Category: Videos

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AT Conference:

by Greta Hammen

At the onset of the semester, I would diligently review the list of assignments for the upcoming week. The task list might include nine items, such as three daily creates, reading an article, watching a video, or recording an audio. Initially, the prospect of completing these tasks seemed daunting, but as I began working on them, I found the experience to be not only manageable but also deeply rewarding. The assignments added significant value to my life and I learned a lot.

To make this video, I first created an avatar on www.d-id.com, with the prompt of blonde lady with brown eyes on a university lawn. I used text-to-speech generator on www.elevenlabs.com to share my summary of a favorite project by another student, our final group project, and one that I made as well. The ending brings in our class theme. Then on d-id.com, to create the video, I selected the “create a video” prompt, and the avatar I you wished to use, and uploaded the saved mp.3 audio just created. The website syncs the two files and makes a mp.4 that is downloadable. I opened up Premiere Pro and selected that download for a new project. Her gray t-shirt needed text, I added UMW in a dark blue. I did look on the school website for the exact identification for the blue color with letters and numbers, however I was unable to locate it, “I needed Librarian Bond”, so I just went with my selection, exported it to my saved videos and then uploaded the video to YouTube, copied the link and embedded it in the blog. The links to the videos referenced in my video; http://tubbanoor.com/uncategorized/video-project-ai-in-space-skis/, http://gretahammen.com/ds106/final-project-%f0%9f%8e%a5/ and http://gretahammen.com/ds106/public-service-announcement%f0%9f%8e%99%ef%b8%8f.

Watching what my classmates made for their exit video was both fun and sad. I typed some responses: ATconference – its_Senpai (lesenpai.com), That’s a wrap – Leila’s Corner (the-comeup.com), Passion, Young, Fever – Sunrisen, and They need us – HURKLE-DURKLING Thoughts for DS106 (hurkledurkling.com).

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Video: Making Memories Fair

by Greta Hammen

The Multicultural Fair of 2023 had many events on campus. The food was delicious and the people with different crafts and unique menus were a delight to talk to. I was in a class group of three others, but they could not attend the fair. One girl was getting married and went home to plan, hire the cake maker, etc. The other girl had just gotten a job that started the day of the fair. I barely knew how to use the video camera! Some footage was blurry and I deleted it. Amazingly, this video turned out this good.

Multicultural Fair 2023.
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Final Project 🎥:

by Greta Hammen

In ds106, I have learned to do many digital tasks, I had some video editing experience from a prior class, but the experience this semester, solidified my skill. The websites that I used several times were www.elevenlabs.com and www.d-id.com, to create talking avatars. These were used again in the final project to put together the news reporter.

Poster designs are my favorite to envision and produce. AI makes it a breeze and I love it! Adobe Firefly and Adobe Express are my go tos’ for poster design. I tapped onto those for the robot nurses poster advertisement. My spouse whistled when he saw them and commented that he would like that group tending to his needs.

Watching the sci-fi movies from the list early on and also wathcing. Black Mirror, episode Be Right Back was entertaining. I would not have looked for these things, without the prompting of needing to do so for this class and I did enjoy this activity. Lastly, I enjoyed the variety of daily creates and the unique websites that were in the prompts to visit, to be able to do the assignments. Overall, this class was satisfying and added to my foundation of skills for future employment and for creative ventures.

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AI For Our Future

by Greta Hammen

My video project is of Grant, an AI image generator of a man talking straight into a camera. I uploaded this image onto studio.d-id.com and gave him a profile with name and a pdf of text that he might say, if asked questions. Then, I was able to create the video on that site with my text and the lip syncing is done with the click of a button. Tonight, I added music and text. I am happy with the results!

I originally worked on a video titled, Frank talks AI, FranktalksAI.mp4.3gp. I spent approximately 5 hours on the process of the video during this week. I downloaded it from House I Live In, The : Ross (Frank) Productions, Ltd. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive, then I uploaded it to YouTube, I thought that I should do it that way, but there are other ways of doing it. I imported it into Premiere Pro, cutting it down to a minute. I created the audio on AI Voice Generator & Text to Speech | ElevenLabs. Then, I did the Wav2Lip process four times. I got the green checks on the left for the uploads, but the syncing was unsuccessful and did not output a video.

