Thursday, March 26, 2015

Dam Dam DAM (in Kinzua, that is)

Local residents know the Kinzua Dam, located about six miles south of Warren, Pennsylvania. One weekend in early March of 2015 I realized that I had never been there in the winter, so I took my camera out to rectify that. The snow was quite high despite being sunny (still not very warm), and here's some footage.


It was windy, and I didn't have an audio recorder with a windscreen with me, so I apologize about the sound.



Thursday, March 19, 2015

Video for CJ's Home Decor & Fireplaces, Episode II: How To Install An Inside-Fit Zero-Clearance Fireplace Door

The saga continues...

This is part two of the previous video. I shot the footage the same day, but the editing was done later (and has improved a little). The manager actually couldn't wait for me to film him installing it, so I had to uninstall the door and re-install it, using camera angles and special effects to mask the fact that I'm not actually drilling the holes (but really, you can tell by the lack of a lot of debris, which I just couldn't get to look right in Adobe After Effects).

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

CJ's Home Decor & Fireplaces How-To Videos, Episode 1: Measuring for a Zero Clearance Fireplace Door

What a week that was...

This is the first in a series of instructional videos that I'm working on for my employer. It's been an interesting experience. Here's a basic rundown on everything that I did to produce it:
  1. Wrote a script for the procedures (with input from my boss)
  2. Gathered up the tools and incidentals
  3. Shot the footage with a single camera
  4. Recorded audio
  5. Edited footage in Adobe Premiere
  6. Color-matched footage in Adobe Speedgrade
  7. Cleaned up audio in Adobe Audition
  8. Created 2D art assets in Adobe Illustrator & Adobe Photoshop
  9. Made 2D animations in Adobe After Effects
  10. Modeled and rendered 3D animation and particle systems in Blender
  11. Selected and arranged the music tracks
  12. Rendered the video
  13. Uploaded it to YouTube
  14. Closed caption editing
I did all of this within a five-day period. Did I do a good job? I'll let you be the judge. Are there things that I would change/improve? Well certainly - good art is never finished, only abandoned. But the important thing is that I've learned a lot while doing it!