This is a short (1.5 day) workshop on how we as scientists can create visuals that better communicate our science, either to our peers or to a broader audience. The course includes some basic discussion of color and design, but mainly focuses on using Adobe Illustrator to make cool figures or accents, and how we can create animated (.gif) and interactive plots. This workshop has been run on several instances, so find the institutional directory most appropriate for you (e.g. NHM, Monash)
The basic format includes 6 interactive tutorials that are accompanied by hands-on exercises. Conceivably you could run through all this information on your own (and I encourage you to), but you won't get the full effect without my silky-smooth voice.
Each activity is included in its own folder (01-07), which includes all the files required to replicate the exercise. I've designed it all in RMarkdown, and exported it as html files, so when you open a folder you can open the html in a browser and follow along, or open the markdown file (.Rmd) and go through there taking notes as you go.
Introducing image file types, and why they matter
How can we make the most of Adobe Illustrator? A quick-guide to common tools and uses
03 Build-a-GIF
Using magick in R to build a GIF
Using gganimate to animate ggplot in R
Outside the (static) box, using plotly to create interactive plots
What makes a good figure? And how can we adapt this for presentation slides?
This is free time to work on a figure of your own
If time allows, we can mess around a little with Shiny to showcase interactive figures in a web interface