keynote
2008 Completion Ceremony DVD
As another year passes, I see another Completion
Ceremony video firmly in my rearview mirror – a video
that almost didn't happen due to schedule
constraints. In all, the Keynote file that served as
the project's base was 123 slides with some 240
photographs included. Five days before the ceremony,
I only had about forty of those slides completed! It
was nuts finishing up the rest, leading to many
near-sleepless nights. Still, I'm pretty happy with
how things turned out this year, so allow me to take
a moment to look back at highlights as well as
problems with this year's video.
I also felt limited in my adherence to Mac OS X 10.4 technologies. I really wanted to upgrade to 10.5 before working on this video (explaining some of my own procrastination), but it just didn't happen. This hampered my vision to some extent because some of the tools I wanted to use require 10.5 functionality. I still think the video presentation was pretty good. It just wasn't what I had in mind.
I also used some extracted Keynote elements and Hemera Photo-Objects to add some more depth to the slides, adding small touches to compliment the images. These turned out to be a nice addition to the formula.
iMovie and iDVD worked like champs on my MacBook Pro – which I was grateful to have since the G5 didn't fare so well this year. We will not be replacing it this year, but the PowerMac is beginning to show its age. It produced seven DVDs to the MacBook's thirty, and two of those were coasters.
Let's Start With the Bad News
The time crunch led to one major issue: no opportunities to troubleshoot or tweak. In the end, my soundtrack (composed by a friend and myself) was about thirty seconds shorter than the video. I had no time to write new material, so the video opens in silence. It only looks intentional! Additionally, framerate was an issue. I haven't had problems with this since my first attempt six years ago (using nothing but Keynote 1.0 and QuickTime Pro). Again, given just a few more hours, I know I could have worked this out.I also felt limited in my adherence to Mac OS X 10.4 technologies. I really wanted to upgrade to 10.5 before working on this video (explaining some of my own procrastination), but it just didn't happen. This hampered my vision to some extent because some of the tools I wanted to use require 10.5 functionality. I still think the video presentation was pretty good. It just wasn't what I had in mind.
On to the Positives!
I ended up following a design philosophy (for lack of a better term) I used last year – that is all backgrounds and objects had to feel tangible and real. No swirly abstract PowerPoint-like backgrounds allowed! The end result is very organic looking, and both parents and kids have an easier time connecting to the static images.
I also used some extracted Keynote elements and Hemera Photo-Objects to add some more depth to the slides, adding small touches to compliment the images. These turned out to be a nice addition to the formula.
iMovie and iDVD worked like champs on my MacBook Pro – which I was grateful to have since the G5 didn't fare so well this year. We will not be replacing it this year, but the PowerMac is beginning to show its age. It produced seven DVDs to the MacBook's thirty, and two of those were coasters.
Covetous Desires for Next Year
- Photoshop Elements 6 - because switching computers just to use Photoshop is a pain.
- OS X 10.5 Leopard - because my favorite quick-and-dirty image editor has picked up some cool new features that rely on Leopard.
- Sibelius 5 - for the same reasons as PS Elements 6. Rosetta is not kind to previous versions of these apps.
- iWork '09 and iLife '09 - because…well, just because.
Links 08/19/07
August 19, 2007 Filed in: Links
Sci-Fi Lists: Top 100 Sci-Fi Lists
I've read most of the top 20, and I'm pleasantly surprised by number one.
Ars Technica: AACS DRM tentacles reach far into operating systems
Marcello's Homepage – Comics – Calvin & Hobbes
Every Calvin and Hobbes comic strip ever published. I can now sleep better at night just knowing these are here.
PagesUser: A Huge Saving of Space
So that's where all those megabytes went... I had a hunch.
Red Sweater Blog: We're In This Together
This is something I really like about being a Mac user. The third-party developers (especially the indies) are generally nice people, and the cut-throat feeling pervasive in the Windows software market is all but absent.
Infinite Loop: The secrets to Apple's success in marketing to teenagers
In addition to the reasons listed in the article, I think another factor in Apple's success with young people is that Apple doesn't talk down to them or try to create a blatantly corny atmosphere of "hipness."
I've read most of the top 20, and I'm pleasantly surprised by number one.
Ars Technica: AACS DRM tentacles reach far into operating systems
So, when thinking about this issue, we have to ask ourselves: is a company like Microsoft or Apple likely to tell Hollywood to jump off a cliff? No, because both companies know that users will want to play HD DVD or Blu-ray discs on their computers. Microsoft didn't tell AACS LA to stuff it, and Apple won't tell them to, either.
