Dococom

This video tutorial demonstrates how to create a digital story using
stop-motion video techniques in Movie Maker. This video is appropriate
for all educators interested in creating and producing digital stories
with their students. It is assumed that the viewer has basic knowledge
of digital photography and uploading images from a camera to computer.

In part 1 of Logo Animation we introduced the animator function built into After Effects text. This function presents several animation options including position, scale, rotation, opacity, just to mention a few.

What’s so special about text? In our fast internet web world, the highlights of your Web page are much like those of a billboard as your client drives by. Catch them with highlights, important keywords that link to your message and the keywords you have placed for search engines.

However, just as importantly, make your text look really cool ! This is important and there’s an interesting balance to strike being being ‘marquee offensive’ where the text activity actually distracts your viewer versus the kind of text treatment that is visually appealing while at the same time, sharing part of your message.

What do I mean by ‘sharing part of the message’?

Everything about your text, from it’s color, size, font, and texture share the personality of your message and share this with your viewers. The text tools in After Effects are nearly identical to those of Photoshop and Illustrator and other applications in the Adobe suite. Several text options are placed directly on the text tool, choosing font, size, color but also adjusting vertical or horizontal size, faux styling, subscript and superscript, stroke and fill settings.

You have a rich variety of options to stylize your text and that’s before we get into the animation possibilities!

A favorite text animation is using text on a path but that path can be anything! We are used to seeing text follow the description of a logo or have text follow a path that visually conveys part of the message, such as the excitement of fireworks or bubbles or steam rising from a warm appealing dish. In this simple way your text participates in your message is an actor in your sixty second play.

Applying text on a path is really easy too. Let’s go!

Create your stage or artboard. Decide what prop and which text your want to use. For the sake of example, I’m going to use steamy soup. From this steamy soup the word ”delicious’ is going to waft into the air with characters rising with a bit of a roller coaster motion.

Create your bowl of soup, create your steam rising then simply create the word ‘delicious’ using the text tool. Using the pen tool, create a mask path on your new text (highlight your text layer so it is chosen then choose pen tool), then describe the tip of your steam rising as you move across the timeline. The trick here is simple but subtle. The mask must be on your text layer to appear as a ‘Path’ option for your text. The path itself that you draw with the pen tool, describe the top of your steam rising. The shape is the steam so to speak, but the must must be on your text layer to appear as a path option for your animated text to follow.Rename this new mask ‘steam’. As this animation unfolds, steam is rising from this yummy bowl of soup! It’s a little too warm to eat just yet.

Now, in your path options for your text, you will see your new mask presented, ‘steam’ is a path option for your text. The simplest animation to get acquainted here is to use the margin settings. Scrub your first margin setting to see that now your text follows the path you defined sketching your rising ‘steam’. As you move back and forth you see your text move with the steam rising. Return to the beginning of your animation. Adjust the first margin setting so your text is aligned to left of your stage and click the stopwatch that initializes your animation.

Now move to end of timeline, scrub your margin setting to move your ‘delicious’ all the way to the right. Click your margin stopwatch setting again to create a second keyframe. Now preview your animation! You can play with distances and time settings but just to get the basic effect here, having your word describe you emotion and rise with the steamy warmth of you bowl of soup, this very basic exercise should do the trick!

A visual book
can be defined as any book that relies on pictures to tell a story or demonstrate a concept. Words can be evident in visual books but often take a secondary role to the images.

Kids who come late to reading may struggle with large tracts of text, pages of prose alone that are generally symbolic of having achieved a competent level of reading.

Comics can offer an enticing intermediary for kids who are still drawn to books but who may reject the idea of traditional chapter books. While there is still a certain amount of stigma attached to comics, there are a number of titles that both attract reluctant readers and also offer a level of appropriate reading material for emerging readers.

Titles like The Dreamland Chronicles, Bone, Tellos and The Amulet are all books in a series that are image driven stories with age-appropriate vocabulary and subject matter.

Beyond comics there are some books that maintain a level of attraction for visual learners whilst retaining the familiar chapter book format. At the forefront of these is the Geronimo Stilton series. Originally written in Italian, this series was first translated into English in 2000 by Scholastic.

The main feature of these books is their emphasis on color text and dynamic illustrations. When you open a Geronimo Stilton book the first thing to note is their white pages. The pages are white, not sepia to hold the color that appears in both the text and the illustrations that butt into the text.

