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  1. Hi, dear video editing professionals,

    I study Master and we are given a task to create a video about technology enhanced learning environment. At the beginning of my video I would like to combine photos in the symbol of the learning platform of coursera. The similar video I am sharing here is from Goethe Institut: http://www.goethe.de/lrn/prj/wnd/idl/uld/deindex.htm?wt_sc=mwnd_unserleben

    Just in the above example the photos are collected like a maze in a square shape. But I need that they stay one after another in the symbol og Coursera.

    As I am totally new to Video editing, I don't know how to do it. If there is anyone who can help me, I would appreciate it.

    PS: I am using Windows 8.1

    Kindest regards,
    Nilufar
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  2. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    It can be done in most of the better NLE's (with LOTS of layering), but I don't recommend that (uses up lots of resources). Better to use Adobe AfterEffects (or similar compositor app: Nuke, Motion, Shake, Eyeon Fusion, Combustion, Commotion, Toxic, Flint). This can also do the 3D/perspective moves and "grids" (aka "mosaic"), and can do parent/child moves so that shape cutout or movement is based on a curve/logo/symbol, etc. It can also do it more efficiently. A full 3D app could also do this (e.g. Blender, Maya, 3DS Max,...) but it's a bit overkill for this (and wouldn't be as efficient to generate).

    *Understand that ALL of those apps have big learning curves. If you are willing to cut some corners, you might be able to get by with a more "stock" effect preset from a more modest NLE app (even including some consumer-oriented ones).

    Scott
    Last edited by Cornucopia; 20th May 2015 at 18:20.
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  3. Member budwzr's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by atri_gul View Post
    But I need that they stay one after another in the symbol og Coursera
    What is the "symbol of coursera" ? A Matte?

    And you want the videos to run, one after the other, behind the matte?
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  4. I thought it was some translation error, but maybe he means "Coursera" as in https://www.coursera.org/ ??

    The symbol looks similar to the "infinity" symbol

    Name:  coursera.png
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  5. Member budwzr's Avatar
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    You mean a Mobius Strip? So that curly-que thingy is the matte? I doubt that would show well.

    Last edited by budwzr; 20th May 2015 at 20:08.
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  6. Member racer-x's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by budwzr View Post
    You mean a Mobius Strip? So that curly-que thingy is the matte? I doubt that would show well.
    Agreed, but it could be done easily enough. You should only need to animate one image around the path. Duplicate the animation layer and change reference file, then stagger and loop.
    Got my retirement plans all set. Looks like I only have to work another 5 years after I die........
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  7. ↑attempted like this, looks sucks and troublesome
    Needs a lot of small video blocks in order to fit that curly logo
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  8. Member racer-x's Avatar
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    I was thinking more like this example. Still looks silly though....
    Image Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version

Name:	Figure8.gif
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ID:	31894  

    Got my retirement plans all set. Looks like I only have to work another 5 years after I die........
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  9. Image
    [Attachment 31857 - Click to enlarge]


    The feathering is going to put you into After Effects territory. That's a lot harder on less expensive NLEs.
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  10. Member racer-x's Avatar
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    Here it is in full silliness. I could do the fade and fix the 1-frame pause in the center, but it isn't worth any more time....

    In case anyone is wondering, it was done in Aviutl.
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    Got my retirement plans all set. Looks like I only have to work another 5 years after I die........
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  11. How did you get "follow the path" from the description and example video ?

    The OP can clarify if he's still around - but I'm assuming he just wants a photo mosaic that is regularly spaced as a grid, with some movement in z-axis of individual "photos" on the close up shots as they "fall into place" like the example video in the 1st post . On the last shot, I'm assuming he wants it to show the symbol populated with photos instead of a rectangular grid or square arrangement . (I'm still guessing that it's the "coursera" symbol - he hasn't confirmed)

    Maverick alluded to this, but some photos will be cut off because of the curvature of the symbol - you need to think of an alternate presentation (at least at the end when it's zoomed out) or you have to use a large number of photos on the last zoomed out shot where the entire logo is framed. A large number of photos can pose more challenges, such as more resources required (CPU and memory). One trick that people use for the zoomed out shots are lower res "proxy" pictures to reduce resource requirements, but higher res ones for the close up sequences where you need to see things like face details
    Last edited by poisondeathray; 25th May 2015 at 01:21.
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  12. It will be best for the OP to sketch a storyboard if there are no example video around... but if the logo is right, I agree that the OP should explore other presentation alternatives.
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  13. Thank you very much, everyone for your comments and working it through.

    I needed something like this:
    Click image for larger version

Name:	Coursera logo.jpg
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ID:	31910

    Of course, the photos need to be beautified and arranged smoothly on the logo.

