2007-5-22

I am adding another student song today by David X, from the third grade. He also composed the music for the Snow White title animation below.

I highly recommend you turn on the iTunes or Windows Media visualizer while listening to this superb little piece if you've downloaded it.

My Song2 by David X, third grade, Santa Rita Elementary

2007-5-2

Sruthi's Disco - Music by a Santa Rita student using GarageBand. This file is 2.4 MB and I advise students to send no more than 2 MB in an email to themselves so their family can hear their work. So I've put this song up here on the website so her music can be shared.

Now, maybe I should put a page up on Kranky Kids that is a Santa Rita/Egan student music forum. That way, all the students participating can hear each other's work and we can all talk about the music everyone is making.

What do you think?

2007-4-6

Here are the animated titles from last night's show of new stories from Grimmly Speaking®. All the music was composed by students at Santa Rita Elementary using GarageBand. I animated them using Motion.

Little Red-Cap - Music by Rika and Katherine - 5th Grade

Click here to watch with QuickTime (2.1 MB)
Click here to watch with Windows Media Player (1.9 MB)
Download to your iPod (7 MB)

Snow White - Music by David - 3rd Grade

Click here to watch with QuickTime (756 KB)
Click here to watch with Windows Media Player (612 KB)
Download to your iPod (2.4 MB)

Rumpelstiltskin - Music by Yonatan - 6th Grade

Click here to watch with QuickTime (1.9 MB)
Click here to watch with Windows Media Player (1.5 MB)
Download to your iPod (6 MB)

Rapunzel - Music by Ellie and Amanda - 5th Grade

Click here to watch with QuickTime (1.1 MB)
Click here to watch with Windows Media Player (632 KB)
Download to your iPod (6 MB)

The Louse and The Flea - Music by Samantha - 4th Grade

Click here to watch with QuickTime (648 KB)
Click here to watch with Windows Media Player (364 KB)
Download to your iPod (1.3 MB)

2007-3-31

Santa Rita Tech/Video students have already produced some short music for the Kranky Kids® Theater 2007 show using GarageBand and their pieces are great. I'm learning Motion so I can animate titles with their music. Motion allows me to animate and edit to a soundtrack, so I doubt I'll ever directly use LiveType again since it's incorporated in Motion. (The results will be up by Friday, April 6th.)

2007-3-7

Oh WOW! Look and listen to the first music scoring of our LiveType Animation Exercise for The Pretty Pretty Princess by a student at Santa Rita Elementary in Los Altos, CA :

Stephen nailed it for matching some music to the movement of the type, which is what the instructions were all about.

Now, I did clean it up a little bit (a very very little bit - this is mostly his work) for some dead space, timing and equalizing the volume of the mix - BUT - this was Stephen's first try. He didn't have a chance to polish it and do any fine tune editing. (And I know he's perfectly capable of doing it given the right tools.) We'll explore how much more can be edited and fine tuned in GarageBand and iMovie as we move along in this and other exercises that I and the students create for amusement.

Oh, and I love the lounge music ending.

If for some reason the Flash animation is not appearing above:

Click here for the iPod m4v version. (Right Click or Control Click to download it to your desktop. If it shows up with a .m4v.html extension, get rid of the - .html - and then drop it into iTunes.)

Click here for the Windows Media version.

Any questions?

2007-3-6

The question was:

How do I create a color clip to put titles over in iMovie?

To create a blank color background clip to use in iMovie you first need to create a blank black background clip:

1. Click the Timeline Viewer button.
   
   
2. Drag any video clip in the timeline viewer to the left or right until a gap appears at one end of the clip. (If you only have one clip, drag it to the right. If you have no clips, create one using Edit > Titles.)
   
   
3. Click the Clip Viewer button and you will find that the gap you created is now represented by a blank black background clip.
   
   
4. Double click on this clip to change its color and/or duration.
   (Or go to the menu bar and click File > Show Info to open the Info window and then make your changes.)

Any questions?

2007-3-5

SmartSound is offering Quicktracks for Adobe Premiere plug-in as a free download. It makes SmartSound music scoring available right inside Premiere Pro and Premiere Elements. (Plus, you get 10 free customizable music scores with the download.)

Click here for the Press Release of this announcement.

Click here for the link to the Quicktracks information and the free download.

Any questions?

2007-2-28

Students at Egan Junior High in Los Altos, CA added some comments to a LiveType animation of the opening lines of The Pretty Pretty Princess. (It's a bit silly, but what the hey.)

This animation was created using LiveType and Final Cut Pro (FCP). Each separate LiveType clip was placed in the desired order in the FCP timeline. We then used the FCP voice over tool (Tools - Voice Over) to record our voices using the built-in mic on my MacBook Pro.

Any questions?

