Flatland Session #2: A Casual Day

hey folks!

here is my premier video on Vimeo. it's the second installation of my Flatland Sessions

[Vimeo detail]

this video was captured on the 4th of August, 2009. it serves as a follow-up from my last video to show off my progress. it's a casual session i decided to record using my brand new iPhone 3G [S]. the video was just an excuse to play with my iPhone, so i'm not putting a great deal of effort here. however, i've gotten a little better. more time practicing would've been spent if it weren't for all this rain we've gotten over the summer up here in Massachusetts.

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ADJUST YOUR SET!

throughout the video you'll notice weird color shifts. in combination with the music i've chosen, this is an attempt to mellow out the mood of the video. just something i thought i'd throw in to help spruce up an otherwise boring video.

[end]

unlike the first captured flatland session where i condensed the length of the video by utilizing Fade In Fade Out Dissolve, i decided to leave this video intact and instead focus on using some kind of neat visual effect over a mellowed-out down-tempo tune.

one reason for not chopping it up, was because, where as the first session was captured in 720x480 resolution; the video resolution capture on the iPhone is 640x480 (the horizontal field of view is narrower). this posed a problem as i was riding in and out of the frame more often than before. also the video was shot from the ground and not from a tripod. i felt this too had a limiting affect of the field of view. in order to stay within the frame longer i had to be farther away from the camera.

another reason was the audio. unlike the first where i completely removed the audio in favor of a background music, i decided to leave the original audio in. i have yet to figure out how to mix the audio correctly in Final Cut Express 4 (FCE4) as it separates the audio from the video into its own track.

a third reason was simply time. the video for Session #1 contained over 40 minutes of stock footage from multiple angles. so i had a "40 minute" reason to shorten it down and highlight the important parts. in Session #2 only 00:11:50 of stock from one angle was taken. it didn't seem worth the effort just to shave off two minutes.

i did attempt to condense it, but did not worked out very well. still, i think final cut turned out just fine. in fact the end result came out looking really sharp for a VGA quality video compare to that from the original iPhone video, which contained a lot of grainy digital noise due to the low light conditions. the end-quality of the video was thanks to the process of taking the final video exported from FCE4 as an MPEG4 (@ 9000kbs), converting it into a DVD/MPEG2 video (@ 7000kbs) using Burn.app, then cleaning and polishing it up - using some pretty hefty video enhancements - by running the MPEG2 video through Handbrake, and back out to an MPEG4 video (@ 3000kbs). with all these conversions you'd think there be a loss of quality. well, there is, but you can't really tell, because 1) without the original stock there's no basis for comparison so you don't know what to look for, and 2) even if you could tell the loss of detail is way in the background.

unfortunately, because of YouTube's rule regarding video runtime - they limit it to no more than 10 minutes per video - i couldn't keep both sessions under the same roof, and , therefore, i had to find another home. Vimeo was perfect. so long as i keep my uploads to 500MB per week, my videos can be as long as i want. and the quality of videos on Vimeo are always good. i was really stoked when i saw how sharp my video came out. plus if you like the video, you have the option of downloading a copy for yourself. however, you have a week from the date of publish to do that, and you'll need to be a member.

feel free to stop by at the actual site and leave a comment.

peace,
@riel

Microsoft Needs To Simplify

up until now have written entries regarding my joys and pains of Apple and their computers. i have yet to write about Microsoft, and the truth is i have been a Windows user since the days of MS-DOS6.22/ Windows3.1 way back in 1993. since then i had made every effort to learn about computers; how they work, all of the hardware that makes up a computer, and using tech lingo such as, "you have to modify the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS file." remember that? actually that last part didn't come in handy until two years later when i started working for a multimedia retail store called Media Play. ah, those were the days.

over the years i have moved up from Windows 3.1 to 95 when i made the transition from a Packard Bell 486SX to an HP Pavillion with a Pentium 133MHz, from 95 to 98 when i made the trasition from the Pavillion to a Gateway with a Pent-3 running at 450MHz, and finally leap-frogging over Windows ME and upgrading to XP Pro with my Gateway.

anyway, the point is before i became Mac, i was Windows, and still am thanks to Parallels Desktop.

i never had any major issues with Microsoft except for one; their insistence of marketing multiple versions of Windows with every release. this wasn't such a big deal with XP. three simple and self-explained choices; Home Edition, Profession, and Media Center. but with Vista it became a little more complicated with 4 versions which broke down the Home version into Premium & Basic. instead of having a Media Center edition, Microsoft included media center functionality with the Home Premium version. and the Home Basic is just the core functioning O/S of Vista - stripped down - to address the lack of hardware support some user's systems didn't have for Home Premium and over. and it seems that Windows 7 will be broken down into these versions... again.

