Happy Holidays from Applied Art & Technology

From all of us at Applied Art - Happy Holidays! 2008 has been a very busy year and while we did not find the time to create our own message, we did want to share a couple of our holiday projects with you.

Here's to much happiness and success in 2009!

Luther College eCard




Karl Chevrolet TV Spot

Fall Events

The fall was busy for events this year. We were fortunate to work with a number of great clients on a wide variety of projects. We first worked with the great team from Phoenix Formations on the Honeywell booth at the NBAA Show.

We then parterned with the extremely creative team from ITA Group to turn the HyVee Conference Center into a Drive-In Theater.


Each event had its own set of challenges and creative thinking was a must! We covered a lot of miles, learned new tricks, made new friends, and as always, tried to make the most of time away from home, friends, and family.

~Mark

Facebook Adds Advertising Metrics

I was recently sent a very exciting announcement by the Facebook Ads Team. "Responder Demographics" and "Responder Profiles" reports are now available for every ad placement.

What does this mean? It means I will now know a lot more about the folks who click on my two Facebook ads (of which I am still collecting valuable data!). As an example, here is what the new reports tell me about the folks who click on the Final Season ad:

• The greatest percentage of clickers are males 13-24 (no surprise there with a feel-good baseball movie)
• Their favorite movie is "300"
• Country music is playing on most of their radios
• "Family Guy" is the TV show they watch the most

What does this information allow me to do? You guessed it. I will now be able to target specific markets even more to increase the overall effectiveness of the ad.

This type of constant analyzation of data is a must for every website goal and something we stress in our web development process.

~Steph

New Cyclone Basketball Spots

Applied Art & Technology just completed basketball spots for Iowa State University. Graphic Designer Todd Huffine created the spot for ISU Women's basketball by applying a 3D effect to still images from last season. Graphics and voice over reinforce the legacy of ISU women's basketball, touting the five consecutive post-season appearances and 4th in the nation attendance statistic.



The Men's basketball spot uses footage from the state of the art RED camera, which records 4K resolution HD footage directly to flash drive. The footage was shot at the first game of the season to unveil the new uniform design. The high speed recording allowed for motion ramp effects and the ability to use a close up image from the footage without compromising the image integrity. Editor Courtnee Carstens worked closely with DP Paul Hickey on choosing shots and transferring the files into Avid world where she could further manipulate the footage.



See more of our video and animation work by visiting our site. Swish!

~Heather

Heartbreak Recovery Kitchen

While the holiday season tends to put a little chipper in everyone’s step, the preparation for the big day (or days, depending on what you celebrate) tends to wrap some stress under your collar as well. So, in the spirit of our newest long-form project, The Heartbreak Recovery Kitchen, we thought it would be wise to share some stress-relieving advice to instate during your pre-holiday preparations. MAKE BROWNIES. No, seriously.

You may think the last thing you need as you rush from here to there crossing off lists is a few extra calories—but, listen up before you dismiss this suggestion as ridiculous--dark chocolate, including bittersweet, is high in heart-healthy antioxidants AND has been found to lower blood pressure. So, it just might be that a brownie a day WILL chase those stressies away! And, the babies listed below are packed with walnuts, which are high in healthful fats (that’s right some fats actually ARE healthful) that help protect you from a whole slew of health problems! So, happy holiday preparations from one of the creators, and baker extraordinaire of The Heartbreak Recovery Kitchen, Jeanne Ambrose. When you try her Walnut-Studded Dark Chocolate Brownies below, we dare you NOT to feel better!

And, please watch for, The Heartbreak Recovery Kitchen coming soon to a network near you. The show was created by the mother and daughter team of Jeanne and Lindsey Ambrose, and is hosted by Olympian Lolo Jones, and professional Athlete, Sasha Spencer, produced right here by the Applied Art team.

