made an error, in thinking that I could register the images perfectly after shooting them. The hand-held camera technique that I had thought would work well, did not work at all. I did go through the motions of trying to register the images as best I could, but I found that the slightest shift in the camera from one image to the next would make the whole image impossible to register.

I captured the images with my consumer camera, by just moving the camera and fixing the exposure a few different times using the 1/2 button push and then re-centering the camera on the scene. I can keep track of approximately where the image should be in the viewfinder by remembering certain details in the scene and where they line up with the edges of the frame or the center indicator lines on my camera. It’s the quick and dirty method of capturing images for HDR processing. Read the rest of this entry

Tagged with: high dynamic range • photography • technology

Filed under: Articles • Featured • HDR Photography

Publication made with InDesign CS4

Adobe InDesign is one of two standard programs (along with Quark Express) used by the graphic design industry for publication design and layout, particularly for text-heavy projects like multi-page newsletters, reports, and books. Although Photoshop and Illustrator can also be used for page layout, InDesign has a stronger text engine, allowing for more detailed and refined typography.

In InDesign, you can lay out  images and text together on a page. However, it is important to make sure that your photos are at the proper resolution and size for print prior to placing them in InDesign. (One of the biggest mistakes new “InDesigners” make is placing a photo in InDesign and then up-sizing it, as doing so often results in low-resolution, pixelated designs in the final output. Keep in mind that some images are just too small to come out right in print–especially images you downloaded from the web!)

Click “Read the rest of this entry” below for step-by-step instructions on how to prepare your photos (aka “continuous tone images”) for InDesign using Adobe Photoshop.

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Tagged with: Adobe CS4 • software

Filed under: Adobe How-to • Featured

The Adobe Creative Suite, consisting of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver and other programs, has long established itself as the graphic design industry’s standard software for the digital creation of graphic projects ranging from business cards, brochures, advertisements, stationary, newspapers, newsletters, magazines, reports, books, and websites, to name a few.

I work with students who are relatively new to the Adobe programs listed above, and yet they are charged with creating attractive layouts using some or all of those programs. In order to assist them in their digital layouts, therefore, I have drafted a series of step-by-step instructions which I will post periodically here on GeekWeekend.

The instructions are based on Adobe CS4 for the PC, but they can be adapted (for the most part) for both prior and later versions of the software as well as the Macintosh platform. I will attempt to note differences between the various versions as I become aware of them. In the meantime, if you cannot find a given command or instruction in your version of the software, you can often find it by looking up the same term using the search or index features under the Help menu of the given software. Read the rest of this entry

Tagged with: Adobe CS4 • graphic design • instructions • software

Filed under: Adobe How-to