Download - 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
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Each cat picture is designed to teach one word or phrase
Our first target is to find cat pics for 2000 words and
phrases
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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
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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.
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11) The pics have to clearly tell the story of the phrase they’re
teaching
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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”
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“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.
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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.
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2The pics have to be clear and distinct when
shown at different sizes.
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Large Medium
Small
On the app, the cat pics appear in big, medium and small size (see below).
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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
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Good ones are easy to “read” when small and look clearly different from
each other.
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“There are four cats in the restaurant”
Ok- still nice and clear
Oh dear. Too little contrast, unrecognizable when small.
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It’s frequently necessary to crop photos and treat their colours to bring out their goodness
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How to get involved
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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
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Thanks!
Wednesday, 26 June 13