**sigh**

for tech geeks this isn't a major issue, because we can handle the unexpected; if any issues arise, we know where to find support and information. but the average user isn't a tech geek (not in the truest sense anyway). they are made up of consumers who expect technology to work as designed and function flawlessly, but it isn't always the case.

Microsoft has a history of "copying" Apple, with respect to the user interface. why don't they "copy" Apple's marketing approach to selling one version of their operating system? the "one size fits all" approach. sell the Ultimate edition only, and during the installation have a function to determine how much stuff can be installed based on the system's hardware profile. or simply sell the Professional edition and open up a Windows Market Place. allow user to pay and download extra features - much like the iPhone App Store - such as the media center or additional security functionality.

i don't blame switchers who complain about their troubled past with Windows, or any users who thinks Microsoft is too big for itself; so big in fact that it's ability to maintain a high level of product quality and customer satisfaction to their retail consumers is anything but high. case in point: Windows Mobile 6.5 not being completely ready prior to its release.

i will give Microsoft big props for allowing all users to play with Windows 7 as a release candidate for a year prior to the official release to work out any real-world bugs. it gives us users a chance to see what Windows can really be and do, and gives Microsoft plenty of feedback from user's experiences. this approach is very smart as it will give them time to correct as many issues as possible assuring a gold level release when the time comes.

i downloaded Windows 7 RC and began running it via Parallels Desktop, and i have to say Windows 7 is fast. real fast. so far my personal user experience with 7 is much better than Vista.

the only thing that would ruin this is another multi-version marketing approach that will do nothing but confuse the average consumer, who will scratch their heads and wonder which version to buy.

Microsoft, if you're reading this...

SIMPLIFY; SELL ONE VERSION OF WINDOWS 7!!!

trust me, users will love and/or appreciate you for it.

peace,
@riel

Trying out Blogo

so i was looking to see what twitter clients were available that may extend it's functionality. i've noticed how other's twitter posting include links and even images. i can't seem to do this with web-based twitter client from Twitter.com, so i visited the site remembering that they posted apps and widgets.

this one particular app called Blogo caught my attention, because not only did it post on Twitter, but it was originally written to post on blogs. so i downloaded the trail just to check it out. i have to say that so far i like what it can do. i can connect to my Blogger account and create new post & re-edit older posts as well, add images & links without having to deal with HTML codes, and has a preview function so you can see what your blog entry will look like before you post it. i can even schedule postings, and there's even this full-screen function to allow you to focus your attention on your writings. oh yeah and it does Twitter postings as well.

it took a of bit trail-and-error just to set it up to my Blogger account, but now that i got it running it's pretty neat. it may just be worth the asking price of $25.

go check it out.

this entry edited using Blogo.

peace,
@riel

My New Media Studio Logo.

every time i'm about to enjoy a new movie at the theaters, i have to sit through a whole bunch of these animated film studio logos that appear in the beginning of the movie. and with every new big-budget movie that gets released, they seem to tack on more of them. apparently movies now-a-days require more logistical support to film, produce, and post produce. one of the movies i recently watched, "Wanted", had 8 film studio logos to which four of them (i think) - including the main studio - had animated logos that appeared just before the movie started. some of them are pretty cool to watched, and some are visually useless.  but no matter what they are ALL annoying to have to sit through when you just want to get started with the movie.

now i have been toying with the name Arielistix as my fantasy media production studio to give my content some kind of home. i mean to tag my videos and music with "by Ariel" is just plain boring. inspired by these annoying, yet cool-looking studio logos i decided to come up with my very own.



i was able to generate this using Final Cut Express 4 (FCE4). it took several layers including the audio track i generated in GarageBand. motion key-framing allowed all the movements, and the opacity transitions allowed me to fade the "@!" to 21.*

i know it seems kinda stupid, but once i started working on it i couldn't stop. actually i think it's pretty neat. perhaps someday i can turn my fantasy production studio into reality. if it happens, at least i'll have an animated logo to compete with the big boys and annoy someone else. ha ha!

peace,
@riel

* the characters "@" and "!" corresponds with the numbers "2" and "1" respectively on a typical querty keyboard. 21 is my favorite number.

Upbeat with Apple's GarageBand.

here is the second tune i was working on.



right-click on the following below and use the "Save Link As..." option to download my tune,

AAC (.M4A)
MP3 (.MP3)

or head over to my media site ARIELISTIX Media!

peace,
@riel

Chillin' with Apple's GarageBand

so last night i was a little bored and decided (for some strange reason) to play around with Apple's GarageBand (GB) app. somehow i started with a project with a tempo setting of 128bpm and ended with this 89bpm chill piece. and i have to say that working with GB became a little addictive once the arrangement starting to take shape.

i'll write more about it later, until then enjoy.



right-click on the following below and use the "Save Link As..." option to download my tune.

