Split-screen Video in Adobe Premiere

Awhile ago I was making a video and wanted to put two video clips side by side in the same frame on Premiere, I thought it would be tricky but it's actually really easy to do.

First, you just have to drag the two clips you want to use in the timeline at the bottom together on top of one another like so:

Now the video you have on top will appear in the preview in the top right. To select the video simply double click the preview and a box will appear around it that you can then use to scale and move the clip around in the frame. The second clip will be hiding directly underneath the top clip and you can then do the same thing with that one:

For some reason the split-screen video effect is something I always found pretty interesting, it's useful when you're portraying a difference or trying to make a comparison like I did in this video I made for my Digital Marketing class. I hope this was helpful!

Audacity Project Sharing

Hello everyone,

Although Audacity is a pretty simple way to record and edit sound, there are some troubles with sending it to friends/group members via email or just using the .aup on another computer. If you don't do it right you may be sending someone a blank Audacity project! So here are some tips for flawless Audacity project sharing:

• For using the .aup on another computer, you have to also include the _data folder that has the same name as the project. (this _data folder has the .au uncompressed audio data files)
• If the project has imported WAV or AIFF files, you have to go to File > Check Dependencies and copy those files to the project BEFORE using the project on another computer
• If you can't send your project because of the size, you can export your project as an MP3 to make it a smaller file, by going to File > Export, a pop up window should come up asking the name of the file and where you want to save it and there will be a drop down menu allowing you to choose to export it as an MP3

Happy recording! 

Sending iMovie Libraries

A few patrons have had questions about sending an iMovie project to another group member so they can continue to edit the video.  The new version of iMovie makes this pretty simple by consolidating all of the work into one iMovie Library file.

Before beginning a project, users should create a new library and choose where to save the library.  We always recommend saving on a hard drive if they are working on one of the library computers.  They can also save on a flash drive (better for smaller projects) or to their on desktop.  Lize's post describes how to save the library.

If a user wants to send the iMovie project to someone in a format they can edit later, they can do this using Google Drive or the UD Dropbox.  In Google Drive, for example, the user would simply need to select "New - File Upload" and then choose the location of the iMovie library in the project format.   Once the file is finished uploading, they can select who to share it with.

In order to open and edit the file, it must be downloaded from the Google Drive or Dropbox location.  The person that downloads the file should also select a location to save the library, and then it should open automatically in iMoive when selected.  However, users will only be able to edit the iMovie project in the same version of iMovie that is was originally created.  So if a user is working with iMovie 10, their group members should open the file to edit it in iMovie 10.

When a patron asks about saving an iMovie video, it's also a good idea to ask if they want to save the file so they can continue editing it later, or if they are finished editing and ready to export or share the video in a final format.  This could save them from unnecessary problems in the future! 

GROUP LINK TABLES review

Hello Everyone,

Now that the semester is almost ending we will be seeing a lot more groups using out Group-Link tables. So here is a quick review:

• Each table has the capacity to display 4 laptops simultaneously. 

• In order to switch between each laptop, there is a panel of 4 buttons for each specific laptop.

• In addition, the group link tables have the features to display via VGA cable, HDMI cable and a composite cable.

Thank you!

iMovie 10

Hi everyone,

On Monday night I was helping two students work on an iMovie project when we encountered a few challenges. They were working on the movie in one of the Macs outside of Room A, when using iMovie 10 they tend to run a little slow. The computer kept freezing and showing us the dreaded rainbow wheel...

For the future, I would encourage anyone working on an iMovie project to work in one of the studios for the best user experience.


Also, the students were looking to save their iMovie project on a hard drive so they could then go in the studio and record a voiceover. They were following the directions on the SMDC iMovie instruction sheet. This sheet is really helpful in saving a finished iMovie project, but it does not give students information on how to save the entire iMovie file in order to preserve editing capabilities.

To do this, go to the hard drive symbol on the desktop, click it, then go to movies.

Click movies and it will take you to the iMovie projects on the computer. Then select the file that is yours (hopefully saved under a distinctive title).

You can then move this file to an external hard drive, and it will be able to be transferred and edited on another Mac computer.

I hope this helps!

Lize

Printing posters

Hi everyone,
So lately we have had a lot of people coming up to the desk to print posters, mostly for BHLP, and I just wanted to remind everyone of other printing options around campus.

1. SMDC (..duh)
2. MacLab in Recitation Hall- they have a pretty wide range of printing options 
3. Smith Hall
4. University Printing- posters, brochures, t-shirts, maps, etc. can be printed here

These are just some places that you could redirect students if our printer is ever down. These options wouldn't have necessarily worked for BHLP because they already had copy cards with a certain amount of money on them. 

