November 2010 Archives

Here's a quick tutorial on using the critical shortcuts for keyframing within Adobe After Effects.

Here's a short tutorial on how to create a camera flash freeze frame effect in Final Cut Pro. 

If you have Final Cut Pro 7.0, you can also create a similar effect using the new speed control tool within Final Cut Pro.

Here's a short tutorial for creating a glass bug using Photoshop. This video also contains closed captioning.  Photoshop for video lessons are now included as part of our Avid Media Composer and Final Cut Pro training courses.

This tutorial was created on a Macintosh, but the steps are almost indentical if you are using a PC. For Avid Media Composer users, you may need invert the alpha channel in order for the glass bug to import correctly.

Please rate our YouTube video.  Add your comments or suggestions and let us know what you think in regards to this Photoshop for Video tutorial.

You can use Avid's Animatte and Paint features to do some incredible things.  Here's a quick tutorial on how to create tracking masks that can be used for color correction purposes. Continue reading for a full text transcript of this Media Composer tutorial.

Learn how to use Masks within Apple motion to re-fill an empty bottle. This is an advanced Motion tutorial, and there are a lot of steps.

Mara Woosley recently completed our Final Cut Studio bundle and 2 Day SketchUp training as part of her career enhancement as a Multimedia Technician for Hodges University in Naples, Florida.  Mara is in charge of the AV rooms for both Hodges' locations in Naples and Fort Myers, and she films speakers and events, produces videos, and maintains the website and social media sites as well.  Busy girl!  When asked what she thought of her training at GeniusDV, here is what Mara had to say:  "The training was great and it kept me interested.  I liked that the video segments used in the training were varied and fun.  The instructors were all very knowledgeable, personable, and patient.  I like that they all worked in the field as opposed to being just instructors.  The Orlando location was great and I really liked the informal "living room" setting for the classes.  The relaxed atmosphere made it easier to interact with the instructor and other students."

Regarding the overall value of the services, Mara thinks that having the option to audit the class again makes it "priceless."  When I asked Mara what the biggest new thing she learned in class was and how she is using the training in the field now, her reply, "it was all new to me, but the keyboard shortcuts and how the programs in the Final Cut Pro Suite work together have been very helpful.  So far, I'm mostly just editing video of speakers and presentations to post to the web for online students and other interested individuals.  However, in the future I will be creating marketing videos to promote fundraising events and gain sponsors." 

Check out this short video tutorial on how to create a lightning bolt effect using the 'illusion' effects within Avid Media Composer.

Continue reading for a full text based transcript of this tutorial...

Learn how to create this cool effect using Final Cut Pro and Apple Motion.  This video tutorial assumes a couple of things.  You may want to review these articles and/or video tutorials before trying this tutorial on your own.

• Final Cut Pro User preferences for still images/freeze frames
  
• Wiind Blur effect for Final Cut Pro
• Installing plug-ins for Final Cut Pro

Continue reading for a full text transcript of this video tutorial....

Avid Media Composer includes a 'plasma wipes' effect category that allow you to perform some interesting wipes. What many Avid users may not know is that you can create your own plasma wipes that will show up in the effect's palette.

Check out this short video that was created using a plasma wipe from an exported frame of it's own video clip!

Continue reading for a full text based version of this same Media Composer tutorial.

Check out this cool tutorial on how to map particles onto a path when using Apple's Motion Program.  It's a simple concept, but you can really create some cool effects by watching this easy to follow tutorial. Continue reading for a full text transcript of this tutorial.

It's easy to create a light gleam effect within Avid Media Composer.  Check out this simple video tutorial on how to do this.

Learn how to keyframe filters directly within the timeline window when using Final Cut Pro. This video tutorial also includes several effects that have been highlighted in previous video tutorials. 

• Importing particle effects from Apple Motion
• Keyframing titles with Boris 3D
• Importing SoundTrack Pro sounds effects from the finder

Continue reading for text transcript of this tutorial.....

What exactly is nesting?  Nesting in Final Cut Pro is basically a sequence that acts as a clip inside another sequence.  It's really one of the most useful and necessary components of most any compositing action.  The Nest Items Command allows you to select a range in your timeline that contains many layered effects and collapse them into a nested sequence.  This can make a very busy timeline easier on the eyes as you continue to work.  The nice thing about nesting is that you still have access to the individual layers.  If you need to go back and change something, you still have that option.

Check out this short tutorial on how to create a Page peel or curl effect with 2 different sides within Avid Media Composer.

In Final Cut Pro there are often instances when we need to view a clip on a lower track that is covered by a clip in a higher track. A typical amateur solution is to move the clip out of the way for a moment. This is not efficient, because you then must move it back. If you do not need to do anything but view the clip below, you could simply delete the clip, and then undo your delete. When you need to do some work while the visibility of the clip is off then you have a couple options.

In Final Cut Pro it can be very useful to not show the audio track names. Because the audio track name goes right over top of the waveform when you have them active, they can make seeing the waveform difficult. Especially at an edit where the name of the outgoing clip is right next to the name of the incoming clip. Depending on how zoomed in on the timeline you are this can make a significant amount of the waveform difficult to see. When you are trying to blend two pieces of music together, having the track names displayed can be very annoying.

With the popularity of Apple Macintosh, you may find the need to have a hard drive that can be used with both PC's and MAC's.

The latest version of Mac OS X can read standard PC hard-drives that are formatted as Windows NTFS or FAT 32. However, there are a couple of catches:

• If you have a hard-drive that is formatted as NTFS which stands for (New Technology File Ssytem), Mac OS X can only read the partition. It cannot write to it.

• If you have a hard-drive that is formatted as FAT 32, Windows XP only allows a maximum partition size of 32 Gigs. This can be particularly annoying if you are working with large drives, such as a 1 TB drive. You'd end up with over 30 partitions on your desktop.

• The largest file size for a Fat 32 partition is only 4GB.  This can really cause a problem for video editing systems, since files can easily exceed that.
  

The trick is to use your drive manufacturer's disk-formatting software which will allow you to format your drive as one large partition. Formatting your drive as one large FAT 32 partition is the easiest way to make a drive so it can be used with both PC's and Mac's.

If you cannot find the manufacturer's software, look into downloading a shareware program called CompuApps SwissKnife.  It will allow you to create one giant FAT 32 partition for your hard drive.

Another option is to purchase third-party software that allows PC's to read Mac formatted drives.  This requires that you install the software on your PC in order to read Macintosh formatted hard-drives.  I recommend a company called Mac Drive which will allow you to read/write to an Windows NTFS partition on a PC.