Final Cut Studio, Avid, Adobe, and Video Streaming

Understanding Handles in Final Cut Pro

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:44:28 -0500

I know it seems pretty obvious, but someone asked me the other day, "What do you mean by handles?" Handles in Final Cut Pro are basically the extra frames of unused video or audio that are on either side of the In & Out points in an edit. Think of it like a rolling pin, where you have those 2 handles on either side of the actual part you use. More of a shooting technique than an editing technique, but in alot of cases you are performing both jobs; and if you're not, you want to make sure your camera person is doing this too. Recording an amount of tape before the action starts and after the action ends is essential for creating those "handles". A good rule of thumb is at least 5 seconds on either side. You really need these especially when you're using cross dissolve transitions, or a fade in or out before or after your clip. If you start recording right when the action starts, you won't have enough footage to "fade in from black".

Understanding Handles is important before getting too deep into trimming clips. In order to extend a clip in the Timeline to a longer duration, you need to have that extra media available. An easy way to check if you have enough media to trim is to double click on a clip that is in the Timeline. You can see the available header and tail areas that you can use for trimming purposes by loading the clip into the Viewer. This means you can extend the clip beyond its edited length within the sequence. Once you have determined that a clip has enough material to trim, you can extend the clip by the duration of the available handles.

Note that the sprockets here means it is a clip from the Timeline. Keep reading for another tip...

Final Cut Assistant for Final Cut Pro

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:30:01 -0500

Final Cut Assistant is a freeware program available from Apple to help you make the most out of your Final Cut Pro system. All the little annoying things you have to mess with in Final Cut Pro are all put together in a nice little package for you. Functions included are listed here.

New Empty Project lets you avoid Untitled project files and unnamed sequences in your projects. Use it everytime you start a project to name it.

Reset Final Cut Pro is like trashing your preferences. Reset gets your user preferences back to their original state.

Restore from Backup allows you to choose from any of the available earlier versions of your User Settings.

The "Backup" that you are restoring is created when you "Save User Settings..." The Backup contains Window, Keyboard, Column, & Button Bar Layouts, as well as Favorites and User Preferences. This is much easier than saving each of these settings individually. The Backup is a .zip file located @ User/Backup/com.apple.FinalCutPro. The file name can be changed to a user's name for example. On a system where multiple editors use the the same OS user, this is a great way to maintain multiple User Settings. Personally I intend on coping the zip file to my iDisc so I always have access to my User settings.

Back Up Now backs up your User Settings

Deactivate Final Cut Studio allows you to deactivate it in order to move it onto another computer. It removes licensing information without actually uninstalling Final Cut Studio.

Configure OS X for Final Cut Pro: This is huge; sets your screen saver to never, and sets the hard disks to sleep never

The rest of the functions within the menu are pretty self-explanatory. Even though all of these functions are available thru the Finder, it's nice to have them all wrapped up in a bow for you.

Once downloaded, Final Cut Assistant has it's own little icon in the Menu Bar for activation.

Final Cut Assistant is quite effective and will no doubt become part of your everyday editing process.

Troubleshooter: DVDSP Layered Menus break mouse navigation

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:44:01 -0500

Layered menus in DVD Studio Pro can allow you to create menus with far more sophisticated-looking buttons than the native DVD standard allows. Unfortunately, this extra functionality comes at a cost. The layered menus that you create in DVD Studio rely on some behind-the-scenes tricks to work -- and this can make them play back in unexpected ways when viewed on computer DVD players.

Symptoms
When you play back a DVD with layered menus on a computer-based DVD player (but not in DVD Studio's Simulator), and you try to navigate the menu using your mouse, you have to click a button once to "select" it, and then click it again to activate it.

The menu behaves normally:

in DVD players, and
in most software, when you use the arrow keys rather than the mouse to navigate it.

After the jump, the explanation ...

Software for De-interlacing Video

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:01:01 -0500

The term 'interlaced video' may cause chills to the seasoned video editor. There are a variety of ways to 'deinterlace' video, but depending how you go about the process may lead to inferior results.

Today, you'll mostly likely encounter an 'interlacing' problem when viewing 'standard defination' mini-dv video on the web, or viewing a QuickTime file playing SD media on a computer screen.

I stumbled upon a free program called 'Deinterlacer' by JES Schotsman. So, I ran through a quick test using it's default parameters. Here are the results. Wow!, I'm sold.

