Automation

Letter From The Authors This magazine is a testament to the stupidity that is teenagedom. Liam is mostly the one that proves this. Devon is just the perveted Darth Vader and Michi is the one that never gets their jokes. If you saw them during their ezine class, you’d see Liam constantly singing songs, be it about boats,boars, whipping or being the boss. Devon mostly laughs, says creepy things, makes comments in a Darth Vader voice, and is constantly off task. Michi just draws random pictures, usually of her team mates. (Drawings such as Liam on a boat with a boar). Even so, they managed to finish this magazine, and if you ask them, it’s a pretty good one...If you don’t read it carefully enough.

We hope you enjoy it though!

-Liam, Devon and Michi

The Designer-------------------------------------------------5

TV Technology Comparison---------------------------------9

Hippies: A threat to society--------------------------------10

Russel Pankratz-----------------------------------------------13

The Forbidden Fruit------------------------------------------17

Photoshop, GIMP or SAI?-----------------------------------20

The World and Craft of War--------------------------------22

Liam’s ASF-----------------------------------------------------24

Photo to drawing: 3 simple examples---------------------26

Bio Page--------------------------------------------------------28

Liam P

THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT : Ipods in the classroom

I

t used to be, if a student was bored out of his mind during school, all he could do was doodle. But with the invention of Ipods, that all changed. Students suddenly had music in their pocket. But bans on the devices keep them from the classroom. Many students at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy own Ipods, MP3 players, or cell phones. But even though they spend half of their waking hours at school, they are not allowed to use these devices in the classroom.

So what do kids in this situation do?

At LASA, they are charged 15 dollars to regain their expensive devices, and other schools have similar devices.

This is a familiar predicament to many students at high schools around the country. As more and more students buy Ipods, the temptations to use them during school grow more and more powerful. But bans in schools on the use of the devices upset many.

Both Dillon and Ian M., another LASA 9th grader9th graders at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy, don’t say anything if they see students ignoring their teachers and listening to music during class. As Dillon puts it,

Image courtesy of apple.com

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“I’ll let them get in trouble.” Ian has a similar point of view, stating that he’s “Not a tattle tale” and ignores it.

Both of the students interviewed disagree with the ban on the devices in school.

“It’s unreasonable,.” 9th grade student Dillon E. says of the ban. “Most of the time if you just keep your volume down it doesn’t disturb others.” So why is it such a big deal?

Ipods are a very private device. They aren’t as obnoxious as passing notes, or as noisy as having a conversation in the back of the room.

Ian agrees.

“It’s unreasonable. Most of the time if you just keep your volume down it doesn’t disturb others.”

Dillon E., a student at LASA, on Ipods in class.

“I think people should be able to listen to Ipods in class because during individual work time it doesn’t matter whether you are listening to music or not.”

However, listening to your Ipod does prevent students from paying attention to the teacher during a lecture. It could also be used to cheat, says a LASA math teacher..

The problem that I see though, is that one, because of the nature of the Ipod, the teacher really has to have control of what’s being played, and they don’t. So we don’t know if music is being played... or if it is answers to tests,” Celeste Shelton, a math teacher at LASA, says. If Ipods are allowed to be used during individual work time, or during tests, that gives the students a whole knew method of cheating.some might use them to cheat.

Music players are devices that have the capability to play whatever is uploaded to their hard drives. It is relatively easy for students to record audio files of notes being read aloud, save them as an MP3 file on

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their computer, and then upload the file to their music device. Then, during a test, the student would be able to pull out their music player, put in their headphones, and listen to a month’s worth of chemistry notes, all without the teacher knowing whatswhat’s going on.

Of course, teachers could listen to every student’s Ipod, and approve all that they have on it. But that is an inefficient way to go about thingssome might think that that would be an inefficient way of going about things. Also, with new devices having wireless internet capabilities, what’s to stop students from going onto the internet and Googling answers to their work or tests?.

“Given the fact that we can’t monitor what everyone’s listening to... I support it (the ban).” Mrs. Shelton says. She and Ian agree that the current system is probably best for the moment.

This seems to be a general conclusion among students and teachers regarding the ban on the devices during class.

If Ian could end the ban on Ipods, he would only partially end it. “I would probably leave it up to teacher opinion”, he says, an attitude which the district has taken to the topic.

According to the student handbook for AISD students, student possession of cell phones, which pose a similar debate for use in the classroom, must “be in accordance with District and campus policy.” So Ian’s change to the ban would be relatively nonexistent. The district already leaves the subject up to school opinion, and the vast majority of schools outlaw the devices in the classroom, It looks like for the near future at least, students will be going music free during class.

Though most students don’t like that fact, they also understand it, and are content, for now.

Liam Pope is an Ezine student at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy, staff writer for Automation magazine.