It dishes up the perfect combination of girl-talk, hotshot advice, and feel good foods to help empower you through the heartbreaks or (ahem) hurdles life throws your way. It’s heart-to-heart with bite, comfort food that reminds you of better times, and lush hours that shake, shake that bitterness to the curb. One thing’s certain, you’ll always feel better when you step into The Heartbreak Recovery Kitchen: it’s television that feeds your soul…Feed YOURS with these… Walnut-Studded Dark Chocolate BrowniesBy Jeanne AmbroseThese brownies are a nut-lover’s dream. Feel free to use fewer nuts, or even drop them altogether. A brownie a day will chase your worries away.

1/2 cup butter4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (70% cacao), coarsely chopped
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted
1/2 cup milk chocolate or semisweet chocolate pieces

1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees F. Grease an 8x8x2-inch or 9x9x2-inch baking pan; set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine butter and bittersweet chocolate. Cook and stir over medium heat until butter and chocolate are melted. Remove from heat. Using a wooden spoon, stir granulated sugar and brown sugar into chocolate mixture until smooth. Add eggs, beating with spoon until well combined.
3. In a small bowl, combine flour and baking powder. Stir flour mixture into the chocolate mixture just until combined. Stir in nuts and milk chocolate pieces (batter will be thick). Spread in prepared pan. Bake for 25 minutes or until top is set, but still soft. (A toothpick inserted in center will come out slightly gooey.) Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars. Makes 16 brownies.
Tip: The secret to fudgy brownies is to make sure you don’t overcook them. The secret to easy clean up is to line the baking pan with foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides. Grease the foil. When brownies are baked and cooled, lift out the foil along with the slab of brownies. Remove foil and cut brownies.
Mmmmm…

~Elisabeth

New Wellmark Spots

Questions I learned the answers to while editing the new round of Wellmark spots.

Q. How many people can you fit in an edit suite?
A. Sixteen! Though not everyone gets to sit, and it gets a tad toasty

Q. What is the proper response when someone nearby sneezes?
A. You whistle, of course.

Q. Do butterflies poop?
A. I don’t know exactly, but when you’re shooting insects really close up in HD, you see things you never thought you would. (The wiki page on butterflies is really long, and I’m too lazy to get you a definitive answer, but something definitely happened.)

In October, our fearless friends from Nicholson Kovac road tripped it up from Kansas City to create six new spots for Wellmark. Applied Art & Technology worked with them on everything from casting and location scouting to audio and post production.

We were able to take advantage of that last stretch of sunny, fall weather. Marty, George and the production gang shot some gorgeous HD footage in lots of great locations around town. (Refer to above butterfly reference.) Next up, we threw a bunch of actors into a lineup and shot them in the studio. (Making a joke about actually shooting people is too easy, right? Let’s just skip that.)

And on to post production, which is the most fun part, right? Yes, yes it is. It’s just a fact that sitting in a dark room watching the back of my head can be endlessly amusing. Luckily, I also happened to have some super amazing tablets that grow into sponge animals! Seriously though, everything I had to work with was so pretty, editing was a breeze. Todd Huffine, graphic artist extraordinaire, did a fantastic job making a bunch ‘o text look both engaging and readable on the Medicare spots. And both Todd and animator, Scott Kaven, created a super sweet flowy ribbon to highlight our Under 65 crowd.

All in all, we had a fun four weeks, we made some friends, we answered a few important questions, and have six new spots we’re proud to show off. Head over to our portfolio page and check out a couple!

~Courtnee

Pre Thanksgiving at Applied Art & Technology '08

The Applied Art & Technology family had a pre-Thanksgiving celebration on November 14 this year. Along with the many BBQs over the year, this time we did the turkey thing. It's a huge potluck in the middle of the day, bringing all of us together and anyone who wants to participate. Massive amounts of food, you might say: It's on! Here are a few snap shots of this year's feast. As you can see, we do great work, and we do great fun!

