November 2005 Archives

Recently, I had an opportunity to be a guest again on the The DV Show, a great Podcast available discussing Digital Video and Production. The DV Show is a place on the web where professional and consumer desktop video users go to stay on the cutting edge.

On the show we talked in detail about recent testing I conducted for Compression for the Video iPod. We discussed tools such: Compressor, Videora iPod Converter, QuickTime Pro, Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite, and Compression Master and their capabilities to compress content for the Video iPod.

Listeners also can get a basic understanding of the MPEG-4 Profiles that the Video iPod is based on and how targeting MPEG-4 profiles can improve chances of compatability. Simple, Advanced Simple and Baseline profiles are all discussed on the show.

Listen to compression testing results for the Video iPod

If you are new to Avid Express Pro or a seasoned veteran, it is always a good idea to go back to the basics and review what is important. When you are editing in the timeline you often need to find the very beginning or the very ending of an edit point. There are two ways to go about this with the mouse and keyboard or just with keyboard shortcut. This is one of those very rare times when I prefer the mouse to the keyboard shortcut in Avid Express Pro. To use the mouse and keyboard you simply Cntrl+click near the transition and it will snap the head of the frame. If you want to find the tail of a frame simply Ctrl+Alt+click near the end of the transition. The second way to accurately find the head or tail is to use the keyboard shortcuts. Use Q to go to the in and W to find the tail of the transition. It appears the keyboard shortcut would be much faster and easier. This is true if you have only one video track or at least one video track selected. We all edit in a multiple track world so it will snap to the next edit point regardless of track. The great thing about using your mouse and keyboard is you can move your mouse to the exact location in the timeline and it will not be track sensitive. This may seem to be very simple but it is much more accurate and for once the mouse is mightier than the keyboard shortcut.

While in the midst of finding rythym and pace in a project, when marrying multilayered effects with attention grabbling shot angles, it can be beneficial for you to disable a single clip within a layer to see how the piece would work without it. You could even temporarily replace the clip with another without removing the original.

Disabling a Sinlge Clip

1 Select the clip or clips you wish to disable within the sequence.

2 Uncheck the Clip Enable selection by going to Modify > Clip Enable. You can enable the clip by going to Modify >Clip Enable to check the selection.

Check out some HD Water Effects from Artbeats!

You can save time by making audio adjustments to a group of clips.

Adjusting The Volume of a Group of Clips

1 Select the group of audio clips in the timeline that you wish to adjust.

2 Go to Modify >Levels.

3 Adjust the audio levels by dragging the slider in the Gain Adjust window. You can choose to make the ajustments either Relative (volume is adjusted relative to the current level) or Absolute (All volume levels will be set to the level indicated).

Learn how to move a project from Adobe Premiere to Final Cut Pro.

About 6 years ago I started compressing video with an application called Media Cleaner Pro 4.0, later called Cleaner 5, and then Cleaner 6 (on the mac platform). It was a great application and could do many things as it related to video compression and then for the the last 2 to 3 years the Cleaner updates stopped coming. The last Cleaner 6 update was back in 2003. I along with many others have been frustrated with the lack of product updates but finally Cleaner 6.5 is on the way.

The next release Cleaner 6.5 for Mac, manufactured by AutoDesk, is supposed to be available sometime this winter (hopefully early winter).

These are the features expected to be available in Cleaner 6.5:

- Export Flash video .SWF and .FLV files
- Export to DivX format
- Support for QuickTime 7 including H.264
- Support for Real 10 which includes RealVideo and RealAudio
- Support for MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4 (& AAC support) , AVI and WAV

I have always liked the Cleaner product and even without support over the years has included many great features for authoring and compressing streaming content. I am exciting about the possibilities within Cleaner 6.5 and am very hopeful that this next release of the Cleaner product for the Mac will make many happy and we can forget all the many days we asked for better support of the Cleaner product.

Take a look at the information on Cleaner 6.5

A unique service is available for anyone that values getting information about video streaming usage. The service, sponsored by comScore is called Media Metrix and it provides an analysis of consumer usage of on-line streaming video content. comScore is in the business of selling marketing research and Video Ratings is one of their products. This type of information is available because comScore has permission from more than 2 million consumers to confidentially record their browsing and transaction behavior.