AAC (.M4A)
MP3 (.MP3)

peace,
@riel

It Is Finished!!!

here it is; my entry to Otakon 2008 AMV contest - the second (and quite possibly final) edition to my Macross Plus AMV, "Dyson's Revelation". this edition feature some new enhancements to the existing video. along with the changes mentioned earlier, i managed to learn how to use to the Motion Keyframe feature in Final Cut Express 4 (FCE4) to add movements to the most of the still video sequences; which i think helps to add some much needed "flow" to the video. i mean there were scenes containing motion and some that were at a stand still. it kept bothering me that whenever the video transitioned from a motionless scene to one with movement, i felt like i was in a car that kept stopping and going, stopping and going, stopping and going.

my other problem was trying to get the video to the specification required by Otakon. they "STRONGLY encourage" all participants to enter their video as a 720x480 MPEG2 video with AC3 or mp2 audio. and though they are willing to convert the video for you if you can't, i didn't want to take any chances on my video looking bad. so i decided to tackle this myself. it took me over a week to get my video to conform to MPEG2. i did eventually find a solution; it is as follows:

01. exported my project from FCE4 as an uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2 quicktime movie.

02. imported the quicktime movie into iDVD, authored a quick and simple DVD image, but saved it using the "Save As VIDEO_TS folder..." option.

03. opened the saved VIDEO_TS folder with Handbrake (HB) to remaster the video using it's deblocking & denoising features along with other advanced settings. the resulting video file would then be MPEG4, cleaned and polished.

04. used Burn.app to create the final MPEG2. set Burn.app to write video to DVD, then imported the MPEG4 file. Burn.app automatically converted the MPEG4 video to MPEG2.

with MPEG Streamclip i was able to confirm the specs on the final video using its "Show Stream Info" feature.


unfortunately FCE4 does not export video to MPEG2. i was hoping that MPEG Streamclip would easily convert MPEG4 video to MPEG2, but it doesn't work that way. i tried using FFmpegx to transcode it. it worked, but for some reason the resulting video didn't playback well enough. it was jumpy and contained weird anomalies like distortions and pixelations. i wasted a great deal of time re-encoding my video over and over again - hence why it took me over a week - until i figured out what the problem was; it turned out the MPEG4 video was encoded @ 23fps (frames per second) instead of 30fps. that was my fault. apparently i didn't force HB to encode the VIDEO_TS files to MPEG4 @ 30fps as one of its compression parameters.

a quick comment about FFmpegx: it took a while to get used to using the app due to its multitude of features and settings. at first use it seemed a little overwhelming. at every attempt to convert my MPEG4 to MPEG2 i experimented with different features enabled/disabled, and settings at different adjustments. and though in the end i went with using Burn.app, FFmpegx is a really good tool to have in my arsenal. i honestly like it, and will most likely make further use of it for future projects.

this was a rough road to travel on cause it led me to so many dead-ends. but this is a good thing for me. at least now i know how to over come this problem for my next project. in any case it'll be on its way to Edison, NJ soon enough. i just hope it make it by the 7th as that is the deadline.


i'll be attending Otakon 2008 with some friends. i'm looking forward to seeing my video on display. perhaps with the changes i have made it'll make a better impression this time around. if it doesn't make it as a finalist, i'm hoping that it'll still get showcased somewhere along the weekend. i plan on taking video of the crowd's reaction to my AMV. this is going to be sooooooo cool.

one more thing, i plan on posting this final edition of Dyson's Revelation on my alternate YouTube site Arielistix along with a video of the project through the eyes of FCE4. also seeing is that this is the final edition, i'm finally going to post my final video on AnimeMusicVideo.org, finally. it's long overdue.

peace,
@riel

I'm not Apple Obsessed!

i know this is not as bad as some people, but my friends think i'm a little obsessed. can't help it, i like this stuff.


left to right:
01. Blue Tooth Wireless Keyboard, aluminum
02. Mighty Mouse,
03. Final Cut Express 4
04. Mac Mini Core 2 Duo, 2Ghz
05. Nike Amp+ Wrist remote *
06. Nike Amp+ sensor kit *
07. Time Capsule, 1TB
08. iPod Nano, 4GB
09. Airport Express accessory kit **
10. Airport Extreme ***

other boxes not pictured here:
Mac Mini Core Duo, 1.66Ghz
23" Cinema HD Display
iPod, 30GB, 3rd gen
iPod wired remote for 3rd gen

* thanks Billy
** i don't own an Airport Express, but the kit did come in handy
*** sold to my friend Sean.

