Tag: omnigroup

How Andy Bliss Uses OmniFocus

Speaking of The Omni Show, Andy Bliss (performing artist and musician’s coach), was on a recent episode.

Andy talks about the intentionality of performing, teaching, and learning, in a way that really resonates with me. I think this is partly because he uses his technology to both help him meet his varied goals, but also as a part of the reflection process which determines them in the first place.

Listen below.

How Andy Bliss Uses OmniFocus:

Today, Andy Bliss joins us to share his insights on using OmniFocus to supercharge work as a performing artist and musician’s coach. With a background in both the arts and technology, Andy knows a thing or two about the intersection between creativity and efficiency.

My guest appearance on The Omni Show Podcast

It is the best feeling to be invited on to a podcast that I already consider to be one of my favorites.

I was recently a guest on The Omni Show Podcast, a show dedicated to the OmniGroup’s award-winning products, many of which I have written about here (and also here).

I had so much fun talking with Andrew about using OmniFocus to manage my tasks, OmniGraffle to design ensemble seating charts, and OmniOutliner to outline everything (including lessons, curriculum, books, and presentations).

You can listen below and see a transcript of the entire conversation here:

If you like hearing me talk about OmniFocus, you can also catch me on Learn OmniFocus where I go into more detail about managing tasks:

Learn OmniFocus Workflow Guest: October 3, 2020

I am thrilled to announce that I will be joining Learn OmniFocus as a Workflow Guest on October 3rd, 2020.

Learn OmniFocus is a website dedicated to helping others live a fulfilling and productive life with OmniFocus, complementary productivity apps, and services.

You can learn a ton from their free resources, including basics like organizing tasks into projects and assigning tags to them. They also have information on advanced features like project templating and automation.

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My session will be all about how I use OmniFocus and complementary productivity apps to keep my life as a teacher and musician together. Here is the session description:

Teacher, musician, and technologist, Robby Burns will be joining us from Ellicott City, Maryland to share how he uses OmniFocus and complementary productivity apps to keep his active life on track.

Robby has been using OmniFocus since 2010. He has a long history with Apple technologies and was originally drawn to OmniFocus’ deep integration with Apple’s operating systems. He especially appreciates that the Omni Group is quick to add support for new Apple technologies.

During the LIVE session, Robby will share details of his OmniFocus setup and workflows, including:

  • How and when he uses OmniFocus on his iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

  • Adjustments that he’s made to his use of OmniFocus and complementary productivity apps since switching from in-person to virtual teaching.

  • His strategy for using tags.

  • How he uses the Forecast perspective to keep his calendar lined up with his commitments.

  • How he uses defer dates to relieve the stress of seeing too many things at once.

  • Custom perspectives that help him hone in on his most important tasks, including his “Top 3” perspective that narrows his focus to only three items.

  • How he creates OmniFocus projects based on templates stored in Drafts.

Read more and register here. The session will have a live Q/A and members can interact and share ideas. I hope to see you there!

You can become a member of Learn OmniFocus here. They have educator and student discounts. It is worth checking out if you wish to be more productive!

A free recording of the video will be made available to everyone by October 10.

🎬 My Online Learning Welcome Video

Teachers in my district were tasked with making a welcome video introducing students to the first week of distance learning.

After denying several times that I would put any serious effort into this project, I inevitably got carried away and spiraled down a rabbit hole of apps, workflows, and tricks. Musicians and teachers are feeling a special kind of hunger right now to be creative. I am thankful for software and internet connected tools that help me to communicate in a unique way.

First, enjoy the video below:

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The video was produced with the following software:

Apple Clips App

(Download here) 

Apple Clips App might be the only one of these apps you need. It is a free Apple app that is kind of like a cross between iMovie and Photo Booth. Its intended purpose is to make quick, engaging videos, designed to be shared in the age of Instagram Stories.

Clips is how I got my Memoji head to appear on my body. It will also automatically caption your video for you. It can bring in numerous effects, call outs, emoji, backdrops, and can even do still images of words. You could make a video that accomplishes the same general effects as mine in next to zero effort using only Clips. 

