Kennesaw State University Pre-Graduation Video
Monday, May 18, 2009
Since we posted Dale Suffridge’s Kennesaw State University Video last week, we have received at lot of positive feedback and questions about how the video was put together.
I asked Dale if he could provide some technical details on how he made the video and he was kind enough to write the following article for you! Please enjoy this behind-the-scenes peek at an creative use of Bee Docs Timeline and be sure to thank Dale if you learn something from his article.
The Creation of the Kennesaw State University Pre-Graduation Video
by Dale Suffridge
Our department was approached about creating a video that would run on the HD projection screen over the stage for the hour leading up to each graduation for Kennesaw State University (KSU). We had been impressed with the new Timeline 3D software and thought that this would be a perfect large-scale use for it.
Showing an historic timeline of how KSU got to where it is today seemed a perfect and engaging fit for a diverse graduation crowd. However, we also needed to include current facts about each graduating college within the university. So I knew that I would use Timeline as the base and “break out” of the timeline to cover the current facts whenever we shared a relevant historical fact regarding that particular college in the Timeline.
The final look was achieved using a combination of Timeline, Photoshop and Final Cut Pro.
First I created and exported the Timeline using the Cherry Pie theme. I then screen-captured the red gradient background, bottom timeline bar and burgundy info box (all blank) for use within Photoshop and Final Cut Pro (FCP). Note: To get the burgundy info box to be large enough and blank, I created one that had a period at the top and then multiple line breaks and a period at the bottom. In Photoshop I used the clone stamp to take away the periods and the year and leave a blank info box.
In Photoshop, I created all the elements that I would need to recreate and manipulate the Timeline-look within FCP for the “break out” moments. These included:
All the burgundy “fact” boxes. I trimmed around the edges to keep the rounded-corner shape of the info box and I exported all info boxes as transparent PNGs for use within FCP.
And the timeline “pole” that would rise and fall from the bottom timeline bar connecting to the info boxes.
After I shot the HD footage of campus for the video portions, I brought it all together in FCP. Then it became a simple video editing project within FCP.
First I created a video opening and video segments for each individual college that would have it’s own “break out” portion. Then I recreated the Timeline look for the opening by using the elements created in Photoshop.
For the movement of the elements I utilized the “Motion Parameters” and keyframes within FCP. The fact boxes folding in and out upon themselves was achieved by key-framing the upper and lower right corners within the Distort section. And the pole ascending and descending was a basic "Center" motion path key-framing.
The transitions for breakouts of the various college were enhanced by creating a text layer of a keyword (or words) connecting the Timeline fact to the breakout college’s title bar. These text layers were then motion key-framed across the screen from the fact box into the title bar using a “Center” keyframe (and “Scale” was also key-framed if necessary to make the word fit). I added a “Scale” key-framing to the text layer to make the word(s) appear to move closer and then farther away as they travelled. And to achieve the glow as the text moved across the screen, I also incorporated the “Dazzle” filter that was key-framed to go from 0% mix to 100%, and then back to 0%.
If you notice during the breakout segments, the pole connects to the timeline at approximately the current time on the calendar. I would love to say that this was a forethought. But alas, it was a happy accident.
If you have any other questions, or if my convoluted explanation simply caused confusion, please feel free to contact me at dsuffrid at kennesaw.edu. Cheers.
Labels: customer, education, graduation, timeline, tutorial, video
Chris Schlarb - Musician, Composer, Producer
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Musician, composer, and producer Chris Schlarb has been a Bee Docs Timeline customer since November 2008.
As some of you may have experienced, we are a fan of sending people pleasant surprises in the mail. Well, we like receiving them too! Chris send us a couple of his CDs after becoming a customer which was an awesome surprise.
Elise Hunt, Bee Docs’ Community Development Lead, just posted an e-mail interview with Chris. Check it out and be sure to check out the following video timeline as well:
Read the interview with Chris Schlarb
If you have an interesting story to tell about the way you are using timelines, please send Elise an e-mail. We would love to hear from you!
Labels: chris schlarb, customer, musician
WWII Timeline - Class Project
Friday, December 05, 2008
Professor Geoffrey Gekiere teaches at the Collège Paul Éluard in Châtillon France. His students made this beautiful video of major historical events of World War II using Bee Docs Timeline 3D.
I encourage you to watch the entire video, even if you do not speak French. I find it both interesting and emotionally engaging to have 12 different students narrate the major events of the war combined with historical photographs, maps, and sound clips. The 3D timeline provides a nice structure to the presentation.
Congratulations to Professor Gekiere and the students who participated in the project. It is my honor to provide a tool that can be used by creative people to bring meaning and understanding to our history.
Labels: customer, french, history, students, timeline, war, ww2
Timeline Resume
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
With the dismal economic situation, people are finding new and clever ways to market themselves when looking for jobs.
JR Harrell from the Denver Colorado area is using Bee Docs Timeline to create a timeline resume that sums up his 15 year IT career in 3 minutes and 18 seconds which he posted as a CNN iReport.
