BLENDER 2.5

 Blender 2.5  includes a whole new interface, great new modifiers and text driven command searches and much more.  I really like the look of it, am amazed by the way the smoke and liquid modifiers/simulations work and I’m looking forward to using it.  Check it out at Blender Nation.  Some might say 2.5 is for Blender what Obama is for the US.  I probably wouldn’t go that far.  Keep your eye out for more Durian previews too.

http://www.blendernation.com/index.php?s=Blender+2.5

XTRA NORMAL IS EXTRAORDINARY FUN

This is a great little animation builder.  Good for a laugh and a powerful tool to test your storyboards, listen to dialogue and share your ideas with others quickly.

Google xtranormal  – For some reason the links kept taking people to my facebook login – dodgy.

GRADE 7 GIRLS WOODEN TOYS FINISHED AND OILED – BEAUTIFUL!

Click on this image to see close ups of all the finished toys

The girls have persevered to finish their beautiful toys – sanded and oiled to perfection (well near enough for a push-along toy any how) they took them down to kinder to share with the 5 year olds.  Great success girls.  Well done.

Grade 7 Wooden Toys

Here’s a little look at some quirky push along toys the Grade 7 girls have been crafting.  They’ve done a great job.  Can’t wait to see them finished and oiled. 

ADOBE PREMIERE CS4 WORK AROUND

ADOBE PREMIERE CS4 VIDEO FORMAT WORK AROUND After purchasing a new SONY AVCHD format Handycam and discovering it’s .m2ts files were not compatible with CS3 Premiere, I took it back to the store and down traded to a standard definition Sony DCR-SR220. I believed it would be compatible with its straightforward and “old” .mpeg files … too bad … it wasn’t either. Since installing CS4 I have discovered that Premiere is now compatible with a range of AVCHD formats and my old but new SONY Hi Def camera would have worked fine … aarrrggghhh! So began the long process of trying to find a workaround. 100’s of forums, trials of 3rd party video transcoders and many frustrating hours later the solution is found. The solution makes you wonder why Adobe never included such an ability in their own encoding software. Microsoft comes to the rescue with Windows Movie Maker embedded in their OS. Here are the simple steps to making your Mpegs useable in Premiere CS4

 1. Open Windows Movie Maker.

2. Import the .mpeg files that you want to use in Premierre.

3. Drag the .mpeg files into the timeline of Movie Maker.

4. Publish the movie to your computer.

5. Choose the format “DV .avi PAL and choose the location of your outputted .avi files.

6. Continue with publishing process until it is finished.

7. Close Movie Maker.

8. Open Premiere.

9. Import the newly created .avi files, drag them into the timeline and hey presto they have sound and they have the same quality that they were created with.

10. Sit pondering why Adobe didn’t make a transcoder that could handle .mpegs as part of its media encoder. Go figure.

P.S.  Managed to import Mpegs straight from my sony camera into Premiere with sound intact.  All working fine.  Those updates must really work.  Sigh…

TUTORIALS PAGE

I have started putting together a page of tutorials that relate to the work we have been doing.  This is a collaborative project from students and myself.  If you have a tutorial and would like to share it, email me the details and I will see what we can do with it.

http://designcentral.wordpress.com/tutorials/

LOGO DESIGN BRIEF

http://designcentral.wordpress.com/computer-graphics-and-design-task-page/logo-design-brief/

Follow the links on this page to get some help with your logo creation.