Category Archives: More

Make Tech Easier, More, Students, Video

Virtual Light Lab – make a movie

[4/14/15 update: added section about getting your video into iMovie on your iPad, at the bottom.]

Virtual Light Lab is installed in all the ARC computers. It allows you to design stage lighting and experiment without all that mucking around with electrical cables and gobos and such.

After you have created your show, you can save it as a quicktime movie [which can then be plopped into your Google Drive and viewed on your iPad]. Here’s how:

[Click on each graphic to see the bigger version]

1. Call up the SlideShow

VLL 1

2. The instructions give you an overview of the process.

Basically you give a save location and filename, set some parameters, and then manually step through your slideshow by clicking the play button.VLL 2

3. IMPORTANT: Make sure you add .MOV to the end of your filename. The program tries to add .moov, and quicktime doesn’t know what that is. [Neither dfoes anything else.]

VLL 4

4. Next up: parameters [aka settings]. Here is what I suggest.

VLL 5Greater frames per second = less jerky motion but bigger filesize.
Better compressor quality = better quality images but bigger filesize.

You might try using “low” quality, or even least, to see if they are good enough.

5. Notice the record button is green.VLL 66. Click the PLAY button.

The RECORD button will turn red, and behind the scenes a movie file is being created. YOU determine the length of each scene by how fast you click through. VLL 7

WHEN DONE, CLICK THE RECORD BUTTON AGAIN.

 

7.  You may see this dialog after clicking record. Click Yes.VLL 8

8. Then your movie will open and you can see if you like the results.

vll movieIf you don’t like them, switch back to the slideshow and record again. You’ll have to redo the settings each time.

If you DO like the result, then you can email the file, stash it in google drive [drive.google.com], trash it, etc.

 

Once those files are in Drive, how do you get them into iMovie on your iPad?

 

Summary:

  1. Fire up the Drive App
  2. Navigate to the desired file – I suggest starting with the VIDEO file first.
  3. Click the “I” icon, on the right.
  4. Click “Open in….”
  5. Click the 2nd “Open In….”
  6. Select “iMovie”
  7. iMovie loads the file.
  8. Go back to the Drive app.
  9. Select the “I” icon for the audio file.
  10. Click “Open in….”
  11. Click the 2nd “Open In….”
  12. Select “iMovie”
  13. iMovie asks if you want to create a NEW movie, or to add it to the “Last one edited”. Select Last one Edited.
  14. The audio is placed in the project.
Faculty, Google, iPads, Student, Students

Moodle <--> Drive errors [Cannot submit an assignment]

If you are getting arcane technical errors when trying to submit an assignment

  • using your iPad
  • in Moodle
  • from Google Drive

[things involving session errors and other oddities] – try these steps:

  1. Completely shutdown your iPad [Hold power button down until you see the “Swipe to turn off…” slider]. Fire it back up.
  2. On your iPad, disconnect anything Google related:
    click on icon at top left [looks like three lines]
    Click your account name
    Click the MANAGE button, top right
    Remove the account.
  3. Do this on Drive AND Docs AND Sheets AND Slides.

You might also try disconnecting anything  Google account related on your phone/desktop/laptop.

Google, Make Tech Easier, Students

Moving Pictures around

If you have pictures/videos and need to move them around, here are a couple of processes.

To get a photo from Drive to Camera Roll:
• On the iPad, open up the Drive app.
• Click on the filename to view it.
• Click on the image – a dialogue box should pop up.
• Click “Save image”.

The file is copied over to the camera roll.
To get a photo from Drive to Photoshop [or another app]:
• On the iPad, open up the Drive app.
• Click on the “i” icon, to the right of the filename.
• Click “Open In” icon, select Photoshop or the app of your choice.
To get a photo from Camera Roll to Google Drive:
• On the iPad, open up the Drive app.
• Navigate to the folder where you want to stash the photos. Create a new folder if needed.
• Click the + icon, top right.
• Select “Upload Photos or Videos”
• Click on the files you want to upload. You’ll see a blue checkmark on the ones you select.
• When done, click the bigger blue checkmark at the top of the window. Wait a minute – or several minutes if you have selected a whole bunch  of files to upload.
NEVER assume they got uploaded – always doublecheck!