Monday, October 31, 2011

Check out this New Media Center Reel


The New Media Center is much more than just a place to edit video. You can edit images, work on motion graphics, write songs and create 3D models and that's just for starters. Come see us on the lower level of the university library to learn more about what you can do in the New Media Center.

Clips provided by the New Media Center Staff

Edited by Ben Weinberg

WONK TV Ad Stars AU Talent

American University, "All The Wonks Are Talking" from American University on Vimeo.

Some or all of the sound effects used in this ad came from Media Services' sound effects collections.

You see her in a bus shelter, juggling a landline, cell, iPad, and digital camera — the Connected WONK. There he is in the metro station, clutching a pile of overflowing textbooks — the Academic WONK.

What has become the university’s iconic branding campaign, “WONK,” is dominating public spaces throughout Washington, D.C., again this fall. It’s a campaign that swept the region last spring, bringing awareness and recognition for the progress of American University to prospective students, parents, employers, and higher education peers.

And as this fall’s WONKS tout the university’s recent successes — like topnotch faculty hires and good employment rates for recent grads — it’s as though the colorful still-frame figures have taken on a life of their own. Playing upon that notion, the University Communications and Marketing brand team developed the television spot, “All the WONKS Are Talking,” which has been airing in the mid-Atlantic market since Sunday, October 16, during Meet the Press, Face the Nation, and CBS Sunday Morning.

Under the direction of Matt Fredericks, director, university video department, a cast and crew including AU students, staff, alums, and even faculty member Matt Boerum teamed up to recreate the still poster ads using actors who made the images come to life as they expressed their excitement about AU.

Read more.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Learn how to do an Earth zoom in After Effects



























This 23 minute video tutorial from Video Copilot teaches you how to do an Earth zoom from San Francisco all the way out to space. Check it out here.

New Media Center Software Training Sessions this week

















The New Media Center is located on the lower level of the library past the Technology Services desk, next to Media Services. The NMC conducts open workshops on a variety of topics related to multimedia production. These 20 to 30 minute sessions are open to all AU faculty, staff and students with all levels of multimedia production experience. There are usually four or five workshops held each week. Check the NMC calendar for the latest schedule. For more information, contact the NMC staff (202) 885-2560.

Sunday 10/30 at 4pm – Video Compression/Export
Tuesday 11/01 at 12pm – Beginner Photoshop
Wednesday 11/02 at 8pm – Advanced Animation for Video
Thursday 11/03 at 4pm – Greenscreen Editing for Video

Friday 11/04 at 11am – Making Movies in iMovie HD
Saturday 11/05 at 4:30pm – Flash: Interactivity I

See the complete Fall Training Schedule by date or by topic.

There is a wealth of multimedia training resources available online. AU faculty, staff and students have access to thousands of hours of free training at Lynda.com. Create a personal profile and get started. More information about resources can be found at Multimedia @ AU.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

This Just In: More scary movies!!














That's right, just yesterday a few more spooky films were added to the Home Use Collection. Take one home this weekend. Also, don't forget about the most recent entry about scary movies, which also links to other films that will be perfect to check out this Halloween weekend.

Beetle Juice – HU DVD 9030

Masters of Horror – HU DVD 9040

Saw – HU DVD 9061

They Live – HU DVD 9020

Take art from Illustrator and make it 3D in Cinema 4D

This is a video tutorial on taking vector art and importing it into Cinema 4D to create a 3D object that can be animated, textured, and manipulated in 3D space. In this tutorial, written by David from filmmakingcentral.com he shows you exactly how to do this.

Read the step by step tutorial and watch the video here.

As seen on GomediaZine and FimmakingCentral

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Export workflow for faster and better web videos



Thanks to one of our NMC Consultants, this exporting trick is becoming a popular trend in the New Media Center. Instead of trying to convert to a web version within Final Cut (any version), it's actually faster to export a file at current settings, then convert that single file to the web version using mpeg streamclip. Final Cut could take 45 minutes or more to do this in one step, so by doing it in two steps, the whole process usually doesn't take more than ten minutes.

The process:

When you're ready to export your your movie, choose:

File-->Export-->Quicktime movie (not Quicktime conversion)

Leave "current settings," rename the file and tell it where to save.

This makes a single Quicktime file of the finished film.

(in FCP X choose Share-->Export media, the rest of the process is the same).

Now drag the finished file into Mpeg Streamclip. Choose File-->Export to Quicktime. When the window appears, turn the quality to 100, and change the compression to "h.264". Don't worry about any other settings.

Since Mpeg Streamclip is designed to convert footage, and FCP is not, it will look better and work faster than trying to do this inside Final Cut. If the exported file is too large, or otherwise turns out to be not what you need, you can simply redo the last step, instead of having to wait 45 minutes for FCP to try again.