Educational Games

FreeRice vocabulary game

Interactive Market on PBS to learn about food miles and pesticides

Birds of Paradise HTML5 Interactives. 

Click on photos below to see interactive

Seafood Watch Mobile App

Get'em Grocery App

Snarky #HipsterVaxx Trend

The evidence-based pro-science movement fights back with...sarcasm and the hashtag #HipsterVaxx.

"This is a small-batch, shade-grown MMR, straight from Costa Rica." #HipsterVaxx @femme_esq @cornerofthecafe
— Dracula Puppet, CPA (@draculapuppet) February 4, 2015

"I only give my kid locally grown, organic, artisanal, GMO-free, unbleached tetanus." #HipsterVaxx @femme_esq
— Jane Doe, MD (@DrJaneChi) February 4, 2015

We've now got your #hipstervaxx hella sick style guide: @Alreidy @femme_esq @rinnself pic.twitter.com/7ORU2l8oOC

— Alliance for Science (@ScienceAlly) February 5, 2015

"I've got Rubella. You've probably never heard of it." #HipsterVaxx
— Vaccinate Your Spawn (@dyrbert) February 4, 2015

"We didn't vaccinate him but we rub him in compost biweekly." #HipsterVaxx
— Lewis (@LewisGD) February 4, 2015

Remember, #HipsterVaxx is meant to be offensive to both hipsters AND anti-vaccination advocates. You guys can stay mad.
— Brienne of Snarth (@femme_esq) February 5, 2015

To read the lot, go to: http://bit.ly/hipstervaxx

Film Photography Portfolio

Here are the digital files from my film portfolio. Most are from 35mm negatives I printed. The round images are large format pinhole images. It was fun to put these online. Click here to see the portfolio on Flickr.

Cole Video: 1st Week of Life

Flickr Photo Slideshow

Here are all the photos of Cole to date. Scroll over the right and left of the photos to make navigation arrows appear.


If you would like to view the set in Flickr, click on: Baby Cole Set

Interesting Education Uses of Technology and Multimedia

The Million Cell Phone Program (Fast Forward to 1 minute in):

Freerice
 

Kerpoof
 

Diamond Road Interactive Documentary Voki Classroom

Wildlife Viral Videos

Battle at Kruger

65 M views


Honey Badger

36 M views


Spiders on Drugs

29 M views


Cobra Vs. Mongoose

21 M views


Python Vs. Alligator

18 M views


Jaguar Vs Anaconda

16 M views


Great White Accident

16 M views


Lion Kill Giraffe

16 M views


Strange Japanese Sea Creatures

15 M views


Shark Vs Crocodile

14 M views


Mountain Biker gets taken out by BUCK

13 M views


Young Zebra Vs Lioness

12 M views


Crocodile Attack Elephant's/Slide show

12 M views


Horse Tramples Car

4 M views

Online Bird Games and Quizes

I've been exploring online game/quiz creator sites. Here's a couple of my first tries:

Birds Gone Viral!

Here is a compilation of viral bird videos. Please feel free to make suggestions. I am sure there are lots I haven't seen.

Ducks blown off their feet by the wind

20 M views


Lovely Owl

10 M views


Funny bird

9.2 M views


Amazing! Bird sounds from the lyre bird

9 M views


Eagle Prey on Wolf

8.6 M views


Beatboxing Parrot

8.4 M views


Death Metal Rooster

7 M views


Baby Duck

5.5 M views


The newborn bird that fell from its nest

5.1 M views


Snowball - Our Dancing Cockatoo

5 M views


Chick Hatching

5 M views


Cookie the Little Penguin at the Cincinnati Zoo

4.7 M views


Victor is DEAD

4.4 M views


Seagull stole GoPro

3 M views


Baby Robin Hatching

2.7 M views


Crow roof tubing

2.5 M views


Bird Bullies Cat

1.7 M views


Pelican eats bird

1.6 M views


Amazing Bird Fishes like a Human

1.6 M views


Bird songs

1.6 M views


Rescued Baby Hummingbird

1.5 M views


Geese Surf Glenwood Wave

1.4 M views


Hand feeding Hummingbirds

1.3 M views


Evil Owl

1 M views


A cute confused bird going the wrong way

1 M views


Crazy ass goose

1 M views


playing ball...

