Final Projects and Presentations

The end is near! Next Wednesday (May 7th) at 7:30pm we will have the Final Project Presentations and your completed Final Project is due (it must be online, linked to your blog, and functional!). We will meet in our normal classroom. Please be on-time.

The Presentation is informal: each student will spend 7-8 minutes showcasing their final project. Tell us what you set out to do, why you selected it, who your target audience is, how you created it, what challenges you encountered, and what you'd like to do if time were no option. The class and I will ask a few questions, and then you're done! Woo-hoo.

I will be holding additional hours on campus to help with your project issues. We'll pick some times in class tonight. Also feel free to send me an email at any point. Hang in there!

1 week left!

Tonight is the last regular class. All we have left is the final exam period next Wed, May 7th at 7:30pm. That is when the final projects are due and we'll have informal presentations of the projects (details coming).

As for tonight, this is the last "official" opportunity for feedback on your project. No lecture, but time to ask questions and get help. I also want to offer the big screen up front to anyone looking for some feedback. It was great to see Liza's animation last week and hear the comments from the class. No matter what state your project is in, it can be quite helpful to throw out your questions on design or layout or interface and see what the class says (you're not required to adopt any of it!). And again, even if you are still at a crude state, we might think of something that will help...

See you tonight!

More wonderful maps!

Internet maps:
Cybergeography is a website with extensive graphics and links to all sorts of interesting research. Lots of examples of complex datasets.

One particular example from UCSD

and at the other side of the spectrum...


A different topic, but a very interesting approach to visualizing a complex yet simple concept: the number of people in the world

A map I just found this week: estimation of risk

And a little bit of the art side of maps:
rug
Legos

Map Festival Week!

This week we continue our advanced features in Flash and look further into map and graphic design. Inspired by Tufte's "Graphical Excellence" I want to look at even more maps:

Static Maps:
Census 200 maps
NYC and London subway maps and modifications
Visualizations:
Flight and Expulsion
Earth Live (Discovery Channel)
Real time Wikipedia posting shown geographically (simple but neat)

Typography:
neat video that's appropriate for map makers

and just to keep up your yearning for maps:
National Geographic's Map of the Day

And for Lab 9:
The linkto the preloading steps. Please check out the other tutorials as well -- all I've tested have worked.

April has arrived!

And so we continue our look into maps and their design elements.

Today let's look some more into color:
Color is both empowering and overwhelming. It can transform a map in a fantastic way and it can also kill a map. Knowing how to use color is key.
The most popular cartographic color site is Cindy Brewer's ColorBrewer (catchy name, huh?). It is such a simple, easy to use starting point that I know direct all of my new map makers to the site to start their color journey.
The colourlovers blog is a great resource and just interesting to look through.
Kuler is an Adobe applet that is very handy as well.

Lab 7 Hints (Splash screens and rollovers)

I've received 2 questions on the splash screens and wanted to pass along these hints:

If you want to do your splash screen in the same scene as your animation, simply highlight all the frames in your animation (click on the top layer of the first frame of the animation, then shift-click on the bottom layer of the first frame, then shift-click again on the last frame of the bottom layer...that should highlight every frame of your animation), then click the highlighted frames and drag them further down the timeline. That will open frames at the beginning of your animation.

It may, however, be cleaner and neater to create a new scene for your splash screen that, at it's end, just plays the first frame of your animation. Just make sure your new scene appears listed before your animation scene in the "Scenes" window (Windows->Other Panels->Scenes). Flash plays the scenes in your movie in the order they appear in that window.

At the end of your splash screen scene, just add a "goto and play" script to the final frame, or add a button that allows your users to advance there on their own.


I also received a question about roll-overs (when everything, even the "hidden" part is "active"):

Double-click on your button (while the layer it's on is unlocked) so you enter the button edit mode. See if you have added "Down" or "Hit" states for the button. The key one here is "Hit" -- this defines the trigger area of the button. Without it specifically defined, it just assumes every element in the button is part of the trigger area. So, the easy fix is to add a keyframe in the "Hit" frame, draw a little box (any color...doesn't matter) over the area you want to trigger the pop-up (probably the text or button, not the popup part as well), then delete everything else in the frame. Just leave the little box you just drew.

Now the popup should only be triggered by the area you designated with that little box you drew in the "Hit" frame.

More questions or handy tricks? Post a comment to this post!

Wednesday, March 26th

Tonight we are going to start looking more into design issues and look into more visualizations.

Shaded Relief and Draping :
Tom Patterson is the shaded relief guru (he's a Cartographer at the National Park Service in Harper's Ferry). He is also a really nice guy! This is his site.
great site
Another good source of info: Hunter College Guide
Tufte on Imhof

Washington Post's Avian Flu Map
Newseum Flash map of the news
Obesity in America.This one presents a similar map style as to our current lab...how would you critique it?
FAA flight visualizations
Red Sea
U.S. home prices adjusted for inflation and plotted on a roller coaster. Really.

Article to read is by Tom Patterson.
Not a map per se, but you might find this video as neat as I do. Might make you feel a bit small in the grand scheme of things.

Web posting assignment for this week: Select and comment on one of the following:
More than 1100static maps. Try and find the actual site for the graphic you like.

Final Project Proposal

The final project should be your highest quality visualization to date. Unlike a GIS class, you do not need to solve a problem or answer a geographic question (though good maps often do). Your goal in a Cartography class is to work on the end result -- the visual display of the information. Therefore, it is perfectly acceptable with this project to map data that has been mapped before or to work on creating a much-improved version of a disappointing map. "New" data is fine, but don't spend too much of your time sifting the numbers when you need to spend most of the time on the graphics.