Liam P

Image courtesy Liam Pope

Caught Red-Handed In this photo, a student is having her Ipod taken up by a teacher. This is a common occurence in classrooms around the city, with students sometimes having to pay $15 to get their devices back. Both of the students interviewed haven’t had their Ipods confiscted during class, but they both think that making students buy their Ipods back from the office is unnecesary and overkill.

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Michi D

Fella

This is Deviant Art’s little mascot, Fella.

For years, Deviant Art has been satisfying the needs of artists from every country to publish and display their artwork in a gallery for free.

DEVIANT ART Where the what is?

D

eviant Art is a website where artists of all styles, from photography, to illustration, to drawing, and from all around the world share their work with each other. Deviant Art was created by Angelo Sotira in April 2000.

He had always loved online communities and decided to make a massive online art community. He had made it with a friend in order to get skins (customized patterns on windows) for the music company Angelo Sotira was already working at. Many turbulences and troubles came towards them as they tried to save Deviant Art from certain doom. Obviously they’ve succeeded. After 9 years, they have more than 11 million members, and more than 80 million original works of art. This includes work from members from over 190 different countries, whose works are submitted under thousands of categories.

Why is Deviant Art so popular? Maybe because you can submit an unlimited number of pictures, photos and even writing.

Or because other people can look at your work (which can help budding artists be discovered) and they can rate it, give you comments and mark it as a favorite. Not only that, but you can sell and buy artwork for reasonable prices.

It is clear that the future of Deviant Art will only grow as the years progress.

Information gotten from www.deviantart.com

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Devon P

The Ultimate Question

Plasma these tvs use plasma cells

Advantages: Plasma tvs have the best black levels due to being able to turn individual pixels off. They also have higher contrast and are better at handling fast motion. They tend to be less expensive and come in larger sizes than LCD tvs as well.

Disadvantages: Burn-in caused by showing static images for prolonged periods of time can leave a mark of the image on the screen. Plasmas dim with age, however this isn’t much of a problem as much of the tvs available today are rated at 100,000 hours to half brightness. They have reflective screens as well as having lower resolutions in smaller sized tvs.

placed behind pixels to produce an image.

Advantages: Unlike plasmas, LCDs have no risk of burn-in.

They also have much higher resolutions than comparably sized plasmas. They also tend to be better at being used as computer monitors.

Disadvantages: LCD viewing angles tend to be much smaller than plasmas. They tend to have slower reaction speeds so fast motion may blur or lag. They are also more expensive than plasma tvs, especially in larger sizes. The black levels tend to suffer due to the backlighting required for LCD technology to actually produce an image.

LCD changes liquid crystal to refract light from a cathode tube differently.

Advantages: These tvs are highly efficient, saving 40% of the energy normal LCDs use. They are also eco-friendly, with extended life span, low heat emissions, and a lack of mercury in the light bulbs. The rim-lit versions can come in ultra-thin designs no more than a few millimeters wide.

These tvs also have far superior blacks to normal LCDs. Disadvantages: Few companies have models out, though more are on the way. The designs that are out come in limited sizes. These are also the most expensive tvs. They also have the LCD tv’s narrow viewing angle.

LED a variation of LCD, uses light emitting diodes instead of a cathode tube.

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Photo To Drawing 2 Simple Examples

Photo courtesy of Gabi H. I am going to show you steps to draw someone from a photo. Two different styles (manga and regular cartoon), and two styles between one style(withing manga: boy’s style and girl’s style). Please enjoy and learn.

With every drawing, we start off with a sketch. You need a sketch to denotate where the eyes, facial features and limbs go. It also helps to get proportions right.

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Michi D

Regular cartoon (sort of Calvin and Hobbes)

Now we set in the features and details, making sure that the proportions are correct, and that everything is in its place. We have to try to stick close to the facial expression. And erase the sketch lines.

In the end, we go over the pencil lines with pen, this is called inking. The final step is to color your drawing and you’re done!

Manga

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BY MICHI D.

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All images courtesy of Manuel Martinez

Sometimes, being right doesn’t necessarily mean your client will like it. This is one of the many things that Manuel Martinez has learned from working at Domaingurus, where he designs and makes websites for a living.

E

very morning, Manuel Martinez walks into his job at 7 am.

He punches-in in the online registry of the company’s employees. Then he checks his tasks and daily duties and begins work. Later on he might snack on cookies and vanilla-flavored coffee (although, on Fridays, Coca Cola can play a role).

This is his daily routine at Domaingurus where Martinez makes websites for a living.

Domaingurus is one of the three sister companies that Martinez

Michi D to get the position.

“I found the job opening in an online job website, sent my resume and, they called me, I quit my current job ([which was at] a printing press), I was tested for three months and I got the job.” He explained.