Here is some sample information available from the June 2005 Media Metrix report:

In June 2005, 94 Million people viewed a streaming video on-line.

Over the 3 months ending in June 2005, the average consumer viewed 73 minutes of
streaming video content per month.

Male users, who represent 50 percent of the total online population, account for 61 percent
of all video streamers.

There is a large price tag to receive the comScore Media Metrix service but anyone who receives the type of information in the monthly reports can better target their marketing efforts.

Find out more about the Media Metrix service

After effects offers many effects in the effects palette. Figuring out what each effect does can be a daunting task so I will take the next few days and highlight a few little know effects. The Radio
Waves effect creates radiating waves from a stationary or animated effect point. You can use this effect to generate pond ripples, sound waves, or intricate geometric patterns. You can control the emitted waves' shape, width, color, speed, rotation, life span, fade rate, and other properties. Use the Reflection control to make the shapes bounce off the sides of the layer. You can also use Radio Waves to create realistic wave displacement maps that work well with the Caustics effect. You can add a stroke, and adjust the wave motion. If this looks like an effect you may want to try open you help file in After Effects to see all of the parameter settings.

I believe that it is safe to say that we have all started down a definite path with a given project and at some point have decided to change direction. If you want to try something drastically different, I would create a duplicate sequence that you could go back to if it doesn't work out. If you've made a ton of changes to the audio via filters and keyframes that just aren't working out, their is a quick way to get back to sqaure one.

Removing All Audio Filters and Keyframes from your Sequence

1 Select all of the audio clips in your sequence.

2 If you have a two button mouse, right click one of the selected audio clips and select Remove Attributes from the menu. If you are using a one button mouse, you will have to control click to get to this menu.

3 Within the Remove Attributes menu choose Levels, Pan and Filters, then click OK.

Learn how to superimpose in FCP.

Final Cut Pro makes yet another big screen appearance in the up coming feature"Little Manhattan," a comedy about a young boy's first love directed by Mark Levin. When Levin, former writer for "The Wonder Years" hired Alan Bell to be the editor of this feature, he was on a quest for quality and had the budget to get it. Alan had only used Final Cut once before for the feature "An Anarchist's Cook Book," but was quick to convince Levin that Final Cut Pro was the right tool to achieve the cinematic quality he had envisioned for this project.

"When I said to Mark that I'd prefer to work in Final Cut Pro, his eyes lit up. He very much liked the idea of us being able to share HD dailies in his office."

- Alan Bell

Read the entire article and view the trailer for the love story that Final Cut Pro help to bring together, "Little Manhattan."

Avid editing products support a number of videotape decks from many manufacturers. The decks can support full edit capabilities, or only record or play functions. Avid provides deck control capabilities through either a direct serial connection or a V-LAN/VLX connection. Macintosh systems support serial decks. Windows systems support serial decks and DV cameras and decks (for systems with the DV/MPEG option) - 11.8_supported_decks_serial.htm. Avid engineers have spent many hours keeping up with and testing many different decks. Check out the full list of supported decks just remember if your deck is not listed it still might work with the generic deck settings that Avid provides.

If you need to export many clips and sequences with various dimensions and codecs, the Batch Export function in FCP can save you plenty of time.

1 Select the clips, sequences or bins in the Browser that you want to export.

2 Go to File > Batch Export. The Export Queque window will now appear with the files you have selected located in a newly formed bin. Each bin that you create (Command B) has its own export settings properties and you can manipulate them by clicking on the Settings tab located at the bottom of the Export Queque.

If you wish to add more files to Batch Export Queque, simply drag the desired files from the browser window to a bin.

3 After you have set the individual export properties for each bin, click the Export tab at the bottom of the Queque.

Learn how to reduce the memory needs of After Effects.

