How Creative Are You?

[Anna J]

Jennifer,
I think any outside editing would be fair because the challenge is what's done once the photo gets into Producer or Gold. Plus if everyone tells what outside editing software they use, the rest of us would get to see an example of what can be done with it. There have been shows in the past where all sorts of weird and wonderful things were done to photos before they were plopped into Producer/Gold. So go for it!
Anna

[seektheburd]

Anna,
Thank you! I am so looking forward to this challenge. I need a creativity boost and something to get me back into creating demos. It has been quite awhile since I completed a show. Got lots of "mini" shows/experiments in the works but thats it. We got alot of great talent here, this should be alot of fun.

Hugs,
Stephanie

[BarbaraC]

Jennifer, I'll go over the edge in Photoshop, you can do it in After Effects, and maybe we'll both remember how much fun it is to have fun.

I've been working on a Christmas idea for a set, and it's gotten my juices flowing, so maybe I'll celebrate Christmas even before Thanksgiving. Then again, maybe I'll go in for a bit of morphing, which I haven't touched since my little rodent show. I could morph a dollar into a thousand. Is there a law against this anywhere on the books?

Barbara

[VidQueen]

Ooooh Barbara....could you morph a 24 hour day into a 32 hour day?! Just as needed, of course....I'm sure we would all appreciate that:) Thanks so much for getting right to it! I'll need one by tommorrow, thank you:)

Jennifer

[BarbaraC]

Jennifer, thank you so much for giving me a brand-new business idea.

It looks as if we'd all better make sure to post our shows in separate threads, not inside this one where they're sure to get lost amongst all these brainy issues.

Barbara

[Anna J]

Not that anybody died and made me emperor of the world but in the challenge instructions I set the time at 3 minutes. I don't think we need a time limit. We're all adults and know where the big X is.
Anna

[debngar]

Can we establish a title format of sorts for people to use so we can tie these "challenge entries" together? Otherwise, it's hard to pick out one from another when going back to find a show. Suppose everyone posted "this is my entry". That to me is obvious that it wouldn't work very well but surprisingly we have members that don't use very specific/creative words for thread subject titles.

Pleeeeease?

[Anna J]

Debbie,
That's a great idea. What was done in the past? Would something like preceding the show title with OCT CHALLENGE: work? As in OCT CHALLENGE: My Dog Spot. Also BarbaraC suggested posting the shows in the Sample Show category which is another good idea. If we do that, it would really be a good idea to designate them as Challenge shows. Let me know what you think as far as the designation goes and I'll edit the original post to include that.
Anna

[BarbaraC]

You misunderstood, Anna. I suggested making separate entries here in the Challenge section, but what the heck? Why not in the Sample area?

In the meantime, I've been wracking my brain but finding nothing in it. I'm afraid I'll have to resign myself to the cheering section.

Barbara

[debngar]

Creative Challenge - "Title"

This was sort of what I was thinking but may not give enough room for the title because sometimes it cuts off the end of longer posted titles.

Not sure how to make that shorter though except to just use the month and year in the title instead as you suggested Anna. So Oct-09 - Title to preface the title might better serve the purpose. I dunno.

Yes, definitely these need to be separate thread entries, just like other posts started by members. They are more easily managed when one wants to go back and view things, read posts etc. Else people's shows will be buried and lost in the shuffle being missed completely once a half dozen people post in one thread. Not only that but it's hard to get people to even read entire threads and they wind up repeating questions and such that were already stated further up the thread.

[kabeeo]

I will try ----but it seems that lately my "creative" side has left me. And I can't find it
Hey, is there a time limit?

I don't think you can say that Hunny. That "Stronger Than Before" show was brilliant. I thought so anyway.

[cherub]

Hi Everybody!
Back in the old days when we were walking five miles in the snow barefoot to get to this forum, it was exciting to watch new shows because you would see new techniques a forum member had figured out. With the availability of Styles, a lot of that individual creativity has disappeared and quite a few of the shows posted now are little more than a collection of one canned style after another. Don't get me wrong: I love the canned Styles and I've bought my share of them. But there's a lot of fun to be had from constructing a show from scratch.
So my challenge is this: Make a show that uses NO Styles you've gotten from a source other than your own brain.
Anna

Hi everybody,
Sorry to get into this thread a bit late, but I was on vacation for several days.
Anna, I think that your challenge proposal is great! But, I don't really agree with its premises.
I don't think that people use ready made styles because they lack imagination or creativity. I believe that they use these styles mostly because they don't know Producer all that well, or because they don't know how to make their own graphics to add into Producer. The use of styles made by others allows them to add a bit of "waw" to their shows, even if they are just beginners of Producer.

Believe me, I'm not saying this just because I am one of the providers of these ready made styles. I'm saying this because of what most of my customers tell me, and because of the way I see that these styles are used in shows.

Ready made styles can be customized and used in completely new ways than what their creator had in mind originally, and I've seen some great customizations posted in the Samples section.

So, maybe the challenge could include customization too, and not just things from "scratch". It will still be based on "things from your own brain".

[debngar]

-snip-

Anna, I think that your challenge proposal is great! But, I don't really agree with its premises.
I don't think that people use ready made styles because they lack imagination. I believe that they use these styles because they don't know Producer all that well, or because they don't know how to make their own graphics to add into Producer. The use of styles made by others allows them to add a bit of "waw" to their shows, even if they are just beginners of Producer.

Believe me, I'm not saying this just because I am one of the providers of these ready made styles. I'm saying this because of what most of my customers tell me, and because of the way I see that these styles are used in shows.

Ready made styles can be customized and used in completely new ways than what their creator had in mind originally, and I've seen some great customizations posted in the Samples section.

So, maybe the challenge could include customization too, and not just things from "scratch". It will still be based on "things from your own brain".

My additional 2 cents...

Regardless of the premise (why we're doing the challenge), I think we're all interested in the outcome. New stuff does help stir our creative juices flowing, in addition to those reasons you thoughtfully mentioned why people use the slide styles. I think it's important to know what one's customers want, as you stated, else how would one meet those needs without that information? You have a good point.

I also use the styles to facilitate a quick production that is "more" than just presenting one slide image after another like an old fashioned slide show. Else there's not much purpose to purchasing/using Producer if not to use some of the bells and whistles at least part of the time. (Not as fun either!) There are plenty of other programs that do that.

I've taken canned slide style and removed some layers, then added a different layered image under all the layer that are left in that slide. I consider that sort of making something new. Certain styles provided by Photodex for instance, have layers I'd rather not include in a slide display because I find them distracting, so I delete or change them.

That's kind of what I may wind up with since I may not have that much time to come up with something absolutely off the wall super-original. Hope that's ok.

[BarbaraC]

Mona, I just went back to read Anna's original statement carefully, and I don't think she said the people using styles lack creativity and imagination. I think it was more a description of what's happening as we watch shows in the sharing section where it can sometimes seem that we're watching the same show where only the pictures change. It was definitely like that when Photodex came out with their second pack.

I know I've no right to speak Anna's mind for her, but perhaps what she's trying to say is that she misses the uniqueness of shows before styles came into existence. Styles are a wonderful tool, and for sure they speed up the work, but if we're all not careful, we could end up getting mighty rusty when it comes to ProShow skills. You aren't included in this last remark because, after all, you're creating styles from scratch. No rust forming on you whatsoever.

Barbara

[cherub]

Barbara, I didn't say the above in a negative way, and I'm very sure that Anna didn't have this intention either.
I'm just saying that it is my belief that people use styles because styles can do things that they can't.
Also, that customizing a style is also a creative way to come up with new ideas.
That's all I'm saying.