Need Help-Training Vids
10 messages in this thread
Hivideo at work and they are interested in doing more.
I'm a novice… my first attempt was creating slides in Photon Paint and
controlling them with Elan Performer while taping them using the A520
RGB/NTSC encoder. All I have is an A500 with 1MB.
The only thing more I have now is DPaint IV and so I'm starting to learn
how to do simple animation. Our next training video will remain largely a
taped "slide-show" with some animation to show data-flow in our network,
(and to spice up the slides abit).
I would like input from anyone that has done this kind of thing in terms of
how you progressed with your hardware/software capabilities?
How did you grow your production studio so to speak? Any advice for the
kind of slide shows we're going to be doing? Things that made it easier?
Things to avoid?
Thanks much!
Tim,
The most important thing in any training presentation is the quality of the
script. A great training video could be done with a pad and paper–the
Amiga is a tool that makes is easier.
You can do some very impressive animation with DP4, you're only limitation
will be memory–keep the number of colors to a minumum, if possible avoid
overscan, and don't underestimate color cycling. If you're doing something
cyclic you could have an 8 (or less) frame loop animating one part and
color cycling animating another.
One program I find indispensable is pro-video gold (Shereff systems). It
may be comparable to elan performer (I never used it) but it's many wipes
and capabilities are very useful.
One final comment: script EVERYTHING before you create one screen or roll
one inch of tape. While writing it, keep in mind that you are writing
spoken English, NOT written Englsih–there's quite a difference. Also, get
a tape recorder and record your script and then play it back. listening to
it will often reveal problems that you would not pick up while reading it.
Above all don't get discouraged. Every production I've ever worked on has
had some disaster occur. Sometimes I think video production is just another
word for problem solving.
Bill.
Bill,
Thanks for the great advice and encouragement! You've got excellent
ideas.
I'll have to check into Pro-Video Gold… the thing that Elan Perf-
ormer lacks is transitions between slides.
I am beginning to taste the power of DPaint IV. I was remarking to
our coordinator that no longer is the technology our limitation, it's
our creativity and ability to execute it.
I agree that the best graphics will die due to lack of good script.
Thanks again.
Tim
You want the most 'bang for the buck/ram', then I'd strongly suggest you
check out *color cycling* in DPaint. Particularly for something described
as 'data flow' animation. Could be just your ticket, since it's 'free' in
terms of memory use, relatively easy to do, and is very good at showing
linear movement (ie data flows). Good luck.
Or are you talking 'slides'? You mention both in your message. For slides
obviously you cannot use color cycling. ?
–jp–seattle–
JP:
I probably use the term "slide" incorrectly. No, we're not making
Kodak projector type slides, but one of the guys I'm working with refers
to overheads he makes from his Mac as "slides" and I can't shake it.
And since Elan creates a video "slide show" it sort of fits I guess.
By the way, my Mac associate is ready to trade it in for an Amiga.
Thanks for the advice on color cycling. I've done some of it and it
works well, although, to be picky, it seems tricky to use it for
"asynchronous", i.e. random, bursty data flow instead of nice, regular
synchronous flow. We'd like to show both.
Tim
Tim, you may still be able to use color cycling in your 'random, bursty'
way…. you use Elan, right? As I recall it had ARexx control, so you may
be able to turn different color cycling ranges on at different times. If
so, then you can set up several color cycling ranges (ie. one showing the
data flow #1, another for #2, etc). Then you could turn each of those
color cycling ranges on and off indepently using Elan. Can you set the
keyboard keys to trigger range on/off stuff in Elan?
I don't think I described above well, but hope you get the idea anyway 🙂
–jp–seattle–
JP,
I have begun to experiment with multiple ranges in DPIV.
It's getting better…
As for ARexx, the new upgrade to Elan which I'm awaiting does
support it but I don't have it and therefore don't know how to
use it, but it may offer some possibilities.
As a completely different alternative, I have AMOS basic which seems
to be quite powerful in letting me define sprites and bobs which could
simulate data packets of random sizes flowing through the network.
If I can do it in DPaint though I think I would save a lot of work…
Thanks!
Tim
I know that one of the later versions of Elan did offer ARexx; some time
ago I thought…. there are certainly others that will do the same thing.
Most flexible of all would be "The Director Version 2", but that would
require learning it's programming language to put your shows together.
DPaint and Elan should be able to take you quite aways, however! Good
luck.
–jp–seattle–
Tim,
can't you simply set the cycle speed to zero for the images you don't
want to cycle? This way, you can use Elan to show both cycling and
non-cycling images. Only possible problem would be if Elan recognized the
non-cycling images as such, and turned off the cycling, instead of doing
zero-speed cycling (subtle difference here), in which case you'd simply
have to press Tab to re-enable cycling when the appropriate frames come up.
Blaq! – via Whap!
Charles:
Using different ranges and different speeds helps me get closer to the
effect I want, and for objects I don't want to move I can pick outside
any of the ranges.
The best result is by defining about 12-15 colors of the pallette
in only two colors, the background color and say yellow for the data
packets. Then I distribute the yellows somewhat randomly in the range
of background colors. Then if I draw a line in Cycle mode and then
hit Tab, I get movement of random-sized bands of yellow along the
line.
This is about the best I've come up with so far.
Thanks!
Tim