GeniusDV has an upcoming Full Day Seminar on Video Streaming and Compression in Orlando, Florida. The class is a great 1-Day class to learn about all the confusing information surrounding streaming video. If you need to start adding videos to a website this is the class for you. Participants will learn things like:

- Proper videography techniques for web video
- How to choose the right video and audio CODEC's
- How to add Streaming video to a website using EMBED and OBJECT tags
- Benefits and Disadvantages of providing download streaming videos
- Benefits and Disadvantages of providing real-time streaming videos
- Benefits of CBR, 1-Pass VBR and 2-Pass VBR compression
- How to export QuickTime Videos from a non-linear editor

Also, learn how to compress streaming videos to formats such as: Windows Media, QuickTime, Real Media, Flash, MPEG-4 and H.264. Software such as Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite, Flip4Mac and Compression Master will be the featured in the class.

View the class summary and outline for the Video Streaming and Compression Seminar

The StreamGuide provides a great on-line streaming resource for Video and Audio on the web. The StreamGuide provides a free, format neutral audio and video guide to streaming media. Sponsored by StreamGuys, the StreamGuide currently list over 620 on-line stations from 220 countries.

If you have an on-line channel streaming channel you can submit it to the StreamGuide.

The StreamGuide is also ready for the next generation of streaming media on the web by providing a Podcast Directory where you can submit your audio and video podcasts.

Visit the StreamGuide Video and Audio Streaming Channels and Podcast Directory

When viewing your clips as thumbnails, sometimes the poster frame of the clips are not accurate dipictions of the action that occurs within the clip.

Changing The Poster Frame of a Clip

1 Open a clip in the viewer by double clicking it in the Browser.

2 Select the video scrub tool in the tool palette and scrub through the clip until you find the frame that you want.

3 Go to Mark > Set Poster Frame.

Learn more about the matchframe capabilities of Final Cut Pro.

The XML interchange capability of FCP is way to describe projects in great detail such as which sequences, transitions, effects, color correction, and font colors were used. These details can be saved to disk in plain text format and edited.

Let's say that you have used a particular font color throughout an entire project that is very large. Strolling through the timeline and making all of those changes manually would take a long time, but XML interchange allows you to export the sequence > edit it in a program such as Microsoft Word > find the instances where that color parameter is used and change them all at once.

Final Cut Pro was the weapon of choice for Walter Murch, who edited Jarhead in DVCPRO HD in Final Cut Pro 4.5. Armed with multiple G5s the editing began in L.A and progressed to Skywalker Ranch while crew members shared quicktime time files via Xsan Software.

“The thing that makes Final Cut Pro a pro app is its ability to interact with other departments. Tape isn’t dead, but I prefer to work random access with QuickTime and digital files."

Editor Walter Murch

Read the entire story of how this editing crew used Final Cut Pro to save to save precious time in post in a major Hollywood film.

This might not be an editing how-to or a guide to shortcuts but this has always bothered me and I finally figured out how to kill messenger. Windows Messenger is the Microsoft instant messaging program built into Windows XP. Windows Messenger is very annoying if you don’t use instant messaging. Microsoft has tightly integrated this program into many of its other programs including Outlook Express, Outlook and Remote Assistance. However there are ways to disable it from starting, remove it, or for the most part completely get rid of it. I recommend getting rid of it if you do not use it so that it does not come back to haunt you.

Removing Messenger from computers WITHOUT Service Pack 1 installed
Make sure your Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Windows Messenger and other programs are closed before doing this.
1) Click on Start, Run
2) Type the following (or cut and paste it) into the Run line
RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove
3) Click on OK

Removing Messenger from computers WITH Service Pack 1 or greater installed
1) Click on Start, Control Panel
2) Double click on Add or Remove Programs
3) Select Add/Remove Windows Components
4) Uncheck Windows Messenger
5) Click Next
6) Click Finish
7) Restart your computer

Attention all indie filmakers, reality television and documentary producers, Canon has entered the HD 24p battle for supremacy with their new 1080i Xl H1. Some of its features include:

- Uncompressed 1080i/60i HD-SDI output at 1.485 Gbps, allowing for multi-format external HD recording.

- A new HD Lens

- New Digic DV II Image Processor (the same CPU technology found in Canon's still cameras}.

- Customization for NTSC and PAL recording.