The hardest part of getting his job, he says is “learning, reading and knowing how to confidently say ‘I don’t know, where can I learn about that?’ especially when you’re putting everything on the line for a job,”

The condition for keeping the job was to know all about this stuff.

It’s been a year and eight months, now the programmers ask me about their doubts on CSS. Now I know more about dedicated servers, how navigators work, how to design email bulletins…just to name a few.”

It’s hard to believe that Martinez ever had trouble in the beginning, looking at what he’s made. So far, he’s made 10 websites and has www.zeroziete.com to showcase his work. It even includes drawings he’s made. Yes, Martinez

“WHEN I GOT IN, I DIDN’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT advanced CSS programming for designing websites. I had to ask the

PROGRAMERS WHAT TO DO OR WHAT TO READ SO I COULD LEARN MORE” works for, along with CariNet and he says.

GOcipher. Domaingurus and CariNet are mostly hosting websites (websites that host your website), although Domaingurus also offers custom-made websites. GOcipher is a website where you can “rent” a programmer to help your company make a project. “[The hardest part is] being patient”, Martinez says. “In graphic design, presenting your work to the client (or boss) can be very easy or very difficult since we all have different tastes and even if a solution is the most ideal for a project, in the end, the client might not like it, even though he knows I’m right.”

This is only one of the many things that Martinez has learned while on the job. In fact, the degree he had earned at his university was in graphic design; not exactly Web programming. Even so, he managed

draws too. He likes the Japanese drawing style of manga and is very deft at it.

To do his job, Martinez uses a long series of programs, these are as follows: “Adobe CS3 Package- dreamweaver, photoshop, illustrator, flash Browsers – Internet Explorer (6-7Drawing is something else that Martinez wishes he had time to do 8), Firefox (2-3-3.5), Chrome, Opera (8-9) Even after getting accepted, he Thunderbird (it wasn’t completely in the clear. He ’s like outlook, but by Mozilla) had a lot to learn in addition to his FileZilla – FTP client for uploadcurrent skill in design. ing documents straight to a dedicated server.

“When I got in, I didn’t know anything about advanced CSS (Cascad- Pidgin – messenger to communiing Style Sheets) programming for cate with clients in real time. designing websites. I had to ask the programmers what to do or what to Skype – I have clients that use read so I could learn more.”He ex- it and they contact me that way.” plains.

He says.

Even with such program-charged

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days, he diligently works hard at his job and is told everyday that his work makes a difference in the world. But there is one other thing his heart desires.

“Draw, during college, I had problems with my right hand; tendonitis (inflammation of the tendons below the elbow) which stopped me from using force, I couldn’t even hold a pencil.” He says, “my current job actually tires me out too much and I have to let my hand rest at least the entire weekend, I have to take very good care of it since I don’t want to go through that again, or have it turn into something worse.”

Of course, not only vanilla-flavored coffee, cookies and the Friday coke keep him going.

simultaneously on three monitors.

I think I’m reaching a point where learning is part of my daily routine.”

Considering his devotion to his job, his strong skills, and his ability to learn quickly, one would think that he would have wanted to be this as a kid, but in fact he thought he would be an architect. Even so, he loves his job and his advice to getting a job like this can be considered wise.

“Never lose your curiosity of wanting to learn more, read a lot, be humble and have patience”, He says.

When asked if there is anything else he’d like to add, he simply states: “Tomorrow is Monday, I feel lazy about going to work, I want four day weekends!!”

“Planning projects in real time, this is, that you can do your job without having to stay up late, use up extra time and charge the client more, be -- This interview was originally conclear and honest with the times, what ducted in Spanish and was translated you can and can’t do in respect to the by the author.-client’s needs,” Martinez says.

As a the dedicated worker he is, he rather would like to keep working there the rest of his life.

“I would if I could.” He says “I still have a lot to learn, I want to learn more, but sometimes the time [we have] isn’t enough and your body needs to rest, too.”.

Even at only $800 dollars a month, he really thinks it’s worth it.

“Yes, I like it [my job] very much,”he says, “I know I can do more, but sometimes I feel the equipment is a little slow since I have all the previously mentioned programs open

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A Random Note From The Authors Dear Readers,

This is a random note for all of you guys. Each of us is going to give you comments on our experience (or say random stuff).

Liam P. -Emperor and Acting Czar: “There is no problem that cannot be solved without the use of high explosives.

Also, someone who says that the pen is mightier then the sword, obviously has never encountered automatic weapons.”

Devon P. - The creepy guywho sends emails: “When in doubt, spam light frigates” -Geoff, “I see you”Sauron,” Michi DeSantiago- Queen, Head Designer, and only female in group: “If you guys have any questions or comments, **looks at Liam and Devon** or questions...you guys can send them to automationezine@gmail.com.

