Pat Marr submitted his awesome Video Testimonial - and he took a very different approach! Trust me, you'll want to take the 4:10 needed to check it out: youtu.be/XF2ebkIFXnM

There's still time to send us your video - click here for more information.

Bravo Pat!

PS: And he's not an ax murder.

Later,

Awesome Pat. Well done!

That was amazing, Pat. Very cool!

Pat, animation design?? You have been holding out on us. I did a search and this has never been revealed. What other talents are you hiding?

Great fun!

Awesome, Pat!!!

Awesome Pat,

Entertaining as well as informative. That's a nice endorsement.

Very nice testimonial

Great video Pat! Thanks for making it.
Peter

Great delivery!

Loved it Pat!

I thought he was taller.

Outstanding. Great job.

well done

i thought the only thing missing from peter's comment was
the next upgrade's on us

Pat,

I commented on the video then rushed here to link your PG Music friends.

What a clever and riveting testimonial!

Thanks for posting it.

Clever and fun. Awesome job. It will draw a lot of attention, everybody loves animation.

I can't figure anyway to do a testimonial with my 'other' hobby of dog training.... Could maybe film myself at a restaurant giving the waitress a hard time though. ;=)

Standing O Pat!

Charlie, don't you have any "dancing" dogs in your school? You could video one dancing to a biab tune...

My German Shepherd can roll a pan and I do have some video. Maybe we're on to something here.

Hahaha,
That's brilliant
Well done Pat!!

from JosieC
It is officially recorded that I have less talent than a dancing dog

Gotta say again that testimonial was BRILLIANT Pat

Alyn

Charlie... check this out:




longer version (15 minutes), in case that clip wasn't enough to satisfy your curiosity

thanks to everybody for your positive reactions to my video! Y'all made my day, week and month, all at the same time!

This was actually the 3rd video I made... The first was modelled after the videos made by Dan and JoAnne (which I really like)

Unfortunately, the subject of my video wasn't nearly as photogenic as the one in JoAnnes, nor as verbally eloquent as the one in Dan's. No matter how many takes I took, I stumbled over simple lines, and the lights reflected off my glasses; and because it was recorded in multiple takes, the audio from scene to scene varied wildly. What worked well for them didn't work for me.

Then I tried Don Gaynor's inventive approach of combining screen shots and original music... but I don't have screen capture software, so the hand-held video of the screen made me sea-sick. Plus, I didn't have any original music that was as cool as Don's. So I abandoned that approach too.

Just before retiring I bought a bunch of software to learn, and some of it was for making animations. By the time I had trashed two complete testimonial videos, I was desperate enough to bite the bullet and commit to trying something new... and this was the result.


Again, thanks for the kind words... especially to Dr. Gannon, for adding his personal note! Thanks to YOU Dr. Gannon, for creating a product that has added such enjoyment to our lives!

as an aside:

I'm a member of several animation forums where people routinely post samples of their work. I posted this video today.

Since all the members of animation forums have the same need for royalty free music in their videos, I'm hoping that the video will send some new customers to PGMusic.

Pat,

My screen capture utility is an Accessory in Windows 7 Home Premium (some editions don't include it). I think it's called Sniping Tool. It does a nice job of capturing the full screen or any portion thereof.

If you're running Mac, I'm sure you'll have something similar. If not, there are many freeware capture utilities available online.

Again, another fabulous job on your testimonial. Extremely clever, my friend.

Quote:

BTW, Josie Cooper is visiting me on September 15th and will entertain we fossils for free. I encourage you to come, meet Josie, and entertain for an hour or so.

Techsmith SnagIt will do screen captures, both stills and video. Not too expensive either.

I think all of the superlatives have been used up , except perhaps UNIQUE!

Don S.

And of course, for those of us who have had the pleasure of meeting Pat personally, that actually is him in the video!

Pat, that was fantastic!

Oh Pat, those perfect pitch dogs are going to EVERY friend who argues with my logic that if you play a song for chimps long enough they eventually would be able to copy it.

I am SO happy to see video evidence to support my thought process.

Thank you for this video. Clever design and some cool statements make it worth to be shared with many prospects. This and the others could be used by PGMusic at their music fair booths when nothing else is going. Your video is certainly an eye catcher.

Guido


P.S.: I like that the moderator chose a hair color matching her top.

Thanks Guido!
One of the recurring observations on the forum has been the lack of a youthful presence... suggesting that the software has been embraced more by the boomers than by subsequent generations.

Part of my thinking in going this route is that cartoons and animations might be a good way to advertise the product to younger people. My daughter is 26, but she goes to Anime conventions... she was immediately interested in the video and wanted to voice act the female interviewer's part! That got my attention. Most of her cousins have a heightened awareness of Anime in specific and cartoons in general.

Each generation has its own obsessions. I saw an internet blurb recently about stadium events where video game matches are held! Yes, they do fill stadiums for video games, in the same way that our generation filled stadiums for live concerts!

The animation software I used is based on a graphic engine used for video games, so a similar ad campaign might be to appeal to gamers with animations that simulate video games.

The times they are a changin'!

Eddie,
it is our responsibility to fix the thinking of anyone who doesn't understand about chimps. Glad to do my part. ;-)

John, thanks for the reminder! You recommended Snagit to me a couple of years ago, and I bought it... but for some reason I never installed it, and it ended up in a pile of other stuff.

After you mentioned it again, the lights came on, and I rummaged around until I found it. I installed it last night, and it's exactly what I need! Thanks for the suggestion... both times!

yeah, mine is one that doesn't include it. ;-( But John reminded me about Snagit, so next time I'll be better prepared.

