It’s nice to see Mark step out on his own and pursue his passion around video and learning. He’s put together some great looking samples, has found a growing niche for his product, and has adopted a stable platform on which to build. I’ll enjoy watching this story grow into great case study material for the industry, Articulate, and Knowledge Screen.

Thank you for a very impressive and interesting article. Mark’s demo is superb! I love the use of the video aspect as well as the overall look and feel of his presentation. I was wondering how he created the presentation window with the title, subtitle, and logo on each screen. It looks very professional, especially with the drop-shadow. Mark, please share this technique!

@Mark Moore
Thank you for your kind words. They’re a real inspiration for getting this up and running!

@Pink Lady
My designer created some simple templates in Photoshop featuring the drop shadow and logo; we then we just added a variety of virtual learning props (whiteboard, clipboard) to create a series of PowerPoint template slides.

Armed with our template slides, it was an easy job to pick and mix them to match our onscreen video. Our goal was to streamline our development process so we could get a module produced from scratch within 2 weeeks. There is huge potential for something more creative but we were equally interested in pushing the timeline while achieveing a polished end product.

What were the video tools and technical process used to go from a green screen video through editing it, exporting it (with alpha channel?), and then inserting that into Articulate?

The footage was shot using a Panasonic HPX300 HD video camera under professional studio lighting. We shot in High Definition, though in hindsight Standard Definition would have been sufficient and made the subsequent files easier to handle. Audio was recorded with a boom mike; for future projects we will use to a lavalier mic. Studio shoot time was circa 2 hours.

With good raw footage, the clips were processed using Adobe After Effects. Post production included:
– editing the footage
– chroma keying with Keylight
– boosting of the audio

The files were then outputted as FLVs using After Effects at “Million+ of colors” to preserve the Alpha Channel. We found rendering at 312kpbs for the video and 56 kpbs for mono audio produced the best quality without causing excessive loadtime between screens. We experimented with lowering the frame rate to 24fps but achieved no significant reduction in file sizes and stuck at 30 fps. The subsequent FLVs ranged in size between 1.5 and 5 Meg with a total file size under 60 Meg – much smaller than a comparable You Tube video.

@Mark Dorosz
Thanks for the details! One other thing…It looks like the video area you actually used is taller than a normal video aspect ratio (being just the speaker – you)…Did you find that cropping it in export from AfterEffects to just the dimensions you needed helped with final filesize or did you just output at ~720 X 486 and scale it in Powerpoint/Articulate exactly as you wanted it for the final slide? Thanks for all you’re sharing here, btw, and a neat project!

Can you take a Powerpoint file and open it in Articulate?

Hi Andy,

Good question and you’re on to our way of thinking!

We cropped to just the area of video taking account of onscreen body movement. We used a consistently sized “video window” to make placement in the final Articulate easier and more polished.

Thanks
Mark

Hi Brian,

You could include the original classroom PowerPoint in the attachments section of an Articulate course. Let me know if this answers your question.

Best
Mark

Mark,

You have successfully created an interactive and engaging e-Learning course that maintains the learner’s attention. Your technical expertise and the integration of video within Articulate Presenter was exceptional.
Michele

WoW! I want to be able to do this…it looks awesome.

INTEREST IN WORKSHOP FOR PRODUCING VIDEO FOR ARTICULATE?
We’ve had a lot of interest from folks wishing to find out more about the mechanics of producing video specifically for Articulate projects. Let us know if this would appeal to other members of the Articulate community, we’re considering running a “Video 101” worskshop as part of a learning conference or as a virtual event. If this is of interest to you, pop a note on this forum and we’ll look at making it happen.

Is the rollover slide custom flash? It reminded me of a Captivate interaction. BTW, nice job on the slide template. It integrates well.

Hi Mark,

I absolutely vote for a Video Workshop! Let me know if and when you plan on doing it.

@ Anthony
You know your development tools well. The interaction was produced using Captivate for visual consistency. Based on Articulate’s enhanced custom skins, we plan on making more use of Articulate’s Engage capabilities for our next project. I’d love your thoughts on how something like this could be leveraged in a university distance learning program (as part of a blend, it lends itself well to getting the most visibility for your top lecturers).

@Kelly
Let’s rock the vote – our concept would be shoot some video at a conference and get it into an Articulate course all within the space of a 45 minute workshop. We’re up for the challenge if the audience is with us!

For any of the folks that have been thinking of trying out this approach, I have compiled a quick list of the 5 most common myths/inhibitors to using video in eLearning.

http://www.knowledgescreen.com/using-video-in-elearning

Hopefully it will encourage your colleagues to take the plunge with your plans.

Mark

I’ll agree with — WOW!!!!

This is a superb video production.

A workshop showing how to quickly put together something at this kind of level would be most welcome indeed.

Please, please do it.

Patrick Mcevoy

Thanks Patrick. We should do something something funky in your area of expertise – marketing; the legal profession desperately needs better training to combat the waves of compliance “shovelware”.

Have a great weeekend
Mark

[…] général en ligne. Mark Dorosz est monté finalement dans l’appareil photo et a produit l’entraînement cet amour des gens! Matthew Cornell a libéré son premier guide de productivité, “Où le !@#% […]

thanks greatly…I have been telling my company this is where we should be going with training…. thanks to you , they are standing up and listening. I have been using the video tools a while now … I am still very interested in a class you would have for the post production. …

Mark – utterly brilliant! Please do let us know if you choose to run a “Video 101″…I would love to attend!

That’s what I love about Articulate! It gets people talking about how we learn and the exciting things that are possible rather than Flash coding, off-shoring and overinflated training budgets. This month’s industry awards were well deserved for the Articulate team.

I recently wrote a guide to video learning 101 called “How to Trim Costs- Hollywood Style” for Training Magazine, that’s also available at my blog http://www.knowledgescreen.com/blog. I hope it gives you some practical ideas for using video for the first time in your Articulate projects.

By all means keep in touch – you can connect with me on LinkedIn, just do a search for MARK DOROSZ.

Happy Articulatingin 2010!

Mark

Hi Mark,

Really cool stuff! Simple and to the point 🙂
What do you think of a webinar? We could all virtually meet you and also learn more about the video magic!

All the best!
Ali

I would love to take part in a video 101 course. We have a lot of vhs video that could be turned into online training but we do not have the basic means to create the video or knowledge. I have been trying to find information of what i would need to create basic video from equipment lighting video recorder and editng programs.

Mark with regards to your presentation above do you use a preloader with these videos