Important note for the portable power kits

As you all know, one of our newest pieces of equipment (the portable power kits) are able to charge your devices on the go. It comes with the power brick, a micro USB cable, and a lightning bolt connector. The lightning bolt connector, which can be used for devices such as the newer iPhones and iPads, will not work on every device.

The other day I checked it out for myself and tried charging my iPad mini with retina display. However, when I plugged it in it said towards the top "battery not charging". This happens when there is not enough power to go through and charge the device. HOWEVER, it is not the brick itself that is causing this and is rather the wire. I took one of our stand alone lightning connectors out and plugged that into the brick and that charged my device fine.

So, if for some reason the kit will not charge your device with the cable provided, just checkout one of our standalone cables to go with it and you should be good to go!

Also, if you experience this with any other devices other than the iPad mini with retina display, please let us know!

Programs, Programs Everywhere...(Part 1)

Hello my fellow personages!

Recently I have been particularly interested in the list of software found on our handy dandy center homepage.

Click on that guy...

Then that guy...

And wallah! Software. 

Now the reason I've taken you through this wonderful picture adventure (like climbing Mount Everest, but better right?) is because after I'd gotten over the fact that we have a place where you can check all of the programs that are downloaded on the computers, as well as which ones are Mac/Windows specific (see that heading operating system? Yeah, right below that.) I realized there were some that I had never heard of. So, finally getting around to the point of this post, here's a brief go-to for you guys (and myself) detailing (in a sentence or two) what each not-so-well-known program is used for:

*disclaimer--I am going by which programs I, personally, do not know, meaning this list is not definitive and might include something you're a beast at as well as exclude something you've never heard of--end disclaimer*

This program is described as a "free and open-source 3D computer graphics software product" on wikipedia. One tidbit of advice, if you ever need to search for an in depth explanation of this, make sure you add the word 'program' after its name. There is an app with the same name and it has nothing to do with 3D graphics.
Mac and Windows

  

Camtasia is described on its site as "A powerful, yet easy-to-use screen recorder. [...] Easily record your screen movements and actions, or import HD video from a camera or other source."
Windows only (I assume it's only in studios 1+2)

If you ever need a super in depth description of this program, here is Apple's own user manual, if you just need to know what it does, here's the first sentence under the About Color heading: "Color has been designed from the ground up as a feature-rich color correction environment that complements a wide variety of post-production workflows..."
Mac only (surprise)

Again, here's the user manual if you ever need an in depth description for a particularly hard headed problem. Otherwise, "Compressor gives you resizing, cropping, image processing, encoding, and delivery options, and offers batch processing, VBR options, and H.264 encoding."
Mac only

According to this apple website Compressor 4 is "Advanced encoding for Final Cut Pro-A simplified interface, intuitive controls, and tight integration with Final Cut Pro make Compressor the perfect companion for custom encoding."
Mac only (Only in studios 3+4)

According to cnet this program is "an open source software which can connect to FTP (File Transfer Protocol), SFTP (SSH Secure File Transfer), WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning), Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, Windows Azure, Rackspace Cloud Files, and Google Docs to distribute your files." Confused? Here's a nice informative forum all about it. Seems to be used mostly by web designers.
Mac and Windows

Another Apple product, another user manual. This is described as a "software for authoring DVD-Video titles" and "lets you work with audio, video, graphics, and text materials that you have already created and edited and orchestrate them into a DVD that can be played on a DVD player or a suitably equipped computer."
Mac only

This looks to be along the same lines as Cyberduck above, at least in the used mostly be web designers area. On cnet it is described as "one of the oldest and most well-loved FTP clients, whose cute fetching dog animation has been running--literally--on macs since 1989." Here's a handy little compare/contrast/manual for Cyberduck and Fetch that I found.
Mac only

I'm pretty sure there are some posts on this blog about this program (how Adobe Media Encoder is better but more complicated if I remember correctly), but if anybody asks and you happen to forget, cnet calls it "a video converter program intended to both rip and convert video files to work on a number of supported devices." This is also only on macs while encoder is on mac and windows.
Mac only

This, as cnet explains, is "Apple's DVD authoring-and-burning tool, working with internal and many external DVD burners."
Mac only

As the manual says, "iWeb is the easiest way to create and publish great-looking websites."
Mac only

From what I can gather from the apple site, this is their presentation software, like Microsoft's PowerPoint.
Mac only

So, this is an interesting one. According to this website (which I'm pretty sure is its legit website, but I could be wrong) "LaTeX is a high-quality system" including "features designed for the production of technical and scientific documentation." I also found this site that gives a bit more insight on its basics and the file types it uses.
Mac and Windows



And with that I will be ending part one of this in depth look at all the programs I had no idea existed on the center's computers. Please, stay tuned for the next exciting installment, out next month. A warning though; you'll have to keep a close eye on your socks while reading part two for it is sure to rock them, intense electric guitar solos and all.

