Vuvox and UMapper!

Vuvox is a tool that I have looked at already during my internship. The first time I tried Vuvox I used it to collect and display pictures for the pet photo contest.

This is the first thing I created:


As a viewer, you can zoom in on the images as well as play with them and move them around.

Today I tried to play around with another application within the program; I tried to make a collage. The tool that Vuvox offers for creating collages (which can be used as a timeline as well)is really, really cool. It is easy to use and allows you the freedom to be however creative you want to be.

You can cut out items from pictures to make it look like an image is popping out. You also choose your own background, whatever it may be. It allows you to place icons on your project that have a window with a link to more information, that pops up when you scroll over it.

You can take a look at mine:



Mine is unfinished so far because of the fact that this is very TIME-CONSUMING. It took me forever just to get this far because it is so tedious. You need to upload every picture, including backgrounds. You then have to cut out other pictures manually which can take some time. Also, I came across a few glitches when I placed the icons down for my viewers to click; some of them kept disappearing.

I can definitely see this application being used for journalism in different aspects. I think that for news stories, and maybe sports stories as well, this could be used as a timeline with pictures and videos embedded in it. It makes it more interesting, and more appealing to the eye. I can also see this tool being used for feature stories. You can fill it up with pictures, quotations, and links to relevant topics or stories.

Vuvox Collages is really an awesome tool and the product that you create looks great at the end, it just takes a very very long time to get there. And time is the one thing that journalists really don't have.

This is an example of an awesome Vuvox Collage that is featured on the website. It is about Woodstock but is in french (I was able to read most of it which I am impressed by!):



UMapper is another tool I took a look at today; although I did not spend nearly as much time as I would have liked with this tool because I was making a collage. However, from what I have seen on the website, UMapper allows you to create Maps with your choice of host map. It allos you to incorporate pictures and links, as well as aspects of Twitter.

I do plan on trying this tool out myself later today; however, sadly, I was not able to make my own map today. This is an example of one that was made by somebody else an featured on the UMapper website:



That's all I have for today. If you have some free time and want to play around with some tools that could be useful in journalism...I suggest you play with Vuvox =) Have a good weekend and a Happy Easter!