And I was just reminded by PGMusic's FB presence about the ability to generate video directly from BIAB! That would have also been useful if I had remembered it!



you're very kind Don... but I'd have been thrilled to make one like yours! In fact, after you posted yours I seriously considered not making one since you had raised the bar... but I went ahead anyway because I think the forum crowd has plenty of reason to submit testimonials

Quote:

BTW, Josie Cooper is visiting me on September 15th and will entertain we fossils for free. I encourage you to come, meet Josie, and entertain for an hour or so.

hmmm.. it would be cool to meet you and Josie at the same time... I'll have to check my calendar (and check book) to see if this trip is possible. Thanks for the invitation.. I'll be in touch

In preparation for Joanne's visit, and having envisioned an outdoor acoustic sing-along, I was disappointed to find the picnic table has been scrapped. It was getting rickety.

Entertaining AND informative! Nicely done Pat. I got a real charge out of some of "Pat's" gesturing as he spoke - nicely coordinated.

floyd

And in the video he has a little bit of that Mr Potatohead thing going on.....

I figure in cartoons it's OK if the size of your head is dramatically out of proportion to the rest of your body. But maybe not so much for blind dates...

;-)

Thanks Floyd! Most of those subtle gestures were intentional, and I'm glad somebody noticed!
My personal favorite was the arm pump when "I" mentioned getting all the money for myself.

One that was accidental, but I liked how it turned out, was when "I" said "..and MAPS THE TEMPO!" while pointing to the interviewer. The combined vocal inflection and action implied an unspoken "how cool is THAT??", (but when I recorded the dialog, I didn't have that in mind.)

That might have been the best thing I ever saw on the internet, so keep doing what you do.

You might regret saying that Eddie... I'm already thinking up a bunch of goofy songs for the showcase that have no redeeming value whatsoever except to provide the basis for a dumb@$$ animated music video.

My guess is it's a paradigm that will grow old quickly. But I'm doin' it anyway because I'm one of those people who has to learn the hard way. ;-)


On a different note: I'm struck by the contrast between your avatar picture and your tag line picture. Do they represent dirty Eddie and good Eddie? I can imagine each of them standing on someone's shoulders, one trying to sway the person into a life of crime, while the other one extols a more virtuous path...

perhaps a cartoon animation series in the making......

I like the way you think, Mike!

Eddie is such an interesting guy, he'd certainly make a good focal point for an animated series. I hear there's already been a song or two written about him...

We are amazed at your awesomeness!!

I watched it slack jawed and then got
Janice to come and we both had
another couple watches. WTG!!!!

Now if I just talk Janice into a video...
For a gal that played on stage for
years she is really reticent to do a
video. I digress...

This is mightily cooooool! What a
great community this is.

J&B

PS Janice is a huckuva mimic so now she's
gonna be walking around for days doing
Pat Marr Oh, love the hand motions, etc.
when you mentioned "drama" and the
three fingers are perfecto.

Aw go on.. you're makin' me BLUSH and everything...



Y'all should DEFINITELY make a user testimonial video! I'd pay money to see it! I bet we all would!



it really is the best dang online community I've ever stumbled onto...



hahaha! Now I need to come visit so I can see Janice mock me in person!

Some would argue that there IS no Good Eddie...

Know know what might be extremely cool Pat? Pick one or two songs and create videos of you performing them with the drummer and bass player and players playing all the backing parts you get from BIAB. Just not with YOU. Pick up a used projector and project them up onto a wall or screen behind you where you are playing live with the cartoon band around you. That would be flippin' AWESOME to see!!!

+1

What a great idea!

And make a YouTube video of it so everyone can see.

Shouldn't I get a piece of the action for that?

well DANG, Eddie... you revealed the intricacies of my super-secret project! (but it's kinda good to know that the person who thinks like me has an IQ of 160-plus... that puts me in good company!)



the cool thing is, the projector isn't necessary. I don't even need green screen chroma key... I can just start with a video of somebody playing a song, then use that as the background for an animated scene. Which is already in process, by the way. I just finished creating all the characters... which will be cats.

I figure if its basically a cat video, there's a higher likelihood that it will go viral. Which, of course, is what I want.

Hey, here's a better idea... how about if YOU send me a video of YOU singing one of YOUR songs, and I'll put the characters in YOUR video? Doesn't have to be a cat song. I'll make appropriate characters to go with the song.

Deal?

I could do that!! I should tell you though that someone once told me upon hearing my songs that she is glad she doesn't own a barn because they were so sad she would be tempted to throw a rope over a beam and hang herself....

My reply was "These are songs about having my heart broken. That is a sad subject. When I write about someone adopting a basket of puppies, it will be happy."

I'll send you one that is happy with a wry twist in the lyric.

Looking forward to it! This will be a fun collaboration!

This is actually the second time this has come around. There was a big wave of these cartoon type videos that people made poking fun of musicians (especially bass players for some reason - discuss) and in particular, bands that didn't play Brown Eyed Girl. They were really funny.

edit to add: The series was called "xtranormal" and they went around in about 2010-2011. If you look up xtranormal on youtube you will find a bunch. Compared to yours it is very primitive.

Yeah, xtranormal is what got me interested in this. It was a web-based animation system that worked from a text script.

It was free, but the output of video is rather large, and they were hosting all the stored video (which cost them money)

Can you see what might go wrong with the business model? And of course, it did. The original free site went down, and they are now reinventing the idea, but this time it won't be free.

my all-time favorite xtranormal video:

Not mock...imitate! She's got the hand motions for the drama segment and the look over the glasses down pat (damn awful pun)!

Bud

I need to see this. I'll be in touch... ;-)