Introduction

Assignment

Select a diversity-minded SCSU organization and/or service (such as the American Indian Center, LGBT Resource Center or Multicultural Student Services), and create a 15-second animated public service announcement, suitable for television broadcast using Adobe After Effects. You should research your chosen group and learn as much as you can about its mission, activities and services.

Procedure

1. Choose an SCSU diversity-related group (university run service or student run organization). Some suggestions include:
   • The American Indian Center
   • International Student and Scholar Services
   • LGBT Resource Center
   • Multicultural Student Services
   • Office of Cultural Diversity
   • Student Disability Services
   • Women's Center
   • Or one of the many student organizations that work towards greater diversity, accessibility, and cultural understanding on campus and around the world.
2. Research the group/organization. Learn as much as you can about its mission, activities and services. Do they have any published materials like pamphlets, brochures, annual reports, or other print advertising? You can plumb these for information and graphics.
3. Collect imagery—photos, graphics, logos, etc. Although you could incorporate video footage it's not required. You could scan images, find on-line resources, even take your own photos or create your own graphics (in Photoshop, Illustrator, etc). Whenever possible, get permission to use other people's work.
4. Plan your PSA. You have 15 seconds—what should it communicate? And how? The piece must include animation, imagery, text and sound. Imagery could be photos, artwork, graphics, and/or video. Sound could be music, a voice-over, sound bytes, sound effects, or some combination of the above.
5. Launch After Effects and import your assets (photos, graphics, sound).
6. Create a new composition—HDV/HDTV 720 (29.97).
7. Build your piece in After Effects. Hint: keep it simple; do a little at a time.
8. Create your text in AE using the text tool(s). Note that text can be animated just like graphics (remember the ads we looked at in class).
9. Save often!

Output

Once the project is done, the next step is to output it to a format that can be easily viewed.

1. Select the composition tab in the layers/timeline window.
2. Choose Composition > Make Movie
3. In the dialog box that pops open name the file yourName_diversityPSA. Save it to the Data HD (or your own hard drive).
4. The Render Queue should appear over the top of the timeline. Press the orange link that says Best Settings . This will open a dialog box. Choose the following options:
   • For Quality select Best.
   • For Resolution choose Full.
   • For Time Span (near the bottom) choose Length of Comp.
   • Click OK
5. Now press the orange link that says Lossless. In this dialog box choose the following:
   • For Format choose H.264
   • At the very bottom of the window, make sure Audio Output is checked (otherwise your movie will have no sound).
   • Click OK
6. Back in the Render Queue press the Render button. It will take a few minutes (at least) to render.
7. When AE has finished rendering, locate your file on the Data HD and upload it to the drop box on D2L.

Specifications:

• Format: HDV/HDTV
• Resolution: 1280 x 720
• Frame Rate: 29.97
• Length: 15 seconds
• Due Date: Week 9 (Wed, Mar 14).
• Deliverables: rendered mp4 file (H.264 codec).