Have you ever checked to see how many plugins you've got?  You might be surprised to know it's almost certainly well over 400, and it only takes a few purchases to clock up the 500 mark.

While some plugins get used every day, others sit in the dark, dusty corners of your... ]]> 2013-06-17T11:04:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/atepper/story/connect-pcie-cards-to-slotless-macs-via-thunderbolt-yes http://provideocoalition.com/atepper/story/connect-pcie-cards-to-slotless-macs-via-thunderbolt-yes#When:22:22:00Z

Many video professionals have unjustifiably disqualified slotless Macs because they incorrectly believed that there was no way to use their PCIe cards. They didn’t know that there is indeed a supported way to connect networking, pro video, and storage PCIe cards via Thunderbolt.... ]]> 2013-06-16T22:22:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/ssimmons/story/review-slicex-powered-by-mocha-is-a-must-have-for-fcpx http://provideocoalition.com/ssimmons/story/review-slicex-powered-by-mocha-is-a-must-have-for-fcpx#When:15:29:00Z

When it comes to quality motion tracking it’s hard to beat Imagineer Systems and what they have with their mocha technology. When it comes to masking tools inside of Final Cut Pro X it’s hard to beat what CoreMelt has come up with in their SliceX masking tool. Combine that masking of SliceX and the tracking of mocha and you’ve got a very must-have tool for FCPX in the recently released, $149 SliceX powered by mocha.

This week on MacBreak Studio, I talk with Steve Martin from Ripple Training about how to recreate the Spirograph (tm) effect in Motion.

For those of us old enough to remember, Spirograph was a drawing kit consisting of transparent gears with holes. You would place a gear... ]]> 2013-06-11T13:24:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/ssimmons/story/a-new-mac-pro-really-does-live-after-all http://provideocoalition.com/ssimmons/story/a-new-mac-pro-really-does-live-after-all#When:03:31:00Z

So yea the new Mac Pro made a debut today at Apple’s yearly Worldwide Developer’s Conference. It’s not shipping yet and there’s no shipping date other than later in the year. No price either. There is a brand new page on Apple’s website though. This was just a sneak preview which is a rather unusual thing for Apple to do, especially when it comes to hardware. They must have been following all the grumbling from the pro users out there who are demanding a new pro system. Did Apple deliver this pro system with the new Mac Pro?

Before I received the NVIDIA K5000, I read about it and was excited that it had H.264 encoding capability on the board. I tend to do a lot of H.264-encoded deliverables. Unfortunately my excitement was short lived when I found out that while NVIDIA had delivered on their end, nobody else had... ]]> 2013-06-07T21:09:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/mspencer/story/making-ken-burns-obey http://provideocoalition.com/mspencer/story/making-ken-burns-obey#When:13:54:00Z

This week on MacBreak Studio, Steve Martin from Ripple Training shows us how to "take charge" of the Ken Burns effect in Final Cut Pro X.

This effect makes it fast and easy to create pans and zooms on still images (or video for that matter). However, it does suffer from one... ]]> 2013-06-04T13:54:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/ssimmons/story/scopebox-3.3-affordable-and-customizable-video-scopes http://provideocoalition.com/ssimmons/story/scopebox-3.3-affordable-and-customizable-video-scopes#When:12:46:00Z

Video scopes are one of those things we often take for granted. Most all NLEs have video scopes somewhere in the software. They are very important when it comes to the color grading / color correction process but many of those working in post-production don’t really know how to properly use them (I say partially raising my own hand). Sometimes it’s a matter of making the right window arrangements to use an app’s built-in scopes but if you don’t save that window configuration then you’ll be less prone to use them when the time comes. Enter a product like ScopeBox which is $100 stand-alone video scope software. Video scope software, for the most part, requires its own computer and hardware to run, but ScopeBox 3.3 breaks that tradition with a new feature called ScopeLink.

Prior to NAB 2013, we had the chance to visit Adobe Headquarters in San Jose and get an overview of the new Creative Cloud, including After Effects CC, (check it out here:  http://bit.ly/12MCxlw). At NAB, we were treated to a private meeting with Steve Forde, Sr. Product Manager... ]]> 2013-05-29T23:48:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/createasphere/story/from-dailies-to-oscar-nominations http://provideocoalition.com/createasphere/story/from-dailies-to-oscar-nominations#When:23:57:00Z

The Invisible Art: Visible Artists panel features all of the Academy Award nominated editors to discuss the art of editing the day before the Oscars. John Trask (MPEG President) introduced ACE President and moderator Alan Heim, and the panel consisted of Crispin Struthers (Silver Linings... ]]> 2013-05-28T23:57:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/mspencer/story/creating-a-cosmic-zoom-in-motion http://provideocoalition.com/mspencer/story/creating-a-cosmic-zoom-in-motion#When:17:35:00Z

This week on MacBreak Studio, I show Steve Martin from Ripple Training how to do a "Cosmic Zoom" effect in Motion.

Inspired by Andrew Kramer's excellent After Effects tutorial on his site Videocopilot.net, I demonstrate how you can achieve a similar result using... ]]> 2013-05-28T17:35:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/ssimmons/story/ice-cold-gold-editor-tweets-a-ton-of-avid-tips http://provideocoalition.com/ssimmons/story/ice-cold-gold-editor-tweets-a-ton-of-avid-tips#When:21:25:00Z

Twitter is always a good place to chat about film and video post-production. It’s also a great place to pick up tips and tricks. Recently editor David Michael Maurer spent his Twitter day tweeting a slew of Avid Media Composer tips and tricks. It’s often tricky to distil a complex editing tip into 140 characters but Mr. Maurer did a good job. Since not everyone who would like to see some good Avid tips is on Twitter I’ve reposted those here, with permission.

A whip or swish pan describes the motion of a fast camera move, as in following a passing train or spaceship. Because of motion blur, it's most often used to smooth transitions between abrupt cuts of shots or scenes. While this is often done in post, Adobe doesn't include dedicated tools for this effect, so here are some 3rd-party filters and tutorials you can use to construct whip pan transitions in After Effects and Premiere Pro.

Ok, I’m going to just come right out an admit it … I miss digitizing. For those young ‘uns unfamiliar with the term that would be the process of actually having to take a video tape and capture that into the computer for editing. Some folks call it ingest, others do use the term capture but I’ve always referred to it as digitizing. I used to hate it but now I miss it. Sometimes I miss it a lot. Is that crazy?

This week on MacBreak Studio, Steve Martin from Ripple Training gives us some tips on working with RAW images in Final Cut Pro X.

We've talked about RED RAW workflow in an earlier episode of MacBreak Studio - how you can work with these RAW video files natively in FCP X,... ]]> 2013-05-21T13:33:00+00:00