Help with a Workshop (on a deadline)

[Gepetto]

I've been asked to hold a workshop for the 8th grade students at my school about digital video editing, and I'd like a few suggestions on how I could make things work. Last year, I assisted a friend in a Flash workshop on the same yearly cultural event and this year I'm supposed to coordinate. I'll have 15 Windows XP PCs running on 2.3GHz Pentium IV for the kids to use, plus a blackboard and all the usual stuff. They'll be divided into two fifteen-person groups for one and a half hour each.

I was thinking of doing something on the lines of "video is nothing but a sequence of images" and have them make stick figures or something on Paint and animate them over a background. Later, I could deal with compression and give them each a copy of what they made. The problems I ran into so far are two:

1)I don't know of any free video editor that supports layering and motion control at a newbie level (remembering that these kids have no idea what's the difference between framerates and yogurt, and have never heard the word "keyframe") and

2)Paint-rendered images have a white background, which will look weird. I'm afraid I'll overwhelm them if I have to instruct on aplying color masks, because I have a severe problem with keeping my mouth shut.

Since it's only for one afternoon, I wouldn't have any moral problems with installing, say, Premiere 6 or Pro (both of which I own) on the PCs and uninstalling them later, but software that doesn't crash would be better, since I have only 1:30 hour per class.

I also considered giving them an array of pre-unbackgrounded gif or png images to use, but that would slightly toil their freedom (although I'm feeling inclined to do so and tell them that they can make their own if they prefer). However, the software question remains.

Any tips, suggestions, opinions, flames or anything else you can write with your elbow on the keyboard would be great. I have until next Wednesday evening to get this straight so I can set it up Thursday morning, but the sooner the better.

Also, I was thinking of using Darci-San's Greed vs Envy as an example. Good idea, bad idea? I'm PM'ing him about it as I write this.

Sorry for all the questions but I want all my bases covered for this to turn out all right. Thank you all in advance,

--Gepetto

[Kariudo]

I think that using envy vs greed would be a good idea, but I think _Ice-Angel_'s lost kitten might be even better

you can tell that it's hand drawn/animated, but there are more individual drawings than greed vs envy (so it's closer to looking like "normal" animation)

for the software you might consider getting trial versions of something.
I found Puremotion's EditStudio to be pretty easy to use

clearly labeled tracks (multiple video+audio) and pre-set effects/transitions.
I haven't used it since last year (that's when I got premiere) so I'm not sure what effects/transitions it has, but there is a "key" folder which I'd assume contains a color key.
The controls for these are fairly restricted (more freedom than WMM but less than premiere)...so it might be alright for you to use it.

the only thing is that you get a big watermark that moves around upon export.
[/my two cents]

[sayde]

Sorry I can't contribute anything useful towards this topic Gepetto. I just wanted to say good luck with this 1 and a half hour class you're going to teach. I've tried imagining myself in your position and it seems kind of overwhelming. I personally would'nt know where the hell to even begin. Especially since you don't even have anywheres' close to a full semester to work with them.

[kmv]

I don't think you should be thinking AMVs or animation at all, if I were you I would go with some live action footage. Reason: Most people use digital video editing to cut the dross from their home movies - everyone else is either some variation on a hobbyist (like us) or a professional.

I suggest plan a short piece about the school, shoot it, prepare the clips, prepare a backing track, prepare a voice over track, prepare a finished product, and prepare handout material that covers everything.

Then for the class:
Theory section

• Covers everything you did during preparation
• How to use the tool for the practical
• What do with finished movies: DVD, internet distribution, etc.

Practical section

• Importing the clips
• Putting them on the timeline
• Manipulating the clips
• Fiddling about with effects (likely to be popular)
• Adding and adjusting the audio tracks
• Exporting the finished product

That will fill up your time slot nicely, but if you think you will have time to spare then involve the class in some of the preparation work (like getting the clips off the camera and onto the computer), but make sure you don't rely on their output for the editing.

Then I recommend you give everyone a copy of what they produced and what you produced for the class. DVDs would be good if you can do it (because then they could show it to their parents) but anything will do so long as they can get hold of their finished product.


As for the tool, I think you should use WMM. After all, it is fine for the above, and it is something that they will have access to.

