I am officially on Twitter... you can follow if you'd like: 1. Random thoughts. 2. Cool links from Smart Friends 3. Breaking News. If my babbling doesn't bore you... http://twitter.com/rhedpixel

Two weeks ago, I told you about our new group on Facebook for those interested in New Media. Many of you asked us to post the training videos to iTunes. We did.

You’ll also find 6 hours of free video training to check out on their site. I’m one of the organizers of the group and I hope you can share this info with others. The group is free... the video is free... knowldge is free... let’s make a difference.

Here are the six videos you can watch (in HD even).

• New Media Boot Camp – slides
• Facebook 101– Why all the Buzz? – slides
• Podcasting and Government – slides
• Blogging to Reach an Audience – Does Anyone Care What You Have to Say – slides
• It’s all About Mobility – Reaching Audiences on the Go – slides
• Producing Video for the Web – Best Practices for Big Results – slides

Enjoy.

Are you looking to stay up on the latest news and network with other new media professionals interested in efficient government? Be sure to check out this Facebook group which helps connect the public and private sectors in this important cause.

You’ll also find 6 hours of free video training to check out on their site. I’m one of the organizers of the group and I hope you can share this info with others. The group is free... the video is free... knowldge is free... let’s make a difference.

Here are the six videos you can watch (in HD even).

• New Media Boot Camp
• Facebook 101– Why all the Buzz?
• Podcasting and Government
• Blogging to Reach an Audience – Does Anyone Care What You Have to Say
• It’s all About Mobility – Reaching Audiences on the Go
• Producing Video for the Web – Best Practices for Big Results

Enjoy.

The fine folks at Focal Press have decided to release two free updates. The popular books Photoshop for Video and Creating Motion Graphics both have free updates for the Creative Suite 4 release.

Even if you don’t have these two books (which I’d really suggest you check them out)... the CS4 updates are absolutely free.

• The Free Photoshop Update
• The Free After Effects Update

If you’re an editor, be sure to check out the Editors Retreat. This great event is a lot of fun and a wonderful learning experience (I’ve been 5 times its that good). The price is lowered, but you need to put a reservation in ASAP.

“With respect to the current economic times and in response to your requests, we are pleased to announce a price reduction for 2009 Editors Retreat. By shortening the length of the Retreat by one day, we’ve managed to cut the price from $3,150 to $2,300 without losing any of our key sessions.

The Retreat now includes:
• 4 days and 3 nights of sessions and activities
• All-inclusive resort stay
• See more here

And, a package of give-aways for each attendee worth $2,400 to include:
• A Full Pass to the 2009 NAB Post-Production World Conference in Las Vegas! (Valued at approx. $700)
• An Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium! (Valued at $1700)

With all of the give-aways and savings you actually receive more than the price of the retreat!

Join us for an amazing conference of advanced sessions, networking, creative workshops, award winning keynotes, raffles and unlimited access to representatives from Apple, Adobe and Avid!”
Registrations must be submitted before December 10th, 2009 with a 30% down payment. Visit www. EditorsRetreat.com for more info.

There are lots of shopping deals this weekend.... Here are a few that I’ve already taken advantage of.

Delkin Devices – 25% off and free shipping. This includes a Blu-ray burner, multiple types of card readers (I ordered a 4 card reader to load from 4 Compact Flash cards at once)! Use the code HOLIDAY during checkout.

equinox – Makers of useful software utilities like Coverscout (to get iTunes artwork) and several templates for OSX mail. I ordered the tube stick bundle for $99 that lets you record over-the-air digital TV signals to your Mac, then transcode them for use on iPod or iPhone. Several bundles that are 50% off.

Mophie – Get the JuicePack for iPhone and iPod Touch. Doubles your battery life and makes for a long day of web work on the device. Take 25% off this weekend. Use the code gobblegobble3G.

Hop you enjoy... I get nothing from links... this is just what I spent money on and thought the deals were good.

Author and video podcaster Richard Harrington as he explains the importance of lighting diagrams and shows you how to make them with Omnigraffle.

Richard Harrington takes a look at a wide variety of video accessories in the Hoodman (http://www.hoodmanusa.com/) booth at Photoshop World '08.

Richard Harrington examines how to deliver large files online with yousendit (http://www.yousendit.com/), at the '08 New Media Expo in Las Vegas.

