Thursday, July 26, 2007

Digital Story

OVERVIEW

What should have been an easy task ended up turning into a big complication, but I suppose I asked for it. I really wanted to include a video into my digital story, which is why I didn't use photstory3.



Having said this, I downloaded the Sony Vegas Movie Maker, free of charge, which came with a great tutorial.



Overall the program was fairly user-friendly, and offered a wide range of transitions and video effects. Now for the downside. The whole time I was creating the video I was only able to preview it in a small box. I could enlarge it slightly, and then my audio timing was off?? I'm not too sure why.

Anyway, more importantly, the overall file is saved as a .VF, which I had to convert in order to post in youtube. The problem is however, I had a difficult time finding a site that converts .VF files. After reading the tutorial for this program, I realized that they convert the file for me and post it online, which worked out for the purpose of this project. From there I downloaded it, and then was able to post that on file on youtube. For those interested I well make a separate post with some tips for converting files, and what I learnt along the way.

I also knew that I wanted to use "lost in this moment" by big and rich as my background music but did not want to include the vocals…considering it was a wedding song, and would have been misleading for my video. I ended up extracting the majority of the voice (with the exception of the echo overlay). For those interested, I well describe how I did this in a separate blog.

I already know I am too picky for my own good, but two things really bother me about the outcome of this video:

1. I am curious why the quality is so poor, after it has been converted. The image is smaller then in my preview window of Vegas Movie Maker, and yet it was much clearer. If someone knows how to convert VF files, rather then having this program do it for me, let me know.
2. The voice waves do not match up with the actions, as they are delayed in the youtube version, but not in Acidplant. For now, I am posting it as-is but if you want to know it should really look and are willing to look at a much smaller screen then youtube, check out the posting on Acidplant.

OK, I’m done babbling. Enjoy my video…and more importantly

Have a good weekend!


6 comments:

DRS said...

Talk about perseverance! Most would have quit long before completion. I can totally relate to your process as I've often started with small projects and they've turned into huge ones. Kind of like house renovations.

Nice tribute and well done.

Mullins Mind said...

Great video! I watched both versions and they are totally different. I have never posted to You Tube before, Is it a common problem to have videos show up with poor quality? Or do you think it was because you had to convert your video?
I will have to look at Sony Vegas Movie Maker!

Kelly

Kubat said...

Great job! I as well watched both videos and they are very different. Weird how technology does that to use sometimes. However, the video is a beautiful tribute of your relationship together. Very touching. I loved it!

C. Doherty said...

Perseverance & troubleshooting - 2 keys to working with technology. A great site for resources on creating digital stories is Dr. Helen Barrett's at http://electronicportfolios.org/

Leif Harboe said...

What about Moviemaker - I assume you use Windows as you spoke about Photostory? Leif (from Norway)

Jane said...

That was a very endearing video!
You know when you said that you would make a post about converting files? I need help...
YouTube won't recognize my digital photostory.