Top 10 Resources for the Church Media Guy
I don’t pretend to be an expert on Church Media. It’s not my professional job and I technically don’t have any professional training or education in the field. But, the advantage I do have is that I am the sole person responsible for the media aspect of our church and I end up designing a variety of projects for our church: Sermon PowerPoint slides, business cards, videos, websites, and much more. I also take care and manage our church’s media computer. As such, being somewhere in between common person and media guy, I might be in a unique position to share some resources for the rest of the “common” folk who are in need of some resources, tips, how-to’s, and freebies and have no idea where to start. So, allow me to save you some time.
#10 - Muddy River Media
Muddy River is a site that offers free videos. The qualities of most are not that great but their selection is…especially for a free site. I’ve downloaded several videos from there and am worth at least checking out.
#9 - mynorthside.com/creative/
This church offers its custom made sermon and message designs in PSD format (Photoshop). Of coarse, this will be a slight problem if you don’t have Photoshop but if you do, this is a great place to look for ideas and free custom work.
#8 - Sxc.hu
Anybody who has done any graphic design knows the need for some type of pictures and graphics to manipulate. And while Google Images might be a help, the truth is that you run into a whole host of legality issues when using other people’s artwork without permission. So, you either pay for stock graphics or you break the law…OR you use www.sxc.hu to find free stock royalty free graphics. You do have to set up an account but it is worth it.
Occasionally I need to share artwork either with clients, friends, or coworkers and this can be slightly difficult due to schedule and/or distance. You could try using a social networking site or just email, but these still have limitations. Here’s where Drop.io comes in. You can upload files for free and share them with whomever. You can set passwords, custom urls, set download restrictions, and even customize the layout all for free. Now, the one downside is that there is a 100mb limit, which, honestly, won’t affect too many people and still makes this site useful to just collaborate over drafts, ideas, etc. If you need to send larger FINAL files, you use a service like www.transferbigfiles.com to send files up to 1GB.
#6 - Church Marketing Lab (beta)
This site really isn’t a site, but a group on Flickr. Church Marketing Lab is a group to share works in progress and get input for tons of people, most of whom are professional Christian graphic designers who will help give you direction, refine your work, or just tell you that your idea stinks. But it’s better to hear that there than after you’ve already published your work in to the Public world.
These are actually 2 sites but both belong to the same group. Each site offers free resources to help in graphic design (Photoshop brushes and Vectors). If you’re not sure what these are, then this may be something you even need to look into so just skip down to the bottom…or read on for more info. Both brushes and vectors not only can save you time, but add a whole realm of complexity and depth to your graphics that you’ve never had before. The more you play with them and use them, the better you’ll become at implementing these great tools.
#4 - IgniterMedia.com
This is my first NOT-FREE site but still deserves the #4 position. Despite that it isn’t free, you can get occasional free downloads from them. But, that is not why it is on here. It’s on here because the quality of videos they make is outstanding. Yes, $15-$20 a video might be much, but these will add to your church service or event much more than $20 could ever buy.
Pretty much just repeat what I said before for this as well. Affiliated with ignitermedia.com, this site is #3 because it has all the stuff igniter media has and then 100 times more. WorshipHouseMedia is a collection of videos, graphics, countdowns, and moving backgrounds made by literally hundreds of different groups. Some are great GREAT, others are just okay. But this is definitely a place to start looking.
#2 - CreativeMYK
I’m on this site the most behind Facebook. Whether you’re just a person looking for some nice free pictures, a pastor looking for a graphic for an upcoming sermon series, an amateur designer looking for some input on a recent creation, or a professional who wants a social site just for you, this is the site. All free. Designers share their custom designs and pictures for free and also link up to discuss topics and critique designs. There’s also a rumor that they will be adding videos to this site as well which, if they do, would make this my #1 site suggestion.
#1 - churchmediadesign.tv
This #1 will not be for everyone. Granting that, this site has turned into an invaluable resource for me. Brad Zimmerman weekly shares a tutorial on a large range of topics relating to church media. Each week, he posts a video both to this site that is simple and quick to watch and to his video podcast, which can be downloaded as a high quality version for your viewing pleasure at your own convenience. He has helped immensely in After Effects, showed me some great how-to’s in Photoshop, given me some great free resources, reviewed some products (one of which I am using now), and more. He can show you how to do a free newsletter and podcast, how to do a green screen right, how to do a voice over, or ways to make 3D text. Each week he normally has a link for a free resource and offers some good links.
Honorable Mentions:
- planetphotoshop.com: Some great and quick photoshop tutorials
- bluefishtv.com: Cheap sermon illustrations and moving backgrounds.
- stufficanuse.com: Prepackaged sermon/message graphic material.
- dafont.com: A good place to find tons of free fonts.
- gotprint.com: good place for your large quantity printing needs…large being the keyword. I use this site for business cards and postcards.
- echodgaphics.com: a Place to get custom banners for the exact size you need.
