Day 2 - Adobe Education Leadership (AEL) Camp

Day 2 and everyone is ready to meet the day :)

Last night we had a great team building activity...which was Geo-caching. We were setup in teams with 2 GPS devices, a page of questions and a map. The idea was to go on a scavenger hunt using our GPS device finding certain locations. To prove we found the right location we had to take a group picture with us doing various things....ie: technology in motion....our group went to the location (which was a movie theatre) and jumped on the escalator....technology in motion. It was a lot of fun....although the locals must have though we were nuts as many of the group pictures we had to take were pretty whacky - here is my group spelling Adobe....well sort of :)

All the groups ended up at the restaurant where we had an evening of pool, eats and mingling. As you can see below....some AELs were quite creative with their game of pool.



When you talk to your students about their digital trail and how it can come back to haunt them....another AEL colleague (Kim Cavanaugh) was quick with the camera yesterday. Another flattering image for the world to see.....check out Kim's blog Brain Frieze.....aside from the image....he has some great content on his blog :) The digital dual has begun....

This morning we all walked over to San Francisco State University for the first day of workshops. There were 4 tracks to choose from today: Learn to use the latest CS3 design tools, video tools, web tools, and digital school collection. I am in the video tools workshop this morning.

But before we got started we were fed and watered with a good breaki. Some of us were trying to look like we didn't have too much fun last night and were focusing on our laptops.....sleep or awake?

We started working with Premiere Pro CS3...our instructor Sean McKnight (from AGI in Pennsylvania) was brought in by Adobe (as have all the instructors for the next couple of days) to work specifically with the AELs this week.

Sean took us through Premiere Pro first this morning. Went through a great overview and now playing....you know how good it is to have a play when learning new technologies.

Tips for Premier Pro CS3:

1. Premiere Pro CS3 will now export to MPEG2 Blu-Ray

2. Video can now be imported into Photohop CS3 for rotoscoping.

3. Soundbooth (for audio) will be part of the Production Premiere package. This easy to use sound editing product is used to clean audio. This can be done directly from Premiere Pro CS3 (Dynamic Link).

Tips for AfterEffects CS3:

4. Using the shortcuts "I" or "O" will take you to the in point or out point in Premiere Pro and After Effects.

5. Remember....Premiere is your editing tool and AfterEffects is the editing tool. Sean says if Premiere and Photoshop had a baby - it would be AfterEffects. The playback is very cumbersome in AfterEffects.

6. Comma and Period is the shortcut for zoom in and zoom out in your composition (preview) window.

7. Fully layered PSD and Illustrator files can be brought into either Premiere Pro or AfterEffects.

8. Puppet Pen Tool is new in AfterEffects CS3 and can be used for cartoons - brings your characters to life with organic motion.

9. Select the text layer in AfterEffects First. Also have your key selector placed on the Timeline where you want the animation to start. Go to Bridge --> Text --> Animate In. If you select each animation 1x you can preview it. If you want to apply it to your text layer in AfterEffects....just 2x click on it. NOTE: be sure to UNDO the previous animator to your text layer before you choose the next one.

10. Animate In to add effects....Animate Out to end the effects.

Tips for Encore CS3:

11. All I can say is WHAT A COOL program. You must have a play!

Some extra links from Day 2:

Kevin McMahon (AEL) gave the following great link for a website of free transitions for Premiere...Burgers Transition Site.

Digital Editions (from Sherrie Loveman)
Sherrie does a lot of work with her students in desktop publishing. She and her students produce amazing literary art book with over 250 submissions and only 80 of the art submissions make it to the book. The rest of the book is essays, poetry and speeches. The unique thing about this is Sherrie teaches in an all boys private school....the depth of art and writing that these young gentlemen produce are amazing.

Sherrie loves Digital Editions from Adobe as their work can now be published to the web in a double page spread. Check out Digital Editions and download it for free.

Handbrake

Handbrake is a very cool (free) open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 converter, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows.
Handbrake