Got a Video Camera? Got a Tripod? You've Got Yourself a Camera Stabilizer!

On the subject of free video tools, if you already have a tripod you can use it as a camera stabilizer to keep your video camera more steady as you move with it. See this video for a demo from "wbeaty" on YouTube. Check out some of the response videos, like this one, showing this simple principle in action.

Reminder that the VRC lends video cameras and tripods to faculty and students in the Department of Art and Art History. See our Equipment and Classrooms Web page for details.

JayCut: Free Online Video Editing

Do you have some video footage to edit, but no access to editing software? Give JayCut a try. It's a full-featured video editor on the Web.

JayCut's features are surprisingly sophisticated for a free, Web-based application. While it doesn't replace expensive software like Apple Final Cut or Adobe Premiere, it does offer two tracks, to which you can add video clips, audio, text, and transitions. You can also record audio and video directly from your computer's microphone and Webcam. When you have finished editing you have the option to export your video directly to YouTube, or to your computer in the form of an H.264 MPEG-4, H.264 Flash video, or an Xvid AVI file.

If you need to save a project to revisit later, simply create a free account.

VRC Image Collection Now Available in LUNA

We are very pleased to announce that our image collection is available to Art and Art History faculty and students in the new and improved LUNA browser interface. Please see our Finding Images Web page for access information.

Recent videos from our Visiting Artist Program are now also available to Art and Art History faculty and students in LUNA. As of November 2011, these date back to 2007, but we are in the process of converting our entire collection to the streaming format to make available online to our faculty, students, and staff. Please see our Visiting Artist Videos Web page for more information.

Handy and Comprehensive List of (Mostly) Free Technology Tools

Overwhelmed by the seemingly never ending options for using technology in teaching, collaboration, imaging, video work, audio work, creating Web sites, calendaring, networking, etc.? Most of us are! Here's a site worth bookmarking. Kimberly McCollum, who teaches an online Teaching with Technology course at BYU, has created for her course a list of mostly free software tools with links, which are organized into helpful categories, such as:

• Tools for Creating, Editing, and Sharing -- Documents, Diagrams and Drawings, Images, Presentations, Web pages, Video, Audio
• Tools for Communicating and Networking -- Instant messaging, Discussion forums, Web conferencing and broadcasting, Tools for networking, Microblogging
• Tools for Managing Time, Tasks, and Information -- Course management, Time management, Task management, Project or team management, Information management

Each of these is subdivided further when helpful, making a reference document that is easy to read,  understand, and refer to when needed.

Image: Herman Vargas (HVargas), Wrench Rust, 2007. Available from Flickr via a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License