The best way to get familiar with After Effects and start producing some of those amazing effects that you have seen in the movies is to follow some of the many available tutorials that can be found online. One of the best resources availble can be found at www.videocopilot.net . This site is home to nearly 100 fantastic video tutorials by Andrew Kramer that cover everything from the basics right through to some really high end effects and projects. The tutorials are clear, precise and easy to follow, ensuring that followers will be left both satisfied and excited by the results.

A few other great places to check out for more After Effects tutorials are creativecow.net and RedGiant TV

and how do you do this?

Cue Points!

The ability to add cue points to video has been around for quite some time time but the process has always been fairly complicated and restricted to developers that are familiar with action script. The fundamental concept centres around the placement of ‘cue points within a .flv file that then bring about certain actions via an action script command. For example you can have overlay adverts appear at certain points during a video when certain products are mentioned or create hot spots on the video itself. As I mentioned though, up until now to create these kind of interactive videos you would need to have a fairly good knowledge of Action script and Flash but now thanks to those clever boys over at flash loaded there is a component that makes the whole process so much easier.

hotflashvideo is a video component for Flash that takes away all of the complicated Action script side of creating interactive videos. Once installed in Flash you can select an .flv file and set about easily adding hot spots to your video via the very clever overlay tool. The component does cost $70 but if you are producing a product for a client or intend to create a few interactive videos in the future it is great value for money and a great time saving tool.

The Envato network has grown over the years and now offers up a series of other stock resources covering all of the media areas that any developer or designer could ever have a need for. The offerings include:

• videohive – stock video footage and AE project files
• audiojungle – music and audio samples
• themeforest – website templates
• graphic river – page layouts and graphic elements

I will be featuring many of the files and projects that catch my eye from these sites in future posts.

In a recent communication from Flashden it would appear that Adobe have come down hard on the resource site for the use of the word ‘flash’ in the title of the site. Ridiculous as it may sound Adobe have asked envato to change the name to ensure users will not be confused in any way into believing there is a direct link between envato and Adobe. These corporate brand identity issues allways leave me at a loss for words so I will leave it up to you to have your own take on the whole affair. The guys at Envato have reacted very well to the whole situation and rather than argue it out have just changed the name to ‘Activeden’.

so… new name… same great product!

The two that you should really be concentrating on other than YouTube are Metacafe and Dailymotion. Both of these sites have a very large user base and offer good possibilities for potential marketeers. The principle on these sites is the same as on YouTube, to get your video watched you need to make it into the best of the day lists for either views, favourites or comments so interaction with other members is a must to ensure your videos receive the kick start that they need. There are a number of other services out there also that can help you get your video moving up the charts in those crucial early days such as Vidplay that offers pay per click services across the Metacafe network.

So don’t despair if your video doesn’t make it on YouTube, just change channel and have another go!

1. Search for the most targeted blogs possible, you are far more likely to strike a relationship with a blogger if your advertising is of use to his or her readers and of course those readers are in turn going to be interested in whatever it is that you have to sell or offer.
2. Read the blog that you are interested in advertising on. An advertising relationship with a blogger is far more personal than other advertising and you are far more likely to get the most from your campaign if you know the blog that you are advertising on.
3. Discuss your needs with the blogger, think a little further out of the box, consider the market, maybe offer prizes etc.

You must remember that in the main part blogs are the private journals of individuals and therefor carry a certain amount of integrity in regards to what they publish, respect this and you can be sure to build a good relationship with the blogger ( THAT WORD RELATIONSHIP KEEPS COMMING UP BUT IT IS SO IMPORTANT WHEN ADVERTISING WITH BLOGERS).

The type of advertising solutions generally available from bloggers are either review posts, Q&A’s or side bar banner/promotion. Many of these solutions can of course nowadays be purchased without dealing with bloggers directly through advertising networks. I highly discourage the use of these services as 99%of the time the advertising that you purchase will not be worth the half of that from a blog that you search out for yourself.

Remember blogs are a fantastic way to spread a message across the Internet (most viral campaigns are propelled by the blogging community) but the advertising can be of short term value if it is held within a post that disappears into the archives within a month.

