PuppetVision Blog » digital video

YouTube Goes HD

Andrew — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 16:00:00 +0000

If you haven’t already heard, YouTube has been busy upgrading. First they switched to a new 16:9 (widescreen) video player a few weeks back and now YouTube supports uploading of high definition videos. If you want to start uploading your videos in high def, YouTube has a guide to optimizing your video uploads.

Why Blip.tv is the Best

Andrew — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:15:00 +0000

In my opinion Blip.tv is the absolutely best place to host your videos if you are producing puppet podcasts (or any other kind of video podcast). The basic account is totally free and they offer a great set of features, including the ability to make a little money and can automatically post your videos to other popular services like iTunes. What I like best is that they are first and foremost focused on hosting shows and serving creators. Several puppet podcasts are hosted on Blip, including dotBoom and JigSaw. I started hosting my old Bear Town videos there recently too and I’ve been very impressed with Blip so far.

If you put videos on the web, give Blip a try. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

Update: I just noticed that Blip is having a problem with visitors to their homepage being prompted to download an executable file called XPantiVirus (don’t do it). Give them sometime to fix the problem and try out Blip tomorrow. They really are great, they’re just having a bad day today.

Quick Green Screen Tips

Andrew — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 03:43:00 +0000

I spotted these green screen tips from Brian Richardson (he of WhatTheCast and Dragon*Con TV) in the famous Yahoo Videoblogging Group. I think they will be helpful for anyone doing puppet podcasts who is a little mystified/frustrated by the green screen process:

The main trick is even lighting across the screen and the people in front of it. Much like a Babylon 5 episode, shadows are the enemy.
Try using four lights on your screen. Two 1,000 watt softboxes are good to light your green screen and two 500 watt umbrella lights can be used to light your subject (if you’re not familiar with the difference between these types of lights, try Googling them).
A learn what colour temperature is. All of the light bulbs in your setup should use the same color temperature (I use 3200K).
Don’t get too close to the green screen. Once you get within three feet of the screen, shadows start to form and they will mess up your key.
Another trick is to take your camera off of automatic. Letting the camera adjust color/white balance in the middle of a green screen shot might cause problems editing (the value of “green” will change as people move in & out of the scene if the camera tries to adjust).

Want to try creating some green screen effects, but don’t have the right software? Check out this green screen tutorial on Instructables that explains how to create green screen effects using Debug Mode’s WAX (it’s free to download).

Miro: The Best Way To Watch Puppetry on the Web

Andrew — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 04:17:00 +0000

The open source Miro video player (I last wrote about it back in June when it was still called The Democracy Player) is out of beta testing and it’s a fantastic application. Miro can automatically download, manage and play videos from RSS-based “channels” and popular video sharing sites like YouTube. It’s a great way to watch videos online and best of all it’s completely free! If you love to watch video on the web download it today and give Miro a try.

Quick Podcasting Tip: Use Video Feeds

Andrew — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 02:58:00 +0000

Using video RSS feeds is a great way to help promote video podcasts.

If you create a puppet podcast – or any other kind of video podcast at all – you should make sure you make use of Video RSS feeds. They work the same as the RSS feeds (or “newsfeeds”) that blogs use, except that they contain video. They make it easy for your audience to subscribe to your videos using iTunes, the super-cool Miro player (in my opinion Miro is the best way to watch and download videos online) or just about any other program that supports video and RSS.

There’s a good guide that explains how to properly shoot, edit and publish videos for the internet at Make Internet TV.

Democracy Player: A Great Way To Watch Video

Andrew — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 12:52:00 +0000

I recently started using the open-source Democracy Player (it will soon be renamed the Miro Player) and I really, really like it. Not only can Democracy play just about every kind of video imaginable – Quicktime, WMV, MPEG, AVI, XVID, etc. – it helps you find some of the internet’s best video podcasts via its built-in Channel Guide. You can also use it to download, save and watch BitTorrent files as well as videos from sites like YouTube and Google Video. It even supports high-definition video too!

For those of you who already produce a puppet podcast or are thinking of starting one, Democracy offers video creators a number of helpful tools, including one click video subscription buttons, Broadcast Machine (for publishing videos on your web site) and Make Internet TV (a guide to shooting and editing video for the web). Even if you don’t want to use the Democracy software yourself, you can submit your show’s RSS Feed to create your own Democracy Channel to help you attract new viewers.

