Recently in Avid Category

Did you know that the latest version of Photoshop allows you to edit full motion video? Here is a quick video tutorial on how to add a video filter to a video clip using Photoshop.



You can also follow these steps with the supplied screenshots:

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.

This week's student profile features a past Avid Media Composer student who is retired and works part-time consulting for his previous employer. Ed Gfeller is from Winter Park, Florida and loves being retired since it has given him the extra time to work on personal documentaries he produces and edits for his family, and particularly for his grandchildren.

Ed started making videos over 2 years ago and was getting disgusted with the editing applications he was using.  He says, "they typically crashed, sometimes more than once a day.  I figured Avid wouldn't do that since it it what they use in the Film and TV industry.  So Avid was completely new to me.  By taking a training class with GeniusDV, I got a thorough understanding of editing in Avid, and since getting an iMac, I have not had any crashes.  The class proceeded slowly and methodically; we had 2 beginners and one advanced student in our particular class.  But there was enough new material every day to keep me interested.  I have since then taken some tutorials with my instructor, and they have really been helpful in getting me into the more advanced effects and Marquee."

Continue reading to hear more about Ed...

If you are running your video editing system with multiple OS X users, you may run into a scenario where you need to grab something from another user’s desktop.  This sounds easy, but the built in permissions of OS X will prohibit you from accessing another user’s desktop. Even with administrator rights, you still will not be able to access another user’s home folder.

If you are like me, you store all sorts of things on your desktop while editing.  For myself,  the desktop is one of my primary workspaces.  I’m always moving items to and from my desktop while editing.  Because of this, I’ve developed a habit of using the shared folder a bit more frequently.  The shared folder is a common area where all users can freely access material. 

This doesn’t sound like a big deal, but imagine if you need to grab an element from another user’s desktop, and you do not have their password.  Worse yet, what if that particular employee or contractor is no longer around?.  You now have no way of logging into their OS X account to retrieve the material.

Fortunately, there is another work-around.  You can enable the Mac OS X root user account, which will allow you to access all the files and folders from another OS X user. The root user account is also referred to as a ‘super user’, since it provides unlimited privileges.  Better yet, until a root user account is enabled, any account with administrator privileges can enable it.

Here are the steps to enable the root user account for Mac OS X.

If you are having problems capturing into your Avid or Final Cut Pro system using a DV / firewire connection, you might want to check the length and quality of the firewire cables that you are using.

I've run into the follow problems that all turned out to related to a firewire cabling issue.

- Bad / Distorted Video Signal
- Missing / Inacurate Timecode
- Dropped frames while capturing
- Audio Pops while capturing
- No Deck Control
- An audio signal with no video signal
- Audio interference
- Audio sync problems while capturing

- Intermittent capturing problems

When purchasing firewire cables, keep these important factors in mind.....