Join Apple Certified Trainer Richard Harrington as he explains two ways to achieve a slow motion effect on your video, both in Final Cut Pro and in After Effects. This is part 2 (of 2).



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We absolutely adore Apple’s Keynote software. Besides importing PowerPoint files and creating beautifully animated 3D charts, it likes to share. In fact, it can create any QuickTime format. Just set up your document for a video size and export a QuickTime movie with the Export command.



Like this tip? It comes from the book
Final Cut Studio On the Spot from Focal Press.

I recently picked up a new tablet for home use... it's actually for my three-year old who seems a bit too fascinated with the tablets in my office. Becuase budget was an issue, I picked up the new Wacom Bamboo. What I thought was merely a replacement for the old Graphire tablets is so much more. It's easy to set up, very responsive, and fun to use.

The Bamboo comes in a standard version, simply called Bamboo, which is targeted towards Windows users who need signature abilities for their documents as well as a few other perks. The "Fun" version costs $20 more (unless you go for the larger one, then its $120 more).

The tablet has four programmable buttons as well as a touch wheel. It also comes with a full version of Adobe® Photoshop® Elements and Corel® Painter™ Essentials. What surprises me is that the tablet costs the same as buying Photoshop Elements as a stand-alone application. The tablet is a nice addition to a home workstation and would be a great entry point for a new tablet user.

Join Apple Certified Trainer Abba Shapiro as he explains how to encode and burn your DVDs with DVD Studio Pro. This is part 1 (of 2).



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Want to go straight to tape when you choose Print to Video without having to press Record on your deck and click OK? You need to turn on Auto Record and PTV after three seconds. To access this advanced control, you need to call up your Audio/Video Settings folder:

1. Choose Final Cut Pro>Audio/Video Settings.
2. Go to the Device Control Presets tab, and modify your current Device Control preset that has worked for you.
3. Check the Auto Record and PTV after: X seconds box, and specify a time to wait. Three seconds is usually enough.
   

Note: The PTV setting is a function of your camera and deck and may not be supported by all devices. This is a hardware option, not a software setting.




Like this tip? It comes from the book
Final Cut Studio On the Spot from Focal Press.

I just gave a useful class (at least people there thought it was) on Automating Photoshop. We touched on Actions, Scripts, Droplets, and Automation commands. I have a few notes pulled together on the topic and wanted to share them here.

• Photoshop Automation Techniques

If you want a lot more on using Photoshop for Video, be sure to check out the book Photoshop for Video from Focal Press.

Join Apple Certified Trainer Richard Harrington as he explains two ways to achieve a slow motion effect on your video, both in Final Cut Pro and in After Effects. This is part 1 (of 2).



Like the podcast? Subscribe for FREE.
Want more training? Check out our DVDs.

Apple offers an excellent service for online storage, tools, and utilities. One of those utilities is Backup, which is designed to synchronize some of your key system settings. Any file can be added to Backup and be told to archive to your iDisk (the Internet storage that comes with a .mac account). Be sure to add your active project file to the backup list and tell it to archive every night. This is an excellent way to preserve a clean copy of the project file.



Like this tip? It comes from the book
Final Cut Studio On the Spot from Focal Press.

I recently had the pleasure of speaking at the 2007 European Radio Conference presented by the National Association of Broadcasters. The event was held in Barcelona, Spain and was a lot of fun. I presented two sessions and a panel along with the talented David Lawrence. For those who intended (and other interested parties) you can download the notes here.

Podcast Compression Techniques

Beyond Audio – Using Enhanced Audio and Video in your Podcast Feed

Adobe's Russell Brown has produced a great new collection of FREE workflow scripts for Photoshop CS3 & CS3 Extended. Be sure to check out Dr. Brown's Services 1.9.2 which offer some great features for video.
"Background Remover," "Interpret Video," "Fit Video to Audio," and "Slide Show" scripts take advantage of Photoshop CS3 Extended's new video capabilities.

If you want to save time, download Dr. Brown's Services 1.9.2

Join Apple Certified Trainer Abba Shapiro as he shows you how to create and modify a slideshow for your DVD using DVD Studio Pro.



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Want more training? Check out our DVDs.

Sometimes you don’t have the time to do an online session and ingest your clips as uncompressed, or maybe you just don’t have the equipment to support the process. Either way, here is a quick way to achieve uncompressed space via software. Just be aware that this method won’t make your video look better, but what it will do is give you great bandwidth for color correction (versus DV or HDV, for example), and make your text and graphics look as good as possible.

1. Start by creating a new sequence and load the uncompressed 10-Bit preset.
2. If you’re working in HD simply change your frame size and pixel aspect ratio to the flavor of your choice. Click OK to save the changes to your new sequence.
3. Find your original sequence in your Browser and drag it to the Canvas. Make sure you’re holding down the Command key as you don’t want to nest this sequence (Command will make all the clips come in as individual clips, not as a nest) and choose Overwrite. Also make sure you have the same number of video and audio tracks as your original to ensure clips don’t get lost.
4. All of your clips will be placed in the Timeline and simply choose to render the sequence.
   

If you’re going back to tape make sure your hard drives are fast enough to support uncompressed playback (might be a big issue if you’re attempting to do this with HD).

If your final output is DVD or the web, don’t worry about not being able to play it back, as you’ll simply output the file through Compressor and don’t need real-time playback.

Like this tip? It comes from the book
Final Cut Studio On the Spot from Focal Press.