I've posted another prospective intro. See how you all like PPS Short - Black Exploding Cube.
I was able to download a trial copy of Sony Vegas, which I'm experimenting with. The cool thing here is that this software will allow you to make 1-frame per picture animations, unlike Movie Maker which is limited to 1/8th of a second durations on each picture. So if your video is something like 30 frames/second, you can get 30 pictures down into that second! The video will be extremely fast, yes, but also extremely smooth despite the size of your jumps, which is the attraction here.
Merry Christmas!
It's Christmastime...again. Such a cliche statement. Anyway, here's a little thing I put together for ya'll.
Open video in a new window.
Open video in a new window.
Short Intros
Here are a couple more intro shorts for you to choose from. I'll update the poll to reflect them:
Again, comments and suggestions are welcome.
Again, comments and suggestions are welcome.
PPSStudios Intro Video
Take a look at my three new videos..actually, I'll make it four.
Comment on these and pick your favorite. I'm trying to put together some kind of intro video for my Youtube uploads and would appreciate any feedback. Also feel free to make suggestions on improvements and effects and the like.
Here's my goal: something that's short, but really neat looking. I don't want it to be as long as the Long Intro video. 30-40 seconds for an intro is just too long. If it could be under ten seconds, that'd be ideal (that's 80 pictures or less at top MovieMaker speed). Something that says "PPSStudios" or "A PPSStudios Production", and possibly "Classic" for the older videos which are still in the process of being ripped.
Maybe I'll put up a poll just so we can get a real tally system. BTW, the short intros are quite small (600KB or so each), so it shouldn't take too long to buffer them and view them in full.
Comment on these and pick your favorite. I'm trying to put together some kind of intro video for my Youtube uploads and would appreciate any feedback. Also feel free to make suggestions on improvements and effects and the like.
Here's my goal: something that's short, but really neat looking. I don't want it to be as long as the Long Intro video. 30-40 seconds for an intro is just too long. If it could be under ten seconds, that'd be ideal (that's 80 pictures or less at top MovieMaker speed). Something that says "PPSStudios" or "A PPSStudios Production", and possibly "Classic" for the older videos which are still in the process of being ripped.
Maybe I'll put up a poll just so we can get a real tally system. BTW, the short intros are quite small (600KB or so each), so it shouldn't take too long to buffer them and view them in full.
Classic Animation
I just completed uploading two preview videos for the all new Youtube playlist: Classic Animation featuring my very own animations from twelve years ago! And you will HATE them!!
And a quick update on the actual animations themselves: four videos have been successfully converted and are being edited for uploading. Two are fairly long and two are moderately long, so they will be actually uploaded when I get to a faster connection, tomorrow or Tuesday.
Also, with a bit of cyberstalking or whatever..I've found the original writer and creator of Holy Living Man. I'll be uploading a few of these videos in time, once I get them credited correctly with his username (lipsynchORswim).
A quick side note..I sound like I'm speaking to the masses of fans I have, but I don't have that many fans. I should advertise or something..I hear if you get enough views on your videos, you can qualify for promoting which is like $2.50 per 1000 views or something. I dream of that day.
And a quick update on the actual animations themselves: four videos have been successfully converted and are being edited for uploading. Two are fairly long and two are moderately long, so they will be actually uploaded when I get to a faster connection, tomorrow or Tuesday.
Also, with a bit of cyberstalking or whatever..I've found the original writer and creator of Holy Living Man. I'll be uploading a few of these videos in time, once I get them credited correctly with his username (lipsynchORswim).
A quick side note..I sound like I'm speaking to the masses of fans I have, but I don't have that many fans. I should advertise or something..I hear if you get enough views on your videos, you can qualify for promoting which is like $2.50 per 1000 views or something. I dream of that day.
VHS
A few days ago, Mom and I splurged on a DVD recorder! Yes, that's right. We went to Best Buy and bought a Toshiba DR430 DVD recorder for $128. The sole purpose of this, at least for now, is to convert all of our old VHS tapes to something more modern. Like DVD! If you have a DVD, you can easily convert it to pretty much anything else that's modern.
