We’ve covered digital images. We’ve covered digital audio. The next logical step must be digital video!
For the fifth assignment in IT 644, we were tasked with making an instructional or promotional video using Video Toolbox, and once the video was made, we had to upload it to YouTube. Even though I am still young enough to get carded…occasionally…in very dim lighting…*ahem* I can still remember a world before YouTube and it seems like it was just yesterday.
Certainly, I visited YouTube, watched my share of videos of cats falling off things and people falling off of things, but my experience with YouTube was analogous to window shopping. I’d seen it. I was aware of it, but not active or invested. Once a clip was over, I was content to go about my merry way. So it was not without a slight amount of trepidation that I tackled this assignment of actually making a video and posting it.
The first portion of the assignment was carried out through Video Toolbox (VT). Although it is free software, I wouldn’t call it bargain basement. As with the other software encountered in this class and reflected upon in this blog, VT is delightfully easy to use. No one will be mistaking my video for an early James Cameron clip, but, as always in the world of software, with practice, a lot can be achieved for zero dollars spent.
VT has plenty of features to play with, including cropping, cutting, adding audio, ripping audio, adding subtitles, and adding watermarks. For my less than Oscar-worthy submission, I created a short film not unlike stop animation, where I incrementally (and instructionally) built a Halloween table center piece. Admittedly, the stop/start format of the video is pretty elementary, but there was method to my madness. VT seemed to have some difficulty with uploading certain size video clips. Its size limits are posted clearly, but even when operating well below its recommended MB, it still took longer than expected to upload certain clips (anything over 1 minute). Some other students in the class reported the same problem; others did not have any problem. Still, I chose the path of least resistance by uploading and manipulating several very short video clips (about 15 seconds each). This worked well for me and I had no trouble uploading the clips, arranging the sequence and merging them together.
Because of the ease and straightforward interface of this software, I have no doubt that I will use it in the future.
As I am probably one of the last people in America to upload a video to YouTube, I don’t need to go into great detail about how easy and user friendly and free it is. Create an account. Select your video. Hit upload, and be sure to select your privacy settings. And voila! Now Spielberg doesn’t seem like such a miracle worker after all.
Below is my first effort with Video Toolbox and YouTube:
Linda, this was one of the tools I could probably do without, but only because of the time it took to load the clips. I ultimately did exactly what you did and used very short clips. What I liked most about this assignment was learning how to upload to YouTube. I now feel like I'm part of a unique club!
ReplyDelete