Last night, I was working with text and images in Adobe Premiere Pro. I was using text overlays at the end of a video. I had inserted and blown up a transparent PNG logo image with additional text as the last overlay, but had to change the font of the rest of the text to match the font in the image. The first three text overlays were 150% font size. But when I resized the PNG overlay in the last bit, I had to use 160% font size to match the image's text. Well this proved to be sloppy and unprofessional looking, so I wanted to fix it, but I wasn't sure how to resize the image and text to match 150% font size that was present in the other title overlays. Then I remember something I learned in high school: algebra.
The image was scaled to 185% original size.
The font was 160%, but needed to be 150%.
If 160=185, then I needed to figure out what 150 would equal. I just needed to work the numbers a little.
185/160 = 1.15625
1.15625 x 150 = 173.4375
So I resized the image to 174% and the text to 150%, and presto, everything matched.
YEAH, MATH!
Call me a nerd, but I think math is immensely important. I have to use it all the time when I'm working with sound, video, or general I.T. stuff. Perhaps your line of work won't require you to understand algebra, but understanding basic tenets of mathematics is essential in life. Want to know your fuel mileage? Track your miles per tank and gallons per fill. Want to know your cost per mile? Track your cost per tank and miles per tank. Want to be able to project your current spending into the future and re-configure your budget to be able to save a certain amount of money by a certain date, perhaps to buy a plane ticket for travel? Are you in a band and need to figure out how much you can spend on a tour while staying profitable? You need to understand math to do these things.
Props to Marjorie Craemer, one of the few high school teachers I had who legitimately cared about her students and their futures, for devoting her career to teaching math. Partly because of her influence in my life (along with numerous other factors), I really think CCCB needs to incorporate math into its general curriculum. Even if the college can't afford to hire on a part time mathematics professor, at least requiring students to take a course or two at MACC would be better than nothing. If the college wants to train people to work in churches and help those churches to function well, then it needs to train its students in mathematics beyond an elective "personal finance" course. It should include at least one course in basic business management so that people can get an idea of how to work an organization's budget.
Okay. Enough ranting.
/Plug
No comments:
Post a Comment