This is a typical example of what an interlaced frame looks like from an interlaced SD or HD video source. Notice how the image looks blurry from displaying both fields of video on a single frame.

Notice the difference, after the video has been deinterlaced. You'll also notice that 'JES Deinterlacer' also runs a color correction algorithm to automatically for color contrast.

Duplicate Function in DVD Studio Pro

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:59:55 -0500

Did you know you can duplicate any element within the Graphical View in DVD Studio Pro? For example, within a menu you can duplicate a button, text object, or a drop zone and quickly make duplicates of it that just need to have their content changed to become independent.

Read on to use the duplicate function...

Wave Transition Plug-in for Final Cut Pro

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 09:01:01 -0500

Today's feature is a free plug-in for Final Cut Pro that uses a wave to progressively distort a transition between clips.

Read on to find out more about this cool transition...

Turning On & Off Looping in Final Cut Pro

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:01:01 -0500

What I mean by Looping in Final Cut Pro, is during playback; when you turn looped playback on in Final Cut Pro, clips and sequences loop back to the beginning whenever the playhead reaches the end of the media. The clip will play over and over again until you stop playback. Seems like a silly little thing, but how quickly we forget some of those wonderful keyboard shortcuts. To turn on looping you can go to the View menu to Loop Playback; but more efficiently use the shortcut Ctrl+L to turn looping on & off.

Be sure to check out our new schedule for Final Cut Pro classes in 2010. Classes fill up fast, so call today to reserve your spot!

Lift Delete or Ripple Delete in Final Cut Pro

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:01:01 -0500

There is more than one way of deleting items in the Timeline in Final Cut Pro, for example, selecting the item individually or in groups, or even selecting a range with In & Out points. Knowing the right methods for the right situations can save you alot of time.

In Final Cut Pro, we have 2 types of delete functions. A Lift Delete, or a Ripple Delete. Basically a Lift Delete will leave you with a gap in the sequence; a Ripple Delete closes the gap from the deletion by moving all subsequent clips to the left. Performing a Lift Delete removes any selected items from the sequence and leaves a gap. This is useful when you have a series of clips that are all synchronized to music and you don't want to move them. But if you want to delete one or more clips from the middle of the sequence, the Lift Delete is the best option.

Continue reading to the next section for performing a Ripple Delete...

Using Keyframes in Avid Marquee Title Tool

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:01:01 -0500

Manipulating Keyframes in Marquee can sometimes turn into a complex process. Here is a quick tutorial to help simplify the process. If you are new to Marquee, I recommend that you read my Basic Marquee animation tutorial and then come back to this article. I’ve found it’s best to use Marquee’s animation mode to create a basic path, and then manually manipulate individual keyframes later.

Just about everything in Marquee is keyframeable. This makes Marquee extremely powerful when it comes to manipulating lights, colors, shadows, 3D distortion, and movement. The trick to manipulating keyframes is to simplify the process by only displaying the keyframe graphs that you need to adjust. Here are the steps to displaying keyframes in Marquee.

Using HandBrake For Converting DVDs

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:01:01 -0500

HandBrake is a great software program, not to mention it's free, that you can use to convert your own DVDs for the purpose of putting them on a hard drive or iPod. It's available for Mac or Windows. You can download HandBrake here. Once you have it installed on your computer, it's pretty easy to start converting your DVDs.

Start by inserting your DVD into your computer. If the Apple DVD player automatically starts up, just close it. Now open HandBrake. Select your DVD and click Open.

Customizing Your Keyboard for Multiclip Editing Part 3

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:30:52 -0500

Today we'll discuss part 3 of the Multiclip Editing Series by showing you some keyboard shortcuts and remapping your numerical keypad for another way to switch and cut your multiclips.

To make your multiclip editing more efficient you can assign commands and customize your keyboard shortcuts in the Keyboard Layout Tool, and you can find a list of keyboard buttons to use specifically for multiclips. Go to the Tools pull-down menu to Button List and type in Multiclip into the search field next to the magnifying glass; now you will see a list of available buttons you can use as shortcuts when editing multiclips.

Build, Format, or Both in DVD Studio Pro?

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:01:30 -0500

Do you ever wonder why you're given the option in DVD Studio Pro to Build, Format, or Build/Format? Most DVD authors will just automatically choose Build/Format for the ease of a single step. Once your project is finished and you're ready to burn, the options depend on the situation.