If it’s to one of us specifically, put our name on the subject.

But remember: Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.”

-The Authors

Devon P

Russell Pankratz A LIFE-LONG PHOTOGRAPHER TELLS HIS STORY

photos by Russell Pankratz

R

ussell Pankratz is all over the place as he shoots the girls’ soccer game.

One minute he’s on this side of the field, then he’s on that side, now he’s in the bleachers, and he’s back on the field again! He is trying to get as many angles as he can so that maybe, just maybe he can get the perfect shot.

But he won’t know if he has until he gets home and processes the thousands of pictures he’s taken.

Russell Pankratz is a lifelong photographer who has tried many activities and entertains many passions.

He has spent countless hours

skiing, playing golf, basketball, baseball and tennis, as well as climbing, biking, hiking, and camping. He has been a janitor, teacher’s assistant, park ranger, and cartographer.

But his passion has always been photography.

Pankratz got his first camera, a Polaroid, when he was 6 years old. His mother had bought it for him. “Since the first time I saw a camera I’ve been fascinated by them,” Pankratz said.

Pankratz bought a camera for the first time when he was 15 years old. He had been saving money over the summer while he worked at his father’s school, taking care

of the grass, painting, and cleaning the floors. When he finally had enough he bought a Minolta SRT 102.

“It was a great camera” Pankratz said.

And it was a film camera, which meant it needed to be processed. Pankratz made his own darkroom for film processing by himself in High School. “I was the industrial arts student of my class” said Pankratz. This means that he knew his way around power tools. He used the darkroom all the way through college.

Processing film was hard and expensive, it took a lot of work and Pankratz wasn’t exactly the best at it. If you

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Photos by Russell Pankratz

wanted somebody else to do it for you, you had to go all over town to different people to get certain details right. If even one thing was done wrong, you had to start over and find someone else who might do it right. It was frustrating. So, Pankratz became interested in digital photography.

“I was watching digital cameras” Pankratz said, “when they developed flash memory in the form of flash cards, I got one immediately. There was a debate a debate that they would never make a digital camera that would be able to compare to film.”

Pankratz knew that was false.

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Him and his friends had been comparing shots of the same objects from digital and film cameras. Digital cameras were much easier to work with, as well as being much cheaper over the life of the camera.

“With digital, all your cost was upfront” Pankratz said. Film was expensive, $6 or $7 a roll, and then you had to develop it.

That’s a lot of upkeep for a college student.

But digital cameras just required a computer, camera, some other accessories and a program to translate the data into useable files.

These files were in RAW for-

mat, which had to be downloaded file by file onto the computer before he could change them into JPEGs. However, Pankratz got full control over every aspect of his pictures, thanks to a program that is now called Adobe Lightroom. Back when Pankratz started using it, though, it was just a little freeware program he’d found on the internet.

He loved it. But after 3 or 4 years of using this program, it disappeared off the internet. It had been bought by Adobe and was being incorporated into a new program that Adobe called Lightroom. Adobe made the

Devon P

beta version available for free.

“They made it available for free in exchange for criticism” Pankratz said. “Photographers who use digital shoot thousands of pictures and have deadlines. They need to be able to be able to perfect images fast, get them into JPEG, and send them.”

Lightroom has many useful features, which have come to great service to Pankratz in the many years he has been using it. Some of his photos have even been published.

One of these photos, which ended up as one of the Cornell Hurd Band’s CD covers,

was a case of being at the right place at the right time.

Pankratz always went to Jovitas, a local restaurant, every Thursday to hear the Cornell Hurd Band live with his friends. “I was leaving Jovitas after the show when I saw the neon Jovitas sign next to this huge cloud.”

Pankratz sent the leader of the band, Cornell Hurd, a copy of the photo and a year later was contacted by Hurd asking if he could use the picture for a CD cover.

Pankratz gladly accepted.

Pankratz also volunteered to photograph the SXSW music festival one year, which

he described as one of the longest shoots he‘s done.

“That was tough” Pankratz said, “You shot from 10AM to 2AM, Go home for a couple of hours, do it again.”

Those were the times when he had double shifts, which was only twice during the 6 days he was shooting.

Throughout all of his career in digital photography Pankratz has stuck with Canon for all of his cameras.

“Canon was way more advanced in the early days.” Pankratz said, “at the time there was no choice, Canon was better [than Nikon]. Nowadays, it’s a much harder decision.

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Which one’s the one for you?

Three Photo Editing Programs are put to the test in order for you to decide which one is the best for you

To help you decide visually, I have provided what you can do in each separate program using a drawing I made. Here are just the simple lines (or Lineart) and you can judge the quality of coloring for yourself.

