Throughout the Parlor, there are videos embedded on pages according to topic. These videos are on YouTube, as well. There are also some playlists and videos from other platforms like Vimeo and Behance. It's pretty amazing how hard it can be to tell what the video's screen resolution, bit rate and stuff is, but many of the Parlor's videos are much larger than what you'd see on YouTube's player.
The playlists set up by the Parlor on YouTube will remain, as not all videos in the playlists were made by the Parlor. Many of the Parlor's creations are actually pretty short in duration, and although Shorts is available and I do use it, the clips of this n' that are not shared on YouTube, but directly on the pages of the Parlor.
I make them available through Google Drive, and I learned a new trick for video editing on files stored in Google Drive to embed to...wherever it is people embed their videos. Another benefit of using Google Drive is that it has a built-in antivirus scanner. As far as I know, YouTube does not. This makes it safer to watch videos directly on the Parlor's pages.
Before I get to the fun part, I have to go through some of the necessary evils, meaning every video I make that contains anything owned by others has a Fair Use disclaimer. Anything that also includes original works of mine also has a copyright notice for that, as well.
Hey, I'm just as confuddlepated as anyone would be. This is not an easy area, even in law. Anyhoo.
The Parlor makes every effort to make sure attributions are included in credits, which I use plain old fashioned rolling credits to make. It's a daunting process, but I felt it was necessary to make sure everything like that was addressed before people started clicking the Play button so they can hear, "WHAT THE--!"
But I digress.
Another thing I was able to do was to resize videos to fit a viewport larger than what is available on YouTube and other sites. Hopefully, it will be easier to see smaller details in the videos. I do like the way it looks embedded on the pages of the Parlor. It is a simple little viewer that even provides a popout button to view the video in a separate window. I try to take care of all the bells and whistles of the video BEFORE releasing it. That way, the viewer just has to push the button and perhaps adjust volume and other things on their own devices.
The videos are still on YouTube, of course, but I'd rather YouTube have something more than a few seconds of video to appeal to Parlor guests.
Next topic. Something important happened yesterday morning, and it had to do with the 3D model of the Mayfair house (1239 First Street). First Street was not the only property in New Orleans Anne Rice owned at various points. I had this idea about Bru dolls (which Ashlar made a doll very similar to in Taltos--oops!) being somewhere in what I use for my Digital Dollhouse graphics. Maybe the dollhouse is itself a model of one of Anne's New Orleans properties...
...that will hopefully be able to utilize what in SketchUp are called dynamic components. I'm trying to learn how to make components (or groups) dynamic so viewers can touch objects in the model and that object will...do something. I already can figure out to some extent how to make sure the dynamic components do what I want them to do--open and close doors, pull out and push back drawers, more open and close on cabinets and cupboards...and it's far more realistic than doing this using layers.
Oh my goodness, I feel compelled to look for more already dynamic components. I'd love to find this used in a similar way with models of people, but in the meantime...
I have to get a door unstuck from the entry way window. Knob was there and that window just jumped out in front of it... Of course, I'm kidding. But in all seriousness, wouldn't something like a virtual tour be an even better way to see what houses like the Mayfair house are like inside?