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Hey really good stuff from Paul... hey there is a software called Anime Studio... its a little bit egg headed but not nearly as egg headed as After Effects. Lets say for Paul's Must Be Santa... if he wanted them to animated somewhat more in the example Mike Z did, this CAN do those effects.
I got my version around $50, its actually the same software that is used to produce "Southpark", you can bond to any clipart and then create a bone (skeleton) with joints and effect movement and animation of clipart in a predictable fashion. Obviously something this complex is going to have some egg headedness but not nearly as bad as I said, as After Effects (which almost seems to require a 4 year degree in After effects as a major to be able to run it).
Thanks Joe, I had a good time and learned alot while doing them. The videos has some personal touches added to them but I could easily change them if someone wanted to use them. Thanks also for the tip on the Anime Studio I was wanting to do something more with animation on them but just didn't have the right stuff to do it. I've looked at the program over the web and have got myorder in for it. It looks like a very good program with high ratings. I'll let you know how it goes.
paulm wrote: Thanks Joe, I had a good time and learned alot while doing them. The videos has some personal touches added to them but I could easily change them if someone wanted to use them. Thanks also for the tip on the Anime Studio I was wanting to do something more with animation on them but just didn't have the right stuff to do it. I've looked at the program over the web and have got myorder in for it. It looks like a very good program with high ratings. I'll let you know how it goes.
Well to be honest it seems most of us with animated lights are pushing the tollerance issue with copyrights. I am increasingly concerned that without direct permission to use a video, its best to take approach YOU did and make videos from scratch ourselves.
I've got Anime Studio but busy spell at work has taken my attention away from learning software and proceeding on videos. I take it all of us have differing tastes in the songs we want to do, but I would like to take elements of things you used and adapt for songs on my play list so maybe in this coop thing, we should also maybe share movie loops and other elements we use, I love the white circles over blue background and that could have many uses.
Obviously you have shown we CAN sync video events with sound as effectively flashing lights to sound.
Also I just discovered a trick. Mike Z described that most "high resolution" video modes with Windows Media Player use variable bit rate, I have seen that myself with most windows media producer formats, seems resolutions over 350 wide resort to variable bit rate. He restrained himself on complexity of images in order to trick the VBR not to actually vary its bit rate and be steady.
As we know VBR MP3's will throw not only Animation Director out, but does too with LOR, Dasher and probably D-Light Spectrum. Well I noticed my older 5200 Gforce video card would not play DV Camera format AVI's well but my new one that plays full screen video on second monitor plays this format very well without a glitch or lost frame. The result is, DV is a MPEG4 format that allows superior to DVD quality to be compressed almost smaller then inferior quality WMV's and its a fixed bit rate. You might want to see how your video card handles the 720 X 560 resolution DV format but for me, mine plays it better then all high res formats, the file size is small and screen playback quality is outstanding at nearly 5 times as clear as DVD's top quality format. Something worth trying!
You may or may not have something on the copyright laws I'm not a lawyer so I really can't say. I can tell you that it does take more time to create something from scratch. Looking for clipart and then modifiying it to work takes time but for me it is part of the fun. I think music videos are good looking and can add something special to the displays. I kind of wondered myself on the one where I used some video mixed with my pictures if I was pushing a limit. Guess I should really do some more research on the matter.
I regards to sharing stuff within the coop I thought that was the whole idea. so if there is something you would like let me know and I can get it to you. I also have no problem stripping stuff out of my videos if you or someone wants a certian loop.
You also brought up the variable bite rate issue. I had also spoke with Mike on this and he did mention some of the headaches he was having with some of the videos. I also noticed that depending on what resolution I created the WMV in would determine if the video would run choppy in the AD software. I had this problem with the Must Be Santa and 12 Days of Christmas video. After doing some fooling around with the resolution/VBR I got what I considered a good quality without the choppy playback in AD. Although I did not test the other two videos I did create them at the same setting as the first two so I assume they are ok but i still plan on verifiying. The last thing I want is to find out that the video is choppy just before christmas.
I would recommend that anyone that is going to do video with AD this year test the video out within AD. It may play fine in a windows player but might be a different story when it's played within AD.
Thanks for the tip on the resolutions I didn't know about the trick with the resolutions under 350. This might have saved me from some problems. I'll have to give it a try.
All good comments. I will look into the bit rates myself. As to the videos, I still think we are okay. If you have a copy of it and can play it at home, then I think the same rules apply that apply to music. We are residents and not commercial. So I think we are fine. If we have a problem, then there is a problem with the whole use of music.
Ken W. Good wrote: I went back and checked my file and it appears that the version that I plan to use is by Suzy Bogguss. I have not heard of her before.
Ken
Hey Ken,
Here is another version that you might like better. I could only hear a 30 second clip of Suzy, but I think this one has got more sounds and beats.
You can here the whole song here. To me it songs like the original Mr. Sand Man.
I could not find it on Amazon, but here is a link to buy the CD and you can hear clips of other songs on the CD. Let me know what you think.