If you’ve ever had issues launching Apple’ Compressor software, you’re not alone. The software seems to frequently get stuck and fail to launch. Fortunately, Digital Rebellion has a free tool to fix the issue called Compressor Repair.

“Apple's Compressor relies heavily on a service called Qmaster in order to work. Qmaster allows you to split rendering tasks across multiple machines in a render farm but it is still required even if you are only rendering on a single computer.The link between the two is so important that if the Qmaster service fails to launch, Compressor will be unable to submit batches. Should this occur, Compressor Repair checks for problems that could be preventing Qmaster from operating correctly. It checks for missing files, incorrect permissions, and attempts to manually start the qmasterd process.”

So... we’ve been running a contest to win free stuff (we’ll be drawing in late November).

So far we’ve got three copies of Adobe Photoshop, an assortment of Joby Gorillapods, and copies of Nik Software and Digital Anarchy plug-ins.

Cool right? Its easy to win (and your chances are very good). Simply watch the videos at CSFour.com or any of our embedded players.

With each video you’ll see a pencil shaped button. Click it to take a short (and I mean :45 seconds or less) survey.

You can take a survey one time only, that’s one time per video. Each survey counts as one entry. This means you have up to 15 chances to win prizes.

What are you waiting for? Free stuff is pretty cool.

Richard Harrington discusses the mDialog (http://www.mdialog.com/) online video platform with Greg Philpott at the 2008 New Media Expo.

Richard Harrington discusses online media distribution with Brett Wilson from tubemogul.com, at the '08 New Media Expo in Las Vegas.

Richard Harrington looks at audio mixers from Mackie (http://www.mackie.com/) at the '08 New Media Expo in Las Vegas.

While at Photoshop World, I stopped by the Hoodman booth to check out new products. One in particular caught my eye. The WristShot Camcorder Support System takes the weight of the camera and transfers it to your forearm.

I tried a unit out and bought one... its a nice way to get stability and literally take a load off the wrist. The unit is designed to work with cameras up to 10 pounds. What’s also nice is that the unity includes a tripod adapter mount making it easy to switch from your standard tripod to the WristShot unit.

We did a video interview on the product and will have it up shortly. For now, check out the company’s website.

Richard Harrington takes a look at audio gear from Edirol, a division of Roland, at the '08 New Media Expo.

At New Media Expo '08, Richard Harrington talks to Amra Tareen from allvoices.com, the first open media site where anyone can report from anywhere.

I just got my hands on a new hnadbook for HD written by Philip Hodgetts of Intelligent Assistance. Philip is a great guru and has helped me out of several jams in the past. This new book is a 212 page PDF that is reasonably priced at $15.95.

“The HD Survival Handbook was written to answer the myriad of questions that arise when a video professional moves from working in the Standard Definition world up to the more complex world of High Definition.

From essential background information a video professional is expected to know, to summaries of the latest gear that would take you hours of research on the web, this handbook has it covered. The HD workflows area will help you avoid the pitfalls that have trapped so many others and be ready to meet your customers' demand for HD.”

The book works with all NLEs, but has deeper coverage of Final Cut Studio. What’s also cool is that you can buy just the sections you need. Philip sells the Production, Post Production, and Distribution chapters as separate downloads.

Here are two sample pages:

• "What is HD?"
• RAID

Here are the table of contents for each section:

• Production
• Post-Production

• Distribution

Author and video podcaster Richard Harrington shows you how to create your own, customizable lower third in Photoshop. If you want to learn more about Photoshop, be sure to check out our other show, Photoshop for Video.

Author and video podcaster Richard Harrington shows you another handy compression tool in VisualHub from www.techspansion.com.

I often preach extensively about project management at design and creative conferences around the globe. The one piece of paperwork that I always emphasize is completing a scoping document for a project then getting the client to sign off and accept it. This one piece of papaerwork can solve all sorts of problems and is really worth the 2-5 hours it takes to write. The outline is as follows.

Project Scoping Document

( 2 - 1 0 p a g e s )

• Project Name
• Executive Summary
• Background
• Project Scope (High Level)

• Project Objectives
• Deliverables
• Organizations
• Interfaces Required
• Assumptions
• Constraints
• Evaluation Criteria
• Risks
• Rewards
• Budgets
• Schedules (Due Dates)
• Project Team Readiness

• Key Roles

• Executive Sponsor
• Project Manager
• Business Experts
• Technical Experts

• Signature Lines - Sign Off “Charter”

bbDEMUX – Free

http://sourceforge.net/projects/macbbdemux

I stumbled across this great piece of freeware when stuck with an editing problem. My client had some MPEG-1 files they wanted to edit together for their website. While I was able to import them into FCPand set the timeline to 320X240, I couldn’t get the audio to import. Turns out with MPEG-1 files, the audio and video are merged into one track (muxed). This great little app does nothing more then split them apart, but that’s all that was needed and its free!

