Obama Thanks

We should have all received an email from President Obama titled Thank Representatives. I have posted that email below these instructions. The president asks you (as members of his team) to contact certain politicians to push them toward voting for the stimulus package. In case you can not find the email, I have pasted it to the bottom of this post.

He has all the details in the email Dated about who to contact them and what to say. The email says to call Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson to thank her, but her office has asked us to thank her via email as they were inundated by our calls. The email address that we are to send the letter to is scott.hall@mail.house.gov

I encourage you to read about the stimulus package first. I am all for it, but I want you to make your own decisions. I'm very in favor of the high speed train part of the package.

The email also asks you to report to Mr. Obama that you thanked the Representative. In his email he gives you a URL to go to make this report. Include your phone number and he may call you. Before submitting this, make a screenshot of the form that you filled out and post it to you blog. To make a screen shot of the form while it is on your screen, click the PRTSC button on your keyboard; This is the Print Screen Button and it is usually located in the upper right quadrant of your keyboard. You won't see anything happen, but it has saved the image to your clipboard. Click Start> Programs> Accessories> Paint. In Paint, click Edit> Paste. Save the file as a file type JPEG and upload this to your blog. Don't forget to go back to your form on President Obama's site to submit it.

A good word to learn for this lesson is Multitasking. When you copy things from one program to another, email some one and fill out a form on the web, this is called Multitasking. This is a good word to use on your resume: "I am an experienced multitasker."

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: "Mitch Stewart, BarackObama.com"
To: Philip Cook
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 12:30:24 PM
Subject: Thank Rep. Johnson

Philip --
President Obama launched the most ambitious effort to stimulate the economy in our nation's history when he signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Tuesday.
Your representatives need to hear from you when they vote for the change you mandated in November. Doing what's right can be thankless when the culture of Washington tries to make political games out of the issues that matter to everyday Americans.
You're part of a powerful grassroots movement that can change that dynamic. According to our records, you live in Texas's 30th district.
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson's vote was crucial to passing the bill and creating and saving jobs in Texas.
Can you pick up the phone right now to thank Rep. Johnson?
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson
202-225-8885
Report your call.
Here are some suggested talking points for your call:
- I'm calling to thank [Congress member's name] for supporting the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
- I'll be watching closely online and in the news how taxpayers' money is spent in the implementation of this Act.
- I encourage [Congress member's name] to continue working with President Obama to lift America out of this economic crisis.
After your call, please record your feedback here:
http://my.barackobama.com/stimulusthanks
We still have a long way to go, but working together we were able to take this important first step.
With the plan in place, more than 2 million people will be lifted out of poverty, 20 million at risk of losing their health care will be protected, and 3.5 million jobs will be created or saved.
There will be plenty more ways for you to contribute in the weeks and months ahead.
Thank you for your continued support,
Mitch
Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America
P.S. -- If you don't live in TX-30 or think you have a different member of Congress to thank, you can input your address here and find out whether your Representative and Senators voted in favor of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act:
http://my.barackobama.com/recoveryvote



Paid for by Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee -- 430 South Capitol Street SE, Washington, D.C. 20003. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
This email was sent to: philipruvalcaba@yahoo.com
To unsubscribe, go to: http://my.barackobama.com/page/m2/55c13e2b/6bb6c8ae/3ee444e9/11884c43/2545289938/VEsC/

Photoshoped picture by Graciela Lara

Before Picture

After Picture

Using Photoshop to layer and alter our mosaics before animating them

1) I will pass around a CD with all of pictures that you scanned. When you get the CD, insert it into your CD ROM drive. To access your pictures, click on Start> My Computer> D drive. Click on the "folders" button at the top of the My Computer dialogue box; This allows you to have open your D drive on the right and to drag your folder (with the picture file(s)) to the Q: drive which is labeled "Thaw Space". Pass the CD on to the next person.

2) Upload your picture(s) to your blog and title it "Mosaic Before Photoshop". To do this:
a) log into your blog
b) create a new post
c) click on the "Add Image" Icon on the toolbar of your post window (it is up with the bold and italicized buttons - it looks like a photograph)
d) click the browse button and locate your picture files on the Q drive "Thawspace"
e) check the "I agree to terms" box
f) once your picture has uploaded, you will see a Done button, click on this
g) repeat these steps if you have multiple pictures
h) click publish
i) view your blog to ensure that the pictures uploaded correctly

3) Open Adobe Photoshop: Click Start> Programs> Adobe Master Suite Collection CS4> Photoshop

4) Once in Photoshop, click File> open and navigate to your picture file(s) on the Q drive "thawspace". IF you're pictures are saved in multiple files, see me.

5) Once you have your picture(s) open in Photoshop: On the right hand side, you will see a panel called layers.

*NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT SEE THE BLUE BACKGROUND LAYER, CLICK ON THE "LAYERS TAB" AND IT WILL APPEAR.

6) Notice that there is only one layer (the background layer) and that it has a lock on it - this keeps the background from being transparent. We need the background to be transparent, so we have to unlock it - Double Click on the Lock.

A new Layer box opens. Notice that color (background color) is set to none, this is what allows us to remove the background color and make the layer transparent. Just click the OK button. Your one layer is now named "Layer 0" and it has no lock.



