After getting a bit of a “Two Guys Bump” on their AR 101 video Tuesday, I thought I should give a progress update on the “You Matter – with a bit of Aurasmatazz” project (inspired by the work of Angela Maiers – who will be on the “Two Guys Show” in 2 weeks!).
Here are some obstacles I’ve encountered so far, along with possible solutions:
Videos sent in different file formats – I don’t know what other video formats work on the Aurasma app when using the iPad, but .mov is the one I’ve used for everything so far. Solution: If you get a file in a different format, which I have, and your computer does not have software to convert it, then Zamzar is a great online file converter.
Rotated videos – The weird thing is that several of the videos have played fine when I checked them on my school computer, but they rotated once I uploaded them in Aurasma Studio. Some are sideways; some are upside-down. I could not find a way to rotate the overlay (video) once it was in Aurasma. Solution: Go back and rotate the Trigger image outside of Aurasma, then re-upload it. To avoid this happening, I would upload all of your overlays (videos) first, so you know which Trigger images you need to fix before you waste time uploading them. (UPDATE: Here is another possible solution to rotated videos.)
Speaking of Trigger images…
Trigger images are not ideal – To get the Trigger images, I took screen shots from the videos the parents sent. The picture quality is not great, so when I upload them to Aurasma, I get a warning. So far, I’ve dismissed all of the warnings, and the Trigger images have worked fine. So, you don’t need a solution to this one – hopefully. (The reason I used screen shots instead of pictures sent by the parents is that it looks more “Harry Potter-ish” if you use an actual image from the video instead of a photo taken out of context for your trigger image.)
Difficulty reaching parents which is causing me to hyperventilate – I finally got my last e-mail address today for a parent, and sent out the request. So far, I have 7 videos (2 are from divorced parents for the same student) out of 47 students – and the deadline is Friday. Solution: Put it on the class blog, e-mail everyone again, and start getting out the phone numbers. If I were to start my year over again: Give the parents more time and/or invite them to an early parent meeting with the room set up next door and a volunteer to videotape them on the spot. (That would actually have solved all of the above problems, too – wrong file format, rotated videos and bad trigger images. Now I really wish I would have thought of that!)
Every video makes you cry – No solution for this except to stop being such a softy. Seriously. And, while we’re discussing that, stop bawling at that new Cheerios commercial, too…
One surprise that I’ve gotten so far – one parent, instead of just talking to the camera, did a short skit involving a stuffed animal with a whiteboard, and concluded the video in a costume. It was very creative!
If I haven’t scared you off from trying this, here is a link to a PDF file or an MS Word file that I created for printing the screen shots/Trigger images (I used a Pages poster template to make this.)
Update: See my conclusions about this project here.
I am having the sideways video problem. I’m working on a Mac at school. I took the video with my own iPhone and mailed it to myself, then uploaded it into the Aurasma Overlays, where it plays sideways.
How did you rotate the videos? I discovered I could rotate images in iPhoto (some imported into Aurasma sideways), but I can’t seem to figure out how to rotate videos. iPhoto won’t let me rotate the movies.
So, interestingly enough, you don’t have to rotate the videos! (It took me awhile to figure that out.) If you rotate the trigger image so that it is the exact same orientation and then upload to Aurasma, then it won’t matter. You can print the trigger image as normal (not rotated), and the aura will work fine.
Thank you very much! That worked. I guess I hadn’t really understood your explanation above, even though the words were almost the same. Repetition…
I am glad that you were able to make sense of it. When I read my explanation over, it seemed like I needed to make it more clear, but I couldn’t think of another way to put it!
You just saved my hiney! I could NOT figure out why the overlays showed up sideways, and one of my teachers was getting super-frustrated (and I didn’t want to lose one of my first-adopters). THANK YOU for these tips!
It’s possible this solution may work as well, but I haven’t tried it: http://goo.gl/5eLWMf
I tried using the directions on Aurasma but the video still showed up sideways. I will try uploading the photo sideways first. Thanks.
Oh my gosh … it worked! You are a genius! Thank you so much!
I’m so glad (that it worked – not that I’m a genius. I mean I would be glad if I was a genius, but I’m not. Trust me!)