In this extended version of his article in the Creative Cow Visual Effects Issue, lighting expert and instructor Rick Wise draws on his decades of experience to illustrate how shadows can be the most important part of how a scene is lit. Learn how to control the direction and quality of your lighting design to add texture, dimension, and force to your images.
Need SD upconversion for HD projects, and HD cross-conversion? Broadcast editor and Final Cut Pro community leader Shane Ross recently had a DVCPRO HD project shot with the Panasonic Varicam and HVX-200 at 23.98 that had to be converted to 1080psf 23.98 for delivery on HDCAM. After long research and experience with many FCP-compatible cards, he concluded that the AJA Kona 3 was the way to go. It even handles SD upconversion too, all in real time. Read why he chose this specific card, and how he got the job done.
Creative Cows Nick Griffin says that, When we’re in a changing marketplace, we can go in one of two directions: we can make smart choices or dumb, knee-jerk reactions. In this article, Nick explores ways that we can make the smart choices and hopefully avoid becoming a casualty of the market malaise that is resulting from the real estate and stock market collapses of 2008.
Looking for smooth shoots even on extreme locations? Want a pain-free post? 24P, film look, Depth of Field converter, advanced compositing and sound design -- its all here. In this Creative Cow Magazine extra from the Workflow 3.0 issue, Carl Larsen shows you how to avoid problems through planning, along with invaluable tips for cinematic storytelling on a tight schedule.
Steve is a Senior Compositor and 2D Technical Director with over 20 years of production experience. His credits include over 60 films including as “Traffic,” Blade: Trinity”,“Ray”, “Batman & Robin”, “U-571”, “Air Force One,” TV shows including “Deadwood,” and over 70 commercial spots. In this Creative Cow Magazine Extra from the Visual Effects issue, Steve talks about invisible effects in projects he has worked on, with ideas you can use for your own projects.
The Cows Eran Stern, one of the worlds most respected After Effects artists, was able to take a sneak peek at the Adobe Creative Suite, CS 4. He saw a lot to like: deeper integration across the Adobe family, new animation tools and effects, speech recognition and metadata features, and much more.
This is the first in a series of articles in which veteran editor David Roth Weiss dives head first into, what are for him, the uncharted waters of Adobes latest release, CS4 Production Premium, including the updated and cross-platform OnLocation, and advanced metadata creation and tracking.
Director DP, REDtrepreneur, early adopter and obsessed student of the RED camera system David Battistella takes a closer look at how to hit the sweet spot on the RED sensor. David shows how understanding REDs inner workings will help you expose your scene just right, every time.
Want to let everyone in your shop use the same media at the same time? The Cows Bob Zelin shares the secrets for affordable shared storage that you can build yourself, and that WORKS. Start with big, fast storage from your favorite pro vendor, then follow along. Bob even shows you a few hazards to avoid along the way.
When one of the worlds biggest rock and roll bands, Oasis, celebrated a careers worth of achievement, the film playing behind Rock-n-Roll Star was created by Creative Cow author Nel Johnson and the team at Studio Skylab. Learn the After Effects techniques that helped them complete the project under a ridiculous deadline, while wowing Oasis and a worldwide audience. As Nel puts it, We locked ourselves away, cranked up the music, and went nuts. In this Creative Cow Magazine Extra, we take a closer look at the story, starting with the creation of the films unique look.
The reality shooter has to be mobile and invisible. Futzing around with lighting, support and/or audio can simply mean missing the shot, and often does. Videographer/editor and longtime Cow leader Grinner Hester demonstrates how to mod on a budget in this unique little how-to.
Dylan Reeve and a small team of New Zealand filmmakers had 48 hours to get their assignment, write a script, direct, shoot and post their film, then hand in the finished show...oh yeah, and refine their RED shooting and editing skills under the gun while trying to beat out 230 other teams! Sound wild? You have no idea....
The 3 newest DVDs in the Creative Cow Master Series, training even artists can afford. Learn secrets of advanced rotoscoping and compositing, real-world motion graphics that you can start using right away, and the CS3 tutorials you need to take your work to the next level from true masters from the craft.