I really like how JR used the speech synthesis in Mac OS X to narrate his timeline.
If you have an interesting timeline that you would like to share, please send me an e-mail at Adam at BeeDocs dot com. Thanks!
Labels: 3d timeline, customer, jobs, jr harrell, resume
Snooker Timelines on the BBC
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
If you are a fan of snooker, you may have noticed the 3D timelines used by the BBC recently during their snooker coverage. In case you missed it on television, you can see a couple of them here on the BBC website.
Broadcast Editor Peter Wiggins produced a series of twenty timeline motion graphics for the BBC using Bee Docs Timeline 3D. They look great and Peter provided us with lots of great feedback that will allow us to make Bee Docs Timeline even better for broadcast television in the future.
Labels: 3d timeline, bbc, customer, peter wiggins, snooker, television
About 3D Timelines - Part III.
Friday, May 02, 2008
In December 2007, Gary C Martin sent some feature suggestions to me regarding Timeline 2.0, which was still in beta at the time. As I often do, I followed the links in his e-mail signature because I can see what kind of people are using Bee Docs' Timeline. Turns out Gary is a 3D artist and made a very sophisticated Asteroids game using Apple's Quartz Composer technology.
I've always thought that it would be great to be able to hire some customers to help me develop Bee Docs' Timeline and here was a great opportunity. I sent Gary the 3D design concept that I made using Motion and asked if he would be interested in helping me make the feature a reality. Within days he started sending me working prototypes of 3D timelines and we have been collaborating on it ever since.
Doing a mock-up of a 3D timeline was relatively easy, it took about a day. Getting it to work for the huge diversity of timelines that are possible with Bee Docs' Timeline is a much greater challenge. Timelines and events can be different sizes, aspect ratios, fonts, etc... Performance and interaction issues are tricky too. Gary has been doing the Quartz Composer programming and figuring out the calculations for zooming, rotation, movement, and performance while I have been doing the associated Cocoa programming and leading the design.
All of our communications have been via e-mail (Gary lives in Edinburgh, Scotland) and it has been fantastic working with someone who does amazing work and has also been a customer of Bee Docs' Timeline since May 2007.
I look forward to hiring more customers in the future, so if you'd ever be interested in working with me, be sure to let me know what you do! At the moment, I could really use some help with PR...
Labels: 3d, customer, gary martin, quartz composer, timeline
Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race: A Timeline
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Here is another great customer timeline!
Michael Alden runs a website for a traditional canoe race held in Maine every April and created this timeline to highlight some of the major events in the race's 40+ year history.
The blurred image looks fantastic as a background. So good, in fact, that it makes me think that Bee Docs Timeline should include some image filters someday so that you can do these kind of effects without 3rd party software.
Labels: background image, Canoe, customer, michael alden, timeline
Charting the Structure of Aeschylus' Agamemnon
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Bee Docs' Timeline customer Mary McMenomy of Ohio State University sent me the following timeline of the play Agamemnon. She writes, "My goal with this diagram was to demonstrate to the students how scenes of the play alternate with interludes from the Greek chorus, and how the choral passages themselves get shorter over the course of the play."
Interestingly, Ms McMenomy used "years" as the date format but instead of charting time, she is using line numbers from the Grene and Lattimore translation of the Greek text. It is a great idea so perhaps you might want to consider charting poetry using Bee Docs' Timeline too!
Labels: agamemnon, customer, education, lines, poetry, timeline
Event Timelines in redSTAR Magazine
Monday, April 30, 2007
Ian Burns, founder and managing director of redSTAR Times Media recently sent us some copies of redSTAR magazine. The magazine, which features culture and travel information for Qingdao China, recently switched formats and now features a full spread timeline to show the monthly event calendar!
We are excited that Ian chose Bee Docs' Timeline for the redSTAR event calendar and we are always thrilled to see the creative ways our customers use timelines.
In other customer news: Congratulations to Larry Staton, Jr who is now an official member the Florida Bar!
One of the best parts of running Bee Documents is getting to know all the talented and creative people who use our software. Be sure to drop me a line and introduce yourself if you haven't yet. I'd love to hear from you.
Home Office Lawyer Describes Paperless Setup
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Here is a link to a blog entry by Grant D. Griffiths, who is a lawyer working out of his basement. In this particular entry, he writes about his “paperless” setup. I love hearing about other people’s office setups, and what technology works in the real world and what doesn’t. Thanks Grant.
I’ve considered creating some software that helps people with scanned images, code, sort, and organize the documents on their hard drive. Imagine iTunes or iPhoto for documents with a Bee Docs’ twist. In fact, we’ve got most of that functionality in our Bee Docs’ Discover web repository, but it would fun to create a Mac application for that purpose. I’m not sure how big the market would be for such a product… I wish there was an easy way to find out how many Mac users are going for a “paperless” office like Grant describes.
Labels: customer, discover, grant giffiths, paperless office