Recharge Your Creativity and Craft • January 28 - February 1 • Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

Now in its third year, the Editors Retreat has become an annual gathering for the post-production elite. Highly experienced editors from the worlds of film, TV and video gather to network, exchange ideas, share tips and of course, have fun!

Past keynotes and attendees have included such names as Alan Heim, Sally Menke, Stuart Bass, Chris Franklin and David Helfand as well as Apple, Adobe and Avid experts and industry power users. Attendees have included representatives from HBO, FRONTLINE, MTV, Lockheed Martin, Harpo Productions and Telemundo.

Running for 5 days and 4 nights, the Retreat offers advanced sessions on post visual and audio techniques and features valuable insight into emerging trends and technologies. An equal amount of time will be devoted to discussing the creativity, craft and business practices of successful editors.

To ensure that only the best of the best attend, participation is subject to an application and screening process. Visit www.EditorsRetreat.com for the full schedule and more details.

WATCH THIS YEAR'S VIDEO

I was over at YouTube posting a new tutorial.... came across a great clip that mixes multiple animation styles… this is VERY cool.  It’s nice to hear the man so off-the-cuff… yet wise.
“In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon’s every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries the terrifyingly genius pen work of James Braithwaite with masterful digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon’s boundless wit, and timeless message.”
Learn more about it here (and yes… I missed this one somehow).

Author and video podcaster Richard Harrington explains how and why you might want to use or not use your cameras video tally lights on your next shoot.

Author and video podcaster Richard Harrington explains why he recommends shooting your video podcast in 24p (or 24 frames per second, progressive).

Author and video podcaster Richard Harrington explains how you can take your wireless broadband card and share that internet connection with others on location.

I often find I have too much information to remember (and for some reason people expect me to be able to spout pixel aspect ratio numbers like a multiplication table). Fortunately the fine folks over at Digital Rebellion has solved this (and for free). They offer several video widgets that do important math, these run on a web browser or iPhone (and a couple can run offline as well).


Video Footage Calculator – Calculates how much storage you'll need for your footage type and duration.
Web – iPhone version – Offline version

Film Rate Calculator – Determines how much film you need for a particular scenario.
Web – iPhone version – Offline version

Aspect Ratio Calculator – Determines the aspect ratio for different footage formats.
Web – iPhone version

Depth of Field Calculator – Calculates depth of field for many camera sensors.
Web – iPhone version

Pixel Aspect Ratio Calculator – Determines relationship of Pixels for many digital formats.
Web – iPhone version

Lens Angle Calculator – Helps calculate the lens angle for a given sensor size and focal length.
Web – iPhone version

Power Load Calculator – Calculates the load on a circuit to see if it is excessive. You can also calculate the minimum circuit breaker size for the given load.
Web – iPhone version

These tools are cool, free, and useful.... three points that make them a must have for my iPhone.

Looking for a useful application to tell you more about your video files? Mac users should check out the free (and still in pre-release) Video Spec software tool. The tool is a little rough around the edges (it has one major bug which is the aspect ratio of DV and HDV is not reported accurately) but it is still truly useful.

• The latest version has been tested on Mac OS X Tiger and Leopard.
• It is compatible with PowerPC and Intel Mac (Universal Binary).
• This version is localized in english and french.

A trainer that I respect a great deal has released a free tutorial. Mark Spencer offers a free tutorial on Motion Control effects with photos:

“Animating photos is a staple effect pioneered by celebrated documentarian Ken Burns. In this tutorial Mark Spencer shows you why you should be doing these types of effects in Motion rather than Final Cut Pro.”

Click here to watch Mark's tutorial

Caught a great presentation from Steve Martin at NAB. It's all about using Production Premium with other NLEs like Final Cut Pro. Steve is a popular trainer (in fact one of Apple's main instructors). This one is helpful...



If you want more free classes... visit the Adobe TV site.

