Memorial tribute

[gus607 Profile Private message]

Sound was fine here, liked the show a lot , a very moving tribute. My only comment would be to change the "Star Wars" credits at the end, perhaps scrolling text in a nice font instead would be more suitable.
Kind regards.

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Some thoughts on good fonts and styles ( ie Colours Drop shadows etc would be good)

My thoroughly scientific method is to try one thing after another until I find something that works or I go blind. If you've never done it, do a search on "free fonts." You'll find some gems out there.

Barbara

[Rik 101]

Thanks Gus?,
Good point I originally had that credit fading into a QT timelapse cloud animation and it looked good but when I went to output the show, it kept tripping up at that point so changed it. but yes something like what you suggest would probably look better.

Barbara, sounds thoroughly 'good science' to me.

Rick.

[rkligman Profile Private messageWebsite]

Thanks Gus?,
Good point I originally had that credit fading into a QT timelapse cloud animation and it looked good but when I went to output the show, it kept tripping up at that point so changed it. but yes something like what you suggest would probably look better.

Barbara, sounds thoroughly 'good science' to me.

Rick.

I told you earlier that there were some areas that ultimately you'll want to change but I wasn't going to bother with the details. Now that it's been brought up, that ending credit sequence was one of them. Normal scrolling text would have been more appropriate...although it did give me a kind of smile to see such a wacky scroll. So who knows. If you knew the person, that might be the appropriate scroll. As in, "he was never very conventional", so why should the scroll? That might be an appropriate scroll for "my" tribute. I always like to stir the pot.

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

Nice coconuts !!

OK, first off, very nice show - these are tough to do. These are the things I noticed that
I would give serious consideration to changing in some way or another.

1) The font did nothing for me - I'm not sure the best one, but the gold one just didn't
do it for me. I would look at a different font, different color and consider using a drop-shadow
on the font. There were a number of places where it was quite difficult to read.

2) There were a number of places where the motion was jerkey and it don't think it was
my playback - it was more like multiple keyframes without enough smoothing on them.

3) I think it was between the first and second music track there was quite a gap - consider
using a -2 or -3 second "delay" on the second one so they overlap and play with the fade
a bit so the transition is smooth without a gap.

4) Abba ? - while I didn't have a problem with the song, the transitions needed to be speeded
up to match the faster tempo/beat of the music.

5) The "circle thingie" you used to highlight him in a group. Personally, I would not
use that but instead use either a semi-transparent mask with a hole in the center to
highlight him or even the magnifying glass that Dale and Dave Fitzpatrick demonstrated.

6) There are a number of slides with some serious red-eye that should be fixed (especially
when you zoom in on someone with red-eye). some of the ones I noticed were the
demon baby, "Granddad's 81st", and "Fred's Legacy".

All in all, a very good show, but you did ask so I took notes (almost missed the coconuts too
because I was writing !! ).

mikey

[rkligman Profile Private messageWebsite]

6) There are a number of slides with some serious red-eye that should be fixed (especially
when you zoom in on someone with red-eye). some of the ones I noticed were the
demon baby, "Granddad's 81st", and "Fred's Legacy".

mikey

This is the only one I'll quibble with. The client has to pay you to retouch. No pay, no retouch. Retouching is time and unless your policy says I'll retouch for free, you gotta pay for the time. This wasn't a personal show, it was a paid show. If it were a personal show then absolutly it needs to be retouched.

[Rik 101]

Ok thanks for the thoughts Mikey and Rick ,
I apreciate them. I posted this to get fedback like this.
So retouhing is a must?........ as long as they agree to pay extra.
During the tribute time in this service most were crying too much to see the red eye so that was a blessing as Demon babies arent really a good thing in a church.

I will pay some serious attention to the fonts.
I've not used key frames much before and discovering the smoothing function you mentioned. will do that. Personally i thought the show was all too slow when i made it but the family wanted it slowed down to what it is now. Yep Abba section needs to pik up the pace.

Hey thanks again EVERYONE. I REALLY DO APPRECIATE YOU TAKING THE TIME
1. TO WATCH IT
2. To offer your constructive thoughts.

PS. Im pleased you liked the coconuts.
Regards Rick

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

6) There are a number of slides with some serious red-eye that should be fixed (especially
when you zoom in on someone with red-eye). some of the ones I noticed were the
demon baby, "Granddad's 81st", and "Fred's Legacy".

mikey

This is the only one I'll quibble with. The client has to pay you to retouch. No pay, no retouch. Retouching is time and unless your policy says I'll retouch for free, you gotta pay for the time. This wasn't a personal show, it was a paid show. If it were a personal show then absolutly it needs to be retouched.

Gave this a fair amount of thought. My feeling is the same as it was last night. If it is a show
I am working on, it doesn't matter if it is "free" or a paying customer -- for a limited number
of slides as was the case in this show, I would take the red-eyes out just as part of putting the
show together. Consider it a "freebee" or whatever, I would just do it and not consider it
part of "retouching". If they want pictures fixed, cracks patched and other stuff, that comes
under retouching, but from my view (and this is my view), I would just fix the red-eyes and
keep going. Leaves them with a good feeling, you feel good and it added just a couple of
minutes to the job. Just my take on it ( I just scanned a picture for a friend at work - she
had asked me if I could do it since that was the only one she had of her son from about 10
years ago). No problem - scanned it, took the red-eyes out and she was delighted - probably
added a minute to the time I spent on it. It is one of those little touches that will take little
of your time and will get you repeat customers.

mikey

[rkligman Profile Private messageWebsite]

Mikey,

I know, I know. I write programs for a living (but I'm thinking of this tribute stuff as possible income) and I do little nice things ALL the time. BUT, I get paid a lot more too. The problem as I see it is that my competition is charging <$100 to put together the whole show. That means between the initial contact, the talking the sharing the putting together of the show etc. there is no "free" time to do little nice things that we KNOW would make a difference. One problem is, where do you stop? Oh it take a minute for that red eye, oh just like me remove that really obvious but one click fix blemish etc. It's a tough call. Until I do some shows I don't know what I'd do. Seeing what I have to charge though, I have to come in to it in a very business like manner and say no, you need to pay for my time. Basic is Basic and if you want to exceed that then it's just a little more. And that little more is just that. In this or another thread I said they are charging .50 cents or so for that kind of service.

Again, we're "the cream" out here. We want everything to be as good as we can get it. But we can't constantly give it away for free and most people won't even notice the flaw. Especially in a tribute show. Exactly like Rick said, they were already weeping by that point. It was completely a moot point for it's intended purpose.

It does look bad as your "demo" show though and if I wanted to show a portfolio, then I would clean up my personal copy so that everything is impressive.