[Gepetto]

Hey thank you all. I`m sorry it took forever to answer but I was swamped with tests and whatnot. Me and Abaka ran through all this and hopefully we`ll make it work.

Kariudo: Lost Kitten is indeed better for this purpose. Darci`s Swinging on a Star proved good too. I`ll use both, thanks for the tip. As for EditStudio, it looked wonderfully simple, but the lack of motion controls puts it to loss since we`ll go with frame editing.

Sayde: Thanks for the support. I`m not that overwhelmed because this isn`t really a serious thing. Besides, they`re 14 and I`m 17; we`ll get along. I just *hope* I can control them if something goes wrong.

KMV: Great suggestion. Unfortunately, neither me nor the people at the school Arts department have the time to pre-shoot all the footage we`ll need for this. Even though it was postponed to Friday evening, we`re all tight on our schedules.

Here`s how we`re thinking of doing it: For the theory section, we`ll first cover up what actually goes on when you play a video (and use _Ice-Angel_ and Darci`s videos to explain, one per class). Then, we move on to context: How that would apply to them, showing a beta for a juggling video two friends of mine are working on. We`ll talk about the basics and point out WMM (it`s really intuitive to use, I think going deep into it isn`t necessary).

Then the practical section. We`ve decided on Premiere Pro. The interface is user-friendly enough and we`ll only explore the simpler sides of it anyways. We`re recording small voice clips to use as dialogs, and we`ll ready some images (we were thinking stick figures, backgrounds and "props" general) for the kids to animate something to the dialog. That way we can teach them about the motion features and the audio adjusting. Then we`ll give them something ~real~to play with (maybe scenes from a movie) so they can toy around with the effects.

Thoughts, ideas, suggestions?

--Gepetto

[dokidoki]

2)Paint-rendered images have a white background, which will look weird. I'm afraid I'll overwhelm them if I have to instruct on aplying color masks, because I have a severe problem with keeping my mouth shut.

Paint.NET (free) can save PNGs with transparency.

[DriftRoot]

After Effects 7.0 is available for free, 30-day trial and all that. In my experience, it's a heck of a lot more stable than Premiere. Although AE is incredibly overkill for what you're doing, you will get layers and stuff and it's got all the motion controls anyone could ever want.

[Gepetto]

Actually, DriftRoot, Premiere Pro 2.0 and Elements are also available for a 30-day trial (which is good, since the director almost cancelled the class because of the illegal use of Premiere and the possible fine). AE is too much. I'm scared of it, and these kids haven't even seen Studio9, let alone Premiere or AE. Premiere Pro has a friendlier interface and simpler motion commands, so I'll go with it.

DokiDoki: Wow, good. I've only seen the screenshots on the site but I'm downloading the program now. I was going to use The GIMP, but now I'll test Paint.NET and choose one from the two of them. Thanks for the tip.


Well, guys, this is it. The classes are tomorrow afternoon, but I'll have class myself all morning. Tonight I wrap this up and tomorrow I install the image editor I end up choosing. I'll post how it went, but I'd like to thank all of you beforehand for the help. I'd be panicking without it. Thank you all very much, and please wish me luck ^.^

--Gepetto

[Kariudo]

good luck with that
hope it turns out well

[Gepetto]

Well, here I am, back alive! Believe it or not, everything turned out well. Actually, the kids loved it! I didn't expect them to enjoy it so much (and heck I had a lot of fun too)!

The first class only had seven students, which was great because we could give more attention to each one of them, and they did quite a lot. First I explained briefly what we were going to do and showed the example videos (some of them really liked Lost Kitten, and one girl had already seen Swingin' on a Star). They paid attention. They made little animations (like a five-minute soccer game, or a UFO abducting a cow), then they tried on some of the effects for fun.

Some of them wanted to save their work, and I arranged with Zara (the arts teacher who's coordinating the project) that we encode their work in wmv (they all use Windows, so it's more accessible to them).

One of the kids had already used AfterEffects, and five wanted to obtain the software (Premiere as well as The GIMP). It looks like they had fun, so I'm satisfied ^^

Thank you all very very much for the help, the support and the suggestons. They really helped, I'd have gone crazy without them.