Marcello's Homepage – Comics – Calvin & Hobbes
Every Calvin and Hobbes comic strip ever published. I can now sleep better at night just knowing these are here.
PagesUser: A Huge Saving of Space
So that's where all those megabytes went... I had a hunch.
Red Sweater Blog: We're In This Together
It’s pretty awe-inspiring to sit in the same room while the makers of competing products such as BBEdit and TextMate, or Transmit and Fetch discuss product design issues, laugh at each other’s jokes, and yes, withhold some of their more strategic plans! But almost everybody in the room, competitor or not, is respecting each other’s work, and having a great time.
This is something I really like about being a Mac user. The third-party developers (especially the indies) are generally nice people, and the cut-throat feeling pervasive in the Windows software market is all but absent.
Infinite Loop: The secrets to Apple's success in marketing to teenagers
In addition to the reasons listed in the article, I think another factor in Apple's success with young people is that Apple doesn't talk down to them or try to create a blatantly corny atmosphere of "hipness."
iWork '08: Keynote
August 08, 2007 Filed in: Tech Stuff
| Apple
iWork '08 was released
on August 7 with some improvements to the existing
presentation and page layout applications and a
brand-new spreadsheet application called Numbers.
Over a series of three posts, I'm going to take a
look at the new features introduced in this version
of iWork.
Keynote is the original member of what would eventually become iWork. It was released in 2003 and has seen three major updates since them, each bringing new functionality as well as general improvements.
One thing I noticed immediately in Keynote '08 was that the toolbar icons seem to have received some attention. I think this may be the first facelift the toolbar has received since the initial release. The toolbar is now unified, and the new icons are more illustrative than photographic.
Keynote '06 toolbar
Keynote '08 toolbar
The toolbar icons do not seem to be resolution independent, nor does the application icon support a 512x512 resolution, both expected due to the impending release of Leopard. However, digging through Keynote's packaged resources, I did find some icons for iChat Theater, which is a Leopard feature. Perhaps new icons will come in a software update. (I also noticed some other organizational differences in the package that I'll have to keep in mind when digging for resources.)
As far as visual enhancements to presentations go, Keynote '08 comes with a few new themes, transitions, and build effects, along with a new way of animating text and objects called Smart Builds.
You can see all the new themes above. My wife is very fond of Harmony, and I like Vellum and Industrial the most. I'm not too fond of Craft or Stock Book personally, but many of you will have different opinions. No Keynote themes seem to have been removed from the previous version in this upgrade, which is a first.
There are a few new 3D slide transitions: color planes, confetti, and swap, and there is one new 2D transition called Blur. New build animations include comet, confetti, drift, flame (which is terrible), and sparkle. Text builds contain all of these plus blast, bouncy, confetti, convergence, and squish. Some builds and transitions are amusing, needing to be avoided in professional presentations at all costs, while others like blur and drift can be quite dramatic.
Smart Builds create a sophisticated animation between objects – rotating or flipping between images. Really, seeing is better than explaining, so here's a video:
Click here for video
Another new visual flair comes by way of path animations, called Action Builds in Keynote. Basically you can determine a path for text or an image to follow, but the neat thing is that the object can change states while progressing along its path. For example, an image can change size or opacity during its transition. You can set items to move along a straight or a curved path. Again, showing is better than explaining:
Click here for video
Keynote has gained some interface refinements in a smart formatting bar (which I will talk more about in the Pages overview) and live image resizing within a mask – making the task of resizing masked objects far less tedious than the preceding version of Keynote. Also, you can now record your voice in sync with your slides and animations. Couple this with the fact that Keynote integrates with iTunes and Garageband, and you have a nice way of sharing your presentations with audio. The recording options are limited, but patience will yield decent results.
Another advertised new feature is Instant Alpha, which brings another image editing capability to Keynote (like shape masking and Image Adjust in the previous version). Instant Alpha is designed to quickly and easily remove backgrounds from photographs.
x
It's important that the background is pretty solid and distinctly contrasts from the main image. Otherwise, the results can get messy. It's a feature that works well enough to be a timesaver, but it can't altogether replace a more professional graphics app if you use alpha transparencies a lot. (Hint: using shadows can hide rough edges in the Instant Alpha transparency.)