See the Canon Xl H1 specs side by side with the Panasonic HVX 200 and check out this new HD camera dressed in black!

JVC has long been one of the leaders in innovation. The teamed up with Fire-Store on their 5000 series to offer the first factory offered on board hard-disk recording. Well, they have done it again with the new GY-HD100. Not only is this a camera of the future but they teamed up again with Fire-Store and Anton-Bauer to offer a package that stands all on its own. The centerpiece of JVC's affordable HD approach is called ProHD, an HDV-compatible video system with professional specifications, including four-channel audio, time code, true 24p HD and dual media direct recording to HDV cassettes and hard disk. JVC utilizes widely available, non-proprietary technologies such as MPEG-2 compression, DV recording media and conventional hard disk drives to achieve its affordable HD solution. This non-proprietary technology really helps JVC to again be the leader in the new HD cameras. I current own the JVC GY-5000u with the Fire-Store and the Anton-Bauer Dionic 90's with the matching light. This is a great system and the HD100 is the next logical step I our productions. Check out the full review from Videography and see what you think.

As editors in the NLE world we all must contend with computer problems. Instead of have great knowledge of our application software we must also be computer technicians of software and hardware. I came across the dreaded error Exception: DISK_ACCESS_DENIED filename: C:\OMFI media files. This message usually means trouble. In the past this has meant that I had a corrupt hard drive or corrupt files in that hard drive. Well, this happened again to me earlier this week and I this time it appeared to not be a corrupt file but somehow, permission was changed on one of drives. If this happens to you you need to immediately check out this how to change your permissions article and hopefully your problem will be fixed because if you have a corrupt file life will not be easy until it is rooted out.

If you can't hear your audio while working in Final Cut Pro, but can see the levels pulsating in the meter, you probably have the All Frames selection checked. If you go to View > External Video and select All Frames, you are choosing to kick out your video and audio through the firwire cable, therefore you would not be able hear your sequence through your computer speakers.

Go to View > External Video > Off to hear your sequence through the computer speakers. Note, if you want to view your work on an external monitor, you will need to have All Frames selected and make the necessary speaker connections via VTR to hear your audio.

If you are wondering how to set up your own voiceover studio at home, then you need to read this article.

When you are providing links to Quicktime Streaming videos you will generally use Poster Movies which provide a link to play the QuickTime Movie in the Quicktime Player or in a Web Browser. If you are linking to another web page a Poster Movies will not be necessary.

Poster Movies are 1 frame Quicktime Movies that are embedded in the web page and look like graphics. The Apple Movie Trailers website at http://www.apple.com/trailers/ has some great examples of Poster Movies.

Poster Movies are easy to create. Here is how to do it:

1. Create a JPEG image using a program like Photoshop, or any other image editing
program.

2. Open QuickTime Pro and Choose "Open File" from the QuickTime File pull-down menu
and navigate to your JPEG image to open it inside QuickTime.

3. From the File pull-down menu Choose "Save As" and Navigate to the folder where
you want to save your file and select the "Save as self-contained movie" radio button.

4. Your Poster Movie is Done

Note: Creating Poster Movies is a feature of QuickTime Pro

I recently did several compression tests for the Video iPod, aimed at helping people create good compression settings for preparing videos for iTunes and the Video iPod. If you are using iTunes 6, it appears to be more forgiving and allowing playback of more types of QuickTime videos than the Video iPod.

In my testing I compressed 19 videos for iTunes and the Video iPod and all 19 played back successfully inside using iTunes 6. Only 17 of the videos compressed played backed successfully on the Video iPod. The videos that did not play on the Video iPod used 2-pass VBR for the compression method. I compressed to H.264/AVC, MPEG-4, and QuickTime in my testing.



Get settings for preparing content for the Video iPod in the GeniusDV Compression Forum

I posted a list of many of the settings used to successfully compress videos for the Video iPod, using QuickTime Pro and Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite on our website. They can be found in the GeniusDV Video Compression Forum.