1 M views


Bird Songs Quiz

1 M views


An eagle visits my cat

900 K views


Seagull Steals Golf Ball

500 K views


Goose attacks pro kayaker angler Drew Gregory

500 K views


Wild Cardinal singing (good sound)
400 K views


Falcon attack: peregrine divebombs flock

300 K views


Hawk vs Duck

250 K views


Woodpecker vs snake

240 K views


frontal courtship of a tragopan satyra

236 K views


Funny seagull

200 K views


Prairie Falcons

100 K views


Are all sparrows nice

88 K views


Murmuration

55 K views views



Rose-breasted Grosbeak

52 K views


The Feathered and the Furious (Real Angry birds)

3 K views

Samsung HMX-Q10 HD Camera Package Kit Suggestion

This is a decent consumer camcorder, but if you need an entire HD kit for under $300...this has worked pretty well for me. I will post some video tests soon. But for now, here's some screen grabs of the kit (the prices for the camera have come down by about $30 since I created this):

Social Media Links and a Great Infographic on Social Media and Nonprofits

My social media sites:

Twitter: twitter.com/#!/podclasstv
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Hannah-Smith-Walker/825932941
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/smithwalker
Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/smihan13/collections/
Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/smithwalker13
Blogger: podclasstv.blogspot.com/
Klout: www.klout.com/#/podclasstv

One of my favorite infographics: (created by http://craigconnects.org/infographic-2)

via

QR code animal ID attempts

I learned about QR codes at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. If you want to learn the basics, I wrote an article for the Festival blog. Go to: http://jhwildlifefilm.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/qr-codes-101

I am currently working on an idea about tagging wild animals with QR codes. It would be amazing if the general public could help scientists keep track of individual animals. I did a test tonight on my not-so wild animals. And I am finding that if the codes are just a little blurry or distorted, they won't read. Here are three photos that I cropped and rotated the QR Code. Only one of them would read with the QR readers. I tried several, and http://zxing.org/w/decode.jspx is the only site that would read one of the below. Can you guess which one?

1.


2.


3.


Only number 1 would read. The other two won't read, even when I photoshop to fix the distortion and increase the contrast, sharpen, etc. Does anyone know of a QR reader that will work with slightly blurry/skewed images? Or has anyone had any luck fixing QR's with photoshop?

Alpha Channels and Chroma Keys

For all my test animations and test stop motions...I have been using the chroma keyer in Final Cut Pro. I use my video camera to shoot my toys in front of a green screen, then I use software I dial out the green. But, I think I can get a better key if I shoot with my still camera, then delete the green background using photoshop. It's easy to get rid of the green using the magic wand. Then you have an image with a transparent background. The trick is keeping that background transparent once you save it. The only way I knew how to do this was to make animated GIFs. These take a lot of processing power, and I gave up on that a long time ago. But I remembered something about alpha channels that might work. I am going to write it down here so I can come back if I forget. I feel like I re-invent the wheel every couple of years when it comes to some of the obscure tricks in photoshop.

The way you maintain a transparent background in Photoshop using alpha channels:
1. double click on your layer in the layer palette to unlock it
2. click the "channels" tab next to the layer tab
3. click on the "new channel" button at the bottom (this adds the alpha channel)
4. turn the eyeball on all the channel layers
5. do a "save as" and make sure the "alpha channels" button is checked
6. import into Final Cut Pro

It seems like there should be a more intuitive way to do this. I would love to hear if anyone has a simpler method.

Here's a frame grab of my alpha channel test. There is still a lot of green around the pigs, but I did not light this correctly. Once I shoot everything in the studio, there shouldn't be any green outline.

I also taught myself how to export flash movies with transparent backgrounds. To do this using Flash:
1. Have an animation ready and select "export" then "export movie"
2. Choose the save as a QuickTime format
3. Click Save
4. make sure the "Ignore stage color (generate alpha channel)" is checked
5. Click export
6. Import file into Final Cut Pro

Here's a test of this technique:

My Thesis Film

Knock, Knock Game

This is my first stab at making an online game.

Guess the woodpeckers by their knocks and calls

Contests, RSS, 3-D, and Tuna videos

SmithWalker Productions is going strong. Finally caught up on all my projects. And I have several new clients. My short, silly film, P.A.W.S. (Puppies Against Waste and Squirrels) is a finalist in an EPA recycling video contest, and a PSA I made for MRWMD has been so well received, some nonprofits have donated money to buy more air time. They also want a few more versions made including one in Spanish. Should be interesting.

I've been really busy researching social media and have discovered the usefulness of RSS feeds (a RSS feed address is a url that you post into a blog or a RSS reader, then you get automatic headline updates from blogs and websites). I need to keep my eye on animal/ocean related news stories for one of my clients, so I made a blog full of RSS feeds: http://podclasstvrss.blogspot.com/

They are also getting into 3D, so I made one for that as well: http://3dsocialmedia.blogspot.com/

One of my newest clients is a marine sanctuary, so I made this blog full of marine sanctuary and Marine Protected Area RSS feeds to illustrate that they don't need to put tons hours into updating a blog. http://socialmediaideas.blogspot.com/

And lastly, I just finished editing two videos for some marine biologists. Last I heard, they are on a boat in the Galapagos giving presentations to the likes of Bonno, Leanardo di Caprio, and a dozen or so other prominent conversationalists. I hope the videos help raise money for world ocean causes.