Creative COW Magazines Music Video issue featured a look at the making of Poets of the Falls Carnival of Rust, one of the most imaginative music videos we have seen. Created in Helsinki, Finland by director Stobe Harju and director of photography Eki Halkka, you can read about the making of Carnival of Rust in our free Music Video issue, and here in this magazine extras page you will find links to the videos, interview podcasts, more on the band, their music, as well as the music videos of Stobe and Eki.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview Author: Cowdog
Everybody wants to know, what is Final Cut Server? And if they know the answer (hint: a very, very big deal), they want to know if it actually works. Who better to ask than people actually using it? The answers provided will change as the situation does, but this is where you can find everything you need to know about Final Cut Server, in real time.
In this article Creative Cow Leader Andrew Shanks plans to go through some of the software options for checking greenscreens on set (Lensfeed, Veescope and Conduit Live).
Apple Automator is a tiny application included with Mac OS X with big power, quickly and easily creating custom workflows based on the work you actually do - no programming required. Its the perfect way to handle those pesky repetitive tasks in FCP. Do something once, then let Automator take it from there. This handy little tool can make the difference between keeping and losing your sanity -- and making or missing your deadline.
Who doesnt love high quality free stuff? Let Creative Cow Contributing Editor Stephen Smith be your maitre D. Hell provide a menu that will show you some of the best places to get free video, photo and audio assets that will benefit every media professional.
Fix it in post? This article shows how to BUILD it in post. Here in April, as March Madness ends and the NBA Playoffs begin, the Cows Bill ONeill shows how he combined greenscreen, 2D graphics and 3D compositing in a remarkable promo for Big Ten basketball. This Web Extra from Bills article in the Cow Magazines Commercials issue shows you rough edits along the way, and shares some of the production secrets for building an entire world in post.
What do filmmakers do in their free time? They make films. The horror movie P2 has just been released on DVD, but when Doug Spice and team at Psychic Bunny saw the original trailer for the theatrical release, all they could think about was their cuddly little Panasonic HVX200. Heres a playful look at what happened when the two came together, with a few shooting and workflow tips for good measure.
Creative Cow Leader Shane Ross is one of a very small handful of the worlds most respected FCP experts. Over the course of years answering questions, hes compiled a real-world list of the questions that are truly the most frequently asked. He calls them Shanes Stock Answers. We call them the information you really need for working with FCP. Here in Part 3, he covers QuickTime issues, timecode management, P2 tips and much more, including one of the most frequently questions of all: how to open new projects in older versions of FCP.
A Creative Cow Exclusive! DigitalFilm Trees Zed Saeed has helped create pioneering digital workflows built around FCP, custom-designed for large-scale productions. Their biggest challenge so far has come on The Forbidden Kingdom, an epic film partnering Jackie Chan and Jet Li for the first time -- with production and post in China, Korea, Australia, and multiple locations in the US. Heres a look at how they put it all together with FCP, Xserve, XML, Color, file-based workflows...and hard, hard work.
In part 2 of our look at Windows on Mac, Creative Cows Tim Wilson digs deeper into questions like 64-bit computing, drive formatting, and backing up your content. Youll find tips and tricks for dual-platform success, as well as answers to a few questions raised by part 1 of this series.
Sure its possible, but why would anybody want to run Windows on a Mac? There are a bunch of great reasons for people using either OS -- and plenty more for people who have to use both. The Cows Tim Wilson takes a look at some of the options for working with 2 --or even more-- operating systems on the same computer. Sometimes, even at the same time!
Okay, so youve taken the big plunge and started your own business. Youve got the office set up, youve got the cards printed...now what? In part 3 of his series, Creative COW leader and business owner Walter Biscardi tells you what you need to know to get the word out, how to manage money...and manage clients! If youre even thinking about starting your own business, start here.
In this article, Brendan Coots addresses some of the points that users need to consider when asking ''What do I need to do to go into business for myself?''
