I just finished up developing the new Grand Theft Auto - Chinatown Wars for the NintendoDS sweepstakes promotion for GameStop.  This has to be the best fortune cookie generator on the internet since it incorporates dynamic video, audio, graphics, and Flash elements for a simple yet visually compelling viral fortune cookie system.

My specific roles on this project were a bit more than usual as I dusted off my audio/video skills a bit.

• All Audio/Video pre- and post-production, including green-screen HD filming and editing, After Effects special FX composition for chroma-keyed edited HD video, and sound design and sound production.  I finally was able to dust off some of my old studio video production equipment.
• All Flash development
• Some design and graphics creative development for the special FX production and HD video integrations.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE…
 
 

I have received literally hundreds of emails regarding how I produced a video to an animated .gif for my Twitter account.

Here is how I did it:

This is not the only way to do it, but it is one of the better methods for achieving the best results.

1. Record a video via your phone, camera, webcam, etc.  Don’t go crazy, no more than 7.5 seconds!
2. Find some software that will convert the video, resize the video, and compress the video to an animated .gif. In order of best to worst, the software I recommend is:  After Effects, Premier Pro, Camtasia.  Sometimes, if you can manage to extract the video frames to an image sequence using 3rd party software tools, you can then easily use Fireworks or Photoshop to get the job done as well with a few tricks.
3. Important:  Ensure your exported animated .gif adheres to the following specifications:  75pixels wide by 75 pixels tall, no more than 277Kb in file size, no more than 7.5 seconds of animation duration, make sure that the animated .gif does not have transparency whatsoever.

Having troubles, or need help?  Follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/randallhaws and I will attempt to assist you via Direct Messages on Twitter.

If I know you, or we have very similar interests/tags, I may just help you out and convert/render your animated .gif for you for FREE!

Happy Twitter Avatar Creating!

Ever wondered how some Twitterers are achieving those “special characters” in their Tweets?

Here’s the list, not entirely complete and maybe not entirely compatible with your Twitter Status update engine in conjunction with your browser/OS, but give it a try!

• Copy/Paste these “special characters” below to your favorite Text Editor and save it as UT8-F unicode format
• Copy/Paste character(s) as desired from THIS new text file to your favorite Twitter Status Updater engine (or on the Twitter site)
• Keep in mind, some “special characters” may not work, and it depends on a variety of reasons from OS, Browser, Twitter Status Updating Engine (i.e. TweekDeck, Twitterific, etc.)

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