Pigs, Awards, Marine Debris, and Kelp Plans

I just got back from the Wild & Scenic Film Festival in Nevada City, CA. It was quite a festival. Very well run and lots of amazing films. My favorite was "No Impact Man". My zebra film ended up winning Best Children's Film. It also won Best Short a couple months ago from a festival in India. Here's a photo of the awards.
As for the Pig part...I have decided to redo part of my zebra film. The stop motioned toys on the timeline look too amateurish. So I am going to animate them in Flash. This will be quite an undertaking. I have to develop a character for each of the domesticated animals. But it will be good to have each animation on hand for the PodclassTV Paint With Media Page. I've started with the pig. I am trying some rotoscoping (drawing over a video). Hopefully, I can get the movement down, then go back and cartoonize the face. Here's 6 test frames. Right now, the pig is kinda scary. Check back in a couple weeks to see what materializes.
Here's what I went through to make my zebra:
Today, I worked all day on fine tuning the Monterey Regional Waste Management Marine Litter Debris PSA (public service announcement). I think it's coming along, and should be broadcast on Comcast soon.
And finally, I am going to start on a kid's kelp ecosystem film soon. I will probably shoot most of it at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I will make a kelp ballast the main animated character. More soon...

Landfills, wikipedia, stock footage, and dog parks

The last few months have been full. Mark and I went to Bonaire and Portland the last part of November. Mark did 9 dives in Bonaire, and I did 13. I also shot some underwater footage with my splash bag. I really need a housing if I am going to have a chance at getting decent footage.

For work, Mark's working crazy hours at the museum and the marine lab, and I get to stay home with the dog and new kitten. Being self employed has it's benefits. But, I am working...I freelance for Sea Studios as the Associate Producer for a PBS Nature film on salmon. We are set to online in January. I have also made 5 or so videos for the Monterey Regional Waste Management District , and have begun making wikipedia pages for a local sculptor.

I have also started uploading all my best and second best footage to two stock footage houses. Naturefootage.com represents my best footage, and Pond5 houses the rest. My clips have been looked at over 2000 times on Naturefootage, and I made my first sale on Pond5 the other day.

Being inspired by my first sale, I've been out shooting for the last full two days. I shot some fearless deer at magic hour yesterday out by Salinas River, and some very pretty plastic pollution at sunset near some shorebirds. The plastic footage will work well for a marine debris PSA I am working on for the landfill.

Today, I shot at three off-the-leash dog parks. I now have some great dog footage for future PodclassTV videos and for Pond5. I am also planning on making a series of dog park virtual tours. I think I will create a new blog for this. Hopefully, it will be handy for people wanting to find all the best dog parks in central California. If it gets enough traffic, I can probably generate advertising money via AdSense or approach local vets and pet stores.

Christmas is looking like it will be very low key.

Exporting, Compressing, and Trouble Shooting Sunday

I've been putting off today for a long time. I finally sat down and made myself figure out the best MPEG4 Compressor settings for my P2 HD footage (if anyone cares...I found that the 960x544 frame size with DVCPRO HD 720P 60 (16:9) pixel aspect to work the best). That's hours of mind numbing trial and error, so enjoy! I only have one gig of ram in my machine. Painful.

Anyway, I've started uploading my HD stock footage to iStockPhoto. So far I have a few otter clips and one snail on a dog bowl up. But will be adding other marine mammals, river scenics, artichokes, and oodles of zoo animals soon.

Lots of filming and film festivals

I've just caught my breath from returning from Jackson Hole and Portland. It's been a great couple of weeks. The Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival was a blast as always. But this time I helped lead 4 workshops on new media and spoke on one panel. It was a good experience for me. And people seemed to like what I had to say.

After the festival, I drove to Portland and shot lots of river scenics along the way. Hopefully some of the shots will be used in a Nature film I am working on about salmon. We'll see if my producer likes them. Here's a couple sequences I put together from various creeks, streams, and rivers (Columbia, Snake, Mallad).


I also spent three days in a row shooting coho salmon on Eagle Creek (tributary off the Columbia River). It was a lot of fun and a challenge. I used an Ewa-Marine splash bag. It worked great, but it's still a challenge to use since the camera is basically in a floating plastic bag. I also filmed some dippers hunting for salmon eggs. Here's three short sequences of salmon and dippers.