Okay, well, I guess I lied when I said my last post would be the last thing I posted for 2976 because we’re opening up Media Proguide topic requests to the public this year! Last year, we released a couple of Proguide episodes as a pilot for a new media guide series that would help teams of all experience levels to improve their production quality. We got some really good feedback on those episodes (which you can find on the Spartabots Youtube channel) so we’re bringing the series back for the summer and I’ll be leading the production to try to pass on as much knowledge as I can before I head off to college.
So that brings us to you. We want to know what your burning questions are! Whether it’s a general production topic you’d like us to cover (such as color grading or lighting practices) or a specific question about one of our productions (like a transition or motion graphic), we’re happy to answer any questions you have either right here in the thread (if it’s a simple question) or in a Proguide video (if we can make solid content out of your question).
Sound off in the comments below - we’ll be checking back on this thread often as we start to plan out the content for the next season of Proguide. Topics currently likely to be covered are basic and advanced exposure techniques, a gimbal balancing guide, and more advanced motion graphics breakdowns of our intros, outros, and more complex transitions.
Also, this technically kicks off our Year 16 activities, which include this fancy new season trailer:
I’m very interested in seeing how you guys plan out your videos, along with the post production process you follow in regards to color grading and lighting. Honestly I’m very interested about everything you guys do on your media team, but mostly just planning out the footage used in your videos and post production editing is at the top of my list.
LOG color profiles and color space conversions are topics we certainly want to cover - as for post-production, we’re looking at potential edit breakdowns of both 2022 and 2023 productions.
That sounds great. I’d really like to thank your team for doing this. 2976’s media team consistently produces professional level content and it’s really inspiring to me to see how much work your team puts into your media and brand. So thank you for making this resource, it’s a great contribution to this community
Watching through your videos I can tell there has been a lot of work, particularly in the animations. What program do you guys primarily use for your development? And what is your process for said animations?
Im interested in learning about your training and teaching down process. As the media lead of our team, its easy enough to learn on my own, but how can I get others passionate about media, teach them the how-to’s and expectations without seeming overbearing. Thanks for the advice over the years, best of luck in your future.
We’re pretty lucky in the sense that our school has always had a number of students who are into this kind of stuff. Our media team actually doesn’t really specialize in teaching the basics - almost every member is required to come in with proficiency in the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. For most people, the Adobe website tutorial articles are plenty to get them started.
What we DO teach, however, is how to think like a visionary. We train our students to come up with big, grandiose plans and then look for ways to execute them. In almost all cases, we start with an overly ambitious concept and cut elements down until it’s something we can complete. By doing this, we always ensure that we’re utilizing our skills and time to the maximum possible extent.
The best way I’ve found for people to hone their skills is through projects and assignments. Even completely pointless ones that won’t ever see the public are useful and important to aspiring designers to help them hone their eye on what looks good and what doesn’t.
Realistically, it’s always hard to get people to be passionate about media in a robotics club unless they come in with that goal. The best you can do is recruit with the intent to attract those individuals and foster an environment where they can be at their best both creatively and emotionally.
We’ll definitely cover the specifics of motion graphics in a video, but here’s the basic rundown: Motion graphics are all made in Adobe After Effects by people in the Motion Graphics Craft team. Currently, that’s myself and 2-3 other individuals who have experience in the app. There isn’t a fully-fledged development process or anything, we usually just make whatever looks good or whatever fits into the edit.
There’s a lot more regarding the creative vision that I will likely go into in a video breakdown.