    The photos were supposed to come from different sides and combine in this logo. I learned that it is possible to do such a thing in adobe effects. But since I am new in adobe effects, it will take time. So I decided to find another easier method. But with adobe effect everything looks nice, at the same time very much work.

    I would like to thank you, cornucopia, MaverickTse, poisondeathray, budzwzr, smrpix, racer-x. I appreciate your help.

    racer-x, what you have done looks like what I thought. But the photos should stay once they reach the beginning, the next should stay next to the first one and so on till the photos cover the whole logo.

    With the best regards,
    Nilufar
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  14. Whatever software you end up using -- work backwards. Start by constructing the finished state and then figure out how you're getting to the beginning of each revealed image.
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  15. Member racer-x's Avatar
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    What you want to do is much easier. smrpix has good advice to start with the end and work backwards.

    I don't know about After Effects, but I remember that Premiere can import a PSD file with all layers. You can construct the finished logo with images in PhotoShop, then import into Premier and animate each layer as desired. It's been many years since I've used Premiere, but I remember doing that a long time ago.
    Got my retirement plans all set. Looks like I only have to work another 5 years after I die........
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  16. The photos were supposed to come from different sides and combine in this logo
    Did you change your mind ?

    "From different sides ?" Did you mean like the example video in the first post where the photos fly in from the +z-axis ? Because that is really only 1 direction. Or what did you mean ?

    That type of animation is actually easier to do if all you had was a grid or weren't worried about cutting pictures off from the curvature of the logo. It's basically a mask or boolean operation to cut out the logo, made of a picture grid. There are scripts that automatically arrange layers into a grid for example, gridder for AE


    But the photos should stay once they reach the beginning, the next should stay next to the first one and so on till the photos cover the whole logo.
    How did you want them to "move" or animate ? Did you want them to start from one end and move towards the end connected to each other ? Like a "snake" or "accordian" (stretches out) - (see the examples attached below)? what direction ? from where to where ?

    What did you want in the background ? Did you want the pictures to "snake" over the pre-existing logo ? Or did you want a "black" background without the logo to begin with? Or "Transparent" ?





    There are 2 generic approaches for this type of animation. One A) the logo is already there (just not visible yet), and a mask reveal is done, or B) the actual layer(s) are animated . The main difference the pictures actually move in B)

    You can search tutorials for "objects along a path" in AE. There are hundreds of them on youtube and vimeo. That part of the animation is simple, and you can parent layers together so they "follow the leader" so you only have to animate 1 layer. Basically , you draw a mask and copy the mask path and paste it in the position parameter of the layer. HOWEVER, it's more difficult in AE to achieve the deformation "on the fly" , to have it perfectly fit or curve . It's going to be very fidgity to make it look very clean and perfect. That's is one reason approach "A" is easier to do. But there are plugins to help you bend layers, but they aren't perfect

    eg.
    Bend Layers Along Paths in After Effects Part 1 &2
    www.youtube.com/watch?v=whecvoM-TNI
    www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZzKmiRfpnk


    The deformation "on the fly" is easier IMO in true 3D programs. That's what I would use for doing approach "B". If you look at the "snake.mp4" example below carefully, you will see that the pictures deform as they move around the bends. The reason is, it's real geometry, and the textures are mapped to the surface with uv mapping. So as you bend the geometry, the textures bend with it


    Attached are some rough ideas / illustrations of what I think you might be looking for ? Or if it was something completely different that you had in mind, please describe in more detail

    grid_boole.mp4
    snake.mp4
    accordian.mp4
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  17. Wow this is the first one what I exactly want to get: grid_boole.

    I want the background to be white, though. A lot of photos scattered photos should come together and make this coursera symbol just like what you have done, poisondeathray, in your first example: grid_boole. So how can I do it? Because I will have different photos.
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  18. Originally Posted by atri_gul View Post
    Wow this is the first one what I exactly want to get: grid_boole.

    I want the background to be white, though. A lot of photos scattered photos should come together and make this coursera symbol just like what you have done, poisondeathray, in your first example: grid_boole. So how can I do it? Because I will have different photos.


    Are you more interested in the final product, or did you actually want to learn how to do it ??


    Are you sure it's "OK" to cut pictures off ? It doesn't look so good for an academic video if some kid has his "head cut off" by a mask . I suppose you can manually arrange them so the peripheral photos have nothing important cut off , but that's a lot of extra work


    I can offer to do this for you if A) you send the pictures and B) if you give a more precise description of what you want in detail. Or I can try to walk you through this if you tell me what program(s) you are using
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  19. Thank you very much. I really appreciate your help. If it is not extra work for you, I would be really glad if you can make it. Because I have little time, I am afraid I can't make it in such a short period of time. I can send you all the photos tomorrow(27.05). Will it be possible that you can do it by tomorrow evening?

