VISA 0120 Foundations Media: Computation + Art

I have added a flash media player plugin to our blog so we can upload videos directly to our blog server instead of using YouTube or any other video site. This way we can control our own video quality and data. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Open your video in Quicktime Player. If you don’t have it, use the computers in the Media Lab. Go to a frame of video that you would like to use as your poster frame. (This will be the still image that people will see in your post.)
2. From the File menu, choose “Export for web”. From the drop-down menu, choose Export version for: “Desktop” and Create poster image from “The current frame of the movie”. Then click “export”. At this point, the program will compress your file and then create several files for you. You will use only two of them: the .m4v and the .jpg file.
3. Change the .m4v and .jpg files to the same name (“myfile.m4v” and “myfile.jpg”).
4. Go to the blog. Upload both of these files using the Media -> Add New link. (You can also upload your files directly in the post interface using the appropriate upload/insert icon link.)
5. Make a new post and use the following code in your post to embed the file, but delete the spaces after the starting bracket ” [f... " and before the ending bracket " ... 360] “:
6. [ flv:http://pathtofile/yourfile.m4v 480 360 ]
7. (Note: Replace the URL above with the path to your file following this convention:http://camp-er.net/teaching/sp09/foundations/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/yourfile.m4v)
8. Preview to be sure your video will play and that your poster frame image is being used. If the file names for the m4v and jpg files are the same, this should work.
9. Include an appropriate title for your post, your write-up, and use the correct category and tags. You’re done.

here’s a test…

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

I found this on a the following thread on an apple discussion forum regarding how to create a movie from a sequence of images. This will be useful to many of you who had trouble with ordering, timing and that crazy zooming effect called “Ken Burns” that you can and should disable.

The photos were imported for 5 seconds each because apparently that’s the duration currently set in the Photo Settings window, the window that opens when you press the Show Photo Settings button.

The shortest duration offered by the Photo Settings window is 00:03 — three frames. But there is a back door to import with a 1-frame duration. The trick is to use the iMovie feature that imports photos using the import duration — and all the other photo import settings — of the last imported clip you clicked on.

1. Click on any photo in the Photos list. Press the Show Photo Settings button. Turn OFF the Ken Burns checkbox in the Photo Settings window; drag the duration slider as far left as it will go; then press the Apply button. The new clip will have a duration of 3 frames. (Don’t try to type the duration in the Photo Settings text box. The text box is buggy and you won’t get the duration you want.)

2. Double-click on that new clip. In the Clip Info window that opens, change the duration to 0:00:01, which is one frame. Press the Set button. Now the clip will play for one frame.

3. In the Photos list, click on any photo. The default duration will be 00:03 in the Photo Settings window, which is the duration of your last import.

4. Now click on the new 1-frame clip, then click on any photo in the Photos list. Now the default duration will be 1 frame, not 3.

5. The photos you subsequently import will be 1 frame long until you change the duration, or click on a clip that’s longer.

There’s one other hurdle, importing the photos in the order you want them. Ideally you have them now in the same folder, and they are named in numerical order. To preserve the order, the best method is usually to use iMovie’s File > Import command to import all at the same time. (Click on the first photo in the folder, then Shift-click on the last one.)

That method usually delivers them in the proper order. Dragging them from a Finder window — or from the photos list — usually will not.

Oh, and don’t forget to set your iMovie preferences to import them to the Timeline, not the Clip pane.

If you can’t get this to work then Yes, use QuickTime Pro’s Import Sequence command. It lets you import all the photos with whatever duration you want. Save that movie, then import it to iMovie. Doing the type of movies you are, it’s probably worth purchasing QT Pro for that one feature.

This is useful for those of you that need to de-yellow and sharpen your sequence of images from Assignment #2 Stop Motion before you create a Quicktime (.mov) file of them.

CREATE YOUR ACTION
1. Open Photoshop
2. Open the “Actions” Menu from the Windows drop down menu.
3. Create a new Actions Folder by clicking the folder icon at the bottom of the menu.
4. Name the Folder “Color Correction Actions”
5. Create a new Action called “Levels/Sharpen” (or something like that) by clicking on the new document icon at the bottom of the Actions menu.
6. The Actions menu will automatically start “RECORDING” your actions. This is indicated by the RED record button at the bottom of the menu. (You can press pause to stop recording. Be mindful of what actions you are recording.)
7. Record a good set of adjustments. (Levels, Curves, Unsharp Mask, etc.) on a sample image from the set.
8. Press the record button to Pause the Action by pressing the RED record button.
9. Now you are ready to AUTOMATE.

AUTOMATE A BATCH OF IMAGES
1. Go to File -> Automate -> Batch…
2. Make sure the correction Set and Action is selected. You should select your newly made action.
3. Choose a Source Folder with all your original uncorrected images in it.
4. Choose a DIFFERENT Destination Folder (You may want to create a Folder first)
5. Choose a naming convention for your file.
6. Click OK – and off you go!

not sure if the last one worked…

follow this link and then when you’ve done all that go to share and select quicktime and then you’re done!