Chapter: Visual and Creative Effects

Topic: Space

Combine Pictures and Effects To Simulate Flight Using Adobe Premiere 6.5 Follow me to learn how to make a neat “flying-through space” effect using a graphics program combined with a video editing program.† The only requirement is that your software can perform motion controls on the graphics. This is often described as the “Ken Burns” effect and is used frequently on the History Channel, A&E, and the Biography Channel. It is something I use all the time. It is a feature of Abode Premiere and many other video editing software titles and something you can use today.††

http://desktopvideo.about.com/library/weekly/aa052903a.htm

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Chapter: Audio

Topic: Mixing and Balancing

These days, some of the best studios have desks no bigger than a coffee table and home studios often feature similar desks. Digital mixers have changed the way we work and are changing the way we view the traditional recording studio. What has happened to the business of mixing to make everyone want a digital mixer instead of an analogue one?

http://www.getimo.de/linkpage2/html/tuts.php?/linkpage2/html/tuts_common_digital-mixing_1.php

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Chapter: Keying

Topic: Advanced Keying Techniques

Anyone who has attempted to pull a good chroma key from lousy source footage knows what a headache it can be… Video clips with poor lighting, incorrect blue/green paint, footage with DV-Compression, etc. can ALL contribute to a nightmare…… Greg Niles posted an excellent summary on how to pull green/blue screen chroma keys from that type of tough source material. Althought the tips are focused on Combustion, they would apply to any composting application. [NOTE: Greg Niles was part of the original Paint/Effect/Combustion team and moved to Apple to develop Motion.]

http://www.fxguide.com/fxtips-171.html

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Chapter: Image Acquisition

Topic: Shooting Video to look like Film

It seems that at least once a week someone asks the question, “How can I make my video look more like film?” In this article, Doug Graham puts forth a few pointers that might make your next job a little easier.

http://www.creativecow.net/articles/graham_doug/film_look/index.html

TAGS: depth, field, glow, tone, warm, lighting, progressive, post

Chapter: Visual and Creative Effects

Topic: Fire, Flame or Smoke

In this tutorial, Bryan Block will walk you step by step through the creation of an opening title reminiscent of the “X-Files” television show using Photoshop and your NLE. Although the steps are for Sony Vegas, the principles will apply to any NLE with compositing capability.

http://www.creativecow.net/articles/block_bryan/smoke_vegas/index.html

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Chapter: 3D Modelling and Animation

Topic: Animation and Inverse Kinematics

After going through Maxon’s Mime Mocca tutorial, Cactus Dan discovered that when he moved the controllers around, the rig didn’t behave as he expected. He was quite discouraged and found himself almost at the point of giving up on Mocca and Soft IK, but needless to say, Cactus Dan is not one to easily give up. In this tutorial, Cactus Dan Libisch shares what he learned by working through the problems.

http://www.creativecow.net/articles/libisch_dan/soft_IK/index.html

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Chapter: Titling

Topic: Effects

Jittering and bouncing titles are quite popular in hipster-genX-type productions and especially in horror films. The intro to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” on television is a good example. If you analyse the effect, you can see that it is a two-layer composite of a solid title and the identical title with an out of focus jittery effect applied. You could recreate the effect with a blur filter and by hand animating the jitters, but there is an easier way. The following shows the technique in Vegas and Premiere, using Old Film effects (under the QuickTime FX menu in Premiere) on the jitter layer. Of course the easiest way is to just download the complete project files at the bottom of the page and enter your own text.

http://www.maxent.org/video/title_jitters.html

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Chapter: Titling

Topic: Effects

Jittering and bouncing titles are quite popular in hipster-genX-type productions and especially in horror films. The intro to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” on television is a good example. If you analyse the effect, you can see that it is a two-layer composite of a solid title and the identical title with an out of focus jittery effect applied. You could recreate the effect with a blur filter and by hand animating the jitters, but there is an easier way. The following shows the technique in Vegas and Premiere, using Old Film effects (under the QuickTime FX menu in Premiere) on the jitter layer. Of course the easiest way is to just download the complete project files at the bottom of the page and enter your own text.

http://www.maxent.org/video/title_jitters.html

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Chapter: Distribution

Topic: Encoding Techniques

Gamma correction for Mac and PCs

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/gamma_mac_pc.html

TAGS: “Cleaner, Final Cut Pro, Sorenson Squeeze”