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      <figcaption class="image-caption-wrapper">
        <div class="image-caption"><p class="">Clips allows you to integrate Animoji, Filters, Text, Stickers, and Emoji to your live video.</p></div>
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            <img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5595df9ce4b0ce9ff9ecd1a8/1586639517421-K3TKGRRLGTMHTJN8H973/iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAABaMAAAszCAYAAACIWkB7AAABgmlDQ1BzUkdCIElFQzYxOTY2LTIu-2+4.PNG" alt="Clips automatically adds captions in a style you like. You can edit them after the fact." width="1443" height="2867" style="display:block;object-fit: cover;width: 100%;height: 100%;object-position: 50% 50%" loading="lazy">

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      <figcaption class="image-caption-wrapper">
        <div class="image-caption"><p class="">Clips automatically adds captions in a style you like. You can edit them after the fact.</p></div>
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            <img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5595df9ce4b0ce9ff9ecd1a8/1586639567505-19DDGEIFM7BPQGL7VF6K/iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAABaMAAAszCAYAAACIWkB7AAABgmlDQ1BzUkdCIElFQzYxOTY2LTIu-2+6.PNG" alt="You can record yourself speaking over static posters to communicate information in an engaging way." width="1443" height="2867" style="display:block;object-fit: cover;width: 100%;height: 100%;object-position: 50% 50%" loading="lazy">

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      <figcaption class="image-caption-wrapper">
        <div class="image-caption"><p class="">You can record yourself speaking over static posters to communicate information in an engaging way.</p></div>
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iMessage

iMessage is where I made my Memoji. It is also another place that you can get a Memoji head on top of your body (see screenshots below). I used this method for a few scenes in the video, instead of Clips, because it can shoot in landscape view. Clips produces square video only.

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      <figcaption class="image-caption-wrapper">
        <div class="image-caption"><p class="">An alternate way to film yourself with a Memoji head is to open up a text message conversation to someone or yourself.</p></div>
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            <img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5595df9ce4b0ce9ff9ecd1a8/1586639773074-HJ6AGP8TJZP3HZY063KW/iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAABaMAAAszCAYAAACIWkB7AAABgmlDQ1BzUkdCIElFQzYxOTY2LTIu-2+2.PNG" alt="Select the camera icon right above the keyboard, and then tap the effect button in the lower left corner." width="1443" height="2867" style="display:block;object-fit: cover;width: 100%;height: 100%;object-position: 50% 50%" loading="lazy">

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      <figcaption class="image-caption-wrapper">
        <div class="image-caption"><p class="">Select the camera icon right above the keyboard, and then tap the effect button in the lower left corner.</p></div>
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            <img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5595df9ce4b0ce9ff9ecd1a8/1586639815026-QYATBABHZ5OJ5MSWKYJK/iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAABaMAAAszCAYAAACIWkB7AAABgmlDQ1BzUkdCIElFQzYxOTY2LTIu-2+3.PNG" alt="Next, select the Animoji icon, and then select your own Memoji." width="1443" height="2867" style="display:block;object-fit: cover;width: 100%;height: 100%;object-position: 50% 50%" loading="lazy">

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      <figcaption class="image-caption-wrapper">
        <div class="image-caption"><p class="">Next, select the Animoji icon, and then select your own Memoji.</p></div>
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Final Cut Pro X

Final Cut is an industry standard video editor. It is currently free for 90 days. If you know iMovie and want to go deeper, this will be the easiest option for you. 

I used Final Cut to dump all of my audio, video, and photo assets, and to mix them all down into the final product. I didn’t use Final Cut to do anything iMovie can’t do except for the fancy moment where multiple videos show up on top of the main video at once (and it was very important to me that it do this).

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ScreenFlow 

(Download here)

ScreenFlow is like the iMovie of making screencasts. It can do fancy video automations and call out things happening on the screen (like mouse clicks, taps, type our whatever your keyboard is doing, etc…)

ScreenFlow’s editing tools are almost as easy as iMovie and it is so powerful, I probably could have probably made the entire video in it. There is a free version if you don’t mind a watermark on the final product.

Keynote

Keynote is what I used to make the nice slides with information. I used ScreenFlow to record my screen as I tabbed through the presentation in time along to an audio recording of my voice over.

Logic Pro

Apple’s premiere audio editing software. Free for 90 days right now. If you have used GarageBand, the basics of Logic will feel familiar to you. I used it to record some of the voice overs in the video but it is frankly unnecessary. I just wanted to use my nicer microphone and it happened to be plugged into the Mac I already use to edit audio in Logic.

Downie

(Download here)

Downie is how I downloaded some video and audio assets from the web to my Mac’s hard drive. 

Permute

(Download here)

This is a beautiful and fuss-free Mac app that converts video and audio from one file format to another.

Prompt Lite for iPad

(Download here)

This free teleprompter allows you to write a script and have it appear in large text on your iPad’s screen. It automatically paces through the words as you read them.

Others

I also used OmniOutliner to outline the original ideas, BBEdit to write the script, and YouTube to publish, but those are largely unnecessary. 

If this seems overwhelming, I assure you that you could make close to the same result in just iMovie or Apple Clips with next to zero effort. I have been locked inside for weeks and wanted to learn some of the skills required to polish up a video in Final Cut. I hope you enjoyed it.