See you then my friends!

Converting Videos To Different Formats

Hello all! Recently I've experienced a few people who downloaded a video from somewhere online and it came in as a weird format  (like a .MTS file) that they needed to make into an .AVI or something. There is a very easy way to do this without going to any sketchy websites online that will destroy the quality and take forever to download. First, with file downloaded on the computer, open Adobe Premier Pro and choose new file with all the default settings. Now we can get started

1) Go to File -> Import

2) Locate the video on the computer and hit open. It will pop up in the bottom left as shown below

3) Next, click and drag the file into the timeline. If an option pops up asking whether or not you want to keep your settings or conform to the video settings, choose the option that changes it. Otherwise the video sizing will be messed up. Now, your screen should look like this, make sure the video looks right in the viewfinder too!

4) Now, save the project in desired location and once done, go to File -> Export -> Media

5) Now choose desired format from the drop down list, change any desired quality settings, and hit Export!

6) It may take a few minutes, longer for a longer video, but once done, your video will be converted! Simple as that! No longer will you be stuck with some random video format you've never heard of!

Until next time!

-Ethan Savage

Wired Lapel Mics

Hi everyone just a short post this time about the Wired Lapel Mics. Last week a student brought back a mic that we checked out to them having issues with it working, the battery turned out to be dead. After that we checked the rest of the mics and found half of them were left on and as such the batteries we all dead.

The on/off switch is easy to miss but it is still a good idea to check if the returned mics are off.

How to Embed YouTube Videos in Power Point

Hi guys,

I recently had a student ask us how to embed a video in power point. I feel this could be a useful tool to know.

You will first go to the "Insert" tab, then the "Video" icon. Here you will be presented with two different ways to embed your video. You can either insert it from online (YouTube) or you can insert it from a locally hosted file. My suggestion is to use the second option, and download whichever video you need from the internet. http://en.savefrom.net/ is a safe way to do this. This way avoids any issues with Power Point trying (and failing) to connect to browsers.

Once your video is embedded into your presentation, you have a few options when it comes to saving. If you only need the presentation to be a PPT file, Save As will take care of it. (I would recommend saving the video file on your drive with the PPT file just to be safe.) However, if you are sending your presentation via email, uploading it to canvas or sakai, etc.. You may want to consider Exporting it. 

In the "Export" options, you may either:

-Export your presentation to a PDF/XPS file. This will preserve everything but I believe it will make your video into an image, and it will not play.

-Export your presentation as a video, which will allow your embedded video to play, but your entire presentation will play automatically. This could work but may not be ideal.

-Export your presentation by choosing "Package Presentation for CD." This will create a folder of all of the files embedded in your presentation. This is the best way to be sure that everything will be playable on any device.

This last option is the one I would recommend. You can save this folder digitally, and obviously does not need to be saved to a CD. Upload or send this folder and the recipient should have everything they need to view your presentation.

Hope this is helpful! 

Cortney

How to remove background noise in Audacity

If you happen to listen, you will find that there are many things in life that should be silenced. 

                                             -Dumbledore

Working with audacity for the first time, you really start to appreciate just how much wacky stuff you can do with it. You can make you're voice sound like a chipmunk, or the devil himself (or herself, lets not impose gender roles on angelic beings); you can crank up the amplifier so you make yourself deaf, or you can make the voice over in your presentation practically inaudible. Why you would want to do any of these things? I have no idea, but you can, and that is justification enough. 

Sometimes you've gotta get rid of that background noise; that big, loud fan, that kitchy pop music, the discussions of you're peers, that spectral, demonic voice. Never fear, audacity has a (decent) way of getting rid of that stuff. 

If you've got background noise in something, open up audacity, hit file and open in the upper right to bring your audio file in. 

What be this tiny bit of static that interrupts my ranting?

In the above example, a small bit of background noise was interrupting my carefully crafted voice over. You can tell its background noise because its small...and stupid. But Audacity will kill it for us.

Begin the purge.

