HCYP Raiders 11U

[alanadamson Profile Private message]

This is a slideshow I just created for my son's travel baseball team at the end of their season. It is only the second slideshow I've created, but I've gotten the bug and had immense fun doing it. I'm not a professional and doing this for personal use only, but would like honest feedback, both positive and negative, on the show and how I could take it to the next level. The whole program was created with PSG. I used Photoshop Elements 9 for photo editing and I used Audacity to edit the soundtrack (as you will hear, I looped the music in the beginning during the player intro slides).

The show is 5:16 and does not contain material that might be considered objectionable.

Thanks for the taking the time to watch it.

http://www.vimeo.com/26808454

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

In general, I thought it was very well done (you missed the usual beginner show that attempts to use all available transitions in one show - drives people nuts !! ). Good music and it moved along very nicely. One thing I would change is in the intro, you don't allow enough time for people to read the text (names of players/coaches etc). I would lengthen those slides maybe 1/2 second or even a second for the coaches perhaps. As it is, just as your eyes focus on the text, it's gone. One trick for text that works pretty good is to read it OUT LOUD to set your timing (but you have to actually read it out loud - just thinking you are reading it doesn't work). Nice show and good pictures. I would also fade the ending out instead of just leaving it hanging (at least that was what it did on vimo)

mikey

[alanadamson Profile Private message]

Thanks Mikey for your comments--they are very helpful. In looking at the show I see your point--this is the danger of being too familiar with the subject matter I guess--I'm so familiar with the boys that I'm not really reading their names but am recalling them in my mind. I was also trying to be too clever and have the names fly in and out on the drum beats and focused too much on that. I'll also fade out the end. And by the way, I did make the mistake on using the randomize transition on my 1st show and did it differently this time based on feedback I got!

If you or any one else wants to share thoughts on this, I am interested in people's thoughts on the frequency of using motion effects. I originally had it only on about 1/2 the slides because I thought it might be too much, but ultimately put every slide in motion.

Finally, I can only take credit for about 20% of the pictures. The really nice ones were taken by another team parent who is a part-time professional photographer--I'm sure you can guess which ones were taken by him!

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

That is why you have to read the text out loud - we've all been caught with that where you sort of read every other word because you know what it says. Been there, done that

As far as the frequency of motion effects there really isn't a set "rule" - it comes down to what works. In your case, I thought you had it right (for me anyway). The trick with any of the effects is they should add to the show without becoming "the show" - when the show gets to the point where the effects are more important than the content, you've lost. Some types of shows work better with motion, others don't work well with much motion at all. How's that for a non-committal answer ?

mikey

[alanadamson Profile Private message]

Thanks. In my "real" life I'm a lawyer--so I'm very comfortable with non-committal!