You can view a clip of it here: https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxdFmw8ntaiysQjTrtQe3NYWPirGKF9RVj

The lesson learned here, is that on occasion, even with considerable troubleshooting, sometimes you have to create a new plan and proceed.

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digital-id for Aggressive Technologies

by Greta Hammen

The steps to create this video were to select an avatar on https://www.d-id.com from the library of options available on their website. You can upload one of your own, if you prefer. You can do the audio on that site, if you have an upgraded account option, otherwise you can only type in ten words. Many options are free of charge on the site. If you created these videos frequently or wanted to have the lovely option of having talking heads in your PowerPoint presentations, it is worth the $29 a month for the pro plan. On AI Voice Generator & Text to Speech | ElevenLabs, I created the audio MP3 using the voice of Lily and downloaded it. Then I returned to d-id.com and uploaded the audio MP3, pressed generate and it synced the avatar with the spoken words. I opened up Premiere Pro and imported it into a new project. On https://freesound.org, I downloaded the sounds in the link Freesound – Analysis Loop by Ehved, which is soft music. I imported the music on a layer in my project and reduced the volume of it by right clicking on it, scrolling down to audio gain and selecting -12. I tried -10 first, but it was still too loud to be the background of a speaker. Then on the audio of the avatar layer, I right clicked and increased the volume by selecting +5, this is done with the same audio gain button as before. I played it, to see if it was successful and exported it as a MPEG4. On YouTube, I uploaded it in my account and copied the link, to embed here.

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Public Service Announcement🎙️:

by Greta Hammen

Christine Morris delivers a PSA regarding cryptocurrency superseding existing currency.

In order to produce this video, there were several steps. First, I downloaded the background music from Renatus Cartesius | Jamendo Music | Free music downloads. I liked this music because it is soft and would be appropriate behind a speaker’s voice. The second step was to go to (playgroundai.com) to create an avatar that would give the announcement. The prompt that I typed in was Russian lady with dark hair. All the images were outdoors, so I edited the request, by adding “in a newsroom”. I chose this image, other options had her in sexy attire. The third step is to go to AI Voice Generator & Text to Speech | ElevenLabs and you sign in with your google account, there is no cost. Select a voice by listening to a few of the options, I chose Glinda’s voice. Paste your text from a word document into the script box and press generate. It will make a MP3 of the AI voice. I did this three times, because I would notice places where my text needed revising, in order for the dialogue to be understood. I downloaded the accepted version. The fourth step is to go to Studio (d-id.com) to combine the image with the MP3. You sign in and upload the image and then upload the audio and press generate. The avatar will be animated, and the words will be synced with the mouth movements. The fifth step is to import the background music on one layer and then import the created video on a second layer in Premiere Pro. The background music was too loud, select that layer and right click to get a menu of options, scroll down to audio gain, I lowered it to -12 and pressed ok. Also, the music was longer than the video, so I used the blade to cut it to have it end the same time as the video. I exported it as an MPEG4 to my downloads and then uploaded it to my YouTube channel. I copied the link to embed here.

The link to purchase the hoodie mentioned in above announcement is https://nftreasure.com/product/coq-dmc-hoodie/

Hoodie with NFC chip, modeled by my nephew, onethirdnerd, who created the artwork on it.
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Ex Machina Shines in the Sun🌴:

by Greta Hammen

I chose a scene from the movie Ex Machina to analyze. I downloaded it from YouTube, by upgrading to premium temporarily. It took me a great deal of time to get it into Premiere Pro. The tutorials on the assignment bank page have expired, but once it became apparent to me that I needed to convert the download that was stored in my account on YouTube (and not in the downloads in my computer), then I converted it to a mp4 and downloaded it. In Premiere Pro, I imported the file and lowered the audio gain to -10. Then on a separate layer, I did my voice over narration. I really focused on the cinematography and lighting. If I do another one, I will discuss more of what is happening in the story and between the characters. After the first recording of my voice, I noticed that my comments were not in sync with the action in the shots. I did some cutting to see if I could get a smooth track, but I ended up re-recording my voice over and that was the better option.

Ava had different plans for her life.