Step one of getting rid of that little guy is to select it on the timeline with the main select tool (found in the upper middle of the toolbar; click and drag to select an area). Now that we've got it selected, hit the effects tab at the top, then hit the aptly named Noise Removal option.

Hit the noise removal button to get a noise profile of the sound.

Now that we've got the area of the clip selected, we need to get a noise profile of it; basically, the noise profile is the sound that audacity will look for; when it finds other sounds that match that profile, it will remove them. So when we select this little tiny bit of background noise, we are making it so that Audacity will be able to delete that and similar noises from the entire track when we tell it do. 

As long as nothing is selected, Audacity will apply the noise removal to the entire track

When you hit get noise profile, the prompt for noise removal will go away and it will look like nothing happened, but Audacity is prepped and ready to execute that annoying little man. If we want Audacity to apply noise removal to the entire track, make sure no specific part of the track is selected. If we only want audacity to get rid of it in say, the first 5 seconds, all you have to do is select the first 5 seconds. 

There's no going back now...(except for ctrl Z) 

Once Audacity has the noise profile, we simply need to hit effects and noise removal again; hit the ok button to annihilate *cough* I mean remove that offensive little thing from your track. 

The silence is so perfect...

Note that Audacity isn't perfect; it might leave a little itty bit that you don't want. If you care that much, you can just do the process again. 

A friendly reminder...

But lastly, a warning; the noise removal tool is great for getting rid of that annoying background noise, but in doing so you are removing chunks of your audio. Thats fine if you want dead silence between words, but if you want to completely remove the sound of that fan thats making you're voice difficult to hear, you might end up with robotic, overly processed sounding audio that is no more audible than what you originally had. So watch out!

The Latest in Fashion: Wireless Microphone Kit Protective Cases

Have you ever felt embarrassed by carrying around an unfashionable, clunky bag to house your wireless microphone case? Worry no more! New cases have been introduced, rocking a unique, structured new case!

What is even more impressive is what is inside. Slots are cut out in the foam to perfectly fit the two microphones and battery pack. The slots are labeled to inform you where the antenna side and the receiver side of the microphone should go. The microphone is similarly labeled, telling the user which side should face up in the case.

Not only is the new case fashionable and fabulous, but it is easy to use, safe, and protective. Enjoy the new cases!

SMART Software in the Studios

Hi everyone,

Today a user came to the desk asking if any of the studios had SMART board technology. John had affirmed that Studios 1 through 4 do indeed have the SMART whiteboards installed. Later, the same user came back to reserve one of the studios but wanted to make sure that she could utilize SMART software. Studios 1 through 4 also have SMART Notebook 11 installed on the desktops. The software allows users to further design and edit their lesson plans.

Here is a PDF detailing all the features of SMART Notebook 11 and may be helpful to those interested in creating lessons.

Hope this is informative and lets users know that while we do have the whiteboards to project material from other commonly used programs, we also have the SMART software to offer further opportunity in lesson design!

Become a Wrap Star

Hey guys!

Lately I've been noticing a lot of different cables, especially the laptop and the headphone cords incorrectly wrapped. As a reminder, we fold all of our cables in a bow. One way we can do this is by wrapping the cord around your four fingers and then tie the velcro around the middle, making it into a pretty, neat bow.

Some of the reasons we wrap them like this is that it makes the area it's being stored in, tidy, it doesn't create much pressure on the connection, and it just looks better than having a cord dangle.

So because no one likes a loose cord that just dangles and some of us here are obsessive compulsive (cough cough), follow the instructions we learned through training and if you need a refresher just ask one of your fellow student assistants.

I apologize for the boring blog post but it does seem necessary and the supervisors do notice when we wrap the cords wrong.

Have a great day,
Denise

Lytro Light Field Camera

Hello everyone!
I did not realize we owned a Lytro camera until today, so I thought I would share with everyone a little about it (although I've never seen this camera go out, but why not). The Lytro camera is a square tube about 5 inches long (almost pocket sized). This light field camera is specifically designed and capable of refocusing images after they've been taken. To do this, the camera uses a light field sensor that captures the color, intensity, and vector direction of the rays of light. This directional information is lost with traditional cameras. These three components - color, intensity, and direction -create a blueprint for the reconstruction of elements of the image such as focus point. To sum it up, the Lytro camera lets you selectively change focus in images after they are taken, which admittedly sounds pretty cool. 

However, it is questionable who would need to use a camera like the Lytro. The technology is ingenious, but in reality, most people probably would not require such a camera (which is probably why no one has really checked it out here at SMDC). Despite this, I did play with the camera for a bit today and it was interesting to see how different in style and technology the camera is from traditional point and shoot cameras. 
I hope everyone has a great weekend!
Best,
Shannon

Printing out a single photo on the poster printer? This is how to make sure it looks good.

