Aug 13 2008

Odyssey all the time

Published by at 9:36 am under odyssey

Sorry, I haven’t been posting much because I have a nasty deadline looming. I have to deliver the Odyssey layouts to my editor next week so I can get feedback before she goes on (an inconveniently long) vacation.

I tried to record myself working on it, to show how my new layout process works. But I haven’t found the right software yet to capture video from the screen. It seems to be a tricky problem to record what I’m doing, because I draw very quickly with a very thin line, yet I don’t want the video to be enormous. The freeware I’ve tried yields too low a framerate, too big a file, and loses all detail if I downsample. Anyone have any experience with this? I suppose I may have to try zooming in on a small section and using a thicker line in order to get something that looks decent.

3 responses so far

3 Responses to “Odyssey all the time”

  1. # Greg Bearon 18 Aug 2008 at 1:13 pm

    Gareth,

    If you are a Mac user, I would recommend “iShowU.” It provides a host of output quality options, which should help with filesize limits, etc., *and* it is not too pricey ($20). I use it and have found it to be a great option for creating screen tutorials and the like. Hope this helps. Thanks for posting your process and more.

    Best,
    Greg

  2. # adminon 20 Aug 2008 at 12:16 pm

    Thanks for the suggestion. I’m actually not a Mac user. Years in the gaming industry got me used to PCs, and I accumulated a lot of expensive software for PC — plus Apple does not currently make a tablet PC (third-party modbook being the only option there). My publisher would love it if I switched, and I know I could dual-boot an intel machine, but right now it doesn’t seem like an economical option.

    I did get some decent-quality vids, but still need to mess around and see if I can get them down to a reasonable size without losing all legibility.

  3. # Nathalia Hardyon 22 Aug 2008 at 11:18 pm

    Gareth, Thrilled to see that you are working on the Odyssey! We’re working on a Beowulf unit for our BritLit class including your Beowulf- I hope the kids are as excited about it as we are! The Odyssey will be wonderful. MacBeth would be a nice addition (for my curriculum at least!)

    Thanks,
    Thalia