Want 30 minutes of free training on Adobe Photoshop CS3? Adobe had me in their theater at NAB giving lessons. Here's a recording from one of the days so you can see what was taught.



If you want more free classes... visit the Adobe TV site.

Thanks to the School of Podcasting for having us on the show. I had a chance to catch up and talk with the host about what folks need to think about when moving into the world of video podcasting. The interview also features my co-author (and business partner) Mark Weiser.

You can get the interview for free right here (http://www.schoolofpodcasting.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=330803) and you should also check out their other shows which offer great perspective.

Author and video podcaster Richard Harrington shows you the china ball, an affordable soft lighting source.

Apple iTunes just promoted my company to network status. You can find all of our "in-house" technical training podcasts on a single page now.

I encourage you to take a look at our several shows.

• Understanding Adobe Photoshop – iPod and HD – A general interest show about Photoshop for beginners and intermediates
• Photoshop for Video – iPod and HD – A show about creating graphics for video pros and motion graphic designers
• Producing Video Podcasts – iPod and HD – A show that offers both production and post tips for making video for the web
• Final Cut Help – iPod – Weekly tips about using Final Cut Studio

Remember, the podcasts are totally free, all we ask is you post a review to the iTunes store and tell a friend.

Thanks to all the great people who attended my classes at NAB this year. It was a ton of work to prep (and I must admit I needed some rest when I got back home). As promised, the class notes and resources have been posted to the Handouts section (be sure to browse for other resources as well).

Here's the list of what's available.

01 Fast Start with Adobe Photoshop for Video Pros – Slides | Book Sample
02 Video Podcasting Essentials – Slides
03 Selling Podcasting to Your Clients – Slides
04 A Sense of Perspective with Vanishing Point – Slides | Practice Files
05 Creating Movement within Photos with After Effects CS3 – Slides | Practice Files 1 | Practice Files 2
06 Directing Video Podcasts – Slides
07 Project Management for Video Pros – Slides
08 In-Depth: Video Production for the Web – Slides
09 Creating a Graphic Identity for Your Web Video – Slides [Enhanced PDF]
10 Render Faster: Wait Less and Play More in Adobe After Effects – Slides
11 Storyboard Techniques with Adobe Photoshop – Slides
12 Creative and Animated DVD menus using Photoshop – Handouts
13 Automating Broadcast Design with Photoshop – Slides
14 Seeing a New Light: FCP Color Correction – Slides | DVD

Apple Motion is a great tool, but often leads new users a bit stumped. Here are two useful sites for getting more done.

AppleMotion.net
Mark Simpson is the author of the official Apple book's on Motion. He's got a great site with lots of news and downloads.

Moojoose
“Here is a colleciton of small motion projects and movie examples.”

I need to use textures all the time when creating graphics. I recently found a great website with a bunch of free, high-resolution textures. Be sure to check out TextureArchive.com. “TextureArchive.com is devoted to providing a site which is useful for all types artists.”

Free is good... "good" free is even better.

A lot of folks use Apple's Compressor to create podcast video files. That is when its running. I use Compressor all the time and think its a great application that harnesses the power of Apple hardware and software... but it can be a bit buggy.

Apple has posted a useful article on what to do when Compressor isn't starting up properly or performing normally.They offer basic troubleshooting steps to remedy the situation. This is the right place to start if you are attempting to to submit a batch and you see the following message:
Unable to submit to queue. Please restart your computer or verify your Compressor installation is correct.

Check out the whole article here.

Richard Harrington was recently a guest on the Plugged-In Podcast (presented by Toolfarm). The show was taped at Macworld and features several guests talking about the latest in Digital Media.

• Coby Rich – Sorenson Media
• Larry O'Connor – Other World Computing
• Richard Harrington – RHED Pixel
• Jon Schilling – CalDigit
• Marlon Braccia – Shiva Entertainment

You can listen to the show here

I saw this very cool product at Macworld Expo called Flow. It is a revolutionary workflow management technology designed to work with Adobe and Apple software. The product took Best of Show (and for good reason). You can see it in action in a video demo on their site. 

"Flow is a revolutionary approach to digital content management that dramatically simplifies the design process for creative professionals working on graphic design, web and video projects. Flow automatically tracks your work from idea to end result and manages your assets and applications for your most complex projects- all without changing the way you work."

Flow isn't shipping for a while, but GridIron is accepting sign-ups for beta testing.

