Zlogspot - animationandvideo

This image was made with a stock DW photo and text added. I uploaded the semi transparent DW logo. If you create any kind of content, product or service online or off, whether you're a social media influencer, running a small business, writing a blog, making online video, or any number of other activities Design Wizard may be the cloud based graphics app for you. What is it? Design Wizard speeds up the graphic design process by giving you a library of pre designed templates, you can customize, suited to almost any situation. The process is simple. Choose a template size suited to the type of graphic you're designing. For example a Facebook Page Banner image or a Youtube Channel page image. Select a design along the lines of the style you're going for, then tweak and customize the design with your own text and/or graphics. There are templates for almost every conceivable graphic design situation from Facebook cover pages right through to DL print flyers and more. Templates ...

One of the most exciting things being developed with virtual reality systems like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift is creating animated films using 3D virtual puppetry. Flipside an application dedicated to the entire production of creating an animation using virtual puppets. It is literally a VR studio where you set up your set, lighting, cameras, and puppet your actors all in the VR environment. As a production environment it can be fully operated by a single person. Each character can be puppeted individually and then their performances overlaid into a full, multi-character animation. Even more exciting is that, because everything is done in real time, you can use Flipside to create live performances of your characters to virtual and augmented reality viewing audiences. See Flipside's video below for a more detailed overview of what it can do. Personally I haven't used Flipside so this is not a review. I'm just excited by the possibilities and wanted to share that with you...

Work on my Infinite Monkey Theorem, animated short has mostly stalled in the last few weeks. Readers of my other blog will know I've been struggling with a neck injury (sometimes referred to as 'Computer Neck') that has made doing any kind of lengthy computer work a literal pain in the neck. I'm getting through it but, if you spend a lot of time in front of a computer, I highly recommend you take five minute breaks, at least every 30 minutes, to walk around and do some neck stretching exercises. Anyway, to get this project back on track, I'm trying something a little new to create my video diary of my latest work. Recently I purchased a new Logitech HD webcam (my old webcam was a pre HD relic) which I've teamed with OBS studio , a free application staple, used by live streamers everywhere. OBS Studio allows you to not just stream but also record to a single video file, multiple video/audio sources into a single production. Kind of like a TV studio recording a ...

If you're a one person team or you just need a video presentation done yesterday a tool like Render Forest can be a real time saver. Render Forest is a free, cloud based intros, animations, slideshows and music visualizations creator. They provide professionally designed templates to which you just insert your text, photos and videos, add licensed music (that doesn't sound awful) and your video is done. Free videos are watermarked. If you want to remove this you can purchase your video, in your choice of resolutions, at very reasonable price points, or you can purchase an annual subscription to have them removed on all videos. At this point I've only used Render Forest to create slide show style presentations, so this review is limited to that experience (and this is not a paid review), however there is so much more you can do. Check out Render Forest's video below for a complete overview of the possibilities. I wanted to create a dynamic slide show presentation of my ...

Gunnar MLG: Phantom Specs. As someone who stares at screens virtually all day I can safely say my vision isn't the best. I'm completely fine reading monitors but I do struggle a little with my mobile phone screen. So when I heard about Gunnar Computer Eyewear , specs that supposedly reduce eye strain, dryness, glare and increase sharpness and brightness of vision I thought these might be worth a try. I must admit I ended up with the MLG: Phantom specs because they were the cheapest model I could buy through ebay and have in my hands within a few days. Honestly, I didn't want to spend too much because I was a little skeptical that they would be of great benefit. Although the Phantom specs are listed as a 'gaming' model, I can't really see any difference between their specifications and those listed as 'computer' models - other than the visual styling and construction. As near as I can tell the lenses have the same specs across the range (unless you order...

Lonely Planet's Best Ever Video Tips  is a pocket book guide to video creation for beginners and intermediate video creators alike. It may also have a few ideas for video creators used to filming in one specific area or style looking to branch into other areas. As you would expect from a Lonely Planet book it's specifically targeted at people on the move, shooting video on location, whether that be on assignment or just on holiday. As such the book is ideally sized to fit in a pocket or in a (camera) bag without taking up too much room or adding too much weight (at just under 130 pages). Tips range from preparation prior to heading out including camera choice, accessories, making a plan and more to technical tips such as how to shoot various types of scenes, composition, lighting, talking to the camera and improving your audio among other things. Creative tips are discussed; how to connect with audiences, vlogging in public spaces, finding stories etc. along with editing advic...