~Scott

Apes Helping Apes Viral Video

Applied Art recently produced a viral video for the Great Ape Trust's art auction. Viral videos are a great way to take your message to the masses using a variety of social media websites.


About the video: Orangutans and bonobos are given the choice of whether they want to paint as an enrichment activity. Offering captive apes a variety of enrichment activities, including those that challenge their cognitive abilities, like painting, is an important ape welfare issue. Enrichment is not viewed as a separate activity for Great Ape Trust’s orangutans and bonobos, but rather a philosophy of daily management and research.

“The apes’ daily lives are enriched immeasurably by these creative opportunities,” said Peter Clay, a senior orangutan caretaker who oversees the art project. “Choosing canvases and colors, and choosing to make small, careful marks or big dramatic ones, these are all within their control. The Trust’s commitment to providing the highest possible care, including offering both variety and choice in every dimension of their lives, is beautifully exemplified by Apes Helping Apes.”

Visit the Great Ape Trust Website

~Neil

Pundzak - Purina Mills HD Video

Applied Art recently completed post production on a project produced for Joe Pundzak and Purina Mills. The two minute "trailer" introduces a new line of Equine feeds and features Cooper, an electrified horse. The video was shot in HD by Applied Art's and George Christ with Special FX supervision by Steve Dixon and Editor Neil Zaugg.

Watch the Video Here

Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum

On Thursday, October 23, the Grout Museum District of Waterloo, IA, held a Dress Rehearsal for the upcoming Grand Opening of the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum.

Throughout 2007, Applied Art worked closely with the museum's designer and fabricator, Split Rock Studios of St. Paul, MN, to plan the video theaters, computer interactives and other unique presentations within the museum. Production began in January of 2008, culminating with this unveiling of:

• 35 historic videos and veteran interviews
• 78 audio-supported homefront and warfront stories
• 7 Interactive "Dog Tag" stations
• 2 Iowa Veteran Search Stations
• An ever-scrolling memorial tribute to all Iowa Veterans
• A laser-based presentation chronicling World War II

The museum Grand Opening is scheduled for Saturday, November 15 and begins with a parade at 10 am. The public is invited to attend the Grand Opening for a $1 admission price.

~Jeanie

Adobe Bends Boundaries With Flash CS4

It seems like only yesterday I was installing the Creative Suite 3 package from Adobe. It was a simpler time, where I could sit back in my chair and ease-in to a new animation project. I knew the technical limitations and all the capabilities of Flash CS3. Honestly, not a lot changed from Flash 8 to CS3 other than the cosmetics, it was your typical upgrade. But today, I discovered why we pay Adobe $600 for those upgrades.

The new CS4 is worth every penny, or at least it would appear so. I haven't yet jumped into it, but I took a look at a video on Lee Brimelow's website, and I was floored. I had dabbled in the world of 3D in the past, using tools like Maya or Lightwave for 3D modeling and rendering. These programs were well developed and required an in-depth knowledge of the craft. I used to animate in Flash and get frustrated with shape-tweens, setting up motion guides and a few other shortfalls. But it appears that Adobe has finally overcome these hurdles, and then some.

The concept of inverse kinematics, a staple in the 3D animation world, is something that we're all aware of (whether or not we know the technical term). The new "bone" tool inside of Flash CS4 allows for incredible control and flexibility (pardon the pun) in your vector animations. You can create a set of symbols or a simple polygon shape, apply a bone structure to it and begin to bend, fold and contort your vector art in any way imaginable. This is the coolest thing I've seen in a while.

Along with the impressive new kinematic controls, Flash CS4 has also added some new ways of controlling entire animations as well as customizing your animations in 2D and 3D space. That's right, 3D space... That's a whole 'nother post in itself. The web is about to get a lot cooler - all due to that $600 price tag we love to hate. Adobe has obviously worked hard since acquiring Macromedia, and Flash CS4 is by far the best upgrade in a long time.

