Video and Sound and this Blog; Oh my!

Saturday classes yesterday started us all down the road to some very dangerous tools in the wrong hands: video and audio for the web, and those ‘wrong hands’ would be mine. I’ve always loved the idea of interactivity. I guess I went to sleep Rip Van Winkle-style just so that the technology available online could finally begin to keep up with the early-day predictions of a true multi-media experience.

One of the great things about the program at Quinnipiac is the sheer quality and amount of technical support and digital video and audio resources they make available to the student body for projects.  In yesterday’s class we were all shown models of the Marantz PMD-670 digital recorders and given some hands-on training for how to use them to record audio tracks. We also got an overview of the process of digital audio mixing and editing using Avid’s ProTools LE.

All just in time for our first project – producing 0:90 second voice-over instructional or informational audio presentations, which will then be served up as Podcasts. The technological knowledge itself is artistically empowering to me, and I’m starting to get tons of ideas swimming around in my head. I seriously need to start jotting them all down.

 One of the projects I would like to do to help me learn the audio and video principles of this class, just because I think the end result would be somewhat viral-video worthy among a certain set of friends, would be to record a whole bunch of men and women reciting a piece of ritual prose called the ‘Charge of the Goddess’. Then splice them in so that the whole thing gets ‘read’ by a set of voices which builds to borg-like intensity for the sheer numbers of simultaneous voices speaking. And along the way, cut to different men and women in the video version, showing all sorts of humans in different age groups and walks of life. That’s it. Nothing more than a recitation of the piece, artfully composed and posted to YouTube for sharing with whomever cares for that kind of video.

I know that the tone of this blog has been aimed more toward the professional world of interactive consultancy or a graduate student, but I have my own interests and desires for expression too. Part of the curse of artistic vision and inclination. This project is just an example of little things that present themselves to me, saying “Oh, and do this too.” Some of the ideas may be worthy of internet startups and entrepreneurial business plans, and others may just be items that I, as a creator and innovator, just feel need to be made.

Thinking About Marketing

I can always come up with ideas, but the place where I freeze comes from the execution thereof. I know that everyone wants to be the idea person, but sometimes there are folks who really do just fill up with ideas when certain possibilities are presented. I know from a decade plus of working in production-based positions of graphic design that no project left undone is worth more than a passing mention, so I’m not aiming for vaporware heaven. But it would be nice if there were a niche for folks like me who are long on ideas and planning and short on the patience to actually develop half of this crap.

Hrm. Well, I’ll just have to keep on doing and producing and plugging things in on this blog. Developing an intellectual portfolio is nice, and soon I’ll be able to add some examples of work beyond writing posts and papers.

Keep watching this space. Someday soon there will be odd bits of podcasts, audio, and video files on it. And with ICM512:Online Development asking us to plan out a website to build, there may be links to another whole site. (Time to review the WordPress interface to see just how this is all going to work out. Ahh, blessed logistics, the oft-times bane of creative professionals everywhere.) 

Interesting Sites and Techs from ActionScripting Class

Yesterday was class 2 for ActionScripting. We covered discussions and review of the previous assignments and then went into some of the professional considerations that are involved in planning, contracting, and scoping an AS development project. We’re using the Foundation ActionScripting for Flash 8 book by Friends Of ED, part of Apress media. Excellent book so far, it seems to spend more time on the ideas surrounding the coding and the professional application of the coding knowledge than just running through the exercises. I recommend it as a good textbook for anyone trying to learn how to code in ActionScripting.

Originally I felt that I didn’t have the required Flash knowledge, but I’m picking up on the interface pretty quickly. Part of any graphics-based software package involves learning how to think in terms of visual problem solving for that particular platform. For example, I work in Photoshop and Illustrator as part of my day job (graphic design and production work for print), and I have for years. When I start in on any design, I’ve got a very structured way of thinking about the final piece or how to construct the final look and feel of things, set out as a series of steps in whichever program I’m using. The vector-based workflow I come up with (for Illustrator) is rather different than the bitmapped-based workflow (for Photoshop).

The same thing needs to happen with Flash. I was worried at first, because this course only deals with the coding aspects of ActionScript, not the design or animation aspects of working in Flash to begin with. The good news is that simply by seeing what kind of things the ActionScript can control and tweak, I’m already beginning to project backward a sense of how I would need to construct an animation sequence in order to make it fit the interface.

When the new 17″ Mac Powerbook Pro arrives, I’ll start messing with Flash animations and seeing how CS3 integrates functionality between Illustrator and Flash. I’ve got a few ideas up my sleeve, but right now I don’t have the portable nature of the new laptop in hand yet. When I do, watch out on several fronts.

Notable Mention: Jitter

In class we started talking about an article by John Simon, Jr. called “Authorship, Creativity, and Code.” I apologize for not having the name of the source book immediately to hand, but here is the author’s website for right now. I’ll edit this post when I find the proper citation. The crux of the essay deals with redefining coding in more creative terms, and it talks about programming languages which are accessable to the artistic mindset. In class I asked about it, and I was referred to a program called Jitter, which is an add-on for a programming platform called MaxMSP.

The idea behind it is that the original programming language involves using a gui instead of lines of code in order to construct workable programming. Jitter expands the original MaxMSP and provides it with customized toolsets for use in ‘programming’ artwork. The only drawback is that it costs $850 for the two, so I won’t be playing with this little language until I’ve had a chance to get a return on my educational investment. In the meanwhile, I’ll start looking through the online materials to see if it’s worth downloading the demo and trying it out.

Fun Site: Gary Skinner’s ‘Gallery Incomplet’

We also spoke about ways that Flash developers are introducing controlled spectrums of “randomness” to various movies and applications. A great example of some of these can be found by noted Flash developer guru Gary Skinner in his online Gallery Incomplet. Enjoy the fun. The ‘tree’ animation grows a differently-shaped tree each time the window is reloaded. Other animations are made to interact with webcam data while simulating free-form flow of graphic elements.

Anyway, as more of these ’site examples’ get mentioned, I’ll post them here for reference and further enjoyment.