William Haun Photography, Video, and Web Development » William Haun – Multimedia Artist

New Homepage for JymDavisArt.com

William — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 04:57:33 +0000

Fellow artist and good friend Jym Davis has just revamped his website and put up a new homepage I created for him. The page is a Flash movie that fills the browser window and features simple navigation over blurry, pixelated video loops. Looks pretty impressive when you maximize your browser window. Head over to jymdavisart.com and check it out. Be sure to refresh the page several times since each viewing randomly picks 1 of 5 video loops.

New Homepage for JymDavisArt.com is a post from: William Haun Photography, Video, and Web Development

Flash View-Master

William — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 10:18:52 +0000

Last year I created a Flash-based slideshow app for GoWestAfrica.org’s Children’s section. At the time they didn’t have a Children’s section so it never went public. We finally added some Children’s materials this week and I was able to include my slideshow.

You can see my example by clicking the image to the right or go and see the one created for GoWestAfrica.org. Want to use the slideshow yourself? I have it available for download in my web section – I have also included the source code for anyone interested.

Flash View-Master is a post from: William Haun Photography, Video, and Web Development

Learning Flash Photography

William — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 07:59:58 +0000

I’ve been shooting with my Canon Digital Rebel XTi for over 5 months now and I’m really happy with it. The only thing I really don’t like is its built-in flash.

All cameras with a built-in flash suffer to some degree simply because they are mounted on the camera body so close to the lens. This causes shadows to often appear in the background behind the subject. The built-in flash also causes harsh glare or reflections on the subject (especially oily faces) because you can’t adjust the brightness of the flash. It is on or off.

For these past months I’ve been getting around the need for a flash by shooting at higher ISOs and with a tripod. With our upcoming trip to Africa I figured I’d need a good flash for two reasons:

I’ll be shooting indoors at the hospital with fluorescent lights
I’ll be shooting indoors at African churches and homes and will have very low light
West Africans are often hard to photograph without a flash because their skin is so dark. Often you overexpose the background trying to get all their facial features in the shot. When you use a built-in flash you often get the shiny glare on individuals’ cheeks and foreheads

The flash (Canon Speedlite 430ex) and diffusers (basic rectangular one and a large Gary Fong LightSphere) cost me a pretty penny but I’m considering it a good “investment.” Yeah, I know, “investment” is just an excuse for better toys. Here are some of my first photos with the flash. All were taken in poor lighting conditions and you wouldn’t guess a flash was used.

Learning Flash Photography is a post from: William Haun Photography, Video, and Web Development

Live… from Ecuador

William — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 05:31:48 +0000

For the past couple weeks I’ve been working with the IMB developing a web application for them that allows real-time streaming of video from missionaries on the field to churches in the States. While the missionary broadcasts a video stream they can communicate with the viewers via a chat interface.

Today we tried my tool for the first time with a large group of youth with International World Changers that is working high in the Andes mountains of Ecuador. They streamed back to their home churches in the US and we had 17 groups watching. It was great to see something that was only an idea a year ago, some sketches on my notepad two months ago, and code on my screen 3 weeks ago actually used in a real-world scenario.
Due to their remote location, the group was using a satellite phone to broadcast the video feed. They did two broadcasts, one to EST churches and one to CST churches an hour later. To see more about this student group’s trip head over to IWCStories.com.

For the techies out there, here are some details on how the program works. It was written entirely in Flash ActionScript 3.0 and uses the Adobe Flash Media Server (FMS) to stream the video and manage the chatting. The missionary on the field uses Adobe Flash Media Encoder (FME) to encode from their camera and push the stream to the FMS. I opted to use FME to encode instead of the Flash player because it provides much better quality as a stand-alone application and with the On2 VP6 codec.

Live… from Ecuador is a post from: William Haun Photography, Video, and Web Development

Working at the IMB booth at the SBC

William — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 17:14:34 +0000

Demonstrating the Media Viewer I built for the IMB at the SBC – Tues, June 12, 2007

Working at the IMB booth at the SBC is a post from: William Haun Photography, Video, and Web Development

IMB Flash Video project

William — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 18:17:00 +0000

I’ve been working on a big Flash project for the International Mission Board for the 2007 SBC. The project is a media viewer that lets anyone browse through their library of images and video. Here’s an example of how the “Share This Video” tool that lets you easily put their video player and video on your blog/mySpace/web page.

IMB Flash Video project is a post from: William Haun Photography, Video, and Web Development

AS3 is del.icio.us!

William — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 08:25:03 +0000

I’ve been programming Flash applications in ActionScript 2.0 for some time but had never taken the next step in programming classes and other object oriented methodologies. This past week I’ve been working on a pretty high profile Flash project that has to be done in the new ActionScript 3.0. The new language is very different from what I’m used to and has taken quite a lot of research and patience to get accustomed to.

With the help of Google and dozens of Adobe user blogs I’ve been steadily getting on track. I just started using del.icio.us to keep track of all the resources and articles that I’ve been using to pick up the AS3. For what it’s worth, here is my del.icio.us collection of AS3 bookmarks.

AS3 is del.icio.us! is a post from: William Haun Photography, Video, and Web Development

New Commerce Music Videos Mini-Site

William — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 05:14:11 +0000

I’ve recently completed a project that has been in the works for some time. The music videos and behind-the-scenes documentaries that I shot for Commerce have been finished and compiled into both DVDs and enhanced CDs. I’ve taken the enhanced Flash content from the CDs and created a mini-site which you can now view online at http://commerce.williamhaun.com/.

The music is all written by Matt Little of Johnson City, TN and the illustrations through out the site are by Mike Lowery.

New Commerce Music Videos Mini-Site is a post from: William Haun Photography, Video, and Web Development