~Grant

Physics Doesn't Exist; It's all Gnomes

"Physics Doesn't Exist; It's all Gnomes" is an actual group on Facebook...with a whopping 42,996 members. And if you want a good chuckle, skim through the names of thousands of other Facebook groups.

Beyond a chuckle, what are these groups good for? Target marketing. You would skip over the Gnome nerds...unless...you were the guy selling the "I heart geeks" T-shirts.

Web usability guru Jakob Neilsen recently put out a report that web banner ads are not seen on the web. That said, I started to wonder about how targeted social media banner ads would perform.

How targeted can your ads be on Facebook? Very. This morning I created a Facebook ad for a local website http://www.dsmgolflessons.com/. After going through the process, Facebook reported the ad would potentially reach 3,280 people who have identified likes of "golf" or "golfing" and who live in Ankeny, Altoona, Des Moines, West Des Moines, Ames and Urbandale.

I also placed an ad for a major motion picture's site http://www.finalseason.com/. After going through the process again, Facebook said this ad could reach 775,280 people in the United States who listed some sort of baseball love in their profile.

For the next few weeks, I will keep a close eye on the number of hits the ads receive and the respective Google Analytics reports for the web traffic (also a critical part of our usual web design and development process for our clients).

I will keep ya posted on what I find out about the ads' effectiveness...

~Stephanie

What If You Ran an Ad, and Nobody Saw It?

Recent research confirms something that we've suspected for a long time. Banner ads don't work. In an article from the New York Times Jacob Nielsen, the web usability guru, said, “For the longest time, the web has been in collective denial of this phenomenon."

Nielsen points out that, surprisingly, paid search ads are effective. “We thought we’d find [paid search] box blindness the way we did banner blindness, but that’s not the case. Users are interested in search ads and actually look at them.”

Other studies have indicated that ads inserted in video are effective. Possibly because we are accustomed to advertising in video. More likely is the fact that we have to actually select a video and are anticipating the content to follow.

Video ads produced, edited and then posted to the web, huh? Now that's something we're good at!


~George

The Biz of Tweeting

So there's emailing, texting, blogging and what I've come to call "uber messaging" or, Twitter. According to our friends at Lava Row, Twitter is a rather localized sensation who's main users are Gen Y, the Millennials, and everyone else who can't quote Top Gun.

An account on Twitter allows you to "tweet" or...tell...your twitter followers what you are doing, feeling or thinking about at any given moment in 140 characters or less. Your followers can receive instant tweeted info online and/or via short message service (SMS) - text messaging - on a mobile device that doesn't need to have web access.

In March 2008, reports were putting Twitter messages at 3 million a day. That's when big companies started to go, "hmmm". Starbucks, JetBlue, ComCast, Dell and a host of other large and small all jumped into the fray.

They use Twitter to offer promotions, dialogue with customers, post company news, and remedy customer service issues. By using slick applications like TweetScan or TweetBeep - it's easy to keep a pulse on what's being said about them.

And if you're interested in learning more about how you can put other social media like Facebook or MySpace to work for your business - let's TweetUp!

~Stephanie

Flash of Genius

The movie, Flash of Genius, is about Robert Kearns who invented the intermittent windshield wiper and his battle with the Detroit automakers who he accused of stealing his invention. Who knew?

That brings to mind some other items that we use every day - and you might not know who invented them:

The computer mouse - Douglas Englebart 1964

Email - Ray Tomlinson 1971 (also came up with the idea of using the "@" in your email address)

Ethernet - Robert Metcalfe 1973

The computer chip (integrated circuit) - Jack Kilby and Iowa native Robert Noyce 1958

First computer game - Space War by Steve Russell 1962

Spreadsheet - Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston 1978

World Wide Web - Tim Berners-Lee 1989

Computer - John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry at Iowa State University 1941

~George

I'm Running for President!