A Special thanks to A MacIntosh Store for allowing me to test video on one their Video iPods

Being able to change between the types of key frames is critical to your creativity and speed. In the real world, you need to not only be creative but reach your deadline. We all have deadlines so finding ways to stretch our creative time is crucial. Once you have set key frames for any value you are more than likely going to change the type of key frame you currently have and you are going to want to modify its properties. Here are a few of the keyboard shortcuts for key frames to speed up your workflow and allow some extra time for your creation to grow.

1.Click property name: Select all key frames for a property
2.Shift + F2: Deselect all key frames
3.Shift-drag key frame: Snap key frame to significant times
4.Alt + Right Arrow: Nudge key frame 1 frame forward
5.Alt + Left Arrow: Nudge key frame 1 frame backward
6.Ctrl + Alt + A: Select all visible key frames
7.J: Go to previous visible key frame
8.K: Go to next visible key frame
9.Ctrl-click key frame: Switch interpolation between Linear and Auto Bezier
10.Drag key frame handle: Change Auto Bezier interpolation to Continuous Bezier
11.Ctrl-drag key frame handle: Toggle between Continuous Bezier and Bezier interpolation
12.F9: Easy ease
13.Shift + F9: Easy ease in
14.Ctrl + Shift + F9: Easy ease out

You can choose whether or not Final Cut Pro opens the last project you were working on or simply open a blank project upon launch. The default setting is to open the previous project you were working on, here's how to change the default setting. Just some more Final Cut Pro housekeeping!

1 Go to Final Cut Pro > User Preferences, then click the tab labled General.

2 Find the "Open Last Project On Application Launch" checkbox and deselect it.

I am currently working on several DVD’s that are very long and have some long sequences. I recently received a new error that I had not seen before Exception: 'FATAL_ERROR' An error occurred during export . At first I thought this was a problem with my computer so I re-booted and tried the lengthy export again. It happened again at the same time so I new it probably wasn’t the computer. It has to do with a maximum file export size. Both OMF and AVI have a maximum export file size of 2 gigs and when the 2 gig limit is reached then error displays itself. This turned out not to be the case with QuickTime exports. So the workaround is to either compress your media further or use the best method which is Quick time reference. The Quick time reference export does not lose any quality and is the perfect format for your DVD authoring software or Sorensen Squeeze. So, if you can avoid an OMF or AVI format, for export, than do so, if that is not possible this article will help you correct your problem.

You have been armed with many great post-production tips, ranging from how to perform various three point editing techniques in Final Cut Pro, , to creating menus in DVD Studio Pro, but do you remember the phrase "Garbage In Garbage Out?" The level of success you can acheive with the wares we discuss on a daily basis is largely dependent on the Production side of the equation.

You must know how to properly light a subject, you must learn how to compose a shot and you have to learn how to mic people. Yes, there are techniques in Avid and Final Cut that can help when you haven been less than perferct in these areas, but we're not teaching you to be a hack, we want you to become a professional. We'll start slow.

Emphasizing a medium closeup of a person on camera is a balance between background and lighting. You don't want a busy background, like a tree growing out of a subject's head and you must know light placement and how many lights to use. Receiving instruction in abstract terms and watching someone else do it alone will not make you a professional. Hands on application of these concepts will get you started in the right direction. In January, GeniusDV will be provding an outlet for those of you who want hands on video production training.

All of you Final Cut Pro users out there who work on an outdoor sports show and are constantly out in the field, you know the rigors of setting up to get that perfect shot, which may or may not take you all day to capture. From the logistics behind keeping your batteries charged when you're out in the middle of nowhere, to what kind of movement you can get away with in a tree stand when shooting a trophy White Tail, you really need to know what you're doing! This is especially holds true for those of you who are about to go on your first African Safari and plan on capturing it to tape.

This article will inform you on what equipment you will need on your adventure, how to properly protect that equipment, what research you'll need to conduct before you go, which shots to get and much much more. take a look! How to prepare for that first Video Safari.

If you have spent much time using locaters in Avid before the HD version you may find the way the locaters work very annoying. The default set-up in HD is every time you insert a locater the locater dialog box opens and asks you to type in your comment. This is great for organizational purposes but if you want to add them On-the-Fly this new feature is in your way. The great thing is once you are done you can go back to this dialog box and insert you comments. If you want to disable this feature and add locaters on-the-fly then here are the steps you need to take:

1. Map a locater to your keyboard
2. Right-click the Source or record monitors and select locators.
3. Choose Disable Locaters Popup from the Fast Menu.