    The style I want is exactly the same as your sample. But I would like the background to be white, not black. It is ok, that the other photos on the grids will be cut off. I can send you some non-important photos, for this purpose. I want only the important ones to be larger than the rest so that they will be much more visible. I will say which ones are important and which ones not.

    Will you send me your email address, then please? Or I am writing my email here so that you can connect me yourself: nilufargul(at)yahoo.com

    Later I would like to know the details how you have done it. Because I also have to learn it for future purposes.

    With the kindest regards,
    Nilufar
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  20. Member budwzr's Avatar
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    And you want all that FREE too, right?
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  21. I have no problem doing it for free but I probably won't have time to do it until the weekend. If you want a non-selective version (random pictures are cut off) , I can probably do it in a few minutes tomorrow night . But if the specific selections are too difficult to manage or take too much time I won't do.


    This is your first time, so you probably don't know what questions you should be asking , or descriptions you should be giving, but you need to think about this and be more specific . You need to describe things like duration (how long do you want this "intro" ?), camera move (how did you want to camera to move in relation to the photos) , type of animation for the "photos" - did you want it like the example I posted?, color scheme, final video dimensions (e.g. 1920x1080?) , frame rate, did you want a transition after the photos come together - or how does it transition into your main video ?

    How many photos? What are the dimensions ? It REALLY helps if they are pre-prepared photos - ie. they have the same aspect ratio and are cropped or resized to the same dimensions beforehand as you saw in both examples . (e.g batch crop or resize them beforehand) . Having the dimensions in mind , you can plan the X by Y grid e.g. it might be 50x20 for example . If details are important, the photos must be large enough that you can see the important details when the camera is up close. On the other hand, if they are huge e.g. 20+ MP DSLR photos, that becomes very unwieldly to manage with lots of pictures

    You mentioned "white" background, but did you want "whitespace" between the photos (like in the first example video)? Or are they touching seamlessly ?

    Did you want multiple views ? In the 1st example video, there was a close up and a wide shot. In grid_boole.mp4, there was only 1 shot with a camera move

    Technically, this is only in one direction : from -z to +z . The staggered z positions of the photos start position are randomized. The parallax of the camera makes it look like photos are coming in from other directions, but they are not (they are not in either video) . Conceptually, you need to separate the camera movement , from the movement of the individual photos in your description
    Last edited by poisondeathray; 26th May 2015 at 16:58.
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  22. Member racer-x's Avatar
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    I like the accordion effect. That one would be hard to duplicate in Aviutl, at least I can't think of a way anyway....
    Got my retirement plans all set. Looks like I only have to work another 5 years after I die........
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  23. AviUtl can create something like attachment1 using the recently released particleV3. This is EXTREMELY HEAVY.

    The one posted by PDR(grid_boole) can be somewhat imitated by first creating a thumbnail montage (say, using ImageMagick's montage function), than apply the puzzle break (map type 6) on it in AviUtl. See attachment2 (I didn't bother to create the montage however).

    Accordian... I can't figure that out either
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  24. Thanks racer-x, MaverickTse for your efforts. Since I have no idea about video editing programs, it is taking me some time to understand everything, too.

    poisondeathray, I don't want to make you extra work. That's why please make it so, that it takes you not so much time. It is so nice of you offering a helping hand.

    Here are the details:

    Duration of this process (photos gathering in the logo): 5 seconds

    Camera movement and type of animation: just like in your "grid_boole" example

    Video dimensions: 1920-1080

    Transition: After the photos come together and make the logo, can you turn the logo's color completely to blue or the similar color to the actual logo of coursera. Then I will add the rest of my video.

    Background: as I have mentioned earlier, background should be WHITE. But this is not the background of each photo. This is the total backround other than logo's part. It is black in your grid_boole example. The photos can touch seemlessly as in that example.

    Frame Rate: how much was yours? It is Ok if the frame rate is like this ("grid_boole" sample).

    When you say first example video, do you mean grid_boole.mp4 or have I missed something else? If I have missed the first one, can you send it please one more time? But anyway, 1 shot with a camera move from the grid_boole sample is also perfect.

    I have prepared the photos in the same size and yould like to send them to you, if you write your email, please.

