cat academy content creation guidelines

Cat Meme creation guidelines

Wednesday, 26 June 13

Cat Academy is building a free-to-use resource of cat pics that are designed

to help people learn

We are also making the first iPhone app that uses this resource - to teach

foreign languages

Basics


Each cat picture is designed to teach one word or phrase

Our first target is to find cat pics for 2000 words and

phrases


The pictures should bring the phrase to life, and should be clear and memorable

Where possible, they should be funny.Wednesday, 26 June 13

The pictures are always shown square

They have to be at

least 640 x 640 pixels

Always, always square!!!

They can also appear much

smaller

They can also appear much

smaller


Two rules of thumb for creating good pics

1) The pics have to clearly tell the story of the phrase they’re teaching

2) The pics have to be clear and distinct even when shown very small.


11) The pics have to clearly tell the story of the phrase they’re

teaching


The quality of the pictures naturally has to be very high.

They key thing is that they tell the story of their phrase very clearly.

“I like to drink water with my sardines”


“I don’t want to have a shower”

A good way to tell whether the pic is doing the right job is to ask, does the meaning of the phrase/ caption play on the

most obvious and notable part of the scene?

Win- because the key feature is the cat ready for

a shower.

“I don’t like”

Fail. The photo is poor quality, and could mean

anything.


A good way to tell whether the pic is doing the right job is to ask, does the phrase/ caption play on the most obvious

and notable part of the scene?

“I have to sleep”

Fail. The key feature is that the cat is on top of

the man, asleep.

A better caption would be “I’m the boss”

“What time is it?”

Win- because the key feature is that the cat is

looking at a clock.


2The pics have to be clear and distinct when

shown at different sizes.


Large Medium

Small

On the app, the cat pics appear in big, medium and small size (see below).


The scene should be relatively uncluttered, with clear foreground action, and a distinctive configuration.

Fail.

Win.

Too indistinct.

No clear “pop”(or narrative)

Easy to recognize when small


Good ones are easy to “read” when small and look clearly different from

each other.


“There are four cats in the restaurant”

Ok- still nice and clear

Oh dear. Too little contrast, unrecognizable when small.


It’s frequently necessary to crop photos and treat their colours to bring out their goodness


How to get involved


1) Find some phrases from the google doc linked above

2) a) Take photos of your cats to illustrate these phrases

or2) b) find photos from other sources that are available under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported

License

3) Submit the photos using the box below

Submit Memes

4) email [email protected] saying which sentences you have submitted


https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/




mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Thanks!


cat academy content creation guidelines

Education

useresource of cat pics

cat islooking

cat picture

cat academy

phrase caption play

phrase tolife

phrase theyreteachingwednesday

cat ready fora shower