7) On the tools menu on the right side of the screen, choose from the following tools to select the part of the picture that you want to move to another layer:
a) Marque
b) Lasso
c) Magic Wand or Quick Select
*Right click on any of these tools to see variations of the tools.

*Which tool you choose is determined by what part of your picture that you want to choose and its proximity to other parts of the picture. The Magic Wand will work easily to choose the pieces of the face in the example here, but it may not work well in all situations.

8) Once you have selected the part of the picture that you want to cut onto a new layer, click Layer, New Layer Via Cut.



9) On the right side in the Layers Panel, you see that you have two layers, but the picture on the canvas still looks the same. Click on the eyeball next to each layer to see the layer with no eyeball disappear. You will also see that Layer 1 (your new layer) has the object that you cut with your Magic Wand and that the object is on a transparent layer.

Repeat steps 7 & 8 with each object in your layer 0. To do this, make sure that the Layer 0 is selected (colored blue) and that the eyeball is only showing on that layer. Repeat the steps of selecting an object with your magic wand, then click Layer>New>layer via cut. Each time you try to select and cut a new object from Layer 0, you will have to ensure that Layer 0 is selected and that the eyeball is on only that layer; otherwise you will get an error message.

10) Once you have each object on a separate transparent layer, ad one new layer from the layers menu. In the Layers Panel, drag this layer to the very bottom of the layers. On the tool bar, click on the square tool (gradient tool). Place your cursor in the top right corner of the canvas, click and drag all the way to the bottom left corner. Make sure that this layer is selected (blue) and is the only layer with an eyeball. On the right side of the screen, click on the Styles panel, which is the tab to the right of the colors panel. Choose a style. After you choose the style, there will be two or three new eyeballs below that layer and that the first one is called "effects". Double click each of these and a dialogue box will open. You should play around with all of the sliders, knobs and other choices that the dialogue box offers. Take note of the different words that you will see in the settings such as Bevel and Opacity.
If you create a style that you don't like, just click cancel and try something different. .

11) Select another of your layers and ensure that this is the only layer with an eyeball on it. Highlight one the shape with your magic wand and choose any filter from the filters menu. Most of the filters open dialogue boxes with sliders, dials and other mechanisms to play with. Again, you can click cancel and start over if you don't like what you did. You can also undo changes with the "step backward" command on the edit menu.

Once you have modified the object on each layer, click to add an eyeball to each layer.

12) To Rotate or flip an image: click Free Transform from the edit menu




NOTE: YOU WILL SAVE YOUR FILE TWO TIMES AS TWO DIFFERENT FILE TYPES, ONE TO UPLAD TO YOUR BLOG AND ONE TO USE FOR YOUR ANIMATION.

13) Now click File> Save as
Give the file a name and in the save as type drop down box, choose JPEG to save the file as a JPEG file type. If you do not have a flash drive to save it to, save it to the Q: drive "thaw space".
A dialogue box will open to ask you some questions. This box is giving you choices about optimization. You can choose the quality of the picture to be high, medium or low. The higher the quality that you choose, the better the picture will look but the file size will also be larger. A large file size is not a problem for viewers of your blog, because they likely have a fast connection.

14) Save the file as a PNG file type. Name the file "Photoshoped Mosaic" This is your layered version of your file that you need for your animation project. If you do not have a flash drive to save it to, save it to the Q: drive "thaw space".

15) Upload the jpeg version of the picture to your blog and call it your "Photoshoped Mosaic". To do this, see the directions back in step 2.

Photoshop Skin Retouching Exercise

Take Your Picture:

Take turns at the computers with web cams taking your picture.

So that everyone can quickly take their picture and upload it, spend no more than two minutes taking your picture and two minutes logging into your blog to upload your picture. Make sure that you remember your login for your blog before you go to a webcam computer to take your picture.

To upload your picture to your blog, create a new post.
Title it "My Before Picture." In the blog post click on the picture icon (the sixth icon above the text entry box - it looks like a photo).
This brings up the Add an Image box.
Click on the Choose File Button.
Navigate to My Documents> My Pictures> Logitech> find your picture.
Click the Upload Image Button.
Now you are back in your post so click the Publish Post button.
Log out and return to your computer.


Retouching Your Picture (Now you have returned to your computer)
Log on to your blog.
Right click on your picture and save it to the desktop.

Copy and paste this url to your address box to navigate to the tutorial. http://www.photoshopsupport.com/photoshop-cs4/tutorials/skin-retouching-tips-cs4.html

The tutorial uses a picture of a woman. You can read the intro about the picture, but we will use our own pictures.
Follow steps one through seven to retouch your photo.

When you have completed retouching your photo, save it to the desktop.

Getting Your Retouched Picture On to Your Blog
Title it "My Retouched Picture." In the blog post click on the picture icon (the sixth icon above the text entry box - it looks like a photo).
To upload your picture to your blog, create a new post.
This brings up the Add an Image box.
Click on the Choose File Button.
Navigate to the desktop to find your modified picture.
Click the Upload Image Button.
Now you are back in your post so click the Publish Post button.

What to Do If You Finish Before Class is Over
Go to powervideos.org and create a login.
From the search box (on the right top of page) enter the subject that you are most having trouble with.
This displays many videos - Choose won that appears to deal with a subject that you need to work on.
This is your only option for your post assignment time. Anyone caught on any other website will receive a referral.