The main parts of text are in black but words of different fonts and color are interspersed at various points to add emphasis to certain words or simply just add variation. For readers intimidated by long stretches of prose in even the smallest chapter books, these visual variations are engaging and entertaining.

For visual kids who are struggling with reading, letting them peruse visual books such as Geronimo Stilton or comics like Bone, may instil a love for reading through this temporary phase.

3D animation deals with electronically produced computer-generated 3D imagery used in motion graphics and digital special effects. In this case, the animator creates a design style or concept that tries to visually interpret and convey the required information using both new and traditional animation techniques.

The 3D animator will have to be well-acquainted with 3D animation applications and software, film and video production techniques, production processes, digital special effects, art and design movements and methodology, typography, styles of performance and dramatization, film and broadcast genres, technical scripting, health and safety regulations for the film and broadcast industry, and an understanding of budgeting and scheduling processes.

The job of the 3D animator is to design and realize original concepts, character and content creation. The animator, therefore, is responsible for devising and communicating creative ideas and accurate technical information. They have to provide the client with detailed estimates of costs, and work within the budget and schedule.

Each assignment will have different demands. So it is imperative that the animator should have a good knowledge and experience of animation software and broadcast processes, as well as a broad knowledge of technical scripting and digital technology used in broadcasting. The designer must be able to respond with innovative concepts and practical solutions for each assignment. The assignments may be of any kind, from designing a spinning top to re-creating mythical weapons.

To succeed in 3D animation, one must have a thorough understanding of computer-generated processes and applications to be able to achieve creative responses to design briefs within the restrictions of budget and deadline. He/she will be required to possess a passion for design, good communication skills and a good understanding of broadcast, special effects and character animation. Last but not least, he or she must enjoy working as a team member under pressure.

In addition to being able to demonstrate high standards of computer-generated imagery and animation techniques you will need to have a good knowledge of art and design movements and imagery, creative problem solving and innovation, and the understanding of how to deliver design concepts and processes.

Before digital media came along, marketers had to rely on print
, radio and television advertising to reach customers. All of these channels are essentially one-directional modes of communication, requiring clever thinking to generate a response and ensure customer engagement. With the advent of mobile telephones, the Internet and other forms of interactive communication; marketers can today enter into a two way dialogue with the customer.

Print advertising of the past utilized a strong call to action and typically a voucher to be redeemed or a tear off coupon to be posted back. In addition to the hit and miss nature of this approach, not representing a true picture of customer interest, paper based campaigns can be costly and require a high level of administrative management. Where print advertising is utilized, the buyer incurs additional media placement costs on top of the agency fee for the development of the advertisement. Radio and television offer phone in opportunities from time to time, but like print they are essentially single-direction communication channels.

Digital technology and information capture
Internet and mobile telephone technologies have revolutionized the marketing industry, providing the means to track consumer interests and obtain an inexpensive link direct to the customer. A form on a website can capture customer details and ask key questions to assist with market profiling. The voluntary provision of email or mobile telephone contact details allows the marketer to ‘get in front of’ the customer without breaching privacy regulations.

Customers are often drawn to relinquish personal information through the offer of free materials and giveaways, or the opportunity to enter a competition. The more closely consumers become connected to digital technologies, the greater the power of the information channel for marketers. With mobile telephones and other electronic devices kept on the person, the rate of ‘hits’ is likely to be far higher than the scattergun approach of traditional media.

When the immediacy and accessibility of digital media is combined with metrics, analysis and customer profiling / segmentation, the online world becomes even more powerful for marketing purposes. Today we can reach the customer when we want to, losing no time as an issue or leveraging opportunity arises, send targeted information that reflects the profile we have gleaned online and reasonably expect a fair percentage to engage in two way communication.

Keywords and internet marketing
Internet marketers utilize popular search terms to isolate what potential customers are interested in and to ensure that content is available online which meets a customer need but also serves the purpose of engaging the customer with the marketer’s brand.

Poor internet marketers do this badly, overestimating the value of keywords and underestimating the importance of providing value to the customer. Customers resent hollow content which is designed purely to drive web traffic to a particular site, and search engines such as Google develop tools to seek out poor quality sites and reduce their ranking. Poor copy online can often mean a low search engine ranking, meaning when the customer types in your keyword, many other sites will appear before yours in the results list.

The process of getting a website ready to attract the most traffic possible and maintain a good search ranking is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Online marketing experts can assist a business in raising their ranking and keeping it high and ‘Google friendly’.