NewParadigm Church Media Connect

The Countdown Begins to District Council 2013

2013-03-07T07:03:00.001-08:00

Aviary Free Browser Based Image Editing Software - "Photoshop Quality with No Download"

2011-02-28T18:12:00.000-08:00

Anyone who has read my blog for certain amount of time knows how fascinated I am with Google Chrome’s app market. They are so many dynamic and useful applications found in this market that I find myself going again, and again checking for new things that have been coming out. All this week I will be reviewing a series of software programs on Google app market: Aviary

It used to be a few years ago that you had to be some sort of genius in order to be able to manipulate Photoshop and create a simple graphic that you could use in the church bulletin or for your small business. This is simply not the case anymore. There are so many programs out there that are completely free, which can help you efficiently produce excellent looking graphics in any one of your presentations.

Aviary.com has created not one, but five different image editors to help us do the kind of things that we used to only dream about.

Let’s start with the Aviarys image editor which they call the “Phoenix”.

When I first logged into this application I was astounded by the ability to be able to have a dynamic image editing software launched directly in my browser. There was no need to download any kind of software, it simply came up as an online application. I was greeted by two different options. I could either open my own image and edit an existing graphic, or I could start from scratch. Over on the left of the interface I saw all of my familiar editing tools, and that made me feel very comfortable that I knew what I was looking at. I am appreciative that Aviary didn’t try to spice up the UI for the sake of some kind of theme continuity Ideal. Just as a note to you who have never used an image editor before, don’t be intimidated at the icons. Just take your time and experiment with them to see what each does. This is the best way to learn – well, okay, it’s the way I learned. I found the interface is very easy to use with a lot of different options that allow you to do almost the same kind of thing that you could find on earlier version of Photoshop. The editor had a healthy complement of effects that I could use to spice up some of the boring parts of my image, and when I was done I could save the file as a PNG or JPEG.

In all-this is one of the better free image editing software that happens to be out there. For the price of “absolutely free” and for the convenience that it happens to be available inside of a browser in on a cloud network that you can access the anywhere on any computer, I would say that the Phoenix image editor definitely pulls ahead of the crowd.

If you’re a pastor and you’re looking to edit some PPoint graphics that you got from Graceway Media, or if your small business owner that needs to make up a menu or product sheet, then this is a great program for you.

Well, that’s all for tonight. Have a good time playing around with the Phoenix, and we’ll see you tomorrow when we take a look at Aviarys vector editor, Raven.

Amazing and Easy to Use Sermons from Jeanne Mayo and the Youth Leaders Coach.

2011-02-19T21:17:00.000-08:00

So, as you may have noticed I haven't posted in a few days. No, I haven't given up on you my 2 faithful followers... I just had A LOT on my plate.

I'm back now, and hopefully ready to dish out some helpings of awesome church media resources.

Next up on the list is Jeanne Mayo's "Youth Leaders Coach" (or YLC for short). Now I can already hear you saying "I thought you were all about media resources? Now you're promoting a sermon site?" Well, pastoral ministry friends, YLC is more than just a site for gathering youth lesson plans, it has so much more to offer.

Close-to-weekly updated student and young adult sermons (which include graphically impressive PPoint templates and example sermon audio) abound on the YLC site, covering just about every subject your 52 service year can hold. Also found alongside these well crafted lessons is an impressive array of mentoring messages from Jeanne who, as I have experienced by sitting at her feet in Cadre Ethos, has a vast array of powerful life/ministry lessons that transcend youth ministry and take you to the very core of spiritual, relational, and team building principles. Also a blog, a "freebies" section (which is the one that every youth pastor shoots for automatically), and an opportunity to join the "Cadre" (a select group of youth ministers from around the country) are the main features of this site. I would suggest looking deeper in the pages however, there is some really nice stuff tucked away back there.

A well built site, easy to use and implement lessons, mentoring from one of the greatest Student Pastors of our time... What are you waiting for?

Best of all, at $10 a month they are basically giving this stuff away. Click on the picture below to get started.

