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You see when making this video our voice over artist was away on holiday, but to save time I got my mate Rick in to record a voice over so I could line the animation up to the audio and hopefully the timing would be similar. Rick is originally from Peckham England and can put on a bit of a Cockney accent, so just for fun please find the ‘What is Media Lightbox Cockney version’ below:




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Step 1 – Theme
We had to decide what theme the video would take (puppet show theme as talked about in part 1)

Step 2 – Content & Script
We then sat down and discussed what all would be needed in the video i.e. show problem, show solution (Media Lightbox), show how great Media Lightbox is (access, safety etc) and finally end with a call to action. Having a list of these items we then wrote a script based around them.

Step 3 – Storyboard
Having the script done and a list of all items that the video needed to show I quickly (and I mean quickly!) drew up a hand drawn storyboard of each scene. Storyboards are vital for animations in my opinion as before I touch the computer I have a clear plan of what I will be doing and the best thing is they don’t have to be artistic master pieces… as you will see below!  You can see my quick hand drawn scenes below and just for fun I have matched them up with the completed scene (some scenes in video are not shown):

Step 4 – Gathering/making vectors
Nearly all of the graphical elements I used in this animation are vector graphics which were either gathered or made and edited in Adobe Illustrator.

Step 5 – Animating
The graphics were then imported into Adobe After Effects and animated

Step 6 – Voice over
Our voice over artist reordered the script and sent the files over to our headquarters via our own Media Lightbox system.

Step 7 – Voice over clean up
I import the audio from our voice over artist into Adobe SoundBooth to clean it up and then export is as a wav.

Step 8 – Music
I searched for and bought music that seemed to fit into the general feeling of the animation.

Step 9 – Final Edit
I then imported the cleaned up audio and music into Adobe After Effects and edited the animation to line up with the audio and then rendered it out.

Step 10 – Squeeze Video
I took the uncompressed video into Sorenson Squeeze and then squeeze it for HD Vimeo quality.

Step 11 – Upload to Vimeo
Taking the freshly squeezed video I uploaded it to our Vimeo page.

In my next post and final part of this mini-series I will talk about and show you a bit of an ‘outtake’ for this animation!

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Anthony’s interviews have proved to be a success with the RTE one in particular bringing victory in a head to head sales pitch against Tricky Tricksters of Kildare in the lead up to the Down v Kildare All Ireland Semi-Final.

Here are a few pictures of Anthony, one just before the interview (looking surprisingly calm!) and two during.

You can listen to the BBC interview here BBC Ulster (start’s at 1:17:30) or RTE Radio 1 interview here.

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With our new website soon to be released we wanted this video to be a main focal point of it, so a few weeks ago we sat down and planed out this video.

The goals of this video were:

• Explain clearly what Media Lightbox is
• The duration had to be around 90 seconds, so it would keep the audience’s attention
• It wouldn’t be too corporate and boring
• A little quirky so it’s easy to watch
• Visually pleasing
• Be an animation and not have real people in it

After a few ideas were suggested I came up with the idea of a puppet show which went down well as it would be a very different but also a fun way to explain what is Media Lightbox.

Please find the video below and let us know what you think:

In my next post I will give a quick overview about how I made this animation and the packages used.

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I wanted to test it for myself and also find out if it was better than OS X!

I am completely satisfied with OS X. I am able to find, run and close applications quicker than I ever could with Windows. I also find that applications run a lot smoother on Macs than PCs and viruses are uncommon on Macs. I could write a whole post on why I enjoy using a Mac, but that’s for another day.

There are three reasons I’d recommend you have Windows as well as OS X on your Mac;

• You’ll be able to run .exe files
• You’ll be able to run Windows only applications
• You’ll be able to play PC games on a Mac

I ordered a copy of Windows 7 Home Edition from Amazon and when it arrived the next day, I immediately began researching the best way to run two operating systems on a Mac.

Methods of Running Two Operating Systems

I found that there are three ways to do this. The first is “Virtual Computing”. This allows you to run an OS inside an OS. GuestPC, Virtual PC and Parallels Desktop all allow you to do this, though Parallels is the only option developed specifically for Intel Macs.

The second is “Virtualization”, a process that allows you to run Windows applications using OS X without needing to have Windows installed. Crossover and WINE would be the two best examples, though at the minute both are in development and not recommended for general use.

The third and final way to run Windows on a Mac is to “Dual-Boot” using Boot Camp. At start up the user can choose whether they want to run Windows or OS X. Boot Camp is reliable though you can only run one operating system at a time.

After learning that Boot Camp comes pre-installed on all Mac OS X/ Snow leopard machines and the fact that it obviously has Apple’s backing, I decided that this would be the safest option. Check out this video from Apple showing how simple it is.

Running Windows on a Mac

Using Boot Camp

1) Backup all of your data! I used Media Lightbox to backup all of my files online. There is a 30 day free trial available from the website. Uploading all of my word docs, photos and music was simple and took me less than an hour.

2) The second thing you will need is the Disc that came with your Mac containing the operating system and all of the drivers. Once you have a copy of Windows too, you are ready to go. Please be aware though that 64-bit versions of Windows are not supported at present (according to the Apple website).

In my case, this meant I simply had to use the 32-bit disc of Windows 7 instead of the 64-bit disc. For XP users, Service Pack 2 will work (SP1 won’t!)

3) Go to Applications>Utilities>Boot Camp Assistant.

4) Decide how much space Windows will need on your hard drive. Drag the slider as shown below. I personally chose 60Gb, as I knew I’d need a good bit of space to store game data and Windows programs.

5) Click Partition and wait while Boot Camp splits your hard drive.

6) Insert your Windows disc when prompted and click “Start Installation”.

7) Follow the options through until asked, “Where do you want to install Windows?” It is essential that you choose the Bootcamp Partition, usually labeled, Partition 3.

8) If you get a message, “Windows cannot be installed to Partition 3” you need to format your partition as NTFS. To do this, click Drive options>Format and Next.

9) Wait while Windows installs (get a cup of Starbucks preferably).

10) Once Windows opens, insert your Mac Startup disc to install your Mac drivers. This will ensure the keyboard, mouse, iSight, soundcard and bluetooth run properly. If you get stuck you may need to explore the CD yourself and find the relevant drivers (as I did).

That should be it! Start enjoying the benefits of Windows! To switch to Windows, during startup hold the option key (⌥) on your keyboard.

Having Problems?

If you’re having difficulties, please leave a comment below. I’d also suggest you read the FAQs over at Macworld and the Boot Camp support section on the Apple website.

Check out these useful videos before getting started!

Remember, when backing up data or storing and sharing large files online, Media Lightbox is your best option. With a 30-day free trial on ALL accounts, why not give it a go?! Head on over to www.medialightbox.com for info.

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As I said in the conclusion of that post, with over 1 billion views each day, YouTube is a more powerful tool for getting videos seen by the masses than Vimeo will ever be. So with this in mind we have decided to upload all our videos to YouTube as well as keeping them on Vimeo.

That said, I will still use Vimeo for all embedding on this blog and the website (as I think the video quality is better, it look more professional and the embedding controls are better) but if your YouTube through and through head over to our YouTube page and check out our videos there!

http://www.youtube.com/medialightbox

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