The Apple iPhone is more than just the best- and fastest-selling phone of all time. It has recently become the proving ground for the technologies that are making their way into the rest of the Apple product line...and far, far beyond that. Creative COWs Tim Wilson takes a look at Apples recent iPhone announcement as he -- and Apple -- look at what the future might hold.
When most people think of Avid, low cost is not a term likely to be used in connection with the venerable leader in broadcast and film editing systems. But with today's announcements, Avid has both increased their lead in the education sector and has radically dropped the price of its flagship Media Composer software. In this article, Creative COW's Ron Lindeboom explores why we find this great news for both existing Avid customers and those who thought that they could never afford an Avid.
CreativeCOW leader Gary Adcock's experience shooting both film and HD gives him a unique perspective as he takes you along for thorough testing with the new RED camera. In part 1 of this series, he focuses on the camera's benefits and shortcomings of the camera itself, as well as some of the challenges shooting with it.
In this article, technology guru Mike Skibra discusses both IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) and the way that tools like Softron's OnTheAir system webcasts digital television over broadband network connections. IPTV is television content that, instead of being delivered through traditional broadcast and cable formats, is received by the viewer through the technologies used for computer networks. At the forefront of this new evolution in distribution, Softron OnTheAir enables the delivery of content using these internet enabled computers to become new broadcast channels. The OnTheAir system is Mac-based and in this article, Mike Skibra explains many of the basics you need to know for set-up and successfully broadcasting your content.
Film look software will never offer the same impact on your work that film-style shooting will. Software will also always take longer than shooting right the first time. Longtime film shooter Kim Segel shows you the tools and techniques to maximize film looks, even on paupers budgets.
Creative Cow Associate Publisher Tim Wilson wrote nearly a year ago that Wal-Mart would make the deciding vote in the DVD format wars. It turned out to be true, but its only the beginning of the story. Where will Blu-ray fit into the fast-changing landscape of home entertainment? Nothings over yet. Were just getting started.
Following Avids November 13, 2007 lead, Apple officially opted out of NAB 2008 on February 7, 2008. What are the ramifications of this laterst news on the future of NAB and what does it likely portend for the industrys largest gathering? In this editorial, the COWs Ron Lindeboom explores some of the trends and factors that are affecting decisionmakers and the growing move away from expensive trade shows.
Not all production with the RED camera is Hollywood-scale. Craig Meadows is in a smaller market, doing mostly local and regional spots. Even though he's only had his RED for a short time, he tells you here about how it works, its workflow, and how it's already making a big difference for his clients.
Creative Cow Leader Shane Ross is one of a very small handful of the world's most respected FCP experts. Over the course of years answering questions, he's compiled a real-world list of the questions that are truly the most frequently asked. He calls them Shane's Stock Answers. We call them the information you really need for working with FCP. In part 2 he covers HDV monitoring, editing web codecs, working with Photoshop files in FCP, and much more.
Creative COW Contributing Editor and graphics expert Sean Cusson shares the secrets to success that hes learned the hard way. They include the power of music for graphic design, compositing techniques, logo animation and invaluable workflow tips that will save you hours. Sean also shows you how to keep your graphics clients coming back for more.
Creative COW Community leader Gary Adcock was one of many COWs at MacWorld. He shares his impressions with us, including one product that will be shaping things for a long time to come. And because it's MacWorld, something cool for your iPod and iPhone.
Creative Cow Leader Shane Ross is one of a very small handful of the world's most respected FCP experts. Over the course of years answering questions, he's compiled a real-world list of the questions that are truly the most frequently asked. He calls them Shane's Stock Answers. We call them the information you really need for working with FCP. In part 1 he covers lossless QuickTimes, digitizing across timecode breaks, some of his favorite freeware add-ons, and more.
We often know each other in the Cow from the problems and solutions we share with each other, and very rarely the WORK that we actually do. Allow us to introduce then, a handful of Cows involved in various aspects of non-fiction television production. This covers everything from food and fishing to creating tasteful head wounds. With over 550,000 people passing through the Cow, this is only a brief introduction, but we have to start somewhere, dont we?
