'Hey Anton!' by Anton and AcousticAl

goldleaf
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Tue Jan 19, 2010 7:28 pm

Sounds like a cool idea. Last month under "Forum - Composing - Writing a Song, we were talking about something similar to this, working together, it was Ric, Jimmer, Music Junkie, Chris, Jim 56, Al, Bill, Tony, Bigmo and me. I left an original song I made up for others to build on. It kinda died off from then. Maybe we want to start another thread or use the Composing, "Writing a Song" thread under the Forum. It sounds like a really open ended idea we kicked around a little but maybe we can make it happen now that we were successful with the LDC. Gary


BobR
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Tue Jan 19, 2010 7:28 pm

Al/Anton

I think you're on to something here. The ideas sound very interesting. O'h and the tune was good too :laugh: .

Bob


AcousticAl
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Tue Jan 19, 2010 8:35 pm

tovo wrote:
AcousticAl wrote:
You know- I can see taking this even further.

Picture a message board on TG where you put up a virtual ad saying what you play-- or what you'd like to play along with.

For example:
"Looking for someone to play the rhythm track on Angie for me to practice lead with."

Another thought would be a checkbox on your existing video to say if it's ok for anyone to play/post with it or not. Or just friends?

Just throwing spaghetti against the wall here- but it sounds cool.
I've got another idea as well Al. How hard would it have been for you to take Anton's original video, and do a picture in picture with your video? That way we could see Anton and you at the same time. Not hard surely? (says the guy who isn't sure how to do it) Or I'm sure we could merge them side by side pretty easily.

Wish I could say that it's dead easy and not that involved- but unfortunately it's pretty hard if you're trying to use a free program like Windows Movie Maker.

But I'm working on it as an experiment, so stay tuned.


AcousticAl
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Tue Jan 19, 2010 9:00 pm

Done.

If you go back to the first post, you'll see a new version with a split screen of both of us playing along.

I couldn't hog all the spotlight.


tovo
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Tue Jan 19, 2010 9:04 pm

AcousticAl wrote:
Done.

If you go back to the first post, you'll see a new version with a split screen of both of us playing along.

I couldn't hog all the spotlight.
Thought you said it was hard! :) Strike another blow for those ingenious Canadians. That is SO much better Al. Really very cool.


jayswett
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Tue Jan 19, 2010 9:28 pm

That was a great idea. Not sure about the technical details regarding how you did the split screen thing. I can see this idea taking off very easily if learning the technique isn't a show stopper.


Lavallee
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Tue Jan 19, 2010 9:56 pm

Al, as all the others have said: such a great idea. I am sure that there will be a many discussions on this subject. You just created a lovely monster. It would be interesting to know if your recording technique was different that wandoctor used. It would be nice if there could be an instruction guide


AcousticAl
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Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:32 pm

Tony, I don't want to scare people off, but you'll see what I mean below. Keep in mind that there are other (probably easier) programs out there that can do this for you-- but I wanted to use MovieMaker, as most people have it free on their computers.

So here goes..

To play with someone else's existing track (with only you on video):
- Choose the upload you want to play along with. I chose Anton's.
- Play Anton's youtube clip in a separate window, and play along to it using your recording software (I use Dell webcam centre). Essentially mix his and your audio while you record yourself with your webcam. This takes some messing around with levels/inputs etc.
- When finished, you have what I originally uploaded. Me on video playing along to Anton's audio

That's pretty straight forward and I think many of us can do that.

But then the challenge was to visually have both of us on screen at the same time. So I had to...
- Download Anton's youtube clip to Al's computer
- Import Anton's clip into MovieMaker
- Import my combined clip into MovieMaker (me on camera with both clips' audio mixed)
- Make sure I had a picture in picture effect option in MovieMaker (which I didn't). I then had to search the net to see if there was one, where to get it, how and where to install it in MovieMaker, how to use it etc. I do this for a living, so it wasn't too bad. Not sure how someone with limited video or computer exposure would do with this step.
- Lastly, using MovieMaker, I had to combine Anton's and my clip on the timeline and mute his clip's audio, while using my clip's audio (because my clip already had us both on it). I then had to apply the side by side effect and slip and slide our visuals to match the audio track. I still don't think I got it bang-on, but it was close enough.

Anyways, sorry for the long explanation. Bottom line- scenario 1- pretty straight forward. Scenario 2- not so much. I'll probably post this to the TG Techies Group as well for posterity. But in my opinion, you do really need to have a firm grasp of MovieMaker and your computer in general to take on this video effect using MovieMaker.

I know other TG-ers have access to other programs, so I look forward to their efforts if/when this takes off.


Craig
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Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:45 pm

Wow Al,
That was very cool. Great job. Everyday I'm a little bit more impressed with the web site, or more speciffically, the people on the web site!
Thanks for sharing your expertise...and creativness.
Craig


tovo
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Tue Jan 19, 2010 11:29 pm

AcousticAl wrote:
Tony, I don't want to scare people off, but you'll see what I mean below. Keep in mind that there are other (probably easier) programs out there that can do this for you-- but I wanted to use MovieMaker, as most people have it free on their computers.

So here goes..

To play with someone else's existing track (with only you on video):
- Choose the upload you want to play along with. I chose Anton's.
- Play Anton's youtube clip in a separate window, and play along to it using your recording software (I use Dell webcam centre). Essentially mix his and your audio while you record yourself with your webcam. This takes some messing around with levels/inputs etc.
- When finished, you have what I originally uploaded. Me on video playing along to Anton's audio

That's pretty straight forward and I think many of us can do that.

But then the challenge was to visually have both of us on screen at the same time. So I had to...
- Download Anton's youtube clip to Al's computer
- Import Anton's clip into MovieMaker
- Import my combined clip into MovieMaker (me on camera with both clips' audio mixed)
- Make sure I had a picture in picture effect option in MovieMaker (which I didn't). I then had to search the net to see if there was one, where to get it, how and where to install it in MovieMaker, how to use it etc. I do this for a living, so it wasn't too bad. Not sure how someone with limited video or computer exposure would do with this step.
- Lastly, using MovieMaker, I had to combine Anton's and my clip on the timeline and mute his clip's audio, while using my clip's audio (because my clip already had us both on it). I then had to apply the side by side effect and slip and slide our visuals to match the audio track. I still don't think I got it bang-on, but it was close enough.

Anyways, sorry for the long explanation. Bottom line- scenario 1- pretty straight forward. Scenario 2- not so much. I'll probably post this to the TG Techies Group as well for posterity. But in my opinion, you do really need to have a firm grasp of MovieMaker and your computer in general to take on this video effect using MovieMaker.

I know other TG-ers have access to other programs, so I look forward to their efforts if/when this takes off.
Well I'm interested now. I'm sure Mac will have some software to achieve this. I know Al that your profession loosely revolves around this type of technology so your standards are high, but that end result is pretty damn good. I'm into investigation mode now. Good stuff Al.


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