Multimedia in Chrome

I can't believe you can do that in a browser!

G Suite lets you have amazing office productivity software using just a web browser, but what about multimedia production? If digital media is your thing, can you really create sophisticated music, video, photography and desktop publishing using nothing but a browser? The answer is yes! This session will introduce you to some of the amazing options for digital media production using Chrome. Bring a Chromebook or computer. This session is not really suitable for iPads.

Traditionally, most serious multimedia production is made using Adobe's Creative Suite or Apple's pro tools. For schools using Chromebooks one of the challenges has been to find workable substitutes for those more sophisticated applications. Things have improved a lot in this area and the options for getting close to "pro" level functionality in your browser is not unrealistic. While most cloud based substitutes don't do everything that their more powerful counterparts do (yet!) they will usually be a credible alternative for doing 90% of the tasks that 90% of people need.

Looking for more ideas? Check out the blogpost 10 Multimedia things you can do on a Chromebook.

Soundtrap

Great for music composition, podcasting and more. You can add loops, real instruments, pre-recorded tracks, etc. Best feature is the ability to collaborate with others on a composition. Also works on mobile via the Soundtrap app.

Wevideo

Wevideo is by far the best option for editing video in Chrome, and has virtually no competition. It can do everything you'd expect from a non-linear video editor - trims, edits, transitions, audio, titles and more. With the paid version you can even do ChromaKey (greenscreen) and screen recording. It plays nicely with Drive too.

  • iMovie, Adobe Premiere Pro & Rush, Final Cut ==> Wevideo

  • Also available on Android for mobile video editing

LucidPress

LucidPress is a full featured pro-grade desktop publisher that can produce output for both print and screen. Simple to use, but powerful in what it can do.

  • Microsoft Publisher, Adobe InDesign ==> LucidPress

  • Also check out Adobe Comp on Android in Chrome

LucidPress is FREE for educational use. For more information go to www.lucidpress.com/pages/usecase/education

Polarr

There are quite a few good cloud-based options for editing photos online, depending on just how sophisticated you need to be. If it's just cropping, adjusting brightness and contrast, etc, there are lots of simple options. (The photo editor in ChromeOS is actually pretty good for the simple stuff) But if you want to get fancy, Polarr is hard to beat!

Gravit Designer

Gravit (now Gravit Designer) has grown into an amazingly full featured vector graphic tool, with many of the same features as the industry standard tools in common use. If you want to do more than you can do in Google Drawings, this is the next tool to try.

Adobe Illustrator ==> Gravit Designer

Adobe Spark

Adobe Spark is actually three different tools - Spark Post (graphic design, posters, social media headers, etc), Spark Page (beautifully designed webpages), and Spark Video (simple to create narrated slideshows as videos). The core benefit is extreme ease of use, fast production and a beautiful end product.

Screencastify

Screencastify is a Chrome Extension, and a brilliantly simple way to capture your screen (and your webcam too if you choose) to produce powerfully effective screencasts. Use it for flipping your classroom, creating tutorial videos, showing your thinking and reasoning, explaining how to do something, and a million other uses.

Book Creator

Originally an iOS only app, Book Creator is now available for Chrome. It features all the same capabilities, including the ability to create digital books, add images and text, add audio, and then export as an ePub format eBook. Offers amazingly simply opportunities for student publishing and is a great platform for students to really show their learning.