Thursday, September 20, 2012

Digital Storytelling Process

Like many, I am struggling with certain parts of the digital storytelling process. The writing is second nature to me, so no problems there. After my peer editor sent the revised rough draft back to me, I had my final text version of the story finished by the end of the day.

However the graphical elements of the story are not flowing so freely. I spent hours today, literally, searching for just the right program to present my story the way I want to present it. Really what I wanted was a 3D 'avatar' to represent me, and narrate the story. My story-related images would flash on a screen in the background. I wanted my avatar to be the teacher and present my story to the reader. I might have gone forward with that idea, but that program costs money (Moviestorm), even for the educational plan. I have not been able to find a similar program that is free. I have found many free tools, but none of them really provides exactly what I'm looking for; which is a place to combine music, voice, photographs and videos into a user-friendly interface that gives me a nice three to five minute movie. Close, but no cigar. I guess I'll just use Windows Movie Maker and lay down a standard soundtrack over moving images. It's that "Ken Burns" look that I was trying to avoid. If anyone knows of the program that's right for me, I'd be grateful.

I am about to work on the storyboard. I know what this is, but I've never completed one before, so I'm a bit hesitant. Hopefully it will all come together soon.

2 comments:

  1. I too am pretty familiar with using windows movie maker as my go-to tool for videos only because it's so basic it's hard to choose anything else, but at the same time I see what your saying, it does have a certain 'blandness'? to it I suppose. I like the concept you mentioned of having an avatar visually walk students through the story, I'm just not sure a clear or easy (or free) way you could even attempt to do it, a great thought though.

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  2. Great idea, I'll be watching to see if anyone suggests anything!

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