There are a variety of visualization options: smooth, flip-book animation, motion and shape tweening animation, step-by-step multimedia modules, "faux" GIS (where the user gets to turn layers on and off), and any combination of the above. The one requirement is that the project is presented in Flash (as a link off your blog). You can choose to use any combination of software programs for the development (ArcMap, Illustrator, Photoshop, Google Earth, etc.) but you must use Flash as the display medium. If you want to make everything in Flash, that's alright too!

What topics can you choose from? Anything (well...if you would be embarrassed to show your grandmother, let's save that for a different time). Can you make something that links in with another class? Yes! Can you make something for work or a graduate project? Of course! Can you map something that you've been curious about or something you have simply stumbled on? Yes...yes. You could work to animate a historical event, create a tutorial on a topic that uses a map as the key element, or give a detailed overview of a location with multiple interactive map layers. Lots of options...

This week I want a proposal of your idea. ***CHANGE*** Instead of turning in your proposal this Wed in class, I'm going to ask you to email me your proposal by 5pm this Friday. That will give everyone more time to talk to me about ideas.

Here is what I'm looking for with the proposal:

In approx. 3 typed, double-spaced pages, propose an idea for your Final Project. Explain the topic, the reason you've selected it, the audience of the map(s), the type of visualization you envision, the data source (and if it has been acquired), the production steps (data processing, software, etc.), and a schedule. If you are inspired by another map, include a scan or link. Also discuss any issues/obstacles/needs you foresee.

At this point you should have a grasp as to what you can do in Flash. Go ahead and propose your ideal project (what you'd *really* like to see) and we'll discuss what is doable. My hope is that this project can be used as a key part of a growing mapping portfolio.

Questions? Send me an email or talk to me in class on Wed!

Looking at cartographic animations (from a design and multimedia standpoint)

Animation with moving symbol
Another example with a historical bend (warning...has sounds)
A moving symbol in a hurricane simulation

A "faux-GIS" style animation
Another one about Michigan
And one more

And this is just an interesting way to search for news geographically
And this is just a very unique visualization of movie box office domestic grosses

How to get your Flash file on your blog

Blogger accepts pictures and movies and hyperlinks, but for some reason it does not like Flash movies. Therefore, we need to use a different website to store our .swf and .html files (the 2 files generated when you Publish your movie) and then link to that site from our blog.

One option is to use your Mason webs-pace account. Simply ftp the 2 files to your public.html folder and then link to them in you blog post (follow the instructions in the lab). If your haven't set-up your account, follow the instructions at the ITU Support page or swing by the STAR lab in the Johnson Center

If you are not on friendly terms with your Mason web-space, you can try a third-party site. There are a few free sites online that will host files for you. The one I'm most comfortable suggesting is SwfUP since it does not require you to download anything to your computer. Another site is imageshack but it might ask you to download a toolbar (I did not want to so I have not fully tried it, but I had one student with good luck). Krystal suggested Pages by Google (but I'm still testing that).

In summary, your Mason account is optimal -- no registration, no toolbar, just your file safe and sound. But I'm not picky...I just need a link on your blog to your published Flash movie!

Note: If you are using Flash 9 (as the lab instructions are currently geared for), you will publish 2 files: .swf and .html
If you are using CS2 (in the classroom and the version of the free trials), you will be asked to publish an additional javascript .js file.

Lab 2 -- Football Flash

I've heard from a few students that they are having problems with their Flash assignment. It is, unfortunately, easy to make small mistakes in Flash (esp. with the scripting) that cause errors when the movie plays. I really want the whole class to get comfortable with Flash so we will spend some time talking through the most common problems. We will also go through the best ways to get your Flash file linked to your blog (Blogger, unfortunately, does not accept the .swf files so we must store them somewhere else and link to them in Blogger).

Although I will introduce a new lab this evening, I want you to ask for help when we get over to the RA113 lab. I won't officially start reviewing Lab 2 until the weekend so you will have a little more time to make any needed corrections. Lab 2 covers quite a bit of key concepts....

Wed. Feb 20th

There are a few things you should know about this evening's class (yes! we're planning to meet...)
1. There is a basketball game so traffic and parking might be miserable (see parking services notice below). This will also be an issue for next Wed, Feb 27th.
2. We are trying a different classroom -- IN 336. I'm not sure if the computer projector will be better, but it is definitely worth a try! Please meet in 336.
3. Snow. I'm assuming the snow today will be minimal and GMU will remain open all night, but PLEASE check http://www.gmu.edu/ before you head to campus. I will send an email out if I learn of any closings.

Correction to Lab 0:Blog

It was brought to my attention last night that the write-up for the blog set-up refers to the class blog address as http://geog310.blogspot.com when in fact it is http://mapdesign.blogspot.com.

If you simply switch out the web addresses, you'll link to "our" class....not one from last Fall!

(If you're curious to see what the undergrad students did in the Intro Cartography class, go to the geog310 page and click on the names in the table on the left to pull up their personal class blogs).

Yes, you found it!

This is the main page for Map Design -- a graduate Cartography class at George Mason University this Spring 2008.

It has been a long time since this class was offered (Spring 2003?) so I'm quite excited to take a crack at it. We will be doing a lot with this semester -- examining, critiquing, & making maps in addition to honing our design skills. Should be fun!