Google have made no secret over recent years of their distaste for the paid links industry even to the extent of removing big hitters such as textlinkads from their directory. This whole industry of advertising that crossess over from the boundaries of white hat to grey to black and back over to white again depending upon which side of the fence that you sit is finnancially based around Googles own page rank system. What better way of undermining the whole text link industry than by removing the page rank system that they so effectively put in place all those years ago?Can you imagine the turmoil that would insue? All those manic page rank hungry webmasters out there trying to decide what they should pay for their next text link purchase and all those web site owners trying to convince potential advertisers why their site is worth more than the next one…

Everyone knows that page rank is not what it use to be in terms of understanding a websites position whithin the search engines but even so web masters and marketeers cling to it as if a life line to understanding how the whole system works. Beware though as one day that little green bar may just get switched off… and then where will we be?

DONT BE PUT OFF!!!!

There are plenty of tools out there to help you get an app developed and published with very little coding skills necessary. All you need is a lot of patience, a clear head and a little bit of help. From idea to creation and finally distribution there is a very natural (and some times long winded) timeline that is followed and for this reason this tutorial is split into three parts allowing you to follow each part at your own pace and whilst you are embroiled in the particular segment of the process.

Before you begin you will need an Apple mac for development, there are a number of hacks around that permit development on the PC but rest assured that is the quickest way to NOT get your app approved by Apple in the app store. A basic Apple Mac-Book will be ample for what is required. An iPhone or ipod touch will also come in handy for testing although not completely necessary (further on in the tutorial we will discuss the iPhone desktop simulator).

So lets get going… Head on over to the Apple development center http://developer.apple.com/iphone/ and get yourself registered. Here you will find mountains of documentation, videos and most importantly the iPhone SDK (software development kit) download this and install on your Mac. The SDK has a number of applications such as Dashcode  and Xcode that can be located in HD>developer>applications. I would recommend having a play around here and reading as much of the documentation as you possibly can, even following some of the many tutorials available.

The first time consuming step of the process begins here. In order to distribute Native Apple apps you must enroll in the iPhone developer program here http://developer.apple.com/iphone/program/apply.html . The standard fee is $99 dollars and the time scale for acceptance is a piece of string. To be accepted into the program Apple will run a number of checks relating to verifying that you actually exist, ranging from proof of address to company registration number. This process can take quite some time ( anything from 2-3 weeks to 2-3 months) and you quite literally are in the hands of the gods, the Apple gods that is…

This brings the first part of tis guide to a close and gives you plenty to be looking at whilst waiting for your program application to be approved. In the next installment we will look at development and some of the tools that are available to make the creation of an app as simple as possible.

Capabilities:

• Media Management – Built for producers, the Brightcove Media module provides content upload, video and playlist management, policy management, and image capture, all within an intuitive user interface
• Publishing – Built for designers, the Brightcove Publishing module allows you to easily create, manage, and customize video players without the need for development or IT resources
• Dynamic Delivery – Provide the best possible user experience to your audience—Brightcove detects end user connection speeds and optimizes video playback to deliver a high-quality experiences
• Distribution – Reach a broad audience by syndicating content to Brightcove’s network of distribution partners, leveraging the power of viral sharing, and indexing your videos with major search engines
• Advertising – Built for Ad Ops professionals, the Brightcove Advertising module allows you to set and manage ad policies and integrate with leading ad servers and networks
• Analytics – Quickly run reports to analyze performance and usage metrics across all your videos or integrate with leading 3rd party analytics platforms
• APIs – With Brightcove’s robust suite of APIs and developer tools, you can create highly custom players and site navigation, boost SEO, and integrate with 3rd party systems

Editions:

• Brightcove Basic is ideal for individuals and smaller organizations that are looking for a professional online video platform that is proven, intuitive and affordable
• Brightcove Pro extends the capabilities of Brightcove Basic and is designed for larger companies with a video or digital media team that operates a single web property
• Brightcove Enterprise provides an unmatched set of capabilities designed for the publishers and conglomerates faced with complex requirements related to operating multiple web properties

Cost:

Brightcove are very secrewtive in regard to their pricing structure and the only way to get an exact idea of costing is to request a quote from one of their agents. The Brightcove service though is not cheap and costings are established in relation to the amount of streams that are delivered over the course of a year. A basic package will cost somewhere in the region of £3800 per year with the more advanced packages costing anything from £10,000 a year and up.

Conclusion:

The Brightcove platform is one of the best if not the best video platform available at the moment. With this in mind though there are many features that many users will just not have a need for, therefor this is very much a solution for professional video producers or video channel operators. The cost of this platform does mean that many users are priced out of the package whether this means that the platform will continue to grow as a leader in the industry or price itself out of the market is yet to be seen.