The first thing that came to mind, which really brought this idea into a serious light was my recent activity on Lego animation, all of which I've been posting on Youtube. Of course, I actually started animating back in 1999 or a little before, from what I've seen with all of the conversions I've been making this weekend. This includes working with media such as Lego, clay and Andrea's stuffed animals.
Almost all of the videos we made were low quality (because we were using an old, worn out camcorder with a broken focus on the lens. I had figured out that the camcorder always backed up approximately 1.5 seconds after you stopped recording, just to ensure that there wasn't any static or blank tape when you started the next bit. With this knowledge, I was able to make one to half-second durations of video and pretty much simulate stop-action animation. These videos I am converting now ARE my VERY FIRST ATTEMPTS at this! Well, almost. The very first attempt I made didn't work because I was still discovering the 1.5 second thing, so that one is lost. But I redid that same exact video, which worked, and which I am now titling Horses in the Mountains.
I should remember that. I didn't give it a good title when I converted it yesterday..I called it something like "Lego - Collapsing Mountain and Horses."
Another bit of nostalgia. Shortly after I discovered my newfound ability with the camcorder, I had two of my best friends from Jr. High, Ben Weilert and Max Moe, over for an overnighter. Ben had created this comic strip in school which he called "Holy Living Man" and his head was a block of cheese. Just goes to show you how weird Ben was. Well anyway, we had them over for an overnighter and we created a video using clay (Plastacine), and a white board to caption the characters, and used Ben's storyline from his comic strip.
Well, yesterday I finally converted that whole video, along with an entire 2-hour tape's worth of other videos onto a DVD.
Therefore: I am going to now work on converting these DVDs to something like MP4, WMV...something and upload at least the animations to Youtube. Most of them are poor quality, most of them have stupid outtakes and really stupid story lines. But all of them are my originals and besides, I can do anything I want with my own stuff on Youtube, can't I?
So enjoy!
I'm going to be posting quickie intro and credits videos I made up this morning as a sort of preview to whet the appetite of my thousands of subscribers..or maybe more like five.
The first thing that came to mind, which really brought this idea into a serious light was my recent activity on Lego animation, all of which I've been posting on Youtube. Of course, I actually started animating back in 1999 or a little before, from what I've seen with all of the conversions I've been making this weekend. This includes working with media such as Lego, clay and Andrea's stuffed animals.
Almost all of the videos we made were low quality (because we were using an old, worn out camcorder with a broken focus on the lens. I had figured out that the camcorder always backed up approximately 1.5 seconds after you stopped recording, just to ensure that there wasn't any static or blank tape when you started the next bit. With this knowledge, I was able to make one to half-second durations of video and pretty much simulate stop-action animation. These videos I am converting now ARE my VERY FIRST ATTEMPTS at this! Well, almost. The very first attempt I made didn't work because I was still discovering the 1.5 second thing, so that one is lost. But I redid that same exact video, which worked, and which I am now titling Horses in the Mountains.
I should remember that. I didn't give it a good title when I converted it yesterday..I called it something like "Lego - Collapsing Mountain and Horses."
Another bit of nostalgia. Shortly after I discovered my newfound ability with the camcorder, I had two of my best friends from Jr. High, Ben Weilert and Max Moe, over for an overnighter. Ben had created this comic strip in school which he called "Holy Living Man" and his head was a block of cheese. Just goes to show you how weird Ben was. Well anyway, we had them over for an overnighter and we created a video using clay (Plastacine), and a white board to caption the characters, and used Ben's storyline from his comic strip.
Well, yesterday I finally converted that whole video, along with an entire 2-hour tape's worth of other videos onto a DVD.
Therefore: I am going to now work on converting these DVDs to something like MP4, WMV...something and upload at least the animations to Youtube. Most of them are poor quality, most of them have stupid outtakes and really stupid story lines. But all of them are my originals and besides, I can do anything I want with my own stuff on Youtube, can't I?