This is just awesome, Calibrated Software has a bunch of new plug-ins on tap that make it possible to work with MXF and DVCPRO HD codecs. This will streamline P2 workflow for both Mac and Windows users, as well as make it easier to move DVCPRO HD material to a PC. I promise a detailed review soon. The codecs cost $49 each. Here's the info.

QuickTime P2 MXF/DVCProHD Decode Components for Apple
For playing P2 MXF Files and QuickTime DVCProHD Files on Mac OSX (Intel) and importing native P2 MXF Files into Final Cut Pro Studio 2 Applications (see Read Me)
Please note: The P2 MXF plugin has NOT been tested in long form projects in FCP Studio 2 Applications and the DVCProHD Codec should NOT be installed if the Apple DVCProHD Codec is already installed.
Download BETA 1.0.0 (Build 18) for OSX 10.4 (Tiger) - Intel Only
Download BETA 1.0.0 (Build 18) for OSX 10.5 (Leopard) - Intel Only
Download Read Me
Download License Agreement

QuickTime P2 MXF/DVCProHD Decode Components for Windows
For playing P2 MXF Files and QuickTime DVCProHD Files on Windows (see Read Me)
Download BETA 1.0.0 (Build 18) for Windows
Download Read Me
Download License Agreement

Lot of bugs lately with QuickTime (especially in pro video applications). We've personally seen issues in both Final Cut Pro and After Effects.

Apple has released a new update to QuickTime... lets hope it's elusive “improves compatibility with third-party applications” actually means something.
Visit http://www.apple.com/support/quicktime/ for more information.

Author and video podcaster Richard Harrington explains how you can compress your video for podcast with Stomp from Shiny White Box.



Like the podcast? Subscribe for FREE.

Video podcaster and author Richard Harrington shows you how to edit a multi-camera shoot for your video podcasts.



Like the podcast? Subscribe for FREE.

Video podcaster and author Richard Harrington explains how to compress your podcasts fast using the Turbo.264.



Like the podcast? Subscribe for FREE.

Looking to share some advice on Final Cut Pro? Then take a look at our Weekly Tip Widget.

You are welcome to share this with others and add it to any website.

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

If you need to put together a storyboard, you have lots of options. But the process of laying out the pages and dealing with changes to shot order or selection can get tedious. Fortunately there is a free solution called Directors Boards which alleviates most of the challenges (no, it won't draw for you).

This great program is based on Filemaker, but doesn't need you to have the full program installed in order to run. You essentially load in information regarding the shots including the audio and video columns, shot number, and a thumbnail image. Directors Boards then allows you to organize the shots as well as create a sldieshow presentation or print out professional looking storyboards. The product is cross-platform and free... what more do you need? Well there is a more robust version called Directors Notebook, which we are putting through its paces and will have a detailed review soon.

Looking to expand your typographical toolbox? Then be sure to visit Dinc Type at the unique URL www.GirlsWhoWearGlasses.com. The site is sassy and filled with great fonts. The unique thing is that while fonts are free, the selection frequently changes and fonts appear then disappear. Its like an incredible import shop where everything’s free, but the inventory keeps changing. Bookmark and keep checking back as their fonts are absolutely fantastic.

A few folks commented about my desktop pattern at a recent conference. It seems the old 'Indian head' pattern evokes some memories in many audience members.

Well the version I had comes from a Russian designer named Art. Lebedev. You'll find it and several other pieces of artwork on his posters page. For the test pattern, scroll down to the bottom and you'll find it in the right column. All are free to download.

We've been experimenting with the Panasonic HVX-200 on some of our recent shoots. This camera offers the ability to use P2 cards from Panasonic to store the video clips without ever going to tape. Sounds great, except you'll need to transfer those cards multiple times during an average shoot. This usually leads do a data assistant which is similar in function to a film-loader.

Leave it to Anders Holck to come up with a great solution. We already profiled the useful utility called FCP Rescue on this blog. Now he's released P2 Genie which automates several of the media management aspects when working with the cards.

• You run it on a Mac Laptop with a CardBus slot (This means PowerBooks only)
• P2 genie can be used as an automatic P2 store, or you set manual options
• It can also be used offload a P2 store or HVX-200.
• You can also choose to datestamp all your ofloaded P2 cards for easier sorting

We'll be putting it to test on a week-long shoot next week. P2 Genie costs $33 (US) or €25.