We came across this very cool application for Flash the other day and wanted to share it with our friends. George has already fooled quite a few people.

iNews3

This video clip utilizes Flash with embedded video content to allow users to add their name to various elements within the video. The site asks for your name and then creates a permanent link which will load the video and include your name throughout the video. Flash creates text fields that display your name onto bumper stickers, tattoos and other hilarious presidential ad spaces.

~Grant

Microsoft Seinfeld Ads – Love them or hate them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIjNJZpRtj8


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBWPf1BWtkw


I wanted to hate them but I couldn’t help liking them. By now you’ve seen the new Microsoft TV/Web commercials. I can’t remember many videos that polarized people like these. You either love them or absolutely hate them. It’s worse than the Kennedys.
There has been a lot of buzz online about these – more in the geek world than perhaps elsewhere.

One thing that has surprised me is how often the haters say “they don’t say anything” or “where’s the message” or “what’s this got to do with Vista”. We are so conditioned to what we think commercials are supposed to be that then they are different it bothers some of us. I remember when I found out the secret to watching foreign films. I was always frustrated because I couldn’t find the story line. American films always have a plot – we are conditioned to look for the plot. A foreign film may be about a town or the study of a character and not have the traditional Hollywood construction.

I believe these were designed to break through the noise and were aimed at the geek influencers. There were several inside references that geeks would appreciate (Bill Gates membership card has his mug shot from when he was arrested for speeding in 1977). After these ad’s ran there was a huge spike in the Microsoft buzz – it even exceeded Apple’s. Microsoft rarely has any buzz – they are about as interesting as a Ford Taurus. They put Microsoft on people’s minds. If they would have run the (very predictable) “I’m a PC” ad – no one would have noticed.

Microsoft knows they can’t go head to head with Apple. They can’t possibly make the claim to be hip. It will never be cool to own a Zune. Wisely they avoided that and did a bit of an end run. I’m a PC - it’s ok not to be hip.

I don’t think that it’s Apple that Microsoft should be worried about... it’s Google.

~George

What does 1080p mean to me?

720p/60 or 1080i/60 or 1080p/30 or 1080p/60?

This is the Da Vinci Code of High Definition Television.

If you can decipher these numbers you’ll know almost everything you’ll need to know about High Definition video.

There are just three things you need to know to decipher the High Definition code. Resolution, Scan Type and the Frame Rate.

HD comes in 2 resolutions 1080 and 720. The number stands for the vertical resolution of the picture. A 1080 image has 1.5 times the vertical resolution of a 720 image. (It also has 1.5 times the horizontal resolution giving the 1080 image twice the number of pixels as the 720).

The Scan Type is the method the picture was captured. There are two choices here – Progressive and Interlace. In Progressive the picture is drawn on the screen one line at a time starting from the top. When the picture is complete, it's erased and the next picture is drawn on. This happens so fast that it appears to our eye to be one continuous moving image. Interlace scanning first draws every odd numbered line on the screen – one at a time from the top, erases them and then draws every even line on the screen. I know this seems crazy but it's a holdover from the early days of television where it was a way to reduce flicker and improve detail. It's used today because of its compatibility with tube TV sets.

Frame Rate is the number of pictures per second that the video delivers. You typically see only three common frame rates – 24, 30 and 60. (There are three more – 23.976, 29.97 and 59.94 that are used to be compatible with the tube televisions but you rarely see them mentioned). The only weird thing to remember here is when you're referring to an interlace scanned image (where half the picture is drawn at a time) the frame rate number refers to the number of half pictures per second (60 half pictures works out to 30 whole pictures per second – why they just don’t use 30 probably has to do with some engineering mumbo-jumbo).

That’s everything you need to know to decode that mysterious HD code. So when you see 1080p/30 you will know that the picture resolution is 1080 lines, progressive scan type and at 30 frames per second or 1080i/60 is a 1080 resolution image and 60 half pictures per second.

Wow.

~George