For his article in the Creative Cow Magazines Commercial Issue, film compositor, VFX artist, animator and Creative Cow Contributing Editor Steve Wright (Ray, Traffic, Blade: Trinity, Never Die Alone and 60 others), told how the computer graphics animation technology we see in film today actually originated in the world of commercial advertising. (He knows. He was there.) In this Creative Cow Magazine Extra, Steve provides even more details, including the demo reel for CGI pioneers Robert Abel & Associates, and a great spot that Steve created for Volkswagen...with cows!
Expert film compositor Pete OConnell takes you through the world of Cineon files, including exactly what they are, how they work, and how to work with them in Adobe After Effects. If you work with film files or want to, you need to read this article.
High Bandwidth/Large File Warning: Due to the fact that this article deals with film images, the image sizes are large and this article contains 32MB of images in the HTML file.
In this Creative COW Real Time Report, Don Greening puts the Sony DSR-PD170, long-acknowledged to be a low-light champ, against the newcomer, the PMW EX-1 head to head in a low-light test. Will the upstart unseat the champ? Read on....
If you love plug-ins for Final Cut Pro, youll love free plug-ins even more. CreativeCow.net Contributing Editor Stephen Smith highlights his five favorite free plug-ins for FCP, everything from eye candy to the ones that save your bacon.
Want to know why you should be using a mixer and an external mic instead of your cameras onboard mic? After years shooting for clients including National Geographic, NFL Film and Oprah, as well as production for his own company, hell give you the background you need to make your work sound its best.
Set in Baltimore, Maryland, The Wire will begin its fifth and final season in January 2008 on HBO. As different from standard TV as it gets, the show has received the highest levels of critical acclaim, being referred to by multiple reviewers as the best show on television. In its last issue of 2006 Time Magazine ranked The Wire first on its list of 10 Best TV Shows. And Finally recognized as the best series on TV. Sorry, Tony (Soprano), was Newsweeks description. Creative COWs Nick Griffin spent time on set earlier this year and interviewed one of the shows Producers. Heres his inside glimpse into The Wire and its production.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview Author:Nick Griffin
In this Creative COW Real Time Report, Don Greening takes us along on his very first shoot with his brand new Sony XDCAM EX camera on location in British Columbia. Upon return to his nice warm studio, Don also takes us through his very first look at the footage on his plasma TV, and his first edit in Final Cut Pro.
Your TV show isn't ready to air until the STATION says it's ready to air. The good news is that they're clear about what they want from you. Longtime TV vet and Creative COW leader Walter Biscardi tells you some of the things to look for...and some of the things to look OUT for.
In this article, Kathlyn Lindeboom explains the functionality and use of our new free Services Offered Directory section. With it, you can promote yourself within Creative COW's vital half-million monthly visitor stream at CreativeCOW.net.
Creative COW Leader Jeremy Garchow is one of the COW's most frequent posters. "I work in Final Cut Pro all day every day," he says, "and often all night too. These are a few of the issues I've found with Final Cut Pro 6. I assume that Apple will take care of these soon, but until then, here are some tips to help you watch where you step."
The Creative Cow Master Series of DVD training presents a closer look at the finer points of graphics and animation inside Final Cut. Hosted by Creative COW.net Contributing Editor Stephen Smith, this disk contains over 3 hours of energentic, informative lessons.
Building cinematic composites takes more than software. It takes careful planning, understanding the drama in every shot, and a sense of magic. In this Creative COW Magazine extra, we share our conversation with director Mark Allen, discussing his short film, Least Likely, a 60-second science fiction epic. Weve got the film here, along with some HD images from it. Prepare to be amazed.
You know you want to install OS X Leopard as soon as you can. For your production machine, though, you probably also know that you should wait. You also know that you're probably going to do it anyway. Whether you do it at the right or wrong time, there's a right way to do it. Creative COW Leader Shane Ross tells you how.
Jeremy Garchow's business is growing. So was his storage, and the potential for disaster. SATA array are less expensive, but were they safe, even with redundancy? With the Sonnet D800 he's got a terabyte of uncompressed HD, with full protection, for a great price. Read on to see the details of his set-up, and see if SATA and the Sonnet D800 will work as well for you as it has for Jeremy.