GIMP GIMP is a very practical program for illustration. It’s easy to use, short, simple and to the pint. It loads very quickly, but I’m not too fond of it.

Not only did it kind of copy off of Photoshop, but it doesn’t have the awesome effects Photoshop does. Plus the layers are kind of Wacky. Insert a transparent layer or another kind of layer, and you get this annoying black layer thing. Why is it black? This isn’t what a PEP (I’m abbreviating “Photo Editing Program”)

Also, it has a few filters Photoshop doesn’t, but it doesn’t matter, because the filters aren’t as good as Photoshop’s, and it doesn’t have filters Photoshop does have. Same thing with the paintbrushes; it hardly has any.

Not to mention, that the dodge tool isn’t nearly as awesome as Photoshop’s. I had a hard time getting along with it and ended up in

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fisticuffs with my computer.

When I used this program, I found myself saying “I HATE THIS THING” multiple times. But you know what? I will give it this: The GIMP that’s for animating, does a capital job at it.

The blur tool isn’t too unacceptable.

Easy Paint Tool SAI

Easy Paint tool SAI hails from Japan, made specifically for coloring drawings in the style of manga (or anime, depending on the effect you want). Easy Paint tool SAI is what it sounds like, it’s a very easy drawing program, but certainly complex enough to make drawings look good. SAI is a good program, and I recommend it for beginners.

I like SAI. It’s a great program to make neat and clean line art. It’s not NEARLY as sensitive about squiggling when you’re drawing as Photoshop is. Also, if you messed up in one part of the line, but the other part is perfect, you don’t have to undo and draw the entire thing all over again. You can just press control, and your lines turn blue and have little green dots on them. You can pull on these dots and rearrange the position of the messed up part of the line to the desired position (very convenient for those of us who aren’t perfect).

SAI is also great for making water color effects. It looks great and convincing without the hassle of spilling paint and your paper getting all wrinkly (ack, I sounded like an infomercial person).

But, if you don’t know how to use watercolors well in the real world, it’s going to be a little tough here because the same principles apply (just digitally).

Images by Michi DeSantiago

I

n case you didn’t know, photo editing programs don’t just have to be for editing photos. That’s right, you can do more. IN fact, you can create drawings with them, and use the tools and effects to make your drawing lok incredible. There’s many Photo Editing programs, but which one’s the right one for you? You’re about to find out as I tell you about two very well known programs and one you probably have never heard of before. Photoshop, GIMP and SAI: Let’s find your match made in design heaven!

Michi D

It’s also nice for coloring regularly, but the effects you have on the tool bars in Photoshop, you can have to make them your self (mostly because of the lack of a dodge tool and a burn tool, but the blur tool is extremely good). The colors look lovely on your drawings and the drawings come out very appealing, and if you’re very good at it, your drawings look great.

Just not as great as if you used Photoshop.

DOWNSIDES!

Yes, SAI is a great program! But I only like it as much as I do because of it’s great ability to mimic water colors and the great lines! When you do hard on coloring and effects, SAI leaves a lot, lot, lot to desire.

It’s substantially cheaper than Photoshop, but it’s still a dent in a High Schooler’s savings. (unless you’re rich, in which case, why bother with SAI when you can have Photoshop?) SAI’s price tag reads 5250JPY (57 USD).

Photoshop

I think Photoshop is incredible. Not only can it handle really big amounts of space when drawing, but it’s also able to shrink an image down or make it bigger, and you don’t get those pesky ugly pixels!

On Photoshop, there’s really impressive effects and very useful tools that help your drawing look as good as it possibly can be. My personal favorites (besides the paint tool Because it’s the best brush tool to draw) are the blur tools (I do a lot of blending) and the Dodge tool that makes things brighter.

The Dodge tool makes highlights and stuff lighter. It helps when you have the lighter sides on skin, clothes and make hair shiny. Another tool that’s useful is the burn tool, which makes things darker (duh). I use the three I just mentioned all over my work. I use the dodge and burn tool to make highlights and low lights on hair, then blend it with the blur tool. When I do eyes, these tools come in very handy and make the eyes look vivid and almost real.

The effects are very good too. You can do almost anything. You can have your picture have a lens glare to make your drawing look like a photograph. You can make the background blurry, you can make clouds, you can even change the colors of the entire picture without having to repaint it!

Sure, a lot of people don’t use Photoshop because it’s a very complex program and they find it “too hard to use”. Yes, Photoshop is hard, but there are these wonderful things called tutorials that many people post on websites for free, they are very helpful when you get stuck. Also, if you want the most out of your drawing, Photoshop is the best thing you can use.