    Thanks many times
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  25. Originally Posted by atri_gul View Post
    poisondeathray, I don't want to make you extra work. That's why please make it so, that it takes you not so much time. It is so nice of you offering a helping hand.
    If you need it soon (tonight), then all I have time for is the "automatic" version. If you don't need it for some time, then I can try to do a more selective version with specific requirements this weekend

    There are other "finishing touches" in the 1st example video, such as motion blur, shallow depth of field (periperhal defocus), light leaks/flashes, shadowing (as each photo "lands" on the close up view, there is a shadow generated on the backround), grading . I won't have time to do those "embellishment" things if you need it by tonight



    Transition: After the photos come together and make the logo, can you turn the logo's color completely to blue or the similar color to the actual logo of coursera. Then I will add the rest of my video.
    no problem transitioning to "blue" of the original logo. How long do you want the photos to last in the logo (hold), and how quick do you want the transition to blue, and how long do you want the blue to hold. I guess it doesn't matter, you can edit it whatever way you want.

    When you plan out these sorts of things you usually have a rough idea of the timeline of events . For example, the photo animation might be 4-5 seconds, with a 1 sec hold, then transition to blue over 1-2 seconds, with a 1 second hold or something like that. But you usually do not want to make an "intro" too long .


    Background: as I have mentioned earlier, background should be WHITE. But this is not the background of each photo. This is the total backround other than logo's part. It is black in your grid_boole example. The photos can touch seemlessly as in that example.
    In the 1st example video - the "white space" between the photos is actually a white border surrounding each photo . In addition there is a "white" background . The photos in grid_boole are actually not touching (there is "black space" between them), but it's just as easy to make them touch or not touch

    Frame Rate: how much was yours? It is Ok if the frame rate is like this ("grid_boole" sample).
    That was 24, but you should base your decision on the main video,and what it's going to be played on (is the destination blu-ray, web etc...) . Those considerations should help determine what you choose. For example, if you are in a 50Hz region ("PAL"), it would make more sense to make it 25 .


    When you say first example video, do you mean grid_boole.mp4 or have I missed something else? If I have missed the first one, can you send it please one more time? But anyway, 1 shot with a camera move from the grid_boole sample is also perfect.
    First example video refers to the video link you posted in the first post


    I have prepared the photos in the same size and yould like to send them to you, if you write your email, please.
    Do not email them to me. Emailing large attachments is usually not a good practice . Post them to a free 3rd party hosting site e.g. sendspace, mediafire, mega, dropbox, etc... Or you can upload it directly to this site (upload files button)
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  26. About frame rate: It is supposed to be published later on youtube. I hope this makes sense. Because I myself do not understand exactly what makes the difference about frame rate.

    Duration: Yeah, what you suggested is perfect. This will be in total 4-5 seconds, But when you say "with a 1 sec hold, then transition to blue over 1-2 seconds, with a 1 second hold" you mean after the photos gathered, right? Because it takes some time for the photos to gather, as well. Yeah the speed I can control later in the video editing program, I guess. But in general 4-5 minutes, not long.

    I am sending the photos. They are not so many. But you can use them repeatedly. It is Ok. In the "small size" file, I have changed the size to 350x250 with Y-50 and X-20. But I am not sure if I did it correctly and if we need it. That's why I am also sending the large size photos. But their size is different from the above, though all of the photos in this "Large size" file are the same. In the logo, I would like that the size of the photos would be twice large than your example in Grid_boole, please. Or does it depend on the presizing.

    Please let me know if there is anything else I have to do.
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  27. I think you probably need more quantity of different photos. Even in the grid_boole.mp4, there were 53 pictures (and they were repeated as well) . Too many repeats will make it look "artificial". If you can add maybe 20 or 30 more it will look better if you wanted it similar to grid_boole (that used a 50x20 grid, so 1000 "blocks").

    However, if you want a smaller array(e.g. 25x10 or something similar - ie. fewer "blocks", it will should be ok with that number of pictures)

    Let me know if you want the smaller array, or if you want to upload more pictures, or just leave it as is with many repeats

    I'll have a closer look tonight
    Last edited by poisondeathray; 27th May 2015 at 14:15.
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  28. Ok, smaller array would be Ok, too. Because I can't have access to many photos at the moment.
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  29. Ok here you go. It is 1920x1080 , 30.0FPS, 6 seconds, with a smaller matrix array onfiguration (fewer "boxes") . I didn't have time to do any"finishing touches" , except some motion blur.

    I used this logo (from google images) for the guideline since the other one posted above was "ratty" and had low quality edges .
    Click image for larger version

Name:	tumblr_inline_mppo32jFBC1qz4rgp.png
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    I converted the logo to a vector. Vectors are "infinitely" scalable in programs that can handle them properly, so you wont get "ratty" edge degredation as you enlarge it. I included 3 versions if anyone else wants to help out , or play with them (AI, EPS, SVG), because some programs might be incompatible with some vector types

    Cheers
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  30. Wooowww, I love it. Reallllllyyy. Thank you thousand, thousand times. I am now relieved. I have to show the video project tomorrow. And I will let you know when it will be available online, so that you also can enjoy your piece of art in the complete project.

    With the kindest regards,
    Nilufar
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