Allow us to introduce one of the most eagerly anticipated DVDs in Creative Cow Master Series history, Walter Biscardi's overview of Apple Color. Building on nearly 20 years of professional editing experience, as well as years of experience with Apple Color (and FInal Touch HD before it), he's got the perfect perspective to make working in Color easier than you imagined. It's the disk he wished he had when he started using Color.
You already know that your digital camera has higher-than-HD resolution -- even higher than film res sometimes -- and the pictures can look amazing. It turns out that your still camera actually works better than an HD video camera for creating time-lapse photography. Marco Solorio tells you how to put it all together.
12 Things I Know About Business at 55 That I Wish Id Known at 25 is one of Creative COW Magazines most popular articles. In this magazine reprint, COW leader, contributing editor, and Senior Business Adviser to Creative COW Nick Griffin shares wisdom hes learned the hard way in over 26 years in business. His experience will help you to avoid mistakes, manage clients, and prepare yourself to achieve your greatest success.
Need 3D modeling inside Adobe After Effects? Then you need this DVD! Creative COW Leader and Contributing Editor Serge Hamad shares his award-winning motion graphic expertise to unlock the power of the Zaxwerks Invigorator AE plug-in. Even if you've got no 3D modeling experience whatsoever, Serge will show you how easy it can be, and how great it can look. And even advanced AE and Zaxwerks users will find plenty of tips and tricks to work more effectively.
With a nearly infinite variety of possibilities to deliver your final project to your client, there are an almost infinite numger of ways to mess it up. Get it right, and the client is happy. Get it wrong, and nobody's happy: the job's not done, and you're not getting paid. No matter what kind of work you do, Creative Cow leader Aharon Rabinowitz tells you everything you need to know about output and media formats before you get to work...and before you can get paid.
In Part 1 of this series, Creative COW leader and contributing editor Walter Biscardi laid out the issues you need to address before you can answer the question, Are you ready to start your own business? If you have thought long and hard and your answer is Yes, then join Walter to explore setting up your company and getting ready to open those doors!
Responding to questions in the Creative Cow "HD High End" forum, Cow leader and contributing editor Tim Kolb lays out key differences between Sony's XDCAM and HDCAM, as well as cameras using Panasonic’s DVCPRO HD. This look at some of the industry's hottest forums will help anyone looking to explore the world of HD production.
In this reprint from Creative COW Magazine, Creative Cow leader and broadcast editor Shane Ross uses his work for The History Channel to illustrate end-to-end workflow using P2 media and the Panasonic HVX200: from a multi-camera shoot in the middle of blazing gunfire, all the way to your living room.
Creative Cow leader Walter Biscardi is a 17 year veteran of broadcast and corporate video production who owns Biscardi Creative Media in the Atlanta, Georgia area.. Along the way, he's learned a few things to do, and not do, in order to be successful. But before you can succeed building your business in the creative industry, you have to know: are you ready?
Creative Cow leader Shane Ross saved you a trip to Amsterdam -- further for some Cows than others, but pretty far for most. As always, you can count on Shane to tell you exactly what he thinks about what he saw: AJA, Sony XDCAM EX, Edit Share, and That Other Camera.
In 2000, a team from Steven Galvano's organization (RCCM) traveled to Zambia and the over 20 hours of video he captured there turned into a short documentary film. Now, 6 years and three documentary films later, documenting these trips have become a central part of what he does. In this article, Steven describes his recent documentary: Kenya, The Documentary Film.
Edward started the Vegas + DVD Tips, Tricks, and Scripts newsletter to cover all topics from the beginning basics to the more advanced features. The goal is to provide extended information on individual topics beyond what a quick forum answer could cover and to provide a repository of information for quick access. The September issue introduces the new features in the much-anticipated Sony Vegas 8.