Creating Animation with Clip Paint Studio EX. In a marvellous piece of serendipity, SmithMicro released a free update to Clip Studio Paint EX (formerly Manga Studio EX) that included Digital Cell Animation. Clip Paint Studio EX is my preferred illustration tool and, in my last blog post , literally a day before the update was released, I talked about figuring something out with Manga Studio in order to create digital cell animations of my own. Apparently the Japanese version of the software received the update earlier in February (I think) so this release was for the English version of CSP. Unfortunately the feature is so new there is no English video tutorials showing how to use it (and only one Japanese video that I could find). The release notes kind of explain the various features but that's it. The manual doesn't mention anything at all. (At the time of writing this there is an updated English  start-up pdf guide here  that runs through the basics). Fortunately the basic...

iSK CRU-1 USB Studio Condenser Microphone If you're serious about animation or video and plan to record your own voice for narration or characters, sooner or later you're going to want to upgrade from those cheap, $12.00 gaming mics, that you can buy from most variety stores. I'll admit I don't know what makes for a good microphone having nothing for comparison than the $12.00 cheapies - and I'm too lazy to actually visit a real audio/music equipment store to test equipment out. Which is why this is only a 'kind of' review. The way I see it, almost any professional microphone is an improvement on what I've been using so it's hard to go wrong. I did know that most serious microphones tend to connect to your computer via a USB cable so with that in mind I started Googling around for Professional USB mics. What I finally settled on was an iSK CRU-1 USB Studio Condenser Microphone  which I purchased through Swamp Industries as a pod casting package deal...

Explaindio Video Creator is an easy to use presentation video creator that is geared towards marketing and sales videos but could be used to create any kind of presentation video. I was convinced by the sales pitch that it would be very easy to use and I was particularly impressed by the white board features. It also looked to be an improvement over both  VideoMakerFX and EasySketchPro two other programs that I bought and reviewed . Having now used Explaindio it is, in many ways, similar to VideoMakerFX and feels very much like an upgraded version of the same product with enhanced white board and other video features. If you purchase the program it comes with a whole bunch of extras, the most important of which is the content libraries including; graphics, fonts, music, backgrounds and templates. These are the things you'll rely on if your artistic skills are some what lacking. The claim is that almost anyone could buy this software, learn it fairly quickly and have a finished vid...

Can VideoMakerFX and EasySketchPro turn you into an Animated Video Producer? Animated Business Explainer Videos are going from strength to strength as THE marketing tool for just about anything. Anyone who has done the research knows that hiring a studio to create animated videos is expensive. Whilst there are cheaper options, like my own Animation 4 Business service the promise of being able to make an animated video yourself isn't one to be ignored. You can try online services such as GoAnimate , PowToon , Moovly , Wideo and others but most have ongoing fees and won't turn you into an accomplished video director without some serious time spent learning their studio. Two software products that I came across recently and purchased are being promoted to marketers as the ultimate tools for creating animated business explainer videos, Video Maker FX and Easy Sketch Pro . Full disclaimer: As I said I purchased both these products but I am not an affiliate. Clicking my links to t...

TET Bitstrips Avatar. I recently discovered Bitstrips , a social comic creation, Facebook application that enables you to create gag cartoons and comic strips staring yourself and your Facebook friends - even if you can't draw. Whilst Bitstrips doesn't have much to do with video or animation the parallels with GoAnimate's animation studio - that everyone can use, even without drawing ability - is obvious. Bitstrips actually has more flexibility than GoAnimate when it comes to creating poses for characters. Almost any pose, expression and emotion is possible even though the characters are all 2D. It would be a dream come true if Bitstrips partnered with GoAnimate to turn their content into 'Bitanimations' as well as 'Bitstrips'. They pretty much have all the artwork. They just need the underlying animation application to support it. The Bitstrips Facebook application seems to only allow single panel, gag cartoons and provides a number of ready made jokes whic...