The Build Process is basically only creating the VIDEO_TS folder. You can choose the location where the VIDEO_TS folder is created. If you want to emulate or test your project on your computer by using the DVD Player, using the build process only will save you time without having to format it and find out you have mistakes to fix. Where the correct workflow is to first test your project in Simulator, then Build your project, then test the VIDEO_TS folder you built in your computer's DVD player, then format your project and test it in a tabletop DVD player and also make sure your disk plays on your computer, you could essentially do it all in one step.

The Format process takes a VIDEO_TS folder you already have created and writes it to a DVD recordable drive. The Build/Format option simply combines these two tasks of creating the VIDEO_TS folder and writing it to a disk, in one step. So why even bother with the two-step process, you ask? Well there are a couple of advantages with performing the Build process by itself first.

One advantage being the fact that you can preview your project by playing the VIDEO_TS folder on your Apple DVD Player, and avoid burning any mistakes onto a disk. Well why can't I just preview my project in Simulator? You can; however the Apple DVD Player will allow certain functions that Simulator will not, for example, fast-forwarding. You will get a more realistic point of view by playing your project on the DVD player than in Simulator. Another advantage to using the Build step separately is the ability to choose what VIDEO_TS folder you want to burn.

But for all practical purposes, most authors will use the Build/Format option for most projects. Check out our upcoming schedule for 1-day DVD Studio Pro training to learn all the necessary skills for authoring a fully functional DVD!

Creating a Backup Copy or Clone of Mac HD

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:26:51 -0500

It's time to revisit the popular Carbon Copy Cloner program that allows you to create an exact copy of your source machine onto an external hard drive.

I recently tested this by backing up my Mac Book Pro running Snow Leopard. It took about 1 1/2 hours to back up 80 Gigs to my portable pocket drive running at 5400 RPM.

The latest version also allows you to create incremental backups that can be scheduled. You can even back everything up to a remote Mac on a Network. To create a backup of your entire sytstem, just hook up an external drive and set it as the target. That's it!

To test the copy, you can boot your Mac directly off the external drive by holding down the option key while you restart your Mac. This will allow you to choose your external drive as the new Boot Drive.

Okay, so how must does this software cost? Guess what, it's free! Yes, you read that correctly. Bombich Software makes this very clear by running an occasional banner within the software program. I recommend that you donate to Bomich Software for this amazing program.

If you plan on cloning several machines using Carbon Copy Cloner there's one catch. Keep in mind those machines will be EXACT copies of each other. This means, they will inherent all the same user names and passwords. They'll also have all the same programs with the same serial numbers. This means, you may have reset the serial numbers on certain software products that have license restrictions.

Reset System ID for Final Cut Studio

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:30:13 -0500

Final Cut Studio only allows you to run one instance of the software on a particular network. If you have a production facility or classroom environment with multiple Final Cut Studio licenses, things can sometimes get confusing with multiple serial numbers. It's important that each machine maintains its own unique serial number.

To prevent this you must purchase a volume license from Apple, which will allow multiple instances of the same serial number on a network.

Without a volume license, you may run into an issue where more than one machine accidentally has the same serial number of another machine. This will require that you delete the Final Cut Studio System ID from one of the conflicting machines and re-enter a serial number that isn't being used.

To do this navigate to the Mac HD / Library / Application Support / ProApps folder.

You can delete the ProAppsSystemID. *In the previous version, this file is called 'Final Cut Studio System ID'. The next time you launch any Final Cut Studio application, the system will ask you to re-enter your system ID information.

Student Profile: Matt Stevens

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:02:01 -0500

Matt Stevens completed our 9 day Final Cut Studio Bundle this past summer as part of his career enhancement as an Audio/Visual Editor for Southcentral Foundation in Alaska. When asked, Matt really liked his training here at GeniusDV, and feels like he learned alot. He thought the instructors were great and very helpful.

Matt's focus at Southcentral Foundation is making promotional videos to bring awareness to the people about their program, which is operating and managing health care and related services for 50,000 Alaska Native and American Indian people.

I asked Matt, "before you took the class, what were your biggest challenges when editing video?" His reply was simply, "I pretty much went in blind, so everything I learned was helpful and informative. I had no experience editing before and I am now fully capable in all editing processes."

You too can be one of the many students who come to GeniusDV for video editing training. It doesn't matter if you have no experience at all, or if you have years of experience; GeniusDV can help even professional editors learn shortcuts, and new ways to integrate efficient workflows. So give us a call today and check out our upcoming class schedule.