Steve Wright is a visual effects veteran with 70 broadcast television commercials and over 60 feature films credits. He's also written and taught extensively on many aspects of effects creation. Here, using Apple Shake as an example, Steve introduces the ideas and methods of node-based compositing.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial, Feature Author:Steve Wright
Alongside such compositing projects as "The Lord of the Rings" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," Roger Bolton designs "CoreMelt Visual Effects" for Final Cut Pro and Motion. They take advantage of Apple's core video technology for amazing high-quality, real-time performance. This tutorial shows you how to harness that power to solve an age-old problem: how to quickly and creatively create image montages. Best of all, you'll find links to free effects filters, exclusively available to Cow readers!
Creative COW's Aharon Rabinowitz has completed a new DVD for the Creative COW Master Series, about every aspect of preparing your video for the web. Here's the Table of Contents.
Creative COW's Aharon Rabinowitz has completed a new DVD for the Creative COW Master Series, about every aspect of preparing your video for the web. We at The Cow are very excited about it, so we asked Aharon to tell you about it. We've also included some of the trailers Aharon created in his inimitable style -- great information presented with humor and high energy. Read on for a link to Chapter 1 of "Internet Killed the Video Star."
The COW Search engine offers a wide variety of functionality and has been improved to accommodate those hard to find posts. Find out how, and how not to use this new tool if you are seeking a lost post.
Creative COW Leader Tim Kolb uses his HDV expertise to explore the technology behind HDV, and show how it applies inside Final Cut Pro and other NLEs, with a special focus on longer projects. As Tim notes, this is a modified version of a post he made in the HDV forum responding to a question about FCP, but anyone who wants to know about editing HDV needs to check this out.
In the first of our Creative COW Magazine Web Extras, we begin with Stephen Smiths outstanding article on setting up an area for proper keying from the May-June 2007 edition. His article covers every option for setting up and lighting perfect keys. Here, we look at the best advice around The COWs online communities for pulling keys from HDV footage.
As promised, here's part 2 of our preliminary look at The COW's Collected Wisdom on ProRes. The update from last week: 215 ProRes posts in the past week. That's right: the pace of ProRes posts has more than doubled. And they're spread across 11 forums! Nobody can possible keep up with all this!
Except for us. You took the effort to write 215 ProRes posts last week, so we've read each and every one of them and summarized the highlights for you here.
The big stories in part 2: ProRes for HDV, with a splash of Color. We've also got the latest tech notes from Apple, documentation you might have missed, and updates on the latest supported mice.
Apple's ProRes 422 is the most talked-about feature in any application for quite some time. As users finally start getting their hands on Apple Final Cut Studio 2 and working with ProRes, a number of questions have popped up. Part 1 of this article compiles some of the answers to questions including capture, performance, resolution and workflow basics from across The COW.
There's a principle locked away in human nature that if you understand it, it gives you one of the keys you need to make your own business more successful. It's a principle that I call 'Clients or Grinders' and once you hear it, you'll know why... Over the years, Ron Lindeboom has shared this principle with many and his wife would tell you that he gets more mail and thanks from this one article than all the other articles combined that he's written over the years.
Creative Cow's Tim Kolb takes a look at the concept of 'voice' -- not the narrator's voice but the actual tone in which people and organizations communicate and how to relay that 'personality' to better convey your message.
Longtime professional editor, Patrick Inhofer -- whose work has included many stints on systems like Smoke, Avid and newer tools like Final Cut -- explores the differences between Avid Composer and Final Cut Pro. With his experience, Patrick explores workflow and feature comparisons of areas where they are both similar and dissimilar. Whether you agree or disagree with Patrick, we guarantee that you will find his perspective to be well thought out and full of information gained from years in the editing booth. This article has been entirely rewritten to reflect where we stand today, the start of 2006.
Sony has made a big splash in the video world with the release of their HDV camcorder the HVR-Z1U. By itself, it is capable of images that will amaze even the most jaded video professional. But as with all things, there's always room for improvement. By not having a microphone or wide angle supplied, you can choose better components that will enhance the performance of an already incredible camera. In this article, CreativeCOW.net contributing editor Jim Harvey walks CreativeCOW members through what they need to build the Ultimate Z1U set up.