FInally, it's possible to add special frames around images in Keynote slides outside the usual shadows and lines. In the object inspector, there is a Picture Frame option under "Stroke," and you will be able to choose from twelve different frames available to that theme. It's not a huge feature, but both my wife and I would have loved this option with some projects we did last year and earlier this year.
That covers most of Keynote's new features. Most of it is good stuff, and I've only run into a couple bugs so far. The only problem with all of these great improvements is avoiding going overboard when creating a presentation. If you have a Mac, you really should own iWork, and I think that will become more evident as we look at more of this application suite.
For more reading on Keynote's new features:
And don't forget to check out my iWork tagged Flickr photos!
Keynote is the original member of what would eventually become iWork. It was released in 2003 and has seen three major updates since them, each bringing new functionality as well as general improvements.
One thing I noticed immediately in Keynote '08 was that the toolbar icons seem to have received some attention. I think this may be the first facelift the toolbar has received since the initial release. The toolbar is now unified, and the new icons are more illustrative than photographic.
Keynote '06 toolbar
Keynote '08 toolbar
The toolbar icons do not seem to be resolution independent, nor does the application icon support a 512x512 resolution, both expected due to the impending release of Leopard. However, digging through Keynote's packaged resources, I did find some icons for iChat Theater, which is a Leopard feature. Perhaps new icons will come in a software update. (I also noticed some other organizational differences in the package that I'll have to keep in mind when digging for resources.)
As far as visual enhancements to presentations go, Keynote '08 comes with a few new themes, transitions, and build effects, along with a new way of animating text and objects called Smart Builds.
You can see all the new themes above. My wife is very fond of Harmony, and I like Vellum and Industrial the most. I'm not too fond of Craft or Stock Book personally, but many of you will have different opinions. No Keynote themes seem to have been removed from the previous version in this upgrade, which is a first.
There are a few new 3D slide transitions: color planes, confetti, and swap, and there is one new 2D transition called Blur. New build animations include comet, confetti, drift, flame (which is terrible), and sparkle. Text builds contain all of these plus blast, bouncy, confetti, convergence, and squish. Some builds and transitions are amusing, needing to be avoided in professional presentations at all costs, while others like blur and drift can be quite dramatic.
Smart Builds create a sophisticated animation between objects – rotating or flipping between images. Really, seeing is better than explaining, so here's a video:
Click here for video
Another new visual flair comes by way of path animations, called Action Builds in Keynote. Basically you can determine a path for text or an image to follow, but the neat thing is that the object can change states while progressing along its path. For example, an image can change size or opacity during its transition. You can set items to move along a straight or a curved path. Again, showing is better than explaining:
Click here for video
Keynote has gained some interface refinements in a smart formatting bar (which I will talk more about in the Pages overview) and live image resizing within a mask – making the task of resizing masked objects far less tedious than the preceding version of Keynote. Also, you can now record your voice in sync with your slides and animations. Couple this with the fact that Keynote integrates with iTunes and Garageband, and you have a nice way of sharing your presentations with audio. The recording options are limited, but patience will yield decent results.
Another advertised new feature is Instant Alpha, which brings another image editing capability to Keynote (like shape masking and Image Adjust in the previous version). Instant Alpha is designed to quickly and easily remove backgrounds from photographs.
x
It's important that the background is pretty solid and distinctly contrasts from the main image. Otherwise, the results can get messy. It's a feature that works well enough to be a timesaver, but it can't altogether replace a more professional graphics app if you use alpha transparencies a lot. (Hint: using shadows can hide rough edges in the Instant Alpha transparency.)
FInally, it's possible to add special frames around images in Keynote slides outside the usual shadows and lines. In the object inspector, there is a Picture Frame option under "Stroke," and you will be able to choose from twelve different frames available to that theme. It's not a huge feature, but both my wife and I would have loved this option with some projects we did last year and earlier this year.
That covers most of Keynote's new features. Most of it is good stuff, and I've only run into a couple bugs so far. The only problem with all of these great improvements is avoiding going overboard when creating a presentation. If you have a Mac, you really should own iWork, and I think that will become more evident as we look at more of this application suite.
For more reading on Keynote's new features:
- Apple's Keynote Page
- Keynote User: Quick Keynote '08 New Feature List
- Macworld: First Look: Keynote '08
And don't forget to check out my iWork tagged Flickr photos!
Links 06/23/07
June 23, 2007 Filed in: Links
Ambrosia Software: SnapzProX
Me (embarassedly): "Oh, so you are a universal app now. Well, that sure took a while. Um ... you know, after you didn't speak to me for months I thought you had ... you know ... called it quits. So, yeah, I've been seeing this younger and lighter screenshot utility. Um, no hard feelings?"
