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I promise this will tie into iMaginator, but you need to stay with me for just a moment.

I am the Group Coordinator for the Oak Park Illinois chapter of Amnesty International. I've been in Amnesty longer than I've used a Mac (very long time). In a couple of weeks I'll be representing the chapter at a Peace event. So far, so good.

I was playing with iMaginator (originally goofing around with transparency) and after quite a while realized that I could make a short video totally in iMaginator that would reflect my views on peace.

So this is a fairly short video done totally in iMaginator. It starts with the word "violence" against a dark background. Then forces of light in colors of red (as in a rose) and purple (as in Advent) overtake the violence, and violence is no more. That effect by itself is pretty cool to watch as the colors transform across time.

This ties into the basic notion that peace is not just the absence of violence or conflict, but also the presence of fulfillment. But the question I had was how to end the video so I could show that side of things. Peace is not just an end to violence, so I needed and wanted to convey more. I finally decided to have it end with a screen filled with all colors (= white), representing all the possibilities minus violence which had been taken out a few seconds before. I'm hoping the end conveys that, but that's part of what makes it art. I'm sure others will have other interpretations.

The actual QuickTime video will take less time to watch than it did to read my text. I will continue to play with it, and probably use it at the peace fair on September 10th.

Here's a link to the video:

http://homepage.mac.com/russconte/violence.mov

If you want to play with it yourself, go to my public folder on my iDisk (user name is russconte), and the filters are there in one package. There is no copyright on this, feel free to make and post other versions of this if you'd like to. The possibilities of iMaginator and video are much more than I first thought, and this short piece only hints at what can be done.

I'm sure much more can be done with iMaginator and video, this is only a beginning. Feel free to jump in and comment or show what you can do!

Russ Conte

Wow - that's apocalyptic, Russ.

I spent the $29 upgrade to QuickTime PRO which has really helped me make movies from iMaginator clips, since you can edit pieces out and paste pieces together.

I think you can use iMovie to take QT clips and montage them with sound as well.

I upgraded to Quicktime Pro as well just to experiment with it.

Russ I'm so glad you posted that animation, it can have huge impact when used as part of a presentation or web page. I have been trying to get Andrew to give some thought to animation within the Stone Suite. You have added a little more pressure. Andrew don't forget the Automator script to get pages from a Create doc as individual frames into Quicktime movie.

Given my dad is stuck in a closed hospital on dialysis without power and water in New Orleans right now, adding new features is right now far from my waking consciousness.

Andrew, wow, we will remember your father in our prayers.

Russ,

Interesting QT movie. I played around with the idea somewhat and I think the John Handy LET font conveys a more destructive quality to the word "violence." Try it out and let me know what you think.

Andrew, my thoughts are with you and your family. Good night and may your God go with you at this difficult time.

Andrew,

You and your family (especially your father) are in my thoughts and prayers, I'm hoping all turns out well.

Russ Conte

I'm happy to report he was medivac'ed out yesterday evening and is much more happily ensconced in Lafayette, with friends. We're all breathing a giant sigh of relief.

Amen to that! We are all glad for the good news about your father.

I'm very relieved and thankful to hear that, Andrew. Good luck to him and your family!