Awesome Youth PowerPoint Templates Via VintageChurch.cc

2011-02-08T05:52:00.000-08:00

Just found a really nice free graphic resource/sermon powerpoint site named Vintagechurch.cc. This is a site is geared towards a more edgy crowd than your average Sunday morning retanue, but they have an amazing eye for popular youthful trends. Think of it as a Graceway Media on caffine. Anyway, the Vintage Vision goes a little something like this:

Each year, millions of dollars are allocated by churches to develop artwork, video, systems and programs that usually never make an impact outside of their communities or immediate sphere of influence.

All of these resources were bought and paid for by congregants who have a desire to see the Gospel go forward in our World.

So here’s how it works:

Church A – Has a ton of resources invested in artwork, video, systems and programs.

Church B – Has limited resources to invest in artwork, systems and programs thus hindering their effectiveness at sharing the gospel.

Church A shares their resources with Church B. More people are reached.

Vintage Church Resources bridges the gap between Church A and Church B.

Wow, sounds a lot like NewParadigm's vision. Which is why we are more than happy to post this awesome resource here for you.

Create your church/ministry website in under an hour, absolutely free!

2011-02-07T09:13:00.000-08:00

I am going to post now about an easy way to create a great looking website for your church or ministry in under an hour at a budget of $40 a year. Yes, I understand the irony of a business that offers web design promoting another companies website solutions, but my purpose for starting this business was to resource churches with low cost-high yield media products that could take their church to the next level. Therefore, my conscience prevents me from the "outsell the competitors" business model.

To this end, I want to draw attention to the new Google Chrome Market. I am infinitely impressed by Google and their endless pursuit to conquer all avenues of digital media. Today I want to direct you to an "in browser" website building app called "Weebly". Probably one of the simplest yet streamlined WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) web builder I have seen in a long while. While boasting a large supply of well honed widgets, this app lets you create up to 10 pages free, fast, and fashionable. Most functions of this website builder is free, but the pro version, which gives you all of their advanced goodies, is only a paltry $30 a year. You can choose to host on the Weebly server (with, of course, the .weebly prefix) or host on a domain you have previously purchased. In all, this is a perfect solution for the Pastor or Pastoral staff who has no html/css training to build a nice website and start reaching their target audience. Here's my breakdown-

Pros:

Easy to use (you don't have to know a single bit of code)
Large variety of templates to get you started
Free hosting available
Cheap pro account
You can edit in html if you are savvy

Cons:

Some of the elements can't be resized to allow for a more diverse layout
No "login" interface to direct loyal customers to

Click on the banner below to get started, and post a link to your weebly designed web page in the comments section to show off your designs.

Dangerous Effects with Action Essentials 2

2011-02-05T17:57:00.000-08:00

So, I was sitting at home, kind of bored, just wondering what to do on a rainy day. Then I had an amazing thought, how about causing some won-ton destruction!? After dwelling on the fact that I had no idea what won-ton meant, I scurried outside and found my unsuspecting victim. My neighbors door... and since I had newly bestowed super powers thanks to my near death experience with a radiated wildlife animal, I could now unleash the inner beast. The mode - surface to air bombardment. The medium - fireball of death.

No, seriously, I wanted to play around with the copy of Action Essentials from Video Copilot I just got. Tune in next week to get a short tutorial on how this clip came together.

Eye Catching Title Designs a la Kramer

2011-02-04T07:51:00.000-08:00

Andrew Kramer of Video Copilot (who is, quite possibly, the most intelligent man on the planet) recently released a tutorial about creating some rather terrific titles and logos just by using the stroke tool in After Effects. Easy to do, I had one compiled in under fifteen minutes. This would be great for a fancy sermon title when your message doesn't have a theme that can be expressed with certain imagery.

CreationSwap Graphical Goodness

2011-02-03T10:40:00.000-08:00

Since our vision here at NewParadigm is to bring you, the ministry leader, the best solutions for your graphical needs, I wanted to point you all in the direction of this little web gem I found today. CreationSwap allows you to Search royalty-free stock photos, church bulletins, sermon art, logos and more shared freely or sold by Christian artists worldwide. A great resource for all who want that "custom" piece for your church publications and productions

http://www.creationswap.com