____________________ Darryl Brown http://www.Christmaslightshow.com
**New** Complete Mega Tree Kit. Home of Virtual Santa, Strobe Lights and PVC Christmas Tree
Yes this is a very big thing. I have confirmed myself that VBR in videos react just as badly with AD as VBR MP3's. You HAVE to have a set fixed bit rate. DV - AVI's is one standard that works for me and has exceptionally high resolutions.
The other thing about downloaded videos... well I made my own self produced video with green screen... well once its uploaded to Youtube, it gets automatically chopped down and converted to Flash... you cannot see the quality of the video thru you tube but my source video in DV-AVI is high resolution spec and perfect, the jumpy lost frames shown on you tube is not there and its smooth as glass and much better... actually thru you tube it shows some dark shadows on my green screen on lower left and right hand corners that are actually not noticable on the DV version, the Flash compresser seemed to pick up the very subtle shading from the green screen shadow and exaggerated it really bad on the youtube play version. If you didnt see what I did for "Feliz Navidad", I can post the link here again.
Actually I didnt expect DV to have such a great playback on my new video card, I actually discovered it by accident but it is a great solve for a problem. Now it makes youtube and similar downloaded music videos look terrible against homemade ones because the resolution is terrible on downloaded videos, but ones we create have excellent crisp clear resolution.
Okay, after research it appears that my videos that I posted were all variable bit rate. I have converted them so that they are not and have reposted them.
I Wanted to say that I really like your idea for the coop. This is my first year doing animation with lights. The version you did was GREAT! I was wondering if you could tell me where I can purchase the Faith Hill video of "Where are you Christmas"? I am not sure where to buy/upload them for editing. Any help would be appreciated.
manscan wrote: I Wanted to say that I really like your idea for the coop. This is my first year doing animation with lights. The version you did was GREAT! I was wondering if you could tell me where I can purchase the Faith Hill video of "Where are you Christmas"? I am not sure where to buy/upload them for editing. Any help would be appreciated.
Duane,
I actually got it off the dvd movie I own. It was under the special features on the disk. Once I had the video I imported it into my video editing program. I use Power Director but you could easily use Movie Maker. Hope this helps.
I was wondering if you could tell me how you "ripped" the music vid to your computer? I tried , and cant find out how to load it into my hard drive for editing.
I may have to purchase the editing program that you use. It looks like it did a great job!
I have a unit from Archos (it's similar to a video Ipod) the thing is like a video vacuum. All I have to do is hook up the DVD,VCR ,TV or whatever hit record and it generates the file. I know there are programs out there also like the one gps suggested that will do the same thing. Once I have the file I used Power Director by Cyberlink to do the editing. There again there are lots of video editing programs you can use like Windows Movie Maker, Sony Vegas to mention a few. To tell you the truth it wouldn"t be hard to modify my video by just taking the video into a program and replace my pictures with your own. Hope this helps.
I would like to say "Thanks. for the help! Since I am new and this is my first year I am learning alot by reading these boards and watching vids of people's shows.
I will check out the programs you mentioned. I use one for vids and music I purchased called "Blaze Media Pro" . It is really nice but, I cannot upload any DVD's to my hard drive.
I think I will take your advice and use your version of "Where are you Christmas" for editing.
I have been working for months just on the music portion of the program and having a great time!
The video is Brand new to me and so far, I am loving it! ( I just figured out how to upload your video for instance today). I have tons of ideas for making my own original videos and have confirmed with the actors that I will shoot these this summer. I cant wait! I can only hope that LOR will come out with a Synchronized Video software real soon I cant wait for November!!
I have had the Blaze Media Pro for a long time and have used it infrequently, but I think it is invaluable for using with video. You can use other software to generate the video and then you can use this program in two ways. First, you can convert the video to a bit rate that is not variable. Second, you can separate out the audio into a mp3 file and program from this file.
Nice Ken! I have not heard of Blaze Media Pro before but after looking at it's web site I think I will buy a copy. I like all the different file conversions that it does.
Hi Paul: I am trying the Power Director and it works much better than windows movie maker. I was wondering if I could ask a question?
I am trying to cover over your family pics with my own. I place my pics in the pip window and it works well but, When I try to add the Transitions like the Ripple effect that you used it won't work. I pull the effect to the video window and it "jumps" to the beginning of the vid. I am not sure how to place the effects where I need them at the beginning of my own pictures without the effect "jumping across the screen" to the very beginning.
Could you give me a pointer on what I am doing wrong? Thanks, Duane
You have to use the color boards in the program. These act as a kind of spacer on the master video track. You can find these under the drop down menu in the top part where you have all your pictures listed. It usally says "all media". If you drop the menu down you will see the last item is color boards. Pick the black board and drag it down to the master video track. The way I had my video tracks laid was that I had the music on the music track, the video portion on the pip track and the photos on the master video track. You can only have the transitions work on the master video track, they will not work on the pip track. Basically above the pip track where the video is playing you will have the color board placed for the same amount of time that the video is playing. These color boards stop your photos going to the beginning of the track when you place them on the track. You then place your photos on the master track right after the color board. You should have a blank space between videos segments on the pip track with color boards matching the time video is showing up in the master video track. This is kind of hard to explain without being able to show it. Let me know if you still have questions.
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