Why do you thing so many professional people use Photoshop instead of any

Something else that could be brought up is Photoshop’s sensitivity to drawing lines. Lot’s of lines tend to come out squiggly if you’re not careful enough. To solve this you can either a) Draw slower b) If the resolution is at around 300 DPI, when you’re done with your drawing (even the coloring and stuff), you can shrink it down to 72 DPI and the squiggles are no more!

A downside I can’t counter (legally) is that Photoshop doesn’t come cheap! At all! The latest version rakes in around $699 (Street price estimate by Adobe). So, think Photoshop’s awesome? Start saving!

In spite of its high price, I recommend Photoshop the most out of all three.

V I S U A L E X A M P L E S

Lineart

GIMP

SAI 2

Photoshop

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The World and Craft of War A warning about the extremely popular, and addictive, game.

W

orld of Warcraft (WOW) has stolen countless hours from the lives of a large portion of the world’s population.

It is renowned as one of the most popular online games of all-time, with an official statement from Activision claiming they had 11.5 members. Let me say that I am not opposed to the game, just amazed at how seriously people can take it. I am opposed to those that abuse the game and give a bad name to all gamers by giving the media another reason to ridicule us gamers.

Many of my own friends have played it, some much more than they should. They have since seen that they were spending too much time on the game and either cut back on the time they spent on the game or quit altogether. My friends were smart, they saw what was happening to them and avoided it, unlike far too many others.

Examples of severe mistreatment of gamers’ bodies are not uncommon.

Nearly everybody gets engrossed in the game to the extent that they can be said to “abuse the game” at some point, usually when they first start playing.

They may go for hours, even days without doing anything but playing the game, eating unhealthy food, drinking sodas, and occasionally sleeping for a few hours. Unfortunately, one of the extreme side effects of such mistreatment, death, is alarmingly common as well, though other types of game related deaths are far more common.

One example of how excessive use can result in death, 57 year-old Jerald Spangenberg died in February of 2009

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photo courtesy of Gabsersdoo on deviantart.com

from an abdominal aneurism while attempting to complete a quest in World of Warcraft.

According to a pddnet.com article, Spangenberg’s daughter then set out on a mission to let the members of his guild know why he wasn’t logging on. In 2005, three cases of death in this way were reported, one was a girl nicknamed “Snowly” who had played for three days straight.

Many people complain that the $15 monthly fee to play WOW is too high, it even acts as a deterrent for many people.

There are those who just don’t have the time or inclination to be a dedicated player, and would rather play one of the many free games that offer the same online play as WOW. The $15 fee is for many people not too big of a deal, but when you consider that you pay $156 a year to play a game, you

Devon P

may understand my point of view.

Die hard WOW fans will hate me for this, but there are better games. Some of these will never cost you a penny, while others may have a one time cost to buy the installation disc. A few even give you the option to pay for extra features while allowing you to play free indefinitely without those features should that be your choice.

There are games that have for some reason or another remained much less popular that were made by the very same company that gave birth to WOW. Starcraft, Blizzard’s third creation is one of my personal favorites and has a long awaited sequel that should be out by the time this is published. Starcraft is a well-known title in the world of strategy gaming, however doesn’t even come close to WOW’s popularity. Of course, the game series Diablo deserves mention as well, being considered by many the all-time greatest

series created. Perhaps what is most surprising is that the series that WOW was based off of and inspired by, Warcraft, is only about half as popular as its descendant. When given the choice of playing any of Blizzard’s games, I know many people wouldn’t choose WOW.

There will, undoubtedly, be those stubborn WOW fans who will read this and deny all of my points to be the prejudiced opinions of someone who wouldn‘t know a good game if it put on hot pink armor and did the hokey pokey. I have never played WOW. I make my arguments based entirely on reviews of the game, news articles and my friends’ accounts. Some people have had the nerve to claim that WOW had absolutely nothing to do with the deaths of people like Snowly. They say that those people just happened to die while playing the game. That even after being so absorbed in the game that they played for three days straight, their death had no relation to the game at all.

This is simply ridiculous. You can’t speak the truth while saying that when someone stays in one spot for three days and dies, the reason they stayed stationary for so long is com

“Take the game less seriously...play some other games”

pletely unrelated to the death.

Again, my point is not to say that WOW is a horrible game, or that everybody should drop the game altogether and do something better with their time. Just that you should take the game less seriously, get some variety in there, play other games, go outside, get together with friends. WOW is not the best game in the world, there will undoubtedly be a game somewhere that you will like better. You will live without playing WOW, trust me, I’ve done so for 15 years.

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HOW TO CHROMA-KEY A VIDEO Images courtesy Liam Pope

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The first thing that you want to do to use a greenscreen effect in a video is to get a greenscreen. You could use a variety of backgrounds to do this, from a professional cloth bought on a film-making website, to a painted side of a barn. A common way to do this is to put up several sheets of green butcher paper on a wall. This gets the job done, though the end result sometimes might be a bit fuzzy.