We don't want pixelated printouts...

Today at the center, a student came in asking about printing a single photograph using the poster printer. This person wanted to know how big of a print they could make so that the poster looked good; so that the print wasn't too pixelated. We needed to figure out what the maximum size printout we could make was in order to have an acceptable amount of quality in the printout. Here's how you can do it:

There are two possible scenarios`. The first is if a person comes in and has the photo files with them. The second is if the person doesn't have the photo files with them, but they know which camera they took the photos with.

For either case, our definition of quality is going to be printing out the photo with a pixel density of 300ppi (pixels per inch). 300ppi is the standard value used for any high quality print work.

First case:

1. Find the file in the Windows file explorer (sorry Mac people).
2. Note the width and height (in pixels) of the photograph. This may be labeled under "dimensions" or you may have to open the properties menu for a specific file.



In Windows 7 you can find the photos width and height by clicking on the photo and looking at the bottom bar. In this example, the "windows7-desktop" photo has dimensions of 4000 x 2500, which is 4000 pixels wide by 2500 pixels tall.

3. Take the width and height in pixels and divide both numbers by your pixel density constant (which is almost always 300ppi). In the example above, you calculate 4000/300 and 2500/300, which are 13.33in and 8.33in, respectfully.
4. With that done, you now know how big of a photo you can print out while still having a high quality printout. For our example, we can print out a copy of that photo which is 13.33 inches wide by 8.33 inches tall.

Second case (The one you probably won't read, but should):

As a reminder, in this example we don't have the image files; we only know what camera the photos are going to be taken with. For this to work, we need two values:

1. How many megapixels (mp) does the camera have? This value should be found either by looking at the camera or by looking the value up. As two examples, the iPhone6 has an 8mp camera and the center's two Canon DSLR cameras are both 18mp.
2. What aspect ratio does the camera use to take photos? For more info about what this means, you can follow this link here. As a general rule of thumb, most smartphones or point/shoot cameras use a 4:3 aspect ratio; most DSLR cameras (like all of the DSLRs that we have at the center: the Canon DSLRs, the Pentax, and the Fujifilm) use a 3:2 aspect ratio.

You all ready for this? Warning: prerequisite of MATH121.

• To begin, let's review some math prefixes: mega means 10^6, so when a camera has 9 megapixels it also has 9,000,000 pixels or 9 * 10^6
• Also, the amount of megapixels that a photo has is equal to the width * height (both numbers in pixels). The example above was of a photo that was 4000 by 2500. When you multiply those two numbers, you get 10,000,000 pixels, which is 10 megapixels.
• We are going to assume that all cameras are set to their highest quality photo mode; this will ensure that we know how many megapixels the camera is using.
• For the following math, we need a number which I will refer to as the aspect constant. To find this number, take the first number of your aspect ratio and divide it by the second number. As an example, a 4:3 camera has an aspect constant of 1.33; a 3:2 camera has an aspect constant of 1.5.

1. Let's say a person comes in and is going to use the Canon T2i to take photos. How big of a print can we make for them using those photos?
2. Numbers: Canon T2i takes 18 megapixel photos (mp); T2i takes 3:2 aspect photos, so our aspect constant (ac) is 1.5.
3. We need to find out the width and height (in pixels) of a photo produced by this camera will be, from that we can find out the print size like we did above.
4. The height of a photo is given by the equation height = Sqrt[ mp*10^6 / ac ] where mp is the number of megapixels of the camera, and ac is the aspect constant. Sqrt is the square root of the number in brackets. From our example, height  = Sqrt[ 18*10^6 / 1.5 ]. Our photo height is equal to 3464 pixels.
5. The width of our photo is given by the equation width = ac * height, where ac is the aspect constant and the height is the value we previously got (in pixels). From our example, width = 1.5 * 3464. Our photo width is equal to 5196 pixels.
6. Take the width and height in pixels and divide both numbers by your pixel density constant (which is almost always 300ppi). In the example above, you calculate 5196/300 and 3464/300, which are 17.32in and 11.55in, respectfully.
7. With that done, you now know how big of a photo you can print out while still having a high quality printout. For our example, we can print out a copy of that photo which is 17.32 inches wide by 11.55 inches tall.

TL;DR If you have the file, divide the width and height by 300. If you don't have the file, you're on your own.

Have fun everyone! If you actually read through all of this: you're awesome, don't ever change!

 - Stephen