I totally did not see this coming. No, really! No sarcasm here. Honestly, I expected Manhunt 2 to recieve some controversy, get mediocre reviews, and sell decently – but for it to get banned from its target consoles? Paint me green and call me Gumby! And I thought Hot Coffee was a train wreck!
By the way, Manhunt 2 is one of only 23 games to receive the esteemed AO rating. Manhunt 2 now joins the honorable ranks of such titles as WET-The Sexy Empire, All Nude Nikki, and Cyber Photographer. That's classy!
Rands In Repose: Keynote Kung-Fu
Learn subtle ways of Keynote, young grasshopper, and stun many throngs.
Um ... HADOKEN!!!
Me (embarassedly): "Oh, so you are a universal app now. Well, that sure took a while. Um ... you know, after you didn't speak to me for months I thought you had ... you know ... called it quits. So, yeah, I've been seeing this younger and lighter screenshot utility. Um, no hard feelings?"
I totally did not see this coming. No, really! No sarcasm here. Honestly, I expected Manhunt 2 to recieve some controversy, get mediocre reviews, and sell decently – but for it to get banned from its target consoles? Paint me green and call me Gumby! And I thought Hot Coffee was a train wreck!
- Opposable Thumbs: The Manhunt Saga: ESRB assigns AO rating
- 1UP: The Murder of Manhunt 2: One Day Later
- 1Up: Nintendo, Sony Policies Prohibit AO Manhunt 2
By the way, Manhunt 2 is one of only 23 games to receive the esteemed AO rating. Manhunt 2 now joins the honorable ranks of such titles as WET-The Sexy Empire, All Nude Nikki, and Cyber Photographer. That's classy!
Rands In Repose: Keynote Kung-Fu
Learn subtle ways of Keynote, young grasshopper, and stun many throngs.
Um ... HADOKEN!!!
Links 03/24/07
March 24, 2007 Filed in: Links
Here are some new add-ons for Keynote available:
Jumsoft: Keynote Objects FX - I'm not sure what I think of these. If I were more of a clip art user, these would probably seem great. As it is, I only see a couple in the sample document that make me think, "I'd use that."
Keynote Theme Park: Nation Elements Americas - These look like they could be pretty useful. I've purchased a couple of this group's supplemental packs and have gotten a lot of use out of them. This is worth checking out.
IsraCast: Like a Fish – Revolutionary Underwater Breathing System
It's almost like Star Wars: Episode 1, only without the Gungans. Make sure you read down to the interview at the bottom of the article.
Kotaku: PS3 Dominates Folding@Home
Now there's a way to generate good Karma if I ever saw one.
Kotaku: London PS3 Launch Gives Out TVs to All
And to think I decided to skip the UK PS3 launch just because I live here in Westfield!
Jumsoft: Keynote Objects FX - I'm not sure what I think of these. If I were more of a clip art user, these would probably seem great. As it is, I only see a couple in the sample document that make me think, "I'd use that."
Keynote Theme Park: Nation Elements Americas - These look like they could be pretty useful. I've purchased a couple of this group's supplemental packs and have gotten a lot of use out of them. This is worth checking out.
IsraCast: Like a Fish – Revolutionary Underwater Breathing System
It's almost like Star Wars: Episode 1, only without the Gungans. Make sure you read down to the interview at the bottom of the article.
Kotaku: PS3 Dominates Folding@Home
Now there's a way to generate good Karma if I ever saw one.
Kotaku: London PS3 Launch Gives Out TVs to All
And to think I decided to skip the UK PS3 launch just because I live here in Westfield!
Links 03/17/07
March 17, 2007 Filed in: Links
YouTube: Pachelbel Rant
Comedian Robert Paravonian energetically and humorously illustrates the sameness of popular music. This has been around for a little while, but I thought I'd post it here as well for those of you who might not have seen it. (Warning: There is some bad language toward the end of the video.)
Pixel Designs: French Roast
x
This is a nice free theme. It's very visually appealing, but I do recommend that you download the suggested font.
Comedian Robert Paravonian energetically and humorously illustrates the sameness of popular music. This has been around for a little while, but I thought I'd post it here as well for those of you who might not have seen it. (Warning: There is some bad language toward the end of the video.)
Pixel Designs: French Roast
x
This is a nice free theme. It's very visually appealing, but I do recommend that you download the suggested font.