PentaVision's "What's Your Story?" Blog

Awhile ago I wrote a Post-Production article about The Art of Motion Graphics. In it I discussed the attention grabbing power of animated graphics in video. Isn’t it time then, for a little visual aid? Recently I put together a simple motion graphics reel for a potential PentaVision client who wanted to see what I was capable of. I present that to you here (it’s important to note that several of these clips come from personal projects, past employers and other ghosts from the past):

Extra special thanks to Jonn Swihart for lending us an original music track to cut this to.

Over the past few weeks Missy Stanisz and myself have spent some serious time exploring the basics of innovation with our readers (find our archived articles here). We’ve covered the importance of innovation, its benefits, the initial struggles and some effective ways to inject your marketing strategies with blasts of fresh, innovative air. If these articles have somehow managed to convince you to improve your company from the inside out, you’re going to need tools. This post will to arm you with six white hot resources that will get your company prepped for battle in no time (a hundred thanks to Loren Verville for helping compile this list). Read the rest of this entry →

Thanks for stopping by again! This week we’re going to explore the basics of innovation, and the best place to start is with some clarification and definitions (i.e. the boring part). People often times get innovation confused with invention.  Around here we view an invention as an idea made concrete, while innovation involves ideas and their successful implementation into practice to create value. In other words, you invent an advanced mousetrap when you build an actual contraption; you innovate a new method for catching mice when you create a successful series of steps that add value to the field. Read the rest of this entry →

We recently took some time to redesign our blog. Take a few minutes and look around, won’t you? We still may tweak a bit here and there in the future, but for the most part, this is it. We hope you enjoy it!

And while you’re here, take a look at our recently revamped demo reel:

Thanks again for stopping by!

“All men are islands. And what’s more, this is the time to be one. This is an island age.” – Hugh Grant, About a Boy

Some people can afford to be islands. Personally, I prefer the island lifestyle in certain areas of my life. Shopping, for example, tops this list. If you can’t get it online, you don’t need it. That’s my motto. But there are a few areas of my life where living an isolated, island lifestyle would be suicide. Graphic design and innovation are two of them. So where do I go for inspiration, resources and creative community? Check out the following list for my top ten favorite blogs and websites that keep me up to date in the world of design and media (some even offer some really stellar freebies!): Read the rest of this entry →

Have you ever been to a movie theater where the projectionist didn’t have the sound up loud enough?

Or have you ever tried to watch a movie that you really wanted to see with a talkative group of friends?

What about those times when you’ve sat in an airport terminal watching some news show on a television that was muted?

It can be pretty hard to keep the attention of a viewer when your video has audio problems. When audio is cut correctly in post production, no one notices. When audio is incorrectly cut, no one will notice anything else. Read the rest of this entry →

In case you haven’t heard, video files can take up a ton of space.

Depending on how long it is, an uncompressed (or raw) version of your video can take up anywhere between one to 100 gigs of storage space on a hard drive. Space like that is usually a hot commodity, and the time needed to transfer files that large between computers/clients is even hotter. And forget about putting a video that large on the web. Only the most patient (read: crazy) viewers will stick around long enough to watch your video if its intended to be watched in its uncompressed form from the web. Read the rest of this entry →

So your video has been budgeted, shot and edited. Only one more ingredient needs to be added before it can be proudly displayed:

Graphics.

Read the rest of this entry →