Evaluation technology compressed
- 1. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
- 2. What we used to film! Above is the equipment we used to film. We used a digital camera called Canon 26 – 32 MM and a Tripod. I learnt quite a bit about video cameras, and to be honest I had never picked up one before so I was clueless to where the record button was, the pause button, even the on/off button! After much time spent with this video camera I was beginning to discover more features of the camera including tacking in and out, deleting footage and how to playback footage. Eventually we were in the position to get our footage up on the computer to edit it. We used firewall cables to connect the camera to the computer. From switching on the video camera the option would pop up to transfer data off the camera. We used Adobe Premiere Pro for capturing footage. (See next slide for more!)
- 3. Capturing our footage! Adobe Premiere Pro is an editing program that offers many tools and effects to capture and edit footage. I had never used this program before and was interested to see how it worked. From connecting the video camera to the computer and opening up Premiere Pro I was able to capture the footage straight off the camera. All I had to do was open up the Capture menu by hitting F5 or going File>Capture. There I could record footage straight off the tape and it would appear immediately on the computer and would become available for any editing needed. From then on I could simply drag the footage from the project place hold straight onto the timeline and watch the clips!
- 4. Compositing together and editing our footage! The amount of hours that I spent using this program was amazing, but I enjoyed every minute of it! Adobe After Effects is the core program I used to put our film together and add the effects. I could easily get the footage from Premiere Pro straight into After Effects simply by copying and pasting the footage from timelines. After Effects has similar layout to Premiere Pro but provides much more tools for creating your own unique effects. What I discovered about after effects is the amount of possibilities the program offers. I created the green night vision effect, the Promotional video, the titles, the bug effect and the demon effect all in after effects. Using a range of different presets, animation styles, textures and colours I formed together all the effects that were required to make the program work. As I had already some knowledge regarding this program I was determined to try my hardest and expand my creative mind, and my ability to edit videos in after effects. I believe that I learnt how to boost my level of knowledge in this program. From using After Effects I was able to push my ability to its max and gain a lot more understanding regarding motion tracking, expressions and all that crazy stuff.
- 5. Creating a Main Menu Page! Adobe Encore is a DVD authoring program that allows you to add buttons and link up a pre-created main menu page to your film. I had never used this program before and learnt so much about it. I learnt how to create customized buttons, how to link them up, how to pause the footage on the button screen and how to burn a DVD. I found this program extremely interesting as I had never created a DVD before and found it amazing how simple it can be done. The most important information that I learnt is that to perform this process the audio and video must be rendered in a DVD format and seperatly rendered otherwise it will not burn onto a DVD. Encore offers many tools for customizing your own main menu, in adition to previews, quality levels and the option to adjust between 16:7 to 4:3, assuming that the original video was rendered in 16:7.
- 6. Uploading Presentation files! Slide share is a powerful resources that I had no idea of its existence. Slide share allows you to upload presentation files to the internet and embed them into blogs or other websites. All you have to do is click the upload button to upload a presentation document. I used this website to upload Power Point files to the internet which I then copied the embed code directly from the link to my blog which dramatically altered the appearance of my blog to look much nicer. In fact this power point has been uploaded by me via this website!
- 7. Collecting Audio! Free sound is an amazing website that I learnt about, it offers thousands of different audio tracks that are not copy right, free and available to download and use for any piece of work. All you have to do is type in a keyword to what you are looking for in the search menu. Your Listen is a really useful website that I learnt about, that provides you with the ability to upload tracks and embed them onto a website or blog. I found this website extremely useful when presenting audio tracks on my blog. It allows viewers to easily scan through the audio without having to load up the website page, track after track.
- 8. Uploading Videos! Vidmeup is an awesome website that I used frequently throughout my project. I was able to use this website to upload any video piece that did not exceed the 750MB cap. I used the embed code to present my videos onto my blog. I found this extremely useful in storing and viewing my work. I mainly used this website to upload my titles and promotional video.
- 9. Using a Blog! I had no idea how to use a blog originally, this task has provided me with the perfect chance to do so. I learnt how much potential a blog page can hold, how much you can do, from embedding videos, audio and sharing links. At first I was uncomfortable in using a blog as a presentation for my work, but after much practice I am comfortable with the method, and I am already using this method for my Graphic Art project!
- 10. Overall… Overall I have found this an extremely practical enjoyable task where I have learnt about so much different technology and what it offers. I had no idea how to use the majority of the items listed, however from research, design to construction and even this evaluation itself I am actively discovering new resources with technology and how beneficial they are to the internet. For example there are lots of cheap methods I have used to present my work, and the methods could be used for advertising a film too. What stands out to me the most is how easy and cheap it is to actually put together a film. All you need to provide is dedication and you can put together an amazing piece!