30 Day Challenge: Day 12 After effects part 2

Today, I worked on the video again. I went through at least two more tutorials, which took about an hour and a half. I finished the last two of the videos. I didn't really do anything special involving text on the videos, but I did learn some cool ways to transition.

On one part of the video, I learned how to use masks, which works exactly like it does in photoshop. You can hide one part of a video and only show another. Well, with this technique, I sliced the video into 4 different segments, and had each segment move onto the screen at different times. This created a kind of sliding door effect.

In another video, I learned that I could make items rotate. The video has a bike tire spinning, and my text spins with the tire at the same speed.

I should have the final video finished next time.

30 Day Challenge: Day 11 After Effects

Well, Adobe threw a wrench into my plans. I had planned on downloading the trial version of Encore and using it to make a DVD menu today, but for some strange reason, they will allow you to try many of their products, but Encore is not one of them.

It's ok because I did get to mess around with a new program: Adobe After Effects. From what I can tell, this is a video editing program. From what I read/heard, it is used to make commercials, intros to DVDs, and many other things.

I started working on a video that hopefully I will be able to finish tomorrow. So far, I have watched over an hour of tutorial on it. I think I still have over 2 hours left! Anyway, the program allows you to mix video together and add effects to multiple things. I have made two scenes and both of the scenes had a video running on the background and then text scrolled across the screen. It doesn't sound very crazy but think about all the commercials that have something like this.

Once I finish the basic video, I plan on going back and making my own intro/commercial for Striegler Photography. It's gotten my pretty excited. This program has really opened some creative possibilities for me.

30 Day Challenge: Day 10 DVD Menu

There is so much out there in Adobe world, and I only know the slightest hint of what all the programs can do. I'm working on a few new programs for the next few days: Encore and After Effects. Both of these programs are for creating video effects and DVDs. I'm sure they do much more than that, but that's all I plan on using them for.

For today, I am working with Photoshop for Encore. Sounds weird, but yes it's true. I'm going to be using Encore to create a DVD menu, but first I have to start off in Photoshop. The cool thing is that I can create the menu file in Photoshop and transfer it over to Encore to create it. In photoshop, I created a background and an image like I would normally do. Then, I created groups for each DVD menu item. Within that group, I created the text for the button and the spot for a video preview. The cool thing about using both programs together is I can use special text to name each layer. When I upload it to Encore, Encore will read the text and know what each layer is. For example, when I put (+) in front of the name of a group, it tells Encore that everything in the group is part of a menu item.

I pretty much set everything up in photoshop and tomorrow, I will use Encore to create the actual menu and link the buttons to videos.

30 Day Challenge: Day 9

The final product turned out better than I thought it would. I did so many different things to the picture and that background that it looked like a jumbled mess. There were motion streaks, different colored stripes, smoke, an image texture, and some other highlights/shadows.

The last few steps brought it all together. I added about 3 layers, each full of a single color. Then, I adjusted their fill and blend mode to give the whole image a create look. It made all of the different elements of the photo blend together. Before, when they were all different colors, they stuck out; the layers fixed that problem.

Well, no school for me tomorrow, so maybe I will actually play around with that other program like had planned. Maybe I'll make a nice DVD menu. Who knows.

30 Day challenge:Day 8

So...I wasn't able to complete a project today, but I did start on one. I got home late today, so there wasn't a bunch of time to work. I also picked a super complicated/multi-step tutorial to work on.

So far, I have adjusted the tint/color of the photo, created a motion streaked background, and blended in some brush strokes. I really have no idea if this one is going to turn out. Right now it doesn't look right. Hopefully, it will make a miraculous turnaround in a few steps.

Tomorrow, I will post the finish product.

30 day challenge: Day 7 Mixing the text with the photo

I'm not very satisfied with today's product. My plans were to mix the text that I created with the photo from yesterday. I accomplished this, but I don't think it is anything special. Maybe in the future I will come back and redo it.

First, I decided to mess around with the photo. I changed it to black and white to create a more dramatic look and because I felt the text was better with a black and white photo.

I wasn't sure exactly where to place the text. I moved it around quite a bit until I decided to go with the edge of the mat. I wanted to put it in the air, but there was no space above my head. I thought it looked fine on the bottom, but I didn't want it to block the floor and how high I was jumping. I think it's ok where it is.

My biggest problem is how the two interact with each other. They don't really do anything; they don't blend or do anything fun. All I did was a layer mask to blend part of the text out. I'm thinking in the future I might rotate the word and make it more 3D.

Tomorrow I'm thinking about messing with a different program. There's some video editing software I've never played with. It could be pretty cool.

30 day challenge: Day 6 Jump Knee tuck

Today, I shot the second part of my project. Yesterday, I made the text for the project and today I'm making the content. I decided to go with something near and dear to my heart: P90x. I decided to capture one of the high flying moves from the program.

I got the idea from watching some lighting videos of Joe McNally. He had this amazing athlete flying through the air, and he was getting some great shots. I attempted the same thing except I didn't have an amazing athlete, just me.

I set up all of the lighting gear and had my amazing wife take the shots. I used my DIY softbox as the key light, firing from camera left. Then, I had a bare flash as a kicker coming in from behind me from camera right. The kicker light was gelled red and had a home made flag to keep the light from creating flare.

After shooting, I didn't do much editing. The only real change was darkening the background so I would stick out more. I was really trying to create a dark image like they use on many of the P90x DVDs. I didn't quite get enough drastic change from dark to light, but I'm still happy with a 10 minute shoot.