Need assitance/advice on how to create an 'awards ceremony visual'

[kaipee]

Hey guys. Im fairly new to video and authoring. I have been given the task of designing and creating on-screen visuals for an awards ceremony that is held each year. I have come up with my design and creted it using the fantastic ParticleIllusion. I have made the background to be a blue/purple transitional bokeh style in full 1080 (Though it is around 300mb for a 10 second avi clip).

actually very similair to this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu80OymKN_I&feature=PlayList&p=iPSWjN5P6Vs

My idea is to have the 'visuals' repeat endlessly throughout the whole night and when it comes to the time to introduce the awards categories and winners, I can just have the text transition in and out at the click of a button.

What I now need help with is:

- Is there any way I can reduce the file size without losing too much quality
- How exactly do I go about making the text transition in and out on top of this visual at the click of a button, and what software will I need to do this? I have tried Powerpoint but the file size is just way too big and I cant get the visuals to 'loop' in the background

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[redwudz]

A couple of questions:

Do you know how it will be displayed? Probably a rear or front video projector?
Do you know the resolution of the display device, such as the projector and if it can handle 1080 (i or p)?
What device would you play the visual from? Laptop, DVD/BD player?
What format would you use for the video on the playback device?
What interface would you use to connect to the display device? VGA, HDMI, Component?

300MB doesn't sound that large for a 1080 video of ten seconds. But you can make it smaller by lowering the bitrate. (And the quality. )

And it would be really helpful to drop the video into MediaInfo and post the tree view here so we know exactly what you are dealing with.

And welcome to our forums.

[kaipee]

Hi redwudz, thanks for the quick response.

I will be meeting with the sound and visual guys in the next few days hopefully. What I can answer so far is:

I'm pretty sure they can handle up to full 1080i. I believe it will be a 20ft screen of some description.
I will most likely be taking my PC (stats found on my profile) as I know it has all codecs and can definately play all video.
Well I have saved tha video as AVI using huffyuv codec.
I have an HDMI output on my graphics card so I would imagine I would be using that.

Again I will have more definitive answers once I get speaking to the sound and visuals guys.
I can probably take the video down to 720 to reduce the file size.

My real problem is knowing how to actually make the text come in over the video at the click of a button, and what software to use to achieve this. The only thing Im aware of is Powerpoint, though I can make it in After Effects - but After Effects doesnt allow control of the text, it will be at a fixed point in time that the transition begins (which is not ideal)

Thanks, Ill run the video through MediaInfo.

[kaipee]

OK so here is the information from MediaInfo:

General
Complete name :
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 365 MiB
Duration : 10s 0ms
Overall bit rate : 306 Mbps

Video
Format : Huffman
Codec ID : HFYU
Codec ID/Info : Huffman Lossless YUV and RGB formats (with Alpha-channel)
Duration : 10s 0ms
Bit rate : 306 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 30.000 fps
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 4.924
Stream size : 365 MiB (100%)

[Khaver]

You might look at Church presentation software like Easislides (free) or EasyWorship ($). These are created specifically for what you want to do. Media file background with a text overlay you can control with mouse clicks or keypresses.

[kaipee]

You might look at Church presentation software like Easislides (free) or EasyWorship ($). These are created specifically for what you want to do. Media file background with a text overlay you can control with mouse clicks or keypresses.

Hmm sounds interesting. Thanks for the advice, I'll have a look at it.

[kaipee]

EasyWorship is sooooo very close to what I need. It just lacks in some functionality like customizing the transition speed and adding some effects to text, etc. I kinda feel like EasyWorship is what I need, but a more advanced/technical version....if that makes sense?

[Khaver]

You might try Googling "VJ software".

[kaipee]

You might try Googling "VJ software".

Khaver, you are a treat. I managed to have a little play around with Resolume Absolute and it's pretty much bang on what I need. I'll have a more in-depth play with it and hopefully come up with something great for this on-screen visuals.

Many thanks for your help guys. Stick around though, I may have a few more questions about this lol.

[edDV]

How did you get the job when you don't seem to know what you are doing?

Sorry, but this would be a time sink.

[kaipee]

How did you get the job when you don't seem to know what you are doing?

Sorry, but this would be a time sink.

Well it's not exactly a massive job to be honest. I do a lot of graphic design and that, dabbled a bit with video too I have just never had to use any VJ software.

Time sink?

[edDV]

Again I will have more definitive answers once I get speaking to the sound and visuals guys.
I can probably take the video down to 720 to reduce the file size.

My real problem is knowing how to actually make the text come in over the video at the click of a button, and what software to use to achieve this. The only thing Im aware of is Powerpoint, though I can make it in After Effects - but After Effects doesnt allow control of the text, it will be at a fixed point in time that the transition begins (which is not ideal).

I meant it would have been a time sink for me to explain live awards ceremony production from scratch.

So did you talk with the video guys? How will they be switching the show? They will have the title overlay capability in their production switcher. You would give them the overlay graphics in the format they need and they will transition them to air using the switcher.

You would run the rear projector animations from your laptop or more likely, they could trigger the animation from their equipment.

The show's director is the boss of all this and will call the shots.

[kaipee]

Thanks for the info edDV. It's not a 'live' show in the sense of being broadcast of the air live.
As far as I know the visuals will only be displayed on one 20foot rear-projected screen and 2 smaller plasmas, which the sound and visual guys will be handling.

I had the meeting with them, thankfully its not HD and will be 4:3, so that saves alot of file size and effort for me. I think the basic regular setup for this is just a Keynote or Powerpoint presentation, though this year is the 10th year so I'm adding in some vide loops just to jazz it up a bit.

The VJ software Resolume Absolute seems to be doing the trick, except it would be much, much better if there were some way of just adding in text, instead of having to make flash text layers.

Basically the run of the night will be a rendered loop with animated text and logo as the intro visual, then a similair rendered loop without text wll be used as the background for the rest of the slides (introducing speakers, categories, winners, etc.) - just adding what text needs displayed when on top at the click of a button. Then another rendered loop with logos and things during break, then back to loop bg + text for the remaining categories, finishing with another rendered comp looping at the end of the night.

I have the basis of the backround loop made already, just need to tweak it to make them happy, then get all the text prepared.

You can have a look at some of the sample clips I'm toying with at the minute, if you want.
Bear in mind my website is nowhere near designed yet, let alone developed lol.
Feedback is welcome