Daniel Sato

In the past, I would always struggle to learn new languages (programming or spoken). It would start out well enough … I’d dive in head first, scouring the internet and the bookstore for any information that I could find. I would take in the basics easily enough … I can probably print “Hello World” in more languages than I can count on my hand … but soon enough, something will come up that requires my attention, and learning actionscript/python/javascript/php/etc gets placed on the shelf.

For me, the best way to learn something has been to find a project to work on. I learned html/css first through customizing my Blogger blog, and then by building my own website (the iteration before the current one). Most recently, I wanted to build something to help readers navigate our recently created financial literacy page. As it is now, stories are sorted based on the date they were published, even though they can be written for very distinct age-based audiences. I had recently read a tutorial on using jquery to show and hide content and utilize hover effects, and thought it could easily be translated to an interactive that allowed users to show and hide content after selecting a particular age range.

My advice if you want to learn a new skill. First, find a project that you know you want to work on and that will hold your attention through the distractions that are bound to come up. Then, determine what skills will be needed to complete that project and go from there. It has been much easier for myself to address a need that already exists as opposed to trying to create a need because someone has said this is a skill I should have.

Recently, After Effects has become one of my favorite programs to play around in. I admit, I am pretty much in love with typography and infographics, so becoming enamored with AE was the next logical step. However, the majority of tutorials out there are focused on special effects for film or title screens. Here are some of my favorite tutorials that I believe could have some sort of journalism applications.

Rhythmic Motion Typography

My friend Shaminder is convinced that this is overdone, but I still enjoy the effect. You’ve seen it in everything from Ford commercials to the initial Cee Lo Green F*ck You music video (not to be confused with Skee-lo).

Animated homage to Bruce Lee

An extension of the previous tutorial, this one includes additional animation and camera moves along with the kinetic typography.

Cinematic opening title

This tutorial shows you how to utilize scripts in After Effects to pair an effect with some external file or database to create an interesting 3D fly-through effect. It could be paired with something as mundane as text from a speech, or perhaps graduating seniors and their senior quotes, or something as serious as a list of casualties from Iraq. Koci used it to great effect in his Interrupted Lives piece on Iran (the effect is just about 1:00 in).

Dynamic Bar Graphs

This one seems straightforward enough … You could use it to add a little interest/graphics to an issue story filled with numbers.

Map your destination

This tutorial has arrows jumping from point to point as you move along in your travels. I’m not sure just what I would use it for yet, but hopefully you have a story that it would be useful in. Similar to this is the Trim paths tutorial, that features an animated red dashed line instead of arrows.

Motion tracking your golf swing

I doubt you are going to be filming a golf video anytime soon, but motion tracking comes in handy for a number of things, from effects like this (if you were profiling an athlete for an all-state prep sports feature) to using it for image stabilization.

Twixtor faux-slow motion tutorial

Twixtor (a $300 plugin for After Effects) takes video shot at 60fps and slows it down to 1000 or even 2000 fps. The tutorial gives some guidelines on how best to shoot prior to importing into After Effects, and then what settings are recommended once you are using the plugin. There also exists a built-in plugin called Time Warp, though I read that its algorithms are not as sophisticated and result in more artifacting when video is slowed down.

Endlessly zoom into your own Droste Effect

This one just seems fun.

Bend flash video in After Effects

This tutorial shows you how to take a flash video and bend it around the geometry of an object that you have in a background photo. I could imagine using something like this if I was trying to build out a landing page and had some sort of looping intro video that I wanted to appear integrated into the scene.

Virtual 3D Photos

This tutorial reminds me of the sort of movements seen in the RJD2 music video for 1976 on MediaStorm … or perhaps of those NBA Where Amazing Happens commercials. It involves cutting up a still image into different layers and having them move at different speeds in relation to each other.

This past week marked one year at The News Journal. For most, that wouldn’t be anything worth celebrating, but for me, someone who has constantly been on the move, my time at The News Journal is the longest I have spent at one job. One the the biggest reasons that I am still here one year later, without a doubt, is the team I am a part of. The people on the new media team come from such a varied background, and have such diverse skill sets, that we can take on almost any project that we want to without having to coordinate an entire newsroom.

Some highlights from my first year:

• Photographing NASCAR (I had no idea just how loud it would be)
• Shooting both stills and video for a three-part series on crime in Wilmington
• The opportunity to cover the president and vice president
• Phillies opening day
• Covering Hurricane Irene … editing in the field and racing from place to place to try and cover as many locations as we could (I ended up putting up 10 videos in three days).

Some stats I learned during a recent visit from corporate:

• We averaged around 30 videos a week
• The News Journal ranked in the top three among Gannett newspapers for video plays
• Our video plays tripled in the past year

Finally catching up on some blog posts that I have had sitting as drafts for a few months now…

The day after Hurricane Irene passed through Delaware, my photo editor and I went up to Lewes to survey homes damaged by a tornado and cover a press conference by Governor Markell. The event went as you would expect, a few quick interviews, shoot some b-roll, etc. Forty-five minutes later and we were back in the car, hopes of sleeping in my own bed for the first time in a week floating through my head. Just as I was about to drive off, I caught a cameraman walking up the street towards the damaged homes. “Poor guy,” was all I could think as he approached the governor’s SUV (just about to drive of as well).

What I saw next amazed me. Charlie, the cameraman, later told me that he asked if the governor had any time to jump out and say a quick sound bite. Instead, I saw Governor Markell and Senator (and former Governor) Tom Carper jump out of the vehicle and make their way back to the most damaged home.

The icing on the cake? Senator Carper was carrying Charlie’s tripod. Only in Delaware…