Class:MFA Illustration 2024/Week 2
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Contents
Last Week
- Introductions and backgrounds
- Review class intro questionnaire
- Open questions and discussion
This Week
- Intro to Gear
- Intro to healthy computer habits
- First Assignment
Open Questions
Links
- I shared a nice time-lapse of Robert Kondo painting light in Photoshop [here].
- More of [Tonko School videos]
Notes Gear
Basic Hardware
- Mac
- Windows
- Unix/Linux
Memory (RAM)
Most portable computers no longer allow for memory upgrades.
- http://ramseeker.com
- http://www.crucial.com
- solid prices, good memory
- http://www.mcetech.com
Storage (Hard Drive)
- Wirecutter: Best external hard drives http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-portable-hard-drive/
- PC Mag: The Best External Hard Drives for 2023 https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-external-hard-drives
- PC World: Best external drives 2023: Backup, storage, and portability https://www.pcworld.com/article/406861/best-external-drives.html
Hard Drive Basics
- Traditional Spinning Platters
- 7200rpm, 5200rpm, 4500rpm
- Faster is always better!
- Solid State Drives (SSD)
- Standard internal drives in modern hardware.
- Fast, expensive...
- Flash Drives
- Meh. Handy in a pinch, don't depend on them!
- External Drives
- Big 3.5" drives that have a plug.
- Great for Archiving
- Not portable, need power
- Stay away from multi-drive boxes!
- Portable 2.5" drives
- Great for transporting files around, kinda backup.
- Bus powered, many types.
- Faster is STILL always better!
- http://www.imore.com/mac-portable-usb-drive-roundup-best-little-drives-your-mac
- Internal Drives
- What do we mean by internal drive? [these!]
- Cheapest storage option, great investment tho.
- Need a [hard drive dock tho]
- Drive Arrays
- One enclosure for multiple internal drives.
- http://www.promise.com/storage/raid_series.aspx?m=192®ion=en-global&rsn1=40&rsn3=47
- http://addonics.com/
- http://drobo.com/ (Recommended)
Hard Drive Recommendations
- Desktop Drives
- Gdrives are good: http://www.g-technology.com/
- A hard drive "Dock" and internal hard drives is a great low cost solution for at home backup.
- Sabrent Dual Bay Hard Drive Docking Station up to 5Gbps
- OWC Drive Dock USB-C Dual Drive for Mac and PC
- Internal 2tb or 3tb SATA drives (7200rpm or faster) - http://amzn.to/2cPaJLW
- Portable Drives
- Wirecutter reviews are good, not designer/illustrator specific - https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-portable-hard-drive/
- Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB - http://amzn.to/2dfBjvE
- Lacie 2tb usb-c (fast) - https://amzn.to/2NCuSIo
- SanDisk 2TB Extreme Portable SSD (wicked fast) - https://amzn.to/2zqDadM
Cloud Storage
- World Backup Day 2023: Best Cloud Storage Software Options
- Dropbox is a force for good, my referral code to sign up is:
Flatbed Scanners
Added a full guide on Scanners for artists (Mostly flatbed) to the front page.
Shopping
- Shops in NYC
- CAVA http://www.sva.edu/student-life/cava
- 5 Apple Stores
- B&H photo http://www.bhphotovideo.com/
- Online
- https://www.macsales.com/
- http://store.apple.com
- http://www.newegg.com
- http://www.amazon.com
- http://www.journeyed.com
Notes Healthy Computers
Backup Plans
- Manual Backup
- Free
- You have to do it
- Apple Time Machine
- You already have it if you are using OS X 10.5 or later.
- You need to have a dedicated external (or internal hard drive for this).
- You can also consider a dedicated wireless Time Capsule as the storage device: http://www.apple.com/timecapsule/
- Backup Software
- Super Duper http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
- Carbon Copy Cloner
- Can trial for a while, all featured for $40.
- Cloud Backup
- Carbonite http://www.carbonite.com
- Backblaze https://www.backblaze.com/
Online File Storage
- Email it to yourself
- Gmail has 32mb limit
- There is also google drive?
- dropbox - https://db.tt/usQuGwKR
- google drive
- yousendit - http://www.yousendit.com/
- wetransfer - http://wetransfer.com
Mouse & Tablets
- Do you need a mouse?
- These are good: Logitech Wireless Anywhere Mouse http://amzn.to/PIjj9M
- Tablets
- Wacom, go for smooth over size.
- Intous 5 http://amzn.to/PUs2Jo
- Astropad!
- Turn your iPad Pro into a tablet
- http://astropad.com/
OS X 101
- Users
- Files
- Your Library
- User folder (Shift - Command - G "~/Library")
Shortcuts
- Finder:
- New window: command - n
- View as icon: command - 1
- View as list: command - 2
- View as column: command - 3
Things to remember about healthy computers
- Keep 20% of the drive empty
- If you run out of Memory == BAD
- If your taxing the CPU == BAD
- If your taxing the GPU == BAD
- How do you know this?
- Install Menu Meters
- http://www.ragingmenace.com/
- Or built-in "Activity Monitor"
- Keep your hard drive clean
- Grand Perspective
- http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/
- Maintenance Scripts
- Monthly, Weekly, Daily
- http://www.maintain.se/cocktail
Do this every week!
- Run disk utility Verify
- Run cocktail http://www.maintain.se/cocktail
- Pilot, turn on all the options
- restart
- Clear ALL caches
- joshua HD > Library > Caches >
- joshua HD > System > Library > Caches >
- joshua HD > [username] > Library > Caches >
- Restart
- Delete trash
Introduction to Scanning (for pro Illustrators)
- We will use this resource in class since we don't have a scanner in the room
- Epson scanning online reference
Video Notes
- Intro To Gear - PartA -->
- Intro To Gear - PartB & Keeping Your Computer Healthy + Fast -->
- Assignment & Next Steps -->
Assignment
For this week your assignments outlined on this pdf:
I have cleared some space and created a Google Drive folder for the class. I will create a directory for each assignment and populate a folder for each of you.
Please upload your original scans, and any photoshop files to your folder here:
- Google Drive link svaMFAI_20240923-homework-medium-is-the-message-draw-scan
- Upload your scan files and if you did any coloring... your layered working files!