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When you have your green screen ready, you can start filming. One of the MOST IMPORTANT things to do is to make sure your subject is wearing nothing green, or else they will look like they have a hole in their body. Once they’re set up, take your shot. Make sure to have the screen stay in frame the entire time, or else you might have a wall-colored block on the edge of your video.

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Once you have your scene shot, you can open up whatever video editor that you use. (I’m ghetto, so I’m using Pinnicle studio 12 premire). Import the video, and open up the effects tab on it. Apply a chroma effect, and use the eyedropper to select the color of YOUR background. Using one of their presets will produce undesirable results. Adjust the tolerance and edge levels to keep the subject crisp and clear, and the background completely empty. Since my greenscreen is rather small, and this is a magazine printed on paper, I used a still image as the example and added green in Photoshop around my feet. In an actual movie, the greenscreen should be coveing the ground as well.

Most videos made today contain some sort of special effects. One of the most common effects is chroma-keying, more commonly known as either green- or bluescreening. It works relatively simply: film your subject standing infront of a background, (which can be any color but is usually green or blue), and then edit the video in an advanced video editor. (So you Imovie and WMM fans GET OUT! Jk, jk.)

Liam P HOW IT WORKS

Chroma-keying works by isolating a specific color in a video, and removing it from the layer. When you place the video over another, the deleted color doesn’t appear, and whatever is in the background will show around the subject. This effect is used widely in the film-editing world, such as for weathermen standing in front of those big maps (no they’re not a giant screen), or nearly 100% of all scenes filmed inside a car for movies. Usually for a driving scene, actors will sit in a car in the studio, surrounded by bright lights and a blue wall around them. The lights provide a natural lighting effect, and the view outside the window will be replaced with film shot from a moving car.

Image courtesy eefx.com

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Once you have the video chroma-keyed, find whatever background you want to have for your video.

Import it in, (it can either be a picture or video, or if you want to make it really trippy, an animation), and put it on the MAIN track of your video timeline.

Put the green-screened video on a track above the background, so the non-chroma-keyed part will appear on top of the background. Export as a WMV or whatever, and voila! You have a video!

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Here is a (horrible) example of what a chroma keyed video looks like. Since this is only a paper magazine, you can’t see the actual video, but I’ll show you a frame from the finished project. Please ignore the lack of a shadow, and the variable image quality, but I’m working on a time limit. :P

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Hippies: A Threat

H

ippie. The name of an alien. are polar opposites!” You’re probably The name of an entirely dif- saying right now. “This writer is out ferent life form. The name of of his freaking mind!” Actually, I’m a… parasite. not.

I have created a plan.

Some

Hippies are a dangerous and dead- will call it evil. Some will call it ly breed.

They feed off of marijua- insane. I will call it wickedly ingena and green energy. They poison so- nious. ciety with their tie-dye headbands, What is the biggest danger to sotheir peace-sign t-shirts, ciety right now? Hippies! and their long, unwashed “Yet they also have So we need a way of gethair. They tend to gather the potential to ting rid of them. I have in large groups, and ofthat way. save the world.” ten flock to what are known

I propose that we as “demonstrations”, where gather the hippies from the they dance in circles and perform such street.

We put them in labor camps, pagan rituals as “sit-ins” and “pick- where they will work for the rest of eting”.

They fester in the streets, their days generating the electricity grouping around innocent bystanders to power the world. They will have no and not withdrawing until the victim social lives, no free will, and no conhas had his soul sucked out of his tact with the outside world. They will body, and been dressed in traditional be our mindless slaves, working away hippie garb. They spread toxic clouds the debts owed to society from 40 years of “love” and “freedom” wherever they of loud, obnoxious “music festivals”. go. They have the power to end human- They will never know what happened to ity as we know it. them.

Yet they also have the potential I call it the Final Solution. to save the world.

Some of the biggest opposers to my

Yes, I know what you’re thinking. Final Solution will probably be human“Hippies can’t save the world!

All itarian groups. As you probably know, they do is smoke pot and smell bad!” these organizations are just groups But that is where you’re wrong. As you of hippies that have evolved to mimic probably know, our earth is current- human behavior.

They will yell such ly running out of energy.

We burned things as “They’re people like you and 6,743,786,000 tons of coal in 2006, and me!” and “This is inhuman!” These are that number grows each year. The vast nothing but lies. Hippies are not peomajority of coal burned is used to gen- ple. They are a similar form of life, erate electricity. The carbon dioxide “humanoids”, if you will, but their spewed out into the atmosphere by that internal organs are entirely foreign. is destroying the climate, and creat- They have no lungs, liver, or heart, ing alarmingly high levels of ozone. or even soul for that matter. The only All of that boils down to the fact that thing on the inside of a hippie’s body we need to find a better source of en- is a large dark sack that absorbs the ergy. disgust and fear of humans, as well as

Now I’ve probably got you con- an incredible range of illegal subfused. “Hippies and electricity? Those stances.

