Archive for the ‘Videos’ Category

This past summer I created a 45th Anniversary video for my In-Laws. We played it at the party on a large HD television screen. It looked fabulous in HD.

While I was creating it I shared a snippet of the work in progress. Many of my readers wanted to see the finished product. I’ll warn you that it is over 100 slides, so I doubt many will be interested in viewing the entire video! I’ve removed dates from the slides.

The project was about a month long process. First I scanned and retouched the photos. You would be surprised at the results you can get by scanning old/small photos in at a high resolution and enlarging them. Next I designed each slide individually in Photoshop CS3 with digital graphics from the Two Peas site, mostly Rhonna Farrar. Then I loaded the photo slides into Adobe Premiere Elements, created the captions, set it to music and added a few transitions. The music is from the Legends of the Fall soundtrack.

I hope to be sharing another video next week after I get permission from the family. If you would like me to create a video for your reunion, anniversary, or any other event please contact me to discuss your time line and pricing.

I’m still slaving away on my In-Law’s 45th anniversary video! I just finished a slide of them in Oahu in 1968. I saw this digital brush (”stamp”) by Rhonna Farrar called “Vintage Valentine Cupid” and thought, oh I can make those flourishes look like waves!

We went to Hawaii last year for the first time and my husband keeps saying he wants to go back. I’m thrilled because when we married he was a “mountain vacation” type and I was a “beach vacation” type. I now have him hooked on swimming in the tropics! I have not scrapped our trip yet but I did make a Tabblo.

Hawaii is just so romantic, I think this layout captured the mood. The “Unbelievable” caption,”Parisian Flaire”, and the “Swirled Frame” are also by Rhonna Farrar. All available at Two Peas.

I made the layout in Photoshop CS3, but Photoshop Elements would work the same.

1. Place digital “paper” on bottom
2. Open your picture, copy it, then paste it on a new layer on top of the paper
3. With your “brush” ABR file dropped in Photoshop’s “brushes” folder you should be able to see and select the brush. The instructions I followed for installation are on the Two Peas site. Set your opacity to about 50% and “click”, without moving your mouse, as many times as it takes to get the look you want. If it is too big/small use the slider in the brush toolbox to size it downward (left) or bigger (right.)
4. Create a new layer underneath your stamp and use soft round brushes of various sizes to add a color wash under your image. I colored the wings and cloud white. The “towel” color is borrowed from a dark shade on my digital paper. And the waves are blue.
5. Stamp your frame on a new layer over your picture and your stamp.
6. Stamp your caption on a new layer, clicking till it reaches desired opacity. If it does not quite show up, don’t worry, we can make it pop! Add a new layer under your caption stamp and with the eyedropper tool select a dark shade from your paper background. Then with a large soft brush “click, click, click” all around to make the detail in your word art pop.

My In-Law’s anniversary party is just around the corner. My husband asked me to make a video of their pictures. I recently bought Premiere Elements so I said I’d give it a try.

It has been a long project, and has kept me from working on my blog. So, I decided to give you a sneak preview.

• First I scanned and retouched about 100 pictures.
• Then I purchased a lot of digital graphics from the Two Peas site, mostly Rhonna Farrar.
• I’m in the process of designing each “slide” in Photoshop (I have CS3.)
• Then I import the graphics, minus the text into Adobe Premiere Elements. This is where it gets challenging! I’ve never used the software and have done very little with video. But, I always learn well under a deadline!

Photobucket would not let me upload it with the soundtrack (Legends of the Fall.) This sneak peak is all I have done so far, but I still have about ten days before the party. Hopefully it will start going faster. I need to confirm that everything is set up to play OK on a TV, then I can crank it out! If my readers seem interested then I’ll post it again when I’m finished.