Thanks to formats like DVCPro HD and HDV, High Definition can now be edited pretty much anywhere on just about any computer. Yeah, this is cool and you can really make your friends jealous just cutting away with your super slick laptop. But you know what's really slick? Editing Uncompressed High Definition anywhere. How about an Uncompressed editing workstation in a 25'' square box? No way? Way! Read on to find out about Wally's Traveling Box of Mystery and Intrigue...
Emmy Award winner, Tim Kolb discusses HDV and its place in the greater scope of HD production formats. Since the inception of the HDV format, we have seen many responces regarding the HDV format and how it fits alongside HDCam, DVCProHD, XDCam and other formats in the greater scope of the HD picture. In this article (which is taken from an HDV Format forum responce), Creative Cow's Tim Kolb gives what we feel is an exemplary job of dissecting the subject and clarifying the many components of the HD universe, HDV being one of those parts....
Have you ever wanted to contribute to building a twenty thousand man army in "Troy", make a mouse fly a plane in "Stuart Little 2", or launch a doomed luxury liner in "Titanic?" You can achieve visual feats you never dreamed possible and accomplish them all through the magic of compositing. Read this article written by John Lafauce Jr., and see... How to become a feature film compositor. A note just to clarify: this article is about high-end 2d/3d compositing for long form media such as films, where the goal is to make the work seamless, integrated and "invisible". Not to be confused with compositing for motion graphics, where the objective is to make the object or design stand out and be "visible" to the viewer.
Many products that media professionals now use have AAF or will have it in the near future. Some dont have it and some companies have no plans to add it to their product offerings. Why is Advanced Authoring Format important to media pros? Who has it? What tools use it and what does it bring to you and your studios capabilities? Advanced Authoring Format and/or Media Exchange Format are project interchange formats that are creating the framework by which media professionals will work more collaboratively and productively in the days ahead. Its time for us to contact our manufacturers and providers and let them know why AAF is important to us and why well buy it if they add it. In this report, Marisu Fronc looks at the technology and the companies supporting it and why...
Creative Cows Tim Kolb takes a look at the concept of value -- Its a topic that comes up over and over on the many forums in which Tim participates. In this article, Tim discusses the various factors involved in determining value and how to know if were getting our moneys worth.
Longtime professional editor, Patrick Inhofer -- whose work has included many stints on systems like Smoke, Avid and newer tools like Final Cut -- explores the differences between Avid Composer and Final Cut Pro. With his experience, Patrick explores workflow and feature comparisons of areas where they are both similar and dissimilar. Whether you agree or disagree with Patrick, we guarantee that you will find his perspective to be well thought out and full of information gained from years in the editing booth.
For those of us that are still ''young at heart'' and watch cartoons on TV, you'll notice that even today many animations are still hand drawn at 24 Frames Per Second (FPS) or 24 ''fips'' as it's sometimes referred. In this article, Marco Solorio explains why this time old honored technique can still be used today for maximizing your production time and most importantly, the look and feel of your animations.
Thinking of going uncompressed? Well this article focuses on the different uncompressed hardware solutions available for Final Cut Pro. Marco Solorio attempts to answers questions such as: ''What Capture card should I buy and do I even NEED an uncompressed system?'' Also included is a side by side evaluation of the quality and functionality of each uncompressed hardware solution on the market today.
In this article, Leo Ticheli looks at some of the lower-cost options for acheiving beautifully lit professional lighting design for your shoots. These solutions aren't the 'G.E. bulb in a cardboard box' solutions that some try to point to as acceptable low-cost lighting -- but if you are looking for true professional lighting done on a budget, then Leo has some great information for you...
Tim Kolb of Creative Cow gives some tips on how to really understand what your Corporate Client wants and how to deliver. He points out that: There are very few of us in this industry who can purchase a piece of equipment and have customers approaching us because of it. We must understand how to deliver a usable video/CD/etc., as most of us base our livelihood on our ability to provide a finished project that is successful. This is not a difficult premise, until you ask the question, What does the CLIENT see as being a successful project?