Their brains are clumps of

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Liam P

at to Society

Image by Michi D. This hippie is a great example of the irrationality the species displays.

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Image courtesy of Rodrigo Rezende at Deviantart.com

nerves that have basic a fresh batch of hippies. reasoning skills, used There will be centers like mostly to shout “Hey this located in strategic man!

Peace on earth, locations around the counman!

Hey man, got a try, all in the middle of joint?” Their vocabulabor camps. lary is made up of use When a hippie is off less phrases, all of of his “wheel shift,” as which contain the term they will be called, he “man”, a word they use will be performing a numbecause of their inber of menial tasks in the satiable desire to be camp.

The hippies will accepted as one of us. farm vegetables and organThey are also constantic cattle to be sold at a ly high, so their al- This is a thought-provoking represen- discounted rate at special tation of the modern hippie. ready low mental capacstores located in major ity will be even more urban centers.

They are stunted.

They won’t even understand perfect for this type of work because what is happening to them as we herd of their previous experience at group them into camps.

“That’s all very homes in the middle of the country, good,” you might say. “But how will it where they separate themselves from all even work? How do hippies generate society and regress into a menial life electricity?” The answer can be found of sowing fields and spreading human in a child’s room.

Hamster wheels. excrement. They will do all the jobs Yes, that’s what I said. We will manu- that humans resent, and then some. facture thousands of oversized hamster But where are the hippies in all wheels in which guards will place the of this?

How will they react when hippies.

They will be approximately they eventually come to a grim realseven feet in diameter, and two feet ization of the horrors that surround wide. When the hippie is placed in the them? Well, one would think that they device, a joint and a free ticket to would take to it rather well, actuLollapalooza will be placed on a tray ally.

Think about it: Hippies want directly in front of the wheel.

The to save the world. While they generhippie will see it, and as he is con- ally do quite a terrible job of it, stantly looking for ways to not spend they may actually accomplish something money yet still get ridiculously high here. They would, of course, be saving while listening to crappy music, he the world.

Technically, they should will run towards the ticket. And keep enjoy it!

It’s a win-win situation. running for an indefinite amount of Hippies get to save the world, and Hutime. As his clump of nerves (I cannot manity looses an enemy and gains power bring myself to call it a brain) will for the rest of time! What could be not register that it is out of reach better? for a considerable amount of time, he Well, there you have it.

The will give us about one day of constant Final Solution.

Some will call me a energy.

His wheel will be connected monster, some will call me the devil, to a belt which will power a genera- and some will even compare me to Hittor. Thousands of these devices will ler. But these people are wrong. I am be connected to the same belt, and col- a martyr. I am a visionary. I will lectively will generate about 1 mega- lead humanity to the greatest victory watt per two thousand devices.

The it has ever experienced. devices will be changed every day with The elimination of The Hippie.

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About the creators of Automation Meet the Mascots

T-Pope (Liam) Liam P. (take a WILD guess) is the charismatic, audacious leader of Automation magazine. He enjoys luscious sunsets, long walks on the beach, and a spaghetti dinner augmented with the blood of his enemies. The few who have crossed him exist no more. He’s had a harsh childhood, filled with chores, homework, sailing on a boat, and the occasional Russian sleeper-cell incident. His writing gleams with a superb air of importance and elegance, and all of the articles that have imbibed his input will bestow the reader with +8 agility and +15 intelligence.

Tekuno

Tekuno is one of the mascots for Automation magazine.

He represents the technology aspect of this magazine and he is also our end sign.

Zuga

Zuga is Tekuno’s little sister, and is also an Automation magazine mascot.

She represents the design aspect of the magazine and also helps lead one or two things in the magazine.

Michi D. Michi is the head designer and illustrator of Automation magazine. She enjoys drawing (no duh) and reading manga.

She also likes to pet kitties, obsess over Death Note, hang out with birdies and squirrels and kick Liam. Everyday, she walks inside the school, throws her backpack on the floor in front of her Japanese teacher’s room, and DRAWS. Her life is so incredibly exciting, you’d cry. She wants to be a manga artist (“mangaka” is the correct term though) and live in Japan. And she’s watching you. Maybe.

Devon (Enrique) Pancakes Devon has many strange friends, who have for some reason decided to name him Enrique the Colombian drug overlord. Also, despite the fact that he’s 6’ 3”, he often sneaks up on his friends. He greatly enjoys dramatic victories over his friends at Halo. He doesn’t like to talk about himself in third person.

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