Now you can play your sequence and add locaters on-the-fly.

You would be surprised how a procedure that may seem so elementary can trip up a beginning editor. During my travels in discussion forums, there have been several ocassions where someone has selected a large number of clips and wanted to deselect maybe two or three of them. Well, to those who may be wondering how to do this, it's a very simply process.

Deselecting an Item in a Group Selection

1 Choose the Selection tool from within the tool box (the first tool in the shape of an arrow).

2 Command-click on the clip, in the row of selected clips, that you wish to deselect. That clip clip has now been deselected.

Learn how to close gaps in the timeline by using three point editing in FCP!

QTilities provides some very interesting tools for anyone using QuickTime Streaming as a method of delivery. Their utilities continue with the growing trend of of making the web authoring process easier. QTilities makes products that prevent Streaming Authors from doing a great deal of hand-coding.

Some of the products they provide are:

- QT Playlist Maker (organizes sequential playback and chapters)

- QT Pointer Maker (batch processing tool to create reference movies)

- QT Detection Pack (Creates detection that recognizers player version installed)

- QTRM Maker (Front end utility for XMLtoRefMovie to create reference movies.)

These are only some of the tools available from QTilities.

Check out other tools available from QTilities

A big development has occurred between the two elite companies in the Streaming Media and Digital Entertainment space. Real Networks and Microsoft are partnering to bring more choices to end users. Real Networks settles their Anti-trust case against Microsoft to move forward with such a partnership.

Here is some what the partnership means:

- Rhapsody available from the MSN Music Homepage, MSN Music, MSN Search

- Rhapsody section available on the MSN Home page

- Access to Rhapsody full songs from an MSN Search

- Integration of Rhapsody from within MSN Messenger

- Combined competition against the Apple digital music and delivery services

- Real Networks and Microsoft promotion of the use of Windows Media portable devices

- MSN Messenger users will be able to share and play music while chatting

Both Microsoft and Real Networks see the value and need to have solutions that allow consumers to the ability to intergrate digital media into their everyday lives. Going forward they will collaborate to try to accomplish this. This Partnership is huge and we can expect more great things come from Microsoft and Real Networks.

View the full details of the Real Networks and Microsoft Partnership

On a 2.0GHz Power Mac G5 with 2GB of memory, Jonathan Lucas , editor of Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, uses Final Cut Pro to marry the stills and audio that make up this revolutionary film directed by Tim Burton and Mike Johnson. "Movies of this sophistication come around about every 10 years, if that," says Lucas who has been an assistant dirctor for films like "Troy," Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," and "102 Dalmatians" to name a few. Having never used Final Cut Pro before, within two weeks, Lucas says he was in full swing and working more efficiently than he ever could in other editing programs he has used. Check out the full article "Match Made in Final Cut Pro!"

Here's a video with a sneak peak of Adobe After Effects 7.0. Click on the text that says Day Two, then click on the fourth picture from the left to see Steve Kilinsky of Adobe Systems give a brief presentation on Adobe After Effects 7.0. Check out the new Interface!

In order to get QuickTime Streaming videos to work on QuickTime Streaming Server, Darwin Streaming Server or Helix Streaming Server the movies must be hinted. Here's how to do it. Using QuickTime Pro, ProCoder, Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite, Compression Master or any other compression application, check the item the says Streaming or Hinted.

The Hinted option for streaming generally shows up as the following in different applications:

- Movie to hinted movie

- Streaming (Hinted)

- Prepare ('Hint') for Streaming Server

- Hint - Prepare for Streaming

Once videos are hinted those QuickTime Movies can be uploaded to the Streaming Server for delivery. One item to note about QuickTime Streaming movies is that if you are creating downloadable streaming videos hinting is not needed. De-select the streaming option.

Note: Hinting is not required for other streaming formats such as: Windows Media, Real, and Flash