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High contrast multi-scan self portrait in red, white and black cc-by lemasney

High contrast multi-scan self portrait in red, white and black cc-by lemasney
High contrast multi-scan self portrait in red, white and black cc-by lemasney

A self portrait for Trenton Computer Festival

This was created for my recent talk on 5 ways to enhance your digital photos at Trenton Computer Festival as a lead-in slide. I wanted to introduce myself, show something dramatic, and show people what I meant, exactly, as image enhancement, as opposed to let’s say focus brightness, and contrast, though I showed those things too.

In Inkscape, I used the trace bitmap tool to convert my image in two ways, once in threshold mode, and once in detect edges mode. As a result, I get a slightly layered deeper image, and I definitely get something that’s difficult to capture with a camera. Thanks for checking it out!

Tracing Bitmaps in Inkscape

“Currently Inkscape employs the Potrace bitmap tracing engine (potrace.sourceforge.net) by Peter Selinger. In the future we expect to allow alternate tracing programs; for now, however, this fine tool is more than sufficient for our needs.  Keep in mind that the Tracer’s purpose is not to reproduce an exact duplicate of the original image; nor is it intended to produce a final product. No autotracer can do that. What it does is give you a set of curves which you can use as a resource for your drawing.  Potrace interprets a black and white bitmap, and produces a set of curves. For Potrace, we currently have three types of input filters to convert from the raw image to something that Potrace can use.  Generally the more dark pixels in the intermediate bitmap, the more tracing that Potrace will perform. As the amount of tracing increases, more CPU time will be required, and the element will become much larger. It is suggested that the user experiment with lighter intermediate images first, getting gradually darker to get the desired proportion and complexity of the output path.  To use the tracer, load or import an image, select it, and select the Path > Trace Bitmap item, or Shift+Alt+B.” – Inkscape tutorial: Tracing | Inkscape,

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Mozilla is openness, innovation & community

Mozilla is openness, innovation and community cc-by lemasney
Mozilla is openness, innovation and community cc-by lemasney

My Mozilla Contest Entry

So this is my entry for Mozilla’s 2010 t-shirt contest. Mozilla is Firefox‘s parent company. You can see the entry in context at , and vote for it, if you like. They asked for a design that promoted key elements of Mozilla’s vision, which is openness, innovation, and community, all things you may know I hold very dear myself.

How I made this image about Mozilla in Inkscape

In Inkscape, I took these four words and put them in via the text tool, then converted them all to paths. Then, I used the Bezier tool and the pencil tool to connect the letterforms and create tendrils which I saw as life forms seeking out connection. I saw the design as airy, connected, and creative, things I love and respect about Mozilla. If you like this design, I’d love it if you could vote it up at

About Mozilla

“Mammon slept. And the beast reborn spread over the earth and its numbers grew legion. And they proclaimed the times and sacrificed crops unto the fire, with the cunning of foxes. And they built a new world in their own image as promised by the sacred words, and spoke of the beast with their children. Mammon awoke, and lo! it was naught but a follower.”

– The Book of Mozilla, https://goo.gl/dt6mJT
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Rider University with Suzanne Carbonaro: On Smartboards

smartboard_eraser_2
Image by la riviere via Flickr

Place: Rider University

Date: Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Time: 6:00 -8:00 pm

Content: In this session, Suzanne Carbonaro and John LeMasney talk about using SmartBoards in the classrooms. While Suzanne described how to use smartboards effectively from a pedagogical point of view, John demonstrated how to use smartboard specific hardware and software.

Presentation: http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0Ad-YsRMv5bPqZGNrZm05ZndfMjc5ZDRzMmc1Zm0&hl=en

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Rider University presents: Smartboard overview

smartboard_eraser_2
Image by la riviere via Flickr

I was asked by faculty member at Rider University Susan Kadish to come to her class of education students in order to talk about how to use SmartBoards in the classroom. I had a lot of fun, and enjoyed sharing what I know about how to use interactive whiteboards.

Presentation: http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0Ad-YsRMv5bPqZGNrZm05ZndfMjc5ZDRzMmc1Zm0&hl=en

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Brownstone by the beach

Brownstone by the beach - LeMasney Consulting
Brownstone by the beach – LeMasney Consulting

Okay, it’s April 1st, so I figured I’d play with a little visual foolery. With some inspiration from Shannon O’ Connor, who contributed a photo of a tower with a tree growing out of it (what kind of neglect does it take for a full sized tree to grow on top of a building, I ask you?) so I figured I’d mash up some architecture and nature. So here I have an urban apartment building/townhouse which I’m clearly mislabeling as a brownstone, painted on a brown stone. I haven’t decided yet whether it’s just a painted facade or whether you can actually enter it. I like to think that someone walks up to it, tries to enter, and grabs an image of a doorknob. April Fools!

So, in Inkscape, I imported two images from MorgueFile, one of the apartment building, and one of a massive rock in the middle of a desert. The boulder had a man standing in front of it for scale, and he was about one eighth of its height. I bitmap traced both images, placed them on top of one another, then painted them with the calligraphy tool, the eyedropper, and the palette. I added a gradient based background, built a happy faced sun out of stacked, blurred ellipses and text, and added some surf crashing with the calligraphy tool. So there you have it, a ‘brown stone’ by the beach. Thanks to Shannon for the inspiration, and to you for taking the time to look.

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4 ghosts from Pac Man reimagined – LeMasney Consulting

4 ghosts from Pac Man reimagined - LeMasney Consulting
4 ghosts from Pac Man reimagined – LeMasney Consulting

For the love of Pac Man

So, like many of Gen X, I was highly influenced by the introduction of Pac Man, and feel like the colors, sounds, and excitement that came over me the first time I saw it changed me in ways that I didn’t know until I started to study design. I was never particularly good at the game, and still I have trouble getting past the first level before losing interest. The first time I saw the game, it was inside a Wendy’s Hamburgers in Northeast Philly. It was about the size of a dishwasher, doubled as a table, and had a short queue waiting to play it. The version I play now is free and exists on my phone. It really is the end times.

How I made the image.

In Inkscape, I started by making the simple ellipse, rectangle, and Bezier shapes for the ghost outline. I combined the rectangle and Bezier path, the duplicated and flipped that shape to create the back of the ghost “skirt” In fact, two more dupes were made in order to create the 3d effect of the skirt. I found a public domain skull and bitmap traced it and carved it down to just the eyes and nose, then added it to the ghost. Then I added the candy coating effect. I duplicated the ghost 3 times and affected the color to match the Pac Man colors. As a final touch, I added the final frame of the Pac Man sprite (when he is captured) to the background. I hope you enjoyed it!