So enjoy!
I'm going to be posting quickie intro and credits videos I made up this morning as a sort of preview to whet the appetite of my thousands of subscribers..or maybe more like five.
Even more Youtube
Here are a few more Youtube videos. I've edited the newest ten playlist to reflect all of them. And good news! I'm done for the day!! I have no more that I need to upload.
New Youtube
I spent a huge portion of the weekend (like three hours) taking photos for ELEVEN new lego animations. Check them out at http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=49D922322B602454.
Here is a list of the new ones:
Here is a list of the new ones:
Lego Animation
Just a quick note: be sure and check out the newest animation I did yesterday at http://youtu.be/byEaPd00_Ws?a.
It's probably my best super-short yet, being up to ten seconds long and having more than just one movement out of one character. At least, Mom and Dad thought it was good.
It's probably my best super-short yet, being up to ten seconds long and having more than just one movement out of one character. At least, Mom and Dad thought it was good.
Soundcards and Shoutcast
Yesterday I received an Amazon order in the mail. It was my first ever ExpressCard device!
A few years ago, I burned out the left channel on my laptop headphone jack, so if I wanted to listen to anything with a pair of headphones at the library or something, I couldn't without putting up with just one side of the stereo mix. So last week, I went on Amazon and found a Creative (Soundblaster) ExpressCard sound card. Just yesterday, it came in the mail and I got it up and running! And I have to say it has excellent quality.
Anyway, now I'm all into it. In the last couple weeks I've been attempting to download the Shoutcast tools from Nullsoft. And just today I finally got everything I wanted downloaded! I installed it on my big dimension, and am right now listening to a LAN stream of Christmas music. Of course, the setup at the moment is pretty pointless. My laptop is right here, and the audio server is also right here. But it WORKS! And that's what really matters. Now all I need is a broadband connection so YOU all can listen also ;).
Anyway, as of right now my setup is as follows:
- PPS-DIMENSION is the main server computer on my LAN. It does NOT have a webserver yet, although I'm working on that right now.
- The Dimension DOES have a few audio services that I've integrated with Winamp.
- Winamp itself - My big 500GB hard drive has approximately 81.5 days of audio (music, podcasts, sermons, radio programs, etc) which I access primarily from that computer.
- A Kensington transmitter - My main audio output on the sound card is running directly into this short range FM transmitter which pipes the music to the entire house fairly effectively. I have had some EMI issues with walls and the like, but it's tolerable if I position the transmitter just so.
- BrowseAmp 3 - A simple plugin for Winamp creates a web server which allows any client on the network to control Winamp via the browser. It has a flash client which I think is really quite clean.
- Shoutcast Server - This bit of standalone software and integration plugin for Winamp dumps the actual audio output from Winamp directly onto a TCP/IP port, allowing anyone with a web-ready media player to open the proper URL and play the currently playing music on their own computer.
- I've also got the main webserver on my laptop...but it's a laptop, so it's not as nice as I'd like it to be.
- I also have a small proxy server from AnalogX on my laptop, which allows me to make very low-quality internet connections from the Dimension, which does not have a decent modem to connect itself.
- I also run Last.FM on both laptop and Dimension to update my account with what I play. Of course, this service only works when I'm connected to the internet and program they call the "Scroggler" is running. And I still don't have the service down, so I don't know exactly what any of that accomplishes, especially when I'm on a slow dialup connection. Oh, I should mention that having this new sound card WILL allow me to listen to music at the library, and therefore, Last.FM (or Pandora, which I'm planning on switching to in a couple days) will be much more worthwhile to even have.
Therefore, with all these upgrades, my own little two-computer + router is coming together quite nicely and I'm making so much work for me!
Quote the Kid
What is this kid saying?
Comment to add your own caption, and we'll put up a poll in a few weeks maybe to see which one's the best.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)