App-O-Da-Week #7

It's that time of the week again!

It's APP-O-DA-WEEK time! 

Thanks for coming back! We are going for nearly two months now. We have brought you both paid and free apps but this app is a bit different... it's both. 

The app that we will be highlighting this week is called "Puppet Pals."

Now, this app is free but to access all the content, you do have to pay for an upgraded version. These apps are generally refered to as "freemium apps" because they rope you in the the FREE word but then make you purchase more to access everything you want to. 

You might be saying to yourself that this is a waste of a FREE app - and most times, you would be correct. But, I would also argue that the paid version of Puppet Pals, which is $2.99, is well worth the investment. The full version is called "Puppet Pals Directors Pass" and you get a lot with it. 

This app allows you to create free puppet shows with user created or app created content. You can do voice overs  move characters around, and create some seriously wicked presentations! The app is easy to use and is one of those creation and collaboration apps that can be scaled for any age group from grades K-12.

Here is how the app makers describe their own app via http://tinyurl.com/a9deaat:

STAR IN YOUR OWN CARTOON in this creative, award-winning app!

Kids and adults alike love the simplicity of puppeteering and voicing characters while creating movies to share.

Simply pick out your actors and backdrops, drag them on to the stage, and tap record. Your movements and audio will be recorded in real time for playback later. 

This app is as fun as your own creativity. Act out a story of Pirates on the high seas, fight as scary monsters, or play the part of a Wild West bandit on the loose. You can even combine any characters however you want! 

Your creations are only limited by your imagination!

FEATURES 

- Create an actor from a photo

- Use a photo as a backdrop for your storytelling

- zoom and rotate your characters using two fingers

- flip them around with a double tap

- a wide variety of creative characters to download (including famous talk show hosts and politicians)

- limitless possibilities of story creations

All in all, its a pretty great app. Students can get engaged and tell stories using premade characters or they can take pictures and put themselves in the story! Other in app-purchases may set you back some but the basics should keep people coming back!

Mini Art School #2 - Compositions

I am not an artist. I don't pretend to be. I believe my best artistic work came in the fifth grade when my best friend and I came up with some comic strip. We would fill the strip with different superheroes, which were based off of fruit. Appleman, Orangeman, Mr. Pencil and Banana Boy. That was the highlight until I tried this exercise from Design Basics Index in which I needed to design and create compositions for the corporate world. 

I do not have a "Vector" program like they wanted us to use in the book so I used pencil and paper to do my sketches and final drafts. The corporation I went with was in the medical field. From these basic, early, and rather contrite sketches, I drew up about twenty or so designs for the medical field. Because the next major holiday is valentines day, I choose to do something with the heart, though I didn't at first. I skipped around, randomly drawing, using shapes and contours until I found some designs that worked for me. The heart and the medical cross kept popping up into my head. So, out of all of those, I choose three to refine.

These were the hardest ones for me. I went back and retraced to make sure that I put emphasis on certain items. 

1. The first example is of a heart and the cross behind it - which means that they (the hospital, doctors, or whoever I am pitching this to) will always be there. I also put inside the heart the EKG monitor and it is spiking at the last moment, signifying that this place is where you want to go if your heart stops. 

2. The second design is of a broken heart. It is torn down the middle and a band aid is over top of it. The use of the bandage signifies that they will be there to heal broken hearts. Out of all of the designs, this was the weakest one. Are they supposed to fix unhealthy hearts or hearts that are broken from love? The design had some flaws.

3. Finally, my coup de grat. It was a shattered heart and standing behind it was the cross, yet again. The cross is bringing the pieces back together, mending and repairing. I loved this design. I would put vibrant colors into this one next time if I could. That is the only thing it is lacking. Color would make these pop.