PE8_Adobe After Effects Completed

Finally after hours of lynda.com I have completed my After Effects tutorial. Even though I have this certificate I don't feel that I have a huge grasp on the software and I say this because there is still so much to be learned even after the completion. I feel that lynda.com skips some very important steps when teaching and starts chapters from what seems to be the middle. Some of the sections you are to use practice footage but the instructor does not show how and where the file can be found so a couple of times I had to search for the practice footage for me to follow along. I would prefer a more in-depth tutorial for myself so that I can become strong in every area a little at a time instead of doing a sample buffet with this tutorial.

Overall, I feel I do have a grasp of the base of the program but it has left me hungry for more training on After Effect.

I would feel even better if I could have After Effects for use in my classroom, but this would be additional software for the county to perchance and at this time I don't see it happing. Using this additonal software would help me to also provide differentiation to my second level class.

PE7_Adobe After Effects

I have achieved a great accomplishment in my opinion. Last week I started working on animation of AE, but it took three hours for the exercise videos to download. With that being said I had to make use of a photoshop file last week that I created which could give me the full affect of what I wanted to achieve in the project. Animation is a great asset in video production and it can bring great value to a project, the only problem in education is having the software available for the classroom. Let me warn you this video is short and seems simple but it took hours to get this done.

I hope that I can improve on this small piece of footage later and build on this as i start to look into the Flash program.

PE6_Adobe After Effects

Well, another week of the after effects tutorial. A couple off things I achieved was the chroma key effect which was very simple but it was only because of the great shooting of the practice video that comes with the tutorial footage. The steps after the initial keying become a bit complex compared to using final cut. Looking from a teacher's point of view I think this would be more changeling for students to achieve. Overall my chroma key picture came out pretty good.

The first picture is the end result and the second one is the pre chroma picture. For those of you who may be wondering how this can be used, its great for doing weather with your students. The only thing you need is either green or blue surface flat, it can be painted or you can use cloth, paper as long as the students don't wear those colors it will work fine. In my class I use it as a project where the students are travel agents and they need to advertise going to tropical locations but they cant afford to go there and shoot the video.

Final Video Project {Short Documentary}

PE4_Adobe After Effects CS5

This assignment was a good challenge because I had to pic something that would push me out of my comfort zone with my level of using editing software.  I have always hard about after effects and how good it was for creating video effects, animation and text graphics. So I decided to dive in to see what I could do. The picture above is what I started with just a basic jpg put together in photoshop with help from my cousin a couple of weeks ago not even think about this project, so I guess photoshop should be next on my list with lynda. The tutorial does mention the better you become with photoshop the better you can become with after effects.
Starting the software was not a big deal it has the layout similar to premiere so that helped. I had to learn to import a file into the project which was done by using file import then find the file I wanted or I could use the short cut method command and click key and import from there.
Each part of the picture is a layer and I was able to manipulate each layer to scale, crop, position, to create a moveable picture that you will see in the end. The biggest challenge was trying not to move ahead in the learning but to stick with it. The best way for me was to pause the tutorial and practice the instruction as I watched because this is my preferred learning still compared to simply reading an book or a manual.

The picture above is the point when I started to use the puppet tool which is a form of animation which is going to be funny because of the way my dad's head is going to move in the video. Overall I think this software will help me more than my students because I will have to wait for the county to buy the software for all of my computers which is another issue all together.

The picture to the right is the step of exporting the project to have the abilty to have a fnished product I will now let you see what I have created this is only my first finished product and I plan to build upon this stage.

BP8_Dvolver

As a broadcasting teacher I am always trying to find technology to move students into the future. With that being said in broadcasting there is a four step process in creating any production and the first step is preproduction. Preproduction is the most important step in the process of creating. For example going on a road trip without a roadmap to a place you have never been is not a good idea, but instead of a roadmap use of a GPS is the method now. In the case of the roadmap and the GPS in broadcasting the roadmap is the storyboard which gives information on the shots being shot, scenes, actors, and dialog. Storyboarding is mainly done with paper and pencil, but just as the roadmap has evolved now has the storyboard with a web 2.0 Dvolver. http://www.dvolver.com/live/home.html

Dvolver uses simple steps for the user to be creative and make their own movie and publish the movie via the web. So lets take a look at the tool and the use of it. In my last post I will show you a finished product.

The first step in the process is to create a scene for the movie or in my case the storyboard. You can pick the scene as well as the background to use for the movie. This would be really great if you could create or were given more options for the backgrounds but what is given is proficient.

Once the scene and the background has been created it gives an example of what it will look like and a description of the scene.

Next comes the ability to select the plot of the movie which range from rendez-vous to soliloquy. This can give students the opportunity to create a scene with up to two people at a time but, another draw back is you can only have two people.  There are some funny characters to chose from but two may not be appropriate for school.

The next step in the process gives the students the chance to create the dialogue between the characters. Each character can have three lines of dialogue each but there is a limit to the amount they can say.

 This next step gives a extra bonus feature not given in traditional storyboarding. Think of this as the voice guide GPS compared to a roadmap with no voice. The step given the ability to and music to the movie. I think it gives a good selection of genres of music.

The last two steps are to create a title for you movie with limited choice, after that is completed you are able to send the movie out to your friends and it also lets you preview the movie and gives and embed code to post it. This lets the students post the video and it would be good for embedding the video to a group or a student's webpage fro teacher grading to approve for shooting.

Overall I think this is a great tool for use in my class for storyborading replacement of the paper and pencil way which can limit the creativity of students that feel the can not draw. For all of you elementary teachers this would be a great tool for use for hands on activities and student story telling.

To see the storyboard that a created please follow this link http://www.dvolver.com/live/movies-503474 
I would have embedded the video but you cant control when it plays :)

BP9_Blog Comment1

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