2007-2-18

Toon Boom Animation Software

I just purchased Toon Boom Solo and took it straight into Egan Junior High (Los Altos, CA) where I'm doing a Tech/Video Lunch Club. I sat with the resident wiz-kid, who had never seen this software before, and after watching only a minute each of the Toon Boom Solo Drawing Tutorial and the opening Toon Boom Studio Demo (I'm not kidding - he stopped both tutorials well before they'd finished) - he had a drawing up and animated. And Toon Boom Solo is supposed to be the harder one to learn.

So - I am very impressed and we can't wait to start animating after this winter break.

2007-1-30

Go To Bed, Sweet Muse - an Elizabethan Love Song by Robert Jones (1608)

This song was created using GarageBand, Peak Pro, Final Cut Pro and iTunes. (As of 2007-4-10, I changed the vocals to a single line instead of a chorus.)

Orchestration in GarageBand using a Symphony Orchestra JamPack with the following instruments:

• trombone - bass
• celesta - soprano and alto
• tuba - bass
• harp - soprano and alto
• double bass - alto and bass

I sang eight separate vocal tracks and mixed them down into two choral groups. I then *shared* each choral group and the mixdown of the ensemble as three separate songs to iTunes. From there I pulled them out as AIFF files and put them into a media folder on my desktop.

Peak Pro was used clean up the choral groups, set the panning for both files, and also normalize both files to 0 dB. Both were then given the acoustics of the Bethany Church of Christ in Montpelier, VT compliments of Peak's ImpulseVerb. The voices were intentionally set further back then the previous two songs because this song is essentially a slap on the hand - so my intention is to make it feel like your conscious is singing/nagging. It is a bit harsh and the aural feeling is sharper because the ensemble was not given the same acoustical softening as the voices so both groups grate slightly on each other.

Final Cut Pro was used for the mastering of final audio levels between the voices and the ensemble.

I re-imported the result into iTunes which then converted it into an mp3 file.

Any questions?

2007-1-19

Sweet Kate - an Elizabethan Love Song by Robert Jones (1609)

This song was created using GarageBand, Peak Pro, Final Cut Pro and iTunes. (On 2007-4-10, I changed the song to a single vocal, instead of a chorus.)

Orchestration in GarageBand using a Symphony Orchestra JamPack with the following instruments:

• trombone - alto and bass
• flute - alto
• piccolo - soprano and alto
• tuba - bass
• harp - soprano and alto
• trumpet - alto

I sang the vocal track and mixed them down into one chorus. I then *shared* the chorus and the mixdown of the ensemble as two separate songs to iTunes. From there I pulled them out as AIFF files and put them into a media folder on my desktop.

Peak Pro was used clean up the chorus, set the panning for both files and also normalize both files to 0 dB.

Final Cut Pro was used for the mastering of final audio levels between the chorus and the ensemble. This was then exported as an AIFF back to Peak Pro and was then given the acoustics of the City Hall of Gloucester, MA compliments of Peak's ImpulseVerb.

I re-imported the result into iTunes which then converted it into an mp3 file.

Any questions?

2007-1-15

This song was created using GarageBand, Peak Pro, Final Cut Pro and iTunes.

Orchestration in GarageBand using a Symphony Orchestra JamPack with the following instruments:

• bassoon - alto and bass
• flute - soprano
• cello - alto
• tuba - bass
• harp - soprano and alto

I sang eight separate tracks, mixing down four tracks into one chorus and then the other four into another chorus. I then *shared* each chorus and the mixdown of the ensemble as three separate songs to iTunes. From there I pulled them out as AIFF files and put them into a media folder on my desktop.

Peak Pro was used clean up the vocal recordings, set panning for all three files and also normalize all files to 0 dB. Each file was also given the acoustics of the Bethany Church of Christ in Montpelier, VT compliments of Peak's ImpulseVerb.

Final Cut Pro was used for the mastering of final audio levels between the 2 choruses and the ensemble. This was then exported as an AIFF and re-imported into iTunes which then converted it into an mp3 file.

Any questions?

2007-1-7

The question sent to me: I was wondering how you do a green screen with moving objects because when I was doing a chroma key, it worked ok, but it was fuzzy around and inside the object.

The answer I gave:

Essentially you're eliminating one color with the chroma-key. If that color exists inside the image you're saving this will happen.

Try this in Final Cut Pro:

Video Filters - Key - Color Smoothing - 4:1:1

then add

Video Filters - Key - Spill Suppressor - Green

then add

Video Filters - Key - Chroma Keyer

now go to Filters in your Viewer

turn off Spill Suppressor (you'll add this last) and Color Smoothing (you'll toggle this later to see if you need it)

now open your Chroma Keyer and tweak away (use only one or two clicks for Softening and don't use Enhance)

now go back to Filters in your Viewer

toggle Color Smoothing and see if it looks better or worse

turn on Spill Suppressor (it allows you to dial in the opposite color to the one you're keying out and helps get rid of any greenish or bluish edge) and see if that helps

2006-12-14

The gang of three and I had pow-wow today about format and editing. Two students will take WMV and AVI files home and work on Movie Maker and another student and I will focus on Final Cut Pro and compositing.