Things to come - Dyson's Revelation, Part 1

the following is NOT a review or tutorial of Apple's Final Cut Express 4.


i'm working on my second revision of "Dyson's Revelation" prior to my submission to the AMV contest held by Otakon this year, and i have learned, and still learning, some of the options offered in Apple's Final Cut Express 4 (FCE4). one of the coolest things i discovered was a simple effect called "Light Rays" which seems to give this glowing aura around the subject. observe, the following clips show the progression of this cool effect starting with the base stock video pulled off the DVD.




now here is the same clip but with the Light Rays filter added to it.




and again, but with a second Light Rays filter added. this one, however has a little movement to it. check out how the second light source moves as if it's behind the logo.




cool, ain't it?

A Few Thoughts On My Mini

ok, the only thing aside from my enjoyment of anime, sci-fi movie, Final Fantasy, and Ralph Bakshi films (to name a few things), are gadgets. for the past couple of years i became somewhat enamor with my mac minis ever since i got the first one back in May 2006. so much so that i could not be satisfied using my 17" Gateway monitor featuring a Sony Triniton (near flat) CRT in the beginning. a month after buying my Core Duo 1.66Ghz, 1GB system i went out and got the 23" cinema display - a purchase worth more than my mini.





now i have always admired Apple's product from afar, but with this mac mini i would truly begin my love-affair with Apple. now, i'm not a mac-head by any stretch, but this little thing, with all the apps a user could ever need and want, was just the perfect little package. after learning of its technical specs (ever since the days of the PowerPC G4) i felt impressed how this squarely shaped laptop (without a keyboard, mouse, video display, and battery) can pull the necessary weight to run some pretty hefty media projects.

though the mac mini is marketed as a desktop CPU, underneath the hood lies the layout of a laptop. think about it. all the components inside are all laptop grade - the processor, hard drive, memory modules, the cd-rom, and the video processor are in line with Apple's MacBook (without a keyboard, mouse, video display, and battery of course). and yet amateur video editing can be accomplished with ease and simplicity.

to be fair, perhaps, the mini isn't a big deal. these days even budget laptops PCs you can pick up in Wal-Mart can perform video editing and other multi-media tasks on par with the mini. so there's more to it than the hardware aspect. after all, todays Macs are built using an Intel architecture, so ipso facto Macs are PCs despite the Apple logo.

both of my mac minis came with Mac OS 10.4, Tiger, and for some reason every app that operates under this O/S feels so much better than their MS Windows counterparts. for example, i run Handbrake on my minis to convert my DVD collections into movie files i store on my home file-server. Handbrake is about the coolest app to use and it runs so beautifully. i loaded Handbrake to my bother's new HP laptop that he got from Best Buy a week ago. thinking that the Windows version was just as easy to run, much like it does on the mac, i found that it didn't work right. at first i couldn't get it to read the DVD-rom. then, when i thought i figured it out, it caused the system to freeze. i don't pretend to know what happened, but there it is. now i'm sure there's a good reason why it didn't work, but who cares. it runs great on my mac, and my brother is just going to have to learn enjoy his movies off his DVDs.

during the course of editing "Dyson's Revelation" i used the installed iMovie HD 6. the rough cut of the video was so much better than i first imagined with respect to editing and piecing other aspects of the video together. the initial experience was rough, but after some time i learned of better techniques, and corrected the mistakes i was making. in the end the process became smoother and manageable allowing me to concentrate on the project itself.

i had hoped that someday i would graduate from working on iMovie to Final Cut Express 4 (FCE4), but before that would happen i felt it necessary to get a better system. in August 2007 i made a new purchase for a Core 2 Duo 2Ghz,2GB memory mac mini. following that on November i bought FCE4. to my surprise my 2Ghz mac mini ran FCE4 well enough to edit the final version of my video. however i have yet to fully experience FCE4 in with all of the settings set to high. i have had to cut down on the real-time playback feature in the canvas screen to 1/4 frame-rate, and the video quality to "Low". this made reviewing my video, prior to exporting it to a movie file, though do'able, rather annoying. i truly enjoy working with FCE4, but on a mac mini without a real GPU with its own dedicated video memory, it's just not enough.



if you're wondering what happened to my 1.66Ghz mini, it's enjoying a good life as my new media center in my living room attached to a beautiful 32", 720p, Sony Bravia LCD, and wirelessly connected to my home network thanks to my Airport Extreme.

so i'm looking on Apple's store site and checking out the macbook pros (MBP) under their refurb area, and i must say they have some pretty impressive deals on 2.4Gh with 2GB of memory, and an NVIDIA GPU equip with 256 MB of dedicated video memory for less than $1700. it looks like i'll have to work some O/T to get one, but it's about time i got a laptop, and if i'm going to get one it might as well be a MBP. like iMovie to FCE4, it's time to graduate to something better, and add it to my list of enjoyments.

peace,
@riel