STUDENT: So I really appreciated today's lecture and meeting
the guys from Planet Nutshell, partially because I'm really
a visual learner.
And historically that's been true--
if there's an image or an animation
or something associated with a concept,
then I remember it a lot better.
But I'm also really a visual explainer of things.
I took a lot of art classes growing up.
I used to draw for fun all the time.
And if there is something that I can express
by drawing in addition to words, then it usually
comes out better than if I'm just rambling on.
But that's a personal thing to work on as well.
Regarding animation-y things, I have very, very, very little
experience with Flash.
I've watched tutorials.
I haven't experimented it with myself.
But I would be willing to learn if people
would like to learn alongside me or had
an interest in utilizing it.
Because then I could learn it and troubleshoot
if you guys have questions.
But on the flip side of that, I'm
currently learning how to do animation using Adobe software
from one of the people I'm working with on MITx,
the molecular biology course.
And that's just a really simple workflow
from creating vector art in Adobe Illustrator,
importing into Adobe After Effects for the animation part,
and then importing that into Premiere, which
is where I do all my video editing as opposed
to importing back in After Effects, for example.
So if you guys are curious about very, very simple things,
anything that can be drawn with vectors or solid shapes
and moving those around the screen,
I can definitely show you what I know about that
and how to apply it to your videos.
Normally, I use it for-- if you need
to animate a protein moving, or you want text
in the shape of your handwriting to appear on the screen
as though you were writing it, things
like that, which can be cool.
For me, they're a lot more for the explaining type videos,
like what is the cell cycle as opposed to the videos
that you guys are making, the Science Out Loud type
videos, the style of videos that we're making in class.
But you may find a use for it, and I'd be willing to help.
The second thing that I wanted to talk about
was my own bad habits regarding storyboarding.
Even though I'm a very visual person,
a lot of my intro into the video making world
was through vlogs-- like daily vlogs or channels
where people just talk to a camera.
And it may be scripted, but it's ultimately
them talking to a camera.
And these did not have varied backgrounds.
Sometimes, they had varied shots for comedic timing
or had little sketches within it.
But I never thought about storyboarding
when I first made videos.
And so it's my really bad habit to leave it out.
It would be probably the last thing on my mind
when it comes to making a video, which
is a really crappy habit when you're
trying to make a video like this where
it can be really complicated with a lot of visuals.
And so I'm trying to break that right now,
especially with my other video projects where a lot of them
are animation.
And it's so, so important to have
an idea of what you're going to draw,
what's going to be on screen at every single moment
when it's not something as simple
as one of these daily reflections
where I'm just talking to a camera.
I have some talking points written down,
but mostly, it's free form.
And people are watching it, if you watch it,
for the content, the verbal content
and the haphazardness of it as opposed to the produced video.
So I don't know.
It was really humbling to see people
who draw so well for a living, and storyboard and stuff
for a living, because I'm interested in the media
industry, and it's such a big part of it.
But I'm also really lazy when it comes
to this part, this really critical part of making
produced media as opposed to something casual like this.
So everyone has a lot to learn, including myself,
and I'm really happy I'm in this class.
That's all.