2006-12-12

We have done other things but nothing worth writing about. One issue that did come up was whether you could extract audio from iMovie and then work on it in another program. YES! That's the beauty of iMovie - it gives you three audio tracks right off the bat and then it also lets you build as complicated a project as you feel like making.

Today I brought in my new MacBook Pro and we checked out Windows Movie Maker for a bit. I spent a few hours learning about it yesterday. It's a very simple program and, well, cheesy. If you want control and flexibility but can't pony up the money for the pro series in either platform - iMovie wipes out Movie Maker for creativity and power.

I still have to see how Premiere Elements and iMovie compare.

2006-12-3

We worked after school last Friday shooting in front of the blue screen. All the shots were of soccer contact with the ball. We tried to film a little finger puppet action but decided quickly that the puppets we presently have are too small for what we want to do - which is have them play soccer. I guess we're going to have to make some new ones.

2006-11-28

Today we decided that the 15 second film wasn't going to make it. We need more footage and some sort of story. So we're going to film a longer story of sorts involving soccer and the finger puppets and the students. This will involve the Reflecmedia screen and lots of compositing on the editing end. The trick will be to get the finger puppets and the students to appear the same relative size in the final film. Hmmm . . .

2006-11-13

Today we added some music to our film and cut it down to 15 seconds. While I'm on the road to the DV Expo in LA, I'll make some variations on our work and see what comes of it. Due to my trip and the coming Thanksgiving holidays - there will be no more postings until the 28th of November.

Have fun!

2006-11-9

Today we started editing our wretched clips on Final Cut Pro. Okay - they're not wretched but they are the sort of clips you can expect when you use "green mode" on the Canon XL-1S, which is the same kind of PHD (push here dummy) mode found on all consumer camcorders.

So, our puppets are in and out of focus BUT the DVD player, computer monitor and wall socket behind the talent are nice and sharp. Oh well.

2006-11-8

Yesterday we started to learn about the controls of a Canon XL-1S (currently the XL2) , which was the second generation of the the Canon XL line of professional camcorders. Today we are going to start shooting a 15 second film using some props and puppets for talent.

I like using puppets and such because you don't have to feed them and they don't whine when you decide their scene needs to be cut.

2006-11-2

Today we started learned how to clean the heads of the transport in the DV camcorder and also how to start labeling our tapes and keeping track of what footage we've shot.

Tomorrow we will start filming random whatever of the computer room and the area outside the computer room door.

2006-10-31

Today we looked at Sonicfire Pro 4, the software that SmartSound has donated for us to use in making some short films.

The question of an iMovie version for PC came up. iMovie only works on Macs. However there is Movie Maker for PC that is free:

Microsoft Movie Maker 2.1 Download

Movie Maker tutorials

Before downloading anything you should check with your parents that it's alright to do so.

On Thursday we will start filming and learning some camera basics.

2006-10-27

We worked on GarageBand today. But before anything else, the following needs to be stated:

Yesterday I went on a rant about batteries. (I know when I'm ranting. I do my best to avoid it, but rants have a way of sneaking up on me.)
My information is out-dated, as was pointed out to me by Adam Wilt who is an expert in DV camcorders. Some cameras (like the Panasonic HVX and DVX) actually require you to keep the battery on-board at all times.

From now on, when it comes to cameras and equipment that I do not personally use, I will do my research before opening my mouth.

However, for those who only use their consumer cameras and camcorders during the holidays or at the occasional birthday, it is still advisable to keep the batteries out while it languishes in your closet for long periods of time.

Now, back to recording voice in GarageBand:

attach a microphone to your computer (line-in port or use a USB interface like the Griffin iMic)
system preferences/sound
make certain line-in is checked for audio input
test your mic
open GarageBand
create a new track for a real instrument
track info/vocals
pick your vocal choice (I usually start with no effects because they can be added later.)

When in doubt go to GarageBand Help and read the documentation on Recording with Real Instruments.

Notice: I will not be at Egan on Monday 2006-10-30.

Any questions?

2006-10-26

Today we talked about cardioid mikes and creating a voiceover in Final Cut Pro and Premiere:

These are the Premiere Pro instructions for making a voiceover in a video project:

attach your microphone
control panel
sounds and audio devices properties
sound recording
line-in
test hardware button to make certain you are set up correctly

in Premiere enable a track for recording
pick existing audio device
go to wing menu
select meter inputs only
your VU meter should now register your sound
click record to make Premiere ready
position cursor (CTI) to where you'd like to record
(you can also set in and out points to contain your voiceover)

when finished, if in and out markers were used
right-click in time ruler and select clear sequence / marker in and out

Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Elements

2006-10-24

Seven Egan students have signed up so far. The first priority is to get organized. Schedules and equipment/software assets need to be discussed. Questions need to be asked and answered. To start, I'll begin a separate page of questions and answers. It will look kind of sloppy for the first few weeks until I figure out the best way to lay it out.

Any questions?