You can download the latest version of the Democracy Player via www.getdemocracy.com.

Puppets on GodTube

Andrew — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 18:33:00 +0000

Good Friday seems like an appropriate day to mention puppets on GodTube (link via TechCrunch), a new video sharing site dedicated to Christian audiences. There’s only a few puppet videos posted so far and the quality is middle-of-the-road, but hopefully this site will provide an opportunity for the Christian puppetry community to showcase some really great work.

The Competition Wants To Steal YouTube’s Stars

Andrew — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 02:18:00 +0000

Despite all the great puppetry content on YouTube, there still hasn’t been a true breakout puppetry star emerge yet. It’s probably a matter of when not if that happens and with that in mind it’s interesting to read that the newest wrinkle in the online video wars is that apparently YouTube’s competitors are trying to poach talent in an effort gain market share.

This is a smart strategy, since user generated content is one of the big two forces driving YouTube’s traffic (the other one, pirated content, is probably going to start drying up very soon). I wonder if sites like this will become like networks or studios and ambitious users will start pitching them content in an effort to get better deals?

Monday Morning Inspiration: The Wit & Wisdom of Phil Vischer

Andrew — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 11:30:00 +0000

Phil Vischer is a pretty inspiring guy and anyone who dreams of being the next Jim Henson or Walt Disney can learn a lot from him and his experiences.

Phil founded Big Idea Productions in 1993 with the motto “Sunday morning values, Saturday morning fun” and the idea that he would teach the Christian bible and moral ideas to children through a bunch of crazy, singing vegetables. Phil’s “big idea” ended up succeeding beyond his wildest dreams; Big Idea’s first project – Where’s God When I’m S-Scared? (the first widely distributed 3D animated movie – released two years before Pixar’s Toy Story) – launched the insanely popular Veggietales series and transformed the face of Christian entertainment.

Big Idea shone brightly as a Christian media superstar in the 1990s, but ultimately ended up in bankruptcy in 2003 after a series of financial missteps. It was a wild personal and spiritual ride for Phil, who went from being an independent Christian filmmaker working out of his spare bedroom to the head of a multi-million dollar animation studio to bankrupt entrepreneur in the span of about a decade. Phil relates the story of the rise and fall of Big Idea in a wonderfully frank, brutally honest article on his web site called What Happened To Big Idea?

Like a surprising number of animation people, Phil started out in puppetry, working in Christian puppet ministry. Since the bankruptcy of Big Idea he’s gone back to his puppetry roots and his new company Jellyfish produces the semi-regular podcast Jelly News that’s mentioned here frequently and last year he was rumored to have some other puppetry-related projects in the works.

Naturally, Phil has great insight into the Christian entertainment market and he’s recently wrapped up a series of posts on his blog about the past and present realities of the Christian video market and the possibilities for the future:

These are written with would-be producers of Christian media in mind, but the trends Phil discusses apply to just about every other type of niche-related video content out there too.

Finally, as if the man wasn’t already prolific enough, Phil has just published a book about his life and his spiritual journey called Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story About God, Dreams, and Talking Vegetables. So far the reviews have been good with more than one reviewer noting that much like the format of a Veggietale video, the book is unapologetically Christian, but not explicitly scriptural until the very end. I haven’t read it yet myself, but I’m looking forward to it.

Viral Video Online Puppetry Festival

Andrew — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 02:16:00 +0000

The excellent Spanish language puppetry site Titerenet is sponsoring their first ever Viral Video Online Puppetry Festival. The only rule is that to eligible for the contest your video must be made with a puppet. Awards will be given for the most watched video, the highest rated video, the most commented video and the most favourited video.

Prizes include:

Annual registry of a domain name (.com .org .net)
A professional annual subscription to the titerenet directory
Four copies of Puck magazine translated into Spanish
Engish language puppetry books

To submit a video to the contest simply upload it to YouTube and add it to the Titerenet group. The contest is open until February 28th, but obviously the sooner you enter the better chance you’ll have in several of the categories.

Ustedes pueden leer la información en español aquí.