How to make your own “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” Meme

Hot Air Balloon Festival, Clark Pampanga (Every February of the year)

UPDATE VI: The DOT linked back to my tutorial from their official website!

UPDATE V: Lester Bambico has programmed and uploaded an “It’s More Fun” app into the Android Marketplace. More details here (with screenshots!)

UPDATE IV: Looks like some of my work is featured in SPOT.PH. Three of them. Including the tutorial.

UPDATE III: Someone made a DOT Philippines now has an official “More Fun” maker over the weekend. You can visit the site at http://www.morefunmaker.com/. It allows you to upload a photo, add a caption and choose whether to place it on top or at the bottom of the image. If you’re not comfortable using Photoshop or any other photo editing tool, this is the easiest way to get your “More Fun” meme out!

UPDATE II: The amazing Arnold Gamboa (@arnoldgamboa on Twitter) used his coding skills to build a living Twitter wall where you can view the crowd-made “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” photos. Nice one! The site is: http://www.itsmorefuninthephilippinespics.com/. To be included here, all you need to do is Tweet your photo + include the #ItsMoreFunInThePhilippines hashtag. The site grabs photos every 5 minutes.

UPDATE: Added an extra step to focus on SEO for image search and added more examples below. Enjoy!

It’s More Fun in the Philippines. You know the new DOT online campaign works because it really gets netizens involved. Most are using the hashtag (#ItsMoreFunInThePhilippines) but others are getting their creative juices flowing and making their own DOT-inspired images based on their personal experiences around the 7,000++ islands.

Now I’m pretty sure BBDO Guerrero will provide an easy to use web tool where anyone can upload photos and add text from the new It’s More Fun in the Philippines site. But in the meantime, here’s one way you can create your own “Philipp-FUN” memes.

Are you ready? Let’s go!

STEP 1: Find an image taken from the Philippines and make sure you’re given permission to use it. Better yet, use your own photos. In this case, here’s a shot of Jan Acosta during our Tubbataha live aboard trip last April 2011. This was taken at 15 ft in out last dive for the week-long expedition and we were really just goofing around in the sand.

STEP 2: Insert witty copy. Remember, if it takes too long to think about it, it probably isn’t witty. Brevity is the soul of wit.

STEP 3: Download the Harabara Font. It’s free. [DOWNLOAD HERE]

STEP 4: Open Photoshop or any editing software and let your creative juices unfold. If you’re on Photoshop, you may want to adjust the opacity of the font by a bit. This allows you to see through the text. You can do this by selecting the layer of text and sliding the opacity and / or fill between 50% – 90% depending on the image you’re using vis a vis the background of choice. You can find that option on the lower right hand side of Photoshop. BTW I’m not a Photoshop expert so if any of you know other ways to do this, please chime in!

STEP 5: Upload and have fun! Wait I am forgetting a very important step. For purposes of search in Google Images, you may want to rename your file with the location where it was shot and include “more fun in the Philippines” so for instance this photo of Jan running underwater is renamed as “diving more fun in the philippines.jpg”

Here’s why:

Here are other examples I made for the “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” meme:

The Lacson Ruins in Silay, Negros (Bacolod)

Common clownfish “nemo” found all over the Philippines (Taken in Anilao, Batangas)

A rage face barrel coral in Tubbataha Reef, Sulu Sea

School of Jacks in Tubbataha Reef, Sulu Sea

Tubbataha, Topside.

Lobster apartment complex shot in Tubbataha, Sulu Sea.

Two of my buddies chasing a giant manta ray. Shot in Tubbataha, Sulu Sea.

This is my lens vs a very curious pipefish. Shot in Anilao, Batangas.